entrepreneurship Archives - Page 105 of 235

Friends, fans and followers

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

Humans love to count. Here’s a list of some somethings we count obsessively:

Our age
Our money
The value of our house
Salaries
The value of 401K (superannuation fund)
Population
Members
Friends, Fans, Followers
Hits, views, comments.
Market share
Percentage profit
Traffic road toll

Really, we count almost everything. None of us are immune to this human symptom of counting. It’s the ultimate technique for organising and planning, in fact it’s what makes us top of the food chain.

So the question for startups is this: What are you tools are your creating that your people count and compete with?

The game has just begun

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

Humans really love to count things. How much money we have in the bank. Our annual salary, the value of our 401K fund, crowds at football games. How hot is is in degrees, the level of rainfall, and of course the holy grail of irrational counting – number of frequent flyer points we have.

Mobile technology has really changed the number of things we can count and compare. When everything can be counted, and people care about how much they have versus the other guy… well it can have a dramatic effect on human behaviour and business. Jesse Schell gave a great talk on the evolution of gaming this year at DICE and I can’t stop thinking about it, so I have to share it. If I was you, I’d watch every second of it. Click here to watch it. Enjoy.

How to launch

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

The best way to get to market in today’s world, that is the bootstrapping, information dense, non factory, everyone can outsource digital world, is to set a launch date and stick to it. Put it where you’ll see it 19 times a day in big black writing.

The only things that go into the launch, product or website need to be achievable by that day. We keep it, we compromise to make it if we must. We know it will not result in perfection, but momentum. Once we get here (live in market) then the next launch starts. The first improvment if what we already have, based on real world feedback. Rinse and repeat. This is how to startup in 2010.

The great media rumble

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

The internet has been a boon for entrepreneurs. The commerce said entrepreneurs have created has been one of connection, more than revenue with social media networks being the greatest love child of the internet age. The overwhelming majority of them are free to use, which has resulted in a dramatic power shift in the industrial media landscape. More succinctly social media is very quickly stealing eyeballs from traditional media.

While startups are busy creating the new forums which people connect and entertain themselves on, advertising and media agencies are scrambling to stake their claim on new media. It’s shaping up to be the demarcation dispute of the decade. Both parties believe that social media is rightfully theirs:

Media Agencies claim it is ‘Media’ and so their clients should engage them strategically.

Advertising Agencies claim it is ‘content driven’ and so their cleints should engage them straetgically.

What’s clear is that is isn’t about to go away and it will continue attract larger percentages of the marketing budget as time progresses. And just in case your wondering what I think about social media and who rightfully owns it, my viewpoint is very clear and is given below:

Just like any emerging technology or industry, no one rightfully owns it. It’s up for grabs. The companies (new or existing) who move into the space the quickest and add the most value will take home the trophy.

More Badvertising from Cadbury

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a list of reasons this is a terrible piece of advertising from Cadbury:

– It’s a short film for kids, not an advertisement

– It assumes that consumers remember their other pieces of recent advertiusing

– The idea is not integrated to the brand, rather it’s an adendum

– It’s very self indulgent

– It’s not compelling enough to make the effort to go to the website to see what happens next

*What Cadbury need to remember is that they sell chocolate, not make movies. They need to trigger the crave.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pr93O8kGyg]

Startup blog says, we can’t forget why we are here. We don’t have to apologise that we are trying to sell our product by providing entertainment instead. Rather we should be proud of what we do and clearly communicate it.

Get in quick

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

Gus Johnston was walking past his local bakery in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick – Franks. It’s a 40 year old local business. He told me about a great little piece of marketing which inspired the title of this blog post.

On the bakery door, hand written was a little sign with the the words Opening Hours. Under it was: 8am until sold out.

It’s nice story which is perfect for what they do. Better hurry.

The tale of two offices

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

I once worked in a consumer goods company which went from Individual offices to open plan.

I now work in an advertising agency where we have moved from individual offices to open desks.

What happened at these two firms is interesting. The first office (consumer goods marketing) sent out a mass email banning iPods (and any other brand of personal music device – this is seriously what the email said). Claiming that the idea of open plan was to encourage open communications, and it was rude to listen to music while working. That we couldn’t do our jobs while listening to music as it was distracting. While at the same time the directors had offices with doors.

The second office (advertising) did something much different. Firstly, all the directors have the same size desk and space as every employee. On our first day in the new office we all had a gift on our desk wrapped beautifully with a ribbon. Inside the pack was free coffee vouchers (for the cafe across the road) and a brand new iPod nano. And it had a note which said the following:

“The iPod nano – this is good for a few things. Moving to open will at times be challenging. If you feel it is getting on top of you, then feel free to bung in your iPod and listen to your favourite tunes. We’re also into the idea that we can all play part in creating our new vibe. So we’ll be asking you to supply the music each day. We’ll place a sign at the reception that says “Today’s music thanks to Ant Shannon.” Please make your playlist and get it on the dock. The iPods you’ve received also take video – get in the habit of recording the stuff you like or think about. Keep it, play it, share it.”

A massive difference in attitude, culture and resulting creative output. The culture we create in our startup or any business is a result of what we do, and we can change it at any time with a bit of effort and humanity.