Friday, November 18, 2005

Friday’s Fun Time Waster

Sometimes I feel like we’re a little too serious. We’re usually telling you about things like the $100 laptop, the latest Google beta product (Analytics) and where today’s marketing dollars are going (online).

Well, today being Friday, I’m inspired to introduce you to the Friday time waster. To kick it off, we have Readymechs, which you print and build. So today, while the boss isn’t looking, take 15 minutes and add some fun to your desk. I’m going to put together “Papercut of Death,” here shortly.

Bonus time waster: Cassette Jam ‘05, for the less crafty folks out there.

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

AAF Study: Major Shift To Online

A new joint study by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and Atlantic Media reveals advertising executives feel we are in the middle of a rapid shift to online media. According to respondents in the survey, media budgets devoted to online would increase 33 percent in 2006.

In addition, the surveyed ad execs felt that continued traditional media stagnation and fragmentation would drive more advertisers online. In a related news story this week, AAF reported, “Traditional advertising challenges remain major industry concerns, such as demonstrating ROI, creating ideas that break through the clutter and integrating creative across media channels.”

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Yahoo and Gawker Media Team Up

Nick Denton’s family of blogs, under the Gawker Media umbrella (Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, etc.) has entered into a distribution deal with Yahoo.

Yahoo will get some great content and Gawker will get a lot of eyeballs. You’ll remember about a month ago AOL took a different approach when they purchased Weblogs, Inc. The Yahoo/Gawker deal is non-exclusive and allows both parties to continue pursuing more deals.

See more on the Yahoo/Gawker deal via Paidcontent.org.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Interactive Moving Into The Strategic Mainstream

Interactive marketing is now starting to take a lead role in the strategic planning process at many companies. This was confirmed by a recent article from AdWeek magazine. Clearly, the Web has become more than a marketing channel; it has become a strategic hub around which marketing revolves. This is especially true for high involvement products. High involvement products are purchases in which the buyer is willing to spend considerable time and effort before making a purchase.

As the AdWeek article points out, interactive marketing was originally thought of more as a direct-response medium, but it is becoming increasingly evident that Web-related marketing has been transformed into a powerful branding channel that is often able to engage high-involvement buyers more effectively than television or magazine advertising.

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Measure Map vs Google Analytics

Isn’t it strange how things happen sometimes? I’ve been patiently waiting for an invitation to Measure Map beta, and then, one day after posting about Google’s foray into Web analytics, I finally get it? Measure Map is geared towards sites running on popular blog software like WordPress, Blogger, and newcomer, Typo. It tracks traffic at the level of posts and comments, which, I’m sure, is a nice feature for bloggers.

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