Project history
Project Organisers
http://www.ageofconversation.com/
AoC 1
AoC 2
Themes
The Age of Conversation: Why Don't People Get It
Last year our approach was simple — ask all authors to contribute content that would fill a single page on a single topic "The Age of Conversation". This year, with almost 300 authors, we want to take a different approach. We have taken into consideration the many comments and emails that have been sent through, and we have given it a great deal of thought.
Rather than writing on a single topic, we have broken down the book into a series of category areas. While the THEME of the book is still, broadly, "Why Don't People Get It", we want you to focus your chapters more narrowly around ONE of the following topics.
Manifestos — Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don't people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?
Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation — With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets? What is the role of privacy? What about different personas and identities? Why don't consumers understand that their online conversations are tracked and can come back to haunt them?
Moving from Conversation to Action — Talk is cheap, or so they say. What are the practical steps that businesses and brands can take to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business? And if it is so easy, why don't they just do it?
The Accidental Marketer — People "fall into" marketing. They may study and qualify in a different discipline but somehow find themselves in marketing and advertising. What is the attraction? Or…have you known a company or brand who just seemed to naturally fall into marketing success? How do you think that happened?
A New Brand of Creative — With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these "creatives" look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?
My Marketing Tragedy — A topic only for the brave … Do you know a project that failed? Was it yours? What prevented success? What worked? And most importantly, what did you learn? Who didn't "get it" — was it your client, your boss, the board, or (dare we ask) you?
Business Model Evolution — Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn't "get it". How do you measure "it" … and where will things go?
Life in the Conversation Lane — Bringing it all back to the individual — how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting our lives? What is the personal cost and what is the attraction? Is there a balance or are we just kidding ourselves?
Schedule
March 15 Authors announced, topics introduced
March 23 Author list publicized
March 26 Reminder of Bum Rush sent
March 29 Bum Rush
April 1 Topic list closed
April 12 Release sent to all authors/"rules" sent to all
April 14 Topics assigned to anyone who has not selected their topic
April 15 Topic list sent to all authors (so you can see what your topic is)
May 15 All chapters due
May 16 Editing/reviewing entries begins
June 15 Edits/requests for re-works etc. out to authors
June 30 All copy finalized
July 15 First design/layout due
August 1 Layout finalized
August 15 Lulu proofs in hand, final edits made
August 21 (or so) Book is released
Briefing
Business Model Evolution — Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn't "get it". How do you measure "it" … and where will things go?
(Article) WT: "Made from Real Times"
Functions
- Brand == narrative
- Platform == conversation
- narrative ∩ conversation == realtime stories
Methods
- Engage an audience with realtime stories to extrapolate prospect's interests
- Utilise media and creative as invention not campaigns
- Prospect's interests stored as CRM data
- Enrich with engagement programmes / stateless marketing
Transaction Design
- 4 Humble Demands of the Prosumer (Business Case -> User Experience)
- Creation Plane (User Centric Transactional design within a brand's narrative)
- Measure the effectivness of the conversions with the user experience, not the reach.
Business Manoeuvres
- Exchange product for social graph data
- Bespoke manufacturing
- Product as shibboleth, data as currency
- What you sell today, you give away tomorrow
Catchy slogan to end with!
"Today's business is the foundation for tomorrow's inventions"
"Today's products is yesterday's currency"
"Long Tail of manufacturing leaves you with a catalogue of errors"
