ANOTHER MILLION DOLLAR IDEA

A similar concept, but without the “friends” part just got funded with $1 million dollars.  We had this idea back in March, built a deck and sort of forgot about it because it’s difficult to monetize (yet another social media service with the same monetization problems as twitter).

UPDATE:  looks like the startup darling LikeALittle just threw their app into the competitive ring with the release of their first mobile app, which mines Facebook to extract interests and sends you a message when someone connects with you.  We’re clearly biased but we’d still rather have a push notification than a DM

UPDATE 2:  well, this is starting to get rediculous. Another company just got funded by Lightbank, doing the exact same thing. You’re welcome for the idea and even the interface, fellas.

Anyways, we thought we’d show you the pitch deck that was submitted to the two Lightbank founders, who one of our Managing Partners took a class from at the University of Chicago Booth.

Even our parents, who don’t use any social networks, loved the idea once we put it into a framework they could understand. They just bought a Harley in order to meet knew people.  They wanted to use our app to meet other Harley owners in their area.  Yup, money balls.

THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED…

This is the second time one of our ideas that we chose to pass on got a ton of funding.  The first one was group text messaging, before Beluga, before GroupMe, before all the copycats.  And we all know how that turned out.

Let’s just say these aren’t the only aces up our sleeves and leave it at that…

SO WHY THE HELL DON’T YOU BUILD THESE THINGS

Easy, the scalability concerns and monetization problems are pervasive.  SMS costs become exponential for group text messaging and social networks can only be monetized through advertising and years of trying.  Mmmm, we’d rather be profitable from day 1, thanks. 

You can buy the limited edition tee shown in the video, in person, at Evolyte HQ in Chicago for $29.  There are only 32 left and once they’re gone, they’re gone.  They’re made of buttery soft American Apparel tri-blend material and feel like they’ve been washed every day since 1976.

We have an online store we could have sold these through, but we’d rather meet you in person

The goal of any ad is to find the truth and then simplify it.  We like this one because it meets two criteria:

1. Elegant Simplicity
2. Layered Meaning

Can you find the hidden meaning in this?  It goes 3 levels deep

You may not have heard of Icebreaker, the New Zealand merino wool athletic clothing company, marketed towards nordic athletes.  We happen to own a bit of their stuff, and anyone who owns it will sing its praises and never go back.  Instead of bar codes they have Bah codes, which tells you which sheep the wool was shorn from.

In this case, during our recent visit to NYC we came across this fine chap doing a bit of street marketing, handing out fliers for their SoHo store.

We’ve been known to do a bit of that too.  Kudos.

We were recently reminded of the power of written language and how important specificity and tone play when communicating information, whether via email, product packaging, websites, or even texting.

Story #1:  Specificity

The first example dealt with specificity and the copy on a new product’s packaging.  The goal of any product you’d find on your supermarket’s shelf would be to first, gain awareness, and second, intrigue you enough to pick it up and purchase it.  To protect the innocent, lets use the example of toothpaste.  You’ve all heard the “4 out of 5 dentists agree…” blah blah blah on TV, radio, and print.  We’re thinking, “Really? That’s only 80%. What about the other 20?” but it’s still used because some CPG marketers somewhere still believe that it works.

Our premise is that it doesn’t.  What is more powerful:  using the same tired line used for the last two decades or something new and fresh?  Which would you rather buy:

• “4 out of 5 dentists agree that brushing your teeth prevents cavities”
• “The Chairman of the American Dental College of Medicine wholeheartedly recommends toothpaste”

We’d argue the second one is a bit better.

In this case, specificity is what wins.

Story #2:  Tone

The next example was a result of a miscommunication over email.  There were two things at play:

1. The first was less frequent communication between two people that had never spoken in person or over the phone.
2. The second was potentially an exclamation point that might have been misconstrued as shouting instead of happiness.

How big an impact do these subtleties make?  Well, consider switching the ! with an and you might begin to get a sense for it.  In any case, we may have failed to properly communicate the tone we were going for.

On a personal note, this reminds me of a lesson I learned nearly five years ago when I was still working for a large management consulting firm with access to the most prestigious Board rooms in the Fortune 500.  An email that had been sent by a senior consultant and myself a year prior was included in the Board meeting materials and brought up for discussion without warning.  They had taken  a simple, standard email we had written and kept it as “gold” from the “experts”.  Luckily we were on our game   <– see what I just did there?  Here’s another one

It continues to be a sobering reminder on how the tiniest of details can create a tremendous impact.  It’s always been about the subtleties.

Like we always say, “the devi is in the details” and copywriting or just writing in general, is one of the most important.

Long story short:  we use it, we know it, we’ve gotten business from it, and established friendships and stronger personal relationships because of it. The benefits far outweigh the negatives.  But, like anything, it takes time.

We cringe at the self-proclaimed social gurus and ninjas, we’d rather be referred to as “socially awkward social media savants”. We’ve found there are really only about 3 use cases:

1. Diary — just your standard diary-style usage where you record your thoughts and connect with a few people now and then. This represents the broadest segment of the social population.
2. Over Retweeter – these are where the gurus and ninjas live, clogging up others timelines with retweets of every conversation they have. The reply button is foreign to them.  On Facebook, it’s constant status updates and pictures you’d never show your mother.  If you think you’re running a marketing campaign and actually reaching hundreds or thousands of NEW eyeballs with this method, well, we’ve got news for you…
3. Campaign — similar to Old Spice or the recent camera campaign that garnered 56,000 retweets in a very short amount of time. This is a strategic use of social media.  This represents the smallest, but most impactful segment of usage across social.  This is where data is tracked, measured, and monetary return is calculated.  If it positively impacts sales above the cost, then you continue to invest.  If not, quit and iterate.

Evolyte operates in category #3 for clients and category #1 for ourselves (personal and professional).  Social media is just one aspect of a broader marketing campaign.

The chicken scratch picture above shows the new, Wagon Wheel model (client names have been changed to protect the innocent).  We operate mostly in the top half, digital/social side because the ROI is measurable and leverage-able.  The old, Funnel model can still be relevant in certain campaigns where everything is driven down one path.  However, the reality is that the Wagon Wheel model can create a self-feeding loop of content and virality.  The goal is to get 150 super fans talking about your campaign, and it will start to drive itself.

But the question remains:  concepts are great, but how do I take this and turn it into something people will care about enough to buy what it is I’m selling?  Well, that’s taken us a lifetime to figure out, and we’re still learning every day.  The short answer is:  there is no short answer.

This is why business is so difficult, every business has details and intracacies. That’s where the money is made.  Apple and Google both make mobile operating systems. If you’ve used both, which one do you think is winning?  You already know our answer.  And guess what. They’re no where to be found on social media.  Interesting…