A quick look at how failing fast and cheap in the social media and digital space makes brands smarter, faster. Presentation given by Arik Hanson and Tony Saucier at Unsummit3 in Minneapolis on 10.10.09.

1. Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.
Errors Make Us Better.
Arik Hanson // @arikhanson
ACH Communications
Tony Saucier // @tsauce // OLSON

2. What Do We Mean By
Fail Fast, Fail Cheap?
 There are goals in doing the digital - business,
personal or community.
 Since there are no experts, we all learn by
doing, so improvement becomes the metric.
 But big budgets, elaborate plans and
committees will slow that down.
 So we improve most effectively when we
think, execute quickly and fail. Then adjust.

3. All Rainbow. All the time.

4. Making it great. Or mediocre.

5. A 57-minute investment.

6. Party like
you’re Canadian.

7. It Makes You a Real Mom.

8. Case Study #1:
Asus Blogger Firestorm

9. First: A competition.

10. Who won?

11. Who should have won.

12. Explanation?
Apology?
• "Certain aspects of the
voting meant that we felt it
was no longer not a level
playing field for all of the
bloggers. Some might argue
that people were simply
using the power of the
internet. We felt that the
fairest way would be to ask
each blogger to vote for
their favourite."

13. Ladies and gentleman, your
ASUS brand champions!
 “What a crock of sh&t”
 “Disgusting favoritism”
 “Feeling of being cheated”
 “I feel like a fool for trusting you.”
 “Purely because of your incompetence.”
 “Thanks for testing and ruining my faith
in ASUS”

14. Did ASUS learn
from their fail?
• Who really owns your brand?
• Can you learn from your
customers/champions?
• Do you trust your community?
• Do the facts outweigh perception?
• Does it matter?
• How could they have failed this faster?

15. Case Study #2:
The First Nation of Slurp

16. The Corner Store Elixir.

17. Immortalized by Pop Culture.

18. And now…Brain freeze.

19. • In an ideal world, what is success?
• So what’s missing?
• Where is the Slurpee community?
• What’s the net effect for this brand?
• Can this ship be righted?
• How could they have failed this cheaper?

20. A Couple Who Got It Right.

21. Kreg Jig.

22. HairHustler.

23. If you take away something:
 Great ideas will work even if you can only
afford what’s in the couch cushions.
 Failing fast & cheap is not charting a path
to success, it’s continuous course
corrections.
 You’re chasing the journey, not the
destination.