Late last week I was asked to comment about behavioral economics on the heels of the Obama administration reporting in Business Week how it had impacted their decision making.

To be clear, i'm a believer.  Have been since Freakonomics.  Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational has been the most concrete and inspiring account of this field for me, personally.

Like i say in the article, behavioral economics gives PhD credibility and academic rigor to intuition and what smart marketers have been trying to practice for ever. 

http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=145091

Inside Out began in 2007 with the vision of showing artists work within the McKinney community to help infuse inspiration, creativity and discussion into our daily work lives.Today I am happy to curate the first show of its re-launch, Belize It Photography by John Hagerty. His photographs are quiet, dream-like narratives of the water, land and people he encountered while visiting Belize this spring. The pace is slow and relaxed. The repetition of waterscapes throughout the series creates a kind of meditation drawing us into the movement and peaceful solitude of its expanse. A dog rests in the sun in one image while bright yellow sheets hang limply against a pale home in another. These vignettes slow us down creating a sharp contrast to our vigorous pace here at McKinney.

John’s work will be hanging at McKinney between Reid and Strickland through August. I chatted with John more in depth about his work and this is what he said:

I've been interested in photography since I was a kid. My earliest memories are both from photographs and of looking through family photos albums. I didn't start thinking about photography seriously, or as a creative expression, until I went back to grad school about six years ago.             

I hardly ever have a specific idea of an image before I take a picture. I usually go somewhere new and meander until something catches my eye. Sometimes I'll have a general idea about a location. But the ideas wait until I get there and start to explore. I primarily shoot in color. I’ve used black and white film in the Holga a few times but have more luck with the Kodak Vivid Color Film. And it feels weird to make a digital pic black and white. I would like to explore black-and-white film more, however. Maybe I’ll get into it someday. For now I like rocking the color.

I went back to film a year ago because I got tired of how perfect digital can look. I was getting sick of the computer in general and the coldness of digital. I think there's warmth to film that just looks better and feels more real. I also found that I was retouching my digital shots to look like film, which was time-consuming and felt a little like cheating. Also, you have to be more intentional and thoughtful with film because you have a limited number of exposures, and film and processing is expensive so you don't want to waste money. Film is nice in that it slows you down. A lot of time with digital I find myself back at my computer with 200+ photos, and editing can be overwhelming.

I love photography because it lets me get out and explore. I love to meander and go places I’ve never been before. Especially overlooked, everyday places. I also like that it’s very easy to just grab your camera and go. That’s one nice thing about digital. It’s a very convenient outlet. And a free pass to trespass.  These photos are special to me because I had an amazing time in Belize. It was my first real vacation in five or so years, and I got a lot of great shots. I picked Belize because I wanted to go someplace where I could completely disconnect and relax and do some good photo hunting. It was the first trip where photography was a key factor in deciding where I would go. And I had at least one camera with me the whole time. I love all the Holga shots I took—so, the three that I picked are basically my favorite. But the three digital pics I included work together as a nice triptych. And that was something unplanned that came together after I got home and started editing. I love how each photo has a punch of color and backdrop of horizontal lines in the wood siding. There’s a nice rhythm with the color and lines and shapes in each shot and between all three shots as a whole.

The low-angle shot off the kid on the bike heading toward the camera was really cool because it was unplanned, and I love the expression on the kid’s face. I was just squatting in the middle of the street looking around when this kid came around the corner and gunned it toward me. He had a mischievous smirk like he was going to run me over, and I took the shot a second before he swerved out of the way, laughing. It was great because I was a punk like that when I was a kid and would have done the same thing in his shoes.

One of my favorite photographers is Henri Cartier-Bresson. I like what he said about there being a natural geometry in what we see and how taking pictures means discovering rhythm, lines and gradations in reality and finding order within all the chaos of life. There’s also something mildly OCD about that sense geometry that I really appreciate.

Besides photography, I like to collage and draw. And I’ve recently been experimenting with different forms of print-making like screen printing and acetone transfers. I’d like to do letterpress next.

If I could go anywhere and photograph I’d like to go to Antarctica and shoot the next Pirelli calendar.

To view more of John Hagerty's work, visit his Flickr account:

I know these posts are usually for sharing innovative ideas and the 
latest/coolest trend, but wanted to ask if you'd consider a few 
things. I'll try to keep it relevant.

1. I'm pretty old school and love the idea of a handwritten note or 
letter expressing something, communicating or thanking someone, but 
technology has taken the place of doing a lot of this. Specifically, 
we can send or share our thoughts with anyone and everyone in a tiny 
second - social media being our venue.

Despite the irony, consider this: Since we all can't hand-write a note or be be physically present today, maybe it could be a neat support system to post something 
on your facebook wall about anyone who means something 
to you. Would be interesting to see how many people posted words from 
the heart rather than what they ate for lunch. Just a thought.

2. At times, it seems we've forgotten some of the basics for everyone 
at work, one of them being to remember that a simple pat on the back 
goes a long way. Not just to your peers, but to someone who you don't 
know very well that made your project successful. Go find them. 
Interesting article debunking myths about praise at work below:

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2007/ca20071227_941417.htm

3. It's one of our own 5 words, but really LISTEN to people, in and 
out of work. We're all busy and there will never be enough time in this life. But 
the outcome of the time you take, and the relationships you create, is 
what I think leads to success, in whatever form.

Practice using your words, speak your mind, and don't let anyone interrupt. 

The progress we have made over the last eight years toward being an agency that fundamentally operates real time shaping and participating in consumer conversations has been nothing short of very hard work.  I call it McKinney 2.0, and it was a huge leap forward from the prior decades.

We probably had an easier start than many agencies because we didn't have to break down silos or collapse business unit P&L's because we never had them.  But it did require an orientation shift, big bets and a belief in where this business was headed.

Lately, however, it seems like I've seen a rash of holding company babble about new "chiefs of things" that are supposed to come in and make networks integrated or digital or something other than irrelevant.

ADWEEK, May 11, 2010:  UM's Daryl Lee becomes Worldgroup's chief integration architect

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i1ad262646f40d099b24b73b0885a480f

ADWEEK, May 10, 2010:  The twisting path to new agency models

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3ieedb56d6b7d314952ff36536412ceca9

Unfortunately, the list goes on...

What strikes me is this is not a new trend.  It's easy to find links dating back 5-7 years ago as "major" agencies hired major talent to solve their integration woes.  You know the drill, hire rock star up-and-comer to walk into a new holding company or network and make people integrate.

This has not and does not work (see link above about TBWA's 10 Digital Artist superstars).

Integration, and particularly digitally-centered integration, is more orientation than mandate.  It's more bottoms-up than top-down.  It's more spontaneous than planned.  It's more consumer-driven than process-driven.

We fundamentally believe and require digital competency for every role and level in the agency.  We start everything with the business opportunity (not the brand or consumer).  We approach creative development based on a Conversation Architecture - a deliberate and flexible tool created to help our clients' brands engage consumers.  We're really clear on what we do and don't do as an agency...and have killer partners to fill the gaps.  We do more every day to learn and optimize our work.  We put in place process to prevent chaos.  Etc., etc.

Yet, despite all we have done, we are not done.  We have more work to do. 

One thing this new world requires is a constant look ahead.  Clients want to build their brands and create demand.  They understand the power of emotional connections and the reality of daily results. 

I'm ready for McKinney 3.0...the even faster, more big-idea-integrated and more digitally savvy version of us!

I'm incredibly restless about figuring out what is next, and I know that mastering this new world doesn't happen by one "chief" no matter how big the title or stick.

Yesterday I spoke with David Ranii at the News & Observer for a story he was writing on the impact of TiVos.  A recent study that was published by the Journal of Marketing Research showed that the presence of a TiVo, surprisingly, had little impact on what someone watches on TV, the amount of ads they watch and what they buy. 

I was surprised that these results were, well, surprising.  Technologies like DVRs merely enable behaviors that people are already doing - now we just hit fast forward if we want to avoid a commercial instead of running to the fridge.  Maybe TiVo is the solution for American obesity.  But for a brand, good ads can overcome the impulse to skip.

More importantly, technology doesn't present an obstacle for marketing success.  In fact a customized advertising program with TiVo was a central part of the Bravia launch we did for Sony in 2006.  When technology starts creating completely new behaviors and opportunities for people to meaningfully connect with brands, then I think we will be really surprised.

Click here to read David Ranii's story from the News and Observer

The big hair and glam makeup may make a comeback one day.  The guitar riffs likely have made a comeback thanks to Guitar Hero. 

But one thing even Brett Michaels and Poison won't be able to bring back is the importance of the landline, a.k.a. the home telephone. 

I was listening to the 80s channel on satellite radio this morning when I started singing along to a classic (for my generation) hit: Talk Dirty to Me.  Without thinking, I sang this line and then laughed out loud -- not b/c I was singing it to my 14-month-old daughter, but because it is utterly archaic now:

You know I call you
I call you on the telephone
I'm only hoping that you're home
So I can hear you

(cue my old man voice) - Back when I was growing up, if you wanted to talk to a girl, you had to call her house, and most likely her mom or dad would answer.  That was the first hurdle.  Then, she had to find a place in the house where everyone didn't hear your conversation (more of a challenge before cordless phones).  And then you had to contend with every other person in the house who wanted to use the phone (this was before dual lines). 

Even if you weren't "Talking Dirty," you had to overcome quite a bit just to communicate.

If this sounds downright foreign to you, here's a glimpse at what it was like:

en-route back from SXSW today, and while sitting at the airport in Dallas I thought I would use the time to share some thoughts on one of my favorite sessions.  

the session was titled the same as this post - 'the fight for your TV' and consisted of a panel with Mark Cuban, owner of HDNet, and Avner Ronen, owner of Boxee.  if you are not familiar with boxee's proposition then read more here.

the two come at the future of TV from very different perspectives and pretty much disagreed about everything.  Cuban believes the current cable model is here to stay for the foreeseeable future while Ronen believes the internet is changing how people access TV and that in essence content should be available to people online, FREE.  the debate was incredibly lively with Cuban repeatedly enquiring as to how much revenue the one million subs of boxee generate.  the answer he already knew, was zero.

whatever their individual opinions are of what the future holds for this medium it left me with no doubt that TV is NOT dead.  sure the format maybe changing and the ability to watch TV on the go via mobile or new devices like the iPad is bringing about a different way that we access content, but the idea of receiving long form content sponsored by brands is here to stay for some time.  content owners and publishers have no reason to change that.  propositions like hulu, boxee, and YouTube have a long way to go to develop profitable business models.  in fact rumor has it that hulu is moving towards a subscription based model themselves as they are unable to generating enough revenue from their advertising model.

interactive TV has been something that has be bandied about as the future of TV for as long as i can remember.  using your remote control to interact, BUT true interactive TV is just that – imagine mixing the voting element of POP Idol with a show like 24.  the technology is here today that can enable this capability.

Cuban can be a bit annoying at times, but he does have a point - he has made a ton of money building and selling businesses and the other guys haven’t.  i'd love to here other opinions on this subject - i'd imagine there would be polar perspectives out there. 

since the debate both of the panelists have followed up with posts on their respective blogs which you can read here:

Mark Cuban - Don't waste the Internet on TV - Protect the Future of the Internet

Avner Ronen - The future of TV

Like most of us, perhaps, I know that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.  Pick your poison --  here are two of my recent  'favorites':

No seafood left by 2048 -- we over-fished the oceans! Yay humans!

All these severe earthquakes might be more severe because of global warming.

Also, like most of us, I had no idea what to do about it. So I was blown away by Valerie Casey's keynote here at SXSW Interactive.

A former exec at IDEO and Frog Design, Ms. Casey started The Designers Accord , a group of designers focused on sustainability and social change.  Her talk was really simple but moving.  The outline of it:

-- The world is going to hell in a hand basket.

-- The interactive community ( egocentric me, I didn't know I was a member of a community . . . there you go ) has done boo to help with these problems.  We lag product designers, urban planners, architects, you name it. 

-- These big 'intractable' problems are tough to solve because they are systems problems. By systems, I mean bunch of interdependent actors, and behaviors, with associated outcomes.

-- No other design discipline knows more about systems and systems design than interactive designers.  Especially if you include gaming and social as part of interactive.

-- So get out there and do something!

Email sent to Val Casey and Designers Accord.  Let me see if I can do something.  

The number of years to reach 50 million users:

• Radio – 38 years
• TV – 13 years
• Internet – 4 years
• Ipod – 3 years

Facebook added 100million users in less than 9 months
iPhone app downloads reached 1 billion in 9 months

I wonder if this says more about a growing appetite for media consumption or a new found ease of accessing the media?

I believe that before we fill a media placement, we should stop to assess the potential for creating a special experience. Especially, for those "incremental" or "added-value" placements. It won't bear fruit every time, but often it will.

A great example is the campaign/contest we created for Qwest High-Speed Internet called Protect Ur Rep (www.protecturrep.com). It began as a request to adapt existing work for in-game ad placements on Xbox Live. Rather than fill the request we pulled the train back into the station and took a closer look.

What we found was that gamers have a tolerate/hate relationship with in-game ads. They tolerate those that add to a game's realism and hate those that detract from it. I'm exaggerating here, but at best in-game ads become atmosphere. At worst they turn gamers against a brand.

We also found that gamers are competitive (duh!) and proud of their skills. They love to be recognized as the best. That recognition can take the form of prizes or simply "15 minutes of fame".

To neutralize the potential-piss-off-factor, and capitalize on the competitive nature of gamers, we decided to build a contest around our in-game ads. The gist was to allow gamers to compete for the right to have their Xbox Live avatar appear in our in-game ads. And pocket some loot.

In the end, Protect Ur Rep grew into a fully integrated online campaign comprised of in-game ads and brand pages on Xbox Live, a registration microsite, targeted banner ads and regular email communications.

It gave gamers a reason to pay attention to Qwest High-Speed Internet ads, offered a relevant point of engagement and a reward for doing so. It also gave them a reason to seek out Qwest ads, repeatedly, to see whose digital mug was plastered over them.

We won't have the final results for a few more weeks, but the early numbers are impressive. Who knew a little ol' media placement had so much potential.