At the SXSW Interactive festival in mid-March, I interviewed several fantastic, interesting individuals and small companies that are on the leading edge of using social media and marketing on the web.

This podcast interviews entrepreneur Joshua Baer from Other Inbox, and he has the key for curing email overload, and for a Tesla Roadster.

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Here are some of the topics we covered:

What is Other Inbox and what does it do?

Take a look at your inbox. How many items in there? 10? 40? 100?  Over 500?

Face it, everyone has a problem with too much email, so it’s going to be up to innovators in the space to help us manage it. Josh talks about his company and the widespread problem of e-mail overload.

Other Inbox not only makes it faster to isolate and focus on the important items in your inbox, but it can help you clear through the less important mails quicker as well.

How he got involved

Josh reveals that his background was actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. As an young entrepreneur running a “dorm room dot-com,” he founded a company that helps corporations SEND billions of e-mails per month.

But like a CEO at Krispy Kreme taking a job at Weight Watchers, he appreciated both sides of the email coin, from the consumer and the marketing perspective. And that’s how Other Inbox came to life.

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At the SXSW Interactive festival in mid-March, I interviewed several fantastic, interesting individuals and small companies that are on the leading edge of using social media and marketing on the web.

This podcast interviews Helen Todd at the Kbuzz, a Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing firm that creates and sustains buzz through innovative marketing concepts, communities, and conversations.

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Here are my quick thoughts on some of the topics we covered.

TweetsGiving, the first project to use Twitter for social change

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Jim gives his thoughts on VIP parties, finding balance, and other marketing lessons learned from SXSW.

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The SXSW Interactive conference brought the new media community together from all parts of the country to share ideas. What were my key takeaways? Here are my thoughts from a personal and Wired marketing perspective. Lets get right to it.

Twitter is here
Yes, I know that Twitter has been here since SXSW 2007, when a cute little bluebird floated down and landed on a windowsill like a Disney movie.  But now Twitter is HERE, demanding to be fed like a drunken Big Bird stumbling through a house party and spilling beer on your laptop.

I really think people should care a lot less about how Twitter is going to make money, and more about how their business is going to utilize the service – although it made for a great opening question for the Chris Anderson – Guy Kawasaki keynote conversation.

In fact, I predict that the “how your company should be using Twitter” service market is going to expand exponentially, much like search engine optimization advice. There are so many companies where the geeky marketing manager or the PR department will utter the phrase to the CEO ‘we need to be on twitter’ that not only will it be a key component of ad agencies, but individuals will start businesses to start this service.

BTW… Follow HopkinsonReport on Twitter

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As The Hopkinson Report marches toward its 50th episode, I take a moment to reflect on a few quick topics: SXSW, defining your niche, Twitter, and 2 podcasters that have influenced me.

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WHAT TO EXPECT AT SXSW
Ironically, I wanted to go to SXSW – the music festival – a few years ago when I was in a band. But that side passion for music was overridden by my primary passion at the time, sports, which also happened to be my career. And for those sports fans out there, you know a little thing called ESPN’s Tourney Challenge, or March Madness pool, that was taking up my time the same week. Aw, who am I kidding, there was also an industry conference in Vegas that time of year that I had to attend.

And so now I’ve traded in the Vegas strip for what has been called Spring Break for the Internet, SXSW Interactive. This is my first time going, and from what I’ve heard and read, I think I have a pretty good bead on what’s in store.

Here’s what I’m expecting.
1. Lots of networking. My re-order of business cards is in the mail.
2. Lots of panels. Some good, some bad.
3. Lots of parties. Very crowded parties.

Here are my goals.
1. First and foremost, I am there to absorb as much information as possible that will help me do my job at Wired. Sending people to conferences in sunny locations is not priority 1 when budgets are being cut, but I feel this is a ‘must attend’ event.

I always approach conferences not with the aim of changing the world, but taking that 1 or 2 key ideas from each panel I attend or person I meet that can make a difference. It’s also is a chance to get me out of the microcosm of Wired New York City, and get a bigger picture view of companies and trends across the country.

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A new breed of web-savvy “infopreneurs” are leveraging their skills to build their own brand and make money on the web. Let’s look at a few ways how they do it.

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Today I’m going to throw out a term that I’ve been hearing a lot lately, even though Wikipedia says it was trademarked back in 1984 – Infopreneur.  It’s obviously a combination of the words information and entrepreneur, and the modern use refers to people that are making money using the internet to market, distribute, and sell information. Today we’re going to look at some examples.

As the internet continues to evolve, these web-savvy infopreneurs are leveraging their skills to build their own brand.  These “hyperinfluencers” create digital products, and then spread the word of their personal projects through various forms of social media.

While popular names in the media industry include varied personalities such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Julia Allison, Robert Scoble, Kevin Rose and iJustine, with tough economic times, more and more people are looking into starting an online presence and it’s easier and more enticing than ever:

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Ah, the Super Bowl. Two teams meet on the field, nearly 100 million friends gather to watch the game at home, and ad agencies are charged with making a breakthrough TV commercial in only 30 seconds.

While those in the online marketing world live and breathe social media, we have to remember that outside our inner circle, there are still millions without Facebook accounts and that many think Twitter is a Looney Tunes character.

In this article, I analyze which companies effectively drove their message home, and which ones fumbled their big opportunity. After all, a TV spot during the big game is expensive; extending that brand to your audience via social media costs far less, and is often free.

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The commercials were judged on the following two criteria:
1) Was the spot effective in driving their marketing message
2) Did the website deliver on that message

SUPER BOWL CALIBER
E*Trade - The smart-talking baby commercials are hysterical, and may have just coined a new golf term, “shankopotamus.” You watch the spot, you laugh, and you know what the product is about. Upon arriving at the web site, there are links to view the commercials, including even more hysterical outtakes. Bonus: E*Trade bought the Google keyword shankopotamus.

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Freshbooks.com interview – Saul Colt, the ‘Head of Magic’ uses social media and retro marketing to build a loyal following. from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

Wouldn’t it be great if ALL companies…

• Took their customers to free dinners
• Sent their users flowers when they’ve had a bad day
• Received a 99% positive referral rating
• Had an entrepreneurial blog and irreverent newsletter
• Had a Twitter following so passionate that users solved problems
• Instilled a little bit of “magic” into everyday life?

Well, if you’re a marketer, a manager, or public relations rep trying to improve your company’s image, then my interview with Saul Colt, ‘Head of Magic’ for the online invoicing company ‘Freshbooks,’ is a must-listen.

Our 20-minute conversation is a marketing case study for using social media and “retro marketing” to grow a loyal following. We discuss:

• How Freshbooks was born out of frustration that many freelancers face
• Why they take their customers — even non-paying ones — to free dinners
• What just might happen if you get stood up on a blind date
• His title, and what happens when the “Head of Magic” heads to Las Vegas

• Why he has a Love-Hate relationship with Zappos.com
• The iPhone promotion that differentiated them from every other company
• Their CEO’s blog post “The 7 Ways I’ve Almost Killed Freshbooks“
• How their iPhone app helps on-the-go freelancers keep better records

To learn how to use current social media tools like Twitter, Blogs, and Newsletters build your brand, listen now:

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Helpful links:

About Freshbooks | Freshbooks Tour | Twitter.com/freshbooks | Twitter.com/Hopkinsonreport

You might also like:

Get a Room! An entrepreneurial couple gives marketing tips for startups.

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Today I’m going to live up to my tagline and do exactly that, taking a look back at the marketing trends that mattered in 2008, and what’s to come in 2009.

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Hey Everyone… Christmas is just days away for me so I’m going to crank out a quick top 10 list before I head home for the holidays. I’ll give you the marketing trend that mattered this year, how that trend could evolve in 2009, and the podcast episode to go back and listen to that covered the topic. Let’s roll.

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The Hopkinson Report: Wired.com’s marketing guy compares the iPhone to a Porsche, and asks, “Has the iPhone reached ‘no substitute’ status?”

A lot of people would choose to spend $20,000 on an all-new Chevy Malibu described as “almost dynamic,” and that makes sense if you want a brand-new, traditional sedan. In fact, Joe Brown, the editor of Wired’s Cars 2.0 Blog, Autopia, tells me to go easy on the American car maker. Not just because they’re a big Wired advertiser, but because they did really impress him with this model.

But not me. After owning a fantastic 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo in my early 20s, I’ve had the itch for the next level of sports car, a Porsche. No, not an ego-fueled $90,000 911 (though I wouldn’t turn it down), I’m talking about the 100s of Porsche Boxsters available for under $20,000.

Meanwhile, it’s time to upgrade life’s most important gadget, the cell phone. Which model will I go for? As you’ll hear, there is no substitute.

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Thank you to Daniel Odio of PointAbout.com, who had the podcast transcribed for me on 7-17-09. See the full transcript below:

Hi! This is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, and yes, they’ve given me my own Podcast. Welcome. Every week, I’m going to take a fresh, funny, and sometimes, frantic look at marketing trends in the Digital World.

Today I’m going to talk about whether the iPhone is reached of what I call ‘no-substitute status’. Are they at a point where it’s a matter of if you buy an iPhone, but when?

But first, let me you a quick story and talk a little bit about branding. When I was 24 years old, I had a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo. Man, that car was some kind of fun to drive. It was reliable; it was quick, sporty. It even fit my mountain bike in the back with the seat put down. But most importantly, it was a blast to drive. You’re hitting that on-ramp, shifting from second to third, the turbo kicks in, you feel your body pressed back against the seats. It was truly a rush.

But now for the past six years, I’ve been without a car, living in New York City, which is really tough for a guy that likes to drive cars, not simply ride in a car, but enjoy driving a car. There’s a difference; and it doesn’t come from renting a Chevy Malibu 4-door that I can get at Avis.

So I have a dream, I want to own a Porsche.

Now, I’m going to start and end this argument that it doesn’t make a lick of sense to own a Porsche. Forget that a car payment would be $500.00 a month, and insurance and gas would be $500.00 a month, the average cost of a parking space in my neighborhood would be $500.00 a month. Forget all that.

Not to mention, that it’s going to get stolen in New York; it’s going to get dinged up in New York, that it snows all the time in New York; and that if I have to go to Boston, it’s $15.00 to take the bus, but forget about all that. Don’t quash my dream.

But let’s say I magically come up with $20,000. What could I do with that? Take for example, that 2008 Chevy Malibu that Avis always hands me when I go in to rent. What is the marketing behind that vehicle? Now that car was just named the ‘2008 North American Car of the Year’. That’s a pretty compelling reason to get this car…right, the Car of the Year?

What does the Chevy brand telling me? Well I pull up their website, and there’s a quote on the front on their page from John Davis at Motor Week that says; and I quote, ‘The Malibu was stylish, almost dynamic.’ Are you kidding me? Almost dynamic, that’s the best you can come up with for the front of your Web page? Almost dynamic??? It’s almost dynamic?!?

So then I zip over to cars.com, and I find a black 5-speed 1999 Porsche Boxster Convertible with less than 25,000 miles. Now, what does their brand tell me? Porsche: There is no substitute.

So of course, if you’re married with two kids, you make lots of trips to Costco, you want a brand new car that won’t break the bank; of course the Chevy makes a much more logical choice. But for the market that Porsche is going after, their branding statement is very, very strong.

And how’s that working out for them? Well, according to Mobile Magazine, Porsche is the most profitable auto maker. It makes more than $28,000.00 per car sold. Compare that to BMW, which clears $3,200.00. And for an American company like Chrysler, take a guess: $900.00. Now people tell me, just buy an old beat-up car or why not get a Honda S2000 Convertible; those are nice. Or what about one of those Mini Coopers … that will be easy to park and drive around town.

But they’re all missing the point.

I’m not buying something just to have a car. I want a different experience – “there is no substitute”. They’ve been able to plant a seed in my mind that none of these other things matter. For me right now, it’s not a choice between five different cars.

It’s a choice between the experience I have now and the dramatically different, albeit, dramatically more expensive, second option.

So through years of carefully crafting their brand, they’ve been able to set up a situation where users will pay a premium to get a better experience while discounting their competitors.

There is no substitute, which brings me to Apple.

OK, let’s start with the iPod.

Now I can speak from experience here because, like a lot of people out there, I actually own several MP3 players in the 90′s before the iPod even came out in 2001. But, then came the iPod boom. All my friends were raving about the iPod. So if anyone, I could talk about alternatives.

But once I bought one, and I saw all the things that went into it: the continual update of iTunes and how much easier their user interface was, the additional of video iPods, new models that are rolling out every eight months or so.

And then the killer app, for me as a runner, the integration with the Nike iPod chip. So when I was ready for the new model, am I gonna to consider the Zune? No. Not when with Apple controlling 70% of the MP3 market. It was either keep the old iPod or choose a new one. There was no substitute.

Apple had set it up so there was no substitute.

Then came my computer.

I have a Computer Science degree. I learned how to program on a Commodore 64. I once bonded with an IT guy because I was the only marketing person he’d met that knew what a SCSI hard drive was; and basically, I’ve spent every day of my working life in front of a PC. So I’m really, really a difficult person to switch from a PC to a MAC platform.

What got me to switch? Well, first of all I admit it. There was a cool factor. Mac’s seemed a lot cooler than PCs. And I started spending time in a Apple retail store, and you can’t help but be impressed with that experience. Then they told me anything I could do on Windows could also be done on a Mac. So basically, over the through the years, Apple slowly addressed and then removed all the objections I have.

But the killer app for me on the computer was a combination of two things.

1) Moving to a smaller apartment, I wanted to go from a desktop to a laptop

2) Something with the competition.

Microsoft released Vista, and the bad reviews that accompanied that. So Apple had played up their strengths with their marketing and exposed the weaknesses of the competition that I might have considered.

So now on to the iPhone.

And I find myself in the same situation as the car, as the iPod, and the computer. Everything I have is now is fine. But what is that killer app out there that’s going to make me pull out my wallet and buy that iPhone. Has the iPhone yet positioned itself to ‘there is no substitute status’? But here is some things that Apple has done well with their marketing.

1) The coolness factor. Again, like any Apple product, the design it has differentiates it from the rest of the competition.

2) Surfing the Web. No doubt, the ability to find a movie, get directions, check a score, use Google on the fly is a huge selling point. Recent TV spots for marketing they’ve had show users bringing up ski maps, checking car prices, going to Facebook, checking the weather, stock on the fly. They’re doing this very well. But is it enough?

I remember some of the earlier commercials they ran for their visual voice mail. Do you remember that? They made a huge to-do about that. Can you believe it? You can listen the second voicemail you received before the first voicemail you got. Really!?!? That’s a breakthrough idea-worthy of an entire TV commercial??? You know how I get from the first voicemail to the second voicemail on my current phone? I press the number nine! It skips you right from number one to number two. How can that be the most compelling thing on the iPhone?

But to wrap things up, the question I pose originally was – has the iPhone reached ‘there is no substitute status’?

When it does come time to upgrade my phone, will I look at my competitors from Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and others. I was recently at a sales conference in New Orleans, and I came across three things in one day that leads me to say at least for now, ‘yes.’

First, from a marketing angle.

I wake up in my hotel room; and there’s this full color, full page advertisement from Sprint in my USA Today. It touted their simply everything plan. Let me grab it here. Alright, for $99.99 you get: unlimited talking, unlimited Web surfing, unlimited emailing, unlimited texting, unlimited video messaging, picture sharing, unlimited GPS Navigation, unlimited push to talk,  unlimited Sprint TV, unlimited Sprint music, unlimited NFL Mobile, and unlimited Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile. So if I’m a happy Sprint user, which I am, shouldn’t I be the ideal customer for this? The answer is yes, but not on the current phone that I have. I’m going to need a new phone.

Next, from a business angle.

Wired’s (former) Technology Director, Scott Laine, made the point in the presentation that the Apple software developer’s kit cost only $99.00 to publish an application, but the ifund that is set to reward developers for great applications is, insert your Dr. Evil voice here, $100,000,000.  So in other words, you just have to spend $99.00 to build an application that could net you millions. Don’t you think that there’s going to be thousands of people making unbelievable applications that are going to be the killer app for you in there? I think so.

And lastly, to bring the point home.

We did a team building activity, with an amazing race-style event around the French Quarter of New Orleans. We had to visit various points around the city, answer trivia, collect certain items, and so on. Part of the thinking when they set up various teams… each team had to have at least one member that owned an iPhone.

Now the reason for this is that even to have a single team not have one, would be a tremendous disadvantage. And by using the iPhone in a real world scenario, my team came in first place. Yeah!!!

Now, would I say the iPhone was much more valuable in helping quickly navigate the city than if we had a brand new Porsche?

[Editor's note... I bought the iPhone 3G in July of 2008]