January 6, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Because I'm a big fan of Oregon pinot noir and would like to take on some wine industry clients this year, I've been thinking a lot about brand preference in this decidedly non-brand centric environment.

Here's a quick survey I administered this moring on Twitter (the responses address the question of brand loyalty when it comes to wine):

As a brand manager at a winery, I dont' want to hear that. I want wine drinkers to know my brand name and have it "register" at retail. But that's not how it happens. Not in wine.

As a wine consumer, I tend to buy bottles by the region, not the brand. So, even I am only loyal to a region. What can wine producers do to change this? How can a single producer stand out in a crowded field?

It's a great question. A few years ago, Hugh MacLeod certainly tried everything in the book to answer it. Others are working to answer the riddle still.

One answer for the enthusiast crowd is without a doubt tasting events. Darby and I went to one recently that really stands out in our minds. The fact that it does, makes us advocates for Sokol Blossser. We already knew about their sustainable production practices--you can see their solar panels from the road! But after we happened upon a wine club event, bought our way in and tasted their new releases, we felt like part of the family. Isn't that what drinking wine is about?

January 6, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Editor's Note: This one's for you High Jive

Blake Ebel, Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director at Euro RSCG/Chicago, wrote an essay on salesmanship for TalentZoo.

Think for a moment about what great salesmen have that the others don't. For starters you sense that you can trust them. Even if it's just a little. Maybe they warned you about a product that looks good but doesn't perform well. Or they convinced you to buy the cheaper, but just as capable, product. They have your best interest in mind. They're honest. Even if it means they don't get the huge order that day because they know they'll get it eventually.

Ebel knows his subject well. What he describes in one simple paragraph is the very essence of sales and sales professionals. While I'm not much of a salesman myself (although I'm working on it!), my dad and both of my grandfathers were exceptional salesmen. I know what a great salesman looks like.

A few years ago at our favorite restaurant on Marco Island, my dad told me I wasn't a salesman. He was trying to help, of course, and he did help. Because now I'm conscious of that perception--that people see me as something other than a salesman. It's not right or wrong that I am or am not a salesman, but it's important to know who and what you are, so you can make the best of your natural abilities while working to perfect the things that do not come naturally.

January 6, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Seth Godin and Darren Barefoot both address measurability of online ad buys and conclude there's nothing to fear but the numbers.

Here's Seth:

If your ads work, if you can measure them and they return more profit than they cost, why not keep buying them until they stop working?

And if they don't work, why are you running them?

The time-tested response is that you're not sure, that ads are risky, that you can't tell. And for some sorts of products and some sorts of ads, you'll get no argument from me.

Digital ads are different (or they should be). You should know cost per click and revenue per click and be able to make a smart guess about lifetime value of a click. And if that's positive, buy, buy, buy.

Here's Darren:

How effective is that full page ad in that industry magazine? How many people actually see that billboard? How many people actually pick up and read your brochure? These are questions that, too often, assaulted the faith of ad buyers everywhere.

Of course, all of that changed with the web, where we can measure the cost of every click, every conversion, every customer. It makes the newspaper ads and movie posters seem hilariously antiquated. When we talk to ad reps on behalf of our clients, we've always got an exact cost-per-conversion in mind. If they can't offer services below that cost, we don't advertise with them.

Seth mentions that for Amazon.com the magic cost-per-conversion number was $33 and that Amazon would always buy ads if that number could be met.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Creative goes way beyond advertising. For instance, when you go the extra mile to providing tangible value, you are being creative. There are as many ways to do this as there are creative people working for forward thinking companies. With this in mind, I'd like to draw your attention for a moment to the work of Hood River's Full Sail Brewing Company.

According to The Oregonian, Full Sail was honored by the State of Oregon for their outstanding commitment to sustainable business practices.

"Our brewery's amazing location nestled between the Columbia River and the snow-capped peak of Mt. Hood, in Hood River, Oregon makes us all feel a deep connection for our surroundings. Employees are the owners at Full Sail - and because Oregon is our home - we feel empowered to run the brewery in the most responsible manner every day. As much as we are committed to brew great beers, we are also committed to our community. It would be impossible to live and work in the Columbia River Gorge and not be inspired by the sheer beauty of the place. It is the blue skies, green forests, snow-capped mountains and pristine rivers surrounding us that insure our dedication," added Jamie Emmerson, Full Sail's Executive Brewmaster.

It enough to make a man thirsty for Oregon kind beer.

Learn more via the brewery's press release.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

BrandFreak, the new blahg from BrandWeek, is showcasing the above Adidas ad from Sid Lee in Montreal. The spot features cameos by Method Man, Katy Perry, D.M.C. (of Run-D.M.C.), Russell Simmons and David Beckham, plus a remix of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' 1968 hit "Beggin' by Parisian producer Pilooski.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

It's 2009 and we're going to see what AdPulp can do this year. And what social media can do.

The impetus for this is personal, in that I moved from South Carolina to Oregon last August, worked remotely for BFG until the end of the year and am now a member of Free Agent Nation, once again.

This time, I'm not looking for a job, I'm looking for business. It's a subtle but important distinction. And I'm willing to look just about anywhere, including Craigslist.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

It's 2009 and that means new budgets. New budgets means hiring and hiring means running an ad on TalentZoo.com, at least in these quarters that's what it means.

Thanks to the enlightened management team at Talent Zoo, you can now take 25% off the placement of a job ad or bundle of ads. All you have to do is use this code: ADPULP25 during the checkout process.

Thank you Rick and Amy at Talent Zoo, thank you Friends of AdPulp and thank you marketers for the investments you continue to make in your brands.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The news can be so damn depressing sometimes. It's been so lately with all the droning on about the economy. But if you get your "news" from other sources, like Springwise, an entirely different world begins to come into focus. In this world, bright people are working on interesting things.

While headlines in 2008 focused on failing markets, foreclosures and fear of worse to come, our network of 8,000+ Springspotters had no trouble finding bright new business ideas as they continued to pop up around the globe.

In the marketing & advertising category, Springwise lists 10 ideas, each of which is deserving of it's own post (which Sprinqwise kindly provides, follow the links below). That's how nourishing this gumbo is.

• Tennent's Mutual -- Prefunded, crowdmanaged music festival
• Matter -- New spin on direct mail: a box of matter
• SOOPZ -- Food blogger turned intermediary & purveyor
• Mindstorm's iBar -- Interactive touch bar combines drinks, ads & games
• IKEA -- A nap hotel in a Stockholm mall
• Steelcase's Workspring -- Meeting space doubles as product testing ground
• Northland Professional -- Billboards give away free love
• Pomme Bébé -- Tasting bar for babies serves up tryvertising for tykes
• PlaceVine -- Site connects advertisers with content producers
• Ecocabs -- Pedal-powered taxis deliver free love

I haven't had a chance to read up on all 10 here, but I did click through to Workspring.com, which is a brand-sponsored coworking space in downtown Chicago. I'm impressed, for it's a brilliant experiential marketing idea for Steelcase, which furnished the space with its offerings. It might not be advertising, but it's Brand Building 801.

January 5, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Huffington Post and Digg are two Web 2.0 companies that have been valued north of $200 million. Now editors from BusinessWeek, AdAge and Gawker are looking at the books and saying, "not so fast."

According to Simon Dumenco, HuffPo collected just $302,000 in ad revenue last year. He says soberly that the company might be worth $2 mil. Dumenco also says HuffPo has "an ethically questionable content-generation scheme." The man has no love for The Arianna.

Digg, an aggregator of content, is apparently spending twice as much cash as it makes. Putting it all in perspective, Owen Thomas delivers this clincher:

But it's worth thinking about Digg's numbers amidst the litany of complaints about the ink-on-newsprint business: newspapers coast to coast are seeing devastating declines in advertising revenue. The New York Times has mortgaged its headquarters. The Tribune Company has declared bankruptcy. And yet, even in their decline, newspapers remain prodigious generators of cash. This moribund industry generated $13.7 billion in profit in 2007.

It gives one reason to pause. As an adman, I have to say, damn, let's improve the state of online advertising. As the editor and co-founder of an online media title, I have to say, damn, let's improve the state of online advertising.

Who has some Alaska-sized ideas? Who can find the vein to fund the best online content? Whoever this mythical miner is, she's going to make a lot of people happy and rich, not necessarily in that order.

January 4, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

I started an internet radio station at The Integer Group in 2002. It was called KTIG and featured playlists from about a dozen associates in the Denver office. After I left the agency, the project withered away.

The reasons we made the effort in the first place:
a) to create a working model for our client, Coors Brewing Company
b) to provide Integer staff with an outlet for expression
c) to generate PR and WOM for the agency

But enough about me. Let's look at what Wieden + Kennedy is doing in this important new media channel.

WKRadio debuts this week. According to the programming schedule, Dan Wieden David Kennedy will be in the booth tomorrow morning at 10:00 PST to field questions from W+K staff.

The impetus for the radio station is described on Blog.WK.com:

The radio extension exists to inspire creativity through provocative conversations, interviews and artistic expressions relating to arts, culture, media, and music. We're starting small with minimal programming hours, with a goal to eventually share an equal amount of programming between our seven different offices and their communities worldwide. Stop by the studio if you have something to say.

UPDATE: At this very moment (10:05 am PST) David Kennedy is talking about Bill Bernbach's impact on him, how he hated the Midwest and how awful the wood products advertising was that he and Dan used to do, pre-W+K.

January 4, 2009 by danny g | Permalink | 0 Comments

"If in the next year, you lose your income, we'll let you return it." That's the gist of this Hyundai spot:

As you can see by the beginning of this clip, Goodby Silverstein & Partners produced the spot, as Hyundai's AOR. But I'm very curious as to who had the idea of "give 'em a chance to return the car" in the first place. It sounds like a great marketing idea. And while I'm sure there are a whole slew of restrictions on the offer, it does come across as empathic. It's almost as if some marketers *understand* what consumers are experiencing right now--or could be facing later this year in a topsy-turvy economy.

January 4, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Learn more about twtpoll at TechCrunch.

January 3, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Care to see a nice looking blog? Here's one:

[via Pat Law]

January 3, 2009 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Once upon a time, JPG Magazine was a good idea. It was also a new idea. Derek Powazek and Heather Champ were all in, and the future looked bright. But things-- as they are wont to do--changed. Derek and Heather walked away, the economy spun backwards on its axis and now JPG Magazine is folding. Maybe.

TechCrunch says, "It's not a good time to be a print magazine right now. Even a crowdsourced magazine with a stripped-down staff that relies on the contributions of its more talented readers."

This marks a blow for consumer-generated media. The magazine's problems may have zero to do with the CGM model, but it's a hit nevertheless.

TechCrunch has more:

In reality, the print magazine was nothing but an artifact of the Website and the community that created it. The value of JPG was in the online portion--the process by which the best photographs were commissioned, curated, and selected with the help of other reader-photographers. It is a model that I believe we will see more of in the future because talent is everywhere. We just need a better way of finding and highlighting the very best of it.

That's interesting. We need a better way to find and highlight the best commissioned and curated content. There are opportunities everywhere I look!