Sunday
Sep162007

Lions, Tigers, Revolutionaries, oh my!

In just a few short years, a multitude of new ideas have hit the market, which have forced us to re-evaluate how we engage our world.  From Wikipedia, to MySpace, to Current TV these ideas have created a domino effect to new ways of thinking, seeing and experiencing education, entertainment, and news.

The creators of these breakthrough concepts have sparked new ideas by seeing an opportunity to challenge the status quo (or maybe just exploiting untapped opportunities).  More market ideas are bubbling just beneath the surface that are looking to continue this trend.  No market is untouched as Sellaband looks to throw in a very interesting twist in the way bands make, market, and sell music and possibly transform the relationship between artists and fans.  A Swarm of Angels is looking to remix the creative film making process and shake up the world of cinema.  
As these are just two ideas on the verge, a number of other individuals are delving into unchartered waters looking to disrupt the way business as usual is done.  Neurologist, Karim Nader, is developing medication to alter the way your mind recollects its memories . Thomas Linzey, Executive Director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund,  is looking to give ecosystems legal rights of their own. Forbes further explores these two and the minds of 8 other revolutionaries and their groundbreaking work.  Positioning themselves to see opportunities where others don’t, these individuals are standing on the bleeding edge, working to turn conventional wisdom on its head. 

So if you are not ready to lead the charge of change or even join the ranks. . . then you might want to move out of the way (because you might just get ran over)!  The chants for more transformational ideas have only just begun! Look out establishment!
   
Viva La Revolution!
Wednesday
Aug292007

Shift happens

Ladies and gentlemen, close your eyes, and imagine – it’s early 1998 (9 short years ago). Many of us are still in college or are recent university graduates. The Monica Lewinsky case has captured the nation’s attention, The U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya have sent shockwaves around the world, and in the world of pop culture, the talk of the town revolves around men - N’Sync, 98 Degrees, and the Backstreet Boys (Ladies – Paris, Nicole and Lindsay - your times are coming - wink).   

If in 1998 your best friend told you that "in the next 4 to 5 years it will be be wise to prepare yourself  for the impact of Google, 9/11, and the Creative Economy" what would your response have been?  A confused look? A strange stare? Who knows.  In 1998 these ideas and events had no impact or effect on your world.  Change happened, and in 2007 they do.

Change is happening faster and faster.  Technologies are evolving at an unprecented pace.  Business ideas and models seem to change and morph perpetually. The cycles in which ideas go from the conceptual stage to market are becoming shorter.  Competition is unlike any other time in history.  How do you adapt and stay abreast of these changes? In today's current environment this is the question -  how do you stay relevant?  The YouTube clip that we have included in this post presents a number of these ideas.  As times change and our world evolves what does it all mean? 


At Vosica this is what we do - stay on the edge of change when. . .                                                            S H I F T  H A P P E N S 

Saturday
Aug112007

Innovation Mashup - Culture + Cool + You

Guest blogger, Kalen Jericho

True innovators know how to build a business around culture.  In other words they know how to make money off of developing, defining or displacing a lifestyle so much, that it becomes a cultural phenomena.

A perfect example is what happens when a musical style catches a wave, like the annual California desert music festival Coachella.  Annually, more than 100,000 hip-hop heads, skaters, artists and supposed slackers converge on Indio, California not for chart topping artists like Beyonce or Fall Out Boy - but for little known musical innovators like Los Angeles based rapper Bus Driver or English singer Lily Allen.  

The environmentally-conscious promoters give free tickets to carpoolers, allow people to charge their cell-phones by riding stationary power-generating exercise bikes, and sell ecologically sound bamboo t-shirts.  It's the perfect place to meld disparate musical tastes with a low-environmental impact lifestyle. When any one of these elements hits the mainstream it will bring the other socio-cultural elements along - with some opportunities for profit - or savings, whichever way you want to think about it.

Innovation is really about cross-pollinating, about connecting seemingly unrelated groups based on what they have in common and putting a little of each into the other.  In the case of the previous example, what do urban youth have in common with the supposed slackers  and the frustrations of suburbanites; a profitable frustration with authority.

How do you profit off of small subcultures concerned with individuality, savings and restraint, with minimizing excess? . . . It's about finding your particular breaking point and knowing that everyone else has one too.  Are you ready to profit from your frustration? . . .  Frustrated with politics add music and a little sex appeal and you've got YouTube's "Obama Girl" video. Feel as though your talent is ignored, merge the existing iTunes/iPod culture with undiscovered singers and musicians and you could fulfill the UNCONFIRMED rumors of a future iRecord company by Apple.  

Are you innovative? Are you cool?  Well if you answer yes to either of these questions then the elements are there if you're creative enough to build a business around culture.

 

Sunday
Jun242007

Still thinking outside the box? You may want to think again.

Thinking outside the box is no longer the golden rule. It kept you on the cutting edge of creative problem solving for sourcing, making and marketing goods in a manufacturing based economy.  Ladies and gentlemen, if in 2007 this phrase is still rolling off your tongues, please consider yourself outdated (and borderline irrelevant. . . . sorry taco bell, this goes for you too).  Today’s challenges require thinking for a post-industrial economy.   A new market where proliferating technologies, changing business models, and the shifting dimensions of globalization are the order of the day.   

For platinum status you have to think at the intersection. A different process which involves thinking in multiple dimensions within the intersection of any idea. If you’re wondering what the intersection is just look at today’s groundbreaking concepts - plug in to wikipedia; an amalgamation of the internet, an encyclopedia, and volunteerism.  Order from netflix; the intersection of the internet, movie renting, and the U.S. postal system; Download from itunes; the intersection of a personal music library, the internet and portability.  

The leading edge innovators will be those who delve into the intersection of people, places, and ideas to create the products, services and experiences of tomorrow.   Yet in many ways, tomorrow is already here. Businesses such as Cooltown Studios, Gotvmail and Lexus are stepping into the intersection and reinventing the ideas of real estate development, office phone systems, and marketing. With a fresh set of 21st century rules, innovation has a new game face.  The question is . . . are you ready to play?
Saturday
Apr142007

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Guest blogger, Nyia Hawkins

Have you ever played the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? The theory
is that any actor can be linked to Kevin Bacon; through his film roles
to those of his co-stars and on to Kevin Bacon within six film roles
or less.  If you're Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for
Network for Good, you are only one degree away because Kevin Bacon
calls you.  And you don't have to be an actor.

Bacon wanted to do something good with the pop culture party game that
claimed his name so he purchased the URL for 'six degrees' and
contracted Network for Good, i.e. Andresen, to do the marketing.
Andresen had just the concept in mind, which is the philosophy behind
her book, "Robin Hood Marketing; Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just
booksm.pngCauses." At sixdegrees celebrities attach their name to a
charity, so when a viewer looks up his favorite celebrity he gets
information on a charity in the same click.  'Six Degrees' has raised
more than half a million dollars for various charities.  The Network
for Good website has led more than 430,000 people to donate more than
$100 million to over 20,000 charities.  
 
Andresen's marketing concept is an exercise in innovation, that doesn't
wag fingers at the public or pull guilt trips to get donations.  Her
concept of non-profit marketing is a conversation of listening to what
people care about and attaching charities to that.  In the case of 'Six
Degrees', what people care about is celebrity and attaching themselves
to celebrity; $558,076 worth of celebrity.
 
Nyia:  How do you add a degree of separation from celebrity to charity,
from charity to viewer?
 
Katya:  Whether for good or bad our culture is still attracted to
celebrities and what they wear, eat and do.  With www.sixdegrees.org,
we are showing what charities celebrities support.  But what has truly
made the site take off is not simply the celebrity fascination, it's
the desire of everyday people to be celebrities for their own cause by
posting their photos, stories and favorite charities on the site but
also on their own blogs and web pages.  We make that possible with
easy-to-use fundraising widgets that keep a running tally of how much
that widget has raised.  More than 4,000 people are being celebrities
for their own cause, and in only three months, they've raised more than
$550,000, which is astounding. So celebrities drive interest but
everyday people drive donations, because they are the true celebrities
within their own circles of friends and family.  
 
N:  What is the genesis behind your book?
 
K:  Non-Profits can be their own worst enemies when it comes to
Marketing, because they forget that their mission is not enough to
prompt action -- they have to determine how to talk with their
audience, on their audience's terms.  When I was a reporter working for
Reuters in Cambodia for World Aids Day, I noticed a huge a crowd in one
corner of a rather dull public health fair.  I saw the source of the
commotion: a towering, condom-shaped balloon emblazoned with the words,
"Number One." A crowd was eagerly grabbing free samples of Number One
Condoms, as well as Number One paraphernalia like t-shirts, hats, and
shorts.  The nonprofit, Population Services International, was marketing
pride and fun as a way to sell safe sex, rather than blaring their
mission statement.  That gave me an ah-hah moment, because I saw the
potential of approaching social good with a marketing mentality
borrowed from the business world.
 
N:  What do you see for Six Degrees future?
 
K: I would love to see 'Six Degrees' continue to grow and thrive.  I would
like it to become the model for people in the non-profit sphere.  I
would like to see people who are most passionate about these activities
come into the same arena.