It’s easy to demonize the marketing industry. They use cartoon animals to sell cigarettes. They make our children obese by pushing sugary cereals and soda on them. They basically destroy, subvert or co-op everything that is good in the world. Go read Naomi Klein’s No Logo or flip through a copy of Adbusters if you need more proof. But what if that’s not the whole story? What if, instead, the story was about marketers who were trying to change things. Trying to use their skills and experience to make the world, or at least commerce, a better place. Let me introduce you to five organizations that are looking for better ways to do things:
Our school systems are in trouble. Not only are budgets a huge issue, but quiet frankly the type of education we’re giving our kids may not be preparing them for the future. Movies like Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere paint a bleak picture. Massive bureaucracies simply can’t move nimbly enough to create the change that is needed. That’s where NRBLB has stepped in, issuing the challenge to infuse our education system with the creativity of thought that will allow kids to grow up and have the ability to deal with complex, nuanced situations that rote memorization doesn’t. In their words:
No Right Brain Left Behind is a speed innovation challenge, calling on the creative industries to concept ideas that can help the creativity crisis happening in U.S. schools today.
The challenge they issued (see Bucket Brigade above) was answered by more than 100 marketing firms. That’s an outrageous amount of talent. Speaking of talent, some of the people behind NRBLB are: David Armano, Anibal Casso, Toby Daniels, Piers Fawkes, Clay Parker Jones, Gareth Kay, Maria Popova and John Winsor. Wow. What this group is doing is absolutely essential. Education is the key to every problem we face. Problems that require sophisticated, creative solutions.
What if changing the world could be fun? That’s the question Sharon Chang, founder of Yoxi is asking. What’s fascinating is they’ve added game mechanics to the
equation of solving problems like ‘reinventing fast food.‘ Here’s how they describe it:
Yoxi (YO-see) is a creative competition and a social game. Teams of problem solvers battle to deliver the best solutions to social issues. You vote, comment, pledge and play along online. The winning team gets the funding opportunities and positioning to make their idea a reality. The more stuff you do, the more your voice is heard. That way, you play to support great ideas brought to the real world.
When Alex Bogusky, one of the brightest minds in advertising over the last 20 years, launches a new venture you have to take notice. When that venture is described like this you know that times, they are a changin’:
COMMON is a brand that is community designed, community owned, and community directed. It is a single open source brand — a living network — for rapidly prototyping many progressive businesses that unleash creativity to solve social problems.
Here’s part 1 of a five part introduction to Common:
Find the rest here.
Seth Godin has been breaking rules and challenging conventions for years. The genius is that he’s never done it as a rabble-rouser, easily dismissed as a crank. Seth does it with thoughtfulness and a
quiet confidence (and a brilliant mind) so that when he announces his next project it always has a real impact. Enter The Domino Project:
What happens when a publisher has a tight, direct connection with readers, is able to produce intellectual property that spreads, and can do both quickly and at low cost? A new kind of publishing.
We are reinventing what it means to be a publisher, and along the way, spreading ideas that we’re proud to spread. Our core beliefs:
- Exceptionally high quality ideas, created without regard for what bookstores and middlemen want.
- Ideas packaged with cogency and urgency in mind, not a word wasted, no filler.
- Permission at the heart of the model. Ideas for our readers, not more readers for our ideas.
- Virality first. An idea that requires a direct sale won’t thrive in a world where the most powerful ideas spread from hand to hand. Create content that works best when spread, and then package it so it’s easy to spread.
- Reward the sneezers who stand up and spread these ideas.
- No patience for obsolete institutions. Bestseller lists are not worth compromising for.
- Speed triumphs. Rapid time to market, rapid evolution, rapid response to reader feedback.
- Format agnostic. Kindle, audiobook, paperback, collectible… all good.
- Different products for different customers. A variety of price points and formats to match audience desires.
I’ve included The Domino Project here (full disclosure, I’m a member of the Domino Project Street Team) not because of who is involved, or what it directly does, but rather what it will ultimately allow others to do. Look at that list above. Those are the tools that a small, nimble group (or individual) needs to compete in the marketplace of ideas. The Domino Project allows The Bucket Brigade, for instance, to distribute ideas faster and farther, with less interference, than a traditional publisher.
The people behind or involved with these projects have literally shaped the face of consumer culture over the last dozen + years. And all of them are now turning their talents, passion and efforts towards something new and different. Towards something bigger than brands, bigger than politics, bigger than geographic boundaries. I urge you to explore these organizations further, or for GOOD measure, check out this guide to volunteering.
FourSquare
Delicious
LinkedIn
Twitter
SlideShare
Email
Facebook
GooglePlus
Elizabeth Talerman
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 7:00 pm:
THE FUTURE OF MARKETING: 5 change agents who are making the world a better place. – @Rick_Now http://bit.ly/f6p1nO
NoRightBrainLeftBHND
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 7:45 pm:
Honored for #nrblb to be listed amongst such noble company! @Rick_Now: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World http://t.co/CWWLiYT
Karla Valenti
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 8:16 pm:
Very thought-provoking initiatives. http://fb.me/VyTCtxgh
Lisa Radin
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 8:33 pm:
@bud_caddell You deserve kudos and u r a nice guy! RT #nrblb honor. @Rick_Now: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World http://t.co/CWWLiYT
Nadia Elmrabet
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 9:16 pm:
Change Agents: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World http://bit.ly/hQBmUP #NRBLB
Frank Striefler
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 9:59 pm:
RT @zewiskas: Change Agents: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World http://bit.ly/hQBmUP #NRBLB
James Colistra
on Feb 17th, 2011
@ 10:48 pm:
RT @NRBLB: Honored for #nrblb to be listed amongst such noble company! @Rick_Now: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World http://t.co/CWWLiYT
Ellie Johnson
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 1:13 am:
RT @MarcGunther: Marketers Who Are Changing the World by @rick_now great post http://bit.ly/eXkdvO – Very cool!
Frank Striefler
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 1:24 am:
Rick – its flattering to see NRBLB next to such other nobles initiatives. Let me add some color to your kind introduction. It has been a crazy ride over the last 3 month or so. Feels like yesterday when Viktor Venson and I were wondering over drinks whether we’re crazy or wether we could actually pull such an open innovation challenge off in such a short time and whether anybody would want to take part. We’re blown away by the response from our broader industry.
We’re dreaming big and learned quickly the power of Viktor’s idea. The idea was contagious and opened doors where ever we turned, mobilized numerous co-conspiritors and even helped us to recruit up to 15 volunteers at some point in the process.
The task is monstrous and takes a village — or in our case a hyper connected community of marketing professionals who are willing to spend their extra time and creative mojo for a cause that is important for our society overall and the lifeblood for our industry.
We were equally depressed coming out of Waiting for Superman as everybody else. But we also knew that conventional thinking won’t be the solution. We can’t just throw more money on an obsolete education system and while NRBLB might not solve the situation, it hopefully will at least ease the situation and do its part in getting to a paradigm shift sooner.
We’re in the process of going through almost 300 submissions case by case to pick the finalist to be announced this Monday 2/21. Some people are misinterpreting the option to vote for your favorite idea to turn this initiative into a popularity contest. We still think its great to hear from the community what ideas are most promising. So, please take a minute and “like” your fav. The most popular idea will automatically make it into the final round where it will be judged just in the same way as anybody else on the short list. Our list of judges are pretty impressive: Sir Ken Robinson, Lee Clow, Yves Behar, Maria Popova, Daniel Pink, Juliette LaMontagne, John Winsor, Karl Heiselman, Liz Dwyer, Scott Belsky, Julie Lasky.
But we realize that it’s not about the quantity of the ideas and that they are simply just that (ideas) if we don’t execute the best ones. Just as somebody smarter said “creativity is having ideas. innovation is about making your ideas happen”. While we barely dared to dream about the response we received, it’s not the finish line – it’s the starting line. Making the top ideas a reality and pulling off the pilots will be the hardest part once we’re over our hangover from celebrating the winners (w/o March 7). On a side note: we’re happy to hear from anybody who is interested in volunteering for this 2nd phase.
Our vision is to actually get the broader industry to use the collective right brain power to tackle one burning issue once a year for one week. While we’re craving more sleep than more work right now, it’s pretty fair to say that we’d like to challenge the community again next year around and plan to roll it out internationally with our partner Social Media Week.
Thanks again for everyone involved in pulling this off and for all the right brains, left brains and whole brains in submitting their ideas. It’s magical to watch the output such a collaborative approach can produce.
Frank, Viktor + Team
Rick
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 8:24 am:
Frank – Thanks so much for shedding additional light on the No Right Brain Left Behind project. Indeed, the work is just starting and I sincerely hope that just as many people (if not more) will get behind the winning idea(s) even if it wasn’t theirs.
On another level, this is already a success. Every time an additional effort, an additional thought, goes towards addressing these issues we get closer to solutions. NRBLB by itself isn’t going to solve the education crisis, but hopefully in contributes to a snowball effect that will.
Thanks again Frank.
Rick Liebling
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 5:53 pm:
#FF @bud_caddell @NRBLB @yoxi_play @ProjectDomino @commonworks Find out why here: http://bit.ly/f6p1nO
NoRightBrainLeftBHND
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 9:43 pm:
RT @Rick_Now: #FF @bud_caddell @NRBLB @yoxi_play @ProjectDomino @commonworks Find out why here: http://bit.ly/f6p1nO
Frank Striefler
on Feb 18th, 2011
@ 9:43 pm:
RT @Rick_Now: #FF @bud_caddell @NRBLB @yoxi_play @ProjectDomino @commonworks Find out why here: http://bit.ly/f6p1nO