Crayon, join the conversation

Have you heard about Brandhackers yet? Here's the official blurb:

#Brandhackers is a monthly Manhattan Meetup and social network showcasing prominent and rising digital marketing opinion leaders providing an environment bringing people, technology and brands together.

I think I first heard about them via Robb Hecht when Noah Brier was the guest speaker. And now I get the opportunity to present to this great group.

And if you like, you can be there too for just $10 (that's half a Stabucks latte). Plus you may or may not get a copy of my book, "Join the Conversation" for anything between $0 and $5 extra.

The event will take place on December 14th at Red Sky (47 E29th St, New York NY 10016 - Google Map here) and kicks off at 5pm with an hour of networking, followed by my presentation at 6pm and post networking at 7pm.

For more information, check out the Brandhacker Speaker Series page where you can register to attend. There are about 80 odd places left, so spread the word.

Hope to see you there and join the face-to-face conversation!

As most of you know, HP has been onboard since June of 2009 as the charter sponsor of Jaffe Juice TV (since episode 20 in fact) and they're sticking around (hopefully for a long time)

On a personal note, it's really gratifying to see a brand acting as a leader and evaluating a partnership more on a qualitative basis as opposed to number of views, clicks etc.

That said, we have been linking to their Employee Purchase Program where people can get friends and family rates on all HP technology.

So far so good...

And now, something else which may or may not be more compelling to you (because you can only choose one) but inarguably is more worthy and selfless. HP has just kicked off a program called "Create Change". 

In a nutshell, for every purchase you make at the Direct Store, HP will donate 4% of the total product purchase to support a range of charities in the areas of conservation, education, enrichment systems, healthcare support, disaster recovery and the battle to fight poverty. These charities include: WWF, Junior Achievement, American Red Cross, CARE, Susan G. Komen, Make-A-Wish Foundation®, and DonorsChoose.org

Remember that you can only purchase through one program at a time, so choose wisely between their EPP program or Create Change (it runs through end of January, 2010) when making your holiday purchases.

Please feel free to spread the word about both programs...tweet, FB connect, blog, text, talk, you get the picture and one more thing: if you'd like to chat to one of the HP execs about the program, contact me and I'll put you in touch with one of the bigwigs over at Hewlett Packard.

So that's it...thanks for reading and for your consideration. Happy Holidays and purchases!

Another day, another Beancast. This time I shared the virtual stage with Kelly Eidson (Modea, Ad Age), Angela Natividad (Live and Uncensored, Adverve) and Ian Schafer (Deep Focus)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday took up the lion's share of our discussion for all you retail junkees, but equally tasty was the discussion about Aol's new logo/branding/identity/SSDD efforts plus some Peperami crowdsourcing for desert. Now if that doesn't cause an ulcer, I don't know what will :)

Direct download here

iTunes subscription here

Apple and AT&T's decision to reverse VoIP restrictions on the iPhone shows the power of open vs closed environments, as well as the continued rise and ubiquity of wi-fi access.

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show. In addition to their Employee Purchase Program (see below), you can also participate in their very worthy Create Change program. In a nutshell, for every purchase you make at the Direct Store, HP will donate 4% of the total product purchase to support a range of charities in the areas of conservation, education, enrichment systems, healthcare support, disaster recovery and the battle to fight poverty. These charities include: WWF, Junior Achievement, American Red Cross, CARE, Susan G. Komen, Make-A-Wish Foundation®, and DonorsChoose.org

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell everyone on your friend list, your clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: VoIP about face on the iPhone - http://bit.ly/5ecSNs
• Subscribe to the show via iTunes or YouTube
• Leave a video response

Think about this: if CNN et al could be suckered into the Balloon Boy hoax, what else have they been fooled into in the past? At times like these, I'm glad I'm not a journalist and just a lowly blogger...

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show. In addition to their Employee Purchase Program (see below), you can also participate in their very worthy Create Change program. In a nutshell, for every purchase you make at the Direct Store, HP will donate 4% of the total product purchase to support a range of charities in the areas of conservation, education, enrichment systems, healthcare support, disaster recovery and the battle to fight poverty. These charities include: WWF, Junior Achievement, American Red Cross, CARE, Susan G. Komen, Make-A-Wish Foundation®, and DonorsChoose.org

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell Ted Turner, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: Balloon Boy deals a fatal blow to journalistic credibility - http://bit.ly/48EXT1 
• Subscribe to the show via iTunes or YouTube
• Leave a video response

Just a friendly reminder that I'll be co-presenting a free blogging basics webinar tomorrow afternoon (11/19/09). The event is hosted by Target Marketing magazine and sponsored by Compendium Blogware, and takes place online at 2pm ET. There's still time to register (or refer your clients and friends who could use a primer), and I hope some of you will be able to tune in.

My portion of the agenda explores the building blocks for creating a compelling, sustainable corporate blog that the people you're looking to reach will actually want to read (basically an updated version of my Blog DNA framework) and a bit of high level thinking about how you can gauge your blog's success during its first year. The second portion of the agenda -- presented by Compendium's Chris Baggott -- will deep dive into how to use blogging to juice your SEO, attract prospects and drive revenue. And then of course we'll get to the good stuff: a moderated Q&A, so if you have any blogging questions, you'll be able to get some quick answers.

Here's a peek at my presentation.

Hope to see you online tomorrow. If you can't attend but would still like to (ahem) join the conversation (or attended and stopped by this blog afterwards) feel free to drop your thoughts or questions into the comments.

Two great community-driven crowdsourcing projects, which you should support: The 3Six5 Project and Age of Conversation 3. Plus a little rant against affected A-listers.

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show and thank YOU for all your purchases as part of their friends and family program. Just in time for the holidays, you can take advantage of some pretty sweet deals on Netbooks, Printers and more. See below for information on how you can become part of HP's Friends 'n Family Plan.

My latest Adweek column is up. It's titled, "2009: The Year of Nothing" and I think it is pretty self-explanatory.

Here's the full text of the article, which deals with the lack of innovation and experimentation in a "down" year and challenges us all to step up to the plate in 2010 (or even in the final few weeks of this year). Enjoy and join the conversation on the blog, Twitter, Facebook etc.

2009: Year of Nothing

How do you plan to make sure next year is better than this one?

Nov 16, 2009

-By Joseph Jaffe

Happy New Year everybody. Time to usher in a new year...with new hopes, dreams and expectations of a year that can't really be worse than 2009. Can it? It's time to close the book on arguably one of the most frustrating, draining and demoralizing years in our professional lifetimes.

Yes, I know. It's still mid-November, but I'm pretty sure I speak on behalf of the majority of us who can't wait to slam the door shut on 2009. If '09 were associated with a color, it would probably have been associated with pink -- as in pink slip. It was a year that many, many people lost their jobs. If that doesn't include you (consider yourself fortunate), it probably affects someone you know.

2009 was a year that witnessed entire companies wiped off the face of the Earth; it was a year when media stalwarts faltered, stumbled and even careened headfirst into the dust; it was a year in which even billion-dollar bailouts couldn't motivate banks and financial institutions to incentivize and reward the backbones of this great nation: small business owners and entrepreneurs.
 
While many of us would like to wave a wand and wish this year away, it's probably not a bad idea to pause for a moment and take stock of the year that was...or perhaps I should say, the year that wasn't.

When all is said and done, what did you accomplish this year? What did you achieve? Did you venture out of your comfort zone or did you recoil into your shell and hide from the storm? How did you gauge success? Was it the ability to avoid Armageddon (as WPP's Martin Sorrell put it) or the ability to preserve status quo?

I've always liked the analogy of change and innovation as a treadmill or a conveyer belt, where the speed and the backwards direction of the belt represent the inevitable passage of time and progress. Standing still results in a pretty obvious outcome. Less obvious is what happens when the march forward is at the exact rate of the belt itself, yielding a net result of nothing. In fact, the only positive outcome is when movement is greater than that of the speed of the belt.

So how did you fare on the belt? Are you hitting your stride as you power forward or are you nursing a bruise on your rear end?

If the latter is the case, the good news is that it's not too late. Not too late to make the most of the final few weeks of the year and certainly not too late to hit the ground running in 2010. You can still make a concerted effort to make a difference. No more operating on the back foot.

It's well documented that companies who increase their investment in marketing during recessionary times almost always realize a competitive advantage from doing so. The same must apply to an operating philosophy or climate which focuses on innovation and experimentation.

As you prepare for 2010, here are a few ideas to consider:

• Carve out an experimentation or innovation mandate and commensurate budget.

• Find your magic number: perhaps it's 2 or 3 or even 4 new projects or "experiments." Is one per quarter that unrealistic?

• Less talk; more walk: Don't debate and talk yourself out of change. I hate to say it, but "just do it" already. If you can't bring yourself to commit, recognize that someone else will come along and take the initiative away from you.

• Avoid bright and shiny object syndrome. Don't wait for the next big thing, because there are way too many new colors in the box of crayons begging for your attention and consideration right now.

• Inaction is tantamount to failure. If you remain on the sidelines for too long, waiting for "proof of concept" or the mainstreaming of fringe or emerging platforms, you run the risk of being left behind. To be sure, it's a balancing act between premature experimentation and paralyzing procrastination. Find the balance and find your stride.

And while you continue to debate the relative merits and demerits of emerging media, bear in mind that the "belt" of change, evolution and even revolution never stops and is even accelerating.

So Happy New Year to you and yours. I raise my glass to your success and toast to 2010 being your Year of Something.

Brands need to anticipate both good reaction and bad backlash and they need to stay the course, unless of course they're dumb enough to walk into blogger or twitterstorms without a clue as to what to expect. #pepsifail

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show and thank YOU for all your purchases as part of their friends and family program. Just in time for the holidays, you can take advantage of some pretty sweet deals on Netbooks, Printers and more. See below for information on how you can become part of HP's Friends 'n Family Plan.