4 Lessons from Trevor Noah at The 2017 Microsoft Bing Agency Awards

 

The Daily Show’s host Trevor Noah rocked the stage for the second annual Microsoft Bing Agency Awards in New York on Thursday night. Trevor Noah is the man. He glided on to the stage looking dapper in a fine tuxedo. If Trevor was an ad man he would be the Black Don Draper. First congrats to Trevor for locking an impressive new contract with the Daily Show. Second I love Bing because they take care of their partners. The venue (Capitale) was glorious, the people looked gorgeous, the food exceptional and the alcohol top shelf.

 

Charles Drewyer was nominated for a Trailblazer of the Year award so King Charles and I finally had an excuse to wear our tuxedos.

Trevor Noah on Cortana, Searching Your Own Name and More

The best part of Trevor’s performance was how he seamlessly weaved advertising, voice search, artificial intelligences, voice assistants, Cortana and Bing into his routine. Here are a few lessons we learned.

1.Put down your phone

Trevor started off by telling us all to put our phones down and enjoy the moment. He wasn’t being Zen like or anything. He was just making the point that we are blessed to be here so we should watch his performance live instead of watching though our phone and thinking about who we are going to share it with. Trevor makes a great point. We are now in a device obsessed world where 2nd screens and mobile device dilute our real world experiences. I’ve been to dinners where we couldn’t eat until that one person was done taking pictures of everyone’s plate. If taking pictures of food is your job then cool. But if it’s not then why should everyone’s food get cold so you can get a some love on IG. Of course I and most of the room didn’t put our phones down but Trevor’s point was noted.

2. Humans are rude Cortana isn’t

Trevor loves Cortana because when you ask her a question she answers it. She doesn’t question you, she doesn’t repeat herself in a mocking way, and she ain’t rude. Trevor is from South Africa and first learned about Tacos when is was staying with a friend in Pasadena California. He told us a hilarious tale of how he learned what a Taco was. One day his friend asked him if he wanted to get Tacos for dinner. Trevor was perplexed. There are few Mexicans in South Africa so Trevor had no idea what a Taco was. When he asked his friend, “What’s a Taco?” He retorted,” What! You don’t know what a Tacos is?” Trevor repeated the query, “No. What’s a Taco?” And his friend continued, ” What!? You don’t no what a Taco is!?” This exchange continued for a few minutes until Trevor’s friend finally told him what a Taco was.

3.Technology replaced old people first

One of the award winners open his thank you speech as if he were making a eulogy about our beloved paid search craft. He basically said robots are going to replace digital advertisers and he always considered this a blue collared job. He also said Trevor Noah’s name in his speech more times than the keyword “Trevor Noah” gets searched on Bing.

That’s about 223,384 a year on Bing if you were wondering. One there is nothing blue about the collars on the tuxedos of the over paid advertising executives in the room so to equate them is strange. Two Trevor Noah is like Candy Man. If you say his name three times he will appear. If you say it more than that and try and depress everyone in the room in the same sentence then he is going to call you out. When Trevor got back to the stage he promptly address this gentleman. He basically told him to stop complaining because technology has replaced old people and they are doing just fine. Robots will eventually replace some of what we do. You either have to get ahead of it and evolve or do something else.

4. Don’t Search Yourself

Trevor Noah advised us to not search our own names. He said,” Every time I search my own name I find out new things about myself. Apparently I’m gay. That’s awesome. That means I know how to dress well. What a compliment.” People make things up about celebrities all the time so that comes with fame. Reputation management is a lot easier for the rest of us.

Here are a three tips to help you control what shows up when someone searches your name.

1. Build a Personal Website: Buy your domain name on GoDaddy and build a personal website. Here are the best WordPress Themes Under $70. Once the site is up use these SEO tips to help make sure your new site ranks for your name.
2. Social Media Sites: Create as many social media accounts using your name as you can. You don’t have to use them but creating them will help you rank for your name.
3. Press & Author Profiles: Get some press if you can. It’s good to have other websites saying good things about you. You can also contribute thought pieces to publications. Usually they will create an author page for you and these pages will rank very well for your name.

Conclusion

The 2017 Microsoft Bing Agency Awards was an amazing event. Trevor Noah had the room in tears with his jokes and dropped some wisdom on the crowd. Make sure you attend next year because it will be just as glorious. Congrats to all the winners!