Guerrilla thinking

Enough.
We are sick and tired of reading about this Facebook IPO.
Sincerely we don’t understand this messianic hype over a stock market operation that’s enriching a talented US enfant prodige.

Yes, Facebook is a huge phenomenon. Yes, it has changed the rules of online marketing.
Yes, we use it, love it or hate it.
But reading all around the web of live streaming for the Facebook IPO and about people that can’t wait to see it, we cannot but being puzzled.

What’s the end benefit for a Facebook user or human being in this operation?
Do you think your overall online experience will be somewhat improved by Facebook IPO?
Why are you happy about it?

We think most of the people that are excited about the IPO think in someways believe that it is a sort of revenge.
They identify their frustration and hopes and dreams in the story of a nerd that conquered the market.
Economy has become a movie itself. The american dream is ultimately represented in this IPO.

Wanting to know, wanting to see, wanting to be there in the precise moment when the company goes public is wanting to be a part of it. Is wanting to have been Mr. Z.
Is wanting to have a successful career, a brilliant idea.

For good and inspiring this might seem, we think that keeping on living someone else’s dream is a huge waste of time we could use in making ours become real.

Facebook IPO is not a revenge for your life frustration.
And Mr. Z. success is not a sign that the world is heading to a marvelous future where the social media will change the world.
Facebook raised money using you as a product.

There’s nothing wrong in this. 
We are not blaming Facebook for giving us a free service in turn for our data to be given to advertisers.
We are just saying that you are not getting any good out of this. You ARE the good Facebook gets the money for.

That’s why, unless Facebook decides to share this money with every user based on its contribution to success, we at GT are not celebrating this moment.
We will look at it, envy Mr. Z. and focus our energy and time in creating our own American Dream.
 

When it comes to social media, you are very likely to be asked about how to recruit social influencers to promote a brand or a product.
Before even considering who to involve you have to understand (and get your clients to understand) what social influence is.
Here are a couple of consideration about it.
It’s an open discussion, but we do believe there are some myth about social influence which is high time to debunk. 

1) SOCIAL INFLUENCE IS NOT QUANTITATIVE

while looking for the best and most influent player to involve as an ambassador for your brand, you might think that the more connections he has, the better.

Many agencies will get you a list of nominees with millions of followers and you may consider that if these people talked about your brand you could reach a lot of other people effortlessly.

In some ways you are certainly right. But please keep in mind that the web is not about HOW MUCH but it’s way more about WHAT and WHO.

Steve Jobs didn’t have a Facebook page with millions of friends but we are quite sure you would consider to hire him as an influencer for your brand, wouldn’t you?

If someone has 100 contacts but those contacts are the most important player in the market you are working on, hiring him/her would certainly be a better idea than hiring a zillion-fans-monkey that’s no authority to speak about your brand.


2) SOCIAL INFLUENCE IS NOT CONQUERED ONCE AND FOR ALL

You can spot the best blogger, the best community manager but always keep in mind that working on your brand social influence capacity, this is job you have to take everyday.
It’s not about getting to the point where you have achieved what you want, it’s about struggling everyday to be credible, intelligent, trustworthy and transparent.

The web is not about achieving goals and then planning.
It’s about planning while you move. 
You have to win today, not tomorrow.

In order to extend your influence on the web you have to improve the quality of what you say or sell not just the way you have to say.

3) SOCIAL INFLUENCE IS PROPORTIONAL TO BRAND HONESTY

It’s a golden rule for any web initiative: you are what you are, not what you say.
The bla bla bla on the web equals 0.
You might have the best agency in the world to create for you the best campaigns or virals, but if your product sucks, your ability to influence the web will be none.
The only way you have to become more influent is to actually be what you say.

Of course you may want to try to extend your reach, you might want to run display campaigns and whatever it takes to get your brand or product known.
But if you are not consistent to what you say, if your products are bad, this lack of honesty will hit you in the face so fast that you will not see it coming.
The more you are able to be consistent with the promise you make the more influent you will be.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

social influence is not about getting to as many people as possible in the shortest time.
it’s about saying relevant things to relevant people that can become relevant for their connections.
In case you didn’t get it from the previous sentence, there’s only one keyword to underline as far as social influence is concerned: relevancy.

The more relevant and consistent you are able to be, the more influential you will become.
Even without hiring someone to whip a bunch of monkeys for them to type on a keyboard and get you a zillion fans. 

In times like these it is vital to be “light” but efficient.
Any advertising agency that wishes not only to survive but to make a difference in the market can’t bear no more on its shoulders the weight of the past grandeur .

Frills and benefits must be cut and agencies must save as much money as they can for the hard times to come.

But is this enough? This is already happening, most of the agencies in the European market have cut a lot in terms of people and resources but they seem to be unable in many ways to face the future.

Their buildings cost too much and their idea of the business is outdated.
That’s because they are trying to fly without understanding that they don’t have what it takes: wings.

But there’s another way. The new agency standard for the future is to have less to give more.  Here’s how at GT we think the adv agency of 2012 should be.
The 2012 adv agency has to be…

#1: OFFICE FREE 

No office, no desks. One/two meeting rooms to book from anywhere are enough to meet whenever required or to meet our clients.
We have whatever it takes to get rid of the office: Skype, ftp areas, shared calendars and email boxes can do the job.
Of course this leap needs very responsible people working together with a clear vision of what has to be done. But isn’t this after all a way to naturally select our employees?
Being office free means to save a lot of money in rental costs and to able to be more competitive in the market.
Plus, when it comes to people working with us this means they can handle their private life and working duties with the best balance.

#2: FOCUSED ON CREATING AND NETWORKING

No more time for mister-do-it-all anymore.
In 2012 forget to be the 360° agency. Clients do not need it and you can’t afford it.
Clients know that there are many things that they can handle via small and cheap providers. Those include, in example, SEM/SEO, PRINTING and WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT.
Stop being the one and only interlocutor for your clients. Stop trying crazily to intercept any dime that pops out of their pockets.

Start being the one who help them do the thoughts. Start being the one who gives the added value. Get your client close to you by letting them see that you are the one that is able to create.
Help them select the best partners for time-consuming and money-sucking activities and float on top with them drinking mojitos. This will keep you out of troubles. You will only have the best part of the job.
That’s what they expect from an agency.
The rest is dumb-monkey business.
Sure monkeys might make money, but since you are office free (and saving money on your office rental) you don’t need to be greedy. You can enjoy the best part of the job and make some money, why not sharing some with those poor primates? Remember that bananas are expensive.

#3: ETHIC

Forget advertising sharks. Forget being mean and do whatever it takes to survive or win a pitch. Advertising in 2012 has to be ethic. In and outside your agency.
Be what you say you are. 

Be honest with the people working with you.
Choose your clients not only for the money they have but also for their values.
This will lead your business in the proper direction for durable success.
You see, making money fast is much easier than building solid and long-lasting relationships.

If you are honest and clear to your clients, warning them of the dangers and showing them all of the opportunities, you will only have one face.
Sometimes some client will be mad at you, other times they will love you. But all of the times they will trust you because you always said the truth.

And this will come back. It’s the Karma law, give respect and you will be respected.
Lie and you will be lied to. 
Nothing like the market of advertising is bound to this simple truth that is yet way too much forgotten by our market players.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

2012 is the year when it all changes.
Giants will fall and natural selection will do the rest.
You have to choose how you want to go on.
You can keep on trying to be the dinosaur, but remember why they don’t exist anymore: they became so big that they needed too many trees.
And there were not just enough on the earth for all of them.
It’s happening again. Evolve or die.
 

Never before have us GT been so convinced that this is the right moment to start up your new agency.

Yes, sometimes we might seem negative and so might do our posts.
But we are happy guys, struggling to do our job in the best way and help you do the same.
To say it all, we are living in a very intense moment, where we think anything could be possible.
We can’t but see this crisis as a rare, unmissable opportunity.
A perfect moment to set up something new in advertising.

No, we are not joking. We are seriously saying that if you ever thought about it, you should do it now. Provided you do it the proper way.
And here’s why this is the moment to do it.

1) CLIENTS NEED IT

zombified advertising agencies, insignificant geeky digital ones…
A few player out there really kick ass. And even those ones are stuck into a specific framework, are unable to redefine themselves as something different depending on the project they are working on. They have roles and skills and to-do-lists and accounts…

The market is demanding more and more someone that’s able to punch marketing managers’ faces and tell them the truth. Is demanding authority and honesty.
The market is crowded with dwarves and needs men.

If you can enter the room and say: here I am, this is the moment for you.

2) CUSTOMERS NEED IT

The distance between customers and brands it’s still way too large.
People and brands (apart for a very few of them) speak 2 different languages and advertising has been so far playing the role of the interpreter.
But you can’t enjoy such a conversation for too long.

Customers need someone not to let them understand what brands are saying, but to teach brands how to talk their language.
For real. Not just as a master class topic that marketing people will forget right after the class.

Cleaning away many of existing interpreters, this crisis is the right moment to get companies and let them understand how to REALLY speak their customers language.

3) THE WORLD NEEDS IT

Yes, we believe in the social value of good communication.
We believe that this means teaching a brand how to communicate and talk people language and letting it understand how the quality of its product is far more important then any lie they could say about them

It’s not just about advertising as much as advertising is not only about selling.
It’s about creating a vision of a product that’s consistent to what it really is and thus it’s about selling better products.
Companies could be proud of what they do and people could be proud of what they buy.

This can lead the entire human identity to a new level of consciousness.


FINAL CONCLUSIONS

IF you have what it takes (that is balls) and are sick and bored of working in advertising the way you do now, it is time to raise you head.
Watch the infinite horizon before you and explore the many possibilities of your future.
Doing this business in a different way is possible.
Going back to the roots of our being human and carrying them on in our creative and advertising job is vital.

If you are thinking we’ve gone nuts, you probably are not one of us.
Most likely you are a dumb monkey. You might be earning a lot of cash but sooner or later you are bound to fail.
But if you know what we are talking about, if you feel there is a leap we can take to get this business to become something more than just business, to have fun and really enjoy what we do, then the moment is now.

Let’s do it. Let’s not miss this opportunity.
Let’s change the rules now.
 

One billion dollars.
That’s the word of the day. And a lot of money.

And so Facebook bought Instagram.
Now, you might tend to think this a good move.
Facebook is becoming adult and it’s dirtying its hands in the business machine.
Buying a successful and growing company would be a good remedy to a possible users acquisition slowdown.

And that’s basically true.
But there’s one but.  Facebook might have just taken the big step to become a corporation, but this is a clear sign of its weakness.  

And here’s why.

1) YOU CAN’T GROW FOREVER

As aforementioned, the business of Facebook, its entire value is in its huge number of users. This number has grown rapidly and constantly ever since the beginning of the company.

But this can’t go on forever.

When you have reached 1 billion, or even 2 billion users, how far can you go? 
There will be a time when anyone who actually wants to be on Facebook will be on Facebook.
And Facebook will stop growing.
Stopping to grow, it will lose its start-up-like potential and will be a company to manage. 
The effort will be then NOT to lose users, not to let them migrate to other upcoming platform (such as instagram or path).

That is basically why Facebook bought instagram. 
But who’s next? What’s gonna happen when another photo sharing platform or social video app reaches 5, 10 or more million users?
Will Facebook buy all of them as they could be a threat to their growth or power?

And what about Orkut, Vkontacte or QZone? 
Pursuing this approach to the market, sooner or later Facebook will have to face a moment when they will have to decide whether they want to buy those localized powerful competitors or not.
But can that be possible? Is this a business model that Facebook can afford?

And even more important, is this gonna work anyways?
Even if Facebook could acquire any growing company in the social media sphere for the next 10 or 100 years, would that approach be successful?
In our opinion absolutely not.
 

2) FACEBOOK’S STRUGGLE TO GROW CONSTANTLY WILL KILL ITS NATURE

So far Facebook won the market challenge because of its uniqueness and ability to provide a social environment where people could gather together in a simple and yet powerful way.
Facebook has been for some time the APPLE of social media, while google wave and G+ where the crapy windows-powered-machine.
Trying to dominate the market acquiring any possible competitor might shift users perception and put the mask of Win95 on Mr. Zuckerberg face.

Trends have to be exclusive. Even when they are for the masses.
And being exclusive means that any contamination with other worlds is or could be seen as a break with its tradition.
 

3) FACEBOOK SHOWED UNABLE TO WIN AGAINST INSTAGRAM

What Facebook should have done instead of acquiring instagram, is to develop a serious and more credible alternative to it.
To extend its photosharing abilities and tools. To create something original and absolutely wow.
For some time we read rumors about a possible Facebook phone.
Introducing a Facebook phone on the market with, let’s say, 3 dimensional cameras and unique sharing features could have been a way.

This is just an example. But we give it to mean that the only way for a business like Facebook to evolve and constantly grow in users and popularity it is not to get competitors in the family, but to win against competitors because of its ability to innovate.

Think about it. That’s just what apple has always done. 
And that’s the main reason of its success. 
Steve jobs never bought a competitor that saw as a threat for its business.
He wanted to be a threat for other companies’ businesses innovating and creating entire new markets.

Facebook has (had?) the power to do the same in the social media sphere.
Will it seize this opportunity or kill itself on the way of fear?
 

Sharks,

If you have been working in the advertising industry for a significant amount of time, you probably know a lot of them.
You might call them in many different ways: sharks, vampires, bloodsuckers or simply bastards.

All of these creatures above mentioned have one thing in common: they pretend to be fine and take care of you or at least mind their own business until you don’t find them stuck on to your throat and sucking the blood out of you or chewing your leg.

To unaware swimmers, sharks might seem a bigger version of dolphins, but they are not. If you know them you also know you have to keep them at large.
Too bad it is not so easy to do this with advertising sharks.

They pretend better, they disguise better, they hide much better behind the mask of the good guy.

But at GT we really care about your safety, that’s why right after warning you about digital zombies, and having given you advices on how to spot them and get rid of them, we want you to enjoy your swimming session in this industry knowing how to identify a shark and keep him at large.

Before proceeding with the instructions, keep in mind that those creatures are very talented in lying and over promising. 

They will do their best to make you believe they are not what they really are.

So to really spot a shark you will have to be very much honest to yourself and understand whether you want to be a prey or save your life.

1) ADVERTISING SHARKS SMILE A LOT

Forget the rude boss/colleague. The one who always treats you bad and is deliberately trying to stab your back. Advertising sharks are silent. But lethal.

They smile, they show their bright, pearly and hypnotizing teeth and possibly tell you that you are very talented. They will make you feel special and helpful. 

They will tell you many and many times that the agency would not be the same without you. They will do all of this as long as they  need you for any reason: because you are talented, cheap or because you are willing to work late, wash their car or drive their kids home from school.

Don’t be fooled by their smiles. The moment will come when when you will see those teeth way to close. And it will be too late.

2) ADVERTISING SHARKS CRY A LOT

Yes. They might be smiling and happy when it’s about (you) working late and during the weekends.  But they tend to get kinda sad when it comes to your salary. 

“It’s a bad moment.” “You are lucky that you still have a job” they will tell you right before hopping on their brand new porsche to go off to their cottage at the sea.
And making you feel lucky and sorry for asking.

3) SHARKS ARE NEVER ALONE

Unlike their marine relatives, sharks are never alone. They tend to surround themselves with other bigger or smaller fishes.

But the shark will be always the one that’s leading the pack. 
Companion fishes will only chew its leftovers.
But they are very dangerous though, and you’d better not underestimate them.

To praise the dominant shark and make sure not to be eaten, those little monsters will do whatever required. 
They will lie, deceive and tell him/her whatever you do or say that they think could be a threat to the shark kingdom.

Identifying  companion fishes is not easy at all.
They survived because they are smart and good at pretending.
So keep your eyes open and your mouth shut until you haven’t found them and isolated them out of your office social sphere.

4) ADVERTISING SHARKS NEVER DIE

Remember the movie “jaws”, don’t you?
Those damned sharks never ever die.

For how hard you can try to make war at them, you will lose, unless you are good enough to place a bomb right into their mouth.
But this is something we strongly encourage you not to do.
Violence is not the solution. The solution is to swim away.

So if you just thought you could confront your advertising shark and getting him/her to understand you, desist.
Sharks are stupid after all. They only have big jaws and restless will.

If you want to stay alive you can only keep them at large.
If you don’t they will eat you. Or worse turn you into a companion fish.
 

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

The sea is vast. If you happen to see a shark keep at large.
There is absolutely NO WAY you can deal with it.

In the beginning you might think it is a great opportunity.
You might believe that you are a shark too and the two of you can swim the seven seas to look for hidden treasures.

Trust your good old GT fellows. You are not.
You are meat. And sharks love meat.
So take your meat elsewhere and you will have the chance not to fail.

Advertisers are a bunch of liars.
Their profession is to lie in a legal and indisputable manner.
To convince the audience that black is white. And possibly the best white you’ve ever seen. Their role is to build up a story, a narration that will lead you to believe what they want you to believe.

And it doesn’t matter whether that’s true or not. 
What matters is that lies are told in a way that’s not legally contestable.
That’s what advertisers do. And they all know that. 

But is this still enough? 

At GT we think not.
If you take a look around you, you will see that’s happening. Things have changed and advertisers, or at least most of them, have been stuck in the past.

Truth is the next big trend in advertising, as much as it is in real life.
Times of self fake narration are over.
And here’s why.

1) CONTENT IS STILL KING. BUT CONTENT IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY, IS WHAT YOU ARE/SELL.

Content is still king. But your content is not your advertising campaign.
Get rid of the illusion that you are what you say in your ads.
Ads can’t change what you are. 
Nor can do it a photoshopped picture on your Facebook timeline.
Ads, Facebook pages and twitter accounts should NEVER tell a different version of reality. They should tell you for what you are. 

Because you and your products are what you are. And that’s the content. That’s the simple truth.
Be honest on this.
And if you happen to find out that you can’t, then your problem is not communication better, but it’s making better products or being a better person.

2) LIES ARE PUBLIC

The power of the web is so immense nowadays that lies don’t make it to the next day.
Lying to just increase you revenues or trying to have a better reputation might sort a contrary effect.
Sooner or later your lies will be unveiled and exposed to the public audience.
Want a better reputation? Be a better company, produce better products.
The good side of this is that if you really trash all of your skeletons out of the closet and start being honest and produce really good products, people will know. And tell.

3) POLITICAL CORRECTNESS = BEING DULL

Take position. Be a fan. Say that a thing is good and another one is bad.
People are tired of political correctness, trust us.
What do you appreciate the most? Someone that says what he thinks or someone that hides behind words not to take position?
Whether you are a brand or an individual, be brave. Say what you have to say.
You get what you give. Remember that. And if you give smoke you will get smoke.
Give identity and you will get identities.

4) YOU CAN’T MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. 

You got friends, acquaintances, clients, family. No matter who you have to deal with.
Forget to make everyone happy. If you try you will get anyone mad at you.
And that’s because anyone will think you are not telling the truth 
Again, be yourself. Express your own identity in a true and deep manner. 
You might not make everyone around you happy around you, but if you do it without insulting anyone and expressing your unique point of view you will certainly gain respect.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

We don’t have to tell you that we live in a global market.
And in this market you don’t need stories anymore.
You don’t need advertising campaigns to create a narration around who you are.
You need identity. You need to express who you are.
You need to say clearly and honestly who you are and what your products are.
Therefore. rather than investing millions in storytelling, you should invest in R&D to have better products or in visual statement of who you are to be shared in Pinterest.
So much for the good tale of the bad product.

2012 is the year when the game change. And you can be in or out.
You are in if you start building a brand identity being clear and honest.
You are out if you keep on fabling.

Which side are you on? 

Here come the Pinterest parties.

Year 2012.
You happen to work in adv business and you constantly see people talking about their roles. Creatives, copy writers… but what do these labels mean?
Do roles in advertising still make sense?
What is a copy writer? What is an art director?
DO you really need a badge on your torso to be creative?

At Guerrilla thinkers we think they don’t make sense at all. And here’s why. 

1) HUMAN BEINGS ARE CREATIVE. CREATIVITY IS NOT SOMETHING YOU LEARN. IT’S AN ENERGY YOU CAN LET OUT OR NOT.

Kids know this. They get a piece of cardboard and some glue and create a world.
And they haven’t gone to exclusive and expensive communication schools. They watch, mashup and create.
They see an elevator in a tin can and an airplane in a fork. 
They simply follow our nature.
Creativity is our nature.
We are like Gods and create our own world. 
Humans are able to give life, to create human beings and each one of us is able to shape its future and present.
Creativity is the energy of human beings. Some of them tend to ease this energy and let it out. Some others just don’t. But this has nothing to do with the job they are doing.

2) CREATIVITY IS NOT A JOB, IS AN ATTITUDE

Some of the most famous creative people in history were not professional creatives.
They were employees, technician, students. They were people leading their normal lives that at a moment felt the need to burst in colors, letting their creativity run out of them.
Hiring someone because he/she is A creative is a huge mistake.
Hiring someone because he is creative is not.
The difference between those 2 sentences, that small “a” is incredible.
In many, too many interviews, we’ve seen people asking candidates about their professional experience without trying to go beyond schemes and roles and see whether the person sitting in front of them was or wasn’t actually creative.
And that’s bad, because roles kill creativity.

3) ROLES KILL CREATIVITY

Need a good pay-off? Let’s go to our copy.
Need a visual? Let’s go to our Art Director.
But how many times has the copy thought of a perfect visual? How many times has the coffee machine guy thought about the perfect copy?
The problem is that everyone in advertising agencies is too much bound to its role.
We haven’t understood clearly that the value of people around us is their mind, their energy and not their role.
A good creative director should let people talent blossom regardless of roles and scheme.
Everyone that is able to let is creative energy out can create an advertising campaign.
And this does not require being a copy writer or an art director. 
Sometimes BEING one of those things prevent us from going off our role and spring excellent ideas out of our minds.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 

We said this many times, we know.
But it is vital to say it again: creating is different than just advertising.
If you simply want to advertise, you might just take your agency for what it is.
Go on with your established roles. Ask your copy to write a pay-off and then ask your art director to setup a visual for that.
You will be happy, the client will (sometimes) be happy.

But keep well in mind that you will never be a creative agency.
You will be just someone is doing his homework. 
But you will never really make a difference. 
You will be someone that is always replaceable, a provider. Not certainly a partner.
Not really a guide for your clients.
If you want to take a step forward, start from redefining how people work in your agency. 
Crash the walls that divide people in groups and roles and give birth to a really new creative factory.

Time will justify your effort and give you a proper reward for that.
Clients will understand your place is a place full of energy and will follow you.
You will stop struggling to demonstrate you are good enough because you will actually be much better.
We are sure of that. And if you are brave enough to try, let us know. We will all apply.

Once more.
You will accuse us poor Guerrilla thinkers of being negative, pessimists dark-future prophets.
Yes, you will say we are only able to criticize but never provide an alternative a clear vision of how things should be.
Honestly we do not care. 

The title you can read above is a true fact. And if just don’t want to hear that, then click away from here. Italian crisis is not about its public debt, tax evasion or GDP, it’s about culture and system.Here are the reasons why Italy’s crisis might end in terms of economy but will not soon be over as far as its ability to innovation is concerned.

1) ITALY DISCOURAGES TALENT

Say you are a genius. Say you have great ideas and you want to open a company to share it with the market. If you were born in Italy, it might not just be that easy.
Your will to innovate will smash his head against the wall of bureaucracy.
In Italy it takes ages to open a company. And even more to close it.
And once you do it you pay taxes, a lot of them, even when you don’t earn money.
Need money for your business? Forget the banks or any social support.
So much for garage companies and young business. 

2)  IN ITALY YOU ARE ALWAYS YOUNG

25? 30? 40? 50? 
No matter how old you might get.
Up to your 50s, you might be too young in Italy.
Walking the streets of the BelPaese, reading its newspapers and watching local tv channels you will always hear a common refrain: “boys”.
You are always a boy. Tv news will talk about a 35 years old man referring to him as a boy. 

In Italy you are always too young for a career when you are between your 30s and 40s. And too young to be a partner or a president in your 50s. 
Don’t be surprised though. This makes sense in a country where political leaders are in their 80s (or pretty close to them).
You got time. If you play your card well, you might make it in your 60s.

4) IN ITALY THERE IS NO MERITOCRACY

Most of Italian managers sit on their chairs not because of their ability or the results they met but because they are sons of someone, friends of someone, or simply someone’s bitches. Italy totally ignores merit. Merit is something for which you might deserve a badge or congratulations from your boss.
But be aware that this might also be a problem in your career.
If you are too smart your boss might think you are dangerous.

If you want to sit in the red room and take decisions you must play the good old tamed monkey and try to have some saints guarding your supposed-to-be career.
Ideas and change cost effort and risk. And both are not welcomed in Italy.

That’s mainly why nothing ever changes in Italy, because nobody has the balls to take decisions and risks. If you are not willing to do it and sit on a decision chair just because your sugar daddy told you to, you might want to stay low and don’t show up to much. And taking decisions would definitely expose you too much. 

5) ITALY IS NOT A NATION

Most of Italians just don’t care about what happens in their own country.
Yes they will be touched for a lost kitten on a tv show or moved by big tragedies but rarely will they stand up and demand their rights.
The actual Italian government, run by unelected prime Minister, is a clear demonstration of this.
Italians love to shout and say everything is going bad and that somebody should do something to change the situation. But when it comes to move their ass and do it, a few of them are willing to take the risk and spend their time or money for the love of the nation. They prefer to keep on complaining and sit dully on their brand new sofa watching their brand new flat screen.
There are no communities, only individuals with relatives.
What happens outside their families is not their business.
Italy is not a nation. Not anymore. Is a collection of individuals bound by the same system/language but divided as far as anything else is concerned. 

6) ITALIANS ARE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES

If you know USA culture you are probably familiar with the concept of failing.
Winning is a very important value in America at the point that one of the most famous disparaging definition for anyone is “loser”.
But as much as winning is important, losing is never an eternal damnation.
When you fail and you lose, you can (almost) always deserve a second and then a next try. The same can’t be said for Italy.
The freedom of making mistakes in Italy is mined by culture, bank system, government and people. And in a place where you can’t fail, you can’t certainly win. If you can’t fail you try to survive.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Italy used to be a powerful country, rich of talented people and strong heroes.
But it has lost its soul. It sold it to foreign merchants of dreams.
And with it, its power to dream and risk is gone as well.
After the second world war, Italians took their cardboard suitcases and travelled the world to literally build USA.
Many of them made success and ultimately got their sons or grandsons to play a big role in the heart of American government and soul.
But nowadays Italians are spoiled and dull. 
To most of them the dream of their life is becoming a tv star or a soccer player.
And those who are different, who feel they could do more have to face the fact that the country is not ready.

And to those talented, brilliant minds. To the young Galileos, Fermis and Caravaggios, the only chance that is left is to leave and look for a place that’s ready to exploit their passion and strive for life and a better future.
 

Do bloggers really exist? What’s a blogger anyways?
A blogger is someone writing a blog, as much as a user is someone using a thing.
But can writing a blog be a job?

Sure blogging can help you to FIND a job or gain visibility to apply for one, but can it be the only source of economic independence for anyone?
Do bloggers really exist or is it just another fake web profession? 

We think blogging can’t be a job and that in some ways *bloggers* do not even exist. And the following reasons in pure GT style will tell you why.

 1# - IF YOU BLOG FOR MONEY YOU ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY 

We just don’t have to tell you that people online tend not to trust other people when those are paid to write disguising them as bloggers.
Freedom from any brand or business boundary is a preliminary condition  to gain people trust.
This is always true and even more true when it comes about the web and blogs.
Would you trust a wine blog that’s getting money from a wine producer?
Wouldn’t you just think that his opinions could be influenced and that the articles might just not be honest enough?
Apart from in-blog advertising (more on that in another post) being a professional blogger means getting money from someone to write.
And if you do you will do what you can not to hurt your client sensitivity. This will eventually mine your honesty and clearness of judgement.
Independency is a fundamental rule for blogging as much as it is for any kind of honest information.

2# - THE WORLD IS FULL OF BLOGS, COMPETITION IS TOO MUCH

Even not considering what mentioned above, creating a job as a blogger means to face an ever growing competitive market.
Millions and millions of people passionate about the subject you are supposed to blog about. And doing it for free.
Why would a brand need to pay you to brand your “exclusive” content when the same content, opinion and understanding of the market can be found by people on at least other 10000 blogs?
This is a very good question. And in our opinion the answer is: it should not.
Hiring a “blogger” as a professional writer or “viralizer” for your brand makes no sense at all. Unless this “blogger” is not an expert on the given topic (i.e. a journalist, a critic, an actor…). But even in that case your are not hiring the blogger, you’re hiring the professional. And this means blogging is not a job.

3# - PROFESSION AND SUCCESS COME BEFORE BLOGGING. BLOGGING CAN ONLY ENLIGHT YOUR SKILLS. BLOGGING IS NOT A SKILL ON ITS OWN.

That’s because writing is not a wow skill. At least not after second or third grade is gone. Knowing is the skill.
When you happen to face a so called professional blogger you should not ask him/her if he can write or if he knows how to use a blogging platform.
You should ask yourself and them if they know what the hell they are talking about.
Most of the blogs we happen to read every day are just a collection of other blogs quotes and an eternal stream of links to “cool” stuff on the internet.
This is not blogging. It’s repeating.
Blogging needs original thoughts. Need ideas. And ideas come from knowledge.
Either you are successful and/or original/expert at what you are doing (your job) or you are not.
Blogging will only let other people know you are good or bad at your job. 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Blogging is not a job.
Blogging is a way to express our knowledge.
And using our knowledge to make money is a job.
But when we do it on a public online platform, you stop being trustworthy and start being the brand bitch.  
It might just not be bad, but brand bitches writing online can only give birth to online magazines,corporate blogs or fake unreliable brand blogs disguised as independent ones.

And that’s creepy.
Blogging is not a job.
It’s a shout in the crowd to claim our own existence.
It’s the sharing of our own skills for anyone to take advantage of them.
That’s why at GT we prefer to keep blogging for free and bring you fresh ideas (almost) everyday.
 

They are around us.
Everywhere. Once they were smart and young.
Everybody would watch them and trust in them like you can trust a pioneer or a man with a vision.
Those were the times when the web appeared in the world and those who were able to master the first rudiments of the new art were like kings.

They were holding the keys to a new world and brands and companies were standing in line to be sure to take advantage of their knowledge.

But then something happened. 
The knowledge spread like a virus and younger minds hit the market.
A website was not enough. Banners were not enough.
Hell, knowing about TCP/IP, servers and DBs was not enough!!

All they knew now was only tools.  
What in the beginning seemed to be the revenge of the geeks turned out to be their next slavery.
Chained to their own attitudes and skills they were unable to adapt to the new life and trends.
Their shattered dreams weighted too much on their shoulder and eventually killed their humanity and turned them into zombies.
Their human to human interaction is zero. They move around agencies and clients always sad, always complaining, always tired.

Bureaucracy has become their idol. They stick to the rules pretending to be useful.
They lost the vision and hang tight to their chairs.

Don’t be afraid though, they can’t hurt you.
Unless you don’t get close at least.
They can walk sure, but they can’t certainly run.
So keep your eyes wide open and learn to spot them in your company or meetings.
And remember to keep as far as possible from them. 

Wondering if there are any signs to identify them?
Here are some from your beloved and trustworthy guerrilla thinkers. 

#1 - DZOMBIES HATE APPLE (NOT THE FRUIT)

Digital zombies are envious. They envy good old Steve because he made it.
That’s why you will see them going around with their guru face saying everybody that the iPhone is not a revolution or that a mac will be never performing as a pc.
You will hear them explaining an audience that the most successful mobile OS is Android and that it will eventually kill the iPhone.
Of course they will never mention that the whole smartphone market was born BECAUSE OF the iPhone.
Feeling the need to be perceived as always ahead of the market, trying to go back to their glorious past and being looked at as pioneers they will always say the opposite of what the market is saying and people are making experience of.
And this leads us to the second sign for a digital zombie.

#2 - DZOMBIES DISLIKE DIGITAL TRENDS SAYING THAT THEY ARE OLD (BUT ARE UNABLE TO TELL WHAT’S NEW)

Facebook? Twitter? Pinterest?
Old stuff. Something that might end tomorrow.
Since everybody is on Facebook these days, digital zombies will snub it.
And the same can be said for any other huge digital phenomenon.
In many ways digital zombies are to the web what snob musicians/critics are to the music.
The moment anything hits the tipping point and start to become a mass phenomenon, they turn it down.
Too bad they are not able to predict the next big thing.
And when they do they always get it wrong.
Those are the one who told you that windows phones and nokia together would be a threat for the iPhone market. Can you believe it? Windows? Come on… 

#3 - DZOMBIES ARE WORKAHOLICS

Digital zombies haven’t yet discovered that time for ourselves and family is the real benefit.
They like to stay at their desk late. And they love let anyone know.
They share pics of their desk at 7 a.m. in the morning and 10 p.m. in the evening on Facebook and twitter. Most of the times they comment the picture with things like “I love my job”. That is meant to be ironic. But for them it is not. They REALLY love being in the office late and early.
They hang out with co-workers and most of the times have sex with them.
Their entire social life is in the office.
But just don’t misunderstand us. It’s not that they could not do the same job at home with their laptops.
It’s just that they strive to feel useful. They started to be workaholic during the internet boom when they dreamed of becoming millionaires before they 30s.
Now, in their late 30s or 40s, they don’t have anything left.
No husbands or wives waiting at home. Sometimes they got children they will only see in the weekends.
Going back home is not a point for them. They prefer to stick to people like them.
After all we all saw this in the movies. Zombies are never alone.
When you see one be careful, others will follow right away. 

# 4 - DZOMBIES DON’T WANT SMART PEOPLE AROUND 

If you are passionate and smart and happen to deal with a digital zombie always keep in mind that the zombies will do their best to suck the life out of you.
Being lost in their shattered dream, they will discourage any effort to make a difference.
To them, work is an inconvenience and it is useless to give added value or to go the extra mile.
They want their boss and colleagues to think they do. But they really don’t wanna do it.
Clients do not deserve it, market does not deserve it.
They would never cease their precious secret treasures and wisdom to those pigs.
And that’s why they will tell you not to do it.
In their zombie minds, they still hold the keys to the future.
But those keys can be hand over only to some wise insiders.
If you’re too smart and willing to make big things happening, then you are NOT one of them. And they will feel it.
For them it’s a war. They are at war with ignorance.
But in the end it’s just a war against themselves. 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT DZOMBIES

These are some of the signs that will help you spot a digital zombies.
Of course there are more like their pale face, their brown teeth, their cigarettes always stuck between their lips…
We will come soon with more of them.
In the meantime, if you happen to work for a zombie, there’s only one thing that you can do: find another job.  
Good luck! 

We must admit it. Enchanted by the magic of Facebook and its everlasting growth, we thought that this magic black hole would drain all the web in itself and would make blogs useless.

Those were the times when we were wondering how a blog or a website could add value to a Facebook page. We told ourselves that, being already into Facebook, Facebook pages were much more likely to be shared and read and liked.

We said that after all Facebook pages are public and well indexed on Google.
We said to us and our clients that it was the best way.

But sometimes even Guerrilla thinkers are wrong.
And boy, we were.
Facebook will never kill blogs, websites and web applications.
And here’s why

1)  WEB IS UNIVERSAL. FACEBOOK IS NOT.

Ok. In some countries like Italy, Facebook has got a very deep market penetration.
But that does not make it a universal platform open to anyone.
Yes, Facebook pages are public. Yes anyone can read them. But not anyone can or wants to land on a Facebook URL.
There are places or even countries where Facebook is not allowed or so much popular.
And there are people who are still skeptical about it and might just not be in a good disposition to read your content if its in a Facebook frame.

2) FACEBOOK IS NOT MADE FOR BLOGGING. IT’S MADE FOR SHARING

You might object that Facebook is the king of content publishing.
Actually it is not.
Yes you can publish youtube videos, pictures and text on Facebook but in order to publish a structured idea under the form of article you have to use “notes”.
And notes are not immediately visible in your wall. You have to click on them.
This is just one of the signs that clearly point out that Facebook wasn’t made for blogging. It was made for microblogging as much as twitter. A place for short thoughts. And actually in the beginning status updates were limited to a specific number of characters. 

Facebook it’s place to gather all the cool links from the web all together.
A place to SHARE content but not a place to CREATE content.
You can see this for yourself. How many of the contents posted by your contacts are original and how many are shared from the web?
Most of the original content is PERSONAL content.
On Facebook you CREATE content when it comes about your own personal experience (pictures, videos, and status updates) and you SHARE content when it comes about all of the rest.

3) FACEBOOK IS PUSH, RARELY PULL.

Facebook is PUSH and rarely pull.
People are overwhelmed with content and very rarely go and look for them.
You don’t really go on a Facebook page to check the updates, do you?
They get to your newsfeed, and if they don’t you just don’t realize it.

That’s because each Facebook member has an average of 150 friends.
Not to mention the Facebook pages they liked.
This gets their walls very much crowded. 
It is not rare to click “unsubscribe” on a friend or page feed.
And recent data clearly outline that only a 16% of feeds make it to our circle of contacts.
The rest is lost in the feed.

If you are looking for qualified attention by your readers this is not the place you want to be.

4) FACEBOOK IS NOT CUSTOMIZABLE

Yesterday Facebook introduced pages timeline.
It’s something we knew was meant to be done.
But it’s not enough to make our fans experience “branded”.
Through these late times, Facebook has tried whatever possible to let brands customize their pages. But the Facebook framework is too strict.
While this is good for users, it is also a pain in the back for brands that have to handle pages applications, tabs and now timeline covers to engage their users.

On a blog or a website, this is not a problem.
You can do you own graphics and navigation and add as much interaction as you want.
And this is good for brands. Very good.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Brands know and feel they have to be on Facebook.
They know people spend their time there and they know it would be nonsense to be out.
But Facebook is not a magic wand. When it comes to express your vision of the world and engage users in a deeper way, you should consider other options.
Of course you will communicate them into Facebook, but you’re not supposed to carry them on that platform.
As we said above Facebook is a place for sharing but this does not mean it is also a place for interacting. Don’t take it for granted.

We are not going to tell you that Pinterest is the “next” web thing.
You already know that.
Everybody is talking about it and people and brands are excited there’s a new kid in town they can play with.
Many of them haven’t done it yet. Some other did.
And there are some lessons we learnt from them.

Before jumping into another “social media” platform, brands should consider HOW they are going to make it. And most important WHY they wanna do it.

1) PINTEREST IS ABOUT VISUAL COMMUNICATION. DO NOT POST BORING TEXT DISGUISED AS IMAGE

One of the reasons why Pinterest is successful is that it’s about scanning and zooming on what we think might be interesting. In a page crowded with stimuli we like, share or zoom on a image.
The reason why we tend to do one of the previous actions is that the image speaks for itself. It’s about a feeling, not an explanation.
Pinterest is much more about branding than selling or giving details. For that you have many other social media options.
And this is even true when it comes to infographics. Do not abuse them.
Keep them funny and short.  

2) DON’T USE BOARDS AS A NAVIGATION MENU FOR YOUR PRODUCTS

Pinterest is not just another clone of your website. As much as you should never crowd your Facebook page with a zillion tabs reflecting your website content tree, you must NEVER create tens of boards to show how rich and convenient your products are.
Again, this place is more about branding, about conveying an allure, about creating a brand identity through a series of visual inputs to people.

3) INTERACT WITH USERS

Pinterest is always a social environment. Interacting with your followers repinning their pins or liking them, increases the chance they will do the same with yours.
As in any social media context, it is vital not to give the idea that beyond the interface there’s more than just a dead monkey sitting at a desk. 

4) IF YOU WANT TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS DO IT THE PROPER WAY

If you want to push some of your products to the market and get people to buy them, pin a cool picture of the product and don’t forget to put the price as a badge or a label on to it.
In the pin description use proper keywords and URLs in order to drive your followers to buy. Create seasonal boards for special time-limited offers.
Envolve people through like-to-save money actions.
You repin my pin? You save 5%.
Try, experiment, involve.

5) BE RELEVANT

Give people what they expect from you.
Content is and will always be king. Visual input you propose to your followers should not go too far from your brand essence but clarify it in the simplest way: through an image.

Follow these simple 5 rules and you are on the way to start making something good out of the new web frenzy. 

2012 will be remembered (provided there will actually be a 2013) as the year when everything changed.

We can sense it, can’t you somewhat feel it in the air?
The world is at a turning point.
We have to decide whether we want to live or die and what we want to do with our future.

While the masses and most of the people in so-called civilized countries sleep quite at night, the south of the world is shaking hard and setting up a revolution that will change the course of history.

In some years from now the world might be so different from what we see today.
And we are not talking about politics.

We talk about a vision of the world and people.
We talk about memes and mind-controlling ideas that spread as a virus in any mind of the planet.
We talk about the web.

Don’t just misunderstand us. This is not about a plot theory.
We don’t think there’s a man in black hidden congregation willing to submit mankind to a single power.
No. You could prove us wrong, but we think there’s no such thing.
There is no hidden government or secret organization that’s driving the course of human history in a precise direction.
It’s just us. People.
And people are strange (yeah, now go la la la la).

People, you and us, love and hate other people.
Any action, judgement, decision we take is based on this simple primary instinct: like or dislike.
We like or we don’t like a movie, a pizza, a painting, a vase and a person we meet.

What the rise of the social media clearly outlined though is that we tend to like what people we like like.
If I like you and you like a movie, I will like that movie, even before watching it. 
This tendency has been correctly identified as a viral prerogative of social relationships that exploded in all its potential with the social media tools.

What has not been investigated yet enough is how this prerogative, this viral effect is going to change not only short circles of friends about a brand or a product but the entire world as far as the primal ideas of freedom, democracy, life and death are concerned.

For ages local cultures have survived with or without the consent of people.
Religions, histories, masters and traditions were so strong and invasive that any discussion could take place only in their framework.
With the birth of the web and the social media, the consent of any single individual has started to sum up with that of millions around the world, building a virtual world map of what is right and what is wrong. 

It’s not about knowledge. It’s about judgement.
On the contrary, we would even say that knowing is not so important.
People are not less ignorant thanks to the world wide web.
In some cases they are even more ignorant than before.

It’s just that while before we used to rely on local traditions and culture to create their set of values, nowadays we don’t do this anymore.
We pick our ideas and judgments directly at the source of collective consciousness. And as much as we did not discuss the values of our local culture before, we don’t discuss those of the collective thought of the web.
We take it for granted. A datum that must be true. Because it’s there. And everybody shares it and likes it.

Yet, the radical change in the perception of the world and our scale of values is not the only impact that social media and the web have had on our mind.
What has radically changed is the perception of ourselves.

If it’s true that now more than ever our idea of good and evil is now a result of collective thoughts and judgements, it is even truer that our idea of ourselves comes from a collective view of who we are.
The more people are connected and dependent on other people to judge and understand reality, the more they feel their own existence coincide with that of their social sphere.

Social media are starting to define the meaning of life. In some ways the whole meaning of our existence is becoming more and more that of being part of the swarm.

Just like in a swarm, any of us builds up a piece of common consciousness, knowledge and understanding of reality.
If you don’t contribute, don’t post, like, upload and bring yourself into the “matrix”, you do not exist. And you feel useless.
Sharing is existing. And any existence that’s no shared does and more and more will not exist at all. 

It’s what we call the swarm theory.
In social media, any individual performs some actions that are meant to prove its existence and show it to the others.
By doing so that individual brings value to the entire swarm and follows or lead the whole swarm to a specific direction. There are no bosses in the swarm, but only tendencies, trends. And this might be good.

What could just not be that much good is that like any other collective movement, the social media swarm is not about individuals, it’s about collectivity.
And this means that the loss of one is not significant for the swarm. 
This could, and in many ways is already, bring us to a world were persons are insignificant and life and death lose their real meaning.

You may say that we have gone too far but please consider how many so-called friends you have on Facebook, twitter and Pinterest. And then focus on those you remember the most. You are likely to answer that you remember those who post more content than the others. Even if they are not real friends, but just acquaintances.
Their existence for you depends on how much they share.
Should they die and stop sharing, you would never even realize they are dead. 
The swarm would keep on existing and moving indifferent to this loss.

With you in the middle of it. Flying around as a drop in the sea. 
In 2012 and more and more in 2013.
Until all that’s left is the swarm. And you are lost inside it.
Happy to share and create a collective mankind without men and women, but only avatars.