On this blog we assemble the world's sharpest minds in marketing and strategy innovation. People who spark exceptional insights in their field of expertise and inspire their readers to action.
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Contributing Blogs
June 30, 2007
Shiv Card
A few years ago, the American artists Tyler Jacobsen and Nathan Martin created the online application Barcode Generator that could be used to adjust the barcode on products in chain-stores (exemplified as Wal-Mart). The idea being that people should only pay what they felt was right, rather than paying the (over)price determined by the stores.
The 7 Basic Rules of Social Network Design for Marketers
by: Idris Mootee
With the rising popularity of social networks and user-driven online services McKinsey conducted a survey on how businesses are using web 2.0. Respondents show widespread but careful interest. Expressing satisfaction with their Internet investments so far, they say that Web 2.0 technologies are strategic and that they plan to increase these investments. However this is not going to be an easy one for these large corporations.Continue reading "The 7 Basic Rules of Social Network Design for Marketers" »
iBabble
by: David Armano
Laura Ries points us to an observation on the iPhone from non other than Jon Stewart. From her Origin of Brands blog:
June 29, 2007
The Future of Marketing - Part One
by: Idris Mootee
This is a presentation I often give to B-School students who are interested in marketing and advertising. It is a long one and so here's part one. Part two involves a group exercise to map out future scenarios of ad agencies and how they'll be transformed. I have four scenarios of "agencies of the future" and all require significant transformation.Nokia and Vodafone: Mobile Knowledge for Social Change
by: Dominic Basulto
One result of the popularity of Wikinomics has been the number of collaborative wikis that have been launched by organizations and corporations in order to share ideas around the world.
Continue reading "Nokia and Vodafone: Mobile Knowledge for Social Change" »
Thought of the Day
by: David Armano
"Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in the myth-making business, you don’t need design. You need a great ad agency. But if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design. If you are in the co-creation business today—and you’d better be in this age of social networking—then you have to think of design."
Original post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2007/06/thought-of-th-1.html
iWait - Genius Business Model
by: Karl Long
This is almost as good as bumvertising, but as I was perusing some people in line for an apple iphone at the local apple store I saw some people wearing t-shirts that said “iwait.org” on them. I asked a few folks where they got them and they said some guy came around handing them out for free.
Coca-Cola 2.0
by: C. Sven Johnson
I just got off the phone with Coca-Cola’s David Vanderpoel. You might recall his earlier comment regarding the Coca-Cola VirtualThirst campaign in Second Life that came as a result of my critique of the competition rules.
June 28, 2007
From Ideas to Strategy and Purpose
by: Idris
Mootee
A friend of mine called me a few days ago and wanted to talk about his new venture. I am happy for him. No question that it is a big decision in some ways for him. The question came up was "why", is it about money or is it about creating something. What is the strategy?
Coca-Cola Releases Trademark To Second Life Merchants?
by: C. Sven Johnson
Now here’s an interesting development. According to Second Life resident Vint Falken in a post today (Link - may be dead), the SL Exchange website claims that Coca-Cola is releasing their trademark for use by merchants inside Second Life.
Continue reading "Coca-Cola Releases Trademark To Second Life Merchants?" »
Ten Questions with Scott Berkun, Author of "The Myths of Innovation"
by: Guy Kawasaki
Scott Berkun worked on the Internet explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999. He is the author of a recently released book called The Myths of Innovation
In his most recent book he explores (or, more accurately, “explodes”) the romantic notions of how innovation occurs. Join me in this Q and A session as he explains the real world of innovation.
Continue reading "Ten Questions with Scott Berkun, Author of "The Myths of Innovation"" »
Building Trust: Chemical Neuromarketing
by: Roger Dooley
Much of what we write about here at Neuromarketing is research that helps explain behavior. In other words, the neuroscientists take known human behavior and use brain imaging or other tools to help understand why that occurs. Generally, magic “buy buttons” are out of the question. Some work performed by Paul Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont Graduate University, and a team of Swiss researchers, suggests that some seemingly magical ways of influencing human behavior may yet be found.
Continue reading "Building Trust: Chemical Neuromarketing" »
June 27, 2007
Creative Collison - If Google Bought Adidas 2010
by: Idris Mootee
I received a
lot of emails with questions on the presentation I posted yesterday. They were
mostly asking about how industries converge and how creative destruction
happens. Not a simple question to answer but we all agree that "drawing of lines" between industry
boundaries is becoming ever more difficult (or even possible at all) in today's
disruptive technology-driven business climate.
Continue reading "Creative Collison - If Google Bought Adidas 2010" »
How to write an innovation cover story for a major business weekly
by: Dominic Basulto
Ok, so I admit it -- I picked up the latest issue of Business Week at the newsstand because I was seduced by the Children of the Web ("How Business is Cashing In on the Global Youth Culture") cover story.
Continue reading "How to write an innovation cover story for a major business weekly" »
Knowledge Access As a Public Good
by: Danah Boyd
Over at the Britannica Blog, Michael Gorman (the former president of the American Library Association) wrote a series of posts concerning web2.0. In short, he's against it and thinks everything to do with web2.0 and Wikipedia is bad bad bad. A handful of us were given access to the posts before they were posted and asked to craft responses. The respondents are scholars and thinkers and writers of all stripes (including my dear friend and fellow M2M blogger Clay Shirky). Because I addressed all of his arguments at once, my piece was held to be released in the final week of the public discussion. And that time is now. So enjoy!
Call Them Web Page Bling
by: Lynette Webb
I love this quote… not only does it so perfectly capture what they do, it also has the lovely juxtaposition of the term “widget” (which makes me think of very unsexy sprockets & spanners) and “bling”! It’s from a May 2007 Business Week article. www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2007/tc2007052...
June 26, 2007
Total Design
by: David Armano
Adam Greenfield recently penned an insightful writeup on thoughts around experience design, customer service, and the notion of control. If any of these topics are of interest—I would recommend reading the whole thing. As for this post—I'm going to reference some of my visuals as I think they may compliment some of Adam's thoughts (in quotes). Enjoy the mash up and be sure to read Adam's entire post for the full context.
CNN International: The future of virtual worlds
by: Dominic Basulto
As part of its innovation-themed Future Summit series, CNN International is running a special segment on the future of virtual worlds starting tomorrow: "CNN Future Summit: Virtual Worlds will premier on June 13th on CNN International. Originating from Singapore and Palo Alto, California, the program features creative visionaries and entrepreneurs leading us into a new age of creativity and imagination." (Hat tip: 3PointD.com)
Continue reading "CNN International: The future of virtual worlds" »
June 25, 2007
No Plan, No Capital, No Model...No Problem
by: Guy Kawasaki
Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com
is my new hero (James Hong of Hot or Not is a close second). Marcus spends about two hours a day in his underwear managing a free dating website that gets twelve billion page views a year. He is the only employee, and he only has one server. And by the way, he makes $5-6 million/year with Google ads.
Continue reading "No Plan, No Capital, No Model...No Problem" »
The power of "weak ties"
by: John Caddell
"Smart World," a fascinating new book by Richard Ogle, paints a carefully-wrought, exhaustive picture of how creative breakthroughs happen. The persistent myth of the solo inventor, toiling alone in her workshop, is forcefully put to rest. In vibrant examples such as Crick's and Watson's discovery of the structure of DNA, to Gutenberg's invention of movable-type printing, to architect Frank Gehry's reinvention of modern architecture via the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Ogle makes the case that true breakthroughs come from immersing oneself in the ideas of the day, drawing inspiration from fields near and far, and synthesizing something new from these.
BrandChannel.com are featuring Boomers
by: Dick Stroud
BrandChannel decided it was about time it did a feature on Boomers. If you know anything about the Boomer / 50-plus market you aren’t likely to learn very much. Lots of broad sweeping statements and the usual splattering of Boomer facts and examples.
Fashion and Innovation
by: Idris Mootee
I thought I might share this keynote presentation of mine (which is two years old) and many ideas that are mentioned in here are now coming to the market. I talked about how fashion meets technology.
Virtual worlds and the future of TV
by: Dominic Basulto
In the Sunday New York Times, Dave Itzkoff explains how and why TV networks and cable stations are experimenting with virtual worlds such as Second Life.
June 24, 2007
viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
by: Danah Boyd
Over the last six months, i've noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That's only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it's not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Which go where gets kinda sticky, because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class.
Continue reading "viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace" »
Game Developers chase Serious Games Business Models
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Via: Mass High tech News
The ideas for Serious Games technology -- from military simulation to personal health care -- are coming quickly for entrepreneurs, but establishing a business model is a different story.
Continue reading "Game Developers chase Serious Games Business Models" »
Serious Games: A Sizeable Market - Update
by: Eliane Alhadeff
In my previous post Serious Games, Serious Money: A Sizeable Market, dated March 12, 2007, I've tried to extrapolate a few "back of the envelope" figures for the actual size of the Serious Games market, departing from PricewaterhouseCoopers' media outlook report 2006 for the video game sector worldwide.
Continue reading "Serious Games: A Sizeable Market - Update" »
June 23, 2007
Social Networks Next Game
by: Idris Mootee
Continuing on looking at the development of social networks along its lifecycle, search is definitely the next thing that changes its very idea. Whether it's just a manual search (with automated grouping or member-recommended groupings) will depend on the concept models of how each of those social network sites. It's no question search will be the killer feature for social networking sites.June 22, 2007
The Exemplary Labrador Records
by: Nancy Baym
Absolut Noise has an interesting interview with Johan Andergård who works behind the scenes at Sweden’s Labrador Records, and is a musician in several Swedish indie bands including The Acid House King, The Legends, and (my favorite of the three) Club 8.
"Touch" is definitely the new paradigm
by: Dominic Basulto
It's not only innovative technology companies like Apple and Microsoft that are rolling out cool new touch screen applications. Ralph Lifschitz Ralph Lauren recently announced plans to roll out a touch screen application that completely re-defines what it means to do a little window-shopping.
June 21, 2007
Capturing the 'Clean Tech Revolution'
by: Joel Makower
The drumbeat of news stories, events, and other developments focusing on clean technology seems to gain strength every week. There are countless billions being invested each year in clean energy technologies, as well as technologies that more efficiently create clean water, advanced materials, or alternative transportation. The growing number of websites and magazines seem to capture pieces of the puzzle, but it's easy to miss the enormity of the clean-tech world.
Shaping Attitudes on Green
by: David Wigder
An interview with Brett Jenks, CEO, Rare Conservation
Large mammals the like polar bear have a special place in our hearts and our imagination. They make cute stuffed animals for our kids and capture our fascination when we see them at our zoos. Today, however, the ice caps are melting and the polar bears are drowning because the ice is thinning. It is a visible sign that our climate is changing for the worse, and makes for a macabre story.
June 20, 2007
ROI for Communities
By: Idris Mootee 
One big
challenge marketers face all the time is the ROI of developing online
communities or social networks. The question is what's in it for them as a
brand/company and this is always a little tricky. The second question is how
close/distant this community needs to be from the company site.
News at seven on Harry Potter
by: Yann Gourvennec
Newsatseven is a new service which compiles and delivers news to you, direct from the Web and automatically generates a youtube news show with an Avatar (named Alyx Vance).
June 19, 2007
Inside the Minds of Designers
Its amazing that the Moleskine has managed to brand and associate themselves with the great talents of our time. Don’t get me wrong as I think this is a good thing, but I wonder if this branding aspect has been taken too far. Maybe its just me, but I find that the Moleskine brand promise to be very bi-polar. On one hand the brand makes me feel superior because by using my moleskin I can be associated with such pedigree of talents. On the other hand, it makes me feel inferior as I feel that I should only use my moleskin if I am able or about to reproduce that next design classic, otherwise I should just stay away!
The Next Big (Small) Thing
by: Idris
Mootee
I often chat with my friend Scott Friedmann about radical ideas to reinvent industries and how we have no shortage of them. We talked about hundreds of ideas of reinventing the next Starbucks; the next Burger King; the next MTV and the next everything. The scary part is almost all of them are viable. That leads me to think where is the NEXT big idea that can drastically improve our way of life for the general mass??