The focus of this presentation is on sharing. Advertising agencies are really bad at sharing ideas and information within the industry. This shows the consequences of not sharing. It is juxtaposed against the music and food industries which are built on the paradigm of sharing. It contains some recurring themes from previous presentations This was a Keynote presentation. Unfortunately, Slideshare is still not supporting Keynote so you will be missing the presenter notes so it may seem a little disjointed or confusing. While doing the presentation I started with a pot of water and some sugar. While I presented, the water evaporated and the sugar started to caramelize. By the time I finished the presentation the sugar had turned to caramel. The point being that things change fast. Our clinging to an idea instead of sharing in those ideas results in them becoming irrelevant. If the concept of caramel had never been shared we would not have all the great things you can make with caramel. The idea you have today will be 10x different and better tomorrow when it is shared. This is a presentation I gave last year at the M-Love conference in Monterey California. The M-Love is the best conference I have been to. It is focused on the exchanging of ideas and community building. It includes workshops on harnessing the brain power of all attendees. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone wanting to expand their view of the wireless space and the world.

1. 20 Minutes:
The Meaning Of Life and Success
Is In Caramel
Gene Keenan
genekeenan@me.com
April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 25, 13

2. Today:
My time working for the Grateful Dead,
how it has changed my view of the world
and specifically my view of advertising as
an ad man
The spirit of sharing
Thursday, April 25, 13

3. A few things I am not going to talk about:
• Media’s lack of appreciation for creative
• Creative’s lack of appreciation for media
• Everyone’s lack of understanding around
the use of data
• Our shoe horning of bad ad formats into
new spaces (because we misunderstand
the medium)
Thursday, April 25, 13

4. some background
Thursday, April 25, 13

5. I Live Here
Thursday, April 25, 13

6. not on the space station
Thursday, April 25, 13

7. I
Thursday, April 25, 13

8. I Live Here
Thursday, April 25, 13

9. Thursday, April 25, 13

10. no scarcity of ideas
Thursday, April 25, 13

11. innovation dies
when sharing stops
Thursday, April 25, 13

12. as i said, i work in advertising
Thursday, April 25, 13

13. idea sharing scarcity
Thursday, April 25, 13

14. Thursday, April 25, 13

15. we talk at each other,
instead of dialoging
Thursday, April 25, 13

16. nobody digging past the top surface
Thursday, April 25, 13

17. Thursday, April 25, 13

18. Thursday, April 25, 13

19. Thursday, April 25, 13

20. competitive advantage?
I
R
X
Thursday, April 25, 13

21. “MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE”
Thursday, April 25, 13

22. CONSUMER
ADVERTISERS
WE’RE ALWAYS CHASING THE CONSUMER
Thursday, April 25, 13

23. Ideas are like milk; they
have a short shelf life
before they spoil
Thursday, April 25, 13

24. MARKETERS: WE’RE
VERY SERIOUS
these are the kinds of things advertisers fret over from a consumer perspective
Thursday, April 25, 13

25. Thursday, April 25, 13

26. Thursday, April 25, 13

27. Thursday, April 25, 13

28. Thursday, April 25, 13

29. IT’S ONLY ADVERTISING
Thursday, April 25, 13

30. There are plenty of other industries that
share and are successful
let’s look at music and food
Thursday, April 25, 13

31. I used to work for these guys
Thursday, April 25, 13

32. ME
Thursday, April 25, 13

33. A FEW THINGS I LEARNED FROM THEM:
• Sharing freely drives success in life and love
• Very few things involving human behavior
are actually new
• Digital only amplifies existing human
behavior: It does not create new ones
• Things change fast... like burning sugar
Thursday, April 25, 13

34. sharing and ideas
Thursday, April 25, 13

35. music
Thursday, April 25, 13

36. that you can give away your “product”
and still make money
Thursday, April 25, 13

37. What the big media owners think of this idea
Thursday, April 25, 13

38. "It is ridiculous to believe that you can give
product away for free and be more successful.
I mean it defies the laws of nature."
- Dan Glickman - Chairman and CEO of
Motion Pictures Association of America
Thursday, April 25, 13

39. Let’s test this
Thursday, April 25, 13

40. what made them so special?
(from a media perspective)
Thursday, April 25, 13

41. Free Music! Free Music! Free Music!
Thursday, April 25, 13

42. The band allowed the
recording and sharing
of tapes of their concerts
Thursday, April 25, 13

43. Dateline: October 27, 1984 | The first day tapers were officially allowed to bring their gear in and record
Grateful Dead shows, in a special section set aside just for them.
1984
Thursday, April 25, 13

44. 2,200
2,350
Number of shows recorded out of total played
Thursday, April 25, 13

45. Effect on the audience/band
Tape
Trading
Creating
Community
Audience
850 sold out
shows in a row
=
Band
Net Effect
Music can be free and artists can still thrive financially.
my time with the GD
Thursday, April 25, 13

46. Band Insight
Thursday, April 25, 13

47. LIVE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
where all the money was made
Thursday, April 25, 13

48. changed their thinking on what was really valuable
Thursday, April 25, 13

49. recorded music were
their initial “ideas”
Thursday, April 25, 13

50. blueprint
Thursday, April 25, 13

51. How it worked: Media Perspective
initial media
The Product Media
Circle Of Gratitude
Grateful Dead
Live Concerts
Tape Trading
of those live
shows
song ideas
Thursday, April 25, 13

52. MASTER TAPE
TAPING TREE
MASTER
SEEDS
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made from
seed tape
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
10 copies made
How it worked: Fan Perspective
6,000
4 Gen
Thursday, April 25, 13

53. A typical Grateful Dead fan tape collection
Thursday, April 25, 13

54. Live Music Now Rules!
Recorded music
(owned media) is
now used as
advertising by
many bands who
make their money
through live
performances
Thursday, April 25, 13

55. Internetarchive.org/details/etree
A free live music archive
Thursday, April 25, 13

56. Thursday, April 25, 13

57. Thursday, April 25, 13

58. A listing of every show ever played. If
you knew three songs in a row you
could find the show
USER GENERATED CONTENT
Fan reviews of every single
Grateful Dead concert
10 VOLUMES 3 VOLUMES
Thursday, April 25, 13

59. a couple of points:
sharing made the Dead successful and their
model now works for 1000‘s of other bands
Thursday, April 25, 13

60. social media?
not a new idea
Thursday, April 25, 13

61. user generated content?
not a new idea
Thursday, April 25, 13

62. TAPE TRADING (SOCIAL MEDIA/USER GENERATED CONTENT)TAPE TRADING (SOCIAL MEDIA/USER GENERATED CONTENT)
STEAM Online
WATER Postal
ICE In person
Thursday, April 25, 13

63. food and cooking
Thursday, April 25, 13

64. Thursday, April 25, 13

65. Thursday, April 25, 13

66. Thursday, April 25, 13

67. what does this have to do with advertising?
Thursday, April 25, 13

68. sharing ideas
Thursday, April 25, 13

69. Thursday, April 25, 13

70. music & food
two things that are always shared
with other people.
Thursday, April 25, 13

71. ideas are worthless unless shared
Thursday, April 25, 13

72. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/
Thursday, April 25, 13

73. ACCORDING TO A 76 YEAR OLD
LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF 2 HARVARD
CLASSES:
SHARING IS WHAT MAKES US HAPPY:
IT’S THE MEANING OF LIFE
Thursday, April 25, 13

74. Thursday, April 25, 13

75. The sugar and water in the pot at the begining
of the presentation is now caramel.
Change happens fast
Thursday, April 25, 13

76. SHARE!
FAST!
Thursday, April 25, 13

77. thank you
Thursday, April 25, 13