Fresh Thinking Starts Here

Brand ManageCamp 2006 Interview - Lyn Heward discusses Cirque du Soleil's '7 Doors To Creativity'

At Brand ManageCamp 2006, Lyn Heward, former President of Creative Content for Cirque du Soleil and author of the recently published "The Spark," shared with our audience some of the secrets she's learned over the years in terms of building and managing creative organizations. In this interview, Lyn briefly describes the '7 Doors To Creativity' that she encountered during her time with, arguably, one of the most creative organizations of modern time.

Brand ManageCamp 2006 Speaker Interview - Determining Marketing ROI through Marketing Dashboards

In this interview, Brand ManageCamp 2006 speaker, Managing Partner of Marketing NPV and author of "Marketing by the Dashboard Light." Pat LaPointe, explains the concept of Marketing Dashboards as a method of communicating the full return on a full range of marketing investments. The problem to date, as Pat explains, has been that there organizations have been trying to calculate ROI in a formulaic point-in-time way as opposed to measuring the growth of their key asset values. In addition, there hasn't been a way to both capture all the complexities involved in measurement AND be able to present it to the the organization's leadership in a simple, concise, easy to understand manner. Pat's thoughts regarding the Marketing Dashboard go beyond just the mediums and activities traditionally monitored (i.e., TV, radio, print) to include a total ROI view that encompasses all spends - including new media and nontraditional.

Pat goes on to describe the concept of Customer Franchise Value - which requires a mindset change from measuring ROI at a single point in time to looking at it dynamically over the course of years. This addresses the age-old dilemma of trying to justify an spend in Year 1 that you know will actually pay dividends over a longer period of time.

To learn more about Marketing Dashboards, check out MarketingNPV.com

The Role of Consumer Observation in Design - An Interview with Brand ManageCamp 2006 Speaker Scott Williams

In our second installment of BMC2006 speaker interviews, Scott Williams, Chief Creative Officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, gives a quick synopsis of the importance of consumer observation in design and the result, which he calls Empathic Design.

In this interview, Scott outlines 4 steps to initiating consumer observation and incorporating it in your design process as well as some really simple ways to embrace consumer observation without breaking the bank. Finally, he gives us all a tip to keep us on the right side of the law!

Tom Asacker provides his big ideas

Tom Asacker was nice enough to give a quick interview after his speech at Brand ManageCamp 2006. In it he tries to distill his major ideas on branding into a couple of short minutes. Tough to do - Tom provides a plethora of terrific ideas during his session - but a great snippet for the folks who weren't able to be there (as well as a great dose of Tom for those who couldn't get enough!). Enjoy. And for more Tom, check out www.acleareye.com.