Andy Boyer

Month: October 2007

  • “Heck, That’s Alternative to Alternative”

    Remember the old Todd Snider song about the band who moved to Seattle and became a Grunge band that went on stage and refused to play any songs? Well if Social Media is the alternative grunge band, here are the guys who aren’t playing a note, yet.

    This article from Wired discusses how a few folks have built a Social Media Marketing campaign around a TV show called Alive.  Here’s the alternative alternative part – The show doesn’t exist.

    That’s right.  Here are a bunch of creative guys who built a marketing plan BEFORE they built the product.  In fact, they built the marketing plan to seed the market and raise the money to build the show.  The funny part is that it’s the exact opposite of a stealth launch, where a company goes into a basement, builds the technology, then comes out and tries to convince VC’s that someone wants to buy it.  It would be interesting for someone to launch a Web site for something, start taking orders, then call a VC and say, "We have 100,000 customers who want to by our thingamajiggers for $50 each.  Now we need $2 Million to make them."  

    I’ll let you enjoy the whole article, because it’s quite interesting.   

     

  • Social Media 101

    So, it’s hard to explain Social Media.  Someone writes a blog post, other people comment on it, and it really doesn’t matter, right?

    Well, let me introduce you to a man apparently ignorant in the ways of Social Media, or a fictional character that has brought satirical humor and joy to thousands of TechCrunch readers. 

    The short version of the story: Richard Figueroa, a little nobody hack photographer in Alabama tries to threaten Michael Arrington, Founder of Techcrunch, with a frivolous lawsuit.  Arrington, as he has previously done in cases like this, posts the letter on his Web site where his hundreds of thousands of readers per day could laugh at it.  What follows is a back and forth banter in the comments section that proves some man named "Richard" to be an incompetent, illiterate dunce. 

    Or perhaps, a competitor of Richard’s in Alabama has brilliantly used Social Media to sabotage poor Mr. Figueroa.

    Or even, this could be a comedy routine in which some Valleywag guy wants to make Alabama residents look like idiots, and has elaborately created some bumpkin named Richard Figueroa.

    Whatever it is, it proves that Social Media and strong communities have loud voices.  Undertsand this medium, before you are trying to defend your mistakes.  

    Check out this story, and see what lessons are to be learned. 

  • Is Google trying to Affect Politics?

    So, here’s an issue that only matters when you are a company serving 40% of the ads on the Internet.

    According to an article written by someone named Robert Cox, founder of the Media Bloggers Association, Google is not allowing a Republican senator to run ads that denounce MoveOn.org. 

    According to the article, the banned advertisements said, “Susan Collins is MoveOn’s primary target. Learn how you can help” and “Help Susan Collins stand up to the MoveOn.org money machine.” The ads linked to Collins’ campaign Web site with a headline reading “MoveOn.org has made Susan Collins their #1 target.” The Collins Web site claims that MoveOn has contributed $250,000 to her likely Democratic opponent and has run onine ads against her costing nearly $1 million. The Web site also displays MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad.

    So, is this paranoia?  One one hand, a company should be able to run whatever ads it wants.  But on the other, if you are the ad serving technology running ads on millions of blogs and web sites, doesn’t the line get blurry if you are banning ads you may not agree with?

    Google uses the argument of, "You don’t have right’s to MoveOn’s Trademark so you can’t use it in an ad."   But that’s a pretty slippery slope, and I’d be shocked if every other ad in Google Ad Sense avoids using an unlicensed trademark.  In fact, the article states, "Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of company names such as Exxon, Wal-Mart, Cargill and Microsoft in advocacy ads. An anti-war ad currently running on Google asks “Keep Blackwater in Iraq?” and links to an article titled “Bastards at Blackwater — Should Blackwater Security be held accountable for the deaths of its employees?”"

    If Google’s not careful, long term these kind of issues could turn into a reason for the DOJ to start looking into whether Google is a monopoly that needs to be broken up, using the same logic they used on Microsoft a few years back.  Exept this time it’s not a piece of software Google isn’t allowing to be distrubuted, it’s censorship of speech. If a single entity that controls 40% of the online ads decides to censor those ads to affect public policy, even the non-paranoid might get a little spooked.

  • C’mon, Someone Thought This Was a Good Idea?

    (Note: Correspondent Garrett Galbreath contributed to this article)

    This actually made me add a new category to the blogroll, one for "Dumb Ideas."

    In an apparent attempt at global expansion no matter how little common sense the idea involves, Taco Bell will be entering Mexico.  However, the company must change some of its marketing.

    First, they will not be selling Mexican food.   In fact, an ad reads, "It is a new fast-food alternative that does not pretend to be Mexican food."  Instead their brand will be, ""Taco Bell is something else."  Hmm, it’s lunch time, I feel like ordering "something else."  

    Second, there will be some unusual items, with a menu that projects a more "American" fast-food image by adding French fries — some topped with cheese, cream, ground meat and tomatoes.  So basically, nachos, but using fries instead of chips.

    And third, no tacos – the hard-shelled items sold as "tacos" in the U.S. have been renamed "tacostadas."

    Why all the changes?  Let’s ask the executive in charge.   "Taco Bell wants to take advantage of the perception that if something comes from the United States, it tastes better, that a country that has been Americanized is willing to Americanize food that is central to its cuisine," Monsiváis said. "It is an absurd idea, and given that it’s so absurd, it may just be successful in upper-class areas."

    In case you are wondering, YUM shares are struggling.  Perhaps it’s because people are walking into the CEO’s office, announcing they have an "absurd idea" and having that idea greenlighted. 

    Now you might be saying, "Andy, you’re being way too hard on these guys.  Why not try something, and if it doesn’t work, put it in the scrap heap and forget it ever happened, just don’t do it again."  Well, I agree.  So for a kicker – "Taco Bell failed with a highly publicized launch in Mexico City in 1992, when it opened a few outlets next to KFC restaurants."

     

  • Walk Now, for Cure Autism Now

    This Saturday, the people from Cure Autism Now are hosting ‘Walk Now" at the University of Washington.  Autism attacks more children at a faster rate than any other disorder out there today, and Cure Autism Now is singularly focused on finding cures and treatments.

    Autism suffers an invisibilty issue at times, because parents with Autistic parents are often confined to their home and long therapy sessions.  Current treatments can run as much as $90k a year, with many not covered by insurance who call them "Experimental," so think about how much spare time you would have trying to make $200k a year and care for an autistic child at the same time.

    Anyway, Walk Now is a great event and gives you a sense about the real effect of Autism.  You can get more info at the Web site, or just show up at the UW this weekend. 

  • Evil Evil Marketing

    I am honestly offended when people have negative things to say about marketing people.  When done well, marketing campaigns bring joy and deliver products to people who genuinely want them.

    Who among us have not been uplifted by ads such like the Geico Cavemen, Bud Light Real Men of Genius, Lite Beer’s Men of the Square Table, any of the iPod ads, and the Mac vs PC campaigns?  This is why Marketing is a great profession.

    Then there are the other marketers.  The scumbags, the scourge, the absolute low-lifes. 

    if you’ve known me for any time at all, you know that for 6 or 7 years, I have placed Zango/180 Solutions on the very pedestal of scumbag marketing.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how anyone can continue to fund these guys.  I thought they would live at the top of my list forever.

    But now, we have a new winner.

    Celebrity Calculator is the lowest of the low.  The most despicable form of bait and switch marketing ever to combine itself with a mobile subscription service that I can only assume is almost impossible to get out of.  I won’t even give you a straight link to their site because it will help their Page Rank.  But copy and paste http://www.whichcelebrityami.com/ into your browser.

    This site is obviously targeted at teens who don’t know any better.  All of the legalese is below the fold.  If the teen fills out all the survey questions, and enters their phone number, then they are automatically signed up for a $20/month bill from these scumbags.   

    This is worse than slimy.  It’s just gruesomely ugly.  I wish these guys ran ads on Google, so I could click on them all day long and run their ad budget into the ground.  But all I can do is tell you about these vermin.  Maybe you can come up with a way to punish them. 

     

     

  • Do You Need Cable Anymore?

    So, like everyone lese in the blogosphere, I wanted to make sure I passed along the news that Joost had finally come out of hiding and was in a public beta.  If you don’t know, Joost is the new venture from the guys who built Kazaa and Skype.  It’s a real attempt at "TV on the Internet."   But, I wanted a different angle, so I’ve been waiting a few days as I figured it out.

    Well, after scratching my brain a while, I believe Joost may be the straw that allows me to ask this question. "Do you need cable TV anymore?" 

    Let’s think about what I would watch on my Cable TV:

    1) News: Realistically, I can read online everything I need to know.  And every story that matters generally has a local or national feed I can watch.

    2) Live Sports: I may not be typical, but I rarely watch sports by myself.  If I care enough about it, it’s generally a social event.  So, it sucks that I can’t host a party for the Seahawks game, but I certainly can find a place to watch it.

    3) SportsCenter:  So far, this is not replicable online.  Score one for Cable TV.

    4) Movies: $4 for a DVD.

    5) Prime Time Shows: Many are now available online the week they air (or the week after). Since my TV Drama and SitCom watching has already shifted from "Live" to "Tivo," waiting a week isn’t a big deal.  

    So now let’s do a dollar for dollar comparison.  For my $70 per month to Comcast, I would probably let the news run about 40 hours in the background, catch 2 or 3 movies, watch about 4-8 hours of Tivo’d material and catch a few episodes of Sportscenter.   Without Cable, I lose out on the background news, am forced to the Video store for movies, have to go to a bar to watch the MLB playoffs, and have my selection of sitcoms and dramas cut down by some percentage, unless I want to buy them from iTunes.  It really probably comes out a wash.

    So is Cable dead? No, of course not.  It’s a wash, not a landslide.  And I’m probably atypical.  But the fact that it’s a wash should be somewhat scary to Cable companies.  Which is why this whole Net Neutrality thing becomes an important issue for us to keep an eye on.  The Cable guys aren’t dumb, and they aren’t going to just let $70/month from 100 million households walk out the door.  But that’s a different topic.

  • Check out Widget Bucks

    I’m going to give a big ol’ plug to my friends over at mpire, and congratulate them on the launch of Widget Bucks.  Here’s the straight skinny from one of their promotional emails:

    Are you earning $2 – $15 CPM on your current ads? Do you wish you had more control over the type of content being displayed on your site? Are CPA ads frustrating because you can’t control if a user actually does make a purchase?

    After years of dealing with ad networks, we saw too many ads that sucked and networks paying too low of CPM’s to effectively monetize people’s sites, we decided to do something about it. We’re proud to announce the launch of WidgetBucks.com a shopping ad network. With our widgets displaying contextual product offers in an engaging format, we’re seeing $3-6+ CPM on thousands of sites.

    Today we have made our beta available for you to try it for yourself and start earning more money. Configuring the widget for your site is quick and easy and you’ll see immediate results.

    I will be playing with Widget Bucks tonight here on AndyBoyer.com, and we’ll also be testing it on MyElectionChoices.com.

  • New Site for the Blog Roll – Sports Economist

    I just stumbled across The Sports Economist, a collection of business related sports stories.  Seemed like a good one to add to the blogroll.

    http://thesportseconomist.com/