Some of you may have noticed a few recent changes at PSFK. Simply we relaunched our IF! marketing subscriber-only site as Marktd the free-for-all site. I did this for a number of reasons:
- Mainly because IF! stopped being good. Yes, we had several hundred paying subscribers but in the end it was several hundred. When anything you wrote on PSFK.com could be read by to 10,000 readers on a given day - it was hard to dedicate a lot of time on a site that might be read by hundreds (despite Henry Lambert’s great support).
- It was hard/embarrassing to interview people or write exclusive content for a site that wasn’t read by many people. It was even more difficult to find new writers for IF!
- As folks were paying, we felt that everything we wrote on IF! had to be serious and helpful. We missed the quips, the anger, the projects, the digs, the random crap.
- Too much content on PSFK was/is about advertising and marketing. I know some people have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the two but it should go like this: PSFK covers trends and ideas that are culturally relevant. Advertising / marketing is very rarely culturally relevant.
- This actually is the second version of Marktd. Our trial with Marktd 1.0 ended with a deluge of spam and somehow Google didn’t care. The Digg like site attracted a lot of folks in Indonesia and India intent on hitting with it with links to crap. Oddly, it’s Google Ranking improved with the absence of marketing content.
- The Digg like community aspect of Marktd 1.0 didn’t appeal to marketers. See what I wrote about this earlier here.
- We still think there is a lot to be improved with creative thinking. We launched IF! to suggest ideas and stimulate advertising and marketing thinkers. Marktd will continue to do so.
- I think there is a lot to be improved with advertising and marketing trade press. We launched IF! to suggest ideas and stimulate advertising and marketing thinkers. The trade press continues to fail to.
- I think Marktd is going to be a little more memorable than http://if.psfk.com. It also can live by itself one day if needs be.
- I want Marktd to become a leading voice in creative ideas in the same way PSFK.com has become a leading voice in trends and inspiration.
So, I need some help. We need content for Martkd. Great content not “here’s the latest campaign” type content. Check the contact details over on Marktd for information.
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“Advertising / marketing is very rarely culturally relevant.”
Really? I’d like an expansion on this please Piers.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
OK. So advertising might be designed to be culturally relevant but the number of ads that actually enter the consumers consciousness relative to the number that get created is tiny. Therefore I stand by my statement.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Hello Piers or should I say, “Whassssup?!”
I was thinking as an overall force, it has huge cultural impact.
Young women and their unhealthy attitude to diet and body image springs to mind.
Unilever/J&J/L’Oreal obviously think their ads have a powerful effect on people (and therefore culture) or they wouldn’t spend so much money in this area.
mmmm. I think this calls for a meeting over beers, like men.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Hey Piers. Bravo for paying attention and having the guts to kill something in order to move on to something new. I’ve been an IF subscriber for a few years now and continue to look forward to your new ideas. Thanks to you and your team for continuing to inform, challenge, and inspire.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Floyd. I think you’re confusing relevancy with impact.
Our job is to inspire our readers to make things better not to report the news.
We have very little interest in reporting the work of the majority of ad and guerrilla agencies because the vast, vast majority of the stuff your industry creates is not relevant to making things better.
Simply, it’s unnecessary.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m not confusing anything sir.
I think keeping the wheels of Capitalism turning is very relevant to the news…
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Dude, kudos on killing IF! I agree - courage is evident.
However I reckon you should kill Marktd and just put all the cool stuff in one place…
Let me explain - I think the psfk brand represents cool avant-garde fresh ideas, more than the “is it marketing or is it advertising?” question.
Therefore Marktd runs the risk of being an inconvenient extra click away - a spare bookmark in my already overflowing folder.
IMHO
July 28th, 2008 at 10:20 am