kevrichard blog

I Throw Like a Girl, So Instead I Joined the League of Kick Ass!

So I’m still working out my schedule and regular routine having jumped into 2009 so I’ve been a bit slow on blogging (I’m getting there!) . On Monday I attended for the first time a League of Kick Ass Business People event! While there werent any super hero’s present like in the League of Justice or anything else you would picture in a comic book it was still pretty ‘Kick Ass!’.

Along with hearing some of the insights from members of this elite ( or L33T) group, the theme of the night was ‘The Kickass Green Event’ talking about green business, and the Canadian environment. All in all really good speakers:

-Leslie Domenico from Green Enterprise Toronto spoke about sustainable and green business within Toronto ( big focus on local sourcing and equitable business)

-Linda Mortsch from Environment Canada gave an intense wake up call about the state of global warming and how its going to affect our planet.

-Andy Thomson blew me away twice, first with his amazing presentation skills ( when you can tear 50+ business people from conversation to pay attention to you, thats what I call having presence!) and after with his presentation on green homes with the interesting idea of a green trailer park which was less trailer trash and more loft living in a forest.

I unfortunately had to dash to another meeting I had, but afterwards there was a presentation from Bikes without Borders which probably rocked as well, they sound like an inovative not for profit organization which I look forward to reading more about, perhaps getting involved sometime in the future(Linkage).

Overall, it was a good night even despite having to cut it short. I’m really exited to become more involved in the LOKBP ( for more about what they are check out here! ) this is definitely a group that while making me feel insignificant because I’m not fully kick ass (yet!) it also makes me want to learn and expand myself and bring myself to that level.

If you perhaps are a kick as business person who just happened to stumble upon my blog twitter @SeanMoffitt as not only is he the ‘big kahuna’ of the group , I’m sure he’d be happy to have you aboard. The next LOKBP event Kick ass Design, will be happening March 4th ( so far away!) and Sean is also begining to get together a group of Under 30 years KBP group as well! Pretty exciting stuff.

Thats it for me, back to my chill friday night! Got any Questions/Comments? Contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.

Advertising / Branding / Event Promotions — No comments
12
Jan 09

Sharpen your Blades! Red Bull Event Promotions

Red Bull has me really hooked at the moment with their Crashed Ice Promotion coming up in Quebec City. I’ve looked at the promotional materials and a few clips of this event and it looks like complete insanity. Upon looking at it further I’ve noticed that this is a very different sports sponsorship than what many other larger companies have been doing ( such as sponsorship of an established event or buying naming rights to the venue) .

Rather than take something proven and established , Red Bull has partnered with a host city ( locations included Helsinki, Stockholm, Moscow and Quebec City since 2006) combined popular aspects of hockey and luge and created an event that they take they can take full credit for. Risky business, but obviously for Red Bull this works as this event has been going world wide since 2000.

This isn’t the first event Red Bull has hosted and created as they’ve been involved as well with the creation of FlugTag USA ( home made gliders going over a cliff competing for the farthest distance, amazing!) . Overall I’m really excited for Crashed Ice to come around and thought this was a great case of a brand promoting itself. You can check out the Crashed Ice Website here or check out the the Youtube clip I’ve included . Crashed Ice is going to be occuring on Jan. 24th on TSN for those of you who want to watch it for yourself….. my goal is to go and see it live in 2010!

Questions/Comments?: contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.

Communications / General Business — No comments
05
Jan 09

Steve Jobs: I’m not dead yet!!

This is a pretty insane case of the CEO being part of a company’s brand. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple has come out in a public letter stating that he is in good health and not dying! Much like earlier this year after a presentation of the Iphone 3G , rumors about his health have been circulating around the net after it was announced that Job’s will not be giving the 2009 keynote at MacWorld.

After this announcement Apple stock took a significant dive falling to $83.35 a share from $100 in mid December. Steve Jobs in his statement attempting to prevent further damage , stated that he was skipping MacWorld this year to focus on a recent hormone imbalance that has been causing him to lose significant weight over the past year and that he is OK staying on as CEO for the forseeable future.

With Job’s prostate cancer announcement in 2004 pundits and investors have taken an increased interest in his health giving rumors like this very quick legs. While Steve Jobs has been instrumental upon his return in bring back Apple co. to great success , he has now in my opinion become a liability to the firm. Being so strongly associated with the brand (among some apple fanatics he’s seen as a savior) investors and customers cannot see a future for this company without its ‘great leader’.

My prediction for the year is either while becoming fed up or slowly forced out of the company Steve Jobs will step down from his position as CEO and take a more consultative role . While he’s done such great things for this company I think this is an example of how a company cannot have a single figure head or public face to the firm because like in the case of Steve Jobs’ if they are unable or unsuitable to represent the firm , the company overall becomes weaker in the eyes of the public.

steve_jobs1

Image source: http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/steve_jobs.gif

Personal — 2 comments
31
Dec 08

6 Things That Make Me Happy (C/O THE KARIN)

As I’ve been challenged to make my own list by Karin at her blog THE KARIN here goes my post about 6 things that make me happy (in no particular order):

Walks: either with the headphones in listening to the latest music I have or with a friend talking about everything and anything I enjoy experiencing the streets of toronto ( or anywhere really) and looking at all of the sights and sounds. A lot of the time I find I just zoom by things and miss all the details, but by slowing down and making yourself more conscious you notice all of the new changes and goings on around you.

Books: It can be through school reading a sometimes long winded text book or turning every suspense filled page of the the newest Koontz book ( right now reading Odd Hours!) reading is something I’ve enjoyed for a long time. My family has always been pretty big on reading and I’ve always enjoyed learning about someones new idea or creative story line. Sitting down with a good book seems to just make everything fade away and places you in the moment with every word on the page.

Reddit.com: I came upon this website 2 years ago and come back to it on a daily basis. To best describe it ,its basically a collection of stuff and just randomness. There are always links on this site that make me laugh, or links about a current events that make me think. Oh and I can’t forget about the crazy marketing campaign they had last year called Drankkit World Tour! Overall a site that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Electronic Gaming: Ok I admit it, I’m a bit of a nerd…. I can’t help it! As soon as I had my hands on Super Mario Bros for the orignal Nintendo I was pretty hooked. While I don’t have the time/money to enjoy much of this current generations games ( althought Guitar Hero rocks!) I do from time to time pick up one of the old titles I have such as Halo or SSX snowboarding. Lately I’ve been getting my electronic gaming fix at Newgrounds and for 2009 I’m looking forward to the release of StarCraft 2!

New Experiences: from learning a new topic, exploring a new area of town or hanging out with a new friend I find experiencing something new or different exciting. I guess I can blame it on not staying in one place for too long, that gave me a strong curiousity for things .

Sleep!: This is not to say I’m a slacker or anything but I always thought it was a good end to the day. The feeling of the blanket surrounding me, a pitch black room and a soft pillow under my head , I always thought it a great place to be alone with my thoughts . I actually find I do some of my best thinking/problem solving directly before and after I go to sleep.

Questions/Comments?: contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.

Personal — 1 comment
28
Dec 08

2009 Strategy

Stratigic Management had to be one of my favorite classes of the past term. I really enjoyed researching and putting together strategies for a wide range of companies ( if only Pilgrims Pride had merged…they wouldn’t be here ) I also had an awesome prof that got me thinking about where I’m going and deliberately positioning myself where I want to go instead of letting things happen passively ( Dr.Steven Gedeon is nominated for TVO’s Best Lecture, check it out here! )

I’ve had a lot of thought about it and I thought it would be important to create a strategy for myself in 2009 to ensure that I have a set direction of where I want to go with things. I think in general its also something that everyone should consider moving into the new year ( 3 more days!). Here are my 3 priorities for 2009:

1. Becoming more passionate: I’ve noticed that when I have a strong interest in a task or invest a lot of myself into something I’m much more effective and feel more strongly about it. As well I’ve been noticing that being passionate at what you do is a major success factor, I’ve seen a few cases where people just ooze passion and they are definitely at the top of their game.

So What?* On my part this is going to take 2 tactics. On the one hand I’m going to have to build passion and enthusiasim into the work I do, that means changing my attitude , having more in depth planning and building stronger focus.

My second tactic is going to be building my passion. I find exploring and experiencing new things has been something that’s always energized me, and I haven’t been doing that a lot lately. My goal for the year is going to be every week to go out and spend a few hours and try something new, maybe I’ll even build some long term interests.

2. Spend time on the right people : Something that I think was a bit of a downfall for me in 2008 was that I started the bad habit of trying to keep the people around me happy and ignoring what I needed. Despite my efforts to impress, things were very often onsided. On the other side of things, there were relationships that I really valued and never made the time to invest in them.

So What? Prority #1 for this goal is going to be reconnecting and spending time with the people I care about and value. Its going to be about breaking from the regular cycle and taking the time to be present. A side goal I would like to explore is also being with new people, seeing some new perspectives on things.

3. Taking care of my health: Being a student sitting at a desk for hours on end I’ve found that while I’m not gaining any wieght, I’m not getting any more fit either. Something I also need to watch for is a recently learned family history of heart disease.

So What? For me its going to be about setting the time and getting a routine together. This past term I bought a school gym membership and used it twice! This year I’ve got to get out of my bed ( despite how comfortable it is) and drag myself to get some exercise done. Its also going to mean building a bit more incentive in as well, my plan is to become a much better squash player in the coming year !

* Its pointless to have goals without strategies to get there, something my prof often commented on in assignments is the “So What” aspect of ones work. You can write something done but in the end what does it mean!

Advertising — 2 comments
22
Dec 08

You Stole My Virginity! Can I have another Whopper?!

In terms of advertising and promotions Burger king has been using a lot of creativity compared to their competitors in the fast food industry. This included the viral site Subservient Chicken and the creation of the “King” in commericial campaigns and even his own series of successful video games . Going in a different direction the creative minds at Burger King have come up with another interesting idea, a documentary!

Titled the Whopper Virgins a crew of researchers hired by Burger King are tasked with finding once and for all who has the better Burger ? Mcdonanlds or Burger King. This documentary created by ad firm Crispin, Porter and Bogusky goes into remote villages of Greenland ,Romania and Thailand places that have never seen a burger where the term Whopper Virgins come in. Through comparative taste tests between the Whopper and Big Mac from a taste test of these populations the researchers come to the conclusion that tasters preffered the Whopper.

While some claim that the whole idea offensive or even exploitive, I thought it was brilliant! Barring all the arguements that its intruding on these villagers, making light of hunger issues or exposing them to potentially harmful North American culture( is a single burger so bad?) it none the less sparked discussion and feelings about Burger King and its Whopper sandwhich,something that every promotional campaign builds towards.

I’m sure this documentary won’t be seen by a large portion of the population and it won’t create new markets in Greenland any time soon but more importantly it went on to instill ideas and has even sparked discussion among consumers making it more likely that BK will stay in their top of mind awareness . This is unlike general commercials from Mcdonalds and Wendy’s which may spur a quick hunger pang from the thought of all of that greasy goodness ( mmm burgers!) but will be forgotten within a few minutes of viewing like all the other commericials consumers are bombarded within a day.

I’ve included the documentary below (its short!) check it out if you can:

General Business / In the News — No comments
20
Dec 08

British Bankster's: Not Sorry They F@#*ed Up Your Christmas!

I came across this sad bit of news while surfing the net ( check it out here) .The journalists at the London Sunday Express came across a video on Youtube from a group of British Bankers with a little Christmas carol of their own for the people of the UK to ‘enjoy’. Calling themselves the “City Bankers” they identify themselves as local bankers and stock brokers with one claiming to have worked for the now defunct Lehman Brothers.

This video follows the walk of a cartoon child describing the sad change in this years Christmas because of the financial meltdown. After a while of this, a group of obviously drunken bank workers go into chorus stating:

“Sorry we F@#*!ed up your Christmas, but really we don’t give a s#@t! Cause we have made loads of money, in fact we’re swimming in it”

This video goes on to more creudness including a man urinating, overall not giving a ‘shit’ about all the people that are suffering as a result of this financial meltdown. The creators claim that this video came about because they were tired about people bugging and harassing them about this financial meltdown.

Although this isn’t linked to any one firm ,if this story grows legs this can potentially become a reputational problem that could turn into a customer relations firestorm. Any inaction in this case could cause problems for the UK banking industry as it then would be seen that the opinion of this small group represents the general sentiment of the banks, something at this time they obviously don’t want happening. Overall I’m personally pretty disgusted with this video and don’t have much sympathy for these bank employees should they face consequences, I’ve embedded the video below to check out:

Communications / General Business — No comments
19
Dec 08

General Motors : After the Bailout

I just finished watching the General Motors press conference concerning the funds the will be receiving and their plans moving forward and thought it would be a great case to start up some conversation regarding communications and dealing with public perception.

There were a few things that I thought CEO Rick Wagoner did right and somethings he could have improved upon.

What Went Right:

Presenting a sense of humanity and teamwork: He came with two members of his management team and made mentionof their hard work and put human faces to his company . This included making mention to his COO’s business casual wear for casual friday and how his CFO had not been able to change his clothes since yesterday being so busy . To me this showed that they aren’t taking an easy route out and that as a company they will work to meet the requirements of the deal.

Humbly acknowledging sucess: Mr. Wagoner made mention of the design and quality success of the 2008 Malibu, mentioning that this is the direction that GM plans to move towards. It demonstrates that GM has the potential to become a strong company once more.

What went wrong:

Arogance: A key peice of this press conference should have been directly thanking the American people and stating that they will not let them down. Instead of this Mr Wagoner made statements of how GM had made america in its first 100 years and will help to bring the american people out of this recession as they reform themselves and move into the next 100 years. You don’t even know if you’ll last past 2009!! Now is now the time to be making any grandiose statements, it should be acknowledging that you’ve been making mistakes and that they will be fixed ASAP!

Lack of details: Often there were statements made towards the plan presented to the US government but no clear direction or details had been mentioned on how exactly they plan to change themselves. I think they should have at least stated some details of a clear plan like for example how they plan to focus on strengthening core brands,begin retooling factories to be more efficient or completely re-inventing themself to be a leader in green technologies. Other than some very broad and ambigious statements from the COO I heard none of that…. in the months to come its going to be very important to communicate how GM is going to make itself profitable.

Moving forward: In the months to come its going to be ever important that GM has strong communications between government and all of its stakeholders. Its going to be very important as well to demonstrate that they aren’t wasting the public funds given to them, especially in these hard times. With the many billions invested in the banking industry I feel that a feeling of anger and disdain is the general sentiment of the public towards banking firms who are doing little to show how they deserve the public trust ( the term “banksters” says alot about this sentiment). Being close to bankruptcy GM cannot afford to go this route, they need to change their past perception that America ( and the world ) needs GM and instead that its exactly the opposite.

Communications / General Business — No comments
17
Dec 08

Monster Cable’s Ugly Fight

In an interesting he said,she(?) said sort of battle Monster Cable has filed suit (since dropped) with Monster MiniGolf over the use of Monster in its name arguing that it holds the legal trademark of “Monster” and only they have the right to liscence and sell it .Monster MiniGolf feeling pushed into a corner has smartly brought this fight to the public via an Ebay posting appealing to the general public to buy a $1 Monster Mini Golf coupon to defray their legal costs. Since then this name battle has been picked up in local news media ( ABC News 10 of California) prominent blogs ( Consumerist, Engadget) and social news sites ( Reddit,Digg) and has recieved a large negative reaction.

Noticing that the company is recieving a lot of negative press coverage and feedback, Monster Cable has since dropped the suit and laid out its side of the story on a page of its website . In a video statement from CEO Noel Lee the company claims that they too are the little guy and they simply don’t want to see a franchiser make profit off their trademark ( video after post) . In an act to make the company seem less cold and uncaring they have also asked Monster Mini Golf to donate a monthly $100 fee to a chosen charity for use of its name .*

I think in the end of it all Monster Cable has wasted time and resources just to come out looking like a bad guy and will loose sales as a result . If they had a redo I would suggest to them that they do one of two things: either calling Monster MiniGolf out publicily stating that hey, you’re using our trademark , stop or pay up and follow it through to the end ( rather than look like a company that waivers or is just out to get people) or that they just not bother with the whole mess to begin with.

This is a case of dragging your ( already tarnished?) name in the mud over an issue that most people don’t care about…. and hey if you want to protect your name so much what about Monster Energy Drink? I would understand if it were a more obscure name like Twitter or Microsoft, but with such a generic name the company shouldn’t be dependant on just the name but what product and brand attributes they stand for.

*Monster MiniGolf has since made a public statement

Branding — No comments
15
Dec 08

Going Viral: Building Awareness or Weakening Your Brand?

Just recently I came across 2 videos from DETAILS Magazine on you-tube that made me do a bit of a double take: Gabe and Max’s Guide to Man Style and Video #2 Beauty Tips. The First video ( posted below) starts in a style similar to what you would expect from a magazine like DETAILS ( except the photo-shopped photos) but as the video goes on it becomes obvious that its an over the top comedy video that’s not great but is OK for a bit of a laugh. Included in the 1st video are the “4 pillars of Man Style” which include:

1. Only owning silk underwear.

2. Confidence : “Never don’t be confident”

3.Wear a little bit of Makeup ( all men want to look,manly?)

4. Be Yourself: Everybody has their own ‘personality’ (I’m obviously Mr Pure Granola!)

Posted last month these videos are among DETAIL’s more successful videos with the more recent video “Beauty Tips” gaining over 180,000 views. This would be great if it were a clear part of the brand or if this channel were specifically dedicated as a magazine “funny page” but video’s like this are mixed in with more serious video’s like interviews with Anna Faris and Ben Aflec and style tutorials like How to tie a Scarf and How to fold a pocket square, part of the magazines core business which in comparision peform poorly in view count.

Adding further confusion to DETAIL’s branding is its own website which is very clean cut and serious. Some may argue otherwise, but with competing magazines such as Mens Health, Esquire and Mens Journal and an increasing on-line audience ( Ask Men) I feel DETAILS could instead use You-tube as a strong medium to instead communicate with its core customer base ( as there are many guys like me who will look at a funny video , have their laughs and leave adding no value ). I also think as a company DETAILS needs to focus their efforts on presenting them-self as a serious contender rather than investing time in non core projects like posting “funny you-tube videos” .

Sales in print media are dropping ( The New York Times having to mortgage its headquarters,that’s scary) and DETAIL’s along with other magazines in this segment will have a challenge ahead to keep the mind share of their target audience. Of course funny video’s will bring in the hits (Crazy Frog anyone?), but in the end DETAILS should be focusing on building value for its customers to continue its profitability.

I’ve included the described videos. Admittedly they were a decent laugh and I plan to check out the original comedians:

KevRichardTechnology and Digital Communications