Speaker: Richard Laermer
@laermer

How can the economy help us sell right now?

Marketers have become very complacent?

Punk marketing shakes up the core of what you are doing.

Anyone that engenders trust provides something ppl don't have (due to
recession)

Punk markers shift power from corporations to consumers.

Consumers are no longer passive.

Treating ppl as a mass audience is dumb.

Commerce, content and consumers are converging.

Consumers want tone taken care of.

Tone is more important than ever.

Give ppl something to talk and think about.

Focus groups do not represent your customers.

Comsumers don't necessarily want a conversation but want to participate.

Cut through the white noise. 'me too' products are everywhere.

Remove the mass from the market.

Recognize who you want to reach and go after them. You have to think
of the customer as an individual.

Example: Lynx Air (Australia) - they became the #1 body spray.

You have to think about what your customers are thinking.

Who has back during a recession? Crown Royale - they knew they were
cheaper than other scotches and ppl are more family oriented.

Love the ones who love you.

Be careful how hard you push your research and development. Example:
tropicana new design - they changed it back.

Take advantage of your customers and die.

What do you need to get through a recession?
Reality
Simplicity
Sustainability - it is about assurance
Sanctuary - it makes you feel good, safe

You have to give something ppl haven't seen before.

Rethink who you are. Maybe be somethink else. Understand your
customers.

Panel:
Razorfish
UNICEF, HSBC
Vodaphone
Devauld
Chris Wireless

Most radical innovation in mobile was the impezza product created by
telecoms. They can store up to $800 and give to family and friends.

3 main themes:
Trust - ppl will transact with those they trust
Innovation - will not come from banks
Trickle Up - help come up to speed with first world countries

Trickle up:
A lot of innovation in mobile banking come from developing countries.
There is ingenuity due to constraints. Most innovation coming from
Africa.

Mobile payments is not the same as mobile banking. Mobile payments is
like a mobile wallet. Used for short term and small balances. Mobile
payments are important because of infrastructure. GSM infrastructure
is more robust than other infrastructures.

How does the mobile payment system work? Need agents to provide the
services.

What can ppl do?
Individuals can transfer money. Consumers can pay merchants.
Entrepreneurs can pay labour.

Trust:
Who are you going to trust in a boom or in a bust?

Who are you going to trust when you are making a transaction?

When there is a bust, fear comes in. We lose our trust in
everything. Everything gets shut down. Banks become government
facilities because of trust.

The economy changes. Trust will be deployed in different ways.

Towns are only going local (transition towns) No more credit, etc.

In developed countries, banks want mobile to be a bank machine. With
that said, why does it have to be a bank like Bank of America and
instead a company I trust.

This is a chance to reinvent the economy.

There are other currencies based on assets.

Innovation:
How can technology open up barrier to money and improve trust? How
can you move your funds from one acct to another?

Some companies are breaking down the barriers:
Twitpay
Smava
Paymo
Zola
Snartfundit

Kashklash.net

Panel:
Watercooler
Dallas Cowboys
Clearspring
OpenSports (in beta)

75% traffic from site come from outside the local community.

Watercooler - team by team communities online. Connectingu fans with
one another. Created across multiple platforms, facebook, myspace.

Adding 100k ppl everyday.

It is all social graph growth. No need to do marketing. Die hard
fans help grow the site.

What are the fan hotspots? fans cheer their team and trashtalk other
teams

They make money from advertising model. Merchandising deals based on
geo targetting.

Dallas Cowboys - built content first and then ppl will come. 3.5
million visitors a month. Grow 15-20% every year.

Monetize the site through advertising. Ramped up sales force.
Looking to identify items can sell at a small cost per until to a
large number of ppl.

Launched 'True Blue' fan club - the traction was ability to go into
forums and blogs. Consumers love the up to a second info that is
behind the scenes. Blogs 3rd most visited page on website.

Clearspring - widget distribution. Launchpad is the main product -
works on multiple platform. 'add this' product used 20B times per
month.

Combining launchpad and add this together in an open platform. Work
with espn, NBC, NFL, etc.

Make money by paid installs for widgets and ads on widgets.

OpenSports - Fantasy is a big business. It is easy to sell because it
is so sticky. CBS make 40b in revenue.

Recording on analog sounds better and truer for him. digital sounds
like a demo.

Love working with voices that are timeless.

Steers clear of reaction so he can focus on the act of creating music.

There is freedom in obscurity. Have never felt the weight of rampant
popularity.

He is most interested in sphere of influence and how it is changing
and growing. Word of mouth.

Best education was learning other peoples songs.

Backchannel hashtag #sxswfinance

Panel:
Mint.com - Patzer
Smartypig - Ferrari
Billeo - Subbarao
Keeping nickels - Stephens

The FI environment does not allow true innovation.

What do you know that banks don't know?

Allow community to talk back and help keep with the changes. Banks
can't engage in an environment where things are fluid.

More ppl need to talk about personal finance on the web. Need to talk
about fees etc.

Young ppl don't know how to budget. List all expenses out. Process
can be tedious. Set budgets in groups 'going out with friends.'.
Complexity is the enemy. Ppl need to be honest with themselves and
what they are spending.

The sooner you can get money from payday to saving accounts, the better.

How do you deal with security?

Banks have a lot of security. They have everything about you and
ability to move your money around. Mint.com is anonymous. They don't
move money around. They send out alerts for suspicious activity.
They have a special area for servers that are tight security.

Smartypig is audited quarterly. They are goverened the same way as a
bank.

Billeo does not keep sensitive data.

Your browser can be compromised.

Why should ppl trust small companies with their finances?

It is anonymous. Seeing account balances is not as scary as leaving
your ATM slip. iPhone connection uses phone database. If it gets
stolen, you go online and wipe it.

To learn about finances?

Since the financial crisis, mint registration tripled.

Ppl are thinking more about their finances. How best to start saving.

What type of functionality do ppl want?

Smarty pig manages goals. Mint is not action oriented enough.

Smarty pig users wanted it integrated into mint. The first step for
ppl is trying to get a feel for it and understand where there money is
going.

Ppl need to look at mint or online account frequently. Help ppl
figure out what money is coming in and what is going out. Ppl need to
stay on top of payment obligations.

If you are doing a good job with your community, then you are doing a
good job.

Incenticise behaviour?

There are opportunities for great innovation here.

The incentive can be environmental or social. Can scam purchases to
track carbon footprint. Mint sees a lot of possibilities.

Gartner did a study and 80-90% did not hear of these online services.
How do you get out?

Smartypig - wanted to ensure sustainability of company without
advertising.

Mint gets a 20% clickthrough rate on targetted ads.

Billeo gets rev from promoting credit card products.

Is there competition outside us?

Mint gets a lot of demand in Canada and the uk. They willbe ecansing
next year.

Smartypig will be expanding in 3-4 international countries next year.

Smartypig already works with a lot of large banks. Mint will not work
with banks.