Ok I know it’s a bit late but better late than never. ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. This was my first year attending and I really enjoyed the keynote speakers. I think the unofficial theme this year was Social Media. Everyone talked about how important social media is and how [...]

I see it all the time. A marketing head says we need to be engaging in social media. Next thing you know they have a Facebook and Twitter page up and running and the company is satisfied that they are now “engaged” in social media. A couple months down the road the company wonders what [...]

I really like Guy Kawasaki. I saw him at Ad Tech in San Fransisco and he was hilarious. If you haven’t seen the Art of Enchantment speech you should watch it. My favorite part of the video is at minute 20.28 – 23.01 where he makes fun of how companies come up with mission statements. [...]

You know who we trust? Our friends. Our families. Our respected peers.

You know who we don’t really trust? Faceless companies.

Yet the vast majority of marketing campaigns are less than personal and follow the traditional model of companies pushing the discussion in one direction.

I can’t be the only one having an issue with this.

So how might the opposite of this look?

Let us use as our example the evil entity known as Rogers Communications. The parent company of everyone’s least favorite wireless brands Rogers and Fido. Now I could write a whole post on all the horrible things that Rogers/Fido do to their customers, but for the sake of brevity do a search on twitter for #rogers and #fail…case made.

Is it just me that sees a massive opportunity for Bell and Telus to not only steal some customers away from a rival, but also to tap into the voices that those around us trust?

If I were Telus and Bell, I’d be searching on Twitter and making a list of say 10-20 people who are extremely unhappy with Rogers/Fido. I’d then go to these people and explain that you would like to take care of them, get them on better packages, with better customer service, better phones and get them away from the evil Rogers/Fido.

1. Bring a printed confirmation of your registration
I thought to myself before running out the door should I print out the confirmation? And then thought no, this is a technology conference. I don’t need to print the confirmation. Which leads me into the next thing I learned.

2. Although technology is great, if you depend on it too much it’s probably going to come back and bite you in the ass.

3. Once upon a time Lindsay and I worked at Earls together.

4. Vancouver is an incredibly small city