Archive for category Work
Sudden hotness: Social + E-commerce = Social Commerce
Posted by Jose Mallabo in E-Commerce, Public Relations, Work on November 30, 2010
Amazing how hot the juncture between e-commerce and social networking has gotten. It’s simple, really. E-commerce is eating into the overall retail segment. And, marketers go where the crowds are. Right now those crowds are not on AOL or WPIX (except for this page about Victoria’s Secret). They’re on Facebook and Twitter.
I remember having some very heated dialogue over using ‘social commerce’ as a thought leadership position within the corporate PR program at eBay about 3+ years ago. I don’t recall what side of the argument I was on, but needless to say, despite the PR agency’s best efforts (you know who you are) to make it real, it took a Joe Pesci pen to the neck (Nicky in Casino) and never saw the light of day.
Until now.
Sudden hotness has arrived in that kink of a place where social and commerce are meeting.
After CyberMonday all the rumors were about Google to buy Groupon for $2.5 billion (Kara Swisher reports the offer is $5.3 billion). A colleague of mine asked if they’d call it Goopon? Heck, for that mountain of money, they can sponsor the TSA and rename it Gropeon. Today, Payvment announced a $6 million round of venture financing. In recent weeks Facebook has launched Deals to sit on top of its Places product. And, all you need to do is do a Twitter search for #CyberMonday to see how much traction commerce gets on Twitter.
So, while TechCrunch ponders if Amazon missed the boat on social commerce the reality is we all did. Or we would’ve called Nicky and his pen off back in 2007, created a Moto RAZR app for surfing the Urban Outfitters page on Facebook and retired on Black Friday 2009 on the speculation that Google was going to buy it.
Lesson of the day: A lot of the time the PR firm is right.
Update 1: Dec. 2: Groupon: In the days since Mashable posted the Google buys Groupon rumor, most of the banter has been about how sexy the deal is. Rumors about M&A are dead sexy and dramatic. But we all know that most deals don’t work. And the honeymoon usually ends quickly once the hot company gets ingested. I’m just happy someone is giving some sound analysis to this deal before it gets done. Thanks, Sucharita.
Update 2: Dec. 3: Milo.com: Having worked with eBay Classifieds Group before and while classifieds was being integrated into the eBay.com marketplace, I find this $75 million deal to buy Milo.com…fascinating. I have to figure it out in light of all the above, eBay’s constant refrain about mobile as well as it’s M&A history. More later.
-Jose Mallabo
Update: “Social Networking is a Stupid Fad”
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Public Relations, Work on November 15, 2010
Brian Womack at Bloomberg just pointed out what everyone in the Valley and technology have known for some time: Social networks are more valuable than many of the Web 1.0 companies that have come to be household names over the past decade.
Facebook valuation hits $41 billion. Say it a couple of times and let that sink in. Combined with secondary market valuations of Twitter and LinkedIn, the Big 3 social networks are worth more than $46 billion — that’s some serious coin considering all of these companies are about 10 years newer than the watch I’m wearing right now. (Note to self: buy new watch.)
Greenspan made his infamous irrational exuberance speech just after I launched a start up .com. Thanks for that.
To my post from the other day: “so what, who cares?” remains the refrain from many people around the world who stand on the sidelines and scoff at such lofty valuations and the utility of being social. Rational or irrational. Call Alan Greenspan because the exuberance is there. And when that kind of exuberance exists from the capital markets, things change. Big things. Think the Bull Market of the late 90s. The U.S. housing market from the same period. Justin Bieber right now.
Nevermind what Facebook has done in terms of surpassing eBay or Yahoo! valuation. Look at it compared to iconic brands that have been around for generations. Its worth three times more than Xerox. Forty times more than Kodak. And, if you look at Facebook purely as a medium through which to reach consumers (like a newspaper) it absolutely humbles what is the greatest institution in journalism: the Wall Street Journal — which Rupert Murdoch bought for a skim-milk price of $5.6 billion in 2007.
Maybe social networking is the alternate reality. But, what if it’s not?
- Jose Mallabo
“Social Networking is a Stupid Fad!”
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Funny, Public Relations, Work on November 10, 2010
I hear that sentiment a lot since leaving Silicon Valley.
It’s a refrain that reminds me of the woman on the bus in New York who scolded me with her eyes for answering my Motorola StarTAC — a decade ago. She’s probably tuning her TV with bunny ears now. I get it — not everyone will get on the bandwagon. Cable TV in the US still doesn’t have 100% penetration. But –
Note the price: $1,000 in 1996.
– at some point quantity does become quality. Breadth and depth of use changes the nature or quality of something — and in this case it’s social networking and everything it touches.
- Facebook has north of 600 million members and is easily the most important force on the Internet for marketers of every kind.
- Twitter is closing in on 200 million members who are producing 90 million Tweets per day. That figure was 27 million just a year ago.
- LinkedIn has more than 85 million members and is ever so quietly disrupting the rusty recruiting industry while simultaneously pushing into enterprise commerce.
A lot of people will never network online, let alone write a blog about it. Having worked at eBay and LinkedIn and now sitting in an e-commerce company whose clients are pushing hard into social media, it’s easy to say that this is not going anywhere. It’s becoming the way people and companies communicate with each other. If anything the term “social networking” may be passe. The breadth of adoption and use cases for it may have blown by the term two or three months ago.
It’s not just about discovering where old friends and colleagues are anymore. It’s about exchanging ideas, knowledge, working collaboratively and even transacting commerce.
That my technology loathing friends is a marketplace. Marketplaces are the basis of communities, cities and dare I say empires. Google: “Roman Empire” or “Dutch trading” to prove me right. Remember it was New Amsterdam before the English said otherwise.
The big 3 networks (sound familiar?) are quickly replacing the phone, TV and soon the mall. If you don’t think that possibility is compelling. . . go home and tear the telephone out of the wall, dump the HD-TV in the pool and move to the plains.
I’ll be here in my marketplace.
- Jose Mallabo
Gloria Allred calls Meg Whitman a Liar
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Work on October 27, 2010
I’ve had my head in the sand the past few weeks. Sue me. But just don’t call me a liar in that cherry red blazer, Ms. Allred.
Now that I’m outside of California, the only source I have for the California mudslinging otherwise known as the gubernatorial race between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown is YouTube and clips on the Internet.
Is she a liar? Watch this clip and you tell me.
Gloria Allred giving her the business
But as a legal immigrant and naturalized citizen, I have to call bullshit on Ms. Allred calling Diaz a hero. My dad is a hero. He immigrated here in the 70s — and brought his family in tow and went through years of red tape to become US citizen.
I believe everyone has the right to find happiness and pursue the American dream. I’m sure Diaz Santillan is a hard working woman who deserved better than getting dragged through the political mud as a pawn. But, let’s not make her a martyr or spokesperson for all Hispanic women.
There’s a long line of Americans that stand in front of her who deserve that attention.
- Jose Mallabo
Driving in the 215
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Work on October 26, 2010
Last year I drove at least 40,000 miles insufferable miles in California. Probably triple of the average person driving in Eastern Pennsylvania. In fact, when you factor in my air miles I’m probably responsible for a 2.5% of the Texas-sized hole in the Ozone Layer. Cut to the quick — I know my way behind the wheel and on the road. Like water I pride myself on getting places.
Presidents or not, don't bother looking for these in the 215
But one month back in the Philadelphia area and I need to be a good citizen and forewarn would-be visitors to get your Garmins now or stay put. Street signs here are nearly non-existent. And if they exist at all, they’re likely behind a hugely overgrown tree — that you need to pass (along with the actual turn) in order to see the sign.
I think they want you to feel lost so you’ll make your way back to New Jersey or New York and leave the Liberty Bell for those truly committed to finding it. I’ve resigned myself to driving aimlessly but very aggressively through the many “76″ highways here that seem to intertwine like two snakes French kissing. I think the boorishness of my driving is welcomed. Text messaging while driving is kind of treated like pot is in Amsterdam — we know you’re going to do it, just do it here.
In fact, with the lack of a helmet law I almost feel like the governor is encouraging motorcyclists to make calls like to local friends asking: “What the hell is the blue route? Is that the 276?”
- Jose Mallabo
A work rant
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Funny, Public Relations, Work on August 14, 2010
Occasionally I share some thoughts with my teams and colleagues. This was an 11 item rant. Why 11? I was in a This is Spinal Tap kind of moment.
11 things in my head
- Media coverage is not a panacea. If it were, Monica Lewinsky would be president of the U.S. and BP would be company of the decade. I subscribe to the doctrine of agenda setting when it comes to media relations. The media doesn’t tell people what to think, it tells them what to think about.
- I’ve launched more than 100 products, announced more than 125 acquisitions, 50 partnerships and dozens of events across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe – two or three were memorable.
- The best PR campaigns are those that are experiential and drive activism at the grassroots or customer level. Most of these can then elevate into media coverage.
- TiVo was the worst press launch I’ve ever worked on. It was 100% focused on the technology and never considered the lifestyle play. It remains my biggest learning lesson. HP’s “e-services” launch was the second worst project I was involved with.
- One of the brands I admire most for its resurgence is Lacoste. Once a brand for preppy suburban teens that died with the advent of hip-hop and grunge culture – now transcends both demographics and two generations of consumers while maintaining its niche appeal. I own no Lacoste clothing.
- Everyone in the company does PR and will tell you how to do your job — until there is a crisis or someone asks how to measure PR. The best PR people are prepared for both.
- My favorite quote is from the late great John Wooden: “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” It’s both a memorable sound bite and universally applicable for anything.
- I am frustrated by the fact that we agreed on what our number 1 priority is months ago and we’ve done a total of 2 tactics worldwide to address this in the first half of the year.
- Your biggest challenge as an in house PR person will always be staying focused. See #6 above.
- PR people train spokespeople on the fact that audiences remember very little about a message and are impacted mostly by the visuals and experience of the communication event – yet we spend most of our day-to-day time spinning on messaging.
- Occasionally I hear a PR person say something and I think, that’s bang on. This is bang on – and Nick is one of the best PR people I know.
I Googled myself
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Work on June 16, 2010
Yea, so what?! So, I just Googled myself. It’s the modern day version of looking up your name in the white pages. Only better!
Navin R. Johnson. 1 listing in the white pages.
Unlike our boy Navin, when I Googled myself as ‘jose mallabo ebay’ i pulled up 1.4 million hits. Since you asked, most of those hits were as a spokesperson for the ecommerce company. I scrolled through some of them and ran across this gem of a story on the CNET Blog from 2008.
There was lots of hub-bub about a strike and all the Valley media were jumping all over themselves to cover this “weeklong” boycott. Hmm. There was no boycott. The only thing that happened for a week was me explaining that there was no boycott. Here’s the lesson learned: don’t believe everything you read. Especially on a blog.
We’re all just sitting home in our underwear watching re-runs of Love American Style. Yea, I’m that old. Just Google it.
- Jose Mallabo
We talkin’ about practice?
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Funny, Work on April 4, 2010
One of the most epic post game interviews ever. Allen Iverson and practice.
Iverson challenges the media's question. God love it.
A lot of people think Iverson is a thug. Who knows? Who cares? I don’t. I just know he’s a flat out great ball player who throws his body around with abandon. I’d pay the absurd NBA price for tickets to watch a 6′ tall guy play wall to wall for 48 minutes.
From a PR perspective he tries very hard to do what all PR people in a turnaround situation try to do — change the conversation. He makes a couple of tactical errors — largely baked in the mistake of repeating the question around ‘practice’ in his answer, not once but over and over — but God love his approach. If not, I do. Challenge the damned question and don’t roll over to an uninformed missive pointed your way.
That said….
Are we really talking about the iPad? It’s a tablet PC. A tablet PC. We talkin’ about a tablet? Not a game. Not a real PC. A tablet?
As Allen would say, ‘c’mon man!?’ It’s a tablet.
Let’s call a duck a duck. The only reason that people are taking what would be a chubby BMW car payment and putting it into an oversized iPhone, is because its design is pretty slick, not because they really need it. It’s frightening to me that in an economy like this where California still has an unemployment rate that is second only to Michigan’s, people are dropping stupid money into a toy they don’t really need. What would that money do for something really worthy? Like rebuilding Haiti or something closer to home, like rebuilding the hideous Interstate 880 freeway that looks like something a 3rd world country would be proud of (barely)?
These 2 iPads will go right next to the 2 Betamax players I bought from Crazy Eddie's
People. We talkin’ about practice? We talkin’ about a tablet? This device will not make you taller and it will not serve as a proxy for having a personality that makes you more attractive (except for in certain parts of San Jose). It will not fill that chasm in your lifeless overworked lives. You’ll need humanity for that.
Quack.
- Jose Mallabo
Donkey
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Work on March 26, 2010
I was in the middle of an inane, but probably funny diatribe about Silicon Valley cubicle life with a co-worker over a carnitas burrito bowl at Chipotle when he simply blurted: “donkey.” God, Chipotle really is a typical California strip mall kind of eatery that when I’m not there fits in my mental video reel that plays as part of the opening scene of Weeds season 1 or 2.
I bet Agrestic has a Chipotle
Mario wasn’t calling me a donkey, but as it turns out there was one behind me in the street pulling a woman in what I can only call a buggy. Which really makes me say, really, a donkey? In Mountain View — the land of the imported German car that costs more than what its owner has in the the bank — a fucking donkey?
I’ve seen cows walking the streets of India and rats the size of large guinea pigs sprinting past $500 Allen Edmonds oxfords on the streets of Manhattan, but for some reason a burro sighting while eating a burrito at a faux Mexican restaurant is blog worthy.
Eight more years and I'll be old and stuffy enough to wear these -- which means I'm still working. What a depressing thought.
Elaine Benes has her sponge. I have my burro sighting.
Yadda, yadda, yadda…it’s Wednesday and we’re talking about Speedo’s at work.
- Jose Mallabo
How to lick H1N1
Posted by Jose Mallabo in Friends and family, Funny, Work on November 19, 2009
I can quip about it now. But when it was happening a smile and a blog post was the last thing on my mind.
It was Friday morning and the night before I had eaten an overstuffed, fatty carnitas burrito (for those east of the Mississippi and north of Maryland, that’s pork) late at night and fell asleep at my computer. I know. It’s a very healthy approach to heart disease — which is just shy of smoking a couple of Marlboro reds while eating pork rinds in bed. So the grumbling and fever I woke up with were easily attributed to that burrito.
Off to work I go. First meeting: CEO, CFO and my boss are in there along with a consultant that I hired. That’s a big ticket meeting to be in when you’re starting to feel the symptoms of H1N1. (For more info: check out the CDC site.)
Fast forward to the part where I’m in the doctor’s office after a two hour drive: The receptionist and nurses are insanely friendly, smiling and seemingly glad to take my co-pay and give them something better to do than complain about the shitty grub they got from Taco Bell. Everybody, show some spirit, here comes a sick guy!
Sprawled out on the examination table trying to get comfortable, all I could think of was having those stirrups might actually relieve the pressure in my back caused by my legs hanging off the edge. But that would risk the wrong examination. Me likey the sore back!
15 minutes into the examination my doctor confirms it’s 99.8% likely it’s H1N1. But he’ll swab my nose and send the tests to the lab. Those tests look real easy on the TV news. But imagine taking a very thin pen and pushing it through your nose up into your sinuses then making a figure 8 with it. Twice. The deepest nose pick outside of an Our Gang episode.
He leaves the room. Comes back. Says he’s going to write me a prescription for Tamiflu. He says, “you’re all set, come on out.” Two beats. Then “on second thought, just hang in there for a minute.” That seals it. No lab tests needed. They all know it’s 100% that I have H1N1.
As I leave the office it’s like I’ve become Moses. People are parting in front of me like had a loaded shotgun and a frothing Pit Bull sitting on my shoulder. It’s both weird and kind of nice not to have to go through all the fake good byes. So I grabbed the prescription, pushed the door into the lobby open with my elbow (ensuring they all saw that) then stroll to the main exit/entrance, lick the door knob and leave.
Take that you over friendly co-pay takers.
- Jose Mallabo