From Dell to EdX, Columbia Sportswear to Red Bull -- advertising is increasingly less about claiming value, and more about delivering it through memorable experiences. That's the secret behind Zeno's Paradox of Marketing.
Zeno’s Marketing Paradox: Native Advertising as a Ramp To Customer Experience
Is a World Without Ads Possible? We’re already halfway there.
“What if there were no ads?” That was the question content marketers Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi asked in an episode of their podcast, This Old Marketing. It sounds like the start of John Lennon’s Imagine, but for marketers. What if there were just no ads?
Why No One is an Agency Anymore, and Why No One Cares
I've been seeing quite a few agencies claiming to be "anti-agencies". There are lots of reasons why the agency business model should evolve, but new ways of creating value rarely start with positioning.
Customer Experience Makes Five Guys the Top Ranked Burger in the US
The burger business is a big deal in the United States. A small chain, Five Guys Burgers and Fries has jumped to the head of burger pack - and the did it without advertising, one meal at a time.
Best job ever? Usability Testing Bartender
I've seen the future of usability; it has a buzz on. Watch this funny video and grasp the genius of testing users under the influence. See why I want to be your bartender of usability testing.
Companies with Top Customer Experiences Out-Score Super Bowl Advertisers
A quick look at revenue growth over three years shows that companies loved by their clients grew more than twice as fast as Super Bowl advertisers.
What I Found at Caine’s Arcade, a Few Minutes of Fun
This Spring, Caine Monroy became famous in some parts because of his cardboard arcade. Patricia Yuse visited the arcade, and shares some thoughts about what causes viral movements to grow.
Amanda Palmer Won’t Settle for Less. Monitizing engagement is just the start.
Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter triumph is awesome-ball cool, but it's just the start. The real magic is what you can do with a business model based on fan love.
In praise of conservatives, specifically Carolyn Roth, my Mom
August 29th 2020
Personal post: I’m depositing my first daughter to college this week, as my Mom did me. After watching four nights of the Republican convention, I can’t help but think how out of place my Mom, a life-long Republican would be with Trumpublicans, and how proud I am of her and my daughter’s political impulses.
Investors and innovators: AmWell and Google rise to challenge dominant Teladoc
August 26th 2020
Teladoc’s year over year revenue has tripled, which is big news in an economy that has lost 15% of GDP. The growth of telehealth is a narcotically appealing to investors and competitors, which soon will include an IPO-fueled AmWell with Google as a key stakeholder.
Hospital content teams innovate as COVID-19 continues to change everything
July 30th 2020
As COVID-19 enters its sixth month, health systems are building out richer sets of content. PK’s Director of Content Strategy and I share innovations we’re seeing at four leading hospital systems, in another of our monthly video fly-overs.
Healthcare Marketing and the power brand stories
July 10th 2020
I am on Jeopardy, baby! Okay, its fake Jeopardy, and it’s really a casual fun discussion on why story marketing is so powerful in healthcare marketing. Come watch a video of Derek Phillips discussing story marketing with me late on a recent Friday afternoon.
Of hoaxes and heroes: the President wants to focus on anything but COVID19
July 4th 2020
Last week, the US broke records for new coronavirus cases day after day. If this were a normal administration, it would be flooding news programs with medical experts to tell Americans to wear masks and to take precautions to fight the virus’s spread. But the Trump White House is doing the opposite. The President hosted an […]
Until the racism is over, a framework for empathy
June 21st 2020
We have closed the US economy to compensate for a health system unprepared for a pandemic. Now it’s time to address the inequities that have made the burden of COVID-19 fall disproportionately on minority and lower-income communities.
Mentoring at MIT’s COVID-19 Challenge: 1,500 awesome new colleagues for a weekend
June 13th 2020
I recently joined 1,500 designers, developers, entrepreneurs, patients, and health professionals who came together from 40 countries to hack ways to help people through the Recovery and Reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic. I was one of the mentors who worked with 200+ teams in a mad rush to prototype innovative new responses to COVID-19.
Doing the Healthcare Rap: talking marketing innovation with Jared Johnson
June 5th 2020
Jared Johnson is a prolific interviewer and keen watcher of innovation in healthcare marketing. We had a twenty-minute talk which has dropped as the latest episode of the Healthcare Rap.
This hellish week is the fruit of an administration of rage
June 2nd 2020
Trump isn’t the one who killed George Floyd by pressing a knee to his neck. Police brutality against African Americans — and racism generally — has plagued us for centuries. But Trump uniquely fueled fury, with bigotry, dismantling police reforms, and encouraging aggression in violent speech.
We are entering the age of trauma-informed marketing: meet the SIMI empathy framework
May 30th 2020
In my work and teaching, I’ve introduced the abbreviation SIMI: stress, illiteracy, mistrust, and inequality as to help us identify the barriers these huge barriers to consumer engagement. SIMI helps us recognize the context which too often is part of consumers’ lives.
About Dave Wieneke, Digital Strategist
The future of digital experiences will be built by strategists who grasp the full array of emerging business, social, and technical models. Specialties in user experience, branding, application design, and data science are laying the foundation for richer user experiences and business models breakthrough products and revenue based marketing.
UsefulArts is a soapbox to discuss the front line of digital experience, and the agencies and platforms that enable it. Digital business needs a cadre of leaders who can connect c-level enterprise thinking with the ways these new interaction models can help organizations to matter more to their most important stakeholders.