Time is precious. Don’t you agree? For example if I spend to much time here going on about this and that you’re gonna start to think ‘what the heck, get to the point you #%*#’er. So, I’m not gonna spend to much of your time.
Instead. Have a look at these 5 demo videos and think about your own products and services. Are you doing your best to make sure people learn about your product in seconds, not minutes? (Also – one of the guys below is sort of a superstar of demo videos. When will we have some of that in Sweden?)
First up – The tour of music service SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a platform that takes the hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.
I love how the speaker voice starts up by clearly letting you know that you’ll spend 3 minutes learning about their service. And while she does so you also get visual guidance what it’s all about. On top of that it’s graphically beautiful with a creative twist.
Second example – Square
The idea behind Square is simple. Accept payments by credit cards everywhere by only using a mobile device and a card reader.
This is my personal favorite right now when it comes to demo videos. Clean, smooth, creative yet extremely rational. Watch closely as Adam Lisagor aka @lonelysandwich, the superstar of demo videos show you [click to continue…]
Yesterday I got back from a fantastic weekend spent on the island of Tjärö, Sweden. Together with another 400 people I took part in something called the Sweden Social Web Camp (SSWC 2010).
This morning Swedish TV channel TV4 broadcasted a report made by Lisah Pettersson aka @JournalistLisah featuring a short comment by me.
Part from sharing knowledge the SSWC is also about party. And late the first night I found myself in the bar with my good friend Mattias Östmar. We both spoke about what makes you change things in your life and how you can make that happen. As we chatted away I mention I’d always wanted to jump of a high cliff [click to continue…]
För nästan precis ett år sedan blev jag intervjuad av Göran Adlén, god vän och populär föreläsare. Ämnet då var digitala och sociala medier och hur framtiden såg ut. Sedan dess har jag varit ständig (nästan alla fall) gäst i TrendTV och fått friheten att uttala mig och lite vad jag vill.
Nu var det dags igen. Förra veckan när fröken Sol bjöd på ett strålande humör bjöd jag över Göran och TrendTV’s producent, filmare och editör Robin Danehavtillika uppskattad personlig samarbetspartner på grillkväll hemma i Täby. När vi smörjt kråset och dukat av bordet var det så dags att till viss dela svara upp mot förra årets sägningar samt dela med mig av mina tankar om framtiden.
Här har du 33 minuter samtal mellan Johan Ronnestam och Göran Adlén om framtidens kommunikation:
(For you English readers. Sorry, this is only available in Swedish. But feel free to come by for an interview of your own)
I am pretty darn proud to announce that I’ve been picked as a member on the jury of the first international social media award show for communication and marketing professionals. The award show called The Bees Award will be held in San Francisco on November 9 later this year and it’s open for submissions as of today.
The Bees Award have gathered some of the leading social media experts from around the world to judge this award and I’m honored to be included in that list. Apart from the honor it’s also a great opportunity for me to scan some of the best case studies in the world when it comes to social media. I’m sure once the 9th of november has passed I’ll be packed with inspiration to share with you guys.
This new buzzing contest will award winners in the following categories:
Best 140 Characters (SMS, Tweet)
Best Use of a Micro-Blogging Platform
Best Use of a Social Media Platform
Best Use of mobile
Best Relationship With Bloggers
Best Conversation with Customers
Best Use of Alternative Tool(s)
Best Use of Media Press Room
Best Writing
Best Art Direction
Best Social CRM
Best Student Work
Best Innovation
Best Campaign
Agency of the Year
Client of the Year
And besides me, here’s the jury and their twitter accounts and blogs:
Challenge the establishment. That’s what you should do if you’re young and don’t really have to care about being fired. (Actually that’s what you always should do!) That’s exactly what the students over at Berghs School of Communication have done this year once again.
Their contribution to an often shallow advertising world is driving sustainability. They’ve decided to make their entire final exhibition about sustainability, they’ve established a prize that award sustainable communication and they’ve also just launched their campaign site that promotes their final exhibition – A Sustainable Plan.
About a month ago I got the question if I could share my point of view [click to continue…]
There’s a couple of things I demand from brands that make it all the way into my life. It’s really not that hard. It’s just about being prepared to sacrifice your life for what you believe in!
A Tweaked Moses with the Ten Commandments by Philippe de Champaigne 1648 from Freechristimages
Here are the 10 commandments of future brands
1. State a higher cause.
People follow brands just like we follow other people. State your mission and you will have people following you. The higher the cause the higher the prize. We will buy your products and services but now we’re in it for something else. Something that will last. This way you’ll ensure we’ll get through the good times and the bad.
2. Impress us with your miracles.
Me and most people grow tired quickly. Constantly surprise us without loosing your soul. In every relationship it’s about surprising people while staying true to your cause, your soul. The same goes for brands. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll gain from innovation. As long as you remain the same old brand you can expect loyalty from us.
3. Bring a smile to our faces every time we meet.
Someone once said “Smiling is good for you” and I can’t do anything but agree. A smile is the gift of gods, never forget that!
4. Tell us stories.
We’re still the same old half monkeys that used to sit by the camp fire and tell stories. It’s in our blood. Start telling them to us and we’ll move into a state of hypnosis. Once we wake up it’s to late – we’re hooked.
And remember! We’re living in the viral times. Whatever kinda shit you put together. Make sure it got wings. If I wanna show you of to my friends. Equip me with a rocket, some gas and a box of matches. I’ll put the whole universe on fire for you if you let me.
5. Wearing your mark of excellence is our badge of identification.
You might think you’re taking risks while developing your product and services. But hey! Think about us. We might be wearing those pants of yours in front of our friends. I might be taking my girl out for a date in the car you’re making. You better make people go wow when they see us!
6. Be true to your heritage – and if you haven’t got any, start building.
10% of what I’m paying for is your product or service. 90% of it is authenticity. Where do you come from. What gives you the right to do what you do.
7. Treat every possible interaction with us as your last chance to impress us.
There’s simply no reason not to treat every single interaction point as extremely important. What does it all do and how does it support your brand. Every pen. Every business card. Every phone. Every print ad. Every website. Every invoice. Every press release. Every board member. Every TVC. Every event. Every point of sale interaction. Every form. Every coffee machine. Every sales person. EVERYTHING matters!
8. Don’t copy others – build your own religion.
I sort of like cats even though I spit three times when I see a black one crossing the roads. But I fuck’n hate copycats. People love people taking risks. Sometimes you will fall down hard. But falling down teaches you how to avoid falling down again. Never falling down won’t teach you anything! Earning followers is about making sacrifices.
9. Be passionate about what you do.
I wouldn’t expect anything else from someone I love. Would you?
10. Save the world as we know it!
Sustainability. It’s just something we all will expect from strong brands and leaders. Sooner than later.
Today when you market a product and actually manage to make an impact the first thing that happens is that people go online, not to your brand site but to Google.
Have you Googlified your brand and business?
A search on your product or service reveals everything there is to be found related to that brand of yours. You might think they’ll head over to one of your campaign sites but think again. People who search [click to continue…]
Every now and then when I spend time online I find things that make me shiver cause they’re so freakin cool. Today I found an open source project that matches that description and I’d like to share it with you. It regards an organization called Ushahidi and their kick ass crowdsourcing platform.
Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, was initially a website developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi’s roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. Since then Ushahidi have grown from an ad hoc group of volunteers to a focused organization.
Crime reporting in Haiti with the Ushahidi platform
Now the platform is available as an Open Source platform and it kicks ass. It’s among the coolest mashup platforms I’ve seen. Since launch the Ushahidi collaboration platform has been used to collaborate on crime tracking in Atlanta, , wildlife tracking in Africa, monotoring of voting in Mexico, mapping the crisis in Haiti and even cleaning up after the Snowmageddon in Washington and a lot more. The platform lets you contribute via mail, Twitter, SMS and online reporting.
You might have read the book Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. If not the short story is basically that Clay writes on how internet fundamentally changes the way we communicate due to the fact that this world wide web thing creates a never ever seen platform that enables people to create, share and consume information at a close to no cost. The Ushahidi platform is more or less rocket fuel for the ideas Clay is bringing forward in his book.
What do you wanna mashup? Head over to Ushahidi and get going!
Think social media and conversational marketing might be the next train to heaven for your brand but don’t know where to board? Well, here’s three social media marketing models that will make sure you’ll find your station. If you wanna get moving into the social country of love where conversation rules you’ve gotta get one [...]
I am a Swede. We’re not supposed to say we’re good at something. In fact even when others say we’re good we’re not supposed to say that either. We even have a name for it – ‘Jantelagen‘. But I’m not like other Swedes and on top of that I’m pretty darn proud about the fact [...]
Those are the words said by Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President World Wide Product Marketing over at Apple when speaking about the new Apple iPad. It pretty much sums up what I thing after having followed the keynote given by Steve Jobs today. The new iPad is a game-changer and I need one now! (you [...]
I spent far to much of my youth riding my snowboard, so getting me into MIT would probably involve both bribes and plastic surgery. But if I had, the MIT Media Lab is for sure the place to be if you wanna tap into the future for real. Hidden in room 320 you’ll find Pattie [...]
ronnestam.com was voted Sweden’s first blog on Innovation, future trends and digital communication. It’s written by Johan Ronnestam. He's widely regarded as one of Sweden’s leading speakers and authorities in the field of modern creative and conceptual thinking and skill of innovating brands and their communication.
