RonAmok!

I was recently introduced to a television show that has earned three thumbs up on my Tivo. The show is called Cash Cab and can be found on the Discovery Channel.

I love this show, and it took me a little while to understand why. If you haven’t seen it, the program takes place in a New York City cab. Once some unsuspecting person enters the cab and tells the cabbie where they are going, the host, Ben Bailey rattles them with a techno display of lights and sound, informing them that they are on a TV game show. The goal is for the contestant is to arrive at their final destination while answering trivia questions and winning cash along the way. The catch? If you miss three questions, Ben pulls over and you are kicked out of the cab unceremoniously:-)

Last night, as I was getting my daily dose of the Cash Cab, it hit me that this show is a perfect metaphor for New Media.

1. It’s inexpensive to produce (the cash prizes have never exceeded $3000)
2. It is very interactive
3. It involves collaboration…whether it be contestants traveling together, or when they ask for a “shout-out” — my favorite is the “street shout-out” where contestants ask random New Yorkers for help with a question!

We’re all new to this New Media thing. It doesn’t take much money to get into this space. Once in it, we need to collaborate with our customers, our employees, and dare I say it, perhaps even our competitors! And lastly, we need help — not only from the people who we know, but also those that we don’t. By working together and getting a little bit of luck, we’ll all arrive at our final destination, without being thrown to the curb.

Tags: Cash Cab Ben Bailey Discovery Channel New Media RoAmok

P.S. A friend of mine swears that I look like Ben Bailey. I don’t see it. Do you?

Okay, I promised you a series called “The Moment of Truth.” In addition, I’m trying something new, incorporating video as part of my presentation.

Let me know what you think!

Here’s a transcript for the video:

Moment of Truth #1: The Subscriber

Okay, here we have a happy little content consumer. He could be looking for business information, entertainment, or a myriad of other things.

He reads blogs and samples audio and video podcasts until he finds something that he likes. And then he has an idea — to subscribe to this content.

And here we have a moment of truth. What is he thinking when he decides to subscribe to your content? In that moment of truth, when he hits that subscribe button, what is he telling you?

Well, he’s telling you that he likes what he heard, so much so that he’s willing to open up a special content channel for you — something that’s not to be taken lightly. Why? Because he has given you something that is very hard to earn. Trust.

He trusts that you’ll provide him with the same content quality that he’s sampled. He’s also trusts that you’ll release that content in the same frequency trusting that you’ll release content at the same frequency by which he sampled. And lastly, he expects you to respect that trust, such that you do not throw garbage into the channel.

Oh, and if you do, he’ll take this as an abuse of his trust, and unsubscribe.

John Wall and CC Chapman are pros, they’d never abuse this trust, but what about your company? Can it also be a pro? Can you fight off the marketers who want to throw traditional marketing garbage down the trusted channel? If not, I suggest that your company not start a blog or a podcast. The consequences could be serious.

Tags: YouTube Trust Presentation RonAmok John Wall CC Chapman

I’ve never been able to do too much computer-work on a plane. First of all they don’t make coach-class seats for 6′2″ tall 230 pound individuals and second, trying to balance a laptop on one of those tiny fold-out trays mounted to the back of a reclining seat is nothing short of torture. So, I’ve always used my plane rides as opportunities to get caught up on my reading.

I have a stack of books to get through, the first of which is The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki. I gotta say, that this is one of those seminal books that everyone in the New Media echo-chamber talks about, but at the same time, I wondered whether the premise could be sustained for a few hundred pages. Well, I’m about 120 pages in and I’m still hooked.

The John Maynard Keynes quote on page 51 stopped me in my tracks:

Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.

Probably one of the most challenging aspects of being an early adopter is the fact that you can see things that others can’t. To me, it’s easy to see that the world is changing — especially in the way people communicate with one another. Businesses are communicating differently with clients, partners, and third-party vendors. And yet, most managers are going about their jobs blindly, expecting that tomorrow will be no different than today.

Yet, even those who see the writing on the wall seem to be holding back for some reason, and it took Mr. Keynes to help explain why.

Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally

And so they plow forward, sticking their heads in the sand, hoping that this is all just a passing fad.

And to be fair, perhaps it is. If so, then the joke’s on me. If not, I’ll just succeed unconventionally.

Tags:Wisdom of Crowds Surowiecki New Media Early Adopter