According to Ad Age, stand alone Business sections in daily newspapers are dropping like flies. Which sucks, because that's my favorite section of any newspaper. The Denver Post -- which folded its business section into other sections on every day but Sunday -- this month became at least the eighth daily to cut its stand-alone daily business section since early 2007. …
Geekdom’s Roving Reporter @ NewTeeVee Live
This conference happened last November, but I'm just catching Irina Slutsky's video coverage now. It's good stuff. …
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CEO in the Spotlight: Gina Bianchini
Gina Bianchini is an appealing spokesperson for social networking. The Stanford MBA and former financial analyst at Goldman, Sachs is now working with Netscape founder Marc Andreessen on Ning, a service provider that enables one to build soc nets around any interest. So far, 170,000 people or groups have chosen to do so. Here's the one that motivated me to join. …
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Shoes of Merit Only
Bad Banana went leafing through a 1923 yearbook from UC Berkeley, thanks to the digital offerings of Learning to Share. I'm glad he did, because it's startling (and instructive) to see just how different the world was 85 years ago. It's not just media that's changed, but culture itself. Can you imagine a Berkeley man in 1923 wearing Crocs to class? Going to college was a serious endeavor back then. It required shoes …
Axelrod Is On Message
AKP&D Message and Media is one of the most influential "brand strategy" firms in Chicago, and the nation. One of the firm's partners, David Axelrod-- described as Obama's answer to Karl Rove and the most powerful political consultant not on a coast--heads up Obama's campaign for President. According to the LA Times: The burly 52-year-old with the drooping mustache oversees ad creation and coordinates with the …
The Opposite of Chill Time
South Carolina gets most of its visitors in the summer months. The South Carolina tourism office with the help of Greenville shop, The Bounce Agency wants to change that with a new campaign that specifically targets Chicagoans. The Palmetto State's "Time to Thaw" messaging doesn't do much for David Gianatasio at Adfreak though. The effort includes: 360-degree elevator wraps “that literally put passengers inside …
New Flake Girl
Soul singer, Joss Stone, is working with Cadbury's Flake brand to reinvent a classic campaign from the 60s and 70s. In the new adverts -- which will be available on Cadbury's site -- Stone will be in a recording studio singing to herself the chocolate bar's iconic strap line, "only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate." [via Ad Age] …
Yet Another Facebook Story: Who Moved My Cheese?
Motley Fool wants to know how much Facebook is worth. So they posed the question to Anders Bylund, Rick Aristotle Munarriz, and Tim Beyers. This is what Bylund says: Since some of the finest marketing minds in the world have tried and largely failed to monetize social networking already, I see many years of losses and negative cash flows ahead for Facebook. The other two are more optimistic. …
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Whatever You Do, Do Not Recreate MySpace
Social media consultant, Brian Oberkirch, doesn't want brands to waste resources by building their own social networks. Here's what he does want to see: What would save you money and me time, is for you to be like the Web. Made up of small pieces that connect just about everywhere. Just add bandwidth & remix. Make use of my friend lists. Make use of my profile. Make use of my verified identity. Make use of my …
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The Many Faces of Twitter
According to The New York Times, Michelle Slatalla wanted to keep in touch with her kids via Twitter. But the kids resisted. They said it was spam, pointless and creepy in a surveillance kind of way. Walter J. Carl, an assistant professor of communications studies at Northeastern University notes: “The people who I see using it are an older demographic, people in marketing or P.R. or advertising, who use it for work, …