THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014 More than anything, 2014 was a year of contrasts. Humans around the globe bonded as sports fans, cheering collectively for 2014 Olympic athletes in Sochi and World Cup Soccer teams in Rio de Janeiro… and then reacted with collective global horror to maddening displays of terrorist depravity and explosive racial-ethnic tensions. Searchers kept looking to no avail for any sign of Malaysia Flight 370 or the 200+ teen-age Nigerian school girls kidnapped in April by Boku Haram, while European Space Agency scientists, who spotted a flying-chunk-of-ice comet 10 years and 4 billion miles ago, successfully and with pinpoint accuracy plunked a spacecraft onto it in November. Uber was hot (until it was not), executives from both the NFL (domestic violence) and GM (faulty ignition switches) discovered the importance of apologizing, and a revolutionary Pope preached to the world about forgiving. Hacking and “vaping” (e-cigarettes) seemed almost commonplace behaviors in 2014, while “viral” described an Academy Awards selfie, a song titled “Happy” and a deadly virus named Ebola.
Think you knew 2014? Think again. ThinkInk’s annual review looks at 2014 within the context of PR and communications. What lies ahead, and what lessons should follow us into 2015?
FOREWORD I’m not sure about you, but I reached the end of 2014 with a huge sigh of relief and a very intense desire to put the old behind and get on with the new.
And how will the field of communications – traditional journalism, social media, public relations, corporate journalism, content marketing, investigative and enterprise reporting – continue to shape the world and its future?
The world in 2014 had enough sadness and conflict to go around, with seemingly endless wars in the Middle East and Ukraine-Crimea-Russia and re-ignited racial tensions in the U.S.
This year’s’ ThinkInk review captures highlights and insights from 2014, including guest columns, blog posts and observations from the ThinkInk team.
Despite the sad and tragic way in which one of the world’s funniest men, comedian-actor Robin Williams, left us without letting on how much he hurt inside, 2014 also featured feel-good celebrations and stories of joy: watching gas prices fall at pump, watching complete strangers on Facebook pour icy buckets of water over their heads to raise millions for charity, and watching the nightly news as an Ohio high school senior took his 89-year-old great-grandmother to the prom because she wasn’t able to attend as a teen.
Not everyone will agree with the topics or opinions expressed in this Review, nor should they. Ideas keep us all engaged and fluid, ready to learn new concepts or eager to hold firmly to tenets that ring true throughout all time. If you feel strongly about any of the commentaries, please let me know! And feel free to share the Review with friends and colleagues as well.
Looking to the future always benefits from a healthy nod to the past.
How will technology and “mobile everything” continue to influence our world?
I’d love to hear from you in 2015, so please reach out by email to vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com. You can also visit the ThinkInk website at www.thinkinkpr.com or call us +1-305-749-5342 to learn more about what we do or connect with any of our team, aka ThinkInkers.
How much more facile and smart can our smartphones, tablets, phablets and wearables become?
I hope you enjoy this issue of the ThinkInk Review…. and have a great 2015!
What will 2015 bring?
What political and social causes will encourage us to get out of our comfort zones and DO something in 2015? Which celebrities (and unknowns) will emerge as the coming year’s most-talked-about personalities? How will business, politics, government, technology and culture continue to interact and intertwine?
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Vanessa Horwell Principal and Chief Strategy Officer ThinkInk
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ThinkInk Looks Forward: B2B Communications in 2015 Will Be Intelligent, Data-Reliant and Edgy
The Year in Review
Just as 2014 is remembered for a number of record-setting accomplishments and stumbles in the public relations field, 2015 harbors some interesting challenges of its own. For 2014…. The wearable health monitor FitBit, faced with a February recall related to skin irritation, survived surprisingly intact (and remained a market leader) by confronting irritation complaints head-on with laboratory tests and a line of new, improved products. The National Basketball Association (NBA) weathered a storm of criticism linked to racial tensions (LA Clippers owner Donald Stirling’s mouth, and #ICan’tBreath T-shirts worn by players) by doing two things well: taking quick action in the Stirling case, and respectfully giving players the freedom to express their opinions respectfully. (Dear NFL: please observe). But Edelman took a hit with an ill-timed comment about comedian Robin Williams’ suicide (“a media opportunity”?) and a stumble over its representation of clients involved in the issue of climate change, while once-revered comedian Bill Cosby – never at a loss for words on stage or in front of a TV camera -- appeared all but inept in his responses to charges of sexual harassment (and worse) by a growing number of women over many years. In the business world, key technologies took center stage, with such game-changing tech devices Apple Watch, dozens of health-tracking mobile apps and perhaps the first-ever no-contract video subscription service, thanks to DirectTV’s Sling TV and Sony’s PlayStation Vue. According to what was on display at CES 2015 in Las Vegas, those technologies will be joined by an increasing array of drones, 3-D printers, virtual reality devices/experiences and smart appliances. With 2015 now firmly upon us, we’ve fired up our crystal ball to offer a few predictions about PR and B2B communications and strategies through the year: THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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Mobile communications will continue to evolve and mature: With so many activities shifting to the mobile environment, marketing will no doubt have to continue to follow suit. Mobile interactions with brands are becoming increasingly personal, whether consumers are searching for info, buying a product, showrooming, comparison-shopping, or logging a complaint via Twitter. Mobile-supported communications have the potential to be intimate, 1-to-1 interactions between brands (social media managers, marketing teams) and customers/clients, meaning the same-script-for-everyone approach will no longer fly. Customers will expect marketers to communicate intelligently -- timely, in the right context, with the right information to the right person. Data: the rocket fuel that fuels intelligent marketing: If we learned one thing in 2014, it’s that data creates marketing opportunities, and more data creates more opportunities. For marketers to adopt personalized, intelligent campaigns, they need information and data on which to build them. Data from mobile apps, app activities, existing customer profile databases, loyalty programs, beacons and location-based technologies will provide the rich fodder that informs meaningful messages and campaigns. Without data, marketers will become less and less relevant to their existing customers. The “Internet of Everything” can re-invent marketing communications. The release of Apple Watch, the explosion or wearable technologies and the broader adoption of location-based technologies will enable marketers to explore new opportunities created by “the Internet of Everything.” With an impressive range of capabilities – “touch and tap” messages, automatic abbreviations, smart lighting interfaces, precise location sensing – these advanced technologies have the potential to reinvent how brands operate and communicate. Marketers will have to be innovators, testers, analysts and researchers as they explore new technologies and their real-life application for marketing purposes. Which technologies will be best suited for marketing? Which (like soon-to-be-shelved Google Glass) might peak…and fail?
Content: more of it, but more sensitivity and scrutiny, à la “Je Suis Charlie.” The late 2014 hack of Sony Pictures, over North Korea’s aversion to the spoof movie “The Interview,” hammered home the power of content. The message turned even more powerful and sobering in early January, when Muslim terrorists attacked and killed 11 staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo because they felt its religious cartoons were offensive to their religion. Sony found a way to handle the hack attack by making the movie available through second-tier distribution channels, but the media world is still reeling from the horror and implications of the terrorist attack in Paris. “Content” in 2015 will be consciously scrutinized, scanned, and gut-tested for its potential impact and interpretation. When asked to stand up for principles that might not be popular everywhere, will brand/company executives, media professionals and PR professionals react by standing up…or will they stand down? Only time will tell if – and to what extent – these trends permeate the media and public relations landscape, and what impact they will have on our professional lives. What we do know, however, is that 2015 will be a year of profound disruption, challenging marketers and their agency partners to think differently about their approaches to business communications and the business of communication in general. What other challenges await? And what opportunities are ripe for the taking? We’d love to hear your views. You can share your thoughts with the ThinkInk community below or send us an email to info@thinkinkpr.com.
“Personalized” marketing will emerge in B2B communications as well: Just as direct-to-consumer marketing becomes more personalized and real-time, B2B communications will adjust as well. As eMarketer so capably points out, B2B marketers will have to accumulate, analyze and understand data about technology, the competitive landscape, business needs and potential buyers – tasks now ranked as more important than branding and thought leadership by major businesses and brands. Professionals in B2B communications and public relations will have to learn and deploy messaging techniques built around relevance, timeliness and intelligence to reach potential clients and media/analysts effectively, a task that requires the use of data and a firm knowledge about the products, services and clients they pitch.
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Professionals in B2B communications and public relations will have to learn and deploy messaging techniques built around relevance, timeliness and intelligence.” Vanessa Horwell
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Mobile Marketing:
Data Shows Airports in the APAC Region Will Lead the Way
Compare those stats to the U.S. market, where 68% of Americans own a smartphone (compared to 86% mobile penetration rates in South Korea and Japan), and some U.S. airports still make waiting passengers pay for Wi-Fi services, according to a report in Beta Boston.
Where will today’s marketers find fertile testing grounds for the mobile marketing ideas of tomorrow? To borrow from the mouth of Horace Greeley (with a bit of poetic license): “Go East, young marketer.” East into airports throughout Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) major cities, that is, according to data from AdNear’s JAPAC Traveller Report 2014, which analyzed mobile/smartphone behavior among passengers at 12 major airports in nine APAC countries. The Asia-Pacific region leads the world in growth and adoption of smartphone use and mobile broadband connections, and what happens in APAC will no doubt influence how marketing, mobile technologies and mobile communications evolve elsewhere around the globe. AdNear’s findings confirm similar research from Ovum, which predicts that in 2015, one billion people will be connected to the Internet only through mobile broadband – not tethered by a hard-wired laptop or PC, but from a mobile device only. APAC dominates that trend as well, with an estimated 518.4 million APAC mobile-only customers in 2015, up from 119 million just four years ago. The reason? Fast-growing, emerging mobile markets like China and India never built the poles, lines and wires that supported legacy, hard-wired phone systems and cable systems in the U.S. and other developed countries. So as developing countries join the cellphone revolution, they join in mobile-only mode.
For marketers, the impact is obvious. APAC markets will test and launch new mobile marketing initiatives in their regions first, and those trends – depending on success, adoption or failures – will eventually make their way across the oceans to the rest of the marketing world as it plays mobile catch-up. According to eConsultancy, two-thirds of APAC companies say mobile will be a fundamental part of their business and marketing strategies in coming years, and their plans include increased focus and budgets on location-based marketing, mobile messaging and advertising, iBeacon technology, mobile coupons, notifications and optimized emails, mobile resources for sales associates, and another initiatives. Meanwhile, Gartner’s 2015 CMO Spend Survey of 315 large-firm marketing pros in North America and the UK finds forward-looking interest and investment in digital advertising, mobile marketing and innovative, improved customer experiences in 2015. What’s clear is that marketers around the world – East, West and all places between – understand that new strategies and desired results from marketing initiatives in 2015 and beyond increasingly will transpire and materialize one smartphone and one customer at a time.
The JAPAC report, which analyzed user behavior and mobile engagement at 12 airports in 9 Asia-Pacific countries, found that: Connected passengers spend an average 65 minutes online and execute 30 requests per user Most connected are 25-36-year-olds, with engagement rates of 70% in Southeast Asia, 68% in India and Hong Kong, 63% in Australia and 52% in Japan. Passengers at Singapore Changi Airport (97 minutes) and Hong Kong International (96 minutes) were highest in online engagement among all 12 cities. Peak engagement times: 4-6 p.m. And countries with the highest smartphone and mobile internet penetration rates: Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong.
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Smartphones and Wanderlust:
The Zuckerberg Effect:
When packing for the next travel adventure, three things are must-haves: clothes, a toothbrush, and most importantly, mobile devices.
Everyone knows the controversial story of how Facebook got started: one bullied sophomore, two rich Winklevoss twins, dorm room disputes and a basic social website platform that became key to social status on Harvard University grounds.
Travel in a Mobile Revolution
Taking Over the World One Profile Picture at a Time
The result? A multi-billion-dollar-idea-turned-box-office-hit that quickly propelled that poor sophomore into Forbes’ “Youngest Billionaires” list. Today, Facebook is the social media tool on which billions of humans congregate from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep. Facebook’s predictable natural progression = eventual world domination.
Today’s travelers are using smartphone apps and browsers before, during and after their journeys to check in for flights, find taxis, plot a route from the car rental center to the hotel and other travel tasks. Innovators like the QR code generator, uQR.me, are capitalizing on mobile technology to make travel even easier. Most recently, the Belgian city of Antwerp implemented uQR.me QR codes in city transit systems, enabling passengers to scan for up-to-the-minute, real-time information on arrival and departure times, train routes and other critical trip details simply by swiping their smartphones. Embraced by more than 5,000 documented travelers during the first weeks of deployment, code usage has grown tenfold; spurring the implementation of the technology in neighboring Belgian provinces, like Flanders. A testament to the advancement of mobile technology, uQR.me is just one of many companies capitalizing on the popularity of mobile technology. One smartphone app, Appi Holidays, for example, lets travelers describe a perfect vacation by entering a range of criteria and scouring through packaged tours from both well-known and independent travel companies. In its annual IT Trends Survey, SITA predicts that mobile apps will be a dominant sales channel in the travel industry by 2015.
“Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost,” says Zuckerberg. “But even though there’s no clear path that we can see to where this is going to be a very profitable thing for us, I generally think if you do good things for people in the world, that comes back and you benefit from it over time.”
Mobile upgrades like these are proof of the critical roles that mobile devices play in everyday life, especially when we travel. According to a recent eMarketer report, 2015 will see a major jump in mobile bookings, with nearly 50% of digital travel researchers choosing to use their mobile devices over a laptop or desktop computer. But what makes smartphones and travel go hand-in-hand? In a word, convenience. For consumers, mobile devices have become second nature and easily accessible. In turn, they eliminate the need for bulky computers and costly, antiquated technology and tracking systems, saving travel brands considerable amounts of capital. Today more than ever, technology continues to enhance quality of life. And given that experts have now found a way to implant NFC chips in the human hand, enabling us to open our own hotel rooms simply by waving our fingers, what possibly could come next? THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
In a recent cover interview with Time Magazine, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave more insight into his goal of connecting everyone in the world to the internet. In what could be the defining moment of the second decade of his career (as if he needed to top Facebook, his first), Zuckerberg acknowledges that he likes a challenge. In describing his Internet.org initiative, Zuckerberg claims his mission to wire the world is simply a product of passion and goodwill. It’s a sociological and business challenge, a humanitarian project and – following Coca Cola’s lead, which invested in countries before markets existed – another example of Zuckerberg’s forward-thinking motivation and business sense.
To Facebook (or rather, Zuckerberg) opponents – and even some supporters, including multimillionaire and fellow computer genius Bill Gates – the latest endeavor is just another selfish ploy for Facebook’s expansion and financial growth. Despite criticisms, however, more than 1 billion members are active on the popular social media platform today. And given that these members use Facebook regularly to message friends, stalk ex-lovers, look up business information, network, stalk ex-lovers, plan events, keep in touch with familiar faces in other countries, check their news and, most importantly, stalk ex-lovers, the truth is evident: Facebook has become an integral part of our lives, whether we support world domination or not. According to Zuckerberg, the platform’s future has only just begun. But before we adhere to his claims of global charity and goodwill, there’s one point left for us to consider – if and when Facebook does succeed in connecting everyone across the globe, Facebook will be the portal from which their connection starts and ends. And if that’s the case, Facebook won’t just use the internet; Facebook will BE the Internet. Are we ready for Facebook Domination? Only time will tell.
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Technology & Travel: We’re Not There Yet. In Fact, We’re Not Even Close (To Technology’s Potential for Changing Travel As We Know It) A colleague recently shared this in-the-car exchange that occurred as she her and her husband drove through the California Redwoods. She was at the wheel, he was navigating from a new three-D map app on his iPad. He: “Just around this next corner, there’ll be another big stand of redwoods.” She: “I know, honey. If you’d put down the iPad, you could look out the window and see the actual TREES. They’re right there, on your right. Pretty magnificent, too. See?” He (eyes still focused downward on the iPad): “And about 500 yards on the left, there will be another grove of trees.” She: “I KNOW. They’re right outside the window — living, breathing magnificent trees with actual bark and crowns and branches, way high up. But you have to look out into the natural world to see them. We just passed them….” It’s obvious that technology has changed the way we travel – mostly in ways (unlike the above scenario) that make it easier to plan, book, navigate, check in, communicate, videotape/photograph, board and pay. And that’s just the start.
Similar shifts are occurring in the hotel industry, where smartphone apps allow guests to bypass the front desk (Starwood) for check-in/check-out (Hilton) and entrance to the room (with more tech-enabled hotel-stay amenities in the pipeline). And travel-related apps are exploding, making it possible, for example, to record pre-existing damage to a rental car, access information about foreign currency exchanges and foreign-country emergency contact information, video-text messages to groups (think travel groups, school tours), or navigate using offline versions of online maps to avoid battery drainage/wireless fees when navigating an unfamiliar location (Rand McNally, not coincidentally, acknowledged the concept). In today’s world, most of us panic if we get to the airport or 10 miles down the road, only to realize we’ve left our smartphone or tablet behind. The trip can’t proceed without some type of mobile connection, and technology’s influence on travel will only grow in coming months and years. Let’s hope we can all stay focused on the goal of travel: pleasure, family fun, serious business or much-needed down time. And let technology make it as easy, fun and helpful as possible. Even with hundreds of travel technologies and apps to choose from, it’s still important to see the forest for the trees. Or the Redwoods, as the case may be.
Technology’s influence on travel will only continue in the fast lane, forced there by consumers who increasingly rely on technology when they’re away from home for just about everything they do. Based on the results of a summer 2014 passenger survey by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX), technology-powered travelers want more technology as they travel for business or leisure: more connectivity, more connections and more mobile opportunities so that their non-travel lives (business and leisure) transition seamlessly to their mobile travel activities. The APEX survey of 1,605 international airline travelers says: 57% play in-flight video games (70% of them provided by the airline) and 15% take advantage of in-flight movies and TV (another 9% watch movies/entertainment on their own computers/devices) 54% tapped into Wi-Fi on the plane; 30% want better connectivity in-flight, and 21% want better lighting/electrical outlets to stay powered up 6% of passengers engage in “social connectivity” on a plane, nearly 60% of them engaged in social media activities and email (Independent of technology, but pertinent to airline travel: 26% of women and 19% of men want better toilets/lavatories, and we wholeheartedly agree). THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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The Digital, Wearable Revolution: Changing How Health, Wellness and Healthcare Will Be Delivered If you use a FitBit, check a wearable device daily to track how many steps you take or have pre-ordered your Apple Watch, you’re part of the next revolution in health care. Just as consumers’ love of the Internet forced retailers to start selling their products online, and just as consumers’ love of their mobile devices forced developers to create websites and videos that work as well on tiny handhelds as they do on 25-inch monitors, consumers’ interest in staying healthy and knowing how their bodies function is pushing the health-care profession into the digital age. About time, too. That was one of the many insights from Mobile Marketer’s Mobile Women to Watch Summit 2015 in New York on Tuesday, an event at which I had the honor of introducing women who are leading the way in mobile marketing, content, video and well, everything. The digital revolution’s impact is transforming how we, as consumers, manage our own health and wellness, and its forcing medical professionals, hospitals and insurance companies to join the bandwagon, willingly or not. Wearable devices, invisible monitors and the biometric data they can capture provide consumers with more information about their bodies, minds and emotional well-being than they’ve ever had before. A recent Fast Company infographic highlighted a range of new digital wearable technologies, including: Microsoft Smart Bra that tracks breast perspiration and heart rate as emotional triggers for overeating (sign me up!)
NOTE TO DEVELOPERS: I’m hoping there’s one for calorie counting too, which, like the LumoLift above, alerts consumers when they’re nearing their recommended daily calorie intake. The digital revolution in healthcare goes beyond doctors, nurse practitioners and medical workers using tablets for record keeping, or hospitals buying bigger MRI machines. Futurists have long predicted “consumer-directed healthcare,” and the digital revolution with its wearable monitors means that the future has arrived. According to Pauline Coderre, Strategy Consultant for U.S Medical Health Education (part of Eli Lilly & Company), 75% of American adults rely on the Internet for health information each month, and the explosion of mobile technologies, monitors and wearable devices means that health awareness, health monitoring and self-care will become even more important in coming years and decades. Armed with real-time information about their bodies, patients can become even more involved partners in the doctor-patient relationship. Able to help patients understand the impact of their conditions or diseases, doctors can use digitally-derived data to educate patients about the lifestyle changes, medicines and other interventions that can keep them on the wellness path. The possibilities, in fact, are endless. And very exciting, too. How will the digital revolution and adoption of wearable devices change healthcare and the medical profession? How will it alter the doctor-patient relationship? Healthcare companies and their revenues? What will 2015 bring?
Hexoskin wearable body metrics that track activity and breathing volume LumoLift posture monitor delivers a buzzy alert when a body slumps, the digital version of a mother’s poke to “sit up straight!” JawBone UP tracks food consumption, sleep patterns and physical activity JUNE Wristband provides “real-time sun protection advice”
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Just How Far Can a PR Campaign Go To Solve the Sales and Profitability Problem? Hint: Let’s Ask McDonald’s!
If your company’s sales and profits are dropping, can a PR campaign drive new business and help boost sales? It’s a question we’re constantly asked by prospective clients – how will PR help our bottom line? And it’s a tactic that McDonald’s adopted in 2014, partly because it feels a need to better “educate” consumers about its gloriously unhealthy foods and nutritional issues, and partly because, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, the fast-food giant’s sales have dropped 3.3% in the U.S. and profits dropped 30% last year. That’s a lot of unsold beef patties and sesame seed buns…. McDonald’s strategy (Fast Company) — to free franchise owners to make more decisions about what to sell in their restaurants — piggybacks on the brand’s recently launched Our Foods, Your Questions page, part of its transparency drive (according to PR Week). The goal: confront questions head-on about the fast-food giant’s ingredients, food items and meals, and provide the “true story” about McDonald’s food, including documentary-style videos hosted by Grant Imahara (recently of “Mythbusters”). The challenge with PR-framed informational campaigns is that consumers and audiences already have more information than ever before at their fingertips. In fact, they probably have too much at their fingertips; another site that is dedicated to providing “the truth” may fall on fuzzy eyeballs or fail to generate any interest from the get-go. Shouldn’t a brand’s website and everyday marketing content provide the truth, anyway? In today’s online and media landscapes, informational PR campaigns must include content that matches its audience’s reality. In 2012, when consumers began sharing chef Jamie Oliver video and TV news segments and TV news videos about the “lean finely textured beef” phenomenon known as “pink slime,” McDonald’s (eventually) confronted the issue by announcing plans to remove LFTB from its patties and kitchens, and is responding now with its own videos in the current campaign, “Is McDonald’s beef real?” But what about U.S. consumers who are told by fast-food companies that there’s no market for healthy food options? Those same consumers travel abroad and discover international McDonald’s franchise or KFC’s “So Good, So Veg” menus that feature hummus plates, rice or potato burgers, meat-free curries, veggie rice bowls and veggie wraps. And they wonder: why aren’t those menu items available in the U.S? Dealing with Lipstick on a Pig Syndrome Good PR knows the difference between fluff and reality, and it addresses concerns head-on. Good PR professionals know that listening to your audience/consumers is the necessary first step to successful campaigns. And no matter how much spin is spun, PR cannot mask falsehoods, questionable business practices or “too good to be true” claims/defenses. Audiences — especially those empowered by viral videos and firsthand experiences they readily share via the Internet — see through anything that lacks authenticity. And they’re not afraid to call it out when they see it.
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai withher father, educator Ziaddun Yousafzai
“I Never Clipped Her Wings”:
Advice for the Ages…. And for Women (and Men) of All Ages
The committee members who selected 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai as the youngest-ever recipient of the Noble Peace Prize on October 10, 2014 singled out her “heroic suffering” and courage. Malala is the teenage girl who was shot on her school bus by Taliban fighters in Pakistan yet recovered in spite of their brutality to continue advocating a simple concept: the right of girls around the world to receive an education.
Malala Yousafzai
Her father, Pakistani educator Ziaddun Yousafzai, provided telling insight into mentorship that fueled his daughter’s boldness, courage, poise and voice: “Don’t ask me what I did,” he explained during a 2014 TED Talk. “Ask me what I did not do. I did not clip her wings…” As hard as it is to fathom, many girls and women experience the “clipping of the wings” early in life or at different stages throughout life, promulgated and supported at home, school and work not only by family members but also by teachers, bosses, mentors, professors, fiancés, boyfriends and husbands. This was a topic of much discussion at the 2014 G50 summit in Mountain View CA, and at the Mobile Women to Watch 2015 Summit in New York City. Held at the National Museum of the American Indian near Battery Park, the day-long 2014 event connected female leaders in mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce to discuss the impact of mobile on media, innovation, health, content marketing, lifestyle, customer satisfaction and other issues that impact both our lives and our businesses. Women have come a long way, especially in the U.S., and the upcoming Mobile Women event made me wonder: how do modern women successfully navigate life’s challenges and issues, especially around the ever-critical concepts of success, creativity, pride, fearlessness, wisdom and finding their unique voices?
Finding a voice early in life At age 10 (imagine!), Malala began writing with conviction, strength and deeply personal views about the right of each young girl around the world to attend school – even as she was surrounded by Taliban militants threatening to kill her and her family. THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
For many girls, that is usually the age at which they begin to experience the “clipping” that Malala’s father consciously decided to avoid. As they excel at math, they’re steered away from engineering and science classes in school to so-called “softer subjects.” Their“creative” pursuits are often downplayed in favor of more “practical” uses of their time, talents and energy. Emboldened and inspired by ideas, they often hold back out of fear, lack of confidence or a mentorship void.
The working world can be just as challenging, ranging from the overarching glass ceiling to seemingly simple comments such as “we’ve never had a woman in this job role before” or “it’s ‘un-ladylike’ to be strong/aggressive/inquisitive/opinionated” (fill in the blank). Beyond that, some women are never trained in the art of strength, the skill of self-promotion, the value of strategic inquisitiveness or the power of opinion. Into middle age, “real life” then enters the equation, and women face the never-ending demands of balancing career and family – paying the mortgage, chauffeuring the kids, preparing for the next promotion at work, balancing the home budget, crafting a key major workplace initiative while managing to carve out just one extra hour a week (just one!) to jog, attend Spinning or meditate to block out all the noise. Frequently, women are in their 50s, 60s or 70s before they finally relish and fully trust their experience, wisdom and voice – no longer inhibited about speaking up, no longer afraid to be supporting change (even if it’s defies convention), able to give themselves permission to say what they think is right – and then do it.
Let’s learn from each other Luckily, Malala found her voice and mission during childhood. We can all learn from her – and her father’s – brilliance and dedication. In fact, on the day she learned she had won the Nobel Prize, Malala sat through chemistry, physics and English classes before taking time to relish the moment and continue her inspiring journey. Imagine what you would have done in her place? I don’t know about you, but I’m deeply inspired to stand up for what I believe in, to help others and to leave a mark on our world.
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Content Marketers Get Creative
As content marketing is core too many of our clients’ B2B campaigns we naturally monitor what other brands are doing in the content marketing arena, including the following companies that have gotten really smart with their approaches: American Express’ Open Forum provides a central place for small business owners and entrepreneurs to share ideas and get advice – a collective sort of content marketing. Some brands are urged to turn loose their employees – and their employees’ networks and connections – to help spread the word about brand and companies.
“Content Marketing”: Constantly Re-Inventing Itself
Sabre Airlines Solutions, publisher of Ascend for Airlines magazine for airline pilots, recently partnered with The Economist to craft a white paper on “The Future of Air Travel,” backed by survey results and interviews – the kind of content that delivers credibility and authority.
to Tell Compelling Stories
A“Content marketing” means different things to different companies and brands. Some “purists” hate it, while for other brands, content really is king.
Marriott International invited its hotel guests to provide ideas for “content,” and they obliged in ways the hotel chain never could have imagined.
In the best deployments, it involves storytelling that is smart, intelligent and strategically placed – opinion pieces, columns, thought leadership articles, white papers, mini-white papers, position paper, short videos, infographics – to tell a story or convey an idea.
At The New York Times, external content from social media sources is being fed into the site’s home page, so that readers can see real-time, 24-7 updates about evolving news sources, even before the Times’ journalists have had time to craft and publish their stories.
It’s also a strategy undergoing constant evolution. Why? The definition of “content marketing” is fluid and ever-changing. Decades ago, it meant including “content” (something of added value) in basic advertising: cookbooks published by flour or baking goods’ brands, children’s “educational” booklets inside cereal boxes, free funeral home-branded cardboard fans at memorial services (pre-air-conditioning).
If you think about it, content marketing is an integral part of business development and lead generation. The ideas it offers and the stories it tells should capture the attention of prospective clients, customers, investors, analysts, reporters – anyone who can help further the business’ or brand’s success. It also should be a multi-team, multi-disciplinary effort that involves experts with different backgrounds and skills, each team or member able to offer a unique perspective, tell a compelling story, offer ground-breaking or disruptive recommendations or propose a new way of doing business. One example: IBM’s Developer Works broke early ground by providing a forum and content platform specifically for developers.
Content marketing shifted when PR’s David Ogilvy (the so-called “Father of Advertising”) proclaimed: “There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50% more readers.” Then, Google and search engine optimization came along, emerging as primary tools for research on brands and companies, and the battle for visibility began. Suddenly, “content” became the buzzword for marketers because of its critical role in getting noticed – especially as mainstream media has “streamlined” over the past decade, with many outlets trimming newsroom staffs and relying instead on an army of freelancers (paid and unpaid) to supply content. Today, “content” determines who gets top rankings in search results, and PR professionals and marketers know that a steady stream of fresh content leads to better and better search results, which leads to increased visibility and inbound traffic, which leads to fuller sales funnels, which….you get the picture. . THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
There’s no doubt that content marketing is becoming an increasingly important component of any company’s marketing plan that is focused on educating audiences, increasing visibility and driving new business. What’s harder to for brands to deal with is who will do the content planning and development? In-house, agency, a combination of both? The answer, of course, depends on many factors, including budget, available resources and know-how within the organization. Independent journalism and content marketing will no doubt continue to dance and weave as “media” evolves. What do you see in content marketing’s future? We’d like to know. And if you’re interested in the ThinkInk approach to content marketing, we hope you ask.
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Tito and Twitter: How Ryan Case Made
One Drunk Traveler a Social Media Celebrity
Tito and Twitter: How Ryan Case Made Why Brands Have to Give in Order to Receive
Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and overall internet guru, once uttered these wise words: “Technology is best when it brings people together.”
In September 2014, Nielsen released a thought leadership video providing a more thorough analysis of its July 2014 report on how corporate social responsibility impacts consumer behavior.
And what better way to unite the masses than by using smartphones and social media to laugh at our favorite basket cases? As Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus could probably tell you… there is none. (Thank you, Matt.)
The conclusion: more than two-thirds of professionals would prefer to work for a socially responsible company, and 55% would be willing to pay extra for products from one. Nielsen analyst Amy Fenton identified a “sharp, steady increase” in this aspect of brand perception among employees and consumers since the 2013 report.
When one particular target, Nadia – a name that inevitably will be associated with a rousing rendition of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” at airport bars everywhere – hopped on a redeye from New York City to Los Angeles, little did she know she would become an internet sensation. Fortunately for America, “Modern Family” editor and director Ryan Case, a three-time Emmy nominee and Emmy winner, was sitting directly behind Nadia and began documenting the drunken antics that ensued – a 67-tweet list that includes, but is not limited to: Nadia’s racist remarks to her seatmate, obnoxious flirting, an argument with a couple in front of her and, naturally, orders for more (and more) vodka. The lesson to be learned? (OK, besides the knowledge that Tito’s mini bottles always lead to self-destruction). In today’s media-everywhere environment, social media can completely alter someone’s reputation in just a matter of minutes – and on a platform with the potential to reach hundreds of millions. For better or worse, technology follows us everywhere. It’s with us while we work, it joins us at our favorite restaurant, it accompanies us on that girls’ weekend in the Florida Keys, and sometimes, it even hops into bed with us. And as our new favorite traveler now knows, technology is in the driver’s seat, social media is always at someone’s fingertips – and what happens in Vegas, doesn’t always stay there.
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Make no mistake, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more than just “doing good;” it is a chance at leveraging good to create awareness among consumers, help them understand the benefits of a company’s charitable activities and motivate them to engage further with the brand. Of course, that’s easier said than done, according to Forbes’ Chief Insights Officer, Bruce Rogers, who points out that “only 5% of companies are seen as delivering on these promises. And when you spend $50-100 million a year that’s a poor ROI.” Clearly, there’s a huge need for companies to clarify and better communicate their CSR activities – both to justify their respective budgets and to capture the long-term loyalty of existing customers and future ones.
When doing good goes wrong
“Doing good,” however, can go wrong as Fast Company’s Ben Schiller experienced after receiving a corporation’s CSR report from its PR firm. Discussing the company’s CSR initiative, Schiller describes the CEO as, “self-serving, and ever so slightly smarmy.” It’s precisely that type of self-serving nature that brands should avoid in order to convince consumers their endeavors are benefitting the greater good and aren’t simply some type of PR stunt. And that’s the hardest part of CSR for many brand managers today: the Public Relations Society of America found that the top reasons for CSR programs are reputation, competitive positioning and profitability. Missing from the list? The best interests of charities and social enterprises. Hmmmmm… Our friends at 121Giving (disclosure: a ThinkInk client) have struck the nail on the head for effectively connecting brands with consumers to support and help the causes they care about in a very transparent and tangible way. 121Giving’s mission is to connect hundreds of thousands of 501(c)(3) U.S. charities with retailers and brands that sell the products they consistently need to run their organizations and programs through a new type of digital marketplace. 121Giving matches the needs and collective buying power of these charities with corporate discounts and new crowdfunding capabilities – exactly the sort of direct company-to-charity-to-consumer relationship Schiller envisioned. Corporate social responsibility doesn’t have to be a profitless endeavor, just ask TOMS and Bain Capital, who acquired the social enterprise in April for a whopping $625million. CSR can be profitable, sustainable and offer a real, tangible difference for partner charities and causes — so long as CSR’s external impact is supported from within the company. WWW.THINKINKPR.COM
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“Corporate Journalism”: PR’s Best Friend and a Double-Edged Sword for Clients
It’s no secret that traditional journalism is undergoing major changes. The number of people now working as newspaper editors or reporters has dropped steadily and annually – from 52,000 in 2007 to 38,000 in 2012, according to Pew Research Center, while the number of public relations (PR) professionals (229,100, according to 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics figures) is growing 12% a year. What’s filling the vacuum as newspapers slash budgets and staffs? A phenomenon known as “corporate journalism,” a term that no doubt makes ink-in-their-bloodstream journalists cringe as readily as it inspires PR professionals to sit up and take notice. What reporters decry as the slow death of their watchdog industry, PR professionals view as ripe opportunities for “product placement” through content that they write, pitch and place in media under the bylines of their clients or sponsors. Recent examples of corporate journalism include a “company newspaper” in Richmond CA, funded by hometown company Chevron, and a joint project by the New York Times and Goldman Sachs, which joined forces for an interview session as part of the Times’ T Brand Studio.
Corporate Journalism Doesn’t Come Cheap Clients of PR firms need to understand that this shift toward “corporate journalism” doesn’t mean a free ride to the front page of every newspaper and trade publication. The shift, in fact, represents a double-edged sword. Getting past editor and reporter gatekeepers is easier now that there are fewer of them, but securing placement will cost more. Long gone are the days when PR success meant simply calling up a reporter, pitching an idea, and sitting back as the reporter researched, wrote, edited and published an article that – ideally — contained salient points of the pitch. Today, that article or content is more likely the product of in-house writers at the PR agency itself, meaning the output is charged as billable
Look
beyond the promise of the “pitch,” THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
hours to the client’s account. Getting “ink” might be easier, but it’s not free. PR agencies today are increasingly becoming their own media companies, relying on internal resources to write, pitch and publish articles on behalf of their clients. What does it mean for companies searching for a skilled PR agency? Look beyond the promise of the “pitch,” because the “pitch” is less and less of what modern-day PR is about. Today’s savvy clients will seek out PR firms that can craft, write, pitch and publish industry-relevant, insightful and timely pieces that readers and media outlets will find interesting, believable and valuable. Experienced PR wordsmiths are essential PR team members if the client’s goal is visibility, credibility and authority. Educate more than you promote. Corporate journalism should focus on journalism’s core themes: provide information, educate, inform, back up the position with data, and use examples, facts, figures and solutions to tell the story. Get too promotional, and editors and readers will see through the hype and sales-copy. Realize that readers scrutinize every word online and are not afraid to “out” what they perceive as bad journalism, shoddy fact-checking or outright wrong information. And in today’s social-media-empowered environment, they can quickly marshal forces to spread the word on any number of potentially viral platforms. It’s a trend we’ve embraced at ThinkInk, where our philosophy, strategic and tactics have always focused less on press releases and more on telling the best possible stories for our clients. We’ve boosted our content capabilities and already are seeing results, because we know one thing: today’s editors are no different than yesterday’s editors…they still value good, informative, insightful copy. Every profession changes and evolves with the times, and the evolution of independent journalism toward “corporate journalism” is happening as we speak.
Educate more than you promote. WWW.THINKINKPR.COM
Realize that readers scrutinize every word online.
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The sharing economy comes to Apple – but not in the way you think
The following is a blog post written by Chief Client Services Officer Vanessa Horwell for Mobile Marketer.
The following prediction is not meant to shock as much as it is intended to acknowledge Apple’s new reality: 2014 may well have been the last year that Apple could cloak itself in exclusivity, selective media outreach and surprise announcements when it launches new products and technologies. Why the shift? Why will 2015 and beyond be any different? Because the world has changed.
But today’s consumers – content not too long ago to wait patiently for a year to get their hands on a newer, better phone and operating system – now want upgrades every other week or month. As Google and the Android platform continue to chip away at Apple’s global market share (80.02 percent Android versus 14.8 percent Apple) and U.S. market share (51.5 percent Android versus 42.4 percent Apple), the once-dominant “iProduct” cartel is gradually losing its category leadership and caché as a differentiator for many.
Consumers have changed.
Brands that survive must adapt
Competition has changed.
Apple may still be a popular and well-loved brand – No. 1 on the LEAP Index from New Media Metrics – and its success at catering to the high end of the product line cannot be argued.
And the mobile handset market that Apple so brilliantly revolutionized with its 2007 iPhone continues to evolve ever faster. Every smartphone company – including the iconic Apple brand – must eventually adjust its model to match reality. No single brand can stay atop the pyramid of popularity and value forever, and whether Apple likes it or not, a simple marketplace fact remains true: While the light still shines bright on Apple, that spotlight will have to be shared with other technology providers, smartphone makers, retailers and mobile vendors. Even if Steve Jobs were still alive, Apple would have to adjust to the new realities of the marketplace because time simply does not stand still, and neither do consumers, competitors, or the media.
Market demands change
Today when a stranger hands over a phone and asks you to take his or her photo, that handset is just as likely to be a Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Nokia or LG as an iPhone. And for the most part, it will look like and function as well as – sometimes better than – one with an Apple logo on it.
Media has changed, too Apple already has made its moves to expand into new areas and products lines, including a sleeker iPhone 6 announced at its ever-popular September launch event, a fitness-focused and wearable Apple Watch, even a free U2 album to a half-billion iTunes customers in 119 countries – the biggest album release in history. The U2 giveaway was a surprise. The iPhone 6 and Apple Watch rumors were not.
The “Twitter effect” of shortened attention spans has filtered to consumer electronics and technologies, an area where Apple traditionally has dominated. Yes, Apple’s iPod fundamentally changed how consumers buy and listen to music. And, yes, Apple greatly influenced our expectations about what smartphones could and should do beyond making phone calls, sending texts or taking snaps at any moment, from anywhere to share with everyone, everywhere.
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But its top position is showing signs of slipping (LEAP score fell 2.2 percent from 2013), mostly because other brands are entering the public mindset or because other smartphones – even as they mimic Apple’s interface and functionality – make Apple less novel and attractive, especially in the United States.
If consumer needs and expectations have changed, so too have PR and media communities. And that can be seen in the waning shock-wow-shiny-shiny appeal of Apple’s announcements. Showing signs that its exclusive leaks, sneak peeks and intensely controlled information surrounding product launches and announcements are being replaced by more direct outreach and a more broadly experienced internal team.
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Less Exclusivity, More Transparency are Harbingers of Inevitable Change
Ever Feel Like Consumers Are Pushing Your Buttons?
Much to his credit, Apple CEO Tim Cook has assumed the role of Apple CEO very capably – a feat I doubted in his early days.
At Mobile Marketer’s 2014 Mobile Research Summit in New York City, I had the opportunity to hear some of the nation’s top mobile, tablet and app experts discuss why it’s become so critical for brands to tap into each respective market.
Mr. Cook has made himself more available to the press. He continues to focus on the big ideas and vision that built and sustain Apple’s credibility as an innovator. He has made the financial moves – including the 7-for-1 stock split on June 4 – that boosted investor confidence in Apple’s continued commercial success.
By 2017, 250 million mobile phones (that’s a whopping 90% of Americans) and 280 million tablets will be in use here in the United States. These devices are no longer just emerging opportunities to connect with customers – they’re fully ingrained in our culture and way of life.
Also at this year’s Sept. 9 launch event, Apple broke long-rumored news of ApplePay and its support for near-field communications (NFC) to make mobile payments and in-location engagement a thing of the future across all devices – Apple and, inadvertently, Android.
In our age of the consumer, marketers must understand the importance of communicating with their audiences at the right time – and through the right channel. In the words of Forrester’s VP and Principal Analyst Julie Ask, there is something known as “the mobile mind shift,” the idea that increased mobile connectivity has left users so empowered that they can fulfill their needs at will using their devices. Her book on the concept, also called The Mobile Mind Shift and co-written with fellow Forrester analysts Ted Schadler and Josh Bernoff, served as a major resource for her presentation.
As some have predicted, Apple’s support of NFC technology to pay by a tap of a mobile phone could alter the merchant-consumer experience as we know it – even sound the death knell of the plastic credit card in favor of a digital wallet (note to leather wallets: you are next).
Throughout her keynote, Ask honed in on key mobile trends and their relation to marketers’ ability to touch on the “mind shift.” Data, supported by the speed and quality of analysis, are potential competitive advantages for mobile marketers.
But Apple does so knowing that its NFC support means sharing the technology with other players this time – retailers, merchants, credit card companies, Android mobile device manufacturers and many non-Apple aligned technology and software companies. APPLE WILL always be a unique and beloved brand. But as it evolves, it is finally learning that truly great brands pursue openness, transparency and a shared vision as avidly as they pursue innovation and their own unique niche.
Following Ask’s mind shift mentality, if users expect to find what they need just by taking out their phone, then marketers must be just as immediate in meeting that demand. In order to achieve this, they must have a fundamental understanding of their customers from data that explains what they look for and how to address their needs quickly before a competitor can. Ask also touched on the capability of apps with built-in analytics to support these performance outcomes.
In 2015, maybe I will get an invitation.
According to Yankee Group’s Sheryl Kingstone, also a speaker at the summit, 60% of mobile phone users spend time interacting with applications. While both Ask and Kingstone’s singular points are well argued, combined they present an even stronger case for why brands should adopt emerging app trends now – the more users interact with mobile apps that provide quality data, the sooner marketers can use that information to re-target during their times of need, better known as mobile moments.
Apps and analytics will become a dynamic duo in this race to first understand consumer needs.
On the topic of added value, couponing was another notable aspect of Kingstone’s presentation. 91% of Yankee Group’s survey respondents said they would be interested in mobile coupons – and why wouldn’t they be? She asked attendees a couple poignant questions: What is the right time of day? and does it matter? According to her, couponing is a highly viable marketing technique for that reason: the savings they bring and how they can be distributed at any time. Studying mobile usage has become mandatory for brands to form authentic use cases to help understand the best times to talk with their customers. Now, R&D will have to concentrate on the when and why in order to captivate the now in-control consumer.
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Even in a Crisis, Remember PR Basics Face it: everyone makes mistakes. It’s a fact of life, and the world of PR is no exception to the rule. It’s just that when PR professionals are involved in any kind of communication misstep, the scrutinizing eyes seem so much more judgmental. And rightly so. Two 2014 incidents underscored the importance of key underlying PR concepts: mistakes can be prevented, and no matter what you call it, “crisis communications” strategies rely on the same principles that should govern all communications: transparency, a good editor, a robust and honest gut-check, and the strength to refrain from adrenaline-fueled, last-minute rushes to publish, post, Tweet or send. To wit: 1. Edelman PR, a well-respected global PR firm, recently found itself on the hot seat (New York Times: “Edelman PR Firm is Taking Steps to Address Faux Pas”) for 1) a blog post in reaction to actor Robin Williams’ suicide-death in August 2014, and 2) its response to a media questionnaire about representing clients who deny climate change. Edelman quickly apologized for a “Carpe Diem” blog post that suggested Williams’ death presented a PR “opportunity” to talk about mental illness; critics called the headline and blog post insensitive and callous. At about the same time, Edelman’s e-mail response to an international climate change survey included an attached internal screenshot and message that should have been deleted, followed by a personnel fallout (step-down of the CEO who did the attaching) and what can only be described as awkward follow-up quotes/interviews about Edelman’s PR strategies.
Play devil’s advocate. No matter how vested you are in any project, content–a tagline, a slogan, a piece of website copy, a photograph, a company description, a product name, a headline, a report title – step back and examine it objectively to make sure it passes the smell test. Does it sound right? Look right? Read correctly? Can it be misinterpreted? Would someone with no vested interest “get it” at first glance? Does it make sense? Is it insensitive? Did you read it out loud a couple of times? In a foreign language, does it means something gross or embarrassing that could come back and bite you in the behind? Even in a crisis, don’t rush. It’s perfectly OK to take that extra few minutes (or 10, or 20) to check for mistakes, read it again, get another opinion, or ask for advice. Make SURE that what you’re about to do is in line with your firm’s PR strategy and in line with what you would advise your clients to do. When in doubt, don’t. Mistakes do and will happen. But as PR professionals, it’s incumbent on us individually and collectively to lead the way in showing our clients, prospects and even those PR naysayers what steps to take in order to avoid the these types of debacles from occurring often.
2. In the racially torn town of Ferguson, MO., where African-American residents have protested the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the follow-up investigation and actions by a predominantly white police force, bloggers did not hesitate to point out that the PR firm hired to help soothe community tensions is not racially diverse (Talking Points Memo; “Ferguson Hires PR Firm That Appears to Be Staffed Only by White People”). Talk about insensitive.
What lessons can we take away? Transparency is the best policy. Yes, that’s right – even in PR. Be honest and upfront about who you are, what you represent, and how you represent yourself. Should the City of Ferguson, MO., have asked its new PR agency if people of color were on staff? Indeed, and it should have been the very first question. Get an editor. Having a second set of eyes gut-check every piece of content – white paper to Twitter post – will increase the probability that errors will be caught and corrected before copy is released to the webosphere.
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Native Advertising and Big Brand Success: Finally, Publicity That Matters Smartphones and waterslides. Snickers and weight loss. Ice cream and BBQ sauce. Tequila and self-respect. While we aren’t here to judge your latest fixations, most of us can agree that – though wonderful in their own right – these paired items just don’t make sense. According to John Oliver, comedic talent and host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, a fifth pair to add to that list is native advertising and real, hard-hitting journalism. Oliver contends that seamlessly integrating native advertising into top-tier news outlets is a way to trick viewers into viewing branded content by masking it as unbiased news. And while we understand his point, the frequency of its use makes us wonder: Is it really all that bad?
“
... Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show in 2014, for example, GE sponsored a special segment called “GE Fallonventions” to showcase teen geniuses and their latest inventions....The result? Both benefited from an advertising platform that actually drew viewers – instead of deterring them.”
Despite its surge as the latest trend for today’s advertisers, native advertising is far from new. Defined in different ways (depending upon whom you ask), native advertising is essentially a form of media that’s built into the actual visual design of news; one where ads and content become one and the same. Dating to the early 1900s, when branded advertising was coordinated with media coverage to target readers interested in specific topics, native advertising has taken many forms: advertorial content and sponsored radio shows, product placements, branded television and soap opera series, infomercials and even search ads. Rocked by new forms of digital media, today’s native advertising – which has sparked controversy among forward-thinking marketing executives and old-school PC users across the globe – is fueled by sponsored content on such websites as Buzzfeed and Mashable, or major news outlets that include Forbes, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The goal is to provide newsworthy information that presents opportunities for the business goals of the story’s sponsoring brand. Native advertising has become a core public relations strategy for some of the world’s largest brands. GE, one of the early adopters of the “brand as content trend, has invested millions in native advertising campaigns over the past four years, capitalizing on what the company believes to be the next phase of innovative marketing. When Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show in 2014, for example, GE sponsored a special segment called “GE Fallonventions” to showcase teen geniuses and their latest inventions – such as 16 year-old Anne, with her flashlight powered by the heat of the human hand. Netflix, too, jumped on the trend when it published an article titled “Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn’t Work” in The New York Times to promote Season 2 of “Orange is the New Black”. While one company used a popular comedian, child prodigies and late night television, the other used a major consumer brand, historical online news outlet and a controversial issue. The result? Both benefited from an advertising platform that actually drew viewers – instead of deterring them. The clincher is this: Viewpoints aside, in an age so focused on attracting the masses through disruption and innovation, we are witnessing a shift toward advertising that is successful simply because of its lack of disruption. In spite of this irony, native advertising seems to have struck a chord with some of the biggest names in the brand game – GE, TGI Fridays and Hyundai – spurring an even greater question: Where will advertising head next?
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When Mobile Spending Just Doesn’t “Ad” Up If you haven’t kept up with the news over the past decade, newspaper and radio are out – and mobile technology is in. According to recent eMarketer research, mobile advertisers are capitalizing on the popularity of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to impact consumers through channels they are actually using. And with ad spend predicted to increase by 83% in 2014 – bringing in ad revenue of $18 billion, higher than newspaper or radio’s $17 billion or $15.5 billion, respectively – it has become apparent that this gradual shift in technology is transforming the way consumers and brands interact with the media.
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Given how often individuals spend time on their mobile devices (Nielsen research concluded that Americans spent an average 34+ hours on their smartphones in December 2013 alone), experts are divided on whether this ad spend should be higher or lower. Mobile Marketer’s Lauren Johnson, for example – who recently did an analysis of Forrester’s mobile report, Mobile Advertising: It’s Time To Get Personal – doesn’t understand why ad spend is as profitable as it is when, in her opinion, mobile advertising lacks creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
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The question on all executives’ minds, then, is this: Is mobile advertising worth all the extra hype and spend? Our answer? It depends. After speaking with experts about the benefit of mobile advertising, this same eMarketer research determined that mobile display ads received a collective “B-,” while location-targeted ads were graded as an “A-.” Although localized ads may hold more relevance to the user (given the fact that they are sent as the result of targeted data), a B- is by no means an F – so who’s to say we should rule out mobile display ads completely? Lauren’s analysis, for example, describes some mobile ad campaigns as “annoying to customers.” But are they only annoying, or can they also be helpful, useful and lead to further brand-customer interactions? Is mobile advertising really that black and white? In their recent book, The Mobile Mind Shift, Forrester’s Julie Ask, Ted Schadler and Josh Bernoff confirm the popularity of mobile devices with their explanation of the “mobile moment” – that exact moment in time when consumers look to their smartphones to fill an immediate need. Knowing this phenomenon, marketers could argue that mobile ads should integrate seamlessly with the natural user flow, or else they risk being perceived as disruptive to the point of disruptive (not the good kind of disruptive). Mobile-savvy brands need to create advertising initiatives that add value to the customer experience and answer the five core questions – who, what, where, when and how – about the “mobile moments” of the target audience. Then, and only then, will brands be able to determine the impact of their mobile ad spend. As brands continue to expand their mobile advertising budgets, marketers need to ensure they get an accurate understanding of their customers and direct mobile campaigns in a way that actually motivates purchasing behaviors. Mobile advertising may, as Johnson says, not currently be in its ideal state – but then again, at one point, neither were mobile devices. What actions are you taking to help make your advertising more relevant to consumers’ needs? What have you found to be the most effective practices in understanding your customers’ mobile moments?
? ? What actions are you taking to help make your advertising more relevant to consumers’ needs?
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Airlines Need To Stop Watching Trends and Get Smart The technology that powers smartphones and tablets has changed how business is conducted – and by default, the customer experience, as well. As mobile technology continues to develop, wearables have become the next logical trend; and with these advancements come new levels of convenience for the travel consumer. At 2014’s The Wearable Tech Expo in New York, analysts, speculators and consumers alike explored this topic; coming to the collective conclusion that the future of wearables is bright – so bright, that the sector’s value is estimated to be at least $50 billion very soon. And with wearables’ ability to help airlines cut operational costs, collect personal preference data for passengers and communicate better with consumers – there’s even a translation app that overcomes employee-passenger language barriers – wearable tech is expected to revolutionize the airline and travel sector and offer a more personalized customer experience for all passengers in the coming year. Here are a few examples of how some airlines are currently testing the impact of wearables in the travel space:
Virgin Atlantic teams up with SITA to evaluate the effect of wearables on the customer experience In a recent SITA study done with Virgin Atlantic, the airline’s Upper Class Wing Concierge staff experimented with Google Glass and Sony Smartwatch to test the impact of wearable technology on high-value passengers. With Google Glass’ seemingly never-ending novelty, its ability to offer real-time language translation and store pre-registered data on customers’ dietary and beverage preferences has analysts hooked. Using this technology, airlines could become proactive about passenger needs, allowing flight attendants to pre-empt anxiety before they even have a chance to become dissatisfied. And while Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson is no stranger to innovative customercentric campaigns, this SITA study focused on ways to use advanced technology to enhance the passenger experience throughout the travel journey.
Japan Airlines brings wearables to the airport experience After further experimentation, experts determined that wearable technology could impact customers not just during their journey – but in the airport, as well. By trialing the use of smart watches and iBeacons to streamline daily operations inside an airport environment, Japan Airlines has determined that – through the use of geo-fencing and BLE – airline administrators can actually pinpoint which employees are closest to airport or customer service issues that need immediate resolution. While other airlines have done similar research, few have tackled wearable technology to the extent of Japan Airlines. The hope? By using wearables to troubleshoot problems in airports more efficiently, passengers will be able to enjoy a travel experience that promises less delays and obstacles before they even get on the plane.
Copenhagen Airport gives entire staff Google Glass As the first airport to test Google Glass across its entire staff, Copenhagen Airport was able to create an environment where – for the first time in history – airport employees had their hands free to assist customers. While reviews were no doubt more positive among younger passengers, one thing was for sure – There would finally be no more juggling of boarding passes, IDs, duty rosters and more. When it comes down to it, wearable technology is undoubtedly going to be a game changer for airlines; and the real trendsetters in the industry will be the brands who adapt the earliest. Airlines need to find out how they can harness technological innovations like these to stand out from their competition – always doing whatever it takes to give their passengers the best travel experience possible.
50B
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Wearables value is estimated to be at least $50 billion very soon!
What innovative ways have you seen travel and airline brands use wearable technology? Do you think wearables are “the next big thing” for the customer experience?
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Millennials and Loyalty: Get Their Smartphones and You’ll Get Their Hearts
Millennials really like free stuff – er, rewards.
Ask any Millennial… and they’ll tell you that mobile phones have become their lifeline. ‘
For this generation, social media is Bible. As more brands recognize this fact and reward consumers for their social behaviors, they’ve witnessed increased customer engagement and brand loyalty. This is further cemented by the fact that, according new data from Colloquy, 84% of consumers would spend more with retailers who offer loyalty rewards for activities other than purchasing, including sharing on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
In a recent Millennial survey, 47% of respondents admitted they wouldn’t last a day without their smartphone, and most check their mobile devices at least 43 times a day. Need more proof? Sixty-four percent (64%) use mobile devices to do their banking, and 96% of 18-24 year olds claim that their smartphones are more important than putting on deodorant and brushing their teeth. As gross as that is, we’re not here to judge, just to make this observation: Given Millennials’ obvious reliance on mobile devices, brands should capitalize on this activity and use it to attract and build loyalty among Millennials. How can brands find and engage this audience? Firstly, take a step back and put yourselves into a Millennial mindset. Here are a few fundamentals of Millennial thinking that brands should recognize as appealing to Generation Y consumers and their approach to loyalty:
Millennials trust their friends more than they trust your brand. When it comes to new brands and the products or services they offer, Millennials are big proponents of user reviews. According to Mobile Marketer, 58% of Millennials use their phones to check customer opinions before making a purchase, 57% to compare prices and 24% look to their social media apps to see what people are saying about the brand. What’s the point, you ask? Incentive. As much as Millennial spending contributes to the retail industry – their generation spent $600 billion alone in 2013 – as a younger demographic, they’re still cautious about who they’re giving their money to. Even in a digitally cluttered world, it can be hard to tell which brands come out on top; leaving the reviews and opinions of trusted friends, or even her consumers their age, critical to confirming whether or not a product or service is actually worth purchasing. What this means for brands: The name of the game is “incentivize” – brands should make customer comments easy to find and share so that potential customers can see benefits firsthand and soak up the impetus they need to participate. THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
What this means for brands: Loyalty marketers should ensure programs are easy to participate in via mobile. Think about the big role that mobile plays in these consumers’ lives when determining what types of behavior to reward.
Millennials are open to being stalked – if it leads to discounts. Delivering relevant, hyper-targeted content using the GPS capabilities of the mobile channel is a critical way for brands to reach Millennial consumers. Hyper-targeting has become the new norm, and today’s Generation Y consumers expect content that is tailored to them and their needs. Needs like… discounts. 50% of this demographic reported saying that they would happily share their mobile phone numbers with brands if it meant they could benefit from geo-targeted coupons and savings. What this means for brands: Loyalty program marketers should gather all the information they can about consumers’ mobile devices, like location and device type, so they can develop more relevant offers – and more importantly, offer them savings that are appropriate to their lifestyle. Generation Y is an extremely technologically-savvy group of individuals – and to secure real brand loyalty in ways that impact the Millennial lifestyle, brands should make mobile (and everything the channel has to offer) a central component of their marketing strategy.
How do you think brands should use mobile technology to impact Millennial loyalty? What are other reasons mobile is so important to this generation? WWW.THINKINKPR.COM
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Why Loyal Consumers Go From Mobile-to-Mortar Retail Customer Experience recently released an infographic filled with juicy statistics that cement the critical need for local businesses to take advantage of advancements in mobile technology. For starters, 62% of Americans now own a smartphone – a mere 6% less than the number of Americans with cable TV. With the wealth of geolocation and proximity-oriented applications on the market, mobile can target nearby consumers much more precisely than television, especially when it comes to restaurant and retail locations that rely on foot traffic. Empowered by the ability to plan their outings on the fly, 94% of smartphone owners are using their mobile devices to research information about nearby stores and venues, and 84% of those users go on to interact further once they’ve found the information they sought. Location-based data will be vital information for small to mid-sized business’ efforts to bringing in nearby customers.
also been a major factor for the 54% of retailers who identified mobile optimization as a top priority in 2014. Price differences between brick-and-mortars and online retailers can make or break purchasing decisions; and for that reason, it will become increasingly important for retailers to understand the new mobile-to-mortar shopper. For both restaurant and retail, the stats say it all: mobile is mandatory if you want to reach your customers (wherever they are). While development costs can be trickier for independent restaurants and smaller retailers, mobile deserves a fair analysis– and the more it is as viewed as a long-term investment, the stronger the argument becomes for using this powerful channel to attain loyal consumers.
Mobile Internet, as one might expect, has a much higher usage rate among the 18-to 29year-olds. While this customer segment may be less loyal to brands, their “disloyalty” is also an opportunity for brands to captivate the undecided Millennial audience and turn them into devoted and longer term customers. The RCE infographic shows 70% of mobile users aged 18 to 34 rely on their mobile device for directions, a key lead for the conversation to brick-and-mortar traffic. That query for the store’s location also leads into how over one third of Millennials have placed orders to pick up food through their smartphones or tablets.
Wondering Where The Hottest Retail Space Is? Hint: It’s Inside Your Phone Restaurateurs and retailers have plenty of potential to capitalize on proximity and mobile marketing techniques – but few actually do. Despite the favorable odds for mobile-savvy operations, 95% of independent restaurants don’t have mobile sites, and only 40% have online menus. A common criticism, then, is that the cost to develop these platforms is too much; but that argument fails to take into account the long-term ROI of mobile marketing. Considering that 62% of consumers are less likely to choose a restaurant without mobile optimization, it has become critical for top competitors to draw referrals from smartphone users. Retail is no different. Once inside the store, 58% of consumers check user reviews, and 24% will do a DIY poll with their friends on social media before buying. Webrooming has THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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Technology & Terrorism: Oddly Strange Bedfellow Offering Help…and Harm There’s never a good time to write about acts of war or terrorism. But in light of the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, and numerous other acts of war and violence that occurred during 2014 on a frighteningly regular basis, ThinkInk dug into a hard-hitting issue affecting thinkers around the world: the role of technology in the war on terrorism.
Is technology aiding terrorism’s global spread, or fighting it for the good of all humanity? The integration of technology and terrorism is evident today in one of the world’s most current and prolific battle: the ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine. The conflict dates to 1948, when Palestine nations attacked Israel to oppose the United Nations’ efforts to divide Palestine into two nations: one Arab, one Jewish. Sixty-two years later, technology makes it possible for global warfare to impact civilization beyond the local communities physically there to witness and experience it. The accessibility and reach of social media have challenged traditional news outlets, many of which are often criticized for being biased or delivering incomplete information. Conversely, social outlets like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram give eyewitnesses unfiltered avenues that allow them to share and broadcast with the rest of the world unedited, firsthand accounts of what is actually happening in their worlds and neighborhoods.
Hashtags for #Terrorism Case in point: two 2014 Twitter hashtags, #GazaUnderFire or #PrayForGaza, tag gruesome photos of Palestinian victims in an effort to depict Israeli attacks as cruel and inhumane. In response to the hashtags, Israeli students at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC) created their own website, Israel Under Fire, to provide a view of the aftermath of Hamas attacks on their own country. Both sides have a story to tell, both have an agenda, and both use social media to spread their messages outward. Mobile technology, too, is changing the face of modern warfare: Downloaded by nearly 750,000 users, apps like Red Alert used real-time information transmitted from Israel Defense forces and Homefront Command to send smartphone owners a push alert – giving them a 15- to 90-second warning to seek protection when a rocket has been fired from Gaza toward Israel. An SOS app allowed kidnapped individuals to send a personal safety alert to family and friends by simply “swiping right.” A third app used GPS technology to help Israelis find the nearest bomb shelter. Created most recently by Zochrot, a pro-Palestinian Israeli group based in Tel Aviv, the free iNakba app was designed to both inform and provoke – using a dotted Google map of Israel to show the locations of once-Palestinian territories that have since been destroyed by Israeli regimes. What social media/technology share with traditional media is interpretation: how the message is received and assimilated by its intended audience. A Hamas music video, “Kum, Aseh Piguim” (which translates as “Up, Do Terror Attacks”) was posted online in July with the intent to instill fear among Israelis with harsh lyrics and vivid images of bomb-making and previous deadly missile attacks. Instead of sparking fear, the song has become an Israeli anthem, turned into ringtones and mocked on Facebook. In that regard, social media is no different than traditional media because the reader/audience can interpret the message, regardless of its original intent. History knows that when technology, social media and warfare collide, the results are unpredictable.
Is there a way to find a balance?
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The
NEW PR is about
understanding how to best blend
content and distribution channels to
create the
biggest impact
on a desired audience. Vanessa Horwell
The Shifting “Vocus” of the Modern PR Professional A 2014 report by Vocus, “Measure & Maximize PR Impact,” most likely grabbed the attention of every PR professional, regardless of title or tenure. Published by the PR and marketing services company that manages some of the most robust databases and press release distribution networks in North America, the report sets out to redefine the historical definition of a PR professional in a modern context. Focused on today’s rapidly changing business and communications landscape, the core finding was this: The nature of our industry, who we direct our messaging to and how we report our findings to clients are very different to just a few years ago. Vocus defines public relations as “the art of building, growing and navigating relationships between a business and interested relevant parties; such as customers, partners, employees and recruiters.” That’s certainly a great definition of what PR is, but how do we achieve our desired results? The new PR is about understanding how to best blend content and distribution channels to create the biggest impact on a desired audience – whether that’s through a six-second Vine video, a 20-page whitepaper for an IT professional, or a targeted personalization strategy. The result is a social experiment to see what works best. Given the rapidly-changing world of media and technology, there is one thing we know for sure: Anything is possible. In order to present the full value of our work for clients done via new, emerging and digital outlets, the modern PR professional must be as equally familiar with all the current communications channels as they are their systems of analytics. “Measure & Maximize PR Impact” included Southwest Airlines as an example of strong reporting on PR value, as the brand was able to directly account for $2.5 million in ticket sales back to its SEO strategy. In this case, search was a critical tool for the company, and concentrating on it led to increased returns on their efforts there. The Southwest experiment also highlighted the need for tangible results, which is why PR practitioners need to quantify the value of their work by measuring it directly to clients. As data analytics becomes more accurate, the PR industry will be asked to harness results to support definitive results to clients, too. Much like research analysts, PR professionals have to be on top of not only evaluating trends, but assessing the value of trends as well. For B2B trends and technology specifically, key questions should be asked: - How do key decision makers find out about new opportunities? - How do we build credibility for clients using a certain distribution channel over another? - How do we present robust analytics that adequately capture the quality of our work? B2B communications for technology companies operates at a breakneck pace – and boy, do we have whiplash sometimes! The modern PR professional has to be in touch with so many moving parts: trends, outlets, how to report on emerging channels and devices, the list goes on and on. In this grand balancing act, it’s crucial to gauge success that is empirical and measureable. What sources do you trust most when looking for PR or media news, trends and business opportunities? What quantitative metrics have you found most effective when reporting results?
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General Motors and the Chevrolet Fail of 2014: Maybe It’s Time to Recall PR?
Regardless of our profession, we witnessed some tragic and unforgettable media moments in 2014 – like U.S. Airways’ Twitter epic fail or every time past Clippers owner Donald Sterling opened (and continues to open) his mouth in a public setting. Which raises the question: Who in the world is responsible for their PR? The General Motors recall of millions of defective ignition switches -- a defect that is very similar to the previous GM recall linked to 13 deaths in 2013 – presents candidate for a PR review: General Motors’ very own CEO, Mary Barra.
the GM brand (or any brand under scrutiny) and to keep a household name just that: a household name. Consumers are willing to forgive brands that make mistakes, but only when these mistakes are properly acknowledged and the people in charge communicate a clear and realistic pathway to prevent future ones from happening. What advice would you give to PR professionals as they deal with serious issues that threaten their reputation?
Appearing before Congress in 2013 and its initial inquiries into a potentially-fatal ignition defect that was impacting power steering, power brakes and airbags of Chevrolet Cobalts across the nation, Barra earned the support of consumers everywhere for appearing to be an executive and leader who was caring, empathetic and genuinely apologetic for the brand’s responsibility in the crisis. When she spoke at a press conference before the U.S. House in 2014, however, a very different woman took the podium. Barra came across as cold and delivered answers that were lacking any real empathy or concern for the families affected. The worst part? She announced the results of GM’s internal investigation without actually revealing the results. She refused to share the official internal investigation report with the public (though it was later released by federal authorities), failed to explain any plans to curb the issue beyond letting go of fifteen employees, announced a victims’ compensation fund with no apparent knowledge of how it worked, and blew off concern from the victims’ families that GM didn’t care about those who died as a result of their error. From our perspective, this PR blunder stems from an issue with corporate transparency. While the severity of the situation makes it understandable that a company with the size and heritage of General Motors might need to incorporate a smidge of political correctness into their public addresses, does that mean its executives must hide the truth? Given the lack of trust GM’s mistakes have already fostered, wouldn’t it be assumed that transparency is more essential now, than ever before? Our suggestion to conglomerate leaders: Stop talking in circles and give real answers. Consumers and shareholders need more than empty sound bites to restore their faith in
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2014 FIFA World Cup Has A New MVP: The Smartphone Since the World Cup first captured the hearts of sports fans across the globe, only three things about the games have mattered: which country you root for, how loudly you yell, and which teams look best with their shirts off. (Hint: There are no losers.) With the advancement of mobile technology, however, 2014’s Brazil-based games witnessed the arrival of another major player in World Cup fever – the smartphone, aka communication-apparatus-turned-soccer-godsend for fútbol aficionados on the go. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), smartphone use (48%) was second only to TV (63%) during the broadcast-from-Brazil games in 11 different markets -- Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the UK and the U.S. While 45% of these mobile fans used their smartphones to check scores from anywhere, anytime, others live-streamed games from work, watched replays on YouTube or posted results on Facebook and Twitter, further affirming the 2014 games as quite possibly the most social event in history. And with more than 1 million mobile connections and 135,000 mobile calls occurring as a direct result of the 2014 opening match alone – kicking off a data surge that documented 37% of fans interacting with mobile ads, 68% paying to watch the games through mobile video and 35% following game stats on their phones while watching it live on TV – telco brands and developers capitalized on this year’s World Cup in a critical way: they made themselves a part of the experience. The impact of mobile technology during the 2014 World Cup went beyond the realm of score stats, live feeds and selfies from the stadium, extending to travel and hospitality brands, as well. In fact, according to Darren Huston, CEO of The Priceline Group and its largest brand, Booking.com – which reported more than $8 billion in mobile hotel bookings in 2013 – smartphones give travel brands a platform to engage with customers and establish a personal connection based on more than mobile reservations. Building opportunities for hotels and airlines to plumb the end-to-end user experience and win direct customers through the functionality and convenience of available Wi-Fi, GPS technology and branded applications, smartphones have turned the traditional travel experience into a virtual one – and telco providers and World Cup organizers used these developments for their own financial gain.
Smartphones give travel brands a platform to engage with customers and establish a personal connection based on more than mobile reservations.
We’re saying it now and we’ve said it before: Mobile is no longer just a tool for communication. It has become an integral part of our everyday lives, keeps us connected wherever we are, and proven by its popularity in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, plays a critical role in making those memories that last us a lifetime. An added bonus? It keeps fans (and their teams) close to home. How do you see the role of mobile technology in global events today?
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Is there such a thing as bad press? Arista Networks’ CEO Teaches Us How to Manipulate SEO Rankings and How Not to Play With Media
constantly in discussions with media who do the same for our clients, but through business and trade media channels. Arista’s founders are the original investors who backed the Google search engine. Their page rank, precedent of related content and even news of their IPO are critical to have indexed and ranked as highly as possible.
Collaboration by Marc Glazer of Relevance Driven Marketing and Vanessa Horwell of ThinkInk
Much like celebrity, cynical readers, as dark as it is, love to see a ‘star’ fall from grace. Lashinksy’s account of the Arista IPO continues, saying that it’s a clear sign of another tech bubble, giving Silicon cynics everything they want to hear – and more.
“I was surprised, but not completely flabbergasted” wrote Forbes’ Senior Editor at Large Adam Lashinsky in his 2014 article Yes, we’re in a tech bubble. Here’s how I know it. In it, Lashinsky reveals how Arista Networks’ CEO Jayshree Ullal offered him “friends and family” IPO (initial public offering) stock options in return for positive media coverage. Oh, and a bit of market manipulation for good measure. Lashinsky is hardly the first reporter to be offered favorable treatment by companies courting kind words in print, nor will he be the last. But it’s a risky move, however you look at it. Almost too risky for a CEO running a computer networking company with the billionaires who funded Google as founders and principal investors. Which begs the question, is there such a thing as bad press? Since Lashinsky’s article was published, numerous other journalists have covered his own coverage, creating a meta-event and sending shock waves through media interested in the culture of Silicon Valley. What happens when a number of journalists crank out the name of a CEO, the company’s products and services and push it out through published media and social channels? Your company leverages all the links to build Domain Authority and that helps zoom you up through Google rankings. While ThinkInk does not focus solely on social media, we’re THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
Just googling the phrase “Arista Networks bribe” unleashes a multitude of citations and secondary commentary to Lashinsky’s story. Ullal’s move has strengthened her company in a backhanded way. Thanks to Lashinsky’s rebuke of the CEO’s practices being distributed through a number of channels, the company’s SEO has improved exponentially, potential customers now know about the product and even more people have been back-linked to Lashinsky’s initial article that examined her competition with Cisco. In what seems like one of the Valley’s biggest media faux pas this year, Arista’s Ullal has essentially invested in bad press as a means of rapidly boosting her online visibility and search. Instead of using capital to invest in domain authority, Ullal sacrificed her public image. Just like an investment is returned (one hopes), Ullal may eventually get her reputation back. The most bizarre twist? If this was an endeavor designed to enhance page rank, than Lashinsky became a sort of SEO shareholder whether he liked it or not. All the syndications of and references to his article increased his rankings as well, effectively granting him access to the same search rewards from which Ullal has benefitted. Our takeaway? Short term manipulation of search rankings is just that, short term. And trying to coerce media for favorable coverage is a losing proposition in any ethical PR professional or journalist’s playbook.
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Is Copywriting Dead? Groupon’s Self-Service Model and Storytelling in Advertising Is copywriting dead? Groupon made a copywriting gaffe (or did it?) on Presidents Day 2014 when it announced a $10 discount in honor of “President Alexander Hamilton,” whose well-coiffed head (according to Groupon) graces the ten-dollar bill. Hamilton was a lot of things in American history – Chief of Staff to Gen. George Washington, first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and loser to Aaron Burr in an 1804 duel over honor – but he was never President of the United States. One tweeter by the handle of @carmstrong07 responded, “Gee whiz, it’s almost as if @Groupon did something ridiculous to get everyone online talking about them.” To which @Groupon responded, “We’re shocked by this implication! Shocked!” Okay, so the poorly fact-checked press release was probably just Groupon having a little PR fun. The company has long been known as a quirky paradise for copywriters, complete with a Groupon Academy where scribes could hone their skills writing copy like, “Spicy sauces are great for deterring children from licking frozen poles, substituting lost winter coats, and swiftly ending staring contests.” Business Insider named Groupon one of the most innovative alternative storytellers in 2010. And that’s a great way to understand copywriting – not just as words and messages but as stories. Which is why we were sad to read that Groupon is adding a self-service model with Deal Builder, a platform for companies to create their own Groupon ads.
Want to get your company’s message heard? First, you need a story. Then, you need someone who knows how to tell a story. It helps if a copywriter enjoys savoring words like juicy cuts of beef. But English majors are just one potential pool of copywriters. Groupon’s former Senior Marketing Copywriter, Daniel Kibblesmith, was a comedian. They like words, too. George Carlin had a whole bit in the 70s about how people talk about time – “What time is it?” is more direct than “Do you have the time?” yet more self-doubting than “What time you got?”
Where will all the poor English majors work now?
Those are the kind of subtle observations that good copywriters bring to a brand’s messaging. And if companies can combine wordsmithing with effective storytelling, which is what ThinkInk aims to do, great copywriting becomes great content writing becomes great PR.
Don’t worry, copywriting is not dead, and in fact, it’s important than ever. Slate – an online magazine – did a study of its own visitors: 38% are gone as soon as they land on an article and 5% of those remaining do not scroll down to read. That leaves just 57% for copywriters to work with, so the copy better be informative, engaging and succinct.
That’s what made Groupon’s copy so great. Not just the puns and metaphors but the ability to look at a product or company, get to the heart of it, put it in a context that will resonate with the audience, tell the story and serve it up with a side of humor. Let’s hope Groupon doesn’t lose that word magic as it goes down the self-service route.
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increases your chance of securing a top-tier media spot in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, USA Today or (dare we say it?) perhaps even The Wall Street Journal.
Getting the Most Out of Public Relations: Why Clients and PR Firms Should Work Together to Get the Best Results
2. When it comes to branding, get your PR firm’s input. Branding is the lifeblood of any company’s image. And PR is central to maintaining that image in a positive light. When debating over branding changes, seek the input of your PR team. Doing so will ensure that media – and consequently, the public – finds out about these changes in a way that makes sense, doesn’t conflict with recent messaging or campaigns, and most importantly, doesn’t hurt your company image. Which is counterintuitive to why you did it in the first place!
Much like Miley Cyrus’ 2014 fashion choices, public relations is one of the most misunderstood industries in the marketing world today. Also like Miley Cyrus’ latest fashion choices, PR tactics – if not used correctly – can bring companies the wrong kind of attention, and in some cases, actually harm their image.
3. It’s good to talk, and listen The most important thing to know about your PR team is this: As partners, they’re always on your side. Central to any good relationship is trust and communication, so keep them in the loop and set aside some time to talk regularly. This will help solidify the messaging your PR team gets across by ensuring that they capture the essence of your company – most importantly, the aspects of your company you want to portray.
Good public relations, on the other hand, is invaluable to a company’s success. PR practitioners can’t always control what executives will say or do, but by being strategic about media interviews, owning the message and educating audiences through content marketing, thought leadership and speaking engagements, those PR firms can help a company control how its public perceives it – and as a result, play a significant hand in its success.
Also remember that you hired your PR team for a reason. They are experts at what they do – so listen to their advice. 4. Avoid the “Open Mouth, Insert Foot” approach When your company has a major event or announcement, have a spokesperson ready and prepped for media interviews. Remember: When it comes to interviews, you rarely get a second chance to make a first impression. Taking the time to think about, review and rehearse the key points you want to get across will help you stay calm during the interview and not say something you might regret later.
What many business executives don’t understand is that the “game” of public relations is actually a team effort that requires more “passing of the baton” in the last mile – or even after the fact. Internal PR and marketing teams need to coordinate with external teams from the get-go. Quite often, however, PR teams are called in after a slip-up or faux pas to “clean up” the mess – when having a PR team on your side from the start might have prevented the slip-up from occurring at all. Here are a few ways your business can work hand-in-hand with your PR partner to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your PR bucks: 1. Don’t keep your PR firm in the dark. New announcements? New partnership? New celebrity spokesperson? If so, your PR firm is the first group that should know about it. Doing so will ensure the team has enough time to consider the most effective launch strategy and create a broadcast-ready message before that news is released to the public – giving you a proactive approach to handling the media, not a reactive or defensive one. And given print news lead times (which can be up to six months in advance), keeping your PR team in the loop about exciting news drastically THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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5. Patience is a virtue. Spoiler Alert: Every company wants to be on the cover of The New York Times and Fast Company. Your company, Google, Apple, your mom, your grandma, your significant other, the resurrected body of Tupac – everybody. Your PR firm is doing whatever it can to get you placements like these (and they will!) but it takes time, strategy and newsworthy announcements to make that happen. Even with your PR firm’s extensive contacts, a measured approach is necessary to ensure that a) the message is well communicated, b) your brand is presented in the best light and c) you don’t ruin the relationship you have with those contacts. Have patience, and let your PR firm take care of the rest. It’s in their best interest to, too! 6. Let your freak flag fly. Go on. PAGE 28
The Chief Marketing Officer’s New Role: IT Specialist The ease of data collection has propelled marketing into a balancing act between art and science. Automated and yet still part human. For CMOs, that balancing act now also includes IT. CMOs have turned into “Chiefs of Making Observations” – as the process of realizing just who the customer is relies more and more on data analytics. Their roles seems to be evolving rapidly, with exciting applications stemming from their cross-company collaboration with CIOs and IT teams. In essence, this analytics dynamo creates a foil to the CMO: one that decides methods of attaining consumers’ purchasing and behavioral patterns (CMO), and one that’s responsible for supporting those operations using computer science, algorithms and technology (CIO/IT).
An especially potent example of this relationship is AT&T’s “It’s Not Complicated” campaign, which featured mock focus groups of children and was created following a three-year big data project. Using a hashtagging model, the analysis segmented humor into categories, providing brand insight into what types of humor worked best – and how – for various ad styles. The resulting determination? “Snarky,” “dark,” and “sarcastic” ads generally outperform “silly” ones.The results also showed that media advertising drives a quarter of AT&T sales, with one-tenth of all sales stemming from TV placements alone. While the stereotype of CMOs is that they must have the latest analytics bells and whistles, creative stimuli are clearly still critical factors in pushing sales. Given the heighted focused on data analytics within the marketing suite, one can argue that CMOs are at risk of overlooking fundamental creative objectives due to data overload. But it’s the successful ones who incorporate the data with inventiveness to create successful campaigns where viewers want to interact with the brand, as with AT&T’s “It’s Not Complicated” campaign. In the words of The Atlantic’s Adam Gartenberg: “Closing the gap between marketing requirements and IT capabilities requires a culture of collaboration in which the CMO and CIO work towards a set of agreed-upon goals that factor in both marketing and IT interests.” The collaboration between CMO and CIO is a necessary part of directing the processes by which data is collected to avoid overloading analysts. In working with companies whose focus is data (think CRM and mobile analytics technologies), ThinkInk understands very well how C-suite executives must cooperate to develop the most efficient and beneficial collection processes that lead to robust analytics and a better understanding of their customers’ behaviors.
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Who Will Win? ThinkInk Looks at the Battle for Payment Platform Tech
The global head of business development for Google Wallet and Payments announced his departure in 2014. The reason? “For me,” he said, “it’s just about getting back to my entrepreneurial roots.” Walking away from a major player in the mobile payments space to pursue other ventures provides remarkable insights into how tech entrepreneurs think and why mobile payments will be a rollercoaster ride going forward: because the next big thing is always the next old thing. We all know the major players in the payment technology space – Google, Square, ISIS, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Apple Pay and Intuit – but what will determine winners and losers? And how will these companies try to position themselves to establish a dominant payment solution?
Here are three key areas to watch:
1
Security: The traditional payment model mitigated risk because merchants had internal systems to directly communicate with financial institutions and exchange consumer information. Today, however, every mobile device can be a point-of-sale system, and consumers are processing payments among themselves. Payment platforms have to be a secure go-between that merchants, consumers and financial institutions can all trust. And whichever solution they trust the most will probably dominate.
One big question in tech security is NFC (near-field communication) vs. cloud-based payments. As Chris Cox from First Data explains, NFC has two components: the controller and the secure element. The controller enables short-distance communication, while the secure element holds sensitive payment data. To maintain security, the NFC platform stores sensitive data in the secure element but stores credentials in the cloud (for real-time authentication). The other option is just to store everything in the cloud and eliminate NFC altogether. Google Wallet uses NFC but recently developed an alternative to the secure element called “Host Card Emulation” (HCE), which gets around the problem of telecom companies controlling access to the secure element, and giving a boost to cloud-based platforms. ISIS (a joint venture between telecom carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, changed its name to Softcard in 2014 to avoid comparisons to a similarly-named terrorist group) is NFC-based, while PayPal and Square are cloud-based. Which platform will earn more trust? NFC has not been adopted as widely as many had hoped, but the market is still wide open.
2
Integration:
The payment technology space has competitors in different industries. How will platforms integrate their different interests? Financial services companies are worried about being disintermediated from payments; tech companies are doing the disintermediating and disrupting; and telecom companies want to control the communication space between payment and tech.
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An 2012 article in The Verge contained an insightful observation about this cross-industry competition: “Visa announced that it had licensed its payWave system to Google, but that also reveals a key difference in philosophy between Visa and MasterCard: MasterCard talks about open APIs while Visa talks about licenses.” It’s no coincidence that the telecom companies united to create ISIS (now Softcard), or that the credit card companies are cautious about partnering too closely with specific platforms. This gets to the heart of payment disruption: nobody knows what the near future will look like, and each industry is closely guarding its own interests.
3
Features: How will each payment platform differentiate itself with features beyond payments? Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and more recently founder of Square, gave
an interesting talk at the National Retail Federation’s 2014 Big Show. Here’s some of what he had to say about Square’s attempt to add features to its payment platform: “We’ve thought about the receipt as an email, text message and Web page, but what if the receipt becomes an application? What if the receipt was a full-blown application? (The Square Wallet app) allows you to open up the app, store credit card credentials once and then see a directory of all merchants around you. We take the geolocation (coordinates) of the phone and register them so when you have Square Wallet running, as you walk into a store, your name and a picture of your face and your ‘most likely order’ appears there on the register.” That is more than a payment platform; it’s a vision for what the platform can be. It’s the kind of vision that also motivates companies to back NFC because it’s not just about payments but also is about other features that NFC makes possible, such as simplifying retail checkout or making in-store messaging more relevant.
Forrester Research found in a recent survey that 76% of consumers in the U.S. would be interested in having or using loyalty program points and rewards, coupons, discounts and special offers in a mobile wallet. One of ThinkInk’s clients, Points.com, also has a useful report that makes the case for how loyalty programs can be used to increase mobile wallet adoption. Ultimately, the market will decide which payment platform wins out. But currently, the market is wide open, and we’re excited to be working with companies in the loyalty, mobile, payments, data, airline, travel and advertising technology space – they are in the thick of the competition and disrupting and innovating every day.
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r.i.p. RadioShack Uses Startup Savvy to Spur Sales and Rejuvenate Brand With all the technology innovation coming out of U.S. in 2014, few inventions seem to make it onto the sales floors of mass market electronics retailers. That might be changing soon, though, as RadioShack recently announced a move that will give startups looking for a major retail channel the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for. Providing access to the retailer’s distribution network and in-store presence, the RadioShack Labs program has evolved from a partnership with PCH International Ltd., an Irish company that helps connect entrepreneurs and product developers with manufacturers in China. RadioShack is allowing unknown products from startups to hit their brick-and-mortar operation the same way a capsule collection would in fashion: It’s a low inventory operation that aims to diversify RadioShack’s current product lines, while testing the waters for future operations and new categories. The startups’ products will go straight to showrooms, giving customers more reasons to increase time spent in-store. Having taken some financial hits in the past few years thanks to emerging e-Commerce sites, RadioShack might be onto something this time around. Silicon Valley’s ties to pop culture have never been more relevant, so incorporating a startup-centric approach to its business is an auspicious beginning. There are multiple benefits to this endeavor. First of all, RadioShack’s bottom line is impacted immediately through the sale of the new products. Longer term, they’re laying the groundwork for a model that can regularly draw upon more diverse offerings, a stronger partnership record and greater levels of innovation.
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Other happenings at RadioShack The retailer also started a RadioShack Invention Challenge in 2014 to encourage inventors to submit their ideas for smart toys through the production service/website Quirky. The winning product will be sold in stores as well, furthering the offerings from smaller manufacturers available in RadioShack locations. RadioShack’s recent endeavors within the startup sector may be a top-down attempt at reforming its entire approach to business – and to be more in step with a very different consumer than the company originally built itself around in 1921. The retailer has a very timely opportunity to take reinvent itself from being purely a sales floor to becoming a knowledge center, where customers can find out more about emerging technologies and have their questions answered by experts instead of Google. Of course, only time will tell if this is a successful strategy, but as far as we can tell, startup/corporate collaborations are already on the rise as indicated by Mondelez, Whole Foods and more. I love reading about “the big guys helping the little guys,” especially when it comes to startups and emerging tech. RadioShack’s partnership with PCH demonstrates how easy it can be to drive innovation, sales and growth at the same time. What’s your plan to make the most of startup innovation?
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How Consumers Are Seeing Double: Marketing for the Multi-Screen Experience Marketers have always tried to reinforce messaging across channels. The boob tube brought advertising into the home, while print, radio, and billboards reinforced those messages outside of the home into cars, offices, landscapes and roadways. But even with the advent of home-based Internet, multichannel marketing remained hard to execute because the channels were so disconnected from each other. With the “smart” mobile revolution, consumers’ powerful devices can be taken anywhere and can deliver messaging through numerous channels: text, websites, social media, SMS, video, etc. At first, marketing budgets for this medium weren’t keeping up with breakneck consumer adoption rates. But mobile devices have proven to be irresistible as consumer eyeballs are increasingly drawn to mobile screens. And it looks like marketing budgets are finally reflecting this trend. Gartner’s 2015 CMO Spend Survey found that half of major companies boosted their marketing budgets in 2015, and 68% have a separate digital marketing budget, which represents, on average, 25% of the total marketing budget. Moreover, two-thirds of companies say they will fund digital marketing initiatives in 2015 by re-investing existing marketing budgets.
Multiscreen Marketing: Even Sex Is Powerless To Resist With smart mobile gadgets so ubiquitous – device owners are taking these devices to bed, checking them while having sex (seriously!) and even using them in the loo – and with so many smartphone owners also carrying tablets, why isn’t the multiscreen slice of the marketing budget pie bigger already? The most obvious reason is an excess of caution among risk-averse marketers. Many would rather “wait and see” whether early efforts by more daring brands pan out. Still, 95% of Nielsen’s 2013-surveyed marketers said multiscreen campaigns are “somewhat important” today and 88% said such campaigns would be “very important” by 2016. I’d say multiscreen campaigns are “very important” now, never mind 2016. Regardless of their reasons for dawdling, marketers need to extend their presence seamlessly across many channels so consumers associate those brands with consistent and powerful messaging that reaches them wherever they happen to be – at home, at work, or anywhere in between.
Haven’t Added Multiscreen to Your Marketing Budget Yet? What Are You Waiting For? Mobile devices have the potential to solve the problem of channel fragmentation that marketers faced with television, radio, print, etc. The mobile device is essentially every channel rolled into one convenient platform. Consumers can watch a television ad on their mobile device as easily as they can at home. They can share a tweet while simultaneously listening to a podcast from the same brand. Marketers, it’s time now, not two years from now, to build your mobile resources and develop messaging that reaches consumers at the right time and place to turn them into customers.
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Seize the Moment: Kiip and In-App Rewards for Mobile Ads “Assume that nobody gives a s*** about you…” That advice for entrepreneurs comes from Brian Wong, the 22-year-old CEO of Kiip, a mobile advertising network that provides incentives to consumers in the form of app-delivered rewards to help brands drive loyalty and sales. With reward partners that include Walt Disney Pictures, Amazon, Pepsi and Proctor & Gamble, you can be sure many of these rewards include free bevvies, snacks, cinema tickets and money-off coupons to lure consumers onto their websites and into stores.
B.WONG CEO Kiip
Wong’s lightbulb moment for Kiip happened during a flight as he peeked at passengers’ iPads and saw they were all playing games – but the games created no value for the act of playing/engaging. “What people saw [with mobile] was in many cases just a smaller version of a desktop screen,” Wong says. “Brands forgot with mobile there was a real change in how people were consuming media.”
Kiip’s focus is to capture consumers in the moment, such as when “favoriting” a song or finishing a to-do list. In other words, Kiip enables brands to reward users for specific behaviors through apps. Last year, the company launched Precision Moments Targeting (PMT), a way for brands to measure and analyze these ‘moments’ using tools such as: Neural Net – Uses machine learning to understand more about what reward would be much more appropriate based on a combination of lookalikes and first-party data through Kiip’s survey product. Mindset/Sentiment Tracking – Targets consumers in peak happiness moments when they are in a mindset where they welcome a reward, or reciprocity. While other mobile ad strategies might try to extend time spent on an app or game, Kiip has a real human focus and tries to add branded value to a moment of joy or surprise or interest. Which isn’t as easy as it may seem. According to Meredith Corporation (Kiip recently landed a major deal), the Better Homes and Gardens’ Must Have Recipes app averages a 13-minute visit. That’s a good amount of time, but merely looking at it as ad time won’t make for good mobile ads. The app encounter lasts not 13 minutes but 780 seconds (or moments). What are users feeling – and doing – during each of those moments, and how can brands enhance that experience rather than interrupt it or drag it out? A recent survey of U.S. consumers by PwC found that 71% of respondents were not likely to click through to watch a mobile ad even if the ad is more relevant to them. Relevancy is important, but it is not enough. The survey also found that of the 69% who are amenable to some time for mobile ads, they prefer them most when in a “leisurely” mode such as during the weekends. How consumers feel – and how ads make them feel – are as important as relevancy. The VP of analytics at Huge, Inc., a digital marketing agency, once noted: “We typically find that mobile devices have a lower conversion rate, higher bounce rate and generally lower levels of engagement. If you compare this to a desktop asset, you might think that the mobile site is failing — but what is really happening is that it is meeting the needs of the user at the time.”
“...mobile is all about the moment, and if you can own that... then you are at least on the right track toward a workable mobile strategy...” TI
In other words, mobile is all about the moment, and if you can own that, as Kiip is trying to do, then you are at least on the right track toward a workable mobile strategy, which may not deliver ROI unless it gets users to another channel (such as in-store or on a website).
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The Zuckerberg Effect: Taking Over the World One Profile Picture at a Time Everyone knows the controversial story of how Facebook got started: one bullied sophomore, two rich Winklevoss twins, dorm room disputes and a basic social website platform that became key to social status on Harvard University grounds. The result? A multi-billion-dollar-idea-turned-box-office-hit that quickly propelled that poor sophomore into Forbes’ “Youngest Billionaires” list. Today, Facebook is the social media tool we’re on from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Its predictable natural progression = eventual world domination. In a recent cover interview with Time Magazine, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave more insight into his goal of connecting everyone in the world to the internet. In what could be the defining moment of the second decade of his career (as if he needed to top Facebook, his first), the latest undertaking teaches us that Zuckerberg likes a challenge. In describing his Internet.org initiative, Mark claims his mission to wire the world is simply a product of passion and goodwill. It’s a sociological and business challenge, a humanitarian project and – following Coca Cola’s lead, which invested in countries before markets existed – another example of Zuckerberg’s forward-thinking motivation and business sense. “Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost,” says Zuckerberg. “But even though there’s no clear path that we can see to where this is going to be a very profitable thing for us, I generally think if you do good things for people in the world, that comes back and you benefit from it over time.” To Facebook (or rather, Zuckerberg) opponents – and even some supporters, including multi-millionaire and fellow computer genius Bill Gates – the latest endeavor is just another selfish ploy for Facebook’s expansion and financial growth. Despite criticisms, however, more than 1 billion members are active on the popular social media platform today. And given that these members use Facebook regularly to message friends, stalk ex-lovers, look up business information, network, stalk ex-lovers, plan events, keep in touch with familiar faces in other countries, check their news and, most importantly, stalk ex-lovers, the truth is evident: Facebook has become an integral part of our lives, whether we support world domination or not. According to Zuckerberg, the platform’s future has only just begun. But before we adhere to his claims of global charity and good will, there’s one point left for us to consider – if and when Facebook does succeed in connecting everyone across the globe, Facebook will be the portal from which their connection starts and ends. And if that’s the case, Facebook won’t just use the internet; Facebook will BE the Internet. Are we ready for Facebook Domination? Only time will tell. THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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Miami: From Weekend Techno to Weekday Tech Hub While Miami has gained a worldwide reputation for celebrity-clad beaches, a sexy social scene, now-departed LeBron James, Cuban coffee and a party-all-night mantra, the Magic City is also welcoming a new, more esteemed title: tech startup hub – and an international one at that. Couple Miami’s moniker as “the gateway to Latin America” with its rapidly-growing entrepreneurial scene, and this South Florida hotspot is on its way to becoming an international Silicon Valley of the East, putting Miami on the map for something other than South Beach hotels, plastic surgery and bikinis. As it stands, South Florida is already home to a handful of notable tech startups. Miami-based startup YellowPepper, for example – the mastermind behind Yepex, a mobile wallet being launched in Latin America – is making mobile banking a critical payment avenue, beginning with Mexico and Colombia. Boasting the same capabilities as ApplePay, Yepex uses a “token system” that does not require NFC (near-field communication) technology, can be used outside of the U.S. and already helps more than five million customers execute 30+ million mobile transactions a month, a first for Latin America. Similarly, Miami-based startup Centric Consulting recently landed a top prize at an international Citi competition for its Bluebeak mobile platform, which enables smartphone users to send money to friends, and in turn allows those friends to withdraw funds from an ATM machine without having to use a physical debit card. Centric Consulting was awarded a $20K top prize and a chance for Citi to deploy BlueBeak globally. Empowering Miami’s startup culture are a series of large-scale conferences, taking place in the Magic City itself, which attract some of the world’s top innovators and forward-thinkers. Most recently, Sime MIA, which took place during last week’s Art Basel Miami 2014, featured political activists, industry leaders, inventors and more, all exploring how technology impacts society within various industries. One standout presentation even invited a volunteer on stage to implant an NFC chip in her hand through a large injection needle, in front of a live audience. Equal parts disturbing and intriguing, the result was one giant leap into the future – now able to open doors and connect with NFC-enabled devices with the wave of a hand, this demonstration proves that we have developed a new type of wearable technology: the human body. Interestingly, Miami’s common thread in its start-up culture is mobile technology. With experts predicting 1.76 billion active smartphone users globally by the end of 2014, mobile devices are revolutionizing both personal and professional lives. And with a range of non-profit organizations and venture capitalist firms always looking for new ways to support SoFla’s startup scene – like the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which just donated $6 million to 60 startups throughout the city – it looks like Miami’s tech boom is here to stay.
Is Miami, a destination typically known around the world as a leisure and party destination, up to the challenge? THINK AGAIN: THE THINKINK REVIEW 2014
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