DISCLAIMER: I do NOT want to get involved in a political debate and I am making NO statement about any of these candidates. I just want to know what people think of this ad by Carly Fiorina for Senate. Is this the most bizarre campaign ad you’ve ever seen or did I eat some bad shellfish?
Check out the clip from XPLANE - The Visual Thinking Company out of Portland. Kudos
While everyone continues to tout that Social/Digital/Interactive Media are the next greatest things, then why do businesses fall into the same rut as they did back in 20th Century.
Businesses continue to assume that they must produce things within an industrial age construct where production on a mass scale is revered to almost a god like state. By scaling on a mass level, price and efficiencies are surely gained, but at the expense of what: the expense of the original product AND servicing the people who are directly engaging with those products .
“In the 21st Century the challenges of building great businesses differed than those in the 20th century, and at the core of success is responding to the consumer.” John Gerzema expands to his thoughts in his post in regards to re-thinking how businesses need to be built in today’s economy. “Scaling (businesses) becomes an operation unto itself, with entire businesses built up around the idea of scaling as a goal. Scaling is not the goal, the goal is providing the customer with the product they need at the time they need it.”
Why then do businesses continue to operate within this robber baron mindset? Fear, Memories of the Dot-com Bubble, Lack of Historical Data, Uneasiness with the Concept of Change - Probably a bit of them all, but it is high time that business understand that mulling things over for the next big scaled objective is going to be the demise of their Executive Positions. Web 2.0 and furthermore 3.0 have already seeped into corporate cultures across the globe, and if a business hasn’t acted on this, their competition has - Digital Darwinism at it’s finest.
That’s why businesses need to adopt and understand these 5 essential pillars in today’s Enterprise 2.0 Economy (all of which are expanded upon in detail in Christopher Vollmer’s paper Digital Darwinism):
So going forward, instead of worrying about what we had and trying to protect it, lets look what we are doing on the innovation and collaboration front and make sure we stick to the goals (people) that got us here in the first place.
Because of VQR’s findings about Anderson not sourcing Wikipedia correctly - a point that Tim so eloquently highlighted in his last post - Anderson and the his publisher Hyperion have both issued statements to fix the “issue” going forward.
Love it when bloggers, publishers, and authors all come together to fix a common goal.
It should have never happened but that’s a whole other post!
Seth Godin’s recent blog post, in which he defends Chris Anderson’s ideas from his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price (it can be yours, but not for free - try $26) against Malcolm Gladwell’s less-than-agreeable review, is just plain nonsense. The core of the debate is the future of content. Will people stop paying for all information because they can get it for free? Godin (whose blog I normally love) and Anderson seem to think so, while Gladwell disagrees, and so do I. If YouTube is the poster-child of the Free Revolution, then the whole thing is going to be one giant failure (as YouTube costs Google almost $1 Billion annually).
I understand where Anderson and Godin are coming from, especially regarding news and the written word. Given the staggering growth of blogs and the speed at which bloggers and other online outlets can get the news to its readers, the current situation doesn’t appear all that great for newspapers and magazines whose “news” isn’t news by the time people read it and whose consumers must pay to get it. However, Godin and Anderson don’t consider quality and deepth of coverage in their arguments. They say that soon there will be so many part-time writers who make enough money to cover there costs of writting through advertising that the need for paid content won’t be there. I disagree. The more blogs and other free sources that are out there on the same subjects, the less the bloggers will make on advertising - as they will be splitting their audience. Also, speed isn’t everything. People need qualified, professional journalists to contextualize major events and to lead them through complex issues.
When people aren’t making any money for their efforts they start doing something else, when people aren’t making enough money the quality of their work goes down and ethically journalism goes by the wayside - as it apparently did in Anderson’s book when he lifted pages right out of Wikipedia.
The future of information is not that it will all be free, the future of information is that the tabloid and breaking news will be free, and they will push towards the editorial content which will always cost something (after all, even Anderson thinks Free will make people money). IMO (on this issue) Anderson and Godin are what Gladwell calls “technological utopians” who at times swap their marketer hats for economist hats and write long diatribes essentially explaining why Vegas comps rooms, only drawing the conclusion that somehow the gambling should be free too.
The seed merges 2D and 3D stop motion animation for all to see.
Just something we happened upon and wanted to share:
In my opinion, there needs to be more music and dancing integrated into advertisements on television. GAP had an enthusiastic campaign promoting their line of khakis, jackets and pants in the late 90’s and early millennium. The commercials were filled with different genres of music and dance techniques. Highly appealing and fun to watch. Here are a few more commercials that have incorporated dance, resulting in entertaining and memorable advertisements. Enjoy these videos, and notice if you find yourself itching to move around in your seat.
T Mobile - probably the most number of dancers ever used for a commercial. makes me wish i was there with my T Mobile phone. Read the rest of this entry »
When I first read Wired Magazine’s recent article about Hal Varian and the economics behind Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs I was impressed by the innovative thinking on Google’s part. However, as I dug deeper into the ideas behind the auction model, I encountered those on the net who point out that there is often a fine line between innovative ideas that make billions of dollars and finding yourself on the wrong end of antitrust legislation. I am no economist and no expert on antitrust laws, but it seems the general definitions of terms like “monopoly” and “price-setting” do apply to Google and/or their advertising systems, and as a result Google has been subject to at least a couple of antitrust investigations.
Check out the article and tell us what you think - innovative economic model or ethical gray area? For my part I think Googlenomics is both.
This recently jumped up the viral charts and we’re wondering what you guys think?
Our take: It does what it intended to do: Explain how to “shave down there” and makes it relatively simple using a clear and concise illustration and some witty puns.
Will it take off: Only time will tell…..
Is there a market for this: Hell yes…Why else would a major company pander to this.
Not sure if the man-liest of males will start trimming down there just because Gillette tells them too. But it does start the conversation…
What do you guys think???
I know that is a very trite headline, but this game seems to be extremely intense and powerful on the media and engagement side of the coin.
I can appreciate games and still relish in the days of the simplistic ms pac man and donkey kong era of the 80s…
But hold the phone folks and get ready for the newest iteration in the Rock Band Series: The Beatles.
This may force me to finally bite the bullet and purchase. What do you all think? IMO hands down one of the best “Game Trailers” I’ve ever seen…..thoughts???
Dance has been used for quite some time to promote new products, events, places, brands and elevate campaigns with a different artistic approach. I decided to visit a few of my favorite commercials and ads I have enjoyed, both old and new. Below is my first compilation of those commercials that have incorporated the art of dance in a unique way. Various styles can be seen and some have mixed in humor to generate laughs. It seems you can’t go wrong with dancing and music - it is usually a winning combination that’s fun to watch, appealing, and for me, triggers my outgoing perspectives. Read the rest of this entry »
Seth Godin makes simple things even simpler. In a recent post of his, he discusses marketing in the current climate and the changes people naturally make when “selling” to friends. I totally agree with him in his notion that as long as you have enough friends, there is no need to sell to strangers.
While Twitter and other social media entities are trying to figure out metrics that make sense to those more versed in traditional marketing, digital marketers should just use Godin’s logic. Whose opinion would you value? your friends’ or the mishmash of celebrity endorsers, flashing lights, and half-naked models traditionally used to sell you stuff while insulting your intelligence?
Let’s start by introducing you all to an artist i just discovered on Imeem, named Jamie Lidell with a song to lift up the Monday spirit.
I barely listen to the radio now. I honestly don’t know when I started to tune out the radio stations but in the past years, I’ve transitioned to other sources to provide for my listening enjoyment. Pandora and Imeem are common music sites I go to when looking for new music to play and unwind to. Pandora is great, because it uses the GENOME effect in which it finds music based on your current favorites, styles, influences and sounds. It literally pick pockets artists and songs catered to your taste. Imeem was also a great discovery for me as it introduced me to more new music and artists that I had never heard of. The more I search for music on these sites, the more I get addicted to discovering and researching new talent not typically found in the mainstream scene.
I also realize that this generation is all about the iPod and the iTunes. Don’t get me wrong, I admire and use both but sometimes I find myself staying true to my old fashioned roots with CDs (but not THAT far to when i collected maxi-singles and albums on cassette tapes). I do purchase CD’s of artists that I fully support and enjoy. Plus buying songs on iTunes does not get you the fancy CD booklet of pictures! But in regards to iTunes, it is also a fulfilling way to discover new music, as well as re-discover old tunes you grew up to which can now be easily purchased through the web with the click of a button. Read the rest of this entry »
If you love pizza and live around one of the 650 CiCi’s Pizza locations, don’t be embarrassed to pick up that lonely penny on the ground. Since March 30, one million pennies are being dispersed on the streets surrounding the nationwide restaurants that will be marked with CiCi’s Pizza promotional stickers touting free items and buy one get one free offers. They know how to do it right when it comes to promoting this campaign by mixing traditional, digital, and social media efforts including: 3 national commercials;
a Facebook page; a unique url (www.BeAPennyPickerUpper.com) driving traffic to a page on their website where a photo can be uploaded of your face to be posted on a digital “Proud Penny Picker Upper” bobblehead trophy; and other interactive elements. The overall campaign will boost sales, but I am interested to see how many pennies are actually redeemed. Sorry to say there are no CiCi’s Pizza restaurants in California, so best of luck to those of you fortunate to have a CiCi’s in your state!
One of my favorite websites that I visit frequently is Yelp.com. A site that promotes a large variety of places and events, focusing not only on details, but real reviews and shared personal experiences from everyday people. I am a sucker for reading reviews (I love movie reviews), and this is the site I usually visit to obtain several opinions before diving into something new. Sometimes, I can be the most indecisive person, especially when it comes to picking a place to eat. With Yelp’s helpful restaurant section, it breaks down a huge selection of food categories (Chinese, Mexican, Hawaiian – you name it) and lists restaurants based on your preferred location convenience. Read the rest of this entry »
The Nielsen Company just did a 5 million dollar study to see if the media elite need to address added forms of media measurement.
The whole NY TIMES recap and the NPR podcast are here but some quick highlights:
Check out this video and really watch the whole 2min45sec and wait for the tagline. think you’ll be a bit shocked.
this is the new school of advertising folks…
.
Trojan Condoms has erected a new campaign which caters to every male’s stimulus package. How much of a rise do you think Trojan will get from their new 15 second spot?
Check the social media metrics and ROI from the chain’s new campaign.
Also what do you think of their social campaign and the new logo? NI is still debating that one but tell us what you think?
Eric Schmidt CEO of Google sat down last week with Charlie Rose for a 1-1 interview about Google. Some of the insights that he spoke to are off the charts, especially the goal of “making all the information in the world, every piece of knowledge, accessible and useful to EVERYONE.”
nostrum clients soon find out that we have strong opinions, as well as ideas. and we're not afraid to share them. get to know us, and who knows, we might even have something in common.
