Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 226

Sometimes Data Is Just Data

So, how is all of that data working out for you?

There have been two stories in the news that have truly captured my attention (and a lot of thought) over the past few weeks. The first one, is how upset some people were with Facebook's ability to choose their best pictures of the year, how it went south and why it led many people to question a brand's ability to use data to be a better marketer (you can read more about that here: Facebook Doesn't Get Small Data Right (And You're Worried About Big Data?). Then - only a few weeks later - a news item gets published on Quartztitled, Facebook data know you better than your own mother that states:

"a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University... [states that] By harvesting Facebook 'Likes,' the researchers' computer model proved more accurate at divining a person's self-reported personality traits than their own kith and kin."

Computers understand people better than people.

Let's stop right here. Let's now forget the above two (and highly divergent) issues happening in the same place. Which brands do you know that have used data to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time? Not only that, but which brands have done that coupled with an engine of marketing that has leveraged those results to make their marketing cost less and be more effective? Ultimately, that is the dream and true promise of data, right? The more a brand knows, the more efficient it can be in delivering a message to a consumer and, in effect, this should stop the waste, drive down their cost per acquisition, and create efficiencies against future campaign efforts. How? Because they're learning and getting better at delivering these messages. OK, so before you go naming brands that have done this, I am not asking for examples at the campaign level, I'm asking about the entire marketing department... meaning, this is now how they operate. Which brands are truly data-driven to excellence?

Got names?

This is the true issue of marketing. In the past year, I can't think of one example where an advertising campaign has succeeded well beyond a brand's expectations that was driven by data - and this includes winning awards for creativity. It seems to me, that we have a "tale of two cities." Once again. On one hand, brands are celebrating breakthrough creative. On the other hand, we have chief marketing officers who are constantly in the media banging the drum of data - both big and small - as the future (and the present) of their marketing, but their in-market work has no connection to this depth of data. How come we don't see it? Why don't we have any clear examples of breakthrough creative and campaigns that have been entirely based off of data, defined by this data, and even optimized by this data? It feels like we are doing a lot of talking, but not a lot of doing. Is split a/b testing the only real application, because that has been happening since long before analytics have been in the picture? This is upsetting. If Facebook knows more about me then my mother, how is it, that a simple task, like finding pictures that I've taken over the past year, can create such a mess? I'm not picking on Facebook. I love Facebook. What I am asking, is that we - as a professional group of marketers - finally decide what we really want to have happen here. If we want marketing to propel forward, and to be driven by data - which is what most marketers are saying - why don't we have any real tangible examples of how this actually works, and what it is doing to drive economic value to the brand?

Someone must be doing it.

I get that a lot. Do you think that this is all a mystery? Marketers will tell me that they are doing so much with data... and that it's all very exciting. They're leveraging the data, and building all of their campaigns with it. This strategy is the secret sauce, and this is the stuff that they don't want to talk about. This is their new secret weapon. Do you believe them? How is this industry going to move forward? The data is telling us everything. The data knows more about consumers than we could ever know. Still, we are all sitting in rooms trying to figure out what types of campaigns to run, who the target market is, and what we're trying to say to them. Are creative briefs created with the data? Is data mostly used to track and optimize after the campaigns and initiatives are created? It feels - and I could be wrong - like marketers are getting this talk about data all wrong.

Creative Data.

Data is useless unless we know what to with it (nothing new there). Do the creatives truly understand what data is being collected, how it can be used and what the brand is really trying to do? We romanticize a lot about data. Most marketers will tell you that they are "data-driven"... again how? It's time that we bring these campaigns forward. It's time that brands step up. It's time for us to demonstrate, by how much it moved the needle AND how creative it was, in execution. Those two worlds need to live together. What an incredible opportunity this truly is. Data used to be something that marketers (mostly) used after everything was done, to better understand what happened.

The biggest challenge marketers face today isn't using the data, it's in moving to the front of the line.

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Native Video Platforms Explode In Popularity... And Twitter's Next.

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

I started a new podcast. It's like my Six Pixels of Separation Podcast (meaning... long form/conversation style), but this isn't with business leaders... it's with bass players. It will be a monthly/bi-montly show. I'm doing it for No Treble, which is the largest site for bass players. The show is called Groove - The No Treble Podcast. Episode #1 launched last week. My first guest was Robert Trujillo from Metallica. It wound up getting a ton of attention in the rock community, because he spoke a lot about working on new music with Metallica.
The world of online video is about to get more fragmented and interesting. It used to be that you would post a video on YouTube (or Vimeo) and then post a link to that video on places like Facebook and Twitter. Last year, Facebook got super-aggressive in rolling out their own, native, video platform (and results have been astoundingly good). Now, Twitter announced that they, too, will soon be launching their own video platform. 
It was CES last week in Las Vegas. The Consumer Electronics Show, is the largest gathering of what's going to be what in the world of technology and gadgets. While most wait to hear what Apple will do next now, everything else "notable" is typically launched at CES. So, what made the headlines this year?
We often talk about how annoyed we are with the whole selfie thing, but we can't stop (I'm looking at you, Heather B.!! ;). What do you make of the "selfie stick" device? It was huge at this past week's CES, but are we now really pushing narcissism to a whole new level or is it, actually, a very inventive and creative accessory for the online world?  
App of the week: ANA Takeoff Mode  - for those who are afraid of flying. 

Listen here...

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The Internet Is Not The Answer

Episode #444 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

On Monday, January 26th, 2015 in Toronto, I will be taking part in a live public debate with Andrew Keen abut the value and merits of the Internet. The event will be moderated by GigaOm's Mathew Ingram and will act as a kickoff to this year's Advertising Week. It's strange to call this a debate, as there are many concepts that Andrew presents in his latest book, The Internet Is Not The Answer, that are important issues we all need to think about, and be prepared for. Still, Andrew believes that the Internet has actually created "an increasingly fragmented society, a digital echo chamber, in which people are more and more isolated from anyone, particularly those with different opinions and beliefs." I am much more bullish and hopeful as to what it is... and what it is becoming. Keen has long been a smart contrarian when it comes the over-exuberance that some people have for the Internet (I'm one of those excitable types). His books, The Cult Of The Amateur, Digital Vertigo, and now, The Internet Is Not The Answer have earned him the title, "the Anti-Christ of Silicon Valley." It's a title that he feels comfortable with, so long as his thinking challenges what we think we know about technology, and whether it ultimately is good for us, as a society. 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 - The Twist Image Podcast #444.

Apologies for my intro in this episode, I think there was a recording issue with my mic. It will be resolved for next week.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #238

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 (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) 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:

The Dominant Life Form in the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots - Motherboard . "Watching Star Wars decades after its release, it always bugged me that there were humans in the spaceships. I mean, put a pilot--even a Jedi--in an X-wing, and you need costly life support; you need windows; and it can't corner very well without squishing the passenger to a pulp. If every smart civilization makes sentient AI a couple of centuries after it invents the radio--and can then design purpose-built machines without the constraints of flesh--the universe is probably full of smart robots. So why haven't we seen them? 'You don't spend a whole lot of time hanging out reading books with your goldfish. On the other hand, you don't really want to kill the goldfish, either, says Seth Shostak. But as one astute commenter observed, 'Maybe not, but one thing you surely do to that goldfish is capture it, remove it from its natural habitat, and most importantly of all - isolate it completely from other species except those already in your menagerie. Maybe that's why we haven't made definitive contact yet - we're in a fishbowl and lack the level of awareness to realize it.'" (Alistair for Hugh).
What The World Values, In One Chart - Vox . "I've always found what makes us the same as interesting as what makes us different. The Lewis Model of cultural types is a great example of how cultures exist on a spectrum, and why certain cultures tend to clash. So the World Values Survey, which tries to map how human values differ around the world, is a pretty daunting undertaking." (Alistair for Mitch).
The Peripheral by William Gibson - A Glorious Ride Into The Future - The Guardian . "Mitch just sent me a note to remind me to send over my weekly links and I realized, I got nothing. Part of that is because I have been consumed by William Gibson's new novel, The Peripheral, the past few days. In broad strokes, it's the story of some semi-pro gamers in about 2025 (I think), who get hired to do some gaming, only it turns out the game isn't a game, but the future, some 70 years later. I was so confused by the beginning of the book that, at about chapter 50, I started alternating between the beginning of the book, and the second half -- so reading: chapter 1, then chapter 51, chapter 2, then chapter 52... etc." (Hugh for Alistair).
Clockwork City, Responsive City, Predictive City and Adjacent Incumbents - City Of Sound . "And, here is Dan Hill on the predictive/responsive city." (Hugh for Mitch).
Block Chain 2.0: The Renaissance of Money - Wired . "I've been spending a lot of time trying to understand Block Chain. I don't think that I totally 'get it,' but this article helped me, in a big way. As a marketing professional, I am often asked 'what's next?'... something tells me that Block Chain is much bigger than just Bitcoin, and that it could provide a very substantial clue as to what comes after the Internet, websites and e-commerce." (Mitch for Alistair).
Why You Do Your Best Thinking In The Shower: Creativity & the "Incubation Period" - Open Culture . "I feel like a walking cliche, because I have had many a-ha moments while in the shower. In fact, if I'm dealing with pain or not allowing my mind to wander as I clean up in the morning, I find that I don't have a productive day. Is there any science or reasoning behind this? Would I have more ideas if I ramped up to two showers a day? I'm sure the skincare companies would love that!" (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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amazon

bitcoin

bitcurrent

bitnorth

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book a futurists manifesto

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human 20

iambik

lean analytics

librivox

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managing bandwidth

motherboard

open culture

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seth shostak

social media

solve for interesting

star wars

the guardian

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the peripheral

vox

william gibson

wired

world values survey

year one labs

Go Ahead And Make A Ruckus

You will find the most amazing things on YouTube.

How was your build-up to 2015? Have you stumbled or stuck to your goals? Is your year starting off strong or are you struggling? 2014 was a strange year. Going through the past twelve months, I had countless encounters with people - just like you - in various cities all over the world. Maybe, we all just want to present a happy and positive story when we see each other in person. I heard nothing but how great 2014 was from both a business and personal growth point of view. Then, as the year came to a close, I started noticing another trend: a lot of people on Facebook were basically saying, "see ya 2014... don't let the door hit you on the way out." I'm not sure what happened in between meeting these people and the end of the year, but things did change. Personally, I had a very challenging 2014. The highs were extremely high. The lows were extremely low. In short, it was quite the year, and it was filled with a lot of dramatic change. Beyond picking my three words for 2015, I like to prime the year by watching, reading and listening to as much motivational and smart thinking as possible. One of the best ways of doing this (in my humble opinion), is to choose someone you love and respect and do a search for them on YouTube. Don't stop there. Once you've done the search, hit the "filter" button under the search bar and then sort by upload date. Now, you will be able to see everything from these people in chronological order (from most recent to oldest). This is exactly how I found this question and answer segment with Seth Godin from the 99u conference. It's called, Keep Making A Ruckus, and it fired me up.

I hope this fires you up as well... 

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A New Podcast (From Me)... It's Not What You Think

"So, who are you and what do you do?"

For nearly a decade, I have started every single episode of my podcast, Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast, that way. There have been close to 450 weekly episodes published online. It's a business podcast, but it's not really a business podcast. Over the years, it has changed and morphed. It has become a conversation. A real conversation. The idea for the show was to take and corner business thinkers who inspire or provoke me, and to have a chat with them. To crack the walnut. To dig deep. Like one of those intense conversations you have with a close friend at a cafe. I'm not sure how many people listen, download or stream the show, because the creation of it is truly a selfish act. I want to learn. I want to grow (if you want to better understand how I see podcasting in relation to radio and other audio media, please read this: What My Podcast Is Not). Long before everyone got all excited about Serial, I have never wavered on my love for podcasting.

That's why I am going to do it again... but different.

I was having coffee in NYC last year with Seth Godin. It was a social meeting, but I wanted to ask him about other outlets (beyond writing, publishing, speaking and projects) that he finds useful to stay sharp and creative. I was telling him how I was finding joy in rekindling my relationship with the electric bass. My first bass was a Fender Precision bass, when I was in high school. It was sunburst. It was second-hand. It was a fake Fender. The previous owner had ripped out the frets. I had no idea why anybody would do that, but it was all that I could afford, so that's what I learned to play on. Now, that all makes sense... the previous owner was trying to replica the bass of Jaco Pastorious. I am no Jaco. In fact, I just fiddle around with the bass, but I do get real joy from what others can create with the instrument. And, while I studied the electric bass in college as a music major, my real professional interests dragged me further away from bass playing. As I told Seth about my newfound passion for the bass, he told me that the founder of No Treble (one of the largest online publications for bass players) is Corey Brown, who also happens to be the co-founder of Squidoo with Seth. I knew/followed No Treble and Corey, so you can imagine the spinning in my brain as this story unfolded.

So... yeah... another podcast.

Introductions were made, and I came to realize that it would be fun to take the long-form style of the Six Pixels podcast, and do something with bass players. Most of the content about bass playing revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. To me, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. This is what I wanted to capture. To create an oral history of why these artists chose the bass, and what their creative lives are like. I quickly learned from Corey and Managing Editor, Kevin Johnson, that bass players are a tight community. With that, welcome to Groove - The No Treble Podcast. Right now, we're going to publish the show monthly. The first episode went live today, and it's with Robert Trujillo.

Welcome to Groove - The No Treble Podcast.

Robert Trujillo is known to millions of people - all over the world - as Metallica's bass player. Fans of Metallica know Trujillo as the guy who replaced Jason Newsted in 2003. Both Trujillo and Newsted had tough boots to fill after original Metallica bassist, Cliff Burton, was killed in a tour bus accident in 1986. Prior to Metallica, Trujillo rose to rock notoriety as the bass player in Suicidal Tendencies. He then went on to play in Infectious Grooves, for Ozzy Osbourne and has done work with Black Label Society and Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell. As Metallica heads back into the studio to write and record new music, Trujillo has also been hard at work keeping the spirit of Jaco Pastorius alive. Along with being the producer for the soon-to-be-released documentary, Jaco, Trujillo also played an integral role in recovering Jaco's famed instrument, the bass of doom, which he now holds on behalf of the Pastorius family. In this, Trujillo has become both lauded and questioned by the bass playing community. In this first episode of Groove - The No Treble Podcast, we talk about the influence of Jaco in his life, his creativity, his plans for Metallica, and the art of playing the bass. Enjoy the conversation...

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In A World Of Stuntvertising, Taylor Swift Schools Brands

Make them cry.

When speaking to marketers about what kind of advertising works, the answer still remains the same: brands must leave a true impression. How is this done? You have to tug at the consumer's heart, by eliciting a deep and emotion pull from within. Most brands try to do this through laughter (we share and remember the things that make us laugh). Getting consumers to think is much harder (people always want to think, but the stuff that we all find interesting and stimulating - at that level - is a challenge). Getting them to cry can work, but it can be a slippery slope. Crying can also connect a consumer to the emotions of sadness or loss. Getting a consumer to cry out of happiness is a tall order. In the past year, we have seen a sharp rise in brands creating viral videos (also known as stuntvertising) where they help people in need, or randomly surprise your average human being (mostly those that are less fortunate) by giving them free/great things. They happen mostly around the holiday season (for obvious reasons). The advertising "win" comes in filming the recipients' reactions and sharing them on YouTube with the same narrative format as those Hallmark movies on TV. It tugs at your heartstrings (there must be some dust in my eyes...). When done well, these videos have worked. They have raked in millions upon millions of views on YouTube, while generating an unprecedented amount of earned media through new reports in all of the mass media channels (which gives the story much more lift). Canadian airline, WestJet, nailed this last year with their, WestJet Christmas Miracle (over 40 million views on YouTube), and brands have followed suit - at a relentless pace - to replicate this success. Many media pundits see this as a much more enjoyable format than the standard thirty-second spot fare. Others, find it somewhat exploitation and inauthentic. Either way, this trend reached a frenetic pace as brands raced towards this past year's holiday season. It seemed like everyone was hunting for the next WestJet viral video sensation. Some achieved a semblance of success, others failed to capture the audience's attention. Still, the desire for brands to look good, while giving to those less fortunate became a much bigger trend in advertising.

This is how you do it.

Regardless of your musical preferences, Taylor Swift did something fairly similar to the videos mentioned above, and it's hard to deny how much more powerful the outcomes are.

Watch this: Taylor Swift's Gift Giving of 2014...

She published the video on YouTube this past New Year's Eve. One week ago today, and she's at 14.5 million views and counting. It started off as something that became known as #TayLurking. Every detail of a fan's likes, job, whereabouts were studied intently by Swift, and then she would put a single Santa emoji on some of her fan's social spaces. What happened next, is documented in the video above. For all of the brands wondering why their "viral videos" didn't crack through, there are some tremendously powerful learnable moments from this initiative, that are worth thinking about when it comes to marketing in the social era (as Nilofer Merchant likes to call it):

Fans first. Brands try to make videos like this so that consumers will consider them in the future. Swift's video works, because she is connecting with people who are already fans. They don't want to hear from her... they're dying to hear from her.
Personalize. She took the time to get to know them... personally. Each gift - even the notes/cards - were deeply personal. She just didn't give them all the same flat-screen.
Take the time. Swift spent time. Real time. Real time in her fans' social spaces getting to know them. She chose gifts for them, that she felt would matter... she didn't ask them what they wanted (and she probably ignored fans who were busy listing off the things that they wanted for the holidays). The only way to give something meaningful, is to spend the time getting to know the person, obviously.
I see you. People want to be seen. They want to know that they matter. The people who received gifts were surprised not only by the gifts, but by the acknowledgement that Swift knows them by name. You could tell, that having Swift know their names was worth more than the gifts. Know your customers.
Be thankful. Swift demonstrated the power of "thank you" coupled with care. It wasn't just a handshake, autograph and selfie moment, where the celebrity looks like they're being pulled through a conveyer belt into a blur. The video is authentic, because Swift is authentic in being thankful to those that appreciate her work. She took these moments to not only thank them for being fans, but to be thankful for having fans. How many brands have ever done that last part?
Be real. There has been many media reporting about how "manufactured" Swift actually is. If this is the case, she is a very good actor... and she fooled me (and others). This video was a real moment. And, even if it wasn't, I'm sure it felt very real to her fans. The point is this: you can't fake being real (and, if you can, good on you for being skilled enough to pull it off).
Regular people. It doesn't always have to be someone in need (but don't forget about those people, either). This wasn't about every fan that is also a pity case. She chose regular fans. People who are working hard to get by. The people we all like to be around. It wasn't about a sob story and a moment to exploit it. It was about the people in her community.

There are probably many more lessons that you have come up with, so... what are they?

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youtube

The Upcoming Consumer (Looks Nothing Like The Consumer We Knew)

The consumer is changing.

This used to be a platitude. Correction. It's a marketing parlour trick to say that "the consumer has changed." It's a parlour trick, because the more professional marketers say this, the more latitude they may be given to try new, untested and unknown things. It's also used to then beg forgiveness for any misgivings that may have occurred in the execution of an advertising campaign... and there are always some of those. One could argue that technology has changed the consumer forever. You need look no further than the power of consumer reviews to tell a different brand narrative or e-commerce as an engine that allows consumers to "shop the brand" in a twenty-four hour cycle. There is no arguing that social media has created a much more "connected" consumer in this day and age, but have consumers really changed all that much? Ultimately, these things just allow consumers to be aware (attention) and purchase something (conversion).

Has social media, big data or marketing automation really changed the consumer?

When I think about what the media landscape might look like in the near-future, my focus has turned away from the engines that create awareness (i.e. what will be the next Twitter). There will always be something new and different that advertisers can use as a place to create attention. While Silicon Valley valuations rip into the multi-billion dollar stratosphere, the only money being made is in taking the mass audience of these platforms and figuring out a way to put a brand message in front of the consumer. Remember, soap operas were originally created to get women (and, maybe, some men) to buy their products. While Facebook may not have been created for that same reason, that is how it now makes the bulk of its fortune. So, when we ask, "what will the future of media be,"* we should look beyond the delivery mechanism of message and focus much more on how consumers behave.

Consumers are behaving very differently.

During the early days of social media's growth in popularity, many media pundits rescinded the definition of a "consumer." The prevailing wisdom was that consumers no longer just consume. Some recommended that we start calling people who buy things, "prosumers," and there were other forms of nomenclature that failed to gain any traction with anyone. If you look at consumer behaviour today, we are beginning to see some startling (and alarming) trends that may, in fact, radically rewrite the role (and definition) of the consumer.

My, how quickly things change...

We went from vinyl records and cassettes to CDs over a period of years. We went from CDs to downloading in a lot less time. Don't blink, because consumers are now slowing back on the downloading, as streaming continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Last April, Bloomberg BusinessWeek ran an article titled, Apple's 10-Year-Old iTunes Loses Ground to Streaming. If you pay attention to the growth and preference of streaming over downloading since April, you will notice something more than its exponential growth: when given the choice, consumers would rather have access to an entire catalogue of music for a monthly fee, over paying for a digital good that resides on their hard drives and takes up space. Suddenly, it's not about consumption and ownership, it's about access. There are no bragging rights of a collection when you stream. There is nothing to brag about when you have access to (almost) everything.

That's not all.

For all of the public woes that Uber is enduring these days, it is a juggernaut of revenue. When this company goes IPO, pay close attention: they actually have significant revenue... and it's growing (rapidly) month over month. Uber is the poster child of what my good friend, Jeremiah Owyang calls, "the collaborative economy." We don't just buy things anymore. We share them... for money. The infrastructure and technology exists for us to loan/rent basically anything. From extra rooms in our homes to our driveway when we're at the office. Apps, websites and businesses are entering the fray at a dizzying pace. With that, we're seeing that consumers are not just about owning things, but sharing them (for something in return).

What this means for media and brands in 2015... and beyond.

Brands are looking at digital channels, because this is where the audience and attention has shifted to. Nothing will change here. Brands are looking at marketing automation technology, to be better optimize their messages and customize it. They're fascinated with this technology, because consumers have become very fragmented and overwhelmed in a world where advertising has shifted from a scarcity model to one of abundance. If brands don't get better at segmenting and customizing their messages, fatigue (and lower sales) will set in. Brands are looking at big data, in the hopes that mining these unique data sets will give them newer consumer segments or insights to create better advertising and engines of conversion. All of this is still reliant on advertising to create attention, no matter how fast the data is pumping in now. Drones, 3D printing, the Internet of Things and every other buzzword popping out of CES this week is a distraction. These are not the imminent new frontiers that brands need to worry about. What brands and the media companies need to really solve for is this: how will marketing look, feel and act in a world where consumers are rapidly realizing that they don't need to own as much as they used to (thank you, streaming), and a world where they can share (and make money) from the things that they buy (thank you, collaborative economy)? All of this means one thing: less and less consumerism, as we have known it to date. It's easy to think that these changes are years away, but don't let the speed of disruption fool you, either. Consumers are probably changing more in this moment, than they ever have before. Right now. Under our noses. We think it's because of social media and e-commerce, but we may, in fact, be fooling ourselves.

How will brands solve this challenge?

Tags:

3d printing

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The Perils Of Binge Watching TV Shows During Vacation (And Getting Back To Reality)

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

This week, Rob Kemp was sitting in for Terry.
The binge-watching danger of being on vacation for too long. My picks were The 100, Gotham, Foo Fighter's Sonic Highways and Homeland.
We have often spoken about the power of what I have called, The Impermanent Web. It's a place where the things people create and share disappears and doesn't leave a trail online. Snapchat being the most popular one of the bunch, at this point. It appears that not everyone was taking the past few weeks off. While we were away on vacation, Snapchat raised an additional round of financing, giving them a $10 billion valuation. Who would have thought that sending images to friends that disappear after they see them could be worth this much. Bubble much?
Should we be tracking everything that kids can do with technology?
In Canada, you can no longer download "illegal" content in the same way we used to. Now, Internet Service Providers may be sending you a notification to stop... or more?
App of the week: Duolingo. How about learning a new language this year?

Listen here...

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Forget ROI. Focus On ROR (Return On Relationship).

Episode #443 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

A lot of people follow Ted Rubin. I'm not just talking about his 250,000-plus followers on Twitter. Over the years, he has spent his fair share of time working with both brands and agencies at the intersection of technology and marketing. If you go back even further, Ted worked with Seth Godin at Yoyodyne (which was acquired by Yahoo back in 1998). Ted has watched the Internet change business from the front lines. Since those early days of watching Seth develop his thinking on permission marketing and beyond, Ted has developed his own deep and rich philosophies on what businesses must do to be competitive. He shores up a lot of his thinking under the banner of, Return On Relationship (also the name of his business book). 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 - The Twist Image Podcast #443.

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