February 10, 2013
We had the chance to speak with Levi Schapiro, organizer of the Ad & Social Tech Summit taking place February 11 at Tel Aviv University, to find out what makes Israel a source of innovation in advertising technology, and what we can look forward to at the summit. Read about it in this interview. More →
August 9, 2010
In a time and age where I can chose whether to listen to a brand or to read my friend’s status update – how can a brand get my attention?
In my opinion it is all about big ideas
Isn’t the big idea dead already?
Mark Earls believes that big ideas are dead, over used, and that we should focus on small tests and campaigns. However I am talking about differnt kind of big ideas. I am not talking about a short lived one time gig. I am talking about deeply rooted concept at the heart of the brand, that affects its dealing wiht customers, the product they build, and the way they treat their customers.
What is a big idea?
Big ideas are concepts that beyond a product or one’s daily life, that are more important than price or features. Big ideas are ones who change the way we look at life and society. Big ideas are ones that are powerful enough to make the man on the street listen to your message. A big idea is that one story that brings value to people – not only consumers.
In some cases brands are not openly stating their big idea. In some cases they don’t even realize their big idea until the community, their users, tell them it exists.
Let’s take Twitter for example. Twitter’s big idea is communication without boundaries. This idea fueled the Iranian uprise, which in turn personified this idea. As stated before, it was a false hope in my opinion. Still it was amazing to see the energy that this idea brought to the community.
Canon and HDSLR are another example. Canon released their 5D Mark II DSLR camera with the ability to shoot HD videos. This quickly materialized to another big idea – everybody can be a filmaker – now in an affordable way.
What isn’t a big idea?
Well, the product itself. Features, without a wider context, are merely technical parameters. They don’t improve ones life. Price is not a big idea – again, unless it is in a wider context, such as in the case of HDSLR cameras.
Also, Fun is not a big idea. Fresh is not a big idea. these are just awesome keywords for a brief. “Like” competitions are definitely not a big idea. Hiring “buzzers” is many things, big idea is not one of them.
The Time is Now
Modern western society is in a unique situation. World War II ended with the good guys wining. Communism lost the battle. Most of the western world is democratic, and relatively liberal from an economic point of view. Governments are losing their position as setters of big ideas. Yes, Obama most used word was change. But at the end of the day, nations are creating less and less big ideas that affect lives.
But people are still looking for bigger than life concepts and experiences. They want to feel that they are a part of something, something bigger than day to day life. They want to be excited!
Someone will fill the void. Brands and companies are the best candidates for that. They have the incentive and money to do it.
So what’s your big idea?
March 9, 2010
Last week I was invited to speak at Digital Innovation Summit in Berlin, organized by VDZ, the German Magazine Publishing association. In this series of posts I’ll cover some of the topics discussed.
Susanne Kunz, media and communications director, Procter & Gamble, Germany, spoke at Digital innovators summit in Berlin last week, and had some very direct words to say to publishers. She stressed the fact that magazines are facing competition for ad money – and they aren’t necessarily delivering premium value.
First she explained that magazine publishers in Germany are missing the most important value they could provide – customer insight. Publishers are not investing enough in knowing their customers and provide valuable information to advertiser.
Second, she believed that companies and brands should be present on all platforms, cause their customers are on every platform too.
Third, she stressed the fact that with content becoming more and more open and free, magazines should focus on bringing truly unique content to customers.
And last but not least, she mentioned mobile as more than a content distribution platform – but also could be used for virtual goods and product delivery.
The session was meant to be a wake up call to publishers – it seems that at least in some cases it worked…
September 2, 2009
You have a strong passion for media, marketing, and getting others excited. You are a hard working self starter and motivated individual, who get things done. You solve problems, and are considered an out of the box and creative thinker.
You are tech savvy and a social media enthusiast with REAL followers on twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. You speak Hebrew and English fluently.
And you love all things beautiful, and appreciate the importance of visual elements in everything we do.
It would be also great if you have project or account management experience, B2B or B2C marketing know how, you love all things Mac, have video editing, directing or shooting experience and you are an active blogger
We are a B2B/B2C digital agency, with publicly traded international customers, that is expanding its operation. We believe that the relations between brands, companies and customers are changing fundamentally, and there is a need for a new breed of marketeers that understand different platforms, know how to integrate them, and how to create value to for customers and brands/companies alike. We also believe that there are new ways to communicate with customers, that doesn’t necessarily require buying expensive media.
If we work together, you will create and execute multi-platform digital and real life activities that challenge traditional advertising and PR industry.
If you’d like to apply – send us your CV. It can be video, images, or plain old paper. You can find us at Jobs AT pravdam.com or on Facebook (Kfir Pravda)
August 3, 2009
DJ Francis is reminding us why we are here
Huffington Post interviews Alex Bogusky about the future of advertisement. Yes. THE Alex Bogusky
Eyecube has an excellent piece about agency models
Erica Douglas written a post about lack of women in IT
And a list of 45 creative blog tag lines
December 3, 2008
Wow. That’s what I thought when I saw Google’s strategy presentation:
September 12, 2008
Here is the second video of Microsoft’s campaign:
A bit better, but still doesn’t match the Mac vs. PC one:
July 14, 2014
Content + Paid Media = No Glass Ceiling
Farrah Fidler advertising, B2B Digital Marketing, B2B marketing, BIScience, Content marketing, Marketing B2B Digital Marketing, Events, Marketing 0 Comments
One of the biggest challenges of content distribution is that when using only organic channels (SEO, social) there is a limit to readership growth rate. It seems that using paid media in smart ways could answer this challenge, if done right.
We teamed up with our friends at BIScience and are doing a webinar on Wednesday to discuss this point in more detail, as well as showing relevant cases studies.
If you are interested, register for the webinar using this link.