President Obama | David Chan

Joint Ventures – A Blueprint for Success

October 15th, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

Joint ventures used to be a term that caused a lot of confusion over who, what and why. The “who” related to the parties working together; the “what” referred to the goals of the joint venture; and the “why” was really about the decision to partner rather than to go it alone. These days, creating joint ventures make a lot of sense both offline and increasingly online.

In my most recent blog about the California governor candidates, I pointed out that there is an inverse relationship between marketing spend and Internet “success.” Witness Meg Whitman’s $900,000 investment in Internet marketing and the poor results she’s garnered with Facebook “Fans” and Twitter “Followers” compared to her rivals, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown.

Joint ventures in this case made a lot of sense. From an offline perspective, it certainly did not hurt Gavin Newsom to get an endorsement from the hugely popular Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton likely pushed Mr. Newsom’s acceptance level in this political battle by several percentage points.

In fact, Mr. Newsom has some 58,000 fans to Ms. Whitman’s 4,500. What is not so obvious, though, are the online joint ventures he created to drive his popularity into the stratosphere … including his one million plus Twitter followers. While it’s possible to grow ones followers and fans organically, it generally takes a lot of time to create that many followers.

Let’s flip the analysis. Over the last several months, I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of celebrity personalities. A common theme always seems to pop up, “doing great, but would like to do better.” This, by the way, is what makes America great … striving for improvement … not just sitting around being happy with the status quo.

When evaluating joint ventures it’s always a great idea to create win / win / win scenarios. Make sure you understand what each party gets out of a relationship. In addition, since these days everyone has limited financial resources and are time constrained, creating a joint venture makes a lot of sense for a very simple reason – shared risk, shared reward.

Let’s take a real example. In creating a new online marketing campaign, we have several requirements for success: testimonials, saleable products, exclusive content, a well known brand, and much more. With limited time and financial resources, the decision to build vs. buy vs. joint venture becomes glaringly obvious – joint venture for those areas where you lack resources or talent and build or buy those pieces which you can control.

Joint ventures don’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler they are the more likely they are to succeed. Another simple example of this is obtaining content. Imagine that you are selling timeshares. You can try to create content on your own, but it would be much easier to joint venture with a real estate company. In return for their support, you promote their timeshare inventory.

The possibilities for joint ventures are limited only by your imagination. These days the blueprint for success is to think WAY outside the box. Don’t let naysayers say that it’s never been done before. President Obama didn’t!

Celebrity California Governor Candidates

October 7th, 2009 By DavidChan 17 Comments

The California governor candidates are obviously in this race to win and win big. One of the most fascinating aspects of this race to me is how furiously the candidates have gotten technology religion. Being a technology advocate, I can attest to the effectiveness of online campaigns, especially as they compare to the ineffectiveness these days of traditional offline media of print, radio and TV. A Forrester research survey reported that 60% of marketers will shift their traditional marketing budget to interactive [online] marketing.

It’s no wonder that celebrities, entrepreneurs, news stations and more are moving to online media marketing. This new media allows direct interaction with and between publisher and consumer. No other media exists that combines the speed of implementation with the analytical horsepower of “near immediate” feedback.

The California governor candidates are an interesting test case to see if they can repeat the success of the Barack Obama campaign. There have been many politicians who hopped on to the technology bandwagon after they witnessed firsthand the ferocity at which President Obama took the oval office. The famous words printed in The Book of Job “Speak and ye shall hear” are aptly appropriate to describe the Internet social networks.

The use of technology has completely changed the landscape of political campaigning forever. In the old days, California governor candidates would have produced and mailed campaign brochures, gotten their message printed in newspapers and scheduled speeches. Oftentimes this required months of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Today, the use of social networking sites and blogs literally allow you to speak and be heard … or “write and be read.” Of course, this strategy depends heavily on having enough friends, fans, and followers to make a difference. This is precisely why celebrities like Oprah, Britney Spears, and Ellen DeGeneres hire experts to make all this magic happen.

The field of California governor candidates are no slouches either. In fact, a couple of them have reached “celebrity” status themselves. Gavin Newsom has 1.1 million Twitter followers and Jerry Brown somewhere in the 900,000 range. These numbers put the politicians on par with real celebrities like Paula Abdul (ex-American Idol) and John Legend.

It’s interesting to note that, at least at this moment, there is an inverse relationship between campaign spend and online marketing “success.” The two Republicans who have spent the most amount of money, Meg Whitman ($900,000) and Steve Poizner ($100,000) have the least number of votes by a factor of several thousand percent! It’s too early to tell what this really means. Is it because they need a new team of technologists or is it just that they have the wrong message?

Whatever the answer, these California governor candidates have a huge challenge on their hands. With a budget deficit of $26 Billion, an unemployment rate of 12% an unfavorable business environment, and California’s education tanking, employers and families will pick up stakes and move elsewhere. No matter how you slice it, no amount of technology is going to create a quick fix to California’s problems.

A Leadership Position to End the Domestic Violence Cycle

September 10th, 2009 By DavidChan 4 Comments

October is awareness month to help put an end to the domestic violence cycle. According to the FBI statistics, every nine seconds a woman is beaten in this country. What is less known are how high the statistics are around domestic violence against children and men, as well? In the past few months, I’ve become increasingly aware of the alarming rate at which domestic violence is growing in this country.

Through my work with Patti Austin, the 2008 Grammy award jazz vocalist, I’ve learned that domestic violence is not just an act perpetrated against a person, but a family, a neighborhood a community. Her leadership in working with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a model by which our nation’s leaders and people of influence should follow. Patti’s Blue Movement speaks out against this disease, helps to support the victims and encourages our nation to stand up in solidarity.

Unfortunately, the domestic violence cycle is one that all too often ends tragically. One of the perpetuators of this problem is the media. I watched with utter disbelief Larry King interview Chris Brown as if he were on a pedestal. He showed “humility?” and “remorsefulness?” and declared that “he still loves Rihanna?” How can any sane person, let alone a network buy into this type of sensationalism?

In the U.S., we treat domestic violence victims almost as if they were the cause of the problem. “She or he asked for it.” or “They deserved what they got.” We also treat the symptom, rather than the problem. In so doing, the symptom often has a tragic ending. One Midwest state reported 80 deaths attributed to domestic violence from 2002 to 2003. That’s ONE state over ONE year. Do the math … it’s staggering. Compare that with the war on terrorism. We should think again about where we spend our valuable resources. How about fixing the home front first?

One sobering report is a review of Google’s search data on trends and insights related to domestic violence. On this page it’s hard not to notice the headlines … “Broncos rookie faces domestic violence charge”, “Upshaw arrested on domestic violence charge”, “Domestic violence, child abuse, may be on the rise amid economic troubles.”

Taking a leadership position, we should work to get to the root cause before the violence begins and before it can continue. We need to recognize that the domestic violence cycle is exactly that, a cycle. It may begin at home and passed on to the young, a relationship gone south, or even a random act of “power.” However it starts the cycle needs to be broken.

I was pleased to hear the appointment of Lynn Rosenthal as the advisor to President Obama on domestic violence issues. This signals to the nation that support for the fight against domestic violence is finally coming from the top. Vice President Biden recognized the seriousness of this issue as far back as 1994, when he helped pen the Violence Against Women Act.

October may be awareness month to end the domestic violence cycle, but the cycle doesn’t begin and end in one month … it’s an every day thing.