FM Gold

THIRD SCREEN: Mobile Voter Launches SFVote Campaign

2005-10-19T09:43:00.000-04:00

From PDF:

Mobile Voter, the newly formed non-profit dedicated to providing voter registration information via mobile technology, launched their first campaign SFvote yesterday. In collaboration with the Chinese American Voter Education Committee (CAVEC) SFvote hopes to register voters using a text-messaging service developed by Mobile Voter founders Ben Rigby and Bart Cheever.

This is good stuff. Nonprofits and advocacy groups are notoriously un-creative when it comes to creative content, so mobile information services may be the best entrée for groups to get members and advocates on the mobile bandwagon.

MICROSITE VIRAL: Crony Jobs

2005-10-12T13:54:00.000-04:00

Simple, clever and timely effort from the folks at Whitehouse.gov.

OPEN SOURCE MARKETING: AdAge Jumps On The Train

2005-10-12T12:43:00.000-04:00

Good open-source marketing article from AdAge.

I think the point missed so often in these discussions is that the open-source movement does not represent a fundamental shift in what people believe in or what they want or expect from a product or service. Experts talk about open-source as a societal sea change where every consumer now feels they own your brand and is compelled to have a hand in marketing it. That’s crap in my book. That would smack of effort and damn it if we Americans have the time or energy to give a hoot on that level. We want information delivered just like we want our products delivered: in a convenient and tasty package. The open-source movement is more about the arrival of new channels and representatives of influence that can serve to compliment or undermine the traditional institutions of influence, not supplant them. Marketing is still a game of matching products and services to consumers through hubs of information and influence, there are just new channels to consider in the mix.

As the article mentions, transparency and feedback are important with open-source, but they have always been an important component of brand success. The only thing new under the sun is that your success or failure at addressing and accounting for them is now measurable. This represents a huge opportunity, not a threat. Not only can you now measure your brand efficacy quickly across these new channels, you can measure it on the cheap. That’s the real revolution in my book.

VIRAL: Bush Sings!

2005-04-29T23:46:00.000-04:00

Via Boing Boing...
Amazing! Someone has mixed Bush audio clips so he's singing on a mash-up of “Imagine” and “Walk On the Wild Side.” Listen to the sweet, sweet stylings of 43. Also available, Bush sings "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

CAMPAIGNS: Taxation Without Representation Field

2005-04-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

The buzz czar, John Hlinko, is back with a new grassroots campaign that is getting some serious buzz around the basepaths and the beltway. Be sure to check out the site, give some cash to the cause, and as Mr. Hlinko would say, "tell 10,000 of your closest friends."

The Nationals are coming to town...
...but apparently, DC is having trouble finding a company to pay for the naming rights, and hadn't even received a single offer in writing – until now. We have officially submitted the first written offer for a new name:"Taxation Without Representation Field at RFK Stadium" Think of it. Every time we enjoy the national pastime here in DC, we'll remind America that we lack another national tradition – democracy.

MEMBERSHIP: The Perfect Cultivation Email?

2005-04-02T15:04:00.000-05:00

Mark Rovner got what he calls "the perfect cultivation email" from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Membership Department. Mark says it's "simple, clear, engaging, and involving":

Dear Mr. Rovner,
After careful consideration and planning, we removed the white shark from the Outer Bay exhibit early this morning and released her in the open waters just outside Monterey Bay at 5:45 a.m.

Two factors led to this decision. First, the shark was rapidly approaching a maximum size and weight at which she could be safely removed, transported and released with full confidence that she would thrive. Second, aquarists observed a marked change in her behavior over the past week of what they considered to be active hunting of other exhibit animals and they became substantially more concerned about the well-being of the other fishes.

She was not released because of any injury or health problem. At the time of her release, she was 6'-4" long and weighed 162 pounds. That means she grew more than a foot in length and gained 100 pounds in her six months on exhibit. She was healthy and strong when she swam away from the boat. We expect her to quickly adapt to hunting and feeding on natural prey. An electronic tag was attached to allow us to track her movements.

The decision to release her into the outer Monterey Bay is based on suitable water temperature and turbidity conditions. It is supported by research from tagging and tracking data about the movements of other young white sharks indicating that they inhabit our offshore waters.

We're proud of the fact we were able to keep this shark for more than six months and then release her safely back to the wild. You should be proud too as a member of the first aquarium ever to accomplish this. During the time she was here, we developed a better understanding of how best to collect, take care of and ultimately release a juvenile white shark.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to learn more about white sharks and to heighten public awareness about the threats facing shark populations worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.montereybayaquarium.org

Sincerely,
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Membership Department

Our mission is to inspire conservation of the oceans.

VIRAL: People Love To Send Holiday E-Greetings

2005-04-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

Media Post has a story by way of media head-counter, Nielsen, about the popularity of e-greetings cards this last St. Patricks Day.

Suprisingly, this year consumers were almost as likely to send an e-greeting on St. Patrick's Day as on Valentine's Day, Nielsen//NetRatings reported this week. Driven by St. Patrick's Day cheer and good spirits, e-greeting card sites jumped 63 percent week-over-week for the week ending March 20, Nielsen found. That week the e-greeting card category drew over 5.1 million unique visitors, reaching more than 4.6 percent of active Netizons--not bad, considering that this year's Valentine's Day holiday week drew 6.2 percent of all active home Web users to e-greetings sites.

E-postcards are a simple way to get fans of your site to invite lots of new people to your site and your issue. Viral! Why not ride the holiday e-greeting wave and offer and promote unique message-centric e-postcards for all the major and semi-major holidays? (Even daylight savings is becoming a minor holiday celebrity according to some marketers.) Just a minor creative investment could yield some solid returns.

PRIVACY: The Race To Replace The Cookie

2005-03-31T14:45:00.000-05:00

A JupiterResearch study recently found nearly 40 percent of web users clear cookies from their machines on a regular basis. The study sent shockwaves through online marketing, analytics and ad technology vendor communities and started the race to build a better cookie. An article today in Clickz introduces us to the the potential of the "Flash cookie."

This is entirely the wrong approach to the cookie problem. For the consumer the issue of cookies and tracking technology is not an inconvenience issue, it is part of a larger online privacy issue. They don't want a technology that embeds itself in their computer and records their behavior as they move about the web. For many consumers this type of "stalk-nology" is akin to rifling through their trash or eavesdropping on a private phone conversation, so they remove it.

Consumers are telling marketers that cookies are unwelcome and by refusing to listen to this loud and clear message the industry is inviting trouble. By trying to out-sneak the consumer with Flash cookies marketers run the risk of driving online customers offline or driving an expensive spy vs. spy subversion technology race. Or worse, they run the risk of inviting Congress to jump into the fray with a reactionary piece of privacy regulation that kills the online marketing industry.

The challenge is to find a solution that leaves marketers and privacy conscious consumers happy, but that isn't going to happen unless marketers invite consumers to the table to help figure it out. A recent DMNews commentary on marketing and privacy by Chet Meisner warns,

“every industry that uses consumer data needs to immediately treat this as a problem to solve, not just an annoyance to overcome. We should rally around the privacy advocates and offer to help them in any way we can.”

The online marketing industry would be wise to understand this and begin the privacy dialogue soon before the consumer backlash begins.

DONOR LISTS: Schiavo Donor List Allowed To Die?

2005-03-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we mentioned the NYT story about the Schiavo donor list being sold. It looks like the negative attention from the Times story may have caused Response Unlimited to look deep into their direct marketing soul and reevaluate their ghoulish behavior...or maybe they just decided to stop crowing about selling the list until after Terri has died.

Broker Removes Schiavo List From Catalog
A list of donors to a fund set up by the parents of Terri Schiavo apparently was no longer advertised in a catalog of lists from broker Response Unlimited as of yesterday after a report in The New York Times. Response Unlimited had advertised the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation Active Donors list as early as March 15. An ad on the broker's Web site had offered 6,198 2005 donor names and 4,439 opt-in e-mail addresses. As of yesterday, a link to the ad found through a Google search led to a page that stated, "This list is not a managed property of Response Unlimited, contact for details." A call to Response Unlimited president and founder Philip Zodhiates was not returned yesterday. [ DMNews ]

CAMPAIGNS: AFL-CIO Takin' It To 'The Street'

2005-03-29T22:23:00.000-05:00

March 31 the AFL-CIO is organizing marches and rallies in more than 70 cities at the offices of Charles Schwab, Wachovia, and other Wall Street firms to urge them to withdraw support for Bush's Social Security privatization plan. Go AFL-CIO!!

The secret to campaign success is all about gaining leverage over your foe. Too often activist organizations get stuck playing political pong with faxes and emails to Reps offices. These days it takes serious volume to get a member of Congress quaking at the site of emails or faxes from an issue group. And a campaign organized around emailing or faxing your Rep just doesn't have the viral/harvesting sex appeal it once did. Maybe it's time to take a new look at the breadth of your issue and take stock of all the players. If there is an opportunity to target a specific brand or business it could be an attractive proposition for your activists and it could generate a lot of buzz around your effort. For the business world negative attention can be like kryptonite and the leverage battle can be a much easier ride. NRDC's BioGems campaign has proven that once the fax machine starts humming at corporate headquarters businesses get more nervous than Keanu Reeves at a Shakespeare festival. Get ready for some seriously shaky blue suits when the activists and the cameras show up outside Schwab offices this Thursday.

DONOR LISTS: List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold

2005-03-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

The New York Times reports today the "parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups."

The article paints an image of a bunch of sleazy direct-mail vultures circling the tragedy in Florida and pushing contracts in front of the grief-stricken family during their darkest moments. Definitely a low point for conservatives, Response Unlimited, RightMarch, and the direct mail industry in general. Even grave robbers have a code to wait until the body is in the ground before they start digging for treasure.

VIRAL: Do-It-Yourself Viral

2005-03-28T11:41:00.000-05:00

We have been pushing hard on the idea of integrating Do-It-Yourself Viral (DIVi) pieces into campaigns for a while. The basic principle behind DIVi is the same as most viral pieces -- create a branded entertainment experience that people want to pass on to friends. The difference with DIVi pieces is the entertainment is not passive. DIVi pieces are interactive experiences where the user creates or constructs a unique and personal final product with the sole intent of sharing it with others. Whether you call it DIVi, interactive postcards, or the Old Navy Flip Flop Mixer, entertaining user-constructed tell-a-friends can immerse the user in your brand and message for a fair amount of time and the result of their stay is always viral.

GOTV: Youthful Expression 2004

2005-03-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

Encouraging 2004 youth voting numbers from Dave Rosenfeld, Program Director for PIRG's New Voters Project:

The youth vote was up 10.8 points over all to 48%, with 10.5 million votes cast - the best turnout since 1992!

But our work is definitely not done. The New Voters Project is gearing up to work on races in 2005 and 2006 - we'll be sending out regular updates on our work, including actions you can take now to ensure that we continue to be a powerful force in future elections.

Now... for some cold, hard numbers! We promised to keep you posted as local numbers roll in - check below for the first county-by-county information, hot off the presses from Iowa.

Linn County
2000 Results for 18-24: Registered 14,633; voted 6,504
(44 percent turnout)
2004 Results for 18-25: Registered 22,075; 14,203 voted
(64 percent turnout)

Dubuque County
2000 Results for 18-24: Registered 6,458; voted 2,564
(39 percent turnout)
2004 Results for 18-24: Registered 8,335; voted 4,797
(57 percent turnout)

Polk County
2000 Results for 18-24: Registered 25,742; voted 12,440
(48 percent turnout)
2004 Results for 18-24: Registered 33,081; voted 20,957
(63 percent turnout)

Johnson County
2000 Results for 18-24: Registered 16,715; voted 10,344
(62 percent turnout)
2004 Results for 18-24: Registered 23,244; voted 16,239
(70 percent turnout)

(Sources: Cedar Rapids Gazette)

UPDATE: Michael Agosta points to some other numbers to keep in mind and adds some commentary.

Linn County, where 18-24 old registered voters turned out at 64%:
65+: Turned out at 89% of registered
50-64: Turned out at 91%
25-34: Turned out at 73%
County: Turned out 82% of all registered voters.

Dubuque County, where 18-24 turned out at 57% of registered voters:
65+ turnout: 86%
50-64 turnout: 88%
25-34: 61%
Countywide turned out 77%.

Lesson, for my 2 cents, is the usual lesson: youth voting can be a good thing, but it's not a big piece of the pie, and young turnout is relative vis a vis turnout overall...

The GOP gets that better than we do: they are better about focusing on the slices of the pie that are likely to cast a ballot. So, if they can even steal 1% of our senior vote, it has a huge impact.

MESSAGING: You Are Not Your Target Audience

2005-03-25T19:36:00.000-05:00

Interesting reminder by way of Politics and Technology. A small investment in understanding how your audience talks about your issue and the real words they use can pay off big. Everything from press releases to the navigational structure of your website should reflect the language and perceptions of your audience, not the knowledge level or organization structure of your group. Learning the language of your audience can involve setting up focus groups or be as simple as checking your site search logs to see the terms people are using to find your content. Remember, you are not your target audience.

Do you know what ‘reproductive’ means to regular people? Have you checked in with your target audience on that? We asked our target audience and we were told ‘reproductive’ meant having babies. They also told us that ‘clinic’ meant dirty and substandard. And they told us that nurse practitioners were nurses in training — not real nurses yet. Which was a real shame, since our print ads at the time basically said: ‘Come to our clinics for reproductive health care from caring nurse practitioners.’
This campaign was aimed at 18- to 24-year-old guys. I’m 50. If I had only consulted with my own instincts, I would have been wrong at every single stage of this campaign. [ Low Hanging Fruit ]

GUERRILLA MARKETING: Tagging Your Message

2005-03-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

Wired has a story on Grafedia which is similar to the Yellow Ribbon Project we mentioned a while back. The idea is to extend the reach of the internet by bringing hypertags into the real world. Grafedia or something similar to the Yellow Ribbon would be a great campaign tool for a youth focused organization (Rock The Vote!!). Imagine a well branded visual sticker project (think Obey) that allows folks to claim a public space, communicate with each other and your organization, and build a networked street-level buzz around your campaign. Good stuff.

UPDATE: To see it in action I uploaded an image to the Grafedia network. Let's pretend you were walking down 125th Street and saw a "Hello My Name Is" sticker with "privatize@grafedia.net" in the white space. You would enter that email address into your cellphone and immediately be sent a copy of my rich media content. You can get the same response by sending an email to the privatize@grafedia.net address with your computer. Try it!

Today, companies with big advertising budgets are the main players in interactive media, engaging in activities like online ad campaigns or billboards encouraging some sort of viewer involvement. Geraci would like to change that.

"Grafedia is the option for the little guy to get involved in that dialogue," he said.

The little guy is definitely catching on. Since the project launched in late December, instances of grafedia have popped up stateside in places like New York City and San Francisco. Outside the United States, the project has gained fans in Brazil, France and England, Geraci said. So far, several hundred images have been uploaded to the grafedia server.

Anyone with the right tools -- a phone that supports picture messages and is under a T-Mobile, Verizon Communications or Cingular Wireless contract -- can view grafedia. You can also view it on a computer through an e-mail program.

Anyone can make grafedia, too. To do so, a user selects a rich media file (image, video or sound) and then chooses a word (say, "wirednews") to go along with that file. The user then uploads the file from a computer or sends it from a cell phone to, using this example, wirednews@grafedia.net. The user can then paint, draw or tattoo "wirednews" in public spaces in blue with an underline to identify it as grafedia. Viewers can interact with the grafedia by sending a message via their computer or certain cell phones addressed to "wirednews@grafedia.net" to get the content behind the link.

Geraci wants grafedia to make people think about the idea that the boundaries of the web are totally arbitrary. If you can put links in different places, he said, you're essentially extending the internet.

In this vein, in addition to general grafedia proliferation, he'd like to see large-scale examples, like multiple, related instances over several blocks or on an entire side of a building. [ Wired ]

CREATIVE COMMONS: Yahoo Launches Creative Commons Search

2005-03-24T10:29:00.000-05:00

Yahoo continues to amaze. They just launched a beta Creative Commons search tool that allows you to find web content that has a Creative Commons license. Most stuff on the web has a full copyright, "this search helps you find content published by authors that want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions." It's great to see a giant like Yahoo embracing Creative Commons.

I am always on the hunt for cheap or free photos of Dubya, Congress, or other symbols of questionable authority to use in design work for clients. It's hard to find photos and other media that don't come with expensive licensing agreements from Getty or AP. My advice, try searching on the Creative Commons website or Archive.org and if that doesn't work try searching on Federal agency sites. Most images on U.S. Federal Government web pages are in the "public domain" (which means they have no copyright restrictions). Here's a good resource for finding public domain photos on agency sites. (The thumbnail of Bush is from the Air Force website.)

PHISHING: The Nonprofit Bait And Hook

2005-03-23T18:01:00.000-05:00

NPAdivisors reports that those dastardly phisherpeople (no, not Trey and the boys , Marc) may have devolved to a new low by trying to sucker folks into donating to a phony United Way site. A closer read reveals this is not technically a phishing scam (no one was emailed and told to come to the site), but it is a scam nonetheless. Lessons learned: nonprofits should own all the popular extensions of their urls (.com, .org, .net) and keep tabs on any registered domains based on spelling variations (amesty.org or nacp.org). Read all about the United Way's brush with fraud at their website (the real one).

FYI...The tsunami tragedy brought a lot of phishing opportunists out from under the floorboards, so if you are looking for some good tips to avoid getting phished check out this release from Consumers Union.

If you are looking for a way out crazy jam to make you lose your stuff, man, go here.

ANWR: Leave It To The Onion To Hit The Nail On The Head

2005-03-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

"If I may be allowed to pursue the idea of 'addiction to oil,' I think the nation just reached the point where we sold our wedding ring for one night's fix." [ The Onion ]

DOMAIN NAMES: Hillary Wins Rights To Her Name

2005-03-22T19:24:00.000-05:00

Interesting... HillaryRodham.com is a site advertising stretch mark and wrinkle cream.

Senator Clinton Wins Rights to HillaryClinton.com
The National Arbitration Forum announced today that a ruling has been issued in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding rights to the Internet domain name hillaryclinton.com.

Senator Clinton, represented by James Lamb of Ryan, Phillips, Utrecht and MacKinnon, filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum on February 1, 2005 asserting legal rights to the Web address bearing her name.

Ruling in Senator Clinton's favor, National Arbitration Forum arbitrator Tyrus R. Atkinson, Jr. found that the other party, Michele Dinoia, registered the hillaryclinton.com domain name on October 22, 2001, and was using the disputed domain name to direct Internet users to a Web site that displays a generic search engine, links to commercial Web sites, and exposes users to pop-up ads and pay-per-click search results. In addition, the disputed domain name would bookmark itself as the visitor's homepage each time he or she opened his or her Internet browser.

The arbitrator found that Dinoia did not have legitimate rights to the Web address hillaryclinton.com and that the Web address was confusingly similar to Senator Clinton's trademark rights in her own name. The arbitrator also found that Dinoia was using hillaryclinton.com in bad faith by presumably profiting from the use of it.

Senator Clinton's Internet domain dispute was one of thousands heard each year by the National Arbitration Forum under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP") of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"). The domain name dispute process is a popular alternative to lengthy and expensive trademark lawsuits. [ GovTech ]

PODCASTING: Two Americas 'One With iPods, One Without'

2005-03-22T17:53:00.000-05:00

Got an email from John Edward's One America Committee hyping his big issue, poverty, and his big foray into podcasting that begins tomorrow.

On Wednesday, March 23, the One America Committee Web site will post John Edwards' first podcast. We hear that he will have a very special guest.

Given the recent Pew Internet study that revealed iPods and other MP3 players are primarily a toy of the affluent, podcasting might seem an ironic channel choice for Mr. Edwards to speak out on the injustices of poverty.

ADVERTISING: Gay Ad Spending Not Effected By Marriage Debate

2005-03-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

What is the state of gay ad spending? Super! Thanks for asking...

Same-sex marriage might have polarized lawmakers, but it has galvanized advertisers in the gay press. Overall, 2004 ad spending in gay and lesbian publications was up 28.4% versus the previous year, reaching $207 million.

The findings in this report represent the biggest increases in spending for the gay press since 2000. Conventional wisdom held that controversy around marriage would deter marketers. Instead, the debate had a powerful effect in the opposite direction.

Gay media also saw an astonishing surge in ads with “gay-specific” content. The number of gay specific ads, which feature messages directly aimed at gay and lesbian consumers through their copy or art direction, jumped 241.9% over the previous year.

Importantly, the 2004 Gay Press Report found that over 150 Fortune 500® brands were active in the gay consumer market in 2004, up from 72 in 2001 and only 19 in 1994. And for the first time, the majority (59%) of ads in national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) publications were specifically created for gay consumers. Currently, the most popular product categories are automotive, travel, financial services and fashion.

Read the full report in PDF form by Prime Access and Rivendell Media.

ALTERNATIVE REALITY GAMING: It's Going To Be 'Gabby Hayes' Big!

2005-03-21T01:07:00.000-05:00

Just when you finally grasped the subtle differences between advergaming, viral marketing, word-of-mouth, and PR, comes a new niche of alternative advertising: alternate reality gaming. Near as I can tell this is basicially advergaming, but it processes the potential for players to get really immersed in the brand. At some point we should just lump viral, advergaming, and the rest of the lot in one big pile and call it what it really is, branded entertainment.

Alternate Reality Gaming and You
Alternate reality gaming is one of the most interesting new trends in online brand immersion. Pioneered commercially by online campaigns for properties such as the film "AI" and the game "Halo 2," these efforts blend "hoax"-like Web sites that don't announce their affiliation with online quests, unfolding mysteries, and even real-world activities such as messages received at phone booths or prerecorded calls to participants in the middle of the night.

Rather than 30 seconds of exposure to a brand, they generate stickiness that can last days, or even weeks, as they subtly (e.g., "I Love Bees") or not-so subtly (e.g., "Alias") draw in users and encourage them to bring other players into the "game." As branding experiences go, these things have the potential to be far more powerful than the short viral video clips that get passed around, or somewhat gimmicky one-trick ponies, such as the Subservient Chicken or the now-defunct Burger King Angus Intervention site. [ Clickz ]

CAUSE MARKETING: Nike's Stand Up/Speak Up Campaign

2005-03-18T18:59:00.000-05:00

Nike's campaign to Stand Up/Speak Out against racism in football (ummm, soccer) is being met with skepticism by European anti-racism activists who refuse to take Nike's money. As is usually the case these days there is a colored wristband for sale and while it may or may not have a swoosh on it, it most certainly will be perceived as a Nike product to anyone who sees someone wearing it.

EMAIL: Double Open, Click, And Conversion Rates?

2005-03-18T09:17:00.000-05:00

A very informative email case study from Marketing Sherpa. Would love to test this.

Want to double your email open, click, and conversion rates? It's not a dream, it's not hype ... this is a real story about a real marketer who used a simple tactic you can use too. Stan Ades at Pacific Shaving Company split his house list into two segments: at-home addresses and at-work addresses. Then he mailed at-works during business hours, and at-homes on the weekend. It really, really worked. [ Marketing Sherpa ]

BROADBAND: NYC Supports Broadband For Low Income Housing

2005-03-18T09:01:00.000-05:00

The New York City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to provide low- or no-cost high-speed Internet access to affordable housing residents.

Res. No. 669, introduced by Council Member Gale A. Brewer, the chairperson of the New York City Council's Committee on Technology in Government, calls upon city agencies to use their funding and regulatory power to support and encourage the provision of affordable high-speed Internet service and computer purchases for the benefit of residents of affordable housing. [ GovTech ]

WEB: Just Plain Folksonomy

2005-03-17T18:40:00.000-05:00

Tags are a brilliantly simple outgrowth of the ever evolving organic web. If you haven't visited Flickr, de.licio.us, or Technocrati take a stroll and discover the joy of tags. Not only does tagging alow users to label and find information in an intuitive way, it also allows them to invest in the site content and brand in a more meaningful way. Is this the future of web site organization and navigation? Why should you care? Well, creating a richer web experience for the user (value!!!) is the key to a successful online presence.

Hmmm...Who is going to be the multi-issue content-producing membership organization that steps up, embraces membership driven tagging and social bookmarking, and rides off into the web sunset with a caravan of happy members?

Tags Turning Web Chaos into Categories
Among the early implementers of tags are Ludicorp's Flickr photo-sharing site, the del.icio.us social bookmarking service and the Wikipedia collaborative online encyclopedia. During one conference session, leaders from the three upstart services explored the impact of their decisions to turn categorization over to individuals rather than enforcing established categories. [ eWeek ]

ONLINE FUNDRAISING: Help Place An Ad Exposing Automakers

2005-03-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

Nothing more provocative than a smoking baby. From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The Auto Alliance, the lobbyist group representing most major automakers, is running deceptive ads using a messy toddler in a car seat to humorously attest to new autos' cleanliness "under the hood." The ad then claims: "Autos manufactured today are virtually emission-free."

This outrageous, blatantly false claim is central to the Auto Alliance's advertising campaign targeting legislators. They are essentially telling our nation's lawmakers that their "job is done" and further emission regulations would be unneeded burdens on an environmentally responsible industry. However, today's cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs are emitting more global warming pollution than they did 20 years ago.

That's why we're also fighting back in another way, and we urgently need your help to make it happen. We're placing ads, starting with the very places Auto Alliance advertised, that expose their deceptive campaign. Will you help us?

Your help is critical to maximizing the visibility of our ad. If 570 supporters donate $35 each, we can do it.

SMS: The Future Of Advocacy and Political Communication?

2005-03-16T09:48:00.000-05:00

Progressive politico, advocacy, and communications folks should take serious note of a new Pew Internet report that confirms the growing reach of cell phone text message communication.

About 134 million American adults have cell phones and 27% of them say they have used the text message feature on those phones within the past month. That represents 34 million people who use a cell feature also known as short message service or SMS.

"The proliferation of cell phones and the spread of text messaging are changing patterns of communication for many Americans -- especially younger ones," said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "These technologies are introducing new notions about what it means to be 'present' with someone else and about what it means to be in conversation with them. For some cell phone users, the stream of conversation hardly ever ends." [ Pew Internet ]

INTERNET RADIO: Is Internet Radio The New Black?

2005-03-16T00:03:00.000-05:00

With the most recent Blogads survey exposing the current state of podcasting as more hype than reality, maybe it's time for folks to turn their attention to old fashion internet radio. The latest Arbitron report puts the online radio audience at over 5 million listeners a week. Yahoo's LAUNCHcast, AOLRadio Network, and MSN Radio garner the lion's share of listeners, but little-engine-that-could 365Live.com is making the internet radio scene in a big way. Personally, I don't know why anybody would listen to anything other than KCRW, but check out the 365Live site and search their network of thousands of free radio stations. It's pretty damn cool.

With so many people listening to radio over the internet makes you wonder why the DNC is thinking podcasting small instead of internet radio big.

CONSERVATIVES: Hookers Of Vegas Get Ready For Freedom Fest

2005-03-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

I love getting email from conservative groups. There is just something so satisfying and dirty about reading what those crazy right-wingers are plotting next. So, imagine my joy when I got an email from Young America's Foundation announcing Freedom Fest 2005 in Las Vegas. Apparently last years event -- which included "lectures on liberty from John Stossel" -- was such a success they decided to give it another go...in VEGAS, baby! I know the Girls Gone Wild folks have this one circled on their calendar with a fat red marker and five exclamation points.

Highlights from this years Freedom Fest:

This year, we have already lined up great speakers, including new newsmakers and old favorites alike. Listen to '04 favorite John Mackey address the crowd, hear civil rights maverick Ward Connerly discuss today's race relations, learn the "Truth and Lies about American Capitalism" from expert author Thomas DiLorenzo, join David Horowitz as he discusses the climate on today's college campuses, and enjoy the classic debate involving conservative Dinesh D'Souza versus a libertarian like last year's Harry Browne.

Dozens of event sponsors will grace the exhibition hall including prominent groups such as the National Rifle Association, free-market economics based Americans For Prosperity Foundation, personal responsibility driven College of the Ozarks, conservative grassroots website RightMarch.com and many others. These sponsors will provide you with speakers at the event, resources to take home, and networking opportunities to expand your contacts.

Ain't no party like a conservative Freedom Fest party!

EMAIL: 5 Frustrations Of Email Marketers

2005-03-14T15:27:00.000-05:00

Bigfoot Interactive's 2nd annual Summit took place in New York last week and leave it to Marketing Sherpa to squeeze the most useful information out of the conference. Some real valuable insight below for those of us in the political and advocacy realm. Pay special attention to frustration #3. CRM is still sadly the most overlooked and important component of a successful online strategy.

MarketingSherpa's Metrics Editor Stefan Tornquist mingled with attendees, asking them, "What's your biggest concern with your email program now?" He expected most would say, "deliverability." However, although the topic was in the air, it wasn't hot, hot, hot the way it was last year.

Here are the top five frustrations attendees voiced to us:

Frustration #1. Frequency wars
One consumer package goods marketer told us 'wars over frequency' raged within his company, with some on the side of leveraging the ease and cost of email to simply hit the list hard and often.

He's on the other side, a true believer in email as the only medium where you have a conversation with the customer. His main 2005 worry is "list burn out and ruining the relationship."

Frustration #2. Database hell
Big company marketers, especially those affected by the recent spate of M&As, are fretted about integration of multiple email platforms/departments.

They've got to figure out who -- across multiple divisions, locations, and companies -- is sending email, what systems they use, and how to bring these together.

This big headache is slowing them down in terms of high impact email. One marketer told us, "We spend all our time bringing the pieces together - all of our resources are going to integration, and when we do want to expand our email marketing, the legal department has a field day."

Frustration #3. Name quantity versus quality education
An airline marketing manager told us, "Our bosses want more names on the list, but we've plateaued. We want to focus on improving our communication with the list we have, but they're still obsessed with the size of the list, and how many new names we get every month. I feel like it takes away from what really matters."

Frustration #4. Content resources
All the speakers agreed high impact email requires highly relevant content. But, producing enough highly-targeted offers and/or newsletter articles to suit each of the different names on your list is more than a full-time job. And, many companies have not budgeted for extra copywriters to churn out a wide array of content on a regular basis.

How do you create one-to-one communications without staffing reinforcements? (Oh, and try convincing a CEO who thinks email is a "super cheap medium" that you need a higher budget.)

Frustration #5. Respect
Best quote of the day, "My CEO just doesn't respect email. Even though our numbers are good - great even - he sees email as something you just turn up when you need more sales. It's hard to get the message across that we'll do even better if we treat email with the same respect as our other marketing tools, and cultivate sales instead of hunting and gathering them." [ Marketing Sherpa ]

VIRAL: The Viral One-Off Jumps The Shark

2005-03-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

NYT Week in Review article uses the recent Consumers Union "Drugs I Need" cartoon to drag out Jib Jab and the Subservient Chicken and let us know about this exciting new trend called viral marketing.

The article says the "Drug" is piece getting pretty good pass-around, but the jury is still out on whether this was a successful effort. Typically an organization would do a piece like this to raise their brand profile, educate the public on an issue, or to harvest emails and grow their list. The Consumers Union piece, despite being intensely entertaining, was branded poorly, left me humming a happy tune instead of hopping mad at big pharm, and the userflow didn't direct me to the action in an effecient way. When the viral day is done it will be interesting to see if this effort -- like the Subersevient Chicken -- did an amazing job of selling the cartoon, but a bad job of selling the organization and its message.

For oganizations reading the NYT article and looking to recreate viral lightening, be aware. There is an intense amount of viral clutter on the web now. You need to come prepared to walk up to the line and stick a toe over it if you entertain any hope of rising above the clutter and getting attention. It's also important to remember the viral piece is not the ends, but a means. Don't send it out into the world without integrating it into a solid marketing strategy and a continuous user experience.

DESKTOP: The Desktop App Has Arrived

2005-03-14T10:11:00.000-05:00

Southwest Airlines recently launched their "Ding" desktop service and it has been an amazing success according to a DMNews story. Add this success to the Wall Street Journal's recent launch of Desktop News Alert, the continued success of Weather Bug, and iMedia's case study detailing the overwhelming popularity of Vail Resorts' SnowMate 2.0, and it's safe to say the desktop application has arrived.

Your website is paramount and email is your web activism backbone, but the computer desktop is the ultimate frontier of constant web access. Advocacy organizations should be lining up to get onboard this new online communication channel.

ONLINE CAMPAIGN: The President's Social Security Web Of Lies

2005-03-14T02:47:00.000-05:00

The administration, not content just to use your tax dollars to deliver fake news, has set up a campaign web site to promote the president's wacky Social Security privitization plan. This is all on your dime, people. Check out the site and be sure to use the comment tool to let them know you are not falling for the fiction.

MOVE ON: Get In My Backyard Already!

2005-03-11T15:59:00.000-05:00

Here's hoping Move On can build local capacity around a national issue like Bush's court nominees and then activate those folks on local issues and the recruitment and support of state and local progressive candidates.

MoveOn.org has quietly decided to experiment with a new form of off-line organizing, its Washington director Tom Matzzie tells me, one that readers of Zephyr Teachout's PDF articles will find immediately familiar: to support the formation of ongoing local MoveOn Teams, focused on the group's issue campaigns.

At first glance this may not seem to be a big deal, but up until now MoveOn has mostly done "one-off" kinds of local meetings, organizing thousands of house-parties, but not nurturing the institutionalization of continuing connections between MoveOn members in a local area.

The rollout of this experiment started Wednesday, with an email to the group's 2 million-plus members opposing "Bush's plan to stack the court." Matzzie tells me that at the 1500+ house meetings stimulated by this email, MoveOn members are going to be asked to join ongoing teams, that will presumably stayed focused on the many judicial nominations to come.

Tom also says that MoveOn is still trying to figure out its "blog play" and that other ideas for internal reorganization are also being discussed. But "we're still in campaign mode," he says, and that takes priority. [ Personal Democracy ]

BLOGS: Survey Says, "Blog Readers: Educated, Politcally Active"

2005-03-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

Blogads new blog reader survey is out and there is some interesting audience data. Blog readers -- or at least blog survey takers -- are mostly male (75.5%), over 30 (75%), and most have a household income over 90k (43%).

Advocacy groups should note that in the last 12 months:

71.9% -- Signed a petition
66% -- Written or called any politician at the state, local, or national level
43.8% -- Written a letter to the editor of a newspaper or magazine or called a live radio or TV show to express an opinion
43.2% -- Attended a political rally, speech, or organized protest of any kind

Fundraisers should note that 68% of blog readers gave online to a cause or campaign.

ONLINE CAMPAIGNS: Rock The Vote Love's Social Security

2005-03-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

New Rock the Vote campaign to rally youngin support to save Social Security. Comes complete with retro chic logo and trucker hat gear. It will be interesting to see if they can persuade a demographic that shows the strongest support for private accounts that Social Security is SEXY?

SMS: Connecting With Your Base Through Mobile Phones

2005-03-09T23:51:00.000-05:00

Interesting harvesting tactic mentioned below with a lot of potential for progressive organizers staging rallies, events, or conferences. You don't have to be Bon Jovi to jump on the mobile communications train. Rock The Vote has had over 120,000 people sign up for it's mobile SMS service.

CelebrityTextChat is a new SMS or "text messaging" service from American IDC Corp. and Smart Entertainment that allows celebrities to be in direct contact with their fans through their mobile phones.

The service is very simple to use: Say for example Bon Jovi is playing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. 50,000 people enter the arena, and Bon Jovi asks them to sign in by sending the message BON JOVI to the number 76278. 30% of the arena responds to Bon Jovi's request, and within minutes, Bon Jovi has 15,000 loyal fans who have opted-in to his fan club. [ PDATracker ]

PHOTO RIGHTS: The $25 Million Dumb Ass Move

2005-03-09T14:52:00.000-05:00

A classic lesson on securing rights for a photo before you use it on the web or your publications. It can be embarrassing and hella expensive if you are in the business of creating really lame and divisive political ads.

Lawsuit Over USANext's AARP Ad
Remember USANext's smear job on AARP -- the internet-only ad that tried to marginalize the AARP out of the Social Security debate by suggesting that the group has something against American soldiers but loves gay marriage? Rick Raymen and Steve Hansen haven't forgotten. They're the Oregon couple shown kissing in the USANext ad. Today in Washington, they filed a $25 million lawsuit against USANext. [ Salon ]

INTERNET: Election 2004 Stat Throwdown

2005-03-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

The new Pew Internet study says that Kerry voters were two-and-a-half times as likely to participate in online discussions or chat groups about the election than Bush voters, almost twice as likely to register their opinions in online surveys, and four-and-a-half times as likely to contribute money online to a candidate. But what do the numbers really mean? And are networked Dems really shut-in nerds? In classic 'Biggie v. Tupac' style a spirited back and forth stat interpretation throwdown is taking place between Micah L. Sifry and Patrick Ruffini.

Patrick Ruffini:

And the web-only kind of activism has a mixed track record at best. At first, MoveOn's "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad contest seemed like a trailblazing concept. Until you saw the God-awful ad that won, and realized that, like most MoveOn initiatives before or since, all that energy was simply being dumped into a rat hole. Just how credible and useful are online polls when your guy wins with 90% of the vote? And using a chat room or posting a comment on a blog is not in itself a productive political act; for one thing, you could be out talking to undecideds instead of preaching to the online choir, and secondly, in the blogosphere, quality matters more than quantity. A thousand blogs echoing the WaPo/NYT line will never be as effective as fifty blogs providing an interesting and original alternative voice, probing for weaknesses in the MSM Death Star. [ Patrick Ruffini ]

Micah L. Sifry:

My two cents: Like most debates about the relative merits of different political strategies, this one is colored indelibly by the fact that the Republicans won. GOP e-activists are also doing a good job of presenting themselves as the most net-savvy, most concerned with pushing power to the edges of their network, etc.

Personally, I think the truth is a lot more complicated. The fact that the Ds outpaced the Rs in online donations and in the amount collected from small donors (reversing a long era of Republican dominance) suggests that the party's atrophied muscles and its relationship to its base may be reviving, aided by new technology that makes it easier to connect to likeminded activists. Yes, the Ds spent more of their time asking for money than engagement, but the fact that people responded also implies as certain feeling of ownership. You give because you belong.

Also, the rest of the survey belies Ruffini's implication that Kerry voters are less likely to "have lives" and thus waste much of their time in front of a computer screen. Their rate of participation in other forms of online political engagement (getting information, finding out candidates' positions, learning where to vote) essentially tracks with the Bush voters. Plus, to the extent that the general online population tilts slightly Republican (class matters), you won't get very far arguing that Democratic voters are really such stay-at-home nerds. [ Personal Democracy ]

EMAIL: Current E-Mail Practices Hitting Plateau?

2005-03-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

Great insight and stats from Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester Research. Email and all manner of advertising continue to pack our inboxes and lives with clutter. This means best practices are always changing and organizations should be constantly looking for new ways to add value to their subscriber lists...and test, test, test!

NEW YORK -- Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester Research, looked to stir things up at Bigfoot Interactive's Profile E-Mail Summit yesterday.
He told the estimated 200 attendees, mostly clients of e-mail marketing firm Bigfoot, that it was time to change the rules of e-mail marketing as consumer resistance further constricted the growth of online databases.

"As it's practiced, e-mail marketing is reaching a plateau," Nail said.

Citing Forrester Research, he said 78 percent of online customers subscribe to at least one marketing e-mail, unchanged from 2003. The same data showed 86 percent of non-subscribers -- people who have never subscribed to an e-mail marketing program -- say they are unlikely to subscribe. And 45 percent of subscribers are uninterested in subscribing to more e-mail.

So, can marketers do something differently to add value to their e-mail? Also, can they move from mass marketing e-mails to targeted relevance?

Consumers feel the advertising overload, Nail said. Recent Forrester research shows that 70 percent to 80 percent of consumers say too many ads are out there. Sixty percent of the ads are not even relevant, according to consumer feedback.

Another issue for online marketers is the over-interpretation of permission. Nail calls it permission profligacy. He gave the audience his recent holiday experience with Neiman Marcus. After he ordered a pair of gloves online for his wife, Nail was bombarded with e-mails. He was upset.

"I'm an e-mail marketing pro," he said. "I didn't remember signing up for e-mails."

He urged Neiman Marcus to work with its e-mail marketing vendor, CheetahMail, to implement better practices.

At issue is the credibility of marketers.

"Consumers don't believe when you promise not to share their data: 77 percent don't believe it," Nail said, relying on Forrester data.

Marketers also need to move from the idea of campaigns -- an e-mail drop on the 10th of each month, for instance -- to conversations. Dialogues should be interest-based. Amazon was the poster child for such communications, he said.

Two other companies gained honorable mention. IntraWest, a hospitality firm running the Whistler resort in British Columbia, won Nail's admiration for its "Destination Countdown" e-mails. Three weeks before a ski trip, IntraWest triggers a series of e-mails, including confirmation of booking, checklist, appropriate apparel, upgrade offers for rooms, free ski lessons for children, rental gear and so on.

IntraWest's approach to e-mail paid off recently. Room upgrade revenue rose 20 percent, and ski rentals are up almost 25 percent. Ski lesson revenue climbed from $3 million a year to more than $20 million.

Auction site eBay has a similar interest-based attitude toward e-mail, as Nail found out. He hadn't visited the site in a long time, so eBay sent him an e-mail asking him what he was waiting for. The e-mail said here is how the user could search. Another e-mail involved the basics of eBay.

Nail then decided to sell an item on the site. But it didn't sell. So eBay sent him an e-mail with tips on selling. Another posting of the item failed to gain a buyer. This time another eBay e-mail offered him a relisting with certain conditions.

"EBay's saying that 'we're seeing what's working for you, what's not working for you, and we've got tips for your success,' " he said.

A final piece of advice he gave was to junk the traditional A/B testing mindset of offline marketing. Online, the potential to test e-mail copy, headline, art and offers is immense. But marketers are daunted by the options and test only sporadically.

Nail suggested experimental designing based on grids, strategically selected variables and modeling. He cited Optimost and Offermatica as companies with tools to help design the grids and select combinations of variables.

He wrapped up his presentation with three suggestions.

"Maybe stop thinking like marketers," he said. "Think like IntraWest. Adopt a proactive service mindset. Start to think about those personas and those purchase scenarios. How can e-mail support the consumer's goal? And test, test, test ... but be smart, smart, smart. Understand that the old techniques are not adequate." [ DMNews ]

DEMOCRATS: Angry Hispanic Caucus Withholds Party Dues

2005-03-08T14:04:00.000-05:00

Go HC! Hopefully, this is the wake-up call that shakes the Democratic leadership from their slumber. Their neglect of Hispanic voters has been embarrassing. Letting Bush take 44% of the Hispanic vote??!! Letting the situation get so bad with the HC it had to go public and demand attention from the party establishment??!!

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are withholding their party membership dues until they receive assurances from House Democratic leaders that the party will make a concerted effort to engage Hispanic voters and better serve the needs of the Hispanic community.

Lawmakers withholding their dues said that their decision was the culmination of several years of frustration with what they view as the Democratic Party’s failure to reach out to Hispanics and include them in the decision-making process. They are also increasingly concerned by results at the ballot box and of post-election surveys showing that President Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. [ The Hill ]

WEB STATS: Things That Throw Your Stats (Part 2)

2005-03-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

In Part 2 of his discussion on web stats Think Metrics CEO and web analytics guru Brandt Dainow talks about the limits of web analytics software and how to compensate for them. [ iMedia Connection ]

VIRAL: Is It Effective...And Why Do We Have To Keep Asking?

2005-03-07T17:02:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous fame was on MPR's Weekend America talking about viral marketing. Listen to the interview. It's a typical catch-up for the masses touching the usual viral bases of Subservient Chicken and the 'is it effective?' question.

As far as the Subservient Chicken goes I'm still on the skeptical side of the 'effective' fence. There wasn't much of anything in the piece that tied it to the product or the brand. I just don't understand how ordering around a man in a chicken suit makes one hunger for a new chicken sandwich. I think the Subservient Chicken did a great job of promoting the Subservient Chicken (and Cripsin Porter + Bogusky) and the Tender Crisp did a great job of promoting itself.

The crazy part of this whole debate is that we can't actually know the effectiveness of a highly interactive online marketing campaign. Why the mystery? Because, if sales was the ultimate goal of this campaign, nothing was built in to the experience that allowed BK to measure whether or not it worked. It may have helped sales and it may not have helped sales. We just don't know. This causal disconnect is the same problem gripping the traditional TV and radio advertising world right now. Knowing ROI fears are what's spurring the growth of viral marketing as a cheaper alternative, why are viral marketers taking their creative down the same immeasurable conversion path as traditional advertising?

The internet has huge natural advantages over TV and radio in interactivity and the measured metrics departments. The viral industry should be interested in promoting this difference and delivering on it. You can't download a coupon from a TV spot. You can't collect email addresses and zip codes from a radio ad and then do a targeted email promotion. At some point the hipness bloom will come off the viral rose and if marketers don't learn how to effectively tie the promotion to the brand and measure a return on the investment we will be leaving viral behind and moving on to the next trend in marketing.

INTERNET: Surprise! The Internet Is Popular For Politics

2005-03-07T16:06:00.000-05:00

A new study from Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals, shockingly, the internet was as popular as ever in American politics in 2004. At some point this has to stop being news. Who in Washington is still on the fence about the power of the internet as an effective communications, organizing, and fundraising tool?

The internet became an essential part of American politics in 2004. Fully 75 million Americans – 37% of the adult population and 61% of online Americans – used the internet to get political news and information, discuss candidates and debate issues in emails, or participate directly in the political process by volunteering or giving contributions to candidates. [ Pew ]

BLOGS: Secrets Of New Journalism Success

2005-03-04T18:34:00.000-05:00

Hillarious segment from the Daily Show in which Rob Corddry looks at the brave new world of "New Journalism"...and what's in it for you! Watch it.

POP-UP ADS: Respect My Blocker!!

2005-03-04T13:41:00.000-05:00

Pop Up Purveyors Disrespectful of People's Preferences
One of the major reasons people use pop up blockers or switch to browsers like Firefox which have built in pop up blockers is to, no doubt, block pop ups. Serving pop ups is one thing. Ignoring people's preference to avoid them as a whole different animal. Companies that circumvent a consumer's choice to block pops by deploying anti-pop up/under blocking software are scum in our book. We use Firefox. Until recently, the past year and a half or so have been blissfully pop-free. A month or so ago, we have seen the resurgence of the pop while using Firefox. We don't like it.Today, while visiting Dictionary.com, we were presented with a pop under. We forget the advertiser but we do know Advertising.com serves on-page banners to Dictionary.com. It's known that pop ups and unders do not always emanate from specific sites but from behavioral profiles built up over time so we aren't sure Dictionary.com or Advertising.com had anything to do with the pop.

Later today, while loathe to do so, we found it necessary to visit DrudgeReport. Sure enough, two pop unders appeared. This time, we paid more attention and saw that Tribal Fusion served the pop for Emode's Tickle. The other pop was one of those obnoxious flashing banners, this time, for travel site Travasaurus. We can't confirm who served that one but we sure like Drudge a lot less now that we did before.

Respect for peoples choice to opt out of seeing pop ads seems like a no brainer. It's sort of like answering "yes" to a waiter after he's asked if you're finished with your meal only to have him scrape what food might be left on the plate and jam it down your throat. It's just not a nice thing to do. Why is it so difficult for companies to grasp that concept? And we're not buying that whole argument that pops, like telemarketing work so they must be a OK. Times are changing. People aren't going to stand for this shit. Advertisers and sites should not stand for it either. [ Adrants ]

CLICK FRAUD: Can We Call Them 'Click-Pockets', PLEASE!!!

2005-03-04T10:01:00.000-05:00

Experts: Policing Affiliates Big Challenge for PPC Search Players
Pay-per-click search companies difficulties' adequately policing their affiliate distribution partners is one of the bigger challenges facing the search marketing industry, experts said.
It is on these affiliate sites that 70 percent of click fraud activity takes place, according to Scott Boyenger, president and CEO of ClickDefense, one of a score of companies that has launched in the last 18 months to identify and stop click fraud. Affiliate publishers distribute pay-per-click ads and search players pay them a cut of what advertisers bid.

"About 15 to 20 percent of all click activity is erroneous. Seventy percent of that is not by real people," Boyenger said, referring to bots designed by fraudsters to click on PPC ads. "The advertiser is the loser and the companies offering PPC are winning, and so are the affiliates."

Other companies, like Fathom Online, also identify search players' affiliates as the most widespread source of fraudulent click activity.

"Without a doubt, the majority of click fraud is coming from affiliate sites," said Matt McMahon, EVP at Fathom Online. "But advertisers will vote with their pocketbooks with regard to the offending search engines, and go for the service that offers them the best ROI." [ ClickZ ]

RICH MEDIA: The Dogear Peelback Ad

2005-03-03T16:19:00.000-05:00

In a move that might actually make rich media acceptable, CMP Media's TechWeb Network, yesterday, announced the launch of a new ad unit - the Dogear Peelback. The Dogear Peelback is an animated graphic that resembles a folded over page corner, or dogear. The ad unit, which sits quietly in the corner of the page until activated by mouseover, can be customized to include the client's logo or other creative. When a user 'mouses' over the dogear, the entire page peels back to reveal the advertiser's landing page behind the TechWeb Network news page. The effect gives advertisers a about half of the page real estate. View the demo here. [ Adrants ]

PODCASTING: Library Shuffles Its Collection

2005-03-03T13:49:00.000-05:00

I have been pretty skeptical of the podcasting hype wildfire. Thinking it's more people running around shouting "fire" and not a lot of actual flame. The biggest obstacle I've read to the idea of podcasting has to do with the listening behavior of the typical iPod user. Over 70% of users listen to their iPod on shuffle. 50 Cent, the Clash, Adam Curry, Sleater-Kinney, Democratic Leader, ... It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But, maybe the iPod Shuffle and smaller storage mp3 players are the immediate future of podcasting.

Library Shuffles Its Collection
Checking out a new iPod now applies to more than shopping trips or web browsing. This week the South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, became one of the first public libraries in the country to loan out iPod shuffles.

For the past three weeks, the library ran a pilot program using the portable MP3 devices to store audio books downloaded from the Apple iTunes Music Store. They started with six shuffles, and now are up to a total of 10. Each device holds a single audio book.

This week the South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, became one of the first public libraries in the country to loan out iPod shuffles.

The few library patrons that have checked them out seem to have had positive experiences.

Lee Jacknow, 61, a retired professor of engineering who currently has one iPod shuffle checked out with the new John Grisham novel on it, said that having the iPod has changed the way he listens to audio books. [ Wired ]

Some more thoughts on podcasting...
Once the Wi-Fi iPod or mp3 player enabled wireless PDA hits the market people will be able to download music, casts or books straight to their players and avoid the whole desktop middleman. If the hardware interface allows me to flag downloading content as music, casts or books and allows me to file it and retrieve it independently there could be something to this podcasting once the hardware technology catches up.

However, people are very ritualistic when it comes to collecting music and books -- every music fan has a record, cd, or digital file collection and every reader has a bookcase full of books -- but I’m not so sure folks will want to collect speeches or other kinds of casts...so, maybe podcasts should have a predetermined shelf life and disappear after a couple of days or weeks and free up my hard drive...but, why wouldn’t I just stream the cast and not have to deal with download time or making room on my hard drive? Okay, I’m very high on the concept of blogged audio, but still skeptical of mp3s as the dominate delivery media.

BLOGS: The Coming Crackdown On Blogging?

2005-03-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

Republican FEC commissioner, Bradley Smith, fires the shot heard round the political blogosphere. This guy thinks Bradley is blowing smoke. Read a good discussion on Mr. Smith's interview over at Personal Democracy.

Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over.
In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Smith should know. He's one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission, which is beginning the perilous process of extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet.

In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. "The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines" the campaign finance law's purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote. [ CNET News.com ]

VIRAL: Word Of Mouth 'Winner For Books'

2005-03-03T11:13:00.000-05:00

If an author wants to sell books the single greatest driver is the personal recommendation. This study shouldn't be a shocker to anyone who is in a book club or has read a book based on a friend swearing it's the greatest page-turner since the Bible. Again, to the BzzAgents of the world, authenticity is the key to good viral...oh, and a good product.

"Publishers often stand accused of becoming ever more sophisticated and cynical in their pursuit of creating instant author brands, when ultimately it is as likely to be good old-fashioned personal recommendation that really sells," he said.

The World Book Day's campaign to encourage people to recommend their favourite books to family and friends includes the circulation of eight million postcards carrying the message "spread the word". [ BBC by way of Boing Boing ]

Blurbs For Sale
Speaking of good word of mouth for books, comedic genius Bob Odenkirk of Mr. Show fame has put on his dumb guy cap and is offering blurbs for sale. Blurbs are the little quotes of praise on the back of books that let you know somebody else has already skimmed the book and has been cajoled to offer up faint praise. Sample blurb: "Finally, a 'Catcher in the Rye' without the indeterminable longing for lost innocence. - $3,500.00." Read all the blurbs for sale.

WEB STATS: Things That Throw Your Stats (Part 1)

2005-03-03T00:26:00.000-05:00

Think Metrics CEO and web analytics guru Brandt Dainow guides us through inherent problems with your web stats, and what to do about them. [ iMedia Connection ]

TORTURE: ACLU Sues Donald Rumsfeld

2005-03-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for the torture of detainees in U.S. custody, the ACLU and Human Rights First charged in the first federal court lawsuit to name a top U.S. official in the torture scandal. [ ACLU ]

WALMART: Plans Dropped For First NYC WalMart

2005-02-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

The New York Times is reporting Vornado Realty Trust ended negotiations with Wal-Mart for its Rego Park, Queens retail development after intense opposition grew from neighborhood, labor and environmental groups as well as small businesses to the proposed 132,000-square-foot store. An unidentified executive said the real estate developer had hoped city planning officials would approve the Rego Park project before it became publicly known that Wal-Mart was involved.
Hopefully all sides involved in Round 1 of Wal-Mart NYC have learned how not to introduce the nation's most contentious retailer to an urban marketplace such as New York. From the beginning, Wal-Mart hasn't been forthcoming with the public, or willing to put in the time with leaders representing the communities involved. Now hearing that the developer involved in the project intended to be just as allusive shows that those involved underestimate the heated opposition that Wal-Mart can spawn.

If Wal-Mart expects to locate in New York City, and eventually they will, despite the capacity for organized opposition in the city, they (and their developers) need to be forthcoming and cooperative with all the interest groups that will claim to have a stake in the outcome of the project. The City Council member representing Rego Park, Helen Sears said, "I am hopeful that if Wal-Mart attempts to locate another site, whether in Queens or Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan or Staten Island, that its officials work tirelessly to improve workplace benefits and conditions so that New York City will welcome it with open arms. Until then, we can only offer our backs." [ The Boxtank ]

LANDMINES: The UN PSA Nobody Will Air

2005-02-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

Very powerful PSA that drives home the deadly reality of landmines around the world. If you want to do something about landmines, we suggest Adopt-A-Minefield.

Since December, Richard Kollodge of the United Nations Mine Action Service has been trying to get TV to run a PSA underscoring the dangers of land mines. CNN, Lifetime Television and ABC affiliates KGOT-TV and WJLA-TV have flatly refused, he said. Dozens of other broadcasters are ducking the issue. Each year nearly 20,000 people are killed or seriously injured by land mines in 80 countries. Mr. Kollodge's job is to do something about it. [ AdAge ]

VIRAL: Onward Christian Buzz Soldiers

2005-02-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

BzzAgent style covert word of mouth has always struck me as a little sinful. A good product should be able to create positive word of mouth without incentivizing the testimonial and the person being buzzed should be aware they are not getting unbiased information. Using buzz agents to push the good news about religious products through faith channels strikes me as downright evil...Having just cast that stone, it would seem like a natural next step for someone to build an army of buzz agents to push green and sustainable products.

"Passion" Work Sparks Christian Buzz Network
After collaborating on "The Passion of the Christ," two marketing firms plan to employ the same techniques in a new Christian-focused word-of-mouth network.

Ground Force Network, a joint venture between online-oriented Buzzplant, based in Nashville, Tenn., and offline-focused Strategic Marketing Solutions, based in Dallas, bears some resemblance to mainstream viral players BzzAgent and P&G's Tremor. Ground Force recruits volunteers, which it calls Field Agents, and gives them samples and incentives to spread the word about clients' projects. The difference is that Ground Force works only with Christian and family-oriented clients.

"We're unashamedly focusing on that niche," Bob Hutchins, president and owner of Buzzplant, told ClickZ News. "What the world realized after 'The Passion of the Christ' is that there's a sleeping giant here that, if mobilized properly, can be mobilized to make a major impact both financially and culturally."

Ground Force has so far collected over 1,000 names for its database of volunteers, but hopes to grow it to 3,000 by the end of March. Clients include Girls Only, a conference for teen-age girls; "Madison," a film starring "Passion" actor Jim Caviezel; The Afters, a Christian rock band; and The Makers Diet, a Bible-based holistic wellness program. Both Hutchins and Ground Force execs have ties to the Christian music industry. They expect to garner clients through those relationships.

When new Field Agents sign up, the company asks about their interests and about themselves, which allows the firm to later target e-mails to recruit for specific campaigns.

"We ask what their interests are, what kind of music they like, what kinds of films they watch, what they feel their gifts are," said Christine Piccione, whose title at Ground Force is "ground war leader." "Our goal is to be able to go into our database and target people who have those specific gifts and interests" that fit a client's product.

The company segments volunteers and clients in two main categories: the college market and the church market. As young people are more likely to spend time online, college market campaigns more frequently employ online marketing techniques. Church market campaigns rely more on traditional word-of-mouth methods like phoning opinion leaders such as pastors or other ministers.

Once Field Agents decide to join a campaign, they're armed with a variety of off- and online marketing collateral. Ground Force creates e-cards or viral Flash presentations people can forward to friends. SMS techniques, like creating flash mobs, are also part of Ground Force's arsenal. It provides volunteers with suggestions to employ these resources to best effect.

"We're doing this with a group of people that is ready and willing to spread the word about products they believe in," said Piccione. "It's just a matter of equipping them with the right tools."

Ground Force conducts the online measurement one would expect, tracking passalong and streaming audio listens, for example. For offline techniques, such as poster or flyer campaigns, the company uses Web site URLs and encourages volunteers to report back, so it can keep track of success metrics. Field Agents who are particularly successful receive incentives, such as a chance to win a prize or a phone call from a member of the band they promoted.

So far, blogs aren't a significant force in the Christian niche, according to Piccione and Hutchins, though they expect to work with diet bloggers to promote The Makers Diet beginning in March. One blogging-oriented trend has caught Hutchins' eye. Because Ground Force works with music industry clients, he's looking into how podcasting might be employed in Ground Force campaigns.

"This is really kind of groundbreaking for these companies and the things that they're working on. They've never really had a true grassroots campaign, say behind a teen girls conference or a book publication," said Hutchins. He suggests word-of-mouth marketing is particularly successful in this niche. "It is a tight community. People do take the word-of-mouth very seriously, especially when the gatekeepers are talking about it." [ Clickz ]

TOBACCO: Truth Campaign Works

2005-02-25T01:10:00.000-05:00

While the American Legacy Foundation's Truth campaign has been found, through a recent study, to have prevented 300,000 kids from smoking, the money that funds the campaign may dry up. The fund comes as part of a $206 billion settlement between 46 states and the tobacco companies. As part of the settlement, large tobacco companies can cease funding the campaign if their market share drops below 99 percent which may soon happened as small tobacco manufacturers grow.

Even if the fund stays solvent, it's an unequal war. Last year, the American Legacy Foundation spent $58.9 million on the Truth campaign while, in 2002, the tobacco companies spent $12.5 billion. [ Adrants ]

BROADBAND: Broadband Overtakes Dial-Up

2005-02-24T19:50:00.000-05:00

Data drawn from eMarketer's latest Broadband North America, 2005 Spotlight Report shows that Internet access crossed a significant threshold in late 2004, as the number of broadband Internet users in the U.S. surpassed dial-up users for the first time. Broadband households will significantly outnumber dial-up households by the end of 2005. [ eMarketer ]

UNIONS: Rebuilding Labor

2005-02-24T18:35:00.000-05:00

It's time for SEIU to revision and rebrand union organizing at the community level. It's time to invest in efforts that reach out to non-traditional audiences and partners. It's time to focus resources on engagement strategies that reposition the union’s role within communities and build deep and long term relationships with citizens. This is what needs to happen if unions want to refuel worker advocacy for the next 50 years. These are the sage recommendations of Dan Carol in his open letter to Andy Stern on AlterNet:

Dear Andy Stern:

No, I am not weighing in with any thoughts on the internal "future of the labor movement" debate roiling on in Vegas next week. You think I am crazy? That's not my gig.

But I did want to flag some emerging, massive opportunities that SEIU, and all unions, can capture in areas that aren't traditionally the province of labor.

I'm talking about building the union halls, community centers and even the malls of the 21st century.

Because right now, as you well know, Wal-Mart is winning.

Now don't misinterpret my message: It's awesome that you are (a) seeding smart bi-national organizing strategies, (b) embracing online technology, (c) leading the charge against Wal-Mart, (d) targeting younger workers and immigrant populations on the rise and (e) aggressively pushing the labor movement to do more organizing.

Honestly, I hate to add to your to-do list, but now is the critical time to have a serious re-examination of what exactly "organizing" is. Because it's time to get busy with non-traditional organizing models designed to develop deep citizen/worker engagement strategies and build sustainable new models to refuel worker advocacy for the next 50 years.

In the growing freelance economy of some 10 million independent workers and 25 million part-timers, workplaces are no longer where as many people gather. They gather at the movie theater, on the soccer field, or in their church, or online. Worse, they don't gather at all. They cluster in their own apartments. They retreat to the safety of the walls they know. They home school.

They also turn off – after all, the average American is bombarded by about 4,000 marketing messages a day. So who wants to be sold on joining anything, let alone a "union"?

Given these trends (don't kill the messenger!), we should expect that unions will keep declining in size and influence unless they are using the most sophisticated techniques to market and deliver on a vision of community broader than simply workplace organizing and better benefits.

A big challenge, although not a new one to you or other folks who remember Charles McDonald's excellent 1985 tract, "The Changing Situations of Workers in their Workplaces," which suggested new approaches to increase labor's effective reach by 2000.

Except now we're actually in the 21st century – so how to reach "non-traditional" audiences and start a conversation about career, or college, or child care, let alone the need for workers to organize?

I'm talking about a Purple Bank to match Wells Fargo.

I'm talking about the appeal of Apple's iPod stores.

I'm talking about creating places for mixing together – and mixing music. A new union hall that combines child care and after school programs and job training site and urban theater district – all in one.

I'm thinking about a reverse AARP model – where instead of reaching out to 50-year-olds with Modern Maturity magazine and health insurance pitches on their birthday, we offer a hand out to new parents, from L.A. to Louisiana, with support services. And then grow a trusted relationship with thankful parents from there.

I'm arguing for patience – because sweaty palms, "pa-leeese, join the union" marketing will scare most folks off. We can't rush these conversations until they're ripe.

I'm envisioning a new union/SEIU media and membership network – constructed in partnership with community technology centers in 140 cities, in tandem with mayors like John Street who want community-owned wireless internet access rather than cable companies to be the last mile to citizens, with new voices from the streets and the barrios who'll learn the ropes in your studios. Say the word, and we'll sell the music and the gear on a jacked-up Purple Ocean internet radio system operating at a fraction of the cost of the old UAW radio network.

In other words, let's not just reorganize the AFL, let's re-brand it, dammit.

Think about home shopping networks and imagine a Progressive QVC. Think about our own purple-clad "Avon" ladies and gentlemen going door-to-door for more than just voter turnout and a traditional canvass.

To make it happen fast, I'd suggest partnerships with Rodale, Costco or other progressive companies. Did you know Rodale alone has a lifestyle database of over 20 million subscribers?

Because we can't really fight Wal-Mart without offering serious shopping and lifestyle alternatives – and that means corporate partners and new capital strategies.

How do we partner with private, non-union companies? Any company that wants to sell to your members will need to sign on to a new Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, a hybrid union bug, evincing their support for living wage and Starbucks-level health care or whatever fundamental fairness and open dialogue can bring.

Yes-yes-yes: this stuff is a little fuzzy. Yes, you will need to experiment and fail. But can anyone argue that a $2,000-per-member acquisition cost for a $300-per-year union member that pays off in seven years is a business model that can work well all by itself?

This new union hall/community center/media hub model isn't hard to imagine. Local 1199 in New York looks that way now. But now we need to do it in 150 more cities, creating not only community media centers but urban-labor-environmental and business alliances around community economics, clean energy jobs and new capital strategies driven by Steel, Solidarity and the SEIU.

So no matter how things turn out in Vegas, let's not just fight about how much "organizing" bucks are spent and who controls them, but what they are spent on.

And let's remember what sometimes 16th Street has forgotten over the years in saying no to exploring new terrain: the perfect is the enemy of the good. [ AlterNet ]

THIRD SCREEN: SMS Alerts

2005-02-21T18:13:00.000-05:00

Hello advocacy groups! This is the near future of online mobilizing. Imagine an action alert with real teeth. Imagine blasting a message on an impending vote via SMS to your members' phones and then allowing them to call their Reps office by pressing a key. Imagine your members then pushing another button and the message is sent to their phone list. The switchboards would be smokin'.

Yahoo! Sends Driving Directions To Your Phone
We were seriously wondering why Google hadn’t already rolled this out (especially with their movement towards the geographical with maps.google.com and their purchase of Keyhole), but Yahoo’s definitely beaten them (and everyone else, it seems) on the driving directions via SMS tip. Hit the “Send to Phone” link on their Yahoo! maps page and you’ll get the data via SMS, with images also available with your data connection (you do have a mobile data plan, don’t you?). [ Engadget ]

MEDIA: Googlezon Wins In 2014

2005-02-21T11:53:00.000-05:00

Interesting vision of how Google will rule the media landscape in 2014 from the Poynter Institute for Journalism. From the Google Grid in 2006 to Googlezon (Google buys Amazon) in 2008 to the mysterious and Matrix-like birth of EPIC in 2014. This Flash piece take a newsreel style look at the coming hyper world of consolidation and personalization. Of course, it's pretty "guns and butter" in it's simplicity. Nothing about what role consumers will play beyond passive demo spoon monkey, nothing about the big content players like Disney and Sony, and nothing about web services like Yahoo and Barry Diller. Also, this vision plays out in a very linear fashion. Technological evolution rarely follows geological time; it is all about the catastrophic event that changes the landscape quickly...although 9 years is pretty quick. Crystal balls are fun, but by their nature they always raise a thousand more questions. Watch it.

VIRAL: MSN Search's Viral Fake Out

2005-02-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

MSN like so many folks just don't seem to get the point of a viral campaign. Viral advertising is not an ends, it is a means. Viral should work toward creating conversions for the product or campaign, not for the ad. Viral should create buzz, not hype. An organization should market consistently across all its touch points to create a meaningful brand experience. Unless you are phishing or pulling a telemarketing scam you can not create this meaningful experience if any of your touch points lack AUTHENTICITY. Buzz, according to David Lewis, 'is the infectious chatter that spreads from consumer to consumer about something of genuine interest to them.' If viral marketing is to survive and thrive as a tactic it must be trusted and genuine. If not, it's just so much hype.

MSN Search Incorporates Past Virals Into New Viral
Instead of coming up with its own viral content, MSN Search's new campaign, MSNfound, takes existing virals and weaves them into a six-character narrative. Each character has a video lead-in and lead-out to an already-popular viral clip, including the stylings of David Bernal, one of the dancers in VW's "Gene" ad, and Virgin Mobile's Dog Judo.

To get to the clips, the user runs a search for a pre-detemined keyword, which yields a results page with the next piece of content embedded at the top. Ultimately, the viral clips lead the user back to each character's "journal".

Maureen McHugh, a freelance writer who worked on this campaign, wrote about the site in her blog, but the entry has mysteriously disappered. [ Adland ]

CULTURE: Movies To The People

2005-02-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

The Maoist International Movement reviews movies...from a Maoist perspective.

The Incredibles
Just as the heroic entrepreneur of Libertarian and Republican fame finds him or herself strangled by government regulations in Amerika, this story is about the restraints of the mediocre on the meritorious superheroes known as "Incredibles." What makes this a fascist movie is precisely the alleged exposure of bureaucracy in an insurance company, which by itself would be progressive or socialist. Combined with the notion of super-heroes being better than bureaucracy, the effect is fascist, because we do not really see an economic solution for the insurance company problem. Instead, the movie bemoans the competition that led to the creation of the insurance company while supporting competition of superheroes. It does not fit together coherently, but we've learned historically that fascism does not have to be coherent for the masses to take it up. [ MIM ]

PODCASTING: The Rise Of The "Sliver-Cast"

2005-02-19T13:13:00.000-05:00

The NYT jumps on the podcasting hype train today. Although I have yet to meet anyone who has listened to a podcast, several of the casters in the story claim to have daily downloads in the thousands.

The real interesting story here is not the iPod, but the availability of low cost recording software and the continuing evolution of the internet as a communication medium. It's obvious there wouldn't be so much chatter about podcasting as the new bottom-up media channel of choice if the name and identity weren't attached to the most popular and hip electronic gadget to emerge in several decades. The term podcasting was coined on the idea that folks would download these shows and play them on their iPod, but I think that might be more ideal than reality. Getting into the habit of downloading a podcast, uploading it to your iPod, and then removing it when you are done smacks of too much effort. If podcasting takes off it will be because the audience is listening through a medium of minimal effort and around which they can schedule a consistent and comfortable routine in their day. (Hmmm...maybe the old fashioned desktop?)

Will podcasting take off? It will have it's run as the flavor of the moment and savvy groups will strike early and build audiences while the cool factor is still running high. Over time the podcasting universe will get cluttered, popular favorites will emerge, and then they will get swallowed by bigger and broader media networks...and then we sit around and wait for the moblog craze, then the Triocasting craze, and then the chip-in-the-brain-casting craze....

VIRAL: Viral's Popularity May Undo Viral Effect

2005-02-18T20:09:00.000-05:00

Viral marketing may have jumped the shark, now that The New York Times covered the practice of inspiring viewers to spread ads. More than even other word-of-mouth marketing methods, viral marketing is a tactic that must be perceived as somewhat subversive to actually work. The increasing popularity of the tactic among even large marketers such as fast food giants and paper towel makers may make audiences inured to future efforts. [ Marketing Vox ]

DEMOCRATS: Data For All My Friends

2005-02-18T18:30:00.000-05:00

With the DNC reasserting itself under Dean what does this mean for ACT's effort to deliver a rival to Demzilla with Acxiom? Why pay when the DNC is giving it away?

Hill Dems get into Demzilla

Outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe has given the House and Senate political committees access to “Demzilla,” the massive computer voter database that has brought the DNC closer to information parity with the Republicans. [ The Hill ]

SEARCH ENGINES: "Click Pockets" On The Rise

2005-02-15T17:26:00.000-05:00

The subject of click fraud has been around for a while and gained a fair amount of heavy attention right before Google went public. USA Today catches up on the story and says some experts believe "anywhere from 10% to 20% of the clicks are made under false pretenses." This represents some serious cabbage as industry research firm eMarketer expects $7.4 billion to be spent on search engine advertisingi n 2008, up from just $108.5 million in 2000.

The scary vision for progressive groups is a bunch of Freepers cackling and clicking away on sponsored links for our favorite search terms to inflate our pay-per-click spending.

WAL*MART: Low Prices Uber Alles!

2005-02-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

The latest Wal*Mart fun...
The very good American Rights at Work campaign says:

Wal-Mart's recent announcement that it will close down its store in Jonquiere, Quebec, is much more about its hostile labor relations strategy than its bottom line. The company says the store will close because it hasn't turned a profit. But, a closer look at Wal-Mart's practice of opening and closing locations suggests its anti-union stance might be a more accurate reason for its decision.

.....................................

The More You Sell, The Less You Make

Something is not quite right with that headline. As long as a business has sound fundamentals, how can it be the more a business sells ... the less it makes?

Two words : WAL*MART.

According to a recent BusinessWeek article, only 9 of the 38 companies generating 10% or more of their total sales volume at Wal*Mart are recording above-average profitability and shareholder returns.

Proctor & Gamble, which generates 18% of its sales volume through the Wal*Mart channel, is one of the nine. The article mentions P&G has found prosperity at Wal*Mart by not selling commodity goods like paper towels. Instead P&G focuses on selling goods such as Olay skin products which command higher margins and are not easily commodified by private label producers. [ Brand Autopsy ]

.....................................

And if you didn't catch the amazing Frontline episode "Is Wal-Mart Good For America" you can now watch the whole program online.

CULTURE: Tie A Yellow Arrow...

2005-02-11T18:42:00.000-05:00

The YellowArrow project brings new meaning to NYC tour guides by merging together stickers, graffiti and interactivity. Residents can place yellow arrow stickers on spots around the five boroughs as a way to draw attention to meaningful, overlooked places. When you visit NYC and see an arrow, you send a text message to YellowArrow with the sticker's specific ID number and you immediately receive a message back about why the point is important to someone.

YellowArrow takes the medium of stickers to the next level by connecting people and what makes them feel good about their environments. It's also a way to bring authenticity to "place" and say, "check it out." And for those that find them, it's about discovery. Christopher Allen, one of the project's originators says, "It's a network of people who are passionate about the place they live. It's a chance to be involved in a collective art project."

Yellow Arrow first emerged on the Lower East Side of New York in May 2004, and has now reached almost every state in the U.S. Localizing the global is next - people outside of the U.S. have been requesting arrows. [ Influx ]

VIRAL: Ethics...Pass it on

2005-02-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association released its code of conduct today, an industry wide effort to tackle the issue of ethics in word of mouth marketing. The WOMMA Code establishes guidelines and best practices so marketers have a framework with which to plan and execute ethical word of mouth marketing campaigns.

At the heart of the Code is what WOMMA calls its Honesty ROI - honest disclosure of relationship, opinion, and identity. This demands that those who are spreading a marketer's message by "word of mouth" disclose their relationship with marketers in their conversations with other consumers; that they be allowed to form their own honest opinions and let those with whom they're communicating form their own opinions; and that everyone be transparent and reveal their identity to anyone with whom they're communicating. [ Adrants ]

Wonder how Dave Balter from BzzAgents and WOMMA founder will reconcile his paradox? Remember BzzAgents? They're the company featured in a NYT Magazine piece in December that exposed the dark world of BzzAgents. BzzAgents are an army of word of mouth drones who secretly leverage the trust and confidence of family, friends and coworkers to talk-up their life changing experiences with Al Fresco sausage and other consumer goods.

ORGANIZING: Bowling Alone...Knitting Together

2005-02-09T14:37:00.000-05:00

Robert Putnam's groundbreaking book Bowling Alone focused on the collapse of American community and the loss of our social capital. Two recent articles show us that social networking is not all about Friendster and Orkut. Real people are getting together and forming real social networks.

The Washington Post talks about the rise in popularity of giving circles.

We Make Money Not Art highlights politically active knitting groups who produce work with an activist bent and hold "knit-ins." In case you didn't know it we are in the middle of a knitting craze in this country and it's attracting large numbers of women and men into tight social networks where issues and activism are discussed as purl stitches are made.

MARKETING: The Next Big Interactive Thing

2005-02-09T10:36:00.000-05:00

Blogs, blogs, social networking, blogs, handhelds, blogs, and blogs. According to AdAge, those are the next "big things" coming from the iMedia Brand Summit in Florida. Sometimes we think people just like saying the word blog. As marketers look to capitalize on the blog phenom more commercial marketers are buying ad space on niche blogs and some are looking to bring bloggers into the fold with freebies or cash (blogola) or seed blogs with fake posters. The last two tactics present obvious challenges for the blogosphere as it looks to make good on the promise and maintain the validity of bottom-up media.

Groups looking to push an issue through a blogger or seed blogs with fake postings be warned. The blogosphere can smell a rat a mile away and they will unleash a backlash that can undermine your campaign. Business 2.0 shakes the backlash stick at MTV2 for seeding blogs with fake insider postings in its MTV2 viral campaign.

VIRAL: 10 Things That Make You Forward E-mails

2005-01-27T20:20:00.000-05:00

Most of these are obvious, but point number 9 is why most progressive viral campaigns aren't compelling enough to go viral.

The world's inboxes are crammed with e-mails containing jokes, pictures, movies, tests or games and which are sent to millions of people within a few hours. They're not just the preserve of skilled hobbyists, they are increasingly part of advertisers' strategies to create so-called "viral" campaigns. What is it about the best e-mails which makes them so compelling?

1. They must be funny. And, for some reason, it's a fairly coarse sort of humour which does best. Pete Brown, who runs Boreme.com, a site which collates the best viral e-mails, says: "Sport and sex do very well - really because it's the laddish humour which seems to be most popular. They work well for homemade or commercial e-mails, especially if they are crude or gross."

2. If they're not funny, then they have to be topical or somehow "shocking, clever, strange or surprising". Topical ones are usually homemade, simply because professionally made e-mails take longer to produce. A good example was David Beckham taking tips from Jonny Wilkinson on how to kick the ball over the bar, says Pete Brown. "There was a thought bubble over Beckham's head which registered simply 'ball... bar... over... win'." It worked well after England lost to Portugal in Euro 2004 - Beckham having missed a crucial penalty - because it was done quickly, he says.

3. E-mails must be a bit risky to be shocking or funny, says Chris Hassell of creative agency DS.Emotion, which makes viral e-mails for advertisers. Some advertisers will want to have a viral e-mail for people to send round as part of their campaigns, he says, but rein it back too much and "it ends up being just like a TV advert - and who wants to send that round?"

4. But not too risky. People know that employers can - and sometimes do - monitor people's inboxes. Anything that is too explicit, particularly sexually, is unlikely to be forwarded very far.

5. They must be in the right format. In the early days, most e-mails which would get sent round would be in plain text. Doctored photographs came later, but Pete Brown says the growth of movies has been marked in the last year. "That's linked to the rise of broadband, probably. But people's expectations about interactivity have increased too, and if the viral is a game, it's got to be good."

6. You've got to want to be associated with it. The whole point of sending an e-mail on to a friend is that it becomes a reflection on the sender, says Pete Brown. "A good e-mail that you pass on to your friends says something about you. You are choosing to pass on this particular joke to this particular friend. It partly says that you care about them to bother keeping open a channel of communication. It also says something about the type of person you are."

7. If it's a commercially-produced e-mail, then it's got to be for the right sort of brand. Chris Hassell thinks Ford made a mistake by distancing itself from an advert which showed a cat being decapitated by a sunroof. Following complaints from animal protection charities, the car giant said the film was an agency's idea they had never endorsed or intended for release. But Hassell says it would have done little to the brand's image among young people to have said nothing.

8. If movies have come from an advertising agency, the branding must be very subtle. "People aren't stupid - they're not going to send round something which is basically a TV advert," says Hassell. Brown adds that the e-mailed game which impressed him most was actually quite difficult to complete, and it was only when players reached the final level that they discovered it had come from Dyson.

9. Don't be politically correct says Brown. "We have never found a PC viral e-mail," he says. If it's about politicians, then it cannot show any respect.

10. Ignore points one to nine - Brown says finding the right e-mail which will go round the world depends on having the X-factor, something novel which will grab people's attention and distract them long enough from their work. [ BBC ]

VIRAL: Hey! You've Got To Hide Your Code Away

2005-01-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

GM Leaves Answer to National Billboard Campaign Puzzle On Website
GM has launched a unique national outdoor campaign that reveals a new, one word billboard each day. On January 31, when all 17 boards are revealed, a sentence will be formed. The campaign includes a website called findthemessage which reveals each day's word and places it in proper order, provides message boards for people across the nation, prior to January 31, to work together towards solving the puzzle and allows visitors to enter a sweepstakes to win 100 daily prizes along with one grand prize consisting of a choice between eight new 2005 GM cars. So far, 6 of the 17 words have been revealed. The 17th word appears to simply be a period leaving 10 more words to be revealed.

However, all the words are readily available in the source code of the findthemessage website. One programming-literate literate sole on the message boards claims the sentence is, "This is the last time you will ever have to feel alone on our nation's highways.," pointing to the possibility GM will offer OnStar in all of its vehicles and to the source code of the website's Flash file easily visible to those who have the technological know-how. Oops. Either the site's creators embedded the answer on purpose to throw people off or GM spent a ton of money only to have the fun taken out of the campaign. Just as we're assured of hearing "You're Fired" on tonight's The Apprentice debut, we're certain to hear the same words screamed by an angered GM marketing executive very soon. [ AdRants ]

POLITICS: The Death of Top-Down Politics?

2005-01-21T13:47:00.001-05:00

Michael Agosta, CTSG's resident demographic data and research smart guy, responds to Micah L. Sifry's article on AlterNet, The Rise of Open-Source Politics:

I think before we pronounce this: The era of top-down politics is over.

We need to consider this: Karl Rove used "top down politics" and he kinda handed our collective backsides to us.

I agree the political landscape is dramatically changing, but what I wish the commentators would address, though, are the problems with the new landscape.

A blog full of comments...

Doesn't produce a unified message.
Doesn't produce movement leaders. This very problem, I'd argue, all but wiped out the anti-globalization protest movement. A "movement of movements" is anarchy not a coalition for real change in the real world and it tends not to be sustainable.
Isn't a scientific subsample of the activist universe. What we likely see in the blogosphere is a vocal minority. Look at MoveOn's post election conference call (where the leftmost folks told 'em the number one priorities should be fighting the "stolen" election and working on a very inchoate notion of "media reform."

Direct Democracy damn near killed the Sierra Club, too, when 2% of the most vocal anti-immigration loons damn hijacked the entire Board of Directors.

Blogworld does give the wings a voice, but it's important to try to measure how big those wings are vis a vis the total populace. 600K members sounds great (the size of Dean's database at it's zenith) until you consider that at the eve of the Iowa primary a smidgeon under 1/2 of his online donations came from 21 very liberal counties and only managed to grab 18% of the vote on caucus day. When you subtract the curious, the bounced emails and the thousands of press folks logged on, you maybe had 450K real Deaniacs. That's roughly 4 tenths of 1 percent of the folks that ultimately cast ballots in November.

EMAIL: Subject Line Best Practices

2005-01-20T18:06:00.000-05:00

Sarah Haug has pulled together some solid info on email subject line best practices. Learn 'em, envangelize 'em, and put 'em to use before the next blast to your list.

In the most recent DoubleClick Consumer Email Study, 35% of responders said that the subject line was the most important driver in inciting them to open an email (60% cited the From address as the biggest driver).

Tactics to keep in mind when writing a subject line:

1. Clearly state the purpose of the email, requiring minimal interpretation. For example,

BAD: “Newsletter Name, Vol 1”
GOOD: “Newsletter Name: 10 Tips for Saving Energy”

2. Create a connection with the reader by using “you” in the subject line.

BAD: Save the Rainforest
GOOD: You Can Save the Rainfores

3. If possible, provide geographical link to the reader.

In an email test by the Boston Museum of Science, the “Ancient Egyptian artifacts coming to the Museum of Science” email subject line drew a 30% better response than the subject line “Exclusive Egyptian exhibit coming soon.”1

BAD: “Protect Clean Water”
GOOD: “Protect the Natural Waters in Your Area”

4. If the content is timely, be certain to express the timeliness of the content in the subject line.

A great example: during the Presidential debates, a Sierra Insider with subject line: “The Debate You Didn’t See” had a 37% unique open rate.

However, be careful not to cross the line and use words which may trigger spam filters, such as “urgent”, “hurry”, or “Breaking News.”

5. Use direct, specific appeals rather than indirect general appeals. For example,

BAD: "Oceans at risk - protect sea lions in Alaska, dolphins in Japan"
GOOD: "Protect sea lions in Alaska, stop dolphin killings in Japan"

The "Oceans at risk" summary is unnecessary and turns off readers.2

6. Only focus on one topic or action in the subject line.

BAD: "Just Say No to Arctic Drilling and Protect Caribou”
GOOD: “Just Say No to Arctic Drilling”

7. If the subject line uses negative wording, also try to offer a solution in the subject line.

BAD: “Bush’s Anti-Environmental Regulations”
GOOD: “You Can Stop Bush’s Anti-Environmental Regulations”

8. Try to use creative wording.

Instead of writing: ‘Top 10 Tips to Save the Environment’, try ‘Saving the Environment Takes 10 Easy Steps’.

9. Be familiar with words, phrases and formats which may trigger spam filters.

It’s surprising to learn that “Oprah” was a spam term in 2003.

Check Spam Filter before finalizing your subject line.

A few terms to avoid: All natural, Be amazed, Being a member.

*Remember - This also applies to your email content as well.

10. Other formatting to avoid which may trigger spam filters is:

Excessive capitalization.

Overuse of punctuation – Never use exclamation points or special characters.

11. Based on recent testing, subject lines shorter than 50 characters long in length lead to increased open rates.

Subject length 0-49 characters, open rate 27%.

Subject line length 50+ characters, open rate 23.7%3.

.....................................

Sources Cited:

1. Joanne Hunt Blatte, ed., Email Marketing Metrics Guide Second Edition,
(MarketingSherpa, Inc, 2003), 55.

2. Andrew Stocking, Some Thoughts About Subject Lines

3. Loren McDonald, How Message Size, # of Links and Subject Length Affects Email Results – Shorter Subject Lines Rule

4. Loren McDonald, Optimizing Your Subject & From Lines for Email Clients