By Alexandra Reid
Vimeo recently announced a number of site upgrades that will help businesses upload, showcase and share videos faster, wider and more beautifully than ever before.
The video hosting and sharing platform’s popularity skyrocketed last year, with an 82 percent membership and 48 percent unique visitor increase from 2010. It’s a good thing then that Vimeo decided to update its features to compete with other popular video channels in 2012. As a huge fan of Vimeo myself, I look forward to seeing these numbers increase further, and with all the hype surrounding “new Vimeo” I suspect they shall. Vimeo even attracted the attention of BBC News, which reported that the channel could pose a significant challenge to YouTube in the coming year.
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked serial entrepreneur Jason Flick to share some of his insights. This is his next commentary and we welcome your feedback
By Jason Flick
According to Statistics Canada, expenditures by Canadian universities on research and development totaled $11 billion in 2009-2010, up about 0.8 percent from the year before. Spending by Canada’s top 100 R&D companies, meanwhile, fell 9.4 percent in 2010 to $9.4 billion. Compare that university R&D figure to total VC funding for Canadian companies in 2010, which was less than $1 billion.
If these numbers are a surprise to you then I hope I have your interest. What I will talk about here are the successful adventures I have had with my companies levering this vast pool of IP and perhaps suggest a way for you to see some alternate funding options for your venture.
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This is the next article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of NanoScale Corporation, a growing nanotechnology company based in Manhattan, KS that is commercializing various advanced materials and compounds for improving indoor air quality, removing pollutants, and containing and neutralizing hazardous chemicals.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
When we introduced NanoScale Corporation a month ago, we talked about how the company is faced with the challenge of expanding into a conservative market wary of new products or technologies which represent a significant departure from the tried and true.
That market is the civilian disaster restoration market, where contractors work to repair, remediate and decontaminate commercial and residential properties damaged by fire, storms, water, sewer backups and mould. In North America alone, this market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It is a steady market sheltered from general economic volatility given that disasters and accidents happen all the time and the cost of restoration is typically covered by an insurer.
Over the past year, NanoScale has focused on laying the groundwork for a strong market push in 2012. In this post, we will explore, with marketing director Kyle Knappenberger, how the company plans to move forward over the next 12 months and overcome what can often be a new market entrant’s greatest competitive threat – the status quo.
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This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from December 2010. We welcome your feedback.
By Linda Forrest
Customer service is an area of keen interest for us, as those who regularly read this blog will know.
It’s clear that the increased adoption of social media in recent years has had a tremendous, we think positive, impact on customer service. The fact is that online communications can act as a logical extension of effective customer service programs, but can also fail miserably if the organization doesn’t have a solid strategy in place as well as the systems to support that strategy, the people to run it and a commitment to ongoing success in this area.
Am I a customer service expert? No, but I am a life-long consumer, and an adept marketer of technology products and services. These two things combined give me a well-rounded perspective on how online communications, including social media, can be the lynchpin or the undoing of your reputation with customers, prospects and the industry in which you operate.
Let’s first examine the systems that drive your customer relations efforts.
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By Francis Moran
There’s an old Bedouin metaphor I love that says you should never let a camel get his nose inside your tent. The metaphor alludes to the reality that many small, seemingly harmless situations ought to be prevented whilst it is still easy to do so for fear they become very large and unwieldy situations. For wherever the camel’s nose goes, the camel is sure to follow and, once completely inside your tent, is an awful lot harder to dislodge.
For small technology companies whose product supplants larger and more established competitors, however, a camel’s nose strategy can be highly effective. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
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Dealing with the devilish details
January 25, 2012 by Francis Moran
According to Matt Lemelin, CEO of Genevolve Vision Diagnostics, there are more than 100 occupations which rely on workers having normal colour vision. As we explored in our last post, civilian and military aviation, where there is no room for error, ranks high on this list. Job performance and passenger safety depends on […]
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Five reasons why B2B businesses should start looking at Pinterest
January 24, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
Although still an invite-only platform, Pinterest is skyrocketing as a popular social media platform among businesses and consumers. And while it’s not critical that B2B businesses launch their own boards right away, it’s certainly worth your while to check out the site […]
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What an IP coordinator should know: Are we getting value for money?
January 23, 2012 by David French
In previous postings we have addressed procedural issues relating to patents. In this posting we wrestle with the fundamental premise: Is it worth what we’re spending in obtaining patents? “How can we find out whether we’re getting value for all the money that we’re spending on patents within the company?” […]
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How are you writing the story of tomorrow?
January 20, 2012 by Francis Moran
One of my favourite personal-development aphorisms is the phrase, “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” On Wednesday, at an event organised by TEC Canada, a peer-to-peer mentoring program for business leaders of which I’ve been a member for more than […]
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Why we value blog comments, even if they’re not all constructive
January 19, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
Whether or not blog comments are valuable has been debated for a long time in the blogosphere, but recently it seems more people are standing even firmer on their chosen side of the debate […]
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Wanted: Partners willing to take a leap of faith
January 18, 2012 by Francis Moran
In our last post, we spoke to Katie and Luke Hrycak, the sibling founders of CommentAir, about their challenges as technology entrepreneurs who do not have a background in technology. A process of self-education and aggressive networking to tap into the expertise of supportive advisors and mentors has been […]
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The impact of infographics on marketing, journalism
January 17, 2012 by Linda Forrest
As a marketer and as a consumer of vast quantities of media, I couldn’t help but notice the surge in the use of infographics by my fellow marketers and the media in recent months. […]
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The prime minister is calling: Are you prepared for success?
January 16, 2012 by John Craig
Obtaining a lighthouse customer is a critical first step in starting a business. It establishes your credibility as a seller, and creates a repeatable case study that captures the needs of your target market. The follow-on step is differentiating your business relative to the competition […]
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By Alexandra Reid
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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, [...]
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