October 22, 2007

Blog Action Day Follow-Up

More than 20,000 blogs participated in Blog Action Day...writing about the environment...and blogger.com has put out a list of a dozen blogs focused on environmental issues.

It's really exciting to see the revolution unfold. Institutions all around us are making major commitments to the environment. Individuals are activated. I find myself in offices looking at the conventional light bulbs and other impediments and making a mental list of ways to save energy. I'm sure I'm not alone.

One of the Most Basic Rules of Smart PR - Admit Your Mistakes

It's so interesting to watch the candidates for president, especially as the campaign heats up. Giuliani's past is riddled with mistakes, and he wisely admits them and totally disarms people in doing so. Bernard Kalik? Just a bad hire, in Rudy's mind...a mistake that he learned from. Wow! Can you imagine Bush ever saying that about Rumsfeld? Giuliani even admitted that it was pretty dopey to take a cell phone call from his wife in the middle of a speech.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is darned if she'll ever admit doing anything wrong. Her Iraq vote will haunt her forever, because she simply will not own up to it. She says she did the best she could do with the information she had. (I suppose Giuliani could say the same about Kalik.) But, looking back and knowing what she knows now, would she vote the same way again? And, if not, does she think she made a mistake voting as she did? What the heck is wrong with admitting to a mistake? Isn't it the most basic of rules in our business...or any business?

Math Majors into Marketing?

Booz Allen's Richard Rawlinson has written a great article in Strategy + Business about the changing landscape of our industry. "The typical business marketing career has attracted gregarious people who operate comfortably within a familiar professional culture with well-defined techniques," writes Rawlinson. "But now marketers must not just select and purchase proven instruments. They must envisage, shape, and develop new tools for designing and engendering more effective consumer connections. This demands an openness to experimentation, an inclination toward pioneering, and an ability to integrate marketing with strategy as never before. The new marketing team must do this while honing the number crunching analytical ability that is needed to justify and fine-tune new strategies."

Rawlinson goes on to describe what he calls "number crunching creatives." He writes, "To conceive, evaluate, and invest in new commercial propositions that engage audiences across many dimensions, marketers will be called upon to make decisions that reflect broad marketing savvy, close awareness of the product's or service's current position in the marketplace, and in-depth knowledge of quantitative techniques and the capabilities of new technology. Thys, one of the new marketer's key skills is the ability to marry fluency in higher mathematics and computer modeling to marketing flair and creativity."

Looking carefully as some of today's most innovative and successful marketing initiatives substantiates this conclusion very clearly. It represents a major shift from the more narrow (and less deep) skill set of yesterday's marketers. And it sets forth an extraordinary challenge and opportunity for us all.