I am a big fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and because of that, I am now a big fan of the FX Network’s strategic team.

For those of you that were not witness to the super secret sneak preview of FX’s new animated show, Archer, I recommend checking it out.  Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do so until the season officially premieres in January.

FX decided to silently unveil it’s new show following the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia last week.  This is a popular move by many networks because they feel that they will have a strong audience, the reason the show directly following the Super Bowl is such a coveted spot.

But what FX did that was so interesting was that they never told you what the show was going to be.  They had coded messages saying, “Stay tuned for a secret sneak preview of our new hit show”, running throughout the Sunny premiere.  Even the TV Guide Channel, and most guides on digital cable providers showed the spot after Sunny as blank to To Be Announced.

What this successfully did was add to the hype.  Why wouldn’t I stick around and check out the show?  I was curious.  They did their job.

I watched, and I loved every minute of the dark, racy animated comedy.  They had the right audience at the right time.  And then they dropped another bombshell on us, this was just a pilot and the series would not officially come out for another 4 months.  Now it’s time for the hype machine to get started, and if it goes the way FX hopes it will go, the January premiere will be huge.

The anticipation and conversation has already started here, here, and here.  This was a great way to get the word out on a new show, one that is creative and most likely will be copied by other networks.

Post is not a company that you would expect to innovate much.  Their variety of cereals are very standard and they make a nice profit putting out the same products that they have put out for years.  They recently played on that by releasing this commercial, exclaiming that “We put the NO in innovation”.

I would argue that Post has probably made some big changes over the years in terms of production and distribution, perhaps even in corporate structure and ethical standards.  I don’t know if any of these can be called real innovative moves, but change is necessary to keep up with the times.  I get the whole “we don’t change our products because they are already what consumers want” message, but let’s not call an end to progress and innovation altogether.

All in all however, it’s a pretty decent commercial.

It’s been awhile since I last posted and I apologize for the absence.  In part it was because I was busy looking for a new job, and in part it was because I became slightly detached from what was going on in my area of interest.

Alas, I am back among the employed after landing a great new job in NYC.  I am the new Marketing Manager over Distance Education Company, responsible for schools like the New York Institute of Photography and the Sheffield School of Design.

And during my absence, a lot has happened in the world.  One thing that I just found out about today that is worth commenting on is the acquisition of Mint.com by Intuit.

Intuit, the company responsible for Quicken, clearly sees the value in adding this highly popular personal finance tool.

Mint, for those of you that don’t know, is a web-based tool that allows you to track all of your personal finances from one place.  You can add all of your various accounts, take care of bill paying and budgeting, and even use tools to help you better prepare for the future.  Since it’s founding in 2006, the service has grown rapidly, with new services and features added almost monthly.

In the email I received this morning as a Mint member, I was informed that the acquisition will not directly affect the service I receive as much as it will help to grow Mint’s coverage and popularity more quickly and efficiently.  Sounds like a strong play for both companies to me.  As more and more people shift their daily tasks to the web for ease, companies like this will flourish.

We love to highlight companies that are doing something that has the potentially to virally spread from person to person, from website to website, and from network to network.

This time, its the donut industry leader, Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme is holding a contest to find their biggest fans.  Contestants will submit photos with a short caption to explain how Krispy Kreme has made their lives better.  Winners will get a year’s supply of donuts, a trip to Krispy Kreme headquarters, and a chance to design and name their own donut.

The idea of asking your customers to design or build a product of yours is becoming increasingly popular.  And this is a generally new way of doing it, holding a contest for everyone and allowing one winner to design the donut. I think because of that, this contest has the potential to get a lot of attention online.

To view more about the contest and enter to win, visit the website here.

Not 0nly do I not believe the hype that the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo will hurt Google, I actually believe it has positioned Google to grow even stronger. Why?  Well lets take a close look at the deal first.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft’s Bing will power all Yahoo search sites, and in return Yahoo will sell premium advertising for both companies.  This creates a partnership where each company is using one of its strengths to help the other.  It creates an atmonshpere of no competition among these two companies, essentially making them one company in the search industry, and thus the number 2 competitor to Google in the area.

What the deal does not do is add any more ingenuity or creativity to either company.  What the deal does not do is set up a jointly run division with new talent and new ideas.  It takes the Bing search results, puts them on Yahoo’s sites, and allows advertising to flow freely across both companies’ websites.

Google has come out publicly and welcomed the competition when most people expected them to challenge the agreement, much like Microsoft challenged Google’s own search deal with Yahoo last year.  This deal, like that one, must pass scrutiny by anti-trust regulators.

However, if it does pass, as many expect it to, I think Google has made the right choice not to challenge it.  They will still remain the dominant player in the industry, at close to 70% of all search traffic.  And the combination of #2 and #3 in the industry will make the barriers to entry that much higher. Now, instead of a bunch of small competitors chasing Google, you will have a solid #2 player who will hold off some of the competition that Google should have gotten.

In addition, I think that this deal will send some competitive energy Google’s way.  It will keep them on their toes, make them take a few more chances in their search strategy, and maintain that culture of innovation that has taken them so far.

Of course this is only one man’s opinion.  What do you think?  Is Google better off with Bing and Yahoo on the same team or are they in trouble for this first time in years?

Unemployment is still on the rise in this country and there are certainly an endless list of reasons for that.  As someone who has recently joined that group of people, I feel the need to comment on one major problem that I have been dealing with.

Job searching is stuck in the past and needs a major upgrade.

I have grown up on the internet, and continue to experiment with new technologies every chance I get.  New services and applications are developed everyday.  But for some reason, searching for a job online is still a pain in the ass.

Craigslist, in my opinion, has the simplest listing of jobs there is.  They got it right, for the most part, by making it easy to search, sort and apply to all of their listing quickly.

Here is where the rest of the websites and services that I have tried go wrong.  They make you sign up on their website as a new member before applying.  Some make you fill out pages of information, create an online resume, write a traditional cover letter (that they expect you to use for every application).  And some make you pay for the right to apply to the jobs listed on their website.  Thanks for all the help!

The problem is that the job listings are spread across all of these various sites, HotJobs, Craigslist, LinkedIn, TheLadders, Monster, etc.  There is not one site that has all of them, which is primarily because the employers listing the jobs have a choice.  So if I am looking for a marketing position in New York City, to give me the best possible chance of finding the right jobs to apply to, I have to create 5 different accounts, create new versions of my resume, continue to change and update cover letters, store all the information somewhere so I know what I applied to and how to contact them.

Finally, another major issue with most sites is the ability to sort out the junk from the good positions.  With Craigslist, they need a way to filter out the internships from the full time search.  But you put up with it because they make everything else so easy.  However, the other major websites make sorting through their listings too complicated.  If I search for marketing, I should not be inundated with 100s of sales positions from the same company or recruiter.

What we need is a joint effort by every employer to get all listings up on Craigslist, or a new service that aggregates all the listings and makes applying as easy as clicking on the email address provided.  We have come to a time when this is possible, and necessary.  It’s time for the job search industry to catch up with the rest of the online world.

If you can remember back to a time when I posted about Google’s 10^100 Contest, then you can see that I mentioned having put in a suggestion of my own.  And even though you may think that I am lying, my submission was almost word for word what the “Cash for Clunkers” program has become.

The original description of my idea looked something like this:

“Set up a program, backed by the government or some independent investors, that uses a pool of money to offer car buying vouchers for people that trade in older cars for newer, more fuel efficient vehicles.  This helps people in multiple ways.  It can increase the number of cars that are sold, giving a much needed boost to the economy.  And it can make the average fuel efficiency of cars in the country go up more than it would without this help.”

So, of course, when I saw the initial idea for Cash for Clunkers, I was very excited.  I backed the program, thinking that it would definitely help do exactly what it was designed to do; spur the struggling auto industry, and get more fuel efficient vehicles on the road.

And now, less than a week after the program was launched, it appears that the program was so successful that it ran out of the appropriated money that was supposed to last until November 1st.  For more information on exactly what the Cash for Clunkers program is, how you can take advantage, and how the government is adding more funds to help keep the program alive, check out this article from The Politico.

Small business owners are always looking for new ways to save money, market their products, talk to potential customers, find investors, etc.  Because the task of running a business is so vast, there are literally hundreds of things to take care of.  And if you can get some advice on how to handle just one of those things, it can be a great help.  And many businesses, consultancies, and experts have made a lot of money offering that type of advice for years.

When American Express decided to target small businesses, they created OPEN.  American Express Open offered new credit card services specifically designed to give small business owners what they were looking for from a credit card.  But they didn’t stop there.

More recently, American Express created the Open Forum, a blog of sorts to offer all types of information that entrepreneurs are looking for in one easy place.  The Open Forum brings together experts from many different fields, and gives straight to the point advice on such things as hiring, investing, marketing, innovation, and saving money.  Anything a business owner would want to learn is most likely sitting there waiting to be found.

They categorize their content into 7 main headings; innovation, technology, managing, marketing, lifestyle, money, the world.  It is easy to find the information that you are looking for, or just browse to see if you find anything interesting on that particular day.

This is a genius move by American Express, as it allows them to enter the social media space with a valuable offer that is perfect for their target market.  It also connects them with experts from across the business and financial world to give credibility and valuable content.

For any small business owner out there who has not checked out what the Open Forum has to offer, I recommend doing it now.  They have done a lot of work to the website recently, and they continue to produce even more valuable articles.

If you own or operate a brand, whether it is a big company, a small business, or just your name, email newsletters have become a popular way of adding value for your clients, customers, or friends.

Some popular email newsletters that I receive are the Yoast WordPress News, which gives tips and tricks for using wordpress as a blogging platform; Media Bistro’s daily news feed, which offers journalism news and updates; Daniel Scocco’s daily blog tips newsletter, which does exactly what the name advertises; and the Change.org weekly newsletter, which keeps tabs on key political issues under the Obama administration.

All of these newsletters add value to my day to day life because they keep me informed on things that I am interested in.  When a person or a website tries to cram a newsletter down my throat, I don’t even give it a chance.  I choose no when given the option, or unsubscribe as soon as I get the first email.  The ones that I am subscribed to right now were all recommended to me by friends and people I trust.

Whether or not a newsletter is designed to make money, either through a paid subscription or advertising, it has to add real value.  Put information in there that people would not find any other way.  Add personal tips that you do not share on a blog or on social networks.  For an email to be worth reading, it has to be unique.  I have to feel like I am getting privileged information.

An example of a terrible newsletter is Motley Fool’s “investor newsletter”.  I get it almost every single day, by now it goes to my spam folder.  It usually carries a headline such as “This Stock Will Make You a Millionaire by 2011″.  Then it follows that up with a large amount of copy explaining how they did their research and advertising the paid version of their website, which I am not signed up for.  In the end, it gives you no information about the stock unless you sign up for their monthly payment plan, which I would never do.  This is not helpful, you are trying to trick your readers.

That is the wrong way to do it.  If you operate a website, and would like to explore the idea of an email newsletter, please plan it out beforehand.  Launching it in the wrong way can really get under people’s skin.  Add value that we could not get off of the website already.  Because, if done the right way, it is a great way to expand the brand, explore new revenue opportunities, and create a loyalty among your readers and customers that can not be achieved in many other ways.

This coming Saturday will mark the day I was born 25 years ago, MY Birthday!

Thinking about my birthday, and birthdays in general, I became interested in what a birthday gift can mean.  And I am not talking about gifts that you or I get for each other.  I am talking about a company or business that gives gifts to their clients and customers.

I wrote a post about a month ago about information.  The more you know about your customers, the better you will be able to serve them.  Knowing their birthdays is a small, but potentially important part of that.

If you know your customers’ birthdays, you have options.  You can send them a discount on your products and services as a thank you for being a loyal customer.  Or you can get them a gift, apart from what your company offers, that really makes an impact.

What if you sent a gift certificate to all your customers for their birthdays this year?  You could do it through email, and make it $20 or less.  How much would that cost you?  I think you will end up pleasing enough people, and generating some real long term customers, that it will more than make up for the cost.

But instead, what you sent something concrete?  What if you sent something that you knew most of the recipients would use?  And what if you branded that product so that when they used it, they were helping to spread the word about your company?

You could send a t-shirt, a hat, a computer accessory, a cell phone case, or anything else that people use on a daily basis.  On it, you could put a slogan that would resonate with people, along with your company name and website.

Chances are that…

1)the customers that receive this gift will be thankful for it because they are not used to a company going out of their way to give back, turning them into more loyal customers, 2)some of those newly loyal customers become brand ambassadors, actively telling their friends and associates how great your company is, and
3)the branding that goes along with the product gets people talking, or at least noticing you more.

It is a generous gesture that fits right into a solid marketing plan.  Do something out of the ordinary for your customers and they will take notice.  And the more they take notice, the more likely they are to talk about your brand.

So maybe one birthday gift can’t make you a million dollars, but giving back to your customers on their birthday could prove to be a pivotal part of developing lifetime customers and start some positive word of mouth marketing.  I know if any companies did that for me this Saturday that I would take notice.