cadenceblog

My new job at Tucows

"Dreams are necessary to life" - Anais Nin

I’m extremely happy to announce that I have joined Tucows, as a marketing manager. It is a dream job for me in many ways. Tucows is one of Canada’s largest and oldest Internet companies. As a wholesale Internet services provider, Tucows offers domain names, SSL certificates and email, to our resellers (thousands of web hosting companies and ISPs around the world). I’m going back my roots, having worked in the internet services industry from 1998-2002 as a unix administrator. Since then I transitioned into an IT marketer. This job means being in the best possible of the two worlds that I adore – “internet” and “marketing”. I’ll also be focusing a large part on internet marketing, which is another passion of mine.

Last Wednesday was my first day, and I had a welcome lunch at Pho Asia 21, a popular Vietnamese joint near the office. Many thanks to my teammates, who helped me pick the perfect lunch. I also received my Squishy Cows, who happily accompanied me into my new workspace. It feels like home to me already at Tucows, mainly due to the awesome, talented, passionate, and welcoming folks there (especially my marketing teammates and my boss).

This is partly an excuse for not writing much in the past few months, but mostly, I’m just excited to announce the wonderful news. I am grateful to everyone at Tucows that helped make this happen, and to the wonderful people in both my professional and personal life.

CaseCamp Toronto at Circa

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still here. This is a busy time work-wise, the Q2 crunch/whirlwind/test of sanity...some might say :) . In B2B marketing, it is more difficult to reach customers and prospects over the summer (people tend to work shorter weeks, take vacations), so the April-June time period is often stacked with many campaigns and events. I'm sure a lot of you experience the same situation. However, I am planning to get out to a few marketing events this month.

Next week I am going to the TechTarget Online ROI Summit, in Boston. It looks like a really great lineup of speakers, presenters, and panelists.  I also look forward to meeting other IT Marketers, and it is my first time visiting Boston!

Also,  for any of you in the Toronto Area, another CaseCamp is coming up on April 29, 2008. For those of you that don't know: CaseCamp is a marketing-oriented ad-hoc gathering inspired by David Crow and BarCamp. It's open to anyone and completely free.

This is an event that I highly recommend to other marketers. It is a very interesting format - 15 minutes case studies, followed by discussion. The venue is pretty cool too,  CIRCA , a fairly new nightclub in Toronto. The space where CIRCA is, has struggled through the years. It was originally Playdium, and also another nightclub.  I've seen some pictures of CIRCA, and it looks promising. I've heard that some parts seem more like an installation/art gallery. They also have a theatre room,  a KidRobot Room, they even have plans for a recording studio.

I'm hoping to have some interesting experiences to share with you later. 

Are you a warrior, a lover, a magician, or a sovereign?

I was listening to a podcast today called The Team’s Archetypes (Businessweek's executive editor John Byrne talks with leadership guru Nikos Mourkogiannis about how knowing the four basic types of people in any organization allows you to harness their strengths).

Are you a warrior, a lover, a magician, or a sovereign?

It also brings into perspective the difference between sales and marketing. I can picture sales as warriors, sometimes lovers. Perhaps marketing is part lover, and part magician.

Some amount of conflict is a good thing as mentioned in a previous post about marketing and sales alignment. More importantly, I can see why you would want to have all of these types in a business environment. A good example was made in regards to a product roll-out. Your first impulse is to jump to the warrior, get it done and out the door! But you need the magician to develop the ideas and concepts, the lover to build relationships, and the sovereign to perhaps put it all together, make people believe in what they are doing, and keep everyone inspired.

 This is by no means an attempt to stereotype or simplify people, because I think most people have some of each trait, though there may be a dominant trait. The podcast also mentions, how we change as time passes. The point is to recognize strengths in yourself and others, and use that knowledge to build a better company, a product, or team.

2008 TechTarget Online ROI Summit

Aimed specifically for IT marketers, TechTarget Online ROI Summit is taking place April 24-25 2008, in Boston.  I heard it was very well received last year (their first year putting it on) and it was a good opportunity for peer networking. This year they have planned:

• Peer ROI Case Studies
• Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft on SEM
• IT Professionals Answer Your  Questions
• Intensive Workshops on Day Two
• Online Marketing Expert Speakers
• IT Market-Specific Breakouts

Visit the event website for more information. This event is for qualified technology marketers. You can also read more about it at TechTarget's marketing blog called My Educated Guess.

I am a customer of TechTarget, so I may possibly be attending this. If you have any plans to go, let me know.

The 800-CEO-READ Mystery Box for charity

Just a quick post to let you know about a fun offer from 800ceoread. For $20 (free shipping), you get three business books that were submitted for their Business Book Awards.  In this box you are guaranteed one title that either won, or made the shortlist for best book of 2007 in its category, and 2 other titles that were submitted for the awards.

The $20 will go directly towards Room to Read. You may have heard about this non-profit before - the founder John Wood, was a previous executive at Microsoft. There is an interesting story behind how he left the corporate world to start this non-profit which you can read more about here.  He also wrote a memoir in 2006 called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

I have more than enough books on my reading list but I thought the mystery part was fun, and since it was going to charity, I couldn't pass it up. And I wanted to pass it on...

For more information visit 800-CEO-READ Mystery Box for charity!

Emergence of Virtual Tradeshows

Emergence of virtual tradeshows
In a previous post, I spoke about the emergence of virtual tradeshows. Since then, I have seen promotions  for many more of these events.  There is definitely a trend or interest to test this method of providing online content for education, branding, or lead generation purposes. I previously mentioned a  company called Unisfair that provides a platform for delivering virtual tradeshows. Another company that has come to my attention is InXpo. I came across a technology focused event called the Data Protection Dilemma, produced by Ziff Davis, which is now available on demand. One of the strengths of a virtual tradeshow is that content can remain on demand and be a  source of further lead generation (after the live event). If you visit InXpo's website, you can see some of the customers they are working with other than Ziff Davis,  including TIBCO and Wall Street Journal.  Ziff Davis has been using this channel extensively, visit virtualtradeshowslive.com, to see their lineup of technology focused events (and past shows on demand). 

Upcoming virtual expo for B2B Marketers
There is an upcoming show of interest for B2B Marketers on March 5, 2008 called B2B-2.0 Expo: What's New in Finding+Keeping Customers. This show focuses on solutions for B2B marketing in the Web 2.0 world. They have a great lineup of speakers, check out the website for full details on the program and presenters. The organizer is MarketingProfs, and there are several sponsors, including some of the marketing "thought leadership" companies I have spoken about in the past, including MarketingExperiments, Eloqua, intouch, and Marketo. It looks like a perfect opportunity to learn more about marketing with Web 2.0 , research new marketing solution providers, and experience a virtual tradeshow environment.

More resources on virtual events

No Travel Required of this Kind of Show, my previous post on virtual tradeshows.

Virtual events and measuring ROI keys (from BtoBonline)

Virtual events' success grows (from BtoBonline)

Also please feel free to comment on your experience on attending, sponsoring, or creating content for a Virtual Tradeshow. Is this a viable channel for B2B Marketers to reach and engage with customers and new prospects? How does this compare with Second Life virtual events? Does this meet the demands of reaching a global market or small-medium size businesses where travel is more difficult?

Update:  Please check out some related posts by other bloggers:

The Value of Tradeshows

Virtual Business Conferences

Upcoming PodCamp in Toronto

PodCamp - the New Media Community Unconference, is taking place in Toronto, Feb. 23-34, 2008. Having been to a few camp style events, I really look forward to going to this one. This is a free and open, community driven event, where anyone can present or just attend. As the website says:

"PodCamp isn't just about podcasting! If you're interested in blogging, social media, social networking, podcasting, video on the net, if you're a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about new media, then please join us -- and bring a friend or colleague."

Visit the Toronto site to register, or visit the main site  for upcoming PodCamps in other cities.  Check out the Toronto sessions. There are over 300 folks registered so far for the Toronto event! 

Super Bowl Post Game Analysis - Social Media and Online Marketing

I really haven't followed any regular season sports for a long time. I'm one of  "those people " that usually tune in during post season when something exciting is going on, and that's how I come to watch the Super Bowl most years.

I watch for another reason too -- for the advertising spots and half-time show. It is that one time of the year when you actually anticipate watching advertising. Like others, I am curious what companies will deliver knowing that it costs millions of dollars (2.7 million this year) for that 30 seconds  of airtime.

What's different this year - social media metrics?
I'm not an advertising expert, so I'm not going to break out into analysis. I was mostly interested to read up on online metrics and possibly social media. Advertising Age did have an article called "Whose SuperBowl Ads Scored Online?". It is interesting because it says that this year reports are considering social media as part of the ratings:

"One change from years past: The report card took into account brands' social-media presences, a response to the fact that social-media sites are beginning to dominate search-engine results pages. One marketer that performed well last year thanks to its paid-search presence was Salesgenie.com. This year Reprise knocked it because it didn't have any presence in the category."

For a bit more analysis on online ratings and the Reprise Media search marketing score card mentioned in the article above, visit Super Bowl 2008: The Winning Brands. Pepsi, GoDaddy, and Cars.com, were this year's winners.   

Incidentally,  Salesgenie was the only B2B  related company that advertised this year. Some people say that the ads were better than last year, while others had a more negative reaction.

Watch the commercials in one spot:
If you missed the commercials or want to see them again, you can view them at myspace broken down by quarter (they actually aired this link during the game for reviewing later). For a breakdown by company visit Advertising Age (includes title, brand, and agency information).

What is a meatball sundae?

I attended a webcast called How Do You Avoid the Meatball Sundae presented by  Seth Godin (sponsored by ClickZ Network and BuzzLogic). I try to catch  Seth Godin whenever I can, because he is such a great story teller, totally inspirational, and I always learn something new (like a tool called  Jott)!

Seth was talking about his new book Meatball Sundae.  He started off by saying that he was vegetarian so the idea of a meatball sundae is especially repulsive, but the image being repulsive to everyone was the point. The meatball represented how companies operated in the past (and still do), by creating average products for average people. He is referring to factories, mass production of products, where efficiency is king (industrial revolution). You can view the meatballs as commodities. He also mentioned how advertising such as TV commercials were used to promote and market these products. Companies made average products for average people and used TV to get their message across. In order for TV advertising to work, you had to make an average product that appealed to the masses. The topping part is new marketing (web 2.0) or the new trends in marketing.  So take a commodity, marketing dresses it up using new tactics, and what comes out the door is a meatball sundae.  Not exactly very appealing (a representation of why it doesn't work).

Seth said that there is a lot of opportunity in the new world of marketing but you can't just throw new marketing 2.0 stuff on top of an average product to be more successful. Companies that have been successful with new marketing, are inherently different companies (compared to meatball makers). Darren Barefoot took  great notes on the specific trends and examples presented in the webinar.

If meatball sundaes sound like what goes on in your company and you find that disturbing, you might want to check out the book - Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync. You can also download the related manifesto from ChangeThis. ChangeThis is a wonderful place to find a fresh  perspective on business, culture, or technology (amongst other things). They publish articles, more like presentations, called manifestos, about changing the world. They are free (no ads), you download the manifestos (beautifully presented pdfs) and then ponder..reflect, and possibly approach a problem with a new perspective. ChangeThis is a nice and neat experience, and it helps to spread good ideas. (not surprising - the original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin).

I haven't read Meatball Sundae yet, but I will eventually. I have most of Seth's other books, and I highly recommend them for when you need to get into the "think different, be different" mode,  or need inspiration to change (or ammunition to present change to the higher ups). I bet some day there will be a Seth Godin boxed set (maybe including his action figure that came out recently).

This is a classic one-liner from his  blog, that comes to my mind often:

The two reasons people say no to your idea

"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Seth calls himself an agent of change. I can personally attest to this, because it was after reading Small is the New Big, that I started writing this blog!

"It's been done before"
"It's never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

Seth calls himself an agent of change. I can personally attest to this, because it was after reading Small is the New Big, that I started writing this blog!

Sun buys MySQL AB

I wanted to mark the day (yesterday) Sun Microsystems announced the purchase of MySQL AB (also coincidently  Oracle buying BEA). The news of Sun was most exciting (a surprise for many).  You can read more about the acquisition here, or at Sun Microsystems CEO - Jonathon's blog.

I've always admired Sun and that's why you'll see me writing about them often. My enthusiasm stems from direct experience working with their servers and software, but also from their story and culture.  Since the dot com bubble burst, they have had to transition themselves, and persevere though financial hardship. But with strong leadership and commitment to innovation, they are getting back into the game. I hope this merger will benefit both parties, their customers, and perhaps continue Sun's recent upswing.

A couple of interesting podcasts on Sun's history/philosophy and also marketing perspective:
Conversations from the Corner Office
The B2B Marketing Podcast