Month: March 2017

Rory Aronson revolutionised agriculture when he created the coolest invention ever—FarmBot—an AI robot which farms your veggie patch. Seriously, this autonomous robot plants seeds, waters the garden, checks the soil nutrients and kills the weeds. In this episode of MATE, Rory explains how he built this precision agriculture machine and why it’s going to transform the agriculture industry. We also discuss how he hacked the product launch video to go viral and smash the goal on their crowdfunding campaign.

 

Topics:

• What is CNC farming and what are the benefits?
• How FarmBot works and how to build one
• Who FarmBot is created for
• Why Rory decided to make FarmBot open-source
• How FarmBot compares to traditional methods of agriculture
• Plans to make FarmBot available for under $1,000
• Kickstarter’s impact on launching the project
• How to make your product launch video campaign go viral on social media
• How Rory has dealt with the sudden media attention of becoming an instant celebrity
• What’s exciting you right now? Burning Man.

 

Links:

• Rory Aronson’s website
• FarmBot website

 

Special thanks:

• Editing by Josh Armour, from ArmourPod Productions.
• Podcast logo cover artwork by Courtney Carman
• Music from “Ghosts I–IV” by Nine Inch Nails, used under a Creative Commons licence.

 

Connect with MATE:

• Subscribe on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• MATE podcast website
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

Bill Friedman has spent his entire adult life working in and around the Las Vegas casino business, alongside the gangsters who built the Las Vegas Strip. He has spent countless hours interviewing members of The Mafia, researching their histories and building a picture of the gambling industry in America. In this fascinating conversation, Bill shares the stories and lessons learned from the gangsters of Las Vegas.

1. Part 1: Bill Friedman’s background and the gangster history of Las Vegas
2. Part 2: Casino management and how casinos are designed to keep players focused on gambling
3. Part 3: The marketing and business lessons learned from how gangsters operated their Las Vegas casinos

 

Topics:

• Bill Friedman explains how he got involved in the casino business
• The legalisation of gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Bill’s fascination with gangsters, their business ethics and how he socialised with them.
• Objecting to his drafting in the Vietnam War and being questioned by the FBI
• Hollywood’s misrepresentation of The Mob
• Bill’s research with the School of Criminology at the University of California, Berkeley.
• What is Casino Management?
• The unique ways casinos are designed and how they are conducive to enticing gamblers to play
• Personalised service, giving customers what they want and the many ways casinos reward high-rollers.
• The real reason casino chips are used at the tables instead of cash
• How Frank Woolworth pioneered retail merchandising
• Despite similar names, Woolworths Limited in Australia has no affiliation with the F.W. Woolworth Company in the United States.
• The benefits intimate casinos enjoy
• An analysis of the very successful, “What Happens in Vegas, Stays Here.” tourism advertising campaign.
• Why people gamble
• How Bill produced huge profits for the Castaways and Silver Slipper casinos
• How differentiating your product from the competition can be more beneficiary than mimicking their traits
• The creative and outlandish marketing campaigns Bill implemented to capture the attention of the casino-going public

 

Links:

• Bill Friedman’s website
• Purchase Bill Friedman’s books:
  • 30 Illegal Years to the Strip, by Bill Friedman.
  • All Against the Law, by Bill Friedman.
  • Designing Casinos to Dominate the Competition, by Bill Friedman.
  • Casino Management, by Bill Friedman.
• The UNLV’s course, Introduction to Casino Management, which was originally developed by Bill Friedman.

 

Special thanks:

• The guest on this episode: Bill Friedman.
• Editing by Josh Armour, from ArmourPod Productions.
• Podcast logo cover artwork by Courtney Carman
• Music from “Ghosts I–IV” by Nine Inch Nails, used under a Creative Commons licence.

 

Connect with MATE:

• Subscribe on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• MATE podcast website
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

Chris Rauschnot is a digital influencer, content producer and marketing consultant from Las Vegas, Nevada. I interviewed Chris at the Bellagio Hotel on The Strip, where he revealed the marketing secrets big brands can learn from Las Vegas. We also talked about influencer marketing, social media marketing, Pokémon GO, and why Chris decided to base his business in Sin City.

 

Topics and links:

• Christopher Rauschnot describes himself as a digital influencer, brand advocate, writer, blogger and traveller. He works as a digital consultant in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Chris’s writing includes: blogging; reviewing products, services and travel experiences; covering celebrity appearances; and has recently been writing copy for products being launched on crowdfunding sites.
• We recorded this episode of MATE at the Bellagio Hotel, with a beautiful view of the famous Bellagio Fountains.

• Chris initially moved to Las Vegas for CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show). Then, he wanted something to do in between the conventions, so he focused on entertainment, food, travel, celebrities and excitement.
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (the TV series), which was hosted by Robin Leach.
• How Chris wrote an article for the Huffington Post which was featured next to one by Steve Ballmer (the CEO of Microsoft at the time). And a screenshot of the article which Chris has kept:

• Chris helped in the beta testing of RebelMouse, a social media and content distribution platform.
• What’s the difference between a brand advocate and a brand influencer?
• Why marketers get stuck focusing on ‘vanity metrics’.
• Sweden lets citizens take over its official @sweden Twitter account. This initially seemed like a great strategy, until eventually things ended up going awry.
• Is it ethically okay for a brand to #regram user photos?
• What is a public Snapchat Story?
• How Chris got 2 million views on his Snapchat Story in just 24 hours
• What are the main mistakes you see brands making on social media? Using social as another broadcast platform (rather than engaging with customers).
• How the ‘pay to play’ environment of social media is impacting brands
• Why Las Vegas hired DJ Khaled for a Snapchat campaign and gave him the keys to the city
• How DJ Khaled unintentionally rose to fame on Snapchat, and the ongoing impact it’s had on his career.
• How DJ Khaled branded an emoji to his brand #majorkey 🔑
• Does good content marketing work without a good distribution strategy?
• How does content marketing generate business results? Well, it needs a good strategy behind it.
• ‘Chewbacca Mom’ is the most popular Facebook Live video ever:

• The cruise company who hires their most loyal customers to run their live chat
• What is the future of digital marketing?
• Video is the fastest growing area of social media
• The challenging part about video is to be able to create compelling video that actually moves people
• Pokémon GO wasn’t the first mass-market implementation of augmented reality (see Yelp’s Monocle from 2009, or these other AR executions). In fact, some have argued that Pokémon GO isn’t even augmented reality!
• How Microsoft surreptitiously taught users drag/drop, double-click and other UI functionality through games like Solitaire and Minesweeper.
• We now know that Pokémon GO made $950 million USD in 2016!
• Pokémon GO is actually a reskinned version of Ingress (made by Niantic).
• What’s exciting you right now? Experience marketing and brand influencing (i.e. travelling with brands and reviewing brand products).
• Huawei is the #3 top selling smartphone manufacturer
• Is Apple actually innovative?
• If you could give one piece of digital marketing advice to any brand, what would it be? Engage with your current audience.
• FordPass is Ford’s foray into mobile, with a comprehensive digital concierge service predicted to trounce GM’s OnStar. The app’s FordGuides will answer travel questions regardless of whether you own a Ford vehicle. This is part of Ford’s mobility strategy of, ‘How do we get people from point A to point B with our brand involved?’

 

Special thanks:

• The guest on this episode: Chris Rauschnot, from 24k Media.
• Editing by Josh Armour, from ArmourPod Productions.
• Podcast logo cover artwork by Courtney Carman
• Music from “Ghosts I–IV” by Nine Inch Nails, used under a Creative Commons licence.

 

Connect with MATE:

• Subscribe on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Listen on YouTube
• MATE podcast website
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.