Tuvel Communications Blog: December 2004 Archives

December 31, 2004

Hallmark Cards, Research and Online Communities

Common Craft & Lee LeFever point to a MarketingSherpa article on Hallmark Cards Idea Exchange.

I was originally pointed to Common Craft by Jim Cachel after his company, Forum One, concluded one of it's annual Online Community Summits and... I've been a reader ever since. Lee offers all kinds of value, helped me to understand RSS feeds and hey, even blogs about getting married.

Hearing about Hallmark communities took me back to an older AdMarketing conversation on How Marketers Use Interactive Tools. Many well known community builders participated in this conversation. The conversation actually kicks off here and many of the lessons learned are still relevant.

For this discussion, we engaged Communispace founder Diane Hessan. Communispace builds online communities for businesses and worked on the Idea Exchange initiative. More on Communispace's work with Hallmark: Case Study: Hallmark.

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December 30, 2004

Tsunami relief efforts

Scoble points to Apple as an example of good corporate citizenship. Other highly trafficed websites are turning homepages over to Tsunami relief efforts.

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Posted by Mitch at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 29, 2004

Bright Beginnings

As part of the Holiday, Jan/Elan/and I visited with Washington DC's Bright Beginnings Program today. Executive Director Betty Jo Gaines explained that the center could use more resources (time & money). What a worthwhile place. The center offers a safe haven to 84 preschoolers that all come from really bad situations.

Here's the link for more info. and to help.

Bright beginnings is a developmental child care center for homeless preschoolers whose families are in crisis shelters or transitional housing in Washington, DC.

The center offers free, full-day, year-round, and developmentally- appropriate care for approximately 100 children aged six weeks to five years old. As one of two child care centers in the District of Columbia that offers free care to homeless children, Bright Beginnings is alleviating a desperate community shortage.

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Posted by Mitch at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 28, 2004

Craigslist Costs Newspapers Millions In Classified Ads Revenue

Do we need more proof that craigslist and ebay spell trouble for traditional media properties?

Craigslist Costs Newspapers Millions In Classified Ads Revenue

Getting ready for a client meeting, I spent some time today on freecycle's website and read this article where the craigslist model was also mentioned: USA Today: Freecycling to the rescue.

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Posted by Mitch at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami.

Like many others, I am passing this link along...

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Posted by Mitch at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 27, 2004

If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie

Now that we're in a 'news' mode, the following comes from FORTUNE magazine. In addition to being a current snapshot of blogging, it's filled with stories from blogging wasteland-- failed attempts by companies to trick real people. Anyway, a good read.

This comes compliments of BuzzMachine/Jeff Jarvis. The article: Why There's No Escaping the Blog.

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Posted by Mitch at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marketing's Flip Side: The 'Determined Detractor'

The buzz surrounding influencers isn't new but it seems that everyone from companies to political campaigns is trying to build a better mousetrap that can find and leverage the opinion leaders amongst us.

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > Advertising: Marketing's Flip Side: The 'Determined Detractor'. (from Marketing~~Wonk~~Vox)

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Posted by Mitch at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 26, 2004

Charity That Defies Economics

In line with the holiday season, Steven Pearlstein of the The Washington Post, details company gift giving and charity programs: Charity That Defies Economics (free registraton required or use www.bugmenot.com

This has been a tough week for Fannie Mae. But whatever you want to say about the company, its foundation has consistently been on the front lines of corporate giving in Washington. This was a record year for Fannie's Help the Homeless Program that enlisted more than 110,000 people for various walkathons and raised $6.5 million for local programs. And Fannie employees rallied around the Hope for Henry Foundation, created by employee Laurie Strongin in memory of her 7-year-old son, who died two years ago from a rare genetic illness. This month, the Henry Foundation provided computers, Gameboys, portable CD players and the like to kids undergoing cancer treatment at Georgetown University Medical Center.

UPDATES: after reading "Dear Henry, Letters To My Son" recent entries, I'm off to watch Mary Poppins with the family...

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Posted by Mitch at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 24, 2004

Links matter

Last night, I checked my blog's referrer logs. Traffic is obviously light but I'm interested in how people find me (note to self: bloglines). In the referrals, I saw that someone had visited through a Google search on advertising. The actual search was on Cary Hatch advertising. Cary Hatch runs Washington, DC ad shop MDB Communications.

I wrote a short entry on Cary some time ago. Googling Cary's name + advertising now brings up my blog as the 1st search result, even before her own company! When I Google just Cary's name, my blog still appears in the Top 5 listings.

Searching Cary's company MDB Communications doesn't include the blog in search results, but I wonder what would happen to the listings if I did blog the company (vs the owner). I also wonder how much Cary paid to optimize her website and what their linking strategy is?

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Posted by Mitch at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Yahoo! Mail vs RSS

Well, I just got the latest copy of the well respected EmailUniverse Ezine-Tips with the subject line: [Ezine-Tips] CAN-SPAM ACT New Rulings Heads Up.

Only problem was that it ended up in my Yahoo! Mail [BULK] filter...

Funny, I have no problem getting Chris Knight's other, most excellant [EmailUniverse] newsletters through my RSS feed.

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Posted by Mitch at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 21, 2004

Report: AMA blogging workshop in Seattle

Robert Scobleizer, aka the Scobleizer, points to Toby Bloomberg's roundup of the recent AMA blogging workshop in Seattle.

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Posted by Mitch at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 20, 2004

Washington DC baseball?

Anyone following Washington DC baseball knows that the current tiff is over proposed public and private financing of a new stadium. Tonight, there is a town hall meeting to discuss the impending future of Major League Baseball in DC.

Passions are running high with grassroots websites and discussions like this, this and this popping up. Off in frigid temps. to the town hall meeting to help save baseball--

Updates:

Deal Made to Save Expos Move to Washington

You can read more about it here: D.C. Baseball

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Posted by Mitch at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 19, 2004

Paul-Is-Dead.com

'Dr.' Bruce Lev works during the day as a non-descript government worker but his passion is everything Beatles. Check out his website (and book, videos, music, pics...).

Paul-Is-Dead.com

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Posted by Mitch at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 18, 2004

Business Blog Case Study: Stonyfield Farm

Several bolggers have already pointed to Rick Bruner's case study on Stonyfield Farm's blogs. It's a good b2b read though.

~~I think that~~ The 1st time I saw Rick, he introduced the conference to Nick Usborne's Forkinthehead.com. But, I digress...

Business Blog Case Study: Stonyfield Farm

2) What was the thinking behind launching the blogs in the first place?

Our company has experienced phenomenal growth, and we have a certain "personality" in the world--we care about the environment; about healthy food; about supporting family farms. With growth, we fear losing touch with what is a very loyal and committed customer base, and so our CEO, Gary Hirshberg, saw the blogs as a way to continue to personalize our relationship with our customers. He wants to "be real" and saw the blogs as a way to do that--inspired in part by the success of blogs within the Howard Dean presidential bid of early 2004.

3) What is the business rationale? What are you trying to accomplish from a marketing perspective (or otherwise)?

See the above. Again, we want to maintain a close relationship with our customers. As organics grows to be mainstream, we want to show how our brand is in fact different, and invite our readers/customers in to help us do that and participate with us in our struggles and triumphs, to the extent possible. Our blogs "continue the conversation" we've had with our readers/customers since the beginning in 1987, when we had 7 cows and a great yogurt recipe. Today we produce 18 million cups of yogurt a month!

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Posted by Mitch at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

JibJab

The buzz around JibJab's This Land Is Your Land Bush/Kerry video might have died down but check out brother Gregg and Evan Spiridellis's newer It's Good To Be In DC piece. They have a newer Santa short but, being a Washingtonian, think the DC piece is funnier.

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Posted by Mitch at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 16, 2004

Best Viral Work of 2004 Discussed

This comes from today's Adrants:

There's a discussion going on in the Adrants Network on the best viral work done in 2004. Members are noting the beheaded Cat, Honda's Cog, Burger King's Subservient Chicken, The Grey Album, iPod's Dirty Secret, Pontiac's Oprah car giveaway and many more. You are invited to join the Network and discuss your thoughts on this year's best viral advertising.

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Posted by Mitch at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FREE metro rides

I was heading downtown for a morning meeting this week and took the Washington, DC metro. The turn styles were open and there was a bit of confusion. Seems that ING Direct picked up the tab for the morning commute (the 5:30a-9:30a shift).

As you departed the station, there were people greeters with ING direct marketing pieces waiting for you. I also saw promotions in Baltimore, Md. but not sure about the free train rides there...

Maybe this is Metro's attempt to make the Washington, DC system more 'rider friendly'? I wonder what the metrics for success are with a promotion like this? In any event, a nice touch.

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Posted by Mitch at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

Cynthia Typaldos, who runs the webcommunities group, pointed to another article on buzz marketing. Cynthia founded RealCommunities and GolfWeb and has also done a million other impressive things. The article:

What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

This article made me think about a conversation we had on the AdMarketing list some time ago. Then, I posed the question: [AM] Is too much talk a good thing?
The input we got was inter testing. Here's the summary from that conversation:

AdMarketing discussion recap (or, who said what)

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Posted by Mitch at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 15, 2004

Queen of the Sky

Steve Rubel, of Micro Persuasion, points to the saga of Ellen Simonetti, aka: Queen of Sky (Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant). In short, Delta Air Lines says that the Queen was fired for 'inapproiate pictures' on the web. Ellen claims that she was fired, as an employee blogger.

c/net also has a short piece on this. Ellen says that she started blogging as a form of therapy after she lost her mom... It seems like others are also interested in Ellen's story.

Want more proof that the world of communications (and how people get the word out) is changing?

UPDATES: Internet Daily: Grounded blogger campaigns for rights

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Posted by Mitch at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Word of Mouth Manifesto

Dave Balter, founder of BzzAgent, points to his Word of Mouth Manifesto in his BzzAgent Investor/Advisor Update.

There's a reason the subservient chicken didn't increase Chicken nugget sales, why the Segway (a.k.a "IT", a.k.a. "Ginger") hasn't changed the world despite drool-worthy P.R., and why Richard Branson descended a New York City skyscraper in a nude suit. And it all comes down to the distinctions among Viral, Buzz, and Word of Mouth marketing.

UPDATES: the BzzAgent blog also points to this slashdot conversation on Open Source Word-of-Mouth Advertising.

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Posted by Mitch at 05:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 14, 2004

AOL with your paper and coffee?

This morning, I was greeted by the friendly AOL mascot shrink-wrapped with my Washington Post newspaper. The AOL offer and CD included 1099 hours FREE and 10 Games FREE.

While marketing employees come and go, it seems one tried and true AOL acquisition program remains to be the CD-ROM give way.

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Posted by Mitch at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 13, 2004

Blogging is a bargain way to spread your message

Robyn Sachs, of RMR Advertising, has an article on blogging in the current issue of the Washington Business Journal:

Blogging is a bargain way to spread your message

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Posted by Mitch at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some professors take payments to express views

Continuing the word of mouth marketing debates most recently started by BzzAgent, a friend over at Fleishman Hillard sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal. This time, we're talking about transparency and ethics in academia.

As the article points out, the practice of professors being paid to write editorials and express certain views, is a PR tactic that's been around for a long time...

If a professor takes money from a company and then argues in the media for a position the company favors, is he an independent expert -- or a paid shill?

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Posted by Mitch at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2004

More citizen journalism

Steve Outing has an interesting post on citizen journalism and big media companies. He mentions local start-up backfence that seasoned entrepreneur Susan DeFife is involved with.

While at the Netpreneur Program, I got to know the folks over at restonweb. I think that they had the same hyper local, advertising idea as some of the newer websites. This was years ago so it'll be interesting to see how much has changed.

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Posted by Mitch at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AMA Business Blogging Conference starts December 17th

The American Marketing Association shortly kicks off it's Business Blogging Conference series. Good friend Toby Bloomberg, of Bloomberg Marketing is involved. Dana VanDen Heuvel has more to say about it here.

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Posted by Mitch at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cell phones and telemarketers

Speaking of viral marketing, it seems that cell phones are not on the verge of being telemarketed to after all.

Emails that we're getting from friends and family telling us to register cell phones with the National Do Not Call Registry before January 1, 2005 to prevent numbers from being provided to telemarketers aren't entirely true.

There is however, a 411 directory assistance service for cell phone numbers being created. You can read more about it here.

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Posted by Mitch at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 10, 2004

The Washington Post had an

The Washington Post had an interesting column by writer Leslie Walker on 'citizen journalism'. You can read more about the article here. The article mentions the advertising opportunity for local, grassroots supported websites. For me, much of this article sounded like earlier days of online community building. Someones gotta crack the local ad model, why shouldn't it be homegrown news sites?

Leslie also mentions the old Sidewalk business model. Consumer generated news and newspapers feel more genuine than Sidewalk did. Instead of trying to market a brand, there's actually some value being delivered! I think a forerunner of the local community was the Blacksburg Electronic Village -- the community network for Blacksburg, Virginia.

BTW, The Media Center’s Andrew Nachison and Dale Peskin are up for an award for The Fast 50 (Fast Company magazine's search for "ordinary people doing extraordinary things"). The nomination: We Erased the Lines Separating Media and Society.

The Media Center has been involved in participatory journalism for some time through vehicles like the 'We Media' project, CYBERJOURNALIST.NET, and the MediaMorphosis conference.

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Posted by Mitch at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 09, 2004

Celebrating the festival of lights

On a personal note, our almost 6 yr old made the front page of the local paper. The accompanying story is actually about soldiers serving in Iraq.

Celebrating the festival of lights

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Posted by Mitch at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 08, 2004

Word of Mouth: transparency

Update: much of the current debate on word of mouth marketing seems to center on "transparency" or, how much you should disclose to the consumer that is being marketed to.

During the recent election cycle, we executed a viral campaign for a national non-profit. Part of the plan called for outreach to bloggers. For our firm, this meant full upfront disclosure or identifying ourselves as working on behalf of the client. The client received much needed exposure but as important, didn't get negative feedback.

A more interesting question about on line "transparency": is it ok to seed Internet discussions? We all know about best practices' but I continue to hear contacts justify the practice.

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Posted by Mitch at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 07, 2004

Word of Mouth: Bzzing along

As you probably know, this past weekend's New York Times article on BzzAgent has caused quite a stir. I think that adrants nails it with the following comments:

Debate Over WOM Advertising Rages

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Posted by Mitch at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spirit of America

I just got a note from a good friend about Washington, DC Spirit of America events this week. SOA is showcasing their Friends of Democracy project and English-language Web site Iraq the Model

Event details follow:

Washington, DC - Thursday, December 9, 5.30 - 7.30
Cosmos Club
2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 387-7783
RSVP: <spiritofamerica@email.spiritofamerica.net>

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Posted by Mitch at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)