On Interfaces
It's popular today to think that content is king. People will pay for it if it's good enough, and people will keep coming back to you if you provide "good" on a consistent basis. They'll try your product - whatever it is
Clay Parker Jones
I lead Organizational Design at Airbnb. Previously: August, Undercurrent.
On doing digital
It starts with a question. Last Friday, Scamp asked a question [emphasis is mine]: do you actually want to My guess is that you can probably ask the same question to entire agencies. And the answer: "No, now that you mention it, not really." Agencies are built around
On Stickiness
As ad-folk, we're always trying to come up with ways to make things sticky. We want viral videos to gain traction. We want people to stick around on our site and read our content. And we want to come up with radical ideas that become public sensations. With
Finding and distributing meaning
Was thinking last night... When done right, advertising is really about the discovery and innovative distribution of meaning that already exists. Products, services, things and activities in the world have meaning attached to them. And it's up to us, as marketing people, to find that meaning (especially if
The Success of the Nike Brand, a History
Reader beware: I've been a fan of Nike for my entire life. Dang you, brand loyalty, and the fog that you put me in. Below are some photos of my most recent loves, my Air Force Ones. I'll get to these later. This is an enormous
UNIQLO
When I was in New York a couple weeks back, I made a point to visit UNIQLO. It's an amazing store, and if you have an opportunity, you must visit one of their stores. I hope they're all as done-up as the flagship at 546 Broadway
Facebook, or, Life on the Web
Facebook is an immensely popular social networking site that works within the existing social networks that thrive in places where young people are forced to congregate: high schools and colleges. Tapping into this existing network (and offering a simpler, cleaner interface than MySpace), Facebook has grown to something like 9
Identity, Brands and the Next Generation
[Author's note: I'm not really sure about this. I would really love some comments on what I've written here. Tear it down if you like.] If identity is everything, what is identity? How does it fit in with marketing? Is "identity" a
Collaboration & Engagement
I love the new trend toward open-source idea refinement. It's worked for Russell Davies, who has made two (as far as I can tell) presentations using ideas that his readers helped generate. And he does a great job with attribution. In many ways, it's the perfect
Creating power
Power is the most fundamental part of human relationships. Platonic, romantic, sexual, political, cultural, economic, social and familial (did I miss any?) relationships are based in a simple exchange of power. One side has some, the other has less. This isn't necessarily a recognized or intentional exchange, though
Initially, on identity
I'm currently reading The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah. I was first introduced to Appiah, I think, by Prof. Movindry Reddy of Occidental College. The book was published in 2005. Appiah is professor at Princeton and is a leading thinker in the identity arena. One of
This is not an ad
So I was thinking about my previous post, and of the connotations of power in advertising. I started going through what I've learned about power, and I remembered that Michel Foucault did quite a bit of thinking on the subject. Most of my worthwhile education has revolved around