Something that a very pertinent scholar showed us very recently.
Take a second and view/digest it. Then let us know what you think…

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

For all you corporate denizens who have “issues” with social media and all of it’s iterations here is something from one of the biggest corporate behemoths in the world: McDonald’s.

Below is a presentation from Heather Olandi, the Director of PR for McDonald’s regarding how the brand utilizes social media and community building to leverage their message. There are some very interesting ideas and strategic insights included. Love to hear what you think…

CNBC is doing a special 5 part global series on Leadership and Vision.

We have attached the full hour long episode below featuring some of the most preeminent minds in the Technology sector.
Some key points that are touch upon in the episode:

• Understanding the User is a Top Priority
• Production Mindsets don’t always work in the digital space
• Small is the New Big
• Innovation isn’t always about equating dollars in the short term
• Test Test and Re-Test!

If you’re a skeptical business owner or a corporate executive just interested in social media, this clip is a must see. And after viewing this clip, you still think social media is nothing more than a bunch of ramblings by high school and college kids, you better start looking for a new job relatively soon.

As I have said (and countless other people), there is a fundamental change occurring in the way business will be done in the next few years. Social Technologies are drastically altering the business landscapes and how brands communicate in them. And if companies, brands and people don’t get on board they’re lively hood may be irrelevant come 2015.

Now I’m not saying that this is the end all be all and brands should drop everything they are doing and dive in head first. These social channels are another tool to add to the marcom arsenal. By understanding and integrating social tools into your current marketing mix, brands can begin to open new and untapped customer segments that they probably never dreamed they could have reach 2 years ago.

Let us help us help you understand and strategize your business options: nostruminc.com

Thanks Socialnomics for making these insights available and we here at nostrum will continue to help educate the masses as well!

Eric Schmidt defines the term and speaks to Google’s early years and how it has evolved from a company of fun to a company where business matters. Yet, the core of value of “Don’t Be Evil” is and has always been paramount in every single business decision made.

Check out what “5″ Gum is doing on the technology front.

Who would of thought gum, AR, and electronic music would all meet in the middle.  So many options for this type of technology IF you have the right audience to serve your message to.

Thoughts?

While everyone continues to tout that Social/Digital/Interactive Media are the next greatest things, then why do businesses fall into the same rut as they did back in 20th Century.
Businesses continue to assume that they must produce things within an industrial age construct where production on a mass scale is revered to almost a god like state. By scaling on a mass level, price and efficiencies are surely gained, but at the expense of what: the expense of the original product AND servicing the people who are directly engaging with those products .

“In the 21st Century the challenges of building great businesses differed than those in the 20th century, and at the core of success is responding to the consumer.” John Gerzema expands to his thoughts in his post in regards to re-thinking how businesses need to be built in today’s economy. “Scaling (businesses) becomes an operation unto itself, with entire businesses built up around the idea of scaling as a goal. Scaling is not the goal, the goal is providing the customer with the product they need at the time they need it.”

Why then do businesses continue to operate within this robber baron mindset? Fear, Memories of the Dot-com Bubble, Lack of Historical Data, Uneasiness with the Concept of Change - Probably a bit of them all, but it is high time that business understand that mulling things over for the next big scaled objective is going to be the demise of their Executive Positions. Web 2.0 and furthermore 3.0 have already seeped into corporate cultures across the globe, and if a business hasn’t acted on this, their competition has - Digital Darwinism at it’s finest.

That’s why businesses need to adopt and understand these 5 essential pillars in today’s Enterprise 2.0 Economy (all of which are expanded upon in detail in Christopher Vollmer’s paper Digital Darwinism):

1. Turn Consumers into “Prosumers”
2. Build Bi Lateral Brand Experiences
3. Place Context on Par with Content
4. Master the New Calculus of Communications
5. Collaboration is King

So going forward, instead of worrying about what we had and trying to protect it, lets look what we are doing on the innovation and collaboration front and make sure we stick to the goals (people)  that got us here in the first place.

The article titled Digital Darwinism is something I saw that really made me think about the state of the digital media space.  IMO a must read for all digital marketing heads.  I’ll be doing a post in a few days to address.  Hope you all enjoy….

Today it was announced the Amazon.com acquired Zappos for 10Million shares in AMZN Stock and an immediate $40Million cash injection in AMZN stock and cash to Zappos employees. The approximate cost to AMZN is $900Million+.

Guess the big question is why? Makes sense to us - its the customer stupid!

How many times have you placed a call to a customer service line and an automated system picks up; or received a branded email message saying Buy This but do NOT reply; or wished that the company had a twitter account so that you could tweet your positive emotions about their brand and come to find they don’t have one?  We have and it has irritated us to no end.

Zappos (as we all know) is all about customer service and that is what (seemingly) Amazon is buying.  Amazon may have felt a little competitive threat from Zappos, but I think it was more about tapping into the “Zappos Culture” more than anything. Amazon identified this as a key to thrive in this new business economy.  Why not then purchase the company that understands it best.   By servicing the customer on every conceivable level Zappos has built extreme customer loyalty through facilitating a superior user experience and Amazon wants to be the premiere e-tailer in the world - a symbiotic relationship in cyberspace.

The key to this relationship is how Amazon takes over the reigns and what is done from a top down approach.  At this time, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is saying nothing is going to change and the relationship should be said like the jingle “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”

Time will only tell - but here are a few thoughts from Jeff Bezos on his take of his purchase.
What do you guys think?

z4

Can you guess what we’re working on?
Another find that we wanted to share with everyone: BMW’s UK Z4’s online launch collateral.

This “campaign” is sick to say the least. It integrates on and offline campaign elements to highlight the goal of selling the car and customizing it to a user’s preference. Plus, there is a very nice tie into the arts as well.

This IS the next level of advertising and we wanted to share some of our finds with our people.

ps this is all Shawn…shout out to our nyc crew!

I saw this recently and it made an immediate impact on me and the team here. By blurring the lines between online and offline social interactions, it is a must see for an CMO who is reticent that this “social media thing” is just a fad.

Props to Sour and their directorial team: Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, and Masayoshi Nakamura for their innovated and inspiring work. I am just waiting to see how many “copy cats” will be “sampling” this execution over the course of the next few months.

Combining online and offline ideas based around a solid goal is paramount for marketers in today’s economic environment.
Check out what Coca-Cola did for their new bottle redesign for customers in France.

Executions like this one and others are great, but my only question is why do all the coolest and most forward integrated “marketing ideas” seemingly happen outside the US?

I have many reasons why I think this happens but what do you think?

Kit Kat Japan had a major dilemma: How do they stand out from the clutter on a crowded snack aisle at convenience stores.  They didn’t want to buy their way to the top for many reasons - number one being cost - so what to do?

They went to the drawing board and saw an opening that was ripe for the taking and swooped in and did something extremely innovative, creative and “completely out of the box.” (I hate using that term but it works well in this setting.)

When Japan Post was privatized, kit kat went to them with a proposal with the idea of kit kat mail.  This newly packaged candy let users write notes to the attended recipients and then literally drop them in the mail to be sent on the fly.  To mass market this product kit kat took it to the next level. They proposed selling the items right at the register of the post office to maximize exposure.  And in some cases, changed dingy post office locales into kit kat shop in shops.  But the kicker of the campaign had to do with timing.  They slated the launch to coincide with university admission examinations to maximize reach and exposure in an already well traffic local where users primary goal was to send something already.  The assumption being that if they made a superior product; tweaked the packaging so that the box facilitated an ease of use to ship and receive seamlessly; and made it accessible to everyone at a location where it would be relevant - this would equate to a successful new product launch.

O how right they were.  The campaign won the Media Grand Prix this year at Cannes; Kit Kat has grounded itself as Japan Post’s candy of choice at the retail post level; and the social component of the campaign still continues today.

A few weeks ago Razorfish had their 9th Annual Corporate Client Summit.  From what we viewed in the clips, it seemed like a cool party with some interesting topics and commentary.

Innovation Hell by Joe Crump, Group VP Strategy & Planning, Razorfish from Razorfish on Vimeo.

We at nostrum love that the Web 2.0 space will let others learn and expand their minds through literally viewing the presentation that was given.  In the clip attached, Razorfish’s Group VP of Strategic Planning, Joe Crump discusses the pros and cons of innovating and Razorfish’s insight into what it takes to get this type of work done.

While we here at nostrum would never compare ourselves to the likes of a Razorfish or any other corporate shop of that scope, we do share similar ideals and mantras.  We too believe that creativity does NOT equal innovation and that while a process may be warranted to get a job done, it is not a necessity.  For we feel (like Razorfish) that sometimes the process stymies the ideation and weakens the intended result(s).

Take a look at this presentation and big props to Joe Crump and his digital dream team over at Razorfish.

Thank you for sharing and we will be sharing some of our insights with the masses soon!

Clay’s take on how people utilize social networks to build communal harmony is remarkable. This NYU professor understands the social space and how sociology integrates into the equation more than most. This preeminent thinker should be listened to. I mean that’s why ted booked him.

Please visit his personal site and his comments re: the ted video below can be found here.

And if you’re so inclined his book Here Comes Everybody is a fantastic read. A true must have for any digital player in the industry. I was lucky enough to attend a lecture on the UCLA campus when he was doing the circuit promoting the book. Amazing mind and we here at nostrum are lucky to be able to access his work so freely.

I saw the phrase “lets make better mistakes tomorrow” a few weeks ago on FFFound and thought it was great upon first glance.  I kept mulling it over and didn’t think too much more of it after the initial discovery, except that it resonated on so many levels with how I see learning, even more so digital learning.

To me, it exemplified the 360 nature and fast paced trial and error approach of the social web.  So I kept it as a ‘lil personal find’ and honestly that’s where I was planning it would stay.  It wasn’t until I put it up as my screen saver and it happened to show prior to me starting my keynote presentation that I saw it was a serious conversation starter. People immediately started asking questions and commenting about it.  I got everything from what does that mean to people’s unsolicited interpretation to it.  For a small little quote that never was intended to be seen, I soon realized that it truly struck a chord with the audience and I needed to share it.

So after the meetings subsided for the week, I sent a mass email to the core nostrum team and asked them what it meant to them. I got back insights showcasing each individual’s unique style of thinking and how it resonated with them.

Each answer is unique to the individual and truly is the foundation of how nostrum sees the digital world and thinks within it.  The comments ran the gamut: a bit of skepticism, cynicism, idealism, pragmatism and understanding all with the overarching theme of doing it for the betterment of the project.

So take a peak at how the team sees that statement and tell us how it resonates with you? Read the rest of this entry »

Out here in LA LA Land, we had the honor of hosting another E3 and what Xbox showcased - IMO - blew the competition out of the water by leaps and bounds….

Please take a second to view this short intro and let me be one of the first to welcome you to what everyone will soon be gushing over…World Say Hello Milo…..now watch your brain be destroyed!!!

PS - ponder this after watching the clip…
Think about how levels your brain just experienced that whole scenario?
1.) Your Screen
2.) FaceBook
3.) YouTube
4.) Xbox’s filming of the interaction between Milo and Real Girl
5.) Milo himself

This recently jumped up the viral charts and we’re wondering what you guys think?

Our take: It does what it intended to do: Explain how to “shave down there” and makes it relatively simple using a clear and concise illustration and some witty puns.
Will it take off: Only time will tell…..
Is there a market for this: Hell yes…Why else would a major company pander to this.

Not sure if the man-liest of males will start trimming down there just because Gillette tells them too. But it does start the conversation…
What do you guys think???

This was done by Jason Theodor who is a creator, thinker, writer and strategist out of Canada.
We thought we would share his presentation for this type of approach to solving problems parallels Nostrum’s style.

Thank you for sharing Jason and hopefully we spread the message further. Please tell us your thoughts…..

How many of you have experienced this or something similar? i know I have many many times.

how do you deal with these types of issues? Tell us what you think?