Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Marketing/Branding/PR (Page 3 of 29)

DEMO Spring 11: Just have to shout-out about the “People’s Choice Award” winner — GutCheck!

March 13, 2011 / / 1 Comment

DEMO-GutCheck A fitting end to my blog coverage of the great DEMO Spring 2011 event last week is one about a personal favorite of mine that pitched at the event: GutCheck. They're about "Real-time qualitative market research."  I spoke to these guys several times at the conference but, unfortunately, in the rush of things, I never audio-recorded one of our chats.  But, being a marketing guy through-and-through from early in my career, this one rang the bell for me as soon as I heard about it. Turns out it rang a few other bells, too.  In fact, it rang the gong!  GutCheck won the big-enchilada prize of them all: the "People's Choice Award," which gives them $1 million in media value from IDG. To say these guys were elated would be an understatement.GutCheck-logo

GutCheck is about providing "consumer insights in a matter of minutes." They didn’t think it was fair that qualitative insight was reserved just for those with big budgets, big resources, and extended timelines. So, in 2009, they "leveraged the Internet and other technologies to blow up the market’s conventional wisdom and create an on-demand tool for gathering insight." GutCheck’s goal is simple: to be the leader in DIY qualitative market research. "By making qualitative research accessible to the masses, we're giving marketers and others the unique opportunity to surround any of their ideas, concepts, strategies, etc, with feedback," the company says.

The attendees of DEMO themselves vote for the People's Choice Award — as opposed to the DEMOgod awards, which are awarded to one company per category (so five total). I immediately posted the list of DEMOgod winners to my event live-blog — they were announced on stage just prior to this award. No one quite seems to know who those darn DEMOgod voters are, but everyone knows that GutCheck got voted for their award by the folks in the audience. That's pretty darn convincing. GutCheck obviously impressed. And I loved what CEO and cofounder Matt Warta (left in the photo) said from stage: "We love startups!"  What he's referring to is the special appeal of their service to early-stage firms, which by nature hunger for feedback from consumers or end-users.

How fitting: at an event for startups, a presenter that makes life easier for startups to find their mojo and go to market more effectively, wins the big award.  Friends, it doesn't get any better that that!  Congrats to Matt, and to Marshall England (head of marketing), holding the check at right in the photo — you guys rocked it!

                                                                                                                     

DEMOfall 2010: A Chat With SocialSmack About a New Way to Engage with Brands

September 15, 2010 / / 0 Comments

SocialSmack-MattCurtin Get ready to hear the phrase "Props and Drops" a lot, at least if SocialSmack has anything to do with it.  I heard last week these guys would be here at DEMOfall, and I knew I'd have to interview them.  SocialSmack-logo This startup, based in Austin, TX, is all about giving consumers a better way to express themselves about the brands they interact with on a daily basis.  I had a great chat with Matt Curtin, founder and CEO.

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with SocialSmack about a new way to engage with brands… (MP3)"

 

Exclusive: Robert Stephens Talks About His New Role as CTO of Best Buy

September 9, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Earlier this week, I sat down for coffee with Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad, to chat about a number of things, and we decided to do an impromptu audio interview.  I realized later it was almost three years to the day when I'd first met Robert, at an event where he was honored as Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2007 Minnesota Cup reception at the University of Minnesota — and I blogged about that, quoting from his great talk. RobertStephens-BestBuyCTO I'd also heard him speak before at other local events, where he's always a favorite. I have much admiration for the man, not just because he's the spiritual leader of 25,000 geeks and has a real passion for technology, but because he's a marketing genius. What's more, he's really funny and entertaining. GeekSquad-logo I also find it fascinating that he began college as an art student, then switched to computer science (coming to the U of M for that, from his native Chicago). I've since seen Robert at many of our local tech "barcamp" events, MInneBar and MinneDemo, for which he and his employer of the last eight years, Best Buy, have provided much support. Hats off to them for that. (As Robert likes to tell it, "Geek Squad acquired Best Buy in 2002.")  

But, this day, I thought it would be a great opportunity to let Robert tell us about the new role I knew he'd recently been promoted to — that of Chief Technology Officer, reporting the CEO of Best Buy.  I knew something was coming, because he hinted so in a meeting with me and my colleague Steve Borsch during the summer.  BestBuy-logo-onstore_300w There was no Best Buy press release announcing his appointment, which I guess is common for them, but I actually confirmed it a few weeks ago when I hit Robert's LinkedIn page. (He told me he didn't want any hoopla around being named to his new role, that he'll be happy to get recognition when he has some results to talk about.)

We recorded a 21-minute interview, where Robert touched on an array of topics.  He talked about technology trends, and how his job is translating those into actionable intelligence for Best Buy.  He spoke about his developing relationships and partnerships with companies like Google and Facebook, and how he really finds Best Buy a dynamic place to work, giving him a "palette, and a canvas." He also tells the inside story about how was first asked to be CTO, involving a trip to New York with CEO Brian Dunn on the company jet to meet with Eric Schmidt of Google. Robert also talks about what motivates him, how he thinks more like a startup guy, but has the unique advantage of such big resources at Best Buy — and the abilily to open doors anywhere. "I have the best job," he says. "I get to travel the world and visit all these companies." He said over the next five to ten years, "we'll be exploiting the four screens." In that regard, he talks in particular about how one of those, TV, is coming into an new exciting phase. "I like sitting on the main chess board," he said.

But let's get to it… 

• Download or listen to my complete, unedited interview of Robert Stephens, CTO of Best Buy… (MP3)"

 

Minnesota’s W3i Lights Up the ‘Net with Its Latest App News

June 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

(This post first appeared on Minnov8.com, a site about web & Internet innovation in MInnesota.)

Okay, so there’s this company named Apple that I hear makes phones. And people tell me there’s been, uh, a bit of news lately about some new phone of theirs? 
IPhone4-FrontBackSide Well, that media firestorm didn’t stop Minnesota’s W3i from deciding to jump in with some news of its own, which is actually related to the exploding ecosystem around Apple mobile devices.  That would be apps.

St. Cloud, MN-based W3i is in the app distribution business — in a big, profitable way (33 successive quarters thereof).  But till now that business has been all about desktop apps, and Windows only. Well, mark down yesterday as the day they entered the world of mobile, with this bombshell: W3i Launches New Incented Mobile App Distribution Service for iOS App Developers.  A separate version of the release, for consumers, gets more to the benefit: Consumers Can Now Earn Rewards for Installing Apps.  Those rewards, my friends, would be cash — for consumers who register at a W3i site called Apperang.com. 

Naturally, app fanboys and girls everywhere loved the news — after reading about it on some of the sites they frequent the most.  TechCrunch (MobileCrunch) ran this story: Apperang Pays You Cash to Download iPhone Apps… Ka-Ching!  And VentureBeat (MobileBeat) ran concurrently — amazing how that happens — with their take: Get paid to install apps with W3i Mobile Solutions and Apperang. 
W3i-logo+tag Numerous other sites and blogs picked up on it immediately, and Twitter was going crazy on it (just search on hashtags #apperang and #w3i).  [Oh, sure, there was a story in the Mpls StarTrib last week, too, but that didn't light up much of anything… <rimshot>]

Apperang-screenclip I asked the CEO of a local app development company for his reaction to this W3i news, from a business perspective:  ”The model and integration W3i has developed for desktop distribution has been a huge success in the past, so I wouldn’t bet against them on making their mobile version a success,” said Wade Beavers, CEO of DoApp Inc. “For developers wanting to get a core base of users fast, it makes sense to use this service. The key will be how long those users keep your app, because that’s where the return on investment is.”

I also asked one of Minnesota’s most experienced iPhone app developers for his reaction: “Will app publishers readily jump to use this type of service? Small developers, maybe,” said Bill Heyman of CodeMorphic. “But small developers may not have budget to support this type of promotion… Will it be enough to hit the tipping point for more organic sales because of a higher App Store ranking? Well, ultimately, it would depend on how much a company wants to spend to buy a ranking.”

But, actually, W3i signed on some pretty successful big developers for its private beta before the announcement yesterday (the service is now in public beta).  That list of launch advertisers — just those that let W3i use their names for PR purposes — includes these firms, with the name of their app in parentheses: Big Stack Studios (Sigma), Inert Soap (FingerZilla), Booyah (MyTown), Gist (Gist), Thinking Ape (Kingdoms at War), Flixster (Movies), Slacker Inc (Slacker Radio), xCube Labs (My Health Records – Health n Family), and infinidycorp (Zombies vs. Aliens).

I’m sure we’ll be hearing about a lot more, as W3i tells me they are crazy-busy now following up with other app companies who are inquiring.

(Disclosure: the author has had a consulting relationship with W3i for providing PR services.)

My Live-Blogging of the MIMA Event Featuring Virgin America

May 19, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Here's the page where my live-blog posts appeared, in real time last evening, May 19, 2010. Porter Gale, VP of Marketing at Virgin America, gave a great talk.BuildingBrand35kft-LiveBlog-title

To do live-blogging at events, I use a great tool designed
just for this purpose called "ScribbleLive." I've done so at several events over the past year or two, such as DEMO Conferences, Blogwell/Minneapolis, MIMA Summit, and others. (And I'll be live-blogging at the Glue Conference next week in Denver.)  It lets me comment as things happen.

VirginAmerica-logo My on-site coverage of this MIMA event began soon after I arrived at the Solera restaurant and nightclub, on a gorgeous evening in downtown Minneapolis. The entire live-blog is now archived at the page link above, in chronological order.

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