Blockchain might be in the trough-stage of the “hype-cycle,” but there are some convincing arguments that blockchain will change things. These arguments are not, incidentally, dependent on the success of bitcoin or blockchain currencies generally. Rather, they are based on the compelling integration of a distributed ledger, smart-contracts and micro-payments.
I have a hunch, one that I’ll lay out in a minute, that this combination could have an impact on the B2B demand-gen space. Before that, let’s step back and look at the kind of blockchain use cases that are already underway.
There’s nothing particularly mysterious – or blockchain-dependent – about “smart contracts.” They’re already a part of our lives. When you step out of an Uber ride, you’ve executed a smart contract – with the help of the Uber platform and your credit card. When you close the door to leave your Airbnb you’ve executed another. When you buy groceries in an Amazon Go store, you’ve executed yet another.
From a user’s standpoint, what makes these contracts smart is that they focus your experience around the core satisfaction of your goal. Everything that’s not core is automated out of the foreground and into the background of your experience. The experience in other words, is more about what you want, and less about what you have to do to get it[2] . In a not unrelated extension of this point, what makes these contracts smart from a business standpoint is that they kick the stuffing out of incumbent business models and grab market share like a gangsta. Especially when network effects tip in their favour.
Now, clearly, from the examples above, you don’t need a blockchain in order to have smart contracts. So, what conditions make it helpful to combine the concept of blockchain technology (an indelible, distributed record of events) and the concept of a smart contract? The answer cited by blockchain experts is in conditions where there are numerous independent participants in a value chain.
Think, for instance, about the farm-to-table journey of a single bag of pre-washed lettuce.
Let’s run a speculative tally of independent participants in this value chain:
The primary producer who grows it and hauls it to the processing plant.
The processor/packager who buys the lettuce and prepares it for its journey to market.
The long-haul transport that moves it from the packaging facility to food terminal or retailer warehouse.
The food terminal or retailer warehouse.
The transport firm that moves it from warehouse to retail point.
The retailer.
The purchaser.
Potentially, that’s five different databases through which the record of that bag of lettuce needs to travel.
So what?
Well suppose that bag of lettuce is determined to have some E. coli problems. Tracing the problem back to source goes more quickly and certainly when all of these independent members of the value chain collaborate in a single system of record that tracks each skid of lettuce in an indelible, externally-validated way. (If you want to learn more about this sort of farm-to-table traceability, there’s lots written about it, like this essay in Medium.)
Now let’s overlay smart contracts on this case.
Let’s suppose the retailer knows that the progression of E. coli in a bag of lettuce is a function of (a) bacterial levels at origin, (b) the management of the cold-chain over the journey, and (c) the duration of the journey. Still assuming, say that the retailer is very interested in not having any customers getting sick, or worse, from ingesting produce purchased at their store. In that case, it would be in the retailer’s interest to orchestrate a system in which smart-contracts link compliance with source quality assurance testing, cold-chain standards (as measured by IOT sensors) and delivery-timing standards to payment.
Non-compliance with standards could produce non-payment. Performance above standards might produce incremental incentive payments. And once translated into smart contracts, this system of aligned incentives could operate persistently without much cost and effort devoted to enforcement, validation or back-office. This kind of thing is actually happening now and other examples are coming very soon.
Now that we’ve established the lettuce use-case as the basis for an analogy, let’s think about the number of independent participants involved in enterprise-scale B2B demand-gen. We’ll begin with software providers.
At last count, according to Scott Brinker, the marketing organization of the average enterprise employs 91 cloud services, and Sales uses another 43. To develop the analogy, think of the IP address of a prospective customer like a bag of lettuce, traveling through the hands of dozens of separate parties (the cloud-software providers) on its journey to a purchase from the enterprise.
Granted, these hand-offs happen very quickly because they take place in virtual not physical space. But they happen, and they certainly cost a substantial amount of money – paid for today mostly through SaaS subscriptions. (More on that in a moment).
Then there are the creative contributors. Most Enterprise B2B firms have some combination of agencies (plural), in-house contributors, and freelance talent. Are enterprises today able to truly connect remuneration with performance from those contributors? Attribution of marketing effectiveness (ROMI in industry jargon) is not yet an exact science. And that’s probably putting it mildly.
So then, what if an enterprise involved in B2B demand-gen were to approach the providers of both technology and creative services and ask them to restructure their compensation model into smart contracts instead of monthly SasS fees on one hand and, creative and professional services fees on the other?
Imagine a blockchain infrastructure, spanning the host of technologies that span the journey of a prospective buyer’s web-browser, from first contact to signed contract.
Imagine smart contracts arranged around indicators of progressive buyer engagement, executing micropayments for content that works, and software processes that help.
And imagine an incentive framework in which there’s no question that the work that matters is rewarded, and the work that doesn’t is of less and less concern to everyone involved.
Of course there will be many obstacles.
We will need a blockchain platform that is vastly more energy-efficient than the one powering bitcoin.
We will need a blockchain platform that is viable for micropayments at the fraction of a cent level and free of the transaction overhead levels associated with traditional financial clearing services.
We will need at least one determined and courageous enterprise to create the conditions for technology and creative contributors to join this loose-knit smart-contract consortium.
We will need a period of experimentation and learning.
And, perhaps most difficult, we will need the people in charge of those technology and creative firms to deliberately challenge their current business models.[3]
But, with the relentless drive for more accountability around marketing spend, it’s not hard to imagine how attractive it would be for an enterprise to focus [4] remuneration more directly around the core satisfaction of their goal, while everything that’s not core is automated out of the foreground and into the background of their experience.
No more agency hourly rate cards discussions.
No more scope-change discussions.
No more annual SaaS subscriptions.
No more “supplier lock-in” worries.
The enterprise will, instead, automate remuneration for both technology and creative services through smart contracts triggered by purchaser behaviour. It’s a “pay-for-performance” model with almost unlimited granularity, and once established, very low friction.
With seven thousand mar-tech software firms now competing for a share of the same B2B enterprise demand-gen budgets, it’s not hard to imagine that late-comers on the long-tail of this community would seek an invitation to the party by means of a business model shift. For the major SaaS players, smart contract revenue could offer a strategy for reaching a broader market, and for testing new offers.
With agency business models under pressure from all sides, there are clearly incentives for a change that better rewards creative excellence and expertise according to the value of its performance. Smart contract revenue could also buffer the revenue volatility inherent to businesses with a handful of big clients that come and go, since smart-contract revenues could continue to flow from content that continues to perform in the aftermath of a client’s departure.
Blockchain enthusiasts have suffered from the accusation that blockchain is a hammer looking for a nail; a solution looking for a problem. But in B2B demand-gen, we have pent-up stubborn problems at multiple points in the value-chain.
When we look at how the incentives of all these players align around this new model, there are reasons enough to imagine that network effects will eventually kick in, if someone can get this ball rolling. But what will it take for that to happen?
As noted above, we’ll need some new technology – specifically a blockchain platform that is energy-efficient and can handle micro-transactions at scale.
We’ll need a handful of firms in every stage of the value-chain who view their business model as an instrument of their strategy rather than an expression of their identity.
We’ll need a leader who goes first: An enterprise marketing leader who is willing to take the risk of creating a new paradigm for managing B2B demand-gen, in order to achieve persistently guaranteedreturns on marketing investment in both technology and content.
And, we’ll need a community of innovators, all across the demand-gen value chain, who want to collaborate on solving the novel problems that will come up.
So, there you have it – a back of the napkin (abeit a big one) sketch of a B2B Demand Gen Blockchain. Nearly impossible. Or inevitable. Or both. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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The following is an excerpt from an interview on Superbcrew.com
Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Carbon Design?
We address a set of business problems that clients have historically pursued through relationships with management consulting firms or marketing agencies.
What’s different is the way we approach these problems. Rather than starting with the assumption that we have just the right IP, just the right methodology, or just the right team, we start with the assumption that none of that might be the case. That leads to a different business model, and very different client experiences – from beginning to end.
How so?
Clients can bring us in as early as they want – especially, when the nature of the challenge is still up in the air. Since we draw on a broad set of experiences, but don’t have anything we need to sell, we’re a trustworthy helper to facilitate problem formulation and solution ideation.
Then, if execution is needed, we can look into our network of freelancers, boutique firms, side-giggers, and design a delivery model that works for that particular solution.
So what exactly does Carbon Design do?
We’re definitely a thinking partner. Our approach is to help our clients look at problems from a more varied set of perspectives. And we do frequently provide a spectrum of marketing services from go-to market strategy and brand development to creative asset development. But, because we got rid of the burden of staff cost and the overhead of a traditional agency or consulting firm, we can offer clients agility and good value, and still run a profitable business.
How does your approach differ from any of the “Let us find a specialist for you” platforms?
If you need an uber, it probably doesn’t matter all that much who’s driving. If you need help with innovation, it absolutely does. So we’re not a platform – or at least not in the sense of some sort of algorithm-driven matching of supply and demand.
We execute projects and provide the right people and the right fit for the task. We can do that because I personally know every one of our specialists and know them quite well. I know what they can do, what they’re great at, and what areas they’re not suited for.
Look: Assembling a skilled team for a tight-focus and probably time-critical job isn’t something an algorithm can do well, any more than it’s something that can be solved by a large agency putting people with “free time” (an odd term for someone who’s time is billed—and marked up—by the hour) on a job simply because they’re “available.”
We get to know the client as well as the client’s problem. Then we bring in the people we know will be best-suited to the job.
What are people saying about their experience with Carbon Design?
Here are three verbatims I recall that might be helpful in painting that picture:
“You guys ask the right questions.”
“ I hired you because this problem wasn’t ready for me to give to my agency.”
“Thank you, we learned a lot.”
Generally the feedback usually falls in two camps. The first, is related to our operational flexibility – a kind of “Ocean’s 11” approach to building executional teams. And the other has to do with our mental flexibility – we’re seen as creative thinkers who bring out that same quality in our clients.
A few patterns are emerging: We tend to be championed by people well-placed in the sales and marketing organization, but we find ourselves speaking with CEOs, more often than we expected. .
Our clients know they have an issue. It’s why it hasn’t been solved that starts our journey. In our experience the obvious problems are typically an iceberg with a large amount of complexity under the surface. Our focus is to get inside the heads of organizations and audiences, to understand the WHY, not only of the problem, we’re brought in to solve, but also the WHY of the resistance.
We tend to connect with people who don’t shy away from complicated challenges, and who appreciate the role of experimentation as a method of learning about them.
And – we seem to be on a streak of connecting with people that are trying to do things that are genuinely new.
What are some of the key challenges you are helping clients solve?
In healthcare, we’re working with an organization to develop more effective means of reaching and influencing high-risk patients.
With one of the world’s leading environmental design and engineering firms, we’re helping to invent an entirely new category in housing (and all the infrastructure related to housing).
For the food service industry we’re working to redefine and re-educate the industry and its customer — on the sources of outbreaks in restaurants.
In the software as a service space, we’re helping an exciting machine-learning brand develop their brand positioning and go-to-market strategy.
I will say that in all these cases, it was our work in helping with understanding the root cause of the problem itself that was critical in the outcomes obtained in execution. .
What are your plans for the future?
We want to give talented people a chance to change they way they work.
Obviously we want to continue to grow as a business, but one of requirements we placed upon ourselves when we created Carbon Design, was that we would walk the same walk that we talk.
So our growth plans and our growth curve with luck—will be as natural and sustainable and as liberated as our approach to our talent. Don’t look for us to have vast, shiny office spaces and expensive back-office staffs any time soon. Or ever.
Do look for us to scale up as opportunity (appropriate opportunity) presents itself. We’re already a global operation that does things better.
Industrial Revolution. Digital Revolution. Work Revolution.
I’m not entirely joking.
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It was in high school or college…probably a standardized test. The one you just looked at and immediately knew you were in trouble.
A three sentence word problem with statistics. The tension was palpable and you read it, again and again.
Nothing. No recall whatsoever. Your mind was blank as if you’d overloaded every synapse available.
Well, in fact, you had. It’s called cognitive overload and there is a chance your marketing may be causing this same effect.
Cognitive Load builds upon the widely accepted model of human information processing, first published by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin in 1968. It describes the process as having three main parts:
1) sensory memory
2) working memory
3) long-term memory
Sensory memory (ears and eyes), along with long-term memory, have an unlimited capacity to take in and store information. Unfortunately, working memory (how we interpret, deconstruct, and process words and images) doesn’t.
Educational psychologist John Sweller advanced this thinking with his Cognitive Load Theory. This pivotal research revealed how the mind processes information (dual channel – verbal and visual) and the best methods for communicating complex concepts.
For marketers, the key insight is that the mind has limited cognitive processing capacity, both visually and contextually.
Dual channel – humans possess separate information processing channels for verbal and visual material.
Limited capacity – there is only a limited amount of processing capacity available in the verbal and visual channels
Active processing – learning requires substantial cognitive processing in the verbal and visual channels.
Mayer and Moreno then tested their assumptions against the three main parts of memory mentioned above; sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. Here’s what they discovered:
The mind does several things when overloaded, and none of them are good for marketers.
The first thing the overloaded mind does is to bail, quickly determining whether it’s worth the effort to turn on active processing.
Next, if the mind decides to give it a go, it then looks for the easy route — association. The mind taps into long-term memory and says, “This looks like a lot of work; have I heard or seen this before? If so, then this must be the same thing.”
Lastly, the mind fully engages, but in doing so uses so much processing capacity that there is nothing left over to move the elements of the engagement into long term memory.
The impact for marketers is one or more of the following:
1) your message is ignored,
2) it’s non-differentiate (because sounds or looks like something the audience has already seen or read),
3) the message is received but audiences are not motivated to take action,
4) the message is received, and then it’s completely forgotten,
You just ran the table of wasted effort, thanks to cognitive overload.
Now, let’s apply these lessons to our marketing efforts and identify both danger zones and potential solutions.
Content – Like to use internal speak, long or complex words, tech-jargon and/or acronyms?
Good luck. You’re playing around with what’s called “split-attention effect”, overloading one channel with too much information. It can lead to your message being misinterpreting or missed altogether.
There’s a simple fix: Use a tool like a Gunning Fog index to test your content for readability, break the content up into smaller pieces, balance visual and contextual elements. A picture is really worth 1000 words, at least to the mind.
Video – Using subtitles in your videos? Using text to explain what the taking head is saying? Laying text onto a visual?.
You’re overtaxing the visual channel. Remove the text and add it to the voice-over. Creating 10 minute or longer explainer videos? Cut them into a series of 5 two-minute videos if you want the audience to recall the information.
Digital and direct mail – Like to give the audience lots of options, or crowd a page with offers (like the ad below), and multiple messages? Mistake.
More is not better.
More is overwhelming and you’re headed to cognitive overload-town.
A couple of tools can help fix this issue.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a brain imaging method that assesses the intensity of engagement and whether audiences exhibit positive or negative emotional responses to a stimulus.
If that’s too complicated, here’s an easy one, Eye tracking tests measure the gaze and movement of the eyes. This information can help understand how an audience’s attention is being captured or diverted by particular experiences or stimuli.
How far have we really come since the Cluetrain Manifesto? It’s sad to admit, but arguably true, that much B2B marketing still flirts with mediocrity. Why? Part of what contributes to the mediocrity is the tendency of B2B marketers to race towards “best practices,” seeking, paradoxically, to achieve brand differentiation by imitating the past practices of competitors and predecessors.
In marketing strategy, the perceived safety of doing what others have done is an illusion. “Best practices” are properly reserved for simple situations that can be dealt with according to simple categorical logic. Branding problems can rarely be reduced to such simplicity without overlooking dimensions of the situation. Sometimes those dimensions are critical factors in success or failure.
Once we acknowledge that “strategy by imitation of practices” has a poor prognosis, it’s a short step from there to go looking for a theoretical foundation for action.
Our theoretical foundation takes the form of a “dissenting opinion” towards a handful of (largely unexamined) theories that are implicit in practices and advice widely found in the B2B marketing space. At Carbon, we exploit this contrast as an engine of strategic differentiation for our clients. Here are 5 components of that engine:
1) People have a deep and profound need as social animals to belong to groups, to achieve and maintain status within groups, and to construct and signal identity in the context of these groups.
Few people would disagree, but just the same, this point of view on motivation is still mostly ignored in B2B marketing and sales strategies that emphasize rational business benefits. As deals get bigger, and buying committees get larger, the error of underestimating this factor in motivation becomes more regrettable.
2) Most of the time the human mind is operating in a state characterized by a fast, non-deductive, association-driven path.
This view, deried from behavioral economics, stands directly opposed to the classical economic imagination of people as “rational actors.” Something at stake in this dispute is our understanding of how we best achieve desired meanings in the mind of our customer. Should we focus on telling people what we’d like them to believe, or should we design a coherent fabric of associations and invite people to participate in constructing meaning from it? Most zig, we zag.
3) B2B buying is a group decision, and group decisions are chaotic and non-linear. On good days they resemble the pursuit of design problems. On bad days they resemble a garbage can.
This take on decision theory (and thus buying) stands in contrast to the (usually unexamined) assumption that business decisions are pursued in a logical process that begins with a stable set of identities, goals preferences, and advances in a straight line towards the optimization of outcomes. This assumption is perfectly aligned with the metaphors of “funnel” and “buying journey.” Just not with reality.
4) Experiences are meaning-making opportunities. Stimulus and response are separated by a meaning-making operation.
This stance is opposed to the mechanistic behaviorism that lurks beneath notions like “monetizing eyeballs,” “unique selling propositions” and “the b2b content factory.” Notions like these come and go, but the underlying assumption, for all its flaws, seems hard to kill.
5) Firmographics and role titles are more useful for counting potential customers than they are for building strategies that move those customers to action.
This stance contrasts the segmentation assumptions of most B2B marketing and sales organizations. We see that as limiting in two ways – first, it’s non-differentiating since firmographics and role titles are no mystery to competitors. And second this knowledge is not as helpful as people generally imagine in persuading prospective customers to adopt a belief or a behavior.
We don’t dispute that strategies resting on contrary philosophies have worked in the past. But looking forward, we see value migrating from tangibles to experiences. B2B buying groups will grow larger in the face of more difficult decisions. The pace of change and disruption will pick up. B2B commercial opportunities will increasingly be initiated by customers and mediated through inbound channels as the first point of contact. As a result, this is an environment that favors our “dissenting view.”
We really didn’t know what we were doing to start — still not absolutely sure now. All we had to go on was a folder full of research and some insight from a bunch of conversations. What we did know was that something had shifted, really talented people were leaving the “traditional” workplace.
The data point that stuck in our heads was that by 2027 more people will be working independently (for themselves) than for companies. Not surprisingly, Gallup found that 87% of employees are not engaged at work. I personally witnessed this migration in advertising with some of the best talent walking out the door to set up their own shops.
Millennials approach work, and view success, very differently than my generation. They have wholeheartedly embraced “gigging,” with 1 out of 2 engaged in some side hustle. The concept of “work” has changed but few companies have taken notice.
Armed with these observations and information, we launched Carbon Design, a talent platform aimed at providing individuals with an opportunity to work how they want, when they want, where they want, on projects of their choosing. On Halloween, we celebrated our first anniversary. It’s been an interesting and exciting year.
Although our organization is still evolving we’ve learned 3 important things about how work and workers have changed.
The Secret Economy
There is a tremendous amount of under utilized talent in the 9 am to 2 pm economy. In fact, more than 11 million Americans stay at home with their children. A Reach Advisors study found that found 57 percent of moms would like to go back to work at some point.
The people we’ve worked this year have left executive positions at Fortune 500 companies, partner positions at management consulting firms, and leadership roles at big network agencies to pursue their entrepreneur instincts, take care of a sick parent or nurture their children. They seek to work part-time, 20 hours a week and often put in 40 but it’s THEIR choice, and that makes all the difference.
Life-Work Balance
For years, I witnessed co-workers move to part-time after the birth of a child. Eventually, they would end up in my office feeling like they’re weren’t doing a good job being a parent and/or valuable contributor to the team. If fact, they felt they were failing at both, finding it difficult, if not impossible, to balance the demands of work and life.
After spending a year with people who’ve seemingly figured it out, there is a common thread they put the priority on life, and then work. Getting, or having their life in order by focusing on their most important priorities allows them to then use their time efficiently for things they want to do creating both a sense of control and peace of mind that results in happiness.
As Professor Daniel Sgrio of Warwick University found in his research on Happiness and Productivity, “The driving force seems to be that happier workers use the time they have more effectively, increasing the pace at which they can work without sacrificing quality.” In fact he found thathappy people are more productive workers, 12% more according to the research.
Workspaces and Workstyles
Last week a colleague and I were onsite with a client. They had just moved into a new location and spared no expense to make it a great work environment. Lots of natural light, adjustable workstations, a cafe, top of the line espresso machines, craft beer on tap, and game area, etc. On our way out my colleague, who I worked with in an open office space with similar amenities said; “I don’t think I could it.” To which I responded, “Do what?” and he said “Work in an office anymore.”
My colleague is not alone in his feelings. Recent research has shown that open office spaces have failed, but that’s not the real issue. Given how unique people are (and their work habits), it seems naive to think that one type of office could possibly make everyone happy and productive.
In fact, more than 14,000 people have taken the online test “Is Your Personality Suited To Working Remotely Or In The Office?” The test revealed that only 24% of people who work in an office say they love their jobs, compared to 38% of mobile workers and 45% of telecommuting workers.
Additionally, Stanford economics professor Nicholas Bloom fascinating research (and entertaining TedX Talk) found employees working from home were more productive, more engaged and less likely to quit. He debunks the myth that remote workers are less productive. But as Dr Bloom points out in his research, not everyone was happy working that way.
The point is, working in an office, no matter how nice, will only fit the needs of a portion of the employee base. Our network of talent work from whichever location fits their life that day. It could be a shared workspace, a coffee shop or their child’s school cafeteria. Their office is “on demand” requiring no travel. Now, compare that to the one hour commute (each way) I had last year to get my office. By that math, they’re already 20% more productive than I was as an office worker — and a lot less stressed out!
Pursuing Happiness
What the research and our experience this year has shown is that the tradition idea of work — the M-F workweek, 8 am to 6 pm office hours, in an office are increasingly at odds with creating a productive, engaged and happy workforce.
With the rise of video and cloud based collaboration tools, talent is finding ways to work that better align with their work styles. Instead of bending their schedules around work, they are finding way to flex work around their lives.
For years we have been trying separate our work and our personal life when in reality, they are one thing.The people we’ve work with this year seem to recognize that work, like health, family and happiness, are all intricately tied together.
Getting life right, whether it’s planning your schedule to attend your son’s baseball game on time, or working from home to care for a loved one who’s sick, is different for everyone. Whatever getting life right is, as long as it’s first, everything seems to fall into place.
As educator and author Bob Moawad states; “The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.”
It’s not unusual to find companies referring to their relationship with clients as “partnerships.” It’s common to find client logos on vendor websites. But how often do you see an agency or consulting firm’s logo on client websites? If you visit www.evepark.ca – that’s exactly what you’ll see.
Carbon Design, represented side by side with, a global architecture powerhouse, a world-class designer, and the project principal: the innovative green-tech engineering firm, S2E Technologies Inc. Under S2E’s leadership, these firms are inventing a new consumer category – one that integrates bold new ideas about housing and transportation – and radically resets the carbon footprint of both at the same time.
CASE STUDY
Did you know, that until recently restaurant owners only cared about the cleanliness of the food prep area? Most customers, and owners, assumed that if someone got sick after dining out it was because of food poisoning. That was until Carbon Design and Challenger Inc. helped “challenge” the norm by showing owners that half of the outbreaks in a restaurant were caused by people to people transmissions.
Now owners know where the “hotspots” are, and as a result, restaurant are cleaner than ever. Grab your face mask and enjoy a safe night out, but you may want to avoid the raw oysters 😉.
CASE STUDY
How do you do it? By giving clients and users what they want. Using the remaining budget that was to be used to update the site with the new branding we designed and built an entirely new site on a new platform. But audience needs are constantly evolving so the work never stops. Our team continues to audit performance and make improvements.
As a result, the two-year journey has paid off with the site being named #1 in the industry. Even more importantly, their key priority areas (site search, attorney profiles, etc.) were ranked in the outstanding category. Proving that excellence is a journey not just a destination.
