A recent article in B-To-B Magazine shows how many publishing companies are getting into territory normally handled by ad agencies. The expanded offerings include online and word of mouth marketing services. This is getting traction in the business publication sector but consumer oriented pubs are going in that direction too. The trend appears to be that media companies are acquiring agencies with expertise in web site design & development, word of mouth marketing and PR.

Continue reading "Publishers Expanding Their Turf" »

Taking a HEEEEEYYYYAAAAARGH from Howard Dean, the Barak Obamaniacs have woven themselves a tapestry of MyBarakObama microsites to motivate, connect, and empower a formidable cluster of web-savvy politiquitos. While every viable candidate in the slim pickin pile is using blogs, Flickr, and YouTube to some degree, Obama's advisors force the question: can they harness enough online energy to offset the disadvantage of a political underdog (whoever that may be)? Will online word-of-mouth supplant the legacy of ever-mounting political contributions?

Regardless of political leanings, it's worth investigating the emergence of online social networking as the new political networking.

It's too early yet to get my vote, but they've definitely earned a link.

The clever Tino Buntic has created a link explosion called 2000 Bloggers. You can easily waste an entire day purusing the links. Who knew this blogging thing was so popular?

Really big montage of blog author photos after the jump.

Continue reading "2000 Bloggers" »

Ahhhh, the wager is on. Can web 2.0 make money for companies? Will people continue to work for free?

If you believe Nicholas Carr, people will NOT work for free forever. The economy simply hasn’t figured out how to charge for the model yet.

If you side with Yochai Benkler and the gift economy, people will contribute for free for as long as they are appreciated and moving toward the perceived greater good. Or, in his exact words, the key is:

"managing the marriage of money and nonmoney without making nonmoney feel like a sucker"

I like him.

Continue reading "So the hacker said to the economist…" »

The Pocket Wookie. Because, well, just because.

This is silly. Red Sox management is pissed about a TV ad airing in Japan and featuring their new star, Daisuke Matsuzaka, drinking a beer. From the article:

"The ad is consistent with what's acceptable in the Japanese marketplace," a spokesperson from MLB International said in the report. "We did approve it with him drinking the beer outside of his uniform. It's a type of commercial that is really commonplace in Japan. It is not really that farfetched."

Though the ad may adhere to the law, the Red Sox are concerned with how it will look to have shots of their hot acquisition drinking beer juxtaposed with images of him in uniform.

"It is a perception," Blake said in the report, "and we certainly want our players to be perceived in the right light."

As may be obvious, I take no issue with Daisuke's ad, or the uptick in beer sales at Fenway. I only wish we collectively had the stomach to tell the handwringing, Calvinistic, moral scolds where to stick it.

The mystique that used to exist around creating great ads is fading away. More and more tools are becoming available that allow companies and individuals to do things that only the agencies could have done a few years ago. Now there are web based editing tools that can be used to make, edit and even customize ads. Here is a New York Times article about just that.

The leading advertising agencies will be the ones who stay on top of these changes and find ways to leverage them through innovative approaches, thus maintaining their value. Agencies have to focus on great concepts that can be leveraged in multiple Medias, often playing off other.

Continue reading "Easily Generated Demographic Specific Ads - You Kiddin' Me." »

I don't watch that much TV and I've seen Bill Gates on at least two talk shows last week; The Daily Show and the Today Show. I'm sure there were more. Perhaps I've never noticed this tactic before, but he's promoting Windows Vista just like Bruce Willis would be promoting his latest blockbuster film. The Daily Show interview was very entertaining and worth a look. Here's a link to
Video: Bill Gates on the Daily Show - Part 1">part 1 and
Video: Bill Gates on the Daily Show - Part 2">part 2.

Has Microsoft done this in the past? Has Jobs hit the talk show circuits too? He hasn't as far as I know and I don't think its common for CEO's to use this medium to promote new product launches. I just found this interesting and wonder how much interest it has generated in the new operating system. This may be a new role for Mr. Gates now that he is not as active in the day to day business. If so, they may want to give him a little more coaching so he doesn't appear so awkward.

Last week I wrote a post about Best Buy and Circuit City in an effort to discuss how innovative companies stay ahead of their competitors. I got a couple of great responses from two successful entrepreneurs which you can find here highlighting the problems that Best Buy has had with Geek Squad.

What I really wanted to emphasize is that companies need to think ahead, innovate and continuously take risks. Those that choose what I call the “me too” strategy always follow and are never first to market with an innovation.

Continue reading "Tale of Two Companies: Part 2" »

Most people with an email address have no choice but to be inundated with spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I can’t imagine anyone enjoys the drug offers, the insults to their manhood (hello, I don’t even HAVE manhood so please target your message better), and the latest “stock tips.”

Thankfully, according to a recent article, a Dutch man was fined $97,000 for spamming. However, the most shocking news of the article was not that justice was finally served – it was that he made $52,000 in 2004. So apparently some people do respond to those stupid emails. Luckily, $52,000 wasn’t enticement enough for the guy to keep emailing; he stopped spamming because “he simply wasn't earning enough money by sending the messages."

The thing is, $52,000 is a decent salary in some people’s eyes. So if this had been a different spammer, perhaps he would have felt it was worth it to continue with his pathetic career choice. While I feel all senders of unsolicited emails should have a flaming pile of dog shit delivered to their door step, we can only direct so much anger toward them. They’re making loads of dough off pervy dudes who actually buy Cialis online. Here’s a tip, Mr. Buys Sexual Performance Enhancements Drugs Online – probably the main reason your sex life sucks is that you’re online all the time. So do the world a favor and STOP responding to spam and take your life offline for a while. Then let us people who actually want to impact the online world in a meaningful way step in.