June 2004 Archives
June 17, 2004
For the past couple of days, I've been discussing the death of mass marketing. Looks like the poster child for mass marketing, McDonalds, believes it is too.
Jeff Jarvis has a post today explaining McDonalds position on mass marketing. Jarvis says, "The mass market gives way to a mass of niches."
The mass of niches can be found in Weblogs. Any company looking to reach their customers today will need to join in on the conversations happening on Weblogs. Expect McDonalds to be opening a Weblog near you.
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 17, 2004 10:16 AM
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June 16, 2004
In yesterday's post, Results Are In; Blog Ads Works, But..., I discussed how I thought Tom Hespos' approach to Weblog advertising was off base. Today, he did a nice job clarifing his position and approach.
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 16, 2004 10:04 PM
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June 15, 2004
Tom Hespos from Underscore Marketing discusses on his blog the positive results his client received with a blog advertising campaign. He says blogs get the job done. His message to media planners is if you're not considering advertising on blogs that deal with topics of interest to your clients and their target audiences, you're doing your client a disservice.
Although I agree with this, I don't agree with his approach to weblog advertising.
Here's another thing...I like the concept behind BlogAds, but major advertisers are going to want to run larger size GIFs, Flash and rich media.
And I'm looking for something that's persistent, so that every person who visits the blog is exposed to the ad. That means sponsorships, locked-in positions on the home page, and possibly ads on every archive and story page.
Tom's mass marketing approach is dead. Consumers are speaking up. If other agencies enter blog advertising with this method, soon blogs will be littered with pop-ups, annoying flash, and other disruptive advertising shouting for our attention. The true spirit of the medium will be lost and consumers will get fed up peeling away the ads just to get to the content.
Publishers also need to take responsibility with their weblogs and consider the long term effects this disruptive type of advertising has on your audience. RSS advertising has even bigger concerns with its one-click unsubscribe.
Blogs are about conversations. Blog advertising is conversational advertising (vs. disruptive). How many times during a conversation has someone unknown to you, interrupted the conversation with a commercial break? Most likely not many. Why would you do it with a blog?
Tom, let's think about the long term results not just short term client success. We did that with email, telephone and web ads. The government had to intervene and tell us marketers to cool our jets. Now, we are scrambling to find a new medium that delivers better results. Soon we’ll be doing it again if mass marketing reaches the blogging medium.
Do you think there is a better approach? I do.
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 15, 2004 9:49 PM
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June 14, 2004
Robert Scoble, his son and I enjoyed a nice lunch on Saturday. We talked about geek stuff, brainstormed a bit on how online maps can be improved and discussed the future of Weblogs and content syndication. He was kind to mention Pheedo on his Weblog.
Continue reading "RSS advertising? Business opportunity? Scoble Readers Say No." »
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 14, 2004 3:12 PM
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June 7, 2004
During breakfast this morning with my wife and a group of friends, the subject of Tivo came up. Two friends were discussing recording the Sopranos. I asked the question, "How much do you really use your Tivo?" They both answered, "A lot!"
Continue reading "The Era of Anti-marketing?" »
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 7, 2004 10:03 PM
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June 3, 2004
Contentious asked its readers that today.
As a value-added service to our publishers, Pheedo provides statistics on feeds including how many people are reading their feed. Not only can you make a little revenue for your publishing efforts but you'll know if anyone is listening. Another company helping publishers count readers is Feedburner.
In this case size does matter. If you have healthy readership, advertisers are willing to subsidize your efforts.
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 3, 2004 9:02 PM
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June 2, 2004
My grandmother used to say, try to find the good in a bad situation. In honor of grandma, let us look at the bright side of SPAM.
1. Lowered the unemployment rate. From start-ups focused on email filtering to extra IT staff needed to manage the flood of junk mail, SPAM has created jobs and helped the economy flourish.
2. Lowered Taxes. Congress was too busy writing the “iron-clad” CAN-SPAM bill and didn't have time to write a bill that would tax the Internet.
3. Launched GMail. With 1000 megabytes of free storage, I'll never have to delete another SPAM message again.
4. Returned the DOT COM IPO. Because less money was spent on email marketing and more on search marketing, Google ceased the opportunity.
So, next time your deleting the flood of SPAM in your inbox don't get mad, simply say, “Thanks Mr. SPAMMER for keeping the economy thriving.” That would make my dear ole' granny proud.
So why are you thankful for SPAM?
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 2, 2004 11:36 PM
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| Go old school and read a magazine! Makes for a great companion when you're traveling in a plane or riding on a train (hey, that rhymes). |
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Posted by Bill Flitter on June 2, 2004 10:16 PM
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Today on Dana's Blog he ran a post called "Public Relations for Small Business" I want to add one more way for small businesses to create buzz and bucks. Start a weblog.
Continue reading "PR For Small Business" »
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 2, 2004 4:50 PM
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June 1, 2004
Demonstrating to the attendees weblog index. More to come...
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 1, 2004 8:13 PM
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DecisionCast put together a CAN SPAM Webcast. Great information. I'll be talking about RSS and Weblogs as an effective alternative to email. Come join us. Register now
Event is 10 AM - 11 AM PST.
Posted by Bill Flitter on June 1, 2004 10:23 AM
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