Kauko

Have a look at Kauko, the world’s first remote controlled café, latest project with hasan & partners, perfect fools and twofatboys.


See the case film here

Update on ’The Bucket Brigade’

Earlier this year I have been posting on a book project titled ’The Bucket Brigade’ initiated by Bud Caddell. Now here is an update. I am looking forward to future development and results and am humbled to be part of this.

SIME Helsinki

SIME Helsinki is coming up and hasan&partners got the chance to co host the event. Have a look at the speaker list and agenda here, read more about SIME in general from here and join in.

Let’s write a book together

I supported a book project initiated by Bud Caddell launched on the KickStarter platform with 100 $. I would love to see the book published as it could be a manifesto for new marketing, based on the believe that cultural exchange between individuals and brands are the new mass media.

Have a look on Bud's own thoughts about the project here and browse through my latest deck on slideshare to get a deeper understanding.

If you want to change Marketing for the better, if you want brands and people having an exchange with each other, please support and promote the project and thinking. Although it makes perfect sense, marketers believing in push, quick sales tricks and old school thinking are still in the vast majority, causing pain to passionate forward thinking marketers and - last but not least - people.

This time, it is all about YOU

Some ramblings on social media, Marketing and you.

Read more on slideshare.

Redefinition

The years from 2010 to 2020 are the age of redefinition. Last time society and way of life changed so dramatically was during the industrial revolution, which started at around 1800. We are now having the ultimate thrill living the digital revolution, and the impact on society, business, environment and culture is massive. We are just in the very beginning in mayor fields as e.g. education, transportation, energy, health care, media and research.

The digital revolution is differing in one mayor point from the industrial revolution, though: The speed of transformation. Even companies which were supposed to be on the right track and in the right industry, e.g. US handset manufacturers Motorola and Palm, nearly lost everything in as short time as three years.

We need to change the way of thinking and working, if we want to play an important role in future. The game has changed for good. We need to reboot processes, brand and R&D now. We need innovative business strategies, digital roadmaps and marketing intelligence. We need to understand and to accept. We need to reinvent ourselves. And let’s don’t forget to have fun – we are living the digital gold rush. The most creative solutions will be royally rewarded.

Change is good

Once again, some time ago since the last post. My work life has undergone some changes recently, and after an interesting and successful time with the guys from KING Helsinki I have joined forces at iconic hasan & partners. I am supporting the digital approach of the agency, the main goals are to strengthen brands’ position in the digital world by coining outstanding creative work, let it be marketing communications or business critical digital services. All in all it has been a great amount of work for me since November 2009, and I am just before a two weeks holiday in Boston and NYC to refresh my brains. Be sure I’ll be back with a clear mind and the right spirit.

Happy Easter to all of you, and don’t forget to go out and eat the world.

Some ramblings on engagement and its strategic implications I recently had can be found and downloaded in a simple set of 8 slides from slideshare. Food for thoughts, not more and not less.

Here you go.

Thanks for the inspiration, IBM

Working as strategist means being a change agent, so it is about changing things. Or less sophisticated: It is about bringing brands and business from A to B. Naturally we are just a rack wheel in a huge machinery, so the mission seems quite sometimes impossible. I am referring to all kind of change, reaching from change in brand strategy to activate a traditional business making sense of the digital world. Change processes are complex, and positive inspiring examples are rare. In IBM I have found such an example, a company with a great history and heritage which has recently reinvented itself. It takes a lot to do what they have done, reaching from a clear vision to a bold strategy, and maybe the hardest part, its implementation. So, congrats IBM for changing from selling hardware to being a service provider. Thanks for the inspiration.

Here some more beef and information.

Your five minutes of fame going on a hold

Well, thanks for all the great entries, there have been about 300 comments from you guys visiting this blog in the last 24 hrs. I unfortunately could only post a view, as this blog is just a small hobby. The response to the ’Your five minutes of fame’ idea and the stuff you wanted to have promoted is brilliant, though, and I might publish the one or other comment later. Please don’t enter any more thoughts, I won’t find the time to go through them all and post them.

ps/
As the traffic is still flowing, currently about 5000 unique visitors per day, I will come up with some new stunt soon.

Your five minutes of fame [6]: Suddenly fourty

I've earned my blogging stripes as a social/political commentator over the last 10 years and have decided to do something different. So I started a new blog:

http://suddenlyfourty.blogspot.com/

I plan to apply the same kind of vulcan logic I applied to socio-political commentary to, well, a more diverse range of more personal and interesting things.

:)

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [5]: Fiction Writing

Tobias,

Interesting experiment. I'm a fiction writer and occasional essayist living in the U.S.--I'm not selling anything. I have links to a few published stories on my web site, links to other literary-themed sites, and a more-or-less literary-themed blog at

www.cbbernard.com.

If anyone wants to pass some time by reading short stories, please visit.
I look forward to reading about the results of your social experiment. Thank you.

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [4]: Finding Mr. Right

Dear Tobias- am certainly mesmerized by your offer. I would love to promote myself in two ways.I am an attractive 50 something looking to find the ultimate product...Mr. Right. If you can not support the finding of love what can you support? I am also I fiber artist that works making silk bowls and also collages using techniques and materials I learned about in Japan. I am just starting to write my blog to support everyone in the arts and get them to think a little about the world and the universe.

http://lifeofasingleartist.blogspot.com/

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [3]: Save my company

Hey Tobias! Let's see if this gets your attention. I own what was on its way to becoming a thriving business before I had a a deal go terribly wrong costing me everything and leaving me to start again. I have investors who are considering coming on board, but I had another, more creative idea as well. You seem to be someone who can appreciate one's creativity. I wrote a book titled; Save My Company, Buy This Book; A Business Guide to raise money and took some unique approaches to drive sales. Check out my story, if you don't mind, at:

http://www.saveourcompany.org/
and my blog, which really needs some traffic, at
http://mydesperateneedforhelp.blogspot.com/

I hope you don't mind lending a hand, or some traffic!

This is what the Birmingham post writes about a man who want to save his business by pre-selling a book about
how to save companies…

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2009/12/book_is_capital_idea_in_fundin.html

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [2]: Free the children

Hi ! i also found this blog by clicking the next blog button (can anyone really resist). I read your five minutes of fame idea, and thought, hey, what do i have to lose? Right now i'm just a 17 year old student, who just made my first blog yesterday. To provide some inspiration and some words to relate to, everyday, documenting my 2010 with pictures, quotes, and many rants: http://wordsweallneed.blogspot.com/

There is one cause i have recenetly become almost obsessed about. I do love to share the little money i have( and you should to !) to cancer wards, make-a-wish foundation, sick kids, UNICEF. However, I have recently started to become more educated and involved in Child Labour. Amazing how more than 80% of my wardrobe was probably made by a child, who probably had no choice in it to begin with.

http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/geteducated/childlabour.htm

get involved ! Ask if the clothes you're about to purchase may be made in sweatshops. We can change that, because these children, and any other sweat shop workers deserve a future too.

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [1]: The hunger site

Hi! I just happened to find this (via next blog as you described) and couldn't resist the possibility of being the first one to leave my mark. I'm currently still a student, so generally I don't promote much, other than a positive attitude towards life (hopefully). But once my education is finished, I hope to go into the world and promote volunteering and other social work in an attempt to make the world a more beautiful place. As part of this, I am a follower of the hunger site and rainforest site...

www.thehungersite.com/

The site is supported by various sponsors, which means that those who are interested only have to click the button and money from the sponsors will go to those in need.
I think this is a valuable investment of three seconds every day :) Thanks! xxxLisaK

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame

Hei everyone!

As for some reason I get thousands of visitors to my blog every day via the ’next blog’ button since three days I gave a thought what to do with the traffic. Being an adman myself, placing random ads on the site is not an option (; As you guys visited here from 139 countries the last three days, targeted self promotion doesn’t make much sense either. So I decided to promote random people and their projects, thoughts or organizations. Naturally it must be something interesting to get posted here.

This is how the experiment goes:
You write some short description of yourself, your [non-profit] organization, your project or your thoughts. Then you comment your content to this post. If it is good stuff I will make an own blog post out of it, and link to the sites you mentioned. Or in other words, I give away this blog to your cause for a post, if you convince me. If you want me to add a picture to your post, add a link to the picture in the end of your comment, so that I can grab it.

Send me your stuff, I am curious to see what you want to have promoted!

ps/ If you are selling electronics from China or fake Viagra, it might be very unlikely to get a post… That’s why this action is moderated.

What’s up?

Something intersting happening on this blog… more than 12.000 unique visitors in 3 days, a significant increase. What brought you here, what’s up?

Lecture

Here some slides from my last lecture for this year.

Browse and download from slideshare.

Happy holidays, next year will be great!

Social Media and its effect on brands

Social networks have always been existing, naturally also before the digital era. They were shaped by our friends, families, neighbours, sports clubs and so on. Word of mouth, the recommendation by a member of our social networks, has as well been existing, and was always the most respected and trusted way of communication. So what has changed, then?

The first thing which changed was technology. The paradigm shift we are experiencing right now is enabled by technology. But the dynamics and the dimension the shift reached is cultural. This is how it goes:

Our social networks have started to be digitalized recently, and the process gets faster and deeper every day with an ever growing amount and speed. I am talking about the large number of social platforms and the trend to get everything, anytime. Real time.

The digitalization of our social networks has turned them into a media. Or to be precise: They have always been a media. One to one. But now they are the new mass media. Many to many. From now on everything has to be true and real. That’s why the shift is a great thing for humanity. It’s hard for brands. But they will learn and evolve. Some on the hard way. Game over, old mass media.

In a nutshell:

The digitalization of our social networks has transformed them in the most powerful mass media. The other thing to remember: Everything is a media. Everything communicates. In this context I can also recommend some classics from Marshall McLuhan, although its heavy stuff.