Category: Consumer

  • The value of community for brands and businesses

    The value of community for brands and businesses

    It’s easy to be cynical, important to be cautious, and worth being curious about the idea of community – and how it can help brands and businesses create more value and make better stuff (products, services, and ideas.) Disclaimer: I’m leading brand strategy at ScienceMagic, a creative and strategic company helping businesses and talent build […]

  • What Advertising Can Learn From BuzzFeed

    What Advertising Can Learn From BuzzFeed

    A few days ago I attended a panel discussion/interview with Juliane Leopold, founding editor of BuzzFeed Germany, at betahaus Hamburg. She talked about how everything started, how she set up the team, how BuzzFeed wants to be political and opinionated, etc. All of this wasn’t really surprising until the moment when she opened the site on […]

  • JWT’s Take On Marketing Trends 2015

    JWT’s Take On Marketing Trends 2015

    With the new year right in front of our noses, it’s time to look at what 2015 marketing trends might hold. Thankfully, many agencies are happy to provide their predictions. One of the more extensive looks into the future (110 pages) is served by JWT Intelligence: The Future 100 offers a glimpse into trends in food, […]

  • Rotting teeth and immediate communication

    Rotting teeth and immediate communication

    I stumbled upon an interesting fact in this Youtube video by Erik Qualman: It seems that more people own a mobile device than a toothbrush. Despite the fact that there’s not a source for this fact, I don’t have a problem believing it. It just proves what all of us somehow knew already: people are more […]

  • The Un-Joy of Technology

    The Un-Joy of Technology

    I was on the subway on my way home today, when an interesting – maybe symbolical – scene caught my eye. Three women were sitting in their seats, self-absorbed. Two of the three women were starring at their smartphones: heads down, biting their lips, looking tensed, frowning. They didn’t quite seem to enjoy their time. The third woman […]

  • How Apple’s iOS 8 Puts Words In Your Mouth

    How Apple’s iOS 8 Puts Words In Your Mouth

    I upgraded to iOS 8 yesterday. Besides the fact that I was slightly disappointed (it looks exactly the same, how boring!), I became a little bit upset after typing the first message. I have read about the new keyboard’s contextual word suggestion, yet I wasn’t aware what that actually really meant. The phone happily suggesting […]

  • What A Priest Told Me About Lovemarks

    What A Priest Told Me About Lovemarks

    Two weeks ago I attended the wedding of my cousin. I expected to hear a lot about love and faith and relationships. What I didn’t expect was hearing about brands. Most of you have probably heard of the lovemarks concept, introduced by Kevin Roberts some 12 years ago. That book made me think about the […]

  • The Tinder Effect: How Tinder Robs Us Of The Highs of Dating

    The Tinder Effect: How Tinder Robs Us Of The Highs of Dating

    I have a friend who is on Tinder. And a few other dating sites and apps. They are working quite well for him. (Just to be sure: this friend is not real. He’s the sum of all the people I know – male and female – using such apps.) I’m not condemning Tinder or the likes. […]

  • Drivers vs. Passengers: Google’s Driverless Car

    Google unveiled a prototype of their driverless car – and the Internet goes all crazy about a simple, obvious fact: that the car doesn’t have a steering wheel or pedals. Why would it need any of the two? If you are committed to your idea, you’d follow it with as much rigor as possible. If […]

  • Jelly is a Great Opportunity for Brands

    A little new app called Jelly sparked some interest among tech blogs yesterday. Their motto: Let’s help each other. I downloaded it and surprisingly it’s quite fun answering questions of your larger social network (friends of friends are included). People ask the community by uploading pictures of the “problem” and add a short question. The […]