An Alternative To The White House.

Well the word is in. The decision is made. The overwhelming response from those of you who are following this adventure is, “Go for it!” So we are preparing to launch, ThinkHardAmerica.wordpress.com. This website will host the thousands of ideas we have lifted from the Obama Administration’s change.gov under the provisions of Creative Commons Attribution Statute 1.0. We will encourage visitors to add to and enhance the ideas they believe they can improve upon. Many of the features of our proposal to the Transition Team seem to have found ther way onto the Citizen’s Briefing Book, online forum at change.gov, so we know we are on the right track. Onward and upward.

Time To Kick It Up A Notch?

I think 30 days is long enough to give the prescribed approach of making a proposal to the White House as per the transition team’s submission process, a chance to work or not work. Right now, I’m calling not working.

We are now at NeoCon 2

Time to get serious about our Proposal to establish a White House Office of Creative Affairs as a means of beta testing NeoAdvertising Practices in a political environment. We are currently at this point. We have gathered and republished more than 600 of America’s Ideas on the items on the Obama/Biden Administration’s Agenda.

We have scoured the transition teams comment board at change.gov with our volunteers, tirelessly cutting and pasting “America’s Ideas” into an accessible format so they can inform and inspire additional innovation..

Two of our formal proposals have been presented over for public comment at the “Seat At The Table.” We have yet to hear a response.

This is no way to get advertising reinvented in our lifetime. So it’s time for a drink and a quick decision. Do we wait for the transition team’s answer? Or do we take, “America’s Think Tank” to the people and do it without official White House sanction? Tell us what you think. We can use all the ideas we can get. While we are waiting for your response, we’ll check with our peeps on whether it’s worth the effort.

The Die is Cast.

Today, Friday, December 19, 2008 we sent off our proposal to the Transition Team. The proposal for the White House Office of Creative Affairs is now officially in play. Time to assume our phones are tapped, our mail is being read, our downloads are being monitored. Oh, that was the guys who are still in office.  Anyway we are now in the clear.  We did it by the book. Time to do it our way. Fasten your seat belt Ladies and Gents, boys and girls. In the words of the immortal Morphius, ” We are soldiers. This is a war. Death can come for us at any time. In any place. There is only way to save our city. (Nation) Neo.” (Advertising).

I scrubbed my own floor today.

Actually it was the final Herculean effort on my part to restore order to our kitchen that had not been dealt with since before Thanksgiving. Oh dishes were washed and pots were scrubbed, but the physical plant was sorely neglected. That’s when I decided to take some Holiday time off from Reinventing Advertising and Reinvent myself. Detail Number 1. I cannot be the kind of guy that has tiny broccoli stalks growing out of the Sicilian Granite in his Hollywood Hills kitchen floor. That is certainly not going to fly with the President -Elect’s advance team when they drop by unannounced to say the Commander and Chief of Everything that Counts will be “Dropping by at 0634 hours to have a “Kitchen Chat” on the way back to Air Force One.” Time to tighten up the ship.

The manual labor associated with bringing my working and living worlds back to spec after months of adjusting and ingesting six downtown Long Beach offices worth of stuff into one Hollywood Hills Loft space 4 feet 6” high. Great for sitting at a beautiful glass desk and looking out at the Hills on one side and the pool on the other. Not for ingesting the half of the innards of a real company, recently split in two. Now was the time to take the situation of reorganization in hand with reinventing. I started at the Sicilian Granite level, intending to scrub, scour, clean and file my way to the top. It has taken me two days to scour the kitchen stem to stern. The experience taught me that there was far more to Reinventing Advertising then just defining practices and outlining processes. Your perspective is different when you are on your hands and knees. You are resigned to the task at hand. Judgment is simple. Is it clean? Is it really clean? Or is it a half assed job? That is what is missing from traditional advertising. A simple need to know if the advertising is doing the job or half-doing the job. One more insight to what puts the Neo in NeoAdvertising.

What Does Any Of This Mean To You?

A few people are following this rolling circus we call NeoAdvertising. I have gotten to talk to a number of you. It seems that what most of you are interested in is the idea of no more advertising as usual. You can gather from all of the twists and turns we have had to endure thus far that nothing “different” or “non-standard” is accomplished over night. There are also tremendous insights into the sheer number of seemingly minor tasks that go into bringing every single component of an idea from concept to reality. But one fact is still firm and should be embraced without question in your mind. An Idea is worthless without the ability to execute it in the real world. That is the lesson to be learned as we begin to architect, engineer and build C21. The reason business model ( idea) execution is so important to the advancement of the practice of NeoAdvertising is simple. NeoAdvertising Practices require “clients” to be practiced on. “Clients” are defined as guys with bucks to spend on NeoAdvertising. NeoAdvertising has to generate the revenue it will require to prove itself. The old something-out-of-nothing Hat Trick. The IAPIA is driving that bus. They have come up with the “Think Hard America : Every Idea Counts.” NeoAdvertising Initiative, which now has a launch date of January 1, 2009. The eight business models that make up the “Think Hard America : Every Idea Counts.” NeoAdvertising Initiative are currently in development. As soon as I know. You will know. And the outcome of knowing is the ability to do. It is the hope of all of us connected with the Reinventing Advertising Movement that those who follow us get something more than the ride. We want you to think hard. We want you to be able to make your ideas come to life. We will be here to cheer you on. As long as we can stay awake.

I Need This.

Not financially. I’m coo. I need this for my soul to be at peace with my carbon footprint during my time on the planet. The hard part is keeping up the will to win. I would rather slip behind the wheel of my black on black Corvette Classic L4 and hit PCH to Zuma. Slow move in to me reinventing advertising as I watch for dolphins. This is all hard and shit. Sometimes I just want to chill. But there are times when I want to do more than that. There are times that I just want to walk off into the Mulholland sunset. Walk off and never look back. That’s when it’s time to soldier on. These past two weeks have been rough. Long on hours. Short on sleep. We dance on. People say they’ll get back to us. Radio silence. Nothing going on with them. We march on. Time To Think Hard America. Ask yourself these four questions:

1.) Where are you?
2.) Where do you want to go?
3.) What will it take to get you there? 
4.) What have I done TODAY to make it happen?

So I’m back on point. My name is Harry Webber and I am Reinventing Advertising.

Do I look out of breath”

OK. We finally got the political side of NeoAdvertising up even with the life-style side of NeoAdvertising. The learning curve was certainly a lot steeper this time around. That could be because the track to the White House is a lot hotter these days. Certainly hotter than anything to do with Madison Avenue. I can’t say the rush wasn’t worth the effort. Just the act of spending two weeks with the American Electorate on change.gov was a force-fed education in the power of promises made and promises broken. Easily tens of thousands of energized and frustrated Americans responded to the invitation of the President-Elect to share with the rest of their countrymen, the effect of the Economic Crisis on change.gov. What they gave us was a snapshot of the frustrations of a Nation that has been betrayed by those they afforded the highest measure of trust. Bummer.

However, in the midst of all of  that angst, amazing insights and inspired ideas were finding themselves buried in a web forum that literally creaks from lack of scalability to handle the load factors of a pissed-off populus. I was drawn in to the desperate, yet heartfelt outpouring. At first it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Each posting more angry and scared then the one before it. After the first few hundred posts, patterns began to surface. “Fuck bailing out the car companies. Bail us out.” was a very, very popular sentiment. Some even sent elaborate calculations of how the proposed bailout money would break down zip code by zip code and address by address. Others were satisfied  to just let Uncle Sam figure it out and send off that checksky.

Then there was David Swingle. He came up with the idea that banks that were being bailed out should use a portion of the bailout money to make loans to people who wanted to put solar energy collectors on their roof. The energy should be collected in a power-grid and sold to the local utility company. The profits should then be spent on more solar energy cells that the bailed out banks would install on the house they took under foreclosure. I knew that great idea was destined for an obscure and ignoble death, buried in page after page of woe is me’s. And there were more ideas the deeper I went. IAPIA had already been working on a proposal to the Transition Team for the establishment of a White House Office of Creative Affairs. We were positioning it as a “Think Tank for America.”

The existence of this ever-growing data base of innovative input from John and Jane Public would more than justify such a high profile government address. And it would provide IAPIA the perfect test-bed for a wide range of NeoAdvertising practices.

You can see where we are at this point by visiting http://whitehouseofficeofcreativeaffairs.wordpress.com.

More details to come.

“Time Will Take You Out”.

In the words of that famous negro philosopher James Brown, “Money won’t change you, but time will take you out.”  Time. The great liquifier. The element that can wear away the strongest desire. I’m trying my best to get it under control. We’ve been very productive under this transparency of process business model. I tell the world I’m gonna do something. And then I have to deliver. Shit is getting done, Jack.

But not enough shit and not in enough time. Now we are in the outreach phase and I’m reaching out to every corner of the Political Blogosphere to chat up our proposed White House Office of Creative Affairs. That is where time is kicking my ass. It takes forever to research and write something that won’t get me flamed. But i have to press on. The other issue is the development of the actual proposal. That’s the horror story for this week. Stay tuned.

Thank You Mr. President.

Pardon my 10 day absence. It’s the night (morning, it’s 3:55am)after Thanksgiving. Can’t sleep. Lots to report.

I decided to take a leaf out of the Bill Gates School of Business Playbook. “Let the Government Be Your Partner.” That’s the way Microsoft road-tested the Windows platform. Hundreds of thousands of copies of Windows were distributed to various Federal offices and outposts worldwide. The feedback proved invaluable. I wanted to take advantage of the Obama Administration’s obsession with building their ability to hit the ground running. They have to be the best briefed Transition team in history. The website of the T-Team is housed under the umbrella of The Office of the President-Elect. It’s at change.gov. I was able to easily access their proposed agenda for change. “Whoa!” I sez out loud. What a laundry list. If you’re out there reading this, go on. Click the link. You need to see this shit for yourself, Doc.

Anyway, the Obama Administration list is formitable. Take your pick: Revitalizing the Economy, Ending the War in Iraq, Providing Health Care for All, Protecting America, Renewing American Global Leadership, Civil Rights, Defense, Disabilities, Economy, Education, Energy and Environment, Ethics, Family, Fiscal, Foreign Policy, Health Care, Homeland Security, Immigration, Iraq, Poverty, Rural, Seniors and Social Security, Service, Taxes, Technology, Urban Policy, Veterans, Women’s Rights.

I figure every one of these issues is going to have to be sold to the electorate first and then the Nation at large. They might as well be sold with NeoAdvertising. So here’s my strategy. Become the client. That’s it. Short, simple. In your face. How do I intend to do that?

Right after my last post, I began to follow-up on Team Obama. I got people who got people who were close to Michelle Obama at school. Cool, in its place. But I figured whatever it was going to take to execute my strategy, it had to be by the book. I have a profound respect for the Brothers Emmanuel. Not to mention the integrity of the President-elect.

On November 19, 2008 I formally proposed the establishment of the White House Office of Creative Affairs(OCA): A Think Tank for America. I proposed it to the “vision” section of the change.gov website.

At the end of my proposal I wrote a footnote to the over-work, coffee-frazzled Obama Worker in Chicago reading this thing, to wit:

“Like all ideas, it is only as real as the energy dedicated to make it so. You, as the person reading this message can either say,”Hey, this guy may be on to something,” and pass it up the line. Or you might hit delete and go to the next one in your stack of thousands. That decision, I leave to you.

But if I believe that this idea has merit, then I am not going to leave its fate up to an overworked government representative to decide. I am going to try every avenue at my disposal to bring it to the attention of the powers that can make it real. Since the Obama Administration has made a policy of transparency by making the statement:

“President-elect Obama has pledged to change the way Washington works, and that begins with shifting influence away from special interests and restoring it to the everyday Americans who are passionate about fixing the problems facing our country.

Opening up the Transition means listening to your ideas and stories and providing a window into how the process works. “

I will therefore test the depth of my passion by starting such an office on my own, just to see if it is worthy of the attention of the Administration. If you have an interest in learning more you can visit this ad hoc White House Office of Creative Affairs by going to http://WhiteHouseOfficeOfCreativeAffairs.wordpress.com.”

The Web Banner we sent to show we are serious.

Yup. That’s right. I built an interactive online pilot office that can enlist ideas from creative people around the world. We will forward everything that comes in to John Podesta, the co-chair of the Transition team and my soon-to-be-new best friend. I’m not playing around out here.

I covered the launch of WhiteHouseOfficeOfCreativeAffairs.wordpress.com. in http://MadisonAveNew.com Checking the webstats brought up a sharp increase in traffic out of Performance Systems in D.C and a visitor from the D.C. office of Accenture. Traffic from Europe showed a significant rise as well. We’ll check back in a week after the webcrawlers have there way with us.

Certainly another benefit of the WhiteHouseOfficeOfCreativeAffairs.wordpress.com. (other than helping us in the search engines every time we link to them) is to act as a second testing beacon working with Branswers.com to provide a working NeoAdvertising business model. O.K. It’s 5am. I can get some sleep now. In the spirit of Thanksgiving. Thank you. And thank you President Elect Obama for making us believe we can actually pull this thing off.

BTW: I totally fell off my calender for the past two weeks on stuff like getting Fantazzzia back on line and NeoAdnets.com developed. Bad Builder! Bad Builder! I did get quite a bit done on the mothership HarryWebber.com. It should be relaunched this coming week if can I work at getting back on-time starting Monday. I will. Promise.

Being Too Small To Fail.

What a week. Using this blog as a productivity tool has proven to be a worthwhile strategy. It has certainly held my feet to the fire to follow through on the weekly tasks I set for myself. And as a silent collaborator ( at this point there appears to be no audience to comment) it is certainly a motivating influence to document and record the infinite number of steps it will take for me to realize my ultimate goal of reinventing advertising.

I had hoped to get Fantazzzmia.com back up and running this week but alas, there is more work to do in the redesign and I still need to find an economic way of hosting the eCommerce component required to accurately track both click-throughs and conversions (to sales) that will be critical to establishing a viable proof on concept.

Along with the the multitude of physical elements needed to bring NeoAdvertising to life, there are also any number of “soft” hurdles to be scaled. Key among those is just the emotional effort required to sustain the energy required to do what must be done day in and day out. For that, I try to inspire myself with the search for experiences and insights offered by others who have traveled this path and subsiquently met with success. One such individual is Howard Lindzon who sold his webshow WallStrip to CBS. His advice was as follows:

“Today’s geeks need to focus on product building. CEO’s need to concentrate on their fucking customers, not how many links their personal blogs get. In my speech today at Start-Up Empire I focused on three things entrepreneurs must focus on right now:

1. Noise Reduction – Focus on a few voices that have been honest and correct

2. Social Leverage – Learn it, embrace it and freaking use it. Avoid Financial leverage as your crutch.

3. Get the product ready and out the door. Get customers. Save your ‘freemium’ ideas for better days.

Until we are all willing to take the pain and start to save and invest again, Being ‘Too Small to Fail’ is all you have got.”

For me it was the right words at the right time to dig me out of the end-of-week doldrums that greet most entrepreneurs in lieu of a paycheck. I sent him a thank you note and he responded right away with, ” Great. Keep cranking.” And so I will.