Financial Times reports that agencies and software developers welcomed Apple's iAd announcement last week. But Justin Spohn of Portland strategy firm, Fight, is not impressed by Apple's move into the mobile advertising business. Here is my fundamental problem with iAd: It makes no sense from a brand strategy point of view. It's irrational, and philosophically counter to nearly every previous decision Apple has made …
Social Media Marketing Is A Side Dish, Not A Meal
David Wiggs of Hitch, an agency search consultancy in Bellingham, brings up an excellent point about placing too many eggs in any one basket. With the extreme emphasis on social media marketing today, you might think that modern marketing is a monoculture. That if you're doing social, you're doing marketing. True, the way we communicate, consume, share and create content is vastly different that just a few years ago. …
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Cupertino, We Have A Problem
Fiction writer and instructor, Edan Lepucki, stopped using Twitter and Facebook at the beginning of 2010 so she could concentrate on her writing, and on being present. I admire her move and according to her article in The Millions, so do her real life friends. The single most fascinating aspect of my detox was the number of people who wanted to talk to me about it. Almost everyone I spoke to said, "I wish I …
Real Life Is Analog
Dan Patterson, Digital Platform Manager for ABC News Radio in New York is taking a break, however short, from social media, a.k.a. the incessant need to manage his online presence. I think it's important to note that the web only has the power we give it, and that we should use it in ways that FEEL organic and right. And so that's what I am doing. Patterson's making a good move in my opinion. It's one I could learn …
Small Businesses Don’t Like Rogue Consumers’ Negative Opinions
Consumer generated content gets a lot of media attention these days, but there's one form of CGC that's generating bad feelings and legal action. According to The New York Times, consumer review site, Yelp, has been hit with three class-action lawsuits from businesses claiming that Yelp sales representatives tried to press the businesses into advertising by offering -- or threatening -- to manipulate reviews. It's a …
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Branded Co-Creation Circa 1973
In my experience, blogging doesn't pay well, but it does have its perks. One of the perks is people like to send you stuff. Sometimes very cool stuff, as was the case when The Escape Pod sent me a commemorative plate. Today, the UPS man rang and at the door I found a poster tube with three awesome wall-sized Wacky Packs inside. The gift comes from serial entrepreneur, John Doffing, who's working with LTL PRINTS, the …
Wieden’s Coke Spot Has Been Done Before
[via Tony Marin, who loves "catching advertising hacks in the act."] …
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You Are Not The Information You Share
Literary critic, author and professor, William Deresiewicz, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, finds fault with Facebook and with modern friendship. I appreciate the criticism Deresiewicz provides. He looks at friendship in classical terms, showing how its rules have changed with the rise of modernity. All of which is a good overview for an attack on the false nature of social networks. Here's a mashup of …
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