Modernista! vs Wikipedia. When smart-ass upstart takes on stuffy upstart

As I am increasingly tired of Wikipedian onanists purists deletionists, I was amused to hear of Modernista!'s idea of creating their own Wikipedia entry, then using it as their website. Smart, funny and oh-so-totally against Wikipedia's rules about companies editing their own entries. For good measure, the rest of Modernista!'s "site" is their newz link to Google News and their Facebook entry.

Update: the Wikipedians pulled it down.

Technorati : modernista!, rule-breaking, wikipedia
Del.icio.us : modernista, rule-breaking, wikipedia

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 12:21am in Advertising, Advertising & PR, Humor, Social Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (7) | TrackBack (0)

Jaffe says the portal is dead

Joseph Jaffe says the portal is dead and makes a strong case.

"As a context setter for this post, I suggest you read this Ad Age article which reflects Yahoo's Chief Sales Officer, Wenda Harris-Millard's self-serving bearish comments on "user" generated content, as well as the del.icio.us Peanut Butter memo, calling for reduced headcount at Y! by 15-20% amidst a "radical reorganization"

"I'll come back to Yahoo! shortly.

"I've been mulling over this idea for a while now and thought it would be an opportune time (as all the pundits begin making their predictions for the New Year) to offer up a thought of my own: I don't think anyone doubts that there is a massive realignment of the media powers that be in the overall integrated space. Within interactive however, this couldn't be more true when you look at the rise of the "new" portals such as MySpace, YouTube and/or Google and the subsequent demise - or metamorphosis - of the "traditional" portals.

"My belief is that the days of the "portal" as we knew it are coming to an end. Yahoo!'s dominance is over. AOL's opportunity is over. Perhaps only MSN has a shot left.

"Let me explain..."

Technorati : ad age, joseph jaffe, portals, wenda harris-millard, yahoo

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:57am in Advertising, Online Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2)

This is how we enforce the speed limit in Denmark

Update: YouTube took down the video, but I have updated the link below. Googling "speedbandits" will take you to a whole raft of sites where you can view it.

One reason I like living in Denmark is because the public service announcements are -- how should I put it? -- more interesting than those of other countries.

My friend Bryan Wilder is the lucky bastard who plays journalist Bart Sweeney in the film. He always gets the good gigs.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:00pm in Advertising, Bizarre & Amusing, Denmark | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (13)

Marshmallow Fluff should be banned from school tables

Scott Baradell, at Media Orchard, points us to the Fluffernutter Flap, without revealing his take on it. One suspects he's sort of sweet on the lamentable outcome of the flap, but I'll let him reveal that. I'm not afraid to reveal my take, however. Scott quotes the Boston Globe:

Jonathan Durkee has two words for [Massachusetts] state Senator Jarrett Barrios: Thank you.

Durkee is treasurer of the Lynn company that produces Marshmallow Fluff, which  Barrios targeted last month when he tried to ban the Fluffernutter sandwich from school lunches. But Barrios did not realize how much of a New England icon sweet marshmallow spread slathered over white bread and twinned with peanut butter was...

The Fluffernutter Wars were on. "Nightline" chimed in, along with Regis and Kelly and The Los Angeles Times ... Then the inevitable. Internet orders sent to the mother ship in Lynn skyrocketed 800 percent from 10 to 80 cases a day...

Durkee said it was too early to tell if the bump would carry through to the holiday season, when sales typically peak. In Lynn, fingers remained crossed. A thank-you letter to Barrios? Not yet in the mail.

A couple of quick points: 1) Durkee is not only treasurer, but an owner of the Durkee-Mower Company that makes the stuff. The Globe should have mentioned that. 2) Barrios is not trying to ban your  feeding your kids this stuff, if that is your desire. He just wants school lunchrooms stopped from dropping the sugar-bombs ("I'm not sure we should we should even be calling it a food.") on helpless targets. The Globe should have mentioned that, too.

Who's the winner here? Not the 23% of Americans who are obese.  Some PR practitioners may chortle over Fluff's windfall success -- after all, the company is shipping 8 times the stuff. But the chortles are where PR oldtimers buy the profession the disdain of the people. You see, Marshmallow Fluff is crap. Well, no, not crap but "corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, and egg white" -- please just imagine what these ingredients look like in industrial vats -- whipped into a froth, then pumped into containers. The stuff is so unstable the company cannot even provide a "Use Before" date -- it varies from "six months to one year" according to the company FAQ (So why don't they answer that one on the container, if it's an FAQ?).

There's no reason -- none in the world -- why this crap should be slathered on sandwiches and forced on children in school lunchrooms. Sugars, fats -- junk food -- are the everyday fare on American children's lunch tables. I know: I once had to eat the stuff. Fried and sweet come to mind most frequently. They could have just served us fried sugar and been done with it. And, no, this has nothing to do with having to serve many cheap meals in a short time. I was in the US Navy, which also serves great quantities of food: bland and boring, to be sure, but nutritious and balanced.

Is political hay being made? Barrios is a Massachusetts Democrat, a label that causes eyes to roll across the American "Heartland." But he's not alone. This week's edition of The Economist discusses the efforts of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican (in fact, a former head of the Republican National Committee) to reduce obesity in his state. Why would he bother? Because almost 65% of Mississippians are obese or overweight. Because obesity -- caused by cradle to early-grave consumption of fats and sweets -- is killing the state's workforce, raising its healthcare costs, and diverting funds from education, infrastructure, you name it.

Scott Baradell was careful not to reveal his views, but if I were Marshmallow Fluff's PR agency, I'd be circling the wagons (actually, I'd be resigning the account, embarrassed to have taken it in the first place). Helping companies make your kids fatter and sugar powered -- is that really a business you want to be in?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 03:23pm in Advertising, Healthcare, Is Tedious in the House?, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (8)

Heads up, friends: IABC handouts, AAF videos online

The International Association of Business Communicators recently held its conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Speaker handouts are online.

The next weekend, the American Advertising Federation held its conference in San Francisco. It filmed some of its presenters, and has published an archive.

I've been browsing both, comparing the social media/live web presentations, and am concluding that IABC was streets ahead of AAF this year (a turn-around from 1995, where AAF had a firm handle on "Web/Internet" when IABC attendees were walking out on John Perry Barlow).

It's an hour, but here is one of the AAF presentations. For info purposes only, PR practitioners might want to have a look at how some of our ad comrades are approaching social media.

Hat tip to my dad.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:52pm in Advertising, Communication Skills, Conferences, IABC | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5)

Fairly frightening what a committee can invent

About 10 years ago, I led the agency team responsible for rebranding Denmark as a tourist destination for UK and Irish folks. We did tons of research, lots of interviews, shook the databases, and realized --- whoa. We don't have fjords (problem, because we competed with Norway) or tulips (damn the Dutch).

We did find, though, that people that had been to Denmark, and who were recommending it, were emphasizing the friendliness of the people, the easy life, the smiling faces.

We went with that and helped increase tourism to Denmark from the UK by 11% in one year.

Just pointing it out to the Washington State, USA, tourist board because -- after this lunker of a campaign -- you're going to need help. My team's ready. Tanned and rested. Because we did NOT go to Washington this year.

(The following is lifted hook, line, and sinker from Media Orchard... Scott, don't sue me!)

No, the other Washington. That state in the Pacific Northwest has come up with a new tourism slogan. And according to the Seattle Times, it was an arduous process:

The slogan, 18 months in development ... was chosen with input from a 32-member "brand development task force," that included Chamber of Commerce directors, tourism officials and business representatives from around the state.

The result? The old slogan, "Experience Washington," has been replaced by: "SayWA."

18 months. 32 people. SayWA?

Best line from the Times story --

"Thirty-five years ago I smoked dope and probably could have come up with something like that," said Darrell Bryan, general manager of Victoria Clipper, the largest tour operator in the Northwest.

(Image from KOMO-TV)

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:36am in Advertising, Is Tedious in the House?, Travel | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3)

Major prize offered to intrepid readers of Lee Hopkins

Lee Hopkins, who is now clinging by his nails to the Antipodean Futon of Communication at Desirable Roasted Coffee, offered up a post that... borders the bizarre. Actually, after careful thought, I'd say the post crosses many boundaries.

I am offering a prize, of £1.50, to anyone who can, in 50 words or less, explain what Hopkins was on about.

My first cut was this:

"Pretty girl. Nice breasts. Blue water. Clearly not in Australia, as she seems unworried about sharks or box jellies. He's going Paul Hogan on us. Ok, we know Paul Hogan. Shrimps on the barbie. Not funny. Wallabies on a barbie = amusing, maybe not funny, must try. .."

I'm lost.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:52pm in Advertising, Travel | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (6)

Proof that anyone can be a copywriter if he knows his product

Friend Lisa sends this link to an expired eBay auction for a pair of DKNY Men's Leather Pants. Proof, if any were needed, that the copywriter who knows his product and desperately wants to move it is capable of great work.

"You are bidding on a mistake.

We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants...."

Read on...

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:52pm in Advertising, Bizarre & Amusing, Humor, Marketing | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Google Adopts Prediction Markets

First published, in slightly different form, at the MarComBlog of Auburn University.

Last week, I wrote some about prediction markets. These are markets where hundreds, even thousands, of participants, each armed with "some" knowledge, pool their thinking to make better predictions than pollsters, better decisions than "experts".

(Note: Wikipedia's Prediction Market article is a good starting place if you want to learn more, as is James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds (search inside at Amazon).)

But what applications do prediction markets have for business and PR practitioners? The evidence is thin to date, but last week, Google announced it's using prediction markets to make better internal decisions:

At Google, we're constantly trying to find new ways to organize the world's information, including information relevant to our business. Building on the ideas of Friedrich Hayek and the Iowa Electronic Markets, a few Googlers (Doug Banks, Patri Friedman, Ilya Kirnos, Piaw Na and me, with some help from Hal Varian), set up a predictive market system inside the company.

The markets were designed to forecast product launch dates, new office openings, and many other things of strategic importance to Google. So far, more than a thousand Googlers have bid on 146 events in 43 different subject areas (no payment is required to play).

We designed the market so that the price of an event should, in theory, reflect a consensus probability that the event will occur. To determine accuracy of the market, we looked at the connection between prices of events and the frequency with which they actually occurred. If prices are correct, events priced at 10 cents should occur about 10 percent of the time. (Read more)

Google claims the prediction market is working: prices quickly reflect what's likely, and entropy declines significantly over time. Just as you would expect in a functioning market.

The next step (and Google doesn't say if they have or will take it) is to use prediction markets to make better management decisions. To do so would be a significant departure from management doctrine, which is that -- no matter how "flat" your organization -- most important decisions are made by the CEO/COO/CFO. But if markets, no matter how much the participants are laypeople, make better predictions than experts, then that's the logical next step.

Looking back on my own tenure as CEO of a 125-person agency, and as Finance Director of a 13,000 member association, I am pretty sure the "market" -- had we had them -- would have made some different decisions than I and my management colleagues made.

What's this mean for PR practitioners? Probably little, now, since prediction markets are only now slipping in to management's minds. But if I were doing PR for Microsoft's MSN Virtual  Earth, I would be concerned about this graph, for example. Taken from the Yahoo Research Buzz Game, a prediction market, it shows how poorly the "buzz" around MSN Virtual Earth (red dots, bottom graph) has been compared to GoogleEarth (blue dots). And how the "market" views the two properties (top graph). (Note, the green lines denote NASA's product).

I've had only a few clients where a prediction market could have been deployed effectively (it takes a fairly good-sized pool, I believe), but I've no doubt the market would have made some of our marketing decisions easier and faster.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 09:53pm in Advertising, Communication, Corporate Management, Economics, Prediction Markets, Public Relations, Smart Communities, Social Tools, Society, Technology | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sanctimony, not Kate Moss, Source of Fashion PR Headaches

For my first post on the MarComBlog (which I talked about yesterday), I've chosen to look at why any PR damage suffered by fashion houses in the Kate Moss affair is largely self-inflicted. Here's an excerpt. The headline takes you to the full post at the MarComBlog.

Sanctimony, not Kate Moss, the Source of Fashion PR Headaches

September 23rd, 2005 by Allan Jenkins

Kate Moss, supermodel, mom, poster-child for the waif look is presumably giving PR folks across the fashion industry sleepless nights.

If you're following the story, Moss was recently photographed dividing lines of cocaine in a dressing room, then enjoying a few of them herself. I don't know for whose coin she was working, or even if she was on the job, but her clients — department store chain Hennes & Mauritz, and fashion houses Burberry's, Chanel, Dior and Vanderbilt — have dropped her. She will no longer represent them, and that's a big chunk of Moss' £7 million salary gone. At 31, Moss is no "new face", as they say, and, anyway, the heroin chic look is out.

Friend and fellow MarComBlog Contributor Neville Hobson suggests on his Nevon blog that this presents a PR dilemma for high profile companies: what do you do when your A-list celebrity star self-destructs in public?

I agree: the Moss affair presents H&M, Vanderbilt et al. with a PR dilemma. But I'd go so far as to say it's largely, even mostly, one of their own making....

Excerpt crossposted from my full post  Sanctimony, Not Kate Moss, Source of Fashion PR Headaches  at MarComBlog.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 03:03pm in Advertising, Current Affairs, Management, MarComBlog, Marketing, People of Note, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Jeff Jarvis Hears From Dell, Gives Up

Jeff Jarvis heard from Dell, yesterday, and despairs of ever teaching Dell anything.

I'm about to advise a friend on buying a laptop... How can I in good conscience recommend Dell?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:00pm in Advertising, Blogging, Marketing, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

PRblogs.org: Free Blogs for Practitioners, Educators, and Students

Robert French, who teaches PR at Auburn University in Alabama, USA,  has enough ideas for two people. His latest is PRblogs.org, a free ..  I love that word  .. free .. blog hosting setup for PR students, educators and practitioners.

How inspired is that?

After we spoke earlier today, Robert sent me some background on the idea.

"It is a free blog hosting service aimed at PR practitioners, educators and students.  Free blogs.  Non-profit.  Ad free.  Very niche. 

"This project now allows anyone to sign up with ease.  Just fill in three simple boxes and click one button. Automatic blog.  It uses WordPress Multiuser 1.6 (version 1.6-ALPHA-2).  That is, by the way, the same thing recently launched at WordPress.com

"I am very grateful to James Farmer of Melbourne, Australia. James, through BlogSavvy.net, is our partner in this  project.  James is an innovative advocate for CMS in education.  Please visit his site and blog at:  http://blogsavvy.net  and http://edublogs.org"

I love the idea, and I hope it blossoms and booms (note to IABC/ PRSA/ AAF members: take notes; your new hires are going to know all about social media, and they are going to eat old  media, cold media.. and old agencies for  lunch. It'll take awhile -- You haven't hit the iceberg, yet.)

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:03pm in Advertising, Blogging, Communication, Education, IABC, Marketing, Online Media, PRSA, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (1)

The Ripple-Effect of Reputation: Why Dell A/S Denmark Lost A Sale (And Probably Doesn't Even Know)

I'm not a tech fetishist. Now, I hear it's very in not to be a technology fetishist, but I assure you that I am not that calculating (or trendy).

It's simply that most acts that start tech fetishists trembling with delight fill me with dread. Not "root-canal" dread, but "standing in line at the property-tax office" dread.

That's right, I can think of few things more tedious than buying a new laptop.

So a company like Dell should have an inside track to me. I can put together my "own" system with a few clicks on line. Or call them and they'll do it. Coach me, even.

And Dell Denmark loses no opportunity to let me know this.  Dell A/S Denmark sends me a personalized ("Kære Hr. Coffee", which always makes me smile) snail-mail every month with great offers for SOHO consultants like me (one just came through the slot). Moreover, they send our household a glossy little catalogue every month and manage to slip a brochure or two into the biz section of our newspaper a couple of times a month.

In short, they should have me by the short-and-curlies: I don't have to waste time in computer stores dealing with people who were in Pampers when I had my first email address (big plus), I save time (small plus), and, since I buy as a business, get a pretty good deal.

So why did I eschew Dell Denmark? And buy my rig elsewhere? Two words: Jeff Jarvis.

But I only realized this later. At no point did I say "Well, Jeff Jarvis is having trouble with Dell, so I'd better avoid them." But throughout the summer, the blogosphere that I read murmured with "Dell... problems... falling down on customer service... " Nothing you could put your finger on, except for Jarvis' posts; it was just the word on the street, the hum of the market.

Dell Denmark approached me a half-dozen times over the summer, at least. At minor expense, to be sure, but it adds up. But the hum started by a guy 4000 miles away, whom I don't even know, who had a bad experience with a Dell subsidiary I'll never have to deal with, was enough to wave me off. The hum got into my subconscious. And Dell Denmark could do nothing to get back into the front of my brain.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:59am in Advertising, Blogging, Marketing, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (4)

What Does an Invitation to Make Money Look Like?

I suppose it's just my day to encounter scams. Larry Borsato brings dreadful news of an outfit that encourages home-based ecommerce aspirants to rip off RSS feeds, then sells them the software to do it....

"When you see little buttons like these ...

  (This is what an invitation to make money looks like!)

...  it means that the owners of the content are inviting you to use what they've written."

Yes, it's an invitation. But subject to this Creative Commons license. You lose, scammer. (This way to the Egress!).

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:07am in Advertising, Marketing, RSS, Scams | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Companies Subvert Search Results to Squelch Criticism

I hate MLM (multi-level marketing) outfits, believing their circle of Hell is properly next door to that being built for spammers. So it's no surprise for me to learn Quixtar (memo to Central Naming: next time, come up with something less Scientologist/Raelian/Heaven's Gatey), an MLM based on the Amway pyramid scam, is using every unethical SEO (search enging optimization) trick in the book to marginalize critics, according to the Online Journalism Review.

Here's an excerpt from the article

"Eric Janssen is the driving force behind Quixtar Blog and became interested in the company when his wife became an independent business owner (IBO). Janssen is also a longtime journalist and online creative manager for the Memphis Commercial Appeal's Web site, so when he was pitched to join Quixtar, he was curious why no one would directly answer his questions. He found that unbiased online information on Quixtar was scarce -- with most sites being strongly for or against the company's practices as a multi-level marketing organization for energy drinks and cosmetics.

Janssen refused to join, and his wife was pressured to quit unless he shut his blog down. Later, Janssen started online forums on his site so people on both sides could discuss Quixtar, and he started to cultivate inside sources. He uncovered scoop after scoop, including extensive information on Quixtar's Web Initiative, including "adoration blogs," "character assassination blogs" and even fake news outlets such as eSource-News.com. Janssen connected the dots to Margaret S. Ross, one of the writers on eSource-News.com who specializes in "Web Reputation" and was hired to help lead Quixtar's Web Initiative.

"I don't have any problem with search engine optimization, and businesses have every right to do it," Janssen told me. "But my complaint is that this is something that you don't want everybody to know about, because you know that it's deceitful, and it's not about providing value for people. It's not about providing a great information resource that will be the #1 site on the Web. It's about flooding the Web with crap, and in that sewage, [they're] going to bury everyone else. That's my main concern. The implications go across to other businesses like Scientology."

Tip of the hat to Online Journalism Review.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:36am in Advertising, Marketing, Scams | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Re-branding America: Marketing Gurus Debate

The Boston Globe's Clay Risen writes about the difficulties of "re-branding America" in an age when America gets, at best, mixed reviews from the world's "consumers."

Risen describes the trials of Charlotte Beers in her efforts to brand America in the Middle East, an effort that fell flat. He goes on to note:

"Yet Beers's failure, far from discrediting the idea of ''branding'' a country, stands out as an exception. The last few years have seen an explosion of ''nation-branding,'' shorthand for coordinated government efforts to manage a country's image, whether to improve tourism, investment, or even foreign relations. Firms specializing in nation-branding have sprouted up around the world. In collaboration with a coterie of such experts, Tony Blair recently established a Public Diplomacy Strategy Board... And in November, Oman signed a contract with the marketing firm Landor Associates to develop and sell ''Brand Oman.''

"What sets true nation-branding apart from Beers's efforts, according to its advocates, is its focus on brand management rather than just brand promotion. Beers failed, says Simon Anholt, a British marketing expert and one of the world's leading proponents of nation-branding, because she tried to change people's minds without changing the ''product.'' ''What she and her team were doing resulted, and I'm tempted to use the word degenerated, far too quickly into communications,'' says Anholt..."

Via Arts & Letters Daily

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:47am in Advertising, Communication, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Adrants: Sony Endorses Weblogs With Site Integration Sponsorship

More evidence that large ad spenders are noticing the blogosphere.

Indicating increased validation of the weblog medium by major marketers, Sony Electronics has signed a deal with Gawker Media to become the exclusive launch sponsor of Lifehacker, a software version of Gizmodo, Gawker Media's gadget review weblog. It is the electronic giant's first foray into weblog sponsorship and, to date, the largest consumer electronics company to make a weblog media buy. Audi, Nike, GE, AT&T, Disney, Viacom and Hewlett Packard have all, previously, used the weblog medium.

More evidence, too, that the consolidation and grouping of blogs under one banner is probably going to be a trend.

Gawker Media consists of Gawker, Gizmodo, Wonkette, Defamer, Fleshbot, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Screenhead and weblog aggregator Kinja. With the addition of Lifehacker and Gridskipper, the group now has 11 titles which, according to Gawker Media, serve up more than 30 million page impressions per month. Published by Nick Denton, the group last week received seven nominations for Bloggies, a sort of weblog equivalent of the Oscars, including two for best weblog.

Full story at  Adrants: Sony Endorses Weblogs With Site Integration Sponsorship.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:13am in Advertising | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Adrants: Cadillac to Launch Consumer Created Ad Promotion

I posted on "Homemade Branding" last month, and mused over what corporate policy should be when consumers love your brand so much that they start creating ads for it.

Adrants reports that Cadillac is taking the next step of asking customers to submit 5-second spots promoting the V-Series.

Link: Adrants: Cadillac to Launch Consumer Created Ad Promotion.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:53am in Advertising | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Even a Small Blog has Greatest Hits

Moving a blog to a new site means cleaning up the old site. And looking at what was popular and not so popular.

The 5 Greatest Hits at the old Desirable Roasted Coffee:

1) Code of Blogging Ethics at Desirable Roasted Coffee. Bloggers are the border ruffians between Journalism with a capital "J" and "just folks" with a small "j". But partisan rangers serve no one. This code is fence around this blog, saying what it's up to.

2) Dude, Where's My Car (Mazda M3, I mean)? October 27, 2004. Mazda's attempt to run a little bad viral marketing didn't pan out. I was up early that morning and noted the late night postings of some North American colleagues, that's all. Still, that post gets hit all the time.

3) Embarassing Start for IABC Blog... Drop it or Restart. November 24, 2004. IABC's Chairman's Blog has been one of the big fizzles of the year. You wanted to read about it.

4) Neville, Shel Slam Blog Scoffers. December 7, 2004. Shel and Neville, quite separately, take on blog scoffers. I comment.

5) In Search of Robert Sillerman. December 21, 2004. This was a sleeper, but never underestimate the Elvis fans out there.

I would have bet on an entirely different lineup, but there you go!

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:52pm in Advertising, Blogging, Books, Desirable Roasted Coffee, IABC | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

Google Tells Advertisers: Write Well or Else!

During my brief sojourn in the newspaper business, staff would sometimes circulate particularly badly-written, ungrammatical ads submitted by hapless local merchants. We'd hoot cruelly (we were all 20-something), and move on.

Later, as a copywriter, I'd try for more sophisticated ways to break grammar rules, to pun, to play with the language. Prudence (usually mine, sometimes the client's) usually curbed my bit a bit.

Google, though, ain't gonna take it anymore. This New York Times article reports how Google sniffs at ads with teen-speak, net-speak, or street-speak, eschewing the daily language of millions in favor of the grammatically correct.

I'm dazed by net-speak and SMS-speak: my 11-year old can type faster on a phone than I can type on a keyboard (and I'm a Navy-trained typist, thank you), and it's seemingly pure code. So I can sympathize with the people at Google.

Still, not sure it's in their best interest to be the grammar police. First, I seriously doubt their high-roller clients get the blue pencil treatment. Second, language is constantly evolving... "kk, cu l8er" would not have pleased my grammar teachers, but that's the word on the street.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:09pm in Advertising | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ford Needs a New Car Name... and You Can Help

Naming products isn't easy. You want a distinctive, attractive, memorable name that is so damned obvious that anyone would say "Yeah.. that's it!", except no one has come up with it, yet. Harder than it looks. Look at that gin-and-tonic in your hand and come up with a better name. You can't.

Ford is asking for the public's help, which is an admirable PR stunt. But they have been down that road before.

In the 1950s, Ford asked the great poet Marianne Moore to have a whack at naming one of their new cars:

"She was even asked by Ford Motor Company officials to suggest names for a new series of cars. She gamely offered at least nineteen, the worst being "Magigravue," "Pastelogram," and "Turcotingo," and the best perhaps including "Chaparral," "Mongoose Civique," and "Silver Sword." Declining all of her suggestions, Ford chose the name "Edsel.""

I don't car how ugly the "Edsel" was... as a "Mongoose Civique", it would have been a classic.

Via Snark Hunting for the original report.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:07am in Advertising, Public Relations, Writers | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jarvis Fascinated (Was: Jarvis Professes Shock.... again)

(Update 18 December: I probably should have written Jarvis to ask if he was surprised... as it turns out, he's written me that he wasn't. Fair 'nuff!)

Maybe I'm too cynical, or maybe I've been in advertising too long, but I find it hard to feel Jarvis's seeming surprise at learning that "politics is just a product" and that political campaigns approach it that way.

Granted, it's a product that should require more thought than buying soap. (Though, that being said, I've never changed political brand, and I couldn't tell what sort of soap I use on a bet).

What chafes Jarvis is learning that the GOP worked hard on discerning the media and lifestyle habits of its "consumers", and tailored its message and media buying to fit.

Well, yeah. That's what every brand manager at P&G routinely does. When I represented Danish tourism in the UK, we sliced and diced their database everywhichway to figure out where, when, and how we should run ads and direct mail campaigns. That's just how it's done.

What would chafe me is to find out that my party wasn't doing it.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:29pm in Advertising, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

How Blogging Helps the Yoghurt Company

Wondering how your company could use blogging? Have a look at Stonyfield Farm, makers of organic yoghurt, and committed bloggers through their four blogs, each of which has its own part of the Stonyfield conversation. (I find the Bovine Bugle a pleasant read.)

What I like about the story is that a) Stonyfield is committed to blogging for its consumers, b) they closely track readership and feedback, and c) they aren't bending themselves out of shape worring about the ROI of their blogging. So why do they do it?

Company blogger Christine Halvorson explains:

"Our blogs "continue the conversation" we've had with our readers/customers since the beginning in 1987, when we had 7 cows and a great yogurt recipe. Today we produce 18 million cups of yogurt a month!"

Via Rick E. Bruner who interviews Halvorson.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:56am in Advertising, Bloggers, Blogging, Public Relations, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Homemade Branding: Good or Evil?

Via Shel Holtz, I learn of George Master's homegrown efforts on behalf of iPod. Shel, who once was Barbie's PR agent, points out that not all companies are going to be equally pleased by homegrown marketing efforts -- especially when they spread faster than the company's own marketing efforts.

Oooh.. that's an itchy problem. Do I, as a brand manager, opt for tight "command and control" over my brand? Or am I damned glad the word is getting around for free, even though I might not control the meme?

Apple is doing just fine with iPod, thank you, so they don't need any help (I don't know if they want it).

But other groups should be begging for help. Earlier I reffed the (excellent) efforts of Oliver Willis and crew to push the Democratic Party into branding itself by inviting the public to create Democratic ads. Lord knows if any institution could use a tighter brand, it's the world's oldest political party.

I think this slippery eel is going to get away from brand managers. Micropublishing (blogs and wikis) already let consumers write about products and companies in a way that brand managers could only dream about (or quake about) five years ago. Taking it one step further to homemade ads, either supportive or in parody, is a short next step.

Memo to marketing: what's our policy going to be?

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:20am in Advertising, Marketing, Online Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Branding the World's Oldest Political Party

What if you could brand a political party simply and effectively? US political parties spend hundreds of millions of dollars each election cycle -- and that's just for Congressional races. Part of the problem is that candidates finance and manage their own campaigns. The result is that voters are treated to a barrage of skilful (or not, depending on the campaign's professionalism) marketing assaults, all trying simultaneously to market an often complex message.

One reason all this effort is necessary is that the two main political parties have never really "branded" themselves. Indeed, to the extent that either party is "branded", the brand has been manufactured by the opposition. Ask a Democrat what the Democrats stand and you will get as many answers as there are Democrats. Ask her what the Republicans stand for and you will almost certainly hear some variation of "Deficit spending Christians fundamentalists". The same goes for the other side.... Republicans often find it hard to define themselves, but Democrats are "Tax and spend godless liberals."

Oliver Willis thinks the Democratic Party could easily brand itself with simple messages about what it stands for as the world's oldest political party. Interesting idea and worth an effort. Willis has created an ad template, licenced under a Creative Commons license, and invites blog readers to create submit their own ads. Tee-shirt and button sales are already underway!

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:09pm in Advertising, Marketing, Politics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Natives Speak to Shel.... We Should Listen

Shel Holtz spent 12 hours this weekend in focus groups with digital natives: teenagers.

What he finds out is surprising -- and should be a comeuppance to the "blogs will flip the media landscape on its head" crowd:

"I've spent the last 12 hours in hybrid focus groups-usability tests with teenagers. I watched and listened to a total of 18 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds talk about their online experiences and expectations. Most spend hours online every day; all of them go online at least several times a week. Nearly all of them connect at high speeds. They all instant message and text message. Yet not one of them had ever heard the term "blog." Not one of them knew what RSS was. Not one had ever heard of a podcast."

There's much, much more... go read for yourself.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:27pm in Advertising, Bloggers, Blogging, Marketing, Online Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

RSS ads worth the price?

Wired reported yesterday that Advertisers Muscle into RSS. That RSS would catch the eye of advertising folk is unsurprising; nor is it unsurprising that some bloggers might want to create a revenue stream for themselves.

In the article, Jason Fried of the Signal v. Noise is quoted as saying:

"All RSS is is just another content-delivery medium," he said. "Someone has to pay for that content, either through subscription fees or through advertising. I don't know why (RSS) should be sacred or any different than a website."

I visited Signal v. Noise to see how Jason's subscribers feel about the move. As of this writing, 114 comments had been attached to Jason's terse post that SvN would start running ads "every third post".

As you would imagine, the posts range from the vehemently opposed to the mildly cautious. Many of the posts are Jason defending his move:

"Bottom line: People put a lot of time into their blogs and I don't see a problem with them being compensated for their time."

It's Jason's blog, so he can do what he wants. But I wonder at the wisdom of running ads in an RSS feed, unless you are utterly sure that your blog is such required reading that subscribers would rather compensate you than unsubscribe. Several of Jason's subscribers seem to believe that Jason's content is worth little -- they're unsubscribing.

Moreover, it would seem evident that the place for ads is on the blog site -- not the feed. If the feed summary is interesting enough, the site will be visited.

What is certain is that inserting ads will not increase readership.

Another problem, a psychological one perhaps, is that many (most?) of us read our feeds through desktop aggregators. They render RSS into the familiar email format -- but that means that RSS ads are rendered in the familiar spam format. Very, very poor tactics that a savvy ad agency could have warned Jason about.

(It doesn't help that many of the ads are for 2nd mortgages -- sound familiar?)

I hope that Desirable Roasted Coffee content is so compelling that none of you would be put off if I started running RSS ads. But until there's a half million or so of you, I won't be bothering to ask you for compensation.

Update: Shel Holtz reports on software that will strip out the ads. God, I love technology

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 02:21pm in Advertising, Online Media | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)