Lettera Aperta a Pierfrancesco Maran

Ciao Pier,

sono appena tornato da qualche giorno di vacanza e non solo a Valencia. Dove…

1) la città vecchia, grande almeno quanto la circonvallazione della 94 a Milano, è quasi tutta pedonale, tutta allo stesso livello, senza marciapiedi e coi pavimenti in marmo. Nelle poche strade dove passano le auto, vige e viene rispettato un limite di 30 km/h.

2) il servizio ValenBisi (BikeMi) funziona ovviamente 24 ore al giorno, e se non proprio ovunque in città, di sicuro vicino alle Università sì. Da noi a Milano, cosa aspettiamo a mettere le bici e togliere le auto parcheggiate sui marciapiedi in Città Studi? La Befana?

3) restringono non i passaggi pedonali, come ho letto con raccapriccio che vuoi fare a Milano, eletto anche con il mio voto, bensì, come ovvio e giusto che sia, la carreggiata per le auto in prossimità delle strisce pedonali, per far rallentare le auto.

4) i controviali della città, fra una corsia e l’altra, non sono luoghi dove abbandonare le automobili come a Milano, che è ormai più una discarica a cielo aperto di automobili che una città, bensì luoghi dove ci sono statue, panchine, parchi giochi per bambini o piste ciclabili.

La domanda, semplice quanto scontata: a Milano invece cosa abbiamo intenzione di fare?

Ten Inconvenient Truths about the Web

Here are my Ten Inconvenient Truths about the Web:

1. The world is changing, but not as fast as they would like you to believe.

2. No new miracle marketing channel will overtake all the others before the week is over.

3. The shift is much more of a cultural one than a technological one.

4. “Social Media Marketing” is bullshit. Disagree? Please explain what it is.

5. People want to talk to one another, not to your Mktg or PR Dept.

6. Spam is in the eye of the beholder. Most “Email Marketing” is spam.

7. The Internet is more of a threat than an opportunity for the average company.

8. No new cool trick will turn your dumb company into a smart one overnight.

9. If you don’t have a business model you’re a hobby, not a startup.

10. If you don’t have a business model AND you have raised $1 billion, you’re Twitter.

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SMM Social Media Mindlessness

They say that the second M actually stands for “Marketing”. But I don’t get it. What is Social Media Marketing? Buying banner ads on Facebook? Taking part in the dumbest race ever to see who has the most followers? Does it work? Really? Apple has 7 million “likes”. Sounds like a lot? It’s less than 1% of the smartest coolest most connected people in the world on Facebook – not of the Joe Six-packs at Walmart. On the other hand, how many million iPods, iPads and iPhones have they sold? No wonder they’re not panicking. The BBC World News has only 2 million “likes”. That’s 0.2% of the users on Facebook. Do you think they’re worried? Fiat has 300,000 “likes” in Italy. Ten years ago, they used to sell over 1,000 units of the Fiat Punto model a day in Italy alone. Isn’t this more proof, if needed, that people first buy a product and THEN perhaps “like” it on Facebook, and not the other way around, which is what Social Media Marketing types will try to bullshit you into believing?

Unusual pastimes

I love reading B2B brochureware and white papers produced by the online advertising industry. DSPs, retargeting, behavioural targeting, predictive targeting, that kind of stuff. Yes, I know. What a pervert! But it’s actually both interesting and amusing. Interesting because words very often give away who is doing something real and valuable and who instead is just full of bullshit. The former tend to speak in simple English and to spread valuable information instead of merely trying to hard-sell their wares. The latter use vague terms and a lot of hoopla. Which leads me to why it’s amusing.

Things have got so out of hand that not only we consider it normal to shoot at people – “targets” – we would like to sell our stuff to, but that we’re surprised when these people don’t want to be shot at (“elusive targets”). At the same time, advertisers who want to sell these people to companies talk about a “connection” you can make to “engaged” audiences. But fail to say that what they’re engaged to is whatever they are doing, and not what you are trying to tell them or sell them. Which leads me to wonder: why do advertisers hate their job – annoying people – so badly? It’s fun!

This what the job is about. Pretending it isn’t – pretending that (normal) people want to have “a relationship” with their bank or to be “engaged” by the makers of their shampoo is delusional, as the race to who has the most “like”s on Facebook or “followers” on Twitter proves beyond the shadow of a doubt. You follow your shampoo? No wonder you’re life – and your country – is fucked up. And to go back to advertisers: isn’t coming to terms with the fact that people don’t like ads and have other things to do in life the first, necessary step to creating work that actually sells products?

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