Sunday, October 21, 2007

Meeting Tokens

Now here’s an interesting approach to preventing meetings from sucking up all useful time. Or maybe a parking meter could be installed in meeting rooms.

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

The CMO Needs To Sell Internally First

A number of us at Sundog have blogged before about the short tenure of CMOs at large companies (the average is now under two years). There is no doubt it is a stressful position. Competitive companies are there every day trying to steal your customers. Marketing budgets are under assault from top management and boards of directors asking for strong evidence the substantial money they are spending is a worthwhile investment. Quarterly reports (at least at public companies) while vitally important, can distract CMOs and others from implementing the necessary long-term strategies that may be required.

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Computers Outrank Peace/Happiness for Top Holiday Gift

What’s your top most wished-for holiday gift? A new national survey suggests that Americans favor computers first, peace and happiness second, big screen televisions third, followed by clothes and then money. 

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Big Advertisers Like Nike Lead The Way To New Marketing Strategies

Ten years ago, Nike spent 55 percent of its advertising budget on traditional media. This year that figure is down to 33 percent according to a story in the New York Times. In the last 20 years, Nike has gone from its renowned “Revolution” TV campaign in 1987 introducing its AirMax shoes (I’ve bought AirMax running shoes ever since), to another revolutionary approach today that substantially alters the way it approaches advertising and marketing. Nike has re-channelled large amounts of budget from traditional media, to instead connecting with the customer via the Internet and in-person events.

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Do Users Still Need to “Click Here”?

The phrase “click here” (and variations of it) has slowly faded in web content. Directing users to click became mechanical, the online equivalent of asking book readers to turn the page or directing a television viewer to press the channel button. But is it unwise to completely disregard “click” commands as you write content?

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