Applied Cultural Economics
How the NYTimes Can Make New Revenues from a Personalized Hybrid Web/Print Service»
*December 3rd, 2012
I am a NYTimes subscriber. I “browse” the digital edition daily. I receive the Weekend edition in print, which I tend to “read.” What I want is a “surround” service that is something in between digital and print, and I’ll pay for it. I believe the NYTimes has the technology to make the following idea [...]
We Are Now Post-Disruption. We Are Now Creative Innovation.»
*November 29th, 2012
Similar to telescopes snapping pictures of supernovas that took place eons ago, media outlets such as Fast Company are spectacularly identifying “disruptions” as if they are in the immediate present. From my perspective, where I assist companies seeking to shift their communications functions, many of these disruptions are now in the past. We’ve moved past the [...]
The Retail Influence Story is a Flow from Pop-Ups to Pop-Ups»
*September 27th, 2012
Walking down 5th ave in my Brooklyn neighborhood last weekend I had a moment of cultural economic clarity. The cadence of the shops, of different types and at different states of retail trends, told a story. There was a clear pattern, a trend wave that meandered from “new” to “staid” to “retro” and back. There’s one [...]
Applied Cultural Economics “Map”»
*September 21st, 2012
When I produce my Applied Cultural Economics work, I use a set of tools to help determine what tasks I need to focus on. One tool I use frequently is the below “map.” This tool allows me to identify where a client’s efforts reside on the map and what steps I need to take to help them [...]
You Say Disruption, I say Revolution (for Greg Satell)»
*September 12th, 2012
You Say Disruption, I say Revolution (for Greg Satell (https://twitter.com/Digitaltonto/)
“Disruption” has become a popular buzzword over the past five years. It’s been used to label the agressive shifts of free-market competition. These “disruptive” economic shifts have been around for centuries. They’re sometimes labeled as periods of innovation, sometimes they are truly revolutions. As these shifts [...]
Creative Social Design
The Rise of The Chief Brand Officer»
*April 16th, 2013
The question, “who owns social?” has become a toxic, internal struggle between the Marketing and Communications teams within many companies (and expands to include IT, Customer Service, Human Resources, and Sales). The answer is that they all own social, collectively, but most companies have yet to align their divisions and teams to work in coordination. [...]
The Influence Ecosystem and Facebook’s Managing Editor Departing»
*March 22nd, 2013
I read MediaShift’s article on Dan Fletcher’s departure from Facebook yesterday and immediately saw (reading between the lines) that Dan, and Facebook, were shifting their focus within the Influence Ecosystem. Dan was moving away from the “Influencer” role in the ecosystem and towards “Originator” (where the emergent stuff happens). Facebook is shifting “back” towards being [...]
How a Hacked Burger King Gained 30K new Followers»
*February 19th, 2013
A hacked Burger King Twitter account was “spectacular.” Burger King’s Twitter content is rarely spectacular, it’s mostly focused on pushing out content about their products. So when their account is hacked, and the content is expected to be spectacular, the audiences who seek that type of content come flooding over.
The proactive solution, is for Burger King to [...]
Momentum Flow: An Introduction»
*November 19th, 2012
Momentum Flow
An adaptive business model that shifts organizations incrementally versus painful disruption.
To be competitive within our current and future business environments, organizations need to build internal team models that succeed by “going with the flow.” This is not a passive act, it’s the building of a system that harnesses the power of disruption and innovation. [...]
All Mod Comms: The ROI of your Comms is Trust»
*October 19th, 2012
All Mod Comms: The ROI of your Comms is Trust
(The Currency of Next-Generation Business and Communications is “Trust”)
Trust is not a new concept for branding and marketing folks. There’s a whole portfolio of blog posts, books and articles discussing the importance of a user’s trust in a brand. Currently there is conflux of Trust within [...]
Reviews
Jeff Mangum, BAM, 1/19/2012»
*January 21st, 2012
Jeff Mangum has created a unique catalog of songs that resonate with a troupe of wilting-flower intellectual Americans. He keeps his songs scarce, instilling the pre-digital value of songwriters in the eras without recording devices. Bottled-up and pickled in the cold shed he cracks the jar open on seldom occasion. Each time the vinegar grows [...]
Archived Favorites
The Retail Influence Story is a Flow from Pop-Ups to Pop-Ups»
*September 27th, 2012
Walking down 5th ave in my Brooklyn neighborhood last weekend I had a moment of cultural economic clarity. The cadence of the shops, of different types and at different states of retail trends, told a story. There was a clear pattern, a trend wave that meandered from “new” to “staid” to “retro” and back. There’s one [...]
Jeff Mangum, BAM, 1/19/2012»
*January 21st, 2012
Jeff Mangum has created a unique catalog of songs that resonate with a troupe of wilting-flower intellectual Americans. He keeps his songs scarce, instilling the pre-digital value of songwriters in the eras without recording devices. Bottled-up and pickled in the cold shed he cracks the jar open on seldom occasion. Each time the vinegar grows [...]
Retail will be a mash-up of experience and mobile»
*October 25th, 2011
Retail will be a mash-up of experience and mobile
The history of retail, particularly the mall, was born from the experience of visiting circus-tent-sized panoramas. Early in our modern era, folks would gather together to view wide-angle-scoped scenes of far away landscapes. They’d walk within them, be enveloped by the magnificence of places they couldn’t imagine [...]
‘Clovering’ to Make Sense of It All»
*May 9th, 2011
Clovering: – verb. 1. Daily (minute) layering of potential options with social groups into adaptable data (thoughts) that mitigate complex decisions into simpler ones. 2. Activity of illustrating layers of influence into a graphic (clover leaf) to both discern and organize complex thoughts into simpler data. 3. A game played through charting a clover leaf [...]
Thought Marketers, Crossing the Chasm and the Cultural Terrain»
*May 9th, 2011
(This post was inspired by my conversation with Michael Roston of The New York Times. I’m deeply grateful for his insights.)
I’ve been working on a diagram to anchor the digital-strategy conversations I have with clients. I wanted a map of the current landscape to reference when speaking about “why” we need to implement these strategies. Over [...]
Music Interviews 2000-2001
Miya of Asian Man Records»
*June 29th, 2010
We want to stay small. We operate Asian Man Records like a family…there are no contracts, bands are free to come and go if they want. We want our bands to be happy, and we try to pick bands that we really feel a connection with. Mike started the label because he loves music, and that always comes first.
Purms
Texas (1993 v2)»
*March 2nd, 2013
Here, on this map, is Texas.
All tan and lonely.
Veiled by blue lines of highways and stop signs.
And here I am, this giant looking down on all that space
and I feel the breath of its desert on my face.
I’m on the roadside, and the weeds,
and the cactus, and the men in blue pick-up trucks
pass with their [...]
Lexington Avenue Mary (1994 v2)»
*March 2nd, 2013
In her hands she held a baby bird
Tiny, wet, squawking.
She has a virgin mary smile
and her head bent, her eyes bent longingly
at a virgin mary angle
She seemed content
standing there on the corner
with all that traffic moving by her
She didn’t notice
She rocked back and forth, slightly
coddling her young
She hummed to herself.
She stood there rocking her bird.
It [...]
The 4 Uptown Express»
*August 25th, 2011
The baby wasn’t crying so much as trying to get our attention. He blinked his solid brown eyes, clenching them into fresh wrinkles, as if to clear his lenses. He looked up at us, the mashed-together subway riders on the uptown 4.
He shifted his binkie, tethered to the handrail of his old-school steel-framed carriage. He [...]
The Postal Convenience Station»
*August 19th, 2011
The Postal Convenience Station
I was the third of four postal patrons on the makeshift line. We arched away from the tinted glass aluminum framed door, attempting to allow enough personal space for the next potential patron to enter. The auto-teller was wedged at the front corner, along the glass, away from the walk-in-closet-sized room of [...]
A Slow, Sweet, Wet Seattle Waltz (v1)»
*June 22nd, 2011
A Slow, Sweet, Wet Seattle Waltz
The clouds twist corkscrew towards lightening mist, nearer to the saltwater sound. They faint away miles before the cleft-top peaks that fence all around. Under a taller grey dome of higher sky the lake and sound mirrors the silver. The draped majesty of the statued ranges hide their stark faces [...]
