Here’s the promise I was hoping Apple would better yesterday.

It’s interesting that Steve Jobs spent most of yesterday’s press conference reminding us how secure and established Apple is.
What’s with the chest beating? He doesn’t need to remind us how many time’s we’ve bought new iPods over the last nine years. We know. I’ve personally replaced [...]

The automotive business is highly competitive. Future products and feature innovation make up the key competitive edge when it comes to earning show-stopper headlines on the autoshow circuit – but headlines can’t be the only goal. We’re at a point in history when innovation is desperately needed to green up the fleet on the street [...]

I’m joining Proximity Canada’s interactive team as Vice-President, Social Media. In this newly-created role, I’ll be identifying new opportunities to expand Proximity Canada’s current social media offering, while assisting clients in building their brand voice in the evolving digital space. I’ll be working primarily with the Gillette global and Mitsubishi Motors of Canada accounts and [...]

[TORONTO]  Segal Communications will end their representation of Facebook media in Canada on March 31st, 2009.
The relationship between the two began in January 2007, when Segal Communications (an IPG company) inked a deal to represent Facebook advertising media and “sponsored groups” in Canada. Out of that deal, a small sales team of about five people [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Queensland Australia’s campaign for “The Best Job in the World”.
Quick Recap (full post):
“The department of Tourism in Queensland, Australia have created a new position: “The Best Job in the World”. The job’s most important duty is to report to Tourism Queensland (and to the world) to let [...]

What is clear about Skittles.com:

it has transformed into a social media portal to social platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Wikipedia
it has caused much buzz on many of these platforms, particularly Twitter, in the last 48 hours
it continues to cause much debate amongst the social media pundits
it resembles other websites, particularly this one. (have [...]

According to the book “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)” by Tom Vanderbilt, “Caution: Children Playing” signs have not been shown to reduce speeding or accidents. The evidence is so compelling that most traffic departments don’t plant the signs voluntarily.
Yet these signs are nearly as ubiquitous as, [...]

It’s election season in Canada and the politics are thick as ever. Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and pals don’t want Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, participating in the televised debate for the upcoming Canadian federal election. Despite the Green’s earning a seat in the house and over 600k popular votes in the last [...]

For years scientists have been working on the technology to grow tissue cultures fit for consumption – think meat – to skip the complexities of farming. As the world’s population continues to grow, so too does its effort to raise, feed, house, kill and keep meat healthy and disease-free. Using a unique approach to pick [...]

Recently, The East Village Idiot smelled a rat on Facebook.
“When I saw that 156,000 people had become ‘fans’ of Ticketmaster on Facebook, I got suspicious. Their fan page is now the 5th most popular on Facebook – they have more fans than Hillary Clinton. ‘Come on! There are not 156,000 people who would willingly display [...]

This is a good idea
Kathleen Edwards gets it. Not only is she a talented musician, she clearly understands that a credible “celebrity” needs to put her money where her mouth is when supporting a “cause”.
I’ve worked with enough musicians to know that most of them consider themselves “the cause”. Although I don’t work with Kathleen [...]

UPDATE**** Congrats to Jen Gould for winning the Children’s Album of the Year Juno last night (April 6th 08) in Calgary.
The children’s music CD “Music Soup” by Jen Gould had been out for a few months when her husband Hayes Steinberg (a former colleague of mine at MacLAREN McCANN in Toronto) came up with [...]

I have a busy week coming up with 3 talks on 3 amazing topics at 3 diverse un/conferences. Here are the details:
Event Style Show: Expo and Awards
Host: BizBash
Talk: Gen 2.0: Join the Viral Marketing Revolution
9:15am February 20, 2008 Direct Energy Centre, Toronto

Social Media Marketing
Host: Open Dialogue
Talk:”Social Media Strategies that Work”
3pm February 20, 2008, The [...]

The proliferation of blogs, podcasts and online versions of print and broadcast media channels have created a new kind of influencer. Savvy public relations departments and firms are beginning to realize that these new influencers have different needs than their traditional journalist cousins. Most of these new influencers have not been assigned the [...]

Marketing Facts Night: Discover Your Industry Identity
Host: UofT – Management & Economics Student Association (MESA)
Keynote: “Don’t Follow, Lead” with Collin Douma of Social Media Group.
January 28th, 2008 – Grand Baccus, Toronto Ontario (Scarborough)
Event video:

From MESA
Who knew that dancing silhouettes could sell MP3 players? Or talking beavers would generate massive mobility sales? In this continuously [...]

As Gov. Schwarzenegger urges an end to the Hollywood writers’ strike over access to digital dollars, a new level of remix-ability and creative liberation emerges from Hollywood North. The Tracey Fragments, a new film from Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Highway 69) is taking the right to remix, and creative commons to a [...]

Sponsorship is becoming a very cost effective way to enter the social media space. How do sponsors get into this space and remain credible? This and many other topical questions will be explored in an upcoming talk by Collin Douma at the Strategic Sponsorship Marketing Summit in Toronto on November 6th.
Strategic Sponsorship Marketing: The Canadian [...]

In it’s simplest form, the SMPR (Social Media Press Release) is not unlike the TMPR (Traditional Media Press Release). Basically, you’re communicating details about a particular product, event or program so that content creators (bloggers, journalists) can disseminate that information across their respective media.
TMPRs tend to be long-winded, often-not very creative and many times they [...]

There are still tickets available for next Tuesday’s keynote “Social Media and the Age of Dialogue” I will be giving in Toronto.
I hope to see you there!
Here are the details:
Facebook. MySpace. Web 2.0 Flickr …..What’s all the buzz about Social Media?

Social media is changing the landscape and mindscape of doing business in advertising, journalism, public [...]

By all appearances, Marié Digby had the makings of a modern music legend. She had all the math: young, beautiful and talented. She’d garnered over 2.3 million views of her simple homemade video covers on YouTube (see below). Her humble beginnings likely helped her earn a place on MTV and radio play in influential music [...]

I will be speaking at the upcoming Canadian Women in Communications event in September. I hope you can make it out.
Topic: Social Media and the Age of Dialogue
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 5:30 – 9:00
Location: Velma Rogers Theatre, 333 Bloor Street East, Toronto (Jarvis & Bloor)
Details:
Social media is changing the landscape of advertising, journalism, public [...]

Some time ago, I blogged on the notion of the “brand immune system” in social media. Check out the following article, published today at MediainCanada.com where I expand on the notion.
From MediainCanada.com, July 23rd, 2007
Top Stories: Your brand needs an immune system
Remember the days when a disgruntled customer would start a letter-writing campaign, distribute petitions [...]

One month of neglect and a simple sync to iTunes may find you playing catch-up with twenty or more hours of podcasts.
A three-week vacation may lead to a dozen trade magazines missed.
Two days away from a healthy RSS feed and you could be rifling through hundreds of blog posts.
Every night I go to bed and [...]

Good news! I will be speaking at the 4th Annual MARKETING to MOMS Conference in Toronto on the topic of Internet Advertising to Moms. I hope you can make it out on the short notice.
See you June 6th, at 2:30
- That’s tomorrow! ahhhhhhh!
Event Overview
4TH ANNUAL MARKETING TO MOMS
The 24/7 of Mom: When, Where, [...]

In general, the overall numbers are surprising, you might even say shocking. Canadians are buying into social media on a grand scale, with Facebook leading the charge. Per capita, Facebook users from Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary outnumber their nearest American cousins from Boston! And the curve continues…
In sheer numbers, Torontonians dominate Facebook’s global population. [...]

Q: What’s this?
A: “The MySpace community will give America its first Presidential primary winner in 2008.” Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace.
Q: When?
A: January 1st and 2nd, 2008
Q: Which candidates currently have MySpace profiles?
A: Many of them including:
Barack Obama 89947 friends
John Edwards 17071 friends
Hillary Clinton 7685 friends
John McCain 3697 friends
Rudy Guiliani (Private Profile)
Q: How hard is [...]

Alright… it looks like this “Most Valuable Blog” competition Joseph Jaffe has put together is going into multiple rounds.
Radical Trust needs your help!
It has become a round robin tournament of blog titans (and me).
The first bout:
PLAN vs. TRUST
In the blue trunks, weighing in with IA and an in-depth offering of UXP, it’s Scott Weisbrod’s [...]

This past Tuesday, I attended an intimate discussion on the future of creativity in advertising hosted by Bill Gates and Steve Davis (CEO of Corbis) in New York City. The discussion was led by a handful of Madison Avenue heavy-hitters and attended by thirty executives from all corners of the ad world… and me.
How the [...]

Clive Thompson is preparing an article around the notion of “Radical Transparency” for an upcoming issue of Wired Magazine. For extra credibility on the topic, he’s posting his notes and soliciting feedback as he assembles his thoughts.
What a fantastic idea! An idea I’m sure will offer him some tremendous insight.
From the post:
Sure, ‘radical [...]

“Astroturfing,” (fake grassroots campaigns), is not a new term, but it is certainly growing in awareness as of late. As peer to peer review sites, blogs, podcasts and other social media tools grow in popularity online, so too do those who would try to take advantage of this new found credibility. Seedy hotel owners, restaurateurs, [...]

A friendly reminder that I will be speaking on the topic of “Radical Trust” Day 2 at “Consumer 2.0 in a few short days from now.
Plan to attend if you can!
Once again, here are the details:
Consumer 2.0 : Meeting the Demands of the Connected Consumer
presented by OpenDialogue
Feb 21 & 22, 2007
Old Mill, Toronto Ontario [...]

Let’s be frank for a moment. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is antitrust and anti-radical trust. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the iTunes music store because of its DRM. Why should you pay $1 for a track loaded with DRM when you can download it for free from a torrent with no restrictions at [...]

It’s been about a year since the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon hit the internet. Just over a month ago, the DVD was released, bringing the movie cycle to a near close.
I purchased the DVD today and was admittedly a bit disappointed. After all that transpired online with this movie, I expected New Line Cinema [...]

The Step Forward

A couple of months ago, I wrote about Universal’s deal with YouTube.
Myself:
“Lucky for Universal. Not only do they get a cut of the revenue for their videos posted by fans, they also get a cut of the revenue from the videos created by fans. As for the fans, they’ll continue to create new [...]

It’s a big day for RadicalTrust.ca in the blogosphere.
First, Lily Dustbin profiled Radical Trust in her weekly “Blogerati” column over at blogTO.com
What is blogTO?
The horse’s mouth:
blogTO is a web site about Toronto written by a group of obsessed artists, musicians, photographers, politicos, advertising and media types, dancers, tech geeks, food lovers, aspiring film directors, [...]

TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is YOU.
You? It’s about TIME!
Of course You.
It always has been you. It always will be you. However, you are not a given, are you?
You create, you consume, you contribute, you criticize. You start, you finish, you speak, you listen. You build, you destroy, you laugh, you cry. You [...]

Just confirmed that I will be speaking at the Consumer 2.0 Conference this February on the topic of Radical Trust. I hope you can make it out.
Click here for more details
.

Perhaps you recall the Lego Factory, an ingenious promotion that invites consumers to create and share models online; potentially leading to a profit-share with Lego.
Enter the indie Pop band “The Decemberists”. Offering a new contest “ReAnimate the Decemberists,” this CGM competition challenges fans to create the animated backdrop needed to complete the band’s video for [...]

Three lessons have emerged over the last couple of weeks of YouTube antics that every radical truster may take heed.

#1 The International Story
The biggest story, was of Michael Richards’ (Kramer) career ending rant that resembled a head on collision with a high speed train. A video, posted on YouTube, caught the flustered standup comedian pacing [...]

Instead of embracing the new realities of the world, Universal Music Group decides to desperately sue MySpace.com, alleging the website enables users to upload copyrighted music and videos without authorization.
The claim, filed on Friday, is yet another misguided attempt by record executives to try and maintain control of copyrighted material. Their claim: MySpace has [...]

Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, an outdoor art show featuring sculptures around the city, was seeking an awareness campaign to up their profile. Enter Vancouver’s Rethink agency who took radical trust off-line and into a sculpture frenzy.
The result, 1000 highly tactile vacuum-formed shelves with a call to that beckons, “Place Art Here”. The public responded with hundreds [...]

One of the great things about radical trust is that you let your consumers control the content they want to interact with. The more editorial control you put on it, the less trusting it is of the people. This paradim would suggest that the more you control the content, the more restrictive your brand impression [...]

It looks like YouTube does have a business plan and today it became apparent. Google picked up Youtube for a buck sixty-five. (1.65 Billion USD). Another in a series of tremendous moves that make Google the ultimate example of a radical trust company (China not included) . In spite of YouTube’s lack of a sustainable [...]