As part of our series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked veteran technology executive and investor Ron Weissman to share his thoughts on how startups can achieve success. This is the next of his commentaries and we welcome your comments.
By Ronald Weissman
Product checklists are the Silicon Valley product marketers’ crutch. They are so overused as to provide more cliché than caché, as they try “prove” that their product has better features than the other guy’s—as if that’s all that matters to buyers. Myopic marketers often forget to ask whether these checkbox differences are actually important to customers. While it has its place, checkbox marketing often conveys little about the brand or the underlying quality of the vendor – factors that may be as or more important to buyers.
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This is the third article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screenreach Interactive, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In our last post, we caught up with Screenreach Interactive founder and CEO Paul Rawlings on his way out the door to attend the Digital Signage Investor Conference in New York. We explored how the company has developed its target markets, including the digital signage, or “out of home advertising,” market.
It has been a busy month for the company since then as it continues to build market share in the digital signage, television and radio industries.
David Weinfeld, Screenreach’s chief strategy officer, is based in New York. He and Rawlings hit the tradeshow floor together to speak with experts in the digital signage industry to deepen their understanding of how best to serve this growing global market.
“The conference really gave us a chance to get into the shoes of the clients we wish to serve,” Weinfeld said. “As a result, we are making some exciting changes to the product that we think will make a significant difference in how useful and appealing it is to advertisers and digital signage operators.”
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By Francis Moran
Two of the many events at last week’s Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Week featured presentations by young entrepreneurs who were generous in the sharing of personal stories and business and life lessons learned. Ryan Blair is a self-confessed former hoodlum and street-gang member who eventually embraced “legal entrepreneurship” and has built and exited a couple of companies. Y Combinator general partner Garry Tan shared his journey from “born employee” to reluctant entrepreneur and the lessons he learned along the way.
Here are a few of the things I heard that I really liked.
“You have to figure out what the customer is afraid of and become a solution.”
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By Linda Forrest
In my last post, I wrote about how PR practitioners annoy journalists. It’s ironic that many of the issues come down to a failure to implement the fundamentals of successful communication. So, in an effort to clear up exactly what it is that reporters want from PR people, this post aims to list the traits of a good PR practitioner, with a healthy dose of anecdotes from PR agency executives and reporters sounding off on what they think are essential attributes. While some posts I came across while researching this post were downright effusive about how wonderful PR people are, others contained language that might be deemed unfit for work.
The reporter’s view
I’ll start off by referring back to the very informative blog post by Matt Hartley, the editor of the Financial Post’s Tech Desk, wherein he demonstrated a learned understanding of the symbiotic nature of the relationship between reporters and PR professionals:
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By Alexandra Reid
If you’re interested in how the changing media landscape and consumer behaviour are impacting the future of advertising, the upcoming Social Media Breakfast Ottawa presentation featuring Sean MacPhedran is for you.
MacPhedran’s passion lies at the intersection of advertising and entertainment, but he also admits he’s a bit of a sci-fi geek, too. As both director of creative strategy at Fuel Industries and general manager for the Tomorrow Awards, MacPhedran is an expert on how advertising influences and is influenced by the consumer, and how understanding this symbiotic relationship can help advertisers reach consumers as their consumption behaviours change along with evolving technologies.
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What an IP coordinator should know: The prior art wall
November 14, 2011 by David French
In the last blog posting in this series we identified how “loopholes” can seriously undermine the value of a patent. In an earlier posting we touched upon the novelty requirement for obtaining a patent. In this post, we address in greater detail the reality of the […]
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The benefits and detriments of Google Plus brand pages
November 11, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
As many of you probably already know, Google Plus finally rolled out brand pages on Monday this week. Upon first review, brand pages look very similar to Facebook pages, but a closer look reveals added benefits that will help businesses bridge closer connections to […]
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Driving steady organic growth on a shoestring
November 10, 2011 by Francis Moran
Many startups with aspirations of grandeur have fallen prey to the temptation to call themselves a “leading provider of …”. But at Teamly, founder and CEO Scott Allison and his team appreciate that earning the label is a “big hairy audacious goal” […]
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The value of shooting the breeze
November 09, 2011 by Leo Valiquette
At inmedia,we frequently position ourselves against those whose perspective is that PR is “all about relationships.” And, while I wholeheartedly stand by our mantra that it is the ability to convey a story and not the relationship that dictates PR success, it cannot be denied that […]
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Five tips on how to use blogs for social media community development
November 08, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
Developing relationships with influential bloggers, and those who comment on their blogs, is an excellent way to develop your online clout and community. While you spend time tweeting and posting status updates to Facebook and LinkedIn, don’t overlook the […]
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Breaching academias ivory towers
November 07, 2011 by Jason Flick
Past posts in this series have explored the complexities of turning intellectual property created in a university into a flourishing business. Some of the issues are specific to Canada, but, generally speaking, there is no reason why we can’t do more with what we have […]
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October roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?
November 04, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
Thank you for being with us for the ninth month of our new blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from October […]
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Technology reporters on the record: how PR flacks annoy them
November 04, 2011 by Linda Forrest
“You’re doing it wrong” can be an irritated admonishment of your practices or a helpful push in the direction of improvement. It’s all a matter of how you see the world, whether you’re a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person […]
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By Ronald Weissman
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The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]