4 TED Talks All Brand Storytellers Must Watch

TED talks are a gold mine of knowledge. Because the TED website’s topics include not only technology, education and design (TED) but also business, science, activism, health, storytelling and everything in between, one can get lost on the site for days.

A number of these short talks (most are around 20 minutes) revolve around storytelling. While they don’t necessarily address brand storytelling, they do offer insights that a brand could apply to its efforts to engage audiences through its brand story. I’ve gathered four talks I found particularly useful, and I’ve included a brand takeaway for each. Enjoy!

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Isn’t It About Time Your Brand Adopted a Mobile Strategy?

I received a sobering yet enlightening Facebook message from my aunt two weeks ago. After getting over my shock that she even knew how to use Facebook Messenger (she is not a technophile), I read her message: 

Aunt: Guess what I got today?
Me: What?
Aunt: The iPhone 5
[cue jaw dropping]

I was reading this on my iPhone 3Gs, yet I’m the one who works at a global post-advertising agency. That’s when I knew it: Mobile has reached significant penetration and can’t be ignored by brands.

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Three Ways the Second Screen Is Shaping the Future of Television

Have you heard of the second screen? If not and you’re a marketer of media, you’d better listen up and learn fast; a number of television networks and individual programs have started taking this concept seriously and are, as a result, tightly weaving audiences into a more dynamic viewing experience. If fantastic recent examples like NBC’s The Voice, CBS’s 54th Grammy Award ceremonies and WGN America’s syndication work continue to crop up, the second screen will soon enough become your new first priority.

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The Future of Publishing Begins with Survival

Storytelling is a tradition that will exist as long as humans inhabit the Earth. It’s in our DNA. The tools we use, however, have changed and will continue to change. We’ve moved on from cave paintings to the written word, from parchment paper to word processors. We’ve even seen the printed word slowly disappear as we move on to electronic readers, like the Kindle and Nook, which allow users to store hundreds of books on a single device.

Another monumental change has occurred just in the past 20 months or so. With the introduction of the iPad and other tablet devices that followed shortly thereafter, readers are able to dive deeper into content than ever before. So it’s no surprise that when Razorfish chairman Clark Kokich wanted to write a book, he decided that the only appropriate way to do so was to bypass traditional publishers and create it as an interactive application. See the demo below.

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Will Mobile Rule the World in 2012?

You know Grandma Mildred’s annual holiday proclamation "Everyone is using them dang cellular telephones!"? You can say that again, Grams. And while she may still be resisting the constant influx of newfangled tech and software, almost everyone else has embraced mobile with open arms. A while back, predictions had Internet usage on mobile devices overtaking the same on desktops and laptops by 2015. We happen to think that at least for millennials, mobile may already have usurped more traditional devices, thanks in part to a number of key apps and events.

Join us as we take a look back at mobile’s massive growth this year as a way to forecast 2012: the year in which mobile takes over and rules the world.

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5 Exceptional Branded iPad Applications Win Postie Awards!

As the Oscars are seemingly falling apart with the departure of Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy, subsequently, heading for ze hills, there’s probably no sense in even watching it at all. So what’s an award-show lover to do? Don’t worry, we’ve got the Posties!

You’ll see the Posties evolve into something really big and über important in the coming months, but for its first incarnation, we thought we’d take a look at a space that’s near and dear to our hearts and award some of the best and brightest branded iPad applications.

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The Future of Content Is Not in Your Computer

There was once a day when a computer filled a room. Now it’s in your palm. That’s the story my dad tells me at least. Soon, when my future children are old enough to understand, I’ll tell them how I used to read books and magazines made out of paper and I couldn’t simply touch the screen of my computer to make things happen. Also, I used to walk to school uphill, both ways, in the snow.

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Digital and Print Bundle Up for Impressions

Want a subscription to both the print AND digital version of a magazine? It'll cost you...less! The same print magazine you get each month in your mailbox is now available for browsing on your iPad, and for the convenience of having both, you'll pay less than a simple app-only subscription. It sounds backward, but this is exactly what publishers are doing these days. The reasons why actually make some sense.

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Television’s New Sidekick: The iPad

The iPad just may be TV’s latest and greatest sidekick. With new iPad apps for both ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Fox’s Bones that sync with the show in real-time to offer exclusive bonus material, television networks might have just uncovered the next best trend in making old media new again. The technology first version appeared back in September for My Generation, but when ABC cancelled the show in October after two episodes, the app also disappeared. But ABC's brought it back for the more-established Grey's, and Fox has recently followed suit with their own app for Bones.
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The Newspaper of Tomorrow, Today?

The first iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, finally unveils this morning at the Guggenheim in New York. The much-talked about venture has been called Murdoch’s “Number 1 most exciting project." But will it really incite a revolution in the publishing world?
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