1. ABOVETHE CODE
StoryTelling / Branded Content
Buenos Aires - 24 April, 2013

2. TODAY...
•Presentation online @ www.alanweinkrantz.com
•Sharing principles, methods, approaches... each company is different
•Practical tips, hints and actionable steps you can take with you

3. IN MY LIFETIME...
•Three transformational periods that raised the global consciousness
•Blues & Rock music - BB King,The Beatles, Rolling Stones,The Who,
etc.
•The infrastructure of what become the Internet (thank you, in part,
Telefonica)
•The rise of the social & connected web

4. We are living in one
of the greatest
cultural and
business shifts ever

5. You can now...
Do Anything
Anytime
Anywhere

6. You have a compelling
start-up.
How do you connect
with the rest of the
world?

7. INTRO...
•Who’s in the room?
•Startups: Status / Funding / Distribution / Partnerships
•Companies: Technology / Product / Markets
•Media coverage? Impact?

8. I’M HERE....
•To help you....
• think about the importance and role of branded content and story
telling...
•share your startup or company’s story
•connect in a whole new way that a few years ago was left to the
marketing department or an external ad agency or PR firm
•discover and build the editorial fabric of your startup and help you
succeed

9. ABOUT
•30 years - yup, I am an old school PR guy.... and believe in the real
power of PR
•Discovering the global startup economy
•Involved with Israel’s traditional tech sector for the last 18 years

10. LASTTWOYEARS
• Speaking / Writing ... Observing / Watching
• Geekdom - San Antonio
• TechLoft -Tel Aviv
• TechStars Cloud - San Antonio
• MexicanVC (500 Startups) - Mexico City
• Microsoft Azure -Tel Aviv
• The Leaders Palestine - Ramallah
• Google -Tel Aviv

11. GOOD NEWS :)
•Very low cost / no cost to
create a start-up
•Big Idea
•Core team
•Strong will
•Servers / hosting

12. BAD NEWS :(
•Someone in NewYork, Madrid, San Francisco, Singapore,Tel Aviv,
Mumbai is thinking the same thing as you are :(
•Hard to have a defensible position
•Hard to protect your IP
•Getting traction is tough

13. QUALITIESTHEN...
•Strong Intellectual Property
•Defensible technology
•Strategic investors like Intel,AT&T, Cisco, Motorola,Telefonica
•Traditionally,VC funded
•30 engineers / CEO /VP Marketing /VP Biz Dev

14. QUALITIES NOW
•No Intellectual property
•Nothing really defensible
•Strategic investors & partners - Friends, Family,Angels,TechStars, 500
Startups, etc.
•Up until recently....No funding, or angel, micro, friends & family funding
•Easy to run a virtual company... no real address, presence from a co-
working space and an IP phone number

15. THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT
•Hardware
•Software
•Telecom
•Security
•Bio Sciences
•Medical Devices
Go to School
Internships
Go to College / University
Summer Job
Go to Work

16. THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
•Consumer Web
•Mobile
•SaaS
•Subscription
•eCommerce
•Marketplace
High School
Startup
GapYear
Startup
College / University - or not...
Startup
Accelerator
Startup
Work
Startup
Quit Day Job
Startup

17. The rise of the startup economy is global

18. The rise of the multinational startup

19. THE MIND OF A CODER...
•Focus on...
•functionality
•application
•utilitarian value

20. 50 years

21. Rock & Jazz Music
is code.

22. The Four Coders

25. Coders & StoryTellers

26. The Coders & StoryTellers of Jazz Music...

30. Music is the original code

31. Great songs have....

32. Great
narratives

33. Great voice

34. Great stories

35. Great tone

36. Music is in all of us

37. Everything is getting coded

38. “The Internet of things...”
needs stories...

39. We learn to “write”

40. WE WRITE FOR...
•Marketing
•Business
•Technical
•Legal
•Medical
•Social

41. ... but we never learn the art of
story telling, or how to write in
simple language to explain what
we are doing and what we feel

42. What you say, how you speak
and what you communicate are
the new lyrics of the
online world

43. The experience your deliver on
the platforms we now interface
and engage with, are enabling
billions of people on the planet
to create the new melodies of a
socially connected world

44. WRITE FOR STORYTELLING
•Why is what you are working on important?
•How are you improving lives?
•How are you helping people hack their own lives?
•What are you seeing in the way people are taking responsibility for
their own health

45. LOOK WHATYOU DID!
•Solved a problem
•Figured out a way to connect two or more things and do something
special with it
•Codified a process, expertise, method or a discovery
•Delivering of new type of experience on the devices & platforms we
are using today - and in the future

46. GUIDESTO WRITING
•Write like you speak...record yourself and transcribe what you say
•Pretend you are speaking to an audience.... write in front of a mirror
(seriously...)
•Think of how you felt when you were read stories as a child

47. WHYTHIS MATTERSTODAY...
•Story telling, having a voice, and the on-going narrative is a reflection
of your startup / company’s heart and soul
•It becomes the body of work that helps you recruit talent, attract
investors, customers, build partnerships, and be discovered by the
media

48. THE MEDIA IS
YOUR FIRST
MARKET
to share and tell your story

49. you
bloggers
analysts
media
the
consumer
The Media isYour Customer....
enterprise...
institutions..
&

50. WHAT I BELIEVE
•Branded content & story telling is what’s next
• It’s harder and harder to “get coverage” because of the volume of
noise
•Every company is a media company
•Your startup is a rock band... you’re in the studio figuring out
something new

51. WHAT I BELIEVE
•Story is a defensible business strategy
•Narrative is the supporting infrastructure for your brand
•Tone is the voice of your brand

52. WHAT I BELIEVE
•12 Fundamental Belief Sets
•Not everything I do always works
•I do this for me... I do this for clients.
•There’s always exceptions to the rules
•Discussion is based on a combination of experience and principles

53. WHAT I SEE...
•Great ideas
•Cool technology
•Understanding the role of UI / UX
•Little, or no thinking through the role of the written word, language,
tone, voice and “speaking through” the devices we are using in our
daily lives

54. From >
Code

55. To > Above
The
Code

56. Alan’s
12 Fundamental Belief Sets

57. #1 - STOP PITCHING
•Start story telling
•Your pitch helps clarify / define
what you do, but really sucks as
a way to get coverage

58. #2 -YOU’RE REALLY A MEDIA
COMPANYTHAT....
•Creates and makes media
so you’ll be discovered,
found and shared
•YouTube
•Twitter
•Facebook
•Blog
•Pinterest
•Instagram
•SoundCloud
•Google Plus
•LinkedIn
•UStream

59. #3 BUILD A BODY OF WORK...
•Your expertise
• Help the media do their job
• So you can be quoted
being discovered and
covered by media leads to
new opportunities...

60. #4 IT’S NOT ABOUTYOU
•How do you help others do
something in a compelling way
you could not do before

61. #5 BE HUMAN
•Get off your perch and write
like you would speak
•Converse with your potential
market wherever they are

62. #6 LIKE MINDED PEOPLETEND
TO FIND EACH OTHER
•Give them a place to connect
and share their story
•Consider aligning with other
startups like yours to create a
multinational startup

63. #7 HAVE A MISSION
•We’re out to make __________ better
•We want to help _____ do _______
•We want to help others the opportunity to ________
•We’re connecting _______ with ______ so they can ________
•We make it easier to ____________
•Have your voice be heard about _________

64. #8THINK LIKE A SOCIAL
DEMOGRAPHER
•The potential to collect “Big Data” means you have something of
incredible value to a potential partner, investor, or brand
•Gives you a better chance of a lift when an exit may present itself
•Big data lends itself to infographics, which contributes to your thought
leadership and a great way to get media coverage

65. technology platform
spark -
what if?
story...
BIG DATA
real value
narrative to
engagement
Lift towards an exit... (c) Alan Weinkrantz
“some
funding.”..

66. #9 PUT IT OUTTHERE
•You never know who is going to find your content and engage
• You don’t have to have high quality production values to do this
• Hardware is cheap. Tools are free. Tons of creatives to help you.
• Put your brand in play

67. #10 DRAW, PAINT,
PHOTOGRAPH, ROCK OUT
•Do something or learn to do
something creative other than
working on your startup
•It will re-wire your brain in an
unexpected way
my drums circa 1968

68. #11 IT’S NOT ALWAYS
REPLICABLE
•Just because one strategy or
tactic worked for one company
does not mean it will work for
another

69. #12 GET LUCKY
•Go wide
•Get lucky
•Run with it when you strike a
chord

70. HACKYOUR OWN
COMMUNICATIONS
•Think of yourself as a reporter &
story teller
•Much of this you can do yourself
•Leave digital bread crumbs

71. PLAN....
•Post and write relevant content
so you can be a source to media
on your field of expertise
•Develop & publish infographics
you can share
•Follow a wish list of 20
journalists you think should
cover you
•Read and comment on relevant
articles without being self
promotional.
•Ask end user / beta customers if
you can refer to them to media
•Follow editorial calendars
•Create your own editorial
calender

72. F1
F2
F3
F4
Role.Tone.Voice.
CEO: Serious.Thought Leader.
CTO: Technical. Knowledge. What’s Next.
Biz Dev: Forward. Opportunity. Open.
Lead Dev: Innovator. Code. Team.
“F” = founder

73. May June July
F1
F2
F3
F4
90 Day Editorial Calendar Planner
2x topics per month from each - 24 posts per quarter

74. NOW....
•Make a wish list of where you
belong
•business / tech / bloggers
•media appropriate to your
space
•analysts / influencers
appropriate to your space
•track competitors or
companies in your periphery
on news.google.com to see
who covers and writes about
them
•track competitors on Angel.co

75. PLAN FOR PR
•If you follow some of these basic
principles, you’ll be further
ahead.
•This process takes at least six
months to one year to really get
on a journalist’s radar and be
sticky - sometimes you can get
lucky
•Get everyone on your team to
make this part of their regimen
as it will make them aware of
the opportunities that await you
when you are ready.
•Bring up PR in your team
meetings in a “what if...” scenario.
Be Ready For PR SoYou Can Succeed

76. RECOMMENDED READING
•Why Branded Content is Beating Editorial
http://www.digiday.com/brands/why-branded-content-is-beating-editorial/
•The Pressures of Content Creation
http://www.scottmonty.com/2012/11/the-pressures-of-content-creation.html
•Brands Will Become Media
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2012/11/brand_media.html
•The Internet ofThings
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_Internet_of_Things_2538

77. TOOLSYOU CAN USE...
•Most are free
•Develop a discovery mentality
•Start connecting the dots
•There are journalists looking for compelling ideas

78. www.angel.co

79. www.muckrack.com

80. Text
www.twtrland.com

81. www.listorious.com

82. www.helpareporter.com

83. CODE OF ETHICS
•Have fun
•Create intellectual & capital wealth
•Do good things that make the world slightly better
•Help others

84. Rise...

85. please share:)
ABOVETHE CODE™

86. alan@weinkrantz.com
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© Alan Weinkrantz And Company 2012 AboveThe Code ™
all photos - except slides 18 & 21 - (c) Alan Weinkrantz 2013