What Defines a Thought Leader?

For the last 2 weeks I have been borderline obsessed with reading and learning everything I can on Alex Bogusky. For 21+ years Alex has created many groundbreaking campaigns including the Subservient Chicken, the Hulu campaigns (with Alec Baldwin) and the tremendous work he has done in re-invigorating the brands (and bottom lines) of Burger King (see video above) and Domino’s Pizza.

As of July 1, 2010 Alex has officially stepped down as co-chair of Crispin Porter + Bogusky in order to pursue a life outside of advertising. Now there are a plethora of amazing blog post summarizing the times and (ad) life of Alex, but for a really thorough and heartfelt recap I would recommend reading Anthony Kalamut’s post entitled “Employee Number 16 Resigns. The Day Alex Bogusky Said Good-Bye To CP+B, MDC and Advertising”

There is so much that inspires me about Alex and I could easily write an entire blog post, or a series for that matter on his impact on my career and life, which is amplified when you consider I only started studying his work in the past month. Instead, I will leave that adventure for another time, perhaps when it isn’t 3:13am. :)

What I will say is this; for me the true sign of a thought leader is someone who can demonstrate an alternative way of doing something that eventually forces you to reevaluate the way you perceive the world. This is precisely what Alex has done for me. His bold work elicits great excitement from within me and almost re-calibrates my standards and forces me to aim higher. What else can you ask from a guy that you have never actually met before?

Alex, you will be missed my friend.

Facebook The Movie Set to Release Oct 01, 2010

I am certain the news of this movie (officially titled The Social Network) will receive plenty of negative feedback and snarly remarks because it is directly targeted at a web savvy audience that is naturally more inclined to be outspoken and to broadcast their thoughts via social media. Especially, considering the majority of social media broadcasters (twitterati and bloggers) seem to produce a disproportionate amount of negative content.

I know most people will be quick to downplay their excitment for this movie, but I got to be honest, I personally can’t wait to see this film. As a social media marketing advocate and loyalist the content of this movie hits close to home.

The cherry on the top is that one of my favourite directors on the planet is also involved in this film - the legendary David Fincher, who of course is the man behind films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ,The Game , Fight Club just to name a few.

I also found it interesting that Justin Timberlake stars in the movie as Sean Parker, who just so happens to be one of the tech innovators I admire most.

Personally, I can’t wait till October 1, 2010 when the film is schedule to debut.

We Will Pay You To Do Exactly What You Already Do

The rapid growth of location based social networks such as foursquare and Gowalla are creating many new and exciting opportunities for marketers and brands to engage  consumers like never before.

These sites are pioneering a new frontier of brand champions. Similar to how sites like Twitter and Facebook helped ushered in the dawn of citizen journalism and almost overnight transformed the consumer into a media producer, sites like foursquare are empowering mobile users to easily broadcast where they are and how they are spending their money. This is fundamentally different than Twitter where the conversation and content users provide has a tendency to veer off into many different areas ie tweets about how I’m feeling, what I’m reading, what’s funny, what upsets me etc.

Things get even more interesting when sites like WeReward get involved. This innovative digital start up leverages the popularity of location based social networks and rewards users for their patronage. How does it work? Every time a user checks in to a specific location (Note: location venue most already be working with WeReward) they get points that can eventually (need 1000+ points first) be cashed out for real money. WeReward also rewards users for broadcasting their actions via Twitter, Facebook and foursquare. (smart move)

My concern is if location based social networks are transforming consumers into food and travel critics, wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest to pay them to review products and locations? It would be a different story if the point system that sites like WeReward used where a flat rate which stayed the same for all locations, but from the looks of the intro video above they have opted for a more free market driven model which somewhat resembles Google’s pay-per-click system. 

Paying critics extra money to come and review your business seems like a very slippery slop, but maybe I am just being a social media communist. ;)

How Much Would You Pay For a Box of Hope?

This campaign by the Red Cross reminds me that there are plenty of simple yet brilliant ideas out there that are just waiting for the right person or group to bring them to life. Truly remarkable ideas do not need to be overly complex. The key is to emotionally move your audience by doing something unexpected.

Meet The Anti-Facebook and Its Bold Leader

Have you ever fantasized about being invisible or being able to do or say whatever you wanted without having to deal with the repercussions of your actions? Think about how your interactions with other human beings would differ if you knew you had total anonymity? All your socially constructed filters would be questioned and perhaps abandoned.

Sound like fun, well then Christopher “moot” Poole has just the site for you.  Moot is the founder of 4chan.org, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, which is NOT a social network. Unlike other online communities such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace 4chan does not have a registration process, is totally anonymous and does not archive any of the user content. This bold online community model flies in the face of the existing social currency paradigm where every user is both a media producer and a brand.

With over 7 million users monthly, submitting over 700,000 posts daily it is clear that this no holds barred, wild wild west approach to online communities has its supporters. Personally, I think it would be liberating to type, tweet and speak my mind with absolutely no regards towards how my actions will be judges by others.

Think about it, how much of who you are, is truly YOU, as oppose to a who society has told you to be.

The Power of The Unexpected (3 Videos)

Here are 3 examples of relatively low budget commercials that utilize the fine art of unexpecting the audience (aka surprising them).

For a thorough review and tactical guide on leveraging The Unexpected in order to create sticker, more impactful ideas I would highly recommend reading the Heath Brothers groundbreaking book “Made To Stick”.

Dare you not to laugh!

Nike Soccer Commercial: Take It To The Next Level

I love how smart brands are evolving past the traditional 30 second spots and creating richer experiences for consumers to be engaged. This 3:00 min commercial  was brought to life by famed movie director Guy Ritchie. It incorporates an assortment of the top soccer players in the world and provides a unique perspective on the rise of a soccer star to the “Next Level”.