If the unicorns die, we should all be worried

1. Here we go again. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, it seemed like everyone who worked at a “traditional” company was waiting for the right opportunity to leave and join a startup. Many did. For example, George Shaheen left Andersen Consulting to join Webvan. Lou Dobbs left CNN for space.com. They wanted to …

The Chinese Financial Crisis: Danger or Opportunity?

Crisis: 危机 China’s stock market has been in global headlines for the past two months as share prices have lost all of this year’s gains and uncertainty remains over what lies ahead. A financial crisis in the world’s second largest economy certainly warrants the attention of marketers, who must determine what impact the situation might have …

A Year in Seoul

Today marks one year of living in Seoul. To update some thoughts from my first month here: A lot more Instagram, a lot less Twitter.  Snackability applies to posting and to reading. It’s been interesting to see censorship in the media and how freedom of the press is limited in South Korea. For example, when the …

The Next Decade of Social Media

Last week, I shared some thoughts on the next decade of social media at the 2015 Cannes Lions festival. The key points are highlighted in this Guardian article: Gone Shoppable Snackable Automated Connective Filtered Integrated Chinese Subcutaneous Empowering More coverage of the talk is available in these write-ups: “Ten social media trends that will shape marketing over the …

Why bigger is better for brands at SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2015 is over and by all accounts it was bigger than ever before. This was my seventh consecutive year attending and speaking and I’ve witnessed this evolution firsthand. More so than in any prior year, my week in Austin left me with the impression that SXSW matters more than ever for …

What to watch with the Apple Watch

I was at Mobile World Congress last week in Barcelona. This week, Apple finally announced details on their much anticipated first-generation smartwatch. Wearables, but why? The Apple Watch faces the same critical challenge that all smartwatches already struggle with today: a strong use case. In other words, is it really better to do this on …