Global Social Gaming Overview

On Tuesday April 12 we presented a sweeping overview of Social Gaming from its scope, scale and size in the US to the development of this space around the world. We shared how marketers can engage consumers in the space and wrapped with some informative case studies by Toyota. Some impressions, slides, video and links follow.

Bubble or Bubbly Panel Recap

We had a great visit to Austin for SXSWi 2011 and will dedicate the next few posts to recaps. Here is the video from our “Bubble or Bubbly” panel, where we put Angels/VCs and an Analyst on the spot about the nature of our current early-stage, venture, talent and potentially market froth.

There was lively and thoughtful debate about where we are, some notable differences from the dot-com bubble–low cost to start, ease of marketing and launching, real revenues, etc.–as well as about how to approach a frothy market. Please comment below or on YouTube with your reactions.

Special thanks to all the panelists for their generosity of time, knowledge, humor and spirit:

Jason Calacanis Calacanis.com

Tony Conrad True Ventures

Kent Goldman First Round Capital

Charles Hudson SoftTech VC

Guy Kawasaki Garage Ventures

Lou Kerner Wedbush Securities

Great Panel for SXSW–“Bubble or Bubbly”

Illustrator: Gregory Nemec

I’m looking forward to hosting a great panel on Saturday, March 12 from 3-4pm at South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive on the PepsiCo Plugged-In Stage in the Austin Convention Center called “Bubble or Bubbly” exploring the topic of froth in Tech valuations from a number of perspectives. We’ll look at root causes, lessons learned, success and horror stories, adaptive behaviors and some thoughts about how to navigate going forward. For marketers, these same questions have to be asked to evaluate bets in emerging platforms with an eye towards leveraging the innovators advantage and disrupting early and often. The panelists are some of the best in the world to address this subject:

Jason Calacanis Calacanis.com

Tony Conrad True Ventures

Kent Goldman First Round Capital

Charles Hudson SoftTech VC

Guy Kawasaki Garage Ventures

Lou Kerner Wedbush Securities

 

 

You can RSVP for this panel on Plancast and Like it on Facebook. Ask questions for this panel here or on Facebook. The most liked question by the crowd and by me will be asked on stage. Also, follow this post for updates and links.

Let’s get this party started!

Dirty Brand Secret (video)

On Thursday, January 20, 2011 Method Brand Co-Founder+Chief Brand Architect and evangelist, Eric Ryan, dropped by our offices to take on our current theme of Social Mission/Causes. You can’t talk about Method as a brand without punctuating it with their rallying cry “People Against Dirty.” Or, said in the affirmative via their tagline: “for the love of clean.” Slogans that are rallying cries and tag lines that convey passion? These are more than just tools for a company with the stated goal of being “in business to change business.” In the hour or so that Eric spent with us he shared how this inside-out approach to their brand has driven revenues and retail success along with employee and consumer passion to the level of starting a small movement. And, as we’ve seen of late in global news, if you’re taking on established, incumbent power you need a different tool kit and approach.

A VCs Take on Pepsico10

We spoke with Michael Gaiss, Sr Vice President out of Boston for Highland Capital Partners, July 28 at Pepsico10 about HCP’s role in the event, some impressions and themes. We also did a quick follow-on interview to see how HCP qualifies investments for emerging technology companies and how that can align with how marketers make bets in new spaces. We’ll present the follow-up in a future post.

Here’s our video interview with summary notes below:

Top 5 things an Entrepreneur Should Know

Today, when I was speaking with a friend of mine who created a start-up last year after an amazing, successful run at large-company brand management, he shared these five truths discovered in the process:

1. It takes longer than you projected
2. It costs more than you projected
3. Interesting who actually helps you vs who said they would
4. Takes intense focus on fundamentals of business; lots of potential distractions
5. No one beats a path to your door. You must go get the business.

It’s a blast (he said this but didn’t include this one in the “5” but it’s why all of the above is worth it. What’s your top 5?