• ONLINE SPIN
    Handwritten Letters Work BECAUSE Digital Communications Don't
    People obsess over the latest flavors and innovations in digital communication and interactivity. I'm talking about everything from new email technologies to social networking tools, even new hybrid interaction platforms like Wave. However, the growing volume of communications in digital form also drives attention deficit, dehumanization and diminishing returns. It's a tragedy of the commons when digital innovations, celebrated for their improvement on our interpersonal communications, have the opposite effect. That's why recently I've been highly conscious of handwritten letters.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    NFL Watchers Respond To Program Promos
    Halloween is almost upon us, and the TV airwaves are full of sports. While fans are happy, loving the chance to watch their teams on TV, a lot of TV executives are pretty nervous at the moment. CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC and ESPN each spend billions of dollars televising fall sporting events. These investments are made with the full recognition that advertising support on that programming -- even in a good economy -- won't necessarily cover their costs. Their bet is that the sports telecasts will be valuable platforms to promote their new fall shows -- dramas, comedies and reality …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Getting The Most Out Of Your Agency (Of The Future)
    Ever heard the one about the agency that pitches a piece of business with the "A-Team" and once they win the account, the "B-team" gets put on the business? It's a common gripe against the agency model and one that I wholeheartedly agree is a problem, but before we complain about the problem we should first understand the reason. If we understand the reason, we can find a solution.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Never Buy On CPM Alone
    About a month ago, Shelby Bonnie, the CEO of Whiskey Media, articulated a fantastic argument for "killing the CPM" on TechCrunch. I couldn't agree more with Bonnie' s ideas about discontinuing the use of CPM as the primary metric for online advertising. The next logical step in the conversation is: If not CPM, then what?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    You Are SO Outrageous
    Recently, I have been struck by the prevalence of certain ideas -- and they are provocative ones. They play like the feistiest of pet ideas. But, in their glibness are they just a little too precious? Outrageous in their simplicity? Or is their frequency a clue to our actual course?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The FTC's Guidelines On Blogger Payola
    live by the principle of liberal disclosure in my work, on my personal blog, on Twitter and in my personal offline life. But I disagree with the FTC's silly new requirements that bloggers must now disclose payola -- material exchanges of goods with marketers. I don't like government meddling in my personal speech.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Trust Is The New Black
    Today, more people can have more relationships -- personal, business, casual, formal, fleeting, long-term -- with more people more often than ever before in history. When consumers have so many different kinds of relationships with so many different people and companies and products and services and ideas, how can any, or many, of them stand out? How can media companies or marketers establish meaningful visibility, let alone usage loyalty, in this ever-entangling clutter? There is only one answer now: trust.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    When Bad Social Ads Happen To Good People
    I feel as though social media is currently pigeonholed into the same boat as mobile (which has been in the same boat for the last four years): it's about one to two years away from maturing as a medium for advertising. That doesn't mean that social media (or mobile, for that matter) is not a strong marketing medium. It just means we have to be honest about what needs to be fixed -- or else bad ads will continue to happen to good people.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Free And Meaningful: The Future Of Marketing?
    During my honeymoon I actually unplugged for nearly three weeks -- well, mostly. It's amazing how much it feels like there is to catch up on after traveling for three weeks, both back at my office and in the world of social media in general. Like many people on vacation, I took the opportunity to read some real books (well, kinda real books -- I did read them on my Kindle). I was a little worried that living life 140 characters at a time and news feed item to news feed item had completely destroyed my ability to read "long …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Digital Congruence Vs. Herding Cats
    On some sectors, there is a high emphasis on using digital as a customer service tool, with endless case studies on quick-footed crisis control through Twitter. But the picture is so much bigger than this. At best, a blended, dialed-in digital marketing program is evolutionary and transformative. Everyone involved learns and gets better; progress happens. At worst, it's like herding cats. So many moving parts, so many parties involved. The daunted will think small.
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