Operation Mincemeat

Malcolm Gladwell is truly a gifted, talented, and insightful person. He’s a best-selling author who challenges the way we perceive things and does his best to uncover the truth where we least expect it.

Gladwell wrote the best selling books The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures.

In all honesty, he is inspiration to my own endeavors in regards to what I want to achieve with my company through the development of our product MediaMiser Enterprise and our accompanying services. However, on May 10, 2010, Gladwell’s essay for the New Yorker caught the attention of Wesley Wark, a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

The essay, Pandora’s Briefcase, was on a very intriguing book by Ben Macintrye called Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory. Macintrye’s book tells the true story of how the British fooled the Nazis during the Second World War by planting false information on a corpse wearing the uniform of a royal marine officer.  A briefcase was conveniently handcuffed to the dead body and personal letters and effects were placed in the pockets.

The ruse more than likely saved thousands of lives during operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, and at the same time helped shorten the war.

Essentially, British Intelligence convinced the Nazis that instead of the Allies invading Sicily, they were to invade the less obvious target of Greece. Gladwell uses this story to dismiss the value of both spies, secrets, and intelligence network.

Instead of espousing the virtues of a well-run intelligence agency and the folly of not having one, he chose to use the example of Operation Mincemeat as why intelligence networks are actually a counter productive liability.

The essay motivated Wark to write his own piece, which appeared in the opinion section of the Ottawa Citizen on May 25, 2010.

Wark, like myself, sees value in Gladwell’s unconventional wisdom, even going so far as to complement Gladwell by writing

the world of intelligence and warfare could use a touch of the Gladwellian.

However, Wark disagrees with Gladwell’s assessment of Operation Mincemeat and even rebukes the unconventional wisdom that in the past has served Gladwell, also writing

his unconventional wisdom can be less than wise.

My first instinct was to agree whole-heartedly with Wark – especially since MediaMiser specializes in analysis. But, in the spirit of being open minded, I decided to purchase a copy of “Operation Mincemeat” as well as read Gladwell’s essay.

After consuming both, not only did it confirm my instinct that Wark was right, it also uncovered a point that was clearly missed by both Gladwell’s essay and Wark’s rebuttal.

Operation Mincemeat was not just about the importance that intelligence can play, it also highlighted the importance of having a well orchestrated marketing or communication plan that can be properly analyzed from start to finish.

Essentially, British Intelligence was selling a concept to Nazi Intelligence that they (the Nazis) were in the market for and more than happy to buy.

Gladwell dismisses the whole operation as a bunch of ‘what ifs’ and dwells on how lucky the allies were that Operation Mincemeat didn’t backfire. Also, to further strengthen his own argument, Gladwell even questions whether the operation actually had an effect on the outcome of the invasion, suggesting Nazi high command may have had their own preconceived notions about the invasion being in Greece.

By doing so, Gladwell overlooks the genius of what British Intelligence actually accomplished and not only does he dismiss the obvious value of intelligence agencies, but inadvertently, the value of current day marketing and communication groups as well.

Operation Mincemeat was not just a hairbrain idea that was set in motion by its creators like a toy boat dropped into the currents of a stream and haphazardly reached the intended destination.

The odds of success were stacked in British Intelligences favour, because they were in control every step of the way by having clear objectives, properly researching the opportunity, and constantly analyzing the results and making adjustments along the way.

This is no different from conducting a successful marketing or communications plan:

1) For you to sell a product or to communicate a concept or idea, you must first find a market for your product or an audience willing to listen to you.

This is what the British did: They found a Nazi agent who was looking for something he desperately wanted to believe was true. It wasn’t by luck the false information found it’s way to Major Karl-Erich Kühlenthal, the Nazi agent.

If fact, both Gladwell and Macintyre, refer to Kühlenthal as “a one-man espionage disaster area.”

The British knew this because they did their homework. The planted information wasn’t found by Kühlenthal by accident.

There is even a passage in Operation Mincemeat attributed to Michael Handel, intelligence historian:

It is very unusual and very difficult for deception to create new concepts for an enemy. It is much easier and more effective to reinforce those which already exist.

2) It isn’t enough to find a market. You must be able to package the goods for sale and effectively communicate them to your target audience.

Again, the British did their homework and left nothing to chance. They ensured consistency by going to tremendous lengths to invent a plausible history for the body, placing personal letters in its uniform, forging id cards, and actually having a double agent confirm the legitimacy of the body back to the Nazis.

3) Once you’ve sold your product, you must constantly monitor and analyze to ensure your message was properly communicated.

The British went to great lengths to monitor and analyze how their disinformation was being perceived by the Nazis. They were even able to forensically tell not only whether documents where read, but how they were read.

4) Monitor and analyze in real time and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Again, the success of Operation Mincemeat was not accidental. Some Germans and Italians were wise to the possibility of a ruse. To British Intelligence’s credit, they were able to adjust their strategy with new or modified tactics.

The British used tactics such as creating fake maps, bogus invasion forces, and employing Greek personnel.

Bletchley Park, the British Intelligence’s information centre that was responsible for decrypting and interpreting enemy messages, insured the deception was taking hold by intercepting and analyzing Nazi communications.

To prevent the body from being exhumed from its burial site, they placed a headstone and had mourners constantly visit the site not only as a way to deter Nazi agents from trying to corroborate the facts, but also to monitor the site and make sure nothing was disturbed.

If the gravesite were disturbed, it would be an indication that Nazis Intelligence was skeptical.

5) Evaluate your efforts.

After the invasion, a post mortem (no pun intended), was conducted on the success of the operation. Just like any good marketing or communication plan, it’s imperative that the final results should be measured.

Finally, I find it ironic that Gladwell points out that many of the British Intelligence agents went on to become celebrated authors, such as Ian Fleming.

Gladwell uses this to say that intelligence agents are their best own publicists and have tendency to ‘self-affirm’ their exploits. This is why we believe there is value in intelligence agencies and spies.

However, maybe if Gladwell also read The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, he would see that not all spies ended up being world famous authors.

One military intelligence agent, David Ogilvy (founder of Ogilvy & Mather), later became an advertising, PR, and marketing pioneer. Ogilvy was actually recruited by spymaster William Stephenson for his work with George Gallup, where he helped to pioneer polling data. Ogilvy would later use polling data, while working with British Intelligence, to help change US attitudes towards supporting Britain during the war. After the War, Ogilvy would go on to create one of the best known advertising, marketing, and PR firms.

Gladwell finishes off his essay by writing, “the next time a briefcase washes up onshore, don’t open it.”

What Gladwell should have wrote is, “next time a briefcase washes up onshore, analyze the hell out of it and exploit it for its true value.”

That’s what David Ogilvy would have done and this is one of the reasons why market research, marketing, and good analysis saved the Free World.

Since people started communicating online they’ve been searching for better – or just faster – ways of saying what they need to. The internet is full of acronyms (lol brb roflmao) and emoticons , but it’s also working to shape the way people communicate –giving rise to new words on what often feels like a daily basis.

Though languages are constantly evolving (how many of us still communicate in middle English?) the modern world has seen new technologies push the boundaries of speed –nothing more so than social media.

Not everyone is happy with this, as can be seen by the New York Times asking writers to stop using “tweet”.
The argument here is that Standard English and spoken English are two different entities, and only the former should have a regular place in news articles.

While this garnered a lot of attention, of more interest is how the language of social media is used
Ben Zimmer of Visual Thesaurus examined the phenomenon of un-words

One of the hallmarks of social media is the ability for users to register their interest in something they see. But what if you change your mind? Then you can always undo the action that you’ve made.
LiveJournal, a virtual community of bloggers and diary-keepers, has been a pioneer in this type of usage. LiveJournalers were among the first to make friend into a transitive verb to describe the act of adding someone to an online list of acquaintances. (Other social networks like MySpace and Friendster soon got in on the act too.) To remove someone from friend status requires defriending or unfriending. Either the de- or the un- prefix works as a “reversative,” indicating the undoing of a reversible act (though un- seems to be winning out over de- as the preferred prefix these days).

Zimmer’s post is well worth the read, highlighting what is less an erosion of language than a new way of speaking. Social media users have simply invented a way of saying things English simply wasn’t equipped for.

In his post, Zimmer references a column by lexicographer Erin McKean in The Boston Globe.

In it, McKean examines not just the proliferation of tw– words used for everything twitter, but how twitter effects writing itself. And she sees it as far from a bad thing.

…it’s not just the twords that make Twitter interesting, it’s the character limit, the implicit constraint of being interesting, witty, informative – in short, of being worthy of the limited attention of your followers. The best tweets of Twitter (some of them collected on the occasionally not-safe-for-work site Favrd.com) are more epigrammatic than newsy. Twitter demands writerliness in a way that instant messages, text-messaging, and even blogging don’t.

McKean doesn’t see social media communication as a destruction of language, but instead as another step in the constantly-evolving world of communication.

Just as “blog” has become a common, and accepted, term for a new written form, terms like “tweet” and “unfriend” are part of the constant struggle to maintain communication in a constantly changing online world.

It’s hard to see anything wrong with that.

Jen Hogan is a Media Analyst at MediaMiser, follow her @jenogan

Sometimes it’s really frustrating when it takes a week of research and testing in order to complete a project that should take only 2 hours… But I’m reminded of a saying my brother told me the other week: “Stop trying to be a salmon and just go with the flow.” Though this may sound lazy and unproductive, it actually makes you more productive in the end.

By eliminating the stress and frustration factors, you have more concentration to focus on the actual task at hand, rather than wasting your energy on the workload itself.

Remember when you were in school and everyone would complain about how long an assignment would take? And after a good hour of complaining and just staring at what you need to do, the “goody two shoes” of the class already finished the entire assignment… This is the type of wasteful energy I’m talking about. Instead of wasting energy being frustrated, that person was able to get the work done and move onto other things.

This goes for more than just school assignments or tasks at work. This idea of just focusing on the task at hand can be applied to all aspects of life, especially sports. I’ve been in the sport of diving for 14 years and have represented Canada around the world. One of the main things I’ve learned quickly is how to ignore the stress of a big competition; whether it be your first national competition, international competition or even your first Olympics. Now obviously this is something easier said than done. I can’t imagine treating your first Olympic competition like a regular regional meet or even a regular practice, however, the key point is to focus on the specific task at hand rather than the whole picture.

It’s crazy how many divers have their life’s worst performance during their first senior international competition. Is this because they all of a sudden are incapable of performing their dives? Of course not. It has everything to do with the fact that you’re on the board, heart pumping faster than normal and you’re thinking “Oh god. Don’t mess up. Show everyone you know how to do this.” Instead of thinking of the specific technique you need to do on this dive: “Ok. Make sure you get your arms all the way up on the end of the board before throw down to grab your legs.” Now don’t get me wrong; I’m no expert at this and actually had my life’s worst performance at my first big International competition at Rostock, Germany.

So how do you learn to suppress your stress and procrastination? I find that nothing works better than the oldest saying in the world: “Practice makes perfect.” I find that working out in intense situations (such as I did when I was diving) helps to handle stress. I discovered CrossFit, a new method of working out using functional movements at high-intensity really helps out with getting things done in life. This allows you to get into that “oh god I don’t wanna do this” situation three to five times a week and teaches you to just buckle down and get it over with. I found it so useful, that I opened my own Crossfit gym in Ottawa.

It’s amazing how with the development of a “just get it done” attitude, how much more efficient you can become in your life. Go ahead; give it a try. I challenge you!

David Kalec is a developer at MediaMiser.

Just before 9:00 a.m. June 6, 2010, a couple MediaMiser staff and myself boarded a VIA train to Union Station in Toronto.

We were headed to the IABC World Conference in Toronto.

For those who don’t know what the IABC is, the acronym stands for the International Association of Business Communicators, which I and few other MediaMiser staff are members of.

IABC is an association that promotes and encourages excellence among those engaged in communicating to both internal and/or external publics, whether it’s PR, marketing, advertising, media production or human resources.

It doesn’t matter to whom you communicate; as long as you are in the business of communicating messages, IABC is an organization that helps in the art of getting your point across.

Therefore, this is not only a conference MediaMiser should be attending to learn how we can better build products to aid in the process of communication, but is one that, from a business perspective, we should be exhibiting at.

As soon as we got to Toronto, we quickly got settled into our accommodations and headed out to see the Blue Jays play the New York Yankees. Our staff works hard and we need to give back to them every chance we get.

On that note, Yankees won 4-3 ): However, Blue Jays took the series 2-1 (:

Next we headed out to the opening conference events. From a business perspective, the welcome session at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) was the most valuable.  Both the food and atmosphere at the ROM was excellent. Most importantly, we were able to meet other attendees and exhibitors.

I met both prospective and current clients, and other people with whom I shared a professional interest. Being able to establish a rapport with them could be very important in the days to come.

Monday, June 7

On Monday, our team was able to quickly set up our booth and demos. We had a good position on the exhibitor floor with good traffic, and IABC did an amazing job to promote the exhibitors. They had passport cards that people needed to get stamped, which was an excellent idea. My only criticism is that free WIFI should have been supplied to everyone at the conference. This would have enhanced both the conference organizers and exhibitors ability to reach out to the attendees.

Awards Gala

The 2010 Gold Quill Awards gala, which recognizes outstanding communication projects, was well organized and entertaining. Terry O’Reilly, CBC host for the The Age of Persuasion, was an excellent choice to MC the event.

Again, full marks to IABC.

The Next Day – Tuesday

IABC continued to impress us with the quality of speakers and, again, the continued support of exhibitors.

I was very impressed with Craig Kielburger, a Canadian activist for the rights of children — especially since he stood to talk to people for over an hour. He came across as genuine and passionate about his cause.

At the end of the day we packed up our booth quickly and planned to do the Toronto Dine-Around event. Attendees who signed up for Dine-Around event could make reservations at various restaurants in the Toronto core with other attendees. However, our team decided to go to a private product launch party hosted by Caroline Kealey of Ingenuim Communications.  Caroline created a very impressive PR planning tool, Results Map, of which I was able to get a quick demo.

The last day

As the rain came down that day and barricades for the G20 conference were going up, it seemed to signal it was time to leave.

The conference finished with a keynote by Guy Kawasaki, formally of Apple. It was entertaining, and I learned that MediaMiser was positioned high and to the right (Those who attended the keynote will get the reference).

With that parting thought, I was satisfied that the IABC conference was a resounding success.

MediaMiser Booth at the IABC World Conference

Last couple of decades, technology has more or less taken over our life, it dictates how we access information, how we make decisions – be it about buying the next pair of shoes or meeting our potential life partner, how we do business and how we socialize. No aspect of our life has been left behind.

The dependence on technology is even more intense in our business life. There is a drive to automate as much as possible. In countries where manpower comes at premium, automation is defined both by innovation and by need.

While there are many benefits to automation and undoubtedly a move in the right direction, caution needs to be exercised in its implementation.

Talking specifically, in the context of media measurement and analysis, there are many sophisticated tools to choose from and these tools and software no doubt improve the reliability, efficiency and have the ability to crunch mass volumes in minutes.

However, for any meaningful analysis the contribution of an analyst to understand the context, tone and to simply judge the relevancy of media coverage cannot and should not be underestimated. The tools are helpful aids, but that’s what they are. To assume that an automated software will pick up the right media coverage based on keywords; will judge the tonality of the coverage based on positive and negative word recognition; will gain the understanding of the context or will understand the dynamics of the various forces in play would be a harmful assumption.

A recent post by Katie Paine highlights some of these issues especially the reliance on automated sentiment analysis or the reliance on web crawlers to pick up the right content.

At MediaMiser we believe, “computers compute and humans analyze.” That is why when we sell our software we also have a strong analyst team backing up the software.

Sure our software does a great job of picking up all your keywords but it is our analyst which filters the relevant content from all the junk that is pulled in which sometimes as Katie Paine rightly points out could be 90% of the content. When it comes to toning the articles MediaMiser analysts read through each article based on pre-determined toning parameters discussed with the clients.

Time and again we have received feedback from our clients as to how valuable they find our contribution of manual vetting, toning and analytical insights. It is ultimately the thinking of humans and not the logic of machines that gets the “job done right.”

So to question ‘Can technology think?’ I have only one answer… “NO”

Come meet the team and see what’s new with MediaMiser at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference in Toronto next week.

However, we’re not your typical tradeshow booth. Here are just a few fun things we’ll have going on at booth 108:

1. Stump the MediaMiser 20Q - (20 Questions electronic game) win a prize if you succeed, most likely though, you’ll just be amazed!
2. Ask a media expert – we’ll have several members of our client services team, who work directly with our clients to maximize their media monitoring and analysis needs, on hand to answer any burning questions you may have.
3. MediaMiser Enterprise demos - want to see what our software has to offer? drop by for a demo on our iPad!
4. Oh yea, we’re also giving away an iPad!

Don’t miss out on any of the fun,  follow @MediaMiser on Twitter and follow all the tweeting conference attendees via out list @MediaMiser/iabc-wc. Come by and mention that you read this and follow us, and we’ll have a special prize pack for you!

At the CPRS 2009 Conference: Onlookers are amazed at the MediaMiser 20Q game

It’s often been said that a company’s corporate culture is one of the most valuable assets that a company can own. But as a company grows, how does growth affect its corporate culture?

Recently awarded a Bronze for Fastest Growing Bootstrap at Exploriem.org’s Bootstrap Awards, it’s no doubt that MediaMiser has been growing rapidly over the past few years. The award provoked a thought about the relationship between MediaMiser’s ‘bootstrap’ roots and its affect on our corporate culture.

Beginning as a ‘bootstrap’ organization, the idea of “getting up on your own” has made itself a part of our culture, by empowering employees to develop innovative approaches to media analysis.

By definition, “bootstrap” refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning: a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help.”

The smaller nature of bootstrap organizations enables colleagues to work closely both professionally and socially, which may play a major role in the development of corporate culture.

Boosting morale, teamwork and efficiency, a positive corporate culture is key to recruiting the most suitable candidates for a growing company.

As the media landscape changes so quickly, MediaMiser’s culture of synergism and innovation has become a central part of our growth and success.

Because bootstrap organizations start out smaller, is it possible that they have a stronger sense of teamwork and interconnectivity which carries through as the company grows?

What do you think?

Perspectives is a blogging series written, researched and compiled by teams of MediaMiser staff from Client Services, Sales, and R&D. This post was contributed by Shirley Schiavo, Jayna Hart, and David Kalec.

Adapted from our April 2010 Newsletter. Want to be the first to know? Sign up here…

We’d all love to “set it and forget it” as they say on that cheesy infomercial… But the truth is things change. All the time. In front of our eyes.

Since spring is the time for renewal, now is an ideal time to re-examine your measurement program. Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to measurement, so we’ve compiled a list of five tips to get you on the right track:

Five tips to clean up your measurement program

Tips courtesy of MediaMiser’s account manager, Stephanie Luedee.

Fortunately you don’t need the rubber gloves and mop for this one, but you will need to apply a bit of critical thinking. What you’ll need to evaluate here will of course depend on what you are already measuring and what your goals are. Here are a few factors to look at for your own measurement spring cleaning:

1. Toolkit tune-up
Are you equipped with the right tools? Is each achieving what you need from it? One example: have you started monitoring social media? Are you measuring the right social media? Take a look at the tools you’re using and make sure you’ve got the complete set.

2. Keyword Cleanse
The likely scenario is you set up a set of keywords one day and let your software take care of the rest! The reality is the only constant in business  is change. So it’s very likely your media monitoring keywords change over time. Think about if any of the following have changed:

• Competitors – any new ones on the scene? Perhaps one has fizzled out or changed focus?
• Issues – issues that affect your organization may change over time, make sure you include all the latest.
• Buzzwords – buzzwords come and go all the time, yesterday’s ‘eco-friendly’ is today’s ‘green’ you may be missing key coverage if they’re not up-to-date.

3. Rejuvenate your rolodex
Is your media contact list up-to-date? What about your monitoring distribution list? The longer you put off updating contact lists, then save yourself the hassle later and update now.

4. Polish up parameters
Does your toning scale still make sense? Are ad values and circulation numbers accurate? Look at the values you’re using to measure and make sure they still fit with your overall goals.

5. Prune your process
Have you allocated the proper resources? Are your reports getting out in a timely matter? Take a minute to examine your process and so that your measurement is happening in an efficient and effective manner.

The Altimeter Group and Web Analytics Demystified have joined forces to produce an ‘Open Research’ (read: free!) report about social media analytics and building a measurement strategy. From Jeremiah’s blog post:

Industry Challenge:  ”I can’t measure social media ROI”
Marketers around the globe are ranging from toe dipping to jumping all the way into the social marketing space –yet most lack a measurement yardstick.  While experiments can fly under the radar for a short term, without having a measurement strategy, you run the risk of not improving what you’re doing, justifying investments, and the appearance of being aloof to upper management.  To be successful, all programs (even new media) must have a measurement strategy, and we’ve done just that.

Last month, our PR and social media measurement newsletter, MediaPulse, was all about building a measurement strategy… If you loved the idea, but aren’t sure where to start, then this report is for you!

Read Jeremiah Owyang’s blog post for more info about the report, or skip straight to SlideShare to read the full report: Social Media Analytics, A new framework for measuring results in social media.

During the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, we monitored Canadian English-language online newspapers, news websites, and online magazines to determine the nature and extent of coverage of our medal-winning athletes.  Specifically, we analyzed coverage the day before, the day of, and the day after their wins.

The two athletes with the highest number of mentions were Alexandre Bilodeau (Feb. 14-16) and Joannie Rochette (Feb. 26-28). Rochette, who won a figure skating bronze, came out on top, garnering around 23 per cent more coverage than Bilodeau’s with his gold in moguls.

Rochette’s number one status is less driven by the colour of her medal and more by the human-interest angle. She was set to perform on Feb. 27, however, two days before her competition her mother passed away hours after arriving in Vancouver.  Rochette earned public and media admiration for bravely choosing to stay in the competition and skate in her mother’s honour.

While part of Bilodeau’s media popularity can be traced to his being the first Canadian to win gold on Canadian soil, his story too had a strong human-interest component – one that focused on his brother Frédéric, who has Cerebral Palsy (CP).   Throughout the games, Bilodeau credited Frédéric for his success, calling him “his inspiration.”

This emotional story also affected the amount of coverage about CP.  We found an increase of 943 per cent in online mentions between the week before Bilodeau’s gold medal win (Feb. 7-13) with the week after (Feb. 14-20).

The brothers’ story raised awareness of CP in two ways. First, because Alexandre’s gold medal win was so high-profile, and second, Frédéric brought a touching element to the story making it that much more special for the media and audience alike. This  provided a unique opportunity for audiences to get educated on cerebral palsy, and to broaden the awareness of various charitable organizations dedicated to CP.

See: Bilodeau’s esteem for brother sparks greater awareness of cerebral palsy

To further the human interest element of the story, Alexandre Bilodeau put his money where his heart is, donating his $25,000 cheque for winning gold to the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres in support of research into CP, making the story that much more appealing and genuine to the media.

Has this heightened awareness of CP through Alexandre’s and Frédéric’s story translated into greater donations? We hope so, and if you do too, consider clicking here.