Why “facebucks” will change the world… if they don’t screw it up

As everyone knows, twitter is “so hot right now” and facebook is “so over”. Well call me old-fashioned but I still have a lot more faith in Zuckerberg than I do in @ev and co.. I don’t really want to get into all my reasons (mainly because I’m saving them for another post) but I will say that for me, reason number one is that facebook is absolutely jam-packed with content. Content that’s very relevant to our lives and recommended to us by our friends. And with each evolution of the platform, they’re getting better at...

Can Obama help resurrect Harper’s political branding, or is it too late?

If you haven’t heard the news, Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, is finally about to follow through on an olive branch he extended to Barack Obama… last November. This comes as exciting news to Canadians who have been waiting for their fearless leader to do, well, anything that resembles what the leader of a nation might do amidst one of history’s greatest recessions. But after months of acting more like the Governor General than the Prime Minister, can Harper really meet the objectives that are oh-so imperative to our nation (and the...

Can the music industry learn to think “small-picture”?

Remember the music industry? Remember right around the introduction of CD’s when the thing was flying high, raking in money hand over fist with no end in sight? You know, the music industry BEFORE the internet….. yeah. Well now that industry is openly struggling and still doesn’t seem to fully get the paradigm shift that’s happening under their feet. They’re like a family who built a house on the San Andreas fault and in spite of a chasm having opened up in their living room over the past 15 years, they’re choosing to ignore it and just cover it up with their...

The iPhone, the Blackberry and the slippery slope…

In a world where us techy folk like me enjoy sitting around and talking about how mobile is the future, and feeling encouraged by still-bleak but trumped up statistics like “42% of consumers use their mobile phones for something other than phone calls last month”, one thing we can hang on to is the outrageous success of the RIM Blackberry and the moderate success but outrageous cool-factor of the Apple iPhone. These are both heart warming tales, one of functionality, the other of usability, that point to a truly wireless future. But sadly, both are...

Writer’s strike = online boon? How do they figure?

There’s been a considerable amount written, first as a prediction and now as a factual report about the “impact” that the Hollywood writer’s strike will/is having on the online video world. And while I’m all for manufacturing stories (hence the blog), I’m saddened that in all my reading on the subject, nobody seemed to be predicting what actually happened – that TV reruns have no direct correlation to online video audiences. I mean, why would they? Think about it… television has long been built for mass audiences. Not 30...

Readers getting high on magic Pot(ter)

I can never resist using a bad pun for a title – especially when it’s even remotely accurate.  Lucky for me, this one fits perfectly, as the events of the past week have shown. To the interested observer (that’s me), the release of the final Harry Potter book in the septology (?) has only proven to only solidify what we’ve known for some time now – people love reading about this kid.  While it started out as a phenomenon of the very young, the fuss around J.K. Rowling’s adventures at the mythical Hogwarts school for wizards has grown...

Berating seven year olds and your brand on the wild, wild web

While I rarely talk about my work, our company (among other things) produces convergent media properties for pre-schoolers called This is Daniel Cook and This is Emily Yeung.  If you have kids under 10, you’ve probably heard of them. The backstory is that in 2004 Daniel hit the airwaves and immediately started to stir up as much chatter as I’ve ever seen around a pre-school property.  The show featured Daniel Cook – yes, that’s his real name – heading out to explore the world one six minute adventure at a time and all the while asking...

Facebook 2.0 – that was fast!

Some of you (listen to me talking like multiple people are reading this…) might recall a post of mine from not too long ago bemoaning Facebook and its inward looking view of its own spectacular Web 2.0 software.  Well, I’m happy to report – I’ve done it!!! Facebook announced yesterday, along with its proud partners, that they will be unveiling some 70 technology partners including favourites such as Photobucket, Hot or Not and Twitter.  Also included in the group to have the first chance to really dig into the social networking site’s API...

This Bud.TV’s for you… but not you

Beer.  We all love it, but for some of us, it is a forbidden love – often, because we’re just too young to drink it.  But too young to WATCH it?  That might be a little much…  Still, in age of experiential niche marketing, laws must be abided by in creating that experience,  this translates into a challenge for marketers – a challenge that I think is very well illustrated by Anheuser-Busch’s struggles with the interesting but as yet unsucessful, Bud.TV. You see that link up there at the end of the last paragraph?  Go ahead, click on...

I want my Facebook 2.0!

They say that first step to overcoming any addiction is admitting that you have a problem. The thing is, I’m not sure if facebook is a habit that I really want to lick.  I just hope they don’t force me to give it up… So what am I talking about here?  Well, let me explain.  One of the greatest things about the ‘book is that it allows you to define your individuality and share it with the world through the tools which the software provides.  The problem is that a person’s identity is defined by that representations of a collection of...