Archive for September, 2007
P.S. Nobody Likes You Very Much
Writing from last week’s Conversational Marketing Summit in San Francisco, CNET’s Elinor Mills asks (and answers), Want to ‘converse’ with advertisers? Me neither.
“Conversational Marketing is an exciting new practice that engages rather than dictates, invites rather than demands, and listens as much as talks,” the Federated Media Guide to the conference states. “Advertising [...]
When Things Break, Don’t Be Cute
There’s a trend among Web 2.0 sites (in particular) to be cute when things aren’t working. You know what? It’s obnoxious. This morning, while doing some research (for a client!) I came across a couple of examples of this.
Here’s one from Technorati, where frankly, something’s always broken. (Here’s an opportunity: create a site like Technorati [...]
Tagline, you’re it!
Many years ago, a marketing consultant proposed that my company dub our products the Final Solution.
I sat there slack jawed, wondering whether this person was completely insane, completely callous, or had just been dozing when they did the chapter on Nazi Germany in World History 101.
I thought of this when I happened to glance at an advertorial [...]
Fake Steve on Real Strategy Problems
I started reading The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs because it was a funny parody of the man behind Apple, but I’ve kept reading it because often skewers the foibles tech industry better than anybody else. If you’ve ever sat in one of those “here’s our new strategy!” meetings at a company that clearly was [...]
Will Drive Cleaner Just Cease and Desist?
I was innocently going about my innocent Internet business - reading up on why the Yankees hate Kevin Youkilis; scanning for news on Tom Brady’s baby daddy or daddy baby or whatever the right term is; checking out a right-wing Catholic blog I look at just to drive myself nuts; and, in my spare time, doing [...]
Clarity is Everything
The New York Times ran a story about iPhone owners being hit with unexpected data charges after taking their phones outside the US - to the tune of $3,000 in one case. While I’m not overwhelmed with sympathy for anybody here, I do think it’s ultimately in AT&T’s best interest to have customers not hate [...]
SEO: There’s no such thing as an original idea
The other day, I was talking to a client about doing some Google Ad Words, and the general topic of driving traffic to our site came up.
The company in question has B2B software as service in a not particularly scintillating business area. The application is good, it solves a real problem, but it’s not all [...]
Poetry-Slam PowerPoint
From Daniel Pink, a short article on pecha-kucha, an approach to PowerPoint created by two architects in Tokyo. The idea is simple: Use 20 slides. Each one can be displayed for 20 seconds. That’s all. Make your point in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, and you’re done.
Now, in business settings this isn’t always possible. But [...]
NFL Logos: the good, the bad, the truly awful
Recently, I’ve been working with a client on a logo project. They’re replacing a home-made (or, as restaurant menus now seem to call it “house-made”), type-only logo with something that’s a lot sharper and more interesting. They now look more like a “real” company, with a logo that’s equivalent to those of their competition.
Logos aren’t [...]
Social Media Q&A
If the array of new social media sites leaves you dizzy - and, more importantly, thining, “OK, how does this fit into my marketing mix” - have a look at this MarketingProfs Q&A with Josh Hallett of Hyku. Josh is one of the smart people in social media, who avoids getting so caught up the [...]
