Wave that [French] flag!

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Is France doing some media marketing?

It seems that this week, France has managed to capture the bulk of the headlines in the press in the international section.  And there is a captivating, if not liberating theme!

  1. The liberation of the two French France Television journalists, cameraman Stéphane Taponier and reporter Hervé Ghesquière, after 18 months (547 days) in captivity at the hands of the Taliban
  2. The captivation of the world’s media with DSK scandal in NYC and his potential incarceration
  3. The nomination of Mrs. Christine Lagarde (N.B. her name = The Keeper), current Minister of Economy, as the first woman at the head of the IMF {BRAVA!}
  4. And, finally, Tsonga’s cuffing of the Feds in SW19.  A brilliant come from behind.  Roger looks like a prisoner of ghost’s past!

Is it just because I live here in France that I think that the French marketing machine was on overdrive?  If France were a brand, is this a good way to be top of mind on the world’s stage?  Your thoughts?

Tweet stream @mdial from Dr Daniel Thorniley & more at Orange Live 2011 #live11

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The following is an extract of my tweets (mainly) from the keynote speech by Dr. Daniel Thorniley (British speaker, consultant and economist with a delightful sense of humor)
“CIO needs to work IN business, not with business” via Gartner at Probably could say the same for HR.

RT : Voice is no longer the only means of conversation Conversation = 2-way communication

Orange workshop on CLOUD COMPUTING: IT spend per employee a key measurement. Looking for good benchmarks!

RT : “Bring your own device to work” after you decide to bring YOURSELF to work.

COCKTAIL: 1/2 dose LIVE demo of a beta platform (delivering web services through browser) and 1/2 dose LIVE blogging

Learning to use poken, for conference networking: Plug & play (or plug and exchange information)

“ya khatyel byui rabotat v russiye” (I would like to work in Russia in Russian!)

love the word “capillarity” . Perhaps that’s because I worked at L’Oreal for 16 years (and still have hair)?

To be fast in innovation, key is keeping it simple. Totally agree: that’s why I love Twitter. Posted last week:

“To succeed in business you need two things: honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake both, you will go far” Thorniley

“HR & talent dev should be one of top 3 strategic issues for ALL companies” Dr Thorniley

RT : [Research] m-commerce in France should surpass 13 billion euros in 2015

“Russia will be the biggest consumer products market in Europe in 12 years time.” Dr Thorniley

“Don’t overburden yourself with KPIs” 5 will do… “Avoid short-termism” Dr Thorniley at Totally agree. True for social media, too

In the current economic environment, IT budgets will continue to be scaled back, postponed… Dr D Thoniley

Average working week in France 35.6h, UK 41h, USA ….. 32.5h. Having a job does not equal happiness and earning a lot

Consumer products struggling globally (single digits) : +1% in USA Tough to live with when budgets are + double digits

Daniel Thorniley, keynote speaker at Partnership, friendship, relationship, trust = the keys to business in [emerging] markets

Germany exported E1.146 trillion in 2010, just ahead of China (E1.05T) — ahead, but not for long.

Munich is 7th best city to live in the world. Tour of Munich, where you can surf in the English Garden, H Reisinger , SVP Orange 

RT : The art of the live event blogger explained Great explanation Glenn

Phish Summer Tour Video

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Announcing Phish’s Summer Tour via Video

This is a very clever video announcing the Phish summer tour for 2011.

Phish Summer Tour 2011 on Vimeo

Phish Summer 2011 Tour from Phish on Vimeo.

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via lazerow.com

Recently been excited to share to the French marketing community the ‘marketing lessons’ of the Grateful Dead (inspired very much by David Meerman Scott). Phish of course are on the same path.

Please Help Celebrate Minter’s 100th Anniversary on March 21st, 2011

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PERSONAL LETTER TO READERS OF MINTER DIALOGUE

Dear readers,

I am asking you to join in a 5-minute social experiment. It is for a good cause, I believe you will agree.

Minter Dial and Lisa Porter Dial

Minter and his wife, Lisa, in New York (c 1938)

In just over a week, on March 21st 2011, it will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of my grandfather, Minter Dial, after whom I was named.   Lt Cdr Minter Dial was 33 when he was killed in 1944 in the Philippines, after having been awarded the Navy Cross and having been a POW of the Japanese for 2 1/2 year. In honor of his life, I would like to invite you to join me in a rather novel communal action.

The objective is to see if we can, together, rally more people to join in and sign up for his fan page. Ultimately, I hope that we can use this page to launch the film and find the lost Annapolis ring!

Here’s the idea (It will take no more than 5 minutes of your time, I guarantee).

You have just 3 quick things to do:

  1. Join my grandfather’s fan page here: Lt Cdr Minter Dial 1911-1944.  You can just click LIKE here.
  2. Send me an email (send Minter an email) to sign up for a time slot, before March 21st, 2011.
  3. Then copy & paste a sentence onto the fan page on March 21st, 2011.

Here’s how you participate in this social experiment:

Some time this week, you sign up for a specific time slot on March 21st (the anniversary day).  To do so, you just need to click on this link to send Minter an email (dialfamily AT gmail DOT com) and I’ll send you a link via Doodle so that you can book your slot.

You will then just need to fill in your name and choose a specific 15-minute time slot between midnight of the 20th to midnight of the 21st March.  Please note that the timing is based on Paris Time, GMT +1.  For New York, for example, you need to subtract 5 hours (DST has just happened in the US), meanwhile for the Philippines, you must add 7 hours, etc.

Minter's Last Letter written Dec 12, 1944

At the chosen time, you will be asked to copy & post on the fan page wall a sentence from the LAST LETTER (see on the FB page for a readable version) that my grandfather wrote on the eve of his death from Old Bilibid Prison (Manila), December 12, 1944. It is a moving letter and contains the reference to a poem (that will also be part of this communal activity). The idea is that the “LAST LETTER” letter is “published” in morcels by each of us IN ORDER all along the day.

To make it super simple, I will custom send to you, privately and in advance via Facebook, the sentence for you to copy and post, and if possible, with an Outlook meeting request to serve as a reminder!

I hope that you will consider signing up and, if you can think of anyone who would be motivated to particpate, please consider sharing and/or passing along this post to them.

I trust you will find this an enjoyable and memorable little social experiment. Thanks for having read this far in my post and, for those of you who do sign up, thank you and see you soon.

Warmest regards, Minter

The Death Of The Music Industry

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Music Industry

The demise of the music industry

via businessman.com

A graphic display of the state of the music industry created by Bain…. What it speaks to is the head-in-the-sand approach that the industry had as a whole as the internet wave took over, reaching its peak in 1998. Technical chart readers will notice the perfect head & shoulders shape of the decline. Classic stuff.  Clearly, digital sales are not to suffice.  The industry will need to find a new way to entertain and render the value added of its artists.

ADDENDUM:  The revised (new & improved) chart (thanks to Mike in the comments below) from Business Insider:

Music Industry Sales ... a mountainous journey

Music Industry Sales ... a mountainous journey

The Idiot Cycle by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia – a review

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I had the good fortune to be invited to the premier screening of the documentary film,”The Idiot Cycle,” directed and produced by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia. Presented at a private viewing, and in the company of many journalists, the 96-minute film received a robust round of applause.  At its conclusion, we were allowed a lengthy and candid Q&A session with Ms Garcia.

Emmanuelle Schick Garcia is a Spanish-Canadian film director, with a most charming accent from the South of France (when speaking in French).   The idea of the film took root when Ms Garcia’s mother was struck down with cancer and she then found out that at least one of the parents of each her twenty closest friends had also come down with cancer.  Clearly, more than coincidence was at work.

The Idiot Cycle, which took 10 years to make, documents how the rise of cancer can be related to the work of a number of chemical companies, such as Monsanto, Dow Chemical, BASF, etc.  Among the core issues, the film puts the focus more on the cause rather than the cure.  One of the major revelations for me was the fact that, in some cases, the companies that produce the chemicals used in the fertilizers are also pharmaceutical companies, providing the medication to cure the cancers that the same chemicals are (alleged) to cause. According to the film’s site, AstraZeneca is a perfect example.  AstraZeneca is the result of a merger between Astra AG (Sweden) and Zeneca Group of the UK (second biggest maker of cancer drugs behind Bristol-Meyers Squibb).  “Zeneca is also maker of fungicides and herbicides (including the carcinogen acetochlor) and owns the third-largest source of cancer-causing pollution in the U.S. – a chemical plant in Perry, Ohio. In 1996 this facility emitted 53,000 pounds of recognized carcinogens into the air.”

The other revelation was the fact that the Canadian government was not interested in participating in the film.  Any politicians that were interviewed for the film were edited out because of a tongue-tied lack of pertinency.  The fact that the cited chemical companies chose not to participate is more understandable.  However, the government’s role is to protect its people.  Seemingly, the film underscores how economics are the driving force.

If The Idiot Cycle still has not found any broad distribution (yet), due to its sensitive nature, it is certainly a film worth seeing.  The film can be rented for 4.99 euros here at Japanese Pop Songs.  In a new twist on community film watching, you can also rent the film for up to five friends in one single transaction.

Here is a trailer of the film via YouTube:



If the embedded link to the trailer disappears (which seems to be the case), you can go directly view the trailer on YouTube here.

N.B. Emmanuelle Schick is prepared to provide viewings of the film on school/university campuses for free.

Age 46? The joy of life begins now (says the Economist)

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The Economist is one of those magazines where, you just hate to throw it out because, every page you turn, you risk finding yet another interesting article.  In terminology that should be rolling off marketers’ lips, that would mean “high quality content.” Here is an issue (December 18-31, 2010) where the cover itself caught my eye (since I just happen to be 46 years old), “The Joy of Growing Old — or why life begins at 46.”

I suppose that a good number of you, readers, following this blog might be my peers; thus, I felt inclined to share this cover for you… Here is a link to the article, “The U-Bend of Life,” just in case you felt like reading it!  (Apparently, this is not new news.  The Daily Telegraph reported the same conclusion in 2008 based on a Lifesworth survey, suggesting that life begins at 46, too!).  In any event, the article makes for (yet another) good read.

Economist The Joy of Growing Old Dec 2010
Economist – The Joy of Growing Old, starts at 46 years old (Dec 2010)

Photos: Google’s logo doodles through the ages

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via silicon.com

Looking for the business lessons in Google doodles (the freedom to play with its logo on its home page) is a little like trying to learn from Apple’s miracle marketing. There is a uniqueness and freshness that is contagious in Google’s changing logo. Along with the personalization on the day of your birthday (if you are logged in, that is), Google is paving a new path, but one that few traditional brands can reproduce because of the “brick & mortar” component. The beta mentality that underscores Google’s SOP (I refer to it as the Beta Myndset) is deliciously refreshing. They have, in so doing, turned the old school marketing lessons upside down. At the same time, most brands would probably be foolish to follow this example, merely for practical reasons.