We have telemarketing. We have windshield litter. We have spam. We have Pop ups. Now we have Guestbook spam as discussed in this OnlineSpin article by Tom Hespos.
Have we as marketers gone crazy? Do we even care what the consumer thinks or wants? Do we even try to listen to our customers? Do we even care?
Yes. No. No. No.
Is it so difficult for marketers to realize that we hang up on your calls, we toss your litter in the trash. We click the close button of a pop up before it fills in (or for those of us lucky enough to be using Mozilla, we don't have to deal with it at all). And, no one will read guestbooks once they realize they are filled with spam.
Short sighted gains. Long term losses. That is the mindset we are in right now when it comes to marketing. The quick buck first. Long term brand loyalty be damned.
Some thing is very wrong here.
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This little ad invasion spoof is not too far off from reality. Click the picture to see full sized version.
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In this New York Times article, the effort to ban telemarketing calls to cell phones is discussed. I think it is a great idea. Telemarketing, like the pop up, is an extremely bad form of advertising. Yes, it makes money but in the long run, again like the pop up, it will help contribute to a hatred for other types of marketing as well. I applaud this effort and soon hope to ditch my land line and go all cell....until the problem described in the last part of this article muddies the waters again.
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This is very good news. There is a lot of local media money that has yet to reach the web. Now if we could only more precisely target locally.
Local Online Ad Spending to Increase
According to a Jupiter Research report, approximately 60% of American consumers regularly access local content online, making it the third most popular online activity in the United States.
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I receive a newsletter entitled The Harrow Technology Report which covers: "Insight, analysis, and commentary on the innovations and trends of contemporary computing, and on its growing number of related technologies."
The list has had some viral/spam problems over the course of the last three weeks causing duplicate mailings to be sent out as well as full blown viruses. The response to this by Jeffrey R. Harrow nothing short of wonderful. As part of his next mailing, he offers and indepth explanation of what happened, why, and what steps he took to insure as best as possible that it will not happen again. I just found it very reassuring to have this sort of detailed response. It made me quite sure that this list I belong to is well managed. If only more list managers would make this sort of effort.
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As always, courtesy of False Advertising.
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This article by Andrew Sullivan is the most informative and insightful piece I have seen on the topic of blogs and their place in the world of capitalism. One important point he puts forth is this. Should we even try to make them profitable? He then goes on to discuss the benefits other then profit that blogdom can offer. One, is raising one's individual stature within their profession.
I can see this personally myself. Having started AdRants only last March, I can still be considered quite new at this. However, I have found myself entering a circle of very well known and very well respected marketers who also happen to be bloggers themselves. In fact, we are in the middle of preparing the launch of a group blog which we sometimes refer to as a "collabog". It will be a collaborative effort among several marketing focused bloggers who will make it a point to distill relevant marketing related news and present it in a quick, informative, and irreverent manner.
Will this endeavor ever make money? Who knows? Who cares? It's not my purpose for doing it. My important question is: Would I ever have had the opportunity to even be part of a project like this had I not had a blog of my own in the first place? Of course not. It's the blog that got me here. It's the blog that opened that door and gave me the exposure for others to judge for themselves whether I was worthy enough to be part of a collaborative marketing effort. In essence, would they want to associate with me?
And on it goes. After the launch of this project, what will come next? In my opinion, it will only get better. More doors will open and more opportunities will occur.
So it's really not about the money at this point. It's about everything else. It's fascinating.
Blog on...
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Masha Gellar comments on an email study done by Quris, Greenfield Research and Executive Summary. I point to this all in good fun and to point something out.
Masha Skewers an Email Study
Interesting quote:
"The study concluded that - get this - �well-executed permission email positively affects brand attitudes.�
Forgive the monosyllabic reaction, but DUH!?!"
Here's my reaction in support of the study: Common sense, i.e. a hypothesis, wouldn't be common sense unless it was grounded in some in some basis of fact. How do you determine fact? You do a study to confirm your hypothesis.
UPDATE: And here is a response from the man himself. The ever famous Rick Bruner
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This has to be the single most idiotic decision Apple could make. A Macworld show without Apple? Why bother having the show?
My prediction: Mac fans will rebel against this decision. Apple will relent and show up at the show. Or...the whole thing will go back to New York.
Wired News: Apple Pulls Out of Macworld
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In a News.com article, it is reported that CNN.com has begun placing text link ads in the upper right hand corner of their news pages. No big thing, right? Well, they are not labeled as "Advertisements" or "Sponsorships" which is misleading to the reader. I applaud the approach as text links can be effective but I do agree that they should be labeled as such. A CNN spokesperson says they soon will be.
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