Q&A with David Spark, Content Marketer and Producer, Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions

David Spark, Content Marketer and Producer, Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions is a veteran tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions. He’s been the creative director, producer, voice, and face of many content marketing campaigns for a number of Fortune 1000 B2B tech companies.

MEDIA 7: What part of your background, personality, experience, or skill set makes you a particularly effective content marketing professional?
DAVID SPARK:

• Veteran technology journalist (worked across all media)
• Former advertising exec
• Former standup comedian and comedy writer

M7: What inspires you to come up with new ideas for blog posts, campaigns, tech, and media podcasts?
DS:
Inspiration is dependent on the project, the output, and the medium. But in general, I’m inspired by finding a topic/question that the audience will eagerly want to answer. Two of our most popular examples:

CISO Series – This is a media channel we started in October 2018 that we tout as couples counseling for security practitioners and vendors. We have such a passionate audience that they’re submitting a steady flow of questions, commentary, and games for our two podcasts. The CISO Series has provided the forum for our audience to be inspired.

“Man on the street” videos – It’s our most popular video format. We’ve produced close to 200 of these and my goal with these videos is to come up with a question where the first reaction is to laugh and then an eagerness about responding. It could be a challenge question (e.g., “What would happen if you left your mobile phone at home for an entire day?”, or something completely inappropriate for the environment (e.g., asking “What’s Your Password?” at a security conference).


"This whole attitude of “let’s try it with one and see how it works out” is a failed strategy out of the gate."

M7: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the content marketing space since you first started in Chicago as a comedy writer for The Second City? 
DS:
 Not related to comedy, but the biggest change I’ve seen in content marketing was that the work moved in house. We started business in 2007 and most of my sales pitches were trying to explain the value of content marketing which at the time I referred to as brand journalism. By 2012 all of our current and past clients finally got it and stopped outsourcing the majority of their content marketing efforts. That forced us in 2013 to change our business model to specialize in certain industry sectors and be more product-focused. People now hire us because they want our style of production and access to our industry connections specifically in B2B tech and cybersecurity.

M7: As a Content Marketer & Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions, how much content are you personally creating versus managing?
DS:
 I’m doing the majority of it, but I bring in audio editors, designers, video editors, and now I have a sponsored segment producer for the CISO Series. I’m constantly pitched, but no one ever actually pitches in our style. I reject all offers for guest posts. I’m extremely protective of my brand.


"The only way you create great content is you have to make a lot of bad content first."

M7: What are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned about content creation/management over the last few years?
DS: 
The only way you create great content is you have to make a lot of bad content first. Nobody is amazing out of the gate. This is especially true about video production. For those getting into video, I highly recommend producing home movies first. The reason is those first videos will be awful, but your audience (your family) will love the videos no matter how bad they are.

M7: Could you tell us more about your book, “Three Feet from Seven Figures: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows”?
DS:
A huge majority of the work we do is at trade shows where we see a lot of behavior that is far from optimal.
At big trade shows, companies are dropping six to seven figures to have a presence at the conference. The cost per hour to be on the floor is extraordinary. So much is spent on booth production, travel, and staffing, but it appears nothing is spent on training people on how to actually behave at a trade show. It pains me when I see booth staffers staring at their phones, turning their back to the floor, or getting in huddles and talking with fellow coworkers. All these behaviors scream, “We don’t want to talk with you, potential customer who is walking past us just three feet away.”
The book offers techniques on how to engage with random people as they walk by your booth and quickly qualify or disqualify them.
The engagement techniques from the book became very popular, so we built upon them and made them usable by anyone in a training program we created called “Business Networking Pickup Lines”.


"In the entire history of media, with the exception of feature movies, no media brand becomes successful with one magazine issue, one radio show, one article, or one of anything."

M7: How has Spark Media Solutions been experimenting with new approaches/content formats/platforms? Are there any campaigns/programs you can give as examples?
DS:
Our survival is based on coming up with different media products and one of our core philosophies is “single effort/many units of content.” So if we’re hired to produce one video we’ll pitch more assets such as let’s turn it into highlights clips, transcripts, memes, photos, and more.
Here’s a good case study we did on a product we created called “Crowd-tooned”.
And here’s one of our most popular articles that speaks to our most popular production model: “21 Tips for Producing Funny ‘Man on the Street’ Videos”.

M7: What are the biggest mistakes you see new content marketers making consistently?
DS:
 Thinking you can be successful with one of anything. This whole attitude of “let’s try it with one and see how it works out” is a failed strategy out of the gate. In the entire history of media, with the exception of feature movies, no media brand becomes successful with one magazine issue, one radio show, one article, or one of anything. Why does a company that has no media experience whatsoever think they’re actually going to pull off what’s never happened in the history of media ever?


ABOUT SPARK MEDIA SOLUTIONS

Spark Media Solutions is a B2B content marketing agency for the tech industry. Content marketers that have perfected the model of building influencer relations through content. When dedicated to building an editorial voice, our clients have become the leading corporate media brand for their industry. We've worked with companies such as HP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Juniper Networks, Symantec, Indycar, LinkedIn, Citrix, IDG, Dice, and many more. Our most popular service is live event reporting and production.

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As Wi-Fi enabled device shipments continue to grow, increasing numbers of semiconductor companies and OEMs are choosing to integrate Wi-Fi connectivity into their chip designs, and need access to high quality Wi-Fi IP to reduce the development costs and risks. Spanning Wi-Fi 4/5/6 over the past decade, Ceva has already established a considerable leadership position in Wi-Fi IP licensing, with more than 40 licensees for its RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 6 IP family, serving a wide range of end markets and applications, from end points to access points, across the IoT sphere. Expanding on this leadership position, Ceva's RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP provides a unique, comprehensive 802.11be MAC and PHY solution for integration into the next generation of Wi-Fi SoC products. Andrew Zignani, Senior Research Director, ABI Research, commented: "Ceva's wireless connectivity IPs play an integral role in the proliferation of connectivity standards in the broad IoT markets, as is evident from their customer's success in shipping more than 1 billion connectivity chips annually. With the introduction of their RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platforms, semiconductor companies and OEMs have a trusted partner to develop differentiated, high-performance Wi-Fi 7 chipsets for their connectivity roadmaps, with lower risk and a lower cost of ownership." Tal Shalev, Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless IoT BU at Ceva, stated: "The relentless expansion of Wi-Fi usage has pushed the Wi-Fi 7 standard to offer enhanced data throughput, improved latency and support more spectrum in the face of mounting network congestion. Achieving this requires highly complex, cutting-edge functionalities like 4K QAM modulation, Multi Link Operation and Multi Resource Unit to optimize link efficiency across the available bands. Our RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platform incorporates all the features of this latest-generation, wireless standard, dramatically simplifying development and time-to-market for companies looking to add Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to their products." Wi-Fi 7's 4K QAM modulation scheme is a substantial increase on the previous 1K QAM of Wi-Fi 6, while Multi Link Operation (MLO) introduces dynamic channel aggregation, seamlessly combining heterogenous channels from the same or different bands to navigate interference and boost throughput. Similarly, Multi Resource Units (MRU) enables the creation of larger channel bandwidths by intelligently stitching together punctured or disjointed Resource Units within the same band. The outcome is not only a remarkable up to 5 times increase in raw speeds but also significantly reduced latency, thanks to diminished contentions and retries. About Ceva, Inc. At Ceva, we are passionate about bringing new levels of innovation to the smart edge. Our wireless communications, sensing and Edge AI technologies are at the heart of some of today's most advanced smart edge products. From Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi, UWB and 5G platform IP for ubiquitous, robust communications, to scalable Edge AI NPU IPs, sensor fusion processors and embedded application software that make devices smarter, we have the broadest portfolio of IP to connect, sense and infer data more reliably and efficiently. We deliver differentiated solutions that combine outstanding performance at ultra-low power within a very small silicon footprint. Our goal is simple – to deliver the silicon and software IP to enable a smarter, safer, and more interconnected world. This philosophy is in practice today, with Ceva powering more than 17 billion of the world's most innovative smart edge products from AI-infused smartwatches, IoT devices and wearables to autonomous vehicles and 5G mobile networks. Our headquarters are in Rockville, Maryland with a global customer base supported by operations worldwide. Our employees are among the leading experts in their areas of specialty, consistently solving the most complex design challenges, enabling our customers to bring innovative smart edge products to market.

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Industrial IoT

Casa Systems Unveils New AurusXT 5G Industrial IoT Router Series Featuring the World’s First Dynamic Slicing Support

Casa Systems | January 10, 2024

Casa Systems (Nasdaq: CASA), provider of innovative access network solutions serving customers worldwide, today announced the launch of the first solution in its AurusXT 5G Industrial IoT (IIoT) Series, the NTC-500 5G IIoT router, which leverages the speed and coverage of a 5G network to provide high-speed Ethernet-to-cellular connectivity. Casa’s NTC-500 is the first 5G IIoT router to support dynamic network slicing capabilities, allowing operators to provide new and tailored services to their enterprise customers. Casa’s AurusXT Series will offer a range of 5G IIoT devices designed to deliver reliable connectivity to a broad range of both fixed and mobile use cases. The NTC-500 is the first of the AurusXT Series to disrupt the IIoT market with a cost-effective 5G IIoT Router that utilizes the speed and coverage of a 5G Sub-6 GHz network to deliver a fast and reliable connection to machines, equipment, and vehicles. Casa’s industry-first and proprietary 5G Dynamic Slicing Technology sets the NTC-500 apart from every other IIoT router on the market. Other 5G IIoT routers are limited to static slicing, forcing end users to endure labor- and time-intensive manual, on-site reconfigurations whenever they want to make a slicing change. Casa’s Dynamic Slicing Technology empowers mobile operators to unlock new revenue streams by allowing their customers to flexibly establish and rescind network priority on demand. “The proliferation of 5G networks coupled with the sunset of global 3G networks has created a groundswell of demand for 5G IIoT devices,” said Steve Collins, SVP of Access Devices, Casa Systems. “Our AurusXT Series is designed to deliver cost-effective 5G IIoT solutions that will address most use cases. With our dynamic network slicing capabilities, mobile operators will be able to unlock new revenue streams by offering tailored service plans to meet their enterprise customers’ individual requirements.” IIoT routers can be found in installations around the world – wherever Ethernet-to-cellular connectivity is in demand – from remote security cameras in industrial sites or on roadways, to digital signs in shopping malls or other public venues, to standalone ticketing and other vending machines, to anywhere an IIoT device in any industry needs wireless connectivity to transmit data. Enterprises facing the inescapable sunsetting of 3G technology now have a cost-effective and future-proof option for upgrading the hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of IIoT routers within their domain. By opting to deploy Casa’s NTC-500, operators can bypass the adoption of 4G devices and minimize costly truck rolls to replace both 3G and 4G IIoT routers. The NTC-500 supports the latest 3GPP Release 16 features, including 5G Non-standalone (NSA) and 5G Standalone (SA) with failover to 4G LTE. This ensures it will not become obsolete when 4G technology phases out, minimizing the operational impact of updating hardware. The NTC-500 is compatible with both 4G and 5G, enabling customers to enjoy the benefits of 5G with the added assurance that existing 4G devices will deliver the best possible performance. Casa Systems is currently welcoming new resellers globally. Resellers or system integrators interested in becoming a Casa Systems IIoT device reseller are encouraged to contact Casa at https://www.casa-systems.com/. About Casa Systems Casa Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASA) is a next-gen technology leader that supports mobile, cable, and wireline communications services providers with market leading solutions. Casa’s virtualized and cloud-native software solutions modernize operators’ network architectures, expand the range of services they can offer their consumer and commercial customers, accelerate time to revenue, and reduce the TCO of their network infrastructure and operations. Casa’s suite of open, cloud-native network solutions unlocks new ways for service providers to quickly build flexible networks and service offerings that maximize revenue-generating capabilities. Commercially deployed in more than 70 countries, Casa Systems serves over 475 Tier 1 and regional service providers worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.casa-systems.com/.

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