In Green Bay, Wisconsin a city known for takes downs, comes Dana VanDen Heuvel, a marketing consultant who has put together a great look at what traditional P.R. offers versus blogs. It's a game-winning open field tackle for the blogs. …
Old School Customer Evangelism
More marketers today are empowering brand evangelists, or in simpler terms, a company's best customers. There are several new ways to go about this, then there's the old school way, patented by recreational clothing manufacturer, Patagonia. Patagonia is led by one of our time's true corporate visionaries …
Corporate Coffee Backlash
Starbucks Gossip is an interesting new site from Jim Romenesko, veteran journalist, editor and pioneering blogger. With his work for Poynter and his Obscure Store blog, you'd think this uberblogger would have no time for keeping tabs on the coffee behemoth. But no. He does have time, and Starbucks haters everywhere are grateful. …
A Brand Is A Promise. What’s Yours?
"A product is an artifact of a truth of a promise. A brand is a promise. The promise of Gateway is to be the wagon-master across the silicon prairie. It was more interesting to me that Gateway opened stores than Barnes & Noble went dot-com. It doesn't matter whether Gateway sells anything in its stores because retailing is the retelling of the tale. So you open stores to tell the story of being the wagon-master. You …
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The Wonders Of Wiki
Blogs are being discussed just about everywhere in mainstream media today. CNBC and other news programs have even begun to feature bloggers like Ana Marie Cox, a.k.a. Wonkette, as talking heads. Now wiki is having its day in the sun. Business Week and Red Herring recently ran articles on this open source publishing technology. While speaking yesterday with Sun Times advertising columnist, Lewis Lazare, I mentioned my …
P&G Cleans It Up
Clairol's Herbal Essences, when applied, no longer produces orgasms. The beauty product does lead Jadyn Maria to sing, however. Too bad. Any old shampoo can lead one to sing in the shower. …
Easy On The Beefcake
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer ads that dramatize the product benefit. Apparently, Outback Steakhouse knows nothing about this time-honored approach. One of their current efforts features three hunks that come to the table to serve three adoring, but rather shy, ladies. No mention of the food at all. What happens when a lonely lady decides to dine at Outback, only to find her server is nasty, or of the same sex? …
Take It Outside Or Have It Taken Away
In four Monterrey, Mexico churches, Israeli-made cell phone jammers the size of paperbacks have been tucked unobtrusively among paintings of the Madonna and statues of the saints. AdBusters seeks to "jam" our pervasive media culture, TiVo helps content hungry viewers jam commercials and now we have priests in Mexico jamming cell phone usage. I applaud the holy men and their quest for sanctity. …
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