BrandKnew September 2016 by Brand Knew

Branding matters. Because branding matters.

Scan these QR Codes to download the Brand Knew App IOS

Android

brandknewmag.com

Published by

09.16#50

Dear Friends: Come September and you are thinking of the iconic classic from the band Ventures. This issue too swings to a wonderful beat. We talk about VR and how that is taking a significant hold over marketing. We also touch upon the lessons brand owners can learn from Jeff Bezos and Pokemon. Raising the issue of a YouTuber taking over your marketing might both shock and please the branding fraternity while the feature on the Death of Brand Loyalty will be a harsh wake up call. Adam Grant’s spins a classic and shares his thoughts on bringing Original Ideas to life. We also ask marketers ARe they ready for Augmented Reality? The Internet has changed the Political Advertising landscape forever- understand how in this edition. It’s been a while since brands have been hitting and missing when it comes to marketing to Millennials. Get a taste of knowing the Psychology of Marketing to Millennials in this issue. We also share How to use colour to prove your point when communicating while the Conversation with Samee Mitkar of Kia really will surprise. Lot more of punch packed in this September edition and I am certain you will soak it all in. Till the next edition,

09 11 13 15 17

Best

21 Suresh Dinakaran @sureshdinakaran

@Brandknewmag

linkd.in/1dsjYaW

isdbranding

bit.ly/1h95tgO

isdglobaldubai

suresh@groupisd.com Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Country Head, Australia: Norbert D’Souza Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil Regional Director: Krishna Chugh Regional Director: Vinit Chugh Country Head, India: Sanjay Kothandaraman Digital/Social Media Marketing: Khaleef Mayowa Junaid Web Specialist: Prasanta Kumar Sahu Online Support: Mahendra Kumar Behera

Brand Knew is published by

23 27 31 35 37 39

For Advertising Enquiries: info@groupisd.com or call + 971 4 386 7728 All Copyright of the content in this issue rests fully & comprehensively with the respective contributors and/or media platforms at all times, as the case may be.

www.brandknew.groupisd.com | www.groupisd.com Download Mobile App from

CONTENTS

The Death Of Brand Loyalty: Cultural Shifts Mean Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gone Forever Why Bots Are Becoming Brandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Best Friend VheRe there is a will, there is a marketing way! The Secret to Cutting Your Facebook Ad Spend When It Comes to Market Leadership, Be the Gorilla How To Use Color To Prove Your Point, From A Data Viz Expert Getting your brand ready for augmented reality Passion driven Six secrets to true originality The Psychology of Successfully Marketing to Millennials [Infographic] What your brand can learn from Jeff Bezos and Pokemon Go Should you let a youtuber do your marketing? How will the Internet change political advertising? Book, Line & Sinker

The Death Of Brand Loyalty: Cultural Shifts Mean It’s Gone Forever By Kathleen Kusek

(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

In the old days, consumers would find a brand that did what it promised: perhaps Tide detergent to erase grass stains, Bounty paper towels to wipe up spills, or Frosted Flakes to start the school day right. In the absence of a particular brand failing or a dramatic price disparity from a branded competitor, consumers would continue to purchase the same brands week after week, month after month, year after year. In the busy, sometimes overwhelming lives of primary grocery shoppers, a brand earned its place in the pantry or laundry room or refrigerator, and consumer packaged goods manufacturers were rewarded with consistent purchase. If a café selling a $7 bowl of Frosted Flakes, or installation of a button to order toilet paper in every bathroom seems senseless and/or desperate, think about the implications of even slight erosion of loyalty to multibillion-dollar CPG concerns like Procter & Gamble PG +0.27%, Unilever , General Mills GIS +0.42% and Kellogg K +0.07%’s. Among the top 100 CPG brands, 90 experienced share declines, according to a 2015 study by Catalina, a leading digital and consumer loyalty firm. Take a moment to let that soak in …90% of the leading household goods brands are losing market share on consistently low-growth categories. The atrophy of certain segments of dusty categories like readyto-eat cereal due to decreased relevance is understandable.

Whereas cold cereal was once thought a quick breakfast that kids could prepare for themselves, it’s now an inconvenient, carb-heavy option that requires the presence of milk, generates dirty dishes, and can’t be transported out the front door. But declining market share among 90% of the top brands can’t be explained away by a 20-year evolution in breakfast behavior. The erosion of consumer loyalty among the most esteemed brands represents a changed philosophy of buying. The standard for brand switching is no longer the failure of a brand to perform but rather its inability to seem like an entirely new and interesting option at every single purchase cycle.

What Killed Brand Loyalty? Consumers are not inclined to be loyal to brands as they once were because the underlying value of loyalty itself is no longer particularly relevant. In the old world, loyalty was good and something we aspired to give and receive across all aspects of life . . . with friends, family, employers, dentists, doctors, bankers, and maybe even the federal government. But generational experiences have made sticking with “tried and true” a sucker bet. Loyalty means remaining the same. Not exploring alternatives. Putting your head in the sand and

brandknewmag.com

maybe even missing a beach party. Over the last three generations, major trends in marriage, religion, politics, and corporate America have reframed expectations for surviving and thriving in this world. The consistent theme is that change is not something to be feared or avoided. Change is inherently good. And the hankering for change is increasing at an accelerated rate. The historical concept of loyalty as a value is hinged in the desire for long-term connections and mutual trust on both sides of the equation. The reasons we believed that loyalty was an important social value are no longer valid. To wit, here are five trends where “new and different” are usurping “tried and true.”

-Work Generations ago, tenured employees were celebrated with gold watches and retirement parties. Then corporate layoffs became the more common method of exit. Both employers and employees learned that their relationship was more practical than sentimental. The labor force has gradually gotten more comfortable with a new standard. It would be tough to find a millennial today with the remotest interest in working for any company for 30 years. In the spirit of “you’re not the boss of me,” more people are self-employed than ever before. Today, 15.5 million people are currently self-employed as independent contractors, according to the latest report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The trend is projected to accelerate rapidly, with 60 million people (or 40% of the total workforce) working for themselves by 2020.

-Religion Many no longer feel the need to commit to a dogma. Spiritual beliefs are fluid, with “nothing in particular” as the most popular answer to a Pew Research Center survey on religion. Adults who say they are atheists or agnostic now constitute 23% of the population, up from 17% just 10 years ago. One third of millennials say the same. On a practical level, this trend is not just about the beliefs themselves but about behaviors and connections associated with a particular place of worship. On an episode of the show 30 Rock, the character played by Tina Fey was once asked her religion. She answered, “I pretty much do whatever Oprah says.” Why go to a communal service when Super Soul Sunday is so readily available to view alone?

-Romance More than 50% of millennials grew up with divorced parents, and 41% grew up with parents who were never married at all. Both they and their parents know firsthand that “happily ever after” is just for old Disney movies. But beyond the stats is the change in perceptions from viewing broken relationships as failures, instead of shared experiences on life’s journey. Families are blended and iterative. No need for judgment of the new normal.

-Corporate America We have all seen some fairly appalling behavior among once-revered corporate executives and politicians. Scandals

in those arenas certainly aren’t new, but due to the 24-hour news cycle, more people know about more impropriety than was ever before possible. Millennials particularly tend to distrust the government (82%), the press (88%), and financial institutions and corporations (86%). The belief that big is bad is directly correlated to why long-established products and services are suspect compared to start-ups and innovators, and the opinions of online strangers are more persuasive than corporate endorsements.

-Thinking Itself We are literally no longer wired to stick with what we know. Daily use of technology has actually changed the way brains work, disproportionately so among the generation that learned to think with it. David Levy, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington, calls the phenomenon “popcorn brain,” describing brains so accustomed to the constant stimulation of electronic multitasking that consumers attempt to replicate the experience offline, where things “pop” at a much slower pace.

Change Wins The theme of all of these trends could be characterized as distrust, but the reality is actually sanguine. “New” is better than “known.” This is where the rubber hits the road for established CPG players, who have long lead times, massive capital requirements, and public shareholders. Whipping up constant and meaningful news about 100-year-old products is not easy. So while initiatives like Kellogg’s Time Square Café, Tide’s direct-to-consumer detergent pods, and shampoo bottles with technology that liberates every last drop from the bottle may not be transformative, but they might still be worthwhile.

High Stakes There is $6.2 trillion globally in near-constant play due to accelerated brand shifting according to a report from Accenture ACN -0.70%. Two thirds of consumers surveyed said that the number of companies or brands they consider when making purchase decisions has increased significantly compared with 10 years ago. The preference for “new and different” is well known to the Procter & Gambles, General Mills, and Kimberly-Clarks of the world that are making acquisitions, unloading what can’t be resuscitated, and funding their own VCs. They recognize that establishing and maintaining ongoing connections between consumers and their brands is becoming less and less realistic. Instead, those companies must continue to transform their offerings to treat each and every purchase occasion as a victory and invest in innovation that meets a constant need for change. Lifetime consumer loyalty is no longer a valid goal in the world of CPG because as much as it suits manufacturers, it’s simply no longer meaningful to consumers. I have been deeply and happily immersed in marketing strategy, consumer research, advertising and integrated consumer communications for nearly two decades. Despite the potential fame and veneration of alternate career paths, working for and with top brands, has proved intellectually challenging and richly rewarding.

Why Bots Are Becoming Brands’ Best Friend By Beerud Sheth

All over the Internet, bots are being heralded as the new apps. CNN, 1-800-FLOWERS, Hewlett-Packard, and The Wall Street Journal are among the marquee brands using bots to interact with customers. The hype is real. Bots are changing everything. With a bot, customers will be able to do everything they can do on a website or app. Bots will affect more aspects of our daily life than websites or apps ever did. Mobile devices are already ubiquitous, and bots will be more ubiquitous than apps. As bots take over, they will become the face of a brand. The shift to bots will transform the way businesses interact with, market to, and advertise to their customers.

The Customer Experience Brand bots can help users find the right product from the brand’s portfolio—whether it’s a news story, a new vacuum cleaner, or an item of clothing. For example, Sephora recently became the first beauty company to launch a bot that helps users find the right product from its extensive list of SKUs. Users can ask the bot for makeup tips, product recommendations, and reviews. Most importantly, users can make purchases directly through the app. This bot is almost like having a close friend who picks out items for you. For brands, this can be a great opportunity to upsell and cross-sell products. Each bot-generated message is sent to one unique individual, and every customer interaction can be customized. This requires bots to capture context, build user profiles, and maintain customer history. For example, when chatting with a pizza company’s bot, a user can order pizza—or just about anything else off the menu—by saying “usual” soon after the user has established some history with the brand. Early bots with such capabilities have received mixed reviews. Take Domino’s experimentation with taking pizza orders by emoji, for example. But as bots continue to develop, they are becoming the easiest way for brands to tailor their service to each customer.

Brand bots will have the ability to handle complaints and issues from existing customers. A bot that sells you a pizza but does not address a complaint that it arrived 45 minutes late will disappoint customers quickly. Like a human customer service representative, a bot that says, “Sorry, not my department” will make a poor impression. Chat is a better means of interaction for most people. Although bots may not (yet) be able to handle customer complaints, they can gather critical information for a human customer service rep—reducing or eliminating phone hold time for customers.

Marketing and Advertising Messaging platforms have more ways to monetize than apps did. Unlike apps, messaging platform businesses will be able to pay to push content. Some messaging platforms are already experimenting with sponsored messages. Facebook Messenger will charge businesses to send re-engagement messages to people who have already started a conversation with them. As more companies build bots, the market will become saturated. Search and discovery will become a challenge, but bot search engines, bot stores, and reviews will come. Sponsored messages and paid referrals will inevitably follow. However, installing a bot is easier and less expensive than installing an app. Most users use no more than a dozen apps every day. Consumers don’t want to clutter their phones with apps from every company they interact with. It’s far easier to consume lots of bots than it is to consume lots of apps. So, bot distribution economics will be much closer to the Web ecosystem than the apps.

On the Bandwagon Today’s market is saturated with bot-builder platforms. Dozens of startups offer bots for Microsoft, Facebook, WeChat, and more. Some companies offer template-based bots, making it simple to create a customer service bot or a customer satisfaction survey bot. These are useful but have limited capabilities. Other bot-builders offer bots with a wider range of capabilities. As bots replace apps and websites, they will become the first, last and sometimes only connection consumers have in a transaction with a brand. This brings both rewards and risks. The opportunities bots provide are unparalleled— higher engagement, greater consumer reach, and intensity of user engagement. Though the challenges to brands integrating with bots are vast, those brands that don’t jump on bandwagon risk getting replaced by competitors.

Beerud Sheth is founder and CEO of Gupshup, a leading messaging bot platform, used by 30K+ developers and handling nearly 4 billion messages per month.

, l l i w a s i e ! r y e a h t w e g R n i e t e Vh k r a m a s i e r e h t

TO IN 5 WAYS a Titova By Elen

V I R T UA E T A R O CORP

ARKETIN M R U O INTO Y REALITY

G PLAN

groupisd.com

According to the Digi-Capital, virtual reality (VR) will be a $30 billion market by 2020. And while the technology still requires some work and testing, there are ways to take advantage of this trend early and use VR for your startup right now. Companies like IKEA, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and the New York Times are already.

1. Make a 360 video. 360 videos capture everything around the operator, allowing those watching to feel a full interaction. If you’re watching this kind of video from your smartphone, you can move your device and the picture in the video will move as well, just like you were there. If you use a VR Headset, you can move the image while you’re moving your head - like in real life. If you’re watching from the laptop or computer, the video can be moved by simply dragging it via touchpad or mouse. Because the 360 experience is pretty new, these videos usually get more attention than regular videos. Some of them get up to 15 million views. And some companies are already using 360 videos for branding purposes, making immersive interviews, test drives, tours and other kinds of content that can be viewed via computer, phone or VR headset. For example, The North Face is offering the chance to join a mountain climber adventure in Nepal. Making a 360 video is not too difficult. Some companies make special cameras for 360 videos. There’s the Samsung Gear 360, Kodak sp360 and Ricoh Theta S. Prices for these vary between $250 and $500. After shooting is done, the video needs to be edited in special software, such as FinalCut. Or, if you’re not into shooting and editing yourself, you can hire a company to do it for you. Just google “360 video production.”

2. Brand Google Cardboard for your customers. Google Cardboard is the most popular and affordable VR headset. You can buy it online or download schemes for free, and create it yourself. Some companies have started to produce their own cardboards with a branded logo, and you can as well. If you create a 360 video, you can double the brand experience through branded cardboard viewing. Even if you don’t create videos, you can still reach a tech-savvy audience by branding headsets. The New York Times took it a step further by giving cardboards away. The newspaper announced last year that it will be shipping free cardboards to all its print subscribers. Later on, when the New York Times VR experience was launched, subscribers already had a branded tool to view the content. Prices for branded Google Cardboards vary depending on material, colors and the quantity of the order but usually range anywhere between $1 and $10 per 1,000 pieces. Search for “branded google cardboards” to find manufacturers.

3. Turn your package into VR glasses. You can also create your own cardboard headset out of your packaging like McDonald’s did. For its thirtieth birthday,

the company launched Happy Goggles, a Happy Meal box that transformed into VR cardboard glasses. The project was launched in Sweden and received great acclaim. Coca-Cola did the same with packaging for Coke that transforms into VR glasses. And Budweiser did it another way, turning a VR headset into the package. For the NBA playoffs, the company developed a special branded packaging based on VR headset. So their customers received both beer and VR headsets to watch VR content at the same time. For this kind of project, consider hiring a marketing company or working directly with custom cardboard makers.

4. Create a VR game. Games have been broadly used by small and big businesses to support brand and customer engagement. Some restaurants and cafes provide branded arcades, where clients can earn points they can use to redeem discounts. Disney and other entertainment companies launched games related to released cartoons, movies and popular characters. You too can create a game in VR. It can be a simple arcade with your branding, like McDonald’s did by launching “Slope Stars” - a VR Game that allows you to have a skiing experience and earn points. Or it can be an advanced game directly dedicated to your brand like IKEA has done. The IKEA VR experience lets you walk in the Ikea kitchen, where you can open doors, walk around and explore the space. IKEA even added the ability to cook their famous meatballs in the VR kitchen. Like other games, prices depend on your requirements and who you hire. Search for “VR games development services” for a list of companies.

5. Create a VR app. VR apps are available for customers to use right now. Automobile companies create a VR experience in auto showrooms, where customers can walk around, look at cars and even take a test drive. To support the movie, The Walk, Sony Pictures released an app where you experience walking on the rope stretched in between Word Trade Center towers. Just like with all VR games or apps, prices vary depending on your requirements. Search for “VR app development services.” VR may be new, but it’s already opening opportunities for new and existing businesses. And even though current technologies are still a step or two away from breaking into mass market, now is a great time to start paying attention to the VR market. Now, you can master the tools, and build brand loyalty before your competition does. Elena Titova is a serial entrepreneur and user experience expert based in New York City. She has been working in fintech, web and app development startups. Her areas of interest include Virtual Reality, business strategy and creative problem solving.

The Secret to Cutting Your

Facebook Ad Spend

By Cas McCullough

Are your Facebook ads costing you too much money? Do you want to run successful campaigns and not break the bank on advertising?

• To feel attractive and desirable • To sleep better and feel more able to cope

The answer is not so obvious. And it starts with creative use of your blog. In this article, you’ll discover how to reduce your ad spend on Facebook.

Write five blog posts that will captivate the interests of your target audience.

#1: Write Five Focused Blog Posts

She also identifies the following factors that keep her audience awake at night:

The first step is to focus on what’s meaningful and important to your target audience so you can identify with their struggles, hopes, dreams, and fears.

• Their babies

Then write five blog posts addressing these issues. Make sure your articles zero in on a need people have right before they look for a product or service like yours. Research each topic so each post is supremely useful, and imagine how you want your prospective buyer to feel after reading it.

• Money, now that they’re down to one income

Make your posts practical. You might create a cheat sheet or checklist, or share easy-to-understand instructional posts.

• How to love your post-baby body, no matter what size jeans you wear

Here’s an example:

• Am I coping? The question every new mom asks

Jen, a fitness coach who works with women after childbirth, isn’t sure whether the women she works with are more motivated by how they look or how they feel. She wants to write some blog posts that address both aspects to see which resonates more with her audience. She concludes that women in her target audience have the following aspirations: • To bounce back to their pre-pregnancy weight • To feel less overwhelmed • To have more energy and feel like they’re on top of this mom thing

• Worries about the future • Their relationships with their partners • Feeling overwhelmed and inadequate Jen decides to write blog posts on the following topics: • How to get more sleep as a new mom

• When you feel like you’re hanging on by a thread as a new mom • How to find your post-baby mojo for better health, energy, and sleep

#2: Identify Your Hero Blog Post Most blogs usually include one post that attracts more likes, comments, and Google hits than any other. This post is your hero post. It’s your secret weapon for reducing your ad spend because it’s the one that draws the most eyeballs to your website.

brandknewmag.com

The more successful the blog post, the better your ads will perform and the more targeted visitors you’ll attract to your website.

post so you’re not wasting money advertising to people who aren’t interested in your product or service. This can dramatically lower your cost per click for cold prospects.

To identify your hero post, you’ll want to set up an ad campaign to advertise each of the five blog posts separately. Make sure you’ve set up your Facebook website ad pixel before you activate your campaign and create conversion pixels for each of your five blog posts. For each ad include an inviting description of the blog post, a stunning image or video, and a link back to your website. Check that your headlines are compelling, shorter than 70 characters, and relevant to your content. Make sure that your images or videos are enticing and relevant to the content. Schedule your ads to run for two days each and deliver your ad to the following custom audiences: Your current email list subscribers People who’ve liked your Facebook page Your current website custom audience if you already have a pixel in place. (If you don’t, there’s a WordPress plugin called the AdChief plugin, which makes it easy for you to install one.) Note: If you’re just starting out and have only just placed your ad pixel on your website, you can focus your initial campaign on your Facebook page fans and email list to start with. You’ll build your website custom audience as you drive traffic to your website through your blog post ads. This testing stage takes 2 days per blog post; that’s 10 days for 5 blogs. At the end of the 10 days, look at your Facebook ad stats to see the click-through rate and the cost per click for each post. Your hero post is the one that has the highest click-through rate and the lowest cost per click.

If you want your cold audience to closely match your current website audience and page fans, tell Facebook you want your lookalike audience to be within 1% of your website visitors.

Continue to Create and Test Your Blog Content When you create content that matters to your audience and advertise your blog posts as a first step in your sales funnel, you can identify which topics draw the most eyeballs to your website and reduce your cost per click in your ad campaigns. The more content you create, the more you can widen the mouth of your sales funnel. You never know; you might identify a new hero blog post that outperforms your initial choice. A side benefit to advertising this way is that you can show a direct link between blog content and sales without spending thousands on link tracking software. You can also use your metrics to show C-suite managers the effectiveness of your content marketing.

Conclusion Now that you have a steady flow of both cold and warm prospects who have shown an interest in your content, you can retarget your website custom audience with an offer and nurture them towards the sale through retargeted ads. Notice how the first blog post was much more successful at driving people to the website with 200 click-throughs? Also notice the price per click is a lot lower than the other blog posts? It would make sense, then, to use that blog post as the hero post.

#3: Advertise Your Hero Blog Post to a Lookalike Audience Since you’ve just determined which content is most popular with your current audience, Facebook can use that information to identify other users who are likely to be interested in your business. As you create your lookalike audience, set your audience profile to be within 1% of people who visited your hero blog

Consider creating a subscriber offer that provides extra value to your prospective buyers, something that leads them further down the path towards buying from you. What about a webinar, a challenge, an ebook, or free download? Use the data you already have from your blog post ads to determine what your prospective buyers would value most. What do you think? Which blog topics can you test in Facebook ads? Will it help you refine your lookalike audience? Cas is a content marketing strategist, author, podcaster and founder of Brilliant aContent and writally.com, a tech startup to help business bloggers create highquality content in half the time.

When It Comes to Market Leadership,

Be the Gorilla By Andy Rachleff

In their outstanding book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema argue the only way to achieve market leadership is through a singular focus on one of three strategies: Product leadership, cost leadership or customer intimacy leadership. The most common of the three strategies pursued by technology companies is product leadership. Here’s how you can achieve it, and why you need it to win big.

to deliver a product that addressed what customers actually wanted.

It’s Not First to Market, It’s First to Product/ Market Fit

Fifty years ago, General Electric published research that demonstrated in almost every market over the long term, the market leader ends up with a 40% market share, the number two player garners a 20% share, number three earns 10% and the rest of the market shares the remaining 30%. These numbers hold to this day, except for network effects businesses like online marketplaces where market leaders command more than a 90% share.

Contrary to popular opinion, product leadership is not synonymous with being first to market. In reality, few market leaders were the first to introduce products into the markets they now lead. Rather, the market leader is the first to hit product-market fit. In other words, they were the first company

Intuit was the 37th company to introduce a personal finance tool with Quicken. Google was at least the 10th search engine. Oracle was by no means the first relational database. Apple was a late entrant into the MP3 player market with the iPod. Time after time, the winner is the first company to deliver the food the dogs want to eat.

groupisd.com

The Virtuous Cycles of Market Leadership

handsomely.

Leading market share translates into a number of incredible benefits. First and foremost, the market leader earns exponentially higher margins. That enables them to reinvest in their business at a more rapid rate, which further separates them from the pack.

If You Focus on Your Competition, You Risk Becoming the Chimp

Market leadership provides a larger megaphone, which allows the leader to better set the agenda for what customers should expect from their suppliers. Corporate partners much prefer to work with category leaders, which can provide enormous endorsement and distribution benefits. Market leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to recruiting the best people. And finally, market leaders are able to raise money more A VIRTUOUS CYCLE easily and cheaply than their competitors. By now, I EXISTS FOR THE LEADER hope you see a pattern.

THAT IS NOT AVAILABLE TO THE WANNABES, ALLOWING THE LEADER TO INCREASE ITS LEAD.

Once a company has achieved product market fit, it is extremely difficult to dislodge it, even with a better or less expensive product. Dropbox is a great example. It continues to lead its category despite Google and others significantly dropping their prices. Dropbox maintains its lead because it was the first to product-market fit and continues to innovate. The leader usually only needs a product that’s good enough, not better than new entrants to maintain its market supremacy.

You Have To Tack If You’re Losing Sailors know you can’t overtake your competitor on the same wind. It’s no different in business. You need to tack (i.e. take a different path) if you want THE SECOND PLACE to overtake the leader.

PLAYER’S ONLY CHANCE TO WIN IS TO CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF ITS MARKET.

Google, Facebook and Nintendo are three great examples. All entered their markets after there was an entrenched leader, but in each case, they didn’t build a better product. They built a different type of product. In Google’s case, Yahoo had forsaken search to become a content company. It even outsourced its search to Google. However, what really propelled Google’s success was its focus on self-service text ads rather than display ads that had to be sold through a direct sales force. Facebook didn’t build a better product to beat Myspace. It built a different type of product. Ironically, Facebook was the first social network to offer privacy options, which turned out to have vast appeal to college kids. That’s all Facebook needed as a beachhead. The rest is history. Nintendo was rapidly losing market share in an all out war with Microsoft and Sony over who could create the most powerful graphics in the video game business. Rather than continue to compete on Microsoft’s terms, Nintendo tacked and introduced Wii, a completely different type of product that appealed to a different audience. The pivot paid off

Tacking is not the way most people think about attacking from behind. Strategic consulting firms have built huge businesses advising laggards on how they can better implement their industry’s best practices to improve their shares. Unfortunately that seldom, if ever, enables their clients to overtake the leader. Andy Grove drew incredible accolades for his book Only the Paranoid Survive. It created an entire generation of executives who were maniacally focused on their competition. One of the many reasons I so respect Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, is his willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. In one of my recent Stanford Graduate School of Business classes where he guest lectured, Reed suggested DELIGHTING THE that being paranoid about CUSTOMER ALWAYS competition is the last thing YIELDS BETTER RETURNS you want to do because THAN COUNTERING it distracts you from the OR COPYING A primary job at hand: COMPETITOR. IT’S JUST A Delighting the customer.

LOT HARDER TO DO.

You can always distinguish the market leader from the laggards by their messaging. In his book The Gorilla Game, Geoffrey Moore (also the author of the groundbreaking Crossing The Chasm) described the major players in markets using primate terms: Gorillas, Chimps and Monkeys. Gorillas are the market leaders. They are easy to spot because they promote the efficacy of their approach to grow their market. Chimps promote a different product approach to address the same customers, usually without much success. Monkeys attempt to clone the Gorilla’s product approach and usually describe what they do relative to the Gorilla, often with a lower price and exaggerated performance claims. This seldom leads to more than modest success. I am intimately familiar with this dynamic because I’ve seen it replay in so many markets, across so many generations of technology. Don’t take my or Geoffrey Moore’s word for it. Think about the tech markets with which you are most familiar and consider who among the competitors fit into each category. You will see the patterns of Gorillas, Chimps and Monkeys emerge for yourself. The ultimate benefit of being a technology market leader is you’re usually worth more than all of your competitors combined. That’s why, when it comes to hyper-growth technology companies, I subscribe to the Ricky Bobby philosophy:

If you’re not first, you’re last. Andy Rachleff is Executive Chairman of Wealthfront, an automated investment service. Prior to Wealthfront, Rachleff co-founded and was general partner of Benchmark Capital. He also teaches courses on technology entrepreneurship at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

How To Use Color To Prove Your Point, From A Data Viz Expert THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOR THEORY IS A WELL-EXPLORED TOPIC IN ART AND DESIGN. BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO INFORMATION DESIGN? By Meg Miller

When working with large amounts of data, precision is key. The same is true of the art of data visualization: size, shape, shade, hue—the tiniest details of a visualization can radically alter how information is perceived and understood. Which is why color is an important aspect to consider (read: obsess over) when it comes to information design. “The overarching lesson for data design is that the color is there to help you understand the data,” says Maureen Stone a color expert and research manager at the data visualization company Tableau. “It’s there as a visual cue for what the data means. So I always tell designers the first thing they need to do is figure out what is the color doing? What is its function?”

Stone’s job is to work with information designers at Tableau to create and chose the best colors for data visualizations. She runs a lab within the R&D arm of the company that is dedicated to researching color specifically as it relates to data. Lately, they’ve been applying their color research to creating Designers may think the color palette options in the their use of color is latest version of the company’s data viz software, Tableau 10.0. meaningless, but it When I ask Stone over the phone what type of function color might have in terms of data visualization, she points

can have emotional side effects that influence how readers understand the data.

brandknewmag.com

out a few common ones: Is it being used to discriminate between categories? Or is it assigning value along a scale, using different shades of the same color to indicate more or less of something? Perhaps its only function is to serve as an unassuming background color against which color-coded categories can “pop.” Determining the function is a first necessary step, but that decision opens up a whole world of more specific choices that can profoundly impact how the visualization is perceived. Here are the most important considerations, according to Stone.

bar in yellow is consistent with our color-food associations. Switching the colors—so that broccoli is represented by yellow and corn is green—would be confusing. Another very common example hails from heat map-style graphics, like this one made by Trulia to visualize commute times, where red is associated with negative conditions and green or blue are associated with the positive. Context counts, too. If you’re charting this quarter’s earnings from the computer giant Apple, you’d do well to color the data gray to correspond with the brand and its shiny devices, rather than the red or green associated with the fruit. Some concepts, of course, aren’t strongly associated with a particular color. Designers might interpret that as an opportunity for free creative reign, but Stone sees it as a chance to use data to dig deeper under the surface level of our word-color associations. As part of a research project from 2015, Stone and fellow Tableau research scientist Vidya Setlur came up with an algorithm that generates “semantically meaningful colors” by measuring color name frequencies from Google n-grams, then retrieving a representative color from Google Images.

Due to a color’s chroma—or measurement of colorfulness by dimension—it can look different at different sizes.

SEMANTICS, SEMANTICS One of the key things to keep in mind when choosing color for a data visualization is making sure the colors are “semantically resonant,” as Stone puts it, with the data they are representing. Put simply, that means that designers need to pay heed to the relationship between a color and the thing that the color is being used for.

An n-gram search for the word “yellow,” for example, comes back with a strong association with “taxi,” among others. A Google image search for taxi, meanwhile, will bring up photos of various colored taxis (some newer cabs in New York, for example, are lime green) but with a higher percentage of yellow cabs. Stone and Setlur created an algorithm that “clusters” all of those images together and comes up with the strongest color match: in this case, a bright yellow. Even if you don’t happen to have your own linguistic color algorithm, you can usually deduce if there is a correlation from between concept and color. It’s only smart to use it.

The graph on the left shows colors mapped out in color space. The colors that are close together, like green and yellow, are also perceptually similar. Tableau

BE DISCERNING

In heat map-style graphics, red is associated with negative conditions and green or blue are associated with the positive.via Trulia

A simple example of this is a bar graph comparing the price of vegetables. Rendering the broccoli bar in green and the corn

When it comes to colors used for data science, you need to discriminate: The colors should be different enough from one another so that they’re easy to tell apart in a visualization. When choosing colors for data, Stone maps them out using color space, or a modeling tool that shows the full range of colors. If the colors are close together in color space—green and yellow are right beside each other, for instance—they’re also perceptually close. And it’s best not to use two colors that are perceptually close together in a data viz.

“What we discover is as you see colors at small sizes they become less colorful,” Stone says.

One real-world example of this idea comes from a 2015 infographic showing the most comprehensive “tree of life” to date. In it, thousands of lines on a graph represent every known species on earth—from the most basic bacteria to the most complex of metazoa. To give a very detailed glance at the evolution of life in a comparatively tiny graph, the researchers behind the project seemingly chose the colors to contrast with one another. The red of bacteria is beside the blue of metazoa—two colors on the opposite ends of the color spectrum. The colors help to clarify the huge amount of data.

COLORS HAVE AFFECT It’s no surprise that colors can evoke emotional connections— blues and purples are perceived as more pleasant than yellows, for example. Bright green can be seen as aggressive or playful. As Stone puts it, “everyone in the design realm knows that color has affect, and they have examples and rules” based on that knowledge. “One question is: Even on a bar chart, does that count?”

This “tree of life” graphic clarifies a large amount of data by using colors that are visually distinct from one another.via opentreeoflife.org

SIZE MATTERS When choosing or creating color for data, Stone says it’s important to remember what she calls the “paint chip effect.” Logically, if you want to paint your wall a bright yellow, the color you choose is going to look much brighter once it’s covering an entire room than it does on a little paint chip. Similarly, a color will look different as a tiny block on a map legend than it does covering an entire state on a map. “What we discover is as you see colors at small sizes they become less colorful,” Stone says. The variable here is the color’s chroma, or measurement of colorfulness by dimension. An electric blue racing stripe, for example, has a high chroma, while a muted grayish-blue has a low chroma. When used at a smaller size, the chroma for the latter would need to be increased so that it’s bright enough to be distinct. The electric blue, when enlarged, would need a slightly decreased chroma so it doesn’t “yell at you,” as Stone puts it. The following infographic about the amount of nuclear weapons in the world is rendered in yellow, black, and white—negative colors to match a sober subject.u/drwtsn via Reddit

The answer, according to Stone, is yes. In conjunction with researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, she conducted a study that asked people to color bar charts so that they conveyed certain feelings, like calm, playfulness, or negativity. Their research showed certain patterns: People selected more muted colors for a calmer bar chart and brighter colors (high in chroma) for a playful chart. Meanwhile, they chose dark colors to convey negativity. Using this information to color charts in a way that is consistent with the data can emphasize the message being conveyed. Coloring a chart in a palette that induces calmness may not be as functionally important to data visualization as color distinctness or semantic correlation. But considering all of these factors together will help people absorb and understand data more easily, Stone says. Designers may think that their use of color is meaningless, but it could have emotional side effects that influence how readers understand the data. Take this infographic visualizing the number of atomic weapons in the world in a given year. The designer, Reddit user drwtsn, chose the colors yellow, black, and white—colors commonly associated with negativity—instead of a pleasant palette of mint green and robin egg blue or the bright reds or intense oranges you might associate with nuclear war. As Stone shows through her research, the fascinating science behind color theory isn’t dulled by the cold mathematics of big data. Instead, it marries art and science in a way that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Meg Miller is an assistant editor at Co.Design covering art, technology, and design.

Getting your brand ready for augmented reality Creative technologist and asia-pacific head of ar provider zappar reveals why brands need to start getting serious about their ar marketing strategy and content By Azadeh Williams

In the past year, there’s been an augmented reality explosion as more brands embrace the technology offerings to boost customer engagement and create a buzz around their products.

In the retail space, such as Ebay’s new virtual store, where AR content involves converting textiles and flexible garments into 3D, Francis admitted there have traditionally been limitations, making it a manual process.

Loreal’s Makeup Genius, Pepsi’s ‘blippable’ product labels, Ebay’s new virtual store in partnership with Myer are just a handful of examples showing how brands are adopting AR as a significant part of their marketing mix. And the exponential popularity of AR-enabled mobile game, Pokemon Go, is proof that people are more than ready to embrace this new and exciting space.

“But there is much better scanning technology coming in and you will also see phones coming out in the next year with multiple cameras and infra-red built into them, so we can create 3D artifacts more easily and quickly,” he said.

“The director of the Life of Pi put it perfectly when he was asked why he shot the film principally in 3D: He said we see the world in 3D, so why shouldn’t we be telling our stories in 3D,” creative technologist and the Asia-Pacific head of AR provider Zappar, David Francis, told CMO. “From a brand perspective, this approach just makes so much more sense to us.” Having been in the AR game for more than five years, Francis said the success of AR is not about the technology itself, but about generating great content. “If you look at augmented reality games right now and companies like Magic Leap and all the acquisitions made by Apple, Facebook and Google, it’s huge,” he said. “But a lot of that is around hardware and software. Now while that’s all awesome and it forms the architecture and infrastructure for us moving on computing as we currently know it, the big thing I believe is missing is understanding how to create effective content.” According to Francis, people have historically tried to blame the technology for a lack of engagement, or shoehorn the AR space into a sort of programmatic platform, using existing video content online and repurposing it. “But if consumers get to the other side and the content isn’t exclusive in a way that is great for the AR space, people feel let down,” he said. “So when people ask, does AR even work, I say well if you put out a bad TVC, it totally doesn’t work. People will watch it once and turn off halfway through. It’s the same with AR: If you don’t put compelling content on the other side, then people won’t come back to your offering.”

“In terms of the user experience, it’s a trade-off between having the 2D photo realism, which is what we’re used to, and actually having a spatial understanding of the scale and shape which we can imagine wearing or as an object in our home.”

Getting your brand ready for AR Brands serious about remaining competitive and relevant need to start getting their AR content organised, Francis claimed. To do this, he advised marketers to think about creating 3D repositories for their brands. “You may already have 3D content used in CGI or TV ads, so it’s a matter of gathering all those 3D assets and understanding that the next interface is going to be so much about 3D, it’s important to start preparing now,” he said. Zappar is also looking to make content creation easier for brands who are serious about adding AR to their marketing mix, and recently rolled out a set of AR and VR tools called ZapWorks. To date, the company has produced campaigns for the likes of Rovio/Angry Birds, Coca Cola, PEZ and Warner Brothers. In addition to AR creation, ZapWorks supports the creation of VR experiences for devices such as Google Cardboard, and Francis expected the two technologies will increasingly be presented together. “With this next wave of mobile occurring, we need to reimagine what is possible and create more immersive content that is made for this new canvas – even extending beyond AR to short-form VR,” Francis added. “Our mission is to truly democratise AR for the first time and we are letting the entire ZapWorks suite loose.”

Passion driven By Special Correspondent, BrandKnew

When you spend almost three decades in the automobile industry in multiple markets, you may get the feeling that a sense of deja vu is not far behind. But, prepare to be surprised and pleasantly at that. Meet Samee Ahmed Mitkar, National Marketing Head for the KIA brand in the UAE at its exclusive dealership Al Majid Motors, and you realise what passion and focus can do. Here, in a freewheeling conversation, Samee shares with us how both him and the KIA brand walk the talk on the ‘Power to Surprise ‘ BK. You have huge automobile industry experience spanning more than two and a half decades- what attracted you to this industry? A certain degree of uncertainty prevails at a time you join any particular industry. I have joined the industry to start a career with very little knowledge of the field. The interest and the passion developed with the time to a level that now I feel this is the only industry I enjoy working with. BK. What is the overall car market size of the UAE in terms of number of units? Roughly estimated figures indicate that the size of total new car market is between four hundred thousand and four hundred and fifty thousand. BK. Kia in the UAE is competing with established heavyweight brands like Toyota, Nissan, Honda etc. apart from Group brand Hyundai- how has the journey been so far? Since 2008, Kia Motors has consistently been one of the

world’s fastest-growing car manufacturers. In 2015, Kia once again recorded its best-ever global sales results, delivering more than three million vehicles (3.05 million units, shipment basis). For the first half of 2016, Kia reached its best-ever global sales mark of 1,470,822 units (retail sales basis). These figures indicate the quantitative growth as well as the qualitative level of acceptance of Kia as a reliable brand against the well established Japanese and other brands. Kia is focused on sustainable global growth, which will be achieved through a consistent stream of new and refreshed models and increased investment into R&D. BK. Over the last few years, the focus at KIA changed to a great emphasis on making well designed cars- your hiring the likes of Peter Schreyer (ex Audi & Volkswagen) was a step in the direction- what prompted that thinking and when you look back, how do you evaluate the success/progress made? Kia has achieved significant qualitative improvements in recent years, with an award-winning, design-led product range that enjoys more recognition every year. Design is a key driver behind Kia’s past, present and future successes’ thanks to Peter Schreyer’s contribution to it. The Kia brand remained at 74th place on Interbrand’s2015 list of the top 100 Best Global Brands. Kia also rose to 35th place on Interbrand’s list of the 50 Best Global Green Brands in 2014 (2015 figure not available). A range of new ecofriendly products – and future investment in environmentallyresponsible technologies – will help Kia continue to play an active role in shaping the future of mobility.

groupisd.com

BK. UAE is an expat oriented market. Hence, re sale value of cars is a major decision influencer when buying cars. Do you see this being an impediment to the Kia brand for increasing sales & market share as a lot of the preference is given to brands that command better re sale value? How are you addressing this consumer perception? One of the major factors, beside the beauty & the quality of the product that we proud of, is the warranty that we offer with the range of Kia vehicles. Kia offers five years 150,000 kms manufacturers global warranty, against any manufacturing defect. In other words the brand reflects the confidence it has on the quality of vehicles we produce, which is a key factor that dictates the residual value of the vehicle when it comes to pre-owned vehicles market. In addition, the features that we offer are higher in each segment that helps retain the good resale value of the vehicle. BK. This market is very tactical, discount and price conscious. How has it affected your brand building strategy? You are right. The task is very challenging as you are forced to compete with the heavyweight brands and retain the brand value at the same time. To encounter the challenge, Kia offers the product which is based on the value for money. Stylish, well equipped, vibrant, reliable and Hi-tech featured vehicles stand out in the segment. New Sportage, Optima (that includes hybrid version), Sorento, Carnival or even latest edition of premium sedan Cadenza are awarded for its Design, Road Safety, Quality etc in various part of the globe. Refer the first half of 2016 achievement below, the success which is rare to see in Auto industry. 2016 : New Awards • 2016 June: Ranked #1 in the 2016 JD Power IQS: Sportage (Small SUV) and Soul (Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle) recognized as best-in-segment • 2016 June: Highest quality brands in the US, Strategic Vision • 2016 June: Highest among all popular brands in 2016, AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Awards • 2016 May: Car of the Year, Diesel Car Magazine UK (Sportage) • 2016 April: 2016 Best Family Car of the Year, Motoring TV, Canada (Optima)

• 2016 April: 2016 Best Crossover, Motoring TV, Canada (Sorento) • 2016 April: Kia Sportage, Top Safety Pick Plus (TSP+) from IIHS • 2016 March: Kia Optima, Top Safety Pick Plus (TSP+) from IIHS • 2016 March: 2016 Middle East Car of the Year (Sportage: Best Small SUV) • 2016 March: 2016 Red Dot Awards (Optima: Best of the Best, Sportage: Winner) • 2016 February: Australian Automobile Association (Optima: Medium Car under $50,000, Sorento: Family Wagon, Sorento: AWD SUV $50,00 – $65,00) • 2016 February: Wheels Magazine, UAE (Optima: Best Saloon) • 2016 February: Consumer Report (Sorento: Best Midsized SUV) • 2016 February: Kelly Blue Book (Sedona (Carnival) & Optima: 16 Best Family Cars List) • 2016 January: iF Design Awards (Optima & Sportage) BK. Market and consumer dynamics are changing ever so rapidly with the confluence of technology, social media, digital eco systems etc. How does the Kia brand stay on top of these tectonic shifts and leverage the positives emerging from such an environment? You are right; the marketing dynamics are changing rapidly and leaning towards advance technology for the exposure leaving behind the traditional marketing tools. Appreciating the Digital and Social media influence, Kia Motors Corporation (KMC) has taken an initiative long back and is one of the most active brands in the field of digital marketing. I invite you to visit the KMC site and experience yourself the sustaining strategy and one of the most impressive sites in digital marketing field. BK. Which is Kia’s flagship model that sells the most in the UAE? What do you attribute that to?

Kia vehicles are some of the highest quality products in the world today, as the brand has more than doubled its global sales since 2008, vehicle quality has equally improved and that reflects in number of vehicles you see on the road. Sportage is the bestselling vehicle in SUV category, followed by Optima and Cerato in passenger car segment. Rio and Picanto is the best pick for fleet operation. BK. In Kia’s marketing mix, which media takes dominance and do you base it on consumer/market insights, past sales data or anything else? Unlike the other developed countries, our market is still depending on traditional means i.e. Print, followed by OOH, Radio, TVC and than the digital channels. When it comes to media preference, the first question that comes in mind is “Is it assessable”? However, the trend is changing at modest rate, and we expect that digital marketing will gain higher ratio as it has a provision of which is missing in other means of marketing and that is “measurable”.How BK. In terms of brand recall for Kia in the UAE, where would you place the KIA brand on a scale of 1 to 10? In terms of volume sales, Kia ranks # 5 in competitive segment and # 7 in overall segment. Personally # 1 and why not…. It offers you everything that a consumer looks for. Kia’s ‘The Power to Surprise’ ethos is core to everything the brand does – and is behind Kia successfully repositioning itself from the image of a low cost, low quality brand, to one which offers high value, high quality and great design, comfort, safety, advance features and the value for money. BK. Could you please tell us something about Kia’s experience in the luxury brand segment with specific reference to the Quoris? Kia is now appreciated around the world as a manufacturer of high-quality vehicles and adding the premium class vehicles in the range with the feature no other brand offers; the recent example is all new Cadenza. The long term objective that Kia is struggling for is to change the brand perception as a quality car manufacturer. Until we reach that stage, consumers will be reluctant to be driving the car like Quoris that matches the quality level of any competing and well established premium brand vehicle. BK. How much of a necessity does bank financing support help drive sales? Do you also see that leaving behind some set of customers who are not in a position to get car loans?

The banks are playing the most important role and have the major share of total car sales under financing schemes. Infect they are the backbone of the industry. The industry rely on these institution as they are seasoned, professional and are equipped with all the necessary elements of scanning the consumers financial capabilities, reliability through their strict terms and conditions. Comply the terms and enjoy the facilities. BK. A lot of dealerships in the UAE have their own Car Rental brands as well- seems to be a natural extension of the dealership business. Has Majid Motors thought on these lines especially considering that you have the dealership of Kia for the entire UAE? Yes, It is under consideration. BK. How does the Kia brand out think the competition from heavyweights- is it through marketing, customer orientation, service, product mix, pricing? We believe “the word of mouth” as the strongest media and every satisfied customer as a Kia ambassador that force us to implement the right balance in marketing, customer orientation, service, product mix, pricing. BK. In the coming year, what are the new models that we can expect from Kia? Are you launching anything new at the Dubai Motor show in November? Kia will launch new vehicles in new segments with a renewed product launch strategy. Future models will reinforce Kia’s position as a vibrant, dynamic brand for the young-at-heart. Between 2016 and 2020, Kia will launch 37 all-new or new replacement vehicles, as well as 61 model derivatives and upgraded models (total: 98 models)… that includes “Soul” full electric vehicle and hybrid version of Optima launched in other market, followed by a dedicated hybrid NIRO, scheduled to launch by end of this year. BK. Driverless cars, hybrid models, the Uberisation of the world etc etc- where do you see the automobile industry headed in say 10 years time? The change is obvious, and that may start with the introduction of hybrid models followed by an advance smart drive and driving assistance system. However, it is difficult to fix a time frame, although Kia is very keen and focused on it future plans and investment on developing state-of-art global R&D centers enabling Kia to fast-track the development of its next-generation ‘DRIVEWISE’ Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), forming the foundation for the development of autonomous, ‘self-driving’ vehicles in the future.

Six secrets to true originality Author and professor Adam Grant shares six tips on generating great ideas, including reframing your creative process, not worrying about being too old, and learning how to procrastinate artfully. By Adam Grant and Rik Kirkland

Some of the most original people in history achieved their level of fame or legend because they wouldn’t stop coming up with ideas. Sometimes—like in the case of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who procrastinated for months before beginning work on his famous Fallingwater—they know when to procrastinate to give themselves time to develop and refine their ideas. In this interview with McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland, Adam Grant, professor of management and of psychology at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success (Penguin Books: March 2014) and his latest, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (Viking: February 2016) discusses six practical secrets to being more original. An edited and extended version of his comments follows.

1. Have lots of ideas, not just a few big ones I always thought that the great originals in history—creative musicians, artists, scientists, and more recently, business thinkers and leaders—I thought what they did was they had a couple of big ideas and then they refined them to perfection. But the data tell the opposite story: that the great originals throughout history did not have few ideas, they had tons of them, and way more than most of their peers. If you look at musicians, for example—Mozart, Bach, Beethoven—their average hit rate is not any higher than many composers you have never heard of. What differentiates them is that they came up with a lot more

ideas. So 600, or more than 1,000 in a couple of those cases. The reason for that is you have to generate a lot of variety to be original. If you just come up with a few ideas, your first few are usually the most obvious. You have to rule out the familiar in order to get to the novel. But most people never do that. They fall in love with their first idea, or they end up questioning whether they have the ability to come up with more ideas. So one of the things leaders need to be doing more often is encouraging people to generate lots and lots of ideas, knowing that you’re going to spew out a lot of garbage in order to get greatness.

2. Judge ideas in a creative mind-set Most people are overconfident in their own ideas because they created them, and it’s very easy to sell yourself on

brandknewmag.com

the pros of an idea and lose sight of the cons. People then say to themselves, “You need some distance. Let me go to managers.” But the data suggest managers aren’t great judges, either, for the opposite reason. Just as you’re too positive, managers tend to be too negative. What they do is they take new ideas and they compare them to existing prototypes. Harry Potter was rejected by publishers because it was too long. “Who would read a children’s book that was hundreds and hundreds of pages?” they thought. But that’s not the right way to evaluate an original idea.

need to come up with all your great, creative ideas early in your career because, at some point, you’re either going to run out of novel thoughts or you’re going to get too stuck in conventional wisdom.

That doesn’t turn out to be true. If you look at founders of start-ups, for example, the average venture-backed founder is 38. Before I saw those data I would’ve guessed 25. There are a lot of people who are starting companies much later than we’ve ever seen before. What you want to do is ask “Is this going to appeal to the audience” as opposed to “Is this similar to what’s come before?” So, whom do you turn to if you can’t trust yourself and you can’t rely on your managers who tend to be a little bit risk averse—peers; fellow creators. There’s an amazing study by Justin Berg, a Stanford Graduate School of Business professor. He looks at circus performances—think Cirque du Soleil—and collects all these original acts done by different kinds of circus artists: jugglers, dancers, acrobats. He asks people to evaluate their own performances, and then he asks managers to evaluate them as well, and then he has performers judge each other’s videos. Finally, he looks at how well the videos do with the audience, and who the best forecaster is of which original ideas will succeed. Sure enough, people are horrible at judging their own performances, and the managers tend to be way too closed to the most novel acts. The best forecasters are the performers judging each other’s performances. They have the distance that we don’t have from our own ideas, but, unlike managers, they also tend to be open to novel possibilities because they’re in a creative mind-set. What we need to do to become better at judging ideas is to teach ourselves to think more like creators. The way that Berg does this is that he has people generate a few ideas of their own right before they evaluate somebody else’s ideas. Being in that mind-set of generating new possibilities and thinking creatively increases your openness to novel performances. You’re much more likely to say, “You know, I’ve never seen anyone do somersaults over fire before, but that’s interesting.” You’re much more likely, then, to bet on great, original ideas.

3. Don’t assume it’s a young person’s game I’ve always thought of originality as something that belongs to the young. We’ve heard over and over again that you

You could think about experience as having both assets and liabilities. On the one hand, yes, you do get more entrenched. When you know a domain better and better, you’re more likely to internalize the assumptions that everyone else shares. It’s harder to look at a problem through fresh eyes. On the other hand, though, one of the things you can bring if you have more experience is some degree of breadth. As you learn about a domain, if you can gain experience in other domains—and the older you are the more of those domains you can learn—you can start importing and exporting ideas from one place to another, which gives you a great advantage because all original ideas come out of a culmination of depth and breadth. The other thing we’ve learned from social science recently about the age–originality relationship is that it depends on how you structure your creative process. If you’re an abstract thinker and you like to look at a problem and just imagine new possibilities, you tend to do best when you’re young. That’s the young-genius approach, where you have a eureka moment or a flash of insight. But there’s a second approach that is often called the old-master mind-set, which is much more about learning a craft and—instead of saying, “You know what? I’m going to come up with a new idea on the spot”—running experiments, testing, tinkering, and trying to figure out where the data or where the industry end up taking you. If that’s your style, you tend to peak much later. When you look at Nobel Prize winners in abstract, theoretical areas— such as physics, for example—you will see that it’s very hard to make abstract contributions past your 20s or 30s. But the experimental physicists who are running studies over and over again are much more likely to excel in their 50s and 60s, sometimes even into their 70s and 80s. You see the same thing among painters as well. Those who have the whole vision immediately are more likely to have their greatest paintings happen early in their career. Those

who end up trying different kinds of brushstrokes and going wherever the canvas takes them tend to peak a lot later. So there’s hope for the tortoises.

4. Avoid groupthink (in a real way) Groupthink is probably the biggest problem I hear leaders complain about. It’s the barrier to innovation. It leads to all kinds of bad decisions. It gets in the way of change. Every leader I work with wants to know, “How do I get diversity of thought?” What most of them do is they assign a devil’s advocate. They say, “Look, if we have a majority opinion, we need to get somebody who’s going to argue for the opposite.”

My favorite example of this is Bridgewater Associates. Everyone knows it as one of the most successful hedge funds in history. You only beat the market by thinking differently from everyone else. Ray Dalio, the founder, made it his job to figure out how to get dissent into the room. What Ray says is—one of his core principles that he trains every single one of his employees on—is that no one has the right to hold a critical opinion without speaking up about it. What that means is that you can be penalized and even fired for not bringing your contrarian opinions to the table. What I’ve learned most from Bridgewater is that they evaluate people on whether they fight for their right to speak their mind even when they know that other people might disagree. Imagine how different the world of organizations would be if in your performance reviews you were rated on how frequently and how effectively you were willing to challenge the majority or fight against the status quo.

5. Learn how to procrastinate wisely

Unfortunately, most of the time, it doesn’t work. Charlan Nemeth at Berkeley, University of California, has spent a few decades studying this. What she finds is that people aren’t actually persuaded by devil’s advocates most of the time. One, they don’t argue forcefully enough because they don’t really believe the position: it’s “All right, I’m going to play a role here. I’ve checked the box, and now I can go right back to the majority view.”

I have always thought procrastination was a vice. But, against my better judgement, I’ve come to believe that it can be a virtue. I’m the opposite of a procrastinator. As long as I can remember, I’ve been a “precrastinator,” which is a great term for somebody who just feels a strong impulse to get things done as soon as possible. So an email pops up, and if I don’t answer it in the first four seconds, I feel like my world is spinning out of control. When I have something due in six months, I will wake up tomorrow morning feeling a tremendous sense of urgency to begin making progress on it. I always thought that was a great way to be efficient and productive. But when you want original ideas, it’s not necessarily the best way to go.

And then, second, even if they do argue with passion and conviction, their audiences tend not to believe them because they know, “Yeah, that guy’s just playing a role.” So how do you get dissenting opinions? The answer from Nemeth is that we need to do a much better job not assigning devil’s advocates but unearthing them. Find somebody who genuinely holds a different opinion and invite them into the conversation. Look for the person who’s in the silent minority and ask them, “What do you think?” Go out of your way to figure out who has a contrarian view on the topic that you’re debating, and ask that person to present the view, and give them a chance to prepare for it. Many leaders will say to that, “Look, I get it. It’s important to hear dissenters, but what if they’re wrong?” Well, Nemeth has a wonderful answer to this. Dissent is useful even when it’s wrong. She shows that if you have a majority preference, which is incorrect, and then you have somebody argue for a minority opinion, which is also wrong, you increase the probability of getting to the right answer anyway. Because when somebody brings in a divergent thought it forces the group to step back and say, “Let’s review our assumptions. Let’s look at all the criteria on the table for this decision.” Then they’re much more likely to get to a good answer or a novel possibility that they hadn’t seen before.

The reason is, when you dive right into a task, you end up with tunnel vision. You think in linear ways, and you sit down, and you only have access to the obvious and familiar ideas that you initially started with. What I’ve learned to do is take a step back and say, “What if I delay the start of a task so that it’s in the back of my mind for a couple days?” I’m much more likely, then, to see unexpected connections between ideas, to have leaps from one possibility to another. Part of the reason I got excited about learning to procrastinate is that I had a student who collected a bunch of data suggesting that those who procrastinate somewhat are more original and creative than people who never do it—and more creative than those who always do it. Of course, if you wait until the deadline, then you’re just going to have to rush

groupisd.com

to finish the simplest idea. But there is a sweet spot where procrastination helps with divergent thinking, with incubation, and with nonlinear connections.

The way I would do that is, I would start out by having a bunch of candidates reviewed, take 100 candidates, and get

There are great originals in history who turn out to be serious procrastinators, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect. His most celebrated accomplishment, Fallingwater—he procrastinated for almost a year until his client was so upset that he literally drove out and said, “I want you to design this for me on the spot,” not believing it was ever going to get done. Over a number of months, Frank Lloyd Wright had been processing a bunch of ideas, and that was when he finally came up with his masterpiece. And Da Vinci. He wrote in his notebook over and over again, “Tell me if anything ever was done” because he was constantly putting things off. He spent at least 16 years working, on and off, on the Mona Lisa, and many years on The Last Supper. He thought that he was dragging his heels and that he would amount to nothing. But, in fact, all the diversions, all these random things that he got curious about, led him to innovations in optics and light, which ultimately helped make him the Renaissance man.

6. Follow the evidence I’m amazed by the number of leaders who make decisions, especially about people, based on intuition instead of evidence. When I talk to leaders about this, the defense that usually comes up is, “I have this wealth of experience, and the reason I was put in this leadership role is to leverage that experience that no one else has.” My response is, “Well, I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn from your experiences, I just want you to learn from people’s experiences, too. That’s what data are.” Let’s talk about hiring, for example. In hiring, what most leaders do is they have a set of criteria, they evaluate a bunch of candidates through interviews and resumes and other information available, and then they make decisions based on their gut. You could actually turn that process into a much more scientific approach, where you lose none of your experience but you add a lot of data.

all your managers who do hiring to rank them in order from 1 to 100. Make them candidates who already work for you, but disguise who they are. Then figure out who your best decision makers are when it comes to hiring. What you’ll find is that some people are much more consistently right than others. There are many people who will take unreasonably risky bets. There are others who will play it safe too much. Once you do that, you can then do two things. One, you can take those people who have an empirical track record of good hiring, and you can give them more responsibility for hiring. Two, you can use them to train the trainers. You can figure out what are they doing differently that allows them to be a better talent spotter than their peers. Then make sure that that knowledge and expertise gets spread across the organization. That doesn’t replace your intuition, it harnesses it. It takes the people who have effective intuitions and, instead of doing that just based on gut, helps make it explicit. That’s what I want do. I want to understand what most people do effectively and teach that to other people. Rik Kirkland. Senior managing editor of McKinsey Publishing, based in McKinsey’s New York office.

By Verónica Jarski

Want to know more about Millennials and how to market to them? Here’s a look at vital stats about this demographic—and info about how best to reach it. Some 82% of Millennials (people age 18-29) interact with brands or retailers on social media, where 49% follow their favorite brands or retailers, according to the following USC Dornsife infographic. To reach Millennials, marketers should consider optimizing mobile. “Mobile is the best way to reach Millennials,” states the infographic. “They have the highest rate of ownership of smartphones of all generations.” Personalization also matters to them: “85% of Millennials are more likely to make a purchase if it is personalized to their interests, both in store and with digital displays,” according to the infographic.

brandknewmag.com

groupisd.com

Veronica Maria Jarski is the Opinions editor and a senior writer at MarketingProfs.

What your brand can learn from Jeff Bezos and Pokemon Go By Jessica Rovello

Pokemon Go is the phenomenon in gaming this year – all you have to do is look around local parks and sidewalks at the hundreds gleefully catching monsters on their phones. My kids are no exception. As a mom, I am glad they are having fun outside. But as a tech CEO, I can see how the Pokemon Go phenomenon has everything to do with the way companies from The Washington Post to Starbucks are boosting their bottom lines.

Article of faith As traditional brands struggle, United States mobile gaming continues to thrive with 2015 revenues surpassing $3 billion, according to eMarketer. And the smart brands are taking notice. Amazon founder/CEO Jeff Bezos has been using games to monetize his latest acquisition: that most venerable and strait-laced of American institutions, The Washington Post. In 2015, the publisher released “Floppy Candidate,” a politics-themed spoof on the insanely popular “Flappy Bird” game, and it was a hit with both users and the boss. “He [Mr. Bezos] played with it a ton and laughed,” Joey Marburger, the paper’s director of product, told New York Magazine in June. Mr. Bezos even suggested creating a game that would allow readers to erase vowels from articles that they did not like. That idea may not have been adopted, but last December, The Washington Post proudly announced that its digital readership had surpassed The New York Times. Mr. Bezos’s message to competitors? Game on.

stars that fell neatly into place on your screen when you ordered a vanilla latte and the points racked up? That was a game technique. In March, General Mills partnered with Blippar to create an augmented reality game that allowed users to help Superman or Batman save their city. And Krispy Kreme, promoting its Real Strawberries product line in South Korea, created an incentivized Facebook game that boasted a phenomenal 88 percent engagement rate.

… and making them pay But games do not just cajole consumers into reaching for their wallets. They generate a trove of real-time performance and analytics feedback – data you can use to double down on successes and fix problems. For brands such as The Washington Post, that means improving key metrics including time-spent-on-site, bounce rates, and shareability – all while entertaining consumers and boosting brand affinity. For your brand, it may mean higher conversion rates, creating a viral experience or improved search engine optimization. WE ARE SEEING industries from consumer packaged goods to media and fashion capitalize on games and gaming techniques. In the future, my children will probably look back on mobile games as fondly as their dad and I do on arcade machines. But today, smart brands are harnessing this trend to engage and satisfy their customers, boost their bottom line, and keep pace with the broader culture. And if our kids happen to think what we are doing is cool, well, that is just a bonus.

Games people play … The best games are not just on our phones. They are present in our daily social interactions and retail relationships. For example, when the Starbucks rewards program introduced

Jessica Rovello is cofounder/CEO of Arkadium, New York.

Should you let a youtuber do your marketing? INFLUENCER MARKETING, OR THE CONCEPT OF GETTING A PROMINENT ONLINE CREATOR TO SELL YOUR PRODUCT TO THEIR AUDIENCE, HAS A SIGNIFICANT ROI POTENTIAL IF DONE WELL, BUT IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO GET STARTED. CHECK OUT SOME TIPS FOR TRYING OUT THE STRATEGY FOR YOUR ASSOCIATION. By Ernie Smith

It’s never been about the number of followers you have— rather, it’s always about who’s listening, and why.

finding the right engagement tactics (69 percent) immediately behind.

And, let’s be honest with ourselves. Sometimes, our follower count, email lists, and audience don’t match the audience we’d like to reach or sell to. Sure, you can spend months building out that audience or paying for solutions like sourced traffic or pay-per-click search advertising, but what if your best option would be to leverage someone who already has the audience you want?

So no, it’s not as easy as throwing a banner ad into a programmatic system. But the end result might have a better shot of breaking through.

That’s where influencer marketing comes into play. To put it simply, it’s the concept of putting the work of advertising directly into the hands of an individual with a wide audience, often a person with a big Instagram following, a popular email newsletter, or a YouTube channel. These influencers tend to be regular people who have gained a reputation for being an authoritative voice on a certain topic, having a clever storytelling approach that can’t easily be replicated, or of winning folks over through sheer personality. (Or, if you’re lucky, they have a combination of the three.)

AN EXAMPLE OF INFLUENCER MAGIC My favorite example of the potential of influencer marketing is the work of Casey Neistat, particularly a 2013 clip he created to promote the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Neistat—known for his innovative filmmaking techniques, aggressive creativity, and jet-setting lifestyle—was offered $25,000 by 20th Century Fox to create a clip that exemplified the value of chasing a dream, an on-brand message for the Ben Stiller film. But Neistat had other plans. Deeply concerned about the then-recent Typhoon Haiyan that had just hit the Philippines, he asked the company to instead give him that money to fund disaster relief, which he would then base his clip on.

Problem is, it’s not easy for these folks to raise money for their creative efforts through traditional means. Influencer marketing, as a result, helps them pay the bills. On the advertiser front, such campaigns have a reputation for being very cost-effective if done properly. Two separate 2015 studies on the phenomenon, covered by PR Newser, found that influencer marketing had a tendency to earn more than $6.50 in return for every dollar spent. The only problem? As eMarketer notes, it’s often hard to find a YouTuber or podcaster who matches your brand. A May 2015 study by Schlesinger Associates highlighted by the website found that identifying the right influencers was the most difficult part of influencer marketing (75 percent), with

Shockingly, the studio agreed, and the resulting clip showed Neistat’s efforts to fund homespun relief efforts in the country, with Neistat and fellow video creator Oscar Boyson launching

brandknewmag.com

a makeshift humanitarian aid effort with the budget they were given. “It was complicated and at first improbable, but with the help of an extremely loving group of locals, all who were total strangers, we were able to stretch the production budget really far,” he wrote in the video’s YouTube description. The film, which has received 5.6 million views since late 2013, has become one of Neistat’s most famous YouTube clips. And while the approach veered significantly from what Fox was looking for, the unexpected humanitarian approach arguably gave Mitty much more of a boost than if Neistat had stuck to the script. Most influencers won’t be able to offer such a wild, unexpected creative twist on your marketing concept, but they will offer ideas—original ideas, far beyond what you might get from a banner ad or social post.

WORDS OF WARNING But before you hop into the world of influencer marketing, it’s important to note a few things: Do your homework first: If you reach out to an influencer or a group of influencers, have a plan in mind. Maybe you’ll have them attend one of your annual events, test out a new member benefit, or stop by a factory owned by one of your members. Figure out the logistics early, both to keep costs down and to nail down the creative strategy. But leave some wiggle room in there for the Casey Neistats of the world. Vet your influencers. Just because an influencer seems cool and could be a great fit for your message doesn’t mean that they’ll ultimately make a good fit and won’t flake on you. Don’t be afraid to ask such influencers for references who can speak to their work. If they don’t have any, start small and work your way up, in the same way you might approach work with an advertising agency.

HOW CAN THIS TRANSLATE? The power of influencer marketing is maximized when such marketing has a glove-like fit with the influencer in question. Let’s say you run an industry group focused on textiles—for example, wool or cotton. It would be valuable for a fashion YouTuber to share a few examples of trendy outfits that are 100 percent wool or cotton. The secret is that they’re hitting the kind of audience that you want to reach but might ignore you normally.

Another example: Earlier this month, YouTuber Ben Heck dismantled a rare prototype Nintendo PlayStation (look it up, it’s actually a thing), messed with the circuit board, and got it working again. Throughout the clips, Heck promoted his employer, Element 14, but he could have just as easily been promoting an organization like IEEE with these clips—because the clips highlight how awesome electrical engineering is. But what if you’re in a space where the target audience is a bit more, sorry to say, square? Maybe, instead of aiming for a broad audience, you narrow your focus, working with a prominent independent industry voice, such as a guy who runs a closely read newsletter in your sector. It’s worth keeping in mind that the name of the game is ROI, but what seems like a modest marketing budget to your organization can be a major financial windfall to an influencer, and the fact that the costs are relatively low at this juncture makes now a good time to experiment within this space.

Be mindful of federal regulations: Despite the relative freshness of this approach, the Federal Trade Commission is keeping an eye out, with the goal of preventing misleading marketing to consumers. Earlier this month, the FTC publicly rebuked Warner Bros. after the company paid popular gamers on YouTube, most notably the 46-million-follower PewDiePie (shown above), to say positive things about the company’s game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. While the approach is legal, the problem is that there was little in the way of disclosure to go with the reviews, making them seem unbiased when they weren’t.(PewDiePie, birth name Felix Kjellberg, defended his approach, saying that he properly disclosed the company’s sponsorship of the videos.) A vendor of Microsoft, Machinima Inc., got in trouble for similar reasons last year. If you do work with an influencer, make sure the final result is straightforward about the fact that the creator was compensated for their work. And in the end, you might find that the best way to utilize influencer marketing is through underwriting or sponsorship. It’s not easy out there for a creator these days, even with things like Patreon to help cover the bills. But if a creator’s approach generally represents your organization’s values, it never hurts to ask. He or she might just be looking for such a nudge. Ernie Smith is the social media journalist for Associations Now, a former newspaper guy, and a man who is dangerous when armed with a good pun.

How will the Internet change political advertising? By Robert Gebelhoff

Go onto the Instagram accounts of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump and check out the videos they have posted in the past few weeks. You’ll find few video messages from the candidates, and virtually no candid content. Instead, their videos are mostly attack ads — each attracting hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments. Welcome to 2016. Analysts have predicted that this campaign season is going to be the first ever to see massive investment in online advertising — reaching an expected $1 billion in spending by November. Sure, that’s only a fraction of what will be spent on television broadcast ads — estimated to be a record $6 billion this year — but online spending this year will still be more than twice the amount spent on the Internet in the past four election cycles combined. The Internet is rapidly transforming our political campaigns. But as social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter further entrench people into “echo chambers” where they hear more and more of the things they already agree with, is that a good thing? There are a number of reasons a shift toward online advertising will have a huge impact on how people consume political media: • It’s cheap and easy to implement. Anyone, in theory, has equal access to having a voice online.

named “Checks and Balances for Economic Growth” posted two videos on YouTube attacking President Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) for their positions on coal. Both of the videos noted that they were paid for by the super PAC, but the group never reported any spending related the videos. In response to a complaint, the FEC decided in a 3-to-3 ruling not to investigate the super PAC. Critics argued that the decision foreshadowed a Wild West Internet ruled by mysterious “billionaire players or darkmoney groups” that can target and trace voters without their knowledge. Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub warned that political advertising may “effectively be going underground.” Conservatives say regulating YouTube videos would be an unnecessary intrusion into the Internet. Republican FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman rejected the notion that “dark money” groups could take over the Web, arguing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that “unlike the expensive television-ad buys targeted by campaign-finance reforms of the 1970s, free and low-cost Internet postings are not corrupting because no large expenditures of money are necessary. On the Internet, well-expressed ideas can find an audience without cost barriers.”

• There’s no limit to airtime on the Internet. A candidate’s reach is bounded only by the following they can build.

The debate seems to boil down to two values: transparency and free speech. Conservatives want to place the onus of being informed on voters; liberals doubt that voters are prepared, and therefore want more regulation.

• Companies such as Alphabet and Facebook can use data to let sophisticated advertisers target voters at a granular level. As a result, advertisers can tailor their messages to closely fit voters’ perspectives viewpoints, which theoretically will let candidates effectively mobilize specific populations to spend money or vote.

This is still an emerging question in the 2016 cycle, but how will spending look in a couple of decades? Advertising markets outside the political sphere have already bumped online campaigns to 30 percent or 50 percent of total spending. As young people continue to enter the electorate, we can only assume digital ads will become more prevalent.

So far, the Federal Election Commission has refused to expand its scope to regulating online ads. Political action committees are required to disclose who’s behind the ads only if they were bought on websites. At the moment, free online media accounts — such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram — are fairly unregulated territory.

What are the potential dangers of political media transitioning to the Internet? How will this affect how players fund campaigns, and how will it change the way candidates frame their messaging to supporters? Should the FEC create new rules to make online advertising more transparent — and is it even possible?

The result is a media environment in which consumers receive information that’s increasingly designed specifically for them — but they might not be able to tell where it’s coming from. We got a taste of the controversies that might arise from political advertising in the 2012 election, when a super PAC

Robert Gebelhoff contributes to The Washington Post’s Opinions section.

Book,

Line

Innovative Whack Pack By Roger Von Oech Roger von Oech whacks again! The Innovative Whack Pack offers even more creativity and wisdom for organizational leadership. Features 60 all new creative-thinking strategies.

Sinker Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition) By Michael Michalko In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys, creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways.

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers

A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative

By Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo

By Roger von Oech

This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. The authors have identified tools and techniques from some of the world’s most innovative professionals, whose teams collaborate and make great things happen. This book is the result: a unique collection of games that encourage engagement and creativity while bringing more structure and clarity to the workplace.

This is the 25th anniversary edition of the creativity classic by Dr. Roger von Oech. Over the years, A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD has been praised by business people, educators, scientists, homemakers, artists, youth leaders, and many more. The book has been stimulating creativity in millions of readers, translated into eleven languages, and used in seminars around the world.

Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

This Is How You Pitch: How To Kick Ass In Your First Years of PR

By Ryan Holiday I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs-as much as any one person can. Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I’m tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. I’m pulling back the curtain because I don’t want anyone else to get blindsided.

By Ed Zitron, Warren Ellis (Introduction) So you want to work in PR? Does the idea of glamorous parties, open bars and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous sound like an exciting career for you? Then neither this book or a career in Public Relations are for you. This book will teach you all you need to know about public relations, from what to do on your first day at your desk to how to start your own PR agency. ou’ll learn the core skill of the business: pitching.

What Happened To Advertising? What Would Gossage Do?

Magic of Public Speaking: A Complete System to Become a World Class Speaker

By Massimo Moruzzi, Roberto Grassilli (Illustrator)

By Andrii Sedniev

The inconvenient truth about online advertising and social media. Are brands really created by “branding campaigns”? Is there a single banner ad that was so brilliant or so effective that we all remember it? What has “display advertising” on the web become, if not the reign of large-scale, lowquality direct response?

The Magic of Public Speaking is a comprehensive step-by-step system for creating highly effective speeches. It is based on research from the top 1000 speakers in the modern world. The techniques you will learn have been tested on hundreds of professional speakers and work! You will receive the exact steps needed to create a speech that will keep your audience on the edge of their seats.

groupisd.com

Love-Based Copywriting Method: The Philosophy Behind Writing Copy That Attracts, Inspires and Invites (Love-Based Business Book 1)

Fans On Fire: How to Skyrocket Your Leads, Sales, and Reputation with The Most Trusted Form of Marketing

By Michele PW, Susan Liddy (Foreword)

Through a simple, yet unconventional strategy, Tom Kenemore’s book shows you how to: Quickly get authentic and legitimate 5 star reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List and over 95% of all review websites Receive multiple glowing reviews from the same customer And much more...

In this book, copywriting and marketing expert Michele PW (Pariza Wacek) teaches you the philosophy and the foundational principles behind selling with love versus fear – the same principles she’s used to help her clients build their businesses over the years.

Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers By Jeffrey K. Rohrs Proprietary audience development is now a core marketing responsibility. Every company needs audiences to survive. They are where you find new customers and develop more profitable relationships. And yet, most companies today treat their email, mobile, and social media audiences like afterthoughts instead of the corporate assets they are. With AUDIENCE, Jeff Rohrs seeks to change this dynamic through adoption of The Audience Imperative.

Growth Hacker Marketing By Ryan Holiday This book points out that many of the megabrands of today haven’t spent much of anything on traditional marketing. Instead, they figure out how to reach customers who “sell” other customers on using the product. While I’m not certain that the techniques Holiday espouses will work in every (or even many) business situations, the book is worth reading simply to understand how companies like Dropbox and Twitter suddenly burst out of nowhere.

Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) By Steve Krug Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject.

By Tom Kenemore

Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less By Joe Pulizzi “Epic Content Marketing” takes you step by step through the process of developing stories that inform and entertain and compel customers to act--without actually telling them to...

The New Rules of Marketing & PR By David Meerman Scott The benchmark guide to marketing and PR, updated with the latest social media and marketing trends, tools, and real-world examples of success The New Rules of Marketing & PR, 4th Edition is the pioneering guide to the future of marketing, an international bestseller with more than 300,000 copies sold in over 25 languages. It offers a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of modern marketing and PR to communicate with buyers directly, raise visibility, and increase sales.

Contagious: Why Things Catch On By Jonah Berger New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.