Tools vs Content

Content is king. Except for when it's not.

In my endeavors sailing through the wonderful world of marketing (and especially digital marketing), management seem to be more obsessed (and impressed) with the choice of technologies and mediums rather than content. There seem to be more thought, meetings and studies dedicated to the choice of tools rather than the content these tools are meant to deliver.

Here are examples:

-    Client spends more money on buying newspaper space and hires freelance designers and junior staff to develop lack luster advertisements.

-    Client obsessing over QR codes, sharing tools, platforms, questionable new applications and expensive technologies rather than creating a good set of messages

-    Client worrying too much about meeting poorly defined KPIs rather than proper targeting their messages

-    Too much concern over what advertising platforms to buy over the message strategy

Although McLuhan famously quoted "The medium is the message", it is still no excuse for creating flippant material. Good copy, spending some time and effort building a good message that your market will want to associate with.

Creating good messages, good content and building a brand has inherent risks. You're now taking sides. Your brand and whatever you say now has an opinion. If you're not funny, you shouldn't be. If you don't have size, you shouldn't pretend. Wear a hat that's too big for you and you'll turn away customers. Acting like something you're not will make you look stupid.

All this does not imply that brands should avoid creating good content. Plain porridge, tap water and odorless air may be good to nurse an ill person, but using this strategy in your marketing will get you ignored promptly. As humans, we're bombareded by so many marketing messages, our heads are already programed to shutoff messages that do not get our attention - in short, you waste your money. In this case, no campaign is better than a bland campaign.

Here are some questions you might want to consider before your next campaign:

• Who do you want to target?
• What sort of goals do you want to achieve?
• What is the type of brand personality you're feeding?
• What is the story you're trying to tell?
• How can you use marketing tools to achieve the best effect for your story?

Sponsored Post

Numerical literacy is one of the most important, flexible and transferable skills you'll require in the course of life. In a modern context, you -cannot- i repeat -cannot- do without basic financial skills.

Just like how money accumulates interest in a bank, likewise, poor financial decisions also accrue bad karma that will bite you very, very hard when it's payback time.

Then there are also career prospects; being nimble with numbers, sharp at analyzing, having the ability to weigh merits vs demerits and have these beautifully presented/argued in naked numbers are all skills that employers (and clients) will pay money for.

Above that, you'll find the following exceptionally useful:

- To understand the language of project finance through robust training at a top business school (gains you extra credibility),

- Know what/how to employ the tools needed to analyse and value project finance structures back in the workplace

Project Finance

I'd like to introduce to you this very interesting programme by the London Business School called "Project Finance". I mean, sure... this article is sponsored by them, but the thing is, this unique course from the London Business School trains an individual in a combination of skills that is very relevant in our precision obsessed society. More so if your line of work crosses, or actually are:

• Asset managers Institutional and/or private investors
• Investment consultants and independent financial advisers (IFAs)
• Regulators, compliance officers, accountants and lawyers
• Investor relations specialists and corporate financiers
• Risk managers, actuaries, auditors and quantitative analysts
• Pension fund and endowment trustees
• Investment managers, private bankers and family office representatives

At the heart of the Project Finance Programme, is an in-depth analysis of real-life case studies covering both successful and "not-so-successful" examples of project financing in both Europe and emerging markets. With rising popularity in this type of financing, there is also increasing need for such a programme for busy professionals who can’t afford to take much time out of the office. A fast, highly effective, 5 day course that starts on 25 June 2012 will add a powerful arsenal to your repertoire of skills.

Throughout the course, you will build a strong network of contacts from the growing project finance industry and with all the skills acquired will eventually lead you to an increase in confidence when working with stakeholders.

Some of the questions you probably have in mind at this moment are:

- What advantages does Project Finance have over traditional corporate finance?

- What are the valuation challenges posed by such structures?

- If such projects encounter financial distress, how should they optimally be restructured?

You'll find all this info and more at the Project Finance webpage: 

here: http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=tf&c=20&mc=click&pli=4726421&PluID=0&ord=[timestamp]

So I urge you, do hop over to their site - besides Project Finance, you might also get some ideas on what to do next with your career and professional upgrading!

For more information on this, download one of the brochures on: http://www.london.edu/programmes/executiveeducation/financeeducation.html?utm_source=EBUZ&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FL_FIN_EBUZ_SM_PROG

Some notes about the London Business School:

Located in a global  financial centre and consistently ranked among the world's top business schools, London Business School offers unsurpassed connections to the world of finance. The School has one of the largest concentrations of finance faculty in the world and is firmly established as a global centre of excellence in finance. Participants learn how to use financial information to make better decisions for their organisation, or develop their understanding of a specific specialisation. These highly practical programmes enable participants to implement the knowledge and skills they have gained immediately upon their return to work.

Viral video by ebuzzing

Can Google+ ever cause a migration of users from Facebook?

I scouted around to look for statistics of Facebook growth and I found this:

From this data, it is observable that the increase in user acceptance to Facebook also followed the proliferation of the iPhone. Now, this does not necessarily mean that the iPhone was the only catalyst that caused the increase. But it is undeniable that it's introduction made sharing, catching up on gossips, forwarding helpful public alerts (especially during commuting hours), and various other social activities were made possible with this mobile computing platform.

From the blogs I run, it is also noticeable that increase in viewership occurs during morning/ evening commuter hours and lunch. Weekends see the worst dip in viewership, so do office hours.


Now, allow us to introduce, the Google goggle.

This exciting device extends the use of smart phone applications to the real world. Some of the things it can do include: helping the user see directions to destinations appear literally before their eyes, talk to friends over video chat, take a photo or even buy a few things online as you walk around. With the ability to connect to a smartphone, the possibilities are boundless. Although I'm not so sure how cool you'd look walking into a club with one of these.

I was quite excited to hear that Google is in the process of building it's new augmented reality glasses. If it can prove to integrate well in social use, this may very well be the device that can shift multitudes of users from Facebook to Google+

Let's stop paying for oil: let's go!

Oil shares more money with more people across more continents. And the sheiks who run these empires have a tremendous say in the all the economies of the world - you can have such power also if the product you produce is the raw material needed for EVERYTHING that runs the modern world. Any increase in oil prices trickle a chain of events that affect financial markets and eventually affects the small consumer. A one cent increase in oil markets over the period of a year can raise pump prices by as much as $1b in America (Source: CNBC).


We have new technology: electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, nuclear energy but why aren't we seeing more charging stations, more policies to get people to switch (maybe a cash for clunkers program...cash for guzzlers?) and more action by giant conglomerates to take more serious action? My feel is that that financial grip by the oil companies is too tight. Oil money is too tightly integrated into the world and it's profits shared by too many powerful individuals and organizations. Whoever owns the money, owns the country: even governments could face a political backlash if it pumps more money into, say, nuclear plants and electric vehicles - an action that could lead to large profit losses for the biggest companies in the world. Will this be an isolated implosion? Hard to say. Lehman Brothers opened a can of worms that crawled all over the world, eating away entire economies. Imagine Shell, Chevron and BP going bankrupt. Then imagine the Arabs going bankrupt. At the same time.


The logical thing to do now is to help these industrial giants spearhead businesses in renewable energy and diversify into different technologies so that their money can be made while the world weans off it's addiction to oil. Until then, we won't expect any real action from governments all over the world to encourage alternative energy.


Oil volatility is nothing new - but I am hoping it's mood swings will trigger a consumer's "middle east revolution": to start voting with their dollar and demanding non-oil energy.

Get out of the office and live free!

I have always been very keen on the technology industry. This is the playground where mankind comes together to construct new products and toy with new ideas that will make life easier, better, longer, healthier and more entertaining. The latest developments in the consumer and business technology arena has got to be cloud and tablet computing. A couple of months ago, The Economist painted a lovely picture of the smart phone: it is no longer just a telephone or a mobile computer - it is an exo-brain. What tablet computers have gone and done is bring you a magazine sized brain-in-a-bag. And this is life changing.

Here's how the iPad/iPhone has changed my life:

    I now "see" how far away the bus is from my bus-stop
    With a security camera, I can peak at what's happening at home, live.
    My friends know where I am and vice-versa via Facebook check-ins
    I can retrieve my email wherever, whenever
    I can track marketing campaigns of my clients at any time
    I have a thousand books, magazines, presentations, portfolios etc in one lightweight device to call-up and search on-demand
    With Bento (a database software), I have made CRM, a diary and an accounting system both mobile and cloud-hosted.
    CNBC is always with me, news, videos and real-time ticker tapes allow me to monitor my portfolio within a few touches

And yet these are only a few of the more commonly used applications I call up within the course of a day! With more and more of computing power being processed by a cloud, life becomes increasingly mobile.

Here's a dream: I'm hoping one day the workforce will work together at cafes instead of offices.

So we understand how powerful cloud computing and tablets are today, what will be the trend for the future? I foresee more companies converting more and more of their data to be used on a cloud. Cloud computing releases the anchor a workforce is straddled to and gives the executive more buoyancy to be engaged in revenue making activities.
In the past, price was a large factor restricting technology acceptance. Today it is not so. With an abundance of software to choose from and cheap hardware, today's businesses have more choice than ever before. The only thing that hasn't changed is technical knowledge - true, most of these softwares are easy to use on the client side but administratively, it still takes a trained technician to piece things together.

There will be more collaboration, more data sharing. Within a few touches, a sales person knows the credit history of a client. Marketing is able to gather feedback via intranet forums with the rest of the company. There is more strategic thinking and more cohesive planning. With cameras and check-ins, confidence and trust empowers a company to let their staff go mobile.

This is the 21st century workforce, and though it is in it's infancy, it will not take very long for the masses to adapt to this new way of life.

So my friends - power off your laptops, hold your mouse high, and demand your bosses hold the next meeting at Starbucks instead of the stifling boardroom. And slowly, but surely, we will all start to enjoy the independence, freedom AND productivity that technology can bring.

Mitigating Risk at work

It is not possible to remove risk, miscommunication and other undesirable business ailments from your daily work.

Rather, seek to reduce, incorporate and even embrace everyday inefficiencies to make work more realistic and effective.