May 7, 2008

Last week, my friend and colleague Susanne Sicilian sent an email highlighting the 5 Reasons Your Boss Needs to Send You to Boston. Among the reasons: One-on-one time with our speakers, exclusive (and free) research, "Usability Labs" on your Web Site, Email campaigns, and Social Media efforts that essentially amounts to free one-on-one tune-ups. "Take this list into the corner office now, and we'll see you in June!" wrote Susanne, who manages Events here.

April 15, 2008

There’s nothing like a long New England winter to make a body embrace a few days in the warm Santa Barbara sunshine. Last week, I found myself thanking my luckier stars that MarketingProfs founder Allen Weiss hails from southern California and not, say, Boise.

April 2, 2008

Registration is now open for the next stop of the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, Driving Sales: What’s New + What Works.

March 24, 2008

As a former news reporter, I’ve been fascinated by the launch and growth of publicist Peter Shankman’s home-brew experiment, Help a Reporter.

March 14, 2008

BL Ochman has been running an interesting series of interviews with “top bloggers” at her place recently, including Doc Searls, Mack Collier, and this week, me. She asked us to identify the top tools we use to keep from drowning in the “information tsunami” that is the internet, spefically: What tools do you use to manage boatloads of information every day?

February 6, 2008

One of the best-kept secrets at MarketingProfs is the MarketingProfs Job Board. It doesn't have a sexy tag line, "Marketing Jobs for Marketing People." But then again, that kind of captures the essence, doesn't it?

February 4, 2008

Depending on your inclinations, the excitement of last night’s Super Bowl may have been for the commercials. Some 50-ish ads played during the game, at a reported price tag of $2.7 million for each 30-second spot.

January 23, 2008

I'm not sure whether to say that the business world—not to mention kids everywhere—lost a giant of an inventor or a giant of a marketer last week, when the man responsible in part for the Frisbee, Silly String, and Hula Hoop died at the age of 82.

January 10, 2008

If you are, pencil in April 4-6 in New York City. Actually, write it in pen: you'll want to be there.

December 31, 2007

Like most of you, I’ve been reading (in various places) about the year that was and the trends of 2007. Facebook, mergers, the dawn of mobile, blogs and more blogs, social media, Twitter and video all defined 2007 in some circles, and maybe even yours.

December 27, 2007

Today Seth Godin releases his new book, Meatball Sundae, in which he questions: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync? Here at MarketingProfs, we are lucky enough to be featuring the author himself in a virtual seminar based on his new release, in which he coaches marketers on “how to avoid the meatball sundae.”

December 13, 2007

Jeffrey Sass is clearly losing his battle with social networking addiction. But, he writes, “The good news is that I am not alone.”

December 11, 2007

Know how I know when an online campaign is truly viral? When my non-geek, non-marketer friends pass it along to me. In other words, when those who don’t spend most of their waking time online notice, then you know it’s a hit.

December 3, 2007

In this season of retail frenzy, Web metrics bigwig Jim Sterne points to an shipping confirmation email that he calls "unmeasureably good." It's worth noting for two reasons.

November 28, 2007

MarketingProfs is looking for a Marketing Communications Director -- in other words, a "marketer's marketer." You can read the details on the job posting.

November 23, 2007

Are you a little stuffed from Thanksgiving indulgence? Check out our new snack-sized newsletters. With only one mini article per issue, they offer a quick take on topics we think you will find interesting. Perfect for media snackers... or just plain old busy types, too.

November 21, 2007

“Thanksgiving is when everyone—even marketers—takes stock of everything they are thankful for,” writes SubscriberMail’s Jordan Ayan. So it’s as good a time as any to re-examine your email marketing practices to ensure customers won’t label you a turkey.

November 15, 2007

I'm guest-blogging over at Rohit Bargava's place today, as he and his wife are expecting their second baby any second now. I wrote about the Top 10 US Social Network and Blog Site Rankings, just issued for October, and highlight what I thought were a couple of interesting bits.

November 8, 2007

"Recovery" and "rehab" seem to be theme of the week around year. Time was when blogholism was all the digitally addicted had to struggle with. But that was a dog’s year ago. Now, there’s Twitterholics, Second Life Obsessives, Facebook Fanatics. And it goes on.

October 22, 2007

In my college apartment we had a Periodic Table of the Fruit and Nuts hanging in our dining... well, corner. I still have a soft spot for fresh takes on the periodic table from chem class, the latest of which Brandon Fritz sent over this week.

October 18, 2007

Anyone who is online in business today should watch this video. Actually, anyone in business should watch it. (Reconsidering....) Actually, ANYONE should watch this.

October 16, 2007

Marketers may be from Venus and IT guys from Mars, but Marketing nonetheless needs to understand what IT is talking about. This week, we introduce a new short video series for marketers, produced by Matt Dickman in association with MarketingProfs. First up: RSS, now really, really simplified.

October 15, 2007

Ben Casnocha (via Fabrice Grinda) points to this video. It’s about composing an email to a girl the writer met in a bar -– without sounding too needy, formal, forward, or setting the stage for rejection.

October 12, 2007

Baby Boomers are a curious bunch. And by "curious" I mean "unexpected," not "inquisitive." After a recent survey of 26,000 Boomers, Mediamark Research called those born between 1946 and 1964 - which includes me - an "optimistic group." But are we optimistic - or just delusional?

September 27, 2007

A few weeks ago, I created the Fans of MarketingProfs group on Facebook. I saw it as yet another way for us to talk to our audience—to let them get to know the people behind MarketingProfs—and for us to listen, to get feedback on what we don't do well, or on what we do well but could do better.

September 20, 2007

A colleague sent this video around to his network today, calling it a "brilliant use of video" explaining a relatively boring product -- Google Docs.

September 12, 2007

Ad Age calls Twitter "asinine." Is it for everyone? No. But Twitter has a real use for media companies and social-media-savvy brands.

September 10, 2007

Roy Young and I contribute one of the 10 bits of advice marketers can’t generate leads without in a new free ebook published by our friends at RainToday.

September 4, 2007

Are you on Facebook yet? Maybe you should be.

August 14, 2007

MarketingProfs is holding its 2007 B2B Forum this October 1 and 2 at the swanky Renaissance Chicago Hotel: "Driving Sales: What's New, What Works, and What Sticks." It’s a top-shelf program – I know, because I was one of those who planned it – and I hope to see you there. Let me know if you’re planning to attend so we can say hey.

August 2, 2007

Afrer a brief respite, I write today on the Huffington Post about marketing in the Age of Conversation, as well as about, well... "The Age of Conversation." Bottom line: It's time to let consumers dig your brand -- or not -- on their own terms.

“It's party time! This Thursday’s online seminar is a cause for celebration around here, because it's going to be the 100th added to our library. To mark the occasion, we've got an important topic, a very special presenter, and a surprise for you at the end of the broadcast.”

July 24, 2007

You know how it’s so tedious to synchronize different people's agendas and find a date for a group meeting that suits everyone?

July 23, 2007

Susan Gunelius at MarketingBlurb asks: Will “the buzz marketing associated with Harry Potter, which often manifests itself in the form of real and fake spoilers, will negatively impact sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”?

July 13, 2007

In time for this month's release of the new Harry Potter movie (Tuesday) and book (next week), Jelly Belly launched its new sausage and pickle flavors in the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans line. Meanwhile, last week, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's Kwik-E-Mart came to life in 12 locations in North America to promote the July 27 release of "The Simpson's Movie." Both of these, of course, are fictional things brought into the real world. Marketers call the concept "reverse product placement."

July 3, 2007

July 4th falling... well, on July 4th... makes it a little tricky to celebrate on July 2nd, or 6th, or any day other than a Wednesday, as it is this year. Unlike Washington's Birthday or Martin Luther King Day, you can't simply slide the holiday over to another slot to pad the weekend. So how are you -- or your company or clients -- handling the midweek break?

July 2, 2007

Today is the first business day of our Web site's new look. This change isn't just cosmetic. Instead, it highlights and incorporates the many valuable components that now make up MarketingProfs.

June 29, 2007

If you aren’t in line for an iPhone today or stuck in traffic heading to the shore, take a jaunt over to the The Huffington Post, where my debut blog post, Weblish Spoken Here, today appears in its Media section.

June 22, 2007

The degrees of separation between the "somebodies" and the "nobodies" inch closer together: All voices count. The playing field levels. Yesterday the New York Times (and, previously, CK) pointed me to Rosie O'Donnell's blog. I hadn't been by in a while, so I stopped in.

June 11, 2007

One day recently, my 10-year-old tossed her shorts into the washing machine, and one wash cycle later I discovered her beloved iPod Shuffle at the bottom of the machine's drum. It was sporting a new fresh scent (!) but was otherwise unresponsive. Caroline was crushed.

May 17, 2007

Vermont-based Watershed Publishing, which has built a network of sites in this space and others that aggregate news into a sort of content tapas, this week expanded its network with the introduction of a marketing data site.

May 11, 2007

When's the last time you read a poem inspired by marketing? Perhaps... never?

May 9, 2007

How do you create a great logo? Here are 3 excellent guidelines...

May 3, 2007

Outside.in, a site featuring local news and blog posts covering 3,000 neighborhoods in 60 cities, found a connection between blogging and the gentrification of communities nationwide in a recent survey, according to The New York Times (via MarketingVOX). But the two things I thought were really interesting were...

Aquent’s Matt Grant emailed me the other day to request an interview to chat about my marketing career. I had to set him straight right away. I said yes to the interview, but added, “Just so you know, I'm not a marketer -- I'm an editor of a marketing publication. I've absorbed a lot through osmosis, but I just want to be clear that my strength and background is in editorial work, not marketing.”

May 1, 2007

I was getting some errors on the MarketingProfs content management system yesterday. So I did what any proper technophobe would do—I sent up a panicked flair to our patient and attentive Chief Technology Officer, Aaron Lorentz. As always, Aaron resolved the problem. But this time he did something a little different, in that he offered a quick explanation email...

April 18, 2007

Dylan was perceptive: The times they are a changin'... And he was prophetic, too, at least as relates to marketing. What was true then is also true now: There have never been more tools in the Marketer's tool shed for finding and keeping customers.

April 17, 2007

Philipp Lenssen envisions our Google-future, 10 years out. For better or for worse.

April 10, 2007

Kris Hoet at Belgium's Cross the Breeze wrote recently looking for answers to eight frequently asked questions from advertisers, dealing mostly with social media and online marketing. He and Phillipe from Bad Idea, Indeed are looking for input on various issues, including these...

April 4, 2007

I'm a huge fan of Anu Garg's A Word a Day newsletter. Since way back in 1994—ancient in Web publishing!—it has offered an uncomplicated value proposition: a single vocabulary word each day—defined, deconstructed, and placed in context (historical, literary, or both). Each week is usually built around a (sometimes whacky) theme—like porcine words to mark the Chinese new year, words borrowed from German, words related to repartee... whatever.

March 27, 2007

This blog turns one year old this week. I've already celebrated the occasion—back in January, on the one-year anniversary of its conception, with an article Seven Lessons from a Blogging Year, that ran in the MarketingProfs newsletter. But since then,I've noticed a whole bunch of birthday posts or mentions on other blogs popping up like spring robins in the nest.

March 7, 2007

Anyone else feel a little bemused at the news of ABC ordering a pilot of a TV sitcom based on Geico's cavemen characters?

March 1, 2007

An interesting response to the ubiquitous (RED) campaign kicked off yesterday in San Francisco. The BUY (LESS) campaign—with its tagline "Shopping Is Not a Solution" and the pointed domain name of BuyLessCrap—is spearheaded by words pictures ideas (WPI) and Romantic Static as a direct dis of corporate cause marketing efforts, but particularly Project (RED).

February 28, 2007

I get a lot of invitations to connect on the LinkedIn networking exchange. It might be because I’m desirable as a key professional contact (ha!), but I sense it’s more because my email address is plastered all over MarketingProfs. Whatever.

February 16, 2007

Greater Boston had the first major snowstorm of the season this Valentine's Day. School was canceled, and to get the word out our town took the opportunity to try it out its new parent communication system. That meant that at 5:30 AM I was jolted from a hard sleep by the ring of the telephone, two feet from my head.

February 14, 2007

Last week, Chicago Tribune reporter Mary Umberger called me for a quote about new media and... of all things, real estate. I suddenly had a flashback....

February 7, 2007

The Wall Street Journal deconstructed the job of "Blogger" in its "Paygrade" section yesterday, under Blogging for Web Sites. The Journal got some things right, namely....

February 6, 2007

Things have been so hectic here at the World Headquarters of MarketingProfs that I completely skipped our birthday celebration last month. But here it is: With the start of 2007, MP celebrates its sixth birthday....

February 1, 2007

It’s not often that a marketing story headlines the nightly newscast. But there it was on Boston stations tonight, close at the heels of American Idol and carrying a few lessons for us all. What played out as a bomb scare in various locations around the city today turned out to be a guerilla marketing campaign orchestrated by Interference Inc. in a campaign for the Adult Swim TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force....

January 23, 2007

Since January gray blankets my world this week – a wholly uninspiring landscape – I asked a few friends: What inspires you...?

January 21, 2007

"Hi, I'm Art Buchwald, and I just died," the late columnist boomed from a video posted last Thursday on the Times web site, just minutes after his death was announced....

January 9, 2007

Has Second Life peaked? Gartner analyst Steve Prentice recently predicted a drop-off in Second Life hype, followed by a stablization and eventual trend toward sustainable growth in this burgeoning metaverse....

January 4, 2007

Last January 19, MarketingProfs Publisher Allen Weiss sent me an email from his office in LA. "Hi Ann," Allen wrote. "Just want to confirm your interest in the blog concept...? Should be done within 7 days with a basic layout...." I wrote back from Boston within a few minutes, "Are you kidding...??? YES!" So began this blog....

January 1, 2007

My Aunt Mary died a week ago and will be buried tomorrow. Today, New Years Day, seems a particularly appropriate time to honor her, and remember the lessons of her long life....

December 28, 2006

In this season of reindeer games, a couple of blogging "games"—or, more specifically, memes—have been bouncing around blogs over the past few weeks. The two memes underscore two fundamental strengths of blogs and blogging—community and collaboration—which is what links them....

Having several times been on the receiving end of unexpected news or unanticipated events that upend and redefine your life, my heart goes out to our friend (and Daily Fix contributor) Gavin Heaton ....

December 24, 2006

Eat. Drink. Unwind. Relax....

December 20, 2006

Digitas VP Greg Verdino has a great article about his experiences with Second Life in this week’s MarketingProfs newsletter, in which he sorts out the wheat from the chaff, or the hype from the hip....

December 18, 2006

Big new around the blogosphere this weekend: TIME magazine gives the individuals behind "User-Generated Content" an early Christmas present by naming them -- well, YOU -- as the most important persons of 2006. Bloggers react to TIME’s cover story by channeling Sally Field (“You like me! You really like me!!), which is entirely appropriate, as well as a little ironic....

December 17, 2006

My 9-year-old may count four stuffed bears named Cutie, Brownie, Kelly and Kristy as among her friends. But Tom Peters counts THE Bear -- Build-A-Bear Workshop Founder and Chief Executive Bear Maxine Clark – as one of his “cool friends”....

December 13, 2006

Have you heard any good podcasts lately? I stumbled upon two good ones today, but I'm in the market for more....

December 11, 2006

Fridays are usually the day to wrap up unfinished business and miscellaneous tasks, but much happened over the weekend in the Daily Fix blog community. So on this Monday, I bring you the news....

December 8, 2006

Mark your calendars for January 11, when MarketingProfs hosts a tour of Second Life especially for marketers. Hosted by emerging media evangelist Greg Verdino, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Metaverse: Second Life for Marketers,” is a virtual tour, meaning that you don’t have to pack a sweater and board a bus. You can “tour” from the comfort of your own desktop....

December 1, 2006

It's perfectly fitting that Mplanet 2006 is being held at a Walt Disney World. After a full day here, I'm as glassy-eyed and over-stimulated as the toddlers coming back to the resort hotel from a long day at the park....

November 24, 2006

MarketingProfs Daily Fix is now part of a new advertising and marketing aggregator site known as The Ad Feed. Those of you still managing our daily Web consumption with bookmarks and email (and my hand is raised way in the air here…guilty!), be sure to check out this site, as it’s tailor-made for people like us....

November 23, 2006

Many of you faithful readers of the Daily Fix know first-hand that MarketingProfs has had a very fortunate year. After all, we launched this blog a mere 8 months ago and, thanks in no small part to all of you, have seen it embraced with a big group hug by marketers around the globe. But MarketingProfs is bigger than this blog. In fact, it’s way bigger....

November 20, 2006

There are defining moments in everyone's life when you realize that something at play has real and lasting power. It hits you in the gut: true love, your next home, a book that changes your thinking, or... your first podcast....

November 15, 2006

Today I stumbled upon a wonderful post that advances the idea of blogging as “a big industry cocktail party with an open bar.” It’s a fun metaphor, but with a serious side – sort of like how a pretty little cocktail with a cute umbrella garnish can nevertheless pack a punch....

November 14, 2006

Are you going to Mplanet? I am, as an invited “embedded blogger,” so to speak, and I’d love to see you there...!

November 10, 2006

Most of you bloggers have heard about PayPerPost, right? But please... don't tell me you've thought of participating...?

November 9, 2006

The Wall Street Journal ran an article last week suggesting that Gmail's text ad system could use a tune-up. To quote Homer Simpson, "D'oh...!"

October 31, 2006

Here in the Northeast, the only thing that makes the death march toward winter tolerable is the brief respite that Halloween brings each October 31. It's the only time you can temporarily forget the shortening days, the ending of the year, the inevitability of cold and dark and aging... and become, as my friend David Armano says, someone else for a day....

October 25, 2006

The other day I came across my daughter's Brownie Girl Scout vest. Last week was a particularly challenging week, and I momentarily thought—somewhat tongue-in-cheek—that a grown-up version of her vest was exactly what I needed....

October 19, 2006

One of the questions I often field comes from business owners and marketers who are thinking of launching a blog but are wondering, "What can I write about...?"

October 17, 2006

Blogger David Armano was in town yesterday, and one of the things he addressed at a talk at the Boston Digitas office was how agencies and marketers soothe the worries of clients and companies who fear the loss of control of their brand and its message in the lawless Wild West of the emerging media network....

October 11, 2006

My fundamentally introverted nature made me cringe a little when I read blogger Tony Valle's latest post on his Small Business Radio blog....

October 10, 2006

Many afternoons, my 9-year-old daughter hops off the school bus, grabs a snack on her pass through the kitchen, and heads to the computer to spend her allotted time all in one chunk at a miniclip.com Web site called Club Penguin....

October 6, 2006

Here's what's happening within the Daily Fix community these days....

October 4, 2006

Humor can deliver a sharp prod to action. As Mark Twain said, "The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter"....

September 25, 2006

Blogger Kevin Hillstrom publishes an occasional series of short Q&A interviews with interesting people he run across in the blogosphere. This week, he chats it up with me....

September 20, 2006

Allen Weiss President and Founder of MarketingProfs.com, published a post here titled Thought Leaders & Gurus: Too Big for Their Niches....

My friend Eileen has a grey striped cat named Nimbus, whose greatest joy is to hunt in the backyard woods and drop his offerings at her back door....

September 13, 2006

Here's what's happening with some Daily Fix contributors these days....

September 12, 2006

Last week, MarketingProfs produced a terrible error in our own email marketing campaign....

September 6, 2006

My two kids went back to school yesterday. And the Chex Mix of their unique genetic makeup revealed itself again in their very different approaches to school readiness....

September 1, 2006

This week's profile of Mack Collier reveals a little about Mr. Community: the man behind the Top 25 Marketing Blogs list as well as his 100 CDs for 100 Bloggers initiative....

August 31, 2006

My 14-year-old son, born in 1991, is certain he was born two decades too late. So, lately, he's been bringing himself up to speed on the culture of the 1970s: the music (The Doors, Grateful Dead), the literature (Gore Vidal), events that defined the decade (Vietnam, Woodstock) and Dick Cavett....

August 30, 2006

Hi Daily Fix aFIXionados. I’ve been hunting around online for giant “We’re #9!” foam fingers, but surprisingly our super-competitive culture doesn’t extend that far into the numeric range….

August 29, 2006

This work week prior to Labor Day is understandably slow...

August 25, 2006

Last Friday’s offbeat profile of Andrea Learned sparked some fun comments and conversation, particularly for a beautiful Friday in August when we probably all should have been outside of the range of Internet access....

August 22, 2006

This past weekend I spent a glorious morning learning some basics of fly-fishing in the swift-moving East Branch of the Ompompanoosuc River in Post Mills, Vermont, a village of Thetford....

Despite the hype about blogs, podcasting, RSS and other digital tools, most people still get their news and other kinds of content via TV, print and the Web, writes Advertising Age....

August 18, 2006

Andrea Learned wrote a great post this week on her own blog about connecting on a human level with your community....

August 4, 2006

I returned from an extended vacation/business trip to find that Tim Allen has landed the job as the new national "spokesdog" of Old Navy, concluding Old Navy's nationwide search....

August 1, 2006

The weekly Top 25 Marketing Blogs list has become something of an institution in BlogLand. Every Monday morning, Mack Collier updates his list, and Top 25ers and wannabes flock to The Viral Garden like kids to Santa’s lap....

July 20, 2006

Marketing-to-kids programs offer a wide spectrum of the good, the bad and the ugly. Here are my picks, along with a suggestion to level the playing field between children and business....

July 19, 2006

Hewlett-Packard’s new ad campaign successfully sails clear out of the ballpark, to use a seasonal metaphor. Here’s why…

July 15, 2006

The fact that the MarketingProfs blog has been down over the past day has given me an opportunity to consider some larger, more existential, issues. To wit: Is a blogger still a blogger if she doesn’t have a blog...?

July 12, 2006

It's a happy day here at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix: the great Technorati gods have finally updated our links and rank, showing after three months of publishing that this blog has garnered 990 links from 467 sites....

July 9, 2006

Further evidence that mainstream media is giving blogging a big group hug came last Monday, July 3...

June 29, 2006

Are you trying to figure out how to help your company “join the conversation”? Or figure out just why you need to in the first place...?

It’s been 3 months since this blog launched. And the learning curve – as for any new venture – has been steep as Kilimanjaro....

June 26, 2006

I was talking to my pal Mike Wagner today. In passing he mentioned that a good number of his reader comments come from folks in Europe. "So I can't complain that I'm stuck in Des Moines, Iowa any more. With my blog I'm not stuck anywhere," Mike said....

June 21, 2006

In the past day, I’ve gotten 10 emails from various writers asking me and their other friends to vote...

June 15, 2006

Many moons ago, perhaps, some of you signed up to receive a weekly Top Five newsletter from us here at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix....

June 13, 2006

Yesterday, Verizon launched a new cell-phone service that will chaperone your kids (and alert you if they wander beyond a perimeter that you set for them, writes Poynter's Al Tompkins....

June 12, 2006

When I was a kid growing up in the '70s, and my parents' friends would ask me the inevitable question, "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I would look them square in the eye and say definitively, "I want to be a blogger"....

May 31, 2006

Marion Walton points to an interesting and sensible conversation about MySpace between UC-Berkeley PhD student danah boyd and MIT's Henry Jenkins....

May 23, 2006

David Armano and I met for the first time in the support group Bloggers Anonymous...

May 22, 2006

Why don't more women comment more on blogs...?

May 16, 2006

This post doesn't have much to do with marketing, but it has everything to do with the way some of us have been working the past few days....

If writing is a solitary pursuit, blogging is decidedly not....

May 15, 2006

Mike Wagner wrote a heartfelt valentine to Mom – the original “brand manager” – on his Own Your Brand blog. His own Mom, he says, in essence taught him...

I am a total sucker for community theater, especially musical theater, and especially middle or high school productions. What I love

I am a total sucker for community theater, especially musical theater, and especially middle or high school productions. What I love

May 12, 2006

In this age of Web 2.0, what better way to stand out than to forego the job-search sites completely and pound the virtual pavement yourself...?

May 4, 2006

Is your expense account occasionally a source of income?...

May 3, 2006

Philips missed an opportunity to be truly clever with the introduction of its Norelco Bodygroom shaver....

May 2, 2006

April 29, 2006

MarketingProfs publisher Allen Weiss is (as we say in Boston) "wicked smaht" when it comes to technology issues....

April 28, 2006

Tom Asacker points to the (possible?) future of ordering pizza...

April 26, 2006

Earlier this week, I was brooding about increasing the profile and visibility of the latest MarketingProfs baby—this very blog....

Earlier this week, I was brooding about increasing the profile and visibility of the latest MarketingProfs baby—this very blog....

April 25, 2006

Not the coffee -- truly, I live on the stuff -- but the company....

April 20, 2006

I've been trying to prod my friend Andy Sernovitz, who heads the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, to write something for this blog, but he's constantly blowing me off....

I've been trying to prod my friend Andy Sernovitz, who heads the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, to write something for this blog, but he's constantly blowing me off....

April 18, 2006

Boston-based Aquent and the American Marketing Association (AMA) today announced the launch of this year’s Compensation Survey of Marketing Professionals. And the news seems mostly good....

Boston-based Aquent and the American Marketing Association (AMA) today announced the launch of this year’s Compensation Survey of Marketing Professionals. And the news seems mostly good....

April 12, 2006

(MarketingVOX) Combined blog, podcast and RSS ad spend by the end of 2005 totaled $20.4 million, a 198.4 percent increase over the 2004 levels for user-generated online media - and is projected to climb 144.9 percent in 2006, reaching $49.8 million, according to a new report, "Blog, Podcast & RSS Advertising Outlook," from PQ Media. Total spending on user-generated online media is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 106.1 percent from 2005 to 2010, reaching $757.0 million in 2010.

The blog ad market is the largest of the three, at $16.6 million accounting for 81.4 percent of total advertising in 2005, followed by podcast advertising at $3.1 million and RSS at $650,000.

The blog market is expected to remain the largest of the three user-generated media in 2006, climbing 117.8 percent to $36.2 million. By 2010, however, blog ad spend is projected to account for 39.7 percent (at $300.4 million), behind podcast ad spend, which is expected to total $327.0 million, or 43.2 percent; RSS ad spend is projected to reach $129.6 million in 2010.

Technology, automobile and media brands have spent the most in user-generated media ad spend, $11.1 million, accounting for a combined 54.5 percent in 2005; food & beverage and apparel round out the top five categories, with 19.0 percent. Tech was the largest category in ad spend in 2005, at $4.0 million; auto was second with $3.9 million; media was third with $3.2 million.

Ad insertions through advertising networks (e.g., Pajamas Media and Federated Media for blogs; PodShow and PodTrac for podcasts; and Pheedo and FeedBurner for RSS feeds) and cost-per-click ads (e.g., Google AdSense) are the top two advertising methods, having generated $8.0 million and $7.8 million, respectively, in 2005. Advertising networks are the largest ad insertion method, accounting for 39.2 percent, or $8.0 million, of user-generated media spending in 2005, followed closely by click-through insertions at $7.8 million, or a 38.2 percent share.

(MarketingVOX) Microsoft has launched, in beta, Windows Live Academic - a rival to Google Scholar - for searching through academic information, writes VNUnet. For now, the Microsoft service focuses on computer science, electrical engineering and physics and is available in seven countries. Microsoft is working with several organizations to expand the service to new subjects. Academic Search offers English versions in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia.

(MarketingVOX) MTV and VH1 will air - via their broadband and mobile platforms - content from a "flashmob" concert with platinum-selling LaFace/Zomba artist Pink, including footage and music from her latest album, "I'm Not Dead." The exclusive concert was the result of a contest launched last fall with Honda and advertising agency RPA, to promote the launch of the 2006 Honda Civic. Beginning April 13, footage from the concert will be available on VH1 and MTV broadband channels VSPOT and Overdrive.

(MarketingVOX) Some 78 percent of manufacturing companies plan to increase spending on their corporate websites, 60 percent will increase spending on email marketing and 48 percent will do so for search engine marketing, according to a study by SVM E-Business Solutions, writes BtoB Online.

(MarketingVOX) Yahoo has launched an upgraded travel service that combines Yahoo Search with travel-specific features, posing a serious challenge to travel-focused sites, reports Reuters. With Yahoo Search, consumers can receive airfare and hotel price comparisons, satellite overview maps and user reviews of restaurants and tourist destinations - features previously available, but throughout the Yahoo network and elsewhere online.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) Retail strategist Don Watt has launched Innovus as a division of DW+Partners to help retailers find the right digital signage solution for their needs. Digital signage is one of the fastest growing communication and advertising mediums in today's retail market, allowing retailers, brand managers, and employers to talk directly to a responsive audience. However, marketers need to meet consumers' needs by enhancing the shopping experience rather than force-feeding messages to an unreceptive audience.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) Some bidders hoping to win control of McClatchy Co.'s Philadelphia newspapers that are up for sale -The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News - have hired experienced campaigners to consult with them in their battle, writes The Philadelphia Inquirer.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) The news that Ambien users could suffer from binge eating while sleeping and falling asleep while driving resulted in sinking sales for sleeping medication. Sanofi-Aventis responded two weeks later with its advertising campaign showcasing Ambien's safety, as rival medications geared up to advertise as well,
McDonald's Launches SMS Campaign

(MediaBuyerPlanner) McDonald's franchises near Tulsa, Oklahoma, have joined mobile marketing company Gamut Industries to develop Mobile Whoa - a campaign that offers consumers mobile coupons, an SMS scavenger hunt and a mobile phone picture gallery, writes Adrants.

(MarketingVOX)The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Google covering a "voice interface for a search engine, reports Ars Technica's Ken Fisher (via Slashdot). Patent #7,027,987 is for "A system [that] provides search results from a voice search query," according to the patent abstract. Fisher points out that such a service would be a perfect fit for mobile search, writing that "voice recognition could possibly power Google's mobile search right into competition with local 411 services."

The Google technology attempts to surpass that of 411 services, apparently by including a broader voice vocabulary than systems being developed by those services. "Google's system is aimed at making the voice-based search process more like a standard text-based search query," according to the Ars Technica post.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) MTV Networks' Comedy Central and iFilm are partnering to launch a contest for show creator wannabes, giving them the opportunity to win a development deal to produce a series on MotherLoad, Comedy Central's broadband channel, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) MTV Networks' Comedy Central and iFilm are partnering to launch a contest for show creator wannabes, giving them the opportunity to win a development deal to produce a series on MotherLoad, Comedy Central's broadband channel, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) The prestigious EFFIE awards panel used a modified scoring criteria this year to include a stronger focus on the role of media - another indication that media buyers and planners have more clout than ever in the advertising world and are no longer the under-appreciated minions of the past. Based on the new criteria, 70 percent of a campaign's final score was based on background, strategy, creative and media in equal parts, Mediapost reports. The other 30 percent is based on proving marketing results.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) TBS - rebranded as cable's "very funny" destination in 2004 - plans to launch several scripted comedy series as part of an initiative to offer content that complements its off-net acquisitions, MediaWeek writes.

At its upfront presentation in New York, the Turner network announced that in the fourth quarter of 2006, it will launch 10 Items or Less and My Boys - two half-hour Sony Pictures Television series. 10 Items or Less is about a Manhattan businessman who moves home to run the family supermarket after his father dies. My Boys follows the romantic travails of a twenty-something female sportswriter played by JAG's Jordana Spiro.

April 11, 2006

Why spend $80,000 and take two years off to become senior management material? So asks BusinessWeek in a write-up on our pal Seth Godin, P&G brand manager Josh Kaufman, and other proponents of the self-education movement called the Personal MBA....

Why spend $80,000 and take two years off to become senior management material? So asks BusinessWeek in a write-up on our pal Seth Godin, P&G brand manager Josh Kaufman, and other proponents of the self-education movement called the Personal MBA....

April 7, 2006

Burger King's chairman and chief executive resigned today after starting a turnaround at the number-two hamburger restaurant chain, but his departure raised questions about the company's impending initial public offering and its continued revolving door for leaders, writes MSNBC. Greg Brenneman, 44, is a veteran of fixing troubled companies, including Continental Airlines Inc. in the 1990s. He joined Burger King in August 2004 amid nearly two years of slumping sales, but the chain says it's now had eight consecutive quarters of sales growth at stores open at least a year, and profits are small but growing. John Chidsey, 43, was promoted from president and chief financial officer to chief executive, effective immediately. He is the 11th CEO since 1989 at the Miami-based company.

As the Chinese observe the Qing Ming festival honoring the dead, a man in Jiaxing, near Shanghai, attempted to auction his soul...

April 6, 2006

(MarketingVOX) Merger and acquisitions activity, which began to rebound in 2004 and exploded in 2005, is so far soaring high in 2006, with the number of deals and deal value having increased in the first quarter compared with 1Q05. Across the 11 industry sectors tracked by the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), media and information industry M&A volume in 1Q06 numbered 168 deals, up nearly 8 percent from the year-ago quarter; deal value surpassed $14.6 billion, a 35 percent increase over the first quarter of 2005, according tothe M&A firm.

April 4, 2006

(MediaBuyerPlanner) Given that a new blog is created each second, media analysts have predicted that by 2021 "citizen journalists" will produce half of the world's news, writes Yahoo News (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Several newspapers are cashing in on the blog surge by creating online outlets for bloggers to share local news and opinions. In turn, bloggers attract advertisers and readers by focusing on individual neighborhoods rather than on a large metropolis.

March 31, 2006

Check out Chris Bliss....

March 30, 2006

(MediaBuyerPlanner) With the high success garnered by quick-and-easy food publications - like those put out by Martha Stewart (Everyday Food) and Rachel Ray - Meredith Corporation launched Eat, a magazine that targets busy families, Media Life writes.

(MediaBuyerPlanner) As a testament to the increasing demand for ethnic media, three new Vietnamese-language newspapers and one online news site have launched since the November closing of the Mercury New's Vietnamese-language publication Viet Mercury, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

March 29, 2006

Welcome to the launch of the MarketingProfs Daily Fix, a group weblog featuring news, opinion and commentary on marketing, advertising, and business-related issues, both offline and online. Think of it as a sort of Huffington Post for marketing (but without the politics, clunky design, and Clooney-gate)...