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The use of data and analytics is far from perfect, but there are ways to use more information to effectively plan and track your marketing efforts. If you’re a data wonk in pursuit of answers to the above riddle, Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight by John Foreman might be the book for you. I was hoping for a more conversational approach here, but Foreman--the Chief Data …

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An article in Ad Age this week suggests all is not well at McDonald's. And the ads are getting the blame for a sales slump. Certainly, lackluster ads deserve scrutiny, but ad agencies are promising even more in the way of analytics to determine how effective campaigns can be. So if an agency promises results, who's to blame when the results aren't there? In any marketing or ad campaign, you can make a laundry …

Continue Reading about With Advertising Effectiveness, The Results Are Always Mixed →

How many hours a day do you spend on Facebook? Is it enough time to fully understand the ins-and-outs of the platform and all its various uses? I am a heavy Facebook user myself, but basic things like looking up a Facebook Page's followers continue to prove difficult. Imagine how tricky certain aspects of Facebook are to the casual user. What's this messaging function? Is it email? Why does it look like …

Continue Reading about Digital Divide Widens As Technology Grows More Complex →

Rarely, a marketing book comes along that just makes you smile from the start. But that’s what you get with Scott Stratten’s QR Codes Kill Kittens: How to Alienate Customers, Dishearten Employees, And Drive Your Business into the Ground. Stratten teaches mostly by using examples. The book consists of 200 pages of screen shots, pics, and other visual evidence of marketing fails. While a lot of them are bits …

Continue Reading about QR Codes Kill Kittens Shows You What Not To Do →

One thing I’ve noticed over the last several years is that there are a plethora of marketing folks looking to brand their own theories and ways of looking at marketing. Add to that list Joseph Jaffe and Maarten Albarda’s Z.E.R.O.: Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model. I’ve appeared on The BeanCast with Joseph Jaffe before, and I know he has no love for the traditional advertising world. He and Maarten …

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Recruitment advertising isn't the sexiest beast in Adland. Nevertheless, there is a continuing need for it, as people don't always see jobs or industries in the best light. For instance, what is the first thing you think of when you hear the word retail? Cash registers, bad lighting, Muzak and low hourly wages. Yet, retail is so much more than the store iteself, as we can see in this new short from The National …

Continue Reading about Work In Retail, No Really, Work In Retail →