We all like stories of ingenuity, and this one is a good example of the idea of being human, in the moment, and ready to see opportunities to connect. It also takes coldcalling to a whole new, artistic level.
If you get caught embellishing the facts, you can always claim you're taking an artistic license to impact retention -- and give the world an example of good writing.
Does your product give customers a brand identity they can authentically relate to and rally around? Are you consistent across product lines and service touch points?
Coldcalling Deadmau5 on Twitter, Never Mind the Facts, and Lessons in Brand Strategy from Games
The three stories that caught my eye this week are:
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The video in this story is not safe for work. It is a spontaneous portrait of what "nailing it" means for an artist, and a good example of the power of being int he moment to find opportunities. Pandodaily reports how coldcalling Deadmau5 on Twitter earned one artist his big break:
This past weekend, the hugely-popular electronica artist deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”, not “dead-mow-5″) started working on a new track called “The Veldt”, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s 1950s short story of the same name.
Rather than locking himself away from the world for days to return with a new track in hand, however, deadmau5 introduced a bit of a twist to his workflow: he’d stream it all live.
Producer Chris James was ready to take the mention of vocals as a challenge and do something about it. The video shows deadmau5 pulling together his manager and Chris on speakerphone to work out the details.
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At The Guardian, Michael Wolff says never mind the facts, focus on the writing while speaking about Mike Daisey and the recent controversy surrounding This American Life and the work of Daisey:
It is Daisey's telling of the Foxconn story that helped turn the practices there into an international business issue and that, happily, has started to produce reform. No one is arguing that Foxconn got a raw deal. Daisey gets into trouble because the makers of This American Life, were too dense or self-righteous – too literal – to quite understand the difference between what they do and what Daisey does. Daisey himself, for the sake of his own story, or even for the sake of reform, or because he was too remote from the catechismal differences between one kind of truth and another, did not make the distinction himself. (Daisey is further hung because he lacked the spin skills that journalists expect people to have when they need to publicly defend themselves).
Nothing like a controversy on the reporting of a weighty issue to get media attention.
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Brett Lovelady and his team, the brains behind gaming best brand, share 6 lessons in brand stategy. Astro wanted to be to video gaming what Nike is to basketball.
When you own the company, you have to stay with those products, you make improvements, get customer feedback, and have a dialogue with the industry. That affects the next product you design. You wake up every day totally focused on keeping the customer happy as opposed to keeping your client happy.
Among the most notable of the six other strategies are: Apply business models from other disciplines, design around use, not around technology, and find the new price model in the business gap.
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There you have it -- a rags to riches, a just the facts, and gaming the products for this Saturday edition.