Chilibean Media Launches

Jeez I’m slow to post these days. K, so yesterday morning Paul announced the launch of Chilibean Media. They chose Valentine’s Day, very sexy, and used a YouTube hosted vid to make the announcement.

Since Cerebra (my company) launched amidst glasses of wine and chaos at the inaugural 27 Dinner, things have gone well. Despite that I have to constantly ask myself the hard questions around the growth and continued success of the company. Obviously competition plays a role.

Chilibean Media is the first ‘official’ competitor to come on to our radar. Quirk is also a big player (by sheer size and brand strength) but social media is not their core business. They’re leaning in that direction, the upcoming Web PR Conference an indicator of that intention, and I have a feeling they’ll be seriously considering Web 2.0 as a strategic differentiator as they evolve as an organisation, especially with the backing of IncuBeta’s skills and infrastructure.

The big agencies are trying, but they’re slow to move. There are the AddiCTs of the world too to consider. So how does Cerebra want to stay ahead of the pack? Do we even think we can?

I reckon so. And I’m so confident we’ll do it, I’ll give away some of our secrets. We believe in being fast. Very, very fast. We get multiple ideas out and in the open even if they’re not perfect. This drives Carl mad, but he’s learning to love me for it.

We are also honest, authentic and vulnerable. We stick our necks out bravely, often getting them chopped off in the process, but as Dave says, “No PR is bad PR”. The 27 Dinner movement was born out of one such incident.

We are omnipresent. Paul said to me the other day, “you are everywhere”. He’s wrong. We just pick our spots carefully. We create content once, and use it often. One of our core strengths is networking and community building. We love that. It’s our lifeblood. Our company is only as cool as you – the community – are willing to let it be. And we work very hard at this.

Lastly, we don’t expect to be the smartest. Paul’s blog, Chilibean, is a hundred times better written and researched than mine. You know that as well as I do. Hell, I voted NOMINATED Paul second best blog of 2006 behind Cherryflava (if I remember the order correctly). Yes, I voted NOMINATED for myself under other categories but Paul is a machine. Still, content isn’t king.

And that’s my story. Just thought I’d get it out there. Paul and I will be doing lots of work together – he knows this – a little methodology I like to call co-opetition. What is exciting is that the market is waking up to Social Media in SA and we need more and more Chilibeans and Cerebras and Quirks to appear if we are going to raise the bar on each other and improve service delivery, putting Web 2.0 well and truly on the map.

Once again, good luck to you both, Paul and Victoire. May your adventure be as fun and challenging as ours has been, and continues to be.

  • http://maxkaizen.com Max Kaizen

    You are a genius Master Stopforth, dirty linkbaitwhore but how could we not love you?!

    Hmmm.. it recalls a convo about geekdinner ;-) … & you denied it so convincingly too. You like birthing concepts in seeming chaos & wild disorder, but have EVERYTHING panning out according to plan. DO you ever sleep overlord?

    LOL Paul was saying that they’re out to take over the world – but though they may indeed be well prepared within the current OS, they haven’t got the propensity and audacity to charge headlong into the chaos that you guys do.
    THAT kind of pioneering skill gives Cerebra the clear advantage in my mind.
    At a time when progressive complexity is collapsing traditional control – fortune favours the brave.
    ..and you Cerebra boys are nothing if not ballsy.

  • http://www.wozafriday.com Ddavef

    You must be ahead of the game – you’ve already managed to vote in the SA Blog Awards when the voting process hasn’t even started!

  • http://www.mikestopforth.com Mike

    Very clever Dave. Anal, but clever.

  • http://www.chilibean.co.za Paul

    Hey Mike

    Thanks for the mention and the kind words about our blog. You Cerebra guys are doing some awesome work out there and we are pretty excited about possibly working with you guys at some point.

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  • http://www.quirk.biz Rob

    Hey Mike, thanks for the Quirk mention… you make us sound so big and imposing but we’re actually pretty nice :).
    I’ve always been a fan of co-opetition, in fact one of my best mates runs a top notch eMarketing agency in London and we’ve helped each other out numerous times (Yo Frank!). The thing is quite honestly: there is so much business out there that in 3 years we’ve never bumped heads on a client. OK so London is huge, Cape Town is not, but hey, even if we do, may the best team for the client at hand win. Sometimes it will be you, sometimes it will be us and as long as we keep delivering, I believe everyone will be happy at the end of the day.
    I also think we can learn a lot from each other as we all have different backgrounds and consequently different skills and strengths. Whilst Quirk hasn’t started recently like yourselves as a social media play, as an full service eMarketing agency, our business is about making businesses successful online and we have years of experience in that. Social media is just a part of that mix, albeit a very important (and currently a very trendy) part.
    However, if we want to take on the world then co-opetition (and as any economist will tell you, quality competition), especially amongst South African businesses, is a must.
    I sincerely wish you, Paul and everyone all the best in your entrepreneurial endeavors, these are exciting times and there is a lot of awesome experiences and fun ahead for all of us!

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