HelloSof's Profile

The underlying question on this for me is where leveraging data and technology is actually creating value to customers? or is this being digital for being digital’s sake? Is it actually keeping its clients coming back ?

I belive Uber won’t face a massive disadvantage when compared to other companies in terms of attracting and retaining talent: it is still a sexy name in the tech industry. More traditional companies are going to have a tougher time. Something you did not touch upon but I think will have an incredible value for Uber going forward is scaling the data it has been accumulating by people driving around to become, from a pure play transportation company, to a fully fledged logistics business. Uber would be able to scale its structure easily to start providing deliveries.. and then what next? taking over Amazon to become the most convenient retailer of all times??

Hello! Every time I go to NYC I’m fairly shocked. I’m very spoiled by TFL’s tube in London. To get in and out people swipe their oysters cards. so TFL has a complete idea of the journey of each of its customer, which truly allows it to optimise its system aggregating all the data of the individual journeys (not using an oyster card is very taxing – tickets are twice as expensive). I was honestly surprised not seeing the same amount of data tracking in NYC – which would then allow to the MTA to base any improvement on the real need of those trying to cross through the city.

Thank you for writing about OpenIDEO! I think it is so fascinating how they have managed to create a process that captures the value of the crowd, but leveraging what is a community – not a crowd of loosely related people who might share only a few skills or an interest in an area. Being able to leverage communities for innovation can both increase the speed of change and the quality of the new resources being created because the community feels vested in solving the issues and understands that a quality outcome translates into a victory for the community as a whole.

This is such an engineer approach to marketing! A/B testing is a fantastic feature to test ideas, on the other hand – exceptional ideas come from understanding your customers, your competition, the context you operate in, and a brainy gut that tells your what direction to explore. I believe that the crowd would struggle coming up with quality ideas because the winning idea is the one that is marginally better that the second best and, given the relatively low chances of winning since many will participate to the same auction. I would argue that ‘marginally better than second best’ is often ‘not good enough’.

On the other hand, if you are curious about optimising digital ad campaigns, check out yieldex (http://www.appnexus.com/en/publishers/yieldex-analytics – oops, turns out Appnexus bought them when I wasn’t looking). They start from a creative idea and optimise the heck out of it!

Snapchat is on track to do a terrific job with value capture. Its proposition is unique on the market: we have the undivided attention of the viewer while he or she is watching our content. This is based on the ephemerality of the content: when you are watching a snap or when you are watching on the channels, that is it – you won’t be able to watch it again. No other medium is able to guarantee something similar.

Snapchat has been able to constantly increase the quality of the media channels hosting content on their platform. Today you don’t see only ‘new media channels’ like Refinery 29, Vice, or Buzzfeed, but also names with a stronger tradition like Sky and and National Geographic.

My expectation is that we will see more and more native advertising through these channels and that brands will be willing to pay a premium to be there thanks to the guaranteed attention to the message they are trying to deliver. And snapchat won’t struggle to get a slice of that pie.

It’s so fascinating how many players in different industries Whatsup has displaced: from mobile carriers monetizing texts, to contributing at the fall of RIM by annihilating the value of the BBM (Blackberry messenger). It is now continuing to disrupt the mobile carriers by offering phone calls, but – as many people – I’m struggling with the value capture.

Thank you for writing about Twitter. I agree with your concerns about the platform: twitter struggles both with user adoption (arguably the saturation of the people who would use twitter is already relatively high leaving relatively little room for growth) and with adoption from advertisers who don’t see a good ROI from spending on the platform. It goes without doubt that Twitter has figured out one side of the equation, but still have work to do with the other!

Great points AP! A small side note on BBM. Although I agree that BBM was definitely not the feature that kept corporate clients coming back, it was definitely a key feature for the consumer market. BBM created strong communities that kept its members from switching to HTC or other smartphones because of the tremendous value of being able to contact friends and family through BBM. This was still happening at a time when texting was expensive, mobile internet connection was slow, and whatsup still didn’t exist. It was the easiest and most inexpensive way to communicate.

Maybe RIM’s best play would have been to open up BBM to any device in order to become the ubiquitous communication platform?

DSC is one of my favourite brands and I love how inventive Micheal Dublin has been at disrupting this industry. I would also mention, among the various reasons why they will maintain their position in the blade market their unique marketing skills: they have been able to come up with a language that resonates with their customers – from the initial viral video they have produced to the hilarious marketing campaign they have continued to roll out. Great post! Thank you!

Here is how it goes with the Nike Training Club. The app pushes their e-commerce platform and suggests a Nike outfit for every workout. Maybe not as effective as the hardware integration in the shoes (but note thought that now the hardware integration has disappeared – you just need an iPhone to access the full functionality of the Nike Running app), but it is effective in marketing all their new lines of sports clothing, doubling down on target audience!

Kudos for the shark backpack. I’ll be on the watch for it, Mr Cranberry Fan.

I actually wouldn’t call Nike a software company – sports goods are still at the heart of their customer proposition. But I agree with you on how fascinating this is that they have got software completely right. It would be very interesting to dig deeper into how! Maybe it is because the people who work at Nike really understand what an athlete wants and can deliver on it – being the product a pair of shoes or an app.

Here is how it goes with the Nike Training Club. The app pushes their e-commerce platform and suggests a Nike outfit for every workout. Maybe not as effective as the hardware integration in the shoes (but note thought that now the hardware integration has disappeared – you just need an iPhone to access the full functionality of the Nike Running app), but it is effective in marketing all their new lines of sports clothing, doubling down on target audience!

Kudos for the shark backpack. I’ll be on the watch for it, Mr Cranberry Fan.