somersault

According to Fast Company (@fastcompany), Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Nissan, Groupon, Google, Dawning Information Industry, Netflix, Zynga, and Epocrates comprise the top 10 companies that can be singled out for their mastery of creative contribution to their consumers.

An artificial heart and its lightweight power drive. A better airline for Brazil. Chocolate from Madagascar and a soccer shirt made of plastic water bottles. A fashion leader escaping its pattern, a smelter, and that little coupon startup in Chicago that's suddenly worth billions. All this from one simple word: innovation.

The 50 companies on our 2011 list have chosen a unique path. Today's business landscape is littered with heritage companies whose CEOs battle their industry's broken model with inertia, layoffs, lawsuits -- anything that squeezes pennies and delays the inevitable. How many of these companies will be dominant in 2025? Few.

That world will be ruled by the kinds of companies on this list. They're nondogmatic, willing to scrap conventional ideas. (A mere 30-second TV ad? Let's do 200 online videos in two days, say the creatives at Wieden+Kennedy.) They're willing to fail. (Google's search team runs up to 200 experiments at any one time.) They know what they stand for. (By making home-viewing as easy as possible, Netflix walloped Blockbuster, which thought its business had something to do with stores.)

Read the article in full.

What do these brands know that others (yours?) don’t? What lessons can we learn from them to adapt to innovating in the fast-changing world of publishing?

The matrix barcode known as QR (Quick Response) code that’s scanned by QR readers in smartphones to take users to websites for more information may be on its way out. Bizmology reports the change could be coming because Google has decided to support another technology.

Until recently, Google widely supported QR codes, using them in its Google Places service to allow people to use their smartphones to find business addresses, URLs, hours of operations, and more. Businesses listed on Places would often put Google-supplied decals printed with QR codes in their windows for customers to scan. Google quietly stopped using the code last month, however, in favor of a new and dynamic technology known as Near Field Communication (NFC). If the technology takes off as Google predicts, NFC may quickly supplant QR codes as advertisement vehicles and send them to the technology graveyard just as fast as they hit US shores.

So what exactly is NFC? It’s is a new type of chip that can be embedded in 2-D items like posters or cards. Similar to QR codes, NFC chips can contain product information and other data. The chips can take the form of tags, stickers, or cards. A person with a NFC-enabled smartphone could wave their phone near a poster with a NFC tag to upload the information embedded in the tag.

Read this in full.

This is an interesting development, especially in light of the recent research that US consumers like QR codes.

What will this mean for publishers who have begun using QR codes in marketing material as well as individual products?

Grand Rapids, MI (Apr. 1, 2011) – International publishing strategy and services agency Somersault Group™ (http://somersaultgroup.com) (@smrsault) announces it has purchased the naming rights to the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) (http://www.christianretailshow.com) (@ICRShow), being held this year July 10-13 in Atlanta, GA.

The 5-year deal marks the first change in name for the 61-year-old conference since it became ICRS in 2005. Beginning this year it will be called Somersault International Christian Retail Show (SICRS).

“There’s no truth to the rumor that the pronunciation of the acronym is ‘sickers,’” says Jonathan Petersen, Somersault word-of-mouth evangelist. “It’s pronounced ‘sycrus,’ which is ancient Greek for ‘to buy.’”

In keeping with previous CBA initiatives, such as More from the Core and “What Goes Into the Mind Comes Out in a Life”™, the convention name change is intended to inject energy and focus into the Christian retail sector.

“SICRS is the opportunity for Christian retailers from around the world to join together and learn from each other,” says Nautida Konventsiooni, chair of the annual convention. She says it’s also a time when retailers can button-hole publishers about the crazy decisions they’ve made in the previous year.

“I’m pumped about the new SICRS name,” says Artificielle Nom, owner of the 50,000 square foot Nom de Plume independent Christian store in Dighton, NM. “It’s going to rejuvenate the entire industry!”

Included in the name change deal is the agreement to locate all Christian “schtick” products to a far corner of the exhibit hall and make certain to direct all media reporters covering the convention away from that area.

About Somersault

Somersault Group™ (Somersault™) is a partner-managed LLC with offices in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. The company’s purpose is to enable publishers, agents, ministries, organizations, and Christian authors to quickly leverage rapid changes in communication technology, emphasize excellence in branding and marketing communication for an author’s business development, and extend the highest editorial standards to achieve the goal of helping people experience God’s kingdom. Somersault’s mission statement: to change lives by connecting inspirational content creators with readers using exceptional creativity, right-now technology, and old-fashioned personal care. To that end, Somersault has created SomersaultNOW, the online dashboard to keep publishing and marketing professionals informed. For more information about Somersault, visit somersaultgroup.com.

Ken Featherstone of OgilvyAction Global (@ogilvyaction) says times have changed and brand managers should no longer consider men to be a marketing afterthought:

A recent Yahoo! study finds that about six in 10 fathers consider themselves to be the primary household decision-maker in packaged goods, health, pet and clothing purchases. It doesn’t stop at the household trip: Men are spending more time on their own personal needs. Eighty-four percent of men said they purchased their own clothes (up from 65% in 2001), as reported by BusinessWeek.

Nearly one in three principal household shoppers are men, up from 14% two decades ago, according to Neilsen. Statistics from Black Friday, Back-to-School, and Winter Holidays consistently show men spending more than women on big-ticket items.

Read the article in full.

How should this influence book cover design and in-store merchandising kits?

Baptist Press (@baptistpress) reports on the surge among Christians to use mobile applications in accessing the Bible, especially in a mobile context.

There are Christian apps on every smartphone platform, but among the two most popular platforms -- Android and iPhone's iOS -- there are literally hundreds of Bible and Christian-themed apps, helping believers with everything from Scripture memorization to lesson preparation to Bible study to witnessing....

The most popular Christian app, by far, is the YouVersion Bible app (@YouVersion), developed by the multiple-site-campus church known as LifeChurch.tv.

Read this article in full. Also see “Christian Apps of the Month.”

Ministries and churches are creating their own apps to further their messages. For example, see the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (@BGEA) mobile site and its “Steps2Peace” app.

Let Somersault create a strategic app for your brand. Be sure to use daily our SomersaultNOW dashboard to remain current with the latest developments in social media marketing and digital publishing. And as long as we’re talking about mobility, be sure to regularly use Somersault’s mobile site for links to other mobile-friendly sites.

Trendwatching.com (@trendwatching) has identified 11 key consumer trends that will have a global impact on marketers this year:

1. Random acts of kindness: From brands randomly picking up a consumer’s tab to sending a surprise gift.
2. Urbanization: Urban consumers tend to be more daring, more liberal, more tolerant, more experienced, more prone to trying out new products and services.
3. Pricing Pandemonium: Brands should target consumers with offers and features such as instant mobile coupons and discounts, online group discounts, flash sales, and dynamic pricing based on real-time supply and demand.
4. Made for China/Emerging Economies: Growth in consumer spending in emerging markets far outpaces consumer spending in developed markets, and Western brands are favored more than local brands in emerging markets.
5. Online Status Symbols: Brands should supply consumers with any kind of symbol, virtual or ‘real world,’ that helps them display to peers their online contributions, interestingness, creations, or popularity.
6. ‘Wellthy:’ Consumers are expecting health products and services to prevent misery if not improve their quality of life, rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments.
7. ‘Twin-sumers’ and ‘Social-lites:’ Key to WOM recommendations. Twin-sumers are consumers with similar consumer patterns, likes and dislikes. Social-lites are consumers who consistently broadcast information to a wide range of associates online.
8. Emerging Generosity: Brands and wealthy individuals from emerging markets (especially China) who will increasingly be expected to give, donate, care and sympathize, as opposed to just sell and take.
9. Planned Spontaneity: Fragmented lifestyles, dense urban environments with multiple options, and cell/smartphones have created a generation who have little experience in making (or sticking to) rigid plans.
10. Eco-Superior: Products that are not only eco-friendly, but superior to polluting incumbents in every possible way.
11. Owner-less: For many consumers, access is better than ownership.

Read these observations in full.

Leave your comments below as to which one resonates with your brand and how you will take advantage of it.

• The most retweeted tweets occur between 2-5pm Eastern Time, Thursday & Friday.
• Twitter links click-through-rate (CTR) dips on Mondays & Thursdays; all other days are strong.
• Twitter CTRs are strongest 10am & 5pm ET.
• Twitter CTRs don’t decline at night.
• Don’t be afraid to tweet more for maximum effectiveness.
• Post updates to Facebook pages every-other day.
• Weekends are best for Facebook sharing of links for both B2C & B2B.
• Articles published in the morning are shared on Facebook slightly more often than those published in the afternoon.
• Most people check their email in morning (but percentages are still very high into the evening and night).
• Email open rates tend to be higher on weekends and early in the mornings.
• Emails get more attention on weekends.
• Emailing frequently doesn’t diminish CTRs as long as the content is valuable and relevant to the subscriber.
• Frequent emailing of quality content does not increase unsub rates.
• The newest subscribers to your email list are your best.
• Most people read blogs in the morning and afternoon. More men read blogs in the evening and night than women.
• Monday is the day for heavy blog reading; Tuesday dips; Wednesday through Friday are equal; dipping again on the weekend.
• Blog posts at 10-11am ET tend to get more views.
• Blog comments spike on weekends.
• Blog early in the morning to get more links by the linkeratti.
• Blog more frequently; even multiple times per day.

See the SlideShare slides.

See the recorded webinar.

On his blog Innovation in Mission, Jon Hirst (@generousmind), draws lessons for marketers from the missing snake story at the Bronx Zoo. An Egyptian Cobra escaped from the New York zoo on Monday and “someone, realizing the opportunity for humor and attention, set up a Twitter account called @bronxzooscobra,” which now has more than 124,000 followers enjoying such tweets as “Getting my morning coffee at the Mudtruck. Don't even talk to me until I've had my morning coffee. Seriously, don't. I'm venomous.” And “On top of the Empire State Building! All the people look like little mice down there. Delicious little mice.”

Jon suggests the following components comprise effective communication principles marketers should use in their campaigns to engage people:

1. A Real Event
2. Authenticity
3. Quality Content

Read this in full.

What other principles can we learn from the snake tweet’s follower success?

Jon Hirst (@generousmind), account manager at Novo Ink (@novoink), identifies the problem of non-working Web URLs linked to by authors in their ebooks. He says, “With the instability of links on the Web, I am finding that many of the links that authors share in their books do not work even a short time after their book is published.” Among the solutions he suggests:

1. The first and most obvious is to discipline yourself to use references and citations from major organizations or Web sites that will be more stable than “Joe’s Favorite Founding Fathers Quotes.” You know that if you use Wikipedia, The New York Times, American Heart Association, etc. you will be more likely to present a valid resource to your readers.
2. When dealing with links to connect with the author, the publisher should encourage the author to centralize all such links to the URL they are most likely to keep over time. Many times this ends up being the author’s name or the name of their organization. Book websites seem like a good idea when the book launches, but after five years many of them are gone and that contact is lost.

Read other solutions he offers.

Provide your suggestions in the comments below.

The company that brought us everything-but-the-kitchen-sink pocket knives has come up with a campaign to “promote the core values that have contributed to our 127 years of success and fame.” Called Time to Care, it’s Victorinox's (@Victorinox) yearlong initiative celebrating “The Spirit of Innovation and Sustainability.”

Running from late March through the end of September 2011, the Time to Care project showcases the innovative Victorinox Swiss Army Alliance line of watches and chronographs. It consists of two initiatives: a traveling photography exhibition celebrating sustainable design and an international sustainable design competition. The events seek to promote and generate innovative and design solutions.

What ways can you think of to promote your brand’s commitment to innovation?