Gatorade through The Ages

LunchBreak Viral Video: Sony Rolly: Incredibly Cool Unbelievably Useless Piece of Crap. But a Must Buy!

Now THIS is on my Christmas list. 3 minutes of incredible joy, followed by 2 million years in a landfill.

Digital Marketing Factoid Of The Day: Age Demographics of Facebook Users

This ain't a playground!

No Better Character on TV Than Big Love's Nikki!

Del Monte HQ, Friday, 2-20-09, 1:45 PM

Footage of the Great Garbage Island Of the Pacific

LunchBreak Viral Video: Woman Misses Her Plane and Takes Flight

Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Top 10 Online Retail Categories

Computer hardware wins again!

Ringtones Companies Forced To Be Honest! About Time!

Many would agree with the assertion that the ringtone-centered companies tend to exemplify the words "deceptive practices". Free ringtones that sign you up for $10 a month subs, incessant spamming, banners that pop open when you accidentally roll over them.

But, according to an article in MediaPost, Google is now going to force them to disclose the hidden costs of their ersatz free offers. Apparently, a deal with the Florida AG puts in place a rule that these companies will have to put the costs of the subs in their KW results.



I am sure there are still local tv channels taking those ads with 11 lines of 6 point type on the screen for 6 seconds. But every little helps and this is a wonderful step in the right direction

I suspect that this will be the beginning of the end for some of the profoundly corrupt companies in the space. And all I can say to them is that I spit on your graves. You are the sort of forces that destroys the marketing effectiveness of companies that DON'T prey on the stupid and the the young.

Rumored ZunePhone Surfaces: Four Secret Vids!

Wheaties Through The Ages

Citibank Falls For the Nigerian Money Scam

From Consumerist:

37-year-old Nigerian scammer Paul Gabriel Amos convinced Citibank officials to wire him $27 million belonging to Ethiopia. Rather than go with the usual Nigerian nom de plumes like prince or will executor, Famous Amos pretended to be an official with the National Bank of Ethiopia. Amos forged "official-looking" documents that confirmed his status with the central bank and instructed Citibank to await faxes telling them where to send the country's cash.

LunchBreak Viral Video: Ringo Starr Proves People Are Sheep: A Day In The Life Of The Abbey Road

Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Top Ten Online Gaming Sites

Pogo wins, and I am going to have to check out Runescape. I've never heard of it.

White Paper Wednesdays: Developments in Online Dating

A comprehensive and entertaining intro to how people are meeting online, from Laurel Papworth at www.silkcharm.blogspot.com

Dating Social Networks and online communities

View more presentations from Laurel Papworth. (tags: rsvp dating)

White Paper Wednesdays: Social Network Advertising

A very compelling deck on white to advertise on social networks, and why people haven't jumped on the bandwagon so far. From Hussein Fassal at AdParlor.com.

Social Network Advertising

View more presentations from hussein_fazal. (tags: media myspace)

White Paper Wednesdays: The Future of Advertising

A crispy deck from PHD on the principles of marketing in the future. By John V. Willshire, Head of Innovation at PHD.

The Future of Advertising, APA, 17/02/09

View more presentations from John v Willshire. (tags: communities social)

White Paper Wednesdays: Direct Navigation Search

I am not expert at the deeper intricacies of Search, so this white paper on the ways to capitalize on direct navigation -- people using seearch engines to reach very specific ares of content on web sites more quickly -- was quite interesting and useful. From FairWinds Partners LLC:

Savage AntiMicrosoft Parody: Score One For Cupertino

White Paper Wednesdays: Sponsorship How Tos In a Down Economy

A wonderful bona fide white paper from Kim Skildum-Reid of Australia's Power Sponsorship about how to develop and execute sponsorship by being consumer and customer centered.

Find it here.

White Paper Wednesdays: Digital 2009

No way to describe this baby except as cool!

2009: A New Year In Digital

View more presentations from David Avalon. (tags: brands marketing)

"Chad" Darth Vader After Dentist

Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!

Yes, the parody continues. In a wonderful send up of the fabulously overhyped Idol Gives back, the Snuggie Pub Crawl community has launched Snuggie Pub Crawl gives back, promising to send all proceeds to the AC Orphanage in Arusha Tanzania.

Snuggie Pub Crawl cares! And this orphanage is quite a worthy cause.

Give to the Snuggle Pub Crawl Gives Back here:

Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!
Snuggie Pub Crawl Gives Back!!!

More Than 2000 Already Signed Up For Snuggie Pub Crawls!

Yes, they're coming to a city near you. A bunch of people wearing Snuggies go from bar to bar, in celebration of the new cult favorite -- a bathrobe worn backwards! How cool is that.

Is this a joke? Not to the 2374 people signed up for the Chicago event, and it is still 53 days away!!!

America's new pet rock, perfect for sitting in the house watching TV with the heat off. And apparently for getting your drunk on!

Final Net Hair Spray Versus The Ocean And Bad Whitepeople Dancing

Steve Jobs Launches MacIntosh

When 12 fonts was state of the art.

Betty Crocker Through The Ages

Verizon Scam Math: $0 Off = 25% Discount

From Consumerist:

Lunch Break Viral Video: Rianna Bonds And Her Bullet Proof Weave

CORRECTION AND AN APOLOGY TO FREESTYLE

Earlier today I made a post that was unclear about what had happened between Wieden, Freestyle, and EA. The post discussed Wieden's win, but did not specify that the win was for media. I was unclear that the win by W+K was for media, not creative. Freestyle continues to produce, and will continue to produce, creative for EA. I deeply regret the lack of clarity, and send a personal apology to the Freestyle team. My lack of clarity was inexcusable.

Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Search Engine Market Share

My beloved Yahoo grew right out of the hide of the Goo this month! Dancing in the streets in Sunnyvale!

What's Happening to Brands In The Recession

Remember the Brandiest?

As personal incomes fall and unemployment rises, brands are generally taking it on the chin. There's an article here from Ad Age that talks about the rise of private label in these tough economic times.

That happens in every recession, and while there is good news from General Mills (GMI) and its brand growth driven by continued investment in brand building, for most companies this is tough times.

What does it really mean? Well, what does a brand mean? From an economic perspective, the value of the brand is measured in large part by the price gap between brand and private label that consumers are willing to pay. And that has surely declined for a variety of reasons.

One is that with a decline in personal income, we all need to make choices as to what is important to us. Do we need the best detergent out there, or are the problems we face in the laundry room sufficiently minor that a value brand or store brand good enough to solve them?

But there are bigger issues for brands. Private label has come a very long way from the old Pathmark No Frills aisle, which had a visual appearance to the grocery store in Repo Man. There is far less of a quality gap -- indeed there is perhaps no gap at all in many categories. Given that many branded manufacturers also make the private label versions of their products, many people have become savvy enough to know that the differences just aren't there.

Then there has been the tendency for brands to take big price advances year after year. When I worked in the cereal business, we found the growth in PL and bagged cereals roughly corresponded to that price advance line. And for good reason. Over the years, cereal went from a genuine bargain to a fairly expensive way to buy grain and sugar.

I think it also points to an urgent need for our industry to find ways to use digital to offer real brand connections and interactions so we can restore the price differentials that consumers are willing to pay. We can offer reach, or depth, but rarely both. We need to quickly figure out a way to offer reach and depth in digital experiences. Or we may find ourselves with a lot fewer accounts in a few years.

Bud.TV RIP: I Hardly Knew Ya

From St Louis or perhaps more precisely Brussels comes the news that A-B, the Belgian brewing company, has dumped Bud.TV, its attempt to create a branded entertainment venue online.

From the beginning Bud.tv was a big gamble -- a $30 Million (!) investment in video, games, applications, and and and that was envisioned as a big traffic solution to the very real challenges of brand-y brands getting TV sized reach in digital. It was hoped that this ginormous site would attract a huge following -- creating for A-B a new way of touching its consumers.

But nope, it turns out that Americans want content creators created by...content creators, not brewers. There were a host of problems, but I think that was the real hub of the issue.

Well, away it goes. Companies have done stupider things than Bud TV - like value digital companies with almost zero revenue at tens of billions.

Flickhoppr and Micro Social Networks

Is there a place for microsocial networks? Flickhoppr appears to think so. The idea behind this interesting company is that college students will want to share DVDs with others on their very own campus. Essentially, it's bit torrent without the bit bit. You list and rate the DVDs you own, and then browse the lists of others on your campus. You can even confine a search to your dorm so you don't have to go outside on a rainy Thursday night to catch a flick.

Here's an explanatory video for the concept (though it was under a different name at the time the video was made:



The current supported school list heavily Pennsylvania in representation:

California University of Pennsylvania
Penn State University
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
University of Maryland
Drexel University
Duquesne University
Juniata College
Virginia Tech
Washington and Jefferson College
Mount Aloysius College
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Point Park University
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
West Virginia University
University of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Mellon University
Indian institute of Technology

You can watch their techcrunch 60 second below:



Whaddaya think? To me, this appears to be one of a growing number of start ups not shooting for the moon or a billion dollar valuation but rather a way to make a decent buck meeting a well defined, discrete need. As such it may be a more realistic business model than the flocks in the valley shooting for a billion dollar valuation.

They've added some interesting additions -- a facebook app and an SMS service that alters you when any vid you have has been requested by someone.

A nifty little idea that I would've found very appealing had there actually been DVDs when I was in college. ;-)

sean penn wins

Book Glutton: Soon To Be The World's Biggest Reading Club?

Well, it had to happen, and I am so glad it did. The digitization of a reading club into a vibrant and expressive community of super readers. Mmm mmm good.

BookGlutton is a site where you can read books along with others.

Here's a short explanatory intro to the site:



Clearly, the premise behind the site is that people like to talk about what they are reading, and with the powerfully unique online reader, you can comment on and read comments about the text as you are reading.

On Book Glutton you have the opportunity to read with a group, or tune out the group and just enjoy the text yourself. The unique reader enables you to read comments and make them while in line in the text of a particular page. By selecting a particular piece of text you can make comments directly about it that stay with it in the community copy of the work.

Here's how describe why they founded BookGlutton:

We believe firmly that people want to read, annotate and discuss, right there, immersed in the text. That’s the best time to talk about a book. We also respect the solitary side to reading: people should have the chance to tune out the community. We wanted it to be attractive, too; to be an experience. It was designed for the laptops people carry to their coffee shops, and meant for the network, not the desktop. Finally, it had to be something we’d want to use. Naturally we’ve got a list of improvements. Like any creative endeavor, we’re always seeing new ways to tweak it. And we’re open to suggestions! You can suggest features or give us general feedback

The site is quite new, so there are only about 1500 books available. But I think this is a site worth watching. The concept of being able to discuss a book like this offers a tremendously intriguing twist on the other book communities out there. This isn't a "let's compare shelves" app -- its a way to get into real dialogue about the ideas, characters, story, and meaning of a book.

Lunch Break Viral Video: This Just In: Rich Traders Given $700B By Struggling Americans Don't Believe In Helping Out People Losing Homes

What a prick.

And The Number One Photo Site In The World Is...

Photobucket? Nope
Flickr? Nope

It's Facebook. This Tech Crunch piece shows the startling data and provides analysis.



I think there is no better proof of the importance of integration and open access than this. Facebook is winning because it is so well integrated into the world's leading social net. Flickr is awesome, but tens of millions of people are not visiting it every day. Whereas Facebook...

Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Top 10 Etailers By Conversion Rate

Grocery retailer Schwan's (stop laughing, German readers!) is da winner!

Fotolia: More Than One Million Users!

If you regularly use stock photos, you may already have heard of Fotolia, the online stock photo service that offers extremely affordable photo downloads of professionally shot pics.

And if you haven't heard of them, head on over and check them out.

The photos they offer -- actually, it's photos, vectors and vids, just like sites like Getty and iStockphoto -- are really unbelievably affordable -- from $1 for an extra small to $7 for a mega colossal size. Yep, 7 smackers buys you ad quality files sizes.

But wait, there's more. You can, instead of buying photos individually, buy a monthly subscription program that further reduces the per photo charge.A monthly sub lets you download up to 25 photos a day, or 750 a month. Now that's a bargain!

With over 5 million photos and about 200,000 vectors, it's a bit smaller than the competition, but that won't be for long at these prices.

I love this model because I believe it will truly expand the buying of photos, putting more people on the rights side of copyright law. At a buck, or even 14 cents per, I think people will even be buying the pics for their low circ PowerPoints.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Zumeo Helps Gen Y Find Its Work Passion

Is there a better time to launch a job site than this? With so many people out of work, the opportunity to find a job via the web is appealing to tens of millions.

But brass tacks, most jobs sites just plain suck. Horrible, abominable search functions, relentless spam fro 100% commission sales scams, badly written job descriptions, and a host of other problems that plague the site genre.

Now imagine you are someone rethinking a career choice, or perhaps looking for your first real job out of HS or college.

For those people especially, now there is Zumeo, a new job site based upon the premise of matching the whole person to the org and opp.

Here's how their site describes its strengths:

Discover your strengths...
Do you know your professional strengths? Does your job allow you to leverage your strengths? Are you graduating and looking to find a career that fits you? Zumeo is your answer. Our self-discovery tool helps you identify key aspects of your personality and matches you with jobs that specifically fit you.
Assessment test developed by Zumeo and Career Key®.

The search ends here...
Job search boxes are everywhere. Zumeo realizes that this is intimidating when searching for jobs and internships. What do you search for? What opportunities are available? Is the position filled? Does the job match your strengths? We have answered these questions by building a system that searches for you. Zumeo personally matches you with relevant jobs that fit your strengths. These jobs and internships are current, relevant, and link directly to the companies posting them.

Connect with important people...
Once you have gone through the three step matching process, you can use Zumeo like a professional Facebook or Linkedin. Build your Live Resumé™, research a myriad great businesses, apply for jobs, connect with colleagues, and continually get matched as we add new jobs.

And here's their Tech Crunch 60 Second Pitch:




their message to recruiters focused on helping them reach out to Gen Y, which made me surmise what the answer is to recruiting that generation: a VP title for someone just out of college with no skills, six figures, a seven hour work day, corner office, and lots of power but no actual responsibility.

But seriously, I don't actually feel that way, and the recession is gonna take care of unrealistic expectations but quick. What I like about Zumeo is the emphasis on finding the sort of job that is right for your personality, interests, and work style, so that both worker and employer can be happier with one another.

Another intriguing aspect of the site is that it helps job seekers form relationships with the people that need them and can help them land the right position.

This is important stuff. We are about to experience a major change in the relationships between workers and people -- a change for the better if you think it would be valuable for both companies and people to act less as free agents. At least that's what I expect. And part of that change is that people are going to have to find their passions instead of just larger paychecks. Zumeo can be a big part of that change.

Microsoft: Give Back Your Severance

Hmm, a company with enormous cash reserves lays you off, sends you severance, and then sends the terse letter below to get you to give some back because they screwed up the calculation.

I'm thinking...no thanks.

msletter

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Alternative Uses For a Phone Screen