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!

If you’re my brand: Never let me down. Keep on making me smile. Stay cool. Always surprise me. Change when you need to, but stay true to your heritage. Dress nice. Make sure I don’t have to hide our love. If you do something bad – stay honest and tell the truth cause I will forgive you. And finally! Never ever take me for granted.

Tokyo in sunrise – A Brand that didn’t let me down. Taken from my Instagram feed.

If you’ll stick to these simple guidelines – I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life with you and give you my all my love. If not – get lost!

The other day I wrote quite a long post on the future of integrated communication from a digital perspective. I stressed the fact that in order for your brand to create and maintain strongs brand  in the future you’ve gotta provide people with true values not just fun stuff that entertains. On top of that I’ve also written a quite extensive post on how all your brands belong not to you, but to the consumer. You might wanna tap into that one too before reading this post. Here we go:

You’ve lost control of almost all of your sales process. Accept it and change or die. (Had to go punk style)

That actually happens to tactical communication as we know it when all rules are changed? What happens to ads, prints, point of sale, direct marketing etc?

Let’s me elaborate on that based on an old communication model called AIDA, Attention, Information, Desire and Acquire, first described in 1898 by E. St. Elmo Lewis. Some people say it’s dead since way back. I say it’s more alive than ever but it’s transformed.It serves a great purpose when explaining to you guys and girls heading brands and companies out there how you’re supposed to rock your brands in the future.

Information, desire and acquire in the hands of the consumers

How your brand communication is changed on every level as we move into the future of communication.

A- Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer

Yesterday: Use creative advertising that intercept whatever the consumer is doing and make him/her crave your brand

Tomorrow: Here’s the good news. If you know branding, advertising and all that good stuff we’ve been doing for years. You’re in for a ride. Brands will realise that TV, Print, Outdoor, Banners – all those yummy above the line things – will rule the next 10 years. There’s simply now way to grab peoples attention but to shake them around in a medium where you cannot miss them. Of course, people say young kids does not watch TV, but they still do if it’s relevant. On top of all those old things you of course gotta get your shit together when it comes to the product. In transparent times – failure is not an option!

I – Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits.

Yesterday: When we tried to get hold of more information about products our resources were limited. Of course we could ask friends. But what were the chances of us having the exact same crave for a product. We then relied on newspapers, magazines and TV channels. Honestly. Who believes the reporter for a car magazine wasn’t bribed in one way or another when writing that excellent article about the new BMW 3 series you’re looking for. On top of that you can be sure the PR people did their best to make sure he was positive anyway unless he didn’t fall for fancy dinners and test drives accompanied with wonderful wines and spicy women in the south of spain. We even had use for the phone catalogue. That pile of paper served its purpose.

Tomorrow All changed. Let’s say the advertising agency has gotten your blood running in your veines. What’s next? Easy. Google or a status update in Facebook. And BAM – you’ve lost control. That Google search will turn up, not that brand that he or she is looking for. Instead we’ll land on review sites, price comparison sites, blogs, forums, social networks and more. The results in Google will all be based on the intelligence of the people, or at least the people that knows how to build brands for the future.

What to do: Start changing your mix. Head over to that post of mine that I mentioned above and study how to change your media mix. Build value. Make sure people benefit from linking to you. Set your prices so that Pricerunner and other comparison sites list your shop first. Spread content everywhere.

D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

Yesterday: You OWNED this one. Clever managers educated clever sales people. The consumer, stuck inside your defined space where you built up a POS (point of sale) presence that made him/her crave your products. Of course you spent money on industrial design and shit. But compared to today you relied on the retail channel to do their work.

Tomorrow I OWN this one. Me and my friends. As I’m getting closer and closer to deciding upon which product I’m gonna get I ask around. What does people think, what do my friends say, comparisson sites etc.

What to do: Make sure you focus ten times more on your product development, turn your industrial design department into GOD. They should steer the entire company forward. If you’re lucky we’re coming to visit you. But like a kid, armed with her/his wishlist for Santa Claus, the consumer of tomorrow knows exactly what she/he wants and what the right price is.

A – Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

Yesterday: Let me follow you to the cashier” – Remeber this one? To break free and decide not to buy your product when been given a 30 minute sales pitch is prettyd darn hard.

Tomorrow If you’re unlucky (or lucky depending on your digital competence) you’re looking at closing the deal online. Usability, language, design, visualisation, payment processes etc etc etc. Alone behind my computer or mobile device, that’s where I’ll be. And the second I feel insecure, doesn’t find where to go next and so on, that’s the second I leave without buying anything.

What to do: Get wired. Never again hire marketing people that doesn’t know how to convert people. Change Microsoft Office into A/B testing in your hiring profile. Send your troopers back to the school. Have them learn everything there is to know about online commerce – cause you’ll need it.

Last but not least. Of course there are brands out there that doesn’t have to give a shit about this. After all, we will not buy nuclear plants for some time still over the Internet. The rest of you – get going!

Last summer I got on a train leaving Stockholm for Gothenburg. Together with freelancing project manager, planner and colleague Caroline Karlström I had a meeting set up with diving brand Poseidon. This was the start of a project where I truly had the opportunity to work with all aspects of branding and creative communication.

A dream project.

Ingvar Elfström, the founder of Poseidon back in 1958.

The Background

Back in 1958 this brand was founded by a young Swedish diver, Ingvar Elfström. Since then the brand has become famous for unique, different and great products. However over the last couple of years they’ve lost speed when it comes to innovation and marketing initiatives.

But then something happened. The company was bought by a small group of investors three years back. Headed by visionaire Kurt Sjöblom they set out on a journey – to develop the first ever automated rebreather for recreational divers.

This was why we were there. About a year from launch Kurt and his team felt they needed to do something about the brand. And after a successful meeting that actually started with me diving with this new product we had ourselves a new client. The mission. To re-brand Poseidon and bring their marketing strategies into the 22 century. The full guacamole!

The Problem:
Poseidon has since long been loved by advanced divers. People who know how to dive love Poseidon. As a result of this the brand has slowly been turned into a brand by extreme divers for extreme divers. How copy was written, photos were styled and packaging looked was all steered towards a small part of the diving world that in the long run wouldn’t build a broad user base for Poseidon.

A typical photo before we started evaluating how Poseidon should be communicated

As Poseidon now develop new and groundbreaking products and target the recreational divers, the tourist that may bring his own gear on his vacation but might just as well rent the stuff, a new position is essential.

The old start page of Poseidon.com before we started the re-branding journey

Finally Poseidon is a global brand. With a presence on 28 different markets we also, from a visual and tone of voice point of view had to turn the brand into a global one that not only matched it’s competitors but beat the hell out of them.

So there we were. Now it was time to rebuild this brand.

The Solution – What was our mission and what was the result?

Our task was to create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the Poseidon brand. Once that was done we set out to design and dramatize a differentiated brand experiences across the entire value chain and customer journey.

My parts in the project included working with the overall strategy together with Caroline and then develop a fully integrated creative direction that I later art directed. Once I had designed most parts of the project we brought in designers Kristian Packalen and Esa Tanttu whom I had been working with before to finalize my visions. Early in the process we also brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean parts of my conceptual copy but above all write all the copy for the new Poseidon website.

The re-branding of Poseidon Diving has included:

• Create an over all brand strategy that would steer all communication initiatives.
• Develop an integrated visual platform for a marketing components
• Typography
• Point of sale
• Packaging concepts
• Photography
• Website design and strategy
• Offline advertising
• Online advertising
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Event concepts
• Copy platform

After about 6 month of strategy, creative and art direction, design, photography, copy writing, 3D modeling, website design and production we’re now closer than ever to accomplish our mission -  ‘create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the brand’. This is parts of the visual result:

A selection of the units I’ve created for Poseidon, The visual system is clearly visible.

The Poseidon Brand Manifesto

Once we settled on a strategy (not to be communicated here) one of the first thing I did was writing the Poseidon manifesto. When I’m hired to create a new positioning for a brand I think it’s essential to put words to my thinking. This way both me and everyone else involved, both on the consulting side as well as the client side, will stand on a common ground. Once this manifesto was approved we brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean it up. This resulted in the following:

The Perfect Photographer For The Poseidon Brand Campaign – Wayne Levin

What we needed from day one was something that made people understand Poseidon is a new brand. Traditionally Poseidon has been all about hard core diving. Basically the military look above has been spot on. But now Poseidon is to be positioned towards a broader audience. We needed photography that clearly communicates the Poseidon brand.

We searched all over for something that could differentiate Poseidon from it’s competitors. Something that inspired people and engaged them emotionally. Something that made people dream about diving. On top of that I also thought it was of great importance to find a photographer who also cared for the ocean and represented sustainability. Basically something that expressed the heart of Poseidon’s philosophy.

I found Wayne Levin. Some of you might recognize the black and white style from the photos I took myself last year on Hawaii. Now you understand that those were of course inspired from the master himself. Wayne Levin is interested not only in seascapes and animals, but in the ocean itself: the texture, movement and volume of the water. It is this visceral sense of power– of how it feels to be right there within the vastness of the ocean – that accords perfectly with Poseidon’s dedication to a pure, unrestricted diving experience.

So far Wayne has shot a limited series of photos for Poseidon. The purpose is to continue the collaboration with Wayne and shoot a series of videos too. Nothing can be more inspiring than to follow Wayne diving with the Poseidon Discovery taking pictures of some of the most inspiring animals on earth.

This photograph was taken at Ho’okena Beach in South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Spinner Dolphins often come into Ho’okena, and many other Kona Beaches and Bays in order to rest in shallow waters during the day after a night of hunting in the deep waters several miles off the coast. Ho’okena is a beautiful bay with very interesting sand formations caused by the waves and currents in the bay.

This photograph was taken off Mahukona in North Kohala on the Island of Hawaii. Wayne scuba dove at this location with a friend, and was very surprised to find this young female Monk Seal. The Hawaiian Monk Seal is extremely endangered so he felt very fortunate to have this encounter. Actually she was anything but shy constantly approaching Wayne very close.

The photo of the Spinner Dolphins used in a full spread print ad.

Creating posters from a photo taken about three miles off the Kohala Coast near the North tip of the Island of Hawaii. The Mellon Head Whales are quite rare to find in Hawaii, and this was Waynes only encounter with them. He was on a boat, looking to photograph Humpback Whales when he spotted what he thought were dolphins near the Humpbacks. When Wayne approached them he realized that these were either Melon Heads or False Killer Whales. There were at least 200 individuals but when he entered the water he could see that the large pod was broken up into groups of about 20 individuals.

Turning packaging into something emotionally engaging

Already from the start my point of view was to develop a visual system that engaged people in every part of the customer journey. The of course included the packaging of the products. As a result of this we planned to use Wayne Levin’s wonderful photography on the packaging too. Along with the Brand Manifesto and the new product photography we’ve created a strong link from the advertising, the website, the point of sale material all the way to the actual product that you bring home.

On top of serving as packaging this concept also works as point of sale displays when used empty.

Wayne Levin’s photos along with the Poseidon brand manifesto creates a great platform for the packaging too.

Making sure the Poseidon brand stays strong in point of sale environments.

Having worked with advertising for quite many years now my belief is that no matter how strong your advertising is, how smart your website communicates your brand and how great your products are it’s all about the physical environments. Once you enter the store actual sale is about in-store presence. Even though Poseidon is a small brand compared to some of it’s competitors we’ve strived to dress it up like a market leader. Strong visual appearance. On brand. Emotionally engaging. This is what shop owners want from a brand and we’ve tried to deliver just that.

Making good use of Wayne Levin’s underwater photography

Product display concepts that builds the Poseidon brand story while serving as a demo platform for the new Poseidon discovery.

The New Poseidon Website Design

One of the core components in the new brand platform is of course the digital presence. As we set out to revamp the brand online we first developed a series of different designs. All in all we designed twelve different layouts before deciding on the final design. It was key for us to find a designed that appealed both to the client as well as the target group. Once the site designs was approved and copywriter Judy was well on her way to revamp the tone of voice we brought in open source developers Devcore to help Poseidon bring the site to life.

Designing our way to a ‘on brand’ website

The finalized start page

Explore diving is a content driven section that will be filled with relevant brand content over time.

It was important for us to develop a design that felt dynamic.

Increase the overall look and feel

Overall one of our objectives was to increase the level of quality on all kinds of communication material. Among other things I developed photo briefs for both products as well as corporate information such as press photography and portraits. Once we’ve shot the photos together with Poseidons ‘house photographer’ Anders Kämpe I worked together with my homie retoucher and photographer Andreas Lübeck to bring out the best in the photos.

Making the product photography more engaging

An extremely short depth of field to ad a more personal look and feel to portrait shots.

Making product catalogs more engaging.

Finally I think this 4 page product catalog serve as a good example what happens when all this great brand material comes together into one simple yet important point of sale piece.

Poseidon Diving -A dream assignment

To work with Poseidon has been fantastic. To be part of a journey like this is great. To be able to control every component from strategy to tactical execution is even greater. The result is there to see but it’s just the beginning. As we speak we’re getting ready to initiate social media strategies including presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and much more. We’re only just starting.

Winning clients is hard. Keeping them over time is even harder. Many of you might read this blog in order to do just that – win and keep clients. Then let me share my point of view on the subject.

How to hit your target

Innovation is what awards you with new accounts.

This is key. If your in a pitch situation you will not win by simply telling the client about your process, thoughts on strategy etc. The client have decided to try new blood and that means he/she wants just that – new blood. You will win clients by showing your ideas innovates their business. If you truly make a difference for your clients you’ll see that they’ll award you with more budgets, more projects and more freedom than they themselves thought was possible. Process is nice but it’s just a need to have.

Strategy and process keeps you on track

Keeping them is more about making sure you deliver on strategy and on time. Never forget to make sure your on track. Are you making a different for your client or for yourselves. Never stop pushing the limits but push the right ones! Make sure you got your processes (and of course the people) wired to do just that.

Heaven or hell – relation is the shit!

Ultimately however relation is key. Nurture your relations and your future is bright – just like any old marriage. Wine and dine. Play and have fun. Smile a lot. Open doors and pull out chairs. Finally remember – You and the client both want great results  – you might as well have fun while doing it!

Go win – but remember the ‘keep’!

Where are we all heading. Where will we settle, MySpace, Facebook or Twitter? What technology will win? Will we all become iPhone owners or stick to Nokia? PC or Apple? When will we be pleased?

Brands are spending millions and millions in order to understand where people are settling down. Once that knowledge is secured they spend even more millions to develop a presence. But once people move on to another place and another community the same brands have a hard time turning their battleships around.

In order to develop a long term strategy for online communication brands have to understand that no technology will actually win. No community will be ‘the one’ community. We’re merely a population consisting of digital settlers moving from land to land trying to find the next gold rush. Once we find it we dig until there’s no more gold to be found or the place becomes so crowded that we cannot see the gold anymore. Then we move on. Some people stay behind and eventually turn lonely. But as time goes by even they will once again turn into settlers and move on to a new place where they can once again prosper.

Of course today the gold is conversation and the place is anywhere the tribe can prosper.

The digital world makes it easier than ever for consumers to keep moving from one land to another and that’s why brands have to do get ready to do the same. For the last 50 years it’s been about TV, Print and of course other channels. It’s been easy for marketeers to follow tribes or what we until now have defined as target groups. Now the power has shifted and we’re moving from place to place, technology to technology and user behavior to user behavior. So, brands have to do the same.

If you’re a CEO of a company trying to fight your way to the jungle. Don’t stick with one map and one path. Send out trackers constantly. Find new unique places that hasn’t yet been discovered cause one thing you can be sure of is – where there’s gold there will be people. In order to find those hidden gems you’ve gotta try out everything that comes your way. It’s all about being interested in the unknown and being able to filter the information. In other words – reorganize the way your company is working and get rockin’!

Six Degrees yesterday – Facebook today. ICQ yesterday – MSN & Twitter today. Tomorrow? Who knows. But one things for sure – follow the leaders cause they’ll show you where the next party is or become one yourself.

(quite a strange philosophical post but then again I’m on my way to a strange and philosophical meeting)

Whatever you do online, make sure you provide a value that is relevant to people who might want to use your service. By doing so you’ll generate more traffic, more buzz and finally a higher SEO ranking.

Box UK, a web consultancy agency, are living by this simple rule. The blog on their website is filled with ideas on how to succeed with your online presence. The old school marketing generation would say their giving their competence away. I beg to differ. One of the problem when it comes to digital communication is the competence on the buying side. Most brands won’t buy what they don’t understand. So either you lower yourselves to their level or educate them and thereby also provide a value.

One of Box latest post is an excellent one. It’s called ‘Monetizing your Web App: Business Model Options’.

Box has listed what they believe are the most successful ways to generate money from web applications. They’ve then taken their own list of possibilities and analyzed Webware 100 Top Web Apps for 2008. The conclusion then becomes a great check box model for monetizing your web apps.

The chart above shows the results of their survey: 34% use Advertising, 12% a Variable Subscription model, and 8% each for Virtual Products (typically digital downloads), Related Products (typically a large software company offering a free product to attract you to their platform) and Pay-Per-Use.

So, the question is. Do you wanna challenge the leaders within advertising financed sector or maybe penetrate the not yet so exploited areas?

Results?

• They’ve provided their visitors with a great relevant value that will drive traffic, generate comments and create positive SEO effects.
• Kevin Kelly, one of the worlds most respected digital gurus then picked it up.
• Then it’s spread all over the world and I among many other will talk about it.
• We all then drive trafic back to BOX.

Thanks Box for a great post!

Let me break it to you right away – the old way of planning and executing communication is slowly sinking into the ocean of well paid consultants that doesn’t do shit for your brand and the best you can do is throw yourselves into the lifeboats, get your ass to land and then find something else that makes your brand travel – and it’s not another boat.

You see, in order to paddle on to this new wave of communication you’ve gotta get different gear, different muscles and find new spots and this requires totally new ways of thinking. It’s not really about finding better creatives, cause the creative people out there are top notch, that’s not what I’m saying – I’m talking about choosing problem solving first and channels second. Understanding every new channel and integrating that knowledge as early as in your product development process will be key.

Building brands and companies tomorrow requires a new way of thinking around product and service development that include knowledge on how people use technical tools, mobiles, their way of life and habits – ultimately the entire communication chain already in the product development process.

Turn your brand & communication process up side down

Turns things upside down. In order to get an effect you should create an online strategy based on your business challenge. Create ideas for a digital presence and then brief someone the challenge to create advertising that focus on supporting your digital strategies. We’re moving into a new world where everything communicates and you cannot isolate things as if they had no contact with one another.

You might say; “My advertising agency understands this already and the media agency are providing me with great strategies” but I’m sorry, they don’t know jack shit in 75% of the cases. To be able to recommend strategies today you’ve gotta understand technology. When it comes to media agencies most of them don’t know jack shit in 90% of the cases. Well, of course they know how to place media and they’re all struggling to twist their business towards one where you produce media…but hey, do you really wanna consult someone that actually makes money on producing the same stuff they recommend.

Today most companies contact a digital partner once they have an ad or a couple of TVC’s and want to support that online. What you then get are shallow solutions that doesn’t do anything for the brand on a long term basis and probably not on a short term either.

Your brand is up for a challenge. You’ve set up the way you sell, the way you develop products, the way you communicate, the way you follow up, yes everything – on the old way of doing things. Internet didn’t exist in most cases when today’s organization strategies were drawn up. How do you communicate internally that you don’t need a sales force cause you’re selling online and now you need 20 content writers instead so that you can end up top 5 on Google. How do you cut your old relations cause that factory of yours aren’t developing new products fast enough.

If you’re looking to turns things around, start by asking yourself the following question:

• Can I involve integrated strategy people in my product development process?
• If I take 50% of my existing media budget and focus on creating content based value online – what will happen?
• How can we deliver new products in new packages based on new strategies in half the time as before?
• How can I invite my target group in our product development?
• Is it possible to move my communication plan from seasonal and product launch based communication to an ongoing established conversation?
• How can I move my marketing organization from one that is built to buy communication to one that creates, controls, publishes, talks, supports an ongoing conversation?
• How can I create content that is relative to my product and brand that search optimizes traffic on a daily basis yet continues to position us as the coolest brand on the block?
• Can we move from producing print and TVC’s to images, movies and other content that is relevant rather than selling?

This and probably another 100 questions should be answered. Run your company as an ideas company. You’re selling an idea about something that will change peoples life. Based on this idea – provide people with value, offer them something that will change theirs and not merely something that will empty their pockets and fill yours.

Get started today – stir up a storm, aim for the biggest ice block & head for the lifeboats!

There’s a blog called NeuroscienceMarketing. Don’t know if you read it, but every now and then they got some great insights on marketing. The other day Roger Dooley posted a short piece the other day called ‘Offer a third choice, boost sales’ that made me notice his first post ‘Decoy Marketing’.

Decoy marketing is about the fact that a brand tend to get better result if you offer your target group three choices instead of two. Roger gives you lots of examples. One of the better one is from a test with subscriptions to the magazine The Economist. In the example two groups of subjects were given the option to choose a subscription. One group was offered two choices. The other one three.

Offer A:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (68 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (32 chose)

Predicted Revenue – $8,012

Offer B:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (16 chose)
$125 – Print Only Subscription (0 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (84 chose)

Predicted Revenue – $11,444

Conclusion – The predicted revenue jumped 43% due to the introduction of a third choice.

Something to think about for you brand owners out there.

Read the full post here, here and here.

Mashable directed me to this great presentation by French consulting agency Fabernovel.

If you’re looking for insights on Google – this is it. In 34 slides Fabernovel has dissected the secrets behind Googles plan to take over the world. Reading this doesn’t only give you an insight into Google, but also into how to think when growing your business online. Red-it, favorized on slideshare and blogged it!

Stuck on Arlanda airport on my way to London. Its pretty f*#n snowy so my plane is delayed. Sooner or later I’ll get there though!

As I’m browsing some feeds I noted that Anton had bookmarked a case study by Amber/Altitude. The case study is basically an Interview with Scott Monty the head of social media at Ford Motor Company, where we get some good insights on how Ford approaches Social Media. Its well worth a read! 

My favorite quote is:

First off, I strongly believe in the need to put strategy first. The tools are immaterial. What’s hot today may not be hot tomorrow.

True, true!

Note! Ford Motor’s got a Head of Social Media. How many brands got that?