Strategy & TrendsIf your team prioritizes innovation, we applaud you for recognizing the importance of innovation in gaining competitive advantage. For best results, prioritize ideation and embrace non-traditional methods to come up with ideas. The extra weeks and months of ideation can be the difference between pursuing a winner and a loser. Continue reading
By Andy Havard, Marketing Executive Andy is a Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, a UK based Internet video production company.With a network of 3,000 filmmakers, Skeleton Productions is able to deliver professional, engaging videos to clients around the world, to … Continue reading
Check your Klout score lately? As you’ve probably heard, Klout took a lesson from Google and updated its algorithm this week. Many power users are disgruntled with the changes, which negatively impacted their scores. But there are plenty of reasons … Continue reading
Web site evaluation entails a review of user experience and key communication points. To build your website for the long run, continually assess, update, tweak, and upgrade your content. At Sparxoo Agency, our team has developed a standard process for … Continue reading
Web site marketing extends your web presence to attract prospective customers to your web site. The average American spent 32 hours per month on the Internet in 2010. Targeted web site marketing can be an effective method to generate leads … Continue reading
Entrepreneurs are fueled by high octane ambition, but sometimes the entrepreneur fuel tank can get low. To realize their vision, they need to keep-up their ambition. Continue reading
The world’s leading brands continually innovate. While we often think of Google and Apple as innovation juggernauts (and they are), there is innovation afoot at older brands such as Pepsi, McDonald’s, and Mercedes. Whether created organically or purchased, whether incremental improvements or transformational, innovation is vital in today’s rapidly evolving, competitive global economy. At Sparxoo, our team of brand & innovation strategists has led many brand innovation workshops and expert worksessions with Fortune 500 companies. Our formula: start with creativity to spark new ideas and add in strategy to structure and focus ideas across identified goals. Great ideas can come from anywhere, so tap into your leaders, your Gen Y talent, your customers, and industry experts. Continue reading
When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994, could he have imagined how the company’s gravitational pull would make it the center of the e-commerce universe? The company conquered the online sales of goods from CDs to groceries, is partnering with social media giant, Facebook, essentially created the e-book market and most recently has its sights on the video rental space — the next chapter in its quest to be the center of the online retail space. Continue reading
Developing financial projections can seem like a monumental challenge, especially for emerging businesses that have little track record. After all, if you are operating at a loss with $0 revenue, how can you project a future state in which you have millions in revenue and are operating profitably? While financial modeling can be an inexact science, it can be incredibly helpful in pushing you to think about the future state of your business. Continue reading
When you think about what’s going to make you a successful entrepreneur, or successful in life … “I’m smart” is not enough. Good for you if you’re smart. But it’s going to take something more. Courage and charisma. Confidence and commitment. You might not be a supermodel … but if you give 110%, bring passion, and embrace what makes you different, you can be a super entrepreneur.
Continue reading
Some business professionals use networking events as a last resort for new business — sometimes attending 3-5 events in a given week. Could you imagine meeting someone one week, then giving them your business or referring them to a friend the next? Probably not. Making connections that lead to new business doesn’t happen overnight. Developing meaningful relationships takes time, and shouldn’t be a last ditch effort for new business. Continue reading
Most people, whether they like it or not, are managed at some point in their career. To create a productive relationship with your manager takes a keen understanding of their management style. Continue reading
The internet and mobile devices have undoubtedly changed the how consumers learn about new products and inform buying decisions. Mobile devices, in particular, are merging the in-store shopping experience with the digital world through internet connectivity, coupon apps, social networking sites and numerous other ways being cooked-up in entrepreneur tech labs. Continue reading
We performed an analysis of Google web trends via Search Insights to see where the greatest growth existed for each year beginning with 2004 and all time. Then we zeroed in on those categories with the greatest uptick within a given year. Continue reading
According to the 2009 GMA / Deloitte Green Shopper Study, 95 percent of consumers would purchase more sustainable products and 54 percent consider sustainability to be one of their decision making factors.
As the demand and number of green products on the market grows, there is an increased need to sort through products and services to determine the greatest value. Here are five free resources that can help you incorporate more green in your life: Continue reading
We have explored how Target is using Facebook to push its corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission forward and how Pepsi is supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs. PR agency Weber Shandwick and KRC Research has released a report that examines the effectiveness of how crowdsourcing has played a role in CSR initiatives in Fortune 200 companies. According to the study, CSR crowdsourcing is an effective way to offer a different perspective and build relationships with community members. Continue reading
In 2009, we saw charitable donations fall by 6 percent from the year before to $228.5 billion. Analysts attribute this fall to the recession, but as we continue to emerge from it, experts agree charitable donations will rebound in 2010 by up to 4.5 percent. Continue reading
For the past 3+ years, Sparxoo has had the privelege of leading strategy assignments for major companies such as NBC, Fox Sports, Comcast, Lifetime, JP Morgan Chase, and others. We frequently lead innovation workshops and experts work-sessions to stretch thinking and spur growth. Today, for the first time, we had our own brand innovation workshop. Many firms are great at strategy, and many more at creative. We seek to be unique in our ability to integrate strategy and creative, all while focusing on making meaningful connections. Continue reading
There are over 3 billion cell phone subscribers in the world, the last billion having been added in just the past two years — largely due to explosive growth in India, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, reports Boston.com. Many new phone subscribers exist in impoverished areas and many entrepreneurs are using mobile technology to help them grow their communities economically. Continue reading
eBay generated an astounding $2 billion in sales on mobile devices in 2010, up from $600 million in 2009. It’s not surprising as mobile bidding enables users to act in near real time, without being tethered to a desktop computer. … Continue reading
