Last Thursday, space150 hosted another DeepSpace event at the Fine Line in Minneapolis focusing on 2009 Trends. The event was a huge success with about 250 showing up to watch speakers Ted Souder from Google, Jim Cuene from General Mills, Paul Rombach from AT&T, Joe Zawadzki from MediaMath, Michael Kellar from DQ, Daniel Griffis from Chip Ganssi Racing, and Jeff Weiner and Christine Huang from PSFK.
While I enjoyed all the presentations (the technical difficulties didn't even phase Jim Cuene), my favorite was Michael Kellar. Michael Kellar was fun and engaging. It also shows that those of us so immersed in digital trends can forget that not everyone feels the same way. Kellar discusses the brands hesitation of diving headfirst into digital trends, when they may indeed be nothing more than just a fad (all signs point to the opposite being true, but you never know). This reminds me of NASCAR Blindness. After all, not everyone, myself included unfortunately, has an iPhone. Kellar also brings up the DQ "smile and a story theory." They may not be the fastest, most pervasive, or cheapest (having just come out with the Sweet Deals Value Menu), but they have an intangible quality that still makes them successful in the competitive QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry. My smile and a story? After every soccer game when I was younger, we went to DQ, bypassing almost every other QSR in the neighborhood.
Michael Kellar reminded me of something simple: 2009 trends to a company like DQ may have been 2000 Trends to me.
To see all the presentations you can go to the DEEPSPACE website, YouTube, or Drop.Io.
Be sure to check out the upcoming event at Bev's Wine Bar: Integrating SEO into your Agency, coming in February.
And if you were at this past event, please share your thoughts in the comments!
