erratic

Hey! Old school stuffy shirt monolithic corp types! Breaking news! Tech is cheap. Content is easy. In most cases you already have the goods flowing down other distribution channels. It's not expensive to find the means and motivation to mashup what you already have in the pipe for new avenues of delivery. The time when there was a clear differentiation between delivery mediums is gone. Cell phones do video and your refrigerator can play mp3s. You can put wireless webcams on your dog and watch over the internet all day to see what they see (and make sure they aren't digging under the fence). We live in a world without wires. 3 inch screens play mega-million dollar movies. 2 kids with a camera and a spare 3 hours a week can go from hare-brained scheme to worldwide sensation in 24 hours - or less. Yeah, yeah - you worry about brand integrity, public perception, image management. After all it is the name that justifies the hard earned profit margins. In step the small and nimble media specialists. 1-3 person teams of multidiscipline creator/producers who work fast and deliver top production values without the 10k a day charge. They capture, compose and convert for transmission across the spectrum of consumption channels. Nothing new about this concept. History provides ample evidence of small teams doing huge things. Bloat is bad. Consensus kills. Meetings suck. Most important: All three cost more than they are worth in the long run. Another thing: If you set out with the intent of being seen as innovative, you suck. Innovation sells itself. The motive should be to do those things that people pay you money for better. If it's good for them, it's good for you. So making a podcast so you can say you have a podcast like the cool kids = bad; Opening new channels of communication with your market to give them more of what makes you valuable to them = good. Original content doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't need to be all that original in fact. Use what you have along with a little refinement and focus. Lastly, if your business isn't making cool things for the web, get a guy like me to do the heavy lifting for less than a grip truck a day. *Something to think about* A corporate annual report can cost upward of $80,000.00 just for the art direction and design. You still have to pay for writers, printing, mailing etc. How many of these are read? Who carries these bound volumes with them as they travel? Who besides VP egos gain lasting value from these things? How about bookmark capable, taggable, searchable PDFs with web links to AUDIO or VIDEO of the important people in the organization delivering the message intended by these documents. The hot shot analyst or tech savvy investor will open your PDF on the plane while listening to the audio of the CEO explaining the details of the companies growth strategies. They then tag and bookmark the parts that matter to them. Landfill turns into a frictionless, accessible resource. Here's the sweet part: This would cost a fraction of a boring printed booklet, provide boatloads more value, and would take 50% less time to produce. How you like them apples?