On Friday, GM launched its corporate history wiki, "Generations of GM," on GMNext.com. The Generations wiki lets people contribute first-person experiences relating to the company's centennial. The company says the wiki can include anything from "A story about a summer job in an assembly plant to pictures of a first car to favorite experiences with GM products." The company expects contributors to be employees, …
Marketing Dollars Migrate To Strange New Places
I like Tom Asacker's writing so much I asked him to be part of the team here. But even that's not enough Tom Asacker. For more we turn to a comment string on Brand Autopsy. ...there are many companies in the CPG industry who are indeed dabbling in the social media space, as well as investing heavily in R&D to innovate for their customers. However, traditional advertising drives the lion's share of their business. To …
Continue Reading about Marketing Dollars Migrate To Strange New Places →
Hot Or Not Sold
According to TechCrunch, the novelty site turned dating community HotorNot has been acquired by Avid Life Media for a sum rumored to be in the neighborhood of $20 million. Not bad for the owners, James Hong and Jim Young, who started the thing seven years ago on a whim, sans ambition or vision. TechCrunch reports that the site's annual revenue is estimated to be "around $5 million, with $2 million in profit." Here's …
Hell Hath Frozen Over: Brand Guy Sings Promos’ Praises
Roy Sutherland of Ogilvy suggests something one doesn't see every day: LET'S PUT SALES PROMOTION AT THE HEART OF THE AGENCY Sutherland points out that our focus on brand building has a wicked aftertaste and argues that brand building ideas are not the same as behavior changing ideas. And the job of an agency is now just to do the attitude stuff, love. Sutherland suggests that good sales promotion agencies "make …
Continue Reading about Hell Hath Frozen Over: Brand Guy Sings Promos’ Praises →
Dan Just Does It
CNBC's hour-long documentary on Nike debuts on the business news channel tomorrow night. [via Paul Isakson] …
All Bow To Mighty Data
When Ad Age runs a headline like this: DraftFCB Bolsters Analytics Practice there shouldn't be anything funny about it. After all, clients demand ROI and if agencies can provide it, more power to them. But one half of DraftFCB used to be able to sell ideas that a CMO didn't need a computer print out to analyze. Therefore, there is something funny about the headline and the story behind it. …
Advice For Clients
I'm a big fan of Steve McKee's articles in BusinessWeek, but I often wonder if anyone takes his advice to heart. His new one is called "Get the Most Out of Your Ad Agency" and it's full of tips for small business owners who work with agencies. Here's one tip: Value risk. For advertising to be attention-getting, it has to be different. And anything different is risky. In every other avenue of your business you know …
A Soc Full of Nets
After signing up for CityTrex, Dopplr and GoodReads this weekend (and sprucing up my Upcoming.org page), I have to ask, how many freaking soc nets can one person join before the utility wears off? Despite the clear value in each individual offering, there has to be a limit, right? Of course, it's a big part of my job to know what's happening out there in social media land, but still. And the thing is, I'm not even …
