The term "meme" was first defined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as "a unit of cultural information" spread from one mind to another. In other words, it's a viral idea that eventually becomes common knowledge. Now, Silicon Valley marketing guru, Tom Hayes, updates the viral lexicon with a new term, "beme." A meme is old media, a beme is new media. A meme takes off by accident, a beme by design. A meme can take years to …
AGs to A-B: “Underage Drinkers Can’t Click With Bud.tv”
I took note of an Ad Age article from last week about Bud.tv's "Walled Beer Garden." The piece questioned the effectiveness of the site. No matter how good content is, it has to be shareable, and that's where the venture falls short. In Bud.tv, A-B and DDB, Chicago, have essentially created a walled beer garden of content that, though free, is just about as antiviral as you can be in the digital age. I took note …
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“Tell ‘Em Vince Sent You”
Of all the radio commercial cliches in the world, this has got to be one of the worst. This is Vince Dooley. He's a legendary University of Georgia football coach and a pretty stand-up guy. But right now, he's doing some radio spots for AAMCO in which he says, "Tell 'em Vince sent you." Why? Why? WHY? Does anyone ever do that? Have you ever said "So-and-so sent me" because you heard it in a radio spot? What am I …
A Little Respect
I can't tell who's written it by looking at the online version, but there's a great column in this week's Adweek about agency-client relationships, and the basic respect all people deserve, especially when dealing with tough clients: There was a quote in a recent New York Times ad column detailing a consumer-generated television commercial for a major consumer electronics brand that nailed this issue. When the …
Virtually Edwards In ’08
Former North Carolina Senator, John Edwards, has a virtual Presidential campaign headquarters in Second Life. According to ZDNet, Jerimee Richir, whose avatar is called Jose Rote, paid-for and developed Edwards' virtual headquarters, and, on a voluntary basis, is managing the in-world campaign. Irascible adman, George Parker, doesn't like the development. The news that Senator John Edwards has opened a campaign …
PBR = WOM
Adweek reports that PBR has assigned creative duties to a small New Jersey agency. Pabst Blue Ribbon has tapped The Sawtooth Group as its agency of record for media and creative tasks. Sawtooth's inaugural effort will unfold in U.S. test markets by May, marking the beer's first major campaign in five years. Pabst Blue Ribbon's U.S. ad spend was a slim $500,000 last year, down $100,000 from 2005, per Nielsen …
Investment In Online Intel Soars
Washington Post looks at New Media Strategies--a company of 70 people who scour the web each day to track what's being said about their clients' brands. As the explosion of blogs, social networks and video-sharing sites has driven big companies to recognize the role of Internet image in protecting their bottom lines, traditional media companies and private investors are seeking to buy Web-savvy start-ups that have a …
Vanity Plates Trumped By Vanity Billboards
Unexpected Nut shares their thoughts about the above personalization. MINI relies on the rabid loyalty of their customers, so a campaign that is retention-based is a perfect fit. However, something of this whole thing smacks of a group of creatives in a room trying to “integrate” digital ideas, customer-centric messaging and good old fashioned Lite-Bright technology. The resultant execution simply looks like a …
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