One Man’s Art is Another Man’s Garbage is Another Man’s Brand Image

Great read on how the Public Works Department of Yonkers NY has become the cities newest art commission and is changing perceptions of an ubiquitous city item.

Happy Ass

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Personally, I can’t wait to see smiling butt cheeks up in Times Square. It sorta harkens back to the sleaze of the 70’s but in a kindlier, gentler way.

Here’s a link to the company’s website.

Words Fail Me…

Read Copyranter’s take on the madness here.

The Hype Machine

Gizmodo has a handy chart comparing the early reviews about the iPhone with each other. The slow network speed is the only thing keeping me from rushing out and standing in line for one like the loser I am.

All in all I think I’m going to wait till they upgrade to AT&T’s faster network which is rumored to be early next year.

Technorati Tags: design, hardware, Marketing News

DM Days Presentation on “Expanding Layers of Engagement”

Here’s the Direct Marketing Days presentation that Steve Wax gave earlier today. This is for those who attended and wished to refer back to the presentation, and those who were unable but wanted to attend.

Technorati Tags: direct mail, Marketing News, net marketing, social media, Viral Marketing

Continue reading…

A major milestone…

Marc Andreessen has written a brilliant piece on Facebook’s latest move and what he’s calling “one of the most significant milestones in the technology industry in this decade.” It’s worth a read to understand why Facebook’s move from web application to web platform is such a dramatic leap forward for social networking (and the Internet).

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Marc Andreessen, social networking

Shots of Promicin for everyone

Campfire, Click 3X and The USA Network, held a panel yesterday at the BDA/ Promax Conference titled “The Art of Persistent Engagement”.

Using our 4400 campaign, ” The Battle Over Promicin”, Jeremiah and Gregg along with Steve Tozzi from Click 3X/Clickfire, Alexandra Shapiro from The USA Network and Danielle Sacks from Fast Company, did a fabulous job communicating the journey of a true social media marketing campaign.

Shortly following the BDAs, Campfire hosted ” Promicin; The Party”. It was a blast- we even extended it an extra hour! Guests loved the specialty drinks- Promicin Punch, Margarita Power and Promicin-tini. Glass viles of Promicin were distributed about every half hour. Guests were warned before hand of course, that Campfire assumed no responsibility for its life threatening risks. It has been confirmed that everyone walked out alive. Actually… has anyone seen our intern?

To see more pictures

Wired apologizes for obnoxiously defective ad

Today, wired.com apologized for a poorly programmed interstitial ad that blocked the site’s content for 8 hours and generated hundred of complaints. Check out this screenshot of the defective AT&T monstrosity in action.

Perhaps it’s time to finally kill this intrusive and annoying type of ad and focus on giving people a reason to pay attention to your message.

In the meantime, there’s always the Corporate Apology Cookie Gift Basket…

Measuring What We Do

We’ve been on the awards show circuit these last few weeks (here, here, and here, for instance). Seen some fantastic executions, really groundbreaking creative. Clients and agencies are developing brand content in remarkable and entertaining ways. But for everything that’s being produced, let’s ask ourselves: is it working?

For starters, The Measurement Standard blog presents some interesting methods to incorporate new marketing metrics into campaign planning, particularly from a ‘client objectives’ perspective. When we apply Social Media solutions to marketing problems for our clients, it’s always a priority to set up–in advance and integrated across all the platforms– the kinds of metrics and measurement tools that will ultimately prove how well we’re doing. It ain’t easy.

We’re in constant competition for share of mind and share of budget against every initiative in a marketer’s portfolio, not just the digital/viral/new media efforts. That’s why it’s critical to be armed with metrics systems that can withstand scrutiny from our clients. If what we’re doing is indisputably working, we can be confident we’ll be asked to do it again.

CBS to Jericho Fans: Please watch television!

CBS announced it was canceling the critically acclaimed show Jericho, then put it back into next season’s schedule in the face of fans’ mailed-in protests, including an estimated 25 tons of nuts (“Nuts!” is a famous line in the show).

But the network says it is doing so on the condition that fans stop viewing episodes via DVR and on-line at CBS’s website — instead they must watch the live broadcast.

The NY Times reported that “…because CBS finances its shows based on measures of viewership of regularly scheduled broadcasts … Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, said … ‘We want them to watch on Wednesday at 8 o’clock,’ or whenever CBS schedules the return of the series later this year, ‘And we need them to recruit new viewers who are going to watch the broadcast.”’

Hey, if you’ve successfully followed your audience to the Net, why not change the measurement system instead of trying to cancel a successful show? After all you’re selling advertising there as well.

As to DVR viewing? CBS ought to buy TIVO and run its clients’ ad there in sticky entertaining pods that include exclusive Jericho content.

Technorati Tags: advertising, Marketing News, NY Times, Television, TV Commercials