twopointo

Removing the Word ‘Think’ – How We’re Taught to ‘Speak Safely’

f1blogging — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:04:10 +0000

I’m removing the word think from my vocabulary… well almost. The word obviously has many different meanings but there is one in particular that began to annoy me today. ‘Think’ when it is used similar to the word ‘suppose’ almost if you have uncertainty behind every declaration. No, no more will I be uncertain of myself.I’ve come to respect the power of words and how each word we say should almost be premeditated and purposeful. The word think as used in the context above should not be part of any sentence that has purpose to it.Maybe this is a little excessive. Look at the sentence I just wrote and break it down. ‘Maybe’ gives a sense of a possibility but also the same uncertainty that the word ‘think’ does. I also said ‘little excessive’ which is an oxymoron but is just another depiction of how I’m speaking safely. In companies we do this all the time, almost as if to hedge our bet. I’m going to say this but just incase someone reacts to this negatively I’ll throw in these safe terms. It’s pathetic and just a further stamp on how afraid we are of standing out from the crowd. So I’m going to count how many times I say the word ‘think’ in the way I spoke about for the rest of the week. I know I’ll be surprised and frustrated at the end of this one. Goodnight.

My Grudge Against Click-Through Rates

f1blogging — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:00:11 +0000

Before I begin, I hope this post is helpful but let me also say that it will not give you any tips that will increase your click-through rates.

Now that we’ve established that let me continue. First, a click-through rate is a percentage that compares the number of times your advertisement appeared compared to the number of times it was actually clicked on by a user. Second, this number has always been extremely low, averaging less than 1%.As an advertiser it must be really annoying to know that the average click through rate on that banner ad campaign you just completed was despicable. You put a countless number of hours and gave up lots of sleep making sure your impressions were getting delivered by those awful websites you had to deal with.

So what went wrong? It may have been your tagline, poor creative design, bad production, an error in the ad server, the target audience, relevance, or even the site that was lucky enough to see a part of your media planning budget. Sure, these all could have played a role but that is not where the problem lies.

This is where you should read the first sentence of this post again. The reason I have a grudge against click-through rates is that they should never have mattered in the first place. Click-through rates are a metric that you should definitely keep track of; however, they should not be used to determine the success rate of a brand’s advertising strategy.

Let me put this in context. On the internet you see display ad’s in many different shapes and forms. Whether it is the standard creative sizes such as a box ad, leaderboard, skyscraper, etc. Or other forms such as popup ads, interstitials, video pre-roll, the list goes on and on. These ads are made to be very attractive or relevant in attempts to make you click on the ad. Once you click on the ad you are led to a landing page that reveals more information on that company, product, place, etc.

Lets compare this with other forms of advertisements. Television and radio advertising are usually 30 seconds in length and are mainly used to create brand awareness. Often a TV ad will tease a phone number or website that you can then visit to receive more information, which you could call brand analysis. Billboards and print ads share similar goals, increasing brand awareness rather than encouraging the brand analysis process.

The reason you, as an advertiser, should not care so much about click-through rates is because they actually measure if you effectively encouraged the brand analysis process and not if you increased brand awareness. In practically all other mediums of advertising it is almost impossible to conduct brand analysis simply or instantaneously. At least the web has provided us the ability to do both, a click of a button and the standard site load times are all it takes.

So I hope that helped, and that I also kept my promise and did not supply a single tip on how to increase your click-through rate.

Note: This is only relevant for display ads and not for contextual ads. Also, if for some reason your brand awareness is ridiculously high and your only advertising goal is to increase brand analysis then please disregard this entire post.

The All Day Meeting

f1blogging — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:02:56 +0000

Today was a tough day in the land of grey cubicles. We’ve all been there before: the dreaded all day meeting. Mine was a training session that lasted from 9am – 3:30pm. So I had some time and the right venue to practice different methods for getting through it all unscathed.

Here’s some tips:

Know the Schedule

Solitude or Unfamiliar Faces

Log Off

Optimism

Know The Schedule

This may seem obvious; however, if you know the schedule you know what to expect. Setting these expectations in the beginning instead of getting blind-sided is probably the best thing you can do in a long meeting. You can now take comfort in knowing that you will not receive your 401k investment back before the current topic is completed.

Solitude or Unfamiliar Faces

It is our tendency to go into meetings as if they are a time to socialize with our neighbor in grey cubicle hell. This is fine for a shorter more casual meeting but the absolute opposite of what you should do in a long winded meeting. Instead sit alone or surrounded by people you don’t know. Being uncomfortable keeps you wide awake and can even force you to pay attention to the lead bullshitter in the meeting instead of those around you.

Log Off

Since my company doesn’t provide one, and my financial accounts hate me, I don’t keep a smartphone/pda on me. However, if you do have one of these fancy shmancy Blackberries/Palm/Treo/etc. shut it off or leave it upstairs during the all day meeting. I guarantee if you try this once you’ll find that you were never really as important as you thought you were and neither were the people who you frequently communicate with. Not only can these things wait, but they are a distraction and just another reminder that you could be somewhere else.

Optimism

This is by far the most obvious tip I have but also the most difficult. Try to walk in and think of the meeting as a challenge or opportunity. One that you can contribute to and benefit from. In almost every meeting you will learn at least one thing that is knew to you. Even if you know every tidbit of information that is said it is another opportunity to be infront of your coworkers and learn something about them. It’s much like poker and the ability to read a players “tell”. In a meeting you give off “tells”, or signs, but you can learn your coworkers signs and use this knowledge to your benefit later on. Even if you spend an entire meeting just looking for these “tells” then it is time well spent.