YOU AIN'T GONNA LEARN WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW

A Sax to the Soul, Martin Fierro

As I sit to write this post, all I can think of is - "many hours of smiles."
"Many hours of amazement."  "Many hours of dancin."  History, blowing through the fabric of my mind......of which I was one of the many recipients....

"Martin Fierro, a renowned jazz-rock saxophonist who played with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead and became an elder statesman of the jam band scene, died of cancer Thursday at Marin General Hospital. He was 66.

Known for his fiery playing, magnetic personality and zany on-stage antics, Mr. Fierro, a longtime Marin resident, was one of the Bay Area music community's most beloved characters."

I came to know Martin (Mar-TEEN) through his association with one of my favorite guitar players, Steve Kimock.   Seeing Martin at a show was an experience, a laugh, a smile, and simply unforgettable.

He would tell a joke between songs.  He would often times, share "on stage banter" with the crowd....but for Martin, (and my musical experience with him) I always felt as though the music (and projects/bands/concerts/collaborations) that he participated in, were more than simply, expressions of his talent.....they were - powerful emotional currents, running from his heart, to saxophone, to my ears, and my soul.

His eye contact at a venue was priceless.  He made a point of connecting visually, and he knew how to gauge, as well as ENGAGE.

Martin had the pleasure of blowing saxophone for Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, as well as some other very influential bands (Mother Earth, Quicksilver Messenger Service,Legion of Mary, ZERO)......but, most of all, he was a unique spirit in every sense of the term.

Mr. Fierro, who sometimes wore feathers or a headdress on stage, was revered for his penetrating sense of humor. He deflated heady egos with his signature saying, "Chut up!" His ebullient greeting, "Hello meester!" earned him the nickname "The Meester."

"He made me believe in the spiritual power of music," said Matt Eakle, flutist with the David Grisman Quintet. "If there is magic in the world, Martin knew how to channel it."

Blair Jackson over a DEAD.net wrote a great piece, titled: Rest In Peace, Martin Fierro.

If you want to hear how good Martin was, you can stream a show he did with ZERO in Arkansas in 1998.....it is one of my all time favorite live performances by any band.  The 3-21-98 show is HERE.

The past 20+ years, I've spent a lot of time driving.  Driving around the country, up and down the east coat, and likewise out west.  I've traveled the country to see music, and on many occasions MARTIN FIERRO has been a huge part of that experience.

From my personal standpoint, I never got to say thank you to Martin for all the enjoyment, smiles, and good energy he has given me as I stared out the windshield, looking at the highway - with many miles ahead....

Sometimes the saxophone he blew would make my sigh, sometimes grin, and sometimes cause me to shed a tear. 

Today, I salute a gentlemen who - "hit my soul" in so many ways. 

Thank you sir MARTEEEEEN, and I know you are jammin' in heaven with Garcia, Cippolina, and a few others......

I'm sure the tape deck's are rolling......

Stream of Thoughts, Ideas and Concepts

A stream of thoughts, both personal and professional coming at you from the trenches of a, User Generated Braincloud:

1) I'm really enjoying how the business is progressing.  I'm especially gaining value at watching how our people are confronting challenges, problems, and opportunities.  Our entire business is focused on helping to solve the problem of "creating more value in social media" - regardless of the platform......format, site, or medium -- wherever a CONSUMER CREATES CONTENT -- we see a tremendous opportunity to extract new data......and add value.  Watching this process evolve has been thrilling and humbling.......

2) Learnings.  The sheer amount of important data (and unimportant) data we collect is staggering -- the stuff that makes me smile (and go ahhhh) is watching our "Business Intelligence" team filter through the seemingly unimportant, to FIND THE KERNEL OF CRITICAL DATA THAT YIELDS AMAZING RESULTS......breakthrough's, and the sharing of theses learnings with our brand advertisers has been fun...and frankly, awesome.

3) Changing the Conversation.  My new motto is "Lead, follow, or get out of the way..."  I truly believe our message to advertisers is that - User Generated Content is as different to internet media, as search and keyword buying is to straight banner placements....... it is a totally different animal - and needs to be looked at as such.  You cannot look at both with the same planning or results tools.  I recently learned that whole agencies are being developed around "social media planning."  This reminds me of 7 years ago, as SEM or "search engine marketing" shops opened up, and took market share away from digital agencies that were slow to embrace and learn the power of search marketing for their clients.......Lead, follow, or get out of the way. 

4) Both of my kids (twins) lost their front teeth in a 4 day period last week.  I was not home for this, as I was traveling......really bummed me out big time.

5) I saw Jackie Mason on Broadway, and I laughed so hard I cried for 2 hours.  I needed it.....and it was awesome.

6) SBT and Influencers are the driving force of UGC.  If you don't know what SBT is, you will soon.

7) I hope AOL is successful in their launch of Platform A.  I still have A LOT OF Time Warner stock, and it is not doing so well.

8) I have never been more jazzed about working.  I'm lucky enough to truly be doing something that I enjoy, and it does not feel like work.  What is the value of that?

9) The Phillies will win the National League East.

10) I find myself listening to 4 stations on Sirius, and none of them "rotate content".....Channel 10 Springsteen, Channel 12 Rolling Stones, Channel 32 Grateful Dead, and Channel 100 Howard Stern.  The commonality is in line with my personality, like Popeye, "l like what I like....."

11) A new site is up which features Lemon goods -- and the site is pretty slick.

12) Their is a inverse relationship between hard work, and your handicap (golf score) - don't let anyone fool you.   I love golf - and I played 3 rounds last week in Palm Springs....(shhh, I was at a media conference)

13) I miss Jerry.  Spring is time for a tour. 

14) Shine a Light is coming out next week, going to the premier. (Stones movie by Scorcese) -- I'm psyched.

15) Rock on.

The Value (or not) of a Click

My co-worker and friend Scott Hoffman wrote a piece about how agencies and marketers value success in online media.  There are still many people who think a "click on a banner (CTR) is the holy grail of internet advertising."

You see, Scott was an early employee at Yahoo!...he was one of the people who helped Yahoo deliver results (revenue) as well as "scale" their sales organization....and, he did it from the lean days of working with the company in it's initial stages.....

I have tremendous respect for Scott, and his accomplishments at Lotame have been nothing short of, "heroic and amazing..."

Below is his view on judging online media based on "clicks."  I wanted to share it with my blog readers, because I believe it has a ton of value, makes alot of senses....and is just plain correct.

The click regime must be overthrown:

(A manifesto for online marketers to reach the elusive majority of non-clickers)

By Scott Hoffman aka “ScottyRocksBig”- March 3, 2008

In today’s world of online media, a consumer is far more likely to see a “catch the gorilla” banner than to see an advertisement their purchasing patterns. Why is that? Why are advertisements geared toward “tricking” the consumer to click the prevailing norm? What makes a brand think that a “click” is the most relevant measurement of success?

The Answer...the online advertising economy rewards marketers and publishers on the click. In the same way Pavlov’s dogs reacted by salivating to the sound of a bell, industry executives drool when they see high CTR’s even if there is little relevancy behind it.  The click has become the great arbitrator of value within a media campaign.  Effectiveness of entire online media schedule’s are judged on the great and mighty click. Online giant, Google, has generated tremendous wealth from this simple action.  We have all become really good at generating clicks. This is the point in the evolution of media however, that marketers need to realize that even though they still salivate when the “bell” rings, there may not be food on their plate! 

Click, Click, Click…

But what is a click? Ask anyone around you (or even yourself) and they will emphatically tell you that they “never click on a banner.” Guess what, now there is research available that supports your friend’s claims. According to a Jan 2008 study conducted by Starcom MediaVest, only 6% of the web population has been “trained” to click on ads.  That leaves 94% of us outside the marketing feedback process. Think about it, who is going to click on an advertisement about bleach?

Now ask the non-clickers how they decide on which restaurants they frequent, what cars they drive, what laundry detergent they purchase. They will have hundreds of different answers.  Not one of them, however, will say that clicking on an advertisement was part of their decision making process. According the click regime, these individuals representing 94% of the purchasing power and revenue dollars, aren’t important because they didn’t “catch the gorilla.” 

A Lesson from the Past

So how do you really measure the impact online advertisements have on consumers?   If someone simply views an ad does that directly impact them? I personally believe that for the vast majority of the online population, seeing advertisements alters purchase intent. To clarify, just think about the advertising theory of old which (some call it common sense), that says consumers cannot want what they do not know exists.  So that brand new MP3 player with all the new features will never sell one unit unless people are aware of it. End of story, that’s it and everything else is just gravy. 

My father, who was a successful clothing retailer his entire life (and never once took a marketing class) imparted this pearl of wisdom to me when I helped him out in our store.  “People only buy the clothes that we display on the shelves, not in the stock rooms, fill up the shelves.”  In other words make people aware of your products.

Stop it with the Click already…it’s annoying…and lazy

I know that it is technically easy to measure to a click. It is also technically easy to measure almost any activity that a user does on a web site after a click. Truth be told, it’s pretty easy to measure anything, if the user reacts to it. Existing web marketing companies have become very good at it, but I am proud to work for one that is advancing how and what is measured.   We correlate user engagement and behaviors and layer that data with surfing patterns.  This allows us to build the most customizable and targeted audiences that “look like” the people who clicked.  The trick becomes measuring the impact of advertising on the users who didn’t click. Positioning, brand appeal, consumer acceptance, marketplace conditions…these are outside of the prevue of the media executive today…what is within our reach is to deliver these advertisements to an interested audience thereby increase brand awareness.

Share of Mind

The success of a media campaign should be evaluated on how effectively a marketer can tap into the intelligence of a consumer.  In the analog world it’s easy.  Think about a ½ hour Sitcom TV show.  If an advertiser delivers a :30 second commercial within the show, the viewer spent 1.6% of his/her time being made aware of the product or service being promoted in the commercial. In the online world the math is a little more complicated, but with the automated nature of the web, those data points to calculate are much easier to come by. Being able to gauge whether a marketer has commanded share of mind with a consumer is far more valuable than understanding a click. 

Don’t buy it? Don’t believe the hype? That’s fine, last night I went to a movie which was heavily advertised on the internet and I never clicked on the banner, go figure. 

More to come…

Scott Hoffman - CMO/Lotame

People Watching from Seaside to the Rock

  As a kid, I spent many summer nights on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, NJ....

My friend Kenny Smith and I would sit on the benches (along the edge of the boardwalk) and we would just gaze at people walking by.  We might sit for a few minutes, that somehow evolved into hours....but our mission and introspection was always the same.

In the unspoken word (sitting with my friend) I learned to appreciate, much more than "watching people on a boardwalk during summer nights..." But, more than that it  - was the APPRECIATION OF people watching, the sheer enjoyment of watching human drama pass by - like trees on the side of the road, gazing out the window of a car.

Seeing and witnessing all different walks of life, and TRULY taking it all in - without Kenny and I speaking to each other, without communicating -- BUT KNOWING WE WERE EACH SEEING AND EXPERIENCING the same visual -- but through our OWN UNIQUE LENS.

It stayed with me, and it is something I want to pass on to my children.

This past weekend, my wife and kids joined me in Rockefeller Center -- doing the same thing that Kenny and I did in Seaside Height, 25 years ago.

We watched people.  I spoke of how each person passing by has a "life."  How each person's has their own unique story to tell.....and how a face can tell a thousand things -- all without speaking.  We sat on a bench, and I noticed each of my children (at 6 yrs old) start to appreciate the value of just, "taking it all in..." 

Around this post are some of the images, of watching people and their ACTIONS, on a random Satuday in New York City with my family.