The coverage of this event immediately brought to mind this casually brilliant Tumblr website: kimjongillookingatthings.  If you surf here and don’t find your surfing experience to be scarily reminiscent of the media coverage of his death, something is horribly, desperately wrong.

The Kismet-like match of world event and ironic website just shows the infinite variety adaptability of creative human compulsion.  Remarkable.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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And yeah, I know; I have some phone calls to return…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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Still, most projects start with hope.  A clean screen beckons with the promise of something remarkable to come…unless your briefing sounds something akin to this:

Client:  ”So we need an ad campaign–TV, online, OOH–to encourage Boomers to file their Social Security paperwork online, because that cuts government expenses.  You can do anything you want!”

Agency: “Great!”

Client:  ”–as long as you use George Takei.  You know George, he played Sulu on Star Trek? We’re playing with the idea of ‘Boldly Go’–but that’s just a thought starter…”

Agency:  ”Oh.  Uh-huh…  Well, we can probably work with tha–”

Client:  ”Oh, and Patty Duke.  We signed Patty Duke too.”

Agency:  ”The one who played Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker?”

Client:  ”Exactly!  Sulu and Helen Keller–together at last! It’ll be magic!”

Or not.  Sometimes, you just get dealt a bad hand.  But this is really hard to look at every time you get off the commuter train in Chicago…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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In those days, aperture referred to the right place and time for television, radio, print or outdoor (this was waaaay pre-internet…are you sensing a theme here?).  It was an important thought then, but today’s hyper-connected, social media/web 2.0 times magnify aperture’s importance ten fold.

According to a recent statistical analysis by Buddy Media, a leading supplier of social marketing software for clients and agencies, 89% of retail brand posts launch between 8 AM and 7 PM Eastern Time.  That makes sense because those are the work hours of the corporate people writing the posts.

Except it doesn’t make sense, because that’s when subscribers and consumers receiving those posts are busiest.

According to the study, brands reach people more successfully when they launch their messages in more favorable apertures.  For the Facebook crowd, engagement with retail brands rises 20% on posts between 8 PM and 7 AM.

In fact, it’s not just time of day but day of the week that drives engagement.  Buddy Media’s data reveals Facebook user engagement varies over the course of a week, peaking on Wednesdays and Sundays.  In comparison, Friday is the worst day for consumer engagement.  Retailer fans engage most with posts outside of traditional workdays.

All of which means it might be time to rethink our posting schedules and perhaps even invest in publishing tools and software, which not surprisingly, Buddy Media offers.  You can download their statistical report and check their methodology here.  Self-interest notwithstanding, it’s a pretty compelling argument for adjusting when we try to engage consumers online.

Other quick highlights of the report?  Facebook engagement drops with the frequency of posts during the day–less than three seems ideal for generating Likes and comments.  And keep them short: lengthy posts kill engagement. Only 5% of retail brand Wall Posts are less than forty characters, but those receive 86% higher engagement.  And in a sucker punch to the hopes of every creative in marketing, posts containing ”$ off” and “coupon” pull a 55% higher user engagement rate and simpler posts work better than more interesting and involved ones featuring links to video and photos.  Apparently when you are interrupting someone’s social experience, they are hopelessly self interested and simple-minded.

If I learned anything from Jim, it’s that aperture matters.  Which means this blog post is waaaaay too long.  Oh, and perhaps not surprisingly, Jim now teaches at Northwestern University.  Some folks can’t stop learning. And teaching.  For that, thank you Mr. Chips.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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Wow.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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Nope, didn’t try it.  But it definitely one-upped the Crab Rangoon sell.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO,Olson

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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I hope you didn’t forget to also wish a Happy Birthday to Eunice.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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I’ve enjoyed a terrific career making advertising but three years ago, when my prior agency’s fortunes changed suddenly and radically, I looked up and realized the world had changed while I was busy making TV campaigns. I had largely ignored the biggest revolution in marketing: the pervasiveness of digital screens, the stunningly-swift adoption of social networks and the increasing presence of mobile marketing.

I started blogging everyday to force myself to explore all these emerging platforms and immerse myself in the new reality. As Facebook continued to work it’s way every deeper into our lives, I started to recognize how social networks can provide savvy brands with crowdsourced PR. I was amazed how transparent and public people had become, sharing remarkable details of their personal lives. I learned about search and geo-tagging and the seamy creepiness behind unchecked online tracking. And I probably saw more than my fair share of virals and flashmobs and public self-destruction at the hand of Twitter.

I learned a lot, both by actively searching for subjects to discuss and happily, by reading comments posted and emailed from smart people offering their own points of view.  It’s been wonderful catching up.

But I gotta cut back. We’re doing lots of interesting things up here in Minneapolis, expanding the agency as we build and activate all sorts of brand communities for a wide range of clients. And I need to dedicate more time to that process.

So thanks for reading, thanks for your attention, thanks for your help. Going forward, I’ll post every now and then–habits can be tough to break–but my pace is definitely gonna slow.

Because advertising’s pace certainly isn’t.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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