Here’s a pair of popular maxims on technology. I like both because they’re downright folksy enough (if too factually accurate) for a Tea Party stump speech, yet still highly relevant to advertising today: 1. “You don’t see many horse-and-buggy drivers anymore.” 2. “Television didn’t kill radio.” Both are true, but as metaphors for disruptive innovation, they conflict. The first warns, “Don’t be a buggy …
Literary Superstars Prefer Ballantine
The New York Times is running an interesting essay by author Tony Perrottet, about the need for self-promotion in today's literary realms. In this era when most writers are expected to do everything but run the printing presses, self-promotion is so accepted that we hardly give it a second thought. And yet, whenever I have a new book about to come out, I have to shake the unpleasant sensation that there is …
Continue Reading about Literary Superstars Prefer Ballantine →
Tell Sweet Lies, Go To Court
American sugar farmers and refiners have filed a suit to stop big corn processors from marketing high-fructose corn syrup as a “natural” product equivalent to real sugar. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by Western Sugar Cooperative, Michigan Sugar Company and C & H Sugar Company, Inc., charges that the “corn sugar” branding campaign financed by the corn refining industry’s giant companies …
Just Do It Differently
I like what Phil Johnson, CEO of PJA Advertising & Marketing, is saying about taking the ad game to the next level. Having spent most of my career running an agency, I'm often mystified at how hard it is to move from one level to the next, whether that means adding more staff or winning bigger accounts. Most agencies stay pretty much the same because they can't quite believe they could win that national …
Stop Walking On Eggshells
In a case of bad timing, Backcountry.com sent this email solicitation yesterday--a day when tornadoes ravaged communities in Alabama: Today, the online retailer is sorry and busy backpedaling. Dear (insert customer's name), We messed up. Yesterday, as the people of Alabama dealt with the devastating aftermath of an intensely damaging and life-taking tornado, we neglected to put a stop to the …
More Blathering About The Beauty Of Free
James L. McQuivey, Ph.D. is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. His recent op-ed on Mashable about the end of scarcity is interesting, if somewhat unintelligible. What happens if the economics of scarcity are exchanged for the economics of plenty? For those industries that provide information or experience as a primary good, scarcity is rapidly evaporating. The media business is …
Continue Reading about More Blathering About The Beauty Of Free →
For Print Media, The Bottom Is Falling Out And There’s Very Little High Ground
I hesitate to post an article about the suffering newspaper business, because it is a story we already know. Yet, given that our own fates are tied to their demise, let's look at some numbers... According to Media Daily News, The New York Times Company's operating profit fell from $52.7 million in the first quarter of 2010 to $31.1 million in the first quarter of 2011 -- a 41% drop. Focusing on specific …
Compensation Models Morph To Fit The Times
George Tannenbaum knows what's wrong with advertising today: "There is no longer any incentive to produce anything." Dave Trott agrees. "Under a commission system, the incentive is to make advertising and run it. Under a fee system, the incentive is to string out the process to justify the fee." Of course, these ad industry vets are revisiting the days when agencies made money by marking up a client's media …
Continue Reading about Compensation Models Morph To Fit The Times →
