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Seth's Blog

Reconsidering Gartner's Cycle of Hype: One theory of technology marketing and acceptance goes like this: A technology causes a media hypestorm and rising expectations. Then it crashes to Earth as the popular press and the public discovers

Who cares?: Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges.Often its the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally

Solving problems (vs. identifying them): Often, were hesitant to identify a problem out of fear we cant solve it. Knowing that we have to live with something that were unable to alter gives us a good reason to avoid verbalizing it--highlighting it just makes it

"It's completely up to you": ... and thats the problem.I was picking out the mat for a framed photo and there were a thousand colors to choose from. The framer uttered the scary invocation, putting the choice back to me.So many things are now completely

The pricing formula (S&S): Years ago, my bosses and I needed to finalize the pricing for a new line of software I was launching. In the room we had MBAs from Harvard (2), Stanford, Tuck and, I think, Wharton. We had three prices in

Trading favors: Now that everyone has a media platform, look for even more of the mutual back scratching that comes from tracking favors.The most corrosive sort of this network amplification goes like this: I do something for you unasked. Then I do

Worth a million words: We all know how much a picture is worth. What about a good short video? (hit the play button and watch for thirty seconds--here is the large version).

Insatiable: Long-lasting systems cant survive if they remain insatiable.An insatiable thirst for food, power, energy, reassurance, clicks, funding or other raw material will eventually lead to failure. Thats because theres never enough to satisfy someone or something thats insatiable. The organization

The problem with reassurance: The taxis waiting, its honking its horn, time to go to the airport.Yes, the passport is in my pocket. I checked five minutes ago.Of course, the cost of checking again, just one more time, is tiny. Hardly worth discussing with

Over your head: Once the water is deep enough that you must swim to stay afloat, does it really matter how deep the pool is?

Good news about Amit (thank you!): My colleague Amit Gupta found a 10/10 marrow match. Theres still a long and treacherous road ahead, but thanks to you, and to people like you, and the ability to spread the word among the tribe, a match was found,

Learning leadership from Congress: The most frustrating thing for me in the SOPA/PIPA debate now winding down is how unnecessary the whole thing should have been. It occurred to me that we learned a lot about what sort of behaviors make for great leaders

When the world changes...: Its painful, expensive, time-consuming, stressful and ultimately pointless to work overtime to preserve your dying business model.All the lobbying, the lawsuits, the ad campaigns and most of all, the hand-wringing, arent going to change anything at all. In fact, instead

Access to access: Whats standing in your way? What would help you start and ship and create something of value?Access to ideas is easier than ever before. You can see over the shoulders of the great leaders in every industry, instantly and for

Straight up: Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man cant ride you unless your back is bent.Martin Luther King, Jr.And

The play by play and the color commentary: One of the tropes of broadcast sports is the partnership of the guy describing whats happening on the field (an artifact from radio) and the guy doing color commentary, riffing on the why of what happened and predicting what might

Declaring victory: Whenever you start a project, you should have a plan for finishing it.One outcome is to declare victory, to find that moment when you have satisfied your objectives and reached a goal.The other outcome, which feels like a downer but

The TED imperatives: Be interested.Be generous.Be interesting.Connect.In that order. If all you can do is repeat cocktail party banalities about yourself, dont come. If all youre hoping for is to get more than you give, the annual event is not worth your time.

Your voice will give you away: Its extremely difficult to read a speech and sound as if you mean it.For most of us, when reading, posture changes, the throat tightens and people can tell. Reading is different from speaking, and a different sort of attention is

The first thing you do when you sit down at the computer: Let me guess: check the incoming. Check email or traffic stats or messages from your boss. Check the tweets you follow or the FB status of friends.Youve just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance

MarketingVOX

Closing Bell: FBI plans social map app | Facebook IPO | Twitter censorship: Social Media:FBI plans social network map alert mash-up application.Twitters new censorship plan rouses global furor.Finance:Wall Street clicks like on Facebook IPO.Mobile Computing:Samsung giving Apple heavy competition in mobile.Kinect coming to laptops? Why?

MovenBank Moves Industry Closer to Social Media Credit Scoring: MovenBank is a bank expected to debut this year with a focus on the top tech trends. It will be a mobile bank accessed by smartphones, American Banker reports. More intriguingly, it will base its credit decisions and pricing decisions

Google+ May Be Wasting Its Time on the Teen Market: Google, not surprisingly, is going after every core user group on Facebook, from brands to moms to now, teens. Google just lowered its age requirement so teens ages 13 and up can use the site.Marketing Pilgrim questions the wisdom of

Hotmail Moves on to the Kindle: Microsoft is continuing to push Hotmail onto the mobile device—all mobile devices. On the heels of its recent release of iOS5 and a Hotmail application for Android it is rolling out an app for Kindle Fire.The Hotmail Kindle app offers

Another Black Eye for Online Reviews: The New York Times tells of a best-selling product on the Amazon site that had quickly racked up a number of five-star reviews. As it turned out, the manufacturer of the product, which was already heavily discounted in a special

Top News: Buying online reviews | Twitter's censorship | Apple No.1 smartphone: Mobile Marketing:Advertisers will spend $2.61 billion on mobile this year.Ecommerce:For $2 a star, an online retailer gets 5-star product reviews.Social Media:Twitter faces censorship backlash.Online Ad Market:Googles trusted photographers turns business photos into a self-serve product.Gaming:Nintendo unveils network for console connectivity.Mobile

Closing Bell: Zynga Bingo | AT&T forecast falls short | Wii U: Social Media:Zynga Bingo launches in beta on Facebook.Google+ goes after your young, just like Facebook.Mobile Computing:AT&T forecast falls short as IPhone boosts subsidy costs.In China, human costs are built into an iPad.The Wii U officially arriving by Christmas of this

Facebook, Washington AG File Likejacking Suit Against Ad Network: Facebook and Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna have filed lawsuits against Adscend Media alleging that the ad network engaged in likejacking on Facebook—a problem on the social network ever since that action button was launched.The scam works like this,

Local Paper Uses QR Codes for, Well, Everything: Lets Eat Out Menus is a new magazine format launched in Spotsylvania County, Virginia (via the Free Lance-Star) that features menus from local restaurants and ads from nearby attractions and businesses in Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford and Spotsylvania.It

Facebook Credits-based Loyalty Program Debuts: Plink has launched a Facebook Credits-based loyalty program that rewards Facebook members for dining and making purchases at restaurants and offline retailers. Members join at Plink.com through Facebook Connect, then register the credit or debit card of their choice, and

iMessage is Having an Impact on Texting: Last year the industry wondered if iMessaging—a service Apple introduced as part of its updated iOS 5—would have an impact on texting. With it, iPhone and iPad users can send messages with text, photos and video to other iPhone and

Top News: Consumers angry about privacy | Google+ spreads | Celebrity-backed shopping: Privacy:Consumers in the middle of Google-Facebook battle.Search:Google+ spreads to AdSense, will it spread to the whole web?AdWords finally clicks for one computer repair firm.Mobile Computing:Nokia posts huge loss.The next Xbox will reportedly play Blu-Ray and introduce Kinect 2.HP webOS open

Closing Bell: Privacy | iPhone to be delivered this summer | Public alerts on Google maps: Privacy:Should Google’s new privacy policy concern you?O2 accidentally exposes customers phone numbers.Mobile Computing:Foxconn employee tells us that the next iPhone is ready for production, indicates likely summer launch.Online Video:Netflix streaming users now outnumber DVD subscribers 2:1.Search:Public alerts on Google maps.

The BBB Takes on 4G Claims: The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus–the advertising industrys self-regulatory forum–is recommending that Verizon Wireless discontinue the advertising claims that its 4G LTE Smartphones are twice as fast as any AT&T smartphone.The recommendation is the result

The Art and Science of Using Images in Email Marketing: If you want your email to be memorable, possibly even to go viral, AWeber suggests a simple trick: use a cute animal as part of the art. But you can’t just slap a random picture of a kitty in your

Intrusive or Clever? Digital Ads Find Their Way Onto Photographs: Digital marketers have become adept at incorporating ads in online content of all kinds. One piece of web real estate left relatively alone has been the photograph. That will likely change with Vibrant Medias acquisition of Image Space Media. One

Top News: Apple results | EU privacy laws have steep fines | Facebook trading: Business News:Stellar Apple results point to a good year ahead.Legal/Regulatory:EU commissioner unleashes draft data protection bill.Companies face fines as much as 2% of sales under EU privacy law.Facebook’s Sandberg gently warns Europe about privacy rules.Con artist starred in sting that

Google Combines 70 Privacy Policies into One. User Data Sharing Is Part of the Mix: Google is integrating some 70 separate privacy policies it has for its various products into one policy, the company announced in this blog post. Effective March 1, it will roll out a new main privacy policy that covers the majority

Closing Bell: Facebook, AG combate scheme | Highlight | Star Wars crowdsourced: Social Media:Facebook, Washington AG to combat social networking scheme.Highlight, a social network for the real world.The real way to build a social network.Star Wars crowdsourced film reaches million YouTube views.Ecommerce:Paramount is the first studio to directly sell UltraViolet digital movies

The End of the QR Code Is Near (Says a Provider of Competing Technology): bieMEDIA, an online marketing and media company, is predicting the end of the QR Code. It believes that these codes will be replaced with mobile visual search, which provides consumers with faster, more convenient and compelling, interactive marketing experiences.QR Codes

Advertising Age

Shops Begin the Year With Layoffs: MDC Partners' CP&B and Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, this week let go just under 5% of its staff, while WPP Group's Ogilvy earlier in the month laid off 60 people out of its overall staff of 2,000.

Bertucci's Hires SapientNitro as Part of Overhaul of the Restaurant Brand: "We were looking for an agency that could help us figure out the next generation of customers," Skip Weldon, senior VP-marketing at Bertucci's, told Ad Age.

Buffalo Wild Wings Taps Fallon: Growing restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings has made its first creative agency change in seven years, tapping Publicis Groupe's Fallon as its new lead creative shop without a review.

Dominic Proctor Elevated to President of Group M: As part of a WPP management restructuring, Mindshare's worldwide CEO, Dominic Proctor, has been promoted to the newly created role of Group M president.

Dominic Proctor to Take Top Group M Role in Management Shake-up: As part of a WPP management restructuring, Mindshare's worldwide CEO Dominic Proctor has been promoted to the newly created role of Group M president.

Unilever's Slim-Fast Taps New Agency, Preps Brand Refresh: The Bull-White House has landed on the roster of packaged-goods giant Unilever. The agency will handle lead creative duties for Slim-Fast, including TV, print, digital and experiential.

Ewanick on GM Media Review: 'Should Have Done This Many Years Ago': General Motors' Joel Ewanick insists that it wasn't only money but quality that drove his decision to place GM's $3 billion global media-buying and -planning account with Aegis' Carat agency.

Ewanick on Media Review: 'Should Have Done This Many Years Ago': General Motors' Joel Ewanick insists that it wasn't only money, but quality as well, that drove his decision to place GM's $3 billion global media-buying and -planning account with Aegis' Carat agency.

GM Parks $3 Billion Media Account at Carat: General Motors has consolidated its $3 billion global media-buying and -planning account with Aegis' Carat as part of its ongoing effort to create efficiencies and cut costs and agencies.

Steve Stoute Hires Chief Creative Officer at Translation: As part of his plan to evolve Translation from a multicultural agency into a general-market shop, Steve Stoute has tapped Chris Cereda to serve as the agency's new chief creative officer.

What Ad Agencies Should Be Cribbing from the Campaign Trail: There are a lot of things politicos get wrong, but when it comes to their advertising campaigns, there are a few things they get right that could help your agency

Ad Age's Agency A-List Issue: 10 Agencies to Watch in 2012: From a tiny San Francisco boutique Muhtayzik-Hoffer to global digital agency Profero, these 10 shops are worth your attention in 2012.

Organic Is Ad Age's Comeback Agency of the Year: Thanks to its resilience, Organic has earned new business from Kimberly-Clark, Nike, Visa, Walmart, which in total has replaced the $22 million Bank of America took away from the agency.

Edelman Is No. 8 on the Ad Age Agency A-List: Despite Edelman's massive size, its client-retention rate is second to none -- it lost only one top-50 retainer client in 2011, Burger King -- and its year-over-year growth and strong relationships can turn any

Grey Is No. 7 on the Ad Age Agency A-List: The agency Jim Heekin walks into every morning is far different from the one he became head of in 2005. Then, Grey's New York headquarters could have been mistaken for a typical insurance company

72andSunny Is No. 5 on the Ad Age Agency A-List: 72andSunny's approach is far more democratic than that of most agencies, and an understanding prevails that a great idea can come from anywhere, not just the creative department.

Alma Is No. 6 on Ad Age's Agency A-List: That knack for matching Hispanics' passion points with online efforts helped Alma's digital revenue soar 300% last year. Overall, revenue grew 10%. Last year alone, the agency succeeded at bringing home 10 new accounts.

OMD Is Ad Age's Media Agency of the Year: A robust new-business story is a traditional indicator of strength in the media-agency space, but the best shops couple that with a track record of innovative media strategies. OMD had both last year.

BBDO Is No. 3 on Ad Age's Agency A-List: In 2011, BBDO won every global pitch it participated in and about two-thirds of its U.S. pitches. Revenue is up 15%, while globally, revenue has increased 18% to an estimated $2.4 billion.

Ad Age's Agency A-List Issue: Ten Agencies to Watch in 2012: From a tiny San Francisco boutique Muhtayzik-Hoffer to global digital agency Profero, these 10 shops are worth your attention in 2012.

Adrants

Forget Twitter. Play Super Bowl Bingo During the Game: If you need yet another thing to do while watching the Super Bowl, check out Super Bowl 2012 Bingo from Sharethrough.

30 Ideas For Your 2012 Social Media Plan: The team at Radian6 compiled their most-shared posts from 2011 into this eBook. Download it.

Axe 'Cleaner' Saves Cheating Guy From Getting Caught by Girlfriend: We all have those nights once in a while. The ones that were fun while they lasted but they dont quite fit properly into our everyday life.

Go Daddy Makes Every Geek's Dream Come True: Well...heres yet another Go Daddy Super Bowl spot. This ones called Cloud and it features an angelic, leggy Danica Patrick along with a trio of Pussycat Dolls.

See the Priceline Super Bowl Commercial That Offs Shatner: So heres the Priceline Super Bowl commercial that says goodbye to William Shatner as spokesperson.

Ferris Bueller Returns...to the Super Bowl!: Oh yes, people! Ferris Bueller is back! And hes back big time.

Chris Pratt Helps Sell Kinect Star Wars: To build buzz before the launch of Kinect Star Wars, Xbox is out with a new AKQA-created video, Dual, which stars Chris Pratt

Online Marketing Blog

Online Marketing News: Women Dominate Community Management, Google Privacy, FBI Social, Twitter(...): The 2012 Community Manager Report Community Manager is an essential, yet still uncharted territory for many companies that are expanding their presence on the social web. What should you know about the current state of this position? 67% of Community

5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers: This post is a preview of a new downloadable guide I will be offering for those who pre-order Optimize by March 13, 2012. The full guide will have screenshots, examples and more “SEO Deep Dive” advice. If you want the full,

Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck: Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers. Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions. According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say

11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload: Online Marketing is all about information. And people. Making connections that solve marketing problems in today’s environment of social and technological innovation can be challenging. Like many readers of this blog, a big part of what I do as an

Online Marketing News: Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Continues Acquis(...): The Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite. It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find

4 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Us About Social Media PR & Online Influence: Lady Gaga is the definition of an influencer offline and online; her music, fashion sense, and passion for social causes have spread around the world in only a few short years. Love her, like her or hate her, you know

Google+ for Business: 5 Things Marketing Professionals Should Know About Google+: Google+ has been on the lips of every online marketing professional since early 2011. With a base that has now passed 62 million users and the integration of Google+ into Google search, it has become clear that Google+ is here to stay.

Social Media Listmania with Curated Resources & Lists: Being included on a popular list of credible resources like our own BIGLIST of top Marketing Blogs or one of the many other collections of useful resources posted online can feel pretty satisfying, validating the hard work many are putting in

Online Marketing News: Google+ Search, $10 per Twitter Follower, Facebook 1 Billion Users, Four(...): Search, plus Your World The big news this week centers around the changes that Google has rolled out related to Google+ integration with search, which as the tech press buzzing. Google is aiming to bring users additional search functionality that is

5 Marketing Tips for Improving Customer Relationships & ROI With Better Communications: As marketers and sales professionals there is no doubt that we are focused on obtaining new customers and increasing awareness within targeted market segments. However, we must also consider the lifetime value of our existing customers and how marketing communications

What Google Personalized Search plus Your World Means for Marketing & SEO Tips: Google Personalized Search rolled out yesterday revealing a change as significant as Universal Search in 2007. Unlike the major change that brought images, video thumbnails, news and blog posts within search results for all, the Google plus Your World changes

Technology Marketing: Is Your B2B Social Media Strategy Sending Mixed Signals?: As a B2B organization with a focus on technology, you may believe that you are facing additional obstacles that your B2C counterparts are not. Many of you have tried to implement social media in the past without much success. However,

Convergence & Integration of Content Marketing with Social Media & SEO: This post is about Congratulations, Convergence and Content. First off, congrats to Aaron Kahlow on his great news, I’m sure UBM TechWeb will be pleased with OMS, it’s an impressive event with a great following. Speaking of OMS, despite the

Online Marketing News: Google+, Knowing Thy Customer, Social Media Law, TopRank Team News: Who’s Using Google+? The launch of Google+ in 2011 has put Google in the social networking boxing ring. When it comes to user statistics some of them may surprise you. This infographic by Flowtown shares some interesting information about the

3 Ways to Optimize Images: Search, Social Media & User Experience: From Marketing to PR, digital assets are an essential part of the content used to tell stories and communicate brand messages. For publishers and public relations professionals, optimizing the images used in news stories and press releases can have an

Social Media Helps Small Business Boost Sales, Keep Customers: The business press is full of stories about how small companies are using social channels to attract and engage customers. But while there are plenty of individual success stories, the confidence in what to do specifically is not always clear for small

4 B2C Examples of How Companies are Using Twitter to Attract & Engage Customers: If you are a B2C company, interaction on a social platform like Twitter can increase engagement if executed properly. Social interaction via platforms like Twitter allow companies to gain a true understanding of their prospect base and serve as real-time

Was 2011 The Year Facebook Killed Google?: A recently post on PC World, “2011: The Year Facebook Killed Google” reflects a common mis-perception about the emerging role of search and social media for consumer information discovery. In the post, the author Dan Tynan shares that he’s finding and

A to Z Internet Marketing News: Happy Birthday TopRankBlog!, 2012 Marketing Predictions, Social(...): 21 Social Media Marketing Trends for 2012 Curious to find out what 2012 could have in store for online marketers? This presentation from DreamGrow shares 21 predictions on what 2012 could look like. Highlights include: Social CRM making inroads Social media influencing more

Top Online Marketing Books for 2012: The New Year will soon be here and we are looking forward to continuing to learn from some of the top marketing minds on the web about the strategies and tactics that will shape online marketing efforts in 2012 and

Duct Tape Marketing

How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to Action: How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to ActionThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingHow to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the real underutilized opportunities these days is

Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First Step: Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First StepThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingAdmitting We Have a Problem Is the First StepThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the most fulfilling moments in my consulting work comes when a

What Our Fears Are Here to Tell Us: What Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWhat Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’m going to get a bit personal today, but I believe there’s a solid business

Creating a Company of Owners: Creating a Company of OwnersThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingCreating a Company of OwnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe that one of the greatest opportunities we have as business owners is to create wealth. By that I don’t

5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your Marketing: 5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You need lots of content, you know that, but you also

Weekend Favs January Twenty One: Weekend Favs January Twenty OneThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWeekend Favs January Twenty OneThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the

Marketing Is The Ongoing Operation of a System: Marketing Is The Ongoing Operation of a SystemThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingMarketing Is The Ongoing Operation of a SystemThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing So often marketers get stuck in the reaction of the week kind of marketing and

Infusing Your Business With Platform Thinking: Infusing Your Business With Platform ThinkingThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingInfusing Your Business With Platform ThinkingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Phil Simon (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now

Small Business Marketing Workshops, Seminars and Keynotes: Small Business Marketing Workshops, Seminars and KeynotesThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingSmall Business Marketing Workshops, Seminars and KeynotesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This is a video compilation of a few of the speaking events I’ve done over the past

5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content For You: 5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content For YouThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content For YouThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You’ve heard enough about the need to produce content

Weekend Favs January Fourteen: Weekend Favs January FourteenThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWeekend Favs January FourteenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I

Turning Marketing Strategy Into Action: Turning Marketing Strategy Into ActionThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingTurning Marketing Strategy Into ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Today I’m speaking with a group of small business owner that want to know about how to develop a marketing strategy

Google Search Plus Is Shaking Things Up a Bit: Google Search Plus Is Shaking Things Up a BitThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingGoogle Search Plus Is Shaking Things Up a BitThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This week Google realigned it’s search results to officially add a feature that

5 Exercises in Perceptive Listening: 5 Exercises in Perceptive ListeningThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing5 Exercises in Perceptive ListeningThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Listening is a skill that all marketers must develop. Or, perhaps more accurately, redevelop. Most people are born with the ability

What Is Shared Culture: What Is Shared CultureThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWhat Is Shared CultureThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I wish I could give you a crisp definition of what the word culture, with regard to business, really means. It’s a tricky

Weekend Favs January Seven: Weekend Favs January SevenThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWeekend Favs January SevenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I

What Would Happen to Your Business If You Lost All of Your Online Data: What Would Happen to Your Business If You Lost All of Your Online DataThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingWhat Would Happen to Your Business If You Lost All of Your Online DataThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I know you’re

How to Sell Anything Using Social Media: How to Sell Anything Using Social MediaThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingHow to Sell Anything Using Social MediaThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of my predictions for 2012 is that more people will come to understand that you can

Does a Franchise Make Sense as a Business Option: Does a Franchise Make Sense as a Business OptionThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingDoes a Franchise Make Sense as a Business OptionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Joel Libava (Click to play or right click and “Save

Getting an Education Through Content Creation: Getting an Education Through Content CreationThis content from: Duct Tape MarketingGetting an Education Through Content CreationThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Many business owners, and certainly most marketers, have succumbed to the need to consistently product high quality, education based

Adfreak

Jcpenney Gets All Patriotic With Its New Logo: Resist the urge to salute as you admire jcpenney's spanking new logo, a lovely red square with a superimposed blue square that's intended to evoke JCP's proud American heritage and commitment to treat customers "fair and square."

FirstBank Urges You to Go Pee During Its Super Bowl Spot: FirstBank's regional Super Bowl debut (the ad will air only in Colorado) via agency TDA in Boulder, touting superior service, features a banker type who sits in a comfy chair and says, "If you’re a FirstBank customer

Coke's Fan-Bears Will React to Super Bowl in Real-Time Ads: Coca-Cola rolled out the details of its Super Bowl advertising on Thursday, and compared to what else we've seen, it looks pretty good. At first blush, the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., is just

Ferris Bueller to Return in the Super Bowl, but for Whom?: So, this mysterious Super Bowl teaser popped up on YouTube today, with Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, 26 years after his fateful day off. Says the YouTube blurb: "We hate to be such a

Eyewear Maker Packages Annual Report as Fun Infographic: Hey, want to read an eyewear store's annual report? Actually, yes, you do. Warby Parker, an e-commerce hub for hipster glasses and tortoise-shell monocles, has released its 2011 annual report as a light-hearted, interactive and addictive infographic,

AdFreak Readers, We Want to Know More About You: Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Headlights Meet 'Twilight' in Audi's Super Bowl Spot: Venables Bell & Partners half-embraces and half-spurns pop culture's obsession with vampires in its 60-second Super Bowl commercial, posted below. The spot, airing in the first ad break after halftime, features the new 2013 Audi S7 with

Cars.com's Super Bowl Ad Stars a Man and His Excitable Appendage: What can you really say about Cars.com's 2012 Super Bowl commercial, posted in full below? Created by DDB Chicago, it features a man who has grown a second gleeful head—a large tubular appendage with his own face

PETA Wings It With Save-the-Chickens Super Bowl Billboards: Here is PETA's contribution to Super Bowl advertising—billboards asking you to pass on the chicken wings, and thus spare the chickens, on Super Bowl Sunday. Look at those cute little chicks, cowering in fear. PETA says 600

Rice Company Serves Up a Different Kind of 'Super Bowl' Spot: This Chinese New Year-themed spot, which fits bowls of rice into its story line, packs more punch than most of the bikini- and effects-driven Super Bowl commercials that have been teased so far. The work comes from

Two More Super Bowl Ad Teasers: Kia and Bridgestone: Super Bowl XLVI advertising teasers keep flowing in. Now we can add Kia and Bridgestone to the mix—and they're bringing a pile of celebrities with them. First up is the Kia spot, "Drive the Dream," from David&Goliath

H&M in Social-Media Scuffle Ahead of Its Super Bowl Spot: In the worst timing imaginable for H&M, the clothing store is trying to put out a fire in social media just days before it's set to air its first Super Bowl commercial ever. At issue is a

CareerBuilder Can't Quit the Chimps, Its Super Bowl Stars: The Ravens may have choked in the playoffs, but at least I have the CareerBuilder chimpanzees to make the Super Bowl at least mildly interesting for me. Below is a sneak peek at this year's ad, which

Megan Fox and Mike Tyson Cloned for Crazy Brazilian Ad: Cloning either Megan Fox or Mike Tyson is surely a crime against science and/or humanity, but that's the premise of this silly yet amusing spot for a language school in Brazil. Two doofus dudes wash ashore on

Skechers Trots Out Mr. Quiggly in Super Bowl Teaser: Here's your latest Super Bowl sneak peek—a teaser of the Skechers spot, which has already gotten some attention after it was reported that its French-bulldog star, Mr. Quiggly, replaced Kim Kardashian (not true), and that animal-rights activists

$1.02 Billion on Snacks: What We'll Spend on Super Bowl Sunday: The Super Bowl is big business, and not just for advertisers. Check out this infographic from TurboTax (posted after the jump), which offers a fun overview of just how much cash everyone will plunk down this year—on

7 Underrated Super Bowl Ads From the Past 7 Years: With more than 60 commercials airing during ever Super Bowl, it only makes sense that some good ones occasionally get lost in the shuffle. So, as we gear up for Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, here's

YouTube Now Moving at 3,600 Times the Speed of Real Life: YouTube prides itself on its girth—on the sheer volume of cat videos and other ephemera (along with a handful of legitimately interesting clips) that are being uploaded to the site every day. Recently, the Google-owned site reached

Rachel Bilson Raps, but Will It Help Her Show?: Come on, nobody believes Rachel Bilson is a doctor, even in TV dramedy land. That may be why the CW's Hart of Dixie, starring Bilson as a big city professional turned country doc, has struggled all season

GM Turns Car Windows Into Fantastical Digital Playgrounds: The past decade has seen remarkable strides in the field of making car trips less boring without forcing people to actually speak to each other. I thought built-in iPod docks and in-car DVD players would top things

Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Free Friday: Learn How to Give Your Customers a Fantastic Brand Experience: Want to gain and retain more customers through improved cross-channel customer interactions? Then check out this Free Friday’s offering: the opportunity to attend the free seminar Optimizing the Customer Journey: Strategy and Case Study.Guest speaker and vice president and principal analyst

How to Define Public Relations: The Public Relations Society (PRSA) recently announced an effort to update the formal definition of Public Relations. They invited PR professionals to submit their suggestions for how to define what we do. And they unveiled the three leading contenders to

Marketing Smarts Podcast: Sally Hogshead and the $500 Cup of Coffee: What if you wanted to open up a coffee shop in a hip, urban neighborhood? Chances are you would already face competition from other indy shops, Starbucks, and the local equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts. How could you go about differentiating

Sharing Your Way to B2B Social Media Lead Generation: Social media has always involved sharing quality content with your network, but in its current state, B2B companies need to understand how social media can connect with their sales cycle. Companies need to find prospective customers for their products and

Marketing Study Shocker: QR Codes & Social Media Have Little Impact for Shoppers: “As much as people embrace all things digital, they’re much fussier when they turn into actual shoppers. In fact, QR codes and social media have very little impact, according to new research from Catapult Action-Biased Marketing, a Westport Connecticut-based researcher.”

Not Lovin’ It: 5 Ways McDonalds Could Have Prevented Its Hashtag Nightmare (& How You Can Avo(...): Like an awkward actor on stage, McDonalds has found itself at the mercy of hecklers. McDonalds promoted a tweet for feel-good stories regarding the brand, #McDStories, only to find the hashtag taken over by Twitter users with a sense of

6 Stats on In-Aisle Mobile: A guest post by Eric Anderson of White Horse.Armed with smartphones and a determination to change the way they buy, shoppers are storming retail aisles. On-the-fly comparison-shopping, scanning, and research are creating new ways for marketers to influence in-aisle buying

Free Friday: Attend DMW and Become a Smarter Marketer: On this Free Friday, we’re inviting you to the Digital Marketing World: Smarter Marketer FREE virtual conference on Feb. 10.This free virtual conference is extra-special because it’s both hosted by MarketingProfs and features MarketingProfs folks for its three info-packed sessions.At

Is Google’s Search plus Your World Fair?: A guest blog post by Lorianna Sprague of Web Talent Marketing.Are Google’s Search changes unfairly putting Google+ content above other social media sites?In October 2009, following the partnership of Bing and Twitter, Google announced a similar partnership whereby Google would

Marketing Smarts Podcast: Are You the Problem?: “Marketing only has so many things to talk about, and eventually you get to the point where it has to be about the mindset.”Julien Smith, author of The Flinch and co-author (along with Chris Brogan) of Trust Agents, is pondering

Examining the Social Media Lifecycle: A guest post by Dragos Ilinca of uberVU.In search of the elusive social media ROI, brands are doubling down on metrics around engagement, influence, or monitoring. The key pillars of social media (monitoring, analytics, engagement, reporting, collaboration) work together; they should

Meh! Not Everyone’s Into Social Networks: A guest post by Sujata Ramnarayan of SMStrat.Recently, New York Times columnist Tim Egan wrote an article titled “Please Stop Sharing,” in which he lamented the proclivity to over-share the banal and trivial on social networks and the negative consequences

Free Friday: Downloadable B2B Content Marketing Report 2012: On this Free Friday, we’re offering you the downloadable “B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends” report.It’s a detailed look at various aspects of content marketing. And unlike most reports out there, B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends”

Hilarious Outtakes from Super-Famous Business Book Authors: Both classic and hilarious moments are in this video blooper reel that sprung from our Take 10 Author Series—exclusive, 10-minute webcasts with leading authors in marketing and business. These otherwise quite serious business book authors—including Nancy Duarte, Sally Hogshead, Guy

Marketing Smarts Podcast: How Useful Is Your Marketing?: We know our marketing materials solve our problems. We have a product launching and need to get the word out, so we produce a press release. We want to improve our search rankings, so we blog like crazy. Sales people

Why the 5 Pillars of Online Marketing Matter Now More than Ever: A guest post by Dan Mckee of Sparkplug Digital.When is the last time you had a crash course in online marketing and took a hard look at the pillars your marketing strategy is resting on? From time to time, it’s

What’s the Difference Between Demand Gen and Lead Management?: A guest post by Lauren Carlson of Software Advice (with video of the Daily Fix’s own Carlos Hidalgo)One of the best perks of living and working in a city like Austin, Texas, is the talent that rolls through regularly. Recently,

Free Friday: Learn How to Turn Webinars Into Lead-Gen Events: Who doesn’t like an info-packed free seminar? For this Free Friday, we’re sharing a Citrix-sponsored series on the three steps for turning webinar registrants into closed deals.Surprisingly enough, despite technology making it easier to produce webinars, many companies still aren’t

A Social Media Wish List for 2012: Lets make a collective list of all the things wed like to add or change to our social networking sites! Together, we can act as one big focus group for the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and others. Are

Marketing Smarts Podcast: Mobile Marketing’s New Frontier: Whenever we present content on mobile marketing—such as our recent PRO Seminar on location-based marketing, CK Kerley’s class on mobile marketing that was part of our Content Marketing Crash Course, or Dan Lowden’s class on the subject for Websites That

Brandweek

McDonald's Reviews N.Y. Co-Op Account: McDonald’s is reviewing its creative account for the New York region—one of its largest in the country—but is only considering roster agencies.The region encompasses New York City, the lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and a sliver of

Jcpenney Gets All Patriotic With Its New Logo: Resist the urge to salute as you admire jcpenney's spanking new logo, a lovely red square with a superimposed blue square that's intended to evoke JCP's proud American heritage and commitment to treat customers "fair and square."

Trailer Mash 01-27-12: This is a direct quote from the first line of Adweek's Trailer Mash" is what you'll read should you find this story via a retweet bot on Twitter. Our mash this time (above, by Kate Rose) unites Sam Worthington and

FirstBank Urges You to Go Pee During Its Super Bowl Spot: FirstBank's regional Super Bowl debut (the ad will air only in Colorado) via agency TDA in Boulder, touting superior service, features a banker type who sits in a comfy chair and says, "If you’re a FirstBank customer

Coke's Fan-Bears Will React to Super Bowl in Real-Time Ads: Coca-Cola rolled out the details of its Super Bowl advertising on Thursday, and compared to what else we've seen, it looks pretty good. At first blush, the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., is just

SunBriteTV Names The Buddy Group Digital AOR: Outdoor TV manufacturer SunBriteTV has hired independent shop The Buddy Group as its digital agency of record. The Irvine, Calif.-based agency is charged with handling social media for the company’s first consumer-facing integrated campaign to launch in the spring.“We’re doing

Information Diet: Carson Daly: What’s the first information you consume in the morning?I have a My Yahoo page that I probably developed 10 years ago. It was one of the first websites that you could really personalize and build out. I’ve

Poll: M&A Activity Will Rise in 2012: AdMedia Partners’ annual poll of marketing agencies and media outlets reveals a healthy appetite for acquisitions, with 59 percent expecting to participate in a deal this year—up significantly from 40 percent a year ago.In particular, respondents expect

Ferris Bueller to Return in the Super Bowl, but for Whom?: So, this mysterious Super Bowl teaser popped up on YouTube today, with Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, 26 years after his fateful day off. Says the YouTube blurb: "We hate to be such a

Intel Innovators Campaign Funds Youth Startups: What's the difference between an advertising campaign and a startup accelerator? In the case of "Intel Innovators," there isn't much of one.Launched by the tech giant in December, “Intel Innovators” is a Facebook marketing push in the form of a

Horizon Media's Senior Management Team Continues to Grow: Horizon Media has added yet another member to its senior management team. On Thursday, the media agency announced that it has hired Megan Riley as associate managing director, a new position.Riley will join the brand strategy group and oversee the

Eyewear Maker Packages Annual Report as Fun Infographic: Hey, want to read an eyewear store's annual report? Actually, yes, you do. Warby Parker, an e-commerce hub for hipster glasses and tortoise-shell monocles, has released its 2011 annual report as a light-hearted, interactive and addictive infographic,

Ad of the Day: Target: Hope you've all recovered from Missoni-mania, because it's time for another Target designer collaboration!On Feb. 5, Tar-jay will introduce a capsule collection by Jason Wu. For the unfamiliar, Wu is a favorite of Michelle Obama, who wore

Layoffs at Crispin Porter + Bogusky: Layoffs in the advertising industry are continuing this month: On Thursday, Crispin Porter + Bogusky cut 43 of the agency's roughly 900 employees from its roster. This move follows the Ogilvy Group's layoffs of nearly 60 staffers about two weeks

AdFreak Readers, We Want to Know More About You: Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Eleven Inc. Wins Union Bank Review: Union Bank selected Eleven Inc. as its global agency of record after a review which included finalists Ogilvy, RPA and incumbent Dentsu. Select Resources International conducted the search process, undertaken last fall.In the latest available data from Nielsen, the bank

Horizon Media Senior Management Team Continues to Grow: Horizon Media has added yet another member to its senior management team. On Thursday, the media agency announced that it has hired Megan Riley as associate managing director, a new position.Riley will be joining the brand strategy group and oversee

Headlights Meet 'Twilight' in Audi's Super Bowl Spot: Venables Bell & Partners half-embraces and half-spurns pop culture's obsession with vampires in its 60-second Super Bowl commercial, posted below. The spot, airing in the first ad break after halftime, features the new 2013 Audi S7 with

Chevrolet "Happy Grad" - 2012 Super Bowl: Chevrolet Happy Grad - 2012 Super Bowl

Go Daddy "Paint" - 2012 Super Bowl: Go Daddy Paint - 2012 Super Bowl

Global Neighbourhoods

Yahoo picks a CEO’s with less vision than Ray Charles?: Yahoo! has announced appointment of a new CEO: Scott Thompson. Who, you might ask? Well he’s a guy who lifted PayPal from a billion-dollar subsidiary of eBay into a multibillion dollar entity. What does he plan to do, you might

My Favorite Books of 2011: It’s the last day of an odd year and many people are reflecting on life. Some of my friends are using blogs to write about the death of the blog. Others are reviewing the great moments in technology or social

Is EMail Dead?: John Naughton, writing in the Guardian has a good piece based on email he received from Mark Zuckerberg, forecasting the death of email. It will be replaced, if Zuck has his way, with Facebook’s new Messenger service. Naughton does a

A Jew’s View of Christmas: Wife Paula, dog Brewster & some bearded guy. Photo by Shel

Needed: An Annual Tech Conference Calendar: It’s December and like a great many professionals in the tech industry, I’m trying to determine what events to plan and budget what I do for next year. There are a great many people looking at the same time/place/budget issues,

Raising the Dead on Social Networks: Marc Orchant was my friend. He made a single statement that may have saved Global Neighbourhoods from becoming yet another failed book project. In March 2005, Scoble and I talked our publisher, Jon Wiley into hiring Marc as our editor.

Blog Libel, Pepper Spray & Citizen Journalism: A few days ago, I posted a piece about the Pepper Spray incident at UC Davis. When people saw the original video clip, they overwhelmingly supported students and felt the police had acted harshly and without justification. When I posted

What I cover for @OpenForum: I write a regular column for OpenForum, the American Express small business community forum. I am always interested in story leads from small businesses, companies targeting small businesses, or their PR representatives. But we will both save time if you

Apple Computer’s Social Media Deficiency: I’ve been thinking a lot about Apple Computer and its steadfast, top-down policy of avoiding online conversations. As an Apple product enthusiast who spends much of most waking hours following and evangelizing social media, the issue has been a

Pepper Spray & Distorting the News: You’ve probably have already seen the UC Davis Pepper Spray Video. You probably already have an opinion and its likely you have strong feelings about it. The problem is what you saw was severely edited to give one perspective

Redefine Public Relations? No, just learn to Listen.: No description.

Has social media gone the way of the fax machine?: When I started speaking about social media in 2005, I used to joke that someday, conferences discussing social media will be about as relevant and well-attended as conferences on the business uses of the Fax machine. I’m wondering if that

Occupy Movement, Howard Beale & Lessons from Estonia: http://www.youtube.com/v/QMBZDwf9dok?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0″> Whenever I read or watch the offshoots of Occupy Wall Street, I am reminded of Howard Beale, the newscaster-gone-mad in the 1976 movie classic “Network.” He got everyone to go to their windows and shout into the night air:

The Occupy Movement & Lessons from Estonia: Whenever I read or watch the offshoots of Occupy Wall Street, I am reminded of Howard Beale, the newscaster-gone-mad in the 1976 movie classic “Network.” He got everyone to go to their windows and shout into the night air: “I’m

Journalism and the Vow of Poverty: I have always, always preferred writing to all the other things I do for money. It’s the vow of poverty that I have troubles with. This has always been true. In 1963, I got my first newspaper job, as a

12 Tips for giving great presentation: In the next few weeks I’ll be talking to a group of Spanish entrepreneurs in San Francisco at a StepOne event and then participating in Nasscom, India’s largest startup conference. In both cases, I’ve been asked to speak about how

Is Google+ the New Hula Hoop?: To me, the Grand Canyon of Social Media is the ability to be social in private. I want to be able to talk to my fellow Red Sox Fans without a Yankee booster jumping in and without a

We don’t need no steenking ‘Blogger Outreach’: Chris Abraham is one of a large handful of PR professionals, who in my view, gets it about social media and PR. Yesterday , he had a decent post on tips for PR operatives trying “blogger outreach.” What he wrote,

Dear NY Times: Forget the Device. Think of the Cloud.: I have always been an ardent fan of the NY Times. Early in my life, it showed me a world that was far larger than the part I occupied. When I was a journalism student, the times, we were taught,

Techcrunch Disrupt–The controversy & the event: If size matter, then TechCrunch Disrupt

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