How fast should you respond to comments on Facebook?

May 31, 2011

Last week, I shared a quote from the CEO of PF Chang’s China Bistro: “If you are going to open up a dialogue with customers, you better show up to the conversation.” So when I saw an article in Nation’s Restaurant News entitled, “Speed matters when it comes to Facebook,” I began to wonder how [...]

Pepsico’s Julie Hamp on integrating social media

May 26, 2011

One of my highlight’s from this spring’s SXSW Interactive conference (#sxswi) was a discussion I had with Julie Hamp. In her role as SVP, Chief Communications Officer at Pepsico, she sees first-hand both the challenges and opportunities associated with social media. She is quite candid about the difficulties of integrating all touch-points, including social media [...]

My 5 favorite quotes from leading restaurant marketing executives

May 24, 2011

Last week I was fortunate to attend the annual conference of the National Restaurant Association’s Marketing Executive Group in Chicago. There were several great speakers from inside and outside the industry. Here are some of my favorite quotes (or paraphrases) from the event. Howard Putnam, former CEO of Southwest and Braniff Airlines: “Turbulence is inevitable, [...]

What Jim Stengel, former P&G CMO, learned about leading change

May 3, 2011

Jim Stengel, the former CMO of Procter & Gamble, is one of the most respected marketing executives in the world and, after talking with him recently about the role of a marketing leader as a change agent, I now understand why. Following are a few highlights from our discussion. What is the biggest issue new [...]

The Masters embraces the digital world!

April 7, 2011

There are few events as old school as this week’s Masters golf tournament. Anyone who has had the good fortune to visit the tournament appreciates the manual scoreboards, the lack of jumbo televisions and the infamous pimento cheese sandwiches. But I’ve been impressed with how actively the tournament has embraced digital media this year. Through the [...]

What can marketers learn from vampires?

April 6, 2011

Last week I visited with Jack Pan, EVP of Marketing for Summit Entertainment, the producers of the highly popular Twilight movie series. The vampire characters in these movies have generated a passionate following among young women. The official Facebook page for The Twilight Saga alone has 20 million fans and there are millions of others [...]

10 digital ways to activate local store traffic

April 6, 2011

Any marketer who is trying to drive business through a local venue is challenged with the increasing array of ways to engage consumers. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of local store marketing has never been more daunting or more critical. The historical methods of Sunday circulars and television ads are losing steam while new approaches [...]

The big news at SXSWi…

March 22, 2011

…was that there wasn’t any big news. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. What this told me is that digital and social marketing have become part of the mainstream conversation among marketers. The questions are no longer, “What is it?” and, “Should we?” The questions most frequently asked are “how” questions. How do we [...]

SXSW Interactive is in full swing!

March 12, 2011

I’m sitting in the Samsung Blogger Lounge on day two of the annual SXSW Interactive conference. By the size of the crowds, the event looks to be more popular than ever. And by the ticker on the interactive wall, there have already been over 60,000 tweets using the hashtag #SXSWi. Keeping up with what’s happening [...]

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