« December 24, 2006 - December 30, 2006 |
Main
| January 07, 2007 - January 13, 2007 »
Friday, January 5, 2007
Source: Media Daily News
Not all of the new ad mediums are digital. This one is as analog as it can get. AdPack USA puts your ad on boxes of Kleenex...er...tissue. Actually they also offer moisturized tissues, washcloths and towelettes to serve all your on-the-go wiping needs. In an effort to generate awareness for the idea, they are offering a cash prize and a free trial to any ad agency that designs the most creative tissue campaign. AdPack launched their tissue advertising in 2004, and while it's new to the US, tissue pack marketing has already gained critical mass in Japan, where an estimated four billion packs with branded messages are distributed each year. Ah! Choo.
Related:
Advertising in lost wallets
Eggvertising
Posted by mwelch at 11:45 AM
Source: Forrester's Marketing blog
 Peter Kim blogs about the steep expectations that face a $1m+ Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) position and the daunting set of qualifications required for success. You need: "Leadership - influence and impact. A track record of results - no excuses. General management and P&L experience. Innovation experience." OK so given the aggressive career run-up it takes to get there, Kim advises you to do a gut check and figure out WHY you want to be CMO. The average CMO tenure is about 23 months (that's almost half of CEO tenure). The tendency for companies is to look at this role as the one who will solve everything...and we know how well that can work out.
Posted by mwelch at 11:12 AM
Source: Business Innovation Insider
 Sheraton's Four Points hotel chain has been looking for a Chief Beer Officer for the past two months. The job? Travel the country testing out beers at beer festivals and oversee the hotel's new beer program, Best Brews, as a part-time gig. In addition, the Chief Beer Officer would be responsible for checking out Oktoberfest in Munich. Over 5,000 applicants from 31 countries have applied for the unpaid position, but Sheraton has yet to fill it. I'm sure the marketers over at Sheraton are laughing it up over a few beers. This is a great publicity stunt that will keep on giving even after they hire the CBO.
Photo originally uploaded by Fellowship of the Rich via Flickr
Related:
Brewing a new image
This woman knows beer
iPods overtake beer
Beer is #1 again
Posted by mwelch at 11:42 AM
Source: TechWeb
Originally uploaded by Orbit via Flickr
A new report says that middle managers are swamped by useless information and spend about a two hours a day looking for the data they need. And often, once they obtain the data, half of it has no value to their jobs. Part of the problem is companies keep information in departmental silos. But since eighty-four percent of middle managers collect and store information on their own hard drives or in e-mail accounts, and fail to share data that might be relevant to others, they're also part of the problem. Companies should develop clear rules and processes about how and when information is shared and consider using technology like SOA and Wikis to centralize information. Stop drowning and start building a raft.
Related:
Ditch your email
Posted by mwelch at 09:54 AM
Source: Wired
We all use Wikipedia, the non-profit encyclopedia created by the wisdom of crowds. Now Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, is hoping we'll also use and help to build Search Wikia, a for-profit search engine project that will begin early this year. Google uses algorithms that determine how many links a page receives to determine page rank. The problem? It can be gamed and hacked. To solve that problem Search Wikia will rely on community volunteers, this time to re-rank search results and tweak open-source search codes for better results. Wales predicts it will take a few years of open-source tinkering before Search Wikia rivals Google. But have no doubt that that is the goal.
When asked how human-powered ranking will work, Wales replies that they don't know...yet. No one thought Wikipedia would work either. Now it is in the top 15 websites used worldwide.
Wales on not committing to a priori thinking:
"A lot of the earlier social search projects fell apart because they were committed a priori to some very specific concept of how it should work. When that worked in some cases but not others, they were too stuck in one mold rather than seeing that a variety of approaches depending on the particular topic is really the way to do it."
Related:
The Great Wikipedia Debate
As good as Brittanica
Colbert takes down Wikipedia
WikiRoast
Posted by mwelch at 09:38 AM
Source: PSFK
Christmas shipping at Amazon UK by Getty Images via BoingBoing and Cool Hunter
Piers Fawkes predicts that 2007 will see a rise in "brand abstinence," a trend caused by a mix of ethical consumerism and brand disappointment in which consumers will develop apathy for new product purchases. Some companies will try to offer us guilt-free purchases (ex: products made from recycled materials, the Prius) but Fawkes believes a rising number of consumers will simply recycle, re-craft or maintain and retain products instead of buying new ones. When eco-conscious products are not available more and more people are saying, "Why should I replace my phone so often? Why upgrade my PC, my car?" When everything ends up in landfills in China, do we really need this stuff? More people are even practicing DIY...check out MAKE and CRAFT.
Related:
Will China clean up US mess?
Free Dell recycling
Buy a Mac, recycle your old computer for free
Posted by mwelch at 02:07 PM
Source: Media Daily News
 Trendmeister Faith Popcorn has deemed 2007 the year of the "networked self." Personalized media has made the world both more fluid and more connected," causing people to turn away from "ego-driven hyper-consumption" toward personal and ecological responsibility. In response savvy companies might "sponsor marketing-free white spaces in lieu of polluting the environment with models and logos," or create "enviro-biographies for products." Brands may become "brand-aides" making a buck while providing needed services…Target daycare, Starbucks learning centers, Avis elder transport. The end game? Consumers calculate their net worth not in dollars earned, but improvements made. How many people did you feed on vacation? Whose house is not the biggest, but the most sustainable?
Posted by mwelch at 09:59 AM
Source: MSNBC
 Toyota hopes to launch a system in 2009 that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the car down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption. Early reports say the system won't allow the car to start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream. Assuming people might wear, um, gloves, the system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus. In those cases, the moving car is then slowed to a halt. Is it just me or do other people think this would almost certainly cause an accident? ...In Boston anyway.
Posted by mwelch at 09:55 AM
Source: Frank Barnako's Media Blog
 
No surprise given that XM and Sirius are burning through some serious dough, but rumors are again afloat about a merger between the two rivals. Frank Barnako blogs that radio industry watcher Allen Sniffen believes that the companies should "give away a chunk of programming for free. Make people buy the radios...give them a chunk of (channels)...put commercials on those channels." Advertisers won't care. To them, radio is radio. After that, as people get used having the receivers, they'll want to pony up dollars for the NFL, or Howard Stern, or Oprah. It's the cable TV (or heroin) model. Give a little taste and then consumers want more.
Related:
Could XM and Sirius both lose the satellite radio wars?
Howard Stern for free
Oprah vs. Howard
Satellite kills Stern?
Posted by mwelch at 09:30 AM
Source: Marketing Daily
The first buzzword of 2007 is here. Market researchers believe that 2007 will find consumers seeking out a new trend, which Robbie Blinkoff is calling simplexity. While people understand that the technology behind Google Maps, iPod and Skype is complex, they have a "veneer of simplicity" so we feel good using them. Blinkoff says marketers should "uncomplicate their products" which does not necessarily mean reducing choices. The acid test? How the customers feel after using the product. If they feel serene "then they perceive that they have chosen to simplify." Kind of a variation on...if it feels good, do it.
Related:
People just want to have fun
Time to enjoyment factor
The chasm between Web 2.0 geeks and the masses
Easy is the new hard
Less is more
Howard Stern as the father of Web 2.0
Posted by mwelch at 01:24 PM
Source: Beth Kanter
 One of my New Year's resolutions is to actually complete my LinkedIn profile and invite contacts. As a result, I've reconnected with a bunch of people - including Beth Kanter.
I interviewed Beth for an article I wrote for the Globe on women and blogging last year. Beth consults to non-profits on technology and she's a board member for The Sharing Foundation, an NGO that does projects to benefit Cambodian children.
This year Beth used a widget to raise money for The Sharing Foundation. A widget is a little chunk of code that you plop down on your blog to provide content or a service. Some widgets chronicle the weather; others monitor the top YouTube videos or your latest Flickr photos. One of my favorites? A countdown clock for charting the remaining days of the Bush administration or the days to the next solar eclipse.
The widget Beth created is provided by Network for Good and Yahoo! Use it to place a badge on your blog for your favorite charity. The widget provides a running tally of donations and directly links donors to a secure site to make contributions.
Get this. Beth raised nearly $50,000 from 751 donors. Now that's a nice way to end 2006.
Are you using technology to make your New Year's resolutions happen? LinkedIn? eDiets? eHarmony? Charity widgets?
Related:
Widgets are the new big
Resolutions made easier by technology:
Switch your lightbulbs
Become LinkedIn
Raise money for your favorite charity
Posted by mwelch at 09:15 AM
Source: PressThink, Lisa Williams
I took the week off from blogging, but Lisa Williams? She went to town, or rather, brought towns to us by launching Placeblogger.com. Lisa is the founder of H2otown.com - a placeblog by and for Watertown residents. And Placeblogger is a place to discover, browse, and subscribe to local blogs all around the world.
Lisa defines a placeblog as "an act of sustained attention to a particular place over time. It can be done by one person, a defined group of people, or in a way that’s open to community contribution. It’s not a newspaper, though it may contain random acts of journalism. It’s about the lived experience of a place."
Jay Rosen who teaches in the Department of Journalism at NYU and advised the project, says, "Looked at individually, the sites are interesting. Together, they could be a force."
I interviewed Lisa for my piece on women and blogging last year. At the time she said blogging made her into an entrepreneur. She emailed me this morning and reflected that now she'd say that both blogging and parenthood made her into an entrepreneur.
I wondered if that had something to do with how she defines the experience of placeblogging - how, like parenting, it knits you into a community. Placeblogs "are about something broader than news alone. They're...about that part of our lives that isn't news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people."
She said yes, but also parenting took her out of the traditional workforce that she always expected to return to. "I don't know if I would have started the stuff that led me to Placeblogger if I was busy climbing the ladder elsewhere. Plus, parenting teaches you to get along on less sleep, a core entrepreneurial skill!"
Placeblogger catalogs 700 placeblogs so far.
Posted by mwelch at 08:46 AM
|
