act3 is a communication strategy and design firm that specializes in telling stories.

This blog is our story laboratory, a way to poke, prod, and take a closer look at the stories we see, the stories we tell, and our own assumptions and knowledge about why stories work (or don't). The goal is to better understand what makes a story connect with people, and how to tell better stories.

Like any blog, it's an evolving concept. We hope you'll follow along.

January 29

On the death of Flash (and the importance of advocates)

There have been rumblings for a while that Flash is dying, a perspective that is starting to get louder and louder with the announcement of the iPad. Nobody’s quite sure what the alternative will be or how long it will take to figure it out, but people seem to be losing faith in Adobe’s ability to keep Flash from an untimely demise.

This chunk of Jeff LaMarche’s rant from a while back gives his take on why:

What will happen with Flash? Hell if I know. My current level of confidence in Adobe is not very high. The management team there has somehow managed to take a customer base who were rabidly loyal and turn them into customers who feel trapped and desperately want an alternative. This has happened in less than a decade. Talk about spending political capital! Somewhere along the line, Adobe stopped being a company that did, first and foremost, what their customers needed, and instead became a company that looked to make the most money they could with the least expenditure. It’s a short-term strategy taught in many business schools (including Harvard) using impressive-sounding phrases like “maximizing shareholder value”. Yet, it’s a strategy that anyone with any common sense (aka not an MBA) knows is completely and utterly moronic. In the long-term, rabidly loyal fans are far better than great salespeople. They’re better than good advertising campaigns, slogans, or even Superbowl ads. They’re better than product placement in a summer blockbuster.

And you can’t buy them for any price.

There is a price to be paid for neglecting your advocates.

:: Posted by Ben Kaplan ::