Inspired by Swedish blogger Fredrik Wass who stated that he will blog for a 100 days in a row I felt I had to get my blog going again. So here we go!

Photographed by Paulina while forecasting trends at the Creative Summit together with among others Brian Solis and Alf Rehn.

In 2011 I was honored to be selected as the keynote speaker for events all over Europe. I delivered more than 80 keynotes on entrepreneurship, creative ideas, future branding, communication and business development, some of them shared here on Slideshare. In more than 90% of the occasions I was given the highest ranking of all the speakers by the audience. Hell, I even spoke for 24 hours in a row without any sleep. In other words – I’m confident I have some thoughts to share on how to deliver a great keynote presentation.

Here are 15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation.

1. Before even getting on stage – make sure you’ve got your logos, pathos and ethos wired.

What you speak about is 50% of your keynote, but the way you look and sound giving that keynote is the other 50%. The worlds first branding expert Aristotles knew how to make people buy what he sold. He divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories; Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

- Ethos: the source’s credibility, the speaker’s/author’s authority

My credibility when I’m speaking is of course a mix of how I look, my credentials and the way I bring my message forward on stage. A common mistake I see over and over again is when speakers enter the stage and then go; “Before I speak, let me tell you about who I am and the company I’m representing.” This is more or less totally unnecessary since you’re there for a reason. If you do your thing right people will understand that you know your shit. After all, someone invited you so the people in front of you in the crowd will surely expect you to deliver. Remember that no one knows what you will say before you say it so don’t be to hard on yourself if you forget something you were supposed to say!

Who would you listen to if you were a banker? Who would you listen to if you were an Art Director?

An important thing though is to avoid making people angry (if that’s now what your assignment is) by dressing totally wrong, swearing or making fun of things that matter to the people in the room. A certain amount of selling should always be taken into account even if it requires you to dress up differently than you’re used to.

- Logos: the logic used to support a claim (induction and deduction); can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument.

When it comes to logos there’s different ways to handle this. Reliable statistics, famous quotes, facts and but also your own observations. However if you only bring up a observation as a proof of your theory you’ll tend to make people feel unsure about your whole presentaiton. But if you make sure to find patterns in historical information and present them in an understandable way you’re usually home free.

In 2007 I spoke about how Facebook would be the worlds most trafficked site with the help of this technical analysis of site traffic.

After all – if you are giving a keynote about future trends or an idea the world have never seen you will have to present logics that support your claims. The history if often your best friend when speaking about things in the future.

- Pathos: the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language and numerous sensory details.

Mirror mirror on the wall! Yes it’s actually true. The more you rehearse the better you get. Use your face, eyes, arms, voice and your whole body. Once you’ve got it wired get out there and rock the party!

2. If you don’t know the subject – don’t speak at all.

The worst presentations I’ve ever given over the years are the ones where I didn’t really master the subject. Avoid moments like that. Of course that shouldn’t keep you from challenging yourselves every now and then. But don’t choose the big arenas for those crying games.

3. Ask what your contractor want

I’ve learned that no one knows your audience better than your contractor. Therefor it’s key that you ask what they want to achieve with your keynote. Make people happy? Make people angry? Make people scared or give people hope. Still I don’t want to much information. It’s important that the contractor doesn’t shape my presentation After all, I am the professional. My solution is the five bullet point rule. Before every presentation I’m expected to give I ask my contractor to send me five short bullets that explains who I’m speaking in front, what they want them to learn, how they want the audience to feel once I’m done and what the goal with the event is.

4. Sell one thing!

This is an easy one so I’ll keep it short – If you’re selling fish don’t make up stories about dead meat. Make sure people understans that know one knows big fish as you do!

5. Drop the corporate bullshit

If you’re representing your company and is expeted to sell something then make sure you share your knowledge and people will ask you in the end what you sell. Nothing sells as competence. Trust people to contact you if they thought you knew what you were talking about.  If you’re on stage purely focused on selling no one will listen to what you’re actually selling.

6. Drop the bullets.

Sometimes the best solution is to make fun of the worst.

No one wants you to read bullets from corporate slides. We’ve all been there. Stuck in the middle of an audience listening to some boring odd character looking not on us but instead on his own presentation and reading those bullets like dead people read poems…not good. Please stop giving keynotes if you don’t know how to sell your shit! Tons of corporate CEO’s are really good at this. They’re sent off to a stage somewhere in never-never-land expected to deliver a keynote with a deck of slides in their hands prepared by a assistent somewhere. I hate CEO’s speaking of shit they don’t know shit about. What’s up with that?

7. Drop the corporate fonts

Every slide in your deck should be there for a reason!

There’s nothing as boring as a presentation with one headline font and then another one for the rest. You’re on stage to inspire people, teach them something and especially keep them awake. No two slides should be the same.

8. Tell stories from your own life.

Preparing a keynote and a story about how my snowboard career ended.

Nothing brings life to a presentation like your own life. True stories that are coming from your own life are the best. People have never heard them before, they’re authentic and people out of some reason always count them as real stories. Of course, if you end up telling stories about Marsians and shit like that people will probably not belive you.

9. You’ve also got ‘black’ slides in your deck!

This is your most valuable slide!

In the world of photoshop, keynote, powerpoint and prezis maybe the most valuable color of them all – black – is often forgotten. If you’ve got something to say that you really really really want people to listen to. Place a black slide in the middle of the deck and let those words out without distraction. If you’re doing it right you’ll have your audience spellbound.

10. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse some more.

This is one of the things I’m really bad at. But every time I’ve done a presentation that I’m really proud of I’ve almost rehearsed it. I even rehearse presentations that I know by heart already. You can never rehearse enough!

11. It’s your stage. Then make sure it fits your needs.

One of the key factors to delivering a great keynote is the actuall stage. Far to many times have I entered a stage that didn’t match the venue. Maybe the stage was to big compared to how many people visited the event or vice versa. Every now and then someone has placed a wide table between you and the audience – remove it. If people take their places far back in the room – leave the stage and get closer to them. The last thing you want is an audience that thinks your on stage acting superior and distant.

12. One minute before entering the stage

An audience in Zagreb minutes before I’m entering the stage.

Ok, so you’re all done and prepared to give the speech of your life. Remember those five bullet points I wrote about. Now it’s time to get into presentation mode. When I’m waiting to enter the stage I think about these five bullets. The most important one however is how did my contractor want people to feel once I’m done. If they wanted me to make people happy I’m smiling like a dumbass those last 60 seconds. I they wanted me to provoke the audience I’m getting myself psyched up and angry. If they wanted me to make people feel enlightened I’m getting ready to enlighten people. And then I do my best to keep that feeling alive all through the presentation.

13. If something goes wrong – restart yourselves.

Once you’re up there doing your best you will experience moments of dispair. You might see someone in the audience looking bored, someone looks tired or maybe you’ll get an angry comment. Now is the time to seek your inner strenght. Think back to that presentation mode you were supposed to deliver upon. Take a breath, pause, make people wait and then restart. You’ll notice that this will get you back on track!

14. Never lose track of time.

Make sure you prepare your presenter display right.

Rule number one of all presentations. If you’ve got 20 minutes it’s 20 minutes. Not less and definitely not more. If you’re using Apple Keynote you should make sure to set up your second screen with timer and a clock. Another good idea can be to download an app that Per Axbom told me about. It’s called Timer for iPhone and let’s you set up sections to keep track of time. It’s a great help!

15. Shine!

Now it’s up to you! Rock on!

I’m currently working on my 2011 brand and communication prediction. While I’m working on that I drew up one of the best models I know when it comes to predicting future trends. Enjoy!

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.

Days before 2009 ended I announced the release of my first book or whatever you wanna call it. As I did so I tweeted that the first 50 people who would retweet the message would be sent a free signed copy of the book anywhere in Sweden*.

Now the book have been delivered and I’m ready to send it to you guys. And you who didn’t get one for free can of course order one by following the instructions in the blog post that announced the book.

Here are the 50 winners of ‘Top 10 Blog Posts On Future Branding and Communication from Ronnestam With Love’

1. @strandell
2. @ullemon
3. @carlansnygg
4. @juliasebesteny
5. @stroemberg
6. @SL_AB
7. @byBalsam
8. @axbom
9. @frejansson
10. @chribbe
11. @gimleteyes
12. @perake
13. @BritStakston
14. @tuomaz
15. @eriklindebratt
16. @beantin
17. @robinwestergren
18. @kajsahartig
19. @lyceum
20. @carlstr
21. @viralmediapro
22. @deeped
23. @michaelericsson
24. @aahlenius
25. @jontte
26. @elwirakotowska
27. @wolrath
28. @skagervik
29. @lavergren
30. @fredriksjostrom
31. @trendspanaren
32. @bygdestam
33. @stefanronge
34. @leadnetdog
35. @johanbryggare
36. @MrPerOlsson
37. @KennethEriksson
38. @DangerousDolly
39. @sodamncorporate
40. @edwertz1
41. @Miroforlag
42. @joellarsson
43. @eliasbetinakis
44. @walming
45. @bjornfant
46. @DoktorSpinn
47. @jacobssonmicke
48. @r_zetterlind
49. @EmilOberg
50. @MaryXJ

This last year, 2009 has been a blast in many ways. Almost every day I’ve received interesting news from friends, other bloggers and my RSS feeds. Even thought we’ve seen one of the most severe economical downturns this year it seems advertising, communication and technology has been the business to be in.

Brands seem to have learned from the history and brand spend has rather gone up than down for a lot of brands. We’ve also seen Twitter and Facebook continue to grown faster than anything else on the planet and social media and open technologies has prospered due to that fact. The iPhone has continued to grow and Android is picking up it’s pace. Google has released lots of new cool products even though the Wave didn’t really become the clean double over head a lot of us expected.

Most brands have been looking for one-offs and as I look back at the 2009 Cannes Lions winners it strikes me that I can’t really remember one single campaign that stood out and changed the world of advertising. We’re slowly moving away from bought space to earned space, this is most certainly the reason why my brain plays these tricks with me.

I’m not gonna spend more of this post summing up 2009. Other people, papers, bloggers and personalities has done a great job doing this already. Instead let’s move on to 2010.

Click for a larger image

Here are the Brand and communication predictions for 2010 by Johan Ronnestam

REAL

This is more of a change in how we live, consume, work, advertise and communicate. We will of course use all technology available to become more real but we will strive to make things more realistic, true and touchable. As technology, much thanks to notepads, the iPhone and other portable technologies, becomes a part of our everyday life we will in 2010 look for inspiration in the nature and in life.

Brands will think twice about making up false stories about their brands. Product developers cannot trust advertising to sell their products cause transparency will bring you down. When you launch products or services in 2010 you better provide a true and real value – only then will you prosper.

The more we learn to search and compare products online the less room for multiple copies. We will search for the true branch leader and we will find it. Globalization and ease of localization means we’ll choose the best service or product not the locally produced one.

Open Source Win More Ground

Swapping content management systems from proprietary to open source is becoming socially acceptable among IT professionals. And why wouldn’t it. It’s usually better, more cost effective and more up to date.

Creative Commons have extended their program with Science Commons and CC Learn. We’ve already seen sites like Facebook and New York Times being built upon open source code and databases. Still companies seem reluctant to switch to code being written by a community rather than a company. But when the White House switched to Drupal I think we saw the start of a tsunami.

In 2010 Open Source will prosper and hopefully ever after! Sharing is the way forward!

Cloud Computing Will Spread Like Thunder

Most of you probably already got a large part of your digital life in the cloud. Think about it. All those images you’ve put on Facebook or better yet Flickr. That’s the cloud.

Earlier this year we saw the city of Los Angeles switch to Google Apps. There’s probably tons of more examples that I don’t know of but this is definitely one of the first and largest government adoptions of Googles cloud based Microsoft Office competitor.

Evernote, my personal favorite cloud based notebook, reached 2 million users the other day. Another cloud based service that reached 2 million users earlier this year is Dropbox. I’ve been syncing my files with this little sweetie since 2008. Wired, Mashable, MacWorld and PC Mag have all shouted out loud for this wonderful tool. When they launched their iPhone app this summer they completed my home office.

Practically everyone I know working with digital communication uses cloud based tools like Google Apps, Evernote and Dropbox. Once the mainstream users understand that these tools solve every problem a home user and small company has with backup, sync and office we’ll see people moving into the cloud like skydivers free falling from 15000 feet.

Management Consultants Moving Forward Into The Digital Space

If you’re working within digital advertising or communication you might have heard the rumors. Management Consultants like McKinsey and Accenture have put together digital swat teams who’s primary task is to conquer the business from digital agencies like RGA, AKQA, LBI etc.

Clients all over the world have grown tired listening to traditional digital agencies (yep, they’ve become traditional now) who’s employees aren’t senior enough to consider what good the digital world can do for their business. On top of that I’d say that not even 1% of the worlds traditional advertising agencies knows what they’re talking about when the talk future communication but they still got the Marketing Directors by the balls.

This is where the grey suits sees an opportunity. These guys got the CEO’s and Board Members by the ball and that’s worth more than marketing directors and advertising men & women. Will they do a good job? Some might but lots of them still look at the digital world as a single business area. Internet transforms business not distribute them!

Left somewhere in the middle you’ll have the digital agencies of today. They’re not good enough on communication, they don’t understand business processes and the web is about to shift from front-end to back-end.

Web TV Strikes With Full Force

We’ve only seen the beginning of Internet TV. In 2009 most established networks truly made themselves available online and HULU impressed us all by growing faster than you can say disruption. Personally I was privileged to given the assignment to draw up the strategy and design one of Swedens major TV channels, Kanal 5, web TV presence.

As the year passed we slowly saw iPhone apps being approved that let us consume TV however we want whenever we want. In 2010 however we’ll see the next stage. That’s when the TV manufacturers, just like Samsung already has done, start placing network connections into their screens. Suddenly Internet TV will move into our living room again. In the wake of that we’ll see fantastic mashups and recommendation sites that allows us to actually consume internet TV together. Today it’s to much of an ego product. After all, if we have access to everything from everywhere, who get’s to decide what we should look at tonight?

The downside is obvious. People will spend more time again in the sofa. That leads to stupidity. Stupidity leads to lack of innovation. Lack of innovation leads nowhere.

The happy ones are of course the traditional advertisers since the will start filling those internet TV episodes with advertising. The only problem is they cannot get paid what they want yet so we’ll have to live with tons of more ad breaks.

Twitter Spreads Beyond Early Adopters

This wonderful social networking ‘tool’ is loved by more than 18 million people today. And yet we’re all early adopters. One of the main problem is if course who the hell do you explain such a stupid tool as Twitter to someone? They have to try for themselves. It strikes me that none of my childhood friends that I regularly meet still today have used Twitter. Heck, most of them haven’t even started using Facebook. (did I mention their in the finance business).

But just like Facebook this microblog network will spread beyond early adopters and it’s all about invitations. So far Twitter hasn’t bothered to much about making you invite people. Once the make it simple for us users to invite more people as our followers/friends we’ll see Twitter spread like wildfire. Dare I say 100 million people on Twitter once 2010 is over?

Back End Computing Is The New Front End

Business moving their business online calls for enterprise resource planning software integration. And since those guys from the management side of the internet will start telling brands what to do we can definitely expect more complex websites in terms of how they’re built and integrated into the heart of businesses.

In 2010 we’ll see more companies like SnapLogic solving this by providing middleware. We’ll see less digital agencies earning the trust to build these kind of sites. Building a brand presence in 2010 will be about connecting data not creating cool interfaces.

An Augmented World

Layar, Wikitude, Sekai Camera, Twittaround, Avatars augmented promotion toys, Google Goggles, Mini Print Ads and much more.

Many were the augmented initiatives that started to spread via mobile apps and online campaign sites. So far however we’ve only seen the start of it all. As more people start using these technologies we’ll see widespread uses of augmented technology in 2010. It’s actually so obvious so I thought of not including it. Some of you might say it happened in 2009 but to me we’ve only seen the start of it all.

Apple Launch Their Tablet (iSlate?)

I’ve written about this before. But the amount of rumors circulating the web right now is quite enough to say that something must come soon. Not much more to say than if the rumors turn out to be true then I’ll change my media consumption pattern forever in 2010.

3D Printing Get Noticed By The Masses

During this last year I’ve done more than 50 speaking appearances. I often speak about democratization of technology, content and distribution. One part of that section usually is about 3D printing. You heard it right – 3D printing.

Stuff printed at Shapeways by gifted students The Royal High School of Edinburgh

3D printing is a technology that still is a little bit to expensive to be used at home but the awareness of it will surely spread in 2010. As more people become aware about this we’ll see more innovation. Say 2012. That’s when you’ll download Lego from Pirate Bay.

Mobile Handset Explosion Based On Interests

Android is being spread into more handsets every week. Inside that Open Source platform sits the app store that allows you to basically build whatever apps you like. Cost of technology is falling fast. Platforms like Bugbase and Arduino shows technology is no longer exclusive to large multinational corporations.

In 2010 I think, and hope, that we’ll see the first mobile phone brands that focus on segments. Surf brands, sailing brands, wildlife and so on. The opportunities are fantastic for any strong brand with a tribal-like fan base that would die to get their hands on a mobile hand set that positions themselves alongside their ‘star’.

In 2010 a brand, maybe Nike, will build a phone filled with sweet free apps based on the Android platform.

We’ll Form Social Clusters

Some say Facebook might reach 1 billion users in 2010. What that means for digital branding and communication is hard to say. But one effect of us all moving online is overflow of social information. I love my friends online but when you get swarmed with too much content you start to think about clustering. I’ll keep my snowboarding friends in my snowboarding community. I’ll keep my close friends on Facebook. I’ll keep my social media/communication friends on Twitter. Like that we’ll suddenly see people creating social clusters and brands will have a VERY hard time penetrating those clusters.

Personal recommendations will be higher valued than ever and sadly we’ll also see protectionism much like the one already happening when the early social networkers seem pissed about the fact that other people find these tools.

In 2010 we’ll build walls around our social networks. The days of sharing outside our true followers/friends might be over. I sure hope not! But I’m not optimistic.

A New Global Car Brand Focused On Alternative Fuel

I know. This one might sound pretty stupid. But think again. It’s perfect timing for someone with money, ideas and a great industrial network to launch a brand focused solely on cars driven by alternative fuels. The traditional car brands have spent the last 70 years on perfecting fossil fuel driven cars. Their engines are state of the art and it would be practically impossible for you to compete with that industry…unless…all that competence suddenly isn’t worth jack shit.

Today if you’ve got the right connections you can shop all the technology you want on the market. That engine can be replaced with a huge battery. Wind tunnels are digital. You find 10 industrial designers worth the money on every car mechanic. And the world is craving for innovation. This could of course be done by Tata or any of the Chinese car manufacturers. But I think there’s tons of advantages to start ‘clean’. Please let us drive something new in 2010!

Swedens First Digital Election

And to put this post to an end. In Sweden we have our election coming up in 2010. Damn – the net will be swarmed with Barack Obama wannabees. And I’m not sure they will benefit from it. One tip to all you political parties – read my first prediction – STAY REAL!

Well. Then there’s really nothing left for me but to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you in 2010!

I’ve always wanted to write a book. This is NOT it!
So far this year my blog have had more than 115 000 unique visitors and just over 240 000 visits. I’ve written more than 500 blog posts covering everything from design, gadgets, trends, technology, advertising, innovations, personal things, branding and more.

About 28% of the visitors during this last year have ended up reading a post that was tagged with branding. That’s probably not a coincidence since besides trends and creativity I’d say branding is the subject that is the most dearest to me.

When I’ve been looking deeper down into the stats I’ve seen that many of you visitors haven’t really explored my blog beyond the posts on the first page or the actual post you came to read. This is why I thought it made sense to gather them all like this – ‘Top 10 Blog Posts on Future Branding and Communication From Ronnestam.com’ - My first book.

A Book, MashUp, PDF or Whatever You Wanna Call It By Johan Ronnestam

Even though this isn’t actually what I would call a book it’s been the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with the production process of a book. I’ve put a big block in my calendar covering January, February and March and if everything goes right I will present my ‘real’ book sometime in April or May next year. It will be a book on how to integrate future communication with product and service development. One things for sure – I’m doing it on my own. But for now you have to do with this first book, mashup, pdf or whatever you wanna call it.

4 Ways to get your hands on Top 10 Blog Posts on Future Branding and Communication From Ronnestam.com With Love

1. Buy a signed copy of the printed book – 39€ including shipping world wide.

I’ve printed 150 books in Denmark at Norhaven. Out of those 150 I’m giving 50 signed copies away to the first 50 Twitter retweets of this post (if you live outside Sweden you have to pay for the shipping). If you wanna get your hand on one of the other 100 signed ones you either hope to get one at one of my speaking occasions during 2010 or you contact me to buy one for €39 including shipping costs.

2. Download the PDF for free (pay by linking or tweeting this blog post)

Here’s the PDF if you wanna download it and read it off your screen (lower resolution due to file size) or maybe print it yourselves. Like everything else on my blog it’s licensed under my Creative Commons license.

3. Read it on Slideshare or Scribd

Head over to Slideshare or Scribd, it’s your choice. But remember to spread the love and tweet the book.

4. Read each and every blog post here at Ronnestam.com

This is of course the simplest and fastest way. Get going below and if you like it tweet it!

Blog Post 1 – { Originally Posted October 7, 2009 }
All Your Brands Are Belong To Us

Blog Post 2 – { Originally Posted October 7, 2009 }
If you wanna get some brand love tomorrow you better get into the conversation today

Blog Post 3 – { Originally Posted September 26, 2009 }
Dear CEO’s, Board Members and Top Management – what’s more important? Wine or Change?

Blog Post 4 – { Originally Posted February 18, 2009 }
Let’s start a revolution – get of the boat and build yourselves a new brand transportation system.

Blog Post 5 – { Originally Posted February 1, 2009 }
Controlling your brand with creative excellence

Blog Post 6 – { Originally Posted August 25, 2009 }
Seduce us or excuse us – 11 ways to bring your brand up to date

Blog Post 7 – { Originally Posted January 2, 2009 }
Get your clown suit ready if you wanna reach out to consumers in 2009

Blog Post 8 – { Originally Posted March 4, 2009 }
WWRD – 36 things Ronnestam would do differently if he had control of brand that delivered broadband, telecom and television services

Blog Post 9 – { Originally Posted September 8, 2009 }
Why SAAB, Volvo, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Peugeot, AUDI, Chevrolet, Buick and the rest of the car industry should the adopt the iPhone model and develop the InCar OS

Blog Post 10 – { Originally Posted December 29, 2008 }
Brand and communication predictions for ?2009 by Johan Ronnestam

ps. At the moment I’m trying hard to finalise my predictions for 2010. Keep a look out for that.

Happy New Year!

The Institute for the Future in Palo Alto decided to give a go at the future. How? A game of course. Superstruct is the world’s first massive multiplayer forecasting game. The game, launched in october 2008, was constructed and launched by Jane McGonigal.

By playing the game, people help The Institute for Future chronicle the world of 2019 – and imagine how the human kind might solve the problems we’ll all face together. It’s obviously needed as the horizon for survival in the game right now is 2042 according to this special report.

Jane is a pretty cool chick and an expert on applying game design and game theory to real work and real business. Among other credits MIT Technology Review named her one of the top 35 innovators changing the world through technology, for her role in pioneering the field of alternate reality gaming.

Think about it! What good could a gaming scenario do for the future of your business? Maybe that’s where you should put your money?

If you think this post is a little bit over the nerd hurdle, then at least have a look at the wonderful visualization of this future world made by Density Design. Creative Director Donato Ricci, Concept developer Gaia Scagnetti, Visualizer Mario Porpora, Artist Michele Graffieti and Designer Luca Masud set out to solve the complex task of bringing the 2019 vision created in the game to life. Their result can be downloaded from Flickr. And it’s uploaded in a great quality, so any company with an office space big enough should get it and redecorate their walls asap.

ps. One last tip on how to keep up with the future. The Institute for the Future runs a pretty nice blog on the subject.

Obviously we’re not really there yet. But this spoof gives us a pretty good idea where technology is heading. On top of that I’m getting a smile for free! You will too.

A great site for finding inspiration is Fubiz. Their tagline ‘Daily Doze of Inspiration’ says it all. This morning when I was preparing for a speech on the ‘DNA of Creativity’ next week at an event arranged by Cap & Design, one of Swedens leading design magazine I stumbled on this wonderful video below from Microsoft.

I think the actual behavior in the video is many years ahead due to the fact that the grown up generation simply won’t learn how to use these interfaces. But it’s a real eye opener what lies ahead and I’m sure my kids won’t have a problem once they’re old enough.

For years I’ve thinking about this post but it has seemed so obvious so I didn’t bother writing it. But nothing happens so it’s time to put my thoughts down in writing and give one of my business ideas away.

The unexplored room of business development

The car industry has access to a very unique thing. 4 seats where people have different needs depending on age, sex, where you come from and where you’re heading. All of this in a small contained area that today is pretty boring and unexplored.

What if the car industry decided to start a company together, sort of a foundation like the mobile world has launched Symbian, that developed a new operative system optimized for cars. What would be the specs and how could it benefit the car brands.

The benefits would be enormous. Let’s brainstorm for a couple of minutes:

Maximum connectivity with USB, Firewire, SD card slot and Bluetooth accessibility and Wifi & wireless 3G broadband connection.

It’s pretty obvious. Getting internet into the car would not only enable me to download apps, stream videos, listen to internet radio and play online games but it would also enable me to upload stuff to the car from home. Sync videos, photos, software and more. On top of this I wouldn’t have to go to a garage to check up on problems with my car. Instead I would be able to hook up online and get a diagnose to see what the problem is all about. You could probably even get problems fixed without even going there at all.

Of course you should enable companies that manufacture physical gadgets the option hook em into the car. Say Electronic Arts loves your new open source environment and produces Tiger Woods 2010 to be played inside your car. Then of course another manufacturer of gaming controls should be allowed to hook up their shit.

On top of this everyone who want to should have the possibility to extract or insert data from/into the car. I can’t see the point why I should be able to back up my newly taken photographs straight into my car hard drive.

An application platform with open API

With an open API the car industry would open an a whole new business area. Entertainment, tools, information, sociala networking etc. Think for yourselves – if you could have anything you want on a screen while driving your car – what would it be?

Think about this, your need is totally different depending on your placement in the car. If you’re driving you need one setup of apps. If you’re in the seat besides the driver you have another need. In the back of your car you might have two kids trying their best not fall down dead from boredom. The possibilities are of course enormous. Ultimately the car industry would end up launching their own app store.

Graphic capabilities that could handle games as good as the ones for Xbox 360 and Playstation and play back High Definition (HD) and Blueray movies.

Build it and they will come. This was said by Kevin Costner in the movie field of dreams. And when it comes to this bullet it’s true to the bone. If the car industry would build a great OS that had the capabilities above every developer in the world would develop games for it. The entertainment industry would dance of joy. But even better – The kids traveling in the back of your car would shut up and enjoy the ride!

GPS and motion sensors

A no-brainer. You’re in a car. You’re traveling and you’re accessing information and applications that can become a lot richer if they can know about your whereabouts and what you’re doing. From a safety perspective we will see applications that monitor our driving and automatically calls the emergency number if we crash.

One touch-screen per seat!

And I really mean one screen per seat. Just as stated above the needs are very different and very individual for everyone traveling in a car. The OS should of course handle different profiles etc. When I get in to the drivers seat the OS should treat me in one way. When I sit my self in the passenger seat the system should treat me in another way. Shortly – let me have what I want!

Finally – branded applications

Of course, if you had this InCar OS installed in every car of your brand you should definitely add some branding to it. If I buy, say a BMW, with this OS i will of course expect applications and functionality tightly tied to BMW and their brand. Think about it – what an opportunity to strengthen relations and establish long term structural bindings.

To sum things up.

Car brands all over the world. Join forces. Hire the best developers from Apple and get going on your own ‘InCar OS’ and change our in-car experiences and your profits forever! (maybe before Apple does!)

This year when the students at Berghs School of Communication graduate they sum up their examination exhibition like this:

• No one reads ads.
• People read what is interesting.
• How do we become interesting?
• We create news instead of advertising.

Instead of having a regular examination exhibition they’ve launching a live news channel the 27th of May where all their projects will be highlighted. The news channel will be available online on the Berghs Live website. Apart from that you can visit the studio at the Berghs school. Finally they’ve managed to get the channel live on Stureplan, Stockholms most central public square. Of course they’ve created a Twitter # for the event as well.

Larger than life. Make it larger than life. That’s what I was told when I was working with a Nike campaign back in 1999. Today, make it larger than life but make it true!

What the student have actually been working with for their final examination is yet to be seen. But the wrap up of it all in the context of Berghs live shows they’ve got what future communication is all about:

• Make things interesting.
• Make it bigger than it actually is.
• Use multiple channels.
• You can’t buy distribution, you have to create it.
• Viral marketing is achieved when context beats the hell out of surface.

Good Luck ›› Class of 2009!
ps. If you wanna check it out

Broadcasting live at berghslive.com:
Thursday 28/5 19.00 – 20.30
Friday 29/5 15.00 – 18.00
Saturday 30/5 13.00 – 15.00
Sunday 31/5 13.00 – 15.00

Opening hours for the offline version at the School:
Thursday 28/5 17.00 – 22.00 (Vernissage for invited)
Friday 29/5 11.00 – 19.00
Saturday 30/5 11.00 – 19.00
Sunday 31/5 11.00 – 16.00

I am sitting on a plane between Chicago and Hawaii reading Jeff Jarvis book ‘What Would Google Do, WWGD’. (after seeing a recommendation on Daytonas site). This got in me in the mood to write a blog post that gives you my point of view what the big triple play telcos should do differently if I were to decide.

Comcast, Orange, RoadRunner, Telia, Comhem and all of the other telco that got their triple play services wired. These are all brands that got the consumers wired. They’re selling telecom, broadband and TV. However, very few of these brands got future marketing covered. They’re all stuck in history and outspending one another in traditional marketing, much to the joy of traditional advertising agencies that doesn’t do shit for them.

If you are among the top spenders in your country you can be sure that you’re being ‘recalled’. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the advertising you’re broadcasting.

After having worked with some of them and since that time my wet dream has always been to get control of their total budgets. The big telco’s has everything you need in your product portfolio when it comes to modernizing communication. But on the downside they have the most traditional set up and their management people seems to be born before the dinosaurs vanished from the face of the earth.

So, here are 36 things that Ronnestam would do if we had control of a telco brand

WWRD – ‘What Would Ronnestam Do’ ›› Telcos.

1. The first thing I would state would be – We are in the entertaining business, let’s act as such!
2. The second thing I would state is – We need to try new things, fail, fail again. But we need to learn and change.
3. I would force my brand to mentally go from selling products & services to sharing knowledge that was relevant from a communication perspective.
4. I would build a network of marketeers including people from Facebook, Nike, Apple, Dior, Porsche, WE, Bollywood etc. We would meet once every 3 month somewhere exotic and change ideas.
5. Our IT department would not be allowed to control anything that had something to do with communication. No more building interfaces on already decided technology. Technology should be build on interfaces that connects us with the consumer.
6. We would launch social press rooms much like the one Electrolux has.
7. The CEO of the company would have to treat social media better than he treats the finance market.
8. I wouldn’t have a marketing director on board that first and foremost didn’t understand what digital communication is all about.
9. I’d force the board of directors and the management team to look at Kevin Kelly’s 5000 days at Ted.
10. I’d make our company place a new communications guru like Seth Godin or Jeff Jarvis on the board and I would demand to be placed in the management group of the company.
11. Our customer service would be educated in social media and networks. Once they’re up and running I would rename them to customer friendlies.
12. I would compete with Hulu.com
13. I would compete with Google Docs & Gmail
14. I would compete with Rebtel & Skype
15. I would compete with Dropbox
16. I would compete with iTunes
17. Our start page would the entry to the tools we provide to our customers, not a portal where we sell stuff.
18. The brand I worked for would develop offline products and services that were connected to social networks.
19. At least 50% of the media budget (probably more) would go into creating an online presence where we offered people, small and large business help on how to use communication services to be more efficient, keep contact with friends and family and evolve as human beings.
20. I would make sure ever single piece of information on our own sites were searchable for bots.
21. I would have both management and people ‘on the floor’ blog on our sites
22. I would create a video driven help section that solved most problems people have (based on social interaction) with computers and mobiles. All videos would of course be found on YouTube, Vimeo, Blip etc etc.
23. I would focus on creating a presence everywhere online not a presence on our own website
24. Search optimization would be considered in everything we do. Even the naming of products.
25. Statistics manager would be strategic competence who would report to the board on a weekly basis. Every activity in the company should be taken from a statistics point of view.
26. We would monitor social networks, we would interact with them and we would listen to what they had to say.
27. I would initiate crowd sourced support. Probably through Get Satisfaction or similar.
28. I would implement open source in every possible place.
29. I would have our management team chat with customers via Bambuser once a month. They should be on Twitter on a daily basis.
30. We would not do press releases but instead do events where bloggers would be treated as bloggers. This means we’re putting on a show and people can download the material in whatever format they like.
31. We would offer all our own produced content to be distributed under Creative Commons agreements.
32. We would aim to set a profitability target for the company. Anything above that would be given to organizations and partners that supported our sustainability policy.
33. We would aim to cut the costs on every service we have.
34. Every marketing activity would initiate a process that generates automatized effects in social networks.
35. Our invoicing would include an up time quality index. If our services would not have met our goals our consumers would not pay 100% of their bills.
36. To interact with our company would be consider fun and entertaining.

So, there we are. Some thoughts on how to change the world of telecom. But why 36? Don’t know, i sort of felt it was time to press publish.

Ah, and I heard a great quote in a movie (that I can’t remember the name of) on the plane:

“Let’s focus where you end up. Not where you are and were”