The Brand Called Obama

Okay, three Fast Company posts in a row.  They also profile the branding of Barack Obama.  Not a lot new here but it does explain why Obama does so well among the digital class.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Fast Company,marketing,Decision 2008

Al Gore's Updated Presentation

Al Gore's new presentation of An Inconvenient Truth that was recently given at TED.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore,An Inconvenient Truth,TED

Night at the Movies

We are showing some movies at the shelter on Saturday nights for the guys who call this place home. 

We are starting out with the Star Wars series and then hitting Star Trek (Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!) pretty hard.  After that I have some ideas on what films I want to show (The Mission, Batman Begins) but I was wondering if you had any suggestions.  I am actually thinking of doing some documentaries like Ken Burn's The War this summer and maybe even Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel to change the pace a bit. (documentaries are quite popular in our television lounge).  I think there is some sort of law that a couple of John Wayne movies need to be shown as well.

If you have any suggestions on some movies that would be appropriate for guys in the shelter, let me know in the comments.  My only caveat is no nudity or gratuitous violence.

The joys of making a magazine

Karen over at Beyond Magazine is posting about how to make a magazine and today she is posting on the joys of getting a magazine out to bookstores.

So, in our case, what's left from each sale of an ads-free Beyond in bookstores is LESS than what the magazine costs to produce. Which means bookstore distribution costs us  money. Which means it doesn't make much sense to distribute Beyond through bookstores. Which means we send very few copies to them. Which means, your best bet is to get Beyond here.

Speaking of Beyond, you can see the latest issue in this Flickr set.  It gives you an idea of why it is an award winning magazine.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Magazine,publishing,arts

Beyond

The media empire behind Beyond Magazine has been busy lately.  They have shipped the latest version of their award winning arts magazine, updated the look and feel of their site, and now has a mailing list to keep you updated on what is new in the land of Beyond.  So if you are a friend of Beyond, drop on by and leave your e-mail address.  That way when they take over the world, they know who to install as puppet leaders, that and you will know how when new issues come out, things are added to the site, and upcoming Beyond events.

Technorati tags: Beyond Magazine, e-mail, magazine, Canada, ad-free

The War Room | Lesson Four: Get Your Message Out (For Money!)

Okay, back to the War Room.  Lesson Four is why and how you need to get your money out with paid media.  It's an interesting chapter if you are a fan of political history and offers the background into how political advertising evolved over time.

Kinsella talks about Daisy, perhaps my favorite part of Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics.  Of course the important lesson from Daisy is not that you need to convince your opponent that he or she will lead us to nuclear war but rather that advertising can reinforce an idea that is already in voters mind about your opponent.  If you have never seen Daisy, it is embedded there to the right.  This started me thinking about two recent negative campaigns across the country.

The first one is the Conservative Party's Not a Leader campaign directed at Stephane Dion.  Several pundits have said that this has hurt Stephane Dion and has allowed him to be framed by the Conservatives.  While I saw the commercials and thought they were well done, I didn't think that they were that accurate.  In the Chretien cabinets I thought Dion was quite effective.  The timing was brilliant in that he had just won a hard fought leadership campaign and the party was divided.  Capitalizing on the internal dissension which is a normal part of politics, the Conservatives used the opportunity to attack and used the words of his own leadership rival and Dion's words against him.  The Liberals either facing a shortage of cash or didn't have an operating war room to strike back quickly didn't follow James Carville's rule and didn't hit back and now many think that the charges laid by those ads has stuck.  They did run their own ad several weeks later but by that time, "Not a leader" had done it's job.

The second campaign I keep thinking back to the recent Saskatchewan election and the NDP Wolf is sheep's clothing advertising campaign.  While the ads were hard hitting, they had no impact on the election or the polls and even NDP members I knew didn't care for them.  People didn't believe that Brad Wall was like Grant Devine and b) we couldn't figure out why it was necessary to bad mouth Alberta all of the time.  The other thing is that the Saskatchewan Party did hit back with a pretty good ad of their own.  Their counterattack ad which came out soon after the NDP spot aired did got in a shot of their own that did articulate what many people in Saskatchewan thought.  Again, even die hard NDP commented to me that they thought the spot was excellent.

Both of those examples feature negative ads which makes sense because as Kinsella points out on page 123, negative ads work.

There are two reasons for this.  First, television is an emotional medium, and emotional messages work best with voters.  "With too much information around," the professors wrote, "our senses are overloaded and advertisers have turned away from information imparting ads to an approach that 'goes for the gut,' appealing to core values... Negative ads are crafted in the best dramatic tradition:  they contain characterization (implicit or explicit), plot and conflict."  Second, they wrote, negative ads work because they are negative.  "Simply put, negative information is more powerful in crystallizing decisions than positive information.  In politics, it is said, 'mud sticks' and negative ads are the way in which seeds of doubt about an opponent are introduced and negative perceptions are reinforced"

Okay that all makes sense but this is supposed to be a review from a NGO point of view and my advertising budget is pretty small with not a lot of cash for negative ad buys.  How do I get my message out?  How do I survive in the data smog that is today's media market?

As I was thinking about this while reading the next part of the lesson on how to do a ad buy when I got distracted by an article on how much it was going to cost for the Democratic and GOP candidates to do ad buys in all the February 5 state primaries.  They are confronted by the same problems that I had.  Too much message, not enough money to get it out.  As I looked around at the Sask Party and Saskatchewan NDP YouTube sites it hit me that this for NGO's, this is where much of the media efforts are going to be.  It won't replace advertising during Hockey Night in Canada or the Grey Cup but it is a distribution system that does have some power that is going to grow. The NGO's are not the only ones who are discovering this, Tony Blair launched Labour Vision on YouTube (whose main video has Gordon Brown now claiming credit for it) The often stodgy Conservative Party has one.  The Archbishop of Canterbury is using it.  Even Hillary Clinton is creating ads just for the web.  If The War Room is a partial update to Kicking Ass, I imagine that the next update will feature not just a ad buy guide for network and cable audience but one for the web as well.  Before you guffaw, before long everyone will have moved to a smart phone or media device like a iPod Touch which include YouTube capabilities.  In case you haven't heard, a tiny company called Google is getting into the mobile phone market.  Do you think that phone may have YouTube built into it as well?    I am not saying that television is going away but it is going to be increasingly hard to ignore the impact of YouTube and Google Video in the future.  Some more about this will be said when I get to Lesson Nine but if I was running a lot of organizations, I would start thinking long and hard about how you use video, how one creates a network to get the word out, and how that can grow, even if a Super Bowl commercial isn't in the works.

Book Information

The War Room: Political Strategies for Business, NGOs, and Anyone Who Wants to Win by Warren Kinsella
Published by Dundurn Press

Technorati tags: The War Room, Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics, Warren Kinsella, Hillary Clinton, Saskatchewan Party, NDP, YouTube, Stephane Dion

The Beyond Magazine Shop is now open

I don't know how worried Wal-Mart is about this but I think it is pretty cool. Beyond Magazine's new shop is open. Speaking of Beyond, their blog has a new design and a new magazine is hitting the stands. Click around and check out the renovated digs.

Hockey Fans Are Like No Others

Technorati tags: Verizon, hockey

It's Cold

Which means that the local paper has been running some articles on homelessness and the shelters. The article features a couple of quotes from your's truly and for the first time ever, the paper spelled my name correctly.

Best Designed Independent Press Awards

My friends at Beyond Magazine have been nominated for Best Design at the Utne Independent Press Awards which as you can imagine, is a pretty big deal.

We began by upending the orderly shelves of our library, corralling some 1,300 magazines, newsletters, journals, alt weeklies, and zines into wobbly stacks. Then we dug in to read articles that we might have missed during the year and to reread our favorites—everything from gritty newsprint publications to polished perfect-bound journals. After much deliberation, debate, and a bit of teeth-gnashing, we whittled it all down to 111 standouts.

In case you haven't done so, head on over to Beyond's website and subscribe. Your subscription supports what Utne thinks is one of the best designed independent magazines out there.

Technorati tags: Beyond Magazine, Utne Independent Press Awards

Five Overlooked Web Tools for Churches and Non-Profits

Despite all of the hype about Facebook (which I find invasive), there are some other web apps out there that are worth a look at to help a church or non-profit connect with people online.  Below are five of my favorites and some ideas on how they could be (better) used.

• Upcoming :: It used be Upcoming.org but it was acquired by Yahoo! and is now at upcoming.yahoo.com.  What's so great about it?  Well it's local.  As you submit an event and a venue, it lists the event locally.  When someone from your town or city logs into the site, whether they are logged in or not, they are shown what events are coming up in their area.  It also allows you to great sub groups for a church, club, or network that you can subscribe to.  Of course it also provides you with RSS feeds for yourself, your city, and any groups you are a part of.  And since it is owned by Yahoo!, it also is "taggy" and also allows you to cross post to Google Calendar.  How would I use it?  I would set up a Upcoming group for my org and then post the big things that are coming down the pike.  For a church I would post things that would be of interest to the entire community but I would be careful not to spam it (posting your weekly worship service or prayer meeting for example).  Within my organization and on my website, I would give the occasional shout out to Upcoming.  Why?  The more people who use it locally, the better the site becomes for the entire community.  Already Wendy and I have gone to a couple of events that we would never have heard about unless it was posted to Upcoming.  Other people have said the same thing. 
• Craigslist and Kijiji ::  Both a different expressions of the same thing but they are local community bulletin boards where you can buy, sell, barter and list events.  Saskatoon has both and of the two, saskatoon.kijiji.ca seems to get more traffic but saskatoon.craigslist.org has sent more traffic to the Church of the Exiles when we have used it.  I would use both of them in a similar way that I would use Upcoming.
• Flickr :: Not a lot of communities and organizations are using Flickr and I am not sure why.  Those that do, tend to ignore it after a while.  I was cleaning out my RSS feeds the other night and there was a lot of local church Flickr feeds that hadn't been updated in a couple of years.  On the other hand, I look at how much more I check out the John Edwards or Barack Obama photostreams.  Probably the best examples of how to use Flickr would be Grace's photo pool (which features excellent photography from Jonny Baker and Steve Collins among others).  The Church of the Exiles has a photo pool as well which features some shots from Nathan Pederson, Wendy, and myself.  On a network level, Resonate has created Resonate Stories for showing what the emerging church looks like in Canada.
• Wiki's :: Now one of the coolest wiki's I have seen is Ikon's website which is entirely a wiki.  There are a lot of wiki options... jordoncooper.com used Media Wiki at wiki.jordoncooper.com but perhaps the easiest solution comes from Wikia which will host your wiki for you and cost is free.  While local church wiki's are cool, I keep thinking bigger like church planting wikis, the wiki of the emerging church, or denominational history wiki could be a tremendous contribution to a movement.
• Twitter :: A couple of youth pastors I know use Twitter to keep parents and kids up to date with what their youth group is doing.  Twitter can send notifications via IM or SMA which makes it easier to keep people current.  Now CNN, the NY Times, and other media organizations are using Twitter to share breaking news.

That's my list.  Add some of yours below in the comments.

Technorati tags: Upcoming, Craigslist, Kijiji, Flickr, Wiki, Twitter, Google Calendar, Saskatoon, Church of the Exiles, Grace, Jonny Baker, Steve Collins, Resonate, photography, wikia, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Facebook, Web 2.0

Advertise on jordoncooper.com

While I promote services on this little blog of mine for free, there has been several advertisers who have asked if I would consider running their ad on my site and I always so no. Today I decided to try something different and that was give Adbrite a try. If you want a text add on the lower right hand side of jordoncooper.com, now you can. Prices are set by Adbrite and then I get to approve all of the ads that want to appear. So far on the first morning, I have denied about 20 ads so far but you know, you may get lucky.

The Hour Blog with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Television

I have hesitated to blog about this but The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos has a blog. The reason I have been hesitant is because most television show and news blogs are terrible. The Hour's blog is actually quite good and would be a great blog even if it wasn't attached to The Hour and CBC.

In addition to a blog, they seem to get what most American networks do not and that is having a YouTube page is a great service to its viewers. Here are some to check out.

• Tony Campolo
• Bishop Desmond Tutu
• Richard Hawkins and Alister McGrath
  

The wall came down

With the New York Times paywall tumbling down, there is a plethora of old content now available to everyone. Two years of Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, and Paul Krugman need to be read as well as Steven Johnson's NY Times blog is now free to roam the internet. Enjoy.

Remember when Def Leppard could sell tickets

because they were a big band and they didn't have to plaster downtown Saskatoon with posters to let people they were coming to town.

Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares

Wendy and I have become big fans of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares which if you haven't seen it, involves a celebrity chef fixing broken British restaurants in a fairly abusive and entertaining fashion. As I was watching this, I realized that the proper American spin-off would not be an American chef doing this but rather a celebrity pastor doing the same thing to broken and dying churches. Now that is a show I would get Tivo for.

In case you are wondering, you can watch Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC or on the Food Network.

Same Old "Baaaad" Ads

It's almost election time in Saskatchewan (I guess that is now Saskatchewan!) with the NDP starting the fun with some ads describing the Sask Party as wolves in sheep's clothing. The website is here.

I could go on and on about the ad campaign and how wrong it is for negative advertising to be used but we all know by now that it works. I do find it odd that the Saskatchewan Party hasn't really responded to it other to dismiss it but also I find it interesting that this is the opening salvo. Of course while parties do their own polling, with only a million people, the media doesn't poll here like it does in other provinces so we don't know how effective they really are (and neither party seems willing to release that information).

One of the big issues is that the Sask Party has Alberta envy. You know, Alberta with their lower taxes, better roads, higher paying jobs, NHL teams, nicer CFL stadiums, NHL teams, Glenbow Museum, Calgary Tower, NHL teams, and free trade agreement with B.C. (which helps create better jobs and hopefully a NHL team). Kidding aside, since when do Canadians fear other Canadians. That and Calgary is the biggest city in Saskatchewan (make that Saskatchewan!).

Of course the election could be about differening visions for Saskatchewan (oops, Saskatchewan!) which I think would be good for the province. Sadly in the end, it will be an election about bashing Alberta, bring up the name Grant Devine as much as possible, slinging mud and, well, lambchop over there.

Related Links:

• Saskatchewan NDP
• Saskatchewan Party
• John Gormley on the "baaad" attack ads
• Murray Mandryk on the ads

How Twitter Will Change How Business Communicates (again)

Robert Scoble on how Twitter is changing how we communicate with each other.

Twitter's basic idea has proven so popular that others have copied its premise and added features. Jaiku lets me include blog posts, my link blog, and more along with my mini posts. Pownce users can send files to one another, as well as calendar events. At Facebook, I can add such information as my favorite music and the syndicated Web feeds I've shared in Google Reader.

All this adds up to a new way to share information about yourself. Although the content of the messages can vary wildly from voyeuristically interesting to terribly
dull, a frequent stream of updates can strengthen your brand. My 4,000-plus Twitter "followers" can get my blasts online or via text message, and each one is also its own Web page, which means that Google can see it and let people search for it. When you're traveling frequently and working from coffeehouses or the backseat of a cab, these services are great to keep in touch with coworkers back at the office and with customers nearby. "I post where I travel and arrange user meetups," says Betsy Weber, an evangelist with software firm TechSmith.

I just use Twitter for play more than anything but a couple of projects I am working on will use it much more heavily. Both John Edwards and Barack Obama use it quite well keeping people up to the minute on what the campaign is doing.

Poverty Shouldn't Be A Life Sentence

Honk if you love bumper stickers

Warren Kinsella has an interesting article on why American's love their bumper stickers so much and why Canadians prefer to keep our political and religious views off our bumpers.

Americans aren't the only ones with a fetish for bumper stickers: Israelis, Australians and not a few Europeans are known to favour them, too. Therein, perhaps, lies clues as to the bumper sticker's popularity -- they seem to flourish in feisty, robust democracies, where free expression is cherished. As ineffective as they may be in actually moving public opinion, the public are glad that bumper stickers allow them to quickly express an opinion.

Does this mean that Canada lacks a feisty, robust democracy? That we do not value free expression as much as the Americans, or the Australians, or the Israelis? That we fear governmental rebukes and recrimination, and stuff like that?

No, it's nothing like that. Canadians are a modest, quieter sort of people. We value free expression, to be sure, but we apparently value one thing even more above that: resale value. After all, why should we do anything that makes it tougher to sell one's vehicle? Canadian winters, road salt and black ice are bad enough. Why make a bad situation worse? Give your heads a shake, Yankees!

Exactly.

The Conservative Party NASCAR ad strategy

The Ottawa Citizen tries to make sense of the Conservative Party sponsoring a NASCAR car.

The Tories already have a relatively solid grip on the blue-collar, male demographic that comprises the core audience for stock car racing. And although NASCAR claims 75 million North American fans -- including about 5.8 million in Canada -- the small-time Canadian circuit, with shorter tracks and a shorter season, more typically attracts audiences of about 5,000 to 10,000 fans, according to Mr. Novotny.

"Our circuit is sort of like the minors in hockey. The junior system that feeds into the majors eventually," he explains.

Furthermore, while the "NASCAR dads" comprise a strong Republican party force in the U.S., that sort of narrowly segmented approach to the electorate is of dubious value in Canada.

"That sort of tight demographic focus works in the U.S. where there's very low voter turnout and you have to target who to motivate at the polls," says Peter Donolo, who was communications director for former prime minister Jean Chretien and is now with Strategic Counsel in Toronto. "Canadians are a lot more label-resistant. They tend to defy that type of facile characterization."

He notes the Tories are "preaching to the converted" in gender terms as well, since their support already skews heavily to men -- as do NASCAR events.

Even if the GOP did sponsor a NASCAR car, would it make you change your vote or even consider voting for another party?

Technorati tags: Canada, NASCAR, Conservative Party, marketing, politics, advertising, Pierre Bourque

Church Signs

You all know the customizable church signs that I am talking about. The ones with a pithy, cliched, and often condemning message on it to encourage people to come to church but don't work. Why isn't obvious to everyone that it would be far more effective to use that space to promote your website? There are some churches in Saskatoon on some high traffic streets that would be much better served with a website being advertised rather than telling people they are going to hell (which is another big issue) and while many advertise their sites, so many do not.

Forget just those with pithy sayings, there are many events that I find interesting and I would like to find more information about but... no website to give me more information.