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12 Nov 2010 20:18

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Music: Protip to Microsoft: Don’t use bands to market your stuff, ever

  • marketing Gorillaz, Damon Albarn’s ultra-popular cartoon-meets-music collective, has a marketing campaign with Microsoft for Internet Explorer 9.
  • muse Despite this, Albarn himself has been singing the praises of the iPad, to the point where he says he recorded an album on the iPad. Not good for Microsoft. source

14 Sep 2010 16:58

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Culture: High-fructose corn syrup is so last decade

  • newIf the Corn Refiners Association has its way, high-fructose corn syrup will be replaced with “corn sugar” within the next few years.
  • old “Corn sugar” is actually the same thing as HFCS. They’re just trying to change the name to counteract HFCS’s bad reputation. source
  • what do you do when everyone realizes that your product contributes to one of the leading causes of preventable death worldwide? You change it’s name, of course, so people won’t know what they’re eating! That, and you launch a PR campaign to convince people that it’s actually not that bad for you. In related news, it’s not TV, it’s HBO! source

27 Jul 2010 22:28

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Biz: The Old Spice commercials were actually extremely successful

  • 27% the increase in Old Spice’s body-wash sales in the last six months
  • 55% the increase in sales in the last three months (thanks Isaiah Mustafa!)
  • 107% the increase in sales in the last month (thanks viral media blitz!) source

02 Feb 2010 23:18

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Tech: SeededBuzz: A blog marketing site in need of more blogs

  • Is this innovation, or is it overly complicated? SeededBuzz, which is in super-early beta, promises bloggers an opportunity to do mutual promotion of blog articles with other sites, all in the hopes of stirring up some viral traffic for your site. Oh, and it costs money outside of beta, but if it works, it should give your revenue model a shot in the arm. We smell something cooking here, but none of the articles we saw on the site looked like they were really worth blogging about. In this case, the early adopters have nothing to grab onto. If we were them, we’d cut some deals with notable bloggers (blogs-about-blogging CopyBlogger and ProBlogger come to mind) and get them to use the service. Then it might be worthwhile. source

03 Dec 2009 03:45

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Music: REO Speedwagon can’t fight this feeling to be marketed with a game

Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another that this game really sucks. Sorry, REO. Couldn’t resist the golden opportunity. source

08 Oct 2009 09:36

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Politics: Everyone’s a marketer: Why the FTC’s new blogging rules stink

  • Regulating every last one of us in our tiny, imaginary boardrooms (in my mind, mine is mahogany-paneled and has a Häagen-Dasz fountain) is as ludicrous as not skipping past the advertisements on one’s DVR.
  • TheAwl.com co-founder Choire Sicha • Discussing in the New York Times why the FTC’s blogger marketing disclosure regulations are silly. His argument? We’ve reached a point where everyone is a marketer without even realizing it. Really? We thought it was to keep these guys in check. • source

31 Aug 2009 10:39

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Tech: Electronic Arts has to buy lots of ads to market a game

  • $10 million cost of creating an average Electronic Arts video game
  • $30 million cost of marketing the game – particularly on television source
 

27 Aug 2009 10:30

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Biz: Bud Light’s “fan can”: Wearing team colors like a fairweather fan

  • idea Bud Light, which may as well be water, came up with this “Fan Can” idea to market beers in team colors just as college football season was starting up. Why support one team when you can support the whole Big Ten?
  • response The FTC isn’t keen on Bud’s idea, because it may lead to underage drinking. (Uh, whatever.) The schools themselves are ticked because the colors make it seem like they’re supporting crappy light beer. So are we. source

20 Aug 2009 10:16

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Culture: Don’t let the marketing fool you. “Bandslam” is a good movie.

  • A movie that gets 80% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes — 90% from top critics — won’t see the light of day because Summit consistently made some of the worst choices, and their core audience summarily dismissed the movie without seeing it based on their sale.
  • A prominent filmmaker who wished to be anonymous • Regarding the outright bombing of the Vanessa Hudgens movie “Bandslam,” which was marketed like a Disney film despite the fact that the plot of the movie leans much closer to an offbeat indie flick like “The Commitments.” It just happens to feature teen pop icons Vanessa Hudgens and one half of Aly & AJ. Our thought on the matter: If you don’t wanted it marketed like a Disney flick, don’t cast Vanessa Hudgens. • source

02 Aug 2009 12:37

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Sports, Tech: So begins the love affair between the NFL, its fans and Twitter

  • Had a six inch Sub for lunch and now I’m headed back to practice number 2. Ugh
  • Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley • Wrote on Twitter during the first day of training camp. NFL players (and fans) are slowly starting to fall in love with the micro-blogging site, but execs and handlers aren’t really sure what to make of it yet. Some think it’s a killer marketing tool and a great way for people to get to know the person behind the helmet, while others are freakin’ out because there’s not much control you can have over it. Well, yeah…that’s kinda the point.  • source