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How to Adapt your Marketing Strategy for the COVID Era
Good marketing relies on a thorough understanding of your target market, but when much of what you knew about your customers is suddenly no longer relevant, a major shift is needed. With the onset of the coronavirus, almost every aspect of what was considered typical daily life was upended literally overnight – people confined to their homes, anxious about the future and their financial security. “The most important question you should be asking is: ‘How best can I connect with my customers during a crisis?’” says Gavin Knox-Grant, marketing guru and director of Karbon Media. “It’s not only during the pandemic that business will be different,” says Knox-Grant, “the way in which we all conduct business will be forever changed.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_556.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.t...
GM’s “Ultra Cruise” Aims to Take on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Option
The future for General Motors includes hands-free driving everywhere, a top executive said in regards to company plans to expand the capabilities of its Super Cruise system. The hands-free driving feature currently works on pre-mapped highways. Taking hands-free driving to the streets is the next logical evolution of the technology and GM has a big team working on it. The setup is referred to as Ultra Cruise, was formally announced by GM’s Doug Parks at the Citi 2020 Car of the Future Symposium. “Ultra Cruise’s domain would essentially be all driving, all the time,” Parks said. “Ultra Cruise would be all [that] Super Cruise [offers], plus neighborhoods, cities, subdivisions.” Unfortunately, Parks was light on details, such as when Ultra Cruise will reach...
Spacehog’s Antony Langdon Would Do It All Over Again
When Spacehog guitarist Antony Langdon was 22 and working at a production company, which included a day spent frothing beer for a Stella Artois commercial, he never envisioned his path — including stints as a bicycle messenger and cutting up melons for models as a fashion photographer assistant — would include playing in an of-the-moment rock band. Langdon formed Spacehog in 1994 after he and his younger brother Royston both moved to New York City from their hometown Leeds, U.K.. With Antony on guitar and Royston on vocals/bass (along with drummer Jonny Cragg and guitarist Richard Steel), Spacehog shot to fame almost instantly on the strength of their first single, “In the Meantime.” The undeniably catchy tune (which sampled Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s “Telephone and Rubbe...
The 6 Best Free Microsoft Office Alternatives
Sourced from Getty Images. While Microsoft Office is still the vastly popular and ubiquitous choice for word processing, slideshow presentations, spreadsheet calculations and a bounty of many more digital tasks, steep subscription costs can lead to some users turning instead to ad-riddled freeware or ‘free’ apps that lock most of their features behind hidden paywalls. If this sounds like you, then fear not! There are many good and usable free alternatives to Microsoft Office. No subscription required. According to How-To Geek, these are the 6 best free app suites for all your productivity needs: 1. LibreOffice /* custom css */ .tdi_3_8ec.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_8ec.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Like the best free software, LibreOffice is an open-source project fro...
Jonah Ray: Tracking The Sounds Of My Life (Memories and the Corresponding Music)
Each month, musician/comedian/podcaster/overall Renaissance man Jonah Ray will share memories about his “music adjacent life” that will often be more embarrassing than informative. The Worst Roadie…. I was 19, living in San Pedro, California and floating around my own life. I had moved out to Los Angeles to do comedy but was too scared to start. I knew people down in “Pedro” because the year before, THE JAG-OFFS came and played some shows in Hawaii (where I’m from). So, when it came time to head to Los Angeles to start on my journey to FAME AND FORTUNE, I moved to the only town I knew people in. While living in San Pedro, I auditioned to play drums for TOYS THAT KILL, the fairly new incarnation of one of my favorite bands, F.Y.P. I didn’t get the gig. Then, I had an unfortunate, short-run ...
To Emerge from COVID-19 Businesses Will have to “Re-Think” Traditional Models
Sourced from Tech Loot Traditional models of business funding need a re-think if South Africa’s small businesses and entrepreneurs are to emerge from the financially crippling “winter of coronavirus” into a spring of growth and rejuvenation. Accepting that downturns, recessions and economic crises are inevitable, one needs to shift the focus into building “Zebra” companies – sustainable businesses with steady growth, strong balance sheets and cash flows, and able to withstand downturns – rather than “Unicorns that will die without the next round of funding”, says University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) Senior Extraordinary Lecturer, Daniel Strauss. “In the past, we had a mindset of ‘or’ – we either had a traditional SMME that was funded through debt or we had a start-up that was f...
How Well Do You Know Kygo? Take Our Quiz
Synonymous with the summertime, tropical house pioneer Kygo has brought sunshine to the masses, regardless of climate or season. With a staggering number of hit remixes and dazzling originals under his belt, he rose to the top of the EDM world in meteoric fashion and he is now on the verge of releasing third studio album, Golden Hour. In honor of one of Norway’s finest, we whipped up a true test of Kygo knowledge. Enter below if you dare. FOLLOW KYGO: Facebook: facebook.com/kygoofficialInstagram: instagram.com/kygomusicTwitter: twitter.com/KygoMusicSoundCloud: soundcloud.com/kygo
Underground Vibes | 049
Underground Vibes 049 includes forward-thinking gems by LUXLEY and problem solved, dancefloor-ready tracks by VOWED and Laibert, and explosive singles by Rootkit and MIRAE. “All On The Line” – LUXLEY Talented artist LUXLEY, whose musical output is inspired by a condition called chromesthesia, which allows him to see sound in color, never stops experimenting and trying to push boundaries, and his latest single “All On The Line” is a testament to that. Starting off with a psychedelic, fast-paced vibe filled with vocal samples and effects, it turns into a high-energy and emotional future bass gem towards the second half. “Sublime” – VOWED Young producer and DJ VOWED has been making waves over the past few years, showcasing his unique taste in house music, and his latest release “S...
Why African Governments Must Continue Supporting Tech Systems
Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. For the first time in living memory, nations across the world have imposed strict travel restrictions to minimize the damage caused by COVID-19. Many countries have decided to pre-emptively close their borders and halt the spread and transmission of the virus. The current health crisis and the closure of borders remind us of the importance and origin of biometric technologies and African governments’ core ICT infrastructure when, only a few years ago, basic information systems were non-existent. Tracing the presence of foreign nationals within a particular country would have simply not been possible. As little as 20 to 30 years ago, many African nations had little to no ICT infrastructure embedded into government operations. Technologies that did exist el...
How Ike Turner Invented Rock ‘N Roll
Ike Turner wasn’t born in a crossfire hurricane, but he more or less died in one. He passed away at 76 in 2007, from a cocaine overdose, but by then he was very sick anyway, with heart disease and emphysema. In the last 30 years of his life, he was mostly broke, mostly disgraced, drug-addicted, sometimes homeless and, for 17 months, in jail. A few years before he died he released a record of new music, Here and Now, which was well received and nominated for a Grammy and went some way towards reshaping his legacy as first and foremost a gifted musician. Notice of his death really just reminded us how much we had forgotten him. An inauspicious end for the creator of Rock ‘n Roll. As even some primitive tribes in the Amazon know, “rock ‘n roll” was first coined to describe the genre by legend...
Bored In Quarantine? Sketch Your Favorite Albums With This Online Music Coloring Book
Coloring in the lines just got easier thanks to Sony Music, who has launched an online coloring book called The Colouring Sessions that allows you to sketch out your favorite albums Crayola style. Available records to color include Foo Fighters‘ In Your Honour, Jamiroquai‘s Funk Odyssey, and Jimi Hendrix‘s debut album Are You Experienced. Simply browse the collection of templates, download, and start coloring. You can print them out and physically color them in, which could make for a therapeutic respite from the revolving door of gloomy COVID-19 news, or do it all online. You’re able to select a wide range of colors and then use your trackpad or mouse to draw before exporting your masterpiece. Heidi Boston-Thompson, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Sony Music UK, ...
