AIMS Canada

Resolutions 2007: Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant and AIMS Blog Correspondent...

As some of you may have read, I’ve been working on a series for the past few weeks, highlighting professional resolutions for 2007 from members of the marketing and web communities.

Kathryn reversed the tables on me this week and asked me to share my own goals for this year, to cap off the series. So here I am – literally talking to myself - and let me tell you, it isn’t the first time! 

I have to say, though, that I didn’t realize how tough the question was until I had to answer it myself. So here goes…here’s what I’d like to at least begin to do this year. 

1. Continue to build and merge different worlds. I’ve always been a strong believer in the fact that when you mix people from different worlds, good things happen. By worlds I mean age, cultural background, industry, profession, etc. 

I want to continue evolving initiatives like UsabilityCamp – an event about usability that we opened up not only to the web and tech communities but to product and industrial designers, business types, architects and people who had heard the term usability and were curious to learn more. It made for a really great discussion and I learned a lot from the varying points of view in the room. 

I also do this through my work for the South Asian initiative at the ROM – our events attract people in the media, business, arts, academic worlds (and beyond) and speak to audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds. 

So I want to take that and continue it in my community work, extend it into my profession and my daily life and really open up people’s thinking, as well as my own. What can a corporation learn from a non-profit? What can an architect teach a writer? I’m not alone in this, of course. Michael Seaton talked about sharing information within our own community. Eli (Singer) does a great job in inspiring so many of us with CaseCamp. 

I love this return to the sense of community and most importantly, to conversation and exchange. I think that wasn’t happening for a long time. It’s certainly what gets me energized and inspired about work. 

2. Be more conscious and aware. Each day, the products I use, the things that I buy, my interaction with others, the work that I do impacts the physical, spiritual and human environment around me.

As a marketer, I want to help promote companies that really are making a difference in the world, that get this whole global warming/climate change thing, for example (and no, it’s not just a marketing trend). In general, I want to do good and interesting work, with a purpose. 

As a consumer, I want to make smarter choices that don’t pollute the earth, demand smarter products and support smart, conscious companies. Disposable should be a four-letter word. 

Oh, and as a human being, I agree with Tim Sanders - Love (really) is the killer app. I think his concept still holds true today, so I’m recycling the link from his 2002 Fast Company article and sharing it here.
 

3. Filter & de-clutter. Even though I am really organized, I find it hard to keep up with all the information coming at me, all the time, through multiple mediums. I’ve already started on this third resolution. 

I’ve ruthlessly unsubscribed from e-newsletters, RSS feeds, sent back junk mail (sorry to you direct marketers), asked to be removed from call lists, asked my friends to admonish me for using industry buzzwords (I don’t use them, do I? Gasp!) and (sigh) even gotten rid of a few pairs of shoes. But the thing that’s given me the most brain real estate back? I gave up Lost and with it, the pre-occupation with that silly island. 

Now I have more room for all this new stuff! 

Thanks again to those of you who participated in the resolutions series.   

 

 

 

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Kathryn Lagden, General Manager, AIMS Canada

I've been enjoying reading the 2007 Professional Resolution series that Jyotika Malhotra has been posting the last few weeks. (Jyotika is a Marketing and Communications Consultant and regular AIMS Blog Correspondent).

Last week Jyotika turned the tables a bit and asked me to answer the question she's been posing to a variety of industry folk...What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007? Here is my response...

Focus! (Yes, I’m borrowing a little from Ken Schafer’s resolution of keeping things simple)

Life is moving so fast that it’s easy to get distracted by all the noise. Every day we experience more cool new stuff happening in our world of technology and marketing and it can quickly become overwhelming.

So on that note my 2007 professional resolution is Focus. I shall:

1.       Focus on getting things done

2.       Focus on the things that provide AIMS members the most benefit. (btw – this resolution is how I finally got the Member Directory ready for launch a couple of weeks ago!)

On that note I must finish this post so I can focus on my next task!

btw - I asked Jyotika to answer her own question and share her 2007 goals with readers. Stay tuned...

And if you'd like to let Jyotika know what you've enjoyed about this series (or would like to see next time) please add your comment below or send her an email - I know she'd love to hear from you!

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Kerry Munro, General Manager, Yahoo! Canada

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

Yahoo! It’s the weekend…but there’s time to squeeze in one last post before the week ends. Fittingly, it’s a conversation I had with Kerry Munro, General Manager, Yahoo! Canada (an AIMS Sponsor) for our 2007 Resolutions series. Here it is, despite planes, trains, automobiles and broken tape recorders.

Jyotika Malhotra: I wanted to get a state of the nation, of sorts, to find out what key marketers have on their minds and their agendas for 2007. What are three professional resolutions or to dos that you have on your list for this year?

Kerry Munro: We want to keep our business really simple. We have three anchors for Yahoo! Canada in 2007.

1.    Focus on consumers. Expand Yahoo! Canada as the destination of choice for Canadians - improve the capabilities of the site, grow our search and media properties and add new components from Yahoo! Global. There is a lot of stuff on Yahoo! Worldwide that we can extend to the Canadian multicultural audience. Also, to continue with user interaction and our commitment to social media and social sites.

2.    On the advertising and publishing side, enhance support. We are one of the fastest growing media businesses in the country. Our long-term goal is to look at how the web plays into marketing strategy – educating our clients, etc. For example 70% of 12-24-year olds are online from 4:00 - 9:30 pm. We didn’t have that kind of information as marketers back then. Having been on the business side, I would have been a better marketer, quite frankly, if I had the data that we do now.

3.    Giving back. We spent last year focused on the advertiser and consumer side and we, of course, want to build both as the best businesses in Canada, but how do we also give something back to the community? In 2006, it was more at the individual level in terms of charitable donations and so forth. In 2007 for example, we, as a collective business unit, will be at the food bank after the holidays to help replenish supplies after the big drive. We are also looking to introduce that sense of community online.

JM: What are you working on for 2007 that you can talk about?

KM: There are lots of things that we are working on which I can’t tip my hat to at the moment. However, launching now is our global search platform, code named Panama – Yahoo! Search Marketing. We already have clients on it now, but the official announcement will be out [later] in January.

[Editor’s Note: Just read about the release date today in the Media in Canada newsletter.]

JM: What would you do differently from 2006?

KM: In hind sight, you always look back and say that you would have liked to have worked smarter and faster. I think that stands out. The other thing is that I’d like to step back and celebrate the successes. Because of the nature of the business we are in – the sheer growth of the Internet – we are on to the next thing after a [won] deal. We need to take more time to celebrate the successes – it’s about enjoying the journey.

JM: You’ve talked about Yahoo! Canada’s goals for 2007, what are some of your own in terms of leadership and the business, in general?

KM: The pace of [our] growth is incredible. I’ve been here for one and a half years and in the early days, I could spend more time with people and get their ideas on ways to expand and grow our business – it was more of a free flow. Now that we’ve grown so much, the opportunity to sit down with folks has diminished. It’s just a function of our growth but I’d like to get back to some of those sessions of creativity.

I’d also like to continue to expand the Canadian business – I’m a born and bred Canadian and I really believe in what we are doing here. We are the fastest or one of the fastest growing businesses in Yahoo! Worldwide.

JM: In terms of the industry, what are you most excited about or looking forward to in 2007?

KM: I am looking forward to the potential – and I also see it as the most disappointing at the same time. It’s the misunderstanding or lack of understanding of the power of the Internet. We want to move [clients] away from the last-minute ad buy. The reality today is that my 11-year old daughter is on the Internet, watching TV, IM-ing and probably text messaging on her cell phone all at the same time. No one medium overweighs everything. We want to have a focused and integrated approach – understanding the web is like completing the puzzle [for marketers]. If I look forward, there is a big opportunity to see the light bulb go on (and I don’t mean that in a negative way, at all) as people understand the power of the web.

Speaking of light bulbs, have an idea or comment you’d like to share? Add it below.

We’ll be wrapping up this series next week, so if you’d still like to submit your 2007 resolutions, send them to me by Monday January 22 and I’ll share them with the AIMS community.

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Sue Gardner, Senior Director, CBC.CA

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

It's already the second week of the year (I think I need one of those countdown clocks from Studio 60. Er, maybe not!) and time for the seventh contribution to our 2007 Professional Resolutions series. Wow, time sure flies when you're having fun. This time, we hear from Sue Gardner, Senior Director at CBC.CA as she addresses the question: What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you'd like to try in 2007?

Sue Gardner:

I'm pretty obsessed with audience numbers, and I'm happy CBC.CA is one of the biggest and most popular media sites in Canada.  That's partly by luck (CBC.CA benefits from good brand recognition) and partly by design: we have a truly relentless focus on giving people what they want and need from us.  We know people want breaking news so we've put lots of energy into that. They also want depth, perspective and analysis; they want video, Sudoku, movie reviews, fantasy hockey, cartoons, games and contests.  We try to give them all those things, and more.

So here are my three major goals for 2007 - all audience-related:

1.    I want to implement a whole bunch of interactive tools on CBC.CA. It's been obvious since day one that the web offers huge scope for interactivity, engagement and user participation. What's newer though, is that (following lots of experimentation) traditional media companies are now figuring out how we can usefully enable meaningful participation.  We're not YouTube; we're not MySpace; that's not what people expect from us, and frankly it's not what we're good at.  But that doesn't mean we don't have a unique and valuable role. We need to continue telling stories, which is our reason for being.  But we need to tell them differently by opening up the doors to the audience - by allowing people to comment upon, critique, shape, recommend, share and even manipulate and recombine our material - and to create and tell and share their own stories as well.

2.    I want CBC.CA to do a really good job covering the FIFA Men's U-20 World Cup and the Women's Cup.

Soccer's one of the most popular sports in Canada; a million Canadians play it regularly, and who knows how many watch it at either an amateur or pro level? This coming summer, we've got the Men's Under 20 World Cup coming to BC and in the fall, we'll get the Women's World Cup from China. These are going to be huge sporting events.

CBC did a fabulous job of offering comprehensive platform-neutral coverage of the Torino Olympics; we offered it on TV, on terrestrial radio and satellite radio, on the website and via cell phones, Blackberries and e-mail.  And people loved it - traffic to CBC.CA practically doubled for the duration of the Games.  I would like to see us offer the same comprehensive, fun, up-to-the-second coverage of the FIFA soccer events this summer and fall.

3.    We're going to make it a whole lot easier for the audience to find and use the [vast amount of] audio and video on CBC.CA. You can listen to live streaming radio from across the country. You can watch The National from last night, listen to a radio documentary from two weeks ago, watch live streaming of [major] news events, or even get an occasional advance look at shows that haven't yet aired.  Over the past six months or so, we've done a lot to make our audio and video more user-friendly - everything from introducing new podcasts to launching a new "video" page. Over the next year, I really want [us] to be able to make more audio and video available to people, make it easier for people to find what they're looking for and give them more control over how they can store and share it with each other.

Speaking of sharing - want to share your To Do list for 2007? Contact me. Got a question or comment for Sue? Share it in the comments below. I don't know about you, but I'm still wondering what fantasy hockey is? Guess I'll stick to shoes.

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Chris Koressis, Managing Partner, Koressis Legal

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

As part of my ongoing look at 2007 Professional Resolutions from key industry leaders, I spoke with Chris Koressis, Managing Partner, Koressis Legal. Chris is a business lawyer who has been involved in the eBusiness and marketing communities for many years. Information technology law is among the many areas of law practiced by his firm.

Jyotika Malhotra: I wanted to know what key business leaders have on the agenda for next year – what are some things that you’d like to do or things that you’d like to try professionally in 2007?

Chris Koressis: In terms of my marketing strategy, I’ve decided to put on my website a Call Me Now button. It’s not as if people don’t have my phone number on the website but this is a prompt for them to call and it’s also a customer service related issue because a lot of people find it intimidating to buy something online. Through TheLegalNet, I have links where they can incorporate online and if they want to talk to me, then they can just press the button and it connects them no matter where they are [via a] 1-800 number. That’s a technology initiative, customer service and lead generation tool that I think is effective. Today for internet marketing and transactions, there are some sites I’ve noticed that you can never find a phone number [on]. You don’t even know if there’s anybody behind the website. They might have a good brand - not necessarily a familiar brand - but a nice appearance and without a person behind the business and a number to call, people are reluctant to do business [with them]. That is my number one initiative for do-it-yourself transactions and lead generation for my customers.

JM: So in terms of your legal practice, do you still focus on eBusiness companies?

CK: It’s much broader than eBusiness but that is a fairly large component of [our business].

JM: I wanted to get the legal spin from you because it’s an area our readers don’t often get exposed to and I thought it might be relevant to them. For those of us in eBusiness or marketing, what are some of the legal issues that we should watch out for or that you think are going to be key issues for 2007?

CK: Doing business on the Internet creates jurisdiction issues as to whose laws govern the transaction. Consumer protection issues arise as well as limits of liability and implied terms such as implied warranties as to fitness of the products sold for the purpose for which they are intended. In addition, there are implied warranties as to quality and merchantability. Because you're dealing with the world as your customer, you've got to have a strategy to deal with that from a legal perspective. You don't want to end up attorning to the laws of a foreign jurisdiction that may have a detrimental impact to you as the seller of a product or service.

In this context, attorning essentialy means submitting your transaction to foreign laws. If you are doing business internationally and do not have a written and enforceable agreement with your customer, the default may become the jurisdiction of your customer. You want to make sure that it's not their jurisdiction that will govern a transaction. You don't want to be forced to go to court in a foreign jurisdiction to sue your customer or defend yourself if you are sued. There are a number of legal strategies that can help a business get around that if legal advice is sought prior to execution of the transaction.

JM: In terms of overall professional goals, other than putting a person behind the online business as mentioned above, are there any others you’d like to share for 2007?

CK: From a marketing perspective, that’s my number one goal – to make it clear that they can communicate with somebody if they’re having trouble.

For business development in general, I always find that personal communication and face to face meetings are the most effective for my business because it’s built on trust and relationships. For my bigger clients, I don’t think I’d be able to sustain them or have gotten them in the first place, if it wasn’t for the personal contact with them. For that reason, I continue to sponsor networking events, attend networking events and meet people face to face as much as I can, as opposed to just taking phone calls and responding to emails. I’m getting tired of responding to emails, quite frankly. I’m reverting back now to using the phone more and meeting with people. But I do find, obviously email communication is the most effective and efficient way to get things done quickly and even remotely with customers I have all over the world.

JM: Chris, how do you feel about the big push towards social media? Are you using those tools in your practice at all?

CK: Yeah, absolutely. LinkedIn and Plaxo are two services I use. I get leads once in a while [from LinkedIn]. In fact, I get even job offers from companies through the network. I think it’s a pretty powerful tool. I think concepts like YouTube are amazing – it’s got everything. It’s becoming a source of news as well.

We’ve still got a few others to speak to in this series, but because we believe in the power of social media, we want to know what you think as well. Share your thoughts about the series with AIMS readers. If you want to submit your 2007 professional resolutions, email me with the answer to the following question: What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007?

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Michael Seaton, Director of Digital Marketing at Scotiabank

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

As part of our ongoing look at 2007 Professional Resolutions, I spoke with Michael Seaton, Director of Digital Marketing at Scotiabank, an AIMS Sponsor and author of TheClientSide blog.

Jyotika Malhotra: I wanted to know what key marketers and communicators have on the agenda for next year – things that you’d like to do, things that you’d like to try, professional resolutions that you have, so to speak.

Michael Seaton: Off the top of my head, a couple of professional resolutions are that I’d like to let go a little bit more and not worry about too many details and let the capable people that I work with do more, because they are extremely talented folks.

The second is not really a resolution, but continuity – to continue to improve on our digital efforts and integrate them in all of our marketing and to look for newer, broader opportunities to really showcase our brand.

JM: Is there anything that you’d like to do better?

MS: Another resolution for 2007 is to increase the amount or participation of more traditional marketers into the newer areas of social media and digital marketing - to reach out to folks who may not know the power or importance of what’s coming down the pipe. What we can do better is to spell it out in a broader context. The folks who have been doing it in 2006, myself and Mitch [Joel at Twist Image] and Kathryn [Lagden] and yourself – we don’t want to sound like we are talking to ourselves. We need for others to really become part of the bigger picture so it’s not an 'us' vs. 'them'. We need to include more people in the 'us', to include more people in being part of the change as opposed to talking about them being resistant to it.

JM: How do you think we can do that?

MS: I think we can start to look at not being critical of efforts but look for the opportunities where things could have been done better and point them out. [We should not] approach new media like YouTube or video or blogs or podcasts as silos, as islands unto themselves but as part of the bigger mix. [We should] start really demonstrating how they fit in to the mix. That’s where I think there’s been a divide – there are a lot of people preaching about what to do and there have not been a whole lot of people actually doing it.  More marketers need to take a chance and demonstrate – the rule book has not been written yet.

Scotiabank has always been open about sharing their marketing success stories – myself included as well as others. As more people become more open and honest and take on almost a CaseCamp mentality with the stuff that they’ve worked on, both right and wrong, then we can’t help but get better just by having that information, that connectivity. The more people that enter into the conversation from a marketing perspective, the better off we are. It’s a snowball effect, a collective wisdom thing – all of us together are better and smarter than any one of us in isolation.

Want to join the conversation and share in the collective wisdom? Share your thoughts for 2007 with AIMS readers.

Want to hear more from Michael Seaton? He’ll be speaking at the next AIMS Event on January 25th: Should Your Company Be Podcasting?

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with David Smith, Vice President & Partner at Mandrake

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

In my ongoing quest to find out what’s on the minds of industry leaders as the year begins, I asked them: What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007?

Last week, we heard from Nathan Rosenberg, Dmitry Buterin and Ken Schafer.

David Smith, Vice President and Partner at Mandrake starts this week off with his three professional resolutions for the year:

1.    Closely watch the commercialization of '3 screens.'
2.    Help our clients retain best talent.
3.    Educate talent on market realities versus market extremes.

Ed Note: Check out UM Links With Third Screen for Mobile Ads for more information on the first point.

What are your thoughts on Third Screen? Share them with AIMS readers. Want to share your professional resolutions with the community? Contact me.

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Ken Schafer, VP Marketing at Tucows Inc. and Publisher & Contributing Editor at One Degree

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

Ken Schafer, VP Marketing at Tucows Inc. and Publisher & Contributing Editor at One Degree shares this gem in our continuing look at 2007 Professional Resolutions.

The question I asked key industry types: What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007?

Ken Schafer:

My resolution this year is simple...

Kill complexity every chance I get.

I'm so tired of EVERYTHING being so complicated.  Getting clarity and simplicity in what I do and say is crucial for me this year.

With that goal in mind I only have the one resolution this year.

What are your simple (or complex) thoughts for 2007? Share them with AIMS readers.

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot at Wild Apricot

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Correspondent

Continuing with our look at the professional resolutions of key thought leaders in the industry, Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot at Wild Apricot and AIMS Sponsor shares his list for 2007.

The question: What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007?

Dmitry Buterin:

1.    Keep focused on doing fewer things but doing them exceptionally well. Many marketers suffer from "featuritis" disease - trying to cram as many features as possible into a product - making it confusing, messy and unusable. I will work hard on keeping my head cool and focusing on making our product extremely easy to use for our customers in its core features - instead of playing this crazy competition game which results in bloated software and unhappy users. 

2.    Staying in close touch with customers and prospective customers. Our great ideas do not matter - what matters is what customers think about [our product]. So I will keep devoting as much time as I can to get a first-hand understanding of customer needs by participating in customer support work - our telephone hotline, email support and online forums. 

3.    Maintaining open and sincere dialogue with our customers and all interested parties through our blog and online forums. Sharing best practices and ideas - and not being afraid to come out and admit any mistakes when we make them e.g. product bugs. 

Be part of the dialogue – share your thoughts for 2007 with AIMS readers.

Resolutions 2007: In Conversation with Nathan Rosenberg, Chief Marketing Officer of Virgin Mobile Canada

Posted by Jyotika Malhotra, Marketing & Communications Consultant & AIMS Blog Correspondent

The air is clean (relatively speaking – climate change and all that), crisp (actually, somewhat spring-like) and a New Year is upon us (can’t argue with that one). As many of us return to our desks today to pour over the mountain of emails, BlackBerry messages, blog feeds and general administrivia, we resolve that this year will be different, somehow.

Many of us have made personal resolutions to start the year off right but I thought it would be interesting to ask key business leaders in the marketing, communications and web communities about their professional resolutions.

The question put to them? What are three professional resolutions, goals, to dos or things you’d like to try in 2007?

I’ll post the answers as I get them over the next couple of weeks to give AIMS readers a sense of what is top of mind for many thought leaders at the start of this year. Compare them with your own professional to do list.

Nathan Rosenberg, Chief Marketing Officer of Virgin Mobile Canada starts things off with a handful of things that he’s working on for 2007:

1.    My biggest and most serious commitment/goal/resolution is to work at making myself and my place of work (Virgin Mobile) carbon neutral. The Virgin Group of Companies is now more focused than ever on doing what we can to minimise our impact on the world we live in. Richard Branson’s $3B commitment to fund the development of alternative no impact fuels was such an inspiration. By the way if you haven’t done it yet see An Inconvenient Truth!!!!

[Ed Note: BBC News Story: Branson makes $3bn climate pledge. An Inconvenient Truth documentary site: http://www.climatecrisis.net/.)

2.    We have a very good business running in Quebec and this year I want to be able to use more than just the three phrases of French I have memorised. I have a tutor booked to teach me conversational French, so later in 2007 when I head outside of Montreal I plan to be able to say more than ‘desole’. Mind you if you listen to anyone from the UK they will tell you that having grown up in Australia, learning English would be a second language for me (they are so funny aren’t they).

3.    I want Virgin Mobile to make sure that every one of Canada’s 17 million cell phone users (or mobile if you are from my part of the world) realises that on March 14 you will be able to switch companies and take your mobile phone number with you. Right now less than 20% of Canucks know that Wireless Number Portability is just around the corner and the ‘big guys’ are doing a wonderful job of calling their customers and flashing new phones in front of their eyes so they can lock them up for three years. We are working right now on a public information campaign to launch in January so people don’t miss the chance to switch when the big day gets here.

4.    I’m going to do what I can with my CEO to convince Richard [Branson] it’s the right time to bring more Virgin businesses to Canada. Virgin Mobile has been received so well by customers here and we had a really great 2006. It has proven that a consumer advocate brand can make a difference here because we are focused on our customers and we put them in the driving seat. While Virgin operates in every continent, there are a core group of businesses that form the backbone of our operations in any market we are in.  There seems to me to be a match between what we do and industries here where consumers aren’t getting what they deserve. So I think we might be able to help shake that up.

[Ed Note: Since Nathan sent in more than the requisite three, I also allowed a personal one in the mix (which might have some business implications after all).]

5.    Finally I want to learn to cook so - I might take a class or two. I’m a fussy vegetarian but I have this really amazing stove (natural gas) in my place and I love looking at it. I just wish I knew how to turn it on. I found a drawer in it that has pans for cooking in so that must be a sign. The only thing I am wary about is the impact to the local business community I might have by not eating out every night.

Sounds like both Nathan and Virgin have a lot cooking this year. What do you have on the burner for 2007? Be part of the dialogue – share your thoughts for 2007 with AIMS readers.