Ponder this: could defining your fears be more important than defining your goals?
My answer is yes and it’s a bit of both. True goals come from understanding your fears and what is behind those fears. This applies easily to the marketing world. In your next planning or strategy session, start defining the fears then apply ways to overcome those.
I watched a dvr’d episode of Bill Maher last night with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and purveyor of microcredit. He was very inspiring, one concept he talked about was business that is about making the world a better place — with profitablity in mind. As the founder of Grameen Bank he’s definitely living by that principle. He further explained that there is greed in people but there is also the desire to make a change.
Today I came across this video, which happens to be from an organization called Playing for Change. Watch the video and see the description below. I’m not usually one to talk about change or social issues. But this struck me as an amazing idea and one that benefits people. And an idea that stands out which is what we’re striving for most days we walk into the office. I wish them the best and am signing up.
About the video: This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana. And from there, the producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.
Dan Ariely talk at TED, imagine if always took the time to do what he says when developing experiences for consumers. I know my experience design friends would be happy — if we’re still friends that is.
The idea of people and companies finding something so useful that people must use it, must have it, is everywhere. Google rings a bell although that’s monetized through ads, but what about Angie’s List and Flickr with Pro accounts. In this month’s Wired, Kevin Kelly talks about how social media will accelerate open source collaboration, giving us even more to find useful online.
When I see the Apple commercials that say “there’s an app for just about anything” I think about myself at work and how I find a lot of answers through apps online. QA specialist at lunch: visit BrowserShots.org; research team too busy to give you any social media insight: hit up SocialMention.com; or how about finding out the right time to use the restroom during a movie: use Runpee.com.
There’s an app for just about everything I need online AND on my iPhone.
If you don’t know where to start, ask your digital specialist for his cheat codes: aka favorite bookmarks purposely left off Delicious.
Just read this story of how Jorge Colombo created the June 1 New Yorker cover using the Brushes iPhone app. It illustrates that if you put something useful out there, the creative, talented folk of the world might just take it and run with it. The trick in an increasingly crowded space might be where and how quickly you can create it more than what.
Great idea that turned out to dissappoint because the Nizmlab.com features more commericals that anything else. Chunnel.tv was slightly better as I found this Disney video, and who doesn’t love an ironic truth.