Week 3 kicks off today, with 5 to go. Currently, we are at 62 backers and a total amount pledged of $11,857, with the latest being a $1,250 pledge from the folks at Sprinklr.

In keeping with Flip the Funnel, A.D.I.A. and the R of Z.E.R.O. (retention), THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I'd love to get to 100 backers as our next milestone and with your help, we can make this possible.

Please consider participating, especially if you are interested in marketing, media and the future of brands. In addition to the content and experiential rewards on Kickstarter, you also get to be a part of the book (Mr Burns rewards and up...) as well as part of the Z.E.R.O. Kickstarter case study (very meta).

Of course you can participate by pledging and/or spreading the word to others.

Here's the link to the Kickstarter campaign: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1166290269/zero-zero-paid-media-as-the-new-marketing-model

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Jaffe Juice #167 - Jaffe & Joel tackle Rise of Machines vs Scaling Humanity

From Z.E.R.O. to Hero via Kickstarter

Who is Kickstarter for?

Kickstarter interview

In this episode of our monthly debates, Mitch and I tackled the "Rise of Machines" i.e. automation of marketing & advertising versus "How do you Scale Humanity?" with respect to investing in talent and "humans" to serve "other humans." It's The Matrix meets Sixth Sense. Creepy! @mitchjoel and @jaffejuice

Listen live or download here.

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

Photo credit: Bigstock Photo

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How Do You Scale Humanity?

It's hard to resist making this a looooooooooooong post, so instead I'll do my best to be as brief and succinct as possible, so here goes...

My good friend and ex-client, Maarten Albarda and I are co-authoring a book together. It's my 4th book (after Life after the 30-second spot, Join the Conversation and Flip the Funnel) and Maarten's first. Besides sharing the same vision and passion for the subject, we're bringing a 1-2 punch to the table in the form of advertising-agency perspective on the giant elephant in the room: media or rather paid media.

The book is called z.e.r.o. and the sub-title, "zero paid media as the new marketing model" kind of says it all (and in less than 140 characters).

The book posits that in a perfect world, your paid media budget would be z.e.r.o. - literally, but also figuratively in the form of an acronym which stands for Zealots (advocacy), Entrepreneurship (innovation), Retention (customer centricity) and Owned Assets (moving from tenant to landlord)

On one hand, it's me returning to my "Life after" roots, but on the other other (and more poignantly), it's our set up of our premonition of a perfect storm approaching in marketing; one in which the bottom could conceivably fall out of the media model. Fortunately, the world is not perfect and change takes longer than we expect, but then again...just look at how your world has changed in the past few years to validate the fact that sitting and doing nothing is not a viable solution.

For me, it's a bold move for two reasons:

1. I've made the move from being a 3-time published author to self-publishing (thanks to Richard @ Wiley for everything to get me this far and props to my new home, Archway Publishing)
2. We're kickstarting this revolution and here's how you can play a key role.

Kickstarter component:

• Go to Kickstarter and visit our page or just search Kickstarter for Z.E.R.O. or zero
• Check out the video and the overview of the book
• Review the various pledge rewards and become a backer. We've named them after famous misers.
• From the Hetty Green and Warren Buffet (digital and hardcover copies respectively) to the maximum reward, which delivers 10 autographed books and an in-person keynote from either Maarten or myself (only 2 available per person)
• The no-brainer and value rewards are the Mr Burns and Mr Krabs respectively, that also include a 140-character acknowledgement (plug) in the book itself

We just pre-launched the book and Kickstarter campaign at the Festival of Media in Montreux, but here's the crazy part...in just over 24 hours after I hit the publish button (in stealth mode), we've almost hit our initial funding goal of $10,000. With your help, we'll push this over the edge and see how far we can take it.

The wild thing is that the book will become it's own case study insofar that it will demonstrate how we were able to self-publish our book for "z.e.r.o." by tapping into our advocates and leveraging our owned assets. It's U.N.M.2.P.N.M. circa 2005 retooled for 2013.

So...if you're part of my community and/or appreciate my content, show your support on Kickstarter with the pledge amount (or more if your heart desires). I will post regular updates over the 6 week period to acknowledge my backers (which would be you)

And all things being equal, Z.E.R.O. will launch in September of 2013 and will contain the 10-point action plan towards implementing this bold vision towards helping marketing evolve, normalize and allocate scarce resources to a re-prioritized hierarchy of connection points.

Still playing catch up on the Mediapost column front. So here's a previous Online Spin article about customer experience (or the lack thereof) when it comes to Tea. And obviously the implications in terms of how you are packaging and ultimately putting a premium on your otherwise commoditized product or service.

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Daily Double Dose of Jaffe Juice podcast (especially for those asking where they've been)

The first is one of the semi-regular podcast debates with Mitch Joel. This one is on "The New Creativity".

Click here to download/listen.

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

The second is an interview with friend, podcasting veteran and now author, John Wall, where we discuss his new book, "B2B Marketing Confessions."

Click here to download/listen.

Follow John Wall on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

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My first Online Spin article, where I revisit good old Second Life as an analogy to present day commitment to startups by brands. It's all about patience, commitment, perseverance and staying the course, but more importantly, it's about recognizing that brands (and not the media) have the power to make the difference in terms of an emerging platform.

I guess I was called a “Second Life booster” back in the day -- and guess what, I was OK with that. I still am. As an early adopter (professionally) in the virtual world of Second Life, I witnessed firsthand the highs and lows; how the press initially went gaga over it, and then turned their back, to the point of making it their personal vindictive mission to destroy evidence of any self-created hype.

Perhaps my former company’s island of crayonville was a utopian oasis that existed in the eye of the storm. Perhaps our “Virtual Thirst” foray for our client, Coca-Cola, was the exception to the norm, since the brand did not (like many others in the early days of Second Life) get pelted with flying penises for its troubles.

In many respects, we were witnessing a mini-bubble being artificially pumped up and then burst in spectacular fashion. And all the while, real people were making real money -- admittedly, doing unreal things.

Virtual worlds, gaming environments, augmented reality, avatars and 3D simulation should not be alien terms to you. It should not come as a surprise that these items once coexisted in perfect harmony with each other, along with red dragons and drag queens. What might surprise you is my assertion that brands were to blame for the demise of Second Life.

Can you imagine if Christopher Columbus had looked out his telescope at the “New World” only to see angry, strange-looking people with painted faces and ornate head dressings waving native weapons -- and subsequently turned around to head back to Europe?

Sound familiar? It should be, because it’s the same scenario that happened in Second Life. And I hope it doesn’t happen again with respect to collaborating with startups.

These days, brands have become enamored with the next bright and shiny object, namely conducting tests or experiments with startups. Only startups aren’t some passing fad, gimmick, flavor of the month or test tube guinea pig. Collectively, they represent value propositions or utilities that disrupt norms, challenge conventions and move markets. Only they won’t get to realize their vision -- their proof of concept -- if brands continue to hold them at arm’s length, dispatching their agency minions to negotiate the impossible “big ideas at scale.”

Innovative and unprecedented executions are absolutely doable. It falls apart when brands turn away because the reach isn’t there -- or, put differently, they can’t measure or compare these “startlings” to incumbent blunt instruments like TV, radio, print or even online.

My message to brands is very simple: don’t be turned off startups’ lack of reach. In fact, this should turn you on! You’re dealing with the most fertile real estate, untouched and unspoiled by the “masses” (even your competitors). You have the incredible opportunity to help them achieve their path to reach with your brand dollars, talent, resources and media.

You have the unique chance to join forces with them at the earliest possible stage to co-create and own that big idea.

And, irony of ironies, you have Second Life to thank.

“You’re welcome!” – Divo Dapto

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/188129/what-brands-and-startups-can-learn-from-second-lif.html#ixzz2HNw16pTu

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I am so behind in terms of posting my Mediapost columns to Jaffe Juice and so here begins a systematic catch-up of two articles per week until I'm up to speed again. I've also since moved to a bi-monthly schedule where I'm writing for "The Online Spin" on MediaPost.

Here's my article titled, "Key Leg in Start-Up Equation: Marketing"

The start-up world is build on a two-legged platform of technology and finance. If you don’t believe me, just watch Bravo’s "Start-ups: Silicon Valley," which does its best to tell a story about VCs raising capital and bootstrapping a new venture, together with the freaky and geeky world of engineers, programmers and developers. 

Only that story is incomplete. There’s actually a third leg, which you don’t get to hear about. Perhaps you’ll catch a fleeting glimpse of a throwaway “marketing” or “sales” reference, but for the most part, it’s conspicuously absent in this show, industry and market in general.

I would argue — and I am a Madison Avenue guy who eats, sleeps and breathes brands — that the marketing leg is the most important part of the entire equation. Yet, it’s the one that is the most undervalued, underinvested, underutilized and misunderstood. 

Most start-ups have the same visions (or sometimes delusions) of grandeur: We’ll get big fast because everyone will just go crazy sharing us with their friends, fans and followers on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else is popular at the time. Then we’ll monetize by selling ads — or just sell to Facebook, Twitter or whatever else is popular at the time.

That statement is fraught with holes and gaping voids, and it begins with the disconnect between today’s empowered consumer and their absolute disgust for interruptive advertising, banal messaging and irrelevant spam.

Contrary to popular belief, brands aren’t lining up waiting to advertise on the 1000th photo app to call themselves the “Instagram of….” Or “Instagram meets….” Hell, they’re barely doing anything on Instagr.am itself. 

Brands are trapped within their own identity crisis, trying to figure out whether their start-up infatuation is a one-night stand or something more profound; whether it’s a quantity (scale) or quality (engagement) play; whether their metrics of success are ROI-based (return on investment) or ROI-based (return on innovation).

Then there’s the scope and scale of a “test”, “experiment” or pilot program. Brands are typically noncommittal when it comes to investing anything beyond chump change into a start-up desperate to get some proof of concept and validation. On the flipside, there are way too many start-ups that see an abundance of $-signs when a brand and/or their agency pays them a visit. 

The Wild West is back, and the biggest problem is a lack of rules (of engagement), process and set of best practices, upon which to build a solid and enduring bridge of collaboration and mutual benefit.

I believe the meeting of the minds happens in the win-win wheelhouse of marketing. Ultimately, this is where both sides see eye-to-eye. Digital or technology based start-ups are founded on the basis and belief of being able to solve a problem (sit or squat), correct a market inefficiency (uber) and/or change the game (square). Brands couldn’t agree more, especially when it comes to delivering against a consumer insight, human truth and customer benefit.

No one wants a three-legged stool with a wobbly, weakened and/or uneven leg. Isn’t it time we shored up the marketing component of this succinct and compelling equation in order to ensure that start-up monetization, acceleration and evolution is balanced and counterbalanced with brand innovation, differentiation and transformation? 

That’s rhetorical. The answer is yes.

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Catching up on Mediapost articles post-Thanksgiving. This one is all about the future of bricks 'n mortar stores. Hint: It's all digital. Sort of.

I just returned from London, where I gave a keynote presentation on Flip the Funnel and how customer service and customer experience will become the key strategic differentiator in an increasingly commoditized world.

The next day, I witnessed complete validation of this hypothesis.

As I was walking down Piccadilly, I passed an Audi showroom unlike any I had seen before. In fact, it’s the first concept store of its kind for the brand in the world. The showroom was exceptionally clean, with one or two models on the white floor. No desks. No papers. No chairs. Several color coordinated, well-dressed salespeople. Several interactive kiosks. And wall-to-wall giant synchronized TV screens.

I proceeded to customize my swanky new S5 convertible using the interactive kiosks and with an effortless swipe, I was able to project my configured car onto the big screen. I was also able to swivel the car using gestures on the kiosk, but I was just get started.

Using Microsoft’s Kinect technology, I was able to use my body as a joystick or mouse. I could take down the roof and watch it roll back in real time. I watched the car drive off and come back to rest with surround sound emulating the actual sounds of the car.  I was truly surrounded by a realistic experience of what it might feel like to drive an Audi S5 Convertible.

There were other gadgets, bells and whistles, like the ability to save my session to a USB and whenever I returned, pick up where I left off.

The experience was terrific, but what really blew me away was the epiphany that bricks-and-mortar stores were not dead, but alive and kicking. They were about to go through an incredible revival or even renaissance. 

There were those who once said (and I’m probably one of them) that bricks-and-mortar stores were endangered species, and that everyone would shift to online shopping, customization and commerce. There were also those who said (I was not one of them) that no one would ever move to digital channels to purchase things like clothing, homes or cars. 

As it turns out, they were both wrong.

What I witnessed in this London showroom was the future of retail: a holistic, immersive physical digital experience. One in which human beings still played a key role. The best of all worlds. 

In that moment, I realized that purchasing cars online is not the optimal experience. It just isn’t possible to get an accurate or lifelike feeling of what it must be like to drive an Audi S5. The most accurate experience would come from actually driving one — a test drive — but  what I witnessed was pretty damn close.

I believe the future of bricks-and-mortar stores is a bright one if – and only if – it is anchored around a core digital experience and supported by humans. 

Not only for traditional brands, but pure plays as well. For example, I expect to see an Amazon.com store in the near future; one without a single piece of merchandise in it. Why would you need a book, when everything can be swiped, synced and swooshed into your Kindle? I expect Barnes & Noble to be out of business if they cannot figure out a way — quickly — to emulate the Audi showroom and in the process, get rid of as many dust-gathering books (and space) as possible.

People might continue to window show online using their screens as nose warmers, but when they want to actually buy, there’s a lot to be said for getting off their rear ends and making the physical commitment to get into a store.

It’s back to the future, baby. With one hell of an ironic twist.

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Still playing catch up and so here's my Mediapost article from 11/6, which covers Red Bull's incredible Stratos content integration or is it NASA sponsorship? Either way, it was unprecedented, ballsy, mega risky shows why Red Bull marketing deserves to be up on the honors podium, along with all-stars, Nike and Apple.

When I mention the name Baumgartner, you might immediately think of a certain baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. That’s Madison Bumgarner, and I’m referring to Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper, who – in October of 2012 – set almost broke a world record for free fall/skydiving, but pretty much broke every other brand record in the process:

That previous statement is a gross understatement. This is what he did: He jumped at a distance of 24 miles or 39 kilometers above the Earth. (A plane flyingat 35,000 feet is only 6.6 miles above the Earth. Baumgartner was in a space capsule; in a space suit and could see the curvature of the Earth!)

He become the first person in history to break the sound barrier — putting him in the same category as the Concorde. He reached an estimated speed of 834 miles per hour or 1,342 kilometers per hour, faster than a Boeing 777.

During the fall, Baumgartner went into a spin, where he was seen hurtling through space like a tumbleweed on steroids. Remarkably, he stabilized — and said this was anticipated and under control — and landed on his feet. 

The “mission” itself was five years in the making and has delivered several key insights that will help scientists and aviation experts on the development of equipment, clothing, safety, tourism (!) and evacuation procedures.

Most remarkably, however, this was essentially a giant ad for Red Bull. Ordinarily, I would be on my “Life after the 30-second spot” or “Join the Conversation” soapboxes lambasting brands for elongated, protracted and procrastinated planning cycles in favor of a “real time” and dynamic shortened time to market. But not this time.

Red Bull — yet again — hasn’t just raised the bar; it pretty much obliterated the bar by demonstrating the relevance, role, purpose and utility associated with a brand that has truly invested and vested itself in “extreme” sports and lifestyle. Calling Red Bull a “content marketer” is an insult to Red Bull. Red Bull is so much more.

Not only did it almost literally bring its core positioning to life, “Red Bull gives you wings,” but ishowed an acute understanding and mastery of pure and unadulterated innovation in the form of a unique and original idea that had zero precedent and quite frankly (and again quite literally) no safety net.

I cannot even begin to fathom the thousand ways this could have gone wrong and the huge risk at stake. The “experiment” itself was already aborted once because of weather conditions, but the blunt risk here was the very real possibility and scenario of witnessing a “live death.” (All brought to you by Red Bull.)

Ironically (and it is a monstrous – pun intended – irony), a competitor in the form of Monster Energy drink is currently being sued and subsequently investigated by the FDA for a number of alleged consumption-related deaths.

Conversely, Red Bull brought a symphony to life, with more than 8 million people worldwide watching YouTube’s live stream of the free fall. Within four days, and across 1,700 related clips, it was the second-fastest video: to 50 million views in history. (The first was Kony 2012.)

I look at the average Nascar driver, tattooed or should I say littered with a cacophony of conflicting brand logos and juxtapose this with the clean and clinical branding 24 miles up in the air. I raise a can of congratulations to this marketer.

I speak to marketers worldwide, representing every major corporation. They all envy and want to be like two brands: Nike and Apple. Well, make that three brands: Red Bull joins the hall of fame trinity. 

The combined jealousy and respect are palpable, and so is my advice to every Red Bull wannabee: “Just do It” or to quote Baumgartner’s mentor, retired USAF Colonel Joseph Kittinger: “Start the cameras, and our guardian angel will take care of you.”

My weekly Mediapost article (I'm playing catch up due to travels, Hurrican Sandy and the Election) about the importance of timing, luck and context when it comes to innovation, investing in social or emerging media and experimentation in general.

Here's the full text:

Timing is everything. It really is.

The concept of being in the right place at the right time is probably a combination of inextricable luck (the odds) and substantial skills (preparation). That's why you may have heard the phrase “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

What about bad luck then? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Is that the exact same thing as before, but in reverse? Dumb luck, I suppose? Could it be equally valid to say that bad luck is the product of inexperience, bad planning or poor skills? Perhaps. 

Timing is an integral part of every facet of our lives. From cooking to investing in the stock market; from swinging a bat to diagnosing an illness. So why is it we suck so royally at it when it comes to business? 

On the customer service side, we do a lousy job of being able to spot potential P.R. minefields early and prevent them from escalating into full-blown crisis communication nightmares.

On the hiring side, our timing is all out of whack. We scramble to hire like rabid dogs during good times and then can’t issue pink slips fast enough when the tide turns.

On the planning side, we’ve set ourselves up to fail miserably as we adopt elongated processes designed to predict a stable future in a completely unpredictable, unstable present.

On the measurement side, we are slaves to exceptionally short-term metrics and benchmarks designed to deliver quick fixes and instant gratification.

Whatever happened to Vince Lombardi’s “in my entire life, I never lost a single game; I just ran out of time” when it comes to patience prevailing and staying the course?

Even business moguls like Rupert Murdoch are guilty of bad calls, with infamous quotes like, “I was just hoping that Internet thing would pass.”

I visit with some of the biggest companies and brands on this planet and almost without exception, I witness the same common threads across most (and sometimes all) corporations. The most troubling as it relates to timing is an acute lack of “endurance” — the will to persevere and prevail.

Actually, strike that. The most troubling is a blatant conflict of interest; executives are treading water in the hopes of making it through their tenure without having to commit to any form of change, innovation or calculated risk. After all, these days no one every got fired for putting Facebook on the plan. (They once said that about TV!)

My advice to executives struggling to cope with technology-based change and specifically how to plan, execute, measure and optimize  from a timing standpoint is to keep the following two statements in mind, especially when requesting funding and managing expectations in terms of interim and final success:

Just because it worked yesterday, doesn’t mean it’ll work tomorrow.
Just because it didn’t work yesterday, doesn’t mean it won’t work tomorrow.

The first statement is straight forward enough and pays off both the reliance on the “tried and tested," as well as the volatility of how constant change can create continuous flux. 

The second statement, however, is a little more tricky and esoteric. It challenges and encourages us to believe in ourselves; to honor the importance of Test. Learn. Evolve. To try and try again, if at first you don’t succeed, and  to recognize that sometimes, we’re ahead of our time. Ultimately, we need to commit ourselves to innovation and stay the course.

As my countryman Gary Player once said, “The more I practice; the luckier I get." And that’s the kind of timing that is as much art (the swagger) as it is science (the swing).

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/184842/the-thing-about-timing.html#ixzz2C1AnRJUJ

Photo credit

My weekly Mediapost column is out which focuses on the workplace of the future and how innovations in how, where and when we work will impact on companies - large and small, especially as it relates to talent. Check it out.

I’m personally fascinated with innovation in the workplace. About 10 years ago, remote working — AKA working from home — was gaining traction, offering new possibilities with groups like women looking to balance a family and a career. With VPN access and the continued adoption and proliferation of high-speed broadband and wi-fi, remote working became a reality even before Blackberry made access ubiquitous via push e-mail.

Companies like Jet Blue led the way in terms of powering their entire call centers (ticketing, customer service) using stay-at-home moms, largely based in Utah. Dell perfected the ability to outsource their technical support to countries like Malaysia, India and the like.

Unfortunately, trends in the workplace seem to have taken a turn for the worse during the same period. Open plan seating is just another way of putting lipstick on a pig in the form of cubicle purgatory. Once upon a time, we could aspire to occupy that corner office. No more. It’s sad that the model for today’s corporate office environment is 1999s Office Space and no, giving everyone locked and supervised iPhone’s doesn’t exactly make me feel differently.

What excites me is the boom of shared workspaces geared to today’s start-up, consultant or mercenary. I’m not talking about the more corporate kind offered by companies like The Regus Group, but companies like Grind, WeWork or Alley to name but a few. It's a mushrooming category of cool places to rub shoulders with fellow creative class, founders and entrepreneurs.

Perhaps once upon a time, it was cool to have a “virtual assistant” who would answer the phone and dupe your caller into thinking you were larger than life. Nowadays, the transparency afforded by social media is sort of a democratized open secret that lumps everyone into the same Twitter, Facebook, Web, Moo Card, Card Munch, Evernote and Dropbox melting pot.

Getting wi-fi is not a differentiator, any more. It’s pretty much free no matter where you go (Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Cosi, Panera, McDonalds and the list goes on) and if Google gets its way, it’ll soon be accessible in every public place or space. A desk and a chair is essentially a commodity, but what makes the difference here is the ability to be a part of a growing community and movement. 

At Evol8tion, we don’t have an office. Rather, we utilize partnerships with said shared workspaces. Sometimes we pay and sometimes we don’t. We choose to move around like nomads with next to no overhead.  What really attracts us to these spaces is the commonality of the people who work there and the collaborating opportunities that are just waiting to happen. Need a freelancer Web developer? Guess where you can find them.

In addition, there is so much value add in the form of guest lecturers (from Cindy Gallop to Noah Brier to myself), events (mixers or pitch nights), office hours with potential investors or even mid-day yoga.

The innovation doesn’t stop there. A company called Loosecubes is doing a “Priceline” with available space across companies of all shapes and sizes. Major corporations with excess space (perhaps due to inevitable rounds of layoffs) can now put this space to use and in the process, get a leg up on talent acquisition, ideas and even a bit of incremental revenue.

If we want to see more innovation in the workplace, doesn’t it make sense to begin – literally – in the workplace?

I remember back in 1997 when I interviewed at TBWA\Chiat\Day, they were experimenting with an incredibly innovative approach, which was ahead of its time. When I eventually joined them in 2001, it was no more. The idea:  no one had an office, except for the CFO and HR, for obvious reasons. Instead people just had lockers and could move around anywhere in the office, logging in and out of shared terminals.

What other trends do you see affecting work? What innovative approaches are helping companies – big and small – do better at attracting, retaining and maximizing the full potential of their talent pool?

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/185056/workplace-of-the-future.html?edition=52727#ixzz2A9XZXGNe

Photo credit here

My weekly Mediapost innovation column focuses on the supply chain brainfart lag with Apple's new iPhone 5 between product announcement, release and the resulting accessory time lapse to supply the stores with protective cases.

Here's the link to the article on Mediapost and a sample of the text is below:

I have a love-hate relationship with Apple. I’d like to describe myself as a Pragmatic Advocate (as opposed to a Zealot Fanboy prepared to sleep outside for 5 days to get a phone that everyone else will have within days or weeks).

I personally have switched almost entirely to Apple products (Phone, Pad, Air) based on the unbeatable form and function combination that truly is superior to anything else on the market. I don’t do this blindly. I feel like it’s been a logical and natural process. I love the tangible product family, however I really love the intangible service and experience excellence (Blue shirts, Genius, 1-to-1) that truly separates them from their competition. 

With a bar set so high, one would think it’s OK to slip up once in a while. Perhaps they’ve earned a Mulligan or two in the marketplace. Only that they actually slip up more often than one would think (the antenna fiasco, battery issues, cracked screen, overheating – the list goes on.) My problem with the company is their detached closedness, secretive opacity and perceived arrogance associated with how they go to market. 

This is a company that projects aloofness and a superiority complex, which does not behoove a humble leader. I say that intentionally, because I don’t think they want to be humble. They absolutely believe they know better than their consumers and aren’t influenced by the market. 

I don’t even have a problem with that. I just wish the company would — occasionally — admit when they’ve made a mistake. 

Here’s the most recent one: My new iPhone 5 arrived on Friday, Sept. 28. Today (as I write this), it’s October 12. 

I still don’t have a case for my iPhone. 

The Apple store has nothing in stock. In fact, they’ve never received a single case. They also have “no idea” when they’ll receive cases. They are, however, very happy to sell you Applecare for $100 and a $49 replacement fee for when (not if) you drop your caseless phone and crack the screen.

Can you see what’s wrong with this picture?

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/185162/the-occasional-rotten-apple.html#ixzz29StZtSnh

My latest Mediapost column (actually from last week) is all about our lack of understanding and misuse of how to leverage the power of social media, community and conversation - epitomized by the hashtag. In this article, I reference Jimmy Kimmel's "prank" on the Emmy Awards, attempting to hijack twitter flash mob style. 

Here's the full text, but of course you can view it on Mediapost (and comment there or here if you like):

On Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, host Jimmy Kimmel, “pranked” the unsuspecting Twitterverse with the following ruse: he got Tracey Morgan to come up from the audience (all spontaneous of course) and essentially play dead by lying on the floor of the stage (oh, the dignity). Then he encouraged hundreds of millions of viewers to Facebook or Tweet something to the effect of “OMG Tracey Morgan just passed out on stage at the Emmys. Turn ABC on now.”

According to EOnline, “the prank blew up online,” with “OMG Tracey Morgan” becoming a hot topic online, registering 54,000 tweets. (I searched their source, Topsy Free Analytics and found around 15,000 tweet.) It also registered an increase of 127,300% of Tracey Morgan mentions on Facebook at the exact moment Kimmel uttered his innovative breath. 

So what did we learn? Tracey Morgan has a baseline level of conversation on Facebook at around zero!

To me, the real experiment was to test to what degree people were watching live versus time-shifting. Only the live watchers would have been participated, with their networks jumping on the Retweet bandwagon. By inference, those time shifting would have been avoiding Twitter -- to avoid spoilers.

So would this “stunt” drive tune in, which really is about the only thing anyone in the broadcast business should be concerned about? All the rest is nothing but noise or “clutter.”

May I have the envelope please: This year’s Emmy Awards registered 13.3 million viewers, up 6% from last year, but down 10% among adults 18-49, which tied a record low from 2008, when the show registered a record-low audience of 12.3 million. Some 4.9 million of them were 18-49. That’s an abysmal 37% of total viewers falling into the coveted demographic.

Even if the goal of the experiment was to gauge engagement, we’re talking about 0.4% of total viewers -- taking the higher tweet estimate and running on the assumption that every tweet was unique, which we know it wasn’t.

So, no. Not exactly the smash hit capable of catapulting this year’s Emmy’s into the Hall of Fame. At best, it's the tweet that saved the Emmy’s from catastrophe. Kimmel, who is terrific, should stick to his “viral” successes, which are less about innovative approaches to digital or social and more about producing great content, which today -- more than ever before -- are capable of being embraced, shared and distributed to every corner of the world in nanoseconds.

The Kimmel-Morgan prank is sadly just another example of how we’re trying to force fit our tired old ways into new forms and formats; how we’re incrementally tweaking an approach instead of blowing the whole thing up and making an exponential leap of educated faith. 

Case in point is the plague of hashtags used in broadcast from #telljimmy Iovene on "American Idol" -- why? -- to Nancy Grace’s #CrockPotWifeKiller. Seriously?

Hashtags are truly an evolution in syntax and vernacular. From a function(al) standpoint, it’s a smart and efficient categorization taxonomy of conversation, which is easily searchable and findable. From a form standpoint, it’s a creative and colloquial way of self-expression: #justsayin #toomuchinformation

Hashtags really will change the way we communicate with each other. They already have. That said, we are in danger of poisoning the drinking waters with our overwhelming obsession to control, force and contrive every last bit of humanity out of what is still in its absolute infancy. 

When I watch TV, I want to lean back and submit to a great story. It’s no surprise that these days, the only way to find great script is to go beyond the broadcast networks, which seem to be trying to cover as much of the screen as possible with #hashtags. 

And for what purpose? Driving tune-in? If so, where’s the call-to-action, incentive or even Tracey Morgan cadaver? I’d like to challenge anyone working for the networks to share their vision, objective, method to the madness and/or metrics associated with their social media integration and use of hashtags. 

While we’re waiting for their response, Tracey you can get up now and dust off your tux. 

Dry cleaning is on ABC.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/184042/the-hashtag-for-this-article-will-be-hashtag.html?edition=51887#ixzz28zhN32Hj

My September 25th column which talks about taking risk and once again shows the common thread between Madison Avenue and Mountain View in terms of alignment on the idea that to stand out from the crowd, one has to be different. It also makes the point that risk is a subjective and relative term, which is - in fact - misunderstood insofar that we mistake it with fear. Read on...

We’re all familiar with the great Bill Bernbach quote that safe advertising is the riskiest advertising of all. It’s a classic and timeless quote, but it’s also fairly irrelevant in today’s dynamic, turbulent, disruptive and ever-changing times.

The sad truth is that most advertising stinks. It’s unmemorable, instantly forgettable, underwhelming and mediocre at best. Yes, some creative directors will say that advertising isn’t the problem, it’s poor advertising that is the real problem. So what happens when that becomes the norm?

Breaking through the clutter as the exception becomes a risky gamble that shouldn’t have to come down to chance, viral serendipity or controversy in order to stand out from the crowd.

Bernbach knew all the way back when advertising was largely unchallenged in terms of its efficacy, that in order to be different, one had to mix it up and challenge the status quo.

A similar prophet was management guru Peter Drucker, who said “to defend the past is far riskier than creating the future.” He might as well have been talking about advertising itself (good, bad or ugly). He might also have been talking about technology-led innovation, embracing startup collaboration or investing in digital, social, mobile and/or emerging platforms.

Drucker also said: “How do you predict the future? You create it.” It seems to me that the road,map to survival is very clearly laid out in Bernbach’s and Drucker’s blueprint.

Safety is an illusion.

Status quo is the enemy.

Your fate is in your hands.

Risk is relative.

As I was reminded from one of my favorite marketing podcasts, "The Beancast," risk itself is measured in terms of financial terms and specifically monetary loss. So how is it possible that we can attempt to put a financial cost on something we’ve never done before; has no precedent and could very well produce the exact opposite effect — namely disproportionate, positive business impact.

Risk is often confused with fear (that tip: David Spark). Fear of the unknown. Fear of change. Fear of uncertainty. Fear of failure.

While there are no guarantees on success, isn’t it also true that the greatest risk is the one not taken?

I’ve lost 40 pounds this year. I did it using a combination of various apps, tools, bands, programs and technologies. One such tool was my wi-fi scale by a company called Withings.

Every time I stand on the scale, my weight, BMI and lean mass are automatically calculated and store in perpetuity on my iPhone and iPad. I also elected to tweet and Facebook my weight with 1,000,000 of my closest strangers. When men hear about it, they’re generally ambivalent, however when women get word of this, they throw up (just a little) at the thought of “putting it out there."

They’re shocked at the transparency and vulnerability of sharing something so personal.

I disagree.

I call it weight-loss-by-community. By letting it all hang out, I’m holding myself accountable to the crowd. I’m also essentially guaranteeing that I won’t fail; that I will get to my goal. If I fall off the wagon, it’s public record.

Risky? Not at all, especially when I’m armed with the complete belief and confidence that I will achieve my goal.

Why can’t we do the same with respect to our marketing programs? Why is getting a brand to do a small calculated test or experiment like pulling teeth? Where is the measured financial risk? (There isn’t.) Where is the known probability of
failure? (There isn’t.) Or more specifically, where is the extreme and unwavering belief that the only viable outcome is success? (There isn’t.)

Isn’t it time we started creating the future, where the only risk is the one associated with the opportunity (financial) cost of defending the past?

I'm a few Mediapost columns behind (in terms of sharing them with on Jaffe Juice), so here's the one from September 18th, titled "Bing it On!" which essentially lauds Microsoft's head-to-head challenge with the mighty Googol. Interestingly, enough (and smartly enough), they're supporting this digital initiative with mainstream / traditional / paid media. Here's the full article:

In 1975, Pepsi launched their famous Pepsi Challenge, in which blind taste tests were conducted at various malls and pubic locations to gauge whether they would choose Coke or Pepsi. No surprise: the majority of consumers chose Pepsi over Coke. After all, if they’d chosen Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola would have buried these results 30,000 leagues under the sea.

The Pepsi Challenge is probably the most “classic” and direct example of the Cola Wars. In recent times, we’ve seen this brought to life in more indirect, tired head-to-head advertising, typically launched during one of the Super Bowls. Pepsi takes a more aggressive, “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny” approach, whereas Coke says, “chill out mate. Why can’t we all get along?”

Still, there’s something brave and ballsy about publicly taking on a competitor and letting the product do the talking, versus the creative directors. Along the same vane, probably worth sending props to Domino’s, which took a different, yet related approach with their Pizza Turnaround initiative.

Segue to present day, with Microsoft’s Bing finally ready to shake off its inferiority complex by taking on the mighty Google in a head to head, “blind” taste challenge. In “Bing it On,” consumers can type in any search term they choose and then have to choose between search result A (on the left) and B (on the right) as being the better/higher quality result. Alternatively, they can judge the round a tie. The catch if that they don’t know which search engine is on which side and the order is never consistent. (Sometimes, Bing is on the left and sometimes on the right.)

I took the test. Google won 4-0 with a fifth tied.

My initial reaction was to beat up on Microsoft. Yet another example of PC Guy getting the short end of the stick. In this case, they’d put it out there; let it all hang out…and now everyone was staring, pointing and laughing. Or were they?

On the surface, Pepsi won the Challenge against its bitter rivals, Coke. And yet Coke remained the preferred choice in the market. People use products, but they buy brands. Purchase decisions are typically not logical, rational or functional, but rather emotionally driven.

Malcolm Gladwell critiques the methodology of the Pepsi Challenge in his book, Blink, as fundamentally flawed based on initial “gut” reactions to sweeter tastes. Another way of looking at it was simply that labels do make the difference and when last I checked, we don’t purchase colas with our eyes closed…

So how does this impact Bing?

People have biases. Routines. Ingrained perceptions. And habitual behavior is the hardest to change. When I took the test, it’s quite possible (I’d even argue decisively probable) that subconsciously, I was visually looking for the search results that were the most consistent with my typical Google experience, as opposed to the best quality results.

The real innovation here was getting people to take the test in the first place – regardless of the results. Turning a ! into a ? is probably 80% of the battle in today’s crowded marketplace. Just getting a consumer to doubt the unquestionable efficacy of Google is a victory in of itself.

What if Google’s results aren’t the best results out there?

There’s an old saying, “you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” That may be true, but it’s also equally true to state that “you do get a second chance to make a good second impression.”

And with that in mind, I decided to take the challenge again using keywords: Sales Force, Serena Williams, E.T., iPhone 5 and RFiD

This time, Bing won 4 out of 5 rounds, with the 5^th going to Google.  

That’s good news for Microsoft. The bad news of course is that functional benefit is not necessary a guarantee of success (see Pepsi)

Bing it On!

My latest MediaPost column is up, which focuses on how Nike used Fuelband to activate their #FindyourGreatness platform. Or perhaps it was the other way round.

It's a great example of what happens when "you put 1 (technology) and 1 (creativity) together? You get 12, August 12, 2012 to be specific. #findyourgreatness Day. On August 12, all Fuelband users had an opportunity to set a “world” record of Fuel earned in a single day. A global challenge uniting every single customer. In addition, individuals had the opportunity to set their own personal best and break their records."

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/182750/find-your-brand-greatness.html#ixzz26MqT6Ism

I began my thought leadership/writing career with a column on Mediapost and so it is fitting to return to the scene of the crime so to speak for a new weekly column on all things Innovation.

My primary focus will be on technology-led innovation, which is about as wide and deep as the blue ocean (digital, social, mobile, emerging, startups etc), but I hope to also dial into true originality, disruptive thinking and creative flair as it relates to the ability to tell stories, surprise and delight (some might call it classic advertising...or at least my good friend Don would)

Mediapost were very kind to write up this piece, which outlines my return to weekly thought leadership columns and also gives a pretty good update on my update so to speak.

And so without further ado, my first piece which is a context setter/manifesto of sorts, outlining why now has never been as good a time to be focusing on the convergence between Madison Avenue and Mountain View...

Survival demands Innovation and Creativity

A war is being waged.

Its crusaders are the passionate pioneers that represent a new marketing reality never seen before in history. This is the story of the evolution of the Internet -- and its progression from a superficial flavor of the month to quite possibly, the most profound weapon ever presented to the treasure-chest of the marketing community.

The war in question is a war against ignorance and those who resist change. It is being fought on two playing fields, by two very different armies. Their insignias are the head and the heart. Progress has been varied.

The infantry of the head, earmarked by research, data, metrics and media has emerged victorious.

The warriors of the heart, however, have not fared as well. Along the way, there have been many casualties, but when the dust settled, the brave and the dedicated creative community stood firm, supremely focused on their prime directive: to win the battle for the heart.

I wrote that blurb in 2004 when I put together a roadshow called “The Battle for the HeArt”. You’ll notice that I capitalized the A in Heart, as this was about art; the right brain; creativity…or the lack thereof in the online space. My position was that online was dominated by science; the left brain; analytics; metrics.

And in the vacuum, was an infinite void of desolate inspiration.

Battle for the HeArt was a Creative Roadshow, designed to celebrate, uplift and showcase the best online creative you’d never seen or perhaps had, but you couldn’t quite articulate or put your finger on exactly what made it unique or special.

The show lasted two years and save for the fact I founded my first company, crayon, it would have continued. Interestingly enough, 2006’s Battle (the third year) would have been sub-branded as Madison + Mountain View (I even registered the URL www.madisonandmountainview.com, with a positioning that the future of advertising lay in technology.)

It’s kind of sad and even pathetic that we’re asking the same questions today. We're questioning the lack of creativity and innovation in the online space. It’s not too late for an intervention though, but I fear that soon enough, it will be unless we inject a good dose of truly game-changing digital whoopass into the mix.

My antidote is the intersection of technology and advertising; Mountain View meets Madison Avenue. I’ll use Albert Einstein's famous quote to illustrate my point: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Dictionary.com defines creativity as “productive originality.”

Originality = Doing things Differently
Productive = Getting a Result

“Doing things differently to get a result” is, in fact, the exact opposite of doing the same thing over and over again to get a different result. So it hit me: Creativity is the solution to insanity; the remedy to mediocrity and status quo. 

Similarly, the dictionary defines innovation as new approaches that achieve positive outcomes. Is it coincidence that this is a synonym for creativity? I think not.

I think this underscores that the future of marketing is a digital one, a tech-laden one. Brands have got to innovate in order to evolve and arguably, survive. I believe that the intersection between marketing and start-ups is one way to mix together creativity and innovation into a powerful cocktail.

The catch perhaps is that innovation is typically associated with product or packaging R&D, as opposed to marketing itself.  It’s time to change that.

I always like to quote photographer Diane Arbus who said: “It's what I've never seen before that I recognize."

Our consumers are the same. They ignore what they’ve seen before time and time again. And they notice the unanticipated. They crave the unexpected, the unpredictable, the surprise and delight. They long for the intellectual sparring that comes with an idea that provokes, irks, challenges or dares them to think or act different.

And they’re not insane, although we might be if we don’t rethink the way we go to market, or the way we utilize the full potential of the Internet and its social portfolio of gizmos and gadgets. The way we partner with our consumers -- and the way we combine what we do best (creativity) in a form, function and utility-laded service that truly delivers transformational (innovation) value.

Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and the upcoming smash hit, Ctr Alt Delete, and I sat down for our regular "debate" to discuss an article on the Death of Marketing that was written for Harvard Business Review.

The irony is that the title of the article was kind of misleading and arguably just a cheap (yet proven) trick to get some blood flowing (or boiling). Ironically, Mitch blogged that it proved that Marketing wasn't dead at all!

In fact the article itself was really a manifesto and endorsement for both "Join the Conversation" and "Flip the Funnel" i.e. highlighting the following proof of live "after" Marketing:

• Restore Community Marketing
• Find your Customer Influencers
• Help them Build Social Capital
• Get your customer advocates involved in the solutions you provide

So Mitch and I got into a pretty interesting discussion about whether Marketing is Dead or Not. Or more importantly, whether it is going through a Renaissance, Revival or something else...

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

Photo credit

(quick link to voting here)

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Time to rock the vote as the SxSW panel picker moves into overdrive and the audience participation phase of the rigorous selection process begins.

For those of you who don't know what SxSW (South By Southwest) is, check out the Wikipedia Entry. Or if not, in short it's essentially the banner event in the entire interactive/new media/social media/emerging media (you get the picture) calendar. Think CES for consumer electronics. Cannes for Advertising. SxSW for Interactive. The festival is not only for the geeks. There's also a Film and Music festival and for those of you that can make all 3 (Interactive and Music run back to back, but Film bleeds into both), you'll benefit tremendously from the blurring and synergy that comes from naturally overlapping trades.

One of the great things about SxSW is that anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can share the stage via the Panel Picker process. Literally thousands of proposal are submitted and via a 3-pronged vetting system (staff picks, advisory board, public), the eventual shortlist is chosen.

In 2011, your votes helped secure a speaking slot where I spoke about "Flip the Funnel" and took questions from the audience. Within about 60 seconds after the event, every single copy of the book has been sold in the bookstore. I hope they'll bring more copies this time round.

In 2012, my panel didn't make it into the final shortlist, so I'm appealling to you this time to help me make this possible - if for no other reason then the fact, we've put together a really bumper topic with incredible panelists and a super relevant theme: Madison Avenue meets Mountain View - in other words, the convergence of technology and creativity in the form of startups and brands collaborating together across a variety of engagement paths and platforms.

Here's the official description of the panel:

Why is it that so many startups have brands built into their monetization strategy and yet they only involve brands at the 11th hour? Dominated by a technology and investment focused mentality, marketing is an afterthought. On the flipside, brands recognize the growing importance of innovation and yet continue to invest in established, paid media. And that includes Facebook. But what if the process started earlier, with brands and startups collaborating further upstream to co-develop revenue streams, consumer utility and ultimately technology solutions to business problems? With less than 3% of startups ending up being fully funded, how might brands come to the rescue as White Knights? What if Instagr.am had been created for Kodak? What if Conde Nast invested in Flipboard? This panel will bring together 2 senior marketers from Fortune 500 brands, and 2 startup founders to discuss the challenges, opportunities and partnership potential that arises when Madison Avenue meets Mountain View

Here are the main questions we'll look to address/answer:

1. When in a startup's development life cycle should brands and startups be working together? How early is too early? How late is too late? What are the different engagement or partnership opportunities that are possible?
2. What are some of the pitfalls, pushback and concerns about brands and startups working together…and more importantly, how are they resolved? 
3. What is the role of the agency in terms of helping facilitate and ultimately execute on behalf of both startup and brand? 
4. What does a successful early stage startup and brand partnership look like? Who's doing a good job out there right now? How does one measure success? 
5. What can brands teach startups about marketing, emotion and monetization? What can startups teach brands about failing fast, pivoting or operating lean?

The panel will include two senior executives from blue chip brands, namely Ed Kaczmarek from Kraft Foods and Winston Wang from Anheuser-Busch InBev, as well as at least one startup founder, namely Brett Welch from Switchcam. We will also have a minimum of one case study to highight and reference.

I will moderate the panel and introduce the topic with some high level thoughts on where we see this space going and "evolving"

What makes me really excited about this panel is that it takes a hot, emerging topic from the conceptual to the realm of tangible outcomes and possibilities. And so if you're going to be at SxSW, please vote for and attend the panel and even if you're not, please register and vote regardless. We will make sure we capture the essence of the panel to share with you after the fact.

You can also share the panel via Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Thanks so much for your consideration!

I'm proud to share with you Evol8tion's first "Founder's Spotlight" from our Madison & Mountain View Tumblr Blog. Every week, we'll ask the founder(s) of a startup in our database 8 questions, including which brand(s) represent their soul mate wishlist.

Starbucks, Gap and American Express...take note as you're called out in this week's piece.

In this debut interview, we have Brian Kantor and Sean Barkulis from UPlanMe.

Welcome to Madison and MountainView’s second editorial franchise,Founder Spotlight.  Each week, we’ll ask our Evol8tion 8 questions to feature a different entrepreneur, for our readers to get to know the face behind the emerging startup.  Every company has a story, filled with passion, challenges, and an umatched drive to succeed.  Our first interview is with our friends at UPlanMe, a live interactive event marketplace - turning everyone into a natural social butterfly.  Hope you enjoy, and if you’d like the spotlight on your team - please reach out to jessica@startupsforbrands.com for consideration.

Brian and Sean are best friends who found inspiration for their startup after a family Thanksgiving meal, when they were on a hunt for some post holiday fun.  Desperately seeking to find an open (and hoppin’) East Village bar to no avail, Brian and Sean stumbled upon an idea to create customized calendars, and thus UPlanMe was born.

Brian Kantor (@BrianScottK) heads up UPlanMe’s brand and partner acquisition and previously spent the first 6 years of his career working in online, mobile, print and TV advertising for OMD, BlackBook Media andRolling Stone.  Sean Barkulis (@SeanBarkulis) currently oversees UPlanMe’s broader product strategy, business development and technology, but began his career in Finance where he invested in distressed technology and media companies. He then left to launch his own online trading platform for illiquid securities. 

UPlanMe is a live digital marketplace for events, updates and promotions – from creator, to influencer, to consumer. For consumers, UPlanMe is a customized online calendar that updates itself automatically with the events, specials and activities going on nearby. For brands & businesses, UPlanMe enables them to place updates, events, specials and schedules directly onto customers’ calendars as well as to push out that content across the web. UPlanMe also provides online calendar software to 3^rd-party publishers, so they can pull content from our database into their websites.

Tell us… what was the vision behind UPlanMe?

UPlanMe strives to be the end-to-end solution for brands and businesses to manage and promote their updates, events, specials and schedules across the social web; while allowing consumers to easily interact with those brands and businesses, so they never miss out on events and activities.

Name one failure you benefited from – what lesson was learned, and how was it applied?

Very early on we realized the “chicken or the egg” problem that impacts many startups—it’s tough to attract users to your platform without any content, and it’s even more difficult to get brands and businesses to create content for your platform without any users. We forced ourselves to find ways to find clean, useful, reliable brand-content from alternative data sources across the web- giving users valuable content to interact with, before we’d be able to sway brands to embrace our offering. As a result, we developed a suite of powerful tools and analytics for brands to leverage our platform before having a huge user base.

Who is your Mentor?

Steve Martocci, co-founder of GroupMe has offered us a wealth of advice along the way. He constantly reminds us to stay focused and keep it simple.

Help us out here, whats the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring startups?

If someone isn’t already using Facebook, then they are a late adopter,  and probably not going to use your product.  Assume all of your users are already on Facebook,  and use that info to your advantage. Let Facebook do what Facebook  does best, don’t reinvent the wheel, and remove barriers to entry for your platform.

Who are your dream Brand Soulmates, you’d like to work with?

Brands like Starbucks and Gap are perfect soulmates for us, because of their constantly evolving suite of products, offerings and promotions  that would benefit from a direct conduit into the calendars of current and prospective customers.  (Side bar: Our Evol8tion team also thinks credit card companies, such as American Express, or Chase Sapphire that consumers are consistently using at these events would also be fantastic matches)

What is your favorite startup resource?

We’re big into our communal office within the WeWork Labs - the whole “incubator” workplace has been great for us!  Being surrounded by so many like-minded startups who share the same challenges, really serves as an unparalleled resource to overcome what ails us.

Getting a bit deep here – tell us your fears, whats keeping you up at night?

We hope our users come to find UPlanMe as an indispensible part of their daily lives. Despite our tremendous progress to date, we fear that all of our energy and resources will be exhausted before we have the opportunity to realize that dream.

I really wish I thought of….  (Come on guys - don’t say Facebook… its a cop out answer!)

SinglePlatform. Whoever becomes the hub for local businesses to manage their online presence is going to go gangbusters in the coming years.

Thanks for reading!  Check back next week for more stories, and to see if your interview was chosen - be sure to follow @uplanme for their latest updates.

On Thursday night, June 28th, Evol8tion put on our first branded pitch night called "Kraft your Pitch" in association with Grind and of course Kraft Foods.

This was a pitch night with a twist in the form of two key differences, namely:

1. Instead of pitching to investors, the startup finalists were pitching to brand managers
2. Instead of the 1 winner format, we employed a "everyone's a winner" spirit by providing marketing/agency feedback to all finalists ahead of the pitch night to help them "kraft" their pitch. Our hope is that this feedback will deliver continued value for all their future pitches to investors, brands and agencies.

At the end of the day, it is our belief that every viable startup has a brand soulmate. We equally believe that in startups, brands can find their salvation and solutions to their day-to-day problems (breaking through the clutter, engaging consumers, building brand trust, love and health, creating relevance and resonance, delivering real service and experience, providing utility)

Kraft your Pitch is one of several ways we connect early stage startups to matched brands.

Here is a 2 minute video which summarizes the night:

The finalists (congratulations to you all) were:

• Zokos
• Preplay
• Hatchedit
• GoChime
• Huddlers
• Spacesplitter
• Brouha

...across the following categories:

• Changing the Way we Shop (Shopper Marketing)
• Social TV
• Points and Perks (Loyalty Marketing, Advocacy, Flip the Funnel)
• Technology for Today
• Social Serendipity

If you want to find out who won, watch the video :)

If you'd like to find out more about branded pitch nights, contact us via our website or info [at] startupsforbrands [dot] com

Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and the upcoming smash hit, Ctr Alt Delete, and I sat down for our regular "debate" to discuss Facebook's Identity crisis as it relates to moving from being a Slave to VC's to a slave to Wall Street, but ultimately a Slave to Brands as opposed to Slave to consumers. Confused? Don't be...just listen and weigh in with your opinion as to whether Facebook has jumped the shark or as Jay Chiat once said, "let's see how big we get before we suck."

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

I recently sat down with Ed Keller, one half of the book Face-to-Face with co-author, Brad Fay (does that make him "Face" or "Face"?) and one half of the firm, Keller-Fay. He's also the author of "The Influentials," which I found to be really landmark in terms of understanding influence, particularly from a word-of-mouth point of view.

Ed and the book Face-to-Face, focuses on REAL word-of-mouth in the REAL world (IRL). Considering that 90% of all conversations about brands take place "offline", he may be onto something here...

So here's our conversation about funnel flipping, cavemen recommendations, facebook, facebook and facebook and influence, amongst many other topics...

Be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

On June 28th at Grind in NYC, we'll be helping run a branded pitch night called "Kraft your Pitch."

Like the name suggests, this is an initiative we've put together for/with our client, Kraft Foods.

There are many pitch nights where startup hopefuls have a limited time to present their best elevator pitch to an audience and panel of judges (consisting of potential investors and other subject matter experts).

Startups are generally very good at talking tech and even funding, but what about marketing and monetization -  specifically, how their product and/or proposition will help deliver value for both consumers and brands?

That's where this pitch night takes on a different look and feel. For starters, startups will be selected to pitch on the basis of their pitch being a "match" to a defined Kraft focus area. In this case, we'll be honing on:

• Social TV
• Points and Perks
• Technology for Today
• Changing the way we Shop

Then, Evol8tion will spend time with each finalist prior to the pitch night to help "kraft" or customize their pitch to the marketer audience. We'll give advice, feedback and suggestions from the buy-side/agency-side to help refine and evolve their pitch.

We hope that this feedback will prove invaluable far beyond the pitch night itself and we know that the feedback the brand gives as part of the Q&A will go all the way to the bank. This is - after all - our vision at Evol8tion, namely "early stage participation with early stage startups".

And so if you're a startup looking to kraft your pitch, you can submit via www.startupsforbrands.com/kraftyourpitch.

If you'd like to attend, you can register via the same link (spots are extremely limited)

Thanks to Grind, for helping out on the event side and of course thanks to our client, Kraft, for their commitment to helping startups get to the next level.

Here's a more visual description of what I just said:

See you there!

I recently sat down with the original @comcastcares guy, also known as Frank. Eliason. He's since moved to Citi to head up their Social Media efforts AND authored a book called, @ your service. Get it?

So here's our conversation about customer service, customer experience and a whole lotta funnel flipping.

Be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE  (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

I'm at Techcrunch Disrupt this week at Pier 94, which is all the way over the West Side Highway (Silicon Alley or Valley this is not...)

It's my first one and takes a little adjusting to the tech- and funding- biases which are commonplace in the startup world.

Case in point: FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. YAHOO! WOES. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. PINTEREST. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO (in that order)

Then there's the Michael Arrington - Ariana Huffington love affair / spat, which I think may have finally played itself out. Which is good.

These events are pretty grueling for all parties concerned and a special accolade to the startups who have to be "on" constantly as they "man" their booths and work the floor/room throughout the day(s).

I was contacted by several startups and as a blogger/"influencer" and believer in building bridges/relationships with the new content creators/creative class, I wanted to single out those who took the time to reach out in advance of the event:

• Activegift.me
• Chat&
• Runfaces
• ExpertTrivia (Red Ticket Games)
• GuidePal
• Lockerdome
• Parlor.FM
• SocialStock
• CallApp

In terms of themes, definitely encouraged to see quite a bit of activity in the audio category. As a podcasting "veteran", I am intrigued with the text-to-talk, next gen conference calls, audio apps etc. Another trend that is impossible to ignore is the photo/visual explosion and truly, brands need to have photo / visual POV's if not strategic approaches nowadays.

Can't believe I just said that, but it's true. Video is all the rage, but "still images" AKA Photos is right up there (or will be)

All in all, I visited with 26 startups and saw another 20 pitch on the main stage. I thought I'd share 10 ideas or tips about effective pitching (at least from the perspective of a brand marketer/agency/potential investor). Maybe you agree. Maybe you disagree. Feel free to "join the conversation":

1. Keep it simple (stupid) - the K.I.S.S. approach. This could also be called "know your audience". So many pitches dived into tech-speak and complex walkthroughs of product features versus the classic elevator pitch, the idea, the problem being solved, the consumer value proposition and corresponding benefit, points of differentiation etc.
2. Pretend I'm your grandmother. Or grandfather in my case. This is an extension of K.I.S.S. with a key nuance: talk English please :)
3. Use examples. Make it real. Or hypothetically real i.e. give me a sense of product in action and in the case of the Evol8tion business model and our brand clients, describe the perfect or your ideal brand activation.
4. Let the product do the talking....demonstration is key. if you can do a quick scroll, flip, swish or slide in the time allotted, terrific! And here's the catch...don't rely on poor 3G or 4G or even wi-fi connections, which often times are the product of busy networks (think of where you are after all). Cached or offline demos aren't cheating.
5. Do your homework in terms of the crowd and prospective audiences: partner, hire, investor, brand, press etc.
6. Be prepared for the Big Fish. If you get a big bite, be ready to pounce and reel it in. Anticipate this as an exception versus norm, but certainly capitalize on the serendipity.
7. Anticipate every type of question. You can't be surprised if people ask you how you make money for example. Or who your competitors are. Or a little less obvious, when they compare you to Pinterest or ask you what happens with Facebook or Google decides to do the same thing you're doing...
8. Use the audience as your influencers. The Techcrunch audience is a pretty big deal. Just ask them! Seriously though...these people (we) are self-selected as the innovators/early adopters in the tech space certainly, or if not can probably get the message out. So treat them this way..and it all begins by them downloading your app.
9. Special offers are key. I saw very little special offers targeted to this audience. In the case of KurbKarma, they deposited 10 Karma Kredits into our accounts. This could be as simple as letting everyone into a closed/private beta. The worst is putting this audience onto a waiting list...even if you release it the very next day (Uber conference, I'm talking to YOU...now can I get some more invites for my colleagues please :))
10. Comparisons are fine. If you don't make them, we will. We're a Path meets Open Table. Think Square meets Triangle. Oh you mean, like a cross between Twitter and Instagr.am for Newly Wed Cross-Dressers? I get it! The corollary of this is pushing back when we make the same comparisons or benchmarks.

There are a ton more that came up today and maybe I'll include them in a follow up post.

So do you agree/disagree with me? And more constructively, what tips would you offer up as either successful pitch-ers or caring pitch-ees?

Is Nike a Shoe company? An apparel company? A health and fitness lifestyle company? Or a technology company? DigiDay Brian Morrissey's insight and my purchase of a Nike Fuel Band prompts a great discussion about brands, branding and the future of marketing and consumer engagement in a digital world. 

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

This year's SxSW Interactive Festival in Austin has come and gone.

Here are 10 insights/reflections from the Evol8tion partners: Sam Huxley, Gina Waldhorn and myself.

This post originally appeared on our Madison & Mountain View Tumblr Blog. If you haven't already, check it out and follow all things MplusMV (the intersection of advertising and technology) 

1. What launches in Austin sometimes stays in Austin (Sam)

In the mythos of SXSW, Twitter and Foursquare both gained massive adoption at the show and went on to mainstream stardom.  Twitter’s utility at the show, creating a back channel to the panels and quickly sharing relevant news, was matched by Foursquare’s ability to easily share location and utility demonstrated at the show was applicable to the mainstream.

For the two last years, however, the darlings of the show have had limited appeal after the show ends.  GroupMe, acquired by Skype last year for $50 million, is super-useful in coordinating large groups of attendees quickly, and is often more reliable than SMS in the bandwidth-challenged environs of the Austin Convention Center.  Outside of SXSW, however, 90% of what it does can be handled by group MMS messages, iMessage, and Gchat.  Similarly, this year’s “hot” app, Highlight, uses passive location to identify users nearby with similar interests, or contacts.  Outside of large conventions, it’s hard to see how this will solve an everyday user problem, besides helping extroverts find each other more quickly.  The other issue is that it needs to run constantly to work, which leads to…

2. Passive location startups need to figure out battery usage (Sam)

The biggest startup trend was around location services such as Highlight, Ban.jo, Sonar, and Glancee.  All of them differ in utility and presentation, but share a drawback that the great-granddaddy of location services, Loopt (recently acquired by Green Dot for $43 million), had in 2005 – they are energy vampires.  The GPS chip is one of the biggest power consumers on every smartphone, and having it on constantly dramatically shortens runtime.  It will likely take phone manufacturers a lot longer to develop better batteries that can handle these apps, than the developers to figure out how to use the GPS less.  If they don’t, it will take years for passive location to go mainstream.

3. The accelerator bubble (Sam)

One of the best panels this year was “Exploring the Top from TechStars, Frank Gruber from TECH Cocktail, Gabriella Draney of Tech Wildcatters, and Aziz Gilani from DFJ Mercury.  It was a solid, wide-ranging discussion, but one topic stood out – the incredible growth of accelerator programs worldwide.  There are currently over 200, and David estimated that there will soon be close to 500. This is an industry that is relatively immune to the normal forces of market contraction – most are isolated regionally, so they face little competition, and most of the founders have large amounts of capital that can keep the lights on until they lose interest.  The downside is that there is a finite pool of experienced mentors for startups to access, and bad advice early is one of the leading killers of great ideas.  The upside is more access to capital means more ideas get funded from a wider range of locations.  Time will tell on which wins out.Accelerator Programs” with David Cohen

4. Serendipity Rules (Joseph)

Going with the flow can produce incredible results. From meeting Christian Arno, the CEO of Lingo24 at the airport check in counter, to meeting Allison Hemming, Top Gun at The Hired Guns, on the plane, and sharing a cab downtown with Justin Glenn Davis, Lead Strategist, at Oniracom. Juan Andres Munoz Fernandez, CNN, Snr. Interactive producer.- outside hotel room door getting the newspaper. I also got a chance to catch up with Jeff Cutler and Chris Brogan one morning early at the Driskill, and it all came from waking up ultra-early due to Jet Lag and sending out a mundane tweet about being up at the crack of dawn. Who says what you had for breakfast on Twitter wasn’t valuable!?!

5. Tail wagging the dog (Joseph)

Big brands were out en masse at SxSW, but I’m just not sure it was because they really should have been there (based on proven media rationale) or because their social media manager or agency told them
they should be there. From talking to various brand managers, I understand how the opportunity to reach 50,000 Millennials had merit, but how many of them were actually “reached” and was it worth the cost?

For those brands that did participate, the ones that added value really scored above those indulging themselves. Chevy’s ride system added obvious utility, whereas Kraft (an Evol8tion client) delivered simple pleasure (and sampling) with their Mac ‘n Cheese Food Truck and speculative move in the form of branded umbrellas (keep your noodle dry). Pepsi’s presence on the other hand seemed to be inconspicuous and even absent (this may have had something to do with a much larger presence last year and perhaps not the best location this year).

Let the debate continue…

6. Nike rawks (Joseph)

Nike decided to launch their Fuelband in Austin. Apparently you can only buy them in Austin (during SxSW) and a concept/factory store in Manhattan, NY. This was a really smart seeding strategy that involved a kick-ass experiential outdoor installation, a pop-up store inspired by Apple, a seamless buying experience with personal shoppers and a constant line outside designed to raise the eyebrows and good old fashioned word-of-mouth. As the festival unfolds, more and more people joined the line based on interactions with others at the festival. Really smart implications for future festivals, namely an initial pop followed by consistent ramping up due to the momentum established by the steady flow of buyers.

The big loser in my opinion was Facebook. Not only were they completely absent, but rumor has it that their employees had to pay their own way there. Guess they were too busy counting their IPO moolah, but on two counts: their presence and actual consumer usage, my take was a giant flat-line.

7. The Freaky Line has been crossed (Joseph)

As Robert Scoble refers to the suite of new services like Highlight, Glancee, Banjo and Sonar. A whole bunch of times my Banjo twanged, the person in question was literally standing next to me. Very freaky indeed. I’m still not sure how this will play out, but glad I got to play this time round.

It was also commonplace to hear every startup pitch begin with “log in with your Facebook account,” which seems like the path of least resistance, but at what cost?

8. Design and User Experience will win the SoLoMo race (Gina)

From accelerator pitches to the line for the bathroom, every other conversation was with the founder of “the next revolution in Social Local Mobile utilities.” The space is certainly ripe for innovation, but the only problem being solved for seems to be “how do I find new and interesting things to do and places to go around me.” While there may be nuances in the platform approach (I.e. A virtual telephone pole with virtual fliers vs. an only positive recommendation engine) the usage and value propositions are the same, which means the battle for mass penetration is going to be won by getting user experience and design perfect (and this was the recommendation made to many of these startups by the VC judges on the accelerator panels).

9. Startups need storytellers (Gina)

After watching 50+ pitches, it became very apparent that a great idea can be lost in a terrible pitch. With the typical competition contestant having a technology background, and being given only 3 minutes or less to pitch their idea, the number one question from the VC’s we heard over and over again was “so, what exactly does it do?” Startup founders have no experience selling, story-telling, or pitching, and thus a great idea is often lost in a too technical, emotionless, example-less, drab presentation. Startups need the consultation (or better yet a staff member) from those who know how to sell a great idea.

10. We NEED to be thinking globally (Gina)

Some of the most interesting startups I connected with were from Chile, Australia, and London. With alternative (and sometimes more advanced) hardware, creativity abounds overseas. South America in particular had a noticeable showing throughout the conference, in both attendee and presenter numbers. With labor cost in South America being significantly cheaper (and creative design being a force to be reckoned with in S.America and Europe) not having a focused global effort will most certainly lead to missed opportunities.

So what were your takeaways?

I had the pleasure recently of doing interviews with Dave Delaney on Jump Start Foundry and Diana Yazidjianon Yaziness on Evol8tion and Flip the Funnel respectively.

Check them out if you have some spare time and my thanks to both Dave and Diana for great conversations all round!

Jump Start Foundry direct link is here (MP3)

Yaziness interview below:

Bonus clip on Evol8tion:

Could this be the year that advertiser's finally gave up? Forget #brandbowl. This was the year of #blandbowl.

Last night I was live tweeting as part of Wharton's Future of Advertising program and so actually so most - if not all of the ads - versus actually socializing with human beings and even enjoying the game.

It gave me the opportunity to utter WTF about 20 times. 

I believe there were about 54 to 70 spots depending on different accounts (which may include halftime show or perhaps pre-game), but that seems like a LOT of clutter.

In addition, according to @AlanKercinik - who was keeping me updated on - auto made up about 31% of ALL creative spots. Seriously guys, how are you not all hopping mad that you all just canceled each other out and pretty much zeroed out any ability to differentiate.

Flashy Flashy Flashy. Fast Fast Fast. Bright Bright Bright. Hashtag. Dogs. Hot Chicks. Dogs. 4 Wheels. Hashtag. Overproduced Hyperbole. Hashtag. Fast. Fast. Fast. Brand in question: ?????????

In general, I couldn't believe how over the top and overproduced some of the spots were, to the point where they went completely over the heads of people watching.

Reminder: Most people are inebriated and/or watching with groups of people making lots of noise with the sound of the TV either being drowned out by the noise or turned down.

Reminder: Copy. Text. Spoken Word don't work. Keep it Simple. Stupid which is why Coke's Polar Bears works. It's safe and predictable, but people get it.

To me, I think advertising in the Super Bowl has become a giant ego trip for most advertisers (like the tax prep software one that no one will remember tomorrow) and it's all about the announcement itself, rather than the execution. Look at me...I'm a playa!!!! Yawn.

It should be so simple i.e. focus all your efforts on hitting the fast ball zipping straight down Broadway for a game winning home run...made all the easier if an existing platform/equity can be leveraged (e.g. Polar Bears) but instead it becomes a completely insider and incestuous attempt to outdo one another in terms of lavish production.

...but this post was really meant to be about innovation (or the lack thereof) from the Big Game. Starting with basic new media best practices and integration like making sure your freaking website doesn't crash (Coke, Acura) or how about the complete neglect of your digital storefront; your home i.e. your website.

From what I heard only Bud Light did some kind of intelligent drive to digital via it's Facebook integration to get people to donate money to Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), although I completely missed it during the spot. People were saying, "why did they use such an ugly dog?" 

All in all, with over 50 spots, only 2 companies did anything that could be called "innovative". Let me be clear...I take my hat off to both companies for their efforts and I wag my (M.I.A. middle finger) at all the others for zzzzzzzz....boring, bland, safe and mediocre creative. That said, I'll also offer a little commentary on what worked/could have worked better.

The first was Coke's Polar Bowl, which apparently had two Andy Serkis characters covered in bulbs reacting live to the game itself and broadcasting themselves as two Polar Bears supporting the Pats and Giants respectively. Ordinarily that would be awesome to follow this live streaming, except for:

1. The scarf colors were ambiguous given both teams sort of wear the same colors
2. The site went down
3. It didn't work on iPad or iPhone, which imho, is how many people would be watching TV these days and especially at a party. I'm sure someone at Coke or their agencies will explain this to me...and I assume it would have worked on Android, but either way, I think it was a missed opportunity 

Next time, take into account how people typically watch TV in a multichannel multiscreen environment.

The second was the Shazam Bud Light integration during the Half Time show with Madonna. The idea was that you'd Shazam the new song by Madonna and then get to download the LMFAO remix. The challenges here were as follows:

• Shazam had to work over the noise of the party (it did)
• There were several steps that had to be followed e.g. verifying age, e-mail address and filling out marketing opt-in boxes (it is what it is)
• The disappointment of not being one of the first million as what happened to me...

Overall, the big winners here were Shazam and LMFAO/Madonna...both getting ridiculous downloads of app and track respectively. I feel Bud Light scored 1,000,000 kudos but fell short on anything from 1 disappointed customer (me) to countless many more millions of potential new customers and/or exisiting loyalists.

Next time don't use a cap and set a record for music downloads!!!

And that's about it from the Super Bowl that really was a Super Bust when it comes to creativity, originality and innovation.

See you next February. Go Giants!!!

It's a Super Bowl flavored episode of The Beancast, where host Bob Knorpp is joined by panelists Steve Hall (Adrants), Tedd Aurelius (Martin Agency), Dan Goldgeier (AdPulp) and yours truly to discuss the following marketing topics:

• Super Bowl run up
• Admeter Impact
• Agism in Adland
• Owning vs Creating Content
• Ads in Search Results

Download or listen here

Subscribe to this wonderful podcast series via iTunes here

PS I even got the title of the episode named after me as I attempt to validate Life after the 30-second spot to talk about Evol8tion (somewhat successfully)

In this episode, Mitch and I discuss my new company, Evol8tion, as well as the intersection of Marketing/Advertising and Technology in the form of Madison Avenue and Mountain View. We also interject some Super Bowl discussion

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

In my new capacity at Evol8tion, we're looking to make connections between technology-based startups and established/blue chip brands.

The Evol8tion mission is to match "viable startups" to their "brand soul mate," but the real platform here is innovation, defined as new approaches that achieve disproportionate positive business outcomes and effect transformational change.

Actually that definition is mine, as the dictionary one is so bland...but you get the gist: doing things differently in order to get a result (which is the opposite of - or antidote to - Einstein's definition of insanity, as well as synonymous with "productive originality" which is actually the definition of creativity...but I digress)

A while back (2007) I started Fatblogging, which I believe is attributed to none other than Jason Calacanis, who put it out there originally. Sebastian Keil later created an autobot on Twitter to RT any #fatblogging tweets.

The concept was simple - lose weight by / via community. Put it out there and put it out there publicly. Get the support of the community, but also be accountable and beholden to that same community who will encourage and congratulate, but also chastise and commiserate. Why not?

I started (according to the post at around 224 pounds) and have yo-yo'ed since to 177 and back up to 212. Interestingly enough, I'm at the same weight now as I was in 2007 when my third child was born, so that can't be too bad. The real prize is to get back to my wedding weight of around 181, which takes me back to the beginning of 1999.

The ability to have a public "timeline" is interesting.

It's an archived record of your highs and lows (literally) and serves as a historical reminder of how you pick up weight, lose it and maintain. Sound familiar? (Facebook has just introduced "Timeline."

Right now, I'm back in the zone and #fatblogging again, but this time thanks to my Withings wi-fi scale. Yes, it's a wi-fi scale that tweets and posts to FB automatically. I realize that's a revolting concept to many, but it's equally empowering to others...you know, the masochistic narcissists.

Truthfully, that's the smallest piece of (somewhat unnecessary) functionality to the concept. The real functionality of the scale is to automatically detect a specific family member's weight and then map it to their profile to determine BMI, lean and fat percentages etc. This is automatically added to your online account, but also iPhone and iPad apps that graphs each weigh-in relative to goal etc.

Withings also allows you to share profiles with other Withings members, as well as to alert your doctor (it has a separate blood pressure product which plugs into your iPhone) if there are irregularities / negative trends etc.

It's just another example of how health is becoming intimately intertwined with digital, social and mobile technology.

My actual weight loss regime is managed via Weight Watchers Online. I've used WWO several times before and I love it. It works. Where I typically go off the rails is losing interest in the application during my maintenance period, but that's on me. Weight loss is really not that complicated:

• smaller portions
• Food awareness e.g. jumbo movie popcorn is essentially 29 points, 80 grams of fat etc.
• Substitutions e.g. egg whites for regular eggs
• Calories In vs Calories Out

The Weight Watchers App is good, but not great. It pivots around the size and quality of the database and whilst it's interesting to know every equivalent of Denny's products, truthfully no one should be setting foot into a Denny's if they're trying to lose weight. I'm not sure WWO fully understands community 2.0 and specifically social.

Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Withings book. Or Foursquare's.

I really love the ability to manage my own weight loss...with the help of technology and the community. It's empowering. Independent. And manageable.

I'd encourage any brands that either directly are built on a health and wellness platform and/or incorporate this theme into their branding, positioning and marketing to seriously look into this field. There are limitless possibilities of partnership with early stage startups, companies and apps looking to make their mark on this exciting space of DIY "Connected" Weight Loss.

What's your favorite weight loss, health or wellness startup, site or app? Share it with the community.

Photo credit: "Diet Themed Street Sign" from Bigstockphoto

OK, so it only took me a year to finally announce what I've been up to, but trust me...it was worth the wait. 

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I can share my latest venture: it's called Evol8tion - pronounced Evolootion as in Evolution, but with an "8" which represents infinity (or two "o" 's on their side). You get the drift...

Evol8tion is an innovation agency that puts brands back in control by reverse engineering the startup to create technology solutions to business problems. Let me explain:

Innovation Agency = Innovation is typically associated with product development and packaging, but not marketing itself. The traditional agency has morphed into the digital and social agency. Innovation is the next evolution. Evol8tion is an agent on behalf of its clients (the brands) as well as an agent in the classical sense i.e. that represents the startup community.

Put Brands Back in Control = Brands have had to resort to “renting space” via middlemen in the form of paid media. We believe that brands can move from being media dependent to media discerning, i.e. become owners or even landlords in the world of impressions, attention, time spent and engagement.

Reverse Engineering the Startup = Our mantra of “startups for brands” is essentially an attempt to reverse engineer the startup from the brand backwards i.e. begin with the brand challenge and consumer insight and then work backwards into funding (via brands) and development.

Technology Solutions to Business Problems = There are too many solutions to non-existent problems or tactics in search of strategy. A branded startup needs to address a brief and ultimately deliver against a key marketing (brand health, brand love, preference, loyalty, advocacy) or business (market share, revenue, sales, profitability) KPI.

Put slightly differently: we match early stage startups to blue chip brands to partner via mentoring, pilot programs and/or investment (way under 140 characters, so there!)

Here's a video which explains in a little more detail about the "startups for brands" positioning:

There's also a loooooong version of the video (11 minutes for the masochists out there), as well as several more that speak to our various audiences and our "Madison and Mountain View" platform.

There's way too much to say in a single blog post, so here are the highlights - and they are highlights:

• Joining me in this journey are Sam Huxley and Gina Waldhorn. Sam is ex-New Media Strategies and Y&R and more importantly, he's one of the smartest strategic veterans in the digital space. Plus he's a fellow scotch-loving mad-scientist. Gina is an angel (not investor, but worth more to me) and a thousand thanks to Sarah Fay for introducing her to me. She comes via Carat and Maxus.
• Credibility is so important, especially at the nascent stages of a startup. And when it comes to talking about blue chip brands, you don't get better than Kraft Foods and Anheuser-Busch InBev, who join Evol8tion as founding clients. I can't wait to see what we'll do together...
• We're launching a thought leadership platform and community hub called "Madison & Mountain View." The first iteration is a Tumblr-powered site which you can find here and follow via @mplusmv (what's up, Ashton?) M+MV celebrates the fusion between advertising and technology. M+MV is an independent hub and so if you want to contribute just shoot us a note

• Evol8tion's first branded product is called MatchMaker, which - with a nod to Fiddler on the Roof - will help viable startups find their brand soul mate.
• From time to time, Evol8tion will take a special interest in a particular idea(s). To kick things off, we'll be working closely with TrashCanKidz and Tunespotter to help get them to the next level and explore particular connections with carefully selected brands.

The bottom line is that we see tremendous opportunity in connecting two worlds that - until now - have not naturally come together. Our vision is to swim far upstream through early stage participation with early stage startups.

We think there is significant upside, considering something like 97% of startups never get funded. Perhaps it's just because they never met their brand soul mate <3

So whether you're a brand, startup or potential partner, find out more by watching your video or contacting us to find out more.

So that's it for now. I invite you to:

• Visit our website (www.startupsforbrands.com)
• Ask the Evol8tion 8-ball a question or two
• Browse our vision deck using the very cool Greener Mags platform
• Follow us on Twitter (@evol8tion)
• Check out Madison & Mountain View (www.madisonandmountainview.com) and @mplusmv
• Download our press release -  Download Evol8tion Press Release
• Check out our videos

...and on the 24th only...we're hanging out in a Google + hangout if you want to chat during the day (you'll need to add the page to your circles)

P.S. Just realized that I founded crayon, sold crayon, launched Evol8tion and celebrate my birthday on the same day (the 24th). I had better head for the casino to bet on black...

P.P.S. Mad props to Grant Lyons and Will Cameron for all their help on our visual identity

It's time to evolve...