Andy Boyer

Category: Marketing

  • Incidental Marketing

    Hot Tipper "G$" sends across this link about Incidental or "Accidental" Marketing.

    The AP article entitled "Giuliani Apologizes to Farm Family"  chronicles the media debacle caused when a Giuliani staffer mistakenly accepted a fundraising opportunity from an Iowan farming family, the VonSpreckens, and then cancelled it when they realized it was going to be a waste of time.

    In the end, Giuliani turned the negative into a plus, spending 2 hours with the farm family out in eastern Iowa.  The little weekly Eastern Iowan newspaper, the Anamosa Journal-Eureka, seems appeased as well.  So it now seems everyone in Mrs. VonSprecken’s sewing circle will go vote for hizzoner.

    So a couple of angles to take here: 1) Interesting that the Anamosa Journal-Eureka could contribute to a national headache for a Presidential hopeful.  2) From a marketing standpoint, every negative PR opportunity is a chance for a greater positive one.  But I’m shooting for #3) Can we finally admit that Iowa has WAY too much influence in the presidential election?

    Iowa is a non-border state that does not have any oil wells, coal mines, steel refineries, automotive factories, technology leaders, entertainment hubs, travel destinations, world reknown universities, innovative medical research facilities or major population centers.  It has corn and farmers – lots of both – so there is some impact on agriculture.  And it home to the evil insurance companies and a number of banks.  But if you had to pick the most irrelevant states on an influential level, I would have to throw them in the Top 2 or 3 along with South Dakota and West Virginia. 

    So the fact that the Iowa Caucuses force a Republican hopeful to cater to the damn VonSpreckens of Olin, is a complete joke.  In the several thouand hours Giuliani has left to spend with influencers, I want him meeting with tech leaders, defense specialists, cultural experts, social welfare pioneers and economic visionaries.  I want him spending as little time as possible with Grandma VonSprecken and people who will vote for him because he’s a nice, honest young man. 

    Let’s let influencers influence, and let the followers watch what happens on TV. 

     

  • Mobile Marketing Hits Presidential Campaign

    MocoNews reports that Hillary Clinton will add mobile marketing to her campaign promotion arsenal.  The article states,"“Clinton’s text-messaging initiative targets the 230 million American cellphone users – a sign the campaign is hunting for every possible vote in her bitter battle with rival Sen. Barack Obama. It’s only a matter of time before campaign ringtones are sold."

  • Hey 7-11 Marketing Guy – This is What We Call a “Slam Dunk”

    Seriously, how come marketing opps like this don’t land in my lap…..   Hello 7-11 PR guy.  Please send 3 machines, along with cameras from Jay Leno or Jon Stewart show, immediately to the quartermaster.  Start collecting emails from your boss and stockholders about what a good guy you are.  Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame on Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Is this really that hard….

    From the AP

    Frozen drinks in the desert: Soldier’s mom trying to send a Slurpee machine to Iraq

    ALBANY, Ore. — An Albany woman with a son in Iraq is raising money to buy his 82nd Airborne unit a machine that makes "Slurpee" type frozen carbonated drinks.  Sharon Crary said her son, Pfc. Preston Crary, 21, a chaplain’s assistant, asked for a machine that could make enough drinks to serve up to 100 soldiers at a time. Preston told his mother the machine would be a "great morale booster." It would stay in Iraq when Preston rotates home in March or April 2008. His Army unit is a mixture of infantry, medics, mechanics and other support soldiers.

    Because of red tape involved in raising the money and sending such a large item overseas, she has joined up with Give 2 The Troops, a nonpartisan, nonpolitical group formed to support deployed troops. Members try to get letters and care packages to soldiers in war zones.

    "Working with the organization enables us to purchase the machine wholesale and provide a tax-deductible receipt to those making donations," she said. "The machine costs about $1,600 with shipping and supplies, such as flavorings and cups. I figure the total cost will be about $2,500."

    Sharon Crary teaches private English speech improvement classes but is taking time off for the project.

  • Amazon Blocks Statsaholic

    Here’s what happens with highly paid people with big egos and small imaginations make decisions – They solve problems that don’t exist.

    Amazon.com, rightful owner of Alexa.com data, shut down the very helpful Statsaholic.com Web service.  Statsaholic only exists because the people at Alexa weren’t building all the features that people wanted to use.  Now Amazon has blocked Statsaholic, and are copying those features into Alexa.com.   

    In a MBA Case Study (especially a Harvard one), this is probably the smart response.  And in 2 years, will anyone really care?  But we start losing innovation when the "Microsoft problem" permeates across other companies.  When people think, ‘Well it’s useless to do something new because someone big will just steal it from me later anyway," the whole web economy takes a step backward.  Out of all the challenges Amazon can go solve, I don’t get why "Screwing Statsaholic" should be at the top of the list.  Plus, marketing guru Seth Godin is somehow associated with Statsaholic, so I’m not sure why you would want to make an enemy of him.

    In the meantime, there’s a Mozilla hack that gets Statsaholic working again.  Check it out here. 

     

  • Movaya Launches New Mobile Game Distribution Service

    A few places have picked up the story that Movaya launched a service to make it equally easy for large retailers or small web sites (like this one) to add Mobile games for sale. 

    Brier Dudley writes a blurb here. 

    GameProducer.net received some comments here. 

    NW Innovation profiles it here.

    More links to come…. 

  • The Upcoming Battle Between Obama and Hillary Supporters

    A lot of talk has been generated about the "You Tube Effect" on the U.S.  Presidential election in 2008. I think the most interesting aspect is the total lack of control that the campaigns will have over their suporters. We are going to see "campaign extremists" completely convolute the message and intentions of the high paid campaign managers.

    Here could be the first salvo between the supporters of the two main Dem candidates.  In one corner, a slickly produced anti-Hllary video based on the Apple commercial 1984. This is nicely done, and by all accounts, the Obama campaign had nothing to do with it. In response, a Hillary supporter hacks together a low budget retaliation that well, just looks dumb. How will the candidates keep their supporters under control? Check out both videos.

    Vote for Obama:




    Vote for Hillary:


  • Does Amazon Want You To Fight Roosters?

    Ah, remember when having the world’s largest selection of merchandise was a good thing?  Well apparently Amazon.com’s decision to offer magaiznes catering to the Cock Fighting crowd has – in what will be the most overused pun in a decade – ruffled some feathers.

    The Register UK and Computerworld report the Humane Society has slapped Amazon.com with a lawsuit.  The action specifically concerns "The Underground Pitbull Breeders Association, StreetHeatDVD.com, and the publishers of The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior. Also targeted are the DVDs Unleashed: The Realest Pitbull Action Caught on Tape and Hood Fights Vol. 2, The Art of the Pit, both "depicting illegal dogfighting".

    According to the Humane Society, "At issue in the case are four items which the HSUS has repeatedly asked Amazon.com to drop from its sales list because they depict and promote cruel dogfighting and cockfighting events in violation of federal law. Amazon.com is the sole retailer of subscriptions to the animal fighting magazines and the only outlet for animal fighters to obtain subscriptions over the internet. Similarly, Amazon.com is one of only three sellers of the dogfighting DVD and the easiest seller to locate on the web.  A Humane Society review of the last 12 months of The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior found that more than 90 per cent of the magazines’ advertisements are nothing more than a solicitation to commit a crime…and uncovered evidence that such magazines are published for the express purpose of promoting unlawful animal fighting and are found at more than 75 per cent of the animal fighting operations that have been raided by law enforcement officers."

    So in one corner, you have the Humane Society using a legal argument to try to quell a market that by all terms of human decency, shouldn’t even exist.  In the other corner you have Amazon.com, standing behind a 1st Amendment argument of, "Hey we sell everything." Now as easy as this decision might seem, its likely they are sticking to this argument so one day they can’t get forced into a corner either by the religious right or liberal left over whether or not to sell, "How to Fix your Gay Friend" or "Jesus was a Sex Addict."  Saying, "We Sell Everything" when it comes to literature on cock-fighting gets you about as far down the reprehensible spectrum as you can go.

    And let’s not forget, Amazon doesn’t create the marketplace for this material.  Someone is writing the articles, someone is publishing the magazine, someone else is selling the ads, someone else is buying the ads and still someone else buys the magazine.  So as awful as it sounds, this isn’t all Amazon’s fault.

    Now the marketing side of this is a little grayer.  It’s a fallacy for Amazon to say, "We Sell Everything."  "24 Ways to Attack Paris Hilton" would not be listed amongst their catalog.  Amazon is grown up enough that they need to come out and be strong, and say, "This sport isn’t right.  It’s so off the radar in terms of social acceptance, that this is not a 1st Amendment issue.  There are bounds of good taste, and while we do not believe that we should be the arbitrator of good taste, we have enough common sense to know this does not live up to the standards of the 1.6 Billion other products we offer."

  • What $20k gets you at Amazon.com

    Looking for that special brithday gift? Looks like Amazon.com has exactly what you’re looking for.  According to the description: amzn tank.jpg
    "The JL421 Badonkadonk is a completely unique, extremely rare land vehicle and battle tank. Designed with versatility in mind, the Donk can transport cargo or a crew of five internally or on the roof, and can be piloted from within the armored shell or from an exposed standing position through the hatch, thanks to special one-way steel mesh armor windows and a control stick that pivots up and down to allow piloting from the standing or seated positions. The interior is fully carpeted and cozy, with accent lighting and room for up to five people."

    In case you’re curious, people who bought this item also bought:
    Roger von Oech’s Ball of Whacks: A Creativity Tool for Innovators by Roger Von Oech
    America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It     by Mark Steyn

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t qualify for free shipping under Amazon Prime – but you CAN add it to your wedding registry….

  • The Marketing Guy’s Worst Nightmare

    I’m imagining being the marketing guy at Microsoft charged with increasing the amount of time a user spends on their computer each day, lets call it Director of PCMPD (PC Minutes per Day). Being Microsoft, I probably have a staff member for each segment – 6-10 years old, 11-15, 16-19, 20-29, 30-39, etc….plus a dotted line over to the enterprise PCMPD Director which is split into vertical segments, as well as a weekly meet-up with the XBOXMPD, ZuneMPD, MobileMPD and other MPD directors.

    Now my boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss, Mr Bill Gates himelf, comes out and says he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit on their daughter of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework.  "Up to some age, to be determined, it’s very appropriate for a parent to get a sense of what they’re seeing out there and be able to have conversations about it," he said.

    I think I just heard the head of the world’s largest software company say that kids should not spend all day in front of a screen….

  • Podcast Revenue to Hit $400M in 4 Years

    Article at Media Week.  Very interesting read.  Main point is that there will soon be an AdSense for Podcasts.