What Keeps a Brand Relevant Over Time - Jason Anello

In Chapter 6 of 15 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, creative director and experience marketer Jason Anello highlights what makes a brand relevant. Thinking of a brand as a person, complete with personality, is an approach Anello uses to communicate his point. It is about maintaining genuine, consistent behavior while also embracing and adapting to cultural change as time lapses. Here, Anello points out that it is less about full immersion into a trend than it is about recognizing new ways the brand can test different ways to communicate or share itself with its audience. Anello is the co-founder of non-traditional marketing agency Manifold Partners - www.wearemanifold.com . He is the co-founder of Brooklyn-based supper club Forking Tasty - www.forkingtasty.com . Previously he held creative leadership positions as an Ideologist at Yahoo's Buzz Marketing team and as an associate creative director at Ogilvy & Mather - www.ogilvy.com . Anello is an alumnus of the University at Albany - www.albany.edu .

How Hyperpersonal Marketing Builds a Brand Personality - Jason Anello

In Chapter 8 of 15 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, creative director and experience marketer Jason Anello details how hyperpersonal theory - using digital communication to connect one-on-one with an audience, can deepen brand to customer relationships. The conversations resulting from a more hyperpersonal setup create customer service improvement and innovation opportunities from both the feedback gathered as well as the relationship established. Anello is the co-founder of non-traditional marketing agency Manifold Partners - www.wearemanifold.com . He is the co-founder of Brooklyn-based supper club Forking Tasty - www.forkingtasty.com . Previously he held creative leadership positions as an Ideologist at Yahoo's Buzz Marketing team and as an associate creative director at Ogilvy & Mather - www.ogilvy.com . Anello is an alumnus of the University at Albany - www.albany.edu .

Why Events Matter to Brand Marketing Strategy - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 12 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie walks through why events, when done well, can be transformative brand marketing tools. Events can establish trust, build relationships, strengthen loyalty, and do so in a positive way. McKenzie highlights an example of how a Mad Men Clorox ad created a meaningful connection to its audience. He then shares his experience creating a Jaguar XJ product launch event at New York's Classic Car Club.  Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How Account Executive Adapts Into Sales Manager Role - Geoff Hamm

In Chapter 7 of 16 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, online media sales executive Geoff Hamm adapts from account executive sales roles into sales management roles. Hamm learns to let go of the hands-on sales elements and focus more on cultivating talent, encourage individuality, and foster growth in his team. Hamm applies a strengths-based skill building approach while finding resources to address weaknesses and gaps. This approach increases loyalty across the team. Hamm graduated from the University of Illinois - http://illinois.edu/ - and is now SVP of Sales at at Scribd http://www.scribd.com/ in Silicon Valley. Previously he held online sales management positions at Electronic Arts, Yahoo!, Orbitz, IAC, and Excite.

How to Safely Navigate a Corporate Restructuring - Geoff Hamm

In Chapter 9 of 16 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, online media sales executive Geoff Hamm shares corporate restructuring and reorganization lessons learned going through several mergers and acquisitions. Hamm retreats from decision-makers following personal agendas and instead seeks ways to align with customer focused factions. Hamm graduated from the University of Illinois - http://illinois.edu/ - and is now SVP of Sales at at Scribd http://www.scribd.com/ in Silicon Valley. Previously he held online sales management positions at Electronic Arts, Yahoo!, Orbitz, IAC, and Excite.

Why Teacher Turnover is a Big Charter School Concern - Yoav Gonen

Yoav Gonen returns to Capture Your Flag to build upon his 2009 interview with a 2010 conversation with host Erik Michielsen. In Chapter 16 of 17, Gonen, a New York Post education reporter, shares why teacher turnover is a central issue in the charter school debate. He highlights how many charters rely on highly motivated, energetic young teachers coming from Teach for America. Their commitment is several years in length and charter schools, who tend to have longer work hours and school terms than public schools, tend to burnout the young teachers. Gonen highlights a New Orleans charter school experiencing burnout, but cautions that charter schools require a longer trial - 5 to 10 years longer - to assess teaching sustainability and turnover issues. Before starting his New York City newspaper reporting career, Gonen earned his BA in English from the University of Michigan and his Masters in Journalism from New York University.

How Details Enable Sustainable Design Differentiation - Richard Moross

In Chapter 4 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross provides background into why increasing consumer intelligence, via research and education, makes details as important as ever in product and experience design. Moross aspires to create differentiated produce in an increasingly homogenized world in what he does at his company, Moo (www.moo.com). From ordering to fulfillment to messaging, Moross always looks for new ways to stand out in what he creates and how it is shared.

How Flickr Helps Unlock Customer Relationship Value - Richard Moross

In Chapter 12 of 17, entrepreneur, innovator and Moo.com founder Richard Moross answers how he unlocks value with customers by creating emotional connections and relationships. Moross learns from early partner Flickr (www.flickr.com) that providing tools that enable storytelling and sharing creates an openness that allows the customer to participate. Over time, Moo continues embracing customer feedback and two-way communication in product development efforts while listening as much as possible. As a result, the relationship enables loyalty.

How Austin, Texas Turned Residents into 750,000 Publicists - Matt Curtis

In Chapter 10 of 17, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis showcases Austin, Texas' secret marketing weapon: its residents. Curtis describes Austin as a city of 750,000 publicists who vigorously and happily promote their town when traveling outside it. Curtis, chief of staff for mayor Lee Leffingwell, notes that the civic pride not only unites Austin's people, but it also increases city tourism income to help the city grow.

How to Use Employee Retention as a Recruiting Tool - Audrey Parker

In Chapter 12 of 15, energy efficiency consultant Audrey Parker shares why prioritizing employee retention is helping her business grow. Whereas many consulting firms focus on expected turnover, Parker focuses on minimizing turnover by building a collaborative culture focused on trust, client service, and contribution.

How to Leave a Startup Job on Your Own Terms - Marc Ferrentino

In Chapter 14 of 17 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, engineer and Salesforce.com Chief Technology Architect Marc Ferrentino reflects on why it is more difficult to walk away from a startup on one's own terms than it is to stay. Comparing the band of brothers experience to pledging a fraternity, emotional attachment happens easily, especially given how startups nearly always have world changing ambitions. Ferrentino compares the trap many fall into acknowledging losses with stock portfolios, namely a stock is not an official loss until you sell it. In the same way, a startup often is not perceived as a failure until you leave it.

Ferrentino holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.  After leaving Goldman Sachs, he worked for several years in New York City based startups before joining Salesforce.com.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: Why is walking away from a start-up so difficult and what’s your own experience here?

Marc Ferrentino: So I’ve walked away from a couple of start-ups. It is very difficult. Start-ups are amazing, its one of the best experience you can possibly have, it’s the most fun you can possibly have. It really is. It is, it’s kind of like, it’s a little like pledging in that respect when you go through the process where you’re, you’re very band of brothers, its you against the world. You’re, you’re there till god knows what time of night you’re eating horribly, you’re you know but its amazing and its exciting.

So I think because of that you wind up getting, you, you can’t help yourself getting emotionally attached to the start up, to the idea, to the people around you and to the vision really that you have and some that’s vision of the product the vision of changing the world, which is typically what you’ll see when you, at a lot of start ups its that idea that you can somehow change the world and of course the vision of grandeur vision of greatness of some kind of exit that will put you on easy street. It becomes very hard to walk away, you’re, you’re basically saying goodbye to a dream you’re acknowledging, you’re also acknowledging a little bit failure, which is not easy to do.

It’s that idea that if I don’t stop, I don’t quit, I didn’t fail yet… its like, like you make a bad stock trade, you know, you didn’t, you didn’t really… until I sell it I haven’t really lost money yet. You know? And that’s kind of, that’s a, that’s a bit of it, a big piece of it and what winds up happening is you wind up staying there too long, you wind up dragging on your time there and then you become resentful in a lot of cases and it takes, its very hard for most people to walk away to say ‘Ok, you know what? I don’t think this is going to happen, I’m going to walk away’ cause it, it gets masked as ‘you’re quitting’ or ‘you’re a traitor’ or you’re something else, you know, you’re, you’re not you’re not a believer anymore and that makes you, you know, you’re a bad person because of it and a that’s just not a lot of case, a lot of times the case. So it’s a very, very difficult to do and it takes, you have to be a stronger to walk away from it than to stay.

Slava Rubin on How Indiegogo Helps Finance and Promote Sundance Films

In Chapter 2 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "How is Your Company Indiegogo Helping Filmmakers Complete Film Festival Caliber Projects, such as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary Feature "We Live in Public", Presented in 2009"? Rubin shares how Sundance award-winning films "Dig!" and "We Live in Public" are two of many efforts utilizing IndieGoGo to connect content to audience.  Rubin shares the democratic vision behind building the fundraising and promotion tools for media makers to complete projects and why Robert Redford showed up to speak at the company's one-year anniversary celebration at Sundance 2009.

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How has your company, Indiegogo, helping filmmakers complete film festival caliber projects, such as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize documentary feature ``We Live in Public``, presented in 2009?

Slava Rubin:  We were pretty excited to have ``We Live in Public`` we also had ``Dig`` in 2009 we also had other award winners at SXSW the previous year as well.  They won the awards after they were associated with Indiegogo.  Some of them use it for raising money, some of them have been using for just promotion.  It`s greats to have these blue chip projects associated with Indiegogo, but really it`s about having anybody using Indiegogo, whether you’re a Hollywood studio or whether you`re one of the top independent producers, like we have some of them here in New York, or whether you`re a high school trying to make your first film.  It`s a democratic process and it should be because if you can cultivate your audience, you deserve to get it made. The idea is that never before in life have you been able to be so connected to your audience.  It use to be that there were all these middle men, and the middle men really they took away part of the profit, but they also took away control and they also separated you from your audience, and at the end of the day the most powerful thing is content connecting with audience.  On indiegogo, that`s exactly what you can do and you can mobilize that fan base, that audience, that collective for different action.  That action could be to do something, to demand something or to contribute money and Indiegogo allows you to do any of those things.

Erik Michielsen:  So, last year at the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford can to one of your events and spoke specifically about on what you were doing.   What have your learned from that experience and how has that propelled your vision?

Slava Rubin:  Well, it was definitely a big surprise, I can`t say it was all planned to have the founder of Sundance, Robert Redford, to show up, but you know we just started Indiegogo actually just less than two years ago and on our one year anniversary he was able to come by.  I think it was just a testament to us having good projects associated with our party, us having a pretty innovative spirit, and trying to advance the film and media community forward using some digital tools.

How Social Media Impacts Sports Marketing - Mike Germano

In Chapter 12 of 13, social media expert Mike Germano discusses how social media is enhancing the sports entertainment experience by building a stronger connection between fans and their favorite players, teams, and leagues. Social media highlights the approachability of athletes. Social media also provides players opportunity to break the news, eliminating media and reporting middlemen and going directly to fans. Finally, social media participation offers younger, lesser known players opportunities to build popularity and support through fan connections.

How Peer Support Networks Develop in Standup Comedy - Matt Ruby

In Chapter 4 of 14 in his 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, stand-up comedian Matt Ruby discusses how peer support has affected his development working in performing arts.  Leaving behind the negotiation, royalty and songwriting debates in a band environment for comedy teaches Ruby new lessons in loyalty.  Performing nightly, Ruby finds shared experiences create lasting,  loyal bonds between comedians. Ruby spotlights Patton Oswalt as a respected voice in the comedy community who prioritizes peer support.

Joe Stump on How Small Town Michigan Childhood Shapes Values

In Chapter 7 of 16 of his 2009 Capture Your Flag interview, web entrepreneur Joe Stump reflects on how growing up in a small, Midwestern Michigan town shaped his values and sense of loyalty to friends, family, and colleagues.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  You spent the majority of your childhood and college growing up in Michigan.  How did that experience kind of contribute to the character and shape who you are today?

Joe Stump:  In Michigan, as you know, lots of good people.  Good, down home, regular folk.  The way things are there, you are brought up in the community to look after each other, take care of each other, support each other, that kind of thing. Everyone is closely connected.  The town where I grew up in was only 3,000 people. 

Everyone knew everyone else.  My parents went to school with everyone else’s parents.  There is a lot of history in that community.  Moving on from Michigan, the thing I notice about me that is different compared to friends that have grown up in the big city, there are core community values that maybe aren’t…

Erik Michielsen:  That speaks to your loyalty.  You are very loyal as a friend and also professionally. 

How Strong Work and School Cultures Create Loyal Alumni - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 10 of 13, Howard University, Duke University, and Goldman Sachs alum Phil McKenzie details how his affinity for strong cultures has shaped his loyalty to schools, classmates, and colleagues.  McKenzie continues to pursue similar environments in his continuing education and career development.  Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How Winemaker Builds Loyal Employee and Farmer Bonds - Patty Green

In Chapter 3 of 7, Oregon winemaker Patty Green finds full overlap between her professional and personal pursuits.  As a result, employee accountability and fit become even more important. She highlights the importance of relationships and how this played into all Torii Mor employees following her to Patricia Green Cellars along with her farming partners.

What Phish Concerts Teach About Relationship Marketing - Andrew Epstein

In Chapter 10 of 15, Island Def Jam promotions executive Andy Epstein shares how the band Phish connected with him in college at the University of Michigan and the resulting relationship value cultivated over time. The concert experience and touring lifestyle enable fans to find connection. Epstein highlights how bands and their labels prioritize providing these community-driven fan experiences to build relationships over time.