Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 88
June 17, 2014
7 Useful Lessons From The Corporate Social Media Summit
After two days of conversations about social media with 25 of the world’s largest brands, perhaps the nicest benefit is that you don’t hear the same conclusions or experiences over and over.For the third year in a row, I had the chance to moderate and lead the Corporate Social Media Summit in NY – which brought togetherbrand marketers from Whole Foods, NASCAR, McDonald’s and Century21 to share the same stage.
During the event, more than twenty panel discussions focused on everything from inter...
June 13, 2014
The Best And Worst Of World Cup 2014 Marketing Strategy
There aren’t many people in the world who don’t love a good soccer trick video.
And when the World Cup rolls around, you might expect that there will be lots of them flooding YouTube. So over the past few weeks I have seen everything from a freestyle champion soccer player dressing up as an old man to an unexpected superstar athlete like Usain Bolt turning out to be a surprisingly talented soccer player. But how effective is this advertising strategy of declaring short term love for the world’...
May 29, 2014
How To Sell Like The Hawaiian Beach Boys
There is an original Hawaiian Beach Boy and his name is Ted.
Every day at the Waikiki Beach Boys surf shop on the beach in Oahu, Ted teaches tourists how to surf and sometimes shares a story about the legendary Pink Palace hotel on the beach. Or tells visitors how he first purchased the name of the iconic business all the way back in 1977. Or jokingly complains how it’s sometimes tough to get his team of young tanned beach boys working because they focus a little too much on the beach girls. B...
May 5, 2014
How Bow Ties And “Adverstalking” Might Kill Online Marketing
The worst mistake I ever made online was searching for a bow tie.
In a world where credit card numbers and identities are being stolen en masse, that probably seems pretty innocent. Outside of the occasional danger of credit card fraud, online shopping is usually a fairly safe activity. Unless you happen to be shopping for a bow tie.
Let me explain. Several months ago I searched online for a bow tie to get an idea of design and price. Later that day, I went to purchase one in a store because I...
April 1, 2014
The Selfie Silencer And Other Silly Startup Ideas That You’ll Wish Were Real
The greatest word The Simpsons ever offered to the English language was “craptacular.” When Bart Simpson used it to describe Homer’s Christmas decorations, he introduced a much needed concept for us all: something that was so bad it might actually be good.
Today we are in the age of instant startups, where launching an idea from a garage suddenly seems needlessly spacious. Yet with that ease of creation also comes the occasional silliness. Or perhaps not so occasional. According to Bill Gates,...
March 24, 2014
5 Marketing Lessons From The Alluring #FollowMe Project
About two years ago, aspiring photographer Murad Osmann was in Barcelona on vacation with his girlfriend Russian journalist Nataly Zakharova when she grabbed his hand to pull him forward – annoyed at how often he kept stopping to take photos. He captured that moment from his perspective, and it started a project where he spent the next two years capturing the same pose in dozens of pictures from around the world. Nearly every photo features Osmann holding his girlfriend’s hand, while she pull...
March 18, 2014
How Cat Videos Are Killing Your Credibility
Real experts don’t talk about cat videos.
There is a strangely troubling trend I have come across recently that seems to be once again afflicting presentations at business events around the world. It comes down to the ubiquitous cat video – and its closely related cousin, the animated cat GIF. Don’t get me wrong. I like a cute kitten as much as the next guy. But there’s a problem with this feline frenzy.
Cat videos are a backward looking cliche about the insignificance of the web whose time has...
March 10, 2014
And The Best Marketing Strategy At SXSW Is … Kindness
As the three hour party RSVP line outside an Austin bar stretches around the corner, no one wonders why a surprising number of people seem to be wearing red clown noses. To my right, a guy walks towards me with a light up disco ball covering his head. He passes nonchalantly by a woman dressed in medieval armour wearing a helmet with two foot horns. Standing beside them is a gentleman holding a yellow sign declaring his availability as a real estate agent for anyone considering moving to Austi...
February 23, 2014
The Best And Worst Of 2014 Sochi Olympics Marketing Strategy
Just mention “Olympic Marketing” to anyone in communications and two images will likely come to mind immediately. The first is the predictable 30 second spot focusing on the dedicated Olympian who wakes up super early, braves crazy cold temperatures and sacrifices a “normal” life for their dream. And the second is an army of lawyers ready to threaten any brand that dares mention anything about the Olympics or anything that resembles multiple concentric circles in proximity to one another with...
February 20, 2014
Why Most Trends Don’t Matter (And 15 New 2014 Trends That Do!)
If you believe the typical trend declarations for 2014 – this is going to be the year of big data, wearable devices, and ubiquitous tablets. These are the facts we have heard over the past two months presented as big insights for the coming year. There are only a few problems with these so called trends, and others like them:
Problem 1: NO OBJECTIVITY – If you sell hammers, declaring 2014 the “year of hammers” isn’t just self serving, it’s probably plain wrong. Great trends should take an unbi...
