David Sable talks digital past, present and future at Inc. magazine HQ

Google and Inc. Magazine sponsored “The future of digital marketing: strategies you need to succeed,” on December 5, 2014 at the Inc. headquarters located in the World Trade Center. Inc. senior writer Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviewed David Sable about his experiences in marketing and business.

David Sable is a longtime advertising executive who sees digital as a way to enhance our lives, not supplant them.

“Digital is everything, but not everything is digital,” is Sable’s mantra. While his crystal ball on the future of marketing is admittedly “cloudy,” he is clear that digital puts an increased importance on making live experiences better.

Contrary to his titled talk, Sable didn’t come to spew strategies. You can look to his blog for specifics. Sable is the Global CEO of Young & Rubicam, an entrepreneur and investor that has been in the marketing industry since the 70s. He thinks the ad world was late to innovate with technology, but they’re trying to make up for it now – for better or for worse.

Sable has the knowledge of an advertising historian and talks about today’s digital revolution through the lens of an ad exec that has seen it all. He debunked digital hype and reminded the audience that it is not all about what’s on our phones, even though it seems like it is.

2014 was the year of “people beginning to understand that we live in the real world,” he said. Sable believes the biggest mistake is in thinking the experience should be on the phone. Instead it should be about creating an easy way to take that experience offline.

“Analysts 10 to 15 years ago said retail was going to die,” Sable said, quipping that analysts are always wrong. “They said there’d be no more restaurants or movies. We’d do nothing that required us to leave our home.”

This year’s most highly valued digital startups are not loved, downloaded and discussed just for their digital interface, but more for their concept, which encourages us to act contrary to analysts’ predictions.

Sable used startup glasses company Warby Parker as an example of a company that truly combines real and digital. They started solely online. Their business model involves sending users five pairs of glasses to customers to try on, an idea that came from customers’ requests to see and try on the product.

“They thought, ‘Wow look at the experience they have when they try glasses on with friends around,” Sable said. That’s not new, he said. Humans have an innate desire for in-person, tactile and social experiences.

Sable said he predicted Warby Parker would open stores because they would face inventory shortages. Sure enough, they opened their retail space in 2013 and have opened more this year, for that reason. These physical stores also help with marketing, reinforcing the brand and adding to the overall experience.

Even though we’re in the year of the face to face, Sable said it doesn’t mean that digital marketing is a bad thing.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It means we need to think about marketing in a bigger sense. How does digital impact what they do?”

Companies have come to Sable with misguided interpretations of what an Internet presence does. He’s heard from Fortune 500 companies, “We’re on YouTube,” “We need to get on Facebook,” or, better yet, “Make me a viral.”

Being on social media because it’s newish does not a company innovative, he said. It isn’t just about getting on social, but how you make an impact there.

Read the rest on Office Lease Center’s blog: http://bit.ly/1zDEgw5.

9 things I’m thankful for this month: tech, reading and family

As November comes to a close, here is a wrap-up of good things I discovered this month and told all my friends and family about, especially during Thanksgiving weekend. They’ve heard enough, so now I’m sharing it here. 🙂 

1.The little keyboard I bought for my ipad turned it into a netbook for under $40 – if we don’t factor in the money I spent on the iPad mini a couple of years ago. My accountant friend told me it’s a “sunk cost,” so I’m correct in saying this was a great deal. Not to hype it up too much or anything, but I do think I’m onto a new trend of switching out bulky laptops for lighter tablet/keyboard combos. At least when traveling, anyway.

My ipad looks like a netbook with it’s keyboard case

2. I created a Contently profile a couple of weeks ago (https://daniellebrody.contently.com/). It presents all my clips visually, plus it tabulated all these numbers of shares each article got which I didn’t even know happened. Not only did it make me feel more popular, but their Freelancer articles make me feel less alone. Like in one, someone mentioned how they write stories at home in their PJs. Not that I do that or anything…

3. Evernote. This goes along with my iPad happiness. I type my notes on Evernote and start writing my blog post right there on the train. At home I go on to my laptop, sign on to Evernote, and I pick up where I left off. Thank you cloud.

4. Wearables! Ok, I don’t actually own any techie wearables yet, but I keep reading about them, hearing talk about them and have seen plenty of startups getting in on the space. There’s just so much potential! Especially for health and prevention.

Of course I see potential for getting obsessed with tracking our body data, but we all learn our boundaries with new technology. (RIP crackberries) And information breaches. The fact that technology keeps getting closer and closer to our bodies does make me a little wary. Once we all start wearing these watches, the only barrier is our skin, which leads me to believe in 50 years we’ll actually be comfortable putting tech into our bodies.

(Cicret may be the first real transition to that, have you seen it?! http://www.cicret.com/wordpress/)

I think I’ll be ready to purchase a wearable in a few months. I’m less of an early adopter and more of a researcher (like I’ve looked at this: http://readwrite.com/2014/11/27/wearable-smartwatch-holiday-gift-guide-2014) when it comes to buying new technology.

Any recommendations on great wearables?

5. IBM Watson. I went to two events in the past few weeks where Watson, known to many as IBM’s Jeopardy king, has come up with recipes that I got to eat. I bet you didn’t know Watson creates recipes based on the science of what combinations taste good. Being that he’s an information-packed computer, it’s not a surprise. At Uncubed on Nov. 14, IBM served Watson-created trail mix and truffle oil rosemary infused popcorn. Watson is all brains though, meaning he doesn’t actually cook. So I kind of want my own Watson, but I think I could survive with a low-tech version (below), or the Internet until he goes mainstream.

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/foodie-dice

 

6. Finding the book What Should I Do With My Life. This book stood out to me at a library book sale because I’m ruminating over that question. I know what you’re thinking – recent grad book bait. That may be true of the book I Just Graduated…Now What, which, side note, I started reading and was disappointed. How can I relate to Katherine Schwarzenegger, who nonchalantly writes about interning at CNN, co-hosting with Anderson Cooper and her mom giving the commencement speech?! Anyway…the book I’m reading now is for the commoner and written by one too. I happen to be about 12 years late on this best-seller since it was published in 2002. I’m glad it has a second life with me. I don’t quite have an answer to the question yet, but I’m loving reading about other people’s stories of how they found their calling.

7. If you haven’t heard about it by now, Serial, is awesome. It’s a podcast that digs deep into one 1999 murder case. Listening to a story, not watching, strips away distractions and allows me to focus on the narration and hear nuances in all of the characters’ voices, which is how real detectives investigate a crime. The medium of the story is kind of raw, but has also been well-produced, making it totally captivating.

8. Thanksgiving! I had a wonderful day cooking with my family and then eating, of course. I had to include a few pictures.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

9. In the same vein, I’m thankful for friends, family and followers! When I was in high school, I started the school’s first blog, Edgeonline. This was 2009. Blogging had been a bit taboo and it was extremely difficult to get people on board. A lot has changed in the past five years. Now having a blog is normal, but still, the support means a lot.

If you’re into any of these things or want to talk about them more, reach out or leave a comment! I love to chat.

 

Video Startups Present at NY Video

Four video startups presented at NY Video hosted by Steven Rosenbaum of Waywire at the AOL office on November 21, 2014.

Videum uses videos and translation technology to make health and medical information universal. Videum has about 5,000 educational videos that are translated by humans and Google or Bing into 72 languages reaching 87 countries.

“There’s quite an appetite out there for health content,” said President and CEO Paul Dinsmore. “Health care content is bigger than celebrity news.”

The company plans to make revenue through a B2B and B2C and syndicate with advertising.

With Magisto users can do something with the videos and photos sitting on their phones, a phenomenon the VP Marketing Communications calls a “national crisis.” The app uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to automatically select the best moments of footage to make a video with customized styles and music in a few minutes.

“We are passionate about the idea that people can be storytellers,” said Paula Batson, VP Marketing Communications. “You can take that data and turn it into movies that have emotion and can touch people you want to share with.”

More than 5,000 videos have been made with the app and shared on social media and through email. Magisto is working with brands to enable them to portray their message through users’ stories and also have a freemium model for the consumer.

Thrive uses video to eliminate the need to open 10 tabs to research one activity. The Thrive team creates premium movie content about four themes – travel, music, culture and fashion. One video features Breakneck, a hike in Cold Spring, NY, showing how to get there, what’s it’s like when you’re there and what other people have to say about it.

Their revenue model is to work with sponsors to support a certain amount of videos and eventually have e-commerce, like selling activities. They plan to launch the site in early February.

Videolicious makes it simple to create professional videos in minutes. Many clients are TV stations, newspapers and branding firms. With the app, users can create packages quickly by adding b-roll and sounds bites from videos they have already taken. Co-founder/CEO Matt Singer said Videolicious does not replace premium video, it creates more types of quality video in the middle of the spectrum.