October 2011
1 post
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/12/1025555/-Open-Letter-to-that-53-Guy
July 2009
3 posts
Moved (again)
I’m here now.
It’s nice to have a home :)
A Million Little TV Spots
When I hear that the ad agencies and ad networks are starting to play nice together, I’m struck by the fact that the conversation keeps focusing on how large media clients are going to better utilize the new technologies afforded to them by microtargeting, mass personalization, and segmentation.
It’s as though, having shown up for a rugby match dressed for badminton, Publicis and WPP...
This is going to be big: Virtual DVR gets the...
To date, the convergence of digital media and television (a distinction which, post-6/19 is largely semantic) has been stymied by one fundamental difference between these media: time sequencing.
Despite TiVo and OnDemand and Slingbox and others, television is still largely - for most people - a time-bound medium. Even though many cable, sattelite and over-the-air viewers are able to time-shift...
June 2009
11 posts
Design vs. Usability: A False Dichotomy
The battle, silly as it is, continues.
There are some good arguments here, namely: the quality of a site’s design has at least as much impact as usability on the site’s overall performance (that is, the site’s ability to support a business’s objectives by helping customers accomplish what they want to accomplish.)
Like any first impression, a bad visual design can...
50% * $0 = $0
For more than a few years now, I’ve been fuming at the fact that US mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc.) charge exorbitant fees to deliver mobile goods. Carriers take up to 50% of the purchase prices for ringtones, wallpapers, and other virtual goods that can be downloaded directly to your cellphone. (In fact, up until a couple of years ago, carriers insisted on taking 50% of...
Five Point Plan for a Perfect Mobile Marketing...
I don’t particularly like mobile couponing.
I don’t think offers broadcast via Bluetooth or WiFi or any other interruptive mechanism have much of a future.
And it seems particularly obvious to me that having to download an app in order to participate in a retailer’s “special offers” is a plan doomed to smallness (unless the retailer wants to give the phone away with...
The WITOIF syndrome
More than once I’ve had that feeling - an idea so dastardly simple and brilliant, I can’t help but feel ashamed that I hadn’t been able to connect the dots myself. And it’s even more amazing when, in this age when ideas spread instantly around the globe, you find that no one else has thought of it either.
I recently met with a potential client who wanted us to develop a...
If technology can't do the job, try lawyers
Microsoft is suing click-fraudsters
While their counsel and others make the valid point that this is more about creating precedent for future legal action, the fact remains that Microsoft’s technological solution to this problem failed, and they’ve fallen back on legal action to “change the economics” of the confrontation.
Translation: it is cheaper and easier for them to...
Hey, where'd you get $3 million bucks? I want $3...
Dell says it has earned $3 million from twitter
This shows, once again, that “social marketing” has as much to do with the traditional themes of awareness and activation that marketers have been coping with for decades.
Actually, it’s been this way for a few dozen centuries.
Why would facebook DO this to themselves?
A couple of days or so into the self-inflicted vanity-land-rush on Facebook, we can only imagine how many trademark-infringing land grabs have been perpetrated, and how long the cleanup will take the armies of lawyers at Facebook and countless firms who find themselves with yet another venue in which to battle.
Was it an IP-rights lawyer who suggested the vanity URL idea to Facebook in the first...
Why would facebook DO this to themselves?
A couple of days or so into the self-inflicted vanity-land-rush on Facebook, we can only imagine how many trademark-infringing land grabs have been perpetrated, and how long the cleanup will take the armies of lawyers at Facebook and countless firms who find themselves with yet another venue in which to battle.
Was it an IP-rights lawyer who suggested the vanity URL idea to Facebook in the first...
It's not that I don't care about what you have to...
So why don’t I have comments turned on? It’s a completely reasonable question, and in some ways by writing this I’m undermining my own answer, but here goes.
When I first started blogging, one of the most aggravating aspects was the commenting system. Not just because it invited the most down-market spam imaginable, but because each and every comment seemed to beg a reply. Or...
(Yet Another) Gold Rush is On
(Update: 12:01:05 - facebook.com/ben.levin)
Tonight, Facebook starts letting users (and business with enough fans) claim their own “vanity” username. Why is it that, even when the word “vanity” is used blatantly and without shame, it inevitably draws a huge crowd of eager participants?
Brand owners and trademark defenders are all gathered around their machines right now,...
If someone visits your website and they have...
Every few weeks, the conversation here turns to web analytics. Not because anyone but a handful of us are really so deeply interested in the subject, but because there’s a pertinent question about a campaign or site we’re developing, and we can all agree that “the numbers don’t lie.”
I’m a big fan of Google Analytics, not least because the feature-to-price...
May 2009
4 posts
Data Data Everywhere, and Not a Bit of Meaning
Not long after the first commercial sites appeared on the Internet, long before DoubleClick and Mediaplex and 1,000 other 3rd party ad serving solutions came along, advertisers clamoured for a form of measurement that quantified the value of what they were buying.
And web site publishers were all to happy to oblige, armed with log files and reams of data about pageviews, impressions, visitors and...
The Web Will Disappear (in About 18 Months)
Back in 2005, Mike asked me (probably for a pitch) where I thought the web was going in the next 2-5 years. I made two predictions: first, that the “web” would disappear; that is, it would become ubiquitous, like electricity. Second, that it wouldn’t improve much in terms of usability, because publishing and development tools were getting easier and easier to use, which meant...
I Have Been (Politely) Asked to Get a Clue
Because part of my job entails strategizing with and for clients about social media, and because it would be useful to my professional development if I appeared to have at least a passing familiarity with Twitter and Facebook and the like, it’s been suggested that I start engaging on a social network or two.
Mind you, my only complaint about Twitter is that it doesn’t accomodate me: I...
Midwest dominated by nice people
Apparently, there is a large swath of self-satisfied, generous, humble, modest, industrious and pleasant people who eat moderately stretching down from North Dakota through the midwest to Ohio. No word yet on whether this slow-moving mild front will proceed eastward through mid-Atlantic states, or remain stationary over our nation’s very agreeable midsection.