Andy Boyer

Category: Media

  • 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."

  • Is this the New Onion?

    Am I about 12 months behind the humor curve?  Who are these guys?

    http://www.crystalair.com/ 

  • Tragedy at V-Tech; Facebook Emerges as Vital Communication Tool

    The U.S. found a new tool in how to communicate on a one to many way in times of crisis today.  On this national day of sorrow and disbelief, Facebook.com proved that the world of social networking extends past sharing pictures and music tastes.

    One LA Times Article includes the following paragraph.  "University of Southern California sophomore Charlotte Korchak received a call from her mother in Maryland — Virginia Tech, she learned, was a death scene. Rather than tie up the cellphones of friends who attend the school, the 19-year-old history major checked their pages on Facebook, the social-networking site. ‘I was able to immediately find out who was OK,’ she said. ‘Without Facebook I have no idea how I would have found that out.’"

    The site has also become a place for people to share support.  One group has over 1,300 members.  This condolences group contains over 2,600.  Here’s a prayer group with 2,100.

    In real time yesterday, Bryce’s Journal was a source of up to the minute information, which led to an interesting moral argument.  The CBC TV network posted to his blog comments section asking him to call and provide his account on the air in addition to the blog.  This became a source of hostility for the blog readers, who felt that their reading the accounts was not voyeurism, but that a major TV network relaying those accounts would be exploitation. Bryce’s Journal continues to be a source of pretty startling emotional writing.

    There’s little doubt that this tragedy could have been avoided if news of the first shooting, and warnings to get off campus, could have been conveyed in a more efficient manner.  I think we can look at social networking, especially in the mobile space, as something to considered for emergency response.

  • A Future History Lesson On Market Forces

    So Don Imus is fired.  After meeting with Jese Jackson and Al Sharpton, CBS President Les Mooves fired his top rated radio host.  Many people cheer this.  The villain was vanquished, the evil doer thwarted, the racist cast back to the cave from where he belongs.

    And the rest of us will get to watch a first hand example of how capitalism works, how market forces behave and how money and opportunity trump all.

    First, you’ll have the legal settlement from CBS.  It’ll be done quietly, but you don’t dismiss a formerly beloved radio personality with millions of dollars on his contract remaining, and not have to send any more checks his way.  Plus, you have to pay him to stay OFF the air, because WCBS is not the only station in New York.  And there are lots of stations with call letters you have never heard of that would be happy to take a little heat for giving Imus a "Second Chance.’

    But it’s not just traditional radio.  Tell me Mark Cuban isn’t already sitting in Imus living room saying, "You’ll be on HDNet, podcasting as well, and your first guests will be the Duke Lacrosse team, and your topic can be about how the media goes in for the kill.  Or we’ll do a show – The News accoring to Dan (Rather) and Don (Imus). Plus I haven’t annoyed David Stern for a while so we’ll let you do some play by play for the Mavericks as well."

    And sitting next to Cuban on that same couch are the CEO’s of Sirius and XM radio, one guy saying, "Compete against Howard again" and the other guy saying, "Back to back Howard and Imus – you can say anything you want on our network."

    So Imus gets punished – but watch how the market reacts in the coming months.  If the one thing this country believes in, it’s second chances – and grabbing the opportunities to invest in them.   

  • 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. 

     

  • Proof that EVERYONE is 6 Degrees of Seperation Away

    News from ESPN comes that Don King (yes that Don King) was able to got a front row seat at Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience Wednesday. (yes, that Pope.) 

    According to the report, "the Vatican visit was arranged through a boxer King represents — Italian super welterweight champion Luca Messi, whose brother Alessandro is a Catholic priest."  So yes, even if you go go to church ever day and live the holiest of lives, Don King is about 4 clicks closer to the pope than you are. 

    My favorite sentence from the report: "King, who spent four years in prison for manslaughter, had hoped for a personal meeting with Benedict."

  • 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:


  • 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.