Fuze invades the Influx Ideas Conference 2007

Here in San Francisco, Butler Shine Stern & Partners (BSSP) and their Influx Consulting arm put on another first class event - typical of everything they do. This year, the conference has a new name, Influx Ideas (formally Msquared) but one thing that's the same is the cast and caliber of speakers they brought together. This conference is always energizing to me. I really enjoy hearing from people out on the leading edge of marketing/branding/advertising success. Here are the speakers we heard from and my cliff-notes on what wisdom they dispensed...

Jonah Bloom - AdAge
a humorous & excellent talk regarding state of the game & the agency of the future.

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Christian Simm - Swissnex
Interesting discussion about branding a country, namely switzerland.

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Sarah Rich - DWELL Magazine
Green presentation. Consumer climate changes. Green will never be more SEXY than it is in 2007. Interesting presentation from an environmental perspective. Focus on the backstory...understanding where stuff comes from lends credibility to true green behavior. Interesting site was introduced "BadBuster" that constantly anayzes brand behavior in the global environmental space. Overall sarah had a very fact filled presentation which she 'read' - some of which hit home...however...much like other similar presentations on environmental issues, she is a little condescending towards mainstream brands/companies but she has good points and seems like a very informed and sincere person. I guess I am still waiting on someone to present this topic in anything other than an "I'm better-than-you" fashion...someone dynamic and interesting...possibly someone who can speak from experience from reinventing a green strategy at a big oil company, food company, etc. Otherwise mainstream GP will never embrace the movement and green will remain an evangelist effort of the creative class and socially motivated. Time will tell. Issues are real and can't be ignored.

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Scott Wyatt - NBBJ Architects
Branding buildings as a concept is very interesting. Building as an icon or symbol has incredible impact. Think of the Space Needle, Transamerica building, the Chrysler Building (which I have 100's of photos of) - all of which carry the spirit and persona of the companies & cities they represent. He pointed out the CCTV tower in Bejing and the olympic stadium are decadent and wasteful because their steel is 80% decorative & 20% structural. Overall, the discussion around space design, urban design, and your brand (and thus) advertising are all intertwined. Their global projects are some of the most impressive on the planet.

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Gregory Kennedy - Millions of Us
discussed the no-longer phenom SecondLife who's press approval has taken the track of Britney Spears. Since nobody wants to talk about secondlife, why is it still a topic? His take is that its not dead. Their recent projects for scion include whatisscioncity.com. His other clients include WB, Comcast, HBO, Microsoft, and others...which gives some credibility but I still don't see the fascination with the virtual world. He mentions that there are currently over 100 million people actively using virtual worlds globally. These include SecondLife (10mil)m habbo (7.5mil), zwinky, Gaia, etc. He says, immersive experiences and SL concepts appeal to younger folks because they don't have the ability to attain their material, social, etc goals because of their geo, financial, etc, limitations. Seems to me that with a highly skewed younger crowd in these UGC spaces that there really isn't value to a brand that targets a more mature person. I guess I'm just not cool enough to 'get it'.

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Kent Nichols & Chas Edwards - askaninja.com
Federated Media is a great example of the next generation of Publishing companies with their extense network of well-visited blogs. Their stance remains steadfast - your advertising is an ongoing conversation vs. A flighted "call to action". I couldn't agree more. I see this as so viable in branding and advertising. FM does this better than just about anyone. They believe advertising should drive people to content, where they share the experience, and spread the word. The search engines pick up on all this content and it creates a network of real content...displaying the conversation as search results. This may sound like a bowl of spaghetti, but in reality, this is a next level Landing page concept that is much more powerful than the traditional ones we do all the time...because it is all conversation/content driven.

Ask a ninja - ask + askaninja * mass advertising / social networks = a new advertising platform. the viral video is an edgie butter knife, sharp but safe. Great branding opportunities for advertising and humor - hyperengages vistors and stays true to the format.

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5x5 - 5, 5-minute presentations from participants.

Here are some of their topics (at least what i THINK they were talking about).
#1 TapProject - by far the best topic and cause.  [learn more about tap project]
#2 Convenience as innovation.
#3 poop
#4 Teenagers scare the shit out of me - presented by Casey Ingle of Campbell Ewald in Detroit - If i were to have a beer with someone after the conference, it would probably be Casey because he seemed like a good guy. His topic was designed to shine on various generation gaps. His talk would have been interesting if remotely rehearsed.  My feeling was that he wasn't prepared...and probably a little too irreverent for the setting (language was fine for a sports bar, but not the best for this sorta crowd - aside: I think i was introduced to about 10 new dirty words).  But, that said, he covered his presentation issues with some good ad-lib and humor. Hung in to keep relevant with the youth theme and raised some decent points and opinions. 
#5 ??? not sure...i was in the bathroom

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Becky Saegar - CMO Charles schwab
interesting discussion that reinforces that it's not about your products/services, its about how people associate your brand against other options and how working with you makes them feel. One question to ask your clients: would refer us to your friends, colleagues, family? responsibility of chief executives: need to stay connected to the world outside your company from your consumers perspectives.

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Some interesting 'other' things happening here at the conference:
» presentations captured digitally and published in real-time...more than just blogging.
» all materials produced on recycled paper products...very organic and cool.

Overall i was very satisfied with this conference much like all BSSP Events.  Everything first class...just like we like it.

WBV

(another Treo post | sorry for the typos [and grammar])

Comments

[casey ingle says...]

yo -- just to defend myself a bit, i was told the presentation would run from a mac, so all the images, etc ran on a mac. i had some cool info but not having the visuals really got messy. i swear a lot, it's just me. email me when you are ever in detroit, beers on me. first name dot last name @ gmail dot com. glad you were at least entertained. sorta.

[Bryan Landaburu says...]

No problemo casey - i was probably a little harsh in my words there. You did a good job covering the AV woes that have plagued us all. Thanks for visiting my blog...I'll look u up for sure if I'm headed to the D-town.

Any other shows on your horizon? OMS, SES, ??

Best.

Bryan