How GoPro went Viral through Content

Found a great article about how the GoPro developed into this giant community of hardcore users and fans. Here it is:

"GoPro, maker of high-definition personal cameras for adrenaline junkies, does do some traditional advertising. But that’s not how it built its loyal following of nearly 2.6 million YouTube subscribers.

Its YouTube channel is packed with videos of customers skydiving, base jumping and deep sea diving. Whatever your extreme passion, GoPro has a vertigo-inducing, user-generated video for you. Rarely a week goes by without a GoPro-filmed feat going viral on Reddit or Facebook.

This media strategy, explored in greater length in a previous article on The Next Web, is resonating with customers to the tune of 3.8 million cameras sold last year, according to CNN money.

It’s an example of a company knowing its market, and fostering a content strategy that allows fans of the product to share their experiences. The message is subtle but clear: purchasing a GoPro is more than just buying a camera—it’s buying an experience."

Viral GoPro Content generated through Users:

Source: http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/10/29/4-brands-built-empires-without-traditional-advertising/

What went wrong with Tottenham this season

The season is not over yet and some may say it is still not time to make balances, but, Tottenham have already failed to achieve almost every goal for this Season while showing bad management as a Company and as a Team.

Things went wrong, but in Football things go wrong for specific reasons and not because of good luck or bad luck or random reasons. So i will try to point the reasons that in my opinion played the largest roles in this situation .

Bale: He was the engine of the team and his transfer was badly, or recklessly, managed. The deal was strange, the time the deal took, the player forcing his way out, the mix of Sponsorship/Injury situation that kept him out of the Pre Season. Tottenham relations with Madrid were healthy, I'm assuming both Organisations could communicate with ease, and both teams could report to each other what was happening between the three parts of the deal. The deal was closed and Tottenham had no time to adjust a team that was Bale based.

AVB: The first season with AVB had Tottenham showing a fresh side of Spurs, a new sponsor deal with Under Armour, new goals and hopes, squad changes, new play style, new ideas, more international fans. This was good for the fans, good for the atmosphere, good for the show, good for new deals, good for the players, good for everybody and good for Spurs as a Brand... The things were not perfect, yet, in the middle of the season things were running smoothly, the team was playing good offensive football with intensity and being able to compete with the other top teams of the Premier League and when things got rough Bale was there. Still, Tottenham did not achieve the major goal "Champions League" and in the Europa League they could and should have played the Final and try to win it. Levy was not pleased.
In the second season, the team was having many ups and downs and not showing signs of a football style that could please the fans and Levy, and after a loss against City at the Etihad 6-0 and the Champions Goal once again troubled, AVB got sacked, in my opinion it was a wrong decision but the decision was made.


Levy: Levy is the number 1 responsible for the situation. Why? Bad management, communication, delegation of tasks and . I could explain point by point, but i would repeat myself. Clearly he shut down AVB style of management as a result of failing to achieve goals, he cut down some of AVB tasks such as Squad Building, by hiring Franco Baldini, and the communication between Levy and AVB was far from perfect

Sherwood: Levy and Sherwood have a good relationship, it's not a secret to anybody, and they might been plotting the scheme to sack AVB a few games before it happened. Sherwood was appointed manager and the decision worked in the first games, he has a speech that puts the players pride and professionalism on the line, as well as sounding like a fan, which in a Marketing point of view pleases me. Adebayor was recovered and was a surprise in the Sherwood era, the team was playing a classical 4-4-2 fast and at first intense, but i think it was more a psychological leverage than anything else.
Now that the Psychological effect is over, Sherwood still points fingers to the players but the reaction is not the same, and he can change the squad however he likes and tweak the scheme but the team is lost on the field.
I think now we can see it was not the best decision and another management mistake by Tottenham.

Franco Baldini: I remember in the summer when he got appointed, his genius deal capacity being reported in the news. He made a large amount of deals that were labelled fantastic from a scouting and business point of view. Can't argue with the deal, but the players did not perform as expected. 
AVB was not responsible for the deals when they were genius but was responsible for the under performance and lack of production of the teams when the new players were failing to adapt and to show something.

Transfers: Spurs deals were all late, the Bale deal and the major signings were all in August, and the new players have little time to adjust to the English football and to the coach ideas. Premier League started and for the Spurs it still seemed as if they were in Pre Season, the starting 11 was not perfected and the subs were tests and not solutions. Bad management policy, bad deals due to the time to adjust to a new League and Play style and bad communication since AVB wanted different players from the ones Franco Baldini and Levy hired.

Play Style with AVB: One thing a manager have is a play style and AVB likes an offensive play style with much wing action and quick short passing style, as seen in Pep's Barcelona. To make this possible in his second season at Tottenham he wanted: Villa, Hulk, William, Moutinho and Coentrão. We can't argue how good this players are, they could still fail to adapt to the Premier League but not to AVB playstyle, they were perfect to his vision of Football and the deals could be made for about 100-120M, a lot, but we are replacing the engine of a team, Bale, that brought 100M to Spurs from Madrid. He got Lamela, Eriksen, Soldado and Chadli, as well as Paulinho, Chiriches and Capoue that any manager would like, the first four players were a must for the team to shine and has they under performed with AVB the team was in a bad situation.

Play Style with Sherwood: The classical 4-4-2 made his intro with Sherwood to Spurs this season after the 4-4-3/4-2-3-1 used by AVB in both seasons. This scheme with the psychological factor proved something, but after that, the scheme revealed the weakness it gots, it can become very predictable for the top teams, it has to be intense in every ball, the midfield and defense have to be perfectly tuned or otherwise it will not be balanced at all.
The team has no intensity, the football is far from fluid and Petey, it has become very predictable and the team is very unbalanced.

Defense: I did not forget the defense in other topics, it is so important that i have to do a topic for this one. Tottenham defense was never solid this season, with lots of changes due to some injury problems and some under perfomance by some players and with many mistakes such as focus, bad transitions and bad organisation. Vertonghen is not a full back and that is a fundamental role for any top team and Kaboul and Vertonghen were for me the only two starting elevent central defenders at a Champions Level. 
The squad is hardly lacking in defense and nothing could be done this season to help that.

If Tottenham goal is to be a Champions level team this kind of mistakes cannot happen, specially in the Premier League were the Top Four is so competitive that consistent is mandatory, and with this kind of Management mistakes consistent is a word that is thrown away and Spurs were never consistent this season.
Tottenham is not just Levy, Sherwood and Franco Baldini, i hope Tottenham learnt from this mistakes and for the next season have a better plan to achieve his goals. Working every aspect that they can to have a more consistent team to attack the Premier League Top Four spots, they should start with a new manager, strong personality and a "PR man" Klopp style and a squad rebuild, some guys need to get out and some positions need solidification, adjust the play style to please both Levy, the fans and achieve positive results.