I’ve spent most of my ad career serving large companies with equally large marketing budgets. These companies invest many millions of dollars pursuing all sorts of push marketing efforts. But that's not my concern at the moment. Recently, I've been realizing how much small businesses mean to me. My friends work in, and own, small businesses. And when these friends ask me about their web site or advertising, I …
Lines Are For Blurring
Brian Morrissey of Adweek looks closely at Panasonic's efforts to create buzz during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Panasonic wanted to build cachet among Internet influencers for its array of tech products. As part of its "Living in High Definition" push, Panasonic new media consultancy Crayon recruited five bloggers to travel to CES on Panasonic's dime. Panasonic footed the bill for their …
Starbucks? No. McDonald’s? Yes.
Adweek's Noreen O'Leary asked a number of agency people how they planned to market their clients' products in this time of diminished credit and general economic woe. Here are a couple of the best responses: "This is not a normal recession. This is a tectonic, structural shift, a global realignment," says Umair Haque, director of Havas Media Lab. "The post-war industrial era was the era of production. Now we're …
File This Under “PR Imbroglio”
China is paying tens of thousands specially trained - and ideologically sound - internet commentators 50 cents per post to tell the government's story, according to the BBC. The commentators have been dubbed the "50-cent party" because of how much they are reputed to be paid for each positive posting (50 Chinese cents; $0.07; £0.05). "Almost all government departments face criticism that is beyond their control," …
Oil Futures Is A Twisted Game
NPR on contango and the insanity of oil futures. …
Let’s Use Words To Describe What We Mean
Bob Gilbreath, Bridge Worldwide's Chief Marketing Strategist, is a big fan of "Marketing With Meaning" (the concept, and the actual words). I'm thrilled that Supe and Schmidtt (from Razorfish) align on the use of the word "meaningful" to describe the concept that we are dedicated to promoting. We sometimes find that the word only conjures elements of Cause Marketing-which, while important, is only one of many ways …
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Honda On The Power of Failure
Stuart Elliott of The New York Times takes a look at three brand-sponsored documentaries showing now on Honda's Power of Dreams microsite. The webisodes, directed by Derek Cianfrance, are low-key in their promotion of Honda and are polished and absorbing enough to make a viewer (almost) forget they are sponsored shorts, and part of the trend toward branded entertainment. But in this case, one can't (almost) forget, …
Fighting Hybrids With Science
I don't connect with the above ad, even though I like the information being conveyed in the ad. BWM has two new diesel-engine models out--the X5 xDrive35d crossover and the 335d sedan. But instead of featuring the vehicles, GSD&M Idea City chose to educate drivers about the benefits of diesel (something high end buyers of a German vehicle might already understand). The agency cast Brian Unger, of Discovery Channel's …