CB’s Future proofing book offer: set of 3 sells in bookstores for $105, you pay just $35 (plus P+P)

CB’s Future proofing book offer:

“Now, A Business Survival Guide” – RRP $34.99

“FIB’s Masters of Photography – issue 1” – RRP $34.99

“Next, An Armchair Guide to Your Future” RRP $34.99

The set of three now sells in Bookstores for $105, Campaign Brief readers pay just $35 (+ P+P). To get this offer just email your name and address, stating ‘Campaign Brief reader offer’ to:

info@brandingestablishmentgroup.com and we will return email you a secure Pay Pal invoice,

pay this and the book set will be sent to you by registered mail in 7 days (while stocks last).

Paul G Roberts is an author, creative director, advertising entrepreneur, futurist, and now owner of the New Media Group Branding Establishment. He has recently released internationally a six-part Trilogy, NOW, NEXT and HOW (Apps, Books & e-books) on how to deal with accelerating technological change and an expert guide on reskilling for the digital age.

That’s $105 of books for just $35.

In August 2010 I had a catch up coffee with the General Manager of my Australian-based book distributor who boasted to me how he had 25 years experience in the book industry, how he knew all the key management of the big book buying chains and all the big store owners. He told me how it was such a tightly knit community. He said he had seen it all. I could sense a hint of fragility in his voice, as spoke to me the futurist. I asked him if he had tried an Apple iPad yet. His facial response was as if I had suggested he was a child molester. I didn’t bother pursuing it, as it was abundantly clear he didn’t want to know anything about it.

During a recent phone conversation I asked him if he had heard that Amazon had reported it sold more e-books than printed books in its recent Christmas trading period. He humbugged that suggestion saying that “it was all lies designed to try and sell more Kindles (Amazon’s digital reader)”.

On February 18, The Red Group, owners of 180 Angus & Robertson stores and also 20 state-of-the-art Borders bookstores was put into voluntary administration by their owners, the all-knowing Pacific Equity Partners.

This indomitable chain of book retailers that had maintained a leading position for more than a century had fallen overnight without as much as a whimper, leaving thousands of employees who like my friend “knew everything there was to know about selling books” wondering about their futures.

Ironically I had predicted this in the book/App Trilogy that he was selling for me. In them I had explained why this was inevitable, and what one needed to do.

Not That Long Ago

The last time I had a feature in Campaign Brief was in early 2007. I had just published my first book titled NOW, and in it made a number of bold predictions: that the long used ‘interruption’ advertising model would make way for another model, that digital would rise, the arrival of Digital TV, that Brand Entertainment would rise to rival Brand Advertising, that Social Networks would become a major factor in media, and that there was soon to be a GFC. I predicted the Mobile phone and its aspect of digital convergence would rise to form one the most influential marketing mediums. I even predicted the rise of the App Store and their related new digital devices and so on.

How did I predict all this? It was a mere matter of projecting. I have spent 25 years in advertising/branding industries. After working for a number of multinationals I founded my own Agency, DESIRE BRAND MANAGEMENT, in Melbourne in 1992. From humble beginnings with my staff of one (i.e. me), we slowly grew, and then grew some more, and four years later we opened a second office in Sydney. Unintentionally we kept under the Mainstream/Cannes Awards radar but we attracted some awesome talent and did great work. We grew so much that several years later we made it into the Top 50 Agencies by Ad News’ Audited Billings Surveys, and at our peak we had a staffing of around 50.

In 2005/6 our client roster was a ‘who’s who’. We had Coke, Lion Nathan, wine company Southcorp, Energy Drink V, Oporto’s, Maxxium (with brands Jim Beam, Finlandia, Glennfiddich, Remy Martin amongst others), Wella Haircare, Portmans, Prestige Cosmetics, up market jeweller Fairfax & Roberts, shopping centres QVB & Chatswood Chase, we even did pro bono work for a division of the United Nations, its children’s fund UNICEF.

As I collected my thoughts for my 2007 book NOW, I pictured this asteroid heading towards my life, and knew every aspect of it was going to change. I became hell-bent on searching for a new model – one that could survive the collision. What I found and have since been doing is well documented in my Trilogy.

The Rise of Imagineering.

Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1439 played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.

Broadcast Television similarly has been almost as important ruling the advertising landscape since its introduction in the 1930’s and ever since The Tube has been an indispensable appliance in most households for direct broadcasts of news and entertainment. In many countries for decades television assured a handful of omnipotent networks near-total control of mass culture and advertising was the oil that greased the wheels.

Now the next communications revolution is underway, its imminent coming signposted by Apple’s multi-million selling iPad device, App Stores, and bold new initiatives such as Google books. This will make the impact of the television and printing press seem trivial.

The Laws Forcing This Revolution

The first is written in ‘Moore’s Law’, named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore. Moore’s Law continues to guarantee the ‘exponential’ acceleration of Computing Speed / Bandwidth / Storage / Processing Power / Capability Per Dollar, developments that all digital manufacturing companies keep including in ever more powerful and cheaper devices.

At the time of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing back in 1969, the world’s most powerful computer ‘The Cray’ took up a whole building. The computer in my Apple iPhone 4.0 today is a million times cheaper, a million times smaller, a thousand times more powerful. That’s a billion-fold increase in capability per dollar that we’ve actually experienced since man landed on the moon, and its just getting started.

The second reason this acceleration is guaranteed is the law of ‘Exponentiality’. Information Technology grows in an exponential manner. It’s not linear. The pace of exponential growth is really what describes information technologies. When a cricket pace bowler like Brett Lee takes his run up to bowl he steps linearly, one, two, three, four, five, until he gets to 30 and releases. If Lee was to take 30 steps exponentially – two, four, eight, sixteen etc. – he would get to a billion. It makes a huge difference.

People Have Changed.

When the Australian protopunk band The Saints released their song ‘Know Your Product’ in 1978 they never knew they would be defining the public’s attitude to the business of advertising some 30 years later.

“I’m just sitting in my chair

what I need”

The Saints, Know Your Product 1978

People are no longer a willing demographic to be targeted. Just about everyone under and many over the age of 30 have become immune to seductive brand imagery, Adland’s campaign plots and ‘value propositions’. These secrets of the ‘Hidden Persuaders’ are now in full view and the subject of mainstream TV chat shows like the Gruen Transfer, where viewers dissect the work. I explain to my team now there are new realities held by people, I call them the ‘Five Eyes’:

“I won’t wait,

I won’t watch,

I won’t pay,

I want to be heard,

& I want to create!”

The Five Eyes also help explain why everything is shifting to digital, why User-Generated Content is such a big deal, and why there is an ever-increasing adoption of new digital devices and the use of their Applications. In our interconnected world technology is enabling everything from staying in touch, working, to gaming, to entertainment to information. As Bill Gates once said, “If it can be digital, it’s going to be digital”.

The Winds of Change Have Blown

Over part of the last decade one third of all advertising dollars has gone Online, and half of that total has gone to Search (aka Google), and with the new digital Display ad operations by Google and Apple’s iAds etc. More is sure to shift.

A further slice of the advertising pie has gone to Brand Entertainment. A few businesses have now discovered that Brand Entertainment can have a much higher ROI than that of Brand Advertising. One recent and topical example is Oprah’s Australian Adventures. Costing Australian tax payers a mere $5 million the Series has been estimated to deliver hundreds of millions of impact and influence. No ‘old’ ad spot campaign could have ever delivered this kind of ROI, Hoges, Bingle, or Baz included. Another example is the Master Chef phenomenon for Coles, delivering returns that could never have been achieved by the traditional letterbox stuffing of supermarket catalogs and the like. I remember explaining this concept to Graeme Wills, head of Publicis, in 2007, who looked down his nose at me in disbelief and said, “Cooking Shows taking over from advertising, hmmmmffff?”

Just the Facts Please

Social Media and User-Generated Content.

In just a few short years this has become an indispensable medium for connecting most of the planet with new communications possibilities. And now it is being commercialized by the meteoric rise of businesses like Groupon.

You Have Been Profiled.

Google knows every Gmail you have ever sent, it knows every single Search you have made, and it knows every YouTube you have ever watched. The GPS in your Blackberry or iPhone has recorded every single footstep you have ever made on the planet. Facebook knows everything about you and your friends’ lives. They are not storing all this data for nothing, it’s only a matter of time before they start to use it commercially and feed into customised advertising just for you. In fact it has already begun.

Apple’s iTunes

Since launching from nothing it has sold close to 20 billion songs, forever changing the music business.

App Stores

As of January 29, 2011 Apple’s App’s Store had made more than 10 billion downloads in just few years – that’s almost two for each person on the planet – and yet this innovation is still in its infancy. Google has one now growing; Blackberry has one, soon so too will Microsoft, Amazon, Nokia and Samsung.

35 million Apple iPads are forecast to be shipped this year in just the USA alone.

This is going to have a seismic impact on the way entertainment, information and communication is transferred, and again this is just the start if one compares the number of smart phones on the planet; 4 billion.

Digital Book readers

Amazon’s Kindle, the Nook by Barnes and Noble, and others by Sony etc… have already shredded the book publishing. Global publishers have only started to get their heads around the most basic formats of PDF style “e-books”. Formats that have not even begun to use video, GPS, Accelerometer, touch screen interactivity, music, voice, blogs etc…

If you have access to an iPad you can see the kind of possibilities I refer to in my App versions of NEXT  and NOW, available on Apple’s iTunes App Store.

“Old Hollywood” Movie Studios have been outpaced by the under the radar Gamers.

The best selling game Call of Duty has gone on to become the biggest entertainment franchise by revenue of all time. And it cost a fraction of what James Cameron spent to make and promote Avatar. “COD 4 -Black Ops” fourth in the franchise released just before last Christmas has earned more revenue than Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Titanic in their respective opening Box office weekends.

Last year 3% of all new marriages in the USA met via Online dating/introduction site e-Harmony.

So, what to do? I recommend you get your hands on NEXT and NOW, and you will see a very detailed guide to thriving in your future.

Follow In The Footsteps of Walt Disney And Become an Imagineer.

1. Re-Learn.

You need to start learning new stuff faster than the old stuff is going out of date. This means committing to your own personal retraining programme, and trust me if you don’t like the idea of relearning you will like the idea of irrelevance even less. Buy an Academy Card from an Apple Centre, one year of unlimited courses for just $240, bring your whole family for $460.

2. Discover What’s Out There.

The founders of Online Social Deal business Spreets admit they set about copying the Groupon idea when they first heard of it. They weren’t original, but their trick was in their speed to copy – a speed that earned them a $40m payday just weeks ago.

3. Start Browsing App Stores.

And watch a revolution unfold before your eyes. You will be astounded as to what is coming out, and it hasn’t even started.

4. Invest in the Latest Devices.

Don’t listen to the Luddites who say that books will never be replaced with devices – they already have! They also said the automobile will never replace the horse.

5. Start Dabbling in the Digital Economy, Imagineering is the next Gold rush.

The people who have bought 10 Billion Apps in just 4 years on Apple’s App store alone can’t be wrong. You don’t need to be Microsoft or Steve Jobs, you just need to think like them, plus a few sturdy tools and a good map. If you are genuinely creative and curious, be creative and curious in here.

6. Get a Leg Up and Learn From Someone Who Has Been Already Been Successful Doing it.

A key element of the new digital world is collaboration and sharing, and I am willing to share some of my learning’s and contacts to help get you started.

I have written a “how to” Trilogy designed for this purpose, “Now”, “Next” and “How”, now available in book form in Dymocks, Angus & Robertson, Borders and better bookstores. On Amazon, and as e-books in most e-pub formats. And it is also available as special Apps for iPad on Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Our Imagineering efforts have now published a vast number of Books, Apps and other new media formats and Content programmes, in here I have included a few samples. We are now making them in Games, Travel, Broadcast, Navigation, Photography, Cinema, Fashion, Cooking, Celebrity and more. All the learnings of how we got enabled are covered in my Trilogy as your Guides.