Tag Archives: consumer

by Brian Solis

Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows

During CES, Intel & PC.com hosted a red carpet, celebrity-attended event at the popular LAX night club in Las Vegas to help us get “computer smart.” And, no true CES party would be complete without a performance from a major artist or group. When I heard that the event would be headlined by the Counting Crows, I was overwhelmingly surprised and ecstatic.

I’m a fan of the Crows and I was planning on seeing them over the Summer in support of their current CD Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. However, between the travel and logistics in support of TechSet New York and TechSet Las Vegas, I unfortunately missed the concert. Intel just made my year; so much so, I’m shopping for an UMPC again

The concert was intimate, in comparison to the other major CES-related concerts taking place during the week. It was nice to be able to connect with everyone throughout the night.

As if the Counting Crows wasn’t enough to complete the evening, Intel and PC.com also recruited the one and only Brooke Burke to emcee the show. Brooke attended with her husband, David Charvet. Both were incredibly friendly and actually spent time talking with everyone. My new friend, LeVar Burton, was also in attendance and I have to say, he’s an incredible human being.

Brooke Burke

David Charvet

Levar Burton and Cathy Brooks

Levar Burton and Brooke Burke

Janna Robinson

Frank Gruber, Sarah Austin, and I were able to make our way up front, which made for some spectacular photos.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Adam Duritz is one of the most passionate and evocative singer/songwriters in the business today

Dan Vickrey

David (Immy) Immergluck

Charles Gillingham

Jim Bogios

David Bryson

LAX

LeVar Burton and Brian Solis

Taryn Southern

Brooke Burke and Brian Solis

You can follow the Counting Crows, Brooke Burke and LeVar Burton on Twitter.

For more pictures, please visit my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

by Brian Solis

Intel, along with Sarah Lacy, Frank Gruber, Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos.com), yours truly, and the Intel Insiders, kicked off 2009 with a bang! Hosted at the former 40/40 Club at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, the party merged industry veterans with a new generation of bloggers, influencers, trend setters and thought leaders. Together we celebrated innovation in the consumer electronics, new media and digital industries. To say that it was one of the highlights of CES would be a complete under statement. Hundreds of amazing people shared experiences and forged and also renewed relationships throughout an evening that progressed that thankfully seemed to last all night long.

Thank you Intel, Sarah, Frank, Tony and the Intel Insiders!

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Julia Allison and Sarah Lacy

iJustine

Jeremy Tanner and Cathy Brooks

Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb and Illija Ognenovski if worldsings.com

Jason Goldman, Jeremy Tanner, Andrew Hyde

Frank Gruber & Jessica Berlin (Justin Levy & iJustine background)

Joe Said and Efren Toscano

Justin Levy, Jennifer Klein, Chris Brogan, Karin Klein

Ken Kaplan of Intel and Joshua Pollack

Ilija Ognenovski & Ashley Biever

Frank Gruber and Tony Hsieh

Ted Murphy of Izea

Jeff Pulver

Kenneth Hong of LG

MC Hammer and Sarah Lacy

For more pictures, please visit my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

by Brian Solis

LeVar Burton

Steve Broback of the Parnassus Group hosts an incredible party. Now in its third year, the exclusive ItWontStayinVegas blogger party is a must-attend event – if you can get your name on the list.

Hosted at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, the party boasts a casual and fun environment for connecting with influential and inspiring bloggers form all over the world – while also learning about the history of atomic testing in the United States.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…see you next year!

Sarah Austin, Jennifer Levine, Brooke Brodack

Alexandra Mokh

Robert Scoble

Tom Foremski

Melissa Pierce and Steve Garfield

Drew Olanoff

Phil Wolff of Skype Journal

Scott Carroll of AMD

Krista Neher

Patrick Moorhead of AMD

Sonos

Rohit Barghava

For more pictures, please visit my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

by Brian Solis

During CES, good friend Seth Combs invited Chris and Kristie Heuer and me to the Dr. Dre / Monster press party at the Paris Hotel. We were presented with the opportunity to sample the Beats by Dr. Dre line of over-ear and in-ear high performance headphones. And, we were also lucky enough to meet Dr. Dre in a quiet, personal setting. It was simply, unforgettable.

As a quick review, the over-hear headphones are a sound investment. At $349, they rival my new Bose earphones in performace and surpass them in design and style. The noise cancelling hits just the right frequency and the balance of tight bass, combined with crisp mids and highs delivers, a live, in-room surround sounce experience that will have you forgetting you’re wearing something over your ears.

They’re available now at Best Buy.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Dr. Dre

Brian Solis under doctor’s orders to sample the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

For more pictures, please visit my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

by Brian Solis

BuzzLogic partnered with Jupiter Research, which is owned by Forrester, to spotlight evolving consumer behavior and decision making processes and how blogs influence and factor into consumer purchases. The companies polled over 2,000 online consumers in the U.S. and results suggest that blog readers use blogs as the top solution for discovering other blog content in order to research and guide decisions – ranking higher than Web search.

Additional findings include:

Links more powerful than search: For frequent readers, links beat search as a navigation tool: 38 percent said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content as compared to 34 percent who voted for Web search.

Links signal trust: For frequent readers, blog links appear to have similar impact as a trusted recommendation from a person (a response from 39 percent of survey participants).

Blog search not yet mainstream: Blog search engines received the lowest ranking from respondents: 6 percent of general readers and 11 percent of frequent readers say they use these tools to discover new blogs.

Buying Behavior: The Nature of Blog Influence

Blogs influence purchases: One half (50 percent) of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.

Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites.

Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, more than half (56 percent) said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.

Blogs go beyond tech: Outside of technology-related purchases, for which 31 percent of readers say blogs are useful, other key categories include media and entertainment (15 percent); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14 percent); travel (12 percent); automotive (11 percent); and health (10 percent).

Now if you wanted to know how and when blogs factor into the purchase cycle, the study also offers insight for us:

Blogs indeed factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision. When it comes to respondents who said they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half (52 percent) said blogs played a role as they decided to move forward with a purchase.

Blog readers also replied around blogging influence as it relates to the following steps of the purchase process:

Decide on a product or service – 21 percent
Refine choices – 9 percent
Get support and answers – 19 percent
Discover products and services – 17 percent
Assure – 14 percent
Inspire a purchase – 13 percent
Execute a purchase – 7 percent

According to BuzzLogic CEO, Rob Crumpler, “For a portion of Web users, blogs rival search as a navigation tool, which has really interesting implications for advertisers. Blogs are becoming trusted guides, steering users who are seeking very specific information to places of interest online. Being able to identify where this is taking place across the blogosphere gives us a window into user intent and a means to better target advertising to a qualified audience.”

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook