Community Diggs Open Source Advertising

February 17th, 2006 | Comments: 0

Digg’s top link as of noon eastern today – Firefox’s contest to see who can make the best 30second TV spot for them. Good PR play. Great community building. And a program to to watch as other fast-followers give open source creative a try.

If you’re interested in reading more about how open source meets marketing, consultant James Cherkoff wrote up this manifesto, posted on Change This.

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Poor Play on Words

February 15th, 2006 5

Got a surprising call from the people at Boldmouth today, giving me a talking-to about the People as Media post, and the audacity to use the language “pimping products” and word-of-mouth in the same sentence. I didn’t quite get the name of the interrogator, but if you’re out there, thanks for the call. I better appreciate how vehemently those sitting squarely in the WOM space will defend ethics, and perceived ethics, of conversational practices. In retrospect, this was not a good choice of words, especially given the work WOMMA and others are doing to develop and uphold proper standards. Mea Culpa!

People to Become Paid Media

February 15th, 2006 | Comments: 1

That’s the bottom line from this Age Age piece (registration required) on BzzAgent’s new game plan. It’s surprising more people haven’t weighed in on this development. In what could be a big-time advance for the word-of-mouth movement, the company is shifting its model to become a media company versus a conversational marketing firm. According to Ad Age:

Turning WOM into a medium — as opposed to just a marketing discipline or tactic — could do wonders for its stature, allowing agencies to buy buzz alongside traditional media buys. There’s even a rate card forthcoming this week. BzzAgent will look to join up as many as six additional agencies as partners this year.

A semantic change can make all the difference in the world, especially when dealing with new concepts that challenge convention. This represents such a shift and could have major ripple effects on the marketing movement in progress. Why?

1. By making personal networks synonymous with media networks (at least from a investment perspective), it further legitimizes the word-of-mouth as an established medium.

2. It changes the word-of-mouth business model to focus more on the development of personal networks at the expense of creative programming (which remains an agency domain). Look for others to quickly follow suit in developing similar broad-based as well as niche networks.

3. Putting the creative power within agencies that embrace conversational marketing could result in really interesting offers to consumers to pimp products. It will be interesting to see how creative word-of-mouth can get and how ethical standards will evolve with more $$ behind these programs.

4. The conversational marketing movement seems to be tracking towards a secure place, at least in the near term, within media and ad agencies versus PR firms. Ironic, considering PR has always riled on people-to-people communication to get the job done.

If you want to hear more about their plans you can go right to the source. BzzAgent’s brought on a full time blogger to document the inner workings of the company for 90 days.


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Rise of Comedic Communications

February 14th, 2006 | Comments: 0


Jeff Jarvis writes today about the day-in-the-life of Howard Stern’s Howard 100 – the latest comedic news organization making waves. How soon before we’ll look into the day-in-the-life of a comedic PR organization?


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A Story That’s Getting Hard to Miss

February 13th, 2006 | Comments: 0

The Sunday New York Times’ prolific feature on Bob Greenberg is just that not only for its length – it a huge piece — but for the commentary that reinforces the content of this blog and others following the movement. As head of IPG shop R/GA, Greenberg is viewed as the lead visionary trumpeting a new, technology-driven era for the branding business. Whether you’re sitting in a corporation, ad agency, PR firm or integrated shop, you should listen closely to what he and his clients have to say. Some quotes and attributions you can find in the piece.

“All of the corporations, agencies and marketing professionals who jointly hone and fire off a fusillade of messages across the commercial landscape each day need to overhaul both their organizational structures and how they relate to consumers — particularly the 20-something buyers called “millennials.”

“The Web is not a one-trick pony. The Internet is a new language because it’s not linear. The novel is linear, film is linear, but the Web is not.”

“I think technology is going to wreak havoc on the agency business. Because of advances in technology and communication, we’re surrounded by information we see and hear. Overload is a huge issue.”

“It’s not just that the interactivity and creativity is about commercials, TV and advertising. The development that comes out of it all is about how people interact and communicate. It’s about how they learn.”

“I think things are going to get infinitely more complex. The challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable.”

“Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether.” (From Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton, an R/GA client)

“It’s all about one thing: creative problem-solving sponsored by corporations to get the story out.”

Not much else to say…

(But if the Times piece isn’t enough you can read more in a December Business Week feature located here).



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Four Things

February 12th, 2006 | Comments: 0

Hey Robert – I’m a slow learner. This how you play the game?

4 Jobs I’ve Had: U.S. Open Caddy, Biographer, Start-up Marketeer, CIO Staffer

4 Movies I Can Watch Over and Over: Pulp Fiction, Shawshank, Dumb/Dumber, Beautiful Mind

4 Shows I Love to Watch: Entourage, The Office, SportsCenter, Sopranos

4 Four Places I’ve been on Vacation: Positano, St. Andrews, Park City, Santa Barbara

4 Meals: Steak au Poivre , Rigatoni/Meatballs, Anything Blackened, Kung Pao Chicken

4 Sites I Visit Daily: Kottke, paidcontent.org, Gapingvoid, GM Fastlane

4 More Bloggers to be Tagged: Gary Goldhammer, John Bell, Hans Kullin, Tom Peters

Contributing to The Media Center Morph Blog

February 12th, 2006 | Comments: 0


I’ve been invited to join in on a group blog developed by the Media Center, a think tank supported by the Associated Press, BBC and Reuters that looks into the future of the press and parallel industries. The group puts on the must-attend We Media conference and has extended the conversation online through this collaborative space. Called Morph, the blog features a collection of commentary from a vast group of thinkers covering PR and marketing, culture, society, politics and emerging tech. I’ll be joining a stellar crew that includes Ogilvy CD John Bell, Adpulp blogger David Burn, and possibly cameo appearances from Steve Rubel. The first installment focuses on the rise and relevance of personal voices in shaping perceptions. These voices also have strong influence in re-shaping our business today. Look to add to your feeds, visit often and stir up some conversation.

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Painful Lesson in Audience Participation

February 7th, 2006 | Comments: 0

Used to be when you did a speech and bombed the fallout was largely contained with the audience in front of you. Thanks to blogs the reach of a failed effort can be extended and intensified before you can say get out of town. Ask the PR folks at Yahoo who look to be containing damage from a failed speaking effort at EG2006. Valleywag, Gawker’s new Silicon Valley gossip blog, weighed in yesterday, reveling in Lloyd Braun’s performance and presumed run-in with Richard Saul Wurman. What’s more telling comes from USA Today’s tech lead, Kevin Maney. On his blog he called Braun out as being “exhausted, unprepared and seemingly clueless about the audience’s sophistication level.” Not the kind of stuff you’re used to seeing in print.

While this looks to be an extreme case in being under-prepared, execs should be forewarned that the coverage game tied to major conferences has changed big time. Beyond back channel conversations shared between participants, proceedings are covered as a matter of course through mainstream media blogs reaching audiences far beyond the confines of the conference sites. For better or worse, these days when you hit the stage the world could literally be watching.

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What’s Your Risk Profile?

February 2nd, 2006 | Comments: 0

I’ve been talking a lot about intangibles tied to our evolving communications business with Chris Terry, a colleague here at the agency. More specifically, we’ve gotten into how risk fits into the equation.

You know the concept behind investor profiles – where you determine how risk averse or risk tolerant you are that leads to decisions that keep you in your comfort zone. Financial analysts take the concept a step further. They discuss the relative price volatility of stocks in terms of its “beta”, or how much share price moves in the market relative to the market overall. The concept is just as simple: the greater the beta, the greater the risk and potential reward. What does this have to do with the communications business? These days, everything. Embracing calculated risk is a centerpiece of our industry’s “2.0” evolution.

Risk is a discussion point in heavy rotation these days, especially in marketing and media circles. That we’re entering an unprecedented time of change is well understood. But understanding change is one thing; acting is a different story. Acting requires the need to step out of comfort zones, challenge conventional wisdom and approach assignments with a very open mind.

If we want to succeed in delivering big ideas and meaningful programs to clients looking to break past the herd, forget the status quo. We’re needed, even if not always expected, to deliver a higher level of creativity than ever before – and do so without roadmaps, compasses or even the moss on the trees that pointed true North to the best practices of yesteryear.

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Super Bowl XL – Where are the Bloggers?

January 31st, 2006 3

You can’t appreciate the Super Bowl media crush until you see it up close, which I got a taste of today. The media swarm has blanketed GM’s Headquarters triggering the avalanche of coverage to bury the nation this week. While it’s early in the week blogger coverage looks to be unusually light. A search on Technorati leads to only 23 sources covering the action with varying levels of intrigue. Like YAY Sports’ posting about White Castle’s creative lobbying for a hangover holiday or a local station, WXYZ, enthusiastically blogging about football-shaped Salami’s from a Motown sausage outfit. If you’re looking for something with a bit more punch check out Chuck Klosterman’s work on ESPN.com. He’s covering the proceedings with literally the Best Blog Ever.

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