”Stop! Collaborate and LISTEN!” Let’s apply Vanilla Ice’s song lyric to social media. Your customers are talking, are you listening? Whether it be around your product specifically, your competitor, or the industry as a whole, people are engaging in conversations online through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, forums, product reviews, etc. as an outlet to recommend, [...]

More often that not, when you hear the word “viral,”you may think of contagious viruses either attacking your computer or your immune system. However, when it comes to marketing, going “viral” is often the goal brands intend to achieve when they push marketing messages out through video, websites, social media, email, word-of-mouth, etc.
Unfortunately, many companies [...]

The battle lines have been drawn. The super powers have been amassing their arsenal of resources. Now, the front lines are engaging. The battle for ultimate control of a brand has begun between the 20th century traditional agency and the 21st century interactive agency.

The $100 million advertising campaign for Microsoft’s new search engine Bing tells me that it is something special. According to Microsoft, “Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.”
I bing-ed [...]

In the past, shopping for a Mother’s Day gift involved calling a florist or going into a store and buying flowers, as well as a card. Now we have the Internet – which boasts free e-cards and websites solely dedicated to flowers, gifts, apparel, poems…and the list goes on. Since the economy is still looking [...]

Video is hot. Technology has lowered the barriers of entry for companies to incorporate quality video productions into their marketing communications. Obviously, there are large corporate brands that shoot full-scale productions for national TV commercials but not all companies are able to afford the media buy associated with a campaign of that scale. But if you’re a marketer on a tighter budget, you can still make video work for you. Here’s how you do it.

As Craig mentioned in our January 2009 issue of The Source , one of the latest trends on the rise is the Micro-Blogging platform called Twitter .  Micro-Blogging is a much more real-time way to convey to your “followers” what you may be doing at a given moment.  This is much like setting your current [...]

Despite my inclination toward the megalomaniacal, I have to occasionally give in to the stark fact that as Supreme Imperator, um, I mean, Creative Director… I don’t have a monopoly on great ideas. It pains me to admit, but my experience has shown me that great ideas can come from anywhere. The advertising industry had [...]

I can still remember how compelled I was when I first came across podcasts three years ago.  Within seconds of my discovery, I began listening to and watching podcasts through iTunes, downloading one after another, like a kid in a candy store - I was in heaven!  I was amazed at the variety of topics, [...]

First off, I do not claim to be an economist, but in my role as CEO, I pay close attention to a variety of market dynamics. Everyone has varying opinions but I feel that the United States has just entered a depression for a number of reasons. And I feel it is not going to get better anytime soon. One thing that everyone can agree on is that it will be a tough year for a lot of people and businesses. In the realm of marketing and advertising, budgets are being slashed but a need exists for companies to continue to market during these precarious times.