Happy Halloween from the Koogar Team!
Happy Halloween from the Koogar Team!
This year we made the decision to carve our very own pumpkin with our brand new Logo in it.
What do you think?
Did you carve your own pumpkin?
The Future of Business with Brian Solis
On 12th July I travelled to the big smoke, London, to attend an event by Adobe to find out about a new product they were launching. More importantly, to listen to someone I had seen before in London, at Stamford Bridge for iStrategy 2012. His name is Brian Solis, and he was the opening key note speaker at iStrategy. He blew me away on day one. Brian looks at how people use Social Media and Brands and analyses it.
When I saw Brian’s name as a speaker on the invite from Adobe I had to book my place there and then. The first 100 people would get a signed copy of his new book that he was going to be promoting, so the event was a double launch.
The launch of his book “The Future of Business” was to be held at The Mayfair Hotel – another reason to attend!.
What's the Future of Business by Brian Solis
A few colleagues asked me why I would travel all that way for a few hours and a book launch. “Is it really worth going all that way?”, and the simple answer to this question was, “Yes!”.
At iStrategy Brian asked the audience the question of “Why do you do what you do?” which was a turning point in Social Media when brands and businesses understood more about their why. So when I was invited to see Brian speak again, I had no hesitation in registering bearing in mind that I would need to get up for 4am to get the train to London and be there on time for 9am.
So why was I going?
- To see Brian Solis speak again and to hear about the Future of Business
- To get inspired by a leader in my industry
- To meet like minded people
- For an experience – I had never been to the Mayfair Hotel before
- And to ask Brian for an interview! – If you don’t ask…
I got all 5 plus more…
#1: Brian Solis was fabulous and didn’t disappoint. I could listen to him all day talk about social, people, business and brands. My favourite thing Brian said during the presentation was “Most marketers are in marketing because they don’t like maths, which is why R.O.I is a touchy subject!”
#2: Everything he said hit the nail on the head as you would expect, especially the ego-system where we expect people to be interested in absolutely everything we do every day
#3: I met two new people and we even went for lunch afterwards and spoke about Social, Digital and everything Internet. We followed each other and in fact still speak on Twitter every week! Lovely people!
#4: The hotel was beautiful, in fact stunning!
#5: I asked Brian if it was OK for an interview whilst he was signing my book and he said yes! I just needed to wait until everyone else had been sorted out
So, was it worth going? Yes is the simple answer. It was a very successful and inspiring day! Sometimes you have to do things because they feel right or just because you want to; you just never know where your choices will lead!
Safe or controversial – what does your marketing say about you?
Recently I visited to the Damien Hirst exhibition at the Tate Modern in London to see for myself whether the artist can in fact be regarded as such or if he is indeed an impostor inflicting his works of ‘art’ on the helpless public.
After a couple of hours walking around a giant ashtray filled with damp and used cigarettes, a severed cow’s head complete with flies buzzing round it and countless canvasses covered with dots I have to say I would agree with the latter. However, it did get me thinking about marketing and different people’s approaches to it.
The exhibition was filled with people either admiring or making up their own minds about Hirst’s work. So, whether or not they were ardent fans, they were still there. Hirst’s work is extremely controversial, but it does generate immense interest. In the same way, marketing can be seen as either safe or controversial, depending on your view point, but either way it divides audiences.
Safe marketing does not mean boring.
It can be a tried and tested method, which businesses know works well for them. For example, an established IT company may use corporate images, taken by a professional photographer, and non-technical language in their marketing in order to look reputable and to avoid alienating their clients and potential clients.
Controversial marketing is designed to shock and can work well if you truly understand your market, target audience or ideal customer. Your message will need to directly target a specific group and only them – alienating those outside your market and who will probably never become your customer. Even if your controversial marketing fails I can guarantee that it will stick in people’s minds, maybe for all the wrong reasons, but they’ll definitely remember your business.
However, always thoroughly think any marketing campaign through before embarking upon the controversial. There are hundreds of ways to freshen up your marketing and make it more interesting without going out of your way to offend and shock people. Try a play on words, speaking directly to your customer and using customer testimonials – these subtle changes can make more of a difference than you may think.
So safe or controversial – how do you like your marketing?
#GEC2012 – Global Entrepreneurship Congress (Liverpool)
GEC2012 Liverpool
I got the opportunity and received a ticket the day before from a person who couldn’t make it. I sent him the monies for the ticket and printed it off in excitement. I attended my weekly BNI meeting the same morning and proceeded to tell everyone where I was going the rest of the day.
The GEC is something I have wanted to go to since I saw the hype about it; “Sir Richard Branson is coming to town…“. Now for me that’s not something I could not miss.
Born on the same day as Richard (18th July) I would like to think that Koogar is the next Virgin….. Well, I can always dream and you never know do you.
I left the Hard Days Night Hotel just after 8:30am and parked in the closest car park to the Echo Area and excitedly walked towards the doors and then into queue to tell them I have arrived so I could collect the bites and pieces they give out. I quickly realised I left my ticket on the table at B.N.I. with a few of my other things but I was able to show the Steward my ticket via my Blackberry, which helped me secure my seat and lanyard moments after.
Once sorted, I gathered my bearings I called a B.N.I. colleague to see if he could see my file, which he did and will be passing it to me next week. (Saved my day; Mr.Mark Wilson)
I saw a few faces I knew said Hi and waited patiently until we could be seated for the forthcoming events of the day and this is what I thought of #GEC2012:
Sir Richard Branson – If I’m honest I was a little disappointed that the #GEC decided to interview him and not give him the opportunity to speak to the 3,000 strong crowd by giving us tips and inspiration to keep us going to do what we do. Instead he was interviewed by a person who said “If I get him, I’m interviewing him” which I thought to be quite selfish… (All about the me not the we!) But hey, I just expected it to be more than what it was and I think others around me did too. I did make plenty of notes and the biggest thing I took away from Richards slot was to:
“Get the right people in place, delegation is important and will help your grow as well as passion!”
Since the event I have come away and looked into The Elders to find out more about them and what they have been doing as I hadn’t heard of them before.
Sir Terry Leahy delivered an excellent talk about “The Winner Within” –
“Show courage and take the risk”
The day carried on and the next highlight for me was The Black Farmer; I think I now love Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones.
His island twang coming out ever so slightly during his interjections on the panel. He is a straight talking, no bull-s**t kind of guy who just wants to get the job done and doesn’t wait around. He mentioned that he couldn’t get his sausages into the large supermarkets so proceeded to ask his audience “If you like my sausages, please email the nearest person to you and tell them”.
Now that’s a great way to market yourself and product as well as to use your network!
Lord Heseltine was awesome! What a man… I thought he might be a little humdrum but no! He was the complete opposite. A very interesting man who has achieved a lot. One thing he said was “We are all unique, so why should I give you any advice?”, which made me laugh. The point was that we all think and do things differently. His biggest message during the day was;
Passion; make sure you enjoy getting up on a Monday morning. If you don’t change your job!
The next few people who finished off the day for me was Martha Lane Fox – who I have heard is a great speaker but not seen her before the day. And I agree! Very passionate, knowledgeable and a down to earth kind of lady.
Lara Morgan – What a cool woman! Quietly reserved but leading lady. One of her tips during “The Power of We” session.
“Delegate, be fair, grow people and give them a voice. The power of many! Things will go wrong but the more you trust them the more they trust you”
Michael Hayman by far was the best panel facilitator. He was fast paced, interesting and kept the momentum of the session along with Doug Richard who moderated a different session in which he was cheeky and controversial.
All in all the day was good! 6 pages of notes written and now I need to do something about them!
It would have been really good if the GEC could have give us workshops or handouts of exercises to do during the day which gets more engagement/participation from the audience.
I’m glad I went as it gave me the KUTA (Kick up the arse) I needed. How about you, what did you think?
I’m going to take that Tiger outside, for a ride…
Noel Gallagher - High Flying Birds
Just watched The BRIT Awards 2012 and noticed what I noticed. Have you ever done that?
When you notice what you notice you are seeing something you haven’t seen or recognised before.
But what I noticed is what motivates me. Passion!
Passion: (from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.
By passion I mean liking, loving, feeling something so much that it makes you want to be even better. You’re so excited about that something, that you want to share it with the world.
Noel Gallagher came on stage to sing his new track called “What a life!” and over the last few weeks my boyfriend (Andy. Who is a videographer and LOVES Oasis a.k.a. The Boys) and I have been watching how he has created the video series related to the new album he is currently releasing, behind the scenes of the video’s, what cameras they are using, the story behind the videos and songs, who is helping create them, etc.
Any way, what I noticed was I was much more interested to see him perform his new song live as I knew a lot more about him, the High Flying Birds, their video, how it was made, where it was made, who was in it, where they got the extras/actors from and so on.
The passion that Noel has for what he does and how he does it is remarkable, including the passion (liking, loving, feeling) I have for what he has been doing recently.
Now, not everyone likes Noel’s music (old and/or new) but my point is by having a passion for what you do or what others do inspires me to be even better than what I currently am.
At the moment there are a lot of business struggling with getting work, keeping clients, thinking of new ideas, planning for the future, staying motivated and lots of other things that come with running a company.
Give people a reason to want to work with you! Show them the passion you have for your company, product, service and more importantly… show them you.
People buy from people.
Having passion, enthusiasm and a great interest in what you do, gives people even more confidence in you.
Whats your Purple Cow?
I have finished this remarkable book called “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin and I wanted to share it with you…
I first heard of it on Redshift Radio as one of the presenters who comes on once a month reviews books and he shared the story about the “Sneezer’s” which I now refer to all the time. I wanted to know more about this book so I preceded to visit my local library to see if they had it for loan , and they did.
It’s taken me a month to read the book I read it slowly to make sure I took in the books message and answered some of the questions he puts to you. The book is written by Seth Godin and you can find him on Facebook and many other places. his website is: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
I have taken a few things from this book.
- Be Remarkable!
- Otaku
- Risk
- Sneezers
Be remarkable; is the books theme. It wants you to take a look at your company and don’t be standard or just very good… It wants you to be remarkable and helps you understand how you can do it and why your should do it.
Otaku; is a japanese word for obsession, and everyone has one but they will all be different. I suppose I have one for “black & white” and “cats”. If you can find out if your audience has one for your product you need to move towards them getting them wanting more.
Risk; If you don’t try you’ll never know! Which is one thing my Mum said to me all the time while growing up. By taking a risk you open up opportunities for you, your company and your products/services.
Sneezers; Find out who these people are and make sure they tell everyone about you and what you can do for them. They are the high end word of mouth referrals, better than Networking by far! These are people who are wanting to share you and your product with people to show how you helped them.
I’m also working out what I sneeze about too. Is this something I want to promote? Do I believe in it that much to tell other people about it?
Fantastic book!, which I do and will carry on recommending or should I say “Sneezing” about and will read again in the future. This is one to buy and keep on my shelf…
If you have read it let me know what you thought and which golden nuggets you have taken away from it and if you know what your purple cow is?