(Image credit: Andrey Bayda / Shutterstock.com)

This year at Cannes, Will Smith explained his perspective on marketing in Hollywood. He talked about the death of old-school marketing and the rise a new technology based marketing. A lot of which can be applied to everyday business. So if you’re still deciding what type of marketing is for your business, perhaps this Hollywood example will help you decide.

Standing desks are becoming the new in-thing in the workplace due to recent medical studies saying sitting down all day is a health hazard. Obesity, diabetes and chronic back pain are just some of the health problems that are being linked to sitting down at your desk for long periods of time.

DID YOU KNOW A SINGLE SPELLING MISTAKE COULD COST YOUR COMPANY HALF ITS POTENTIAL SALES?

Entrepreneur Charles Duncombe says that misspellings are high on the list of things that cause consumers to question your credibility.

The recently rebranded Airbnb logo is yet another classic example of how a well-intended logo design can encourage all the wrong innuendos if meticulous thought and planning are not implemented.

The new logo is meant to serve as a universal symbol of belonging. According to Airbnb, the logo represents people, places, love, and the American dream of “coming together” and “belonging anywhere”. But social media users have labelled the logo as obscene, saying it is representative of various body parts.

When you think of the world’s biggest brands, Coca-Cola is amongst at the top. Not only is it one of the largest, longest standing and most popular brands of all time but one with a track record of extremely successful marketing campaigns. Coke is one of the most loved and most popular drink choices, whose only major rival is Pepsi. And in an effort to remain the industry leader, Coke made arguably one of their most memorable marketing mistakes.

It’s inevitable that you’ll get to a stage with your trusty computer where it starts making funny noises, freezes every other hour, or simply just slows down to the point of agony. But, before it’s time to upgrade to the next model it’s important that you safely erase any sensitive data that you may have on your current hard drive.
Some people just go ahead and smash their hard drive, thinking that will do the trick. Surprisingly, smashing things is not always the answer. Hitting your hard drive with a hammer will probably do some damage, but not necessarily enough to wipe it clean of your data.

Company culture may often be perceived as a non-essential by-product of good management and organisational structure, but when we investigate culture a little closer, we can very quickly see that companies who lack a strong and motivated culture struggle harder and are negatively affected by the deficit. Culture creates the foundation for strategy and will either be a company’s greatest asset or largest liability. While culture has many aspects and manifestations, at its core there should be a clear sense of purpose and shared values that guide decision making across the company.

Unilever brand, Dove, is promoting a new line of deodorant that offers Advanced Care for a usually neglected body part – the armpit. The advert has caused quite a stir by referring to the state of New Jersey as the ‘armpit of America’. The appointed ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather, said this was a very deliberate decision during the planning phase. They also said that people view ‘armpit’ as a dirty word, and that they wanted to change this popular conception. “Dear New Jersey,” says the billboard, which features a woman wearing a white tank top and raising an arm to display her underarm. “When people call you ‘the Armpit of America,’ take it as a compliment. Sincerely, Dove.”

Manfred de Vries is the Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD in France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. His most recent book is The Hedgehog Effect: The Secrets of Building High Performance Teams (Wiley, 2011).

The world’s most experienced business analysts have explored the primary reasons why some small companies never achieve their goal of success. These guidelines will assist you in ensuring that your company is destined for success and that it remains on that path.

Milton Glaser is a world-renowned graphic designer best known for designing the I ♥ NY logo. Other popular designs include a Bob Dylan poster, 50 Years of Vespa, and the Brooklyn Brewery logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.

What do the world’s most successful entrepreneurs all have in common?
QUITE SIMPLY: PERSEVERANCE.
They were all able to dig in their heels and persevere when many others gave up. As Jeff Haden so aptly explains “Many entrepreneurs that are successful today are the product of bootstrapping and sacrificing and scraping and clawing and fighting and never, ever giving up, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Their early struggles forge resolve. Their early struggles forge perseverance. And their early struggles continue to inform even the most successful entrepreneurs’ professional and personal lives, providing an almost inexhaustible foundation of willpower and confidence and perseverance”.

We investigate some of the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs of the 21st Century. Some names you may have already heard of, some not. If you’re not already following these top entrepreneurs, get online and link to all of their social media platforms. Why? Because they’ve clearly figured out the secrets to what makes entrepreneurs successful.

A fair bit, actually.

This recent post from Wistia shows what can really be done when you combine an excellent video delivery platform with some clever thinking. The Mexican Cooking Network combines video recipes with product placement and an online shopping / cart system to remove every impediment to the viewer ordering everything they see on screen.

(Image credit: Denys Prykhodov / Shutterstock.com)

Ok, I will admit it, I love my iphone and can’t see myself switching anytime soon. It works and I like how it looks. Although I have never been excited, or have really given much thought to the latest software update, until now. Looking at the changes for the new ios7, I kind of want it now.

Proving just how powerful the web and social media are, promotion for French duo, Daft Punk’s recently released album was left in the hands of their fans.

What began in February with an album cover image revealed on Daft Punk’s website and Facebook page, hype continued over the next few months till finally the album was released mid-May. Fans worldwide spent the three months on a wild goose chase, being drip feed snippets of music, images and details in a matter of twists and turns.

So when I first saw comparethemarket.com.au‘s first (boring, straightforward) Australian TV ad, I was more than a little deflated. How could they not roll with the awesome, incredibly engaging “meerkat” campaign that has proved such a huge TV and online marketing success in the UK. It’s had a phenomenal 8,000,000 YouTube views, and over 7,000 subscribers. Yes, 8 million voluntary visits to an ad campaign! …for INSURANCE!

(Image credit: MOSO IMAGE / Shutterstock.com)

It’s the 2013 Superbowl, and companies are shelling out $4m per 30 seconds for a single ad. Yet with a single Tweet, Oreo managed to capture everyone’s attention. with this simple image post. Retweeted 15,000 times, and Liked on Facebook 30,000 times (and thus creating a reach easily in the millions, the story of Oreo’s blackout ad is a great one to learn a lesson from. You don’t need a ton of money, just know-how and creativity.

(Image Credit: Prometheus72 / Shutterstock.com) When he’s not developing a great new venture from a hammock or somewhere equally casual, Richard Branson’s a regular contributor to Entrpreneur.

In a recent article, he’s laid out some great insights on how to be successful in business. Covering everything from customer service to leadership to branding to selecting investors, it’s actually interesting and quite telling in terms of how many of the points Branson makes are tied to the idea of positioning and competitive differentiation. In fact it’s one of the cornerstones of his business, and documented in his autobiography “Losing My Virginity” (which is a great read – highly recommended to any business owner).

(Image credit: d8nn / Shutterstock.com) With the cost of shooting video having plummeted in recent years and the uptake of YouTube viewership, it’s a no-brainer that Google, the owners of YouTube, have started to roll out video advertising.

(Image credit: Nils Versemann / Shutterstock.com) Looks like someone’s confiscated the digital scales from Coles and replaced them with ones you’d expect at the farmer’s market.

Of course, this isn’t a case of Coles looking to cut their technology costs – it’s all about driving home the message of “old fashioned fresh food”. They also ditched the top-heavy look of the fresh food section, kept the lighting very clearly white-hued, and limited the “ye olde world” timber look to the furniture – just enough for it to vibe “authentic”.

(Image credit: OlegDoroshin / Shutterstock.com) One of my favourite companies is Ikea, and not just because my house sometimes seems like it’s filled with the stuff. (I’ve lost count of the number of Expedit bookcases we have.) Bottom line is, Ikea know their target market, and not only excel in offering what their market wants – they anticipate pretty much every problem you’re going to have with them, and turn them into strengths. In fact, this is something many retailers need to take some direction from.

In an excruciatingly clear sign that online-integrated marketing has overtaken traditional advertising means, Proctor and Gamble, who have an annual advertising budget of… wait for it… $10 Billion, are cutting 1,600 staff to move towards online media.

The emails you compose are often an overlooked channel for creating new connections. By including links to your social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ as small logos in your email signature, you will harvest new subscribers to your online content. The benefits of doing so, of course are many, so why delay making this simple tweak to your email setup?

This is a great video that explains in a nutshell why success in business often comes down to effective marketing. When so many businesses are essentially offering the same thing, how can you get people’s attention? Why would they choose you to do business with? It’s all about competitive differentiation, and integrating it into the very core of everything that you do is imperative.

Panda has arrived. That’s the name of Google’s heavy-duty change in the way that it ranks sites, and the implications for every business with a website are huge. The Ronin team keep tabs on all the latest goings-on in the marketing world, and this is a biggie that’s WAY TOO BIG to cover in even a 10 minute video presentation, but this one comes close.