Corporate blogs are proliferating, according to the founder of Technorati. There are significant numbers of individual bloggers at Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, but their blogs are personal, not official. For a closer look at how a blog fits into a firm's marketing strategy, take a look at Stonyfield Farms, a New Hampshire-based organic dairy with a great story to tell, and four blogs with which to tell it. …
Bootleg TV Spot Bombs, But No Serious Injuries Reported.
Vaughn Whelan & Partners Advertising Inc., a 12-person Toronto firm wanted to pitch the Molson and Coors account (the two brewers are merging), but they were not invited to the party. So, the agency came up with a guerilla approach. VW&P created a bootleg TV spot and paid to run it on Canadian television, and also in Vermont. You have to admire the initiative here, but this move has some major problems in my book. If …
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Storytellers Needed
"Most copywriters are uninspired hacks with only a small bag of smartass tricks separating themselves and oblivion. Very few of them bring any seriously original thinking to their client�s problems. And very few clients ask copywriters for serious thinking as a result. They ask other people instead." -Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void Hugh's words are often provoking. A sure sign of a good writer. Brand managers ought to …
Blogs Stop P.R. Short
In Green Bay, Wisconsin a city known for takes downs, comes Dana VanDen Heuvel, a marketing consultant who has put together a great look at what traditional P.R. offers versus blogs. It's a game-winning open field tackle for the blogs. …
Old School Customer Evangelism
More marketers today are empowering brand evangelists, or in simpler terms, a company's best customers. There are several new ways to go about this, then there's the old school way, patented by recreational clothing manufacturer, Patagonia. Patagonia is led by one of our time's true corporate visionaries …
Corporate Coffee Backlash
Starbucks Gossip is an interesting new site from Jim Romenesko, veteran journalist, editor and pioneering blogger. With his work for Poynter and his Obscure Store blog, you'd think this uberblogger would have no time for keeping tabs on the coffee behemoth. But no. He does have time, and Starbucks haters everywhere are grateful. …
A Brand Is A Promise. What’s Yours?
"A product is an artifact of a truth of a promise. A brand is a promise. The promise of Gateway is to be the wagon-master across the silicon prairie. It was more interesting to me that Gateway opened stores than Barnes & Noble went dot-com. It doesn't matter whether Gateway sells anything in its stores because retailing is the retelling of the tale. So you open stores to tell the story of being the wagon-master. You …
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The Wonders Of Wiki
Blogs are being discussed just about everywhere in mainstream media today. CNBC and other news programs have even begun to feature bloggers like Ana Marie Cox, a.k.a. Wonkette, as talking heads. Now wiki is having its day in the sun. Business Week and Red Herring recently ran articles on this open source publishing technology. While speaking yesterday with Sun Times advertising columnist, Lewis Lazare, I mentioned my …
P&G Cleans It Up
Clairol's Herbal Essences, when applied, no longer produces orgasms. The beauty product does lead Jadyn Maria to sing, however. Too bad. Any old shampoo can lead one to sing in the shower. …
Easy On The Beefcake
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer ads that dramatize the product benefit. Apparently, Outback Steakhouse knows nothing about this time-honored approach. One of their current efforts features three hunks that come to the table to serve three adoring, but rather shy, ladies. No mention of the food at all. What happens when a lonely lady decides to dine at Outback, only to find her server is nasty, or of the same sex? …