July 1, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

I'm an adamant believer that folks who use cell phones don't want a bevy of interruptive messages from marketers, but...

Seeing the entire web on my iPhone, the possibilities open up. If it's done smartly.

July 1, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

As an adult beverage marketer intent on "owning cold," it's best to have some solid data to back up your strategy. Come in with some proof that cold matters. According to The Denver Post, Golden's largest brewer has this data in hand.

A Coors Light survey of more than 1,500 men ages 21 to 44 found that nearly 75 percent would rather have air conditioning in their homes during a heat wave than win a date with a supermodel.

More than 44 percent said having a cold drink is their favorite way to cool off, while 38 percent preferred to be immersed in a pool filled with ice-cold beer instead of a pool filled with ice.

When the mercury soars, some men - you know who you are - sport bags of ice on their heads or freeze their clothes before wearing them. And if the wives out there - embarrassed by ice-bag-sporting husbands at Wal-Mart - are wondering why the lawn isn't as well-kept as it was a few months ago, there's this Coors finding: His least favorite hot-weather activity is mowing the lawn.

With that, it's now safe for the Cold Light team to get back to work and allocate more dollars to convince American men that Cold Light never, ever gets warm.

July 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) is reporting on the remarkable reversal of fortunes for Narragansett Brewing Company.

Mark Hellendrung bought the rights to the brand from Pabst Brewing in 2005. Since then he's been on the road, meeting face-to-face with 60 to 70 bar owners and hundreds of beer drinkers throughout New England each week. It appears to be working, as Narragansett was bringing in about $100,000 in annual revenue when he took over. Last year, it posted $3 million in revenue, and is expected to exceed $5 million this year.

Vincent Hemmeter, who owns Vincent's bar and Ralph's Diner in Worcester, Mass., says the beer appeals to the same 20-something clientele who once drank Pabst Blue Ribbon at his bar. "It's anti-cool, so it's cool," he says.

July 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

McDonald’s plans to run its 155 UK delivery trucks on biodiesel made entirely from cooking oil collected from its restaurants by the end of the year.

It will collect oil from 900 of its 1,200 UK outlets each week, take it to a separation tank in East Anglia, where food particles will be removed, and then on to a biodiesel conversion plant in Milton Keynes in central England.

Matthew Howe, manager of McDonald’s UK supply chain, said the cost of using biodiesel was expected to be the same as the restaurant group’s diesel costs in the long term.

Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s chief supply chain officer said the group’s European operation was an “early warning system” for the US.

[via Financial Times]

July 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The recording industry is looking more thug-like as each day passes.

According to several sources, including Wired's Listening Post, Universal Music Group, the largest recording business in the world, will not sign its annual contract with Apple to sell its music in the iTunes store (the 3rd largest music retailer in the U.S.).

The move is meant to pressure Apple into a deal where they would share revenue earned on their music playing devices--the iPod and the new iPhone.

Universal likely wants Apple to pay the same $1-per-unit fee that Microsoft pays Universal for every Zune it sells, and could be willing to hold its catalog hostage as a negotiating tactic.

We'll just have to wait and see who flinches first in order to find out whether Universal's catalog will be pulled from iTunes in the coming weeks. If Apple acquiesces, it could soon find itself doling out a dollar to each major label every time it sells a music player.

I hope Steve Jobs tells Universal to shove it. In the meantime, I'm done buying music on any of Universal's many labels, including Geffen, Interscope, Island Def Jam, Lost Highway, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Motown, Universal or Verve.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Event Design Magazine featured Eduardo Braniff, the ceo and creative director of Imagination USA in March, but I just stumbled across the article yesterday.

Braniff on left

Describing his firm, Braniff says, “Being a consultancy reinforces us to be, first and foremost, a thought-leading enterprise. It’s a deliberate use of language. We solve problems, craft solutions, and understand situations. We use design and technology to achieve clarity. ‘Consultancy’ is more all-encompassing than ‘agency’ or ‘studio’. In the end, we want to be the McKinsey & Co. of creativity.”

Opened in 1978, Imagination cracked the £100 million mark last year. The company employs 372 people in London, Stockholm, Cologne, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Toronto, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

Imagination's bread-and-butter work is in the event space, but Braniff is quick to note that Imagination remains media-neutral. For Braniff, it’s not about integration, it’s about calibration. It’s not about message consistency, it’s about message alignment. It’s less about the perception of the brand and more about what’s inside it.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Catherine Remoussenard, senior professor in human resources and change management at the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France debunks some myths about organizational change.

Don't assume that organizations are naturally dynamic. Organizations reflect the people who constitute them -- as a whole they are inclined to inertia. In part this reflects the fragmented nature of organizations. At every level and in every division, managers are making decisions that they believe only they are qualified to make.

Don't assume that individuals will function rationally. There's the most rational way to achieve a business objective, and then there's the way most people in an organization tend to work: They act in their own best interests. The person responsible for managing change needs to be able to decipher the motivations behind people's actions. That understanding can help reduce opposition to change.

See the WSJ's Career Journal for more.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Lee Gomes brings Power Point into focus for readers of the WSJ's Career Journal.

Robert Gaskins was the visionary entrepreneur who in the mid-1980s realized that the huge but largely invisible market for preparing business slides was a perfect match for the coming generation of graphics-oriented computers.

With major programming done by Dennis Austin, an old chum, PowerPoint 1.0 for Macs came out in 1987. Later that year, Microsoft bought the company for $14 million, its first acquisition, and three years later a Windows version followed.

Mr. Gaskins and Mr. Austin, now 63 and 60, respectively, reflected on PowerPoint's creation and its current omnipresence in an interview last week. They are intensely proud of their technical and strategic successes. But to a striking degree, they aren't the least bit defensive about the criticisms routinely heard of PowerPoint.

Perhaps the most scathing criticism comes from the Yale graphics guru Edward Tufte, who says the software "elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch." He even suggested PowerPoint played a role in the Columbia shuttle disaster, as some vital technical news was buried in an otherwise upbeat slide.

No quarrel from Mr. Gaskins: "All the things Tufte says are absolutely true. People often make very bad use of PowerPoint."

I wonder what Gaskins and Austin think of SlideShare.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I wouldn't say Los Angeles is the friendliest of American cities, but 180 Amsterdam seems to be making a place for itself. According to Adweek, the agency is settling in to their Santa Monica digs (above a yoga studio).

Last fall, the consumer electronics giant Sony awarded its U.S. business to the agency, which is teaming up on the account with BBDO. This was the incentive 180 needed to expand, and in early 2007, it opened its Los Angeles office, up the coast from Sony's San Diego operations.

The planned opening in Santa Monica was also the catalyst for 180 to finalize ongoing negotiations in November 2006 with BBDO parent Omnicom, which bought a majority stake in 180. (180 shares Adidas and Motorola with other units at the holding company.) For Omnicom, 180-which remains a standalone entity-is a creative alternative to the shop's existing networks.

The U.S. expansion also allows the Amsterdam flagship, which has 100 people, to tap into L.A.'s production resources and its wealth of directors, cinematographers and post-production facilities, says Peter Cline, a managing partner of 180 in Amsterdam, who now runs the Santa Monica office with Mike Allen and executive creative director William Gelner.

I guess the agency has been too busy to develop 180LosAngeles.com. Isn't that always the case? Paying clients come first.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

For some non-coastal bias, visit Whitewater, Wisconsin's finest marketing blog, Fly-Over Marketing.

July 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 18 Comments

Eco-warrior, poet and educator Gary Snyder asks that you know where your water comes from. Literally. He wants you to determine which lake or river it comes from and via which drainage. Of course, this is something every person knew as a matter of survival before the concept of modern plumbing.

Now, Charles Fishman writing for Fast Company, updates Snyder's quest for the bottled water age.

Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We're moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That's a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It's so heavy you can't fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water--you have to leave empty space.)

Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water "varieties" from around the globe, not one of which we actually need.

Fishman's piece is quite detailed and nuanced. He says, "A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture." He also dives deep into the collective fantasies we've created in our minds, the very place where brands live.

July 3, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

From The New York Post:

If everyone has a price, Fergie's is $4 million.

The 32-year-old Black Eyed Peas singer is the first global star to consent to product placement in her songs - agreeing to include the provocative clothing line Candie's in her lyrics.

Is this just a 21st century way of jingle writing? While Chevy is appropriating the lyrics of folks who already used the brand in songs, this is a little different.

If it happens all the time on TV shows and in movies, why shouldn't it happen in music? Do you have a problem with this type of product placement?

July 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal picked up on a study by Alloy Media + Marketing that reveals kids attitudes toward advertising on "their" social networking pages. Not surprisingly, preteens and teenagers don't like banner ads and other interruptions from marketers. But the study found that in the right circumstances kids enjoy playing with ad-related features on their personal pages in social-networking Web sites.

Rabbit widget via Brain Sells

Ad related features means widgets. "The concept [of widgets] is simple. We are not going to push something in front of your screen. We are not going to annoy you. You choose what you want to engage with," says Chris Cunningham, vice president of advertising sales at Freewebs, a Silver Spring, Md.-based company that makes widgets for advertisers.

Widgets have "so much buzz now and every advertiser wants to do a widget," says Marc Fireman, head of digital media for Reebok, which sponsored a widget six months ago. Widgets can include a link back to the advertiser's Web site, which adds to their attractiveness for marketers.

The interactive, mutually beneficial nature of widgets can produce a relationship with potential consumers that is cooperative rather than intrusive or "in your face" marketing, says Jason Lee Miller of Web Pro News.

July 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Agency Tart is an anonymous account executive at an anonymous agency in an anonymous city (probably NYC). Sometimes all this anonymity bugs me, but not this time.

Here's her Independence Day finger in the eye:

Did you ask our permission to take off work this week? That’s what a client said when I told him on Monday that I would be out of the office Wednesday - Monday for a short vacation, but would be available by Blackberry. I snorted into the phone, laughing - but then realized the jackass was totally serious! He then proceeded to tell me that he expects me to clear it in advance with him any time I plan to take off, as it might not “coincide with the company’s needs”. You gotta be kidding me. While I’m gone, I’ll scour the souvenir shops looking for a device that will help him get his head out of his ass.

This time I just sit back and smile, knowing that 1) I could never be an account person and 2) whatever bullshit I'm dealing with at work is relatively minor compared to what some of us are faced with on a daily basis.

July 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

eMarketer's front page offers two interesting counterpoints this morning.

In one article, UGC Not Critical for Many Marketers, only 12% of senior marketing staff on the client side said UGC (also known as consumer-generated media, or CGM) was "very important." In another report, titled User-Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay Its Way?, eMarketer estimates that US user-generated content sites will earn $4.3 billion in ad revenues in 2011, up from $1 billion in 2007.

Adweek paid $695 for the latter report and adds, "users have shown no indication that creating their own Web content for others to consume is a passing fad. By 2011, the research estimates there will be 95 million Web users creating content online, up from 64 million last year."

In summary, CGM is exploding and there's money to be made, but only a slim percentage of clients find the development worth acting on. Why am I not surprised?

July 5, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Over at BusinessWeek, there's a great article about corporations, their images and reputations, and whether those reputations affect their stock price.

Many investment pros scoff at suggestions they can be influenced by image manipulation. And to most CEOs, corporate image is not something to fret about—at least, not until a crisis erupts, like an options scandal, employee class action, or ecological disaster. Even when execs try to be proactive, it's often by gut. Want to be viewed as a good corporate citizen? Order up a PR blitz on your charity work or efforts to go green. Eager to land on a magazine's most-admired list? Gin up a strategy to game the selection process.

But a more sophisticated understanding of the power of perception is starting to take hold among savvy corporations. More and more are finding that the way in which the outside world expects a company to behave and perform can be its most important asset. Indeed, a company's reputation for being able to deliver growth, attract top talent, and avoid ethical mishaps can account for much of the 30%-to-70% gap between the book value of most companies and their market capitalizations. Reputation is a big reason Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ) trades at a much higher price-earnings ratio than Pfizer (PFE ), Procter & Gamble (PG ) than Unilever (UN ), and Exxon Mobil (XOM ) than Royal Dutch Shell (RDS ). And while the value of a reputation is vastly less tangible than property, revenue, or cash, more experts are arguing it is possible not only to quantify it but even to predict how image changes in specific areas will harm or hurt the share price.

Of course, spin alone can't create a lasting public image. A company's message must be grounded in reality, and its reputation is built over years. And if there is a negative image based on a poor record of reliability, safety, or labor relations, "please don't hire a PR company to fix it," says strategy professor Phil Rosenzweig of Switzerland's International Institute for Management Development. "Correct the underlying problem first." The biggest driver of a company's reputation and stock performance is, after all, its financial results, notes Rosenzweig, author of The Halo Effect, a book that details how quickly reputations can turn.

I think this meshes very nicely with "Turning Chinese," my new column on Talent Zoo.

In today's world, business is conducted globally and thanks to the Internet, we get to see and hear what companies and their brands are doing around the world. And if you've been following the news recently, then you know about the quality control problems that are raising concerns about Chinese goods. Everyone in the advertising industry is directly affected by this in some way, whether it's professionally or personally. We can't ignore what's going on in other cultures or countries, the world is simply getting too small for that.

July 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

USA Today profiles Susan Wojcicki in today's Tech section. Wojcicki is the woman who rented her garage to two Stanford students intent on building a better search engine. Wojcicki is also Google employee No. 18 and the woman who invented AdSense.

"It was a really novel idea at the time to serve ads that were targeted dynamically" to a specific Web page, says Wojcicki, sitting in a conference room at the "Googleplex" company headquarters.

"People were saying, 'This is a sports site, so we'll serve a sports ad.' And we were saying, 'No. We can actually look at the page in real time and figure out what this page is about.' "

Wojcicki's idea turned into a runaway smash. Google doesn't break out revenues from AdSense and AdWords. But the company recently reported quarterly profit of $1 billion, virtually all derived from both ad programs.

"More people make money from AdSense than any other vehicle on the Web," says Jennifer Slegg, who runs JenSense, a blog devoted to AdSense. "There are many, many AdSense millionaires."

For her efforts, Wojcicki earned a Google Founders' Award, a financial incentive provided to employees to create new ideas. Spokesman David Krane says it's designed to keep employees and give them the same kind of economic award they would receive if they had formed their own companies.

Krane won't disclose how much current Founders' Awards are worth, but the first two awarded to Googlers (not to Wojcicki) were $12 million each.

July 5, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Apparently so.

Here's the press release is all its marketing-speak glory:

Featuring one of the most familiar songs in music recording history, the new execution, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, marks the first time the Luvs brand has taken traditional diaper television advertising to the next level by bundling it with a highly-recognizable song that moms of all ages know and love. This national ad campaign will be brought to life in a big way and is supported by a 20 percent increase in total marketing budget over last year.

"The song itself was chosen to help create a stronger connection to the Luvs brand and awareness of its core benefit -- leakage protection for less," said Mark Rolland, Saatchi & Saatchi. "The song helps us break through the diaper advertising clutter and simply communicate to moms that Luvs diapers are 'all you need' to keep your baby happy with outstanding leakage protection at a value you can't get with the pricey brands."

"...break through the diaper advertising clutter"? Sounds like a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it, I guess...

Here's the TV spot, featuring a cover version of the anthem of The Summer of Love along with some hot baby-on-bear professional wrestling action.

Man, just when I thought I'd seen it all...

[UPDATE] Now the spot's on YouTube:

July 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

David Polinchock, Chief Experience Officer at Brand Experience Lab kindly thought to share with us this video from Silverjet, which cleverly showcases an important new offering from the airline.

July 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Social media consultant Brian Oberkirch is not fond of TechCrunch's oversimplified Kevin v. Evan post. And Oberkirch didn't like Kent Newsome's post on the 5 stages of blogging much better.

So what does Oberkirch like?

I actually think the ‘King of the Mountain’ approach to tracking startups is disrespectful to the idea of entrepreneurship. Like every new thing has to be an ‘x-killer’ or it doesn’t merit review. I believe in the power of unique user experiences to create lots of value and, therefore, lots of new businesses. I believe in the connective power of the Web to create a truly global community and market for the quirkiest of ideas. I believe that lifetimes are measured out in coffee spoons and not deposit slips, and I will talk about the Web accordingly.

And I will fly the flags of my friends who are living examples of just this sort of thing: Ben Brown, Adaptive Path, Satisfaction, Amit Gupta, Mule Design, Dogster and on & on.

One of the things not said by Oberkirch is this: When a site like TechCrunch rockets into orbit, it leaves its grassroots community behind. TechCrunch, one might argue, is now mainstream media.

July 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Actor and writer, Lisa Donovan, a.k.a. "Lisa Nova", rocks. Her YouTube channel has over 42,000 subscribers and 2 million plus page views. I don't know what her take is on embedding ads into her videos, but if I was a brand manager with a youth-oriented product or service, I'd sure like to find out.

July 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Subversives working for the larger good make me happy. Therefore, I'm happy to learn that a mere week after the launch of Apple's iPhone, hackers are busy "fixing" its flaws.

According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), the most popular hack so far is targeted at the requirement that all iPhone users sign a wireless-service contract with AT&T.

Several hackers have posted on the Web step-by-step instructions on how to activate the iPhone's Web browser and iPod without signing up for an AT&T contract. One of the hackers is Jon Lech Johansen, a Norwegian software expert who infuriated Hollywood by creating a program that allowed customers to copy DVDs onto their computers. He has also worked on ways to alter the iTunes software so songs could be downloaded to devices other than iPods.

Hackers are also busy trying to figure out how to allow for the download of unapproved applications from the Web and to use the iPhone as a Wi-Fi phone.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company is "monitoring the situation and, if necessary, will take appropriate action to stop it." An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Here's an idea. Instead of "monitoring the situation" with a team of lawyers, why not see these hackers for who they really are—grassroots product developers—and move quickly to fold their improvements into the product and service offering?

July 6, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Well, I guess my hometown baseball team didn't have much luck with the "90 days same-as-cash" ticket financing scheme. So now it's on to the next genius idea:

Here are some of the mouth-watering details:

Kick back and relax this summer in the Braves new All-You-Can-Eat Seats! Purchase a Basic Package and enjoy UNLIMITED ballpark fare including Hot Dogs, Nachos, peanuts, popcorn and Coca-Cola products...all for one low price! Or upgrade to the BBQ and More Package and enjoy UNLIMITED ballpark fare plus BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches, BBQ Chicken Wings, Cole Slaw, Baked Potato Salad, Corn Bread and Budweiser and Bud Light.

Food and beverages are served out of a private concession stand, just around the corner from your seats. Upon entering, you'll receive a special wristband that will give you access to all your favorite ballpark food during the game. Limit four items per concession stand visit.

Part of the irony here is that this season, the tagline for the Braves is "Welcome To The Bigs." Are we talking big leagues or big asses? Either way, this idea sounds very minor-league to me.

July 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

John Hardy is not your typical captain of industry.

In 1997, when Hardy acquired the land in Nusa Penida (near Bali) for his rapidly expanding business, it was still rice fields. Hardy was concerned about converting food-producing land, so the design studio is also an organic farm, complete with livestock—cows, goats, poultry, rabbits—and fish ponds. The paths are paved in river stones and lined with tall sugar cane. Rice grows in paddy fields outside the glass walls of the design center. The food grown here is used to provide the employees (over seven hundred people) with a healthy lunch.

So, it's only natural that Hardy would also introduce the concept of Sustainable Advertising to address the carbon footprint associated with the production and distribution of his firm's print advertising.

All this is to be commended, but there's no mention of the sourcing of the firm's raw materials—gold, silver, jewels, etc.—which is almost always an envrionmentally destructive act.

July 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Here's some copy from the Attus Apparel website, used to differentiate their product offerings from the rest.

Your typical polo’s have little animals, crests, etc. embroidered on the chest that serves as nothing more than an advertising tool for the clothing co, and also serves as a status symbol for the wearer. We came up with a polo shirt designed to allow you to advertise for yourself, your mood, your interests. A shirt made for expression, to set you apart from the rest of the drones, clones, and social climbers out there. Hence our slogan, Threaded for Liberation.

Instead of alligators or little horseys, Attus offers a dude with a mohawk, a 40-ounce beer, a toilet bowl, the extended middle finger, and so on.

According to The New York Times, Whit Hiler, one of the company's founders, knew that his products alone would not be sufficient ammo for breaking through the clutter. For that, real ammo would be needed. So, Hiler recruited several friends to accompany him to a field, where he videotaped them firing live rounds into unsuspecting manequins sporting his firm's polos. And the "shot up shirt" was born...

Naturally, the video made its way to YouTube, where it's been viewed a whopping 108 times.

July 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

"I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be." - Joseph Campbell

New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, CO has reissued a classic motivational line--Follow Your Bliss--uttered by Joseph Campbell to self-realized persons everywhere.

The brewer's twist is Follow Your Folly.

According to this stray PDF found on e-BusinessEthics.com, the line wasn't a hit when first presented by Amalgamated.

The New Belgium team reacted positively to the presentation with the exception of Amalgamated’s suggested tag line “Follow Your Folly... Ours is Beer.” Several people suggested that “folly” had too negative a connotation or undermined the science and technology it took to produce such consistently high quality beers. The debate built steam over several weeks with creatives suggesting that a word like ‘folly’ had fallen so far from the vernacular that it was ripe for reinterpretation and a fresh new definition. Following one’s folly also aptly alluded to the ideal of offbeat endeavors versus the traditional “follow the money” thinking that created the social tensions inherent to potential consumers’ lives. After a healthy volley of e-mails from nearly every department at New Belgium, the creative team won out and “Follow Your Folly” became the campaign’s tag.

New Belgium's mantra is particularly well-suited to a firm that actually lives by its stated philosophy. Running a brewery on wind power, giving employees a fat tire bike on their one-year anniversary and making beers they can all be proud of is following your folly. And like Campbell said, it works.

July 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Bruce Nussbaum, assistant managing editor at BusinessWeek, gave a speech on innovation and design at Royal College of Art in London recently.

Here's one of the ideas he offered:

Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in the myth-making business, you don’t need design. You need a great ad agency. But if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design. If you are in the co-creation business today—and you’d better be in this age of social networking—then you have to think of design. Indeed, your brand is increasingly shaped and defined by network communities, not your ad agency. Brand manager? Forget about it. Brand curator maybe.

Nussbaum's argument takes me back in time to an embarrassing place. Several years ago I saw graphic designers as hired hands, like photographers. It was the art directors who had the big picture in view. Maybe there was some truth to it, but I like Nussbaum's expansive version of reality much better. Design is now the core discipline and we must all--copywriters, account execs, clients, media buyers, planners, etc.--become fluent in it.

July 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Ad Age reports that five Crispin Porter & Bogusky staffers have left the shop for greener pastures. Their fledgling agency will be called Goodness Mfg. with offices in Venice, Calif., just blocks from the office Crispin opened (and later shuttered) in the 1990s.

Goodness Mfg. has no clients yet, but the agency is open to "any account that pays the bills," said creative director Tom Adams.

Crispin's Chief Creative Officer Alex Bogusky said the losses were not serious, especially given the agency's size. "It's not that big a deal -- I don't think if I left it's that big a deal," he said. "Once the culture is established, and healthy, that's what makes it work," Mr. Bogusky added. "I'm happy for them. I'll miss those guys -- but I don't dislike change."

July 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

For those concerned with Brand America, this L.A. Times story will reveal just how tarnished the nation's image is.

A survey carried out in June by Harris Research for the Financial Times shows that 32% of respondents in five European countries regard the United States as a bigger threat than any other state.

In the U.S. itself, North Korea and Iran are seen as the biggest risks. However, the youngest American respondents share the Europeans' view that the United States is the biggest threat, with 35% of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying their own country as the chief danger to stability.

Inhabitants of Spain are most concerned about the U.S., with 46% of respondents naming America as the biggest threat.

July 9, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

You just have to read this one for yourself. Legendary PR guy Howard J. Rubinstein, writing in the Huffington Post:

In fact, if I've learned anything over the course of my 53 years in the business, it's that the most important tool any PR pro has is his or her reputation for personal ethics and integrity, qualities that are -- paradoxically -- too seldom associated with the public's perception of the industry.

If the industry's image continues to be so trivialized and the substance behind its practice so widely misperceived, I fear public relations professionals are in danger of losing their hard-won seats at the table advising leaders in our most important corporations and organizations. And I worry that someday people entering the business -- and some who have been in it awhile -- may be tempted to take short cuts, to violate the basic ethical foundation that is essential if public relations is to retain its ability to reach and inform the constituencies that are critical to the health and vigor of America's businesses and institutions.

Uh, sure.

Now, I often wonder what we can do to garner the advertising industry a little more respect, but I know that much of what we do isn't worthy of much respect. PR folks like Rubinstein ought to wake up to that same realization. Americans' increasing distrust of, and lack of confidence in large corporations, institutions, and government is largely due to the handiwork of flacks like Rubinstein.

July 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Chivas recently launched This Is the Life on MSN.com. The web "channel" shows affluent young Chivas enthusiasts cooking gourmet meals on 50-foot yachts, boutiquing, golfing and learning about hand-rolled cigars.

The site also features footage from concerts at Chivas-sponsored concerts, as well as video auditions from couples hoping to land a $200,000-a-year gig as global Chivas-brand ambassadors.

Unlike Bud.TV, which featured a hefty amount of unbranded content, every clip is heavily branded. Another key distinction is that the site contains no features that would make it easy for users to download clips onto YouTube and other non-age-verified video-sharing sites.

To restate that last bit in non-Ad Age speak, Chivas has posted thinly veiled commercials that can't be shared via the internets unless one has a Microsoft-owned Spaces account. In other words, they seem to know little about what web surfers want.

July 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

To promote the new Titanic Exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, personal flotation devices were placed on public statues in the and around the city of Denver, Colorado. I'm not sure how I feel about toying with art for the sake of commerce. How about you? Are you cool with it?

[via Guerrilla Marketing defined]

July 10, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

About 10,000 Georgia car owners received what appeared to be an alarming flier from General Motors last fall. "Urgent Potential Recall Notice," the mailing announced in large, bold type.

In fact, there was no recall. The flier wasn't even from GM. Instead, state regulators now say, it was the latest in a 16-year pattern of deceptive sales pitches by the largest car dealer based in Georgia: Bill Heard Chevrolet.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, the first of its kind in 32 years, the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs alleged the October mailing was intended to trick car owners into believing their vehicles were unsafe. Heard was trying to sell new cars or service plans on old autos, the lawsuit said.

The Columbus-based dealer disputes the suit's claim that any violation was "willful," J. Matthew Maguire, one of the dealer's lawyers, said Monday. Company executives admit the mailing was "not appropriate," he said, but contend the blame lies with an advertising firm.

Right. It's all the ad agency's fault. Because car dealers so rarely use deceptive advertising practices. They'd never ask for, or approve and pay for, those kinds of mailers. But those sneaky ad agencies, well, you can never trust them...

In terms of sales, Bill Heard is the largest car dealer in the state of Georgia. And after a TV news expose, the dealership pulled out of Nashville altogether. So it's not like this case involves some penny-ante redneck auto lot. But they mostly sell Chevys. Would a Lexus dealer pull this kind of crap?

July 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Adweek interviewed Arianna Huffington, whose site The Huffington Post draws 3.5 million unique readers a month.

Here are a few highlights:

Q: Do you consider yourself a brand, like Oprah or Martha Stewart?

A: I consider the Huffington Post a brand. A brand is something others may consider you, but I still consider myself a human being.

Q. When you launched your Web site, what surprised you most about the process?

A. One was how quickly we became a part of peoples' daily news-gathering experience. In the past, it would have taken 20 years to build a brand and now it can take a year. The other is how many people who could be writing for a lot of other outlets have become addicted to blogging on the Huffington Post. And that is because of the immediacy you get from posting. ... It enters the cultural blog stream in real time and it gets picked up.

Q. Clearly, you believe in citizen journalism. Do you see any downsides to this growing trend?

A. I don't see a downside if the very important journalism tenets are adhered to: accuracy and fact checking. At the Huffington Post, we tell our bloggers if there is any mistake, they have 24 hours to correct it or their password will be removed. It is not correct to say you can't be accurate if you are a blogger. And God knows there have been many major inaccuracies perpetrated by the mainstream media, especially in the lead-up to the war.

July 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

“The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes it's an ad.” -Howard Gossage

Axmith McIntyre Wicht copywriter and creative director, Brian Howlett, penned a piece for the July issue of Communication Arts that argues copy is dead.

The war, you see, is long past lost. The alphabet is stone cold—copywriting is dead. People don’t read. Not your art director. Not your account director. Not your brother. Not even your client.

Sure, today’s print ads may still have body copy. But unless you’re working in Singapore or maybe Mumbai, it’s simply something that fills up that unsightly gap between the headline and the logo, often not even presented until after the campaign is approved and shot.

I see Howlett's point but I'm not ready to shovel dirt on copy's grave. Far from it. Do I recognize that advertising is a visual medium? Of course. I'm just not willing to concede the importance of copy. Brands still have to tell a story and picturebooks don't always do the trick.

July 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Author, speaker and creative consultant, Annette Moser-Wellman, is coming from a soulful place. In a recent post on her new blog she reminds us that there's much more to life than material possessions, status, promotions, award-winning campaigns and the like.

There's a new American dream. Working on projects that matter and pursuing work we are passionate about have become the gold-standard of a life well-lived. Instead of amassing stockpiles of money, more are choosing to spend energy creating a better world. From fighting global warming, to battling poverty, technological tools have brought Americans closer to the plight of the human community and we are responding.

Legacy used to be a goal dangling at the end of life. But the ability to effect change now, through influencing public opinion, grass-roots fund-raising and more, have proven legacy is a real-time effort. The question becomes "Am I living a life with purpose today?

I've been asking myself this question on a daily basis for the past few months, and the answers I find are rarely what I want to hear.

I once had such high hopes for my ad career. Now, my main thought is I want to use this decade plus of learning and experience to benefit my community, or someone else's community for that matter. Selling products of questionable merit for a company I don't care about is a waste of time and resources in my book. Even if you make decent money at it, you go home with an empty feeling and there's simply no future in such things. Not for me.

Advertising is a powerful medium, but it's almost always abused. Those of us who create branded communications do so for anyone willing to pay our way. I'd like to become a lot more selective. There are plenty of worthy products, services and causes that need advertising.

July 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Mahogany interiors, five-course meals and personal butler service will be available on several Amtrak routes starting this fall, as the national passenger railroad embarks on a new partnership with GrandLuxe Rail Journeys.

The companies have teamed up to attach seven special GrandLuxe cars to regularly scheduled Amtrak trains.

For Amtrak, the partnership will be a moneymaker, company spokesman Cliff Black said. He declined to say exactly how much privately held GrandLuxe is paying the government-owned corporation.

"We like the opportunity to experiment with creative marketing approaches," Black said. "Anything that elevates the profile of passenger-train service is beneficial to Amtrak."

[via USA Today]

July 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Stuart Elliott of The New York Times looks at a distinctly Japanese approach to selling Subarus from Moon City Productions in New York City.

In a campaign that is scheduled to begin online today, Subaru will promote the 2008 Impreza WRX by invoking the history, heritage and popular culture of its home country, Japan. The campaign, with a budget estimated at $10 million, is infused with aspects of Japanese anime films and manga comics; movies like “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Blade Runner”; and television series like “Heroes.”

Three commercials that are to make their debut on the Subaru Web site (subaru.com/legend) will tell a tale of a man from a futuristic city “in a land of forbidden secrets” — to quote a line from the teaser trailer on the site — who is fated to become the master of a powerful jungle creature, i.e., the WRX. Consumers will also be able to watch the spots on cellphones as well as on television.

The men ages 20 to 34 who are the intended audience for the WRX — which has features like all-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine — “like what’s coming from Asia, and this epitomizes that,” said Timothy J. Mahoney, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Subaru of America in Cherry Hill, N.J., a division of Fuji Heavy Industries.

July 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

This week, one of Hollywood's top digital agents--United Talent Agency digital head Brent Weinstei--is leaving the shop that represents movie stars such as Vince Vaughn and Johnny Depp to become the CEO of 60Frames Entertainment, a new company dedicated to handling the financing, ad sales and syndication of "professionally produced online content."

"We wanted to make it so that artists who are busy with film and TV careers can get in and get out, easily," said Mr. Weinstein, adding that "it shouldn't be as hard to make an internet deal as it is to make a film or TV deal."

Mr. Weinstein touts 60Frames as providing content creators with "speed to market" -- an alacrity that comes in part from its being "distribution agnostic," or willing to syndicate its content through "top video portals, social-network websites, mobile and emerging broadband outlets."

[via Ad Age]

July 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke put together a cover story on The Police reunion last month. The piece has some interesting echoes for those who toil in advertising, or any creative field.

Sting, sitting on a wooden stool as he sings and plays bass, abruptly cuts the song in midchorus. "Is there another way to play that chord?" he says, looking across the stage at guitarist Andy Summers, who calmly asks why. "There's a fluff in there, to be honest," Sting replies bluntly. Then he turns to drummer Stewart Copeland. "Is that the right tempo?" Sting asks, adding with polite authority, "Let's try it again."

So it goes for the next two hours. Sting repeatedly hits the brakes, fussing with the groove or Summers' guitar tone. At one point, Sting and Summers debate a three-note lick in "Walking in Your Footsteps" for half an hour. Sting has Summers play it over and over, in different ways. Summers obliges with the poise of one who's been here before.

"It's all in the detail," Sting says after rehearsal, without apology. "Andy and Stewart may disagree with me," he goes on. "They think we should jam more. I want the details to be precise."

One of my favorite metaphors for the agency business goes like this: Working for an agency is like being in a band. As a writer (or art director, account person, etc.) you're like a bass player (or drummer, singer, etc.). The question is what kind of bass player are you? Are you a rocker playing in a country band because it's a paying gig? I know I have been. When you're in this situation, you have to perform to pay the bills, but you also need to find the right band for your particular gifts.

July 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

David Armano is VP of Experience Design with interactive services firm Critical Mass. He prepared a presentation on breaking down workplace silos to deliver internally in Toronto this week.

Here's how he describes his deck:

The changes that we are all feeling in the workplace and within our industries are requiring us to think and work slightly differently. We can no longer afford to over-analyze our challenges. We must try to get things launched—learn from these experiences and refine. We must define ourselves and what we do more broadly while retaining the potency of our our crafts. It's about going from left brain to right brain and ending up on "light brain". We must become "fuzzy".

This is particularly true for companies that build and manage web properties. The web is not static, it evolves as we evolve, each and every day. It seems obvious but it's not. Clients and agency personnel alike spend months on end preparing to launch, when what they need to do is launch now and then spend every day making the site better.

July 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Catharine P. Taylor left Adweek a few months ago but she is still churning out the ad news of the day, now on a Blogger site called Adverganza. In her latest offering she scolds Whole Foods Market CEO, John Mackey, for posting anonymously on chat boards about his company. She calls his actions "a crime against his brand."

According to the New York Times story, Mackey used the pseudonym Rahodeb — a variation of Deborah, his wife’s name — to write more than 1,100 entries on Yahoo Finance’s bulletin board over a seven-year period, championing his company’s stock and occasionally blasting a rival, Wild Oats Markets.

Mr. Mackey’s alias surfaced in a footnote in a 40-page court document filed on June 6 by lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission, which is trying to block Whole Foods’ acquisition of Wild Oats on the ground that it would limit competition among natural and organic groceries.

July 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

[via The Wall Street Journal]

July 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

photo by Darcy Padilla

Wired Magazine contributing editor Fred Vogelstein spent some time with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. The result is a splendid look at one of the top bloggers in the universe.

Arrington has turned his passion into a tidy business. Revenue from advertising, job listings, and sponsorships now totals about $200,000 a month. He says he could have sold the operation last fall to a media company (which he won't name) for $8.5 million, and he may still. But with a new top-flight CEO from Fox Interactive Media, roughly $1 million in the bank, and VCs lining up around the block to invest, Arrington talks like a man who wants to build an empire. There are lots of blogs with more raw traffic — mostly celebrity or political sites like A Socialite's Life and Daily Kos — but few with as much business influence.

By any measure, it has been a remarkable rise. Two years ago, Arrington was a nobody — a former attorney and entrepreneur who, at 35, looked as if he might never hit it big. Now, without a journalism background or media-giant bankroll, he is mentioned in the same sentence as big-shot tech journalist Walt Mossberg. But Arrington is not only a self-made Silicon Valley rock star, he's a textbook example of how to turn intelligence, tenacity, and arrogance into an Internet brand.

The piece reveals that Arrington works harder than most. He works seven days a week, 16+ hours a day with no vacations. The article also reveals a bit about his attitude.

Arington's longtime associate and mentor, Keith Teare, says he's never met anyone with as much drive as Arrington has. He says it's part of the reason Arrington has had so many employers — six (not including part-time consulting gigs) since graduating from Stanford Law School in 1995. Arrington always wanted more power and responsibility than his employers were prepared to give him, and he was never good at concealing his frustration — or any emotions, really — when he didn't get his way.

Wow. Can I relate to that last bit, or what? Yes, is the answer. And when you work in a business based on client service, you'll never be granted that kind of power and responsibility. Even when you have it at the agency, you're still a hired gun/outsider when it comes to negotiating a seat at the client's decision-making table.

July 13, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Over at The Huffington Post, Jake Brewer, Director of Partnerships for Idealist.org, makes the case for the skills of nonprofit marketing professionals.

Professionals who make the decision to work in the nonprofit sector are often seen by their corporate counterparts as "nice folks who can't cut it in the real business world." The funny thing about that myth is many Directors and VPs of Marketing for nonprofits left the for-profit sector because they got sick of peddling widgets, and wanted their professional lives to be about something they cared more about (imagine that). To the bigger point, though, winning hearts, minds, AND wallets is freakin' hard - harder than corporate marketing - particularly without a multi-million (or billon) dollar budget. In fact many organizations that serve you and your communities have a marketing budget of $0... and yet you know about them and contribute to them. These guys are damn good.

I'd love to take a team like Wal-Mart's marketing department, strip it of any significant budget, and see just how good they are combating poverty, the climate crisis or HIV/AIDS. It's possible they'd be pretty good... but I bet they'd be met with stark reality.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Chicago post-production house, Optimus, is lending a hand this weekend at Pitchfork's Music Festvial, which starts today in Union Park.

According to Sun Times ad columnist, Lewis Lazare, Optimus' Joel Anderson is buddies with one of the Pitchfork fest organizers.

Anderson and his Optimus partner Jan Maitland produced animated videos that will introduce several of the key acts--Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Of Montreal and Klaxons, to name a few. Optimus staffers also created a different set of animated images for the bands that will be used online.

In addition, a team of 35 Optimus staffers will be in charge of six video cameras set up at the festival to tape each band's performance. Within four to six hours after each band's gig, a professionally produced video from that performance will be posted on Pitchfork's event Web site.

In case you're wondering just how indie this festival is, see Pitchfork's Sponsor's Page.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Do you need proof that 99.9% of the ads currently in circulation suck? If you do need such evidence, Associated Press has it.

Consumers put away their wallets in June, sending retail sales crashing by the sharpest amount in nearly two years.

The Commerce Department reported today that retail sales fell by 0.9 percent last month, the biggest drop since August 2005. Demand for autos, furniture and building supplies all plunged.

The drop was much bigger than the flat reading that economists had been expecting. It raised new worries about consumer spending, which is closely watched because it accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity.

Come on people. We can do better. Our brilliant ideas are supposed to lead to the sweet ring of cash registers.

Time to try harder, I guess.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

We all have our favorite agencies and ad peeps. Butler Shine and Stern has occupied a spot atop my list for many years. I could list the reasons why, but I'll offer a rather simple one at the moment—they had the wisdom to locate in Sausalito. From creative places come big ideas...

One of their latest is the production of a conference.

Influx Ideas Conference will be held at the Golden Gate Club in San Francisco on October 19, 2007. Early bird registration is available until August 19th.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Do you want to see one of the funniest leads in modern-day journalism? Here it is, courtesy of Associated Press:

Given all that's at stake in the 2008 presidential race, it's a bit terrifying to realize that by one measure, a major role is being played by an aspiring model/actress/fashion designer/former beauty pageant contestant named Amber.

Amber Lee is also known as Obama Girl. She's becoming an interweb celeb thanks to 2 million plus views on YouTube--a media property that did not exist during the run up to the 2004 election.

With a new music video about to launch on Monday, Omaba Girl is about to become even more famous/important.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Jeremy Pepper is an infamous (and snarky) PR blogger. Apparently, he's also known for his avid pursuit of women.

Check this two-twit sequence from Josh Hallett:

Josh's live report was sent from BlogPhilly.

Here's Ariel Waldman's response (from KCMO, I presume):

So, what have we learned here?

Be careful what you say when live bloggers/Twitterers are present.

I'm pretty sure there's some other learning wrapped up in this, but I'm not prepared to say what it is.

July 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

[via Valleywag]

July 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

How would you like to have a 323% increase in site traffic over the past year only to have TechCrunch question the future of your business? That's exactly the situation LinkedIn faced yesterday when Duncan Riley asked, "Is it enough?"

Is this growth high enough given the rising popularity of Facebook as the social networking destination of choice?

LinkedIn provides a more focused business networking product and it works fairly well for that purpose, but people flock where other people are going and nearly everyone who takes their social networking seriously (ie: adults) are joining Facebook.

What is this, high school all over again? Because Facebook is the popular kid today, LinkedIn is in danger? There's something wrong with this analysis.

When you join Facebook, they don't even ask you if you're purpose on the site is business networking. For the great majority, Facebook is about hooking up, just like MySpace. Perhaps the technorati have created must-join networks on Facebook, but the everyday business person is more inclined to join LinkedIn.

July 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

It's Saturday and we're going through the flotsam in our garage.

This billboard from Apple reminds me of how I'd love something like an iPod for all my old paperwork.

[via Shedwa]

July 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Colorado press is examining the fate of Bouler-based Wild Oats Market, now that the pending merger with Austin-based Whole Foods Market is looking less likely to go through.

Whole Foods’ offer to buy Wild Oats for $671 million in February seemed like a salvation.

The Boulder-based natural grocery chain was losing share to its larger rival, and a merger would create a powerhouse in the growing niche.

But the acquisition looks increasingly imperiled.

I've been wondering what led to Mackey's pursuit of his rival, especially since he had such negative things to say about Wild Oats when he was posing as "Rahodeb" on Yahoo's Finance site. The article indicates that Mackey didn't want Wild Oats to fall into the "wrong hands." Namely, Kroger or Safeway, or even Wal-Mart, a company that's recently been taking organics much more seriously.

I know Mackey's stated reason for acquiring his rival is legit from a business perspective, but I can think of an even better reason. One that's not fear-based. How about this: Wild Oats is a great store with an active community of brand zealots.

July 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

BusinessWeek is sharing some interesting figures regarding how much income certain A-list blogs pull in.

• boingboing.net
  Launched: January, 2000
  Revenue: Over $1 million a year


• icanhascheezburger.com
  Launched: January, 2007
  Revenue: Estimated $5,600 a month


• shoemoney.com
  Launched: October, 2005
  Revenue: $12,000 a month


• overheardinnewyork.com
  Launched: July, 2003
  Revenue: Estimated $8,100 a month


• kottke.org
  Launched: March, 1998
  Revenue: Estimated $5,300 a month


• talkingpointsmemo.com
  Launched: November, 2000
  Revenue: Estimated $45,000 a month


• perezhilton.com
  Launched: September, 2004
  Revenue: Estimated $111,000 a month


• gothamist.com (and 13 other sites in the "-ist" network)
  Launched: January, 2003
  Revenue: Estimated at $250,000 a month


• techcrunch.com
  Launched: June, 2005
  Revenue: $200,000 a month


• gofugyourself.typepad.com
  Launched: July, 2004
  Revenue: Estimated $6,240 a month


• mashable.com
  Launched: July, 2005
  Revenue: Estimated $166,000 a month


• problogger.net (multiple sites)
  Launched: November, 2004
  Revenue: Over $100,000 a year

July 14, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

Set those DVRs: "Scott Baio is 45...and Single" premieres tomorrow (Sunday), at 10:30 ET on VH1.

Here's an interview with his Chachiness:

Was it tough dredging up the past?

Scary, not tough. A lot of women wouldn't talk to me. Some women I was afraid of because I wronged them and hell has no wrath like a woman scorned. In the later episodes, you'll see me flinching a few times because I really thought some of these women were going to hit me.

In the first episode, your life coach, Doc Ali, tells you that she needs you to be celibate for 8 weeks. When's the last time you were celibate for that long?

When I was 16-years-old. Before I lost my virginity.

The ultimate point of the show seems to be not just that you're doing this for yourself, but for the sake of your relationship with your girlfriend, Renee.

I did it for that. I did it more for me. She was fine. She doesn't have a problem. I mean, she has other problems, but not a commitment problem. The show's about me!

C'mon. You know you wanna tune in. How bad could it be?

July 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

courtesy of Flickr user, Casey Serin

The New York Times spoke with Jamba Juice CEO, Paul E. Clayton (not pictured above), about his company's brand experience.

Q. Is there a demand for $5 smoothies nationwide?

A. What there is a demand for is healthier options. Jamba offers a healthy, nutritious option. It is a source of energy, can be a snack in-between meals or can be a meal replacement. We don’t just see ourselves as a smoothie and juice company. We see our ourselves as a source of healthy energy.

Q. Starbucks has a popular line of smoothie-like drinks made with teas. Other companies have smoothies. How will you stand out?

A. Starbucks brings greater visibility and exposure to made-to-order blended beverages. We distinguish ourselves with freshly made, high-quality, healthy options that are made with all-natural fresh ingredients. If the customer wants that, they have to come to Jamba.

Jamba Juice has 600 stores and plans to open 90 more in 2007.

July 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

courtesy of Flickr user, DMNYC

...and Lewis Lazare wonders why Leo Burnett has problems.

July 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

It's Sunday, which means it time to open The New York Times Magazine and read "Consumed," the weekly column by Rob Walker.

Today's piece is about Crocs--a shoe I'm already hooked on--so my interest level in the article isn't there. What I am interested in is finding out more about this writerman, Rob Walker. So I did some digging and found out he's from Houston originally, lived in New Orleans and Jersey City for awhile and now lives in Savannah with his wife, E.

Walker is the author of Letters from New Orleans, and he has some interesting online projects going, as well. One is his blog, murketing. Another is his MLB BLVD site, an "open source" photo/journalism project which documents scenes from MLK Boulevards around the country.

July 16, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Some agencies don't simply bend over and take it, I suppose. From The Boston Business Journal:

In a rare instance of an ad agency fighting back against a client, Modernista of Boston is suing a former client, a unit of Reebok International Ltd., for breach of contract.

The case hinges on Modernista's allegation that the Reebok unit, shoe retailer The Rockport Company LLC in Canton, failed to pay for advertising services provided during ongoing negotiations for a 2007 contract extension. Both companies had signed an interim "bridge agreement" during those negotiations, according to the lawsuit. Modernista -- which is claiming $500,000 in damages -- also alleges that Rockport intentionally misled the agency into signing that agreement in order to receive creative services at a cheaper price.

Indeed, according to sources, Rockport began conducting a secret review with a handful of agencies as early as November 2006, telling shops they felt like "a small fish" among Modernista's big-name clients. Rockport's current agency, Hill Holliday, works for AOL, Toys "R" Us and Dunkin' Donuts, among others.

"It's essentially a no-no to sue a client for obvious reasons. It could set up a bad image problem for the agency, because the agency comes off looking litigious. Client/agency relationships are very volatile. I'm guessing Modernista just wanted to make a point. They might think, 'We're tired of agencies getting beaten up by arrogant clients,' " said Chris Cakebread, an advertising professor at Boston University.

I don't know anything about this case other than what this article says. But it seems to me that if you're a client that feels like "a small fish" at Modernista, going to a bigger shop like Hill Holliday wouldn't be the answer. And suing a client to get paid isn't 'just wanting to make a point.' It's getting what you think you're entitled to.

July 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) is reporting that marketers and media companies (like ESPN) have found their way to Twitter.

NBC, CBS, ABC Family and MTV are among several networks experimenting with the marketing possibilities of Twitter.

Marketing through Twitter -- as with any new technology -- isn't a slam dunk. Sending marketing messages on the service could alienate users who see Twitter as a way to talk to their friends.

Uh, not exactly. Twitter users choose the person or entitiy they wish to follow. Hence, a marketer's stream of updates can easily be ignored.

July 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Ad Age, Chan Suh is pulling a Steve Jobs. He's back in the role of CEO at Agency.com, the company he founded in 1995.

"It's like getting the band back together," Mr. Suh said. "It's time to agitate again."

Mr. Suh, had stepped away from agency operations in 2004, the year after it became wholly owned by Omnicom.

Mr. Suh's goal for Agency.com is to boost its emerging-media capabilities and bring the shop to traditionally offline places. Agencies that can only handle online ads and web design, he said, are liabilities at times when client campaigns live in multiple media.

"Our clients need all of it, not just digital or analog," he said.

July 16, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, TV execs in Pittsburgh are saving the local populace from the harmful effects of condom advertising.

Controversy over a new advertising campaign by Trojan, the condom maker, has trickled down to the local level, with television stations in Pittsburgh roundly refusing to show it, and stations in Seattle giving it the green light.

When Trojan introduced the condom commercial last month, it was rejected as national advertising by both CBS and Fox. Fox said it objected to the message that condoms can prevent pregnancy, while CBS said it was not “appropriate,” drawing a firestorm of criticism from public health advocates and bloggers.

But Trojan, which is owned by Church & Dwight, was in for more unhappy surprises last week. Local affiliates in Pittsburgh for ABC and NBC, two networks that had agreed to run the ad nationally, also snubbed it.

The odd effect of these decisions will be that viewers in the Pittsburgh area will be able to see the commercials during national advertising slots on ABC or NBC — if with less frequency. Stations sell their own commercial slots as well, to local and national advertisers, and the ads are subject to local review even if they pass muster with networks.

If you're going to sell beer every five feet, which they do in Pittsburgh, some condom commercials won't destroy the city's moral fiber. And since when does the Fox network have any standards it needs to uphold?

July 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) is celebrating blogging's 10th anniversary, although they afix no hard and fast date to the form's emergence.

The business paper asked a number of people to pontificate on the subject. Blogerati chairwoman emeritus, Elizabeth Spiers, offers some nice insight into the practice (as does Scott Karp...see video above). So I'll share some of her commentary here:

Of the various blogs I've written or produced, the ones that worked best -- the ones that had the biggest and most loyal readerships -- always had a few consistent qualities. They were topically focused, often in niche areas. They published regularly and frequently, typically during office hours and several times a day. They published content that was original or difficult to find, from breaking news to proprietary photographs to obscure links that readers are unlikely to find on their own. They were usually well-written, which has its own intrinsic appeal for anyone who prefers to enjoy what they're reading. And lastly, they engaged their readership by soliciting feedback and responding to it, in the form of asking for tips, allowing comments or otherwise demonstrating some level of interest in their audience's preferences.

Most blogs are personal diaries and don't fit those criteria, even in part. But the success of the various blogs that do choose to follow the aforementioned formula indicates that it's possible to create commercially viable media products for niche audiences.

The subjects of this article were also asked which blogs were personal favorites. Spiers likes Design Observer, MaudNewton.com and Reason Magazine's blog. Mia Farrow likes BoingBoing and GPSMagazine.com. Newt Gingrich likes RedState.org and PowelineBlog.com (no surprise there). Novelist, Tom Wolfe, "weary of narcissistic shrieks and baseless 'information,' " says he no longer reads blogs.

July 16, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 13 Comments

Once upon a time, advertising was glamorous hucksterism...for white people in suits living the dream on Madison Avenue, growing fat on three-martini lunches and TV media commissions.

From the AMC website:

Mad Men is AMC’s provocative new original series from writer and executive producer Matthew Weiner of The Sopranos. Set in 1960 New York, Mad Men pulls the viewer into an unexpected new world - the high-powered and glamorous “Golden Age” of advertising - where everyone is selling something and nothing is ever what you expect it to be.

I know I'm interesed in seeing this. Do you think it'll be good? Bad? Ever wish you were born 40 years earlier? Do you know any codgers who were around back then who can vouch for the series' authenticity, or lack thereof?

July 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The online video site formerly known as Grouper — the one purchased by Sony for $65 million last August — has a new name and a new direction.

Now known as Crackle, the Sausalito-based startup will function as a Sony Pictures-backed online talent studio.

The hope is that in between Hollywood and YouTube, there is an opportunity to bring together nascent actors and film-makers and turn them into tomorrow’s silver-screen stars.

Crackle is also promising higher production values in effort to distinguish itself from the grainy vids found on YouTube and other video sites.

[via VentureBeat]

July 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Anne Benvenuto is executive vice president of strategic services at R/GA. In the May 2007 issue of Admap Magazine she wrote an article called "Planning: the challenge of complexity" which introduces her concept of the creative hydra and other new media challenges.

The creative hydra was born when a few new roles were grafted on to the traditional copywriter-art director team to help conceive programmes and experiences. These included the technical creative director ("tech lead") and the interaction designer (also known as the interaction designer).

Benvenuto's point is that planners must learn to manage the complexities of the new media marketplace if their agencies are going to deliver more than just communications.

[via Vincent Thomé]

July 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), Coca-Cola Co. topped the list of Harris Interactive's annual poll of "best brands" for the first time, as Sony Corp. slipped from the top spot, where it sat for seven straight years.

• Coca-Cola
• Sony
• Toyota
• Dell
• Ford
• Kraft Foods
• Pepsi Cola
• Microsoft
• Apple
• Honda

To compile the list, Harris surveyed 2,372 adults online, asking them to consider the brands of products and services they were familiar with and name the three they considered the best. Respondents weren't read or shown a list of brand names, Harris says.

July 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

By now all the hype about the value of "online conversations" has reached the corner offices and executive suites of the world's top marketers (some bookshevles may even sport a ragged copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto), but sadly the dark side of this new communications model has also reared its ugly head more than once.

BusinessWeek takes a look:

The venom of crowds isn't new. Ancient Rome was smothered in graffiti. But today the mad scrawls of everyday punters can coalesce into a sprawling, menacing mob, with its own international distribution system, zero barriers to entry, and the ability to ransack brands and reputations. No question, legitimate criticism about companies should get out. The wrinkle now is how often the threats, increasingly posted anonymously, turn savage.

Most companies are wholly unprepared to deal with the new nastiness that's erupting online. That's worrisome as the Web moves closer to being the prime advertising medium—and reputational conduit—of our time. "The CEOs of the largest 50 companies in the world are practically hiding under their desks in terror about Internet rumors," says top crisis manager Eric Dezenhall, author of the upcoming book Damage Control. "Millions of dollars in labor are being spent discussing whether or not you should respond on the Web."

This is a tough question to answer properly. Responding validates the venom. But ignoring it leads to an impression of corporate cluelessness.

The BW piece indicates that Dell recently engaged one of its more high profile critics, Jeff Jarvis--the man who ignited the original Dell Hell customer-service crusade with his rants about the company. And they did so in person! "In a flash he (Dell's blogger-in-chief Lionel Menchaca) transformed the borgish image of Dell for me," says Jarvis.

July 17, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

The state of Georgia, which has always seemed a little lax in the regulatory area, continues to go after deceptive auto advertising. From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs announced fines of $1.66 million apiece against Smart Automotive Group and its owners, Michael Burst and Ben Burst, charging them with violating the Fair Business Practices Act. State officials say the fine may be a record for the agency.

The agency said the company mailed out promotions to consumers on behalf of car dealers even after the state was told Smart Automotive was no longer doing business in the state.

Among the allegations, the office said that Smart Automotive:

-Made false claims to consumers, claiming ordinary sales were "Georgia's only reprocessed vehicle event," or "liquidation" sales events

-Told consumers they had won cars as prizes when they had not

-Misrepresented the monthly payments consumers would have to make on cars they bought

-Misrepresented the number of cars available for sale

-Claimed consumers with credit problems were pre-approved for loans of up to $30,000 when they had not been pre-approved

-Failed to list the number, odds and retail value of the promotional prizes offered at sales

When your agency name is Smart Automotive Group, well, you oughta be a bit...smarter about things.

July 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Did you know that Brand Flakes for Breakfast and Make the Logo Bigger are related? Yep. And not just that, they've leased an innocent van, covered it in Plaid and are now en route to Dallas, TX via New England. Strange, I know.

July 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 12 Comments

During this morning's commute some AdPulp fodder emerged from the car radio.

NPR's Elizabeth Blair interviewed Reed Collins, a creative director at Leo Burnett about the transformation of a dozen 7-Elevens into Kwik-E Marts--a stunt meant to promote The Simpons Movie. Collins loves the move, in part because it was his team's idea. Collins says Burnett presented the concept to receptive managers at 20th Century Fox, 7-Eleven and Simpons' creator Matt Groening. He adds that the idea eventually lost steam over several months.

Sadly, 7-Eleven and 20th Century Fox have their own version of events. A studio spokesperson said Collins' claim is "ridiculous" and that the idea was already in the works.

Omnicom's Fresh Works--a virtual agency made up of teams from Tracy Locke, TPN, Dieste Harmel & Partners and The Integer Group--is AOR on the 7-Eleven business.

July 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociology professor, is rocking boats with his challenge to the influencer model that much modern day marketing relies upon.

Brandweek endeavored to speak with Mr. Watts abou this ideas.

Brandweek: Why aren't influentials as influential as everyone thinks?

Watts: Common sense notions of cause and effect are deeply misleading with respect to social processes. It is relatively easy for us to imagine how we might influence a single individual, or as an individual, be influenced (although even that is more subtle and complicated than you would think). So it's tempting to think that influencing a lot of people is just like influencing an individual many times over (mass media marketing is, in effect, based on this simple principle). And from this reasoning, it follows that the more people you influence directly, the more important you are. This statement sounds like nothing so much as common sense, which is exactly what it is. And because it sounds so much like common sense, no one has really thought to challenge it. But it's wrong. Or more precisely, it is not clearly correct, and when investigated carefully, it turns out often to be wrong.

Precisely why it is wrong will clearly need more investigation. For further study, Ad Age offers a piece on him, and Johnnie Moore made an insightful post last spring. "What this opens up for me is the possibility that those we identify as the firestarters are themselves the effect of a series of more complex causes," Moore writes.

If you really want to dive into this material, here's the source: "Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation" (originally published in Journal of Consumer Research).

July 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

MediaBistro.com is one of the more useful web properties in my sphere. So I'm pleased to see its founder, Laurel Touby, cash in.

According to The New York Times, Jupitermedia of Darien, CT has agreed to pay $23 million for the site.

“This company is a true Internet success story,” Ms. Touby said. “This started as an offline community, a cocktail party, that turned into this Web site that actually makes money.”

July 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Nielsen Buzz Metrics is stripping some of the gloss from the fledgling field of Viral and Buzz Marketing. According to their latest findings, high blog interest, or buzz, around new product launches is tightly linked to paid media spending.

“Splintering media sources along with emerging consumer-generated media are challenging one-way, mass-media advertising models,” said Robert Mooth, vice president of product development, for BASES, and an author of the study. “However, our analysis shows that traditional mass media continue to play a critical role for most CPG brands."

While it would be unwise to suggest that buzz can, or should, replace traditional media placement, Catherine P. Taylor notes that this news, in addition to the Duncan Watts stories (which we shared earlier today), are two nails in the coffin for Buzz Marketing. "Once there's a third example out there about why viral marketing isn't so powerful after all, let's call buzz a wrap." She adds that she's kidding, but I'm not sure how funny this is for the legions of brands and their helpers who are investing in buzz.

July 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

You know how credit is never given in an ad? Well, no more. The above print ad from Virgin Mobile gives credit to the photographer, which is especially nice since Virgin did not pay for the image. Their agency found it on Flickr and published it under a Creative Commons license.

While this is an interesting idea, there are a few problems with it. One, neither the models nor the phtotographers were contacted, thus no consent was expressly given. As far as the photographer goes, it may be okay since their rights are detailed under the Creative Commons license that they themselves chose to use. But the subjects in the photos are another story.

Here's the Flickr discussion string on the subject.

[via Diablogue]

July 18, 2007 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Forbes is reporting that unless a miracle happens, September's issue of Business 2.0 will be the last for the publication.

Among the reasons for the pending demise...the dollars typically spent on print advertising have given way to pay-per-click via Google AdWords and Yahoo's Publisher network where advertisers have found a more efficient method of reaching their target audience.

I happened to grab a recent issue, my subscriber status having long since passed, and was shocked at how thin it had become. Five years ago, they were still pushing out a 100 page issue.

I wonder how long until Fast Company follows a similar path.

July 19, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 2 Comments

July 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Advertising Age, Sean Finnegan is leaving his post as U.S. director of digital at OMD to become the CEO of Omnicom Media Group Digital, a new unit that oversees all of Omnicom's media entities, such as OMD, PHD and Fuse Sports & Entertainment.

In a 2006 interview, the 35-year-old Mr. Finnegan said digital simply can't be siloed anymore.

"Back in the dot-com heyday, it was an art form for the digital group in the corner to keep anything innovative to itself and hold it hostage," he said. "Now, if you want to grow, you give it away to the rest of the agency."

July 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Absolut Vodka is creating a special-edition flavored vodka to honor New Orleans, and the proceeds will go to Gulf Coast charities, the company announced Wednesday.

Absolut made the announcement and previewed the mango-with-black-pepper flavor at the annual New Orleans culinary festival, Tales of the Cocktail.

Absolut New Orleans, which goes on sale Aug. 1, commemorates the second anniversary on Aug. 29 of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. The company plans to make 35,000 cases, with 100% of the sales — an estimated $2 million — to go to the charities.

The charities that Absolut New Orleans will help are: New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Volunteer Mobile, Tipitina's Foundation, and the Louisiana Restaurant Association to help rebuild homes as well as the culture and nightlife of the New Orleans area.

[via USA Today]

July 19, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 7 Comments

Here in Atlanta, it's the biggest story going:

Michael Vick's indictment for allegedly running a dog-fighting operation is the talk of the town. Why? Because he's the $130 million man for the Falcons. The face of the franchise. And he's equally loved and hated around here. He's put butts into seats, brought excitement to a team that never had much, but hasn't quite lived up to his potential.

And now all this.

He's innocent until proven guilty. But Michael Vick's endorsement deals are fading away. And if you're the Atlanta Falcons, do you take a wait and see attitude or do you cut him loose?

Either way, the team's brand takes a hit. If they suspend or release Vick, the fans that go to games just to see him may stop going and revenue falls. Or if he stays, lots of folks may boycott the Falcons in protest. If you were in the Falcons MARKETING department, what would you want to see happen here?

July 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) invited the authors of two high-profile books on the Web to an email debate. In one corner, Andrew Keen, who wrote The Cult of the Amateur, argues the Web has become overwhelmed with useless noise. David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous, argues that Web 2.0 tools let users filter out irrelevant (or inaccurate) information.

Go David Go!

We are amateurs on the Web, although there's plenty of room for professionals as well. But we are not replicating the mainstream media. We're building something new. We're doing it together. Its fundamental elements are not bricks of content but the mortar of links, and links are connections of meaning and involvement. We're creating an infrastructure of meaning, miscellaneous but dripping with potential for finding and understanding what matters to us. We're building this for one another. We're doing it by-and-large for free, for the love of it, and for the joy of creating with others. That makes us amateurs. And that's also what makes the Web our culture's hope.

For more from David Weinberger on this subject, visit EverythingisMiscellaneous.com.

July 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

You have great ideas and the passion to see them through, but your clients just aren't buying. Is it your fault? Maybe, but there is another strong possibility.

American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher Elbert Hubbard said, "The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia."

Consultant, blogger and author Tom Asacker adds:

And to my way of thinking, inertia is the silent killer of most businesses and, in some cases, entire industries as well.

Inertia in business, both up and down the chain of decision-making, is no different than inertia in other aspects of one's life; it has to do with protecting one's identity, immediate self-interest and interpersonal relationships.

My point is simply this: the main enemy of ideas is not fear of change, but love of the way things are right now. Discomfort be damned.

If we are to be totally honest with ourselves, "the way things are right now" is a constant state of flux. Given that, I see the problem not merely as inertia, but denial of the fundemantal laws of physics.

July 20, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 7 Comments

George Parker has a spot-on review of last night's pilot episode of "Mad Men," along with some perspective of what it was like back in those days.

Lewis Lazare gives it a C+, calling it "a grim story about the dark underbelly of humanity that has precious little to do with the ad world."

Like George, I thought it was good, but not great...of course, a pilot episode just sets the stage and introduces characters. I can see it easily getting better.

I was kinda struck by how they pulled out some factoids during commercial breaks to fit some advertisers--i.e., telling me that Carnival was the first cruise line to advertise, right before an actual Carnival commercial. [Ed. note: Another instance of this was right before a Geico ad]

Your thoughts? Has there really ever been a TV show or movie that truly got the ad industry right?

July 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) knows how to sell fear (a trait they'll no doubt need under new management).

In a development that could threaten the explosive growth of online advertising, hackers have started to exploit security holes in the online-advertising chain to slip viruses into ads. Just going to a site that shows such an ad can infect a user's computer.

I'm not saying malicious hackers aren't vermin (and that this isn't an important story). I'm just saying.

July 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Holiday Inn is cleaning house. Big time.

London-based InterContinental Hotels Group is in the process of shedding roughly half the nearly 1,100 Holiday Inn properties it owns, mainly by ending franchise agreements with operators of substandard properties.

Andy Soule, a broadcast engineering consultant from Bangor, Maine, stopped staying often at Holiday Inns three years ago partly due to what he calls their unpredictable quality. "With Holiday Inns, you never really know what you're going to get," Soule says. Today, he usually stays in midprice Hilton brands such as Hampton Inns and Embassy Suites.

Frequent traveler David Zangenberg, a gourmet food salesman from Lake Helen, Fla., says he, too, avoids Holiday Inns. He finds everything from restaurants to bedding to be inconsistent.

"I haven't been impressed for many years with any of the (Holiday Inns) I've stayed at," he says.

Criticism like that is what InterContinental CEO Andrew Cosslett hopes to silence with the massive campaign to modernize the Holiday Inn chain and to restore consistency and predictability for travelers.

[via USA Today]

July 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

"Taking the BS out of PR is like taking the horse manure out of the horse manure." -Al Lewis, Denver Post Columnist

July 20, 2007 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

From the blue collar, no nonsense streets of Cincinnati's West Side.

July 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The New York Times examines a new green technology media play that's run by media people, not environmentalists.

Apprently like everyone else, we are going green!” wrote Om Malik this week, pretty much owning up to his lack of enthusiasm for the new blog his company introduced, Earth2Tech.

“It took a bit to convince Om to go GigaGreen,” the site’s editor, Katie Fehrenbacher, wrote in her introductory post. She said that the clean-tech boom — fueled in part by the money and marketing prowess of venture capitalists like John Doerr and Vinod Khosla — could turn out to be not much more than a faddish investment vehicle.

“It might be a bubble,” she wrote. “We’re agnostic. As always, through bubble or boom we’ll keep the same GigaOM skepticism on this new site.”

To me this signals the maturation of green. It's more than a movement today, it's fast becoming mainstream for businesses to be conscious about their impact on people and the planet, and how that in turn, impacts the bottom line.

The most popular green sites on the web--TreeHugger.com and Grist.org--don't focus on the business and investment side of green. Rather, they are aimed mainly at selling green idealism and products to eco-conscious consumers.

July 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Om Malik's New Tee Vee is running a piece on the growing professionalization of Internet TV, a.k.a video.

Next New Networks, ON Networks, Revision3, 60 Frames, Vuguru, Telegraph Ave Productions, WatchMojo — what do these companies have in common? They all use Moore’s Law and low-cost distribution over the Internet to disrupt the studio model, in the process building audiences that can rival a small cable channel. They are professionalizing internet TV.

And this business is going to get bigger. iSuppli, a market research firm, projects that professionally produced video will will bring in nearly $5.9 billion in revenues in 2011, up from $423 million in 2006.

The online video boom is already igniting investment in the back-end and infrastructure companies, especially ones that lower the cost of distribution. Expect many more startups to emerge in the coming year, both on the production and distribution sides.

It's great that there's so much activity to build out the infrastructure of this booming industry, but I'll add that there's a mountain of opportunity for media professionals inside and outside of "advertising" to actually make the stuff people want to view in short segments on the small screen.

July 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

July 22, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Well, that was fast. It's a crude mashup, but someone had to do it, I suppose:

And then there's this "Cat's In the Cradle" parody, which lays it on pretty thick:

Ouch.

July 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Mashable, Los Angeles-based mobile service provider Amp’d will shut down at 12:01am Tuesday. Existing customers will be able to port their phone numbers to a new service, but Amp’d won’t help them do this, and their will be no customer service after Monday. Amp’d assets will be sold in an auction.

The company had 200,000 customers in April, but dropped half of them when they failed to pay their bills.

Thus far, no comment from Amp'd original, Lil' Bush.

July 23, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I was pleased to hear from David Rosen this morning. The former Group CD at Deutsch in NYC has his first novel coming out next month. Rosen says, "I've been lucky enough to realize the copywriter's dream -- my novel, I Just Want My Pants Back, is being published by Doubleday/Broadway in August. I'm thrilled -- I'm considering sporting a white suit and an ascot ala Tom Wolfe.

The story follows the life of Jason Strider: a twenty-something young man in New York City with an English degree from an Ivy League university, a very small, very messy apartment in the West Village, a nothing job as a receptionist at a casting agency, a real smart mouth on him…and no particular idea what to do with his life.

David Lipsky, author of Absolutely American has some advance praise for the book. "This laugh-out-loud debut reminds us what it's like to be young, broke, lost, and randy—in the best way. Rosen's is a stand-out new voice, and he sings beautifully throughout.”

Rosen says, "I wrote it while I still had a full time job in advertising, so it was mostly after work, late-night-style. I developed a tricky little caffeine habit."

Given Rosen's background in the biz, it was hardly a stretch for him to produce a trailer, which is available on his site and at YouTube. He also notes that much of the publicity work for the book is falling on his shoulders and that advertising prepared him well for this aspect of the literary world.

Currently, Rosen is adapting Star Stories, named Britain’s Best New Comedy at the 2006 British Comedy Awards, for VH1.

July 23, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

This just in from Cupertino...

If you want to see the iPhone at an Apple store, be sure to bring some cash. Large crowds flocking to see the iPhone and next generation iPods have forced Apple to begin charging a $5 entrance fee for Apple stores. Many analysts anticipated the move, and expect a positive response from customers.

"Part of the move was to limit crowds to keep the stores safe, but also we wanted to keep the right kind of people in the stores," said vice president of retail outlets, Vince Sciopiano. "By 'right kind of people' I mean true Apple customers with money, willing to pay just to look at our newest wares."

While Apple Geniuses patrol inside the store, Apple "Muscleheads" will guard the window displays and entrances.

For the $5 fee, customers will get an Apple button which will allow them entrance into the store and is used to track the customer's movements. Sciopiano noted that the $5 fee could be applied to purchases on that visit.

[via BB Spot*]

*a humor site, like The Onion, but focussed on tech

July 24, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) says Wal-Mart's new ad campaign strikes "an emotional chord," although I fail to see much evidence of it in the following print ad.

The campaign hopes to evoke "a series of simple, real parent-to-parent conversations with Wal-Mart customers," says Danny Robinson, a creative director at Martin Agency, an Interpublic Group-owned agency based in Richmond, Va. "It was important that people get to see what we are selling," he says.

Highy respected Martin picked up the business after the Draft-FCB debacle.

In other Wal-Mart news, the retailer is introducing a new feature on its website that lets users review and rate products sold in their stores.

Matthew Creamer of Ad Age calls the move "a bleated push by the stodgy giant into the social web." Creamer also says the real benefit may turn out to be how it affects the performance of the Wal-Mart online store in search-engine rankings, a crucial factor in the performance of online retailers.

Consumer-generated reviews will give Wal-Mart thousands of additional pages of content to be indexed by major search engines, which look favorably on unique new content.

July 24, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

I didn't watch the entire Democratic Presidential debate last night, but it was formatted so that the questions were asked by ordinary people via their own YouTube videos.

Each campaign also was given time to play their own video. Here's the one from John Edwards:

I'm not a huge fan of John Edwards, but I love this video. Freakin' love it.

July 24, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Resistance is mounting to a new NFL ruling that forces photojournalists to wear vests with the logos of NFL sponsors Canon and Reebok while shooting games.

"It totally goes against our Code of Ethics to force photographers to advertise as if they were some sort of NASCAR vehicle," said John Long, the chair of National Press Photographers Association's Ethics & Standards Committee. "We are independent gatherers of news, storytellers with no agendas. Our integrity comes from objectivity."

An NFL spokesman took issue with the claim that the photographers would be walking billboards, noting that the logos were too small to be visible on TV and far smaller than what is often required of photographers covering other sports.

[via Ad Age and NPPA]

July 24, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

July 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) examines the booming business of outdoor advertising today. In particular, the paper looks at upstart Van Wagner, the nation's fourth-biggest billboard business.

With cities increasingly passing restrictions, the number of billboards -- 168,000 nationwide last year -- isn't keeping up with demand. As a result, rents are rising. A large billboard on the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx or on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan might go for around $21,000 a month today, compared with about $10,000 10 years ago.

With economics like that, Richard Schaps, Van Wagner's chairman and chief executive, couldn't resist getting back into the business. A wily former taxi driver with a tattered hack license to prove it, Mr. Schaps had made a name for himself thinking up innovative ways to carve new advertising space from the urban landscape. He founded an earlier outdoor-advertising company, also named Van Wagner, which pioneered much of the iconic advertising in New York's Times Square, such as Nissin's steaming steaming cup of noodles.

In 1997, he sold that company for $170 million to Outdoor Systems, now part of CBS Outdoor. But instead of retiring to the golf course, Mr. Schaps promptly started building a new outdoor business, with the same name, from scratch.

The article explains that Van Wagner's success is a result of their willingness to hustle and find cracks in local codes--for example, most federal buildings aren't included in local zoning, which provides an opportunity for Van Wagner to erect $20K/month signs on their sides.

Mr. Schaps says his company goes out of the way to work within the law, fearing tactics that are too aggressive would sully the reputation of the industry and potentially scare away clients. "It's not the way we should be acting," he says of the industry. At Van Wagner, "we're almost entirely legal."

July 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of branding consultancy Landor Associates, put together an outline for brands looking to go mobile with their messages. And what brand isn't?

Among other things, he says mobile "is very personal."

Unlike TVs and PCs, which may be shared with other family members, a cellphone is personal space. As such, tolerance of unwanted content is nil. And while consumers have shown some interest in accepting advertising in exchange for freebies, the payback has to be something they truly value.

Brands that are invited in will provide consumers with what they want, not interrupt them with content they don't want. Adidas was aware of this when it created a third-screen component of its campaign surrounding the NBA All-Star Week in Las Vegas. The brand designed a mobile experience alerting fans to where they could catch sight of players en route to hotels or games and letting them know about special events and promotions.

Bottom line: Mobile space is personal space, so if you have something to say, make it personally relevant.

While I'm in total agreement here, I'd take this argument far beyond the third screen. "Provide consumers with what they want, not interrupt them with content they don't want" is a media-neutral mantra for all modern marketing communications plans.

[via Ad Age]

July 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

For more see ControlTheirMinds.com, HP's back-to-school push.

[via Adverganza]

July 25, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

Well, that sure didn't take long. From Ad Age:

The agency that "reanimated" the late popcorn founder Orville Redenbacher for ConAgra Foods has lost the brand, along with Slim Jim beef jerky in a $34 million account shift.

ConAgra shifted the two brands from Crispin Porter & Bogusky to independent Venables, Bell & Partners, according to people familiar with the accounts. Crispin created a lot of buzz for the brands -- not all of it positive -- as ad reviewers, blogs and the general public debated the relative creepiness of the computer-generated pitchman quickly dubbed "Deadenbacher."

Can we finally bury the idea of bringing dead people back to life in commercials?

July 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age is running an article on Vehix's (they dropped the "dot com" from their name) plan to provide content on the mobile platform and cable TV.

Here's an item in the piece that jumped out at me:

Glenn Morey, holds the dual position of Vehix chief marketing officer and president of Morey Evans, Denver, Vehix's agency.

Talk about integrated marketing!

[DISCLOSURE STATEMENT] I worked at Morey's shop for six weeks in the fall of 2000, before Tom Evans tossed me out for being "contentious."

July 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Josh Bernoff of Forrester's Groundswell blog says words are important. He also suggests we stop using one word, "users."

Try, just for a day, to stop using this word. You'll be amazed at how differently you think about the world.

Web users become people looking for information.

Application users become employees trying to get stuff done.

Users of your Web site become customers. (Forrester's group focused on usability of Web sites and other technologies is called the Customer Experience team. I like that.)

User-generated media becomes amateur media.

And most importantly, social media users become people connecting with other people. Once you think about it that way it becomes a lot easier to understand. And it focuses you on the relationships, which will always be around, not the technologies, which are always changing.

July 26, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

You may have seen this before, but I haven't:

While lots of people take some responsibility for helping create this landmark spot, is anyone willing to claim responsibility for putting Rockwell in the soundtrack of this "making of" video?

July 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

A friend and former colleague from Integer Denver wrote to me today about The Denver Egotist, a new market-specific ad blog with mile high ambitions.

Here's what the site's anonymous editor is thinking:

The Denver Egotist Manifesto

In order to promote creative growth in Denver, one must admit the city is conceptually stunted. It’s not on the tip of any tongues, and for good reason. Safe solutions, droll concepts. It is our belief, as creative participants in this city, that the opportunity for change lies at our feet and that it can happen by challenging one another, by holding each other accountable for our work, and by hiring and promoting local talent. This is our attempt to foster big ideas and radical thinking on a local level. To remind us all why we love this job. This is The Denver Egotist, a means to an end.

In a post from 24 days ago, titled "Coming Home to Denver," the writer compares Denver to Los Angeles. "L.A. is a creative circus. Denver is a one-armed clown juggling for street change." That may be a bit harsh, but it's wise to honestly critique the situation before attempting to administer an effective remedy.

July 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

I didn't think it was possible for W+K and Goodby to earn yet another degree of respect from me, but they have. According to Ad Age, neither agency feels the need to join the American Association of Advertising Agencies, commonly known as the 4As.

Dan Wieden will never be part of the organization, according to his spokeswoman, because the shop felt rejected when it applied for membership in 1982. When Mr. Wieden wrote to the association seeking membership at that time, questions were raised about the agency's financial stability. Even these many years later, a mention of the ad association in Wieden's corporate headquarters has a certain taboo.

At Goodby, Partner and General Manager Harold Sogard said money also is an issue in his shop's refusal to join the group. "We aren't anti-social, but we never felt the value of what we might receive was equivalent to the cost," Mr. Sogard said. "We appreciate the lobbying and once offered to contribute, but they refused. They said, 'Be a complete member or nothing.'"

Let's be real. Membership in the 4As is about status. They maintain country club-like entry requirements in order to keep the riff raff out, and to provide that special glow to the agencies willing and able to meet their standards. Goodby and Wieden don't need a club to feel special. They're already in another league.

July 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -George Bernard Shaw

BusinessWeek is running a fascinating look at Anomaly, the NYC shop that seeks intellectual property agreements from its clients, instead of the standard fees.

Retaining and profiting from intellectual-property rights is new territory for advertising, though clients, keen to turn the old, time sheet-centered model of advertising on its head, increasingly are looking for authentic partnerships with their marketing teams. Last year, Seattle agency Cole & Weber/Red Cell, a subsidiary of WPP Group, produced a TV sitcom that prominently featured Rainier beer (made by Pabst Brewing), with the agency retaining full ownership of the show. Anomaly is betting this will be the model of the future. With an equity stake, says partner Carl Johnson, the motivation to help a client succeed is more genuine—and the results more impressive. "When we own the IP or we share in the revenue, you can bet we're going to work all day, every day."

Richard Branson's Virgin America is one high profile client willing to accept Anomaly's terms. The agency received a fee up front for traditional marketing efforts like print and outdoor ads, and a Web site running a contest to "name the planes", but Anomaly will also take a percentage of sales from extras like in-flight entertainment and Burton branded luggage, which it helped to develop and produce.

"They live and die by the success of the product, and to me that's very powerful," says Hosain Rahman, CEO and founder of San Francisco-based Aliph, who hired Anomaly for the 2006 launch of Jawbone, its Bluetooth headset designed by Yves Béhar.

Anomaly also identified the massive opportunities in mobile commerce. They raised millions in venture capital and started ShopText in 2006. ShopText was spun out as a standalone service in November, 2006, though Anomaly still owns 30% of the company, and shares in its profits.

July 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

July 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

On December 1, 1967, in Chicago's Prudential Building Auditorium, 75-year old Leo Burnett addressed his company at its annual Leo Burnett employees' "Breakfast at Burnett's."

Here's the transcript of the speech.

[video via Agency Spy]

July 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., better known as Perez Hilton, the self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media,” is on the front page of Sunday Styles today--a place normally reserved for the characters he writes about on his top drawer entertainment blog.

With his shameless self-promotion and buffoonish appearance, Mr. Lavandeira, a childlike bear of a man, has become a hard-to-ignore Hollywood player.

One day he was a struggling actor, paying bills with nonglamorous day jobs (publications manager for a gay organization; publicist for trade shows; a reporter for Star magazine, which fired him).

The next, he was an orange-haired pop culture phenom: a blogger whose infantile but easily digestible style of scrawling crude commentary on celebrity pictures has helped him triple his traffic in the last year alone, earn enough income to employ his family members, and, most crucially for the Perez Hilton brand, score his own television show on VH1.

Some of the "dirt" the Times dug up on Hilton: He studied acting at NYU; grew up in Miami, where he was taunted for being large and gay at his all-boys Catholic school; is fighting off at least two lawsuits; typically works 17 hours a day; and makes $9000/week for a single ad placement on his site.

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has, throughout its history, been slow to grasp some of the computer industry's most important technology shifts and business changes.

Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at the tech giant wants to change that.

"The bulk of the population comes to work every day and makes the trains run on time," says Mr. Mundie. "You've got to have a small number of people who think that it's their job to take risks....I view my job, in part, as making sure that the company supports the things that take time but end up being big."

He sounds like a planner.

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

According to The New York Times, activists are urging Home Depot, which recently unveiled an environmentally conscious marketing program, to withdraw advertising from Fox News, whose hosts and commentators dismiss global warming as liberal hysteria.

In April, Home Depot introduced an Eco Options label for thousands of products that it deemed environmentally friendly.

“It’s not our place to judge Fox News’s position or any other media outlet’s position on global warning,” responded Ron Jarvis, vice president for environmental innovation at the retailer, based in Atlanta. “Nor will we try to influence that position with our advertising dollars. We’re advertisers, not censors.”

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age questions why print media brands have struggled to gain a foothold in the digital realm. The reasons vary, but it appears one print brand has it figured out.

Complex magazine, where Complex.com is an important part of the brand footprint, has just formed partnerships with the independent blogs Nice Kicks, Nah Right, Bastardly and SlamXHype. Each deploys classic internet irreverence and subject expertise to attract and maintain its audience. Complex could have tried building similar blogs on its own site, but it didn't see as much upside.

"When you have an opportunity to get in bed with and partner with people who are pure and organic as possible, especially in the trend marketplace, it'd be insane to reinvent the wheel," said Rich Antoniello, publisher of Complex. "Also you can't just decide, 'We're going to be pure and organic.'"

Here's the sidebar that each blog runs, gluing themselves to the print entity:

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

McDonald's is investing in experiential marketing. The QSR chain will host a free, 10-city concert tour featuring emerging recording artists performing in select McDonald's parking lots.

Consumers can view the concerts, check the tour schedule and buy concert T-shirts at McDLive. Fans can also can vote for their favorite artists. The musician or group with the most fan votes at the end of the tour will be featured in a McDonald's advertising campaign next year.

McDonald's is partnering with Yahoo Music and MTV on this program.

July 30, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

I've always wanted to be an interviewer-talk show host type of guy. Good ones are rare. So here's to the memory of Tom Snyder, who I always liked to watch.

If you didn't think he was ahead of the curve, here's a clip:

R.I.P., Tom.

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

In this dawning age of online video, brand consultant and blogger Ben McConnell, by his own admission, is an old laggard.

You are either old or a laggard if you aren't producing video-based content on a regular basis. Right now, that makes me an old laggard.

A job title of the future for marketing departments is Video Producer. Like a news producer at a television station, she decides every day what's worth covering at the company and produces a short video segment for YouTube, the company blog or even the company intranet.

Telling your company's ongoing story on a daily or weekly basis via online video is looking a lot like the future of marketing and advertising.

And DIY shorts like the popular series from Man Vs. look to be the future of narrative entertainment.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Then there are shows like Viral, which look to be the future of entertainment news. And so on...

July 30, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ad Age has a section on its site called "Talentworks" and while it portends to be a career-advancing section, there's some really bizarro content on there. Like this article, written by an employment attorney:

It's no secret that marketers often consider the appearance of an ad agency's employees to be one indicator of how their accounts will be handled. As a result, successful people in the industry have learned to be image-conscious.

Among other things, federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, race, sex, national origin and disability; it does not prohibit discrimination solely based on appearance or attractiveness. But a few states and local statutes prohibit discrimination on appearance. (For example, Washington, D.C., prohibits discrimination based on physical appearance.)

So, hiring individuals based on appearance is not, per se, unlawful. Because appearance, on its face, does not violate any federal statute, an agency that decides to apply a criterion of "attractiveness" in a nondiscriminatory manner should not violate the law. For instance, if an agency decided to hire attractive people over a broad spectrum of various ages, races and ethnicities (and regardless of any disability), its selection process should be in the clear. The key is this: The criteria must be applied equally across the board and should not have an adverse impact. It's the only way an employer should be able to use "attractiveness" as a standard.

So in your agency, who gets to define what "attractiveness" means?
The CEO? The Creative Director? The HR person?

I suppose anything a hiring manager wants is fine, as long as the agency is sufficiently lawyered up when Ugly Betty walks in the door with a good resume.

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

In what amounts to a rousing endorsement for Microsoft's ubiquitous presentation software, the business school at University of Chicago will begin to require students applying for admission to submit a four-page Power Point deck.

According to USA Today, Chicago says so-called "slideware," if used correctly, lets students show off a creative side that might not reveal itself in test scores, recommendations and even essays.

Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions said, "To me this is just four pieces of blank paper. You do what you want. It can be a presentation. It can be poetry. It can be anything."

Microsoft estimates that there are 500 million copies of its program in circulation, and 30 million PPT presentations a day are made worldwide.

July 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Get your sheepwear @ Vintage Vantage

[via Experience Curve]

July 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Since when did beer become like deordorant and marketed to one sex or the other? I know Coors Light is all about it, and others, but the trend is getting weirder and that's rarely good for the beer, or those drinking it.

The August 2007 Trend Briefing from trendwatching.com looks at various attempts by brewers to market beer specifically to women. Here's but one:

German brewer Karlsberg is also convinced that it can get more women to drink beer, though its Karla beer comes with a different twist: health benefits. Which has to do with the fact that in Germany, many women view beer as unhealthy, fattening or unsophisticated. So Karla, a beer for women, is marketed as improving health and well-being. The mixed drink comes in three varieties: Balance, Well Be and Acti-Fit. All are low in alcohol content (1%) and are blends of beer and fruit juices. Emphasis on health prompted an unusual distribution channel: Karla is sold through pharmacists.

Beer with health benefits? I think I'm gonna Ralph.

July 31, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

More obnoxious hyperbole from Ad Age as it examines the future of account planning:

Not long ago, planners were the undisputed rock stars of the agency business. But they're now mere mortals in "the middle of the maelstrom of everything going on -- what communication, what media, how to compete and how to become versed in multimedia," said Edward Cotton, director-strategy, for Influx Insights, a unit of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, Sausalito, Calif.

Not to mention that they are increasingly finding themselves on teams with other disciplines of, yes, planners. Media planners, connection planners, trans-media planners, channel planners, directors of user experience. "How do you [prepare a] brief if there's 10 on a team?" Mr. Cotton asked.

"Undisputed rock stars"? Please. Account Planning is important, but Ad Age loves to pump and dump whatever's trendy. I thought CMOs like Julie Roehm were the undisputed rock stars. But as I've said before, in advertising, there are no rock stars.

By the way, I'll be hanging with the rock stars-turned-mere mortals at the 4A's Account Planning Conference in San Diego next week, and then driving north on vacation. If you're going to be at the conference, email me at dgoldg@mindspring.com and let's get a drink.

July 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Scoble, Calacanis and Om Malik are all writing about "Facebook Fatigue." So there must be something to it.

The again, maybe not. Colin Pape in a comment on GigaOm puts it this way:

I think you media pundits are forgetting that most of us don’t have 4,000 people wanting to become our friends, and we don’t seem to have invitations to trendy events flooding our inboxes.

For us, Facebook seems to work just fine.

I have a feeling that Zuckerberg’s intended audience was not the 10 people out there who are geek media moguls like you, Calacanis and Scoble.

I'm new to Facebook and only have 14 friends there. I'm also relatively new to MySpace but have 421 friends over there. They're totally different networks. Then there's LinkedIn, where I can see some crossover with Facebook, but right now I'm thinking Facebook is a place to go deeper within a tighter circle.

Jeremy Pepper also left an interesting comment on Om's post. He said, "There’s no reason you should or have to accept every invitation. I have invites sitting there right now that are going to continue to sit there."

[UPDATE] Two soc nets Scoble & Co. won't be joining: CafeMom and StyleMob.

July 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, eMusic is working with AT&T to deliver music from indie bands on the network's mobile platform.

Tracks will cost more than they do over the Internet — $7.49 for five songs, as opposed to $9.99 for 30 at the online site — because of the expense of sending them over a mobile network to a user’s phone. For that price, however, users can also get another copy of the song, which they can download from the Internet as an MP3.

eMusic currently has a marketing deal with AT&T to encourage consumers to “sideload” their phones with MP3s from its existing Internet store — meaning that they can plug their phones into their computers to transfer the music. But this will be its first time selling music on a mobile network.

AT&T is also the service provider for Apple’s iPhone, but eMusic’s over-the-air service will not work on that device. Although the iPhone is fully compatible with Apple’s iTunes program, it does not allow users to buy songs without signing on to a computer.

July 31, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

The Kansas City Star is reporting that an ad from JWT Sydney for a pet store called Pets Pantry, which won a Silver Lion at Cannes was actually created by an art student in San Francisco who is now an art director at Cole & Weber in Seattle.

“At first I felt like, ‘This is so wrong.’ But I’m slammed with my own work,” said Lance Wei. “I mean, what can I do? Not much.”