Everyone loves a good video that captures interesting facts & figures.  In this latest take, digital agency JESS3 animated a video  that shows “The State of Internet” with a good collection of recent stats.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Thanks to a post by Augustine Fou, I came across this chart that breaks down which mobile platforms are being used by people of different ages.

Amazing to see that over 6 out of 10 iPod Touch users are 17 years old or younger.  And only 2 out of 10 are over the age of 25.  Talk about a strong statement for the iPod Touch being a targeted way to reach teens and tweens.

I find it hard to believe, but today marks the two year anniversary of Hard Knox Life. As I did last year, I wanted to mark the anniversary by recapping my favorite posts that I have written on the site. I decided to include a handful of posts that made the Year One list, as well as a couple of new ones.

1. A Brand Manager’s Call for Change: My riff on what Brand Manager’s need to do in order to be a Brand Leader in the 21st Century.
2. Now is the time to become a Marketing Technopologist: The term was originally coined by the Wall Street Journal but I have embraced it fully. Marketing Technopologists are people who combines the skills of marketer, technologist, and social anthropologist.
3. The new job of a Brand Manager is to facilitate conversations & community: Part of my series on Brand Manager 2.0, this posts talks about a change in who tells the brand story.
4. Start-ups need to invest in building brands, not just products: Based on the comments, I riled the feathers of some entrepreneurs who took offense to this post. I still stand by the importance of mapping out your brand by day one as you start a new business.
5. Lessons of the Square Watermelon: Probably my most successful post from Year 1, especially based on search traffic. Thanks to a plug from Guy Kawasaki and Marketing Profs, it’s had well over 25K views.
6. There is no better time to be a marketer: In the heart of the recession, MarketingProfs claimed that “its just not a fun time to be a marketer.” Of course, I had to give my take on why that thinking was just plain wrong.
7. What I believe in: My Personal Leadership Philosophy: The other post that search engines seem to love, this talks to how I approach my personal leadership philosophy in the business world. In 2009, it even had more views than the Square Watermelon post.
8. Even a Brand Manager needs their 10,000 hours of practice: Inspired by Bob Lefsetz and Malcolm Gladwell, this is all about what it takes to be your best.
9. Networking isn’t a dirty word: There are tons of interesting people doing interesting things out there. Are you the type of Brand Manager that sits in conference rooms all day or are you making it a point to get out there and find out what’s next in the world of marketing?
10. Don’t make the mistake of giving up the voice of the brand: With a little inspiration from Tom at Brand Camp, my take on how Brand Managers should navigate the world of Social Media.

Several months ago, people were asking if Twitter’s growth had stalled thanks to several months of flat traffic.  But it appears those reports of Twitters “demise” were premature.  According to a recently released report from Pingdom, Twitter passed the one billion tweet mark in December.  The growth continued in January, with 1.2 billion tweets sent.  That averages out to over 40 million tweets per day.  Looks like Twitter continues to be the little engine that could.

One of the biggest opportunities I see in the world of start-ups and entrepreneurs is a greater focus on Brand Building.  I don’t mean a bigger focus on advertising or PR.  And I don’t even mean a bigger focus on the broader term “marketing.”  I mean a bigger focus on putting the time, money and sweat into taking a systematic approach to…

…treat your company like the brand it really is.

Now the entrepreneurs among you might scoff at this statement.  You might even be thinking that the guy writing this hasn’t lived the life of a start-up so what does he know.  After all, a career spent at the world’s largest Consumer Packaged Goods company means a world where there are plenty of resources available to “build the brand.”  Start-ups do not have time for this when they are trying to keep the lights on, just trying to survive and thrive.

I’m sorry to say, but if you are thinking that, you are missing the point all together.

Over the past two years, my work has thrown me head first into the world of Consumer Internet.  On any given day, my meetings are as likely to be with an entrepreneur or Venture Capitalist as they are to be with another Brand Manager or Advertising Agency.  Ironically my degree from college was in Marketing AND Entrepreneurship so these contrasting interactions are actually comforting.

And it is in these interactions that I have started to form my opinion about the need for start-ups to invest in building brands, not just products.

First a definition: what exactly do I mean by “building brands?”  Keep in mind that brands really came to prominence in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, where brands were a way for people to tell the consistency of a product.  So by one definition, a brand is…

a set of perceptions and images that represent a company, product or service. While many people refer to a brand as a logo, tag line or audio jingle, a brand is actually much larger. A brand is the essence or promise of what will be delivered or experienced.

Think about that for a second. You and a colleague have an amazing idea for a company.  You figured out the name and your co-founder created what you think is a pretty cool logo. And you even came up with a tagline that you just love the sound of.

But have you really thought about your start-up, your idea as if it was a brand?

Have you thought about how your “brand” will be a promise to consumers?  Have you crafted the Brand Visual Identity?  Have you outlined the Brand Equity that you want?  These things aren’t just buzzwords that keep Brand Managers and Agency Executives employed.  They are the tools that a great Brand Builder uses to create and sustain iconic brands like Nike, Coca-Cola and Tide.

With this in mind, I think there is a need in our industry for translators, people that can apply the principles and discipline of Brand Building to the world of entrepreneurship.  Examples are out there for sure.  Pete Blackshaw was one when he left P&G to start Planet Feedback.  And Bessemer Ventures just hired a translator (whether they realize it or not) as they bring Jason Putorti on-board to be a Designer in Residence and help portfolio companies build “simple, intuitive, and engaging web sites.”  And Dave McClure was calling for the need for translators in his self-proclaimed rant that “More than half of all startups, and easily 9 out of 10 investors have no clue regarding .) user experience or 2) internet marketing.”

Brand Marketers realize that a brand is more than a name, fancy logo or marketing plan. A brand is about the product AND the user experience AND the marketing AND many, many other things.

Simply put, when Brand Building really works the way it is suppose to, the sum is greater than the parts.

So if you are a start-up, I would encourage you to start thinking about your brand today, not tomorrow.  If you are VC, I would push you to sit down with your portfolio and ask how they are thinking about their brand.  The opportunity is ripe for the leaders out there to embrace brand building in the start-up world.

And in full admission, traditional Brand Builders can learn plenty from start-ups as well.  We need our own set of Translators to help us in the journey.  But that is a subject for another post all together.