Monthly Archive for February, 2005

Page 2 of 4

our ess ess

Published on 2/22/2005 in Profound Thoughts. Comments

Robert Scoble’s diatribe on RSS and marketing sites has been making the rounds of the marcom blogsphere. I don’t have to add that he’s right – any marketing effort that doesn’t incorporate RSS is just … well… dumb. And a waste. Etc. etc.

What interested me is that in the last two weeks I’ve spoken with all sorts of PR and marketing folks who all said pretty much the same thing – the blogs are happening… the RSS thing is happening… we better figure it out or we’re all toast.

It seems as if lot of people understand it but not a lot of people know how to do it. And a lot of agencies are playing ‘what are we going to tell the client.’ As in, how are we going to tell the client that we’re pissing away their money pitching what they perceive to be a pack of guys working in Mom’s basement.

At my last job I spent more time than I care to remember repeating the mantra that blogs are not about technology nor are they only for technology companies. Yet the perception is out there that blogs and RSS are toys for tech companies or worse, for the geeks. The truth is it’s for any business interested in talking to its customers.

And to end this on a not-totally unrelated note, I’ve convinced my sister to blog as a means of promoting her business and communicating to her customers. More about that soon.

Technorati tags: {, }

If you like what you read, please share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Ping.fm
  • Tumblr
  • YahooMyWeb

Don’t Panic

Published on 2/19/2005 in Mouthing Off. Comments

Dear Walt Disney Corporation,

Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but speaking not only as a communications professional but as a life long ubber-maxi-zoom-dweebie-geek of the first order who watched, listened to and read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy more times than I care to remember – you’re marketing of the film version of said property is in a word… awful.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve been watching and re-watching the trailer all week and it looks perfect. The team behind it seems to have captured the late Douglas Adams’s warped sense of humor. Everything looks wonderful – just right and just as it looked in my head when I read the books or listened to the radio series.

Except for the fact that there’s this built in audience for this movie and no one seems to know it’s coming out in two months.

Compare this to another hot geek-community property – The Lord of the Rings. The day New Line announced the films were moving forward everyone who ever read the books seemed to know it was coming. New Line and the production team went out of their way to reach out to the fan base, stoking fan interest through fan sites, meeting the fans right where they lived, energizing them and nurturing them through the long two years the films were in production.

I’m aware of a fairly active network of fan sites but where did you choose to debut the trailer? On Ain’t It Cool? Or Planet Magrathea? Nope – it debuted on Amazon because as we all know, most Hitchhikers Guide fans hang out on Amazon.com. And when those sites tried to put up an early copy and stills they recieved a carefully worded Cease and Desist letter. Nice touch guys.

And the trailers … you can’t download to them or even get a direct link to the files themselves. Would be nice to send an email to a friend and say ‘here’s what we’re doing on April 29….’

Here’s a clue – you have a built-in audience of tens of millions of people who read and loved these books and will go see the movie on the day it comes out no matter what the reviews or word of mouth is. But unless you reach out and engage them – just like New Line and Peter Jackson did for Lord of the Rings – most of them will not even know the movies are coming out and those who do might just feel like you’re taking their favorite property and cheapening it for the mass audience.

You know where to find me….

UPDATE: I’m entitled to change my mind, aren’t I?

Technorati tags:{}

If you like what you read, please share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Ping.fm
  • Tumblr
  • YahooMyWeb

Give it away

Published on 2/18/2005 in Profound Thoughts. Comments

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to get things done at home, at least until we get the whole ‘home office’ thing set up. Which at the rate we move on these things should be sometime around the time the kids are off in college.

So I’m spending a tremendous amount of time at Starbucks’ throughout Westchester and Fairfield Counties – I’m in Riverside, CT right now.

Here’s a question – why are they charging me for WiFi? I know it’s not Starbucks charging me, it’s T-Mobile. But can’t they figure out that if I’m not thinking about how much time I’m racking up (even though I’m on the monthly plan it still feels like the clock is ticking) I’ll spend more time here and conversely more money on coffee?

It’s the old razors and razor blade analogy – give the razors away and charge for the blades.

Technorati tags:{, }

If you like what you read, please share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Ping.fm
  • Tumblr
  • YahooMyWeb

On the Selling Side

Published on 2/16/2005 in Client News and State of the Art. Comments

From John Battelle’s Searchblog:

Advertisers just want results. Going forward, they’ll be happy to open up their advertisements to distribute them to any publisher who wants them, so long as the publisher delivers to the right audience under the right environmental controls and is willing to be paid on a performance-only basis. This clearly takes PPC advertising to the next level and changes the tradition media selling equation.

This is what he’s calling ’sell-side’ advertising. Increasingly, power is in the hands of the smaller web publishers who offer advertisers access to micro-communities of fanatically brand-loyal, often affluent and highly educated consumers who are highly motivated and willing to spend but only respond to advertising when it’s in the right context.

It’s interesting to see this trend in action with Backbeat Media. They’re one part ad servers, one part brokers and one part fanboys. Right in the middle where the brand meets consumers and marketing is either effective or tuned out as so much noise.

Things are changing. Finally, the mice are wagging the long tail.

Technorati tags: {, }

If you like what you read, please share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Ping.fm
  • Tumblr
  • YahooMyWeb

That was fast…

Published on 2/14/2005 in Self Promotion. Comments

One of the best things about blogs for PR types is the immediacy of the impact. Email a blogger – get a hit – see your client’s server logs – take the credit – all in a day’s (or afternoon’s usually) work.

Hugh asked me if I could pitch around the story of his good friend Thomas Mahon, aka, the Blogging Tailor of Savile Row. Last night I took what is really the easiest, most straightforward approach – I filled out the ’submit a site’ form on boing boing. And this morning I awoke to a kind note from Hugh thanking me for the results.

Now those of you in agencies… or survivors of agencies… think about that for for a minute. No hours and hours of billable time spent developing the pitch and running by the client, no hours (also billable) agonizing over if the approach and the outlet were right for the client and the message… was it going to get through.

Just a simple conversation with a blogger and a hit.

For a profession and a practice that, at it’s heart is about conversations, we sure can trip over our own words.

Technorati tags: {, }

If you like what you read, please share:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Ping.fm
  • Tumblr
  • YahooMyWeb
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline