A Very Official Episode

Add some 'Color' to your life

In the past 24 hours there has been some serious hype about a new app (for iOS and Android) called, Color. CNBC's Julia Boorstin had a good video overview of the app and Business Insider had a great walkthrough of it as well. There have been a few questions surrounding the seemingly overnight success of the app... firstly, how did it get so much funding and secondly what is the true point of it? Many people have poked fun at the app but here are some quotes from a couple of well-known and highly respected individuals in the tech world: 

"In short, if Color is used by a statistically significant percentage of folks, nearly every location that matters on earth will soon be draped in an ever-growing tapestry of visual cloth, one that no doubt will also garner commentary, narrative structure, social graph meaning, and plasticity of interpretation." - John Battelle (Post on Business Insider)

"This is the next frontier in social networking for a bunch of reasons. First, curating social graphs is a pain. It takes work. And simply importing your Facebook or Twitter graph is suboptimal for most social services. You then need to add and delete to get the right graph for the right app. And second graphs change over time. Who has time to constantly manage their social graphs. So they get stale and one day you say "why I am following this person?" or "why is this person a friend on Facebook?" And maybe most imporantly, sometimes you only want a social graph for a weekend, a day, an hour, or a minute. The only way to make that work is to construct it implicitly." - Fred Wilson (Post via AVC blog)

I am slightly confused. Although a lot of people are claiming this to be the next big thing in social networking, I am not convinced that this app is the answer. I agree with Fred Wilson that the idea of an implicit social graph is one that will truly revolutionize things and I also agree with John Battelle (in his full post, not the quote) that ultimately it is execution that will win it. Here is my point of contention with this app: It only works when you are within 100 feet of other people who are using the app... so here's the million dollar question... when you ARE within 100 feet of them, are you going to... stare at the pictures on your phone? or... physically interact with the people who are within 100 feet of you? Doesn't the one act seem far more social than the other? 

The app makes complete sense if you are trying to remember events from the past via pictures stored on your phone and after watching the walkthrough, it seems this feature is quite well built on the app. There is still a very big issue of privacy here because any picture stored on the app automatically goes public... any picture. Just add a little alcohol into the equation and with the app's innate ability to share via Twitter and Facebook... there may be problems. 

It really is too early to tell how successful this app is going to be. I will certainly be paying close attention to the progress of this story and will most definitely write a follow-up post once a reasonable amount of time has passed. In the mean time, if you have either an iPhone or an Android-based phone, please check the app out and tell me what you think of it! I am beyond curious. 

Go ahead, add some color to your life.  

Frustrated Birds

This morning I read an article on Mashable about how the Angry Birds HD update for the iPad 2 now includes... ads!! Apparently users are complaining on iTunes that by virtue of paying $5 for the app, they should not have to endure these ads.

This is a prime example of what happens when you break the permission marketing model. Users revolt. In today's day and age they always will. They revolt because there is a sense of perceived unfairness. Users are smart, they know that certain apps are available for free because they are supported by an ad-model; however, they also know that - on the iTunes store - Angry Birds is not one of those apps! (Things are slightly different on the Android store). So what could the birds over at Rovio Mobile done differently here?

I can think of a few different things. Ultimately, Rovio's end goal is to clearly push the merchandise (because I'm guessing the margins are much higher there), so if that's the case... why not give the app away for free like they do on the Android store? Fine, I understand if they want to keep making money on the app... so how about informing the users before-hand that there will be ads on some new levels? Or ... adopt a Farmville model whereby you make money on in-game purchases (they tried this already with the Mighty Eagle, but I'm sure they can cook up a few more enticing purchases). It just seems strange to me why Rovio would suddenly impose ads on paying customers, hoping that customers would be ok with it. 

If you are trying to promote something, think of ways you can get consumers to buy into your idea and genuinely want to learn more about it, rather than just force the idea upon them. Permission marketing 101. 

The Changing Landscape - A Conversation with John Fanous

Listen to the episodes on iTunes

Two-Part Episode Summary:

This week I had the pleasure of talking to my good friend John Fanous (Senior Manager of Sales & Online Specialist for the Yellow Pages Group in Canada). Drawing on his outstanding experience, John was able to offer some fascinating insights into the entire marketing landscape as it stands today.

In part one of our conversation we talked about the evolution of traditional media and kind of impact that digital (new) media is having on businesses today. in part two of our conversation, we discussed the mobile landscape and the tremendous opportunities that exist for marketers in this space. I hope you enjoy our two-part conversation! (Part 1 Runtime: 40:14 / Part 2 Runtime: 39:53)

Interesting sites to check out:

www.johnfanous.com

www.yellowpages.ca/360

http://profiler.yellowpages.ca/

Shaminda's About.me Page

"Hope I just need a ray of that.." - #HelpJapan

Having been a first-hand witness to the South Asian tsunami in 2004, I can tell you that fear of the unknown is almost unbearable. I was in Sri Lanka at the time and the craziest thing was no one had any idea how bad things were until many days later... and we still had communication lines up and were able to get news. I can only imagine what the people in Japan are going through right now. 

When you're sitting halfway across the world, the hardest thing is coming to terms with the fact that you physically can't do anything. As a result, most of us take the easy way out and don't do anything. I'm writing this post to say you can fight that. I have been inspired by amazing stories of companies that have done so much to help the victims in Japan over the past few days. Companies like Apple, Zynga, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and Google. It's pretty simple really, all you need to do is find a way to donate money online to a reputable source. The Red Cross is a good one. 

The quote that titles this post is from a song called I Need a Doctor by Eminem and Dr. Dre. If you listen to the lyrics of that song, you'll hear how one friend is calling out to another seeking revival. Right now I think we all need to help revive Japan. 

It would be more than a shame for us not to take advantage of the Internet when it comes to relief efforts. Although I could probably go on for ages, I don't want to. I would hope that instead of reading more you go ahead and take action in any way you can. #HelpJapan. 

What I learned at The Art of Marketing

Gary V on StageThis past Monday I had the pleasure of attending one of the greatest conferences/events I've ever attended in my life... The Art of Marketing. I was lucky enough to win a ticket on Twitter via a contest held by a great Canadian company called TechVibes. The conference featured a set of 5 keynote truly inspirational keynote speakers: Gary Vaynerchuk, Avinash Kaushik, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Sheena Iyengar and Guy Kawasaki.

The learning everyone was able to achieve in that one day was enough to keep us going for years. Each of the speakers had a unique perspective into a different aspect of marketing and combined to give every attendee some actionable advice to take home. I put together a small document of some tweets that I gathered from the day but another marketer named Eric Buchegger wrote up a twitterific summary on his blog. Toronto - the venue for the conference

Here are my favourite quotes (which I turned into tweets) from the day and what I believe marketers can learn from them: 

1. The more innovative you are, the more resistance you will encounter (Guy Kawasaki) - If you cause a stir, people will pay attention. Think of the most recent disruptive technologies or rather, think of the companies that have been affected: Borders... Blockbuster. Changing the status quo is bound to rattle a few feathers and in doing so there will be serious resistance to what will inevitably be disruption. Never be afraid of resistance. In fact, Seth Godin emphasizes this point many times in Linchpin and although I haven't read it yet... his new book Poke the Box is about how to initiate action (whilst overcoming the resistance). 

2. If moments aren't shared, they lose their power (Jeffrey Hayzlett) - Any marketer that does not consider incorporating a social feature into a campaign/product/service/anything he or she builds... is a fool. Social is the new norm. More and more companies are beginning to build themselves entirely around the concept of sharing (e.g. Instagram). If you share a moment, you create a memory that has a higher chance of recollection than if you experienced a moment alone. Recollection and association are two fundamental principles to all marketers and as such, sharing should be an inherent feature to anything a marketer builds. 

3. Social has scaled caring (Gary Vaynerchuk) - The more I learn about Gary V, the more he inspires me. His passion for caring is contagious and needs to infect every business in the world. According to Gary, social media has actually taken us back to the old days. The days where there were only Mom and Pop stores and the employees knew the customers by name. Social media has now given companies a chance to learn about and more importantly care about every single one of their customers. As a consumer, just think of how you would feel if a brand reached out to you personally and provided you with some kind of meaningful experience... This is the future Gary V envisions and I think it is one we all need to jump on board with. 

Final thoughts: If you ever have a chance to attend an Art of Marketing event (they are mostly held across North America) you should certainly try and do so. The learning is truly phenomenal. The biggest takeaway for me from the event is that marketing has become very personal. Forget big traditional campaigns and start focusing on catering to the needs of individuals. 

What I learned at TEDxWaterloo

The stageIf you have not done so already, try your best to attend a TEDx event (or even a TED event). It will open your eyes. The speakers will blow you away with discoveries, melt your mind with their intelligence and enchant you with their stories. Today I had the true pleasure of living one of my long time dreams of attending a TED event, it was actually a TEDx event and happened to be the biggest one in North America... TEDxWaterloo. 

The theme of this event was the idea of discovering, exploring and challenging the uncharted. The list of speakers was truly fantastic (some who I had not heard of before, but some who I certainly had). A few speakers who stood out to me were: Jean Francois Carrey, Abby Sunderland and Vicki Keith. Here are 3 quotes which I managed to capture from these 3 speakers:

"Passion is contagious. Enjoy the journey." - JF Carrey

"What are you going to do when your rouge wave hits? " - Abby Sunderland

"Create your own reality." - Vicki Keith 

I could quite easily write a blog post about what I learned from each of these great speakers but instead I'm going to just try and summarize what I learned from the entire experience into 3 points:

  1. The world is getting smaller - Today's event was broadcast live on the Internet to everyone in the world who was willing to pay attention. Quite frankly, it was amazing to see that there were people in other parts of Canada, responding to things that were happening on stage in Waterloo. The Internet has allowed for so much to happen (revolutions in Libya and Egypt have made this idea even more prominent) that I truly believe you can achieve an uncharted amount of collaboration through it. WhatMemorabilia  we're doing now social media/skype/email/telepresence ... that's all just the beginning. 
  2. Achievers are not bound by impossibilities - To them, there are only ... different possibilities. I think Vicki's speech is really what drove this point home for me. She talked about how a young girl (Ashley Cowan), despite being a quadruple amputee... swam across Lake Erie in 2001. Unbelievable story. It made me realize that if you ever want to achieve something truly (and I mean truly) amazing, you should not even consider the word impossible. Vicki and her stories proved that anything is possible.
  3. Take time to remember the moments - JF Carrey talked about his journey on Mount Everest. He said it took him 6 years to train for the event... and he spent a total of 20 minutes on the summit. 6 years worth of work... for 20 minutes. Think about something you've experienced or are about to experience... how long have you prepared for it? How long are you going to get to experience it for? How long have you been looking forward to it? What I've learned is, no matter how long we've been preparing... when we actually do what it is we've been waiting for... we have to try and remember the moments. It's tough, it's very very tough especially if you really get into the swing of things and end up doing a million things a minute at big events (or on big days). Try your best though to remember the moments. 

Final thoughts: The whole notion of the uncharted, kept reminding me of a song by one of my favourite artists - Sara Bareilles - conveniently called uncharted. I remember seeing her live and hearing her talk about how this song was actually what got her out of writer's block and actually managed to kick-start her new album. I think it's pretty serendipitous that she discovered her new self by writing a song called uncharted. TEDx thought me that a lot of our lives are still uncharted. It's up to us to find the passion to change that. 

Sherlock Holmes on Strategy

Source: Google ImagesI am an avid fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most well known fictional character... Sherlock Holmes. In many ways, Holmes was a genius and he is arguably the greatest (fictional) detective that has ever lived. What made Holmes so brilliant? In his first appearance, Sherlock Holmes reveals what I believe to be one of the keys to his success. The following is a quote when Watson expresses his astonishment at Holmes' lack of knowledge that the earth travels around the sun: 

"You appear to be astonished," he (Holmes) said, smiling at my (Watson) expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it."

"To forget it!"

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

"But the Solar System!" I protested.

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."

(Taken from: A Study in Scarlet, Chapter 2 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is a very famous quote in the business world that goes like this, "The first law of strategy is sacrifice." Sherlock Holmes observed this law so strictly that he was able to become a truly brilliant detective because of it. I understand that Holmes is fictional; however, the lesson learned from the quote above is one that can be applied to all facets of life... especially business. 

In order to be truly successful, find what you are very good at doing... and do that, nothing else. Simplicity is key here. I find a good test is to see whether you can pick a company and describe to someone what exactly that company is about in three words or less. I think you'll find it very easy to describe the great companies because they've already figured out what they do best... and odds are they haven't stopped doing it. You may argue that any business can be described in three words or less and that this test is merely an exercise in creativity; however, the intention is not to come up with a three word slogan. Rather, the three words should actually explain what fundamentally drives the business. 

Final thoughts: Think about the idea of sacrifice and the idea of making trade-offs. These principles can be applied to your own life just as easily as they can be to any business. Let me leave you with a quote from another hero of mine ... 

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” - Steve Jobs.