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July 31, 2006
Not sure what GEICO is doing with its latest round of advertisements. Alas, instead of the charming little gecko ads, viewers must endure alarmingly stupid (and completely annoying) spots featuring celebrity spokespeople like Charo.
Yuck. Let's just stick with the gecko, shall we?
BTW, other gecko fans might be interested in the fact that there is actually a GEICO Gecko Blog. It doesn't support comments or anything, but it's at least a step in the right direction...
July 27, 2006
Paul Forecki, the top guy over at Voxus PR, just gave me a heads up about a debate on Kevin O'Keefe's blog over whether links should open a new browser window or shoot viewers over to the other Web site. This has been a topic of discussion on the Web for just about forever, but if you are interested in some of the latest and greatest opinions on the subject, go check it out.
I assume Paul brought this to my attention because he is irritated by the fact Marqui has gone for the "new browser window" option but hey, we like it that way. I personally can't stand being directed to an entirely new Web site and then having to fiddle with the back button to return to the site I was originally reading.
And it's all about me, isn't it?
Ok, maybe not. Perhaps Janet and I will do some experimenting in this area.
In other news, CAWOOD's Dana Turell, recently asked Janet and me what we thought about PayPerPost.com. As described by the Web site:
PayPerPost is an automated system that allows you to promote your Web site, product, service or company through the PayPerPost network of bloggers. Advertise on blogs to create buzz, build traffic, gain link backs for search engine ranking, syndicate content and much more. You provide the topic, our network of bloggers create the stories and post them on their individual blogs.
Ok, sounds innocent enough. But if you starting digging into it, you will quickly realize that all posts are reviewed before publication:
Our team will review each post to make sure that it abides by your Opportunity's description.
Of course, they claim they won't tolerate any dishonesty from bloggers, etc. but this definitely sounds a little fishy.
Then again, I absolutely believe in the self-cleansing blogosphere concept so I bet bloggers/readers will catch on pretty quickly if anyone tries to get sneaky with this.
If any company has tried this service -- and is honest enough to confess to it -- drop me a note. I'm interested in your feedback.
July 25, 2006
Blogging is as much an attitude as a physical activity. In fact, I think that's why the latest Pew Internet study of bloggers pointed out that people blog as a creative outlet "to share their voices with the world" as much as for anything else.
Why is this?
People are becoming more isolated as they're becoming more connected. Technology gives us the option to stay home more - we can shop from home, work from home, converse in front of our laptops or with our blackberries or cell phones instead of in person.
But those same devices allow us to be "always on, always connected" to our friends, families and colleagues. With the proliferation of cheap hardware and free, easy to use software (blog tools), people are able to easily express themselves in this new - albeit public - medium.
With the latest, very public entries of Dell and others into the blogosphere, there are still too few businesses blogging.
Businesses are laggards because of fear.
There's no better way to say it. Traditional marketers (blogging in business would naturally fall under their domains) are far better (more trained?) at carefully crafted messages - often developed by committee and compromise - than creative writing. And what if someone says something negative about us? There's the fear.
Isn't that a shame?
The pressure of governmental / industry / disclosure regulations is partly to blame. The schism of a company's internal reality vs. external perception is also to blame.
But mostly, it is fear that holds them back.
Blogging takes a willingness to share feelings, thoughts, creativity and humanity, even when difficult questions / concerns / accusations arise. Transparency, honesty, integrity and proper citations are not optional in the blogosphere.
One would like to think those attributes and intentions fuel businesses today. But do they?
I think we're seeing changes, but with every new entrant into this new social-media rich, publicly collaborative world, there's a huge opportunity to misfire. Because of the above-mentioned pressures or simply 'old thinking' - witness Wal-Mart's "hubsters" snafu. My mind could just imagine a bunch of 50-somethings scheming that one up and thinking it was cool.
On the other hand, good for Wal-Mart for hiring Edelman exec Leslie Dach - he's got a huge job ahead of him.
That's the kind of attitude we will need to see in order to really facilitate change. Learn from your mistakes, and be willing to change internally - and overcome your fear - to facilitate change in your company and (eventually) your market.
I also think plenty of businesses enter into the blogosphere because they perceive they can gain without pain. The dream of a Better Listing On Google drives plenty of businesses to blogging.
But to sustain the activity needed to drive interest and readership (and the links, comments and trackbacks needed to sustain excellent search engine ranking) takes a commitment to that same honesty, integrity and creativity that fuels a true blogger's behavior - when the drive to blog and to participate in the conversation overcomes entropic fear.
Teresa Valdez-Klein, who's much younger than I am (and that's important! Younger folks like Teresa and Tara 'get it') and blogs for the Blog Business Summit, blogged recently that the tide is turning for business blogging.
I hope so. I just hope it's turning for the right reasons, and with the right intentions.
What are you afraid of? Frankly, I'd be afraid of being left behind.
July 24, 2006
We're all sweating under the swealtering sun these days. And those of us who choose to live in the Northwest are especially grousy about the heat.
No matter that we generally have electricity, and we're likely to work in offices with air conditioning. We grouse anyway.
I found this photo that reminds me of the beauty of water and sun together. It's from a trip I took a couple of years ago to the Amalfi Coast of Italy.
There were seven of us, and we stayed in a place called the Cave of Figs, which was a home a doctor there spent 30 years literally carving along a cliff.
I can sit here in Portland, Oregon, and remember vividly how it felt. It was hot, much like it is today. The pool was divine. Frankly, the insects were miserable, as was I most of the time I was out of the water.
But my memories of the time, the pool, our friends (and even the heat) are golden.
This too, shall pass.
July 20, 2006
The folks at Pew are at it again - polling, tracking and reporting on blogs. In a report released this week, they've painted "a portrait of the internet's new storytellers."
Some interesting stats:
- 8% of the adult internet users blog - so we're a real minority, but
- 39% of the online population now read blogs - you'll find us yet!
- The gender profile of bloggers is at "statistical parity" - women and men both blog in about the same numbers, so why are most of the "A List" bloggers male?
- 54% of bloggers are under the age of 30 - I'm reminded that we were never to trust anyone over the age of 30 when I was growing up. Are we coming full circle?
- 55% of bloggers blog under a pseudonym - which I find funny. I always wanted to write under the perfect "girl detective" name of Dusty Miller... hmmm.
July 20, 2006
Last week I decided to listen to some music while I worked on a project here. Music helps me focus, and it was time to get serious about a presentation. I looked online for an internet radio station to listen to, which I had never done before. I had the option of a free station, or to pay $30 for a commercial free subscription. I had no idea whether I'd even like the music offered up, so opted for the free station.
Turned out, I didn't listen very long, the commercials were irritating, the music sounded tinny on my silly laptop speakers, and instead of helping me focus, it became a nuisance. So I turned my sound back off and plugged away anyway. Over the next few days, every time I migrated to- or from- web sites I'd been visiting for years, I got these annoying pop ups that would say things like this:
Warning: Your computer may have critical errors in Windows registry and file system!
I sent a screen shot of the offending pop up to our IT guys, who told me not to run the software it was offering me. It was extremely frustrating as the pop ups kept warning me of things, and I had absolutely no idea what I had done to deserve them. Nor could I figure out how to get rid of them.
Then I read BusinessWeek's July 17 issue. The cover story was on spyware.
One telling paragraph said it all:
The way Direct Revenue describes its software during the download process remains vague and misleading, Edelman and other critics say. The company now bundles ad programs with Kazaa, an online service offering music and other digital content. Kazaa gives users a choice between a $30 version of its program and a free version labeled "ad supported." But few ordinary consumers would understand that ad-supported means they get separate software from Direct Revenue that will monitor them online and serve a steady stream of pop-ups, Edelman says. Kazaa declined to comment.
Everything made sense after that. I had been infected with spyware - an estimated $2 billion a year in revenue Internet ad business. To find out more about spyware, and the efforts to shut it down, I'd recommend reading Ben Edelman's (quoted above) Anti-Spyware site here.
Some telltale signs of possible spyware infection? Your PC is suddenly sluggish. You get strange windows popping up on your screen. Your 'home page' on the Internet suddenly changes (yep, over and over again), and you get odd errors or (worse yet) your computer locks up suddenly.
What do you do to get rid of it? There are some free tools available like Spybot Search & Destroy or Microsoft's Windows Defender.
Or just stay (and play) safe. Listen to music from iTunes (my friends from Moto Interactive gave me that hint).
So much to know. So much can go wrong. Spread the word.
July 19, 2006
...who the clever person is behind Google's "special occasion" logos, it's Dennis Hwang. CNN published an article on him this morning and it's a fun read.
Keep up the great work, Dennis!
July 13, 2006
...because Google actually has a site in Pig Latin. How crazy is that? Gotta love a company that has a little fun.
BTW, I now know about Google Pig Latin because Janet and I are at the Internet Strategy Forum's Executive Summit today, and Google's Adam Freed is on stage giving a presentation on "Scaling to a Global Audience with a Local Look and Feel."
The room is packed and so far the presentations have been pretty good.
More later. Or rather, oremay aterlay...
July 12, 2006
We're pretty proud of our logo here at Marqui. It's different from the logos of most software companies (in terms of size, concept, etc.), and that's exactly what we like about it. I mean, check it out...
Unfortunately, the unusual shape has caused all kinds of interesting problems. It drives our designers crazy trying to fit it into our collateral. Our product development team has had to jump through hoops to incorporate it into the user interface of our software. And when we signed up as an exhibitor for an upcoming tradeshow, the show coordinators couldn't squeeze our logo into the designated exhibitor section on the Web site...so they decided to "fix" it for us...
Lovely, isn't it?
To their credit, the event coordinators swapped out the amputated version with a more acceptable image as soon as I sent them a note.
I must also admit that sometimes the strange shape has actually worked to our advantage since we've received better placement in ads, e-mail promotions, etc.
So what's my point? Well, if you are looking at new logo designs and are considering going a little "outside the box," consider yourself forewarned: people might take some liberties with it.
Of course, we still like our logo. Odd shape and all.
July 10, 2006
I ran across an interesting paper written in 2004 by Roy Williams on marketing to the "Emerging" generations here (free download). It basically outlined why Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are no longer relevant - because Emerging generations see the world differently - and the line that hooked me was this:
"Businesses that don't get in step... are going to find it increasingly difficult to succeed."
Prophetic. We've been saying that for the past 18 months, too. More from Mr. Williams' paper:
"Based solely on the core values of the emerging generation, here's what I believe we can expect to see beginning to happen during the next 3 to 4 years:
1. A decline among prestige brands such as Rolex, Harley-Davidson and Gucci. (JJ: How about Sony, Morgan Stanley and Volkswagen? The new Businessweek/Interbrand study should be out in a month - here are the biggest losers in 2005, according to them. Stay tuned for the biggest losers this year. Meanwhile, here's a list of the top 25 "stickiest brands" online from ClickZ. No luxury brands there.)2. The end of "upwardly mobile" as a slang expression. (JJ: Can't remember the last time I heard that one!)
3. A decline in the effectiveness of traditional advertising. (JJ: Pick a marketing 'zine, any one, and read that in the headlines.)
4. Comparison-shopping to be done increasingly online, though purchasing will remain in
brick-and-mortar stores in many product categories. (JJ: Yeah, it's hard to buy a barbecue online...)
5. An increase in volunteerism and donor support to socially responsible organizations.
6. A slow increase in the popularity of labor unions. (JJ: Check out the news of unions and China from this weekend here.)
7. A slight decrease in the divorce rate as couples become increasingly committed to family
unity and fall less under the spell of idealistic "true love.""
In passing the paper internally, it was funny to get a note back from Tara (who's definitely NOT a Boomer). Her response was this:
"I don't know that I buy the piece about the current generation being more into social obligation and less into opulent spending. Most people my age (i.e. late 20's/30's) are in debt up to their eyeballs buying fancy stuff they can't afford and probably spend less than 8 hours a year doing volunteer work.Or maybe he is referring to the next generation down (i.e. people in their teens right now?). I still find that hard to believe."
"Of course, maybe I'm just living proof of his perspective -- I basically just called everyone in my own generation a poser!"
July 5, 2006
I never got to meet Ken Lay when I worked at Enron, although I did get to see him in the Enron board room one day when I was invited into it to pose for a photo opportunity.
I was pretty shocked when I heard he'd passed away this morning. The most interesting news "coverage" of his death was this article I found today on CNN Online (via Reuters). Apparently, the news resulted in many inaccurate postings as to the cause of his death on the Wikipedia site...
I recently had a professor tell me she'd never accept a Wikipedia citation from any student. I love Wikipedia and its 13,000 contributors. But not for breaking news. I actually trust the traditional media for that - which is pretty shocking in itself to admit.
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