Jonathan Brun

Online Only Marketing Company

I think there is a real business opportunity for building a new type or marketing company. One with much lower costs and a different corporate structure/culture. It would be a marketing company tailored to SME’s who cannot afford the big agencies and who do not fully understand the power of the internet. Essentially, “participative marketing” for old school companies, but not just guerrilla marketing. The marketing company would manage items such as:

Costs would have to stay under control and the agency would work through offering many different items in rapid iterations. Think 50 Youtube videos instead of 1 television spot, or 50 blog posts instead of 1 newspaper feature. Maybe this sort of venture already exists; if so, please point me in their direction.

Related: A recent book, DigiMarketing by Kent Wetime and Ian Fenwick, outlines what it takes to be successful online. I have not read the book, just the review, which I think is enough.

Published on November 28, 2008

My Favourite TED Talks

I am a TED Talk crack-addict and have watched every single one. Below is a list of Ted Talks, my top five which blew me away, followed by some other favorites. Enjoy!

Top 5:

Zander on music
Hans Rosling on World Development
Bolte on Strokes
Lessing on Creative Commons
DNA Folding

Some other favourites (full list here):

Putting photos together – magically
Design of the Universe
Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote
John Francis – Planet Walker
Theory of everything
Evil
Liberal vs Conservative Brains
How Kids Learn

Published on November 22, 2008

Why I Support the Extremists.

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when a central group tries to get tens of thousands of blogs to discuss poverty issues. I volunteered, so here is my topic: Why we must support extremists.

By extremists, I do not mean violence, but rather people and organizations who are outside “mainstream” of society. Instead of donating money to WWF, I like to donate to Greenpeace, instead of United Way, I like Amnesty International. Why? Because they represent the sharp end of the spear. 
It takes crazy people to change the world, the sane are too scared. The kooks never say no, they will not quit and they do not listen to reason. To solve poverty in our time, we need people like Muhammad Yunus, Deng Xiaoping, Mahatma Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela. Here’s to the crazy ones:

Published on October 15, 2008

TB – Mutating and Deadly

Published on October 5, 2008

Global Warming, True?

Just watched a great interview between Charlie Rose and Michael Crichton. He has some interesting view on global warming (which I agree with). His idea mainly boils down to this:

The global climate is a chaotic non-linear system that cannot be predicted (as stated by the UN). He also claims the models the UNFCC have made are not very good and not verified by third parties. He claims that the global warming issue has been politicized and is no longer science, it is consensus science. He states very clearly, “No one knows what the future holds” – so why should Al Gore?

P.S. This also fits with Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s philosophy of Black Swan’s and unpredictability – check him out.

Published on September 22, 2008