Category: marketing

Google’s question for Times Square

Posted by: Douglas MacMillan on June 19

What is a browser? The question is a no-brainer for sophisticated readers of Blogspotting, I’m sure. But 92% of random people in Times Square had trouble answering this question, according…

Advertisers’ dilemma leads to fundamental question

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 18

Kevin Hillstrom, a data mining consultant, says he’s getting two different requests from customers—and both of them point to an existential question: Why does this business exist? Business A…

Study: Small businesses love Google, even when things go wrong

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 09

Catch this: 92% of Internet users, according to a new Nielsen-WebVisible survey, say they’re satisfied with search results. But 39% of them frequently can’t find companies they’re looking for. In…

My sad history with embargoes

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 18

TechCrunch announced today that they’re done with embargoes—those (sometimes) tantalizing news announcements that are not to be disclosed before a deadline. Others, like Andy Beal, pledge to keep honoring them….

Bad pitch: Wal-mart and etiquette

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 04

Over the years, we’ve blogged painfully bad pitches, but I don’t any can compare with the one that just landed in Rob Walker’s inbox. On his Murketing blog, he quotes…

How Google benefits from other ad spends

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 11

Kevin Hillstrom, author of MineThatData, describes how Google benefits from different types of advertising. He divides customers into five segments: Organic (ie. Starbucks, Apple), Social (recommendations), Algorithm (Goog), Advertising, and…

Embargoed: Oh, forget it

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 02

I just came across this post about embargoed news releases. Quick response. I’m not the least bit interested in “embargoed” news. A news embargo, by definition, means you’re getting played…

Chevy Green Web: What Kind of Conversational Marketing?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 27

Chevy’s Green Web has features a lot more marketing than conversation

Political microtargeting: Is 2008 the year?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 22

Newsweek’s Steven Levy writes that this is the year for political microtargeting. He focuses the article, though, on examples from a strange source: The failed Mitt Romney campaign. He tells…

Tortured Twitter transition: PR case study 397

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 09

A PR pro sees a Twitter about the Rolling Stones, and tries desperately to weave it into a story pitch.

Are you an influencer, proclaimer, trendsetter or idea planter?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 04

I’m wondering about marketing books that divide us into ever smaller groups. One I just received, Influencer Marketing, by Duncan Brown and Nick Hayes, divides us into at least 10…

Einstein’s insights

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 30

Max Kalehoff cites a number of good quotes from Albert Einstein. Here’s one that goes along with the story about the drunk who’s looking for his keys—and decides to look…

Forget eyeballs and pageviews: Mediacasting

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 14

Rex Hammock introduces a new word: Mediacasting. Few marketers, however, have fully embraced a web strategy that focuses primarily on the goal of pushing content out — rather than drawing…

Local blog Baristanet plows into book reviews

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 19

What a strange thing to see a book review by Jay McInerney in my local Montclair blog, Baristanet. Debbie Galant explains that this is an effort by review-starved publishers, a…

Coremetrics: redefining clicks

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 18

Joseph Davis, ceo of Coremetrics, just stopped by. He explained why the company is phasing out contracts tied to “page views.” Increasingly, Web surfers are visiting a page and doing…

PR pet peeve

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 17

I imagine that PR people with a story pitch often start with a long list of journalists. I understand that the vast majority of humans, including most PR people, have…

How to rebrand a blog

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 14

Information Architects Japan writes about rebranding, and the risks involved. This is something many of us have to think about. It’s certainly the case in journalism, as the vessels we…

Flashes of the Obvious and How Great Movie Trailer Mashups Are

Posted by: Heather Green on July 30

I love my job and I love Jane Austen. What I love about my job is just how much technology is changing our behavior. And what I love about Jane Austen is how what she wrote 200 years ago fits our world today. So my point is, after readying a story in the NYTimes about the popularity of Jane Austen, I spent a couple hours on Saturday night emersed in the Jane Austen video mashups on Youtube. They are beautiful and creative and fascinating. Kids are taking either the trailer voiceover from the most recent moving, Becoming Jane, and mashing it with other videos (like an hommage to Harry Potter’s Hermione) or with other music. Or they’re taking clips from all the different movies of Jane Austen books and glomming them together with music or themes that mean something to them. Massive copyright violation, but if I were the movie studios, I would be ecstatic. Companies try so hard to create buzz and following for their products. They throw video out there for people to use, but all too often only want folks to use the video clips they provide. This however, this incredibly clever massive copyright violation is exactly what any movie studios should hope to have.

Why Wait In Line For an iPhone Yourself?

Posted by: Heather Green on June 29

Finally, something that shows that the Internet is useful. I’ve waiting lo, these many years, for something to really deliver on the promise of the Internet (It will change your life, make you more productive, Let you Live longer). All vain promises until now.(Thanks Jerryfor sending this email around) Instead of standing in line for an iPhone, you can sit at your computer, casually click over to iWait.org and bid on the place in line for iPhones that an enterprising group of college kids are holding. For you.

Selling my penultimate chapter

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 19

I see Tim O’Reilly will be selling books by the chapter. (ex Chris Webb). The natural comparison is to the break-up of the music CD into marketable songs. I see…

What iPods can tell us

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 07

What conclusions can you draw from me based on the 3,000 songs on my iPod? No doubt marketers have thought about this treasure trove of tastes, moods and inclinations. But…

Thin skin in PR

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 19

Catch the angry and defensive comments to David Pogue’s post about his pet peeve about PR. This one from JK hurt: What’s the lesson for reporters? Know exactly why…

PR: Not rocket science

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 22

Shel Holtz defends the science of public relations after critics including Stowe Boyd and Robert Scoble lay into the concept of a social media press release. He writes, “Public relations…

Ethiopian defense: Starbucks flops on YouTube

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 21

In a two-minute YouTube clip, a Starbucks official, Dub Hay, defends the company in its trademark battle with Ethiopia. Idea Sandbox links to it. I couldn’t find it by myself…

Ethiopian defense: Starbucks flops on YouTube

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 21

In a two-minute YouTube clip, a Starbucks official, Dub Hay, defends the company in its trademark battle with Ethiopia. Idea Sandbox links to it. I can’t find it by myself…

Professor: Consumers benefit from gamed forums

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 17

Say you’re shopping for a car and you go to an online forum. There you read the “experiences” of some “consumers,” who in fact are paid shills for the car…

It’s JerryTime and the Fate of Press Releases

Posted by: Heather Green on September 08

I found a recent turn of events very intriguing, given all the debate around whether blogs spell the end end of the press release. I admit that I always find…

Online reviews, a couple of links

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 06

Lots of good comments on the post about online reviewing. Tricia has a survey on her site about music reviews. Eric points to an MIT study that compares online reviewers…

Online reviews? How much will you pay me?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 04

How many of you leave online reviews for products and services? How many of you read them? If you’re like me, you review next to nothing, but religiously read what…

Jeff Jarvis, Dell, and an intern who thinks he’s a worm

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 12

An intern at an ad agency is trouble-shooting for Dell in the blogosphere and apparently finds the time to leave a comment on Dell-tormenter Jeff Jarvis’s blog and call him…

Engineering our coffee, our dogs: The coming backlash

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 02

I’m in a Starbucks in Portland drinking a small latte with an extra shot. I have orders to take home an eight-ounce latte, half skim… you get the idea. Made…

Customer Engagement Backlash

Posted by: Heather Green on June 27

A talk with Edward Cotton, director of strategy consulting firm Influx, who thinks that we’re in for a backlash, since companies aren’t thinking enough about how they’re trying to engage customers.

What Coke Learned..For the World Cup

Posted by: Heather Green on June 15

Pete Blackshaw gives some helpful insight into Coke applied what it learned from its blogging effort at the Olympic Games to to what it’s doing for the World Cup.

GM blogs: Truth and spin

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 15

It was inspired blogging at GM a week ago when the car giant took The New York Times to task for nit-picking editing on its letter upbraiding columnist Tom Friedman….

How did eBay ever know?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 12

I looked up Zarqawi in Technorati, and next to it I see an eBay ad: Looking for Zarqawi collectibles? It’s this kind of simplistic algorithm that makes people roll…

RFID: Tracking every step of a conventioneer

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 13

I’ve spent the last couple of days at a Marketing Metrics conference in Austin. The theme, which we sounded in the math cover, is that data analytics are growing more…

Did Ruckus pick the right brand name?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 15

Ruckus Software picked the name Ruckus over Snapdragon, Floating City, Thataway and Sincera, among others.

How’s this for a bad p.r. pitch?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 10

PR professional tries to win trust by calling reporter “honey.”

Bad pitch blog

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 23

Bad pitch blog debuts. Is it ok for a journalist to forward some really miserable pitches?

Marketing to youth? Toss some hockey sticks around the room

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 12

Organic designs “persona rooms” with hockey sticks and potato chips lying around

Disney goes (toward) open source: How would Mickey look with webbed feet?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 22

Disney is open-sourcing Donald and Mickey. Will news companies follow their lead?

Should marketers focus more on the A-list bloggers? Not necessarily.

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 13

Should marketers focus more on A-list bloggers? Not necessarily, says Howard Kaushansky of Umbria Communications

A Bloggy Holiday Season

Posted by: Heather Green on December 04

BW’s Tim Mullaney writes in this week’s magazine about how retailers are using blogs and social networking to attract holiday shoppers.

The Invasion Blog That Could Have Been

Posted by: Heather Green on December 01

Hopes dashed by ABC’s Invasion blog.

Sell your clicks

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 01

Roots.net is the flip side of the privacy market. It lets you accumulate your clicks so that you can sell them.

Power of Word of Mouth

Posted by: Heather Green on November 10

Media Guerilla points to research from Intelliseek about the increasing power of word of mouth recommendations.

Huh, Author Driven…

Posted by: Heather Green on November 01

Stumped over the logo that Federated Media Publishing is mulling over.

End O’ Juicy Fruit Blog

Posted by: Heather Green on October 31

But Shel Israel writes that the Juicy Fruit…er, well well the thing they called a blog, is no more.

Bacon’s updates media guide with blog info

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 26

Bacon’s seeks blogger information for PR database

Edelman shows Wal-Mart the power of blogs

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 26

Richard Edelman details Wal-Mart’s blogging PR strategy

Budget’s Viral Blog Campaign

Posted by: Heather Green on October 24

Budget Car Rental launches its Up Your Budget blog marketing campaign, giving away $160,000 in four weeks in a bloggy treasure hunt.

Om Malik on Sphere: Too much of a good thing

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 18

Sphere wanted a controlled release of its new search engine, but a post from Om Malik led to a flood of requests for the beta.

I Want the Blooker Prize

Posted by: Heather Green on October 10

In a clever publicity move, Lulu, a self-publishing book service, is creating its own version of the Booker prize for books made from blogs.

So is anyone else the doyen of PR blogging?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 07

Blogspotting kicked up a duststorm in the PR world by called Steve Rubel a “doyen.”

E-Marketers: Yank your smiling mug from the site

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 27

Optimost CEO provides tips for e-marketers. The most important: Get your picture off the site.

Is it OK to blog a company’s story pitch?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 20

PR pitches to journalists have long taken place behind the scene, but now they’re grist for blogging.

Power of Blog Marketing

Posted by: Heather Green on September 12

TUAW, a blog about all things Apple, is luring people into linking and talking about its posts by by dangling the offer of a free iPod Nano. Pick your favorite…

Tour de France blogger steers clear of promoting sponsor

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 13

Tour de France sweepstakes winner blogs well—and without hyping the sponsor

Blogging biker on the trail of Lance Armstrong

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 06

The first winner Suburu’s Tour de France blogging sweepstakes is a marketing exec who steers clear of blogs.

Is Apple old school?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 06

Apple represents a throwback to old-style command-control companies—or does it?

Suburu’s Tour de France blog: Only the fit need apply

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 20

Suburu’s Tour de France blog is looking for bloggers—and expects them to pedal up the Alps and Pyrenees.

What if PR people blogged journalists?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 20

What role do clients have in a PR blog?

How marketers can monitor what 10 million bloggers are up to

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 10

How will marketers surf the blogs for customer feedback? Umbria is teaching computers to do it.

Bringing Up Baby

Posted by: Heather Green on June 08

About how blogs helped the niche Baby Bandolier product.

Pennsylvania pays travel bloggers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 07

Pennsylvania pays bloggers to promote tourism in the state. An early read of the Pennblogs: a few are too upbeat.

Seth Godin’s marketing… for bloggers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 16

Should a blogger “fire” customers who would sway coverage, as Seth Godin suggests?

Case study of a marketing blog: Nokia’s 7700

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 29

Look how Nokia is using a blog to promote a new phone. It’s a textbook example of how corporations are bending the blog format to fit their needs. LATER NOTE:…