A Federal Trade Commission town hall on mobile marketing examines privacy concerns over about location-based mobile advertising, improper disclosure of fees, and more.
Company will consider representing inventory in print and any other channels to support national and local ad clients�âïÿýïÿý planning needs.
Three years ago, I published this list, which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. It has held up pretty well. Feel free to reprint or otherwise use, as long as you include a credit line. Ive
How much would you pay for a twenty dollar bill?In tough times, many schools and non-profits rely on charity fundraisers, and a popular one is the auction. The method is simple: supporters donate things, and then theyre auctioned off, with
John sends us this astounding thought piece.Its a clock, turned off, not ticking, showing no progress, encased in glass.When youre ready to make the leap,
Connect like-minded people.My previous post only captured one part of the equation... the work of the marketer marketing to (or at) the consumer. It leaves out the future, which involves finding and leading and empowering the tribe of people who
The product they sell is drama.When I went to business school, we spent an entire 90 minute class on how to read the Wall Street Journal. Thats a rare treat... being taught how to understand and psyche out the media.With
The New York Times, like all newspapers, is in big trouble.Unlike other papers, though, theyve got a shot. And we can all learn a lesson about focusing on the great (by looking at what they should be doing, anyway).All the
The post about the gulf between passion and pop touched a chord.A few readers remembered Geoff Moore’s classic Crossing the Chasm. This is a super book (particularly the original (used) edition, not the updated one). Geoff has a different take
Heres a new curve for you: Im calling it the passion/pop curve.That bell curve to the left represents acceptance by the focused/excited/tastemaking community. Those are the
Make big promises; overdeliver.If you can define great marketing in fewer words than that, you win.Big promises: treating people with respect, improving self-esteem, delivering results, contacting as often as you say you will but not more, including side effects in
Just got some work back from a new copyeditor hired by my publisher. She did a flawless job. She also wrecked my work. Totally wrecked it.By sanding off every edge, removing every idiom, making each and every fact literally correct,
If it gets to the RFP stage, you lost.Great business to business marketers (and profitable ones) make the sale long before that happens.The RFP is an organizational punt, its a way of saying, its all a commodity, we cant decide,
Owen Wilson starred in a really bad movie that came out a few months ago. Most notable: he didn’t go out to shill for it. No Colbert, no Daily Show, no Larry King.Perhaps he’s nursing a bad cold, but my
Corey found this great insight into the way people think.Twistori looks for certain words in the Twitstream.Were a pretty spoiled bunch (check out the wish column).
In radio operator lingo, you look for a strong signal to noise ratio. That’s the amount of good stuff (the message) that comes through the static (the noise.) You can use your squelch button to turn down the static, but
I just discovered that some of you recently received a piece of spam that began, dear first name. Apparently, it was sent to people who signed up for an audio call I did several months ago.This is obviously not my
Proprietary rich media techologies, such as Flash and Silverlight, threaten the open nature of the internet, warned the founder of Mozilla Europe this week.Mozillas Tristan Nitot made the...
Best Buy has purchased a 50 percent stake in The Carphone Warehouse, a European mobile phone vendor, for $2.1 billion.The deal includes The Carphone Warehouses 2400 stores, which span nine European...
Reuters reports that MySpace users will now be able to share information on sites like Twitter, Yahoo and eBay. MySpace users may control what information — such as profile pictures and contact...
Following the withdrawal of its Yahoo bid, Bill Gates says Microsoft will focus on growing its online ad and search businesses.The Associated Press reports Gates express confidence about Microsofts...
Half of DVR owners had watched shows online, but just four percent do so on a weekly basis, according to Performics.Googles DoubleClick Performics unit examined the commercial watching behavior of...
RealNetworks plans to spin its casual gaming division off as an independent entity, reports The Seattle Times. The division will better position the casual games unit more competitively against the...
A quote from a photographer for Doves Campaign for Real Beauty has generated questions about how real any of the beauties actually were.In the May 12 issue of the New Yorker, Pascal Dangin —...
Federal tax rebates will give retail sales a significant and much-needed boost in the next two quarters, predicts TNS Retail Forward, saying retails sales growth will improve by as much as three...
With the ongoing growth of broadband subscriptions, and an increasing number of online viewing options, usage of online video expanded in the past year, according to consumer research from Leichtman...
The vast majority of Boomers say it is important that their physician have specialized training in dealing with older patients, but a majority say they cannot find such a doctor, according to the...
A growing number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide are taking online social networking to the streets, accessing social networks over the mobile internet, according to research from Nielsen...
To buttress users against inappropriate conduct and content, Facebook has joined ranks with 49 Attorneys General.Building a safe and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its...
A source for the Wall Street Journal claims Microsoft has asked Facebook whether it is interested in selling.Last year, Microsoft purchased 1.6 percent of Facebook for $240 million.Microsofts...
Quantcast has launched a service that allegedly enables marketers to search for websites by readership demographic.If a marketer is targeting black male readers, over 40, with an income over...
Today TBA Global is expected to announce the launch of its digital entertainment division, MediaPost reports. TBA Digital Entertainment Engagement Programming (TBA DEEP) is reportedly already used...
The One Club hosted its annual One Show ceremony last night at Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York. The show honored outstanding ads and campaigns across radio, TV, online and in theatres.The...
Ad Networks and Analytics:DoubleClick introduced Widget Calculate, a tool that lets advertisers figure out how much weight their widgets are actually pulling among users.Agencies and...
Lauren Zalaznick has been made president of women and lifestyle entertainment at NBCU. Properties under her jurisdiction include iVillage, Oxygen and TV show The Biggest Loser.News of her promotion...
Clearwire and Sprint Nextel are combining wireless broadband units, reports The Associated Press. The duo will operate under the Clearwire label and focus on the development and implementation of...
Business marketers on average spend 29.42 percent of their current marketing budget on the creation and execution of custom content, according to a Junta42 survey of 150 marketing decision makers who...
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Since late 2006, VP of marketing Liz Cahill has played an instrumental role in moving Lee Jeans into the social marketing arena. But she admits it's taken a while for
MINNEAPOLIS (AdAge.com) -- It's the eve of upfront week, the springtime ritual that unveils the fall season. But after a winter of discontent due to the writers strike, few of the highly hyped programs
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As ABC gears up for its annual upfront advertiser gala next week, a cheeky faux-soap-opera video starring its top sales execs and many of its top media buyers has been
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- CW is set to announce that it is turning over its Sunday-night air to Media Rights Capital, an independent company that finances TV programs and movies, according to people familiar with the situation.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Next time you need to update your Twitter profile, you can do it via MySpace. The social networking giant today announced a new product to make MySpace profile data more portable to other areas of the
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Just weeks after David Verklin announced his departure from Aegis Media, the network is facing another major management shakeup: global CEO Mainardo de Nardis is stepping down.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- MTV Networks trotted out its biggest music and comedy talent to plug their shows but also marketing heads from Dove, Pepsi and LG Mobile to provide testimony on recent campaigns
NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- Backchannel Media, a software and technology company with big schemes to change TV advertising, has landed its first client, MGM Grand at Foxwoods.
We don't do much synergistic link-baiting here at SFS, but our very own Jeremy Mullman wrote a story about Anheuser-Busch's promotion of M.I.A.-torchbearer Santogold, so we'll bite. By now, you've probably seen the ads
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Subaru of America is moving its digital account from one of the industry's hottest specialists, R/GA, to its Interpublic Group of Cos. sibling, Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis. The business moved without a
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Call it "Minority Airport." Interactive video outdoor ads are gaining more traction in some of the country's most-frequented travel terminals, with Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and JC Decaux partnering
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Broadcast TV networks' upfront advertising sales will be down this year, posting a drop of between 2% and 14%, a leading Wall Street analyst said. A "material decline is probable given ratings declines, the disruption in
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- You can easily lose yourself for 45 minutes at a time at My Damn Channel, a website that improves on the offerings of others specializing in short comedy videos.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It seems marketers and TV executives are having a half-full, half-empty kind of argument over TV's prowess. The results of a survey on consumer media habits commissioned by the Television Bureau of Advertising show that adult
WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- An FTC commissioner warned cellphone content providers they need to do a better job of disclosing the costs consumers incur when clicking or downloading services for their mobile devices. Speaking yesterday at the start of a two-day
Youd think with $25,000 up for grabs and with industry creatives having a leg up on the competition, thered be a flood of industry types entering Budgets Flip for Budget video contest.
Gawkers Nick Douglas has a nice round up of the recent Levis guys-jump-into-jeans viral video that scored 1.5 million views in a few days and how very similar it is to the Ray Ban
This has to be a joke. Seriously. Creative Manger Pro, the agency software package that helps manage the creative and billing process, has changed its name to - um yea...this makes a hell of
Tonight was One Shows College Competition. Schools nationwide turned in their best student work for a handful of categories. Print and design generated 376 and 374 entries, respectively.
OK so weve had an entire choir imitate the sound a Honda makes. Now we have an army of gymnasts doing a routine to the actual and mixed sounds of to Audi R6.
What a week! Spring is officially here in Minnesota. Don’t laugh, it snowed just 2 weeks ago. This week’s BIGLIST of SEO and SEM blogs includes a nice mix of search, social and online PR content. When I co-hosted the
Two heads are better than one. How many times have we all heard that in our lives? When having a brainstorming session, it helps to bounce ideas off of one another to generate the best possible solution. Even when saving
Yesterday, Junta 42 announced their latest list of top content marketing focused blogs (Online Marketing Blog came in at #2 in between Copyblogger and PR 2.0) and it reminded me yet again of how important content is for SEO. It
TopRanks Mike Yanke reviews the new book, The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney and Dr. Nita Rollins with advice both for marketing agencies and in-house marketers looking to make sense of
Right along with Facebook, YouTube and blogging, Twitter is one of the most often written about social media communication tools. (Follow me @leeodden) We’ve run polls about how people use Twitter as well as aggregated tips from the Twitter community
Going by the last month of updates, we’re now updating the BIGLIST of SEO blogs every second Friday. That should give us more time to filter out the better sites for inclusion. Read on at the bottom as there are
It’s a near nightmare situation really. A client sends an email on Friday saying, “We’re launching a new web site on Monday, can you take a look at it to make sure our site optimization is ok?”.The Account Manager asks
Online Marketing Blog manages a list of over 500 search marketing blogs called the BIGLIST, but it’s not ordered other than alphabetically. A year ago I took a sample of SEO and SEM blogs that were publishing Feedburner counts and
Jeremiah Owyang posted recently asking his readers what conferences they would be attending in the coming months and I thought that would be a great question for Online Marketing Blog readers as well.Over the past 3 years we’ve become very
There are a few additional photos from Web 2.0 Expo that I wanted to share and so I took some creative license with the timing of some of the events to tell the story of a typical conference day.The first
One of the most entertaining keynote presentations at the Web 2.0 Expo by far was delivered by Forbes journalist, Dan Lyons. It’s a 15 minute long story of how Dan came to start the Fake Steve Jobs blog, it’s success
Social media evangelist Brian Solis of Future Works, PR2.0 blog and bub.blicio.us during the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. tooks a few minutes to share his insights into what’s hot in Web 2.0 and the interplay of technology and
While in the blogtropol.us blogger lounge today, I caught up with a dapper Dave McClure who took a few minutes before a PayPal reunion dinner to talk about his work helping co-chair the Web 2.0 Expo event, a little something
When registering for Web 2.0 Expo I ran into Robert Scoble whom I had just met 2 weeks ago in San Francisco at another conference. He a agreed to do a quick video interview on what’s new in the Web
After finding out my new camera’s SDHC card wasn’t recognized by my Sony Vaio laptop, I was stuck taking lots of photos but not posting to Flickr as I normally would. After checking several stores I finally found a card
After the keynote frenzy this morning, the session that stood out for me was Facebook Marketing: Best Practices with Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research as moderator, Evan Mager from AKQA, Holly Liu from Watercooler, Brett Keintz of 750 Industries and
Nothing smacks more of ADD in a Web 2.0 world than micro blogging and microcontent. “Flow Apps” as Stowe Boyd calls them. As such, the last session I’m blogging on day two of Web 2.0 Expo is appropriately named: “Short
The first session for me on day two of Web 2.0, “Creating a Coherent Social Strategy for Business” with Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li of Forrester, was one I’ve been looking forward to since I first read Groundswell. See my
Sessions on day two begin at 8:30 PST and while I appreciate that, it’s aggressive in my book. So, I’ll be attending, Twittering and blogging the following sessions at Web 2.0 Expo today as well as visiting blogtropol.us:9:40am Creating a
I know that marketing doesn’t come naturally to most business owners. Not many people say to themselves - “I am such a good marketer I think I’ll start a business selling something.” No, unfortunately the conversation probably goes like this
Many small business owners still think they can take a pass on the power of online social media tools, particularly if they reside in seemingly low-tech industries like plumbing, fishing, or lawyering. I want to share a quick interview I
My monthly live interview series featuring well-known authors and business leaders continues in May with Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto software.April’s call with David Allen is archived on the series page along with calls with John Battelle, Guy Kawasaki,
Content is the commerce of social media. But, relevant content, the stuff your customers and prospects actually want to know is the gold. Constantly cranking out this gold can sometimes present creative challenges.So how do you know what to write
I’m guilty of some of the infractions on this list. Some are so common, it’s hard to remember the right way to handle these misused words and phrases. Great resource list and a pretty good weekend read!
A reader and subscriber to the Duct Tape Marketing podcast asked me recently to reveal the tools, techniques and software I use to create, edit and publish my podcast. My system is hacked together through a couple of years of
Are you a coach or a consultant - does your business hire coaches or consultants?The answers to the question above seems to spark a bit of passion in entrepreneurial circles depending upon your definition one uses of each.To me a
One of the best reasons to blog is to open up an interaction channel with your customers, prospects and contacts. The fact that your readers can comment and add relevant content to your site via blog comments is a major
David Allen, author of the wildly popular book Getting Things Done, and the almost cult-like GTD system, is my guest for a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.I think David’s pretty brilliant, although you would probably never get
It’s a pretty accepted fact that finding ways to do more business or get more referrals from your existing customers is a smart way to build a business. But as the din of noisy demands captures your attention it’s easy
Market research is a challenge for many small businesses. The data that you may need to conquer your corner of the world may not exist in a tidy database, yet marketing strategy should be well informed with real information.One of
Customer rewards programs, the kind used by the airlines for example, have been around for a long time, but I think the concept is grossly underused by small business owners.The drive to earn a higher status or exclusive membership is
My friend Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies has compiled a free report outlining ways to use the popular business networking site, LinkedIn, to increase your sales.Many people are drawn to the promise of millions of connections on
The annual Earth Day celebration is a nice opportunity to focus on some of the not so earth friendly practices that small business owners can easily fall into.Without a doubt small business owners can and should 1) recycle, 2) shut
Small business ownership is hard work. Physically demanding, stressful, mind numbing work - and that’s on the good days. But, like you, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. One of benefits of small business entrepreneurialism is that you are
Today’s happening small business entrepreneur has several businesses, maintains multiple web sites, blogs at a couple places, has written a book, and has profiles on half a dozen social network sites. I havn’t even mentioned that they have also thrown
Google Maps (local) allows you to build a pretty detailed profile for your business including product lines, hours of service, credit cards accepted and up to eight product images. In the past couple of weeks they added a feature that
Keith McFarland, author of The Breakthrough Company, joined me for the most recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast to discuss the elements that lead to a company taking off and going to the proverbial next level.Incredibly, McFarland interviewed
Join me Thursday, April 17th at Noon CDT for a live one on one interview with David Allen, author of the perennially popular - Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-free Productivity. We will how to be more productive,
I can’t believe of the number of stories I’ve read in the last few weeks about the downturn in the small business economy. One of the natural advantages to small business is that recessions don’t really have the same impact
Just a few days ago, ANRCTI (the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology) imposed the FIRST fine for SPAM in Romania, to a lawyer company called Urban & Asociaţii.The fine was 1000 RON, roughly 330 Euro:ANRCTI enforced the
Yesterday I confronted myself with a very weird situation. Dudes broke my car’s windows.I had a lot of cars and I’ve been driving for a long time, but is the first time I’ve had this happen to me. I live
I have been testing these Sitelinks for quite some time now on several websites, from new to very old, from few to zounds of visitors.What are Sitelinks ? They are a collection of
Ciprian has just uploaded all the recent tools he and his team have developed, and has bundled them all in one single SEO & webmaster tools package.I have been using the previous home for
Cristian invited me to speak at NetCamp, about Web 2.0.My presentation will revolve around reputation management for companies and individuals as well as how companies can communicate internally and externally, efficiently, Web 2.0 style.Will upload
We regret to inform you that your BlogRush Account Is Currently INACTIVE.Your blog(s) did not pass our Quality Review criteria. You will find instructions below for making your account active again.You will notice that the widget no longer loads on
I just followed a link from a comment in Aaron’s blog, and ended up in Igor Mordkovich’s Bizmord.com blog.Igor blogs mostly about PPC, because that’s what his expertise is.From the index, I was just a click away from 17 Most
I receive an email today in my inbox.I laughed my ass of. Who sends these kind of e-mails ?Mr. Christian, you the guru, the fish, the snake of SEM, you the greatest bear of them all.Could you, Oh COULD you
Listen to an interview with William Quigley taken by the USF Entrepreneurship Club way back in 2006. William Quigley is one of the Managing Partners at Clearstone, a VC who invests hundered of millions in startups.Whilst previously representing the interests
This is already old news, beeing first reported in Seopedia, two days ago. PayPal is now fully accepting Romania, with sending and receiving capabilities, merchant account included.That means every Romanian citizen can now accept website payments (through PayPal funds, or
Western Union Quick Cash payments will be available for pick-up the day after the payment date. The countries where Quick Cash is possible are :China (Mainland)MalaysiaPakistanRomaniaPhilippinesArgentinaChilePeruColombia The comissions for the Quick Cash service are NOT the same as for the
Ever wanted to see how one of the many available (PMBlaster, Zunker, Xrumer etc.) forum spamming software looks and runs like ?See Xrumer in action.What’s interesting to see in the video above, from the
These days, I am testing BlogRush, an ad network built by John Reese of Income.com. I want to state from the beginning, that BlogRush is not breaking news. Everybody has wrote about it. Below I
Smashing Magazine just published the Golden Rules of Linkbaiting.As the first comment shows, I just don’t know if a week’s reading time can cover all that content.From the article:What is
Robert Scoble tells you how he manages to read his 622 feeds every single morning …He also mentions what are the most important aspects of a story, before he clicks to read it.
Google has introduced a top 100 searches words / phrases chart called Hot Trends. More than that, what we never had from Google (except the Zeitgeist), a daily
I once wrote about a lot of Google “secret” features (and part 2), including an ad-free Google search.Ionut and Philipp wrote about this search too, including it’s up’s and
A member in one of my discussion lists just got his account banned by Digg. What was the reason you say ?Your account was banned for the rate of Digging activity you’ve engaged in.
I am beeing overrun with tens of comments from this very sick guy (real human, not robot), so I was forced to put all the comments to moderate status, as well as banning the entire .rima-tde.net hostname. Banning individual IP’s
The parent company of MTV and Comedy Central sees the future, and it is online. According to MediaPost, Viacom wants to make half a billion dollars per year in online and download sales and ad revenue. Viacoms stable of properties,
Web 2.0 companies looking to cash in by being acquired had better stay near their Blackberries. At the FourSquare investor and media conference there was ample interest in Facebook and the like, but the money holders warned that their guarded
Its hard not to have politics in your head right now, and writing about it seems apropos since campaigning is marketing sans the checks and balances. But as Bill Maher points out, those vying for office give the world of
Video advertisements are now being seen as a suitable alternative to TV and are expected to continue their exponential growth during the coming years. Online video adverts will haul $410 million this year, up 82 percent from 2005, according to
Chip maker Intel is showing its paternal side by collecting a group of Web 2.0 apps and reselling them as a suite. It is a strange pairing for Intel to be shepherding business software into the suite space. Usually in
Microsofts announcement that it was entering the video rental business using its Xbox Live platform is bad news for Apple and Amazon, but over time none of these companies will win the video download war. The Xbox advantages are that
No matter where you stand on the implementation of video ads, better performance metrics are needed to legitimize the format. Some publishers are shying away from pre-roll video ads out of fear of user disapproval, but folks like Comedy Central
Call it My Space meets Second Life in 3D. New company 3B introduced an entertainment/personal publishing/virtual world today at Web 2.0. The 3B space enables people to create avatars and pages using themed backgrounds (beach, club, etc.) and share music
Reporters are overrated, let the inmates run the asylum. That seems to be what Gannett, the publishers of McPaper, (USA Today) and many local papers is saying by reinventing newsrooms to become funnels for user generated news, according to Wired
It is round two for Googles print advertising, and Im not optimistic that it will go any better than the previous lackluster attempt to penetrate magazine advertising. Google has a deal with more than 50 newspapers to start selling its
While most newspapers are battling with online media for their very existence, the Washington Post is turning lemons into lemonade. Online revenue jumped 24 % during the past quarter over the previous years take, and it is up by more
Yahoo rolled out two new content sites as it continues to differentiate itself from Google as a destination and not a search tool. Yahoo this week launched websites covering food and green cars as it attacks the verticals. Google built
Brightcove is transitioning from online video tools company to operator of a video search and upload site, advertising agency, and technology platform, according to Marketwatchs Bambi Francisco. While there are efficiencies in providing all services, thats a lot of areas
Websites look to have friends and family put them on the top of the Digg heap will have to work a bit harder. Digg has reportedly adjusted its algorithm so that more diggs are needed for posts to get primo
I’m a skeptic of tag clouds. I don’t find them a compelling navigation tool. Avenue A/Razorfish’s Garrick Schmidt once aptly summed them up to me as “the mullet of the Internet — seemed like a good idea at the time,...
If you like to pick on advertisers who flash flagrant skin, then have a go at Dextro Energy. (You can see less-pervy executions here and here.) Its probably bad form to encourage what amounts to speed use among stressed-out students,...
At some point, everyone — at least everyone in advertising — has wondered what daily life must be like for those baritone voice talents. (I can personally vouch for the fact that Hal Douglas really does talk like that.) Now...
One need only look at Google’s $182 billion market cap to know search remains hot. While Microsoft is trying to figure out a strategy to compete with Google, another rival has slipped under the radar: Ted Nugent. The Motor City...
The Gong Show is back. Game show maverick Chuck Barris created and hosted the original, in which “regular folks” displayed their talents while D-list celebrity judges decided whether to bang an outsized gong and end the often (intentionally) wretched performances....
In a bizarre and probably ill-conceived move, melding 1970s kitsch with 2000s mobile social media, Carvel’s Fudgie the Whale will “now interact with consumers if they text his name to a mobile number, as part of an Arctic Summer Sweepstakes,”...
Its really not worth going into how insane this Korean bidet commercial is, because how could it have turned out any other way? That part of the world often looks at everyday objects with abstract craziness; of course they’d be...
Heres a new ad from Cabana Cachaçam, aka the national spirit of Brazil. There are two more after the jump (one of which is even more NSFW). A poor excuse to gratuitously show copious female flesh, you say? Not so,...
Not reality. Actuality. Thats the slogan of truTV, formerly Court TV, though it could serve as the tagline for any number of enterprises, from the ad industry to the Bush Administration to the four years I spent in college. This...
Officially signaling the end of intellectual discourse in the 21st century, Coolspotters has launched in beta. The site is meant to show you photos of celebrities using particular brands. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it has “pages for products, celebrities,...
So, Dove reportedly improved the appearance of some of the models in its Real Beauty campaign. Pascal Dangin, a retoucher, told The New Yorker: “Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a...
With a few notable exceptions, like Leni Riefenstahl and D.W. Griffith, its hard to think of a filmmaker whos been more roundly despised than Uwe Boll. With retina-shredding game-to-movie adaptations like BloodRayne and House of the Dead, Boll has approached...
In the 2000s, we have terrorism. In the 90s, we had gangsta rap. In the 80s, we had AIDS. And back in the 70s, the thing that scared us the most was ... women drivers. The only thing more ridiculous...
Seattle agency Creature has hired 35-year-old copywriter Yutaka Tsujino, formerly of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, based almost solely on the consensus opinion that the guy completely sucks. Jim Haven, co-founder and creative director at Creature, seems to have based his...
Theres something creepy about the classic claw game when the prize youre after is a live lobster. This machine was spotted in Osaka, Japan, but they have them here in the U.S. as well. I suppose the end result is...
If shes good enough for the Beaver, shes good enough for us. In a pre-Mothers Day poll by Harris Interactive, June Cleaver (of Leave It to Beaver fame) topped the voting when adults were asked to pick the sitcom mother...
Wonderfully bad acting meets early robot technology in this late-1980s promo for the SynPet, an R2D2-esque personal robot. Robots sometimes get a bad rap, but this SynPet, named “Newton,” functions as a babysitter, personal assistant, answering machine, language tutor, friend...
You have to feel bad for the kid in this Nail Communications spot for Rhode Islands CollegeBoundfund. Not the girl who spells “peregrination” correctly, but the boy in his jimmies twirling around with the box on his head, much to...
Its always a drag when you throw a party and the half-human/ half-lime guy shows up, overcompensating for his appearance by throwing coasters around. You’d almost rather have Little Bit o’ Luck drop by than Little Bit o’ Lime. It’s...
The Economist prides itself on its sturdy analysis of news from around the world. Also, it wants you to know it’s also a cuddlier teddy bear than its competitors. Say what you will about the magazine’s pretentiousness and uniform delivery,...
\Problems. Challenges. Opportunities. Whatever you call them at your company, we want them fixed.Our gut reaction is - come hell or high water - to find a solution. However, there are times when there is no fix. Youre stuck with
Getting comments on a blog post is one of the most positive outcomes you can experience as a blogger. Comments are rewarding on so many levels. Think about it, your readers are...Moved to action by what you wroteGiving you feedback,
I once had a co-worker recount the tale of her junior account position at a 4A’s agency. Her account was for a well known brand of… well…tampons. Evidently, the team brainstorming sessions (comprised largely of men), yielded many unfortunate and
The cost savings of outsourcing low-level work overseas to countries like India, China, and the Philippines can look pretty attractive. But its folly. The lack of language skills among the outsourced employees can lead to misunderstandings, lost credibility, customer service
Last week, my friend and colleague Susanne Sicilian sent an email highlighting the 5 Reasons Your Boss Needs to Send You to Boston. Among the reasons: One-on-one time with our speakers, exclusive (and free) research, Usability Labs on your Web
Ive been getting a lot of requests for friends on various social networks lately. You probably have been too - there seems to be an explosion of interest lately, particularly on Twitter.Im generally encouraged by this, as it means that
In this Marketing Over Coffee we discuss 3 things to make your News Releases more effective, what to consider when adding new media, and sales vs. marketing..... all that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program
When marketers design a marketing campaign – we typically design them for “rational” buyers. But do buyers ever act rational? And what about us? When we make decisions we think were in control and making rational choices. But are we?
Business Week is running a series of what you might call “self-help articles for businesses.” Before you yawn and think it’s the same old, same old, you might want to check this out. In an April 28th article titled: Finding
Calling all marketing and PR professionals. Heres a story you should have something to say about. Please watch the video below.Summary: Franchise pizza chain Papa Johns loses control of a Washington-based franchise who calls Cleveland Cavs star Lebron James a
I am frustrated and I cant be the only one. Ive written about this topic before and it isnt improving. Either companies should bring their call center staff back to North America or develop better protocols to handle North American
My wife loves to travel, and spring break for my kids is always the perfect excuse to get away. But this time was different; for over a year my wife had been planning a trip to Turkey with a family
Theres a great quote in Roger von Oechs book, A Whack on the Side of the Head that reads as follows...Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.The quote is attributed to the
Let’s talk about putting up barriers of entry to your latest Web 2-point-ohhhh project. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting invited to web apps and social networks that I’ve never even heard of before (and a lot of
Ive thought of myself as a writer since I was a little kid. I can get absolutely enthralled with how words sound in certain combinations and how they wrap around ideas and bring them to life. But today, I fear
Over the past few years marketers have been working on tracking conversations about their brands on the Web. (You are tracking and listening, aren’t you?) But once you have that in place, then what?Strategies for understanding and dealing with the
The sound bite: Its something we in public relations and marketing strive for. We coach our clients how to speak in sound bites for the media, getting our key points nicely wrapped up in a brief, punchy and self-contained two
In this Marketing Over Coffee we discuss buying lists, Google Audio Ads, the fishbowl and applying Marketing 2.0 strategies to local markets..... all that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers
A short, interesting article piqued my interest in Packaging World recently. The article: “Braille ‘signed’ on sleeved bottles” simply discloses how Italian milk producer Milk Depot, based in Brescia, Italy, has added expiration dates on its packaging in Braille. While
Many marketers believe that innovation and competitive differentiation arise from giving customers more choices and options. But through the strategy of “offering more choice”, marketers may actually end up increasing complexity, costs and causing customers “mental fatigue.” Is there a
Secretary’s Day is approaching! Belgian electricity operator Electrabel has launched a website that lets bosses produce a mini-opera for their secretaries. A florist sings a personalized song with the name of the secretary in it. Available in Dutch and French.By
What makes this billboard at Leipziger Platz in Berlin so special is not so much its panoramic format nor the 50 kilowatts of lighting. No, it’s the giant size, 5,000 square meters, and what you see behind the poster. The
This Mexican ad by Swedish wodka maker Absolut caused angry reactions in the United States.The ad shows a map of North America as it was in 1830, when the Southwestern United States was still part of Mexico. The ad was
When Miel aka Coolz0r tried to upgrade blog.coolz0r.com to the newest version of Wordpress, he encountered serious problems with the database. The mess was so severe that he had to give up. He posted a farewell message on blog.coolz0r.com and
A great idea from Adhese’s blog ad network Enchanté and Caroline from Rolling Talks: send blogger Ine on a skiing vacation to Club Med in Chamonix, and while she liveblogs using Twitter and Flickr, show her tweets and flicks live
Houtlust recently merged its content to Osocio.org, so you might want to adjust your bookmarks if you haven’t done so already. I was browsing the site and stumbled upon this pretty interesting ad. Sure, it’s not the first one to
Mmm. This one made me think about the old days. Where is the time when kids didn’t need a PS3 with 60 games to entertain theirselves? Where is the time when audio cassettes still did the trick? Observe the various
Fuel Industries, an agency specializing in branded entertainment, was hired by QNX Software Systems to help out with the launch of a product directed to a very specific community (embedded software developers). So Fuel Industries came up with something a
Grrr. I got blocked by Google during a drill down search of a forum to look for a playlist of a radio station. All I did was a bit of deep searching by using two keywords and the site: command.
One of the leading car rental companies in Europe is Sixt. In Germany or Switzerland, and more recently at Schiphol airport in The Netherlands as well, I saw their brand gain traction and become more present. They always find cool
The first time I saw this clip I thought it was a real video, like the one I’ve seen earlier of a holiday resort that had a beach right before the start of the runway of the airport. Then when
If spend quite some time with my little hero the last couple of weeks, and to be honest I’m always amazed how fast they learn. One thing that’s proven to be a really funny time of the day is dinner
A while ago I posted about those yummy customizable M&Ms you could order and surprize friends or business relations with. But in the light of ‘healthy futures’ and ‘powerful messages’, what can be more fun than creating your own energy
I remember that whenever I had to do some ‘casual seeding’ for a promo video for an agency, I had a document with all the usernames and passwords of the sites I would dump the file to. It would take
To send New Year greetings for 2008, the communications team at the dinosaur museum in Brussels sent colleagues and main sponsors a highly original package. Inside was a block of plaster and a hammer & chisel with an invitation to
Take a look at this super sweet catalog from the Dutch Hema store :) Apparently they’ve launched their online department, and I must say the site is really a very cool experience. At first glance it looks like a regular
Time for environmental action! The “Coalition for a Cyanide Free Romania†is a civil society initiative that was formed to support a legislative proposal to ban cyanide in mining in Romania. Its concerns are based on social, economic and environmental
Whenever you’re in Orlando, chances are you’ll see a car like this driving around. All I can say is, even though I’ve been in Orlando and went out for dinner quite a few times, there’s only one place I remember
It’s a fact that if you are a marketeer, a lot depends on how well you can wrap up your message to sell your product. Presentation is everything. The way you propose your product, supported by testimonials and based on
A few months ago I did a post about 8 unfortunate company logos. Recently I came across another logo that really could fit in well with the others. I’m not really sure it’s in Spanish, because I can’t really translate
Ever since Naked Conversations, Ive been following social media wherever it takes me. In the SAP Global Survey on Social Media, Culture & Business, it has taken me into conversations with people in 34 countries and in an amazing diversity
Perhaps this interview with Marcel LeBrun, co-founder of Radian6 should have been our first in this series, because most measurement processes start with monitoring, and a growing number of companies find Radian6 the best available software for finding every time
In our first segment of what will be at least a four-part GNTV series, Sea World San Antonio explained how they measured the ROI of a social media campaign designed to get roller coaster enthusiasts to try a new ride
Building a Social Network for Arab Women Laurel Papworth is an Australian social media consultant, trainer and lecturer. She is best known on Twitter as Silkcharm, a name she adopted during her many years as an online game moderator for
I’ve said it before: if you want to understand the future, go talk to some kids. Watch what they do. Watch their habits. Chances are these won’t change much as they go through life. The emerging generation seems to me
Hoot at Gloden Gate Bridge, originally uploaded by shelisrael1. Hoot has joined me on a road trip to SNCR Forum. He didnt care much for the ride. He prefers flying. Hes come along because there have been a couple of
While I was posting a video clip yesterday about Twitter & some of the neat things people & businesses can do with it, James Karl Buck found a new one. He was tossed into an Egyptian jail cell. Apparently, in
The founders talk candidly on where theyve been & where theyre going I recently visited the Twitter team in its South Park offices in San Francisco, where all 30 team members—including the three founders-- sit in a single room at
Chris Baskind, a Twitter pal has launched EcoTalk, a new Green site that has a lot of great content. His very first blog post reviews the environmental portion of my recent 17-minute interview with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Lutz
There has been a great deal said about GNTV in the past couple of weeks, some of it painful and most of it helpful in one way or another. My special thanks to Tyme White for a thoughtful and perceptive
Bob Lutz, the controversial vice chairman of General Motors sat down with me to discuss social media at GM and for business in general. I was told it was the first time he had ever done an exclusive interview on
My best friend, Charlie OBrien would have been 68 today, except he died nearly four years ago. This is what I said at his memorial service. I post this on his birthday each year, not to lament my loss, but
The World Food Program (WFP) has issues a press release announcing an alliance with China. That itself would not motivate post on the topic, but it was the second paragraph that knocked me on my heels: Having lifted 300 million
Twittering her way from Mom-at-home to Global Presence Sagan at Cornell. Just, wow. I LOVE to help brilliant technical people talk to the rest of us, and make complex ideas intuitive. Ive published original research on Environmental Racism and on
This morning is unlike most mornings. I have received direct messages on Twitter, on 3 kinds of SMS and the phone has rung. SMS pops into my face demanding attention. I love Twitter, but it is of
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