What is a 360-degree campaign?

January 22, 2010

I read an article in The New York Times this morning, For Super Bowl XLIV Advertisers, Synergy Is the Name of the Game, that got me a bit irritated. The premise of the article, and a view that I subscribe to, is that marketers must think beyond the 30-second TV spot and incorporate all digital [...]

Jeff Zucker v. Leno/O’Brien

January 20, 2010

I just read a great post from Mark Cuban entitled, “Why are we condemning Jeff Zucker & NBC over Leno?”. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the subject. I’ll admit I’ve watched Conan’s show for the first time this week because of the controversy. As well as Charlie Rose’s interview with Mr. Zucker.
Mr. Cuban, [...]

Five New Year’s resolutions for marketing leaders in 2010

December 31, 2009

It’s that time of year to reflect, renew and refocus. And resolutions are a time-honored tool to help us do these things. So here are five resolutions I propose for marketing leaders everywhere and ones that I hope to accomplish myself.
In 2010 I resolve to:

Get out of the economic-meltdown funk: We are all worn out [...]

10 corporate Twitter accounts worth following

December 17, 2009

I ran across this article on PCMag.com recently: 10 Corporate Twitter Accounts Worth Following. It features companies that include Dell, JetBlue and Whole Foods. If you want to benchmark your company’s Twitter activity, these 10 firms would be a good place to start.

Have a love affair at work.

December 15, 2009

No, I’m not talking about the Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton or John Edwards kind of thing. I’m talking about the John Wooden variety. Coach Wooden’s wisdom has been captured on video in a variety of ways over the years, including this great talk at the TED Conference. But it was a blog post by Terry [...]

Mentoring resource for aspiring managers

December 14, 2009

Occasionally I encounter a resource that I must share. 3 Minute Mentor is one of those. The videos are the brainchild and production of Nigel Dessau, whose day job is CMO of AMD. In his free time (where he finds it, I don’t know) Nigel takes a common question that a business professional or manager [...]

Learning from the life of Benjamin Franklin

December 11, 2009

I ran across this post today, Learning from the life of Benjamin Franklin, and had to share it for two reasons. First, the lessons are timeless and highly relevant today. Second, Uncle Ben really is my uncle (actually ggggggreat uncle).
Here are the highlights from the post of what we could learn from Dr. Franklin:

The [...]

Attributes of an effective marketing leader, part 6: competence

December 10, 2009

I was in an annual plan review meeting last week with the president and CMO of one of our clients. The president started the meeting by congratulating the relatively new CMO on “re-establishing the credibility of the marketing function.” I wish I could say that all marketing leaders have the trust and respect of their [...]

Suffering from “marketing myopia?” Coke was!

December 2, 2009

I see it way too often! Companies so focused on their internal issues that they lose sight of what is happening in the marketplace. While staring at their analytics they fail to see that customer needs are changing. They are focused on optimizing their current programs and blind to emerging new methods. And no one [...]