Courtesy of Flickr user, "timoni". Rex Hammock transcribed the SXSW panel keynote conversation between blogging luminaries Heather Armstrong and Jason Kottke. Here's part of what they said about ad support vs. a subscription model for their respective media properties. Kottke: I wanted the support to come from the readers. I also don't like advertising that much. I didn't want to see bad advertising on my site. Or to …
Detroit-Style Appropriation
Harper's is running a piece by Bill Wasik (a senior editor at the magazine), inventor of the Flash Mob. He describes his experiment, and explains how the Flash Mob was co-opted by the Ford Motor Company, with pathetic results. I had traveled to Boston last summer to observe a "Fusion Flash Concert"--a marketing campaign I had first learned of two weeks earlier, through a Financial Times column emailed to me by a …
Media Companies Hungry For Content
From The New York Times: Digital-era media companies like Yahoo and Google, as well as traditional media companies, including those with deep roots in television and print, continue to scour the Internet for emerging content and technology companies. But the pickings of obvious acquisition candidates, while hardly exhausted, are slimming, according to financiers, entrepreneurs and industry analysts who follow the …
Migrating To Mac
I just read one of the funniest blog posts ever. It's about the PC to Mac conversion experience. From Que Sera Sera: This upgrade was a long time coming, a mixture of two parts being poor and one part being lazy, but the switch to the Mac was something else altogether. I had an iMac and an iBook at my first advertising job back in 2000, and liked them both just fine, so it wasn’t a fear of the unknown that kept me …
Dealing With Groupies
Click the image to discover which London agency deals with groupies. …
Back Scratch Fever
Jim Hanas, a freelance editor and writer living in New York City, found inspiration in heirarchy-flattening social bookmarking sites and has now brought the concept to life in an arena that means something to him (and others like him). Digg.com has been making a lot of noise lately, and spawning a lot of imitators. Not only has the site’s method of allowing users to promote stories to the front page given Slashdot a …
And Google Buys Another
Writely, the web-based word processor was purchased by Google this week. Here's how the acquisition is viewed at Writely world headquarters. Here are our "top 10" reasons why being part of Google is fantastic for Writely and the Writely team: 10. Writely is like a caterpillar that we hope to make into a beautiful butterfly at Google! 9. We love Google's philosophy and values -- especially "Focus on the user." 8. …
Sorry Chloe, But Santino Got Robbed.
Yes, I was watching Wednesday night as Heidi Klum and crew robbed Santino of his rightful designation. Yet, I have a feeling Santino's going to do well from here, even without the title. One of the fun things about Project Runway is watching another industry grapple with many of the same issues we face in our ad world day-to-day, like handling impossible requests with no money and even less time. If you're a fan of …
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“Your Boat Is The Brand”
Once upon a time, Jack Trout was the man. After all, he is the acclaimed author of many marketing classics, including Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and Differentiate or Die. But now he's come out against word-of-mouth in Forbes, making him look old-fashioned, at best. There's no way to control that word-of-mouth. Do I want to give up control and let …
Lead Me To A Free iPod
What would you give for a qualified lead? An iPod, perhaps? From Ad Age: The $20 million-a-year FreeiPods.com site that has become a poster child of the increasingly important online incentive marketing business was originally started as a "get a free condom" come-on. At lunch one day in the college cafeteria, then University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill senior Rob Jewell overheard some people talking about wanting …