My LEF colleague Dave Aron posted about a fast food drone delivery service a couple of days ago. Having been recently reading James Garvey's takedown of the PR industry The Persuaders, it got me thinking about how there is an increasing breed of technology publicised these days which, for want of a better term, one could call … Continue reading The unstoppable rise of PRTech
Category: Marketing
I've been becoming increasingly bemused by the masterful example of technology marketing that is IBM Watson. It's a great (and rare) example of a tech company building a strong brand around a very esoteric set of concepts. Just about everything coming out of Big Blue seems to have the Watson brand slapped across it at … Continue reading Elementary, my dear Watson
During my recent research project, which I continue to write up into a coherent report for the lovely people at the LEF, one of the conversations that appeared to happen again and again with my interviewees went along the lines of: Me: "Would I be able to attribute this conversation to you?" Them: "I'd love … Continue reading Uncommunicative
We aren't the sort of family that has much in the way of heirlooms passed from generation to generation. In fact I think that the only thing that I have inherited (other than my wit and dashing good looks, naturally) is a bound edition of a volume of the satirical magazine Punch from around 1918. … Continue reading Advertorial
Every so often I like to play around with some data. Call it data jazz... (that's only semi-serious). Anyway, yesterday I was looking at the Interbrand Top 100 brands, and was wondering how they have changed over time? I constantly hear factoids about how company lifecycles are getting shorter and the world is speeding up. But … Continue reading The rise of automotive
I'm quite often heard calling a distinction between social media and social networks. The two terms seem to be used interchangeably, but for me there is an important difference: social media is what organisations do, based on traditional mass media models of communication around primarily broadcasting; social networks are what we as individuals do, following the long tradition … Continue reading Enterprise Social Media
The Pivot is a concept well beloved in the Lean Startup community. Always be looking for the way in which your product or service can be changed to adapt to new markets, new customers and/or new applications. To hear the Lean Startupers go on about it, sometimes you'd think they'd invented the concept. But the … Continue reading Pivot and pass
In all of the recent hubbub of coverage amounting from the New York Times' expose of how Amazon works, one aspect I haven't seen much comment on is how all of this comment might actually be in Amazon's interest. The "revelations" shouldn't come as any great surprise to anyone - especially anyone who has read … Continue reading Kate Moss syndrome
My wife’s smartphone went into overdrive last night. Some poor schmuck had managed to send a trivial service request to mailing lists that meant that everyone in the 30,000+ company received a copy. Madness ensued of the thousands of “PLEASE DON’T REPLY TO ALL” replied to all type, interspersed with wry, witty or just downright … Continue reading Chain mail
A chap I met yesterday asked me if I could recommend some sources to help him get his head around "digital". Now whilst I'm sure that whattheheckisdigital.com exists, as an exercise in identifying my own sources of influence it was interesting, because it highlighted how much of my work is synthesising from diverse sources. Here's … Continue reading A digital reading list
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