Marketing

Tech Giants Scramble For Bigger Piece of Growing Online Ad Market

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been talking about -- and making -- deals that each believes will help secure their future in the fast-growing market for online advertising. No matter how their maneuvering concludes, advertising and marketing firms must get ready to adapt to new technology that promises to speed the migration of ads from traditional media to the web.

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Scarcity

Smart marketers understand that scarcity (intentional or not) is a tool, one that can be used to enhance the story, not detract from it.

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The Power of FREE!

10 JUL 2008 from Neuroscience Marketing | Read the full story»

A few days ago, I wrote about the power of the word "New" to get our attention - if there’s a more potent attractor out there, it’s almost certainly "FREE!" For years, advertising gurus have listed "free" on every compilation of powerful headline words. Now, research conducted by Dan Ariely (a Duke behavioral economist, previously at MIT) shows us that "free" is far more effective than "almost free." Indeed, a preference for "free" seems to be another feature hardwired into our brains.

Hat tip: Guy Kawasaki

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Warning: Habits May Be Good for You

13 JUL 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Val Curtis knew soap could save lives, if only people would use it. So she turned to marketers, the masters of creating habits. (Subscription required)

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For Marketers, Viruses Just Won't Cooperate

06 JUL 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

According to a report by JupiterResearch, "24 percent of marketers have run a viral marketing campaign, but many struggle to get the expected buzz." (Subscription required)

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FCC to Weigh Requiring Disclosures for Product Placement

27 JUN 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with a plan to examine the requirements for identifying product placements on TV, and whether today's rules do a good enough job of telling consumers what sponsored product appearances may surface in their favorite programs. (Subscription required)

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Five easy pieces

Never mind the "P"s. Marketing has five elements: Data, Stories, Products (services), Interaction, Connection

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Google to Offer Tool to Measure Web Hits

Google plans to unveil a new service for advertisers that measures Internet use. The approach could pose a threat to current services.

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Adapting Websites to Users

09 JUN 2008 from Technology Review | Read the full story»

Websites that change to fit the cognitive style of the user could be more effective at selling products online.

Hat tip: MIT Advertising Lab

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Who's in Charge of Green?

09 JUN 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

Sustainability Officers must work with marketing side to communicate their companies' commitments to the environment. (Subscription required)

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Brad and Willy's evangelism adventure

I eventually met Brad and Willie, the owners of Lift. It's their first retail business. What they lack in experience they make up for in their zeal to please customers. They made it a point to read "Creating Customer Evangelists" and a week later presented me (unsolicited) with their plan, based on the six tenets of customer evangelism.

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How much do you hate that ad? Facebook wants to know

Members of the social-networking site can now give thumbs-up and thumbs-down to advertisements, potentially getting them to actually start paying attention.

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Can Social Media Advertising Work?

A new medium demands a new approach to advertising, one ad executive argues.

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Camera system to track eye movements of shoppers

Philips applied for a patent of a camera system that makes note of what shoppers look at in window displays.

Using a set of video cameras and eye tracking software the system will be able to tell what someone looking at a window display has been staring at the longest, and will then provide more detailed information about the product via a passive or even interactive video display in hopes it will push them towards making a purchase decision.

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Putting products before plot?

It's hard to find a TV show or movie these days that doesn't have name-brand products in the scenes. Amy Scott takes a look at where product placement is headed.

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Advertising: For Coors Light, a Night Out That Begins on MySpace

Coors Light is extending its presence in the new media with efforts on the social networking Web sites Facebook and MySpace. (Subscription required)

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PR Secrets for Startups

At a time when anyone can broadcast their opinions about your startup to the world, public relations requires a new level of engagement on the part of companies and entrepreneurs. But what are the new rules of PR? Guest author Brian Solis, who earlier this month wrote a post for us on the evolution of the press release, explains how public relations has changed and offers up 12 secrets of PR for startups.

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7 questions with Josh Bernoff

Now available, Groundswell is a great primer for those ready to use social media for their business. It's packed with research, advice and case studies. We asked Josh a few questions about creating a groundswell for your business:

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What Accountants Can Teach You About Using Social Media

14 MAY 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

Tax software isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marketing in social networks or on YouTube, spaces dominated by movie trailers and goofy viral videos. But H&R Block proved that it, too, can be successful in the space, but it's about matching content to the social community and then making that content valuable to consumers, said Amy Worley, director of digital marketing for H&R Block. (Subscription required)

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Charter to Share Broadband Customers' Web Histories With Ad Networks

Charter Communications, one of the nation's largest ISPs, is going to provide the URLs its customers visit to third-party ad networks to help them micro-target ads and make money. The ISP is sending letters out to customers over the course of the month, but will netizens see it as spying or a useful service.

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Drilling Down: Subtly but Visibly Swayed by Context

A study published recently in The Journal of Marketing Research looks at how subtle cues in our environments affect our product choices. (Subscription required)

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Marti Barletta: How to Market to Moms

07 MAY 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

If you are going after moms, make the most of the many ways to connect with them. But don't make the mistake of using stereotypical "mommy marketing."

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The Real Threat to Google

As more consumers browse the Web on their cell phones, the No. 1 search engine must cope with less space to place ads.

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Sending in the Marines (to Recruit Women)

21 APR 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Mr. Cronin said the current effort was much different because everyone involved took the time to "understand the psychographics," that is, figuring out which women might actually want to join the military, and why. That is why the campaign aims at athletic women, not just all women graduating from high school, and the messages conveyed are much more egalitarian. (Subscription required)

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The Internet Runs on Ad Billions

Consumers enjoy a vast range of Web services, from e-mail to e-commerce, all funded by advertisers. Regulators tinker with this at their peril.

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The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How Word-of-Mouse Spreads Your Ideas for Free

09 APR 2008 from ChangeThis | Read the full story»

You and I are incredibly lucky. For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online—content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues. Word-of-mouse is the single most empowering tool available to marketers today.

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Now YouTube is watching you

YouTube, the online video pioneer, has rolled out a way to make tracking your Web-surfing interests and tendencies even easier. And advertisers are going to love it. Lisa Napoli reports.

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Pumas, Planets and Pens: How Cues in the Environment Influence Consumer Choice

In a new research paper titled, "Dogs on the Street, Pumas on Your Feet: How Cues in the Environment Influence Product Evaluation and Choice," Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger suggests that what you see in your everyday world can influence what you buy. For example, participants in one study who were shown more images of dogs liked sneakers from the Puma brand more than those who had not seen the images -- because dogs are associated with cats, and cats with Puma. "Marketers ... think they have to come up with a catchy slogan or slick advertisement to create a buzz," Berger says. Instead, companies can get a payoff by creating a link between their product and a cue in the environment.

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College admission is a marketing game

Commentator and high school junior Morrisa Brenner is taking tests and filling out applications to get into college. In the process, she's learned that colleges are selling themselves just as much as prospective students.

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Media Cos. Battle Web Portals on Ads

Traditional media companies trying to stem the flow of advertising dollars to Google and other large Internet companies are increasingly building ad networks of their own, anchored by their brands....

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Crystal Ball 2.0

17 MAR 2008 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

We asked the bloggers on the Power 150 blog-ranking index to tell us what technology marketers should be paying most attention to in 2008. Here's what they said. (Subscription required)

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New: Society for Word of Mouth

With spending on word-of-mouth marketing expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2011 (Ad Age), it’s time for you to start dipping your toes into the WOM waters, if not diving in. A great place for you to start will be to join the Society for Word of Mouth, a new venture started by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba of Citizen Marketers fame.

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Advertising: A Meet-Up, Brought to You by Huggies

The Kimberly-Clark Corporation is joining forces with Meetup, a social networking site that fosters offline meetings of users who share interests — like parenthood.

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Is User-Generated Content Out?

The individual user has been king on the Internet, but the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward edited information vetted by professionals.

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Bearer of Bad News Decides to Advertise It

After more than 70 years, Consumer Reports has decided that a review isn’t enough for a bad product — it deserves a provocative ad campaign, too. (Subscription required)

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If You Want Your Marketing to Succeed, You Need to Master the Six M's

[I]f you want to significantly improve the probability of your marketing campaign succeeding, then you won't want to leave the six M's up to chance. Instead, you'll want to make intentional choices about each one of these components. And the clearer you are about each one, the higher the probability that your campaign will succeed.

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When Your Ad Tactics Don't Fit Your Brand

It's a common mistake advertisers make—falling in love with a novel idea and force-fitting it (or not) to the overall strategy for their brand.

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To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You

A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet. (Subscription required)

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One Ad Campaign: Two Gender Stereotypes

I just came across a blog post that brings up a fairly common ad campaign phenomenon: two gender stereotypes for the price of one.  Though the "chocolate man" television ad being discussed was clearly an attempt at humor, it actually comes off as either "off" or just plain creepy.  The post's writer does a good job dissecting it.  Here's an excerpt ...

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Study: Who Clicks on Banners?

It's time to update the famous saying to "I know half of my clicks are wasted, I just don't know which half."

ComScore's press release: "The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks.

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If Online Marketing Is the Future, Why Are Some CMOs Stuck in the Past?

Americans spend an average of 14 hours a week online and 14 hours watching TV. But marketers spend 22% of their advertising dollars on TV and only 6% online, according to data compiled and analyzed by Google. Why are some chief marketing officers and major advertisers reluctant to add digital technology to the marketing mix, despite the Internet's ability to help target huge audiences and build brand awareness? Wharton faculty and marketing experts offer a number of answers, but they also note that CMOs and others will soon have no choice but to start taking advantage of an increasing number of online advertising options.

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In CBS Test, Mobile Ads Find Users

CBS plans to announce on Wednesday that it is trying one of the first serious experiments with cellphone advertising that is customized for a person’s location. (Subscription required)

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Microsharing, Social-Bookmarking and the Middle 50% You Can't Ignore

"You mean there's only 1% of people taking part in this? How do we know who our 1% are? If there's only 1%, or even 10%, why should we care about who's creating content?" As Rohit points out, and as the data lead us to believe, there's a "juice middle" of the market where people are sharing, passing along and all out 'moving your message along' in ways that aren't often tracked. So, what do we do about everyone in the middle? It's simple. Virally-enable ALL of your content!

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Advertisers move to the silver screen

If you've been to the movies lately, you may have noticed the show before the show just keeps getting longer. Big advertisers are moving from the small screen to the big one. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.

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Taxi Drivers in London Take a Turn as Pitchmen

A promotional campaign for an online gambling Web site will enlist the help of London taxi drivers to engage passengers in conversation and promote the site. (Subscription required)

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Is the Tipping Point Toast?

FEB 2008 from Fast Company | Read the full story»

Marketers spend a billion dollars a year targeting influentials. Duncan Watts says they're wasting their money.

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Marketing Mismatch: When New Won’t Work with Old (Riffs on Meatball Sundae)

"People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff—more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: 'If we can just add enough of [today's hot topping], everything will take care of itself.' Most of the time, despite all the hype, organizations fail when they try to use this scattershot approach."

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Advertising: Think Before You Speak

11 JAN 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

Just as your funny bumper sticker might offend the guy behind you, your ad may not be saying what you want the target audience to hear.

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What's Black & White And Spread All Over?

10 DEC 2007 from MediaPost Publications | Read the full story»

One of the best ways of generating word-of-mouth may be via the press. That's the conclusion of a new Millward Brown study being released... by the National Newspaper Network and the Newspaper Association of America.

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Food Commercials Reach the Supermarket

Microsoft Corp. is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart.

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'What Are You Giving Away?' The Challenges of Marketing in Asia

Western companies looking to do business in Asia, especially in China, don't always confront a homogenous market, and the ways that consumers make decisions about what to buy aren't always predictable, according to a group of marketing experts who spoke at the 2007 Wharton Asia Business Forum. Like developed-world consumers, many urban Chinese people are technologically savvy and comfortable seeking product information on the web. But unlike them, they don't typically show brand loyalty and are often more motivated by price than perceptions of product quality or prestige.

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An Experiment with PDF Ads Via Yahoo

Kevin Kelly is trying out a new ad insertion program with his book "True Films". His write up is interesting and Kevin's always thoughtful about these things.

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Practicing the Subtle Sell of Placing Products on Webisodes

American Eagle Outfitters is at the forefront of a trend toward advertainment, making videos to engross viewers while glamorizing a brand. (Subscription required)

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The "Top," "Best," Most Trendy" Business Trend for 2008? The Holistic Approach

21 DEC 2007 from the Huffington Post | Read the full story»

Interestingly, "The Emergence of the 'Renaissance Marketer'" was one of ten 2008 trends spotted by Association of National Advertisers President Bob Liodice and published in Advertising Age. According to the description, this sort of marketer has a holistic view of the world and extraordinary observational skills, and, is furthermore, a powerful combination of humanist, psychologist, anthropologist and technologist.

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Facebook Ads Make You the Star -- And You May Not Know It

Facebook last week started quietly rolling out "Social Ads" -- advertisements featuring the names and profile photos of your friends. Critics say that users aren't adequately notified that their photos may appear in these ads.

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In 2008: Be Wise, Overcome the Curse of Knowledge

While history or years of experience certainly serve a purpose in the future of marketing, the most powerful results often occur when history and experience are combined with a little humility and acknowledgment of limitations - whether individually or within a marketing team. With such an understanding, you can then get out of your own way to gather the great insights that come from consumers and outside-industry thought leaders.

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A Mad Man Gets His Head Together

Maurice Lévy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, has bet more than $1 Billion that he can define the future of digital advertising. Getting there has been enough to make anyone a little schizophrenic.

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Widgets are the new ad kid on the block

Brand advertisers are turning to mini-applications with dynamic content that people can embed in their own Web pages and share with others.

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10 ways to "get ink"

Neil Wilson asks:" 'Get Ink' is the fundamental marketing mantra. You guys are natural self-promoters. What do you find is the best way of getting your name in the frame?" 10 ideas that come to mind when I think about ways to get people to notice you/your product...

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Word of Mouth Versus Key Influencers

"We find that trying to track down key influencers, people who have extremely large social networks, is typically unnecessary and, more importantly, can actually limit a campaign or advertisement’s viral potential. Instead, marketers need to realize that the majority of their audience, not just the well-connected few, is eager and willing to pass along well-designed and relevant messages."

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Bravo to Bravo: Don't "Target" Women, Attract Them!

"...So we attract women viewers, but it's just by being who we are. We don't need to find them. We have a voice, we have a tone, we also think certain things are better and worse and there is such a thing as good and bad taste and high and low quality."

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The Elongating Tail of Brand Communication by Mohammad Iqbal

Using Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail, as a jumping off point, Iqbal, a Senior Planning Director with Ogilivy & Mather Advertising, presents why the single-minded brand proposition is an anachronism and will fall out of favor in the future. His paper also details 8 ways marketers and advertising agencies can harness the power of the Long Tail of brand communication.

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Who Owns You? Finding a Balance between Online Privacy and Targeted Advertising

On November 6, Facebook outlined a strategy to integrate more targeted advertising into its popular social networking website. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw the new initiative as an opportunity for users to refer products to each other and allow friends to share information as they shopped online and visited other websites. The system, called Beacon, was also intended to lead to more relevant -- and profitable -- advertising through precise targeting based on a user's buying habits, social circle and geography. But on December 5, after receiving numerous complaints, Zuckerberg issued an apology and changed the way Beacon operates. The whole incident, according to Wharton experts, raises questions about privacy, marketing tactics and what consumers can expect in the future.

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From Hip-Hop to Geek Wisdom

"I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable."

-Robert Stephens , founder, Geek Squad

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Study: Store Ads Influence Shoppers' Goals

"Researchers from MIT have shown that people are most susceptible to be influenced by advertisers and promotions at the entrance of the store. According to the scientists, people usually don't have their shopping goals very clearly pre-determined; they decide not only what specific product to buy but also what kind of product they want to buy during their wondering through the supermarket's aisles."

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Marketers Focus More on Global 'Tribes' Than on Nationalities

10 DEC 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Executives seeking to expand their companies' global reach must now cater to particular subcultures of customers who share very similar outlooks, styles and aspirations despite their different nationalities and languages. (Subscription required)

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The 4 types of community

You're thinking about creating or extending your customer or member community because it's central to increased word of mouth and evangelism, but community is a broad term. What type of community, exactly, do you want to create? Here's four ways to think about it.

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Patented Mind Control

Here's a compilation of patents for devices and methods of various types of mind control.

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PR's Role in New Media: A MarketingProfs-cast with Cece Salomon-Lee

PR professionals have been on the front end of all media relationships for a very long time. But the advent of new media poses some challenges for even the best PR professional.

To get some advice on how PR pros should handle new media, I conducted an interview with Cece Salomon-Lee. She runs her own blog called PR Meets Marketing, where she discusses how marketing is changing the way she practices PR.

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Visual Vampires

Visual vampires are images shown in advertising that divert attention away from the advertised product. Think ... Wendy’s Red Wig ... Robert Goulet/Emerald Nuts ... Paris Hilton/Carl's Jr.. (Think 100% Creationist WOM where companies engage in outrageously gimmicky attention-grabbing antics to capture our attention.)

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Work/Life: Banksy and Hilton: Getting it right by being very wrong

I've just been to the Banksy exhibition in NY. For those who are unfamiliar with this wildly popular subversive artist (where have you been for the past hour?) , Banksy is the anti-war, anti-capitalistic graffitist who pulled off the...

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Dell takes a hard drive at advertising

Dell started out the day as a computer company. But by the time the markets closed it had become an advertising powerhouse. The company says it's going to spend $4.5 billion to create its own ad agency. Lisa Napoli reports. (Audio)

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Facebook Revamps New Advertising System

Seeking to keep the peace in its popular online hangout, Facebook Inc. has overhauled a new advertising system that sparked privacy complaints by turning its users into marketing tools for other companies....

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Yahoo, Adobe team on PDF ads

Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo lets PDF publishers monetize ads.

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Imitation Hits the Marketing Business. Again.

A skein of look-alike, sound-alike, seem-alike advertising campaigns is raising eyebrows along Madison Avenue. (Subscription required)

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Reinventing Bank Marketing

14 NOV 2007 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

In the last year since it physically revamped its 120 offices in a revolutionary manner, Denmark's Jyske Bank has generated a blizzard of press coverage and doubled its customer base. Its various financial products are now bundled in slickly designed packages, like software boxes, and arranged on shelves like consumer package goods. The architecture and atmosphere are those of an upscale coffee shop that not only offers free coffee but comfortable nooks for newspaper and magazine reading as well. It's all part of a plan to reinvent the bank office as a "third place" like Starbucks is in the U.S. (Video )

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Crisco: A marketing revolution

Crisco is a staple in many American kitchens and a must-have for homemade pies. But it's also an invented food made by chemists, and the story of how the white stuff became a must-have has become a marketing legend. Sarah Gardner reports.

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Advertising Clutter in 1759

"Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic." -- Samuel Johnson, "The art of advertising exemplified", The Idler (a series of essays published in Universal Chronicle) # 4o, 1759

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Ad Networks, the New Dot-Coms?

Web sites of all sorts are starting their own advertising networks. Even Martha Stewart has decided that ad networks are a good thing. (Subscription required)

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How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple

CEOs, often dismissive of marketing, are discovering a dangerous reality: aggressive marketing and brand-building can boost stock prices by raising customer and investor expectations. But the penalties for not delivering on marketing promises are fast becoming as significant as not meeting quarterly earnings targets.

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Crazy for Costco

Marketing chief Paul Latham doesn’t just create loyalty to Costco. He personifies it. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners.

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Facebook's Big Ad Plan: If Users Like You, They'll Be Your Campaign

06 NOV 2007 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declare[d] that the days of waste in media targeting were over and tout a new "pull marketing" era in which consumers voluntarily endorse the brands and products they like. (Subscription required)

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Opportunities Widen for Ads On Social Sites

Facebook and MySpace are rolling out more services for advertisers, hoping to turn their popularity into more revenue. (Subscription required)

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Support for ad-tracking opt out

Privacy advocates seek the creation of an opt-out list for net users who do not want to be tracked by advertisers.

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Online Marketers Joining Internet Privacy Efforts

People will soon be able to sign up for do-not-track lists, which will help shield their Web surfing habits from marketers eager to deliver specific ad pitches to them. (Subscription required)

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Marketing Maria: Managing the Athlete Endorsement

Superstars throughout the entertainment world are of particular interest to Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse, be they a movie legend or a third baseman. She wrote the Sharapova case with Margarita Golod (HBS MBA '07) to study and frame classroom discussions on a favorite field of research: the value created and captured by superstars.

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The Real Digital Revolution

The real digital revolution has nothing to do with advertising or marketing. In fact, it's the mortal enemy of advertising and marketing. Because the real digital revolution is about consumer empowerment, the ability to research and learn about products and services and make decisions independently from, and in spite of, any sort of marketing and advertising messages.

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Student’s Ad Gets a Remake, and Makes the Big Time

In a trend known as consumer-generated content, an 18-year-old student and Apple devotee was hired to make a television commercial for Apple’s new iPod Touch. (Subscription required)

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Marketers Explore New Virtual Worlds

23 OCT 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Marketers who had rushed to establish a presence in online virtual world Second Life are beginning to look elsewhere, a sign of how hard it is for marketers to keep pace with fast-changing consumer habits on the Internet. (Subscription required)

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Is viral marketing the same as word of mouth?

Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that's it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on United Airlines is word of mouth... Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population.

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Spin Me Softly

18 OCT 2007 from Forbes | Read the full story»

Online marketers, however, haven't given up on tapping Wikipedia's massive traffic flow. Along with two of Wikipedia's top volunteer editors, Spencer and two colleagues explained how marketing agencies can strike a balance, using the site to increase their brand's visibility and grab its wealth of free advertising, without getting their changes deleted--or worse, causing a backlash that spills into the mainstream press.

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RSS Ad Response Tops E-mail

Marketers are finding RSS feeds offer higher conversion rates than other online ads.

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1,200 Marketers Can’t Be Wrong: The Future Is in Consumer Behavior

The ability of new media to monitor what consumers are doing — like keeping track of which Web sites they visit — is fueling interest in behavioral targeting. (Subscription required)

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The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life

Huge amounts of advertising money are flowing out of the traditional media and into alternatives — even as ad budgets in general are growing. (Subscription required)

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Vanity Zip Codes

The U.S. Postal Service has allowed Saks Fifth Avenue to have its own vanity zip code - for the shoe department at its flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York. It was just rechristened "10022-SHOE." Saks is the first entity to receive such a customized code.

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Google to Put YouTube Videos on Its Ad Network

The new service represents Google’s first steps toward turning its powerful ad network, which places ads on Internet sites, into a system for distributing content. (Subscription required)

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Magazines rack up a new problem

Magazine publishers are having the same problems as newspapers as readers and advertisers desert them for the Internet. Now some big names like Vogue and Time might not even make it to newstands next week. Jill Barshay reports.

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Friends, Lies and Network Marketing

An expert in Multi-Level Marketing, Kim Klaver delivers a manifesto defying the bad advice most of these companies offer to their sales force. This rote advice, Klaver warns, results in alienated friends, limited potential, and insures failure even for inexperienced salespeople. Here are 12 tips to avoid losing friends (and your personal savings) by searching out referrals, not sales, and learning to tell your story.

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Today's Billboards Shine Bold and Bright Despite a Long Battle

01 OCT 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

"I think that I shall never see/A billboard lovely as a tree./Indeed, unless the billboards fall/I'll never see a tree at all."
Ogden Nash's quatrain summed up an attitude toward billboards that began with their invention in the late 19th century and continues to this day. (Subscription required)

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Marketers Get Creative to Stave Off Ad Fatigue

01 OCT 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

When the same ad runs too often, consumers grow bored, annoyed or hostile. But some marketing executives are finding new ways around the problem by varying their messages and media. (Subscription required)

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Ad Agencies Stink At Their Jobs--Here Is What They Must Do.

The fact is that the entire ad agency model has to be remade and ad agency people need to really learn about social media--and print for that matter. Blindly moving everyone into the most popular social networking sites may be safe today but it hurts clients whose brands are not connecting with the corporation's true customers.

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New Service Eavesdrops on Internet Calls

A startup has come up with a new way to make money from phone calls connected via the Internet: having software listen to the calls, then displaying ads on the callers' computer screens based on what's being talked about....

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How to be a Customer

Ninety-nine percent of marketing focuses on how to sell to customers. Very little attention is paid to why and how customers should sell themselves to marketers. As a customer, do you ever think about how you can get a leg up on your competition—the other customers competing for the attention and goodwill of the seller?

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Text-Message Ads Get Results in U.S.

Europeans are far more likely than Americans to have text-message ads sent to their cellphones, but Americans are far more receptive to them. (Subscription required)

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Getting Free Cellphone Calls for Ads

A new British mobile service called Blyk will offer subscribers some free calls and text messages in return for their agreeing to accept advertising on their phones. (Subscription required)

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Google's AdSense, Now With Widgets

19 SEP 2007 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

While not the first to introduce interactive ads whose marketing messages can change in real time, Google is touting the value of this kind of rich-media experience coupled with the contextual targeting capabilities of its AdSense network.

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Making MySpace into ad space

MySpace.com owner News Corp says it will unveil technology this week that allows it to mine all the information its members reveal about themselves and target ads to their interests. Lisa Napoli reports.

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At MTV, a New Show That Pushes Deodorant

13 SEP 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

A new MTV series, created by Unilever to promote Axe deodorant, is an example of the way that marketers are attempting to subtly promote their products by creating and backing entertainment programs. (Subscription required)

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Entrepreneurship: Direct Mail Isn't Dead Yet

A new service called Leadstash is boasting that it can make professional-quality direct mail campaigns that are financially feasible for even the smallest of small businesses.

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Cellfire.com

A new service that lets you sign up to receive coupons by cellphone is generating "good" results for Virgin Megastores, reports Stephanie Kang in The Wall Street Journal (9/11/07). The service, called Cellfire, is strictly opt-in.

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