• ONLINE SPIN
    The Luxury Of Analog
    We received a postcard last week. It looked fake -- or, at the very least, salesy. But in fact it was a picture of some friends, taken by the Thames in London, by a machine or a kiosk or a service that obviously specializes in automating the sending of personalized postcards. The note, clearly written by our friend, was printed in a font evocative of handwriting but obviously not. I imagine that there was some kind of setup with a sign, "Take your picture, write your note, and we'll print and send your postcard anywhere in the world!"
  • ONLINE SPIN
    10 Things That Will Happen This Fall
    On the eve of Labor Day weekend, our thoughts start drifting ahead to the fall and the reawakening of the ad marketplace from its annual August slumber. Will ad spending be up? Will Q4 budgets anticipate an optimistic holiday season? Or, will marketers and merchants tighten their belts, their inventory and their ad spending? I don't know the answers to those questions yet. However, for today's column, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what IS likely to happen this fall in the media and ad market. Here they are:
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Mobile Marketing Should Be Less Distraction, More Interaction
    Has the time for a truly integrated mobile marketing effort finally arrived? It depends how you read the numbers on the level of user's engagement with mobile content. I personally think the time has come, but it requires a very gentle "touch" to ensure mobile is less distraction and more interaction.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Save Me From The Intrusion Of LCD Backlit Screens
    Digital screens are taking over the world. Specifically, LCD backlit screens are taking over the world. You may say "no big deal," but I have a problem with them.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    We're Not in Digital Media Anymore
    The digital media business is evolving so fast that the roles for people are changing very quickly. In some cases, people have migrated to adjacent industries. Others have so closely tracked the transformation of media into a technology business that they now essentially work for tech companies. And a few have left media and advertising altogether. Here are some recent examples:
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Your Next Hire: Chief Serendipitist
    Let me tell you about Greg. Officially, Greg is a salesman. He works for a computer company, securing significant corporate contracts for data centers. He is very good at this job. Unofficially, though, the value Greg brings is not his ability to talk features and benefits. It is his ability to serendipitize.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Brand Advertisers: Ready To Shut Down Banners & Web Video Ads From Midnight-6 A.M.?
    You'd better get ready: TV media-buying processes, protocols and parameters are coming to the Web. Lately, the trades have been full of stories about the long-awaited convergence between ads on the Web and ads on television. Multiplatform advertising is finally arriving -- albeit in fits and starts, linked across platforms more like a paper cup and string telephone than the locked-down digital linkage we'll certainly have within a few years. However, as we bring together campaigns running on different media, we find that technology is not the only thing we need to integrate. We need to knit together some very …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Advice For An Aspiring Career In Advertising
    There's a video on YouTube of a guy answering the questions he asked of himself more than 20 years ago. Sometimes I wish I could do that. Of course without time travel, I can't speak to the Cory from 20 years ago -- but at least I can give advice to the fresh-faced versions of me who are currently surfacing in the work force. Maybe I can provide them with some of the knowledge I've accumulated from the experiences I've seen. Where do I begin?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    What Is The Lifespan Of The Online Services We Trust?
    Back in 2006, I posted a ton of video content to Revver, one of the first video-sharing sites. I used it to host several recorded interviews with senior advertising executives for a blogging project I did. Revver was interesting because it promised to share revenue with all video creators, even semi-professional ones like me. A few years later I attempted to locate some of the interview archives on Revver, but couldn't find the site. After some digging, I learned that Revver had been shut down. I failed to find any of the public videos I had uploaded to Revver anywhere …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Thrilling Numbers Behind Thrillist
    Last week Thrillist, the New York-based media and e-commerce company targeted to young men, raised a $13 million Series A round of venture capital. By itself, this is not remarkable news; there are many startups that have raised millions of dollars over the past few years. But if you look at the numbers behind Thrillist, a great story emerges:
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