SOPHISTICATED FINANCE

Trump Should Pick Kim Kardashian as VP Running Mate

One of the great things about Miami is the unique and insightful comments of the foreigners that live there. This morning a very successful Mexican businessman told me he thought Donald Trump should announce the lovely Kim Kardashian as his Vice Presidential running mate. His reasoning was as follows:

1. Instant name recognition
2. 57 million followers on social media
3. First VP we have seen nude

To this very compelling logic I could only add one point. Whenever Presidents blunder and get into situations bad for their re-election, a President frequently creates a situation to distract the attention of the American voter. With Ms. Kardashian as VP, the opportunities to distract the American voter are almost endless. 

In the early years of this blog there were many funny posts and cartoons. This one on HUTM is probably the most popular. I would not say that we are returning to comical posts here at SF, particularly making fun of such a serious subject as U.S. Presidential elections, but it is tempting :-)

 Photo credit: Twitter.com

If you click on the link of Ms. Kardashian, probably best not to do it in the office.

 

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Disintermediation in advertising

For awhile now I have talking about a consolidation of advertising, PR and design into a single firm model with design being the survivor. Today I learned that advertising is changing such that large corporate accounts are still using the large NYC firms for creative, but they are buying their advertising for lower fees through brokers that specialize in ad buying. Effectively the NYC type ad agencies are losing the profits from the formerly lucrative and enormous ad buying. This loss of a major source of profit will accelerate the move to the single firm model I forsee.

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Framing the Question: Hurricanes vs Gators

It is well documented that creativity, innovation and identifying large market opportunities benefit from properly framing the issue or problem, a subject that I have discussed many times here at Sophisticated Finance.

An example of failing to frame the issue properly comes from this weekend's coverage of the Miami Florida football game. Despite a convincing win (21-16) in which Miami led throughout the game, the television commentators focused on Florida being upset by Miami. The local newspapers also followed this theme in their Sunday coverage.

Properly framing the issue might lead a commentator to better ask "why did Miami win?", which would have resulted in the following comments:

- UM caused and capitalized on five turnovers by the Gators
- The Hurricane defense played well the entire game
- Miami played hard the entire game, including causing a key Florida turnover late in the fourth quarter that led to a Hurricane touchdown

Two other thoughts:

- When the betting line is only three points in favor of Florida, "upset" looks like an exaggeration
- UM fielded a competitive team despite a cloud hanging over the program from a never ending investigation by the NCAA

How to improve the UM offense might be a properly framed question or perhaps how to improve Miami play selection, but I still think the Miami Herald headline should have been:

                            "THE U IS BACK"

Never afraid to identify future trends (in technology), I hope I am right about the Hurricanes.

                            GO CANES !!!

Image credit: Trackforum.com

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Thoughts from CES

Samsung Note

Ironically, my hotel in Las Vegas did not have wi-fi Internet access and ethernet cable access is of no use with an iPad. So I am a bit late in posting on CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show. My observations:

1. Linking the Internet and the television was the big theme at CES. Every important company has a product to make this possible.
2. OLED technology was the featured screen technology. It permits incredibly thin but large screens.
3. The featured product at the Microsoft booth was their gaming devices, prominently displayed at the entrance. Maybe they finally realize that gaming is the only area where they have competitive products.
4. The Intel booth was all about their new ultra-light laptops that compete with the Mac Air (at least in Intel's collective wisdom). No educational laptop booth display this year. Maybe Intel does not see the education market as a priority compared with last year. I did like the Wi-Di technology which allows a computer to display wirelessly on a separate screen with a special receiver (built-in).
5. Samsung had the most spectacular booth unless you preferred LG. Samsung's development in home appliances focuses on reduced electricity consumption and Internet connectivity. (I think I am a frustrated kitchen designer.) I usually find the appliances the most interesting exhibit, but this year the phones and tablets were particularly noteworthy. Samsung exhibited the Nexus phone, the Note, a 7" Galaxy tablet and the traditional Galaxy 9-10 inch tablet. I particularly liked the Note, which combines phone and tablet functionality (Android) in a 5.3 inch screen. Small enough to fit in a suit coat breast pocket but large enough for comfortable reading or typing for long periods. If the pricing is right, I could see giving up my phone and my iPad in favor of using only the Note. People have been talking about the convergence of the computer and the phone since the 1980s. The Note may be that device. 
6. Motorola showed little influence from Google and the RIM booth was just boring. Very sad on both counts given the history of each company. 
7. A lot of technology devoted to bringing social networking to your car. So if you don't crash while texting, you get a second chance when you update your status on FB. This car stuff makes no sense to me but I don't watch videos or listen to music on the iPad.
8. Very few mainland Chinese visitors or exhibitors. I guess they are focused on the home market.

All in all CES was relatively boring in terms of the exhibits. Not a lot that interested me.

Image credit: Huffington Post