Category Archives: Personal

The Battle of Shareholder Value vs Environmental Concern

Posted by Andy Boyer in Big Businesses, Charity, Marketing

So back in the 90’s, it started becoming en vogue for Corporations to donate profits to charitable organizations.  This started a very interesting debate about whether companies should simply deliver value to their shareholders, or be responsible for bettering the communities in which they belong.

An easy argument was to drop the charitable giving money into the overall Marketing budget and call it "Community Relations."  If a giant bank sponsors runs for Leukemia and Breast Cancer research, then one could argue the CPM was worth the donation.  It’s a pretty compelling argument that you can get a lot of community goodwill on your side, which then helps with non-tangibles such as recruiting, brand management and corporate morale.

Fast forward to 2007, and the magic bullet is in going "Green." Companies are denting their bottom line to use recycled paper, advanced heating and cooling systems, subsidizing public transportation for employees and other efforts.  And shareholders seem to be ok with that.

But what about Google’s latest announcement.   According to a Google release, "Google.org is committed to finding innovative transportation solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming…As part of this initiative, we are issuing a $10 million request for investment proposals (RFP). We plan to invest amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000 in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and/or vehicle-to-grid solutions."

Now, you can look at this 3 ways:

1) Google makes $10 million in an hour, so it’s irrelevant to shareholders.  Great PR move.

2) This is a completely for profit effort for Google, stemming from their M+A group, and Google Shareholders should benefit down the road.

3) This $10 Million is nice, but why is an online search and media company investing in Transportation, something they could not possible know anything about?  Shareholders should be annoyed.

On a lighter note, what happens if Google ends up building the killer transportation app?  Will everyone be commuting to the Microsoft campus on the Google Mobile?

 

Ripple TV, and the Emergence of Localized Advertising

Posted by Andy Boyer in Entrepreneurism, Marketing, Media, Personal

So I have to admit being very intrigued by a company called Ripple TV.  You may have seen Ripple at a neighborhood Tully’s.  The concept is pretty straightforward – a typical High Def TV, displaying canned news and sports information from CBS and ESPN.  But the catch is, the screens are designed to run locally targeted ads that small business can create and upload themselves.

Or to put it another way, the two major pains about advertising are the creative costs and the inability to target effectively.  Ripple TV solves both these problems.  I get to choose which Tully’s my ad runs, and they provide me the tools to create the ad on the fly and upload it.

"Ripple has partnered with many of the World’s leading retail brands to provide a powerful in-store digital media experience that keeps their customers engaged, entertained and informed. Ripple’s user experience is customized specifically for each distribution partner, providing a truly custom experience that perfectly supports the brand, demographic, geographic and user experience requirements of each partner. Ripple keeps your customers engaged with the very latest news, financial information, sports, weather, traffic, local information and entertainment programming from the World’s leading content brands." 

So, the only initial limitation, which I’m sure will be solved soon, is that they have relatively few major partners (Tully’s), and so the audience is not very diverse.  But, that’s hardly a criticism.  Instead, I applaud Ripple for landing such a great anchor partner.  That really is quite a coup.

I don’t this affects agencies at all, because if anything the Ripple system grows the advertising pie, catering to small business owners that agencies didn’t really care about anyway. And the small business owner only needs a rudimentary sense of style and analytical skills to run a test ad for $75 in a neighborhood, so the cost to get started is minimal.

Fascinating concept, and I hope it does well. 

 

The Eventual Death of the Airport Magazine Stand

Posted by Andy Boyer in Marketing, Media, Personal

Maybe I’m not the average consumer, but I find about 85% of my purchases of magazines and books come during the hour I’m kicking my heels at the airport waiting to get on a plane.  Especially if I know it’s going to be a long flight, I know my laptop will be of limited use, and I won’t have internet anyway. 

Now, this glaring market inefficiency is being solved by Qantas, and one can only assume it will be the first in a long line of dominos to fall.

From Slashdot:

"Australian international airline Qantas has just announced in-flight broadband will be available across all classes in its new fleet of A380s. Also on offer will be laptop power in economy and internet access in the seat-back entertainment system. They are retrofitting existing 747s with elements of the technology, and providing several ports for passengers with more expensive tickets. It would also allow recharging of USB-powered devices. The Ethernet port is for laptops that don’t have wireless, or for people who simply prefer an Ethernet connection over WiFi.

No word yet on whethere any sites will be deemed "inappropriate" for viewing.  But the ability to plug in and read anything pretty much eliminates your need to buy magazines, portable DVD players, books, or other heavy items that add to your carry-on bag. So, sell your Hudeson News and W.H. Smith stock…

The Latest Time Killer

Posted by Andy Boyer in Personal

I’ve been doing a lot of blog surfing lately, looking for political sites that should be linking to MyElectionChoices.com (tip: you all should).

One of the political sites I ran across derailed me for the better part of an hour with a referral to this addicting little game: Desktop Tower Defense.

My top score is in the 1300 range, around level 28.  Those damn black things start going nuts around level 25, then the flying thingys start bringing down the house.  Definitely worth checking out. 

Launch of MyElectionChoices.com

Posted by Andy Boyer in Entrepreneurism, Marketing, Media, Personal, Politics

MyElectionChoices.com%20logo.gifAfter a few weeks of tinkering, we’ve launched the 1.0 version of MyElectionChoices.com.  The site will continue to evolve, but in its current form, visitors get to choose topics they care about in regards to the 2008 Presidential Election, then select positions they agree with from various candidates. 

At the end of answering a few topics, visitors then find out which Presidential Candidates they share political views with.  Since we have statements from 17 candidates, there’s bound to be a couple people that you’ve never heard of.

There are still plenty of improvements to be made, but give it a whirl and let me know what you think.  There’s a Groups option at the end to make it easy to invite others and compare how certain groups compare aggregately to National Averages.  And there’s a survey at the end as well that will help us shape the constant revisions.

Feeding America’s Forgotten People

Posted by Andy Boyer in Charity

I’m on the East Coast this week visiting relatives and friends, and doing a little work along the way.  Watching all the July 4th fireworks makes it easy to think about who the "Average American" is. 

Now, in the tech world, it’s easy to forget that the Average American does not have a 130 IQ and make $100k a year.  In fact, most of the young admins and marketing coordinators in these places probably don’t even map to the needs and wants of the "Average American." 

I took a bunch of trains and subways this week, seeing people, and recalibrating my own view of who this Avg American is.  You see a lot of tourists, janitors, cab drivers, and unemployed folks in inner city neighborhoods if you walk a few streets from most train stations and subway stops.

But then today I helped my Aunt deliver lunch to 12 houses, since she is a Meals on Wheels volunteer.  These really are the people you forget about, for the simple reason that you have no way to ever see them.

I didn’t know what to expect as I walked to the front door of recipient #1, who my little card said was a 85 year old with a bad heart.  His door was unlocked and he gratefully commanded me to come in his house and set the lunch next to him.  The TV was on, and the house showed signs of a residence that doesn’t get cleaned very often.  And he was genuinely gracious in his thanks for the meal.  

Other stops during teh day switched between being more or less depressing.  There was a 50ish gentleman who easily weighed 500+ pounds, and I was left to speculate why his mattress and box spring was in his living room.  There was the 70 year old with Parkinsons who seemed physically well-off, but showed the signs of mental struggles, and I tried to figure out why there was a bath tub in his hallway.  Two people failed to answer the door, and I stood with feelings of paranoia and dread that someone was laying on the other side of the door calling for help, but I could not hear.

The whole trip took a couple of hours, and obviously jarred my brain enough that I decided to use space in a marketing and technology blog to discuss it.  So, I guess to attach it to the overall theme, I should say that when we think of who "The Average American" is, we need to make sure we calibrate the scale to keep in mind the people we never see – the poor, the sick, the homebound, the old, the people in mental institutions and the rest of those tucked away in corners of the city where we don’t go.  This "average" person is not a cell phone toting, broadband user sporting an ipod and ripping mp3’s from TorrentBox.

And in case you have 2 hours a month which you are looking to fill up with something rewarding and thought provoking, here’s a link to Meals on Wheels.

Inspiration from an Unlikely Millionaire

Posted by Andy Boyer in Achievement, Entrepreneurism, Marketing, Media, Personal

If you had an Internet connection at work in 2000 or 2001, one of your colleagues forwarded you a link to HotorNot.com.  You played with it for somewhere between 5 minutes and 8 hours, helplessly clicking on the neverending stream of pictures of people who wanted you to judge how good looking they were.

About 1% of this crowd probably wondered if the founders were making any money, or if they simply launched the site for fun.  Well it turns out they were making GOBS of money.  Giant trucks were backing up and dumping bars of platinum into their backyard.  In a nutshell, it proved that a simple idea, at the right time, with the right people, was infinitely more powerful, satisfying and worthwile than simply attending weekly staff meetings.

Well, if you read techCrunch you probably already wandered over to this blog post from the CEO of HotorNot. If you have ever considered running off and starting your own idea, here are some wise words to help get you moving in that direction.

Lumosity – Something to Play With

Posted by Andy Boyer in Entrepreneurism, Marketing, Media, Personal

I will take the leap and say that a small company called Lumosity falls into the world of Marketing.  For, positioned one way, Lumosity would simply be entry #3.2 billion in the category of "Ways to kill time online when you should be productive."

But instead, starting with the tagline of "Reclaim Your Brain" and extending through the core messaging, Lumosity is much more than a nice looking version of any casual games portal.  According to their literature, I will actually get SMARTER by spending time on their site. The multi-layered exercises and puzzles are designed to actively stimulate regions of my brain that have gone neglected, enriching my overall intellectual capabilities. 

So far, I don’t feel smarter, but it has kicked my paranoia level to an all-time high, as I wonder if I am simply a pawn in someone’s giant marketing copywriting experiment.  But, I have succumbed to sucker status, and the exercises are fun, so we’ll see where this gets me.