May 2012 Digital Culture – death to generic biz speak
One of the topics we are constantly discussing is making advertising more authentic. A real POV, a big ideal, a non-manufactured reason for a brand or a company to talk sincerely to its customers.
The same challenge is there for managers. If the digital culture has developed a universal bullshit detector for advertising, we apply it everywhere. And the top place is management memos. When you create these communications working with comms folks, lawyers and 15 managers with 15 opinions, it is easy to understand why the human tone is lost, but the reality is the lack of damage by being bland and mundane is actually more damaging.
Look at the new CEO of Yahoo’s first global communication below. It is identikit corp speak and shows once again how far yahoo has come from an owner managed, entrepreneurial venture like Virgin or Facebook.
Yahoos:
Thank you for all of the feedback, support, and comments since our all-hands meetings in Sunnyvale on Monday and NYC on Wednesday. I’m fired up and I hope you are too. I believe in the power of what we’re doing. We have an incredibly talented team, unparalleled strengths in key areas and most importantly, I see the purple pride building everywhere. Let’s move forward quickly with conviction and confidence.
We have a lot to do. The most pressing thing I heard from you is the desire to clearly define our vision and strategy. I promise you we will be transparent and plan to articulate this in the coming weeks. Right now, we’re identifying the most critical priorities and initiatives, clarifying the scope and charter of teams, ensuring we’re positioned to build on successes quickly and effectively, and focusing on Q2.