bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Google is excellent at distracting its competition with flares, Google Reader, Buzz, News.

Ultimately they still make all all of their revenue through advertising, yet these flares work, they seek to distract competitors from what they really do.

We also create our own flares, I can’t start that project till I have the right software, or I can’t do that without the right camera. Really it’s hogwash.

We just need to bite the bullet, what’s the goal? And why aren’t we there yet? Then destroy any barriers that are in the way.’

The same way that basketball players spin around their opponents we need to spin around the barriers, acknowledging them but turning them to the wayside and springboard off them towards the goal.

That’s how great ideas happen.

Consumers hold grudges, someone treated them badly, someone was rude to them or the food wasn’t that good.

It’s unreasonable but who said consumers are rational? And why shouldn’t they be a bit unreasonable with their hard earned money and attention.

That’s why firms need to ask forgiveness, ‘under new management’ signs signal that things have changed, maybe time for a revisit.

Surveying, asking people who didn’t buy, why didn’t you? And just listening (rather than defending) any issues they had. This helps the grudges disappear and the last bad experience replaced with a great experience, one that they will have no grudges about.

This is the mark of a great company if you can identify and overcome consumer grudges.

Via FreshPeel.com I came across this excellent short documentary looking at influencers, how brands & creativity become contagious.  Watch it. Now.

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

It’s what artists do, to inspire themselves, to experiment, to do something new.

Yet we don’t do it enough, seriously we don’t but we should.

I’ll admit I haven’t done enough goofing about of recent, have you?

It happens over time.  Whether or not you want it to.  It does.

What you need to do is cull things, take things out that are holding you back or that you know works.

It’s by doing this that you push to the next level.  And get better.

Look out for complexity creep, it sneaks up on you real quick.  Real quick.

The network used to be invisible, you couldn’t really tell who was talking about you.

Now it’s relatively visible, so you can tell, which makes some people freak out (are we doing enough?).

If you stick to basics, look internally, do a remarkable job, do things worth talking about, the network will happen.

Remember it’s not stimulating a Facebook Liking competition that drives business it’s a real shift of value in each and every customer.  Doing that consistently is what’ll get the network on your side.

Just the way business was done, before the network was visible.

That’s the attitude of Replenish, what they’re saying is that 95% of the volume of a household spray is water, water that costs them to mix, fill the bottle and ship to you.  What if they shipped you the chemicals and you use your own water? What a brilliant idea.

Swapping it around, highlight what’s not there instead of what is.

Thanks to Gizmodo for bringing it to my attention.

I’m very fortunate to be able to meet, chat to and hang out with some very cool people.

And I’m forever thinking these are stories which need to be told, not by me but straight from the horses mouth.

So at the start of the year Glenn Williams (Radio host on Kiwi FM) sat down and invited people into the studio to sit down and have a chat with them.  We’ve called it KiwiNation, conversations with inspirational New Zealanders.

First up we have a couple of kiwis, Craig & Linda Martin, who produce an award winning podcast IndieTravelPodcast, travel and world and pay their way with the podcast and their website.  If you like what they’re doing, support them, as they really are doing something very cool.

Over the next four weeks another three shows will be released, so keep an eye out.

Infamous VC Fred Wilson has this to say.

“The Easy Answers Usually Don’t Work….when things go wrong in startup companies, the VCs often reach for the easy answers”

Read the full post here.  Thanks for the nudge Fred!

Stop moaning because it didn’t happen today. Nothing happens in a day. Everything is the conclusion of a prior set of events. That lunch you had, was cooked by the chef outback, who used the pre-prepared food, which came from the farmers markets, the butcher earlier that day, that came from farms, that were grown (or bred) over the past 12 months, that was cultivated land, that was cleared from scrub. Heck food has come a long way to get to you!

It’s exactly the same on any journey, focus on the bigger picture, have fun along the way (ie enjoy the journey, if you’re not, quit and try another journey), you’ll get there and it’ll get better. Just keep making the small iterative changes, be proactive, you can probably get there faster than you think (even if it’s not overnight).

Gartner visualises the Hype Cycle, it’s excellent.

I often discuss this, as it’s during the Hype Cycle that we get distracted.  Like email it’s easy to go off on a tangent but what’s important today?

Like the diffusion curve, understand where you lye on this.

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Thanks to RWW for bringing this to my attention.

As innovators we spend all our time just beyond the edge of the curve, in that unknown space, tearing things apart then rebuilding them and getting them along the curve.

Often though we forget our place, there’s a reason that it’s not taken off yet, it hasn’t moved along the curve.

I remember when Yahoo Voice was awesome back in 2000, it took a few years for the equivalent Skype to really take off.

Or the GroupOn (deal a day) craze has taken off, people have been trying that for years, you see you have to see where you lye of the curve.

Know your place and understand how you’re going to talk to the rest of the curve.

A lot of arguments, lack of business resources could be solved just by understanding the curve and your position on it.  Go check it out on WikiPedia: Diffusion of innovations.

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Thanks to Babak_Bagheri for the image.

In the past, firms sponsored a tv show by advertising on the ‘spots’, that is when the tv show first airs.

The secondary market (and lower rating) market was on repeats.

You matched up the shows audience with your target market.  Ie financial products advertised during a financial tv show.

The reason this arose is that content became ‘disposable’ once the latest episode of Lost had previewed it only decreased in value, till no one would advertise then it was released on dvd.

However leaving these online, opens up a whole new form of monetisation, hot videos will continue to be watched forever.  People will discover a show and watch the whole back catalog in a matter of months.  And the best thing? Companies can sponsor all of them.

Flipping this, for content producers, what if you develop a niche tv show, shared on YouTube.  Let’s say Gardening, in the future when you sell an advertiser you can sell them not only new episodes but also the whole back catalog (the long tail) and essentially double your revenue.  A whole new market!

It’s not quite there yet, but the market is fast moving that way, so get generating content now – for it’s those whole new networks of videos that are created that will inevitably replace tv.  And you have the opportunity to be in on the ground floor.

Why? Because it’s unusual.

Don’t be afraid of irrationality, it can be the defining difference between you and your competition.  And often all you need is a slight edge to bring your cause to the forefront of someones mind when they hit a problem.

Richard Branson knows this, his publicity stunts help get Virgin that extra bit of coverage and attention.

Being the one that bubbles to the top is often all it takes to get a foot in the door.

That is, the website or blog may be free.

The iPhone app costs a couple of bucks.

Or the Kindle stream costs you a few bucks amonth.

Or you still get the printed copy.

This is where content is going, pay for how you receive it, just the same as water.

Water from the tap is free unless it’s bottled or carbonated or served at a restaurant.  People will pay, in the right place, in the right form.