Category: Marketing Ideas & Innovation

In Praise of Marketing Craftwork

In an age of business schools and corporate marketing by rote (and people who never forget they’re clever) its interesting to see Godin mention the importance of craft. See the article below. One of my best ever bosses, who built an agency single handed always emphasised ‘craft’ over grand business academics and fancy marketing  titles. Quite simply – ‘what are you good at and what are you improving on every day’. She preached that each individual needed their own craft, a skill they could specialise in. Not waffle, but tactical nouse – not just vague strategic buzzword bingo but the ability to deliver things. Godin often talks about the ability ‘to ship’ not just dawdle.  Picasso was an artist, a thinker, a doer, who created and sold more than 30,000 pieces of art as he pioneered the new. Now that’s craft.

For more information, see Benchstone Marketing Limited

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/xrFdy-NsB_s/the-new-craftsmanship.html

Digital Natives Are The Ultimate Disrupters

Digital Natives – those 12-25 year olds brought up on mobile, Facebook and YouTube. Always connected, always on. For them CD’s and DVD’s aren’t dad’s tech: iTunes is. Why pay for downloads when you can get free streaming music, movies and clips? In the article below it is pointed out this generation is changing the media industry (music is just the bellweather – all content rich media faces the same issues) – whether the industry wants it or not. I noted yesterday that there is now also a debate raging in the UK about football fans accessing live Premiership match coverage from various digital services from around the world – bypassing Sky’s service entirely. The digital natives are racing towards sharing free content access whilst the industry still invests millions in paying for the talent, the creative and the setups – and is finding it harder to make a buck. I believe in subscription models, passwords and platforms and I want to pay for my Plan B and my live footie. But there again – I’m not a digital native am I?

http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/2tESw1ZbbSE/

86% of Top Marketers Say Partnerships Are The Key To Innovation

Don’t take my word for it. After a comprehensive global study partnerships and collaborations have just been identified as the most important ingredient to successful marketing and innovation by one of the most powerful marketers on earth – Beth Comstock, CMO of General Electric.

Continue reading “86% of Top Marketers Say Partnerships Are The Key To Innovation”

More Exaptation Marketing – And Less Innovation

Is this the best way to innovate?

The mad, brilliant and socially awkward scientist. The artist shivering quietly in the studio. The maverick hyper competitive marketer, alone in their spreadsheet. It is a dominant image – explaining the great steps forward being huge individual and innovative leaps, driven by one dynamic individual. Continue reading “More Exaptation Marketing – And Less Innovation”

Will Tablets Signal The End Of PC’s & MS?

A startling blog from Harvard Business Review. Will the rise of iPods and Tablets leave Microsoft looking like yesterdays news?

via The Fall of Wintel and the Rise of Armdroid.

The Number One Key to Innovation = Scarcity

From the Harvard Business Review Blog – this is a great piece on the importance of ‘scarcity’ to innovative thinking. This reminds me of a great excercise one of my old agency bosses did one day. As part of our own agency marketing plan, she briefed me and the creative team to come up with a great relaunch campaign and gave us what we thought was an exciting budget-  of around $50K. We attacked the brief with gusto can came back with a fantastic and multi layered cool promotion that spent all the budget. She loved the idea and then said “Now – lets deliver it within three weeks and make it work for less than $25K – not $50K”. At first, we naturally got grumpy and said it was impossible.  But – as we worked the problem, looked at the campaign again, with fresher sharper eyes – we actualy were able to delete certain aspects of the original idea, developed a better campaign, for less budget. In other words, the budget scarcity had made us explore smarter and more cost effective solution. Scarcity of budget was the driver. I have also commented before on the problems with the entire ‘brainstorming’ creative myth – something that has been highlighted by Richard Wiseman among others. And in the article below, the importance of focusing on a problem rather than going off on tangents is really clear: ” that innovation managers will more often create businesses, services, or products that are successful in the marketplace when they intentionally impose constraints during the development process.” True. Sometimes, less is more.

via The Number One Key to Innovation: Scarcity.

Content Licensing – Computer Love?

Has technology made rights management redundant? Just because I can copy and distribute without paying for contetnt – is it right? Can music companies survive on income streams other than unit sales & publishing? When I first worked in music publishing an old hand once said “just because I have the technology to break into your car, and I really like it, does that mean I have the moral OK to use it?”. But in a world of endless distribution everyone now has the car alarm bleeper to everyones musical car. My head tells me that rights owners can longer control their work and they have to adapt to a new model (whatever that may be) – but my heart tells me that too many technology companies are happy to exploit the work, investment and talent of the creative industries upon which they feast whilst expecting nice clear and traditional (retail, licenses, patents, top price for new products) – revenue streams for their own businesses.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mediafuturist/~3/uVuXPgbGl3Y/video-music-like-water-and-just-as-valuable.html

What Will The Year Of The Tablet Look Like

This is a great piece describing what 2011 – the year of the tablet may look like. Whilst Apple helped kickstart desire and media interest in tablet computing (like they did with smartphones) – the likes of Samsung, HTC, Asus, Moto, Sony et al now unleash hundreds of variations, types, price points and sizes. Having owned my own Samsung Galaxy Tab since December – I cannot imagine living without one now. As easy as a mobile to use and as powerful as a laptop – these devices are genuine game changers. With iPad2 and all these others to come 2011 is the year of the Tablet.

And how did I make this post? By tab of course.

http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/year-
tablet-marketers/

Turbulent times: information, communication, entertainment

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kklifestream/~3/rZ7itTtRH4E/silicon-valley-is-not-far-behi.php

Do you need to own media? Really?

This is a great article pointing out the issues facing music and other media owners too. Do I need to ‘own’ a newspaper? No. Do I need to own a movie that Sky shows? No. Do I need pay for access to great content, with a simple app stylee payment from my various devices? Of course. ‘the greatest compliment I can receive is to pay me for my work’ – Picasso. What I need is fast, brilliant access to content and for that I’m willing to pay – as with Sky, my monthly fee and then I can pick and choose and browse. How do Sky pay for their package from Warners and Disney? I don’t care. Unfortunately a lot of media owners are still focused.on selling a download, a track, a unit. And as tbis article points out the consumer’s attraction to this is waning: digital music downloads in US growing at a measley 1% in 2009/10.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mediafuturist/~3/DLXvjqs8G0o/further-decline-in-recorded-music.html