The Education Business Blog

Lovely, enjoy.

Background:

"Philips ran a contest called Parallel Lines in which they asked people to create a three-minute short film using only six lines of dialogue: :”What is that?”, “It’s a unicorn”, “Never seen one up close before”, “Beautiful”, “Get away, get away”, and “I’m sorry”. After more than 600 entries were submitted, director Ridley Scott selected the above film, titled “Porcelain Unicorn”, as the winner."d

Methinks, perchance, I hast a weeks end theme

I had to listen 3 times to really hear the Shakespeare because the impressions are so good and come so fast. Iambic awesomeness.

HT ABL at Balloon-Juice.

Admittedly they have a huge stake in this growth, but this is a pretty compelling outline of where things are headed.

Also, an incredible example of advertising that informs and engages rather than just promoting.

Enjoy.

Hat tip to Denise Jacks at PCI.

Is the Internet making us dumber or are we just using our brains in new ways? The BBC posted a great overview of a new study which makes the case for a neat trick the brain is pulling now that we have 24/7 access to the web.

The article notes:

"When participants knew that facts would be available on a computer later, they had poor recall of answers but enhanced recall of where they were stored.

The researchers say the internet acts as a "transactive memory" that we depend upon to remember for us"

When it comes to designing education media this has huge implications for every aspect of the products that come out of our industry. Design, marketing, implementation - all need an overhaul in light of this one simple concept.

This is part of why I'm so excited to be participating in the Learning Resources Metadata Initiative (LRMI) as a delegate from the publishing industry. I'll be writing more on that in the coming months as the project gets off the ground.

Start your week on a positive note and go read the BBC's article.

There is a profitability model for companies promoting themselves on Facebook and Twitter. There a lot of people making good coin from the incessant flogging of companies and organizations in social media. It just isn't the companies themselves who are profiting.

Here is how it works in four easy steps:

1. An executive is at the dentist's office and sees the plea to friend and follow them. A dim light bulb goes off - "we should do this too." Lemming marketing almost never works, particularly when you are following behind your Dentist.
2. Someone in Marketing with an advertising background is assigned the task of building a following in "social media." This is so important that they are given a bonus. The performance metrics are the evil stepchildren of the "brand impressions" school of marketing metrics. Quantity over quality.
3. A campaign of whinging pleas to friend and follow ensues. We see this in every piece of literature the company products (annual reports - really?), at trade shows ("it only takes a minute!"), and even on flashing freeway signs ("great idea, let me do that while I'm driving..."). Logrolling and sock-puppetry are rampant - many of the "followers" are marketing people at other companies playing the same game.
4. The metrics are hit, the bonus is paid. PROFIT!

1. Any executive who is in a position to affect social media policy must be an active participant themselves. This doesn't mean a LinkedIn account with 8 connections. They should be on at least 3 different services. A deeper understanding of how social media differ from traditional media has to be earned through experience - it is the only way. Put another way - they should intuitively grasp how empty the Dentist's little social media campaign is.
2. If you are going to build metrics organize them around engagement not exposures. The advertising paradigm of quantity over quality is precisely the wrong mindset to bring to this gunfight. Social media is all about a small number of high quality conversations not a bloated mass of easily ignored screaming.
3. Social media should be all about attraction rather than promotion. DO things that contribute to the on-line community and you will be rewarded with a growing network. "Followers" is failure - remember this is about engaging in a two-way dialog. You have to make a real investment to make a real contribution.
4. Everyone involved has to show a little more patience than they are used to in a transactional marketing model. If you are used to big bang marketing events you need to see how 2 new followers a day over the course of a year add up to a hell of a lot more than 100 leads from a trade show. It isn't as dramatic, but the impact is far greater.

What could be nerdier than a huge ed-tech trade show? It has technology, teachers, curriculum, and lot of gee whiz bang products. I'm sure a couple of the hotels had mad D&D sessions going late into the night.

I'll tell you what is nerdier - judging the marketing efforts at said trade show. Welcome to my world.

Most K12 education technology companies launch new products at ISTE. Companies go all out to put their best foot forward which means it is the fairest opportunity we have each year to pass judgement on the quality of their marketing.

The esteemed Panel of Judge (ahem) spent several hours wandering around casting jaded eyes on this year's offerings. It won't surprise close observers of the market that the mad scramble around Interactive White Boards is where the most intense competition and best marketing are happening. Both winners are in this space.

Best In Show

Proving that great marketing doesn't have to cost a lot of money this year's winner is eInstruction's Mobi View. Their t-shirt (two views below) captured the entire core messaging. I didn't even need to see the product to know EXACTLY what it did. Brilliant, elegant, fun, memorable, plus cheap. All the things that make great marketing captured in a stack of $10 t-shirts.

This proves that in the Interactive White Board scrum where behemoths like SMART and Promethean are dominating the messaging that a scrappy and creative team can get noticed without blowing the budget.

Most Questionable Use of Marketing Budget

Proving that spending a lot of money doesn't translate into coherent marketing, Polyvision takes the prize for their booth fountain. It was pretty, but in most classrooms I've seen sensitive electronics and open water don't share the same space. It wasn't clear what the take away from this stunt was - if there was a product related message in the fountain it wasn't obvious to me.

I like Polyvision's technology and I'm sensitive to the need to do something to stand out in a crowded field. But eInstruction is in the same space and managed to that without resorting to this kind of empty showmanship.

About the only positive thing I can think of is that is created a zen like space of reflection and calm amidst all the jangling advertising going on across the floor.

Now if I could just find the World of Warcraft LAN party....

OPOL