• ONLINE SPIN
    Things I Hate About the Net
    I was with a group of non-advertising related people this weekend and thought about this. As much as there is to love, there's a lot to hate about the Net. So here goes (in random order): Email scams. This is straight out of the "duh" factor dear readers. No bones about it, spam sucks. The fact that e-mail marketing has become so challenged is a pain. Whether it's acquisition or retention, we need this stuff. At least e-mail clients have spam-filtering software now. Somehow this stuff keeps creeping in. This weekend I got an "FBI" e-mail. Hey, if the …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Cutting Through the Clutter
    One of my favorite things about having this platform every week is that I get to laugh out loud at certain suppositions long-held by our brethren in the media industry. If you're like me, these suppositions are worthy of our derisive chortles, as they run wide and deep. Some of them were on display in Joe Mandese's strong piece in Thursday's MediaDailyNews, on the three-year, $40 million campaign crafted by Fallon New York for the Magazine Publishers of America. The campaign opens with the Feb. 28 edition of Time magazine, and is basically a colossal pump fake on readers, …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    A Little Mis-Behavin'
    In last week's column, I wrote about how behavioral targeting has become an accepted method of reaching an audience; if not always in practice, at least the concept when raised in a planning session is taken seriously. I also considered, in brief, some of the downsides of getting too specific with one's method of targeting; that volumetric considerations should be brought to bear on the setting of communication delivery goals (reach and frequency primary among them) and should therefore temper enthusiasm for over specifying a potential target?s behavioral characteristics. If you get too precise with your targeting criteria it is …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Hip Hop: The Future of Marketing
    A few weeks back I started to tackle the questions of "What would you do if you couldn't use any of the standard forms of advertising?" "What would you do if they didn't exist?" These are not simple questions, but I came across some interesting ways to answer them and I wanted to see what you thought.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Democratizing Radio
    Blearily drinking my morning coffee on Saturday, my eyes opened wide upon seeing a front-page story in The New York Times about podcasting. The story immediately brought to mind certain predictions I had made for 2005 and beyond, and made me wonder just how far away the democratization of radio might be.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Brand Loyalty Online
    I've been thinking about this topic for some time, as it pertains to both our industry, and to marketers outside of the interactive world. One reason it's come up so much in conversation is that the major air carrier in Philadelphia, my home market, is US Airways. US Airways, despite all its well-documented problems, continues to fly and also continues to maintain a very high passenger load. I've been on as many as a dozen of their packed jets just since Christmas, and it's not for lack of an alternative carrier.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Ain't Mis-Behavin'
    There was a time, not too far in the past, when behavioral targeting and marketing were mysterious practices tried only by media clients who were more witchdoctor than scientist. Now, behavioral targeting is de rigueur, if not in practice, it's at least a viable marketing technique to consider. One of the problems with behavioral marketing is the fact that if the behavioral profiling being done is against audiences on just one site, then the profiles made of those audiences are only applicable ON THAT SITE.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Are Mass Media Events Becoming Extinct?
    This is arguably the biggest time of year for television (next to the upfront). The Golden Globes, the Super Bowl, the Grammy's, the SAG Awards, and the Oscars all take place within a few short weeks of one another. Year after year these are among the highest rated events on TV and are certainly some of the biggest buzz generators. What I find interesting though, is the technology of time shifting is having a significant effect on the viewership of these events and is quickly reducing their importance in the social landscape.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    One Step Toward Disarmament
    I've written quite a bit recently about how consumers increasingly require the commercial messages they are bombarded with to extend value to them. We've seen plenty of consumer backlash against advertising in all media. However, online advertising seems to be the hardest hit as consumers implement pop-up blockers, block and clear cookies, and use proxies to avoid advertising.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    What's Love Got to Do With It?
    Well dear readers, love is in the air. For some, it's digital. Did you know that in the U.S., there are about 30 million people on dating sites? According to comScore Networks, it is estimated that people spend over $500 million a year for the most popular matchmaking companies, such as Yahoo! Personals, Match.com, eHarmony.com, and MySpace.com. It seems as if there was a stigma a few years back; many looked at online dating as seedy or unnatural. Now it seems as through just about everyone has at least gone to a site and looked at personals. It's becoming more …
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