January 31st, 2010
Why do people gather? For that matter why does anything gather? To be around like minds?
To not be alone. As much as someone says they want to be alone they don’t. We all need others to define ourselves.
Online and offline you’ll see people gathering naturally:
Chat rooms
Discussion boards
Social networks
Microblogging platforms
Special events
Clubs
Concerts
Museums
These are places where people naturally come together around one centralized topic. If you look closer there are overlapping subtopics that look like many Venn Diagrams overlaid at once. They may have differing opinions and views on what they’re consuming but the one thing that remains constant is what they are there for.
Some ways people gather are apparent while others are more subtle. One thing is for sure – we gather and we gather often.
Tags: clubs concerts, social networks, subtle one, subtopics, venn diagrams
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January 31st, 2010
If you thought people would laugh at you before you did something would you do it? Do you think that if you did that’s brave? I do.
There’s a certain amount of chutzpah that a trailblazer needs. Innovators, entrepreneurs, activists, creators – they all regularly put themselves on the line to be critiqued. Why do they allow themselves to be emotionally ripped apart day in an day out? The benefits outweigh the bruises.
If you’re willing to risk humiliation for a huge reward you may just be one of them. Know this: it probably won’t come easy, there will be a lot of heartache but you will gain invaluable experience along the way.
What if Apple gave up at revolutionizing design in computing? Well we’d all have beige boxes and generally uninspiring hardware. Most people wrote Apple off as an “also-ran-as” but they kept forging on. Each one of us has what it takes to be a trailblazer. You just have to be willing to be laughed at.
Tags: beige boxes, chutzpah, heartache, innovators, invaluable experience
Posted in business, featured, life | 1 Comment »
January 31st, 2010
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein started out working in a patent office [1] but clearly didn’t end up known as the best patent clerk in the world (although I can argue he was the most notorious). He changed his routine. He changed his world.
Which brings me to a larger point – everything doesn’t last forever and will ultimately change.
If you’re working at your job and have been for years in the same 9-5 Monday to Friday path look at it on two levels: macro and micro. On the macro level – you haven’t always worked at your job. You were in school. You had hopes and dreams beyond working in an office for a large company. On the micro level – you have new interactions everyday, with a coworker, a business associate, the coffee shop guy, the internet. Nothing you do will EVER give you the same results.
Why did something happen? How did you get to where you are? You ultimately decided to allow it to happen. You may have not forced the circumstances that led up to the decisive moment but you did let it into your life.
On the micro level Albert Einstein is wrong. You can never have the same results. There are too many factors in that moment to make it exactly the same. On the macro level he’s right. If you keep on doing what you’ve been doing the way you’ve always been doing it don’t expect a different outcome.
Change your view. Change the way you approach things. Do you walk the same way every day? Change your routine. Find a new way to get to done. In the very least it’ll make life more interesting. At most it could change your whole life.
*Side note – I’m changing my own routine. All branding and social media articles will be over at http://damienbasile.posterous.com. More general posts about how to ‘get to done’ will be over here from now on. I’ve done this to create clarity and save me time writing so I can use my time more efficiently elsewhere.
Tags: albert einstein, einstein albert, hopes and dreams, patent clerk, patent office
Posted in business, featured, life | 1 Comment »
January 30th, 2010
What if Martin Luther King Jr. never visited Gandhi? He may have not been affected “in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights.” [1]
What if Gandhi never faced discrimination in South Africa? (being thrown off a train, beaten by a stagecoach driver and barred by hotels) He may have not had the same experience as these “events were a turning point in his life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism.” [2]
What if you don’t stand up in the face of adversity? What if you choose to fight against instead of standing up for? What if you just decided to take a different road? Maybe it will be easier. Maybe. But maybe you’ll be missing out on the amazing revolutionary things that could have been.
Martin Luther King Jr. would have been just another preacher. Gandhi would have been just another lawyer. What would you just be?
Tags: discrimination in south africa, martin luther king, martin luther king jr, social activism, social injustice
Posted in featured, life | 1 Comment »
January 7th, 2010
Click on “Settings”, scroll down to the bottom to “Linked Accounts”. Click on crap. Boom. You’re now able to access Facebook when you’re signed in to other services. You’re welcome.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: email, Facebook, Google, login, Myspace, social media, social networks, Yahoo
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December 8th, 2009
Is Facebook promoting Google’s Gmail Connect service as a way to get more users onto Facebook? Or is Google taking out ad space to promote their connect tool? More than likely it’s an internal Facebook effort as the logos of Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live and Gmail are all represented in the ad. So why now?
As
Mashable and
GigaOm both report
Facebook’s growth is slowing. As they both point out
Facebook has refocused their
strategy by eliminating regional networks in place of a global focus and added new products such as
Facebook Lite and
Facebook Touch Mobile. One thing is for sure – the users
Facebook already has aren’t going anywhere, as there are no clear alternatives to the
social network behemoth (at least in the US).
The question on my mind is this – will
Facebook start creating ads to start pulling in your
Twitter and
LinkedIn friends to your
Facebook network? They’ve created a fan page post to
Twitter tool so it’s not that far of a stretch, especially concerning the strength of their
network. Only time will tell but this is a move that
Facebook would clearly
benefit from if they implemented it.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: ad space, AOL, aren, behemoth, clear alternatives, Connect, database, download, effort, email, Facebook, fan, fan page, focus, gallery, GigaOm, global focus, Gmail, Google, growth, linkedin, Lite, Live, logos, mashable, mind, mobile, mobile one, move, network, one thing, page, place, point, post, question, regional networks, report, service, space, strategy, strength, stretch, thing, time, tool, Touch, twitter, US, way, Windows, Yahoo
Posted in branding, featured, social media | 1 Comment »
December 7th, 2009
It’s been a while since Foursquare had new proprietary event badges. In fact, the last time I remember a special badge was for NY Internet Week.
Foursquare took a break to focus on expanding to tons of global cities to strengthen their worldwide userbase. Now that that’s out of the way they can continue to hone their
business model by making
brand integration once again essential. This brings back the element of surprise that users love and turns users into fans and fans into evangelists.
Today has also been a marquee day for Foursquare with a return to focus on brands by partnering with Pepsi. For about a week Pepsi will donate $.04 to Camp Interactive for every point scored on the NYC leader board.
With event badges, leaderboard sponsorships and nearby checkin deals in place brands are starting to take their rightful place on Foursquare. While they may be privately funded thus far there is definitely a clear path to profitability by integrating brands in a timely and relevant manner.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: badge, badges, board, Boxee, brand, break, business, business model, Camp Interactive, checkin, clear path, database, day, download, element, element of surprise, email, evangelists, event, fact, Foursquare, gallery, global cities, integration, Internet, internet week, last time, leader, leader board, leaderboard, love, manner, marquee, model, NY, NYC, path, pepsi, place, point, posterousWith, profitability, relevant manner, return, surprise, time, today, userbase, way, week, while, worldwide
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November 30th, 2009
Nike has been relevant and will continue to be relevant for their brand and all the sports that they encompass. For over 3 years now they have had a Runner’s Station in New York City on the west side highway – a part of their hyperlocal RunNYC campaign. While others may have known about this, for me this is a first considering I started running again after a 10 year hiatus.
The Nike Runner’s Station is a small 1970’s-style shack, full of trail, community and product information. There’s water, Gatorade, sports bars and sports gel all for the weary runner to purchase. The best part about the Nike Runner’s Station is that there is an assortment of Nike running shoes that you can “trial”. Any athlete knows that the true test of a piece of performance gear is in the field and what better way for a runner to find the perfect shoe than to take it on the course they most frequent.
The station attendant was really knowledgable and helpful, delving into my level of engagement. He gave me critical information to the station – it’s only open from July to November with yesterday being the last day it was open. He even showed me a trail that he used to run that would be great for me to follow based on where I live.
There was also a computer on site for any online queries and connections I woudlve have wanted to make, like looking up more about the Nike Run Connect shoes and iPod widget that shares your running stats with your social networks. I didn’t want to look into it further right then because I just wanted to get back to running.
All in all the Nike Runner’s Station is possibly one of the best niche hyperlocal branded popup shops I’ve ever seen. Leave it to a leader in a category to show the competition how it’s done. Take note and think outside the box like Nike did.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: 3 years, assortment, athlete, attendant, brand, campaign, community, computer, Connect, course, day, delving, email, engagement, field, Gatorade, gear, gel, hiatus, highway, hyperlocal, information, iPod, July, level, New York City, niche, Nike, nike running shoes, November, online, part, performance, performance gear, piece, popup, product, queries, Run, Runner, RunNYC, shack, shoe, side, site, social networks, sports bars, Station, test, trail, trial, true test, water, way, west, west side highway, widget, woudlve, year, yesterday
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November 10th, 2009
A strong brand pays attention to details. A smart brand connects with the connectors in memorable ways that may not be readily quantifiable. A savvy brand knows that there are many factors involved in making something a hit or miss. Motorola is all of these and more when it comes to Droid.
On Android day, Cake Group put together an amazing event for Motorola’s Droid release. Their efforts went beyond the day of with connecting with various influencers beforehand to seed articles after the fact.
The branding brilliance comes into play with the attention to details. Customized shortened urls were created just for the event:
Press Release for Droid: http://bit.ly/MotoDroid
Link to Droid specs/product info: http://bit.ly/MotorolaDroid
Pictures from last night: http://bit.ly/MotoLaunchParty
The invitation was elegant, simple and overall top-notch:
What really set them apart was Motorola’s use of Foursquare in a relevant and timely way:
If that wasn’t enough, the piece that pulled it all together was the fact that the launch party took place in Morimoto, the famous Japanese restaurant. MoriMOTO, MOTOrola - very slight but very intentional and very effective.
With Motorola the attention is in the details. At every turn there was a robot, or droid, to reinforce that we were there in fact for the DROID launch. By the end of the party none of the robot droids were left, as they were almost as coveted as the DROID itself. Another small detail was the DROID branded photo-booth downstairs, which came with props like a giant inflatable 90’s-era cellphone and a raygun, as well as an alien backdrop.
Attention to details doesn’t stop after the party: I have it on good authority that Cake Group also added tips to every Verizon store on DROID day (11-6-9) to clue people in to the new Motorola DROID. While Foursquare may not be completely mainstream yet one thing is for sure – the people that ARE using advanced social networking services are the ones who are buying these new mobiile computing “phones”. With the proliferation of these advanced communication devices it’s only a matter of time before everyone is using one. Until then we have companies like Motorola and Cake Group who are using branding purposefully to guide us along the way.
Tags: android, attention, authority, backdrop, brand, brilliance, Cake, cellphone, clue, computing, day, detail, downstairs, droid, droids, end, event, fact, Foursquare, giant, giant inflatable, Group, influencers, info, invitation, japanese restaurant, launch, launch party, link, mainstream, mobiile, Morimoto, motorola, networking, networking services, new motorola, night, none, party, photo booth, Pictures, piece, place, play, Press, product, props, raygun, release, restaurant, robot, seed, social networking, something, store, thing, top notch, turn, Use, verizon, way
Posted in branding, life, social media | 1 Comment »
