Nothing like an Award show Red Carpet to provide creative inspiration. Or so I thought. The 2011 Golden Globes Red Carpet was anti-climatic and missing the O...M...G moments brought by the likes of Bjork, Cher and other Red Carpet shockers from days past. Where was my muse?!

I found the endless parade of perfection to be, well...kind of boring. I wasn't expecting my source of inspiration to be the lack thereof. The outcome is a departure from my regular Content-related postings but here's the Opinion piece I wrote for Blogcritics.

Article first published as Golden Globes Red Carpet: Hope for Hollywood or Hopelessly Boring? on Blogcritics.

Golden Globes Red Carpet: Hope for Hollywood or Hopelessly Boring?

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/video/article/golden-globes-red-carpet-hope-for/#ixzz1BGZkJdt9

Another Golden Globes Red Carpet has come and gone. The gowns, the diamonds, the to-die-for shoes. No shocker that Anne Hathaway was absolutely stunning, Natalie Portman and Jane Krakowski showed elegant pregnant, and I have to admit I’m a Helen Mirren fan. She also looked amazing but could have left out the tacky comment about the multimilion dollar diamond necklace. I don’t think any of us were questioning if it was cubic zirconia.

The media cannot get enough of Hollywood power couple Brad and Angelina who once again dominated the TV coverage with the most mentions prior to their arrival and even after they were off the red carpet. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones made an appearance; Catherine always looks timeless and one has to admire Michael for winning his battle with cancer.

The glitz, the glamour, the Golden Globes – does anyone else find it a bit… well… how shall I say…tired? I was more entertained by the TV commercial for Big Bang Theory than by seeing Sandra Bullock was sporting a new hair style – she’s got bangs! Even Helena Bonham-Carter with her different colored shoes was more expected than shocking.

Is this a sign of the times? Has Hollywood grown up and relegated the Bratpack-style antics to TMZ? That’s not to say that media pundits like Perez Hilton, the hilarious Fugly critics (gofugyourself.com), and notorious Joan Rivers won’t have ample material for their reviews this week. I have hope for Hollywood but it’s also becoming hopelessly boring. It’s a catwalk parade of the rich and beautiful and sadly, less about the art and accomplishments for which they are coming together.

Maybe next year Paris Hilton could try another motorcycle entrance. 'Cuz that was hot.

Part II: Be Memorable! Rock Your Presentation with a Profile Infographic

Last week I wrote about a great presentation tip I picked up at the annual CMO Council Summit in San Jose: a biography puzzle.You can read about it here. For those who have waited with abated breath for me solve my bio puzzle - the wait is over! 

To all the aspiring Double Jeopardy presenters who took a run at solving my Biography Puzzle, I had a good laugh at some of the responses. And yes, there were a couple... concerning ...interesting... suggestions, “you think I’ve done what??” Thanks for the emails and a big thank you to Chris Hummel for providing his puzzle details.

This week I stumbled upon - but not on Stumbleupon.com - an online tool that creates a personal profile Infographic and allows you to save the output. Before I crack the code of my bio puzzle, I'm wondering if anyone has an Infographic? Has anyone tried this? Seen anyone? Anyone? …..Bueller? 

I love infographics. And I mean LOVE them. The good ones, of course. I would characterize a good one by

• a clear and focused narrative (even better if it has a unique point of view)
• Addresses one topic and has done its homework with finding, verifying and providing good data and information.
• Creatively and often genius - marries design and data to visually represent and communicate the story – and deliver knowledge. For me, when I find a good one –  I feel like I’ve absorbed an entire chapter from a school textbook within seconds and can retained the information with ease.

I like the clever and savvy use of visuals. Especially the combination of rich media and interactive design. I’ve got a few links at the bottom that you can check out - there's a great one for the sports fans. As I searched for other tools, I found a a series of Infographic resumes which were super creative, informative and could be used as an introduction (a lighter, less detailed version).  I have a few links below you can check out.

The online profile infographic tool took me about 2 minutes to sign-up and complete their template and then another 5 minutes to format using the options provided. The information isn’t that spectacular but it looks impressive for a <10 minute effort.  In fact, I’m pretty optimistic that a color copy would wildly impress my parents and likely be showcased on their fridge next to my niece and nephew elementary school art projects.

Here are two versions. Let me know what you think and if you’ve come across anything better.

the horizontal layout

itzCorinne Profile Infographic: same tool used as above, but with the vertical layout and different background.

 
BIOGRAPHY PUZZLE

As for the biography puzzle:

1. It’s all German and Greek to me
2. T •
3. 000010001100011 x 15
4. BI, CPM, ABM, APM, SOA, ITIL, BPM, BBIM
5. ECMM
6. CMO and/or Wired
7. Sat Nam

Answers:

1. I’m half German (half British) and my name is Greek. Most people assume it originated in France.
2. I live in the Tdot – aka Toronto.
3. I’ve worked in the software industry for 15 years
4. Some of the specific software areas include Business Intelligence, Corporate Performance Management, Activity-based Management, Application Performance Management, Service-Oriented Architecture, Information Technology Infrastructure Library, Business Process Management
5. I’m currently in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and you can call me a ‘Master’… at least that’s what the ECMM stands for – it’s a certification from the AIIM organization.
6. My big hairy audacious goal in life is to become a CMO or make the cover of Wired Magazine… best magazine ever!
7. Sat Nam: No - it's not a sandwich! I’m into Kundalini yoga and yoga therapy. Sat Nam is the Kundalini equivalent to Namaste.

 

 The links to the online Infographic tool and resume examples:

• The Infographics I created above are from http://ionz.com.br/
• Seriously amazing Interactive NFL Sports Stats: NFL stats "spike chart"
• There's a great collection of resume infographics - which are far more advanced than the template I used above and illustrate very clever visuals.Check them out at Cool Infographics
  

If you have any to share, I'd love to see them.

Be Memorable! Rock Your Presentation Intro with a Biography Puzzle

How many presentations did you attend in 2010? 

My answer is…. no idea. A lot? Think back for a moment: all the travel, conferences, obligatory meetings, the webinars you signed up for…Nope… I still couldn’t tell you how many presentations I attended. 

I can recall the good ones - like John Mancini at AIIM's annual conference or Jess Schell's DICE 2010 keynote (WOW!). But it's rare to land the Double Jeopardy presentation: great speaker and great content.

Far too frequently, I witness the audience succumb to the relentless Blackberry itch that compels attendees to check for anything that will hold their attention or maintain a semi-conscience state (especially during the dreaded post lunch time slot).

Let’s flip it around: how many presentations did you deliver in 2010? Were you memorable? What about your content? Let’s be honest – there's one Steve Jobs. For the rest of us presentation mortals, we can use some tips and tricks. Especially when we're one of umpteen speakers in an all day line-up of back-to-back presentations – we can use a little help to up our game.

But how?

I hit Double Jeopardy last week at the annual CMO Council Summit in San Jose.

I didn’t know Chris Hummel, CMO & President of North America, Siemens Enterprise Communications prior to the CMO Council Summit. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t anticipating any life changing revelations during his keynote, How the Operationally Savvy CMO Can Become a Valued CEO Asset.

I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.

I’ve never seen a keynote delivered by a mortal in 8 slides. And with an introduction I’d call genius. Yep, Hummel is my new reigning Double Jeopardy presentation champion. The bar has been raised: compelling content and speaker with 8 slides. Actually:

 - 7 slides if you remove the title.

 - 6 if you overlook the bio.

 - 5 if you don’t count the Agenda.

In this instance, his intro was the highlight. Chris called it a “Biography Puzzle”, he captivated an entire room with 7 bullet points:

• The Martinellis & the Walshes
• RS – C – P
• 14 + 8
• Здраствуйте!
• FSO
• 3
• ?

His DaVinci code approach had everyone’s attention. The next day I caught myself telling a friend about this great speaker who was part Irish, fluent in Russian, has a German last name, lived overseas for nearly a decade, in 8 countries, did a stint somewhere as a Foreign Service officer and is now the CMO of Siemens Enterprise Communications.

I’ve never seen this approach before and based on comments from the other CMOs in the room – they won’t forget Chris either. I figure if I can remember that level of detail on someone I just met - in a line-up of 20 other speakers, he's on to something. And I love that he came up with the concept just to keep the presentation interesting.

I decided to give it a try and came up with my own biography puzzle:

• It’s all German and Greek to me
• T •
• 000010001100011 x 15
• BI, CPM, ABM, APM, SOA, ITIL, BPM, BBIM
• ECMM
• CMO and/or Wired
• Sat Nam

I suppose I could simply tell you what it means…. Nah! I’m interested to hear your interpretation, see your biography puzzle or find out what other interesting presentation tips you've seen. 

Any takers?

1 Minute on Marketing 3.0: Values-Driven Marketing

I came across this video ages ago and it stuck with me. Now I know why.

"You can do anything. So go do it."

Sadie has a pretty clear and compelling message. More remarkable, she expresses and personifies all things marketing 3.0 – in a minute! The same principles that have many corporations flummoxed. The simple breakdown:

Medium

She uses rich media -  video, to tell her message. A future in Content Marketing looks bright for Sadie as she also showcases some of her artwork.

Message

She’s authentic – from the pink room with all the stuffed animals to the Coldplay poster pinned up on the wall, Sadie is real. Full stop.

Mission

From an academic perspective, if you compare this with Philip Kotler’s Marketing 3.0 approach, she’s also got it covered: she’s got Mind, Heart and Spirit and she certainly exudes her Mission, Vision and Values.

This isn’t dismissing the notion that we need values in the sense of value-based selling and value messaging and value this and value that – sometimes a gentle reminder that we need just plain VALUES.

Kotler calls it ‘Values-Driven Marketing’ and I don’t disagree. And this takes Mind, Heart and Spirit to communicate and express your mission, vision and values. Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya have a great article I found on Scribd at

Marketing 3 0 Values Driven Marketing

Funny that you can learn all that in 1 minute from Sadie. What's your view on Sadie or Kotler's approach?

Latest Marketing, Storytelling, Content Strategy Reading List: Pink, Tasner, Roma, Denning and others

Okay, I confess: I love ordering books online. It's not just about the books; I get a rush like a kid opening birthday presents when the package arrives. It's awesome. Especially when I've compiled a lengthy wishlist and then finally have some time to dig in and check out the topics that have been wiggling my brain.

My selection criteria is pretty simple: if the book passes the highlighter test, I buy it. That may shed some light on age (I stopped counting at 29), the highlighter test is when I browse through the book and have an impulse to highlight sections for future reference. There's other factors as well, but that's the main one.

Here's the latest books that past the highlighter test:

•  A Whole New Mind: Why the Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future - Daniel Pink
•  Any guy named Pink who suggests that us left-handed creative types will rule the world - I don't even need a highlighter.
•  Engage!, The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web - Brian Solis 
• I’m not sure how I feel about Ashton Kutcher writing the forward but Solis past the highlighter test nonetheless.
•  Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach your Customers First-  Michael Tasner
• I first opened this book on the page where Tasner talks about being the best marketing person ever by 25 years old. What a punk, I thought... oh... wait... there's a whole lot of highlighting for this book - and I'm talking where you need multiple color highlighters. I got over the whole punk thing pretty quick - it's a great resource.
• The Back Of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures - Dan Roma

• When I realized that Roma was suggesting the pictures were drawn versus using graphics or illustrations, I nearly put the book back on the shelf.  I can't draw - what's this guy thinking? Rest assured - he's got that figured out and lists the dozen-ish stickman pictures that any 3 year old can draw. Genius. For that - I even bought the over sized version of the book so the pictures are bigger.
• The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy – Nilofer Merchant
• The title for this book doesn't do it justice. It's a great great read for anyone who wants a prescriptive look - with case studies and examples - on how to approach intercompany collaboration. I'll admit - wasn't so much the highlighter test as accompanying comics by Hugh McLeod which are simply hilarious.
• Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett.
• You gotta love Joe (sorry Newt, I don't know you).  If you're into content, content marketing or content strategy, then I recommend checking out anything from Joe or the Junta42 resources. And  congrats Joe to being named the #1 Content Strategy Rock Star.
• The Leaders Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, Stephen Denning
• I love storytelling and how it's being applied in the business context. Let's get past the buzz, hyperbole and gobblygook (there's a BS meter - aka gobblygook - where you can find out just how many of these BS infractions you've made in your copy). Denning's book was a no-brainer 'must buy' as soon as I saw it.

Still on the Wish List

    •    Made to Stick, Chip Heath. .... Funny thing about this one:  not too long ago, I walked past a display of this book. I hadn't heard of it at the time but the cover caught my eye even though I was engrossed with a book in my hands. And I proceeded to the cashier, I wondered why a home improvement book was in the marketing / management section. Since then, at least a dozen people have recommended this book to me.

These look interesting – potential Highlighter candidates:

•  UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging - Scott Stratten
•  Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond - Paco Underhill
•  The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind -   A. K. Pradeep
•  Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide -  Henry Jenkins (I've heard a lot about Mr.Jenkins and the general consensus is that he rocks).

What are you reading these days? What recommendations do you have for me?

Mesh Marketing (MM10): Games, Social Pizza and Humanizing the brand

I was school-girl giddy arriving at the Mesh Marketing conference yesterday in Toronto. Lots of great topics:  Transmedia storytelling, Gamification, Social TV - oh my! 

So What’s Up with Marketing?

• B2C trends like gamification, immersive worlds and transmedia storytelling are already in full swing and making its way to B2B. 
• Facebook as a media/marketing/mobile/messaging platform has become ridiculously advanced - super cool opportunities for new apps, plug-ins, widgets that combines gaming, fans, communities, sites, campaigns, polls, social commerce, etc, etc - all from a single source. 
• Let's not forget generating followers - and creating advocates, in 140 characters or less. 

Here’s a few highlights from Mesh today that illustrate this transformation:

• Janice Diner (@janicediner) knocked it out of the park with her Facebook beyond the Wall presentation. I was overwhelmed with the implications as she illustrated that the medium shift from the corporate website to Facebook:
• Delta Airlines has a flight reservation system on Facebook: Check it out!
• Starbucks lets you gift a Starbucks Coffee card : this was a personal favorite and apparently over 17million people agree (number of ‘Likes’ on their page) Check it out
• eBay uses Facebook with PayPal integration for Social commerce
• Ford launched the new Explorer on Facebook BEFORE the Detroit Automotive show. (wow). Check it out
• Blackberry has several localized Facebook pages for their audiences in Indonesia to Ireland. Check it out

Take-away: sure you need a corporate website. Let's be honest: just because you build it does not mean they will come. You need to go to them! This is why your Facebook presence is equally important as your primary www site... and will become even more important (I’d argue the same for your YouTube site). 

Former pizza delivery driver and now Operating manager of 6 Domino locations, Ramon De Leon (@Ramon_DeLeon ) captivated the room with his “You need Social Media Water for a Social media fire” comments during the  Top Brands in Social Media and the Lessons They’ve Learned Panel. He's got over 7000 followers on twitter and is known as the “The Pizza Guy to know in Downtown Chicago”.  RightSleeve did a great write-up - link to it here

Nathania Dashner from Pepsi walked through the ‘Refresh Campaign’ Here’s are my notes deciphered from the chicken scratch I wrote down:

• Have to humanize the brand: through unexpected and meaningful engagement/interactions with customers.
• People don’t trust websites. The internet is full of garbage.
• This is a whole new way of doing business.
• Don’t acquire; earn their trust.
• Pepsi – NO SUPERBOWL?? (that was a ‘note to self’ to ensure I got that right).
• Yes, I got that right, the $1million was reallocated to the Pepsi Refresh Campaign. Pepsi decided NOT to advertise in the Superbowel; rather to allocate funds to creating a movement that engaged people and involved participation. The goal was to humanize the brand.
• It’s not about the picture of a person holding the Pepsi can; it’s about how they feel about Pepsi.
• The next search engine will be Twitter to find relevant information
• The goal was not moving cases (reference to generating Pepsi cola revenue), it was about creating a movement. 
• Results: 900 entries, 1,000,000 impressions, 60 million page views and Forbes awardeding Pepsi with the top 5 ‘Best Ever Social Media Campaign” title.(wow)

It was a great day that wiggled my brain and gave me way too much to think about. Full props to Mesh Marketing especially for the uber cool swag bag. It’s now on my top 10 conference swag list.

The Content Conundrum: Redefining Content Strategy

I was thrilled to have my first editorial published by CMS Wire in mid September. Many thanks to those who have commented and and tweeted. It's led to some very interesting conversations - feel free to reach out to me if you have a comment. You can read the original article here  
--------------------------

What Does Content Strategy Mean to You

Welcome to the Content era. It’s here, it’s now and it’s changed the game. Stemming from the rise of data during the Y2K scare, to the subsequent explosion of information that followed, we’ve drowned in data, been overwhelmed with information and now face a new realm that’s been characterized as Content Chaos. (AIIM, 2010). Regaining and establishing order requires a Content Strategy. Let me ask you first, what does ‘content strategy’ mean to you?

1. Isn’t that what marketing does when they print brochures?
2. It is the creation, delivery and disposition of web content.
3. SharePoint
4. It is the creation, publishing, distribution and governance of content in support of corporate goals.

Wikipedia defines ‘Content Strategy’ as, “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance” in the context of being "a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project."

While this served well for Web Content Management, the definition is too myopic for the new content-driven paradigm. Content is pervasive and proliferating throughout every functional group across a company or government organization and extending beyond the firewall to partners and customers. Meanwhile the unrelenting volume of user-generated content, rich media and social objects compounds daily as the tribes, crowds, communities and countless (millions!) of internet users continuously create, collaborate, publish, distribute, access, stream, download and view content online — and now on their mobile device.

Applying a Content Strategy

Web content management is a valuable discipline and requires a content strategy. So does email, contracts, invoices, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, engineering diagrams — even Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, managing content is very different than applying content. Managing content can help bring order to content chaos; you may even reduce costs, meet compliance regulations and generate efficiencies from process automation and knowledge-sharing.

Applying a Content Strategy not only brings order to content chaos, it prescriptively orchestrates through the clutter to realize new sources of value. For that reason, the best answer above that defines Content Strategy is ‘D’
How do you apply a content strategy against corporate goals? Therein lays the conundrum. Here are a few examples that illustrate the risk of not applying and the potential rewards:
 Scenario  Conundrum                           Recommendation             Validation

Do I need a mobile app for that?	Content Strategy includes ECM and WCM and now mobile content and mobile content management completes the trinity.	The content strategy supports the business objectives. If revenue is a top priority then monetizing content via mobile applications might be the focus.	Mobile content revenues will grow from $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014 (eMarketer) NBC Olympics Mobile platforms (Mobile Web Site and iTunes App), amassed 87.1 million page views during the 17 days of the Vancouver Winter Olympics (NBC 01/03/10)
Who stole my brand?	User-generated content, micro-blogging and viral distribution has shift the balance of power from the Establishment to end-user	Embrace the users – and gain their support. Ignoring them won’t make it go away.	Parody BP Twitter site usurped the official BP page in less than a week. BP, an enterprise conglomerate, applied a full court PR press and tweeted over 2,000 times to amass 18,632 Twitter followers. The parody accrued 190,206 with less than 500 tweets.
Hell hath no furry….	Instant and viral distribution of content or social objects: Word of Mouth rules. A poor experience, delayed response won’t encourage customers to say nice things.	A content strategy is more than monetizing assets. The experience is equally important to ensure a repeat customer. And one that tells their friends, and their friends….	According to a survey of US mom Internet users, Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted- nearly 12 times more- than descriptions that come from manufacturers, (eMarketer, February 2010).

Content is a Valuable Asset

Organizations spend millions on data and information management infrastructure, systems and technology. They invest millions in storage, security, business intelligence and other applications to reduce risk, be compliant and analyze corporate performance. Sadly, in their efforts to achieve business goals: reducing costs, improving operational efficiencies and uncovering new sources of value, they fail to apply one of their most valuable assets: content.

The Content era is a new world with new rules and a new realm of players. To prosper, you need a game plan — a content strategy, and it must align with business goals. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t being cautious; it’s conceding to the market, your customers, your competition. A prescriptive and pragmatic content strategy will help navigate this new world and support value creation.