Tag Archives: Leadership

Breakaway Innovation and the Vital Idea Ecosystem

If 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 →

Posted in Digital Marketing, Featured, Strategy & Trends by David Capece | Friday, November 18th, 2011 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How to Network at Networking Events

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 →

Posted in Featured, Strategy & Trends by Ethan Lyon | Monday, April 11th, 2011 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tips to Manage Your Manager

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 →

Posted in Featured, Strategy & Trends by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sparxoo Workshop: Applying Brand Innovation Internally

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 →

Posted in Branding, Strategy & Trends by David Capece | Sunday, February 27th, 2011 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Creating Effective Presentations

Develop a clear and concise overview – Slide four outlines, in plain terms, “what you’ll learn.” After reviewing The Brand Gap presentation, you will learn the modern definition of a brand and understand the five disciplines of brand building. Simple, concise and digestible.

Show, don’t just tell — Images offer tangible evidence of your points. Slide 20 is an image of dozens of cameras — illustrating the authors point about brand differentiation in the market.

Want more tips for creating great presentations? Read more. Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy & Trends by Ethan Lyon | Friday, November 5th, 2010 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Happiness is a Business Model at Zappos

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh recently spoke to American Marketing Association Tampa Bay and shared his journey in creating Zappos, which sold to Amazon for approximately $900 million in 2009. The presentation was part of Tony Hsieh’s bus tour coinciding with the release of his best selling book, “Delivering Happiness.” At Zappos, passion and purpose are the ingredients that lead to profits. They’ve got a truly engaged team, a brand culture that embraces “weirdness” and inspired a spontaneous parade of pirates. We know you want profits, but don’t lose site of greater purpose and happiness. Your employees and customers will appreciate it.

Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy & Trends by David Capece | Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How to Blog for Corporate Marketing

“Trust is what drives profit margin and share price,” says Larry Light, CEO of the Stamford brand consultancy Arcature and a veteran of McDonald’s and ad agencies BBDO Worldwide and Bates Worldwide to MSNBC. “It is what consumers are looking for…. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Zynga’s Success Inspiring for Entrepreneurs

It wasn’t so long ago that Sergey Brin and Larry Page were scrapping together servers from spare parts to build what would become the most successful search engine in the world. Nor, was it so long that Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to… Continue reading →

Posted in Featured by Ethan Lyon | Monday, July 26th, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Clients Seek Winning Digital Marketing Agency

Digital marketing was the number one (69 percent) ranked marketing tactic most sought by clients, according to an AdWeek survey of 184 marketing clients from companies including AT&T, Dunkin’ Brands, Merck, MetLife and Revlon. In fact, digital marketing is… Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Ethan Lyon | Monday, July 19th, 2010 | Tagged , | 3 Comments

BP Oil Spill: Profits Over Planet

While BP’s spill cleanup costs have eclipsed $1 billion and could eventually cost over $10 billion, can you really put a price on the damage to the environment? If it is true that BP cut corners and that they put on a fraudulent show for the President Obama’s Gulf visit (as reported by CNN’s Anderson Cooper), does BP really deserve to still be worth $130 billion? Consumers … this is your opportunity to vote with your wallet. Many of you are angered and would love to change BP’s slogan of Beyond Petroleum to Bankruptcy Protection. The backlash has spread to Facebook with over 200,000 fans of Boycott BP. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by David Capece | Monday, May 31st, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Google’s Chrome Store Brings Apps to the Web

At Google’s I/O developer conference this week, the search giant unveiled a number of exciting products and programs that should debut in the coming months, including a formal announcement of Google TV and the new WebM video platform. Of these … Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Tara Lane | Friday, May 21st, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MySpace Moves to Simplify Privacy

Since Facebook’s announcement of Connected Profiles feature and Open Graph initiative, the social network has faced criticism and raised concern over privacy on the Web. MySpace this week announced that it will roll out simplified privacy settings in the coming weeks. Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Tara Lane | Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Editions: E-Books for Education Market

The e-book wars have begun and battle lines are being drawn. Apple will corner the interactive book market with its iPad while its Amazon and Sony e-reader counterparts chase after non-tech savvy bookworms. Google just jumped into the game with its… Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Ethan Lyon | Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Entrepreneur Interview: Lessons in Free and Digital Community

Chris Anderson points out in his latest book, Free: The Future of Radical Price, we are in an age where internet users can find information for free that was formerly sold for top dollar (think about the newspaper industry). If information is free, how can… Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Ethan Lyon | Thursday, April 29th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

New Product Development: Identifying Product Opportunity

Launching a new product can grow market share in an existing market or help break into a new one. Consider Apple’s breakthrough into the smartphone market or iAd, or Google’s Gmail. Before you begin implementing new products, perform… Continue reading →

Posted in Startups & Innovation by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Reach Influencers

Seth Godin’s blog receives over a quarter of a million hits every month. The Gawker blog network is valued over $300 million. I Has Cheezburger has nearly 2 million users. Chris Brogan tweets to over 130,000 Twitter followers. These are among the many… Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Marketing by Ethan Lyon | Monday, April 5th, 2010 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Women’s Month: Women Leaders in Pop Culture 2010

When searching for examples of strong female leaders, People magazine is probably the last place someone would look for inspiration. However, there are many well-known women in popular culture using their status and influence as a force for good, by… Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Tara Lane | Monday, March 29th, 2010 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why Nintendo 3DS Will Revolutionize Handheld Gaming Systems

For you gamer geeks out there, remember Virtual Boy? Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s first foray into 3D technology. Although you were the coolest geek on the block to don the gaming headset (likely modeled after a space helmet), it was a market failure. The… Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Ethan Lyon | Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What are the Brand Implications of Obama / Dali Lama Meeting?

How do global brands stay relevant and appeal to a diverse constituency/audience? For Barack Obama and the Dali Lama, it’s about joining in a symbolic meeting about human rights and taking appropriate action; for corporate brands, such as HSBC or…. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Impact by Ethan Lyon | Thursday, February 18th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Where is Obama’s Change?

“A year ago millions of people were rejoicing over the defeat of Bush’s hated Republicans and were looking for Obama to follow through on his promises of change,” writes SocialistAlternative.org. “Fast forward to today, and most people have enormous… Continue reading →

Posted in Market Trends by Ethan Lyon | Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment