In the pursuit of happiness...

Are you happy? Could you be happier? And what the heck defines the pursuit of happiness anyway?

VCs Venture into Branding - What a Concept

A few years back when I worked for a B2B ad agency, and responsible for driving new business, I struck upon the idea of purposely networking with venture capitalist firms located in our region and funding the emergence of IT and biotech startups in our state.

My thinking and motivation, if VCs were already investing their money and business acumen into startups, they most certainly would see the value in the early investment of branding and of course, our agency would be there to provide our talents. I was mistaken and apparently slightly ahead of the times, for after reaching out to more than a few VCs and even meeting with the senior partner of one well-respected firm,
I quickly learned branding or in the broader context, marketing of any sort was way down their list of concerns.

So, it's very refreshing to see this aversion toward branding is changing per Geoff Cook's recent Fast Company article What Venture Capital Needs Now: Serious Brand Thinking... even to the point of adding design experts to their business teams! Of course, give credit to Google a progressive technology company and its Google Ventures for making early investment in branding cool and strategically smart.

Presentism's impact on society, marketing and future thinking

I need only observe my youngest daughter to witness Presentism in today's world. Every key moment in her life becomes an iPhone photo moment (Kodak Moment R.I.P.), immediately uploaded to her Facebook page. She is constantly texting her  friends, particularly during a favorite TV show to share digital OMGs