The 5th Gear: Marketing, PR, and Ideas for 11/04/13

One of SHIFT’s 7 core values are connected which means much more than just having a full Address Book app on your phone. Connected means knowing what’s going on, knowing what’s worth reading and sharing. Here are the top 5 most interesting reads that SHIFTers found this past week.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

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10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy — This Chart Shows How

Vice President Christopher Penn on why this matters:

This is a fascinating piece over at PolicyMic on the consolidation of industries. 10 major corporations produce most of the consumer goods available, while 4 major banks control most of the consumer banking sector. As a citizen, you might rightly be concerned about the consolidation of power and wealth among these organizations. As a marketer, getting your foot in the door with any of the subsidiary brands and doing a great job might inch you up the ladder to being able to work with the mega-brand itself or jump laterally to other subsidiary brands.

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How Data Could Kill Your Business

CEO Todd Defren on why this matters:

As someone always looking to find new and innovative ways to use data to drive businesses and brands, I read this post by Tom Webster with interest. I’m all for things being faster or cheaper, but not at the expense of quality and doing a smart, honorable job. Tom’s post highlights what happens when you sacrifice quality for speed or cost.

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The 33 Most Beautiful Abandoned Places In The World

Senior Marketing Analyst Chel Wolverton on why this matters:

Jaw dropping and awe-inspiring images will make you want to travel to places like nobody’s business. I think images like this are inspiring, not only from an “I want to go there” perspective but in a way that helps us see beyond ourselves and the moment we’re in.

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Coding Made Easy with Scratch

Learning and Development Coordinator Kristina Norris on why this matters:

Scratch is a great tool to help you learn coding in a very friendly way while not worrying about the syntax (language). It really helped me get the basic concepts of coding and I love it! If you’re looking to explore coding in a way that’s also head-friendly as a non-coder (which is most marketing and PR professionals), this is a great tool.

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SHIFT MO

Team SHIFT on Movember and why this matters:

Did you know that 1 in 2 men, and 1 in 3 women, will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime? No, well now you know one of the reasons why we have a SHIFT Movember team asking for donations this month. If you can support the SHIFT team, please do.

Chel Wolverton
Senior Marketing Analyst

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