Independence From Commerce Day

Does Not Actually Work

Here's a quick fact on what might be the most blown-off day of work in marketing and advertising in 2016: using July 4 iconography in the pursuit of e-commerce is a sub-optimal practice.

And sure, that's very category specific, with people who sell fireworks strongly in the positive camp, and others with summer seasonal gear probably also doing well... but the plain and simple fact is that the flag isn't a universal panacea, and another sign of how Blue and Red State America are, well, two very different places. It's not as if you are advertising an intolerance for multi-culturalism by waving the Red, White and Blue in front of your home or on your car -- that job is much more done by the Confederate Battle Flag, which is such a charged symbol that it's used by white supremacist groups in Europe, who can't get their hands on the Nazi flag any more -- but it's still rarely seen in affluent areas.

And on some level, this is just profoundly sad. There shouldn't be anything divisive about this holiday, given that it combines food, explosions (both amateur and professional), time off work, and booze. That really shouldn't be something that's more or less popular, well, anywhere.

But maybe I'm just looking at the beer bottle half empty. Perhaps the way to look at the lower spends and engagement is that, as Americans, we care more about fellowship and family, and celebrating the holiday properly, than we do about, well, e-commerce. If there was ever a time of the year when getting out of the house and into air conditioning that someone else is paying for was a win, it's also July 4.

That, or maybe the act of blowing stuff up just makes us want to buy fewer things.

Have a safe and happy Fourth, and we'll catch up after the break!

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at top right. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Avoid Rubber Necking

Watch For It!

On my way to work this morning, my GPS alerted me of a delay ahead, but didn't tell me to leave the road for another route. Next, I saw a highway sign that asked me to go to the left lane, due to a vehicle fire. Expecting a major problem, the traffic slowed down for a full mile in advance, despite the road never being blocked, because the vehicle in question had burned some time ago, and wasn't even on the road. Just plainly visible for a gawker delay, nothing more.

As we come to the close of Q2 in the U.S. in the worlds of marketing and advertising, I'm struck, as always, by the sound of virtual crickets. But this year is a little ominous. If only for the road signs.

You'd think that, having been in the space this long, I'd just arrange vacation time to coincide with this time. The leading lights in the industry go to the south of France to spend an unconscionable amount of money on awards and connections. The rest of the U.S. closes up shop before the July 4 holiday weekend. Q4, when everyone makes most of their money, is too far away for serious grinding. There's every reason to take the time off and find a beach, roller coaster, mountain range or whatever works for you. And if I didn't have more pressing matters to take care of, and a child who is close enough to college age to make every dime we spend something that gets considered many times over, I'd be off as well.

But this year, there's a little tension in the lapse, because there just seems to be an inordinate amount of uncertainty in the industry about, well, everything. Will the Brexit vote continue to reverberate through the world's markets, sparking employment shifts and lower spends in the UK? No one really knows the severity of the damage, or if it will eventually reverse itself. Of course, it's impossible to discuss Brexit without bringing up the US presidential race, which has a similar or stronger ability to change outlooks. The vacant spot in the Supreme Court and recent major decisions almost seems minor in comparison to that upheaval, along with the rancor in Congress over gun control measures. Every day is a crisis, beyond even the media's need for crisis.

But the crisis in just don't know goes beyond politics. The Rio Olympics is happening in a country in unprecedented chaos, between the Zika epidemic and the political uncertainty following a presidential impeachment. The Islamic State has lost ground in Iraq, which seems to create more appetite for soft targets abroad. Syria continues to be heart-breaking, Russia seems downright provocative, this all somehow ignores North Korea and their missile tests, and so on, and so on.

Getting back to matters that are more directly connected to our world, ad blocking is exploding in popularity. Smartphones have changed every aspect of digital marketing, from responsive coding in email to new rules in optimization and UI. Viewability and fraud remain active fires, publishers continue to struggle to avoid race to the bottom CPMs, and everyone I know who works in digital wonders just how in hell analog maintains their billables.

Realistically, all of this will get kicked down the road, rather than actively settled, during the holiday period. Possibly to clear the decks for some fresh crisis, even. But in a period of both real and ginned up crisis, just being able to keep your head and grind out your work is, just by itself, an increasingly rare skill.

And if that isn't enough to keep your eyes and ears from all the distractions?

Just remember how many of your colleagues are getting left behind from all of the rubber necking...

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at top right. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Texit

Back and to the Out

Tonight as I took my dog on his nightly jaunt through the neighborhood (he's the kind of beast that likes to activate all of the dogs in their yards without barking back, because he clearly enjoys instigating), I caught a fair number of backyard cookouts and family get-togethers. I live in an area that's nicely diverse, and as I saw a number of kids running around playing various chase games with various accessories, it really didn't matter what language they were speaking, because every part of it reminded me of my own family events. There's really nothing more heart-warming than seeing generations coming together, with the young buring calories at a ferocious rate, while the older folk chuckle at the shenanigans. Language really doesn't matter.

But as we moved our mile down the road, to blocks that are very different in their demographics, I started to wonder if everyone felt the way I did. And from there, to the fallout from the UK referendum to leave the European Union, and it's continuing impact on world markets, and by inevitable extension, marketing and advertsing circles.

To wit... could something similar happen here?

If you think about it, the United States really is more fragile than we might care to admit, and might not make sense from a shared values experience. The people of Seattle have much more in common with the people of Vancouver than they do with, say, Miami. Miami's denizens probably don't care all that much about what happens in Maine, and outside of tourism experiences, none of the above probably thinks all that much about, say, Los Angeles or Hawaii. And none of those folks think very often about the northern plains, and vice versa.

Something more to this, even with all of the uncertainty in this year's contest; all of these places are increasingly likely to always vote in the same direction in general Presidential elections. Similarly, cities tend to always vote differently than rural areas, regardless of the state they are located. So what's to stop Balkanization from going world-wide, even if it's not so likely in a country that, all things considered, really isn't under the same level of stress and uncertainty as the countries in Europe? Especially if the immediate fallout from the UK vote leads to, say, Scotland and London both trying to re-enter the EU on their own?

In the U.S., there's the historical precedent of intense warfare, let alone the interconnected nature and shared language and currency of the States. We also have a shared military, currency, language, electrical grid and so on. Patriotism isn't felt more or less strongly by different groups and regions, even if you might not see the same percentage of flags on cars or turnout at Fourth of July events.

But maybe that changes. Especially if the vote continues to polarize, and the nature of technology, communication and trade continues to add stress and uncertainty to the future earning power of various groups. Maybe the social belief systems and nature of shared values continues to erode, especially as we make uneven progress on social issues, a trend from religious to secular, and we all spend an increasing amount of time on the coarse-inspiring Internet,

I'm sure that, would such a bill come to public voting and debate, it would fail, and the U.S. would remain a single nation. But I'm less sure that if that vote were to keep coming up, that the rate to remain would always stay the same.

Because that's kind of the problem with taking your country "back". It doesn't always sit well with those who were, in their opinion, taking it forward.

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at top right. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.