Mediapost Online Spin: Embrace Your Inner Masochist

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Check out the latest Mediapost Online Spin article by Evol8tion Founder and CEO, Joseph Jaffe. Channel your inner Christian Grey and discover how pain and pleasure influence change. 

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I recently had the opportunity to keynote Compete’s Annual Digital CMO Conference. After the sessions, a small group of senior marketing execs had an intimate lunch and discussion about organizational change and cultural transformation.

One of the paradigms and frameworks we discussed came from Stephen DiMarco, Compete’s CMO, who referenced a very simple matrix of pain and pleasure as motivational forces and catalysts of change. The continuum looks something like this (in order from most important to least important):

  1. Pain now
  2. Pain later
  3. Pleasure now
  4. Pleasure later

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APPNATION Cross Platform Summit Recap

Today wrapped up the 3rd Annual APPNATION NYC Cross Platform Summit in Soho, NYC as part of Internet Week 2013. The two-day extravaganza was jam-packed with educational sessions predominately focusing on how apps and mobile fit into overall cross-platform strategies. With more than 100 thought leaders taking the stage, there was no shortage of insightful discussions and inspirational comments. A shoutout to Drew Ianni, Founder & CEO of APPNATION Conferences, for spearheading another successful event! Here’s a quick snapshot of a few highlight moments from Days 1 and 2.

Day 1 Theme: Actionable Strategies

We particularly enjoyed The Mitchell Weisman Experience: The Evolution of the Liquid Advertising Marketplace discussion with Mitchell Weisman, Founder and CEO of Lifestreet Media. Equipped with a snorkel, Weisman figuratively helped the audience understand and navigate today’s increasingly liquid cross-platform advertising ecosystem. Weisman defined a liquid market as “a market with many bid/ask offers, where it is easy to execute a trade quickly at a desirable price,” enabling faster and easier transaction, increased buyers and sellers and an increased number and value of transactions – definitely sounds like an area to watch. Online advertising is quickly evolving into a liquid market and Weisman highly suggests if your brand is not experimenting in the Real-Time Bidding space and leveraging Re-targeting, you’re missing the mark!

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Uncubed NYC

In case you missed it – Uncubed NYC, hosted by Wakefield, was a great way to kick off the weekend this past Friday. The premise of the event is to help get you “uncubed” - out of a desk job and into startup world (we definitely think it’s the best!) Hundreds of hopeful entrepreneurs and soon to be ex-corporate execs were lined up around the block outside of the Manhatten Pavillion hoping to find out some great information about cool startups that are hiring. With music bumping in the background, copious amounts of booze at the startup stations and a Ping-Pong table to boot, there were plenty of ways to break the ice and chat with some of the coolest companies in NYC. Attendees included Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Spotify, The Ladders, Birchbox, Barkbox,  Reelio, Contently, and Yext to name a few.

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Mediapost Online Spin: CMO- The Chief Muddled Officer

Take a look at the latest article by Evol8tion’s CEO and Founder, Joseph Jaffe. Like what you’ve been reading? Have a look at the new Kickstarter campaign to fund his latest book, ZERO, describing how zero paid media is a new marketing model. Be sure to follow him @jaffejuice! 

CMO: The Chief Muddled Officer 

This past week, we were treated to two very intriguing — and yet seemingly contradictory — pieces of research concerning the state of marketing and the relative health and wellness of its fearless leader, the Chief Marketing Officer.

To begin, we have a Spencer Stuart study that reports the average tenure of the Chief Marketing Officer has doubled, from 23 months (2006 figure) to 45 months.

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Joseph Jaffe Featured on Startupi!

We’re excited to announce our CEO and Founder, Joseph Jaffe, has been featured in an article by Diego Remus of Startupi Brazil. Take a look here and be sure to follow us @evol8tion and @jaffejuice. 

Evol8tion is using mobile video startups to capture some great moments at Tech Crunch Disrupt NY 2013. Shot&Edited with MONTAJ app for iPhone! 

Looking forward to Tech Crunch SF this September! Follow us @evol8tion. 

TechCrunch Disrupt NY - Day 2 Recap

Day 2 of TC Disrupt showcased a fresh crop of startups!  Education, Social, and Big Data were some of the major sectors demo’ing.  The energy of the NY Tech Community was buzzing as the Battlefield was narrowed down to 7 coveted finalists spots. As Evol8tion continued making the rounds in the Startup Alley, below are a few of our favorites: 

Lets be honest, Financial Modeling?  Not sexy.  SMBs and startups often stumble through the process, producing an eyesore spreadsheet that’s only legible to financial experts.  Company Thread is looking to change that, by reinventing the way companies tell their financial story for strategic decisions.  The interface is clean and digestible- enabling businesses to think in maps, versus grids.  It creates a “Choose Your Own Adventure” process, where you’re able to start with the big vision- and slowly drill down to the implications of the more granular pieces via a simple perceptual map.  Another interesting perk – its completely optimized for the cloud – so the application is fully functional within  the web-browser, no software downloads required.  These guys are experienced, talented, and have a bright future ahead of them- in a cluttered market of banks, investors, and publishers – this could be a valuable utility to white-label and offer your consumers.  I’m talking to you – Chase and Forbes.

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Evol8tion Does TechCrunch Disrupt NY 

More from Disrupt NY 2013: Day 1

Making our way through the Startup Alley and watching the Startup Battlefield during Day 1 of Tech Crunch Disrupt NYC 2013, we found two interesting startups playing in the consumer money management sector—building off of the success of companies like Mint who give transparency into spending habits.  Each startup took a different approach to how parents can manage the money they are giving to their college aged students.  A very interesting environment to monitor for brands that are looking to influence the purchase decisions of the powerful college student demographic!

Purchext has developed a platform that allows parents to set time, location & category parameters for the monthly allowance they are giving their dependents.  The fund recipient uploads receipts for their purchases and the transactions are approved and money is transferred if the items meet the parameters—no more using food money for beer!  We love that it can help solve a real need for parents who want to monitor and control how their college aged kids are spending their money.  It will be interesting to see if the multiple steps (receipt upload, item database matching, etc) are too heavy for the consumer experience and how the team iterates to streamline the user experience.
Potential Brand Matches: P&G, McDonald’s, Starbucks, AT&T
Paidpiper released, Ok’d, a simple, secure way to ask for and give money within your network of friends and family.  Also targeting parents and their dependents (specifically girls aged 18-28),  it uses real time mobile notifications to allow dependents to ask for money for a specific purchase at a specific time & location.  Tied to the parent’s credit card, if the transaction is “ok’d,” the application generates a one-time use mobile credit card that is location-locked with merchant IDs, a geo-fence, and an expiration date.  The challenge for Ok’d today is the scale of retailer optical scanners for mobile barcodes.  Over the next few years, however, the question is not if, but when, retailers will have these scanners and brands need to leverage this technology now before their competitors take advantage. 
Potential Brand Matches: L’Oreal, Target, Apple, Gap

Keep up with us as we live tweet from Day 2 @evol8tion! Looking forward to another great batch of startups. 

TechCrunch Disrupt - Day1!

TechCrunch Disrupt kicked off the 3 day session in New York yesterday, there was no shortage of startups, quirky ideas, and incredible talent.  The Evol8tion crew was pounding the pavement chatting with every startup in the Alley - searching for hot new tech startups to share with Madison Avenue.  Along the way we came across some killer new ideas, and ground breaking technology.  Below are a few of our favorites:

The Israeli Pavilion did not disappoint - Tel Aviv brought its hot bed of innovation to NYC this week, with some fantastic new startups making its debut.  Among them was Glide - a clear breakout hit and winner of the Audience Choice for Day 1s Battlefield.  Think of Glide as a modern Walkie-Talkie, unlike other video messaging platforms, users are able to leave “Videomails” to their friends in family - stored in the cloud which can be viewed later.  The live-streaming video chats are equally impressive, the exchange is instantaneous, seamlessly connecting with Facebook. Its simple user experience enables consumers of all savviness to easily join the conversation.  Skype - you’ll want to pay attention to these guys.

Wedeeo was another startup in the Israeli Pavilion that caught our attention.  Despite the now cluttered mobile video space - there hasn’t been a clear winner that’s emerged in the category, Wedeeo’s twist brings a fresh experience to consumers.  It has a similar time-limit shooting feature to competitor (and personal favorite) Montaj - but has longer :10 limits, the ability to pull in friends clips to co-create videos via Facebook, and has positioned itself as a resource for music artists to create new videos to connect with their fans.  

We also want to give a shoutout to Crowdflik - a dynamic mobile video platform that crowdsources clips.  Never a dull moment in this category - an important one to watch…!

We officially fell in love with Fl3ur, finally - a startup that has disrupted the flower ordering space!  This iOS mobile app, currently only available in NYC, allows users to personally design their own flower boutiques, based on what’s available at the local florists.  The consumer can select individual flowers, colors, and quantities- and send actual boutiques to friends- or take a virtual picture to send to Facebook.  The best part, if other users like and select your design - youre paid $1.  The app is fun, cute, and easy to use - the imagination clearly demonstrates a new way to service clients in the industry.  1-800-Flowers, you’ll be inspired.

Coffee, Red Bull, weird energy gum, check… Game on for Day 2!  We’ll be tweeting live from the floor @evol8tion - stay techie 8-)