Category: The World

Window to the Future

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It seems that I can’t escape them.  I’ve been through my honeymoon phase with Facebook so I’m past the crest of full immersion and on to the phase where I’ve blocked most of the game and app requests so that my news stream looks less like some sort of ticker feed from a bizarre slot machine and more like a list of random status updates and photo posts (which I’ve gotten somewhat out of the habit of reading often anyway).  And yet this morning I found that some have taken to the closed door / open window philosophy to an odd new level.

I was on my way to work, had refueled my wheels and decided that I needed some fuel myself.  So I pulled into 7-Eleven to pick up some form of caffeine-based liquid enrichment.  As I do, in the same spot they normally place their product-promoted Slurpee poster of the moment, I saw something surprising.  It seems that the current promotional cup series for this product features various Facebook games – specifically depicted were Farmville, Yo-ville, and Mafia Wars.

As an aware consumer and one who works and has worked in various levels of marketing-adjacent industries, I like to think that I get on a core level how product placement advertising works and how important demographic targeting can be to marketing success.  It would not have occurred to me to align the users of such niche games as these in an application of fairly broad but still limited reach to the consumers of such products (though in thinking more about it, perhaps it does make a sort of sense).  But typically such cross-product promotion is intended to (a) drive the consumer to buy the immediate product (e.g., get a Slurpee because it has a cool cup) and also (b) drive the consumer to buy into the brand featured (e.g., if they were Iron Man cups, go out and see Iron Man and/or buy other Iron Man merchandise).  In this case, the featured brand is a series of free games that themselves are advertiser-subsidized.  I guess driving customers to consume such products still results in increased revenue for the producer (after all, Google fits a similar paradigm and they advertise), but it seems like a step in a new and unusual direction.

I’m curious where this will proceed.  Should I expect to next see a set of iPhone app-themed coffee mugs (could you imagine the potential of an iFart travel mug)?  Perhaps this is the dawn of a new era of marketing.  Who knows.  The only thing I can know for sure is that even with the best of efforts, Farmville is inescapable.

Travel Epilogue

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11 cents.  That’s how much cash was left in my pocket after two weeks on the road.  I honestly only used cash for minimal incidental expenses that required it (e.g., train & bus fares, items from convenience stores and news stands) and I only started with a little over $100.  I just find it funny how closely my funds matched my needs.

Anyway, I’m glad to be gradually returning to normalcy.  Though while Saturday with the family went smoothly, Sunday my children did their best to remind me of what I didn’t miss while I was gone.  Grasshopper seems to be going through that phase in life where he is realizing that he is not in charge and is fighting that reality tooth and nail.  And Cricket seems to be giving us a preview of her teenage drama queen years to come.  All upon the backdrop of dinner with the in-laws – their older cousin got fed up with the behavior and I’m sure the parents of their younger cousin were not thrilled with the image of their possible future.  It seems my wife and I have some work to do with them.

On a good note, there were some positive aspects of Father’s Day this year.  My family made me French toast in bed, got me a nice geeky card, and got me Super Mario Galaxy 2 (which the kids proceeded to watch me play for hours).  The game is a good continuation of the series in that it keeps some continuity with the previous installment.  But it is also an improvement – the level layout is much more sensible and enjoyable.  In the first you had this huge “ship” with various rooms to navigate to find the levels of play.  In the new version you steer the ship (which is smaller and simpler) to the various worlds which are all laid out on an easy to navigate map (more similar to games like Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3).  And they brought back Yoshi which adds a fun new variation on the game play (plus the kids love to watch me make him eat things).

Anyway, now that my travels are done, I must return to reality and be a productive member of society.  I look forward to getting back into more interactive tasks than just sitting still and listening all day.  I look forward to getting to go home every day and enjoying some time with my family (maybe a bit less of it like this weekend panned out).  And I look forward to getting refunded all of my travel expenses so that I have more than a dime and a penny to line my pockets.

Travelogue – a Side Track

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As exciting as I’m sure my daily chronicles of travel have been, I’m going to take a day off from it to write about something else.  This concept was something I discussed with a colleague last week at the conference in San Francisco and got to talking about again with another colleague this week in NYC.  After chatting about it, we dug up this link and made some popcorn.  The below video is a condensed version of a longer talk – the longer talk is good to, but doesn’t include the awesome whiteboard work demonstrated in the video below.

In watching this, as baffled as the results seem to be to a number of experts apparently, to me this seems akin to common sense.  While money can be a decent incentive, it is not the great incentivizer.  If it was, then rich executives would be the hardest working people in the world (while a handful of them might argue that they are, most of them are far from it).  The interesting coincidence of this topic is that in the discussion, the company that is used as an example of a different way of thinking about incentivization is the very one that sponsored the conference I attended last week.

I am very tempted to send this video to the top executive team at my company and see how willing they may be to adopt some of the habits of it.  I’m sure they will really love the full-length version as it seems to suggest that the sales commission model may be flawed as well (well the CEO and COO would like it, sales maybe less so).  What is important to glean from this, though, isn’t that monetary incentives like bonuses don’t work (though apparently they don’t), but that what does work is to pay people what they need and deserve (so that money is not an issue) and motivate people through personal challenge and growth, a level of autonomy, and a sense of purpose.

I am also motivated to consider the lessons of this set of studies in the context of parenting.  Obviously children aren’t motivated by money (at least not most kids) and material rewards and punishments have limited results. But perhaps more intrinsically valued rewards may be more motivating.  If I have any luck with it, I’ll post an update on the matter.

Travelogue – Six and the City

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That’s the number of mixed drinks I had last night.  Granted, the first three were so widely spread out I was able to complete the full ebb and flow between them.  But given that I don’t drink in such quantities often, I always forget the critical steps I should be taking to avoid the kind of hangover I’m experiencing this morning.

Prior to the drinking, yesterday was somewhat tedious.  My absence from work has been growing increasingly palpable and desperation is setting in – especially since one of the only other persons who could adequately be my substitute is sharing a hotel room with me this week.  Throughout the training session yesterday, my attention would be slightly divided from the material at hand by a stream of emails of people clamoring for someone to address their issue.  For the most part I’m able to mark them as read and move on, but some bait I cannot leave untouched (though I’m careful to avoid catching any hooks).  I do manage to get caught by one – despite my efforts to provide a best fit solution via email, others seemed intent on needing it explained over the phone.  So after our training day is done, I get on the phone, re-explain the solution, wait for the gradual collective “oh, yeah that makes sense”, and get on with other more pressing matters (like figuring out where we are going to drink) – today’s edition of it only took about 10 minutes.  I must be slipping.

So we head out to meet up with the colleagues from our NY office (which is generally a sales office).  As with SF, the office is much smaller and quieter than the main hub that I’m accustomed to.  As I get introduced around, I am faced with a mix of “Oh! It is so good to finally meet you in person!” and “Oh hi … and what department do you work in?  Are you new?”  I felt like after nearly 4 years I had known and been known by almost everyone at least by reputation (not to be haughty, but I’ve worked on things that nearly every department in our company should be aware of).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m wasn’t upset or concerned, just mildly surprised.  But in my experience notoriety is more burden than reward – especially when sales is involved, so I made little effort to cement myself  in their minds any further … other than joining them for a 4-hour happy hour event at a rooftop bar.

So that brings us back to the drinking.  The waitress attending our party was horrible at her job.  I got the impression that the bar in question aimed for looks over talent in their hiring practices – I guess most guys might be content to wait a while for a drink so long as they can wile away the time ogling the server.  I am not so easily distracted by shiny things.  We ordered a round of drinks and then waited about 45 minutes to receive them.  After 2 rounds of this, most of us got in the habit of asking for the next drink as she was handing us one.  Even at that, I only managed to get 3 drinks to my hand over the course of 3 hours.  So we relocated to a more traditional and less pretentious pub where the drinks flowed more freely.  I guess one needs to be careful what they wish for.

Travelogue – the Road Strikes Back

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I’m back on the road … well figuratively speaking.  I’ve actually spent very little time in cars during my travels at all.  My travels have been mostly in trains and planes – both for the first trip, just trains for the second.  I have to say that Amtrak’s Acela line is really nice – the business class seats are the equivalent to first class airplane seats and I had none of the hassle of long lines, security checkpoints, or landing or take-off queues.  I stepped on and by the time I found a seat we were already moving (and I’d hardly noticed).

After navigating the urban hedge-maze that is New York’s Penn Station, I found my way to the surface and trekked the 10 blocks to my hotel.  Funny how twice the price seems to buy me about half the room space in NYC vs. SF.  I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I would have enjoyed getting another lucky free upgrade to a bigger suite, but I guess that would be akin to lightning striking the same place twice.  This stay will also be punctuated by the presence of a roommate.

He showed up around dinner time and after walking around for a while, we ended up taking in a movie (I probably wouldn’t have bothered seeing The A-Team in the theaters otherwise – it was enjoyable and clever).  Now we are just chilling out avoiding bed with the noise of World Cup Soccer on the TV in the background (neither of us are sure way, really).  But I think I will soon succumb to sleep and how that my jet lag won’t prevent me from making it to the training I’m here to attend.  Wish me luck.