USA Today's tech guru, Kevin Maney, is soft on Web 2.0. The tech industry is frothing. It is spewing companies and Web doohickeys and blog amalgamizers and Internet contraptions like video social-networking wiki cooking sites. Money is flying into ventures that most people east of Palo Alto, Calif., would find incomprehensible. Web 2.0 is a broad term for a new generation of websites that are more interactive and …
Microsoft No Longer A Technology-Driven Firm
Price Will Always Play
In today's paper, New York Times takes a look at the lowly coupon and its place in the world. An estimated 99 percent of the roughly 300 billion coupons distributed annually in the United States — mainly in Sunday newspapers — end up in the trash, unused and unredeemed. “The paper coupon is the single most inefficient marketing tool you could imagine,” said Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola …
Sometimes Cheap Is Pure Gold
Is this the perfect ad for an airline that offers a Myrtle Vegas to Atlantic City nonstop, or what? [via Make The Logo Bigger] …
Trouble
According to Information Week , a highly influential money man says don't put your money in marketing. Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson doesn't see any reason for startups to budget funds for marketing anymore. Indeed, Jurvetson, a partner with the legendary Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, has one question for companies that do. Why? Instead, Jurvetson tells businesses to go for "zero cost" …
Wal-Mart Running For Office
According to the New York Times, Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail behemoth, Wal-Mart, is taking its "we're good for America" spin to the airwaves. Wal-Mart, under attack now from unions and prominent Democrats, yesterday introduced a marketing campaign that closely resembles the television advertisements used by political candidates. In a local experiment (spots are running in Omaha and Tucson) that is eventually …
Candy Maker Dips Into Art History
To support the launch of M&M's Dark Chocolate Candies, the brand introduced its new ad campaign at New York City's famous Guggenheim Museum, with a print ad that interjects the "fun" of M&M's into an admittedly dark masterpiece, Edvard Munch's 'The Scream.' The ad features "Red," the iconic M&M's character, unexpectedly playing hopscotch in the background of the celebrated work of art -- bringing a bit of levity and …
First Person Backlash
Netanel Jacobsson, 38, a former reggae singer and AOL business development executive who now owns a strategic media consulting and business developement agency, is done with A-list bloggers (with two notable exceptions). Most of the so called A–list bloggers have very little to say besides reporting their latest parties, or their other fellow A-list bloggers latest links and posts. Very, very seldom you find any …
