EVERYTHING you Love is Dead

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Taking a note from Seth Godin, I’m going to admit, my title is bogus and a small shot at the all too common blog posts declaring “X” dead. The things above aren’t dead, their status quo is dead. People crave seeing that which is unique. They need to hear stories. They want help discovering what’s new. They can’t help share their life through melody. They seek to be part of a community. This hasn’t changed. The means in which those needs are satisfied has.

The following is a short but hopefully positive and helpful list of examples of how "dying" industries (and more importantly, the people who work in them) shouldn't be so worried. (Side note, feel free to listen to MCR: Dead while reading this post)

"Creative is Dead: You can crowdsource all your design needs."

Sites like Haystack and Crowdspring are driving prices down for graphic design work, yes. Will this change, no. Is there a huge demand for talented designers to carry brands and organization's aesthetics from start to finish? A resounding YES. Do you think projects like THIS or THIS were crowdsourced? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against crowdsourcing creative but it has its place. You didn't get into graphic design so you could spend your days designing logos. You want to be building something of magnitude. And social media isn't killing the need for design, it's only making it stronger. 

"Journalism is Dead: Who needs reporters when everyone is a reporter?"

OK yes, those 15x22 drab looking sheets we call a newspaper are going away, and the profit model for selling those things is gone. But what industry has been able to sell a single product for hundreds of years without having to move on to a different focus? If Listerine, Kodak, or Ford sold the same product that long they would be a blip in history. The definition of journalism is "the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media." Let' dig deeper into that definition. How do you define "news" and "media?" In my mind, news equals stories, and media equals any entity in the world that can distribute data, words, or art.

Even if the bloated current state of journalism is changing, the people who are passionate story tellers are still going to be in demand. The reason that everyone can get their news through RSS and Twitter right now is because someone is scooping the story first. if that goes away, so does the "easy access" to news. There's going to be a smaller population of incredible journalists supplying us with breaking stories. There's also going to be a need for the rest of journalists to tell the stories that aren't being told. Reporters have become obsessed with getting the latest headlines around murders and balloon boys. There are a lot more interesting stories out there that need the public eye and instead of being first, journalism is shifting to being unique.

Twitter handles are getting book deals. News outlets are selling iPhone applications. People still spend money for quality journalism. The fat is getting cut, but the industry is far from dead. 

"PR is Dead: There's no one left to Pitch."

The biggest misconception about public relations is that if mass media dies (newspapers specifically) so does PR. That couldn't be farther from the truth. PR has always been about getting someone else to tell your story. That second degree of separation of PR Agency > Media > Consumer is now being replaced by direct conversations with the consumer. The PR professional has a great deal of work to do to revitalize the industry, but they are in a prime position to take the role of shepherds of brands in the social space. Start reading the likes of Tac Anderson, Brian Solis, and Daniel Honigman. PR isn't dead, it's growing into a front runner as the kind of agency leading the next phase of communication between brand and consumer. 

Music is Dead: You can’t be a musician; people just pirate your music for free"

As my friend Brian Mazzaferri from I Fight Dragons says, "It's a great time to MAKE A LIVING as a musician." Perhaps the days of the mogul musician and the overpaid record producer are over, but I have no doubt in my mind that MORE people can be a musician today than they could 10 years ago. Let's call it a redistribution of music wealth. Every musician now has a direct line from their mouth to your eardrums. They don't have to fight to get signed by a record or get radio plays. And who cares if people are downloading their music for free? Don't be fooled into thinking you're hurting the actual musicians. The major source of revenue for musicians are LIVE shows and merchandise and you can't download that. 

U2 and Foo Fighters streamed their concerts for free. Radiohead and NIN gave away their albums. These are bands that are established and have "the most to lose" from their industry being flipped on their head, but they are taking these actions because they know it will build their fans base, and thus the size of their live audience.

"Local is Dead: It’s cheaper to shop at big box stores that have everything in one place."

Have you noticed that the largest stores you shop in do everything they can to feel more local? They create custom subsections of their stores and host events for their neighborhood. They do this because people want it. Sure we're in a recession and people want to find the best price, but all is not lost.

The entire city of Austin Texas is living proof that Local is very much alive. The organic food movement is driving up the number of farmer's markets across the country. And when it comes to fashion, local stores define the best you can get. The digital age continues to push us into being as unique as possible. Local is epitome of unique. 

"Media Buying is Dead: No one clicks on ads anymore."

Banner ads continue to have lower click through rates and new reports show that less than 20% of users are even doing the clicking. But is that from ineffectiveness, or a lack of evolution? Look at some of the latest trends in banner advertising for luxury auto or consumer electronics. There are claims that media buying can't drive sales anymore. It can, but planners need to be swayed by relevance and creativity, not by which vendor takes them out for steak.

Social media is the rising star gaining attention and ad budgets, but it needs support with media buys. There are creative ways to boost a brand's efforts in social media and the planners who discover this sooner are going to be in high demand among media agencies.

"Art is Dead: No one appreciates art, and no one will pay for it."

It may have taken him a decade to achieve the fusion of art and entrprenuership but Hugh McLeod is living proof that art is very much alive. His cartoons led to a book, and a full digital art store, which based on his tweets, is moving lots of product. 

I've given up a top spot on my blog (see widget the right) to showcase Hugh's art so he can gain awareness and sell more work. Art is dead? Far from it.

"Blogging is Dead: Posterous and Twitter have a better ROI than a Blog."

There’s something to be said for owning your own territory. Twitter and Posterous are wonderful tools, but as Morpheus said in the Matrix, "they are still based in a world that is built on rules." A blog is yours and you can do anything you want with it. In social media you can get away with just having a presence on a few key tools, but in reality, you're not going to have the respect of your community. It's just too easy to game the system and without a blog, you've haven't proven you've earned it. Moving away from blogging is a recent trend, but it's being sold in by people who have spent years doing it. They earned their stripes already, but most of us haven't. Blog away.

Be a Phoenix. 

In case you haven't picked up on my tone, despite the skull image and the title, this is a positive post. I'm not one to write about motivational crap on this blog...that's not my thing. But I grew sick of reading posts declaring the death of industries and not lending any kind of advice on how to either redirect or transform all the great talent out there that people could apply to changing business models. You know how to do something(s) very well. Don't be discouraged by the naysayers out there, because even if the most common way your talent was needed is going way, there WILL be a need for it somewhere.

Blank Canvas

The above nesting dolls (or as my mother would call it "Matryoshka") were blank when I came back from Austin in March. They were sold to me as a surface. Like a piece of paper, a journal, a picture frame or a CDRW.

The reason that this product appealed to me and the many others who have bought it is because it is something that will never end up looking the same on my shelf as they will on yours. It's the same reason that people sticker up their Macbooks or get tattoos on the back of their neck.

The core reason a human seeks and creates custom objects is because it increases their chances of being remembered. 

Most people don't spend time to create these things, so they buy them. I'm just as guilty as anyone in this category. But often I find that products (used to express my creativity) available are on two ends of a spectrum. On one you've got the art supply store where essentially you're starting from scratch, a very menacing challenge. And on the other end you've got products that are already complete, seemingly unique but actually have been produced a thousand times over. 

The above product was something that I would like to see more of. A coloring book that gives me a direction but lets me fill in the lines myself. Many companies avoid overly custom products as they incur further costs in production, but in many ways they don't. The customer is the one who takes on the task of bringing the product to completion as their vision dictates. 

Double-Crowdsourcing

I'm currently conducting an experiment in double-crowdsourcing. It's a combination of enhancing my art capabilities and reducing my production costs. A few months back I sketched out an image that basically was a play on the idea of a piggy bank. Instead of the image we're used to, the pig was the one investing coins into a human bank.

At this point, I don't have the artistic capabilities to make my image pretty enough for a T-Shirt so I decided to leverage the talent at Crowdspring.com to enhance my concept into a workable visual. This investment was made assuming that I would be able to then go and sell that final product to T-Shirt distributor.

My first attempt was through Threadless.com (the famous Chicago-based T-Shirt shop that is now experimenting with Twitter slogans on shirts). Threadless was offering $2500, for every shirt that was selected to go to print. Alas, that didn't work out for me. Partly (in my opinion) because the level of submissions are much higher on that site.

The second attempt, currently in motion, is with a small store called Cameesa. Cameesa's model is a bit different from Threadless in the sense that it prints shirts when enough "investors" decide they want to buy a specific shirt. The owner of the design gets a smaller flat fee plus future profits on shirts sold. Currently I'm at $40 out of the $500 minimum investment needed.

My hope is that this experiment proves successful. Not just because I want to recoup the cost of my design, but mainly because I'm striving to show that crowdsourced business models aren't just "taking business away from traditional models" but they are creating new business opportunities for private individuals.

Being Prepared for Success is the Best Way to Maximize it

If you create passionate enthusiasm for your product, you will also create passionate criticism. There are certain brands that have die-hard fans; the kind of fans who will buy the newer version of a product even if the cost far outweighs the benefit. Whether that fervor is created by spectacular marketing, good service, and/or an innovative design the reality of the situation is that expectations are going to be set incredibly high.

When these kinds of expectations are set, you’re going to end up having three core types of customers.

· Devout Brandvangelists

· Positive Rationalizers

· Disappointed Acceptors

Devout Brandvangelists: These are people that are best found within the crowd of loyal Apple owners. They are the ones who will go out of their way to correct misconceptions and try to convert the neutral folks over to their side. They are the ones that will go onto sites like “Please Fix the iPhone” and defend Apple on Apple’s behalf for free. This is an extremely valuable group of people and arguably the best R of the ROI Apple has earned from its efforts.

Optimistic Rationalizers: Those who know there are some pitfalls initially in version 1.0, but know that with time (or possibly later generations) these issues will be addressed. The people who will provide the “buts” or in other words, “yes....X is the case unfortunately, BUT...” Consider this group to be the Switzerland of your consumers. They cushion your sales but won’t contribute much to hurting or helping your brand’s value.

Disappointed Acceptors: These are the folks who are on the opposite end of being vocal on behalf of a product or brand and the people that companies like Apple hope are drowned out by the devout brandvangelists. For many, purchasing the iPhone was their first foray into the “i” brand and expectations were set very highly. They heard about all the wonders of the brand and when they find flaws that cloud that idealized story they have been told, they are hypercritical of them. Is the fact that you can’t send an MMS file on an iPhone a horrible defect considering you can send an email or upload to facebook directly from your phone? Arguably not, but that happens to be the biggest (37,000 people) complaint being voiced. This group of people has accepted the purchase they made and will stick with it for some time, but the loyalty to the brand/product is flaky at best.

So what does this all mean for brands who seek to cultivate such a range of passionate users? It means they need to understand AHEAD of time that the emotion they are going to inspire in their customers is going to go in both directions. Accommodating the positive feelings is easy. That involves documenting positive press, increasing production, and of course making stock holders happy. Neutralizing the negative requires much more effort but with proper preparation beforehand, it’s possible to make that process less painful:

1.) Test out your product as much as you can with real customers. Try to document as many issues your testers have with your product before the release. Even if you can’t fix them before the launch, you’ll have ample time to formulate the best response to them. Have a strong community manager to funnel feedback to R&D throughout the life cycle of the product so the next generation addresses the biggest concerns.

2.) Build venues for consumer feedback before a 3rd party does it for you. Companies like Dell have created a conversation driven forum for people to give their feedback directly to the brands they are passionate about. If consumers are being listened to, they will be open to giving feedback in your environment. Encourage them to talk there because the more they do, the easier it is to drown out the extremely passionate negative influencers who are talking in venues outside of your control.

3.) Know who your largest competitor is and find out their strengths. Those strengths are the points that disappointed customers are going to use to fuel their fire, or worse, the brand/product they are going to switch to when the current frustrations start to outweigh the benefits.

As a brand, it should be considered fortunate if these kinds of passion groups exists because it means your product does have value. If it was terrible outright, then no one would care, but hopefully the sign of frustration also indicates the greater symbol of success. And being prepared for success is the best way to maximize it.

10 Crowdsource Design Venues

The concept of crowdsourcing has been gaining momentum with a fairly direct correlation to the growth of the internet. The following are some great outlets that give designers in a variety of mediums the chance to monetize, be discovered, and/or share their work.

Project Splitwheel

What do you get when you take the power of social powered design and add a tangible industrial infrastructure? That would be Project Splitwheel. With the help of British motor sport company Caterham, an actual vehicle will ultimately be produced and sold.

Genius Rocket

If you think Madison Avenue isn’t the only place that good ads can be created, Genius Rocket is for you. Companies list their creative assignments for users to contribute to. Awards are given to the winners based on what idea the client chooses.

BootB

Similar in product to Genius Rocket, BootB takes the service offering a step further and lets the community contribute not only creative, but ideas for branding, media planning, décor, and even packaging. The companies participating seem to skew more towards European brands.

Threadless

There is not shortage of online T-Shirt stores, but arguably no one uses the passion t-shirt designers quite like Threadless. Based in Chicago, this company which started in 2000 has grown tremendously and now even has a physical store on the north side of the city. Unlike some of the other crowdsource sites which focus on a sole party investing in an idea, the Threadless community is tasked with voting on designs, being the customer, and promoting designs via the “street team.”

Crowdspring

CrowdSPRING was started to help people from around the world access creative talent, and to help creatives from across the globe find new customers.

With backgrounds in both the creative industry and law, crowdSPRING believes strongly in the creative process and the protection of intellectual property. Utilizing free, binding legal contract generation for every transaction and advanced digital watermarking to a built-in, secure escrow service and a feedback rating system – this company has strived to make a safe environment for both Buyers and Creatives alike.

Fluevog Shoes

When it comes to variety, shoes are probably the most sought after piece of clothing. But what if you just can’t find a pair that really is different from everyone else is wearing this season? Then Fluevog will give you the opportunity to create your own design.

Zeroes to Heroes

Vancouver-based social media company that connects thousands of creators, producers and fans of comics in a collaborative and creative environment. Leading a movement to revolutionize how comics are created and how they reach a mainstream audience, Zeros 2 Heroes members are given the latest web 2.0 tools to showcase their own work or rate, debate and approve the content of others.

Kancept

Essentially a “Hot or Not” for inventions. While Kancept is more of a place to post ideas vs. actually submit for any kind of monetary compensation, it’s an interesting destination for people looking to get discovered and/or see if their idea already exists.

Studio Wikitecture

Studio Wikitecture is an open group, composed of a diverse range of individuals from varying disciplines, interested in exploring the application of an open-source paradigm to the design and production of both real and virtual architecture and urban planning.

Etsy

Sick of buying your home décor or artwork at places like Walmart or Hobby Lobby? Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. Obviously the prices are going to be higher with the lack of 3rd world production sites, but the uniqueness of pieces will make this service worth it for many.

An added bonus to this service is that users are able to search locally to find the craftsmen near their area if they want to support their hometown artists. This helps local sellers establish relationships offline as well as online.