Every day, you are an advertiser. It doesn’t matter if you are spending a dime on advertising in the traditional sense. You are an advertiser, asking people to become aware of you, to be entertained by you. Don’t believe me? Pull out your mobile phone and Google for something. See all those ads surrounding your…
There’s been a lot of talk lately about how large social networks and app makers are unbundling, breaking up monolithic apps into individual portions. Facebook’s been trying this forever, constantly breaking off different pieces of their service. Foursquare just did it. Google’s unbundling its unbundles. Here’s the thing: this is the tip of the iceberg.…
I was getting ready to drive to the office this morning and I noticed this sunrise. Knowing something about how sun and light work, I knew that I didn’t have even a minute to take the shot. For those who don’t do a lot of photography, light can change in a minute or even half…
In any given news topic, in any given industry that you’re trying to perform marketing in, there will be things that people are parroting mindlessly, and the reality is that you will not get the juice – the marketing results – you want if all you do is make reruns of other peoples’ reruns. For…
It’s amazing to me how many people go in search of insights. They attend webinars and conferences, download white papers and eBooks, chasing the dream that the next thing they obtain is going to be the magic bullet that cures all their ills. While I absolutely admire their tenacity and willingness to improve, the search…
One of the most common trends in content marketing is the use of the persona to help craft and guide content. This is based in part on the work that marketers like Howard Moskowitz did decades ago. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, I recommend strongly that you watch Malcolm Gladwell tell Howard’s story in…
As nearly every sports team fan knows, some years you’re rebuilding. Some years you’re champions. As a Bostonian, I’ve seen both. The Red Sox didn’t just have a rebuilding year, they had rebuilding decades, but they found the magic mix. The same is true for the Patriots and other teams. Where people get frustrated isn’t…
Back in middle school, we played a lot of dodgeball. If you’re unfamiliar with the game (most American children are), it’s a fairly simple gym class exercise. The students in the class are divided into two groups with an uncrossable line in the middle of the gymnasium. Volleyballs or other similar equipment are placed in…
Rich asked: On another note, what is the value of very large quantities of anecdotal research/surveying? Does the large quantity redeem its unreliability and inexactitude? No cherry picking of course. eg. If 10 people you ask, 9 say that X cured them of disease Y = unreliable anecdotal vs asking 10,000,000 people, 9,000,000 say X…
