Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 124

Where Should Brands Go Next?

It’s around the corner.

Your future.
Brands wake up.
Brands rise.
Brands find you next new.

You’ve been shut down.
You’ve been locked out.
You’ve been isolated.
You’ve pushed your team to the four corners.
You’re more Zoom than conference room.
Your customers don’t remember you.

It’s not you. It’s them.

They’re too busy looking for toilet paper.
They’re too busy lining up for food.
They’re too busy trying to figure out why next day Prime is now 4-6 weeks away.
They’re too busy trying to WFH.
They’re too busy updating their LinkedIn profile.
They’re now the Vice Principal, the homeroom teacher and the librarian.
They’re too busy being furloughed.

Where should brands go?

Build on what you were faced with when the pandemic came.
Be like the local sushi chef.
The one place where you could never get a seat.
No reservations for the next few months.
Be like the local sushi chef who needed his next now.
They’re now offering pickup (with social distancing).
They’re now offering free delivery.
They’re now offering the ingredients.
They’re now offering the recipe.
They’re now willing to teach you how to make sushi online.
They’re now offering virtual hang outs and sushi chef chats.

They went from product to new services to new products.

They went direct to diners.
They went to online teaching.
They went to subscription models (weekly sashimi, anyone?).
The went from “check us out” to “let us come to you.”
They went from “it’s best here” to “it’s best if you do business with us.”
They went from an open kitchen concept to an online learning platform.
They went from buying tuna at the market to building an entirely new marketplace online.
They went from a waiting list to an email list.
They went from menus to Shopify.

This sushi place just figured out a handful of new business models in the blink of an eye.

This sushi place better embrace, engage and pursue these new business models when the lights come back on.
That’s where your brand should go next.

Your brand should go everywhere.

Because if your brand isn’t everywhere, how will it connect?
This is what consumers are looking for.
This is what humanity is looking for.

Connections.

More connections.
Make connections.
Make your connections count.

I’m counting on you.

I wrote this piece for the Canadian Marketing Association. You can view the original article right here: Where should brands go next? Your brand should go everywhere.

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Digital Advertising’s Moment Forward

Has digital advertising disproved the skeptics? If there’s an advertising contraction, who might survive and thrive?

As little as a few weeks ago, many in the media were talking about the potential collapse of all digital advertising revenue (heightened anxiety about big tech’s power, abuse of data, government regulation, transparency, trust and more). But now we see that Amazon’s ad business is as robust as the rest of its business (up close to 45% and coming in at close to $4 billion for the quarter), Google is posting gains ($33.8 billion this quarter – and YouTube at $4 billion), and Facebook seems largely unaffected (up about 17% with around $18 billion). So, is this just a symptom of the current crisis, or is this another sign that digital has completely taken over the ad world? Understandably this is just the big players (and many adtech/media companies are feeling a lot of pain). Still, this looks like digital advertising’s big moment. The pandemic could hollow out more traditional media outlets. We are seeing a pullback from advertisers and downward pressure on pricing. Advertisers need a place to go (and, we’re not just talking about direct to consumer brands). During times like these, history repeats itself: the ad industry goes into contraction. It will shift and change and lower in the foreseeable future. Still, there’s a bigger story here for those willing to scratch beneath the surface and pay attention: From direct reposes and lead generation to brand storytelling, digital advertising should have its moment shining moment right about now. This, and other current topics (driven by the questions above) were discussed along with Farrah Bostic (The Difference Engine), Erica Braverman (Erica Braverman PR), Rudy Fernandez (Creative Outhouse) and host Bob Knorpp (always a good human) on the very excellent BeanCast Podcast (which I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on in the past). I don’t know what it is about BeanCast, Bob Knorpp and these other panelists, but there is always “something in the water” when we record these conversations that brings out a lot of stimulating ideas and insights (and some friendly disagreements too!).

Are you ready for this deep dive into the world of marketing? Here is: BeanCast #591 – The Little Guys.

For about an hour, we discussed the following topics:

Digital Is Just Fine.
State Taxation of Digital Ads Unviable.
Toilet Paper’s Moment.
Can We Be Funny?

Take a listen and jump into the fray…

Mitch Joel · The BeanCast #591 – The Little Guys

Shopify Powers Small Business, The Economy And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am on air at CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology, digital media and culture. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering on about what’s happening in the digital world. I’m really excited about these weekly hits, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Smart speakers continue to grow and people continue to use voice assistant technology. So, if you had to guess, what is the most popular location for smart speakers? Kitchen? Living room? Home office? Car? Guess again… (source: Voicebot.ai – Yes. The Bedroom is Now the Most Popular Location for Smart Speakers. Here’s Why and What it Means).
Shopify is growing like crazy. The Ottawa-based company (their COO, Harley Finkelstein, is a Montrealer and a close friend) is on a massive winning streak. Want to see what a thriving business looks like during a pandemic? Their stock surged over 65% in April alone. Over 190% since last year. They have a valuation of over $100 billion, and just recently became the second largest company is Canada by market capitalization. The only company that is bigger is RBC (yes, they have a bigger market cap than the other big four banks in Canada). And, they are very close to being number one. Shopify is double the market cap value of eBay. There are over one million merchants who use their ecommerce platform and marketplace to sell, and this results is over $160 billion of commerce every year. They are doing as much commerce every day during this pandemic as they do on a Black Friday. And, all of this is happening in a world where ecommerce is still less than 15% of all commerce. What happens from here? Should we be worried that Shopify is the next Nortel or BlackBerry? I don’t believe so. Last Sunday, I had Harley as a guest (for the first time ever) on my podcast, and the conversation was compelling. (source: Six Pixels of Separation #720 – Harley Finkelstein On Shopify And The Future of Commerce).
App of the Week: Shop – Shopify’s new mobile app – a massive marketplace for entrepreneurs to sell together.

You can also listen in via I Heart Radio.

Mitch Joel · CTRL ALT Delete – CHOM 97.7 FM – May 4th, 2020

Fireside Chat With Henry Mintzberg – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #721 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I’ve known Henry Mintzberg for as long as I can remember. I went to elementary school with his daughter. You don’t really know (or understand) who or what your friend’s parents are at that age. As I transitioned from post-secondary education into the business world, I was quickly exposed to the writing and thinking of Henry. It didn’t take me long to make the connection back to elementary school, but it did take a while for Henry and I to be connected. We first recorded a podcast about five years ago (Six Pixels of Separation #470 – Henry Mintzberg On Management) and became fast friends. Over the past five years, I’ve had the pleasure of attending events with Henry and meeting with him about his current work/thinking. Henry Mintzberg is responsible for much of the management concepts that are in practice today. A true legend. You can’t use those words lightly when it comes to the business world. He is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management (over twenty books). He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, where he has been teaching since 1968. Most know him for his 1989 book, Mintzberg On Management. Mintzberg also runs a business called, CoachingOurselves. Most recently, he published a book called, Rebalancing Society. Henry wants to rethink capitalism and manage us towards a better world. He would also love for you to check out his Declaration of Interdependence. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #721.

SPOS #721 – Fireside Chat With Henry Mintzberg

Welcome to episode #721 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #721 – Host: Mitch Joel. I’ve known Henry Mintzberg for as long as I can remember. I went to elementary school with his daughter. You don’t really know (or understand) who or what your friend’s parents are at that age. As I transitioned from post-secondary education into the business world, I was quickly exposed to the writing and thinking of Henry. It didn’t take me long to make the connection back to elementary school, but it did take a while for Henry and I to be connected. We first recorded a podcast about five years ago (Six Pixels of Separation #470 – Henry Mintzberg On Management) and became fast friends. Over the past five years, I’ve had the pleasure of attending events with Henry and meeting with him about his current work/thinking. Henry Mintzberg is responsible for much of the management concepts that are in practice today. A true legend. You can’t use those words lightly when it comes to the business world. He is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management (over twenty books). He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, where he has been teaching since 1968. Most know him for his 1989 book, Mintzberg On Management. Mintzberg also runs a business called, CoachingOurselves. Most recently, he published a book called, Rebalancing Society. Henry wants to rethink capitalism and manage us towards a better world. He would also love for you to check out his Declaration of Interdependence. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 1:06:20.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
Subscribe over at iTunes.
Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
…or on Twitter.
Here is my conversation with Henry Mintzberg.
Rebalancing Society.
CoachingOurselves.
Declaration of Interdependence.
Mintzberg On Management.
Follow Henry on Twitter.
This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #720 – Host: Mitch Joel.

 

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #514

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki – NHK World Japan . “Since I’m going with Japan this week, here’s a four-part documentary on Miyazaki, the genius behind Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and more. It shows the creative tensions and real challenges of staying true to one’s art, even as it catches the world’s imagination by storm.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Animal Crossing’s fake language is different in Japan, and here’s why – Polygon – YouTube . “Social isolation is manageable, but for my partner, Animal Crossing is escapism. I fall asleep listening to funny murmurations—dubbed animalese—many nights. She has a five star island and a million turnips, which is apparently good. To me, the idea of landing on an island, being handed a tent, told to fend for yourself, and forced to adopt a cryptocurrency sounds more like Fyre Festival than fun, but to each their own. But as I tried to understand what was so engrossing, I learned a lot about the cultural heritage of the game, which is pretty fascinating. This explains part of it.” (Alistair for Mitch). 
Alex Wong And Twitch Hip Hop – YouTube . “One of my isolation joys has been watching So You Think You Can Dance with my daughters. This clip of a ballet dancer slaying a hip hop routine makes me happy.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – Phenom – YouTube . “Zoom music video for the times.” (Hugh for Mitch).
68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice – The Technium . “Kevin Kelly turned 68. The futurist, author, teacher, entrepreneur and deep thinker gave everyone this gift. Usually lists like this are just fluffy and inspiration. This is not that. This is smart. This is needed. This is how to think about living a real life. One of the comments on this post comes from Seth Godin. It reads: ‘The non-linearity of this list is part of its magic. And 100 years from now, when so much of the nonsense of our age is forgotten, people will still remember Kevin Kelly and his wisdom. He’s not from another planet, but he is from the future.’ All true.” (Mitch for Alistair).
Design Matters With Debbie Millman – Ira Glass . “I love every episode of Debbie Millman’s podcast, Design Matters. I tend to fall behind on my podcast listening. Now, I’m woefully behind. So, I just scroll through the shows that I like and cherry-pick the guests that I’m curious about. This episode is from this year, and it was a showstopper. Filled with great anecdotes about telling better stories, asking better questions and much more. You don’t have to love This American Life to get value out of this conversation with Ira Glass. Great episode.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Time Flies

May 1st, 2014.
It feels like yesterday.
It feels like a million miles away.
It was on this date that it was announced.
Twist Image’s year-long journey to WPP.
Myself (along with my three business partners) sold our business.
It wasn’t a year-long journey.
It was fourteen years since the business started.
It was over forty years in the making of my life.
It was time.

The promise.

We were looking for a way to make the business scale.
WPP was the number one player in the marketing and communications space.
We were looking for a way to go global.
We turned Twist Image into Mirum and suddenly the agency was 2500 people in 30 offices (or close to that).
We were looking for a way to expand our services.
By turning Twist Image (our two-office Canadian agency) into Mirum, it happened.
Many other entrepreneurs who had sold to WPP came together to form Mirum.
Unified.
Mirum still marches on today.
Mirum is a part of Wunderman Thompson in WPP.
We gave our baby a good home.
I take pride in that.

The reality.

Often, when you’re not looking to sell a business is the best time to sell a business.
Luck is often needed to have perfect timing.
It’s a business not a human.
So, it was never sad to let “my baby” go.
Stay as long as needed but no longer than wanted.
I stayed on from 2014 until 2018.
It was time for a change.
Not just for me… but for Mirum.
Who you are is more important than what you do.
The real magic of that business was the partnership.
Aubrey, Mark, Mick and Myself.
To this day we are close friends.
We are a true family.
That is the miracle of the business.
How many partnerships survive?
Ours did.
Ours does.
Some of the greatest rock bands in the world don’t make it.
Some of the greatest marriages in the world don’t make it.
We made it.
We made it work.
I’m most proud of that.
And the work.
And the people on the team.
And the ideas that we launched.
And the fact that we were right.

Digital was the future.

What now seems obvious was once a dream of something different.

Today, it’s 6 years later. Two years since leaving.

I write.
I speak.
I podcast.
I invest.
I advise.
I think about what’s next.
I dream about starting up.

Twist Image afforded me that.

Tonight the four of us will raise a glass (via Zoom).
And – like it was for over twelve years – I can’t wait to see them today.

The Rise. The Fall.

Be patient with yourself.

Nothing is fixed right now.
Nothing is normal right now.
Someone recently said that we can’t go back to normal.
Because that “normal” was broken.

So what comes after normal?

New.
New comes after normal.
Different.
Different comes after normal.
You were built for new.
You were built for different.
What if you didn’t think about normal?
What if you thought about what could be new and different?
What would happen?
What might you dream up?

What’s next?

When people ask, “what do you do?”
I help people (leaders, companies, associations, communities) to decode the future.
I have no secret decoder ring.
I am not a Futurist.
I am a Presentist.
I am a Humanist.

I have a notebook.

It’s filled with ideas.
Sources.
Inspiration.
Facts.
Quotes.
Things that don’t exist.
Things that should exist.
Things that do exist that not enough people know about.
People that more people should know about.
Lists of books that I have never read.
Lists of stories that I have never written.
Slides for presentations that I have never presented.
Some days those ideas rise.
Some days those ideas fall.
More fall than rise.

Ideas are not everything.

Execution is everything (the cliche).
These days, it’s hard to get to the execution.
These days, even having ideas feels luxurious.

Ideas are for someone who has the time to focus clearly.

The time to think.
The time to dream.
The time to be positive.
Flicking through Facebook seems easier.
Saving articles to Pocket that I’ll never read seems easier.
Even getting to inbox zero seems easier.
Four mile walks in the woods seem easier.

Everything seems easier than breaching ideas.

Ideas are lost in this dark.
Some days I rise.
Some days I fall.
Some days the idea rises.
Some days the idea falls.
Be patient with yourself.

That’s what I say to myself.

Facebook Goes After Zoom And More On CHOM 97.7 FM

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am on air at CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology, digital media and culture. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering on about what’s happening in the digital world. I’m really excited about these weekly hits, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

Mitch Joel · CTRL ALT Delete – CHOM FM – April 27th, 2020

This week we discussed:

Canada’s Stronger Together special brought together artists, musicians and more last night. It was a great moment… not just for Canada, but for the world.
Is Facebook trying to compete with Zoom? Houseparty? Who knows, but they want in on what everybody is doing these days. Welcome to Rooms. For now, it’s up to 50 friends that you can invite into a video conference with unlimited time. Is this all just another way to keep Facebook users in their domain? 
Maybe the best feature on Facebook is Private Groups? I have a handful, and they provide over 95% of value to my Facebook experience. I don’t think that I would be on Facebook all that much without these private groups. It’s not just Facebook. The Wall Street Journal just published a massive feature, called, From Running and Fiction to Baking and Videogames: Social Networking Goes Niche, on the growth of niche social networks.
App of the Week: Miro – online and free whiteboard platform.

You can also listen in via I Heart Radio.

Harley Finkelstein On Shopify And The Future of Commerce – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #720 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

The official bio of Harley Finkelstein is beyond impressive. In 2009, Harley went from being one of Shopify‘s first merchants (selling t-shirts) to become their Chief Platform Officer. Now, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He is on the board on of the CBC and advisor to Omers Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den – Next Gen Den. He was inducted into the Order of Ottawa in 2016. Shopify is now a beast. What Amazon is to retail, Shopify is to entrepreneurship. To put the magnitude of Shopify into perspective, their stock has shot up over 190% since last year, with over one million merchants using their commerce platform (selling over $160 billion in goods). Even during this pandemic, Shopify’s stock continues to soar (it now has a market cap of over $100 billion – that is double that of eBay‘s, and has the third largest market cap out of all public Canadian companies). The unofficial bio of Harley is a personal one. We have been friends for close to fifteen years, and watching his ascent has been one of the most special moments of my life. I have always wanted to have him as a guest on this show, but didn’t want to bother him with it. Well, we finally made it happen. Shopify, commerce and the future of business. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation #720.