me, me, me, me, me, me
Hi. My name is Bud Caddell. Thanks for being curious.
I currently live in Brooklyn (by way of Houston, Austin, and Chicago) and I work as a Senior Strategist for the digital think-tank Undercurrent. Much of what I do there, working for some of the world’s biggest brands using digital technologies to reshape how they fundamentally do business, informs my thinking here, but the views expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Who I am, where I am, and what I do is the product of 1) an obsessive curiosity, 2) a love and literacy of technology, 3) two generations of entrepreneurs that raised me well, 4) a few sparks of creativity, and 5) an enduring sense of I can make that better.
speaking of what can be made better…
Companies can use digital technologies more effectively.
Social media isn’t the end-all-be-all of what you should be doing online. When we talk about applying technology we’re really talking about increasing productivity; and digital technologies can do more than make your advertising more productive.
Agencies should be doing more for their clients.
The current agency-brand relationship is bankrupt. Agencies continue to deliver tactics as a non sequitur to strategy or objectives and brands don’t hold these agencies accountable. Moreover, because everything is traceable and measurable with digital technologies, agencies should bring a good deal of insights and intelligence to the table over the course of the relationship; agencies should be a secondary data-hub for the brand.
Understanding people and how culture is created is critical in the digital age.
Videos aren’t viral (they don’t spread themselves) and no one is as impressed with your new micro-site as you are. The tried and tired strategy of brands finding third parties with cultural credibility and squeezing them dry is on its last leg.
We can all do more to make a difference.
Whether it’s fixing what’s broken or inventing something new, changing your business, or changing the world, we’re all accountable to ourselves and frankly, we’re not getting any younger.
About the site:
This site is an experiment. It will change often, it will sometimes be broken, and it will always be a little strange. The shared images and posts are powered, for now, by what I’m sharing inside Google Reader, and then pushed through a Yahoo! Pipe, and then fed into my site. If you find your content here and are unhappy with how I’m sharing it, please let me know.
The logo and all monsters on the site were created for me by Jan Willem Wennekes, also known as Zeptonn – an illustrative designer working in the Netherlands.
