7 Reasons Print Will Make a Comeback in 2011
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In the era of iPads and Apps, marketers and agencies rally behind print as 2011 approaches.

Here are 7 reasons why print media will make a comeback next year:

1. Getting Attention
2. Focus on Custom Retention
3. No Audience Development Costs
4. What’s Old is New Again
5. Customers Still Need to Ask Questions
6. Print Still Excites People

Come on guys. This sounds desperate and needy. You’re going to have to let it go and let print settle into its own drastically reduced niche. The more you insist that you’re making a “comeback” the less credibility you’ll have.

Print might not be going away completely, but it is not going to make a comeback. Even your own reasons don’t hold water. Customers still need to ask questions? Really? Don’t you think an interactive environment  will provide that opportunity with far less fuss and muss than a print ad? Stop fighting the inevitable and try to find ways to make yourself more relevant. Focus on what you can do and let go of the rest. For all of our sakes.

One big win which has generated plenty of buzz for the network is Jersey Shore, which is now in its second season. The show launched season two on July 29 to 5.3 million viewers, almost quadruple the number that watched the season one premiere. And it is continuing to pull more than 5 million viewers a week. In fact, the show is nabbing the biggest ratings the network has seen in seven years.

I remember the good ole days when MTV used to play actual music videos.  Now it’s all reality television crap.

The 411 On Jersey Shore

Reality television series that follows eight housemates spending their summer on the Jersey Shore & Miami Beach. The show debuted amid large amounts of controversy regarding the use of the words “Guido/Guidette”, portrayals of Italian-American stereotypes and scrutiny from locals because the cast members were not residents of the area.

Prior to the series debut, UNICO National (which is the largest Italian American organization) formally requested that MTV cancel the show. In a letter to the network, UNICO called the show a “…direct, deliberate and disgraceful attack on Italian Americans…”.

MTV responded to the controversy by issuing a press release which stated in part, “the Italian-American cast takes pride in their ethnicity. We understand that this show is not intended for every audience and depicts just one aspect of youth culture.” Since the calls for the show’s removal, several sponsors have requested that their ads not be aired during the show. These sponsors included Dell, Domino’s and American Family Insurance. Despite the loss of certain advertisers, MTV has not canceled the show. Moreover, the show has seen its audience and ad revenue increase.

Ratings Up 22%, Ad Revenue Up 4%

Since July, MTV’s ratings have jumped 22% among its core demographic, viewers aged 12-34. In the second quarter of 2010, Viacom’s advertising revenue rose 4% compared to last year, for the second straight quarter of positive growth. Viacom expects that number to continue to rise.

Four “Jersey Shore” stars have gotten huge raises to return for next season. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio and Jennni “JWOWW” Farley will each earn about $30,000 per episode next season for MTV’s biggest show since “The Osbournes.” This does not take into account outside sponsorship deals either.  The show’s success now earns Pauly up to $80,000 a week for his DJ work while Snooki earns up to $20,000 for a personal appearance and The Situation has a profitable line of “pre-workout” vitamins.

A Short Lesson In Jersey Shore Vocabulary

Grenade (adj): A word used to describe the ugly friend.

Landmines (n): Thin ugly girls.

G.F.F (n): “Grenade Free Foundation.” Promoted by “MVP”

MVP (n): Mike, Vinny, Pauly.

GTL (n,v): Gym, Tan, Laundry; how they make the guidos.

Juice Head (n): Someone, usually a hot, tan, male, who may or may not steroids in order to gain muscle mass, see “Juiced.”

Confession

I can’t in good faith write this post without coming clean. This train wreck of a show has sucked me in. It’s like crack! It’s so bad for you but once you try it you’re hooked. I actually feel dumber from having watched the show. I know it’s wrong but I can’t stop. HELP!

The system dubbed “Google realtime” is as easy to use as any Google search. Simply type in your search term or wrap your term in quotes if you want an exact match, and click search. The system will then provide you hour-by-hour results for the current day.

What’s even more impressive is you can also select where the content was posted from geographically. So if you have offices or stores in different physical locations you can select the city and state where you would like to see comments.

This simple to use service provides a great tool for determining social comment trending for any organization.

One thing they don’t look at is which ads will chase you away from the environment in which the ad is featured and possibly motivate you not to return – either during that program/issue or possibly any programming/issue in that environment.

In my case the ads that will always get me to retreat – change the channel, put down the magazine, etc. are any ads that feature cruelty to animals. Not only will you not get a donation from me, you will cause me to abandon the ad environment altogether.

Now I’m sure some of these ads are big money generators or they wouldn’t be run by so many organizations, but I’m a huge animal lover and I will not tolerate those cheap and tawdry tactics. Tell me the good things you’re doing for animals, don’t show a sick looking creature locked up in a crate with a horror story or a tacky sad song.

When I know a network or magazine, etc. features these manipulative ads frequently I ban it from my existence. And I would not want my media buys to be impacted by this sensationalized bullying.

While animal cruelty ads are the number one reason I will “change the channel” there are others as well. I always avoid networks that show horror flick promos while I’m eating a meal – and for that matter I tend to avoid them in general.

As a marketer it is worth evaluating your medium with this concern in mind. How do you think a McDonald’s barbeque special commercial would fare run between two pods featuring animal cruelty? I know it would affect my appetite – that is if I hadn’t already abandoned the channel permanently before the McDonald’s spot even ran!

According to a report by veteran media analyst Steve Sternberg for Baseline Inc., CBS’s median age last season was 55 (up from 45 in 1991), ABC’s was at 51 (up from 37), NBC’s was 49 (up from 42) and Fox’s stood at 44 (up from 29).

Note, for example, that Two and a Half Men is an aging show, with the median age of viewers at 50.  Meanwhile, Dancing with the Stars, another hit, remains on the air with a median audience age of 60.

Alan Wurtzel of NBC points out that there are more older viewers available – the American population’s median age jumped from 33 in 1990 to 38 last year, according to the Census Bureau – and that advertisers have begun to recognize that older viewers have money and are receptive to advertising.  Fox’s Glee has a median age of 38 and CBS’s The Good Wife and the NCIS franchise skew the oldest at 58 and 57 respectively.

Boomers

TV dominates with Boomers.  Boomers specifically watch about 9  hours of video daily.  Boomers are responsible for one-third of television viewers, online/social media users and Twitter users.

If you see a Twitter @username at a restaurant or store, on a billboard or on TV, or if you hear one mentioned on the radio, you can simply text “Follow [username]” to 40404 and you’ll start receiving all of that user’s updates via text message. The service can simply act as an SMS-based newsletter or text alert program. This would be a great way for bars and restaurants to simply and inexpensively promote daily deals or special promotions.

Certainly this could become annoying really quick if you follow someone who tweets all the time. But it looks like you’ll have some granular control over SMS messages you receive. Even more control if you have a Twitter account. But with SMS, you can turn text messages on or off by sending ‘on’ or ‘off’ to 40404.

You can follow @twittermobile to keep up with the latest mobile developments.

OTHER TWITTER UPDATES:  Twitter is launching an official Tweet Button for sharing articles on websites and counting how many times a URL has been shared, according to documents Mashable has obtained. The Tweet Button could launch as soon as this Thursday. Read>

A gag Web site called “Please Rob Me” raised the obvious truth about location-based mobile social networking: When you tell the public where you are, you’re also telling burglars you’re not at home.

Insurance industry watchers predict that after customers get burglarized and file claims on stolen property, the insurance companies will probably investigate to see whether the customer broadcast information over social networks in a way that constitutes “negligence.” They could also make “social networker” the homeowners insurance equivalent of “chain smoker” in health insurance — a category of customers who are charged higher premiums.

TIPS

• Only use location-based services when you need them. Sites like Foursquare may be fun, but letting everyone know your routines could spell bad news for your home security.
• Don’t post your address anywhere. This should be a given!
• Don’t tweet about vacations, unless you have a house sitter.
• Think before you tweet! Something as simple as tweeting about your meal while out to dinner could tip someone off that you’re away from home.
• Don’t friend anyone you don’t know on a location-based app or service. Yes, Twitter may be all about the numbers, but you don’t want someone knowing where you are all the time because you friended them.

I have to admit that I use all of these services mentioned above and I never thought that this could impact my home insurance rates.  I will continue to use these services but I must admit that I will exercise greater caution now.

With all of the good in the world we must remember that there is unfortunately the bad as well.

At what point does choice cease to be compelling and become instead, a burden? Have we devalued real choice by making such a big deal out of small differences? Are we diluting brands with too many line extensions? These questions had me curious and interestingly enough while doing some research over the weekend, I found an excellent new video presentation on TED on this very subject. Definitely worth watching. It may give you a fresh perspective.

Findings from a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project report that adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving and are substantially more likely to have talked on the phone while driving. In addition, 49% of adults say they have been passengers in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone.

Overall, 44% of adults say they have been passengers of drivers who used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger. Beyond driving, some cell-toting pedestrians get so distracted while talking or texting that they have physically bumped into another person or an object.

According to Pew, 82% of American adults (those age 18 and older) now own cell phones, up from 65% from the first reading in late 2004. 58% of adults now send or receive text messages with their cell phones. By comparison, a September 2009 Pew Internet survey found that 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% text.

According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008 alone, there were 5,870 fatalities and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police-reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported.

Some of the key findings from the survey include:

• 47% of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving. That compares to 34% of texting teens ages 16-17 who said they had “texted while driving” in a September 2009 survey
• This means that 27% of all American adults say they have sent or read text messages while driving, compared to 26% of all American teens ages 16-17 who reported texting at the wheel in 2009
• 75% of all cell-owning adults say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. 52% of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 reported talking on a cell phone while driving in the 2009 survey
• Among all adults, that translates into 61% who have talked on a cell phone while driving, which compares to 43% of all American teens ages 16-17 who said they had talked on their phones while driving in the 2009 survey
• 49% of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone. The same number of all teens ages 12-17 said they had been in a car “when the driver was texting.”
• 44% of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger, compared to 40% of teens who said they had been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way.
• 17% of cell-owning adults say they have physically bumped into another person or an object because they were distracted by talking or texting on their phone. That’s 14% of all American adults who have been so engrossed in talking, texting or otherwise using their cell phones that they bumped into something or someone.

More details from major findings include these notes…

47% of texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving:

•  Male texters are more likely to report texting at the wheel; 51% of men who use text messaging say they have sent or read messages while driving while 42% of women texters say the same
• Those in the Millennial generation (ages 18-33) are more likely than any other age group to report texting while driving. While 59% of texting Millennials say they have sent or read messages at the wheel, 50% of text-using Gen Xers (ages 34-45) and 29% of texting Baby Boomers (ages 46-64) report the same

75% of cell-owning adults say they have talked on a cell phone while driving:

• Men are more likely than women to report this distraction; 78% of cell-owning men say they have talked while driving, compared with 72% of cell-owning women
•  80% of cell-using Millennials say they have talked on their mobile phones while driving. However, Gen X stands out as the group most likely to chat at the wheel when compared with older generations. While 86% of Gen Xers who own cell phones talk while driving, just 73% of Boomer cell owners and 50% of those age 65 and older say they talk on their phones while at the wheel

49% of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone:

• Men and women are equally as likely to say they have been in a car when the driver was texting. However, non-white American adults are more likely than whites to say they have been passengers of texting drivers. While 56% of black adults and 58% of Hispanic adults say they have been passengers of texting drivers, 46% of white adults report the same
• The likelihood that someone will be a passenger of a texting driver decreases dramatically with age. While one in three (75%) Millennials say they have been passengers in a car with a texting driver, 59% of Gen Xers, 37% of Boomers and just 18% of adults age 65 and older say they have had that experience
• Parents are considerably more likely than non-parents to say they have been passengers of distracted drivers; 58% all parents say they have been passengers when the driver was texting, compared with 45% of non-parents

44% of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger:

•  Men are more likely than women to report being passengers of cell-distracted drivers (48% vs. 40%) 
•  Millennials and Gen X are about equally as likely to report being passengers of drivers who use the cell phone in a dangerous way (59% vs. 52%). However, both groups are considerably more likely than older generations to report this experience. Just 37% of Boomers say they have been passengers in a car while the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way and only 21% of adults age 65 and older say they have had that experience

The physically-distracted crowd is also slightly more urban and well-educated than others. Cell owners who live in cities are more likely than rural residents to bump into other people and things (20% vs. 13%). And cell owners with college degrees are more likely than those with high school diplomas to be looking at their screens when they should be looking at their surroundings (20% vs. 14%).

The findings for those ages 18 and older come from a nationwide phone survey of 2,252 American adults conducted between April 29 and May 30. 1,917 were cell owners and 1,189 used text messaging. The margin of error in the full sample is two percentage points and in the cell subpopulation is three percentage points.

Source:  Center for Media Research & Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

Although widely used in Europe and Japan, QR codes are still somewhat of a novelty here in the US. However, as smartphone penetration increases, it’s becoming more and more common to see QR codes appear in ads, on packaging and used in general promotions. We’ve played with these a bit here at Bozell, but since most U.S. citizens still do not own smartphones, and even those that do don’t necessarily know what a QR code is or have the necessary scanning software to read it meant pretty limited exposure. However analysts predict that smartphone penetration will match feature phones by this time next year, so the picture could change drastically.

Since I live in neither NY nor LA I obviously didn’t have the opportunity to scan the CK QR code myself to see what happened (although I tried from online images but couldn’t get it to work). When I finally saw the exclusive, 40-second commercial (below) that the QR code brings up featuring Lara Stone, I was disappointed. I guess I expected something way more provocative given CK’s history. Seems like a missed opportunity to me. From what I understand, it’s a test for CK, but marks the official premiere of Calvin Klein Jeans’s Fall 2010 advertising campaign. At the conclusion of the video, viewers can then share the code with their Facebook and Twitter networks.

Restore the Gulf

UnF–k The Gulf

Neither spot is anything special creatively, but the star spot is little more than white noise. The other did take me off guard at first, but it made me listen. You may not like the language, in fact you may be completely offended by it, but I agree wholeheartedly with David Burn over at AdPulp in this post .

“Green messaging needs to evolve if it’s going to impact a larger segment of the American population. I salute UnFucktheGulf for bringing some righteous anger to the YouTube party and for understanding that t-shirts sell better than stand-alone issue-oriented outrage.”

Is Foursquare too early?

In a study out today, Forrester finds that only 4% of U.S. online adults have ever used location-based mobile apps such as Foursquare.  This small number is not appealing from a major marketer’s perspective due to the potential (or lack of) audience size.

Only 1% update these services more than once per week. What’s more, 84% of respondents said they are not familiar with such apps, leaving the vast majority of Americans online still in the dark about location-based apps, which have had the marketing world obsessing over them in recent months.

Who uses Foursquare?

Almost 80% of location-based service users are male. Close to 70% of them are between the ages of 19 and 35, and 70% have college degrees or higher.

This small audience is still attractive to some marketers. Forrester recommends that gaming, consumer electronics and sportswear marketers lead the way with testing these apps. Location apps have already proved they’re not only for male-oriented brands. PepsiCo, Starbucks, Oil of Olay, Bravo and, most recently, Campbell’s Soup have all launched campaigns with location apps.

Insider Perspective

I currently use Foursquare in Omaha as well as through my travels and have found some (not many) “deals” to take advantage of.  The local Starbucks by my house offers discounts to Foursquare users checking in and if you are the Mayor of Starbucks you are often entitled to a free drink.

I think that Foursquare is great right now for small/local businesses.  For example, a bar called the Reel Martini in my neighborhood offers specials and discounts based on the number of times you check in.  First check in – Buy One, Get One.  Tenth check in – 10% off bar tab and if you are the Mayor you get 25% off your entire bill.  Also, if you check in on Wednesdays (slow night) you get 1/2 off martinis.  I think this is a great way to drive repeat traffic and traffic to your business during “slow” time periods.

My opinion is that this technology will take off in the next year.  I do however believe that this will be a fad and will not stick around long unless major advertisers get on board.  Many people are becoming more aware of this application but fail to see any real benefit from it.

For additional insight on Foursquare and how to use this technology please check out my past article “Do You Foursquare?”

I’m a huge fan of portable tech devices. I owned a Palm Pilot years ago and have owned a mobile phone for the past 20 years. This on top of the pile of other gadgets I have acquired has only increased my thirst for tech.

Since the release of the iPad I have been salivating for one of these gadgets. The simple yet flexible functionality of the device is simply astonishing. Can it do everything a notebook computer can? Probably not but then again it isn’t supposed to.

I have realized that my desire for an iPad most likely stems from the science fiction I grew up on and the possibilities they teased us with. For years I watched the crew of “Star Trek” carry around amazing portable devices that could allow them to develop incredibly complex mathematical equations and comprehend the space-time continuum. While a great deal of what they spoke was complete fabricated jargon it still didn’t take away from the mystique.

I also noticed that in the Pixar file “The Incredibles” another of these futuristic devices made its own appearance. It is funny to reflect on watching the movie and the device seemed so futuristic in 2004 at the time but now I look at it and say “hey, that’s an iPad”.

It is amazing how far technology has caught up to fiction. We can only hope that the visionaries of the future keep pushing our boundaries forward and give us inspiration for the next generation of life altering devices.

I know the issues are extremely complex and I advocate protection of content, but I think this approach is like trying to drive forward by using the rear view mirror to navigate and hoping to arrive at the past. Innovation and creative thinking was what newspapers needed long ago and it’s what they need today.

News International, the British newspaper publishing company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns The Times (UK — not to be confused with the NY Times) withdrew in March from voluntary ABCe auditing, saying only that it had “suspended” public reporting of traffic for Times Online and the Sun and was working with ABCe to help evolve metrics related to engagement instead.

Reading this report about the impact at the The Times (UK) thetimes.co.uk …and statements like “Sabbagh goes on to calculate that the typical Times print reader is worth ‘at least two and a half times’ the average online reader” just made me shake my head.

It was a warm Saturday evening and I had to attend the wedding of a young employee from my company. I dressed in my best black cocktail dress and heels and was feeling fairly pleased with myself when Joe, my husband, and I headed over to the festivities.

The reception provided a good chance to “catch up” with some of our staffers. As it began to wind down one of my direct reports – a young guy – took it upon himself to patiently usher me out of the reception hall and out to my car with comments like “well, I guess this thing is over”, “time to get on out of here”.

I noticed that as soon as my car started heading out of the parking lot that my self-appointed escort had high-tailed it back into the building. Hmmm, odd I thought

By the time we reached home I realized that he was hustling “the boss” out so that he could get down to some serious partying. I felt just like Grandma Moses.

Once home I took my cranky self up to get ready for bed as Joe headed down to his man-cave. After shedding my slinky black dress and heels (and still mumbling obscenities under my breath) I headed into the master bath to wash up.

And that’s when my nail broke.

Need I share the murderous invectives that filled the air at this point? I thought not. Once I was able to regain a modicum of self-restraint my logical brain directed me to the new bottle of nail glue in my cabinet. I grabbed the bottle and struggled to open it. The cap was a real challenge – more so than usual. I thought something dropped out when the cap came off – but could find no evidence so I sloughed it off.

I spent the next few minutes – while the glue was drying on my nail – performing a few more of my nighttime ablutions. And then I was ready to depart from the bathroom. Only I couldn’t. The heel of my right foot was glued firmly to the floor tile.

I spent the next twenty minutes frantically trying to extricate myself so my husband would not laugh himself into cardiac arrest when he walked in. To no avail. Pulling my foot away would have resulted in the heel staying behind – not an option. I was unable to reach any potential tools that might help me scrape my foot off of that tile. So I gave up.

My next strategy was to begin yelling to Joe for help. Also to no avail. For about 45 minutes I gave periodic shouts in his general direction. None were heard down two flights and drowned out by his bevy of electronic gadgets – each noisy in its own way. Thank god I hadn’t set myself on fire!

I couldn’t even sit on the side of the tub to rest my weary bones as I waited to be rescued from my own bathroom. Finally I heard Joe’s footsteps on the stairs. I steeled myself for his reaction. Based on the cumulative effect of all of the indignities I had suffered that evening – his very survival would depend on his response – that or he’d have to leave me glued to the floor!

God bless him, he walked in, sized up the situation and headed to the garage for Goo Gone. Within 5 minutes I was a free woman. And life was good again!

And then we both laughed until we cried.

Kimberly-Clark’s Faux-Jean Huggies are flying off the shelves at local retailers. Similarly, P&G is countering with a limited-edition fashion offering of its own this month, a series of 11 diaper styles from designer Cynthia Rowley called “Pampers by Cynthia Rowley Collection,” available exclusively at Target and Target.com.

The faux-denim diapers are selling well. The Little Movers franchise is up 15% post [denim] vs. prior period. According to a qualitative research study, with jeans diapers the simple insight is that moms simply love seeing their babies in jeans. Nearly 60% of moms purchase denim for their babies before they even reach 6 months of age.

I also love what WPP/JWT, New York has done with the tagline for the jeans diapers (tagline: “The coolest you’ll look pooping your pants”).   Too cute!

While it’s no surprise that some 234 million Americans  age 13 and older use mobile devices (that’s 90%), the growth of smartphone penetration is very rapid according to the latest report from comScore MobilLens. Over 49 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones as of May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. The smartphone penetration has nearly doubled in just one year to nearly 21%.  According to Nielsen projections, by third quarter 2011 smartphones could have nearly the same market share as feature phones.

RIM (like my Blackberry) still has the largest share of the platform market. And while the iPhone has received the lions share of the buzz, especially with the release of iPhone 4, it’s Google’s Android platform that has seen the greatest growth in the smartphone market over the past several months. Android continues to propel itself closer to the #3 spot (currently held by Microsoft).

And just how are we all using our smartphones?

The only stat that surprises me is the one on accessing social networking sites. It seems low to me. I can’t recall talking to anyone in the last few months with a smartphone that hasn’t accessed at least Facebook or Twitter with it.  I’m curious. How about you? Do you use your smartphone to access a social network site?  Take this poll.

Adults 18-34 spend the most time on the site per week, at 8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online.  Weekly Facebook time drops to 4.6 hours among users ages 55 and older, representing a lower proportion of that group’s average of 21.5 hours per week on the internet.

Facebook Highly Trafficked by Asians 

Facebook usage is heaviest by Asians. Not only did that group spend the most hours per week on the site, but they also devoted the greatest percentage of their weekly internet time to Facebook (39.6%, compared with 35.1% among blacks, the second-highest group).

Facebook Appeals to a Higher Income Bracket

Incomes also rose from less than $50,000 up to $100,000.  Affluent Facebook users making at least $100,000 annually spent the most time on the site and on the web as a whole.  In Q1 2010, comScore found that the visitors who spent the most time on Facebook also spent the most money online.

Source:  eMarketer

My Two Cents

Facebook advertising is very efficient and cost effective. It is just another touch point along the consumer path and a great way to connect with them.  Facebook is a great way to get out to the masses without the sticker shock.  Typically what I have seen with PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns on Facebook is that you often get way more impressions than you pay for. 

That is the beauty of PPC campaigns.  Millions of people may see your ad but you only pay if that person clicks on your ad and goes to your site.  Also with Facebook you can target based on age, gender, relationship status, likes & interest, education & work and connections on Facebook.   

So I am interested in running ads on Facebook.  How much budget should I set aside? 

I would recommend setting up a daily budget of $50 to start.  Remember that you only pay if someone clicks on your ad.  If your creative lacks an incentive to click then the chance of running through this budget is unlikely. Also keep in mind that Facebook uses an algorithm (just like PPC on Google) that ranks your ad in “popularity” and this has direct impact on positioning.  If your ad is performing well chances are you will find that ad at the top of the page. 

Even if you have a massive budget this doesn’t ensure that your ad will fall near the top.  The creative must be compelling and people must be clicking on your ad.  Also, more impressions will be served up if your ad is performing well.  Remember that Facebook only gets paid if someone clicks on your ad so of course they are going to run those top performing ads more. 

You can also pay-per-impression (CPM) if you would rather have the guarantee that your ad will run a certain number of impressions over the campaign’s flight.

It’ s not like that 21st birthday that you look forward to with great anticipation. Turning 50 isn’t something I stress over (the alternative is worse) instead it’s a birthday I look at with little interest. I didn’t even give it much thought until I got your mailing today.  Frankly, I would rather not have it thrown in my face that because of it I’m eligible for membership in AARP.  I know you’ve tried to update your image and you’ve shed the “American Association of Retired Persons” moniker, but much of the residual baggage remains — at least for me.  I still think of you as the old people group. I don’t feel old. I don’t act old. I’m not thinking of retiring or even slowing down. I still have lots to learn, lots of big plan, lots I want to do. 50 isn’t what it used to be. Come on…it’s like everyone says –50 is the new 40.  I have no intention now, nor in the foreseeable future, of asking for the “senior” discount.

Try me again in 10 years.  Maybe I’ll feel differently by then.

Party favors from the NAP Project Runway Condom Fashion Show

Did that title get your attention? This is not your average blog entry and this was not your average fashion show.

Just recently, I was involved in a Project Runway Condom Fashion Show Fundraiser for the Nebraska Aids Project along with another member of my design team, Carrie Ratcliff and fellow designer/friend Adrian Hardisty-Horsley. It was hands down THE most challenging design project we have ever been involved in. And we were so glad to be a part of it.

Step 1: Find a sponsor. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by the greatest tattoo parlor this side of the Missouri: Liquid Courage (who just happened to celebrate their 10 year anniversary).

Step 2: Find a model. Again, we were VERY lucky to be introduced to a professional model who was not only the most gorgeous model at the event, but was extremely patient and chill. She didn’t complain once about how hot our coat made out of condom wrappers was to wear.

The Team: Adrian, Carrie, Jill and Christina

Step 3: Design something out of condoms. We met once over coffee with inspirations and sketches and ended up collaborating to create our dream “raincoat.” Forget the fact it would be made out of condoms – it will be very well designed, and everyone will want to wear it. They will look past the fact that it is made out of condom wrappers and tape. (keep reading for more about the actual fabrication.)

Step 4: Engineering the design. We purchased every kind of glue and tape possible. We hunted down a dress form and was able to borrow one from our friends at the Creighton Fine Arts Department. Which, by the way, was an invaluable asset. I cannot imagine designing and completing a clothing design without a dress form. Especially when condom wrappers need some major work to get them to lay flat and appear seamless.

Christina, our model, demonstrating the working hood on the condom coat during the after party.

After working through the design sketches, which had to remain flexible since we had no idea how the condoms and wrappers would work as a physical material, we got together to test the functionality of the wrappers and the condoms themselves. How easy we could get them to stay together. The winning combination: staples and packing tape! Yes…you heard that right. It took a total of nearly 18 hours (and a bottle of wine) to complete the design and fit our model. The first time she put the coat on, we all got goosebumps. It looked like an actual wearable! Which was precisely our main goal. We didn’t want our outfit to look like a costume or the obvious: a bunch of condoms glued together.

Christina, our model, rocking the condom coat with grace and style during the after party.

The event was a great success and raised dollars and most of all awareness for the Nebraska Aids Project. It was such a success that NAP will most likely make this an annual fundraiser. Even though it was a major challenge (Literally, we all suffered staple wounds and mylar condom wrapper cuts – Band-Aid should have been our sponsor), took hours of our time and energy – we would still do it all over again. Because that’s what Creatives thrive on: BIG challenges for a great causes.

We can’t wait for 2011’s Condom Fashion Event and are ready to throw down!

The outdoor portion of the runway. The entire runway was over a block long and wove its way through the Magnolia Hotel.

There are also a tremendous number of tools out there that help us to manage, review, schedule and automate these communications. What’s important to remember is that while these tools are great for helping you manage your inputs and outputs, there’s still no substitute for true, authentic communication.

The introduction of all these convenience tools is what makes it increasingly apparent when you’re seeing an honest, real message versus an automated, robotic one. This was most recently illustrated to me by two responses I got to a tweet I made regarding my receipt of the book, “Delivering Happiness” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

I said:

I received two responses from that tweet. One from @Zappos_Service and one from @FedExDolores. Here’s what they said:

Guess which one was (most likely) automated? Sorry, Dolores, you lose.

If you look at the full Twitter stream for both the Zappos account and the FedEx account, it is immediately apparent which one is either manned by a human or at least manned by a human who doesn’t have a standardized response template. Zappos, you win. You can also see that the Zappos account is typically signed off by a person at the end of a day and then re-signed into at the beginning of a new day by announcing who is at the helm. FedEx has tried to embody a specific “person” into each named account instead of having a singular customer

I’ve experienced this with FedEx’s Twitter robots before. I posted a photo in which I used the term, “FedEx” and got a robo-response:

Given the excellent usage of spacing in that message, I felt it was safe to assume a human didn’t do it. Sure enough, when looking at the full tweet stream of FedExLina’s account, it looked very robotic to me.

Now, I know that FedEx is likely getting a lot more mentions on Twitter than Zappos is, so they have a lot more responding to do. Even so, as a customer, I really don’t feel any better about getting some message from you if it’s just some automated (or template) response. This type of communication is the same thing as a robo-call, a form letter, or anything that takes the true, honest, person-to-person factor out of a human-to-human exchange.

If you’re going to automate something, don’t try to make it appear human.

That’s where we get to authenticity. A robo-response that tries to appear as a human response is NOT authentic. A robo-response that is clearly an automated reply IS authentic. I don’t have a problem with automated responses. They can be very helpful. But when you receive an out-of-office reply from someone, it says so. It doesn’t say, “Brian – thanks for emailing me. I look forward to replying to your message as soon as I can. I appreciate you taking the time to send this to me. Have a great day!”

What I’m left with after these two simple responses is a better feeling form Zappos and a worse one form FedEx. Sure, this is little stuff in the grand scheme of things, but I believe this is the little stuff that matters. My gut reaction to Zappos moving forward is going to be a little bit better, and to FedEx, a little bit worse.

Decide what approach you’re going to take with your personal and business communication. Make sure it’s real and authentic. Just don’t try to be something you’re not.

I received these two responses approximately an hour later from my old friend FedExLina:

Seems Lina is still having punctuation and spacing problems. I’m going to ask @FedExLina how @FedExDolores sent me the first message today if she’s out of the office and see what she says. I think this helps drive my point in that it’s pretty easy to see through false authenticity. Stay tuned.

And her response:

I would be “happy to glad” if this whole thing didn’t make me feel bad for such a lost customer service opportunity.

Back in March, I weighed in on some things going on with the mobile device war that’s being waged between Apple and Google. The heat’s still on. Google posted yesterday that more than 160,000 new Android-powered devices are activated every day. More than two per second. That’s a lot. And nicely timed with that announcement, Google.

Here’s what is striking me now: How similar is this current situation to Apple vs. Microsoft in the early days of personal computers?

Hear me out.

Apple comes up with the Mac. It’s awesome. A mouse. All-in-one computer. Great interface. Easy to use. Kinda expensive. Can only be bought from Apple.

Microsoft’s OS can be installed on any compatible hardware. It’s relatively easy and open to program for. It’s not quite as nice, but it works. And you can buy it anywhere.

Flash forward. Apple’s phone is awesome. Incredible technological advances and a huge WANT factor. Must be bought from Apple and used on AT&T’s network. Google doesn’t have a phone, but it has an OS. It’s available on many different pieces of hardware from a variety of carriers.

The data shows that Android is making decent gains against the iPhone. Quantcast has a nice writeup about market share and the relative growth of the top mobile OS’s in the market. This chart is particularly interesting:

Granted, this shows mobile web consumption, but that’s a good (and easy to measure) indicator of how things are going.

I think it’s worth keeping an eye on this trend. Apple makes a nice big deal about what they are doing and they get a lot of press for it. They set the standard and they set it high. But Google does a lot of things very well, too. And at a certain point, what features are luxuries and which are necessities? A screen with a resolution higher than you can perceive is really cool (iPhone 4) but a nice large display in full color is still perfectly good when it’s a little handheld device.

Ultimately for consumers and marketers, though, who wins doesn’t matter as much. What really matters, and what we must pay attention to, is the accelerating adoption of mobile devices into the marketplace. People can get their data anywhere at any time. And it’s making a difference in personal communications and buying habits.

There are exciting days ahead!

Digital services continue to be the primary growth engine, but traditional revenue streams are expected to remain significantly larger throughout the forecast period.  Digital spending in the US is expected to account for 26% of all E&M spending in 2014, up from 19% in 2009.  

Overall US advertising is expected to increase at a 2.6 % CAGR from $159 billion in 2009 to $180 billion in 2014.  In the US, Internet advertising is expected to surpass newspaper advertising spend in 2010.  Advertising spending for Internet, television, radio, out-of-home, and video games are expected to be larger in 2014 than in 2009, while consumer magazines, newspapers, directories and trade magazines are expected to be smaller.

These projections reflect the market fragmentation and consumer behavioral changes. The advertising industry is responding to consumers’ shifting attention and migrating towards total marketing or total brand communication.  Brands are changing their focus from advertising on a medium, to marketing through, and with, content.  

Three themes that are expected to emerge from changing consumer behavior and the industry must anticipate and pre-empt the needs and wants of consumers.  

• Rising power of mobility and devices: Advances in technology are expected to see increasingly converged, multi-functional mobile devices come of age as a consumption platform by the end of 2011. By 2014, US mobile Internet access subscribers are projected to increase to 96.1 million, a 40% CAGR from 2009. 
• Growing dominance of Internet experience over all content consumption: Increasingly, the consumer has moved beyond thinking of the Internet as an end in itself, and expects all forms of media to embed the convenience, immediacy and interactivity of the Internet. People are already consuming magazines and newspapers on Internet-enabled tablets, and streaming personalized music services in preference to buying physical CDs.
• Increasing engagement and readiness to pay for content-driven by improved consumption experiences and convenience: Consumers are more willing to pay for content when accompanied by convenience and flexibility in usage, personalization and a differentiated experience that cannot be created elsewhere. Local relevance is also expected to enhance the content providers’ ability to charge.  

If engagement with consumers is the next wave of marketing, 10 companies are doing a particularly good job of it, according to brand and communications research agency Hall & Partners.

In conjunction with a new tool that measures consumer brand engagement on an emotional level, the Omnicom-owned company determined the 10 most engaging brands in the U.S.  The 10 most engaging brands are (in order): 1. EBay 2. Google 3. Amazon 4. Kraft Foods 5. Microsoft 6. Facebook 7. Coca-Cola 8. Pepsi 9. Yahoo 10. Dove

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have employed many marketing tactics over the years to build strong brand communities, using everything from experiential marketing to forays into social media.  And while Kraft may be initially surprising as a brand with high consumer engagement, the company’s recent efforts to broaden its image “beyond the refrigerator” — particularly with newer tactics.

Source:  MediaPost Communications

Nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, enabling consumers to “place shift” and watch video wherever they are.  Despite the common perception that viewers of videos on mobile phones are predominantly teens, more than half are adults aged 25-49. While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%

Video viewing across all major media platforms continues to be fueled in part by the adoption of technologies that improve the consumer experience whether it be quality or convenience. Penetration of HDTVs, DVRs, broadband and smartphones increased at double- or even triple-digit rates during the last two years.

• HDTV: More than half of US TV households now have a high-definition television and receive HD signals; between Q1 2008 and Q1 2010, HDTV penetration grew 189%

HDTV’s rapid growth is important for a number of reasons. First, high-definition raises the bar for programmers and advertisers and increases consumer experience expectations on other platforms. Second, HD sets still tend to be found disproportionately in high-income, highly educated households that are often characterized by lower viewing. HD-capable households actually watch 3% more primetime TV than  HD-non-capable households, which may help drive viewing among segments of audiences marketers find most important.

• DVR: More than a third of homes have a digital video recorder, up 51% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2010, making it possible for more viewers to watch TV programs on their own schedule

Timeshifting, including DVR and Video-On-Demand, is another technology which appears to be bolstering consumption. The timeshifting audience increased by 14%, to more than nine and a half hours per month. As timeshifting increases, the rate of commercial viewing during playback remains steady. On average, viewers watched 45% of commercials during timeshifted playback in Q1 2010 compared with 43% in Q1 2009. At the same time, the continued growth of timeshifting is creating more opportunities for viewers to catch missed programs or try new ones.

• Broadband: 63.5% of homes now have broadband Internet access, with high-speed connections that improve online video delivery

Beyond the TV, technology is helping drive video use on the “second” and “third” screens. The proliferation of broadband access is bolstering online video, creating an alternative mass outlet for distributing television content and “timeshifting” long-form TV.

• Smartphones: Nearly a quarter of households (up 38% year-over-year) have smartphones (mobile phones with advanced operating systems), making it easier for consumers to “place shift” and watch video wherever they are

Source:  Center for Media Research June 20^th

Once upon a time, MySpace was THE social networking site on the Internet.  Back in June of 2006, it was the most popular social networking site in the United States.  In April of 2008 however it was overtaken by its competitor, Facebook. 

There has been an interesting shift in who uses the sites. MySpace began with a big preference for teenagers whereas Facebook was designed specifically for college students.  As the two sites have grown up, their users have changed.  These days teens, professionals, moms, dads, grandparents, etc. all make up online communities. 

MySpace has a lot riding on the relaunch and branding campaign especially with the fierce competition of Facebook & Twitter.  

I have to believe that the days of MySpace are numbered.  The cool kids have  jumped ship and established new homes elsewhere leaving MySpace a virtual wasteland.  

The social networking site has simply run its course with the overwhelming majority.  Where MySpace might be able to shine is with music and this niche audience but will this be enough I don’t know.  Facebook does not have a music player or the customizable layout options that MySpace does prompting many music enthuasists to travel to MySpace. 

For me there are two paths that MySpace can take: Integrate into TV and mobile devices or fade into irrelevance like Friendster.

R.I.P Friendster

Here’s a question: if you’re getting on a plane tomorrow and Thomas Salme is in the cockpit, do you stay on the flight knowing all of the information above? My guess is that you don’t, and my grandmother testing around the office seems to bear this out. But here’s the real question: why not?

This is a guy with more than a decade of successful flying time who takes part in the same intensive annual training of his licensed counterparts. He has the experience. He has the aptitude. Why not trust him to jet you off to a weekend in Luxembourg?

There’s really no reason. Some people mention his ethics. And while those are obviously questionable, ethics don’t safely land a 737. What makes most people nervous about Thomas Salme is that he doesn’t have a real pilot’s license. They want that piece of paper.

Stop for a second and take a look around your office. Think about the people you trust to do a great job. Then think about the people you don’t. In today’s corporate environment, all of them have at least one piece of paper that says they’re capable. Many of them probably have a second piece of paper with the prestigious letters M.B.A. But I bet you didn’t think much about those pieces of paper when it came to who you trusted.

Now think about yourself. Why should people trust you to do your job? Because of your piece of paper? Unless you’re a heart surgeon or a NASA engineer who accidentally stumbled onto this post after googling “weekend in Luxembourg,” probably not.

If you’re in marketing or advertising, people trust you because you have a history of success. You did something. Perhaps you did a lot of somethings. You got noticed. And because success breeds success, someone chose you to help them become more successful. Then someone else. And finally you were the one making the choices.

But again: did all that success have anything to do with your piece of paper? Did your Marketing 201 class really help that much? It may have helped you get into a door, but it didn’t make you successful. Experience and intuition got you where you are today. (That, or you knew whose buttocks were worthy of your lips.)

A lot of us are Thomas Salmes. We have a piece of paper that means very little to our practical, day-to-day jobs. We’re not really cut out for our jobs, because there’s no template. How many times have you made a million-dollar decision on a moment’s notice and thought: “Phew. If it wasn’t for Professor Higgenbotham’s sage advice on embracing the cultural zeitgeist while concepting, I probably would have just tried to sell a client a multi-year campaign based on a loose combination of Cop Rock and Homeboys in Outer Space“?

Because of this reliance on earned wisdom and first instincts, it often feels like we’re faking it. And by any academic definition, we are. But people keep getting on our plane and we keep flying. And why not? We have the experience and the aptitude. They have the increase in sales or brand recognition.

So why not get on Thomas Salme’s plane? I could see why you wouldn’t have been thrilled to knowingly be on his maiden voyage. But after thirteen years of success, the guy obviously knows what he’s doing. In fact, I’d sumbit the only reason I might not fly with Mr. Salme is because of that success. When you’ve gone thirteen years without incident in your job, you’re overdue for a decent-sized failure. And a downed 737 is a much bigger catastrophe than greenlighting Homeboys in Outer Space. (Although, I can’t be as definitive about the disaster that was Cop Rock.)

Foursquare is dealing with a landslide of queries from business owners and marketing agencies that want a piece of the fast-growing service. It has already developed integrations with a range of brand advertisers in various verticals, including Starbucks for retail, Bravo in entertainment, Pepsi in packaged goods, and Bing for technology and online services.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a service that helps find where your friends are hanging out and offers tips from other users on what to do once you get there. You use your phone to “check in” at different places you visit, from bars and restaurants to parks, museums and even the grocery store! Foursquare rewards you for checking in with badges, points and mayorships.

Foursquare is just one of a number of new mobile social networks — Gowalla, Loopt Star, Where, Buzz, Dream Walk, BriteKite, MyTown, PegShot — that use GPS-driven location tagging to allow users to check in, post tips and, more importantly, share that information with their friends. Each check-in rewards the user with a badge, passport stamp or points.

There are also social good-focused geo location services such as CauseWorld and Scavnger that allow users to check in and redeem their points for causes they support. And, more recently, Yelp and Facebook announced that they, too, will join the fray with their own location-based service.

How do I get started?

Download one of Foursquare’s mobile apps on your phone. They provide apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm phones.

Register for an account on Foursquare’s website or through the mobile app. Be sure to upload a profile picture so you can be eligible for mayorships! Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to make it easy to find your friends and share your current location on your favorite social networking sites.

Check in at the places you visit

Checking in lets your friends know where you are. To check in, open the mobile app on your phone and Foursquare will use your phone’s GPS to find your current location. Click the “places” button or tab to see a list of nearby places where you can check in. If the place you’re looking for isn’t in the list, add it directly from your phone.  You’ll have the option to share your location with your Foursquare friends and with Facebook and Twitter.

Check out tips and leave them for others

One of Foursquare’s greatest features is the ability to leave tips on a venue. People leave tips about their favorite dishes, things to do, how to get a discount and even where to find clean bathrooms. You’ll find tips like “the Gyro Pizza is the best you’ll ever eat” or “avoid the hot and spicy burrito — it’s neither hot nor spicy.”

With Foursquare the primary premise is around rewarding users with three different merit systems.  Mayors, Badges and Points.

1)  Mayor – A mayor is a user who is in 1^st place on the location leader board.  First place defined as most check-ins

2)  Badges – Badges are awarded for achieving various milestones tied to either the number of check-in’s at a given location or the amount of check-in’s throughout the day or other criteria. 

3)  Points – Points are awarded at varying increments based on multiple factors such as a new venue may yield a higher point allocation. 

 Get a Discount

Some businesses have started to use Foursquare as a “digital loyalty card” to track users who visit their stores. To reward you for being a regular customer, they might offer you a free drink every fifth visit or 10% off your bill the tenth time you check in. Other places offer discounts to the mayor. You’ll see any specials a business is offering in your mobile app when you check out the list of nearby venues.

Foursquare has just hired several staffers whose job is to plow through the long queues of business requests. They’re each currently processing hundreds of such requests a day.  On the list are a huge number of mobile businesses that want to verify their listings – a process by which Foursquare confirms a person owns (or represents the owner of) a food cart, cafe, corporate office, or any other business. Verification is a prerequisite for offering specials – like, for instance, a free Italian sausage with onions and peppers on your fourth check-in.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers has become the first major national restaurant chain to launch a checkin special on Foursquare. Any Foursquare user who shows their server they’ve checked in will receive either a Big Melt Bacon Burger or a Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich for $6.99.

Bing joined CNN in sponsoring a badge for this year’s World Cup. Users are able to unlock the badge by checking in at world cup viewing locations in select U.S. cities like New York, Atlanta, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Seattle.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) has launched a partnership with Foursquare to encourage visitors to check in when they visit the museum. Foursquare users who check in twice will earn the Met Lover badge.

Six Flags amusement parks have announced a partnership with Foursquare to offer a new badge and other incentives to guests who check in through Foursquare. The Funatic badge can be unlocked by checking in 10 times at the same Six Flags park this summer.

Foursquare Benefits?

6 reasons to care about Foursquare as a business

1) Customer insight and word of mouth – You can gain invaluable insight into the behavior patterns of your customers. You can analyze visit trends as well as gain insight into their views of your brand.

2) Customer service – With the ability to get near real time feedback as users interact you can gauge the sentiment of your users.

3) Customer retention/ Loyalty Program – Forget about punch cards, track loyalty via check-in’s and reward those who frequent establishments with special offers and recognition.

4) Viral Effect – With the auto post of updates to Twitter & Facebook with badge unlocks and options to post your check-in’s the viral impact of check-in’s is amplified with this service moreso than other geo-services to date.

5) Big Brands are taking note – Starbucks & Dominos have already started campaigns with Foursquare and with various media partnerships this trend will quickly continue to rise.

6) Measurement – One of the powerful elements of the service is the analytics option that is currently being rolled out. As a business owner it is possible to track: Total checkins, unique visitors, when and if users shared their updates (twitter, facebook) as well as analysis of demographic breakdown and ability to track usage over time .

4 reasons to care about Foursquare as a consumer

• Technology powered digital memory jogger:  We are all prone to memory lapses. How nice to have a record of your travels on your phone. No need to remember the address; the geo location service automatically populates. If you use the comment section to record a note about something you especially enjoyed or despised — a bottle of wine, a helpful sales clerk, etc.

• Tips from known reviewers: I know the people who have left tips at places I check in to.

• Real-time ability to connect in real life with friends and colleagues: Each of these services offers the ability to see what’s trending at any given moment near your location — as well as where your friends and colleagues have checked in (if they enabled sharing).

• Onsite retail rewards: delight factor of receiving an on-site reward or discount for checking into a location.

 Outsell, which provides research and advisory services to the publishing and information industries, surveyed more than 1,000 US advertisers in December 2009 for its annual “Marketing and Advertising Study 2010.”

• Companies will spend 119.6 billion dollars on online and digital strategies and 111.5 billion dollars on newspaper and magazine advertisements and other print campaigns
• US spending on advertising and marketing projected to increase by 1.2 percent in 2010 to 368 billion dollars
• Spending on newspaper advertising expected to drop 8.2 percent to 27 billion dollars
• Print media, on the whole, continued to lag the overall ad market. Consumer Magazine spending fell 3.9% from a year ago while Local Newspapers dropped 5.6%. There was improvement in some narrow segments as Sunday Magazine expenditures jumped 13.7% and National Newspapers increased 9.1%, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal.
• Spending on print directories would fall 8.3 percent to 11.6 billion dollars
• Spending on print newsletters would be flat at 11.4 billion dollars
• Spending on direct mail marketing campaigns could rise 2.7 percent to 24.4 billion dollars and spending on custom print publications would be 3.0 percent higher at 19.3 billion dollars
• Spending on television advertising was forecast to drop 6.5 percent to 59.6 billion dollars
  • In Q1 2010, Spot TV surged 22.0% on a torrent of additional money from the automotive, retail, financial service and political categories. Despite this growth, current spending volume in Spot TV has only recovered to a level last seen in 1997.
  • Other television media types also performed strongly in Q1 2010. Network TV expenditures finished the period up 11.6%. Cable TV (+8.2%), and Spanish Language TV (+7.2%) each benefitted from selling more ad time and strengthened demand among across a broad range of package goods and retail advertisers.

• National Spot Radio advanced 19.0% and was paced by higher spending from the telecom, financial service and auto categories. Local Radio and Network Radio were also up.
• Methods generating the highest B2B ROI are topped by advertisers’ own websites, followed by conferences, exhibitions and trade shows; direct mail; search engine keywords; and e-marketing/e-newsletters.
• B2B advertisers see cross-media marketing as most effective; 78% combine three or more major marketing methods.
• 51 percent of B2B marketers rate Facebook as extremely or somewhat effective, followed by LinkedIn (45 percent), Twitter (35 percent) and MySpace (25 percent).

The troubled cashback program began in May 2008, during the MSN Live days, when Microsoft was hoping that cashback incentives would help lure more people to its search engine. The Cashback program was a way for advertisers to bid for search advertisements by offering online shoppers rebates whenever they found items through the Bing search engine.

Bing remains a distant third (same as in 2008) in the search engine race and according to Microsoft, Cashback didn’t move the needle enough to be worth the cost. “After a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for,” Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president at Microsoft, said in the blog. “We are taking all the learning from the effort and putting it into some new programs.”

Cashback was launched on the basic premise that monetary rewards is the primary driver of activity and could give Mirosoft an edge over rival Google  — but it turned out that, in everyday practice, it just wasn’t the case.

Did you know that the last time Microsoft’s online division actually made money was 2005? And even then it wasn’t much. And the situation has gone from bad to worse. In late April Microsoft revealed that its Online Services Division lost $711 million in the first three months of this year alone. That’s a $2.8 billion loss annual run rate!  And according to this, since 1998, Microsoft’s online division has lost over $8 billion.  Yikes!

Microsoft has never gotten much traction in the online game. It’s still a behemoth in the tech/software world, but not nearly as powerful as it once was (Apple recently surpassed it in market cap) and it is losing marketshare. According to some estimates, its share by 2011 will dwindle to nearly half of what it was in 2000. Interesting stats from Silicon Alley Insider on Microsoft’s crumbling empire.

The game today has changed for everyone…and will continue to change at an increasing rapid pace. No one can move forward by resting on past successes, that’s like trying to drive by looking in the rear view mirror. It doesn’t matter how powerful you were or are, tomorrow you could find yourself an also ran if you’re not willing to take an objective look at yourself and then take the risks to completely reinvent yourself in a way that is relevant to your customers.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission has approved an Area Code Overlay for a 531 area code to share the same geographic region as the existing 402 area code. The change will affect landline and cell phone users.  Basically, people will find they need to dial 10-digits to make a local call.  Local and long-distance calling rates won’t be impacted.  This will apply to new numbers only and existing telephone numbers will not change.

The strong demand for telephone numbers is a positive sign of action and activity in eastern Nebraska.  People should adjust easily to 10-didgit dialing and a new area code.  But don’t tell that to Carrie and Elaine.  On Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was distraught after receiving a new cell phone with the area code 347. “Oh no,” she says. “I’m a 917 girl. Always have been.”

And on the hit TV show Seinfeld, Elaine loath to forfeit her “cool” New York City area code of 212. Sure enough, a potential beau rejected her when he learned her area code was the then-new 646.  Elaine was devastated.

So when will the change begin?

Beginning June 26, 2010, all customers with a 402 area code should begin dialing the area code for ALL calls (there will be a grace period).

Beginning February 26, 2011, all customers with a 402 area code MUST use the new dialing procedure for ALL calls.  On or after this date, if you do not use the new dialing procedure, your call will not be completed.

Beginning March 26, 2011, new telephone lines or services may be assigned numbers with the 531 area code.  All customers with a 531 area code must dial the area code + seven-digit number on all calls or the call will not be completed.

What will you need to do to prepare for the overlay?

• Update any preprogrammed seven-digit numbers in your cell phone to include the area code, as well as any text or email alert messages
• Reprogram all services, automatic dialing equipment or other types of equipment that are programmed to dial a seven-digit number to include the area code.  Some examples are life safety systems, fire or burglar alarm & security systems, security gates, speed dials, call forwarding, fax machines, internet dial-up numbers, etc…
• Check your website and marketing materials. Business stationery, advertising materials, contact information, etc..
  • Collateral Materials & Brochures
  • Exterior & Interior Signage
  • Directory Listings
  • Print ads
  • Television ads
  • Radio ads
  • Online ads
  • Outdoor ads

Which is fine since I’m quite certain I’m not in the target demo. So it’s all good. They’ll attract the younger bloodthirsty crowd and keep away those of us who would recoil in horror and bolt out of the theater. Right?

Actually, what I’ve read about Splice tells me that I might be jumping the gun. Were I to dismiss my instincts and brave the theater on Friday, and assuming that I could make it past all of the gratuitous scare tactics, I might find a heartwarming albeit bizarre tale. I’m still not convinced it would be worth it.

As I read on it became clear that reviewers are wondering if the bloodthirsty aspects are enough for the ghoulish youthful demographics. Is the time right for the “softer side of horror” or are men 18-24 in for a real letdown? Are they attempting to broaden their core audience – is that why so many of the promos are reaching me? This is indeed a mystery.

Has Dark Castle plowed enormous resources into a movie that – like their part human part alien creature in Splice – is only part horror and part poignant drama with a dash of dark comedy for luck? Will it prove to be the next breakthrough genre? Sounds risky. And expensive if they’ve missed the mark.

I don’t know about you but I’m on the edge of my seat – and that’s without any plans for a trip to the movie theater.

We also need to look at the rapid growth and adoption of Internet technologies in our every day lives. While a few years ago it could have been considered a trendy and youthful medium that is no longer the case. Most Americans are connected and use the web on a daily basis for communication, research and purchasing. If everyone were as ignorant as some like to portray this would not be the case.

Lets give our users a little more credit. After all, 74% of the U.S. population currently has Internet and uses it regularly. Instead of dropping our efforts to the lowest common denominator let’s help move everyone forward and create solutions that not only work today but also help drive business into the future.

But now that is a thing of the past.  Nowadays all kids have to do is fire up their computers or smart phones and go on Twitter.  Justin Bieber (a.k.a the Kirk Cameron of his generation) is literally surrounded by over 2 million girls following him on Twitter. For someone to be that close to their celebrity crush is amazing to me.  Girls who never in their life thought that they would get to talk to their celebrity crush now can.  If the celeb chooses to write back this is certainly something that she will remember for the rest of her life.  Just the gravity of it all is really astonishing!

Also, from a celebs perspective this method has got to be easier than trying to answer thousands of fan letters a week. And if you are Justin Bieber you have 2 million girls at your disposal.  Two million girls!  I can’t imagine anything better to a 16 year old boy. 

If I had this technology back in my day I can only imagine how it would have played out.  Instead of playing Girl Talk with my girlfriends we would each be glued to our smart phones desperately trying to seek out every word, every photo, and every moment that Kirk chose to share with us. Instead of ripping out Kirk’s centerfold in Tiger Beat we would simply download his picture & print it out or share it with everyone socially. 

Granted even though access to celebrities is much more attainable now in the online world, a little part of me feels sad that now it’s all so easy.  Where is the fun and adventure in that?  I must have drafted over 20 letters to Kirk before I composed “the one” that was going to make him have to meet me.  I waited anxiously for months checking the mailbox for a return letter from him.  I bought all of his magazines, t-shirts, stickers, posters and watched every episode of Growing Pains religiously.  I was devoted.

Now I know what you all must be thinking, did she get the damn letter from Kirk Cameron?  Unfortunately I did not but I did receive a letter and photo from Mackenzie Aston. During the entire time I was writing to Kirk I was also writing to Mackenzie.  I know how could I betray Kirk like that?  Well it was something that just happened (isn’t that what all people say).  Kirk wasn’t giving me the attention that I needed so I ran into the arms (a.k.a. fan club) of Mackenzie. 

I’m sorry you had to hear it this way Kirk.

Every now and then something catches my attention and makes me take a second look. The other day I was walking through Target and the packaging design for a product hit me between the eyes like a 2×4. My first thought was, “What the heck was that? I need some of those!”. Upon further investigation I realized that this sweet design of dark mystery wasn’t that of the latest caffeine infused gum or Gatorade sports powder. No, this was the packaging for Kotex feminine hygiene products. While I may not personally be in the market for Tampons or Pads, I was almost tempted to buy a box because they were just plain cool. Then I thought about how many hours of SportsCenter and Boxing I would need to watch in order to regain my guy points lost during the purchase and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.

For those people who don’t believe in the power of design take note. If great package design can tempt a man to buy Tampons maybe us guys can effectively use design to get our women to buy that HDTV, Laptop or Cable sports package we have been wanting.

Google has partnered with Intel and Sony to create Google TV, an ambitious attempt to mold its Android software into TVs, Blu-ray players, and a Google set-top box called Buddy Box.

Google TV will be delivered on set-top boxes that use Intel Atom chips and run an Android-based platform, though the technology will also reportedly be built directly into Blu-ray players and TVs from Sony. Additionally, Google is working with Logitech to build a keyboard-equipped remote control.  This would be your remote for everything from what I understand.    

Google TV combines two proven ingredients from Google: Android and its Chrome Web browser. It replaces your TV or cable/satellite tuner’s program guide with a simpler version that indexes both what’s in your 100 or 200 or 300 channels and what’s on the Web. It emphasizes search instead of browsing.  Popular sites like Hulu don’t have to enable content locking out Google TV users.  Boxee (partner & provider of Apple TV) had this happen to them last year. 

Google TV offers:

• Search: It’s built into the TV experience. Search for “Survivor” and get a list of results that include live TV (select to watch now), episodes airing later (select to record to DVR) and web content related to it.
• Integration with Android phones: Over WiFi, an Android phone can become a remote and you can even go so far as to use voice search, too.
• Partners: Sony, Intel, Dish Network, Logitech, Adobe and Best Buy. Power names for a power launch, expected this fall.

Of course in true Google style they want to be able to gather information about you.  They want to learn about your TV viewing habits and sell ads around that behavior. You don’t have to like it but you also don’t have to use it.  As a marketing professional and consumer I really don’t mind this tactic.  If ads come to me that are catered to my lifestyle and behaviors fantastic. Also, if I can play a small part in stopping overactive bladder or erectile dysfunction ads from coming into my house on a regular basis then I say go for it.     

Many Questions are still left Unanswered

Set-top boxes that play video games, let you watch videos, view photo slideshows, and listen to music are great ideas, but what about the rest of the Web? The fact is that Web content is text heavy with a large number of blogs, news sites, and social networks that people visit on a daily basis.  But you tend to sit quite a few feet back from the television in your living room, which makes it harder and less comfortable to read text. So how probable is it that you’ll want to use your television for Twitter, Facebook or Instant Messenger chats?  I would have to say no in my case as I have a difficult time reading text on my laptop unless it’s magnified to 100%.  But I’m no spring chicken anymore either. 

There are also many questions as to how Google will incorporate advertising into its TV platform.  Will ads on Google TV devices be delivered through websites & traditional TV programming or will they be delivered through another alternative like Android apps?  This could really shake things up for marketers if this takes off.  The New York Times reports that Google’s biggest motivation for developing Google TV is to “ensure that its…search and advertising systems, play a central role.” I agree.  They would be foolish not to. I have no doubt that Google ads will be pushed into the Google TV platform somehow.  It’s just a matter of when and how. 

eMarketer estimates that digital video ad spending will jump 48% this year to $1.5 billion. Though, with lower-quality online video playing on high-definition screens, that audience for web video probably has a ceiling.

There is no doubt that this will have a major impact on how we plan & buy media and create ads for our clients.  Not only will we be creating online ads for computers but these will now also need to be created (sized & reformatted) for digital TV screens as well.   But will it be as simple as reformatting an online ad for TV?  Probably not if you think about the creative messaging implications. 

Will consumers now be able to essentially click on a Google TV ad to get more info or even buy a product?  Will this translate the same as web or will there be a clear distinction between the two?  I don’t think anyone knows yet.   

This is truly an awesome technological advancement to see and only time will tell if Google can really make it happen.    

To help understand the true impact check out this video on Google TV.   http://mashable.com/2010/05/20/google-tv-3/

Scott’s story is inspiring. Resemblances of the turned-my-life-around story we’ve heard before aside, what he’s done is identify one of life’s core requirements and done something about it in a meaningful way. People need clean water to live. To operate on a daily basis. To do anything more than just barely get by. That’s why the story hits us so hard – we take so many basic things about life for granted because it’s part of our society. Turn on the tap, hit the water fountain outside the restroom, fill your cup at the quickie mart. We have water everywhere.

Besides the story and the inspiration of actually making a difference in the world, there’s something else that struck me about Scott’s presentation. To help promote the effort and get more participation from the public, he eliminated the barriers often cited by the masses as reasons NOT to donate to charity. He has ensured that 100% of the public’s donations go to the direct charity efforts. All of it. Every penny. So if I give $20, all of it goes to the $5,000 total needed to build a well that can deliver fresh, clean water to 250+ people.

He then puts it into clear perspective that nobody can argue with. The slide he shows of a New York City (and many other places) $16 martini next to a $16 bag of rice that can feed a whole lot of people is about as simple and direct as you can get. How easy would it be for any of us to give up ONE drink out per week and donate it to a deserving charity? The answer is VERY easy. Incredibly.

So it’s easy and you’re assured that every dollar you donate goes to actually making a difference in people’s lives. Other organizations provide funding for the organizations operational costs and fees. Even credit card processing fees are fully reimbursed by the organizational funding so that every dollar the public gives is solely dedicated to the cause at hand.

Then they push it even further. They post photos and video of the projects on their website. They add well locations to a world map that’s accessible online. You can see exactly where the money is going and the people and places that are being helped. Every detail of what you’re contributing to is right there for you to see.

A message like this was a lot harder to get across before the Internet and websites were around. Now, with what is now simple technology, we’re almost right there in the village where people are being helped. We can see and know that our money can help real people.

They’ve broken down the barriers to giving, and broken down the barriers to saying, “No” to giving.

So that could be why Charity: water is now a cause I have donated to. And I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t donated to nearly enough causes. Ya gotta start somewhere, though – right?

I encourage you to do the same »

I was listening to a local station detailing their upcoming concerts and accompanying paraphernalia.  They urged their listening audience to watch for the mass quantities of merchandise bearing the Rolling Stones lips and tongue logo.  My first thought was “how will we be able to tell it from the Dairy Queen lips?”  And suddenly it all became clear.  Dairy Queen’s lips are startling reminders of the provocative lips and tongue logo designating the Rolling Stones.

Is this a coincidence?  Good question.  It starts to become suspect when you consider the fact that the Dairy Queen target audience consists of the parents of today, who are the later baby boomers and the gen Xer’s, along with all of their children.  The same folks who were – and still are – the avid admirers of the Stones and everything that they represented.  It came as quite a jolt.  And mostly because I had to ask myself “has the big adventure for the “Stones era” parent ceased to be the wild and reckless bashes of their youth and instead evolved into a family outing to fill their burgeoning bellies with the new big excitement in their lives – ice cream?”  Oh that would be sad.

How Does Retargeting Work?

Retargeting works by anonymously observing consumers’ behaviors while they are visiting your website. Targeted messages are delivered to those consumers after they leave– based on whether or not they completed a desired action. While behavioral marketing in general uses online actions to identify, reach and convert good prospects, retargeting focuses on consumers who have actually been to your site.

Here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say you’re the new Cowboys Stadium with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as they subsequently browse sites in the Google content network (or whichever network you are running on).

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You can also run a number of retargeting campaigns at the same time. For example, you could offer discount game tickets to users who’ve previously visited your tickets page, advertise VIP hospitality packages to users who clicked on your “Hospitality Suites” page, and advertise a sale on team merchandise to users who previously visited your online store.

It doesn’t matter where the traffic is coming from to your site (print ads, TV, radio, online) as long as the traffic volume is there.  Retargeting is a great way for businesses to reach users who are likely to be highly receptive to their ads and special offers. It helps advertisers and websites get higher returns.

Retargeting can effectively optimize value across all your marketing efforts. The TV spot or online ad running for your business leading consumers to your website was not cheap, and retargeting helps ensure those dollars turn into revenue.

You can also use Search Retargeting for display advertising.  Yahoo!’s Search Retargeting, for example, is a customized display targeting solution that lets advertisers capture user interest from search terms and retarget the user with display ads throughout the Yahoo! Network. For example, if a user searches for the keyword “sandals,” indicating strong purchase intent, an advertiser can target that user with a tailored display ad for footwear.

Remember to retarget your past website visitors even if they have already made a purchase with you.  Don’t be shy to keep in contact with them.  The trust is already there, they are familiar with your brand and service, and more than likely they have an interest in another one of your products…….Up-Sell and Cross-Sell!

Purchasing of retargeting ads is made on a cost-per-click (CPC) or dynamic cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis and requires that a website have at least 500 visitors per month to be eligible for retargeting.  You can also specify how long a person remains on your retargeting list.  You may only want someone to be on the list for a period of 10-days to ensure they are not overexposed to your message.  Frequency capping can be implemented, such as only serving an advertiser’s retargeted ad to the same user once within a 24-hour period.

 Possible downsides of retargeting 

• Not everyone visits the websites that are on the Yahoo & Google content network.
  • Even though the Google content network reaches over 80% of internet users there is a chance that consumer X may travel to a site not in the network after he visits your site.
    • The Google content network reaches 80% of global internet users — making it the world’s #1 ad network.  
• The CTR will more than likely be lower than what we usually see on display & PPC campaigns
  • This is due to a higher number of overall impressions being served while clicks may be lower
  • Very similar to the Facebook model.  Facebook advertising is great because you have the ability to run thousands of impressions for very little money.  The downside is that your overall CTR will more than likely be very low. 

 Upside of retargeting 

• Advertisers have the opportunity, for very little money, to retarget consumers who we know have visited the website for one reason or another.
  • These are your most valuable prospects – they have already shown interest in your offerings just by visiting the site
• This allows your company to continue to grow their customer relationships
  • Continue the conversation. Deliver product ads. Build your brand. Give your customers what they are looking for – and forge a relationship with your online visitors.
• You can retarget anything that you want.  You can create one script code and put it on multiple pages (or top 3 trafficked pages) to build your retargeting bucket.   This allows your retargeting audience size to grow.  

She’s had a rough go of it lately. For a few decades, she worked really hard to become the best in her chosen career. She earned a few advanced degrees. She garnered professional accolades. And that’s when it hit her: she was in the wrong job all along. Many people her age are retiring to white sand and accepting applications for cabana boys. She’s starting over at the bottom. It’s not easy.

Yesterday, all she needed to hear was a simple message: Happy Mother’s Day. She didn’t need the brunch. She wasn’t pissed that the florist didn’t deliver on Sunday. Or that I’d forgotten to call the florist in the first place.

Happy Mother’s Day. That was it. I was reminded of other monumental conversations between the two of us. All of them revolved around simple, sincere messages.

The night that I brought home my first daughter from the hospital, I called to tell her I was sorry. I was sorry that there was a time I’d caused her to worry and taken advantage of her goodwill and occasionally exploited her love and generosity. In other words, I called to apologize that I’d been a teenager.

More recently, she went to great lengths to ensure that my kids were as comfortable and stable as possible during an extremely difficult part of their lives. All I could do was call and give her my heartfelt thanks.

Then there are the times that I simply call to see how she is and tell her I love her.

Since good relationships are based on good messaging and good relationships are the foundation of good business, it made me think about good business messaging.

We put a lot of emphasis on creativity in marketing and advertising. Rightfully so. A lot of the time, the only thing that makes someone pay attention to our messaging is the Big Idea. Have a better-than-average cell phone? You need the Big Idea to get that better-ness across. Want to sell more body wash or feminine hygiene products? Find the Big Idea that separates you from the competition.

Most of our messages are based on better, different, more creative executions. We fervently pursue them. And we should continue. Because 99% of the time that’s what works. But don’t forget the other 1%.

Thank you. I’m sorry. Happy day. You’re special. These messages don’t require hoopla or creativity or a Big Idea. They’re simple messages that simply require your sincerity. But they are the most powerful messages you can send. And they may only be 1% of your messaging, but the relationships they forge or maintain could make up 99% of your business.

That’s something to think about it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a phone call to make. I hope FTD has a nice Sorry-I-Forgot-to-Send-You-a-Mother’s-Day-Bouquet bouquet.

What the majority of online ad networks do is sell remnant inventory (which they have purchased from other publishers) at a lower CPM.  Typically this will get you exactly what you pay for.  Quite often you will not know exactly where you are running or worse yet you could be running next to questionable content on the web.  This lack of transparency and control can kill your brand. 

Many publishers like Disney have also said enough is enough and will not sell unsold (remnant) inventory to ad networks anymore.  Publishers like Disney would much rather the inventory be used for co-branded initiatives than sold to ad networks resulting in lost revenue for Disney.

Years ago many of us (myself included) jumped on the ad network bandwagon partly due to its appealing price tag for our clients.  Now it seems like online ad network companies are multiplying and coming out stronger than ever for business.  I probably get at least two phone calls a day from a “new” online ad network wanting to pitch me their business.

It seems to me like more advertisers and publishers are rediscovering the value of associating products and brands with high-quality premium content over ad networks.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a great deal just as much as the next person but it’s important to remember you get what you pay for.

We’re no longer in a world where the press release is the way to get trending stories. Today, the blogosphere and social networks are where the news is being made and broadcast. Bloggers and social media participants and their followers are criticizing and praising the brands and companies that they like. Since this is where the readers are, you must not be surprised that this also is where the reporters are.

Since 2004, the blogosphere has rapidly grown and whether you as PR professionals or marketers like it, it is providing a place for news, opinion and reviews that have not been “spun” by a PR professional. The most powerful and successful bloggers can clearly and articulately discuss their opinions on a product, service or company with credibility. They’re often well-known in their industry or seen as an influential person whose opinion matters.

As a writer, when I’m looking for a story idea, it is not uncommon to search online to find trending story ideas and potential sources from these credible bloggers. I can find ideas, sources and potential facts and figures (that, of course, need to be verified) easily all over social networks. I search for trusted bloggers, Tweeters and websites whose information I know is credible.

What this means for the PR and marketing professionals of the world is that you can no longer bank on the standard press release. Yes, press releases have historically been the PR tool of choice. And, in some cases, they are still practical, but only if the content is timely, relevant, news worthy and has lots of potential interview sources quoted and opportunities for video, photo and audio. And, ultimately, if the topic is of interest to the reporter’s beat, column, current issue, episode, show or publication.

You should instead be focusing your efforts on generating relevant and timely content in a variety of mediums including on corporate blogs and social media accounts in all formats: print, video, photo and audio. Find stories within your organization that bloggers and reporters and editors alike can grab onto. Provide sources and quotes. Be visual.

Besides feeling a little genuine excitement about this store coming to town myself, the thing on my mind is how Trader Joe’s, which at its essence is a small grocery store, has such fans that are busy telling everyone they know about a future store coming to their neck of the woods.

I’ve been a fan for years, and a good friend of mine actually finds out today if he gets promoted to top dog at one of the stores in Tucson. I like them because they sell food I enjoy at a great price. And having worked in the grocery industry for nearly 10 years I appreciate how they do business. They just do things right. They also are a great place to work as well as shop. They sell a limited number of products in a small, efficient store and they focus on natural/organic items. The majority of their sales come from their own store brand.  They have a very defined operation, very minimal labor (for the grocery industry) and very dedicated customers. People are known to drive many miles for a trip to the store.

Where does the average business fit into the fan versus customer spectrum? When your customer leaves your store/office/location are they telling others about you or is it just another transaction?

Trader Joe’s is being welcomed into a community and there have been Facebook groups requesting that they come here for over a year now. How many other food retailers enjoy that market position?

Now that we’re all excited, let’s see how it all shakes out. And how soon we start calling for additional locations to spend our money.

Yes, both Dawn and Tide have campaigns touting their endeavors to aid the world in times of catastrophe. Dawn is cleaning the furry and feathery little victims of oil spills and Tide is enabling disaster victims to clean their clothing. Both very noble enterprises.

I just melt when I see those adorable little creatures being bathed to remove the viscous oil that coats them. My heart breaks as I listen to the sweet music that accompanies the ritual washing. It’s just perfect – too perfect maybe. As the spot concludes I’ve generally reached the point where I’m wondering if this “bath scene” has been staged and if these poor little darlings have been doused with heavy oil so that Dawn can stake its claim to heroism. It doesn’t leave me with a warm feeling.

Tide, on the other hand, looks real. And they appear to let real people do the talking. These people manage to convey the true bliss of clean clothing when you’ve got nothing. And they give you a warm and fuzzy feeling toward Tide even though the spot is anything but perfect looking.

After viewing both spots on numerous occasions I’ve reached the conclusion that cleaning up after catastrophe isn’t neat and tidy. If you make it look too perfect to be real it tests my sense of credulity. And you never want to do that.

Everyone is buzzing about Lane Bryant’s “too sexy for TV” ad.  Lane Bryant said ABC refused to show the commercial during “Dancing with the Stars” because it bared too much cleavage.  The Fox Network also put up a roadblock and demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of “American Idol”.

So I don’t get it with this Lane Bryant ad.  I’ve seen the ad and nothing sticks out to me (pun intended).  If you ask me there is worse programming and commercials out there than a “full-figured” woman wearing a bra and panties.  ABC (Disney Company) airs Cougar Town – which had a memorable scene that implied Courtney Cox’s character administering oral sex to her date.  And Fox airs Glee (which is usually good clean fun) – which glamorized teenagers losing their virginities to Madonna’s Like a Virgin this week.   

I mean where do you draw the line?  In the 1950s, TV couldn’t show married couples sleeping in the same bed. In the ’60s, exposing the bellybutton of I Dream of Jeannie’s Barbara Eden was risqué.  Braless jiggles on Charlie’s Angels were considered daring in the ’70s. But by the ’90s, the expanse of adult-themed content on premium channels such as HBO and sex-infused music videos on MTV made baring the derriere of a hefty NYPD Blue cop acceptable to the masses on ABC.

Granted most of these commercials and TV shows nowadays are meant to be extreme to start buzz about their products.  It’s all part of the show.  In today’s economy with budgets shrinking, advertisers often feel forced to come up with buzz-worthy campaigns to survive.  Whether or not the Lane Bryant incident is 100% true I don’t know.  But I would really hate to think that ABC & FOX wouldn’t air this spot because a “full-figured” model was used over a “skinny” model.

OK OK I get that this is all about the humor. And no one loves humor more than I. But very honestly, I want to feel a little brand pride in what I own – especially if it cost a bundle. And honestly, I’m starting to feel as though I’ll have to hide my Sienna so no one knows it’s mine.

When the ads run my first reaction is to laugh at these foolish people but my next thought is “Oh %#&*@@, am I one of them?”

After I scare the bejesus out of people with what it takes to become a copywriter or art director, I usually give them a recommended reading list. I did this for the hopeful copywriter last week. The process for detailing that list is always the same.

1. I dig through my old emails looking for the last reading list email I wrote.
2. I don’t find it.
3. I curse myself for being over-organized and delete-happy when it comes to email. (Thanks, Inbox Zero.)
4. I write another email.

Not anymore.

Now I’ll just send them this link. This is the actual email I sent (with a few four-letter edits) that covers the basics of what all aspiring agency creatives need to read for the  knowledge these books hold, as well as the interview fodder they provide.

Dear (Young/Career-Changing) (Copywriter/Art Director) & Current (Student/Barista/Truck Driver),

Sorry it took me so long to get this to you. It’s been a heckuva (week/month/decade). This is by no means a complete reading list, but it’s a really good start.

The most comprehensive look at the industry and how to put a portfolio together is Luke Sullivan’s book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. It’s pretty much the best book out there. I only have the first edition, so I don’t know if his later editions get into digital/interactive media (the first edition doesn’t). But it should be pretty easy to interpret his general philosophies and how they’d play in the brave new world of 1s and 0s. If you buy nothing else, buy this one.

You’ll hear a lot about two pioneers of this industry: David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach. For the most part, [expletive deleted] Ogilvy. (Only my opinion, and it’s pretty much heresy. But whatever.) You should probably read his book just so you can say you read it. Better than Ogilvy by far is Bill Bernbach. There’s a book on his campaigns that will set you back about as much as a Ferrari F50. Luckily, his old agency (DDB) is very proud of him and supplies a free downloadable PDF of his most famous quotes. He was a genius and his work still beats 99% of the stuff that’s out there.

Then there’s Howard Gossage. He’s my advertising hero. Half of the “revolutionary” stuff that’s out there today is a direct result of Gossage, even if the people who created the work have never heard of him. And a lot of people haven’t. For a large part, he’s an underground, cult figure to this day. The Book of Gossage is never cheap. It was out of print for years, and it looks like it might have gone out of print again (if I were to guess by the price). But it’s the Master’s Degree to Luke Sullivan’s Bachelors. If I’m remembered for anything in this industry, it’ll probably be for spreading the word on Howard. Call me Johnny Gossageseed.

Lastly, there’s How to Succeed in Advertising When All You Have is Talent. Honestly, I’ve never read it. I was too busy working and stumbling into success to ever get around to it. But a lot of people I trust and admire say it’s a great book. I’d definitely go for a used copy. Looks like it’s out of print.

Those are the How-Tos. To figure out things on your own once you have a foundation, start shopping around eBay or other places for three books published annually that showcase any particular year’s greatest work. First, there’s The One Show. Then there’s D+AD. Finally, there’s Communication Arts Advertising Annual, which is one issue out of eight that the publisher puts out annually. Good mag in general. The Ad Annual is usually pretty great (as are the Design and Interactive annuals). You should be able to find back copies on eBay, or maybe even on their site.

I hope some of this helps. I know it will help me the next time someone calls who’s “always been creative” and wants to get out of emu farming/taxi driving/hamburger flipping and into what they will unfortunately and inevitably refer to as “The Biz.” (Please don’t do this. There is only one Biz.)

That’s right. No billboards. No print. No TV. No radio. They used their website, their team of product evangelists, Twitter, Facebook, and plenty of other social media outlets. It also surely helps that, well… they’re Adobe. Not quite Apple in the buzz department, but they are up there. Knowing that they have made the decision to go all-digital in their software marketing and promotions is indeed interesting. Perhaps a good indicator of where things are headed? I think so.

Here’s another interesting tidbit: They did this with CS4 as well. So the last two releases of their flagship software suite have been all-digital campaigns. And they have been very successful.

The newsworthiness of this is that Adobe is a big company. They could spend the money on a fully integrated campaign to promote their newest software launch if they wanted to. Instead, they go digital. They’re likely focusing on hitting their core customer in the most direct and efficient manner possible. The designer, publisher, programmer, editor, and general creative user base that buys their product and uses it every day. Heck – I just cropped the above image out of a screenshot using Photoshop. It’s my go-to tool for image editing. So why try to hit up creatives on any other channel?

How soon will other companies fully embrace this strategy? How many have the guts to make the jump to all-digital marketing? More and more businesses are moving budgets to digital methods over traditional methods every day. The ability to target and track your core customers and measure your ROI makes it an increasingly smart move.

Is Adobe risking anything by going all-digital, or are they just showing us what the future is going to be like?

This week the company announced exclusively through Mashable, the 12 finalists for the competition. They are now asking customers to vote on the new creations in order to determine the champion and therefore the latest delicious product in the Dunkin arsenal.

The number of entries into the contest is truly amazing. Along with the company’s  decision to announce the finalists using a Social Media News website, it shows their understanding of the new media and it’s power to relay brand and promotional messages.

Among other findings, the firm found that 44.3% have a household income level of $100,000 or more and 58% have bachelor’s or graduate or other professional degrees. More than two-thirds (65.5%) are male, and 34.5% are female.

In terms of age, people 35 to 44 made up the biggest single segment of iPad owners. Those 25 to 34, 45 to 54, and 55 and over each represented about 20% of the iPad user base. The college-age crowd was 7.5%, and teens were just 3.5%. Like iPhone owners, iPad users skew older, male and more affluent than the general population. As more iPads are sold, the typical user may come to reflect a broader cross-section of consumers.

While the iPad has been described as a big iPod, its minimum $500 price means that most kids will have to rely on a parent buying one to get their hands on the tablet. So the iPad will definitely skew older than the iPod touch audience.  At least for now.  I only personally know of one person who has purchased this new device and by all accounts the stats above are right on except she does not own an iPhone but has multiple iPods.

iPad Creative Implications for Advertisers

*This device was built on mobile functionality so think mobile.  Normal “Web” advertising standards may not apply.   

*Specific iPad creative units are required (can’t stretch units to fit larger screen)

*Your site’s landing page can not rely on any Web browser plug-ins like flash or Java to render content. 

*Marketers must use a specific video tag to ensure embedded video can be seen.

*The iPad can not currently support Flash

Apple has banned the use of any non-native tools to create iPhone and iPad apps, which would shut out Adobe’s cross-platform compiler that effectively ports Flash applications to the iPhone.  Apple’s stance on Flash not coming to the iPhone has been pretty clear over the last few years and is really heating up again with the release of the iPad.  Adobe is not happy about this as you can image and rumors of a potential lawsuit are flying. 

These implications listed above are only a few that advertisers will have to face in order to capture this iPad growing audience. 

It’s All About The Apps

There are currently over 3,500 iPad apps in the app store and over 3.5 million iPad apps have been downloaded to date.  Many iPhone apps are currently tweaking their apps for the iPad like Google. The big iPad optimization takes place with Web apps like Gmail, Google Reader, Maps, and Buzz.

The Facebook iPad app, from what I hear could really use some work.  Users claim it’s great for notifications but then you have to check your messages at your desktop or on your iPad browser.  You would think that Facebook with its massive reach (400 million+ users & 100 million+ US users) would build a more enhanced app for this new platform.  

In conclusion, Apple once again has quickly gained dominance over the rapidly evolving media landscape because they have developed a platform that represents a winning proposition for consumers, publishers and broadcasters and advertisers.

In fact this post is being written on my iPad. The only weird thing I’ve experienced thus far actually had nothing to do with the iPad, but rather an app. And it made me laugh after I figured out what they meant. After winning at spider solitaire I got this message.

I presume they meant booya. Just a little creative spelling from the developer. Then again, occasionally I’ve done a little creative spelling myself.

What I feel now is a sense of pride and gratification in being from Omaha. We’ve got a good thing going here. Some of the honorees tonight have had (or still do have) a direct impact on my everyday life. I’ve lived in Mr. Seldin’s properties and done work for his company. I’ve done work for Mr. Moglia’s company. I’ve eaten at Mr. Mercer’s restaurants and enjoyed his family’s legacy in Omaha as one of my favorite aspects of the city. I grew up in Mr. Benson’s neighborhood and gone to the schools there.

Every one of the honorees tonight was exceptionally deserving. They have had a definitive positive impact on what makes our City great.

Omaha may not be New York City or San Francisco. And that’s not something we should compare. It’s Omaha. And it’s a good place to be. I’m proud to be from here and to have what I feel is a personal connection to tonight’s honorees. Thank you for making Omaha a better place to be. All I can do is hope to make any sort of contribution that could leave the city a better place as well.

The reserved line at 9am was a bit longer than I anticipated given so many people dissing the iPad. But it was a decent day, no one in line complained, they brought around coffee and the folks at the Apple store had the system down.  The blue-shirted folks were everywhere. And several buyers cheered as they walked out of the store. And we all cheered with them. Everyone was in a good mood. Within a little more than an hour we were in and out with our new toys

Got mine home, synced it to my Macbook and in minutes I was off and running.

My husband didn’t get off so easy.

Our iMac at home is about 3 years old and had been having some problems, so he couldn’t get his iPad to sync. After an OS upgrade, another couple trips to the Apple store to get an external hard drive and take the iMac to the genius bar, he was set.  And shockingly he never complained about the multiple steps he had to take. Frankly the entire day left a good impression on him about Apple. I had told him there was no way he’d get into the genius bar today, but he did, they took care of it and he was a happy camper. Pretty impressive given the stress the staff was under today (apparently they all had to get there at 5am as the truck only delivered the iPads at 5:30 this morning.)

Just another example of how Apple gets it right and builds their tribe. Lots of happy fans playing with their shiny new toys today. I know I sat out on the deck and played with my iPad all day until the battery died.  And only then did I consider that perhaps I should actually do something useful…like laundry.  Instead, I wrote a blog post.  I’ll do laundry tomorrow.

This is a topic very much on my mind right now since I appear to have been afflicted with the “Welcome Spring I feel like Crap” influenza.  And every time I’m afflicted I go through the same buying cycle.  I run to the store and stock up on everything that promises to be “maximum strength”.  I get liquids and gel caps and powders to mix and none of it works.  I spend a small fortune and load my system up with toxins that may plague my internal systems for the rest of my life – and still no relief.

The odd thing is when asked about the efficacy of these products I can answer with certainty – they don’t work.  And yet, I run to them at the first sign of heavy-duty sniffles.

I think we do this because having a cold makes us feel as though some foreign influence has control over our bodies and we’re looking for a way to regain that control.  What better way of gaining control that to throw money at the problem.

Sometimes I make it to Day 3 of my cold valiantly fighting the urge to stock up on all of this worthless crap – but then I break – I can’t take it anymore – I need something!!!  And off to the pharmacy I run.

If I’ve learned one thing from this fruitless and expensive habit it’s this: I need to come up with a product that doesn’t cure an annoying problem for which a worthless product does not already exist.  Then you’ll all flock to the store to buy my product and make me rich.  Hmmm let’s see – I’m thinking I’ll manufacture a pill for those days when you feel unmotivated and vague.  If I start now I should have my house in Antigua by this time next year.  And you’ll still feel unmotivated and vague – but a little more in control!

Any time things become so hectic or routine that you’re not thinking about what you’re doing or not able to do it as well as you can, it’s time to take a break. Time to step back and get in touch with the things that really do matter in life. This applies to work, play, relationships, and just about anything else you really care about. Take a minute. Breathe deeply. Relax a bit and check in with where you’re at.

After having a 6 hour drive to kind of decompress, we arrived in downtown Minneapolis. We got a great deal on a room at the Graves 601 Hotel, which is smack-dab in the heart of the action. Target Center is right across the street, First Avenue is next door, and if you really lack something to do, Hooters and a Hard Rock Cafe are flanking the hotel as well.

Those attractions were not the enriching part of the trip, however. The real pleasure came in slowing down and doing things differently. Since we were so centrally located to the things we wanted to do, we were able to park the car and walk everywhere. Yeah – walk. I love walking places. It takes longer. You get to see things. You get to smell and hear things. I don’t think there’s a better way to get to know a place than to walk through it.

So from our home base we plotted out our course on Google Maps using our phones. The walking directions were right on and we determined that anything in a sub-two-mile radius was  easily what we would consider walking distance. Over the next two days, we enjoyed walking from place to place. Talking, taking time to pop in and see things we wanted to see. Watch and listen to people. Investigate interesting things. Look at art. Eat dinner for three hours. All the stuff that for one reason or another, we don’t take the time to do on a regular basis.

That’s what made the trip memorable. We didn’t pack in all the things we had said we wanted to do. Forget Ikea. Forget driving across town to get to that one store, restaurant or bar that people said was essential to visit. If we couldn’t walk it, we simply skipped it. What we got in return was two and a half days of time that seemed like four. The weekend didn’t fly by because every moment was packed with things we “had to” do, even if it sure wasn’t long enough.

When is the last time you removed things from your list or schedule in order to get LESS done, but to really focus on what it is you’re doing? Culturally, the United States doesn’t embrace that concept. But it’s something to seriously think about. Are you rushing to get one job done just so you can start the next? Do you have three jobs going on right now that all suck because you can’t do any of them as well as you’d like? How thin have you spread yourself and your commitments that you’ve set yourself up to always feel less than effective?

How willing are you to say no to things in order to be better at what you say yes to?

Try taking a break and slowing things down a bit. You may be amazed at how it can help you be better at what you’re doing and enjoy all of it a bit more.

Saarinen lounging in his Womb Chair

Saarinen's Womb Chair

I just recently read an article in TIME magazine about the resurgence of recent interest in Saarinen.

Hockey rink at Yale, fondly called "the whale."

Currently, Yale is restoring quite a number of the buildings he designed for their campuses in the 1950’s: the hockey rink and residential complexes. A traveling show of Saarinen’s work has also been traveling around the country since 2006 and will end on January 31, 2011 at the Museum of the City in NYC. It is the first full career retrospective devoted entirely to his work. (I plan on making this show sometime in the fall, and if so, expect another geeked out blog about how awesome and future thinking this designer/architect/artist truly was. And how he has made such an impression on the world of design to this day.)

What is very cool about Saarinen, is that he designed his chairs, buildings, and structures aesthetically for the future…so in a sense, he made his future is present. “The wow factor in his buildings was a matter of structure, not sparkle. Saarinen was enchanted by the drama of powerful forms.” (TIME, February 1, 2010 issue)

Where did this “drama” come from? Well, his mother was a sculptor and his father was a Finnish architect. In fact, Saarinen had studied sculpture before switching to architecture. So there you go. He had the sweet spot: intellect and taste/artistry combined.

TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport

From the curve of the Gateway Arch to the womb chair, to the wide wingspan of the expanding rooftop of the TWA terminal at JFK International, these are all evidence of his sculptural aesthetic. I have to compare the experience of walking through the tunnel at TWA to what I would imagine the birthing journey to be like moving through the fallopian tunnel…and if I am lucky, ending my journey in the Womb Chair!

Sometimes when interest or trends point to an artist from the past, people still consider their work “retro” or classic. Even though Eero Saarinen passed away in 1961, I could never really consider his work retro…but rather modern, relevant, and always pointing towards the future horizons. His designs are still opening doors in the creative mind as well as inspiring architecture and design of the days to come.

During my train of zombie thought I realized that in a way I have become a zombie myself. Not the brain eating, shuffling kind, but the brain-numb digital kind. I whole-heartedly admit that I surf the web almost continuously. Whether I am at work, on my laptop at home or my iPhone, I am hardly ever disconnected for more than 30 minutes at a time. As a person with an insatiable thirst for knowledge I am always reading. The problem is that I often find myself just looking at drivel.

I frequent numerous, news, industry and entertainment sites looking for content. However, when there is not a specific topic I am looking for I tend to digitally graze. This can bring about some interesting topics and tidbits of knowledge but more often than not I waste an hour or more of my life and truly get nothing out of it. Imagine reading a book while thinking about numerous tasks you need to accomplish at home and at work. You simply won’t retain any of the information you consume. While you may have a general emotional sensation regarding the contents of the book the actual meat will be left on the pages.

With the continued proliferation of new online content providers and aggregators and the new devices being sold to enhance our consumption of them, at what point do we just become brain-numb digital zombies? If we really aren’t paying attention while we surf, no ad or marketing message will get through to us. Have we already hit the apocalypse and just not noticed it?

Making its way to a vagina near you is the Mooncup.  “The Healthy Alternative to Tampons”.

This British product called Mooncup (currently being marketed) is a silicone menses receptacle designed to replace tampons and sanitary pads. Sort of a diaphragm meets chamber pot, it’s a flexible reservoir for menstrual fluids that you scrunch up to insert and slide out to empty.  http://loveyourvagina.com

Every woman will use an average of 12,000 sanitary products in her life, which can be replaced by one reusable Mooncup.  Well I can’t speak for all women but I must say that I would definitely have to pass on this product. 

Buying tampons every month doesn’t seem so bad now after seeing this Mooncup.  I am all for helping the environment but not at this cost.  I remember my Grandmother telling me stories about products like this back in the 30’s.  This product seems like we are going back in time not forward.  

Even though they may be able to capitalize on the environmentally-friendly woman, I still think this would be a very difficult product to market in this day and age.  It is a complete shift in mindset to go from a tampon user to a Mooncup user unless you have been brought up using something similar to this product from early womanhood. 

The Brits can keep this one.

The thing we really like about Google Analytics is that it’s free, it works extremely well, and it’s always improving. The amount of information you can get out of a simple-to-deploy tool like Google Analytics is amazing. It dramatically aids the analysis that helps us understand user behavior, marketing effectiveness and a tremendous number of other metrics. It’s also completely anonymous on an individual-person level. I simply can’t find out that Bob Smith from Toledo, OH visited my site on Thursday and has three kids. That is, unless Bob Smith actually gave me that information.

Google Analytics tracks things like behavior and resources accessed on a web site. We use both Google Analytics and another enterprise-level traffic reporting package for our hosted sites’ analytics. The package we use runs within our hosting environment and parses the actual server log files. It generates very similar information about visitors, search engines, popular times of day, navigation funnels, and all the other goodies we like to review. It is also anonymous.

The value of the information collected is in watching and learning about user behavior patterns. These patterns rely less on what Bob Smith did than on what 1,000 Bob Smiths did. Opting out of Google Analytics presents a challenge then. Bob Smith feels like he’s either “protected” more than before or he’s feeling good about sticking it to The Man by not letting Google or anyone else get his behavior info. But we’re no longer able to learn anything about Bob Smith’s behavior style and therefore can’t improve our sites and systems based on the collective insights we get from the now-anonymous Bob Smiths of the world. At least, we can’t do it through Google Analytics.

The thing is, we’re still getting that visitor’s behavior information. Via our other analytics software. Just like everyone else will be. If people are running any one of the multitude of log file parsing packages or other hosted analytics services, all of Bob Smith’s behavior patterns are still there. We know what links were clicked, the first and last page visited, and can estimate how long he was on each page. Nice things to know. It helps us make better user experiences and more effective websites. But we’re still not getting any more information about Bob Smith, on a personal level, than he gives us.

Will opting out of Google Analytics protect the average Internet user any more than before? No. It won’t.

So do you have a right to anonymity? If you’re visiting my website, on my server, accessing my files and using my resources, I would argue that I can collect information about your behavior. Most websites have a Terms of Use page and a Privacy Policy page. These pages typically explain what data gets collected and how it might be used. They are all basically the same, and they are all pretty much ignored by everyone except the legal department.

Now back to Google. Will this spell the end of Google Analytics’ reign as the go-to service for visitor behavior insights? I sure hope not. All we can do is see, and also watch to see if Google has anything up their sleeve that will tell us how many people visited the site with tracking disabled.

As a big fan of Google Analytics, I’m immediately thinking of what this might do to general usage statistics. Will we need to re-do all of the reporting and analysis for our clients where we integrate data from Google Analytics? Will we need to identify another tool to complement our own reporting software? I hope not – I’ve grown to like our setup. But we can definitely adapt if necessary.

We’ll be keeping tabs on developments here. I will wait and see what happens with the opt-out option. If it does become a browser plug-in it may see a lower adoption rate than if it were implemented in another fashion. Regardless, we will be watching to see if it impacts our own data analysis.

We take privacy and security VERY seriously. Our clients are extremely important to us. Their sites are very important to us. We do our best to protect them and their visitors. We use the data about behavior to create more effective marketing solutions and help engineer better experiences for site visitors.

The best way for you to protect yourself is to be up to date on what all this stuff means. To learn more about what information can be found about you online and online privacy in general, you can:

• Do a Google Search for Your Name
• Check your IP address
• Learn what an IP address is
• Review popular Internet reporting tools
• Brush up on everything in general

He was NOT a real man of genius...that campaign is brilliant, Mr way-too-much Paco Rabanne was not.

I had a weird experience today. A guy showed up in our lobby to give me a packet. I did not have an appointment with him. He told the woman who greeted him that someone from his office had said she was sending information over to me. True enough. I’d spoken to her about two weeks prior and told her to go ahead and send me her contact info. I did not tell her to reach back into the 70’s and send a Barney Miller look alike (replete with London Fog raincoat) who smelled as though he’d been assaulted by a giant bottle of Paco Rabanne to deliver that info. And yet she did.

I agreed to go out and retrieve said packet, although I was waiting for an important phone call. I should have gone with my usual plan of having the greeter explain that “no one gets in without an appointment.”

When I got to the lobby Barney decided to engage me in an unwanted conversation about how our business was going. My answers were not prolific.  Barney remained undeterred and proceeded to give me a report on the glowing health of his business – which I didn’t want. I rushed him out the door as soon as human decency would allow and returned to my office to await my call.

As I returned to my desk I began to notice an odd and overwhelming scent. That’s when I realized that the Paco was all over my hands. Eeeewww!

These people will not be getting any business from me.

How is that possible? Didn’t they send this really personable guy to engage me and form a connection?  Isn’t that the best way to engage prospects – in the flesh?  Shouldn’t I be eagerly awaiting the first opportunity to work with Mr. Chemistry?

So where did they go wrong? Disrespect. Sending someone without my permission was a clear sign that they disrespect my time. They would rather trick me into an “in-person” meeting than approach me with honesty and take their chances. In addition, instead of just thanking me for interrupting my day to take the packet at his convenience he tried to parlay his intrusion into an impromptu meeting when I was clearly sending signals – both through the greeter as well as my body language and commentary – that this was not the day or time to “chat”. And on top of all of that his nauseating cologne intruded on my person by virtue of a simple handshake. Bad form Mister.

So now what do I think of their brand. I think they don’t get how to conduct business in a professional and appropriate way. And I think they’re not someone I would ever call when I have a need. Message sent, message received.

ESPN will be carrying the first and second round of the Masters April 8 and 9, while CBS has broadcast rights to the weekend rounds April 10 and 11, writes Mediaweek.

Woods’ sponsors are also likely relieved to hear of his imminent April return, though they will be watching his performance carefully. If he plays well, sponsors like Nike and Electronic Arts may be led to decide that his strong performance mitigates the bad press surrounding his marital infidelities. If he plays poorly, however, they may say Woods is not only “risky” from a marketing perspective, but that he’s no longer achieving the same level of success that drew them to him in the first place, says David Carter, executive director of the Sports Institute at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business (via Reuters).

ESPN is banking on a large audience. “Tiger’s return to competitive golf at this year’s Masters Tournament will surely be one of the biggest stories the sporting world has seen,” John Wildhack, evp of programming and acquisitions for ESPN, says. “We will cover the Masters Tournament and Tiger’s return across a variety of ESPN platforms, both domestically and internationally.”

The highest-rated golf telecast in over three decades was the final round of the Masters in 1997 when Woods won for the first time. The telecast generated a 14.1% household rating. The second highest-rated golf event was in 2001, when Woods again won, generating a 13% rating.

Last year, the Masters without Woods declined by almost 50%, and the golfer’s absence from the PGA Tour this year caused an 11% decline, according to Nielsen numbers. While the audience for the Masters may increase significantly, the audience may not be of much interest to golf advertisers like Titleist and Callaway, as viewers may not be too interested in the actual sport of golf.

Eli Lilly & Co. was the top spender in PGA events last year, with $28.1 million invested between January and October. Other major sponsors include FedEx, with $24.1 million in spending, AT&T ($18.7 million), Pfizer ($17.1 million) and Toyota ($17.1 million). Sponsors for April’s Masters include Coca-Cola, IBM, Mercedes and AT&T.

Advertisers spent an average $104,500 for a :30-spot in 2009 PGA Tour events in which Woods appeared. During his hiatus, that number declined 30%, to $80,200 per :30-spot.

Mediaweek points out that those estimates exclude the four Majors, which typically have a cost of $200,000 per :30-spot.

Source: MediaPlannerBuyer.com 3/16/10

And secondly, if you are sitting at the computer feeling stumped, peel yourself away and open your eyes to a new

experience. Fresh air, a new place, walk – get out of the familiar. Can you imagine life like groundhog day?? Brilliant breakthroughs rarely come out of repetition…unless you are a robot.

Today, I thank the offsite photoshoot, the beautiful people and their wonderful stories, and the wisdom of the creative team for this surge of inspiration.

TechCrunch announced today that Tim Bray, the well-known software architect and blogger has joined the Google team to help work on Android. It’s also said that he’s doing it because he hates the iPhone.

This is a significant thing to consider. Apple forges ahead and tells consumers what they will like, and then, of course, we like it. What’s not to like when the package is beautiful, the interface is great, and it handily beats every other alternative? Google’s taking a different approach. They appear to be lining up to offer the more open of the smartphone platforms. They’re also recruiting well-known talent now, too.

In very-related news, John Battelle, author, thinker, co-founder of Wired Magazine and The Industry Standard just wrote an article about the iPad that drums up a lot of the same arguments that the iPhone/Android battle shares. Will Apple’s innovative and elegant interface and closed system architecture win out against a more open platform? Battelle’s article specifically mentions how the now well-known “demo” that Wired showed for the iPad was built and run on another platform. (A Dell using Adobe software.) So to show how great the iPad is, you have to use another computer. That seems a little off.

There are plenty of pundits who will shout at you and tell you that the iPhone and iPad aren’t supposed to be everything for everyone and that the closed system helps maintain stability and performance. Yeah – I’ll buy that, to a degree. And it’s a perfectly good reason/argument. But we’re talking about the competitive marketplace here. Which product or platform will be the front runner a year from now?

I’m going to bet that Google pulls ahead. Why? Because ultimately, I think that the general consumer will win with Google at the helm. Their products and services will be geared toward a more diverse audience, and their system will allow more adaptability to the way that audience wants to use the devices running their operating system. Android already sells two-thirds the number of smartphones as Apple does iPhones, and they’re just getting started.

Google also has their hooks in so many web-connected things, that there’s going to be a natural connection between ALL of the systems that can tap into Google devices, mobile networks, and the Internet. And Google will likely make it easy for people to tap into all of these resources via that operating system and API.

You can already upload any document to Google Docs, which basically makes it a lightweight off-site storage system. You can sync your bookmarks across computers with Chrome’s bookmark sync, your calendar and maps and email can all run through Google’s free services. Add the blogs, video, photos, reader and all the other Google services already in place and we’ve got a pretty significant thing to consider.

It’s all about the interface. And not the iPhone’s, iPad’s or Android’s – it’s about the interface to the Internet. I think Google understands that a little better than Apple. Apple’s making tons of money by controlling how people get and develop apps on their platform and interface. Google’s going to ensure people use their own interface by making it easy to use for the greatest number of people.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Ghirardelli is employing social media tactics, among other elements,  and encouraging chocolate fans to go to a micro-site (www.ghirardellimoments.com) and share comments/memories about when/where they enjoy eating the squares.  The comments are broadcast in New York’s Times Square and streamed live on the website.  I would imagine that the comments will be fodder for some future marketing efforts.  Fans can enter the sweepstakes and be eligible to win a number of prizes including a fabulous trip to one of four famous squares in the world, i.e. Times Square, Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, etc.  A tour of major cities utilizing street teams is also a part of the campaign. 

 In the current economic environment people are looking for simple, affordable indulgences – chocolate is one of those.  In addition, leisure travel has taken a hit (leisure travel is still projected to be down throughout 2010 according to a variety of sources) so the opportunity to win a trip is extremely attractive and timely.  These factors that key in on the current consumer mindset,  joined with a dose of fun and creativity,  makes it an interesting campaign to follow.

 It is thematic, engaging, fun, sophisticated, relevant and an integrated initiative that fits the brand.  And when it’s all said and done, chocolate simply makes us smile, doesn’t it?

Wondering around

I stumbled on a great typo last night. “Staff in the lobby were wondering around…”

Wandering around is an aimless waste of time.

Wondering around, though, that sounds useful.

Wondering why this product is the way it is, wondering how you can make the lobby more welcoming, wondering if your best customers are happily sharing your ideas with others… So many things worth wondering about, so few people actually taking the time to do it.

Wondering around is the act of inquiring with generous spirit.

http://tiny.cc/dnNon

Click here to see what happens when you click unsubscribe. There’s no audio track, but it’s pretty easy to create your own.

Such a simple idea, yet full of personality. And it sure gets talked about.

Surprising. Clever. Smart. Very smart.

The latest incarnation for me has just appeared in a recent “Page Invitation” on Facebook. I was invited by a friend to become a fan of the First 20,000 Fans Get a $1,000 Best Buy Gift Card!!! page. Really? Can reasonable people actually think that something like this would actually be true? You think Best Buy would spend TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS on getting Facebook fans?

Ahhhhhh… classic! Time to party like it’s 1999 – or 1993 – or anytime on the Internet because hoaxes like these have been going around forever. I remember getting my first one via email even before there was a World Wide Web. Snopes even has a nice listing of several of the classic schemes.

So this is nothing new. But it is the first time I’ve seen this type of ploy on Facebook. Turns out it’s going strong, as this particular “fan page” has nearly 10,000 so-called fans. Ten thousand people who either actually thought this offer was real or who decided that the barrier to entry was easy and harmless enough to at least give it a shot.

And that’s the kicker.

Becoming a fan of something on Facebook seems innocuous enough. What harm can it do? Probably not much. But it does get you on a list of profiles at least. It might help people target advertising to you. It might indicate you are gullible. What else do you let people know about you through your Facebook profile? Any of that information becomes easy to get to when you join a group or become a fan of a page.

Then it’s a matter of who set up the page and why. Is it a joke or the prelude to a phishing scheme?

Facebook is just the latest breeding ground for scammers. What I see as the big difference is the inherent trust that people currently have of some communications on Facebook. It’s a community made up primarily of people you know. People you have accepted into your network voluntarily. So information coming from them should be more trustworthy, right?

Not at all.

Most people know that email can’t be trusted anymore. Even if it comes from “someone you know” most people have started to recognize the basic characteristics of strange emails. Uncle Toby usually sends questionable PowerPoint shows, not offers to save money on your mortgage. Facebook is different, though. And people don’t use the same filter on Facebook as they do for email. Not yet, anyway.

A Facebook blog post from last summer recounts that phishing and spam are at an all-time high. Please – always use your best judgement and think about what’s being presented to you as an offer online. The medium makes no difference.

Be careful out there.

Ed. Note: Barnam may not be the originator of the actual quote, but since everyone basically thinks he did, it sounded better in writing. Plus – I did say “famously” and not “actually.” See? Gotta watch what you read online…

Lindsay Lohan has sued E*Trade for $100 million, saying the “milkaholic” baby girl named Lindsay in one of their recent ads improperly invoked her “likeness, name, characterization and personality” and that Lohan has the same “single name” recognition as celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

If you haven’t caught this ad on TV, have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXZ2hfD3bU

“Geo” became not only a big buzzword, but also gathered some real momentum towards making that “what if” a reality with the launch of popular mobile applications like Foursquare — a location based social network that incorporates gaming elements and Sherpa — an app that constantly learns your favorite locations and starts to aggregate them.

You’ve probably heard that 2010 will be the year of mobile, and might be vaguely wondering what this geolocation fanfare is all about, and more specifically, why it might become important to pay attention to from an organizational point of view.

Well, let’s start with the fact that there is a lot of money being pumped into it. The geolocation trend is hot and investors are happily investing big bucks into location-based services like Foursquare and SCVNGR. Gowalla, Outside.in and Hot Potato. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

So it looks like 2010 is going to be the year when location-based functionality will become not just real, but commonplace — from mobile apps to consumer devices, even to web services are all going to be geo-enabled.

As of today, Twitter now lets people see  maps of where geotagged tweets were sent from on its website. They briefly turned this feature yesterday, but then shut it off again. It’s now turned on permanently.

In November 2009, Twitter enthusiastically launched a location API that let users opt-in to having their messages annotated with their exact locations. And startups like Tweetdeck and Seemic were quick to build features around the new data. But it’s taken months for Twitter to finally show geotagged tweets on its own web site.

And Facebook will add friend location information starting next month, according to a report in The New York Times. To be introduced at the F8 developer conference in April, Facebook status geolocation will enable you to share with your friends the location from where you submitted your update.

Just in time for the SXSWi hype later this week.

Altogether, U.S. advertisers and marketers plan to spend $368 billion in 2010, Outsell found — up 1.2% from about $364 billion in 2009. Within the 2010 figure, 32.5% ($119.6 billion) will go to digital, versus 30.3% ($111.5 billion) for print.

While the digital figure includes online advertising mainstays like display and search, it also includes direct marketing, represented by email, as well as investments in company Web sites, which will 53% ($63 billion) of the total digital spending.

As in previous years, print ad revenue declines will fall heaviest on newspapers — with Outsell forecasting total ad revenues of $27 billion in 2010, down about 8% from 2009. Outsell also sees revenue for print directories falling about 8% to $11.6 billion. But it’s not all bad news for print, as Outsell predicts a 2% increase in ad spending for magazines, rising to $9.4 billion.

Not every part of the digital market is buoyant. One surprising prediction in the report has mobile advertising revenues sinking 16% in 2010 compared to 2009. On the television front (combining broadcast and cable), Outsell has total TV ad revenues falling 6.5% to $59.6 billion.

So where do you fall into the picture?  If online advertising is not in your current marketing plan I would strongly suggest that you look into it.  Online advertising allows us to marry consumers with brand involvement.  And in this day and age brand involvement and engagement is key.  

With online advertising you are able to target your market much more efficiently and effectively than with many traditional advertising strategies. Online advertising also offers the benefit of providing detailed and thorough statistics that allow you to tweak and optimize your campaigns to the fullest.

With traditional advertising, there is little you can do to track the success of small changes within campaigns or one campaign as compared to another. However, with online advertising you have a huge array of information at your fingertips.

According to The Nielsen Company, the TV audience for the Winter Olympics is predominantly female, unlike the male-favored Super Bowl. Through February 21, an estimated 56% of Olympic viewers are female, while 44% are male. Super Bowl viewership earlier this month was almost the exact opposite, with its audience composed of 54% males and 46% females.

Olympics ratings are clearly highest among older viewers, finds the study. Ratings among teenagers are 57% lower than the national average for this year’s primetime Olympics broadcasts.

• Ratings among the 18-49 group are 20% lower than the national average
• Ratings among those 55 and older are 82% higher

Some additional ratings include ethnicity, geography, and equipment:

• Ratings among Hispanic and African-American viewers are each 74% below the national average
• Asian ratings are 15% below the national average
• Ratings in the West Central region of the United States area are 24% higher than the national average
• Viewership in the Southwest is 28% lower than the national average
• 55% of Olympic viewers are in HD-capable/receivable homes. Viewing in these homes is 14% higher than the national average
• 41% of Olympic viewers are in DVR homes and have ratings 12% higher than the national average

To lend context to these demographic insights, Nielsen compared U.S. viewership trends from the Olympics to trends from the Super Bowl played earlier this month.

Ratings among female Olympics viewers are 9% higher than the national average, says the report, while ratings among male Olympics viewers are 9% lower.  In contrast, female ratings were 11% lower than the Super Bowl’s national average, while male ratings were 11% higher.

Much like the Olympics, ratings for the Super Bowl were highest among older viewers. Ratings among teenagers for the Super Bowl were 20% lower than the national average (compared to the 57% lower ratings for the Olympics). Ratings for the Super Bowl improve in older demographics, where the ratings are 6% higher than the national average in the 18-49 age group and 15% higher among those 55 and up.

The comparison also found that a larger percentage of Super Bowl viewers were African-American, Hispanic, or Asian (23% compared to 11% for the Olympics). Ratings within the African-American and Hispanic markets were also higher in the Super Bowl when compared to the national average for each event. Ratings for African-American viewers were 18% lower than the national average for the Super Bowl while Hispanic ratings for the game were 49% lower. Asian ratings for both events were almost identical (16% below average for the Super Bowl vs. 15% below average for the Olympics).

Broken down by individual event, freestyle skiing, which includes men’s and women’s moguls competition, was the most popular Olympic sport among US TV weekend viewers through February 15, according to a minute-by-minute analysis of viewing conducted by Nielsen.

As reported by MarketingCharts, during NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage, an average of 26.9 million viewers watched the freestyle events in the first weekend of Olympic competition:

• Downhill skiing was the second most popular sport, with an average of 26.7 million viewers watching coverage of the event
• Luge coverage earned an average of 26.2 million viewers

However, Nielsen analysis of Internet buzz from February 9-18, 2010 shows that hockey is the most discussed Olympic sport online. Among all online messages related to winter Olympic sports, more than 30% were linked to hockey. Luge generated the second highest amount of buzz over that time, with almost 18%, followed by figure skating with 10% of Olympics sports buzz.

In the 44 films in 2009 that topped the box office for at least one weekend, an Apple logo or device could be seen in at least 18 of them. (That’s almost 41%.) In some, Apple products even eclipsed their human scene partners.

The Awl put together a great piece examining the popularity of Apple products in film. Not editors, effects specialists, composers, or photographers using Apple products, or even celebrities owning iPhones–but the insane frequency with which Apple shows up in movies, without it being official product placement.

Apple’s Greatest Cinematic Achievements from The Awl on Vimeo.

Toyota vehicles have been appearing in ABC’s hit show “Modern Family” as part of a product-placement deal struck with ABC that covers the entire 2009-2010 season.  The Toyota pact was struck well before the automaker recalled millions of its cars across several models.

The problem now is that Toyota simply can’t pull out of the deal since they are essentially part of the story line.  Usually when a crisis involving a particular marketer or product arises, common practice is to remove all commercials as soon as possible.  Toyota is now stuck.

Placing products into shows, however often requires months worth of planning.  The goods are made part of a script or storyline and are often captured as part of key scenes in an episode. Pulling a product appearance from a key scene simply is not logistically possible — and can be expensive, when it is.

Toyota’s reasons for keeping its cars in “Modern Family” are simple: After spending a lot of ad money reassuring the public, it wants to get back to selling. Hopefully the show’s strong ratings can help the automaker regain the trust of the American public.

Leichtman data measured homes with Web-TV connections via video game and Blu-ray systems, as well as compatible TVs. Add in homes that can connect with a TiVo, Roku player or computer, and the amount is estimated to come in just north of 24%.

Leichtman research shows that while 5% of adults watch Web video on the TV weekly, the figure is just 1% on a daily basis. Since game consoles are so widespread, the viewing is largely among young men. Among men ages 18 to 34, 16% are viewing Web video on the big screen weekly via a console, Blu-ray or compatible TV.

The findings come from a survey of 1,250 U.S. homes.

Research from the Yankee Group shows that 23% of homes with an HDTV set have the ability to link the Internet to that screen. Still, only 5% of all homes are watching Internet video on TV.

There have been suggestions that the opportunity to watch video from YouTube, Hulu, ESPN360, CBS Sports and a slew of other sites on a large TV screen could prompt people to cancel a cable or satellite subscription.

But Bruce Leichtman, who conducted the research, said that’s unlikely. The people with the Web-to-TV devices are likely to covet the typical run of TV channels and be willing to pay the price to keep a subscription.

A New York start-up company called Boxee is jumping into the mix.  Boxee bills its software as a simple way to access multiple Internet video and music sites, and to bring them to a large monitor or television that one might be watching from a sofa across the room.

Some of Boxee’s fans also think it is much more: a way to euthanize that costly $100-a-month cable or satellite connection.  

The software, which is free and available for download at www.boxee.tv, works on Mac and Linux computers, and on Apple’s set-top box, Apple TV. A version of Boxee for Windows PCs is being tested among a limited group of users.  Boxee gives users a single interface to access all the photos, video and music on their hard drives, along with a wide range of television shows, movies and songs from sites like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, CNN.com and CBS.com.

The most ardent Boxee fanatics — almost all of its 200,000 early adopters seem to have turned into online evangelists for the company — then connect their computers to their living room televisions.

The challenge for the cable industry is how they grapple with the fact that this is in some way a substitution for some of the things they do.   So will this replace cable subscriptions?  I doubt it but it will certainly be interesting to see how many homes this influences in years to come.  Services like Boxee will come into the mix but will be used to supplement the entire television viewing experience. 

Face it we are a society now that demands content be accessible whenever and wherever we wish.

Woah.

The implications of this move are extremely interesting. Think about the possibilities, and what this does for Google, online content, search, and extending your online global audience.

Google will launch a service that automatically adds English subtitles to a video, if English is the language spoken in the sound track. That alone is impressive. Speech to text recognition software has been around for a long time, but for Google to have something in their pocket that they feel is good enough to add to public user videos means that they have something highly versatile. Of course, they say it will need input and scrutiny from the video owner, but that’s just a little way of asking for help in making sure they index your content correctly.

Online content wins, because previously, there was no easy and automated way for spoken words to be found in online search unless there was a video transcription. Now Google is going to attempt to do it automatically. Even if they only get it 50% correct, there’s a tremendous opportunity for them to have a handle on a significant amount of content that their competitors do not. This increases the public’s ability to find relevant information, and it also increases Google’s ability to sell contextual advertising.

Finally, when you pair what Google is already doing with offering live website text translation into different languages with auto-captioning, you have the opportunity to instantly expand one little English language video into a globally understandable piece of video content. Without doing anything more, people across the globe can find your video content via search.

Again. Woah.

Keep watching this topic. If it works, this could stir up the competitive search landscape if Bing isn’t close to doing the same thing. Another notch in organizing the world’s information indeed, Google.

What struck me almost immediately was a variation in weather patterns that had a huge effect on my mood.  When you woke up in Connecticut and it was raining – you were in for a rainy day – or two – or three – as much as a week.  In Nebraska that’s rarely the case.  There have been many days when I’ve headed into the office with full rain regalia, hunkering down for the dreary day ahead.  And quite frequently by the time I’d read my initial influx of e-mails the sun was shining high in the sky.  Other days it took as long as until lunchtime before the sun poked through the clouds and dried up all the rain.  An entire rainy day is just not all that common – not to mention a rainy week.

Then there were those cloudy and dank days in the Northeast.  No real threat of rain but no chance of sun.  We had whole weeks of that sometimes.  When that happens in Omaha, the population is totally nonplussed.  They’re just not used to it.

And when you combine this sunshine phenomenon with the fact that we are at the western most edge of the central time zone – which means we hang onto to our sunshine longer into the night – we could take the crankiest Northeasterner and turn them into a purring pussycat!  Just look at me!

When I first raised this point with my colleagues they said I was crazy.  “Omaha doesn’t have the most sunshine by a longshot” they anxiously pointed out.  That’s true.  Omaha has 60% sunshine and Hartford only 4% less at 56%.  Doesn’t seem as though it would make a huge difference – but it does.  And as far as those places that have as much as 90% sunshine like Yuma, Arizona.  I have no desire to fry an egg on my sidewalk during the month of June – Omaha is plenty hot enough for me!

These observations were inspired when I got an email from someone I don’t know asking me to become a Facebook fan of a company I’m not familiar with. Now, this is a legitimate company with a legit fan page. There are just several things wrong here.

• I got spammed
• They asked me to become a fan of theirs, after having spammed me
• I am not a fan of spam
• They tried to write informally, as if we’d met or I knew them
• They had messed up formatting and funky characters in their email, which I assume is a copy/paste problem. So they obviously don’t test their messaging on multiple email clients, computers or platforms. Note: if it doesn’t look right in Outlook on a PC, you might want to fix a couple things.

So instead of becoming a fan of theirs, I am considering a few options.

• Create an anti-fan page on Facebook. “Can this rotting banana get more fans than Company X?”
• Promote said fan page to everyone I know who may have been spammed by them as well
• Get more fans than they have (they currently have 296)
• Show them that using the tools wrong can yield undesired results online

What will most likely happen, though, is that I won’t do anything. Typing this up is enough effort.

The other undesired result of their attempt at promoting their business and trying to build their fan base, however, is that I will never become a fan of their business. I will recount this story if and when I ever hear their name. I will want nothing to do with them.

Facebook is a place (for me at least) for me to interact with people I actually know and brands/companies that I actually am a fan of. It’s more personal, and although not everyone does, I have some criteria for letting you into my little Facebook world. Had their message started out by introducing themselves, explaining why they were sending me a message, and then suggesting that I check out their site or Facebook page for more info, my reaction would have been completely different. I would have probably checked out the site. Unlikely that I’d have become a fan, but the opportunity for me to engage their services in the future would have still been an option.

If a stranger comes up to you and asks you to declare publicly that you guys are buddies, how likely are you to do so?

Yeah – me neither. Sorry, Company X – not a fan.

Let’s face it.  Anyone who knows Marie enough to be positively influenced by her is certainly aware that her son died tragically.  And they probably have a little soft spot for her.

Your continuing to run these upbeat, bordering on giddy, spots is really in poor taste (sorry for the pun – I should take my own advice).  It shows a lack of sensitivity and caring.  And what is one thing we expect from the company that Marie endorses?  What is the price of entry for the company that will help us reclaim our lives and look our best?  You said it – caring!  How can I believe that you care about me when you clearly don’t even care about Marie?

And I need to know you care about me if I’m going to trust you.

Milton Glaser accepting the award from President Obama.

I had the great fortune to meet Milton Glaser and have a 30 minute conversation with him at the AIGA National Conference in Vegas in the early 90’s (next to a roulette table) We talked about print making and and how much we loved the process; and how the multi-step process of printmaking helps us think through design execution in a more holistic manner. He was very down to earth, humble, engaging and his wisdom overwhelmed me. Some of the work that you might recognize: the iconic “I <heart> NY” – which, fascinatingly, was designed in the back of a cab after he’d already submitted his first logo to the New York State Commerce Department. He of all people is so deserving of this award.

Here is the article in full. enjoy! And do look up his work. It is pretty incredible.

“I wish my mother was alive to see this,” Milton Glaser told me about receiving the 2009 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama last Thursday (the first time for a graphic designer). He was one of twelve to receive the honor for their outstanding achievements and support of the arts. The medals were presented by the president and Mrs. Michele Obama in an East Room ceremony at the White House.

The National Medal of Arts is a White House initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year, the NEA organizes and oversees the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notifies the artists of their selection to receive a medal, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.

“These individuals and organizations show us how many ways art works every day. They represent the breadth and depth of American architecture, design, film, music, performance, theatre, and visual art, ” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This lifetime honor recognizes their exceptional contributions, and I join the President and the country in saluting them.”

See full event here on White House video. http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-presents-medals-arts-and-humanities

In addition to Glaser the recipients include Bob Dylan, Clint Eastwood, Maya Lin, Rita Moreno, Jessye Norman, Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Frank Stella, Michael Tilson Thomas, and John Williams. Sadly Dylan could not attend, thus making the inevitable photo op between the poster maker and the poster subject impossible.

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Glaser-Gets-Award-From-Obama

Bob Dylan art poster designed by Milton Glaser.

Consumer spending drives a big part of our economic health. Retailers have long known the relationship between bad weather and purchase behavior. Obviously if people are homebound because of weather conditions, they aren’t in a store buying. I used to believe that a “snow day” in retail just meant that demand increased on the following days. If I needed a shirt on Monday and couldn’t get to the store, it made sense to me that I still needed a shirt on Tuesday. A friend of mine in retail explained to me that I was not the ideal “shopping” consumer, and, in fact, a large portion of “lost” sales due to low traffic are in reality lost forever.

In addition to physical limitations created by the weather, retailers also know that mood has a profound effect on consumer spending. Many psychologists and behavioral economists believe that it is sunlight, as opposed to temperature, that has the greatest effect on consumer mood in the winter-to-spring transition.

If you were shopping in Omaha over this past weekend, you know this to be true. It was 35 degrees and sunny on Saturday and the stores I went to were packed. I was in such a good mood that I went shopping for a new lawnmower with a foot of snow still on the ground (while the guy at Home Depot thought my timing a little odd, he must have been in a good mood too, as we had a great discussion on the finer points of lawnmower buying).

So, the politicians can debate stimulus packages all they want – come on sunshine.

Plex, Muno, Toodee, Brobee and Foofa along with DJ Lance and his magic bookbox.

Jack Black rocking out with Muno.

In its first two seasons, the show featured a wide variety of guests, including Jack Black, Dennis Horkenbach, Leslie Hall, The Shins, Andy Samberg, Biz Markie, Shiny Toy Guns, Supernova, Mark Mothersbaugh, Tony Hawk, The Roots, and series co-creator Jacobs’ band, The Aquabats. In the second season bands like Of Montreal, Mates of State, MGMT, and The Ting Tings. If you grew up in the 80’s you would have no other choice but to be a huge fan of the graphics (simplistic neon colored 8-bit video game style) and the fact that the characters live in a boombox before DJ Lance frees them, adding life to the show.

Look for it on Nick Jr., or on this very special website. Crank up the volume with your kids (or solo) and be ready to break into the robot.

http://yogabbagabba.com/#

AT&T and technology outsourcing and consulting company Accenture have already ended their sponsorships, while others, such as Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette and Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer, de-emphasized him in their marketing — a move to distance themselves from the world-famous athlete.

The CEO of Procter & Gamble said earlier this week that he doesn’t know whether Woods will ever appear in another Gillette commercial, saying the company did not need the “distraction” of using him in its advertising.

Woods does more harm than good as public sentiment against Woods is even worse now than when the scandal gained steam in December according to a new analysis by PR firm Gregory FCA.

Gregory FCA used data from Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics to gauge sentiment towards Woods across blogs, message boards, media sites and Twitter. The following chart may be hard to read, but the trend line is clear.

This chart reiterates what a beloved figure Woods was as attitudes toward him were almost universally positive before his downfall. Sentiment fell off the cliff after revelations of his adultery, but then started to improve as Woods stayed in hiding. After Woods delivered his public apology, sentiment turned even more sharply negative. The score of -1.2 is one of the lowest that Gregory FCA has ever seen for a celebrity, brand or company. Via Forbes Blog.

One organization saw an opportunity in all the “distraction”.  PETA, a group always on the prowl for something to get ink for their cause, tried to leverage the scandal to push their agenda by creating a billboard with a photo of Tiger and the line “TOO MUCH SEX CAN BE A BAD THING” with a message that continues “… for little tigers too. Help keep your cats (and dogs) out of trouble: Always spay or neuter!”

PETA intended to post the billboard near Woods’ Isleworth home in Windermere, Florida, but the golfer’s attorneys stepped in with a cease-and-desist order, according to PopCrunch.

Envisioning the joy that I had created in some anonymous person’s life as they are walking their dog and find $20, led me to wonder how much money is really blowing around (or I guess in the case of change, laying around) in the world.

The answer is no one really knows. The Federal Reserve’s 2009 estimates of the M0 money supply, or hard currency in the U.S. economy, is somewhere around $900 billion. Even if 1/1000th of 1% is “lost,” that’s $9,000,000. Plus the $40 I know about.

While I couldn’t find a good estimate on how much money is out there to be found, I did discover in my web search a number of active discussions about the best places to find money (even a hobbyist site dedicated to the activity), as well as a number of ethical debates on keeping versus attempting to find the owner of money that you find. This gives me hope. If you find a $20 in the vicinity of 114th & Dodge in Omaha, give me a call at Bozell.

The video which surfaced on YouTube shows the couple working out on gym equipment in their birthday suits, a video part of a “viral campaign for Reebok” who Liddell has a sponsorship deal with.

Thankfully the couples private parts are blurred out but this is still very racy.  Personally I can’t even tell that the UFC Champ is even wearing Reebok shoes so I ask myself was this gamble worth it for Reebok?

  Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend are the ones getting all of the press from this with Reebok barely mentioned.  That is unless the time comes (and it will) that organizations like the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families start to protest against Reebok and its parent company Adidas. 

This was a HUGE risk for Adidas-Reebok if you ask me. 

http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/26/chuck-liddell-naked-workout-video-reebok-shoes-girlfriend-heidi-northcott/

Colin Firth and Julianne Moore having a heart to heart.

It didn’t disappoint! Gorgeous camera angles, beautiful and honest set designs, and moments of white space. These quiet white space moments where the camera slowed down and the images became desaturated,  you had no other choice but be lost in your thoughts. Thoughts that meshed with the story line taking you to another time and place. Ford used color and saturation as a way of visualizing the emotions of the main character, played by Colin Firth. I was so absorbed by the acting and heavy sadness portrayed by Firth, that I was surprised that I didn’t notice the color shifts until a quarter of the way through the movie. In fact there are so many nuances and subtleties to this film that do not reveal themselves until thinking on it hours after the fact. This is probably one of the reasons why the majority of people I know have seen the movie more than once.

Julianne Moore in all her loveliness.

This is where I will end. I won’t share what the story is about, because I think it is better to see this movie not knowing much about it. Just knowing that A Single Man is a perfectly art directed, beautifully quiet, visually brilliant movie.

What I’m having a problem with is the number of sites and resources out there that seem to do little else than grab a bunch of links to various things and then publish that as content.

At first, it’s fun. Ten New Ways to Display Form Fields. Twenty Fresh Web Designs that Work on the iPhone. Forty Marketing Strategies that Attract Young People. Sixty Hot Trends in Clicking on Things.

So what?

Anyone can go out there and find options. I don’t care too much about options. I care about solutions. Don’t tell me the ten ways for doing something and leave it at that. Add some value to it. Tell me about the ten ways, how they are different, and in what circumstance each option might be the best choice. Give me a reason to care about all of these options you are giving me. I want these sites I read and people I follow on Twitter to be editors for me, not just aggregators of every other thing they find on a topic out there.

When you think about this, it makes it clear who has good information and who just appears to have good information. Use your knowledge and expertise to make decisions and select great options for yourself and your clients. If you’re giving people options, clearly explain why there are choices to make, what the differences are between then, and potential trade-offs. Also, offer your rationale for selecting one. This shows you’re paying attention, have expertise to offer, and have done some work.

Without an informed opinion, you’re the Yellow Pages, not a personal recommendation.

The fact is, we all make mistakes. So do brands. And we all learn the hard way that people never listen more closely than when you admit failure. While there are lots of examples, recently we’ve seen two big brands own up to problems and mistakes and publicly apologize. In very different ways.

Friday Tiger Woods’ abject, and very rehearsed, press conference/public apology came off as as a bit insincere to me. It sounded painfully scripted and the fact that he took no questions from the eager reporters who have been specially selected to see him speak made it feel even more stilted. I read a snarky comment somewhere that the same George W. Bush media advisers who gave us Mission Accomplished were hired by Tiger to present the world with Emission Regretted.

Watch full press conference here.

If you’re thinking Tiger is just a man, not a brand, read the transcript of Tiger’s apology and you’ll note he details the specific consequences of his actions: “I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife’s family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.” In case you’re wondering, that last one is code for brand.

As Sally Hogshead said: … the Woods brand “was founded upon prestige, mystique,” she added, “and an aura of elusive untouchability,” but now “we all suddenly know more about his bottom-feeding behavior than we ever cared to.”

And then there’s Toyota. Toyotas have long been considered among the most reliable cars on the road. But it has had major problems the last couple months and its failure to stem its widening safety crisis has stunned consumers and experts who’d come to expect only streamlined efficiency from a company at the pinnacle of the global auto industry. It is now trying to rebuild consumer confidence after a recall that has extended to millions of cars around the world and tarnished the company’s reputation.

First came the apology.

Then the promise to fix it.

Can these brands survive the withering publicity? Will we forgive? Will we trust them again? After all, Toyota has made great cars and until recently was the most popular car brand on Earth. And Tiger Woods is a phenomenal golfer. Only time will tell. But in my humble opinion Toyota seems more sincere in their efforts to earn back our trust.

The Olympics averaged a 5.4 rating in the 18-49 demo on Tuesday, while Idol generated a 9.1.   Tuesday’s airing of American Idol, which unveiled Ellen DeGeneres as a judge, pulled the biggest numbers for a non-finale, non-debut in two years.

But on Wednesday night, the Olympics brought the heat to the singing competition. During the hour that the two shows competed against each other, the Olympics pulled 30.1 million people, while American Idol was seen by 18.4 million. 

I myself am all about the Olympics so I say God Bless the U.S.A!

Aside from the fact that  the media can’t seem to get enough of another corporation caught short by the outraged tweeting masses, this should be yet another wake up call of the speed by which screw ups travel and escalate today.

As an instant viral publishing tool, Twitter is often the first place we hear a rumble of something big — where news (or rumors) break — so it’s followed closely followed by the mainstream media that then “vets” the info. This summer I was in a store in Tahoe when someone in the store read a tweet that Michael Jackson had died. We all headed for a TV or went to CNN on our phones to verify the info. Not everything trending on Twitter is accurate — remember Goldblum?

Bad personal experiences for people we like at the hands of corporations is David and Goliath stuff. And we consumers love those stories. We love to rant about injustice. We can’t get enough of it.

Twitter is the early warning siren and reaches well beyond those actively engaged on Twitter — it is closely followed by the media and bloggers and it can explode the customer complaint horror stories many times faster than what companies previously suffered just at the hands of a few irate bloggers (remember Dell, Kryptonite) to potentially devastating effect.

Southwest is a company that has been active and strong in the social space. They’ve handled difficult situations well.  But they’re not immune. They just found out what happens when you piss off a guy with a rabid fanbase and a Twitter account with 1.6M followers. Smith has a nimble intellect and savage wit and his tweets and SModcasts are entertaining.  One of his tweets had me laughing out loud:  “You [messed] with the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater!” But chances are Southwest didn’t enjoy this exchange as much as the rest of us.

If the arbitrary nature of this online customer movement seems unfair, too bad.  Get used to it. The genie is not going back in the bottle.

How companies succeed in the future will depend on how they embrace and navigate this new socially-empowered customer culture. The answers don’t lie in merely having a company Twitter account. And they definitely can’t be solved purely through social media monitoring. These are just tools. Tools that let you listen. And respond. The key is what a company learns from the listening, how it applies those learnings and then how it communicates those learnings to its customers that will rescue its reputation and make it a stronger company.

For Smith, the publicity may be a windfall given his new movie “Cop Out,” opens in theaters Feb. 26.

Despite some expectations that NBC would pull low ratings for the Olympic Games – NBC has pulled an average of 28.6 million viewers each night for the first three nights – 25% higher than the 22.9 million who watched Turin games in 2006.

Also sadly boosting viewership was the tragedy of Georgian luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili.  NBC aired the footage from the crash once during the Nightly News and again before the start of the Opening Ceremony. 

Did you know that marketers are now going as far as to actually create Television shows just so they can feature/”pimp” their products.  Marketers will do anything to stay one step ahead in this increasingly competitive environment, but at what cost?

Two major marketers, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble are joining to create a made-for-TV movie called Secrets of the Mountain which will air on NBC this April targeting families.  The film will include product placements for both marketers, and ads for the companies will run during commercial breaks.  Wal-Mart will be the “presenting sponsor” paying P&G for the rights to that title – as part of its broader “Wal-Mart’s Family Moments” effort.

The program features a single mother and her three children who spend time at a cabin in the mountains. They use P&G’s Duracell batteries in their flashlights, feed their dog P&G’s Iams pet food, and eat cereal from Wal- Mart’s Great Value private-label brand.

I am envisioning this scene now and it makes me want to throw up a little.  Next thing you know, there will be a story line with little Sarah getting her first menstrual period with her mother by her side encouraging her to use P&G’s Tampax Tampons.

Ok, maybe I’m a little too tough on this new method of marketing, but I would like to at least try and protect the quality of my programming to a degree.

The week-long virtual strike, organized by ACC Belgium, or the Association of Communication Companies, is being held by advertising agencies such as JWT, Ogilvy, BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann, and local shops such as Happiness, Famous, Tagora, Boondoogle, 7beaufort and Kunstmaan which have closed their own websites to host an open letter to clients which runs across the front page of each of their websites, from one agency to the next.

The strike is about abuse of the pitching process. Apparently back in the 1990s agencies and clients got together to form a charter that set the ground rules for pitches, ranging from an acceptable number of agencies in a pitch (no more than three) to contributing to agencies’ pitch costs. And surprise, many advertisers in Belgium have stopped following the industry charter hence the manifesto on the websites.

I read one comment about a shop asked to pitch for an A4 brochure project…against 15 other agencies. Just say NO.

Interesting and dramatic move. It will be even more interesting to see if it accomplishes anything.

This past Sunday, Super Bowl XLIV managed to break all records and surpass M*A*S*H* as the most watched television show in history.  Viewership for the Super Bowl came in at 106.5 million, up from 98.7 million viewers last year.  The series finale of  M*A*S*H* previously held this title since 1983 bringing in 105.97 million viewers.

Sunday’s Super Bowl also had the most ad time in history. At 47 minutes and 50 seconds of ads, it beat last year’s Super Bowl ad tally of 44:50. Forty-one companies advertised, buying a total of 66 spots (excluding ads aired by the NFL and by CBS).

Anheuser-Busch was once again the top advertiser, with nine spots, followed by Hyundai with four. Dot-coms held the top ad category, with 5:45 seconds of ad time from eight different companies. Automakers and beer companies were the next top advertising category, tying at 5:30.

CBS acknowledged that it was attempting to get more inventory out of the game in part because of an influx of late advertising inquiries. One way it did this was by selling a number of :15 spots. The game included seven such spots, compared to none in the Super Bowl last year.

Two of the best-rated individual TV markets were the markets of the two teams in the game:  New Orleans and Indianapolis.  New Orleans earned top market share overall with Indianapolis coming in fourth place.  Washington, D. C came in second and Nashville was in third place.  Nielsen says a major winter storm in D. C. kept viewers in their homes, which pushed up viewership.

And then there are the companies that send me two or three of the same piece – at the same time!  Again, I’m sharp enough realize it is caused more by your lack of ability to execute efficiently than by my enormous importance to your company.  So again – I’m underwhelmed.

I don’t get a huge amount of snail mail these days.  So much comes through e-mail it’s not all that surprising.  And the shear expense of snail mail when executed inefficiently is mind boggling.  But I can say with some authority that conservatively 50% of what I see is going to the wrong person or is inaccurate in some other way.  It’s your money guys!

Getting it right is not all that difficult.  It’s all in how you manage your database.  My advice to those of you who haven’t cleaned your list for 10 years and counting is don’t waste your money.  You’re hurting your brand with every batch of mail that you drop.

When I read the announcement here and here, my first thought was, big deal, how is this different from what anyone (not just Verizon customers) can do with Cellfire?  Giving them the benefit of the doubt that maybe there was something unique in the announcement, I went to check out the Verizon website promoted in its news release…and then I laughed! Hard.

I land on the Verizon site and what do I see? My Cellfire account that I registered with my Sprint number after my previous coupon guilt trip.

Verizon page (that I didn't log into) at top. My Cellfire account at the bottom. Hummmmmmm

I AM a Cellfire user, but I’m NOT a Verizon customer, I’m a Sprint customer.

So Verizon…can you hear me now? I’m still chuckling.

Super Bowl XLIV will be only broadcast digitally – a first.  CBS has reached its goal of selling out the commercial inventory.  Advertisers caught a break this year and paid $2.5 million to $2.8 million per commercial for one 30-second in-game spot compared to a year ago, when NBC sold 30-second spots for around $3 million each.

This year’s ad roster includes Hyundai, Audi, Honda Motor, Chrysler’s Dodge, E-Trade, Go Daddy, Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola, Cars.com, CareerBuilder, Doritos, Bridgestone and Anheuser Busch. Looks like automakers are making a comeback.

New advertisers include Boost Mobile, vacation rental service HomeAway, the U.S. Census Bureau and Christian group Focus on the Family, which is airing a controversial pro-life spot that has drawn protests.

Veteran Super Bowl advertisers not participating this year include:  Fedex, General Motors and PepsiCo’s Pepsi.  In lieu of running in the Super Bowl, Pepsi launched its Pepsi refresh project. At the Pepsi Refresh website you can submit ideas to help and make a positive impact. The ideas with the most votes get cash grants from Pepsi.

Rumored but not “officially” on the committed list is Motorola. Rumors of Motorola advertising during Super Bowl appeared end of 2009. But it’s been very secretive about any Super Bowl 2010 ad plans. Now Motorola has set up a teaser site for their commercial and it features a bath tub.  The preview merely shows a stylish bathroom with a bath tub filled with bubbles. We will see what can happen when the power of Motoblur is unleashed.

In the last few years, many companies have used a strategy of “leaking” Super Bowl ads on the web to create buzz before they actually air.  I had a chance recently to preview some of these ads.

• New player HomeAway brings back Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold from the 80s movie National Lampoon’s Vacation.  The company is publishing a 15-minute mini movie on their site right after the Super Bowl commercial airs. Many Super Bowl viewers will miss 15 minutes of the game as the HomeAway Hotel Hell Mini Movie promises to be very funny.
• The Denny’s Super Bowl 2010 commercial is set to be funny again. A new advocate who invites viewers to enjoy a Free Original Grand Slam while warning chickens to get out of town because “it’s going to be a tough week for egg layers.”
• The “Punch Dub” VW ad is based on the classic game that kids used to play back in the original Beetle’s heyday called “Punch Buggy” (or “Slug Bug”), where the first person to see a Beetle would yell, “Punch Bug” and playfully slug his or her friend. Volkswagen also “found” the creator of the original game, Charlie “Sluggy” Patterson. This is my favorite ad so far.
• Audi leads up to their Super Bowl 2010 ad with funny Green Police spots.
• Diamond Foods will be running a whacky Super Bowl commercial for its Pop Secret popcorn and Emerald Nuts.
• Bridgestone is back at the Super Bowl with two new commercials. The first Bridgestone Super Bowl commercial dubbed “Whale of a Tale” has three guys and a giant Orca whale on a truck. Apparently the guys try to save the whale, but what really happens in the commercial is not revealed yet.
• The centerpiece of the Boost Mobile ad is an off-beat re-creation of the 1985 music video using most of the players, the editing techniques and the same look as the iconic original. Legendary coach Mike Ditka also makes a special cameo appearance in the spot.
• kgb agent ads leading up to the kgb Super Bowl ad features two Baldwin brothers.
• Dove Men+Care features one man’s journey of unsung moments from birth to fatherhood in a montage of scenes set to the ‘William Tell Overture’.

As a viewer looks at the system screen, the built-in camera technology analyzes data such as gender and age, audience composition, time-of-day and other criteria, which enable the system to display tailored content and graphics based on estimated demographics. The system anonymously sends audience information to advertisers who can use that information to understand the type of content and messages that are most popular with viewers. This, in turn, helps advertisers target their advertising to maximize the impact on the audience.

Innovations like Intel’s prototype (pictured above) and NEC’s plans as reported in WSJ today, will change the way people interact with digital signage technology in environments such as stores, airports, banks and hotels.

In the Intel demonstration, multiple consumers can use this side-by-side window display simultaneously to explore augmented reality-enabled maps of each floor of the store, on which retailers can superimpose images such as coupons and sales promotions next to the product visualizations on the glass, improving the customer’s shopping experience. They can send coupons to their phones and more.

These innovations in digital signage concept bring a new opportunity for advertisers to smart target messages through the use of anonymous video analytics. Consumers, especially those with growing privacy concerns relative to data collection and behavioral targeting, may object to getting their faces scanned without their knowledge. However, both Intel and NEC stress the concept of anonymous data points and modeling.

“The program tracks a person’s age and gender and throws out the footage, keeping only the macro data, he said, adding that no individuals are singled out.” Mr. Yamamoto in WSJ story.

Punxsutawney Polamalu. Odd.

I just hope Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t see his shadow today.

Some believe CBS has gone too far to the political right in determining what can or can not air, while others dismiss much of the controversy as merely viral stunts that have become part and parcel of the carnival.

First it was Tebow, then ManCrunch and then GoDaddy.

The first religious-political ad CBS has approved to air in the entire history of the Super Bowl hails from the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family and is a pro-life spot featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother. Some women’s groups are pressuring CBS to scrap the ad.

A ManCrunch spot for the dating site catering to gay men has been officially nixed by CBS.  In the commercial, two football fans are watching a game when their hands touch in a bowl of chips. Making out then ensues.

GoDaddy, which has a history of banned spots, like the 2005 wardrobe malfunction, got another rejection this year. The banned GoDaddy ad features a retired football player, “Lola”, a big, flamboyant, effeminate, lovable man, who embarks on a successful career as a lingerie designer.

Considering they lifted a ban on so-called controversial ads in order to let in the advocacy spot with Tebow, CBS is likely to take a lot of heat from multiple groups for decisions that are perceived by some as homophobic. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation organization, GLAAD, is speaking out against CBS’s decision to deny running the ManCrunch ad.

Here’s the 2010 SuperBowl commercial lineup.

UPDATE: 6pm Monday — another day another banned spot. KGB said “This ad is in keeping with the provocative, edgy ads KGB has made since we introduced the KGB text product last year,” it tested strong and was the logical choice.  Others pundits say it’s a stunt for attention knowing that  the “head-up-the-ass”  would not clear the censors.  You be the judge.