Cheif Innovation Officer Digital at Heart Curator and Entrepeneur

Kickstarter and transparency

by arnteriksen on September 13, 2012

Social Media has truly open and removed all boundaries making this a smaller and connected world. For any person being creative and working with innovation at some level is now in the Eldorado of access and information, inspiration and now even crowd-funding via services like KickStarter

This is now the world of endless possibilities where anyone, anywhere at anytime can present their project and get random investors with people investing anything from $1 and up. I am an entrepreneur for the past 15 years and there has been more than one occasion where I would have needed the collective power of crowd-funding back then, and perhaps I would have been able to give life to some of the (in my humble point of view) brilliant projects I have come up with in the past. I love the concept and principle of KickStarter enabling innovators, entrepreneurs to connect with investors and people willing to spent their hard earned cash on projects and the people behind it that they believe in actually can come to life.

Downside
There most be a downside, right? Anything that seems too good to be true, must be so, right? Well – this is the beauty with social media, it reduces the chances of being fooled or scammed since everything is available, online. Now, I’m here to tell you that it is actually is possible to scam people via KickStarter – and it is actually happening now.

Norwegians has been behind many innovations in the world, one of the most famous one is the paperclip. Another innovation was done back in 2005, where a couple of friends running a promotional materials company – one day given a challenge by one of the clients: They wanted something they could give their employees that was branded and nice enough to bring with them at all times – something they would love. So the guys sat down and after some intense brainstorming came up with something brilliant – a small foldable wallet with really easy access to the most important thing – your credit card. They designed the idea, tested it with different materials and went to China to find the right match on factory that were willing to produce their idea. Long story short, the concept proved to be truly great and since the product came to life, they have sold thousands and thousands of Exentri® Wallet in the Nordics and Europe. But the business is build on pure daring force and passion, building their business over time up until now to prepare for international launch.

Never trust a stranger?
My mother taught me, as many others that I never should talk to strangers. Well – Norwegians are a bit naive in that department so we don’t always do as our mothers said. One day a energetic and seemingly credible person was sitting in the office of Exentri Wallet discussing the options of becoming the distributor of the product for the US, which was according to plan. For various reasons the deal didn’t come true.

Now the American guy that came by the Exentri Offices was quite the digital savvy, and with the business insights he had obtained in the meetings he came up with a better idea. Why not contact a factory in China, make them produce a demo, that then is presented on KickStarter as a new revolutionary product! Which he has done. (look here) He is convincing in the way he presents his new innovation – which is a ripoff of a product that has been on the marked since 2005!

You might say, hey – there is copies of everything out there already. Everything from designer glasses, bags and other products are being ripped off on a daily bases.

But – there is a difference. These copycats making copies of Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and others are not appealing to the crowd-funding community to help them getting their business up and running. It is beyond any ethics and morals within business. This person – now having a project at KickStarter called the TriHOLD wallet (he even copied parts of the product name) now having a funding of $66000,- in under a month.

Trust
To KickStarter this presents a problem – as they are the facilitators and providers of the connection between innovators and investors. But if they don’t strike down on products as the person behind TriHOLD, they will loose the trust of the investors being afraid of investing in something that is a pure scam.

Is that the kind of projects and persons they want to have on KickStarter? The question is, can they or will they do something to prevent this for the future? I do hope so.

At the end of the day
I hope that KickStarter closes the TriHOLD project and tells the investors that this is not what it seems, not only because it is the right thing to do – but also because it is the only way they can protect their own brand-value and trust.

I am sure that Exentri® Wallet will continue to grow and prosper from their innovation and creativity that came to life more than 7 years ago. They will grow their market share slowly and steadily in other global markets over time, step by step. And I hope that crowd-funding can continue to be a clean and positive community. It is a brilliant idea, giving so many people the chance to bring their innovation to life – lets keep it like that.

Your thoughts, please

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Challenge accepted!

by arnteriksen on August 16, 2012

I have worked at Creuna for more than a year now, and as much as I enjoyed working with the great and skilled people there, I felt it was time to move forward onto my next endeavor on the path that I have in front of me.

The thing is – I have been working with a close friend of mine, Morten Røvik in the concept and knowledge of the GTD’system. It’s a brilliant system to obtain perspective and control of your everyday tasks. There is another side to GTD that is a mind-blowing and heavy exercise – its very rewarding, but mentally enduring. I’m referring to the “Horizons of Focus” , which basically challenge you to reflect on your life, as a person and your role to others. I’m not going to go into details here – that is something I recommend you to check out for yourself, but I will tell you this. One of the things you have to think long and hard about is your purpose – personally and work-wise.

So the personal aspect is… well, personal so I won’t go into that here and now, but work-wise it was quite interesting to ask myself: Where will you be in the next 3-5 years?

My immediate answer was: “I want to work in New York”. I love the city, I love the people and it is the birth city of advertising in it’s true sense. Madison Avenue – imagine that!

Now – the next question suddenly is: How?

Which steps do I have to take to be sitting on Madison Ave in New York in 3-5 years? Now that’s when the true and serious brainstorming happened.

You might want to ask me: Why?

Well, I’ve been in the advertising and communication industry for the past 20 years, and even though there are some brilliant and amazing work produced here in Norway – the mayor stuff is happening ‘over there’. That’s where the big decisions are made, and that is where you’ll be in the forefront of things…

So, now what? Well to give some context to the title. I was approached by DDB Nordics to take the position of Chief Innovation Officer with base in Oslo, Norway, but also to work closely with the other Nordic countries. It is a new position, it is a great opportunity which is in alignment with my Horizons of Focus.

DDB is one of the most award-winning agency-groups in the world, with more than 200 offices in 90 countries. They are the most-winning agency in Cannes, and the legacy of Bill Bernbach is ever so present in the agency today, as it was since the start-up by Dane Doyle and Bernbach back in 1949. DDB is behind some of the most know Ad’s in the world: ‘We try harder’ for Avis – ‘It’s so simple’ for Polaroid – and the legendary ‘think small’ for Volkswagen.

Bill Bernbach is also credited of being the first to combine copywriters and art directors into two-person teams, and the father of modern advertising as we all know it.

So – to sum it up – I’m now starting to work for a global agency with offices all over the world. I have the chance to leave my mark, to challenge, disrupt and inspire my colleagues through innovative and creative thinking, and who knows – I might just end up in NYC within the next 3-4 years. For now I’ll do my very best to honor the challenge I’ve been given and continue to push innovation forward by asking ‘why?’ and ‘what if?’

“The men who are going to be in business tomorrow are the men who understand that the
future, as always, belongs to the brave.”.~ Bill Bernbach

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the Agency Post

by arnteriksen on August 15, 2012

I was contacted by the lovely and positive Jami Oetting, Executive Editor of The Agency Post. She is an advertising nerd, who’s big on creativity, quick wit and good conversation. She wanted to do a Point of View interview with me and my role as Creative Director for the Nordic digital communication agency, Creuna.

If you’d like to read the article you can find it here:

Welcome to The Agency Post! Tell us about yourself.
My name is Arnt Eriksen. I’m the creative director at Creuna, one of Nordic’s leading digital agencies. I live in Oslo with my wife Andrea, whom I met on Twitter back in 2008 — which is living proof that social media has made the world a smaller place.

I became interested in the graphical industry from my parents I guess. My dad is a printer and my mom used to work as a typist at the same print shop until they started their own print shop in 1982. I was working there every single weekend and vacation, looking at beautiful artwork and photos that were being produced. Of course my dad wanted me to take over the family business, but my interest was more into creating and designing the things that were being produced, not manufacturing them.

I like the concept and vision of the Agency Post, I think it is a great idea to meet and get to know creatives and their Point of View on their work, inspiration and visions for the future.

What’s your thoughts of the article?

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the Effects of a Brandividual and the Demise of Apple

by arnteriksen on March 21, 2012

So the air has set since the first Keynote without Steve Jobs, with the introduction of the new iPad on March 7 — But something was different, very different — and that is, of course, looking beyond the obvious fact that Steve Jobs no longer is the one holding the keynote.

The company known for its non-compromising branding and impressive and gorgeous simplicity was suddenly performing below par, revealing some unimaginable inconsitencies and minor flaws never seen when Steve Jobs were holding the wheel, keeping the Apple-ship at a firm course.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was the pure embodiment of a brandividual.

Steve Jobs = Apple and vice versa

Something was missing in the presentation, something that was hard to put the finger on at first, but it was just something off, something wrong. It was… sloppiness. The Apple Keynote was sloppy, imprecise, lacking that final touch that Steve clearly brought to the table. He was a perfectionist, demanding everything be at its best, down to the last detail, before going on stage — ready to satisfy the need of all the journalists and Apple evangelists in the world, sitting there in pure excitment, waiting to see the new hot Apple product they just “need-to-have.”

Apple needs to take care and tighten things back into the Jobs standard, because if things are starting to slip after such a short amount of time, they will lose their special spark that we all love, and will just become a device company. Still delivering great designed products, but lacking that extra Jobs-magic.

This is the danger of the brandividual — that the person becomes bigger than the brand, or actually is the spirit or soul of the brand. There is a saying — you are only as strong as your weakest link — and in this case, with Steve gone, Apple is showing weakness. I know it is just minor details that glitched — but still — the devil is in the details.

I do believe in the power of the brandividual — we’re in the era of the brandividual, or as I call it; the Brand You economy. We are all a brand, and everything we do online is part of our personal marketing and communication plan to build ourselves and reduce the gap between our profile (the way we are perceived) and our image (the way we want to be seen). For a company it is imperative to have a clear vision, mission and strategy when they allow for a brandividual to build and appear online on their behalf, so that the ideas and principles are based on a mutual understanding of what is to be achieved on behalf of the brand. They have to be a team working together to achieve the defined and set goals. Brandividuals are driven by the desire to be seen, acknowledged for their skills and ability to get attention. The company should be in the forefront, giving support, not to be kind and nice, but to protect and make sure that the attention is given to the company/brand as well — and it’s a simple way to make sure the brandividual stays loyal and feels as an appreciated member of the team.

Back to Apple — is this the start of Apple’s demise? I don’t think so — but I do think they need to focus and stay on-brand, which is to make sure Steve Jobs still stays in spirit, hanging over their shoulders, demanding the absolute best, not accepting sloppiness and whipping the crap out of them in spirit. I was pretty fast in tweeting out an article written by the ever smart Jolie O’Dell adding the hashtag #ImissSteveJobs

Apple’s press conference showed a brand unraveling: bit.ly/Axlg93 /by @jolieodell #ImissSteveJobs — Arnt Eriksen (@arnteriksen) March 8, 2012

- because, to be quite honest, Steve Jobs would never have given the GO on the keynote and the launch of the Resolutionary “New iPad’ (still in shock about that one)!

Will Apple to lead itself back into Steve Jobs zero tolerence of sloppiness?

What do you think?

The above posting is my column for The Huffington Post. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure. If you want you can check out the original version online here:

the Huffington Post :: the Post Jobs Era

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Pinning the Social Sharing Dilemma

by arnteriksen on March 14, 2012

This article from Business Insider enlightens some (a lot) of the questions one might have towards the use of Pinterest and the copyright issues connected to the fast-growing social network.

A woman named Kirsten decided to look into the legality of Pinterest. After all, she’s a lawyer with a passion for photography.
What she found scared her so much, she shut down her Pinterest boards entirely.
Read the whole article here

It’s been a ton of articles about Pinterest and the vast possibilities of the service, sharing your interests and inspirations, commercial use and what have you – and it only proves the fact that we love to get connected with new and excisting ‘friends’ and share stuff that somehow gives us a profile, identity, indication of who we are and what interests us. We truly live in a narcissistic society where it is all about being seen and get some attention, mostly based on other peoples creativity and knowledge. Don’t get me wrong – I do it myself, but I’m getting more and more aware of the complications and consequences that might come in the aftermath of our desire to overshare anything and everything. We are loosing perspective of what is ok and not, being overshadowed by the drive of getting attention by gathering stuff to show how ‘interesting’ we are.

I am no legal expert, but the article above and others, have shed some light about what might turn out to become a problem. I guess a lot of creatives; photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, painters and others that are producing original material are happy for the spread and attention, but at some point someone might use the material that, for the person behind the original work, might not approve of. If they have the resources, it might have severe consequences - not for services like Pinterest, protecting themselves behind their “Terms of Use” putting all blame on the user of their services, even making sure that if it turns out to become a legal issue, their legal costs are to be covered by the end-user.

One might draw parallels to the tobacco industry or even the drug cartells – being simply the provider of the services – not forcing anyone to use them, but really happy that they have people that are users and ‘addictives’ – since it is their means of making money. I know it’s an extreme parallel, but given the worst-case-scenario, it might have severe results for the person that was only trying to build a cool and interesting online-persona by sharing content.

I don’t know where this might lead, but I’m certain there will be some cases in the future that will force some kind of protection and responsibility placement to companies and services like Pinterest and others.

It only proves the necessity to be more aware of what we become an active part of and the consequences it might bring.

What are your thoughts?

The above posting is my column for The Huffington Post. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure. If you want you can check out the original version online here:

the Huffington Post – Pinterest and its True Colors

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My First Post on the Huffington Post

by arnteriksen on March 6, 2012

So – this is a big day for me, as I was invited to become a blogger for the Huffington Post. I’ve been a huge fan of the site for many many years, and I have followed Arianna Huffington from the beginning up to where she is today – and there should be no doubt that she has made both impact and huge difference on the way news are created and spread. She has been a game-changer, and some love or hate her for that. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration of her achievements, and that is what I can reflect on, since I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting her in person.

And now I’m a part of their great big family of bloggers and writers, which to me is awesome. How did this happen? Well – I’m working and planning not only on re:think Vol 02, but Vol 03 and Vol 04 as well, and in this process I contacted the Huffington Post in regards of the conference and possible speakers. I sent an email describing the concept of the conference, the idea behind it and the principles that I want to present, and they contacted me and asked me to be a voice for them. If I was a teenager I would probably be jumping up and down like crazy being overly excited – which I must admit, that at the age of 40 that is actually what I did. I’m sorry. But to me this is huge. To have a voice at a website that gathers close to 30 million unique readers every month, it’s a huge opportunity. Huge!

So – please – this is my first contribution (of many to come) at the Huffington Post, and it is titled: Corporate Employee Abuse

You can also find my channel here

Please tweet, retweet, share, like, spread and subsribe if you like my writing.

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Must all conferences be drop dead boring?

by arnteriksen on March 1, 2012

I’ve been working within the communication industry for the past 20 years, the last five of them focusing on the new media; – digital- and social media. To stay up-to-date I attended conferences …many conferences. Well – I thought that was the best way to obtain knowledge.  I thought “hey – if the thoughtleaders within this playfield are speaking there, then that is the place to be, to get the latest and greatest directly from the source” …right?

Have you ever attended a conference, being left with the sense of a mashed up brain with an overload of information from great (and not so great) speakers, but without the chance to acutally talk to the speaker. That’s what we want, right? To ask the tricky questions, the ones most relevant to you – engage them in dialog and get to know them just a little? Well then, that makes two of us!

Talk the talk, but then walk the other way?
This is what provoced me – the fact that all the great topics, speakers, subjects and content, was treated with such little respect. How can someone create a conference, invite a full list of speakers (sometimes way too many, so that it’s hard to choose) and have them speak so passionately about social media, the importance of being present, approachable, engaging, build conversations and such. Claim that the world of communications has moved from monologe to dialoge – “we’re all a part of a huge cocktailparty where everyone is interested in shaking your hand and speak with you” – only to experience that the basics of the conference is still a one-way street, it’s monologue. The instant the speaker is done, they’re off – gone – unavailable, back on the plane to return to their busy schedule. That made me think about this in a whole new perspective, to challenge this way of thinking. It actually made me re:think.

What do I mean ~ re:think?
I attacked the conformaty of what a conference is and try to create something different. I wanted to remove everything I hated, and add everything I appreciated from the idea of what a conference should be, and there it was – the mission was clear:

re:think is going to push the (nordic) corporate world forward by having the best international speakers on stage
the speakers are challenged to deliver tangible actions, ideas and value to the attendees
encourage and facilitate questions and dialogue
all access to the speakers throughout re:think, they are obligated to be available

“re:think is about providing tangible tools and actions for your business by creating an intersection between you and brilliant thought-leaders within communication.”

It’s about making new and interesting connections using passion, inspiration and creativity as tools between people to find ways of getting and sharing knowledge. It’s a place where we want to ignite and share extraordinary ideas of individuals, teams and organizations by bringing together different disciplines and cultures to ignite a spark…

…and it all starts by understanding the principles, knowing the methods and use these new channels in a creative and innovative way.

“Same sh** — new wrapping?”
I’m fully aware that the easiest thing in the world is to find flaws and errors in others and brag about your own achievements. Well – it is the victorious that creates history, so I guess I’ll let the attendees and speakers of the conference be the judge of my success or utter failure with re:think. My goal is to change the definition of what being present at a conference in the 21st century.

So has everyone met @arnteriksen and @kleinjinx? You should. They threw an awesome event #rethinkOSL and are awesome people. @missrogue / Tara missrogue Hunt

It’s all about timing – and network
I’ve been lucky enough to enter this new arena in the early stages – so that I actually had a chance to build valid and sustainable connections with brilliant, creative and skillfull thoughtleaders that challenges the way of thinking commununication, and how to make things happen. The same people have become close online relations and I’m blessed to be in a position now to invite the same people to come to Scandinavia and join me on stage of re:think create the link between the speakers and the attendees that want to take their business to the next level.

Networking is key – I’m a living proof – and the way we communicate with each other makes it easier and possible to connect with anyone, anywhere at anytime. It truly is a small world – and my vision is that re:think will play a part in creating an intersection of ideas and principles within communication in the years to come.

arnt eriksen // curator of re:think

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Oups, I did it again!

by arnteriksen on February 2, 2012

Sometimes you start on a journey you kind of don’t know where it might take you, but after you’ve started, are so glad you did. I’m in the middle of that state of mind right now. As I’ve written previously, I planned this baby of mine – re:think – for months, even years. I must admit though – after the first one was over, I was exhausted. It seemed like I had managed to sustain such a high level of energy to make the whole thing happen, and on the day itself, I had to perform at my best being both the curator and one of the speakers as well. So the day after the conference – all the air had gone out of the balloon. (me, that is)

Then – after a few days of well deserved and needed R&R, I felt ready to get started with the next one. Crazy – I know. But it was just such a great kick to actually make it happen, and the feedback from all the attendees and speakers was actually overwhelming and gave me fuel.

So – I did it… again.

First, I defined more specific and clear what I wanted the conference to be all about, concluding with the following:

re:think is an intersection of ideas and principles within Social Business Marketing

I’m quite pleased with that one. Next I had to define the different topics that would provide and deliver on this vision of what I want re:think is all about. Granted, there are a lot of skillful people out there, but not all of them have the business savvy that has credibility within the corporate world to be looked upon of being those thought-leaders that can be relevant and provide true value. With some research and reaching out to my network of colleges – I found them.

Look at this lineup:

Valeria Maltoni from Conversation Agent will speak about the Principles of Business in the Age of the Social Customer
Gini Dietrich will provide insights behind the Principles of Online Reputation
Maggie Fox, and the Principles of Corporate Marketing
Mitch Joel will rock on stage speaking about the Principles of Future Marketing
Chris Brogan will come and present the Principles of “the Next Big Thing” for Business

The scary part of this is that getting these amazing speakers is merely 20% of making the conference happen. It’s a matter of getting the website be as presentable and clear in it’s message as possible. Make the call-to-action, easy and accessible. Get the necessary amount of sponsors to have the guarantee financing in order, find the right venue, the right suppliers and define all the details around the customer journey for the attendees.

Next step – when all the above is done – is all about selling the tickets and get the people aware of the conference, make the message clear and prove that it is different than the rest of them. Hopefully convince media to write about what is to come, which is not an easy thing, since a conference is a commercial event and it’s not looked upon as relevant to the free press – they might write about the speakers, IF the angle is right.

That’s where I am now. I’m done with everything of planning and the nitty-gritty details. Now it’s just to make everyone aware of the conference, it’s great speakers and the content we’ll provide and in the end sell tickets. That’s it… it’s that simple, yet that hard.

But I’m confident about the vision, concept, strategy, speakers, content, and topics. This will be the conference that will provide the true value of how to have success within Social Business Marketing. Well, that’s what I hope will be the perceived experience when March 29. is done and over with.

The fun thing is – it started as a consequence of me re:thinking my life and career – and it made me re:act and make change. That’s what I want to pass on. I want to ignite a spark, bring ideas and prove that by focusing on the Principles of Marketing, take a step back and re:think the whole in perspective of the digital age, it will make a difference.

So – now I would like to ask you, what is your thoughts about the content and idea of the conference? (click to get to the site) any input you would like to give? I’m all ears and open to all thoughts that can make it an even better product than what it is now.

//arnt

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The Secret of Life from Steve Jobs in 46 Seconds

by arnteriksen on January 1, 2012

Came across this great post by a online-friend of mine, Maria Popova who shares amazing content via her twitter account and her blog. Today I came across one of her posts with a 46 second long interview of Steve Jobs, which I just wanted to share.

I’ve seen a lot of interviews of Steve Jobs since he passed away, and I’m well into the book about him as well, and I’m truly amazed about how complex, interesting and out of the ordinary Steve Jobs truly was.

Well, here is the link to the article by Maria, and here is the 46 sec interview:

Enjoy! =)

//arnt

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I did it! I needed to re:think, now it’s time to re:act

by arnteriksen on September 12, 2011

This is indeed exciting times. I started this journey a long time ago, actually back in the summer of 2009 in New York. I was going there to attend an event for the launch of Mitch Joel‘s then, upcoming book – Six Pixels of Separation - which in it self was an awesome experience… but it was also the beginning of great connections and the small seed that now has become re:think. You see – the agent of Mitch Joel, David Evenchick has some pretty good connections, and when we started to talk it became clear that there were some thoughts and principles I had about communication and social media, that he thought would be interesting to use to create an conference. The day after I had the pleasure to meet Chris Anderson, the curator of TED – and we had an amazing meeting that even made it more clear to me what I wanted to do as a concept for a conference.

Since that summer, things has kinda been like a roller-coaster! I’ve used my international connections and got in touch with so many interesting and inspiring thought-leaders I truly admire to ask them to come join me in creating an event beyond the ordinary concept of a social media event. Thankfully the response have been positive. Almost all the great speakers and friends I have asked have said that they would love to come to re:think at some point.

The 3 speakers I have for the first re:think conference, October 11th is:

Tara Hunt, Pioneering expert in online communities and marketing

Jacob Morgan, Principal and co-founder of Chess Media Group and expert on Social CRM

Rohit Bhargava, Best selling author, Professor in Marketing and Senior VP of Ogilvy Group

…and myself

What a lineup! and I’m not talking about me in that sentence… but it has to be the best collection of speakers to kick off my conference. I’m truly happy, proud and grateful that they all said yes to be a part of this.

I’m going to write more about re:think in the days to come, so please stay tuned

arnt // curator

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