Style Frames Buenos Aires May 2012

Join Stash Media principals and a stellar group of design, advertising and media professionals at STYLE FRAMES, a new series of design conferences dedicated to the art of the pitch. The first event will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 10 and 11. EARLY BIRD tickets are now available.

Presented by Stash Media and produced by FITC, STYLE FRAMES will showcase outstanding pitch art and the talent behind it, while demystifying the pitch process, Read more

Sharing secrets: CJ Olivares

Back in April, after eight years of spectacular, groundbreaking leadership as EVP and ultimately General Manager of FUEL TV, CJ Olivares announced his departure from the network he helped to launch. Several months earlier, CJ had provided the keynote address to The Action Sports Conference 2010, and around the same time, he was interviewed in detail by TransWorld Business. Both of these events occurred just as FUEL TV was revamping its programming and ambitiously reaching out to a wider audience. Read more

Sharing secrets: Kinect hacking

The fascinating video featured with this story was just released in May, and it’s already aging. It ran with the Wired story “Six Months Later, Kinect Hacks Flourish” to coincide with a presentation by computer scientist Johnny Chung Lee at Wired’s Disruptive by Design business conference, and since then, the phenomenon has literally taken the tech and creative worlds by storm. The author of that article is Dave Mosher, who also interviewed Mr. Lee at Disruptive by Design — and has a new feature in this month’s Wired entitled “Kinect Hackers Are Changing the Future of Robotics.” This subject is quickly making headway in many industries. For example, at the recent Creativity and Technology (CaT) business conference, Sam Travis Ewen pointed to it as one of three areas of technology that are impacting the art of engagement. Don’t miss Alexandra Bruell’s detailed Ad Age story on Mr. Ewen here: “How Kinect Hacking, Augmented Reality Is Changing Marketing.” In case you’re wondering, the two other developments he put the spotlight on were augmented reality and projection mapping.

Marketing Imperatives: Effectiveness

The Effie Awards were founded in 1968 by the American Marketing Association, New York Chapter, as an awards program to recognize the most effective advertising efforts in the United States each year. Over the years, Effie has become a source of learning through global conferences, judging discussion and access to in depth case studies providing opportunities for insight into effective marketing communications. In 2008, the New York AMA assigned its rights to the Effie brand over to a new entity named Effie Worldwide, Inc, with the goal of strengthening its educational component and its value to the industry. Deadlines for the 2011 North American and Global Effie Awards are at hand — please visit www.Effie.org today to learn more.

Effie Worldwide and YouTube have now teamed up to present a webinar series that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the most effective marketing ideas and strategies of the year. Below, I’m presenting my raw notes from “2010 Effies Case Studies: Ideas That Worked, Part I.” The video above is the Jack in the Box case study from agency Secret Weapon Marketing, which was presented in that webinar. Please subscribe to the EffieWorldwide YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/EffieWorldwide to view the webinar presentations in their entirety, and to find more fascinating case studies like the one above. Read more

Sharing secrets: Ford’s Scott Monty

Back in September, new media industry thought leader and author Brian Solis launched (R)evolution, a new series of video interviews presenting the people, trends, and ideas defining the future of business, marketing, and media. Last week, he released this very informative video where he interviewed Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media. To learn more about Brian and check out more of his growing treasury of must-know content, please visit www.BrianSolis.com.

Hail brave crusaders! Brian Marr from Wexley School for Girls

Last evening, the American Advertising Federation of Greenville, South Carolina hosted Brian Marr, Managing Director for the West Coast marketing agency Wexley School for Girls, at the lovely Westin Poinsett in downtown Greenville.

Well known for their innovative approaches in engaging customers for Microsoft, Nike, Seattle Sounders and Seahawks, Copper Mountain and others Read more

Earth Island Institute asks tomorrow’s leaders, “What would Dave do?”

Earth Island Institute established the Brower Youth Awards in 2000 to honor their founder and legendary environmental activist, David R. Brower and to call forth a new generation of leaders. This award manifests the Earth Island Institute’s abiding commitment to growing environmental leadership. The annual Brower Youth Awards honor six young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy. Read more

January “Real Simple” Listmania…

Stuck at Goodyear getting my car its annual inspection, I was a actually disappointed when the job was done so quickly… simply because I’d found the great January “Real Simple” magazine’s special coverage dedicated to lists. The Secret Society of List Addicts’ blog celebrates the issue by linking to “essentials.” My two favorite tips from my quick scan of the issue are there: jott.com and evernote.com.

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Innovation inspiration for everyone…

The going has recently gotten pretty tough for a lot of people, so let’s all get going on what’s to come next, shall we? We all have some serious business to attend to at the moment, and I’m cautiously optimistic. To me, the world is still a place where individuals and businesses can do good and well simultaneously… I see it happening all around me every day. Fuel for making positive changes is suddenly in great supply. Below I’m sharing a hand-picked set of links to live events, podcasts, feature stories and slide shows providing excellent sources of innovation inspiration, for your further research and follow-through.

WIRED Magazine’s Sept. 27 – Oct. 12 NextFest in Chicago: Four Days Left
In an Oct. 2008 Fast Company feature story entitled “Rewiring the Creative Mind” by Gregory Berns, author of the book Iconoclast from Harvard Business Press, we are told that “the surest way to provoke the imagination… is to seek out environments you have no experience with.” Since WIRED’s fifth annual event showcases the global innovations of the future, it should inspire in spades. If you’re reading this after Oct. 12, maybe just pick up the latest issues of WIRED and Fast Company and read them someplace you’ve never been before.

Boards Summit Keynote Event in New York: Hear Future Forecaster and Game Designer Jane McGonigal
. Boards Summit is the what’s-what in commercial production design and creativity — straight from the top who-are-whos in the business. Be in NYC on Oct. 23 and 24 to rub shoulders with VIP attendees — and to hear from this technology-leveraging innovator rated as one of the world’s best by MIT Technology Review.

Deloitte Insights Podcast: Reshaping the Future: The Risks and Rewards of Innovation in a Changing World
. This podcast focuses on “Shapers” — individuals among us who have the ability to radically alter perceptions of risk and reward… and conveys how instigating change is a key strategy for survival and success.

Oct. 2008 Harvard Business Review Feature Story: Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption
. The same three Deloitte LLP Center for Edge Innovation principals behind the above podcast offer a printed road map for winning amid technology’s constant changes.

Oct. 8 Industry Week Feature Story: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Innovating
. Innosight’s Scott Anthony and Joseph Sinfield, two of the four co-authors of The Innovator’s Guide to Growth from Harvard Business School Press, report on the creation of new markets as a catalyst for profits.

Smartbrief on Leadership Innovation Tip to Fast Company Feature Story: How Innovation Led HTC to the Dream, by Kermit Pattison
. John Wang, chief marketing officer and innovation wizard at Taiwan’s HTC, the company making Google’s first mobile-phone, shares some surprising company secrets in another great Fast Company feature. Several cool slide shows accompany the write-up on the story’s sidebar.

Oct. 8 Advertising Age Feature Story and Video: New economy, new tactics
. In this story by Hoag Levins and its accompanying 3 Minute Ad Age Video, Reader’s Digest Food and Entertaining Group president Suzanne Grimes details the media giant’s new forays into the symposium business.

Blog love: Crossroads Dispatches
. Evelyn Rodriguez describes her blog as “a neo-renaissance, eco-epicurean savors, curates and shares slices from the surf’s edge on the inspiration, imagination, the art of living, the living of art – and anything that screams Life.” I visited and found many inspiring ideas of interest. Thought you might, too. God speed!

Words from the wise: Investments tips from self-made billionaires…

The editors of the venerable Forbes Magazine have compiled their annual “Secrets of the Self-Made” coverage, where this year 17 self-made billionaires responded to questions ranging from the ho-hum to the pretty darned interesting. If readers were invited into this Q&A; process, especially considering the current financial crisis, I’m sure the questions would have been much more compelling. However, since most of the subjects probably wouldn’t be too interested in participating in that type of forum, we can consider ourselves lucky to have access to what you can find in the story. I recommend checking-out the coverage in full for more details, but in the meantime, below, some of these gentlemen tell us how they would invest $100,000… while others evade the question, likely displaying the skills that made them rich in the first place. Enjoy!

John Catsimatidis
Net Worth: $2.1 billion
Age: 60
Source of Wealth: Oil, real estate, supermarkets
Answer: “Energy.”

Leon Charney
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Age: 67
Source of Wealth: Real estate
Answer: “Invest in medical technology.”

John Paul DeJoria
Net Worth: $3.5 billion
Age: 64
Source of Wealth: Hair products, tequila
Answer: “$25K into alternative energy companies, $25K into blue-chips companies, 25K into precious metals and $25K into my children’s educational accounts.”

Tom Golisano
Net Worth: $1.7 billion
Age: 66
Source of Wealth: Paychex
Answer: “I’m not telling you.”

Michael Heisley
Net Worth: $2.1 billion
Age: 71
Source of Wealth: Manufacturing
Answer: “Alternative energy technology.”

R.J. Kirk
Net Worth: $1.6 billion
Age: 54
Source of Wealth: Pharmaceuticals
Answer: “I would buy stock in Clinical Data and Halozyme Therapeutics, two companies with which I am involved. Those are the two investments that my girlfriend made.”

Ted Lerner
Net Worth: $3.5 billion
Age: 82
Source of Wealth: Real estate
Answer: “Buy some ground.”

Rob Maguire
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
Age: 73
Source of Wealth: Real estate
Answer: “I can usually come up with successful ways to invest my money at pleasantly high returns.”

Seth Merrin
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Age: 48
Source of Wealth: Liquidnet
Answer: “I would invest in the future of Africa by sending it to the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village we are building to house and educate the orphans of the Rwandan genocide.”

Ron Perelman
Net Worth: $11.5 billion
Age: 65
Source of Wealth: Leveraged buyouts
Answer: “Today? T-Bill.”

Jorge Perez
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Age: 59
Source of Wealth: Condos
Answer: “Buy undervalued real estate during these depressed times.”

Wilbur L. Ross
Net Worth: $1.8 billion
Age: 70
Source of Wealth: Leveraged buyouts
Answer: “If I were 25, in a stock with huge long-term potential, and if I were 75, in inflation-rate adjusted Treasury Bonds.”

Alexander Rovt
Net Worth: $1.6 billion
Age: 56
Source of Wealth: Fertilizer
Answer: “Invest in real estate.”

Phil Ruffin
Net Worth: $2.1 billion
Age: 73
Source of Wealth: Casinos, real estate
Answer: “Get into a high-limit poker game.”

Tom Secunda
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Age: 54
Source of Wealth: Bloomberg
Answer: “I’d buy more Bloomberg stock if I could.”

Patrick Soon-Shiong
Net Worth: $5.8 billion
Age: 56
Source of Wealth: Pharmaceuticals
Answer: “Invest it in my scientific team.”

Allen Stanford
Net Worth: $2.2 billion
Age: 58
Source of Wealth: Stanford Financial Group
Answer: “If that is your entire liquid asset, put it in a 12-month CD and wait to see how things play out in 2009 with a new administration.”