Now! That’s What I Call Forward Thinking: 2009
This week, I thought it would be a good idea in my Forward Thinking column to do the exact opposite … look backwards.
Here are some of the greatest Forward Thinking hits at the Tippingpoint this year.
The Diversified Content Distribution Model
In the first post of the Forward Thinking series, Andrew Davis ruminated on the value of using a diversified content distribution portfolio. Using the analogy of a diversified stock or financial portfolio, Drew theorized that content distribution should be similar, involving a variety of channels in a various stages of their New Media Life Cycle.
Reviving an American Icon
While many people are mourning the decline of newspapers, Andrew Davis and Scott Loring wrote a four-part series exploring how to reinvent the news and breathe new life into a valuable content distribution platform. The solution: branded journalists.
The New Web Universe
In one of the most integral pieces of the Tippingpoint Labs methodology, Scott Loring wrote about the new model of the web universe based on the teachings of Ptolemy and Galileo (one of whom was obviously WAY ahead of their time). In short, your website is not the center of your web world, search is.
Photo by Tim in Sydney
2010: A Marketing Budget Odyssey
This six(!)-part series examined the ways marketing Vice Presidents and Chief Marketing Officers should be measuring the ROI of new media strategies for the coming year, and how to approach executing on these new media strategies. Andrew Davis, Scott Loring, Josh Cole, and I contributed to this series that explains why every department needs to be involved in a good web strategy.
TMDA* — Our First eBook
Too Many Damn Acronyms – Stop Buying Your Traffic and Start Earning It
In our first foray into the eBook realm, Josh Cole and I explore the changing world of search and how SEM budgets may just be gigantic wastes of money.
The Online Brand Value Chain Explained
Another core component of the Tippingpoint Labs methodology, the online brand value chain, gets its moment in the spotlight in this blog post from October. Historically, ads influenced brand awareness down the consumer chain. However, in a two-way communication medium like the web, trust is the new lever.
Photo by Goldy fk
Find Your Fish TV
In the early 1990s, a manager at a South Carolina cable station pointed a camera at a fish tank to fill the time before he switched on the Sci-Fi Channel. When he turned Fish TV off, people got mad. The implications of his seemingly insignificant stopgap were far-reaching and influential; niche content is powerful and there’s an audience for just about anything.
Photo by peterjaena
The Bikini Concept Explained
In short, when it comes to content distribution on the web, you need to be giving 99% of it away, because there will always be someone willing to pay dearly for that very last 1%. So why are you holding back?
Photo by Kulicki
Web Campaigns Are All About Follow-Through
Finally, one of our most recent posts focused on TGI Friday’s ill-fated “Friend Woody” Facebook campaign and how it failed to deliver any brand value or loyalty. Spikes in traffic are easy to create, but the value is in the follow-through.
About the author
Brad Schwarzenbach -
As an analyst on the Tippingpoint Strategy team, Brad explores new opportunities for clients to build relationships with their customers. He’s always testing new social media channels, poring over analytic data, and identifying emerging trends. He also speaks at conferences & events about uncovering powerful messages hidden within brands' unique values.
Brad’s research has contributed to the development of content & contributor strategies for such clients as Breville, Rodale, Long’s Jewelers, and Fusionapps, as well as being a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint blog. He’s been “listening” to the way we communicate online since the old AOL People Connection days and watched the way that digital communication has evolved.
An English and Creative Writing major at the University of Connecticut, Brad’s spent most of his career creating web content and becoming intimately familiar with web theory for Bayard, Inc. and TomTom Inc., giving Brad keen ears and eyes to what, exactly, makes web content valuable.
Outside the office, Brad feels most at home with his beautiful wife-to-be Kristina, or on the golf course. “There’s a distinct pace and rhythm to the way people communicate online. Understanding and taking part in them yields amazing opportunities for my clients to not only grow but to improve their business. I’m constantly looking for those opportunities.”Popular Posts
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Seth Godin and the Flower Clock
August 24, 2010 -
The Online Brand Value Chain Explained
October 6, 2009 -
Give Most of it Away. The Rest Will Pay.
December 1, 2009
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Good summing up of some excellent posts. Thanks for providing such valuable and interesting information over the last year. I look forward to more of your insights throughout 2010…
Thanks for being a regular around here, Amelia. We appreciate your thoughtful insight on our posts.
Keep those comments coming!
Brad
Solid distillation of your insights. It will be interesting at the end of 2010 to take that year’s roundup of “what we covered” and compare it to this list, to see what areas were on point, and what concepts held true and bore any kind of fruit for companies implementing them.
Keep it up!