Marketing: A Smart Way to Tell Any Story Better

I just got back from my favorite week of the year–the annual TED conference held in Long Beach, Calif. TED—short for Technology, Entertainment, Design—is a gathering of movers and shakers dedicated to “ideas worth spreading” such as those above. The conference is educational, inspiring and a ton of fun.

After attending TED for the last nine [...]

Quote of the Day

I spent a great day at the Gridley conference in Manhattan. One of the best quotes came from the respected author, David Meerman Scott. I won’t get it precisely right, so I’ll have to paraphrase, but he was speaking to the changes in marketing. He said, historically, there were three ways to get attention: Buy [...]

Back to the Future

I bet you never thought you’d hear Twitter being compared unfavorably to voice mail … Think again.

SayNow, a free phone service that connects celebrities and their fans through voice mail, offers its customers something they say they don’t get from Twitter—an experience that feels intimate and authentic.

You can read more in this New York Times [...]

Marketers Flocking to Social Media

According to a BtoB survey, the use of social media as a marketing tactic soared in the last two years. Moreover, marketers have shifted from using social media channels primarily for brand building to a tool for demand [...]

The Birth of Engagement Marketing

Today, marketers have a much larger and more involved role to play. They can truly influence customers in the journey toward a buying decision. This new world is called engagement marketing, and it is slowly changing how marketers do [...]

The Rules of Engagement Marketing

With the rise of Web 2.0 and online social networking, an exciting new age in marketing has arrived in which interacting and building relationships with customers is key to delivering unprecedented return on investment. For a brief introduction, and advice on adjusting your marketing approach in this new era of engagement, check out my recent [...]

Emailers Not Targeted in New FTC Report on Behavioral Advertising

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission just came out with an important new report outlining its recommendations on how advertisers who use behavioral targeting—the tracking of individual consumers’ online activities in order to deliver targeted advertising tailored to each person’s interests—should regulate their own activities so that the government doesn’t step in and do it for [...]

Email vs. Social Networks

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great holiday and that you are all off to a wonderful New Year.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but a colleague sent me an interesting article from MediaPost that seemed like a stimulating and provocative way to kick off 2008. The story is about social networks and [...]

Inbox 2.0

A colleague recently sent me this post by New York Times reporter Saul Hansell to the Times’ technology blog, Bits, about a new concept called “Inbox 2.0.” Hansell explores the idea that your inbox may no longer be ranked purely by when messages are received, but by the relevance of the sender. Needless to say, [...]

Another New Term for the Email Lexicon - Unemotionally Subscribed

Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx, a U.K.-based agency focused on email, is one of the most thoughtful (and entertaining) people in the email business. He was on a panel at our recent customer conference in London. One of my favorite Dela skills is coining new phrases. And, once again he came through.

People who don’t [...]