Categories: Articles

Home Is Where The One Red Paperclip Is

Back in April, I Blogged (Montreal In The Media Because Of One Man, One Blog And One Red Paperclip) about a local Montrealer, Kyle MacDonald, who had a question. MacDonald wondered if he would be able to leverage the power of the Internet to trade One Red Paperclip up to a house.
It took him one year and fourteen trades, but Kyle MacDonald – also known as One Red Paperclip – has accepted to trade his latest opportunity (a role in an upcoming movie from former LA Law actor, Corbin Bernsen) for a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan. Along with the house, the city of Kipling is also adding in all sorts of goodies that are PR worthy – including giving MacDonald the key to the city.
One Red Paperclip is a great example of personal branding, social media, word of mouth marketing and online PR. MacDonald truly leveraged the Internet and created real power for himself. There was never a doubt in anybody’s mind “if” he would get the offer for a house, the only question was “when?”
The One Red Paperclip saga actually began in mid-July (that’s when it first came on my radar), and it’s funny how sometimes, the interesting stories in your own backyard seem innocuous. With hindsight being 20-20, I wish I had Blogged about Kyle when he first got started. Then again, it’s only interesting if people actually latch on to it. MacDonald turned One Red Paperclip into something similar to The Million Dollar Homepage. How many people have ventured down similar paths with no success at all?
Kyle, enjoy your new home. It is well deserved.
If you would like to read the Blog posting on his acceptance of the house, please go here: One Red Paperclip – 503 Main Street.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.