Filed under: Digital Strategy
When you haven’t had a holiday, not more than three days in a row off, for more than two years the sense of bone deep tiredness seems almost unshiftable.
2006 has been a mad year, I’ve travelled and presented in four countries across Asia Pacific, and written integrated solutions (picking up mobile as a skill!) for the entire region and some of the campaigns will be activated country by country across the globe.
The holiday seems like a light at the end of the tunnel, and it starts to blind as it get closer.
I’ll be logging in and posting every now and again. Instead of being desk bound and brand oriented I’ll be sitting on the deck at a beach shack with old friends, a great book, loads of fine food and wine and no pressing task other than some exercise (lying face down in water snorkeling is exercise, no?).
Thank you all for your support and comments. I look forward to a thrilling 2007.
Watch this space.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
One of my most memorable job interviews happened when I once spoke to the biggest record company in the country. In 1995 I’d been Label Managing for a couple years and doing licensing and A&R across three continents by using email and the Internet. I was terribly excited about what this technology meant for the music industry.
I was asked where I saw myself in 5 years, and this is where I got myself into big trouble. I said that I would be in a job that doesn’t exist now. I said that I believed that we were in a time similar to candle makers after the invention of electricity. That what people want is light, not pieces of wax, and we needed to move with the times. I said that our ability to mobilise the fans and have them as part of our business was a huge opportunity. That with the gap between the fan and the artist narrowing we needed to redefine ourselves.
The national head of promotion did one of the best beetroot impersonations I’ve ever seen. He stood up so fast he knocked his chair clean over. Leaning as far as he could over the boardroom table he screamed at me: “Radio is king in this country and it always will be”. I assumed that the interview, and that my chance to work with the big guys, was over.
One of the other managers rang me before I got too slaughtered at the pub. He knew that tracking and activating fans, advocates, would significantly reduce his ad budget and get around short sighted Programming Directors who would not take a chance on a band without a track record. I started the next day.
This was all brought top of mind when I was reading Matt Dyke’s post Learning from the Music Industry:
Target a strong core of ambassadors
Use ambassadors to promote your music
Utilise social recommendation
Embrace (rather than ignore) file sharing
I agree that advertising can learn a lot from the music industry- from its failures as well as its successes. The fundamental reason for being for the Music Industry now has to be to help artists find their audience, to niche market on a global scale, to help artists bring their experience to their audience and to maximise the revenue to the artist.
Exchange brand with artist and you have a good launching pad for reinvention.
Paul has his first article published this week. It’s great. Check it out.Vando got added to Russell Davi(e)s blog some time since last I looked. Cool.In a strangely coincidental yet relevant link -these two people have never met, but Paul once kindly pointed out that I has spelled Russell’s name incorrectly on my blog roll.
Cue Scooby Doo music. Wooooo.
BTW- Wow this is an ugly cake. There are hundreds of them on Flickr. Go figure.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
I do love this gem from MisEntropy:
“Blogging is a device for combining solitude with good company”
Being a big fan of pearls of wisdom I thought I share a few of my favourites:
Don’t freak out ’till you find out
Become the change you seek
You can’t aspire to mediocrity
Specialisation is for insects
If you think you can’t, you’re right
What’s your favourite pearl of wisdom?
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Kickers is asking it’s audience to go do something.
They given you lots of links and launching points. A place to make a pledge before you pop your clogs.
It’s not serious, and no one on the site takes it seriously either.
But I do love that ’something’, an understanding of the notion that not all hip young things want to make music, or a film or a difference. Just something.
People want to do something and sometimes all things. The question is always ‘Where do I start’?
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Gavin the Terrible has tagged me with a viral meme. Ewwww!
Each person who is tagged has to divulge five personal things that most people don’t know. You then have to tag five others. Five things:
1 My friends know me as Fiend. Enough said.
2 I am a dyed in the wool foodie, my pate is famous and I can tackle a 10 course degustation with matching wines midweek. I am always in charge of chocolate for gatherings.
3 My brothers and I all live walking distance from each other even though we all grew up in a different city.
4 Life without exercise is very noisy. Without at least half an hour of strenuous activity my brain is a little like a yapping terrier. The benefits are a thousand fold.
5 I played flute in an orchestra for five years. I worked in the music industry for nearly 10. Tours, awards, rock star hangovers- all that nonsense. They say you should find your passion and find out how to make a living out of it. ‘They’ are wrong. You should find you passion and feed it yourself. Never, NEVER sell it.
I’ve tagged
Paul and you can read his response here
AngryMan- and you can read his response here
Seb fellow Sydney coffee morning regular and all round interested and interesting guy has left his 5 in the comments section
Vando has been quiet- probably because I can’t seem to leave a message for him (drat you Blogger!)
Christy is a little busy right now to keep her blog up to date but she has one of the most beautiful daughters on the planet so I’ll forgive her
I adore food bloggers- or floggers as they call themselves. Passion wins!
I loved the super amusing post in comic book style by The Amateur Gourmet. He’s also a champion of a great blogger generated campaign that activates social networks, bloggers, passion and activism. A feast!
Last year was a blockbuster successfor Menu for Hope. Celeb flogger Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim and is doing it again this year, from December 11-22, and again with the help of food bloggers from around the world.
Pim will be hosting a round-up of all of the donated prizes (all organized by regional floggers). To see the global round-up, please click here.
The fundraising and funds distribution is being managed by professional fundraising company First Giving.
To go to the Menu for Hope III donations page, please click here. Every US$10 that you donate qualifies you for one chance at any of the prizes of your choice.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
This piece of art is by Banksy. Part of his ‘help‘ manifesto says this:
“The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don’t go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit. “
Harsh- but so’s the world. Seriously go take a look at his work.
Mark Boyd posted a beautiful manifesto to GapingVoid:
What we make is not the point. That we make, that we DO, is.
Making stuff develops the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and feel.
Making stuff is about problem solving, the openness to possibilities, development of skills, internal and external navigation and resolution, a sense of exploration and adventure.
Making stuff transforms one from a consumer to a contributor.
Making stuff is not passive.
Making stuff involves making choices. Realizing you have choices and making them is empowering. Empowerment leads to confidence, and the courage to question and challenge the status quo. Making stuff and sharing it is a social and political act, which opens avenues for communication.
Dare to fail big, and attempt to change the world.
I love that challenge. Make stuff to change myself and change the world.
