Jay Z and Samsung go digital. Apple, you’ve best bested (again).

Samsung has once again upped the ante in the war of cool against Apple.

This time, they've enlisted the aid of hip hop heavyweight, and all-around media mogul, Jay Z.

If you've been paying attention to the interwebs, you might have caught wind of the latest partnership between this mainstream music icon and the tech company actively trying to dethrone Apple.

The pairing, in and of itself, isn't particularly novel.

Not even for Samsung, who previously enlisted King James at the start of the season last year with the Galaxy Note II.

But what is exceptional, is the fact that Samsung is giving away Jay Z's next album.

You heard me.

Everyone who owns or cops a Samsung Galaxy device, will also get Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail album a full week few days before its released in stores.

Now I don't know how many people are actually going to buy a new phone or trade up, just to get an album they can purchase for 10 bucks.

But Samsung definitely gets dumb cool points for inking a deal with Hov for the right to distribute advance copies of his album with their phones.

I mean really, how cool is that?

Jigga Jay Z?!

Apple may have made digital music cool with the iPod, but Samsung just made digital music way cooler with this coup.

Jay Z is veritably hip hop royalty, so this deal is a pretty big….deal.

The bigger issue, as I see it, are the possibilities for media and technology companies to do these types of collabos in the future.

I've always been a proponent of utilizing technology as a means through which to build audience.

With the plethora of artists and devices out there, nowadays you need a hook if you really want folks to pay attention.

Something to differentiate your offering from the masses and reel your audience in.

And recently, I've seen evidence of the more savvy brands implementing the strategies I talk about ad nauseum.

Check the FunkFlex App, and you'll see what I mean.

FunkMaster Flex is one of the few artists that I've seen, who thoroughly gets it when it comes to merging celebrity with technology.

And he's freaking it, at that.

The FunkFlex app comes preloaded with goobledy gobs of content.

He dropped his entire mixtape via his app and it features a who's who of hip hop and R&B.

FOR FREE!

To this day, if you cop the app, you'll still be able to get loads of exclusive free content.

As a result, his digital footprint is large, and growing daily.

Movie studios are also starting to realize the inherent value of producing apps to accompany the lead up to the release of a new movie.

Virtually every movie I've seen in the recent past has had an app.

Some good.

Some not-so-good.

But all players with skin in the game.

Which underscores my point.

Every new artist should have a app.

Old ones too.

It shouldn't be an afterthought.

It should be the way you introduce your artist to the masses.

That app should be preloaded with a bunch of songs, videos and pictures, and every single social media profile that artist uses to interact with their fans.

Music should stream, in full, and the app should be enabled with push notifications, featuring calls-to-action, inviting users to rate the app, purchase tickets and use the embed social share features to broadcast their affiliation with the artist to their larger network.

And giving them the ability to buy tracks wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Don't trip.

Having an app is not an inexpensive endeavor.

Samsung dropped serious coin for the right to distribute Jay Z's album.

To the tune of $5 million.

And we all know that every artist can't afford to do Samsung/Jay Z type deals to attract new users.

But I'm sure Samsung thinks they got a bargain, so it's all relative.

The truth is, deals like this don't have to be so one-sided.

New artists should seek out brands like Metro PCS, Boost and Virgin Mobile, who all want to enhance their phone offerings to compete with the big boys.

While contract free phones are all the rage, having a phone pre-loaded with free music from underground or up-and-coming acts is definitely a strategy we're going to see more of.

Magna Carta is just the beginning.

 

Posted with Blogsy

AfroBeatles: Fela + The Beatles. Yoda is real.

The AfroBeatles. John, Ringo, Fela, George and Paul.

I’m sitting in NY Penn Station jamming to an AfroBeatles mash up.

I’m sorry.

What’s an AfroBeatle?

The Afrobeatles are an imaginary group from an alternate universe.

It’s The Beatles meets Fela Kuti.

In this alternate universe, these two musical icons (who, through fate, were never able to collaborate in life) create a musical journey and show us what the “what if” would have looked, sounded and felt like.

This universe contains a series of music and video mash ups of the AfroBeatles musical collabos.

Right now, I’m rocking out to Drive My Car with ODOO.

Its a mash up of the Beatles’ Drive My Car from the Rubber Soul album, and Overtake Don Overtake Overtake (ODOO) from the Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Egypt 80 album of the same name.

This is an assignment I’ve been given by Yoda.

Not this Yoda. The real Yoda.

Who is Yoda?

He’s my sensei.

I’m his student.

Digital kung fu.

Per Yoda: “If we transplant a concept of any serious value in the digital space, it will germinate and grow. But you must be attentive to it for it to initially sustain itself.”

So I’m documenting AfroBeatles.

Which I’ve just planted in all of you.

Did you see what just happened?

You’ve become part of Yoda’s experiment.

You’re in the Petri dish.

You’ll probably never experience his all-seeing eye.

But it’s on you.

No camera necessary.

You’re already a blip on his mental radar.

You wouldn’t even know how to avoid it if you could.

It’s been trained on all of us for a long time.

I. Sound. Crazy.

One day, you’ll think back on this post and be like “Oh yeah. He did say that was gonna happen.”

That being this AfroBeatles thing.

You’ll be able to point to this post and know when you were officially put down.

It may be because we took a walk down AfroBeatles Lane together.

Or because one day you see your neighbor on TV talking about their “walk down AfroBeatles lane” from an AfroBeatles concert in London.

And you’ll wonder, “how the hell did they get to London?”

I never really listened to the Beatles back in the day, so this will be somewhat an education for me.

Sure, I know a few of their songs, but I can’t say I’m familiar with their full body of work.

My “assignment” from Yoda is to document the AfroBeatles movement.

Including the symposia where the project will be discussed, the concerts and screenings taking place along the way.

Of course, you’re invited.

And I’ll gather more data about you.

I’ve been reflexively typing as I’ve been listening to this, so AfroBeatles music clearly has a creative effect on this listener.

My feet have been tapping this whole time, and I’m bopping my head.

Outside looking in, there’s a dreadlock on the train jamming to something.

Baby you can drive my car…

But if you got up close you would see me rat-a-tat tatting on this iPad.

Anyway, here’s how to formally participate in Yoda’s experiment:

1. Visit AfroBeatles.com (it’s a work in progress)
2. Listen to any mash up in the timeline.
3. Decide for yourself, the minute you finish listening it, within five seconds, whether you want to walk down AfroBeatles Lane.
4. If “yes” document your walk down AfroBeatles Lane. Read the blog, listen to more tracks, download, like, share, comment and become a fellow blip.
5. Record where you are the day AfroBeatles becomes mainstream.

Yoda predicted lots of blips.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Oh…welcome to my world.

Fast and Furious 6 was sick! Or was it seven?

This past Friday, I (along with tens thousands of other movie goers) took in Fast & Furious 6.

As the title connotes, this was the sixth installment of Fast and Furious.

If you thought that the series was starting to lose its pale, becoming just another rehashed plot line, you couldn’t be blamed.

But you’d be wrong.

I can sum up Fast 6 in three words:

What. A. Rush.

Non-stop action from the door.

Or from the word “go” rather.

Mind you, I’ve never seen any of the Fast & Furious franchise in a theater before.

I like driving fast cars and all, but a movie built around driving fast cars?

Not so much.

I’m not a teenage boy with muscle car fantasies.

My first car was a two-tone Ford Escort.

Station wagon.

Clearly not the demographic they’re targeting.

I was content to wait for it to hit Netflix.

That is, until I saw it in theaters.

And now I am remiss that I didn’t take at least the original or Tokyo Drift in on the big screen.

There is something to seeing car stunts larger than life that made Fast 6 super exciting.

It’s not like the movie was all stunts and driving.

But mostly.

There were some genuinely humorous moments.

Provided primarily at the expense of Tyrese.

Why a Black man got to be the butt of all the jokes?

Why is the man always trying to demean a Brother?

Why can’t old blue eyes be comic relief?

Oh wait, I’m sorry.

I didn’t even realize I had my black beret and leather gloves on.

My bad.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Fast 6 was more than just fast cars.

It included the return of Michele Rodriguez.

You know, Letty.

Who was supposed to have been killed in Fast & Furious.

So you know all Fast aficionados were like “WTF?!”

I know I was.

If you’re not up on Fast at all, Letty is Dominic’s (Vin Diesel) wife.

She went undercover for Brian (Paul Walker) and was discovered.

Bad things happened after that.

Very bad things.

We all thought she was dead.

But Fast 6 keeps you guessing.

As I do, I checked to see if there was a companion app in the App Store.

Of course, there was.

Fast & Furious 6: The Game includes five player modes that transport you into the world of fast cars.

I’m not really into games…

I don’t really do games, so I had to feign interest just to check the app out.

…but I will bust that ass!

But if you dig racing games, or have time on your hands, I’m sure The Game makes for hours of mindless entertainment.

Anywho, the movie was great and the ending was a doozy.

I don’t do the spoiler thing, so I won’t go into any level of depth about it.

Although, I will say this: don’t leave until after the credits have rolled.

What comes next will knock your socks off!

You can thank me later.

Stephen Chukumba. How I became a Digital Kung Fu Master.

Remember how I told you I was writing a book?

The Life Digital. Atari to iPad: Growing Up In the Digital Age.

I even gave you a brief intro.

Well, I had an epiphany the other day: I’m full of shit.

My book’s title is full of shit, actually.

It’s so boring.

It is.

I bore myself just thinking about it.

And I bore myself anew every time I read it.

The Life Digital.

Where do I get off?

Atari to iPad.

Just go for the most obvious crap why dontcha?

Growing Up In A Digital Age.

Just hitting puberty Stephen?

It’s descriptive, sure.

I mean, if you read that title, you can figure out what’s between the covers.

But would you really read it?

I wouldn’t.

Well maybe I would, but I’m biased.

The point is, every time I sat down to write, I looked at the title and it gave me writer’s ED.

I just couldn’t get it up.

No amount of mental Viagra could help me.

I simply couldn’t muster the desire to write.

I was flaccid and needed a boost.

And then it came to me.

Stephen, you’re not just some dude who lived in a digital age.

You’re a walking embodiment of it.

The Don Dada, in fact!

Maybe you don’t have Bill Gates money – yet.

But you know that shit is coming.

So you better re-title your as-yet-unwritten memoirs better than The Life Digital.

Rename the book?

Eureka!

I’ll rename the book!

I’ll make that shit sexy!

Give it a title I’d wanna read.

And write.

So this weekend, I did some soul searching.

Who am I?

Tall. Check.

Handsome. Check.

Intelligent. Check.

Well endowed. Check.

But that’s besides the point.

Who am I?

Digital.

Ok. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Mobile.

That’s right, I eat cell phones for breakfast.

Tech.

Damn skippy I’m tech!

And right then, I found my voice – and my new title.

Walk with me, now, and tell me you think I’ve struck gold:

Stephen Chukumba. How I became a Digital Kung Fu Master.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

I know, thanks.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about my life?

Especially when it’s chock full of the interesting tidbits that made me – me.

Oh! The places I’ve been.

The things I’ve seen!

The dude calls himself a kung fu master!

Yes. I’m referring to myself in the third person.

For all you would-be entrepreneurs, DKFM will be a rags-to-riches story from someone still in the ‘rags’ stage.

DKFM?

It’s the acronym for Digital Kung Fu Master.

The short title.

Please don’t let the absence of riches fool you.

I am a master of this digital shit.

I’ve just been wearing the garb and trappings of a plebe as cover.

Think Shaolin monk begging among the townspeople.

Oh, he looks shabby.

But he’ll bust that ass if shit gets too hot.

Ya dig?

That’s me.

Shaolin.

I don’t wear my digital kung fu on my sleeve.

I let it seep out in my little blog posts here and there.

A few know I’m a digital black belt, but they don’t let on – do they bugs?

Anywho, that’s my new title, and I should be able to crank out some chapters.

Now that I got my mojo back!

Hiiiyyya! (said making a karate chop in the air)

Be the Brand. Tips from the (pseudo)master.

Note: This post was originally published August 25, 2008. But it’s so good I just had to reblog. Enjoy.

I’ve written other blogs on other topics before, but never with the sense of purpose I have today.

Not to say that I’ve never had a sense of purpose in the past.

But I feel singularly inspired to write this blog because its all about me.

‘Who am I?’ you ask.

Entrepreneur. Brand strategist. Technology evangelist. Marketing maverick. Biz dev specialist. Trend setter.

I’m the guy who tells you like it is, whether you want to hear it or not.

To put it simply, I’m that dude.

You know who ‘that dude’ is.

He’s the guy that everyone acknowledges (implicitly or explicitly) when he walks into the room.

The one that you’ll remember years after you’ve met him.

The one that everyone aspires to emulate.

The one with the aura, the gift, the presence.

He’s that dude.

We all have ‘that dude’ in us.

It’s that aspect of us that tells really funny jokes.

Or knows how to solve complex equations in our heads.

Or has ability to remain cool in the face of difficulty.

The ‘go-to’ guy when things really need to get done.

Being the brand is the act of cultivating the ‘that dude’ in all of us.

I want to demonstrate the power of my mantra, ‘Be the Brand,” using myself as a living case study.

I’m not particularly famous.

If you Google “Chukumba” you’ll see about 27,000 results.

Add the qualifier “Stephen” and that jumps to about 37,000.

Not bad, but nothing really if you consider the 37 million results generated by searching for the term ‘Oprah’ or the 40+ million generated by searching the term ‘Donald Trump.’

Oprah and Trump are classic examples of iconic figures with huge brand recognition.

When Oprah Winfrey started O Magazine, people said, “She’s so vain. Why does she need to be on the cover of every issue?”

I thought, ‘that’s brilliant!’

What better way to promote your brand than to put your face on everything you put into the stream of commerce?

Oprah didn’t become a billionaire by promoting other people (although she has made quite a few people rich from her promotional prowess).

She promoted herself.

Similarly, when Donald Trump started ‘The Apprentice’ people thought “Who does Donald Trump think he is?”

He’s practically bankrupt!

But Trump is a perfect example of the value of self-promotion.

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to deal with him because his face, his properties, and his brand are everywhere.

Despite his well publicized failures, you’ve got to concede his staying power and presence are indomitable.

There are countless others who fit the Oprah/Donald Trump mold, both famous and unknown.

I include myself in their ranks, and I am going to prove that anyone can be the brand, if they want to be.

Being the brand is a perspective that allows you to define yourself and your world-view in a way that sets you apart from the crowd, but without thrashing others in the process.

So stay tuned to see what I’ve got to say.

I’ve got a lot to say-I’m quite verbose.

Hopefully, you’ll come away with lots of good advice.

And at least it’ll make for some interesting reading!

Now go be the brand!

Let’s YO! ain’t your daddy’s ice cream shop.

What do you get when you combine flat screen televisions, branded social media feeds, table top iPads and frozen yogurt?

Let’s YO! that’s what.

Let’s YO! Yogurt is an all natural frozen yogurt franchise, known for its innovative use of in-shop social media.

They serve a dizzying array of whacked out flavors of frozen yogurt (about 80 of them), in what has to be the hippest ice cream parlor you’ll ever see.

Let’s YO! is apparently a growing phenomenon.

What started off at a few spots in 2011 has grown to over 30 in just a few years, with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.

This weekend I took my kids to their Montclair location.

It’s part ice cream shop, part hang out spot, and part arcade.

Let’s YO! is a self-serve ice cream shop, which allows you to make your own cone, cup or sundae.

There’s a big board at the start of your DIY journey, which outlines the simple steps for building your unique frozen masterpiece.

Once you’ve selected your flavors, you can add toppings.

With everything from rainbow sprinkles and M&Ms, to granola and rice crispies, it’s an ice cream aficionados dream.

But the pièce de résistance is unquestionably the iPads mounted to the tabletops through the shop.

Connected to the TV screens, the iPads allow customers to share their experience through social media both inside and out of the store.

My kids eyes bugged out of their heads as we sat to enjoy their cavity-inducing creations, and they noticed the iPads on each table.

Secured in landscape orientation behind green protective casing, the iPads were loaded with a buttload of games and entertainment apps.

The fixed orientation was great for games best played in landscape mode.

Not so much for portrait-only games.

The kids could have cared less about the fixed orientation and lost themselves in gameplay.

I was appalled at the grubby home buttons or sticky screens but I didn’t let it get the best of me.

Does Purell make wipes?

At the end of the day, Let’s YO! is a modernized take on the Carvel, Baskin-Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops of old.

Bend over. Lululemon’s customer service fail.

Lululemon wants to see your bum.

I’ll be brief.

Actually, I’ll be a pair of (recalled) Lululemon Luon yoga pants.

A see-through pair to be exact.

This morning I heard a story so outrageous, so thoroughly implausible, I knew it was a prank.

I wasn’t watching a major news network.

It must have been The Onion.

And the story was a gag.

But as I listened and watched the familiar newscasters report on the story, I realized the story was real.

And Lululemon was making perhaps the worst customer service gaffe in history.

Apparently the Luon, a pair of high-priced yoga pants made by Lululemon, were defective.

If you bent over while wearing them (as you inevitably will in yoga) the pants become sheer and see through.

I assume your exposed pantaloons are not one of the chakras you’re trying to open.

When customers tried to return these defective pants, store clerks made customer put the pants on…

And BEND OVER!

Purportedly, this requirement for a return was sanctioned by Lululemon’s CEO, Christine Day, who said:

“[T] truth of the matter is that the only way that you can actually test for the issue is to put the pants on and bend over.”

As one reporter wrote “asking customers to publicly debase themselves is the surest way of ensuring repeat business.”

The backlash has been instantaneous and unanimous: Lululemon is bugging.

Maybe asking customers to try on a defective article of clothing in-store before you can return it is kosher in Canada.

So they didn’t fully appreciate how folks in America would be offended or taken aback.

Clearly their heads were up their arses.

Perhaps they never heard the expression, “the customer is always right.”

But whatever the case may be, Lululemon made a massive faux pas.

It’s likely going to cost them more than the reported $60 million in lost sales and revenue.

The impact to their reputation can’t be fully quantified.

If the chatter on social media is any indication, it’s serious.

Now I’m not a yoga person.

But I’ll be damned if I drop 100 bones for some friggin pants.

And if I was, and I had, you best believe that I’d have gotten my money back without trying them on.

If I bent over, it would have only been to pass gas as an expression of my malcontent – NOT to prove the pants were see through.

However, the way I would have handled the situation isn’t at issue here.

It’s the way Lululemon mis-handled it.

I’m curious to see how Lululemon makes this right with their customers and fans.

Might I suggest a massive give-back campaign?

If you own any Lululemon product you’re not happy with, even if its not the Luon pants, bring it back to any Lululemon store and we’ll replace it.

No questions asked.

No try-on required.

Lululemon, Christine Day, get at me.

I’m here all week.

I’ll be the dude in downward facing dog with my man package exposed in your see-though pants.

The new Aeropostale app is here! And I’m great.

I’ve been siting on a juicy tidbit of information for a few weeks now.

I wanted to blab about it, but I had to play it close to the vest until it was official.

Today, my client forwarded a link from Mobile Commerce Daily, letting the cat out of the bag, so I guess I can share.

The new Aeropostale app has arrived!

What’s the big deal, you ask?

Well, if you must know, both of the Aeropostale apps described in the Mobile Commerce Daily article are my projects.

So I take great pride in this announcement.

The Aeropostale iPad in-store kiosk, which was developed for their concept store in Roosevelt Field Mall, is special for a number of reasons.

Not the least of which is the fact that it was my project.

Did I say that already?

I kid. I kid.

What makes the iPad app special is the thought that went into it.

Aeropostale wanted to make an interactive tablet app that would simultaneously engage the user with non-shopping related activities, while providing useful information and the ability to initiate and complete purchases (if they so desired).

The features, function, layout and UI were carefully designed to be visually engaging, provide ease of use and ultimately, fun.

With the Aeropostale iPad kiosk, they’ve achieved their desired end.

The center piece of the app is the Music player.

On the Music page, you can browse through the various songs on the playlist, Cover Flow style, and select the song you want to hear next.

Depending upon how many votes a song gets, it gets moved up in the playlist.

The other highlight of the app is the Outfit Builder, which lets users swipe through three carousels, tops, bottoms and accessories, and create an outfit of their own.

Once you’ve created a look to your liking, press the ‘Select This Outfit’ button.

And boom! Your outfit is built.

You can share or buy your outfit right on the spot.

You can even ask an associate to help you find the items you’ve selected while you’re in the store.

Other interesting features include a Video page, Style Guide, Scanner and Shop Online feature, which serves up a tablet optimized version of the Aeropostale site.

Version 2.o of Aeropostale’s iPhone app is also a thing to behold.

And I’m not just saying that because it’s my project.

Did I say that already?

I kid. I kid.

But seriously, their new app is the bees knees as the old timers say.

No seriously.

It’s really cool.

Check it.

Super fly feature numero uno: users can toggle between Aeropostale two brands, Aeropostale and PS, simply by clicking on either logo in the header.

Super fly, right?

So so def feature dos: Girls and Guys carousels on the Shop page let you swipe though all content categories.

So so def, right?

Three times dope feature tres: the Style page lets users browse and play videos and connect with Aeropostale’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest social media profiles.

Three times dope, right?

In addition to these super fly so so def three times dope features, the app has all your standard features and functions baked in.

To wit: store locator, coupons, scan, search, yada yada yada.

The list of stupendousness goes on and on, but I’d rather not prattle on endlessly about how great the apps I usher to life are.

You can download the app and see for yourself (how great I am).

If you’re a mom of teens/tweens, this app is definitely for you.

Aeropostale makes great, fairly priced stuff and this app makes it über easy to browse and buy on the go.

If you’re a teen/tween yourself, Aeropostale’s app are built with you in mind, so cop that app!

And congratulations on finding your way to my blog…please excuse my often foul mouth.

I can’t legitimately take all the credit though.

I’ve got a talented team of creatives, developers, QA and account managers – who I won’t specifically name here lest they steal my thunder – who helped make this app a success.

Anywho, Aeropostale’s apps have given me a reason to talk about myself.

Thank you Aero!

Note:  I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge that these apps were made possible through the hard work and dedication of Dianne Ramlochan. I was shamed into adding this footnote.

Visualeyz. We rocks eyeballs!

The artist formerly known as Mos Def rocks the mic with Visualeyz on the visuals.

If you pay attention to anything I say, you might recall that I dropped the name Visualeyz a few weeks ago.

I was talking about a JDilla tribute featuring DJs Questlove, Mike Nyce and Rich Medina in Philly.

I also brought up Mark Hines, of Visualeyz, who was manning the visuals for the night.

If you read that post, you probably thought, “Who is Visualeyz and what does ‘manning the visuals’ even mean?”

You would have been well within your rights to be curious.

As the purveyor of information, I am duty bound to disabuse you of your ignorance.

Visualeyz is the video production, VJ, and marketing arm of The Marksmen.

The About page of visualeyz.net describes Visualeyz as follows:

Visualeyz is a Video Production, VJ, and Branding outfit that brings stylized club and in-venue video mixing and branding together into a powerful marketing tool. In other words, we rock eyeballs.

Visualeyz provides video mixing and branding together into visual presentations and powerful cultural and social experiences.

That’s a mouthful.

But I feel like I haven’t really said anything.

Let’s try this again.

When Madonna was looking for the final dancer to join her crew, as part of the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange, Visualeyz was tapped to provide background visuals for an on-stage dance routine.

When Masters of the Mix was looking for a crew to shoot and edit the final scene of the second season, announcing the winner, they called Visualeyz.

When the Philadelphia Museum of Art needed to do something interesting to kick off their Art After 5 series, Visualeyz was at the top of their list.

When big dogs need visuals done right, they call Visualeyz.

Visualeyz offers businesses and brands numerous opportunities to connect with and engage their clients, customers, and sponsors.

Whether it’s a small local business targeting a niche audience or a big brand with a national pitch, Visualeyz has to tools to reach them all.

With the proliferation of smart phones and increasingly powerful mobile devices, Visualeyz helps brands target the mobile generation by providing 2nd screen experiences, microsites and integrated smartphone apps that engage audiences before, during and after events.

Visualeyz pushes live on-screen social media feeds, real-time posting of photos, audio and video content to brand profiles, and supplies full analytic data about who attended, how they accessed and interacted with your brand.

They’re part of the same crew who developed the interactive Red Rooster, Tillmans NYC, 1300 Fillmore and Townhouse mobile web apps, which let users browse the venue’s playlist right from their mobile devices.

In a nutshell, Visualeyz helps bridge the gap between engagement and conversion.

I’m kinda excited to see what the future has in store for Visualeyz and the brands they work with.

Here are a few branded teasers.

Okayplayer.

Goodie NYE.

Worship Recordings.

If your a brand looking for a deeper level of engagement with your audience, you better get you some Visualeyz in your life!

It’s official. I’m writing a book.

No. This is not the title of my book.

It hit me the other day that I should just write a book.

I have a lot to say.

Why should I constrain my thoughts to the confines of a blog?

Why indeed!

So there.

It’s decided.

I’m going to write a book.

And I know what it’s going to be about.

I’ve even got my chapters lined up.

If writing a book is anything, it’s ordered thinking.

So I feel like even if I compile a piece of utter garbage.

It will be a published piece of garbage.

And that’s saying something.

Not that I’m going to let a book I publish be a piece of garbage.

I am Stephen Chukumba.

I’ve got a reputation to uphold.

Dr. Stephen Uneze Chukumba (GRHS) was published.

My dad wrote a book entitled, The League of Nations Powers, the United States and the Italo-Ethiopian Dispute: A Comparative Study, 1934-1938.

I’ve read it.

It’s some heavy stuff.

It’s about the 2nd Italo-Ethopian War.

And how Italy ganged up on Ethiopia back in the day.

Cause they were swole that the first time they tried to colonialize the Ethiopians, they got they asses whupped.

Yes, I said they got they asses whupped.

Got that ass spanked!

In Africa.

By savages.

The shame was too much to bear.

So the second time around, the Italians came prepared and Ethiopia was no match.

When Ethiopia petitioned the League of Nations to protect them from Italy’s illegal action, invoking protection from aggression by another member of the League (pursuant to its very charter) the League failed to act.

Suckas.

That’s why your asses got replaced by the UN!

Pop dukes also penned The Role of Black African Troops in the Conquest of the German Tropical African Colonies, 1914-1918.

Haven’t read this one.

So I won’t bore you with a synopsis here.

But I’m sure it’s more heavy stuff.

My brother, the other Dr. Chukumba, Celestine O.C. Chukumba, PhD, is published.

He authored University Invention, Entrepreneurship, and Start-Ups.

His paper applies game theory to predict the outcome of several scenarios involving university versus angel investor backed start ups.

Also heavy stuff.

He cranks out content for the several websites and blogs he publishes on the regular.

So writing may just be in the blood.

My sister – a real doctor – is not published.

But she writes prescriptions.

My other brothers aren’t published either.

One is very well off.

He might as well be printing cash.

Any my baby brother will likely pen his exploits across the globe one day.

The Hamptons. Costa Rica. UK. Panama. Nigeria. Spain.

He’ll probably write a picture book, a Gulliver’s Travels with biddies.

Who knows.

I hope my book won’t be this rambling.

My point wuuuzzz that I am writing a book.

It will be all about digital and technological trends.

And things I’ve witnessed and experienced growing up in the digital age.

I’m coming up on 43.

I’ve seen a lot.

And I got a lot to say.

I’ve been told I have a way with words.

And that I talk too much.

But whatever.

I’m gonna throw everything I’ve got at ya.

Hopefully it’ll all make sense when I’m done.

Who knows, I may make some valid points along the way.

Maybe I will write it here in my blog.

Why the hell not?

Bring ya’ll bitches along for the ride.

Not that you are all a bunch of bitches or anything.

I’m using ‘bitches’ colloquially.

As in “ya’ll are my bitches“.

Imagine a long drawn out ‘biiitttcchhhessss’ delivered with turned-down lips and a sneer.

Not like bitches on a street corner making money for me.

Or anything like that.

I’m rambling again.

But you know what I’m saying right?

You guys can be my book’s Beta testers.

Give me feedback.

Let me know if I’m tripping.

Or rambling.

Like now.

Ya’ll get me.

Right?

Maybe I shouldn’t write a book.

What do ya think?

To write or not to write?