#SteveJobs Bio in #ComicBook Format: Buys into Approach From JLC Group 2008 BlogWe Told You So!!

According to AP, Steve Jobs is cementing his iconic image with the release of a bio in comic book format.

By MATT MOORE AP Business Writer

PHILADELPHIA June 14, 2011 (AP)

Steve Jobs, the public face of Apple Inc., is getting a biographical comic book.

Publisher Bluewater Productions Inc. said Monday it will bring a 32-page biography — titled "Steve Jobs: Co-Founder of Apple" — of the iconic CEO to comic book shops, bookstores and online retailers Aug. 24, detailing his life and career.

Before you click on the the full story, .according to Associated Press.  look back to the September 2008 blog post right here, and you'll understand why we're patting ourselves on the back; after all, we've been promoting this very idea for years, and its one that has since become a proven branding application.

The issue isn't why Jobs waited two years to embrace the application that we've long advocated as a being a key weapon within a larger branding arsenal, the issue is that he's the most recent icon to do so.

Starting Your Own Online Video Channel

For thought leaders looking to leverage the trend in online video..Good read from the NYT. Below clip is our [very raw] primer.

#BrandBurnishing Boot Camp: For Celebs, Entrepreneurs and Wannabees

#1: Video. Get on the bus, or get run over by it. If you haven't embraced it yet, its not too late. If you need a primer, Google subsidiary YouTube is providing a boot camp for newbies that provides a primer in the basics. See this past weekend's NYT article. Don't forget to bring the marshmallows!

#2: You're a celeb of sorts; your fame could be a function of a series of corporate accomplishments, your role as a pundit (i.e. talking head), an entertainer, or perhaps you're a professional sports figure. You're looking to leverage your notoriety. Wouldn't it be neat to add "novelist" to the notches on your belt?

Well, this is apparently one of the fastest growing trends, and if you can't write, no less spell, no worries! Publishers are bending over backwards to exploit your notoriety and they've got ghost writers on call to mint your name with their story lines. See today's article from NYT

#VideoCalls& #VideoChat Moves from Madison Ave to #WallStreet: Turn Up the Volume!!!

Because this blog has been around longer than many of what have become ubiquitous 'apps', whether social media-centric, website wonders, or communication tools, we've had the benefit of being prescient and predicting trends that would stick vs. the stuff that would slide down the wall.

Maybe its because this blogger has always aspired to be a Hollywood film producer, but anyone that's visited this blog more than 2x over the past 7 years will know that we've had a particular bent towards anything/everything that exploits (monetizes) video. After all, from an eyeball-grabbing, wallet-fetching perspective, "it" is almost always  about sight, sound and motion.

Years ago, we looked at the financial metrics of video chat businesses that dominated the Web-based, adult-entertainment silo. We predicted the same technology would be embraced by a broad spectrum of mainstream industries.

Even if we thought many industries would move faster than they actually have, Rome wasn't built in a day, and the fact is, more than 90% of human beans are followers that wait for others to 'prove' a concept, establish a trend and move ahead of the pack.
All of that said, and as profiled by this past Sunday's NYT, video chats on mobile devices are now the "it" app, teleconferencing via Skype has become not only a norm, but a revenue-producer for a wide range of professional service providers (other than adult entertainers!).

Even the financial services and securities industry is finally getting it! These are the silos that have traditionally (or notoriously) eschewed any form of communication that provides any kind of transparency, could be easily misinterpreted, or might show a face of the company other than a professional model hired to be a spokesperson or talking head in a TV commercial.

The head blogger here has advocated installing live-cam video on major Wall Street trading floors for years, so as to allow institutional customers to see (if not hear) the action taking place. Its not a theory that this approach would create an infotaining (even if only ephemeral) enhanced connection with said institutional customers. 

Lo and Behold..Breaking News...The US Securities & Exchange Commission (those funny arbiters of what's right and not right, and who is allowed to say or see) has issued a no-action letter to a group that wants to broadcast "investor roadshows" over the internet. [Roadshows are the institutional investor presentations that have traditionally taken place behind closed doors, followed by uber luxe snacks served to help whet the appetite for those managers to make 8-figure investments].

According to latest news, Roadshow Broadcast LLC can now transmit those live (and canned) shows over the Net without having to register as a broker/dealer.   In separate news, CNBC is purportedly plotting out a new reality show that will otherwise facilitate pretty much the same thing. This blogger won't say whether he's been asked to exec produce for CNBC, but would be happy to entertain the offer!

#NYTimes Trashes Twitter (Touche!); Questions Merits of Social Media

Kudos to Bill Keller, NYT's Executive Editor, for his witty perspective on the merits of social media, and the [negative] ramifications of relying on abbreviated discourse. At least that's the way this reader read it.

Click on the title link to read Bill's musings.

#SocialMedia for Syncophants; Making #Tupperware #Titillating

While sitting at the Gramercy Hotel Bar with LA's entertainment lawyer/personal manager/agent extraordinaire Michael Wallach and author of best-selling "How To Get Arrested",
thanks to Verizon, we found ourselves drinking less and fondling our mobile devices more.

Needless to say, the barkeep was non-too-happy. Instead of our socializing with the gaggle of young, aspiring actresses who dropped by to rub shoulders (if not more) with "this generation's Jerry Weintraub"  after they heard about his NYC visit via FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or 4Square, we found ourselves busy sucking down bandwidth and re-charging the batteries of our swanky new cell phones to better carouse the web. What were we thinking??

Since I wasn't imbibing and taking in the scenery, here's what I was thinking:  Social networks, in and of themselves, have value, but there is more value by linking them to each other. Miraculously, this exact observation was made in  today's NYT by Dell Computer's Chief Marketing Officer Andy Lack. I don't know Andy, and I don't know if he knows of me, but given his creds and his title, all I can say is that great minds think alike.

To my clients (and others) that I've counseled on the topic of best practices for social media, the simple streamlined steps of simultaneously updating/posting to your various social networks is easy to do, and based on the turn out to the Gramercy Hotel Bar, it works!

Lest I forget to remind all of you corporate marcom "gurus" that are still talking, but not yet doing the social media "salsa", even staid Tupperware is joining the dance party. See the profile in today's advertising section of the NYT.

Great ideas are worth nothing unless you execute on them.

Ad Font: Its Not the Size, its the Motion

Your ad agency was wrong when they told you that taller font size makes for higher recall of your message. 

According to to a new study to be published by Psychological Science, font size is irrelevant; its the shape of the font, specifically using fonts that are difficult to read, that leads to higher recall.

The reasoning makes for interesting reading... view the full story courtesy of the New York Times.

FlashGordon Marcomm Strategy-Minority Report App Now Real

Let's face it: marcomm is always about selling, and we're always enamored by high-tech apps that stand out..this one inspired us when we first saw Minority Report..now its not just a film fantasy..

Digital billboards that display different ads depending on who is looking at them were once only found in Minority Report. But a recently launched startup aims to make targeted billboard advertising as ubiquitous as targeted online advertising.
Immersive Labs introduced its smart billboard technology atTechStars‘ Demo Day in New York on Thursday. The software combines video analytics with environmental factors and Twitter and Foursquare information to decide what the best ad to display at that moment is.
Click on title link to read the full story.

Games People Play Can Burnish Brands Better Than Ads

Games people play can burnish brands better than advertising..according to Appsavvy..Social Media 201..

Are you a #twit when you #tweet? Measuring #Influence

Good article courtesy of NY Times David Leonhardt...follow the path to Twitalyzer.com to determine how much time you're actually wasting vs. actually influencing by tweeting.

A Better Way to Measure Twitter Influence

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Illustrations by La Tigre

Whether you’re a Twitter user like Lady Gaga (millions and millions of followers) or, say, me (2,600 and growing!), you’re always aware of roughly how many people follow you. It’s just how people keep score on the site and compare themselves with friends and colleagues.

But it turns out that counting followers is a seriously flawed way to measure a person’s impact on Twitter. Even one of Twitter’s founders, Evan Williams, made the point to me recently: someone with millions of followers may no longer post messages frequently, while someone followed by mere tens of thousands may be a prolific poster whose messages are amplified by others.

So who are the most influential people on Twitter? We asked the people at Twitalyzer, an independent research firm, to study the question, and they came back with something called the Influence Index. It counts the number of times somebody’s Twitter name is mentioned by other users (including retweets, which occur when one user rebroadcasts another’s message). The Influence Index doesn’t merely measure who’s talking on Twitter, but it also measures how much someone is affecting the conversation. Look below at how low Lady Gaga’s influence score is, for example.

Among the discoveries: It helps to come from one of the four countries where Twitter is most popular — the United States, Brazil, England and Canada. That may explain why there are three unfamiliar names, at least to most Americans, in the Top 10: Stephen Fry (a British actor), Luciano Huck (a Brazilian television star) and Rafinha Bastos (a Brazilian comedian).

Eric T. Peterson, the chief executive of Twitalyzer, points out that some of the most influential users also make a big effort to respond to much less famous people with personal messages. Kim Kardashian falls into this category. President Obama, as you may have guessed, does not.

One last thing: Twitalyzer’s public Web site doesn’t let people calculate their own influence scores. But you can get your impact score, which is a 0-to-100 index that combines influence, number of followers and frequency of message writing. To calculate that, type your Twitter name into the box here.