Categories

February 17, 2007 | Greg Ness: High Tech Toys Take Flight

Toys have always advanced with the available technology, and today technology is helping both create and sell (see Happier Times In Toyland) an amazing new batch of flying toys. First there is the amazing little Picco Z which advertises itself as the world’s smallest flying remote-control helicopter. I’ve seen it promoted as low as $29 and it has been selling fast due to its low cost, ease of use and the fact that it has created a substantial amount of buzz on the Internet through sites such as Gizmodo and YouTube.

February 15, 2007 | Dean Froslie: “Regret the Error” Collects Media Mistakes

Continuing this week’s mistakes and complaints theme (see posts from Ron and Greg): Regret the Error compiles corrections from media outlets across the world. The hilarious (and often painful) collection reminds us how easy mistakes can occur.

February 15, 2007 | Dean Froslie: Rural Broadband Access Remains Challenging

The broadband growth statistics become more impressive with each new study: 78 percent of all home web users have high-speed connections. Broadband coverage will reach 50 percent of all U.S. households in 2007. But significant hurdles remain in rural America.

February 15, 2007 | Greg Ness: The Power of A Mistake

Mistakes (perceived or otherwise) can sometimes be worth far more than getting it right. Witness the Google missing letter “l” issue yesterday.

Seth’s take.
Adrants take.
MarketingShift’s take.
The ReveNews take.
Beyond Madison Avenue’s take.
John Battelle’s take.
Google’s take.
Who knows how many more checked it out.

That’s a lot of buzz. The logo would probably have received little notice without the wayward letter.

February 14, 2007 | Greg Ness: Google vs. Belgium

O.K., so Google lost the copyright case with the Belgian newspapers. The question now being asked at Business Week and The Next Net is who is the real loser. I called that one way back in September: Newspaper Associations: Trying To Swim Against The Tide? That post was picked up by Tailrank, Web 2.0 Television, and via comments by the Press Gazette in the U.K.

This is an easy one: Belgian newspapers lose. Obscurity isn’t a great way to sell brands or newspapers in the Internet Age.

February 13, 2007 | Ron Lee: Return on Complaint

The San Francisco Chronicle is doing more than listening to its readers when they sound off. SFGate.com editors now are actually making audio files and podcasts out of some of their more vocal readers’ comments (or complaints) in a new section called “Correct me if I’m wrong.”

February 13, 2007 | Greg Ness: Dublin and The Starbucks Effect

I suppose it could be called The Wal-Mart or The Home Depot Effect, too, but an article at Fast Company refers to it as The Starbucks Effect. The story is from Ireland, but almost anyone anywhere can relate to what happens when a popular, but aggressive chain moves into what had previously been a “protected” business ecosystem. Wherever there is a human want or need, there is an opportunity. That’s a timeless marketing fact, and to rapidly expanding businesses, that says, “Carpe Diem.”

February 12, 2007 | Greg Ness: The Power of Digital Media

I’ve seen the above video show up a couple of places now (Seth Godin and The Long Tail) and it is captivating to say the least. It is from Michael Wesch, a professor of anthropology at Kansas State.

February 11, 2007 | Greg Ness: Nielsen Superbowl Stats

Nielsen Media Research released some interesting advertising statistics from the big game a week ago. You can see all of the info here. Following are some salient numbers:

• At peak viewing, Super Bowl XLI had about 100 million viewers.
• There were 101 commercials in the game (do the math at $2.6 million per pop).
• People who watched the game on HDTV could recall 15% more commercials.

February 10, 2007 | Greg Ness: One Way Inc. 500 Companies Become Fortune 500 Companies

According to a new study by the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research, the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. are utilizing new online social marketing tools at twice the rate of Fortune 500 companies. Nora Banim Barnes, who is the director at the research center commented, “[The results] indicate that corporate familiarity and usage of social media is racing far ahead of what many have predicted.”

The survey sought to gauge the level of usage for blogs, podcasts, online videos, message boards, social networking and wikis. Of the surveyed companies, over two-thirds of the respondents indicated that online social marketing was very important or somewhat important to their rapid growth.

February 09, 2007 | Dean Froslie: Defining Internal Communication

We must think bigger about internal communications, and Australian blogger Lee Hopkins has posted an excellent overview about what it is, why it’s important, and how to structure effective efforts.

February 08, 2007 | Greg Ness: You Don’t Have To Be Big To Be Good

According to IAG Research, which ad agency won the Super Bowl Advertising Trophy: BBDO? Wieden & Kennedy? Fallon? Nope. It was won by a guy named Dale Backus and a small company called Five Point Productions. Here’s the story.

Great ideas come from anywhere and from companies of all sizes. Sometimes we forget that when the power of big brands obscure a view to the smaller players. Congratulations Dale and Five Point Productions.