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March 22, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Dabble DB: Amazing But Spendy Application Builder

Every so often you will find a Web site that truly amazes you, DabbleDB is one of those sites. I received an invitation to try a 30-day demo of the DabbleDB beta and after watching the seven-minute demo movie I was pretty impressed. DabbleDB lets you take information that you might normally toss into a spreadsheet to manage and create a nice Web-based application in a matter of minutes.

March 21, 2006 | Ron Lee: “Can’t get no (marketing measurement) satisfaction”

A new survey, Accountable Marketing Through Metrics, reveals that a majority (86%) of marketing-executive respondents are more dissatisfied than ever with their inability to track and measure marketing performance, a figure that is up 9% compared to last year.  Why the increase in dissatisfaction at a time when ROI is such a hot topic?  Because processes, training and funding apparently are not in place to help executives measure the very business and marketing goals they are charged with meeting. Find out more about their concerns and survey results.

March 21, 2006 | Dean Froslie: “The Office” Renews Character Blog Debate

A few months ago, NBC created a blog for its comedy “The Office.” Posts from Dwight Schrute, the fictional office know-it-all who takes his job a little too seriously, routinely generate hundreds of comments per post. (A fan site noted that Rainn Wilson, the actor who plays Dwight, actually writes the posts.) These types of character blogs are gaining popularity. One article notes that shows such as “General Hospital” have joined the list.

The value of character blogs – most often authored by a fictitious person, brand or toy – has been continually debated.

March 20, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Using Megite to Clear the Information Clutter

This weekend, I ran across an interesting site called Megite that offers some hope to the information overload that everybody keeps talking about. One of the biggest problems I currently have with the RSS feeds I subscribe to is that many of them write about the same story, so I have countless duplicates. For people who don’t subscribe to many feeds, this probably isn’t as much of a problem as it is for people who have 100+ feeds and end up with 85 stories about the rumored video iPod every morning. Megite tries to solve the problem by sorting through everything and offering up a list of articles that is a little easier to digest without all the duplication.

March 20, 2006 | Greg Ness: March Madness: A Textbook Lesson In Branding (Part 2)

The NCAA’s March Madness marketing machine is through Rounds 1 and 2 and down to the the Sweet 16.  As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, this event is a classic study in branding. Branding connects with people on an emotional level, and anytime you have grown people yelling at their television sets, you know an emotional connection has been made. The television is not an interactive medium. It will not answer your plea for “What in the hell was he thinking?” or “How could he miss that?” You have been absorbed into the illusion and transported to courtside where your shouts of encouragement or disdain will no doubt be heard.

March 19, 2006 | Greg Ness: March Madness: A Textbook Lesson In Branding (Part 1)

Everywhere I look I see headlines about March Madness. NCAA basketball has honed this annual classic into a premiere sporting, branding, promotional, and public relations event. Major college and professional sports tournaments are usually big draws, but this year, the March Madness marketing machine seems supercharged. Maybe it is because it follows closely on the heels of the Winter Olympics. At any rate, it has major legs. The buzz is pervasive and loud.

Part of the big draw for this event is no doubt the fact that you start out with 64 teams from all over the country, and in 20 days, whittle the field down to one champion. That is one of the great things about sports; only a few players are actually involved in the game, but thousands of fans are immersed vicariously as though they were at the very center of the drama.

One reason this tournament has such a powerful brand presence is all its well known, iconic names that are famous in sports lexicon: March Madness, Big Dance, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and the Final Four. Talk about a reality show—this one is king.

March 17, 2006 | Greg Ness: Trying To Put The Breaks On Online Gambling

I saw a number of reports yesterday (one story here) about the status of the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act (H.R. 4411). The bill, sponsored by Jim Leach (R-Iowa), was approved by a House panel and will now proceed to a floor vote in the House. The bill doesn’t prohibit gambling, but it does make it difficult for the offshore online gambling industry to access the money from its patrons if their funds are within the U.S. financial services industry. There is also separate legislation being forwarded to ban all types of electronic gambling in the U.S.

March 16, 2006 | Greg Ness: Teen Market Addendum

This story about a comScore Media Metrix report was just released and it adds to the information in the previous post. Teens spend a great deal of time online. They are already an important market and they will become even more important in the next decade as their disposable income expands.

March 16, 2006 | Greg Ness: The New Global Teen Customer: Well Connected and Tough To Reach

Energy BBDO just released a new GenWorld global teen study (PDF here). It reveals some fascinating insights into the present generation of teens. Here are a few highlights:

• These kids are connected to each other and the world. As the report says, “They are hyper-informed. In the developed and developing world, this age group is regularly involved in at least a couple of the following activities: talking on a cell phone, text messaging, going online, using search engines, email and IM.
• They engage in regular family communication, but they are also part of larger social networks that are enabled by the activities above. Adults are often unaware of just how broad and deep these networks might be.

March 16, 2006 | Ron Lee: A Measurable Marketing Manifesto

Are marketers talking the talk and walking the walk with online marketing campaigns? According to Larry Chase, publisher of Web Digest for Marketers, no. “The sad truth is the lion’s share of many Internet Marketing campaigns go unmeasured,” he asserts.

Larry argues that the magic of online marketing comes from knowing where your audience came from, where they’re going, and what they are doing, plus understanding their intentions and creating messages around those intentions.  The way to do that, says Chase, is to understand the power of Web metrics and analytics to help you know what’s really going on with and behind your interactive marketing campaigns, enabling you to “meet customers where they live.”

To illustrate this, Chase recently published “The Measurable Marketing Manifesto”. Let’s look at his top ten rules and recommendations.

March 16, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Calcoolate: Ajax-based Online calculator

An online calculator, just what the world needs right? Well, after using Calcoolate for just a little while I’d say yes. Built with the philosophy that everything should be Web-based, Calcoolate is an Ajax-based calculator that’s lickety split fast because it does all the work using your computer with no calls back to a server. It even saves the results as a cookie which has to make it one of the lowest bandwidth hogging Web-based apps around.

March 16, 2006 | Greg Ness: Web 2.0 Accelerates Changing Media Landscape

New technology is creating tumultuous change. It seems almost every week some emerging Web-based company is vying with big, established media companies for consumer (and advertiser) attention. Business Week Online recently underscored this change in an article titled, “The Net’s New Age.” Traditional newspapers are beginning to feel the effects of consumer-generated media from over 30 million blogs and other sources. This is evidenced by some newspapers either folding, or contemplating a Web-only format. Other newspapers such as the Washington Post are fighting back with large staff cuts.