Leonardo Baa-Vinci To Promote Samsung LED TV

Just got this video from a long lost friend. It has been viewed more than 3 million times since it was uploaded to YouTube 10 days ago. Some 2,000 viewers are arguing whether it's fake or real. Leonardo Baa-Vinci is a very well-crafted reproduction. The kind you wish you had...thought about!

Positive Deviance - A Perspective on Innovation

Recently I was theorizing for an anti-smoking campaign to change attitudes, increase intention, perceived risk, perceived benefit, behavior, etc. I wish I had thought about 'positive deviance' when thinking of ways to inform influencers and mobilize people to say no to smoking.

According to what I read in a recent announcement from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, positive deviance suggests that 'in every organization or community, there are people who solve problems better than peers who have exactly the same resources.' The RWJF article quotes from a CDC announcement that explains how positive deviance was instrumental in reducing the number of infections in hospitals, as certain individuals figured out highly efficient ways to discard infected gloves and clothing.

This is the crux of innovation - when someone figures out a better way of doing things and paves the way for others. It could also be a new dimension in influencer research. When looking for those who are more outspoken and convincing than others, we could also study their approaches to problem solving.

Outbrain

I met with some very nice folks from outbrain the other week and I just added their widget to my blog. To bloggers, outbrain is a great ratings system that also shows related articles about their post to their readers. Similar to the way Amazon recommends 'other products you might be interested to buy,' outbrain suggests 'other stories you might want to read.' It's a great way to offer value to your readers and to be part of a larger traffic chain.

To marketers, outbrain means visibility and getting more out of online PR hits. Imagine being mentioned in a post on Mashable or Reuters.com. In addition to being viewed by readers who go to these outlets, your link can appear under many relevant blog posts that are part of the outbrain network.

Similar to sponsored links on Google, brands can sponsor links on outbrain. These sponsored links are indicated by a small icon above the link headline. May take some time to educate consumers about who is pushing them content exactly. If used right, outbrain can be a great way to aggregate content. The widget delivers both relevance and reach, by matching related articles across numerous blogs.

I wonder what's next for the company. After all, they are gathering a huge community and they must be seeing an extensive media index develop based on reader ratings and click throughs....himmm....