• ONLINE SPIN
    Regarding Content
    Like many of us, I've been steadily watching our path to global content distribution. In this mindset, I have been thinking a lot lately about how we got to this increasingly complicated relationship we have with content. For me, the sequence goes something like this....
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Enough Mommy Bloggers Already -- Daddy Bloggers Debut
    One of the biggest overnight sensations in mainstream media and marketing circles has been mommy bloggers. They've stirred up a hurricane of excitement and controversy, but now it's time for daddies to enjoy the spotlight.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Hyperlocal Will Be A Newspapers Game For Some Time
    Can Anyone Tap the $100 Billion Potential of Hyperlocal News?" That question was posed in the headline of an article in Fast Company chronicling the recent high-profile moves in online community news led by AOL, The New York Times Company and hundreds of others. As I read the headline, two things struck me. One, that the $100 billion number bandied about as the potential size of the "local" online ad market spend has always seemed high to me. And two, why do folks assume that doing local news well online will necessarily bring local online ad dollars with it?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Secret About Media Buying
    Here's a little secret about media buying. It's one of the secrets that most media buyers don't want you to hear because it could jeopardize the way they do business, but I think it's time to let the cat out of the bag. OK, here goes: Media buying is a relationship business.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Problem With 'Fans'
    Consider the number of brands the average person interacts with in his or her daily life. Now consider how many of those brands a person would be willing to become a fan of. Even if an individual is willing to become a fan of every brand he interacts with, at what point does the amount of communication coming from the brands become too much? Also, in what setting does marketing to your most loyal fans only constitute the whole of your marketing efforts?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Deal Storm That Changed Us: Blip.tv, YouTube, FreeWheel
    Eyes on the grid, fingers on the pulse of the media sphere, most of us like to think we know what business deals mean at a glance, right when they are announced. But occasionally there is a meaningful confluence of suchbig deals in a short period of time, immediately floodlighting the future to come, that we must stop, look and listen. Consider, in the past few weeks, we had Blip.tv's content deal with YouTube, and YouTube's test with FreeWheel.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Remote Control Hell: It's Time To Fight Back!
    Recently I examined the ubiquitous problem of electronics: their obnoxious, blinking LEDs and displays. Our assimilation with machines has led to a subtle encroachment of electronics status updates that constantly demand our attention. But there's yet another encroaching violator of our sanity amidst the electronics realm: remote controls.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Bob Garfield Nails It With 'The Chaos Scenario'
    I'm just finishing Bob Garfield's "The Chaos Scenario" -- the much-anticipated book follow-up to his Advertising Age essays of several years ago of the same title. In those magazine cover stories, he not only predicted the impending collapse of "old media," but controversially proffered that "new media" wasn't ready or able to replace it -- that chaos would reign for some time between the collapse of the old and the development of the new. Garfield was talking about analog media dollars turning into digital pennies long before NBC/Universal's Jeff Zucker adopted the concept. I really liked the Ad Age pieces. …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Ad Crack: Gotta Get Your Fix Of CTR!
    Have you ever been in this situation: You spend hours, days and weeks developing your client's online strategy, which is about building the brand through awareness and impact, but when that first performance report is delivered and the initial click-through rate is low, the strategy magically transforms immediately from a long-term brand play to a short term "improve the click rate" campaign? If so, you've been a victim of the CTR Ad Crack Addict!
  • ONLINE SPIN
    How Technology Changes Entertainment Marketing
    Advances in technology and changes in consumer behavior are affecting marketing across all categories. For entertainment marketing, the impact is double. First, like all other categories, the way in which the entertainment marketing messaging is delivered is changing substantially. Those marketing a television show, for example, must take into account all the changes major consumer brands face, while also factoring in the fact that viewers will be consuming their products very differently (i.e., Hulu, video-on-demand).
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