I blame the guarded attitude of many folks towards the sales process in business solidly on the shoulders of Willy Lowman, the hapless salesman, and feature character in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. This 1949 classic was mandatory reading for most Canadians of my generation. And it's lasting effects reached far beyond our impressionable years of English 11. While it … [Read more...]
Earned media & curated content: What Facebook Newswire might mean to you
Oh how things have changed. Gone are the days of typewriters, crumpled paper, rotary dial phones, collapsible cameras, cigarettes, and coffee. The world of journalism has arguably shifted dramatically in the age of the internet, but as of this week, it shifted yet again. This past Thursday Facebook made an interesting move in the media space that small businesses, … [Read more...]
Facebook shared online quizzes: Frivolous escapism or profiling?
What city should you really live in? What career should you actually have? What is your colour? What actor would play you in the movie version of your life? We’ve likely all seen similar questions poke up in our Facebook feeds recently. The unstoppable rise of the online quiz is an interesting cultural phenomenon, but it also has a potentially dark side from marketing a … [Read more...]
Disruptive “first kiss” content marketing: taps emotion, vulnerability & voyeurism
This week Melissa Coker did what most advertising industry folks would have thought impossible. On a budget of $1,500 (and she only actually spent $1,300), she created a content marketing viral video sensation for the fall line of her LA based fashion label, Wren, that as of March 24 had achieved well over 69 million views on Youtube. The 3-minute video, shot artistically in … [Read more...]
Location & behaviour based targeting: When does it get creepy?
Location and behaviour based marketing holds great promise for marketers. The wealth of customer data being collected online via social media use, combined with the ability to data crunch and layer in predictive analytics, plus the rapid growth of personal device use such as smartphones and tablets, renders the possibilities dizzying. This is virgin territory and I fear … [Read more...]
