bill oleary's blog

Will Technology or Budget Deficits Force Eductation in the U.S. to Change?

2010-11-21T11:24:00.002-05:00

Education in the U.S. is a huge market and one that has been resistant, maybe even allergic, to most real change and innovation. For profit education is remaking the landscape in the U.S. but still faces some real credibility issues.
Traditional educators look on for profit firms with scorn and condescension. The reality is that technology and profits are going to force the traditional educational institutions to change. I doubt that the Ivy's will ever seriously change their primary model of providing an undergraduate education, but technology and the availability of information will make change inevitable for many other higher education institutions as they face enrollment challenges and budget constraints.
To say that google threatens the very existence of the top tier universities may be overstated. But it could make the middle and lower tier schools unrecognizable to us in 15 years. To survive, many will be forced to change dramatically. Some will focus exclusively on narrow areas of study. Others will slash their cost structure in order to compete. How far and how fast these changes hit higher education in the U.S. is still unclear. But as these institutions are forced to diversify revenue streams, the for profit and technology models start to look better and better.

There was an interesting panel discussion about education and entrepreneurs that was written up on ReadWriteWeb:
Founders of Kno, Khan Academy, NIXTY Debate Education and Entrepreneurship
"The speakers included Lisa Petrides, founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management and Education (ISKME), Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder of Kno, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, Glen Moriarty, CEO and co-founder of NIXTY and Philip Bronner, from Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Undoubtedly, there are several factors which Petrides describes as "game changers" in education: information available freely everywhere, personalized learning, widespread access to the Internet. But with the obstacles in the education system, including its political and legal barriers, there's a sense that it is difficult for entrepreneurs to get a foothold - and get funding - for education technology.

Education is a Huge Market Now, but Will Open Content Change Things?

But Kno's Rashid argued there are huge opportunities. The annual market for education technology is $88 billion, and growing at a rate of 21.7% a year. The market for digital textbooks alone is $54 billion.

But as the panelists debated what constitutes "disruption" in education, both Khan and Moriarty argued that the future of much educational content was likely to be free and open. Khan Academy, for example, is in the process of becoming a "real free virtual school for the world." But the move to make content free shouldn't devalue the learning experience, and there are lots of opportunities to build analytics and management platforms.

Despite the emphasis on free content and opencourseware, venture capitalist Philip Bronner made it clear that investors are interested in startups working in this area - good news for education technology entrepreneurs"

See Also

Build Your Ed-Tech Startup With Help from the Kauffman Foundation

As Interest in Online Learning Grows, Udemy Lands $1 Million in Angel Funding

5 Ways Tech Startups Can Disrupt the Education System

Ed-Tech Startup LearnBoost Takes Aim at Legacy Software Systems

Using Social Games to Teach Kids Entrepreneurship

Apple TV.....what is it anyway?

2010-10-07T00:17:00.000-04:00

Good post from Louis Gray on Apple TV. I have the first generation Apple TV. It is somewhat useful, but not very useful. Looks like next gen Apple TV is only marginally more useful, but still not very useful....

http://blog.louisgray.com/2010/10/new-apple-tv-extends-fragmentation.html

Friday, October 1, 2010

New Apple TV Extends Fragmentation, Cupertino Style

For all the noise around fragmentation in the world of Android, one would think the state of affairs on the other side of the technology aisle would be perfectly unified - with one operating system, one user environment, and one experience where all things play nice. But while it's not as often discussed, my plethora of Apple devices is increasingly fragmented. The newest culprit? The brand new Apple TV, which has an incredible form factor, and some surprises in terms of what's simply not there - making me have to remember what media plays on what devices, and what devices are capable of doing what.

Have a Social Media Presence? Have a Plan for Responding to Unhappy Customers?

2010-09-09T10:45:00.000-04:00

HOW TO: Respond when Social Media Attacks Your Brand

This is a great story/post from Mashable. Social Media is such a powerful tool for companies to engage their customers and potential customers. But it is the attributes that make social media so powerful that pose the biggest risks to a company. Ad dollars don't matter when everyone has a voice and each individual is deciding to whom they are going to listen and trust. Think of it as customer service in a fish bowl. What if every unhappy constituent had an audience? Well, that is exactly what social media can become.

So companies have to be prepared for criticism because it will come. They need a plan of how to respond. They need to be sincere, human and understand the customer is always right. The Ritz Carlton doesn't try to convince an upset guest that they shouldn't be upset. In the same way, companies with social media presence should try to convince their customers they are wrong, incorrect or don't understand.

The last one there is probably the biggest trap for companies and marketers. "If our customers only understood" or "The customer doesn't understand" are dangerous phrases. IT may be true that the customer doesn't understand. But that is your challenge that theirs, assuming you want them as a customer.

Cool Story -- Where the Startups Are, By Zip Code

2010-08-28T14:06:00.000-04:00

Cool story in ReadWriteWeb this week about looking at where startups have the greatest density.

Where the Startups Are, By Zip Code

As part of our "Never Mind the Valley" series here, we often feature communities outside the Silicon Valley that have become thriving centers for entrepreneurship. We've profiled cities like Boston, Montreal, and Austin.

Sometimes we notice there's a flurry of startup activity in a particular location that warrants coverage, and sometimes we're pitched stories about these locations. (And you should feel free to pitch us as to why your city should be featured, particularly if you're outside the U.S.) But as great as these sources for stories are, neither offer any sort of scientific method for pointing to the cities that are the best locations for startups.

In a blog post yesterday, VC Brad Feld wrote about the "entrepreneurial density" of Boulder, a city often noted as being a startup hotbed. He writes,

"Entrepreneurial density isn't just the "number of entrepreneurs per capita", but it's the "number of people that work at entrepreneurial companies per capita." It gets even bigger when you include students and calculate the "(number of people that work at entrepreneurial companies + the number of students) per capita. As ED = ((entrepreneurial_emps + students) / adults) approaches 1, you get complete entrepreneurial saturation. I'm going to guess that Boulder's Entrepreneurial Density using this equation is somewhere between 0.50 and 0.75, but this is just a guess. I'm curious if anyone out there has a real way to calculate this."

Responding to the challenge is Pete Warden, who has used Crunchbase and US Census data to provide an answer.

According to Warden's figures, the top zip codes for money raised per person are:

CA 94104 - $629m total - $1,681,925 per person
CA 94304 - $2,822m total - $1,656,031 per person
CA 94105 - $972m total - $472,540 per person
MA 02142 - $1,013m total - $448,833 per person
IL 60606 - $739m total - $439,744 per person

And the top zip codes for company per person are:

CA 94104 - 87 companies - 0.233 per person
CA 94105 - 173 companies - 0.084 per person
CA 95113 - 24 companies - 0.044 per person
MA 02142 - 73 companies - 0.032 per person
MA 02210 - 19 companies - 0.032 per person

Using his OpenHeatMap tool, there are, of course, maps of the information. And Warden has open-sourced the code and the data so that others can work with it.

Warden admits that it's a "crude approach," but nevertheless, it's interesting to see how the numbers may or may not patch our perceptions of entrepreneurial hot spots.

Foursquare for the Real World? ShopAlerts Debuts Geo-Fenced Mobile Promotions

2010-08-18T13:34:00.000-04:00

Foursquare for the Real World? ShopAlerts Debuts Geo-Fenced Mobile Promotions

Excellent story today on ReadWriteWeb about mobile coupons and promotions. Obviously, this is where the market is going even if consumers aren't there yet. It will take some real consumer benefit to jump start adoption. Retailers need to figure out how much is worth to them to have customers opted-in to a mobile promotion service and then offer them the best possible offer out of the gate. That may help speed adoption.

As a marketer, it gives you the chance we have all talk about....putting your best offer in front of the consumer at the moment of consideration.

Is Four square too complicated or are text based coupons not sexy enough? My guess is that customers will self select and they will be meaningfully different customers....

I am surprised it has taken the providers this long to get to this point, but here we are.

News Flash: Friends are the most trusted source of info

2010-08-17T09:49:00.004-04:00

So the beauty of social marketing from a marketers perspective is this:

"Real-world friends most trusted online source"

If someone endorses your product on Facebook, in an authentic (read as not planted by the company) way, friends notice. It may not be enough to get them to buy your product without additional research, but you have suddenly entered the consideration set.

Most companies and institutions are not really sure how to handle this aspect of their marketing mix because, well, it isn't THEIRS, really. But we should start to think of it as part of the mix we need to influence, encourage, nurture, and reward.

There have been plenty of reports of companies monitoring Twitter to try and understand what people are saying about their company or product. It has mostly been as a defensive measure from what I have seen -- marketers hoping that influencers on Twitter don't poison the well.

Friends have always been the most trusted source for products and services. Social media just makes those voices louder and the ripples larger. So the srategy for companies? Keep wowing your customers and they will keep telling their friends....some on facebook, some at the salon or the little league game.

A Useful Map of the Social Media World

2010-08-11T13:48:00.004-04:00

If you are looking for good resources, CMO.com is fairly good. They aggregate content so it is an efficient place to get marketing articles and news.

I found this map of the social media landscape there. I thought it was helpful. Share me

Motel Six -- A Brand That Knows Who It Is

2010-06-21T10:25:00.001-04:00

Motel Six has been running a heavy schedule of radio spots in the DC market in recent weeks.

They are still using their "spokesperson" Tom Bodet. And he still uses their signature tag, "We'll leave the light on for you."

They understand who they are as a brand and who their customers are. The copy writing is excellent in the latest advertising. One of the latest spots this line -- "and at Motel Six we have free Wi-fi. Which stands for wireless..fi-something." Pitch perfect.

Posted via email from Bill's posterous

Auto Makers Need To Fear Apple and Facebook

2010-06-02T22:03:00.001-04:00

via adage.com

Really interesting article in Ad Age this week about the decline in younger drivers. http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144155

It is clear that the Internet is direct competition for the automobile. It used to be the way to be free and see your friends was to get your license and drive. Not any more. Just log on to Facebook. No need to leave your room.

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

Battered KFC Gives Itself Another Spin - Advertising Age - News

2010-06-01T21:45:00.002-04:00

via adage.com

KFC's marketing is hopelessly lost. Its not hard to see how they got here. They are, and have been, the market leader in fast food chicken for years. They got there with Finger Licking Good fried chicken. At some point, consumer demand for greasy, heavy food began to change. So KFC had to adjust its menu away from Finger Licking Good chicken.

This is where their marketing nightmare began. With a changing menu they the tried what seemed like a new slogan every month. Let's hope that Unthink is the last of these changing slogans. What the hell is Unthink? Seriously? Its like Think Outside the Bun, only not effective and stupid.

But perhaps marketing isn't the problem. Perhaps the product is the problem. After all, Taco Bells campaign has worked because young men want to it its food. Who is dying to eat new KFC products? Well, perhaps, like me, you can't actually think of a new product they serve. That might make it a little difficult to crave it wouldn't it?

Ad Age reports that the company is launching a new campaign. "So Good" doesn't sound any more promising, but maybe they will stick with it long enough to come up with product people actually want to eat.

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

Apple Adobe Spat Is Proving Irresistible

2010-05-13T12:22:00.001-04:00

Is it just me, or is this spat between Apple and Adobe regarding the use of Flash on Apple products gotten to be irresistible in the way a beheading may have been in medieval England? And this morning Adobe ran a full page ad in the WSJ with the headline "We (HEART) Apple!" Looks like, unfortunately for Adobe there other technologies that advertisers can use.....stay tuned. This isn't over yet.

From ReadWriteWeb:

Apple Flash Ban Good for Greystripe: Company Behind "iFlash" Ads Sees
200% Growth

Written by Sarah Perez / May 13, 2010 7:08 AM / 1 Comments « Prior Post Next Post »
No Flash on the iPhone? It's not a problem for advertisers, apparently. Developers tasked with creating rich media ad units for Apple's popular mobile devices have been busy porting their Flash-created ad collateral into an iPhone-friendly HTML5 format using mobile ad firm Greystripe's "iFlash" ad technology, which provides a Flash-like ad experience.

The iFlash ad format has become so popular, in fact, that Greystripe is just now announcing a 200% growth spike for these "iFlash" ads following the iAds announcement.

According to news the company linked to by way of Twitter post , but not press release , the growth for the 18-month old iFlash technology is due to the experience it offers, something that's similar to Apple's recently announced iAds technology. Like iAds, iFlash also provides rich media animation, touch interactivity and click-through actions, all of which are available without leaving the mobile application where the ad appears.

Greystripe's CEO Michael Chang sees iAds' imitation as a form of flattery in this case, proof that his company is doing it right. "Apple's selection of an ad format almost identical to our 'iFlash Custom' ads is a testament to the incredible potential of interactive, rich media mobile advertising and the value of customer engagement," he is quoted as saying.

The company claims it holds a 75% market share on the full screen rich media mobile market and have ads that reach 14 million unique monthly users in the U.S. Over the past two years, it has served over 2 billion full screen rich media impressions. Recent reports from comScore Inc. put the CTR for these iFlash ads at 2-5% on average, with 15-30+ seconds of user engagement.

While "fat-fingering" may contribute to some accidental ad launches, it's the engagement time that's really telling. Spending /half a minute/ watching or interactivity with an ad is proof that creative, engaging ads can and do appeal to mobile users. (At least for now. Web banner ads used to be popular too, believe it or not).

Flash's Backdoor to iPhone

What's interesting about this news, besides, of course, the incredible growth rates the company is seeing, is how the iFlash ad technology actually works. It takes pre-created rich media ad units that were built using Adobe Flash and transcodes them to run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and, as of this month, iPad. The resulting ads are transformed into HTML5 format, a web standard that is supported on Apple's iPhone operating system.

For ad developers used to working with Flash technology, iFlash is essentially a workaround for the Flash ban on Apple devices, explained in detail by Steve Jobs himself back in April.

Apple caused quite a stir when it announced that iPhone apps created using Adobe's now-discontinued Packager for iPhone would not be allowed into the iTunes App Store, prompting Jobs' eventual response to all the hubbub. The Adobe software had allowed developers to create mobile applications using Flash and then port those to an iPhone-ready format. Although the technologies behind the Adobe converter and the iFlash transcoder are quite different on the back-end, the idea is the same: /create with Flash, then port to iPhone./

With Apple's iAds launch just around the corner, one wonders if Apple will continue to allow a Flash transcoding product that competes directly with their own advertising initiatives to remain in business. Booting them out, though, would be tricky. After all, iFlash ads are in supported HTML5 format. Still, considering Jobs' opinions on Flash , it must irk him to see that Flash developers have found such an easy workaround for the Flash ban, if not for apps, at least for ads

Posted via email from Bill's posterous

The Smartest Move GM Has Made in a Long Time

2010-05-07T13:36:00.001-04:00

Who was one of the best marketers of the last couple of years? Hyundai. Not even just the best car marketer. What they have been able to do is nothing short of miraculous. It was a sound long term strategy that was made successful through smart, effective marketing.

And now GM has gotten its hands on Joel Ewanick, former marketing head of Hyundai. It also looks like he held out until he got the control he needs to actually be successful. Something tells me that GM is a company to look out for in the next 18 months.

ewanick

From Forbes.com
/
GM Scores A Marketing Coup
Joann Muller, 05.05.10, 1:55 PM ET

General Motors' revolving door of management continued Wednesday with the naming of a new vice president of U.S. marketing, but this one ought to be a keeper.

GM snatched Joel Ewanick, Forbes' CMO of the Year in 2009, from Nissan North America, which had just hired him away from Hyundai two months ago. He's being handed perhaps the toughest job in marketing: resurrecting GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands after a decades-long slide capped off by GM's 2009 bankruptcy.

GM’s cars are greatly improved, but old perceptions die hard. GM’s government-sponsored bankruptcy only made the job tougher. “People are angry with GM for taking a lot of government money and they won't even consider buying a GM vehicle,” said John Wolkonowicz, automotive analyst at I HS Global Insight. “And there’s nothing they can do about it until the time is right to do an IPO [initial public offering] and they can pay the taxpayer back.”

Ewanick, who will report to GM's North American president, Mark Reuss, will start May 24. He replaces Susan Docherty, whose star seemed to have fallen as quickly as it rose under new chief executive Edward Whitacre Jr.

But that's the way it is at GM these days. Whitacre is pressuring executives to perform, and if they don't, they're out. In April GM's sales rose 7.2%, well off the industry's growth pace of 19.8%. So Docherty, who'd already been stripped of her sales duties, is now out as chief marketer too. (GM said Docherty's future role will be announced later.)

It was Reuss who decided to replace Docherty with Ewanick just two months after he reorganized GM's sales and marketing leadership, including Docherty as vice president of marketing, declaring, "This is the winning team." Reuss was not available Wednesday to talk about his change of heart.

In a statement, Reuss said, "Susan has been deeply involved in GM's sales and marketing initiatives for many years. With her drive and focus, she has laid the groundwork for solid plans and rejuvenated our agency relationships, placing us in good stead for the future. We look forward to her contribution across the business moving forward."

Outside marketing experts, though, called the move long overdue. "They had their backs against the wall and they absolutely had to do this," said Peter M. DeLorenzo, a 22-year automotive marketing veteran who now runs Autoextremist.com, a blog devoted to the auto industry.

Ewanick made his mark at Hyundai, where he is credited with developing last year's "Hyundai Assurance" program, which guaranteed customers could return their Hyundai purchases with no credit implications should they lose their jobs.

In an interview DeLorenzo said GM had tried to hire Ewanick before he went to Nissan, but the deal fell apart because GM wanted to protect its old guard. He wrote on his blog: "Ewanick is smart enough to know that without the CMO title, and without absolute control over GM's marketing efforts, he wouldn't stand a chance to make an impact, so he walked away. Finally Mark Reuss stepped in and made it happen."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The timing isn't ideal, however, DeLorenzo pointed out. Chevrolet is about to launch an advertising campaign created by its new agency, Publicis Worldwide, reportedly featuring the tagline "Excellence for All." Cadillac's new agency, Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, is also working on a new campaign.

Ewanick will have to decide quickly whether the ads can match GM's iconic campaigns of the past--like "See the USA in your Chevrolet"--or he won't last long either.

Posted via email from Bill's posterous

Apple Keeps Changing The Landscape

2010-05-06T12:30:00.003-04:00

I held my first iPad this week. Ok. I am sold. Apple is simply unbelievable. I don't NEED and iPad, but I WANT one badly. But perhaps more importantly, we see huge potential for our sales force (development officers) to take these devices on the road loaded up with Keynote presentations, videos and photos to help make our case. The potential as a business tool is huge.

And don't underestimate the utility in the home. Check out this guy who has made a custom cabinet in the kitchen. Very smart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6My3kEqqk

Thu May 6, 2010
*ReadWriteWeb*

* iPad Killing Netbooks Already? *
An interesting chart released from Morgan Stanley Research this morning shows
that during the month of April - the month the iPad launched - netbook sales
stalled. Did the iPad really have that much impact on an industry that was once
the fastest-growing segment of the PC market? Or was the netbook's fall from
grace bound to happen at some point,...
Continue Reading »

Posted via email from Bill's posterous

Don't Waste Your Promotion Dollars

2010-04-28T21:36:00.005-04:00

I was driving to work yesterday and heard a spot for $4.99 haircuts. Huh. That sounds interesting. Not for me, really. But I can see how people would respond to a promotion for $4.99 haircuts.

My first thought was "why would the company do this?" They can't be making money on a haircut at this price. But the more I thought about, the smarter I thought it was. Think about it. If you like the person who cuts your hair or the way they cut your hair, you will go to that person even if the price goes up a bit. So it is a classic loss leader strategy. I get it.

About the time I have this thought, the spot is over and I realize I didn't actually know the name of the company promoting the $4.99 haircut. Was it Hair Cuttery? Or one of the other chains? What are their names?

So I googled $4.99 haircuts. Which I am sure plenty of other people did. But I the results surprised me. I didn't get anything clean. I got a couple of "retail offer" aggregator site results. And about half way down a result for Great Clips. Could it have been a Great Clips spot I heard?

I clicked on their site. Try it. Great Clips home page. Do you see a $4.99 offer on there anywhere? I don't. And not under any of the tabs.

So then I click on their Facebook page that they promote.....seriously? A Great Clips Facebook fan page? Ok, I guess. And I look there for their announcement of the offer. But I can't find it, but I do see some fans talking about the a $5.99 promotion and then another about the $4.99 promotion.

Next I Google it again and look at the "Coupon" sites that have come up. It looks like I need a coupon for the haircut. Fatwallet.

Was there a print component to this campaign? Postcard coupons perhaps? That would make sense. Did it tell me where my nearest Great Clips was or did it drive me to the web? Did it drive me to a "send a friend a coupon" feature?

Here's my point. Great Cuts obviously spent money, good money I would imagine, to run a morning drive time spot to promote a product. But they did not have their channels aligned. At the very least, the promotion should have been on the home page of the company site. I guess a splash page for the promo replacing the homepage temporarily would be to much to ask.

I don't want a $4.99 haircut. But I know people will. Make it easy for them next time. If you spend for a promotion, create a mousetrap where all your channels lead back to each other.

The New Idealist Social Network - Chris Hughes Starts Jumo to Connect Volunteers to non-profits

2010-03-19T08:39:00.001-04:00

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Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes talks to Dana Goldstein about his new venture for connecting volunteers to non-profits, Jumo, which goes up today, and why Obama’s Organizing for America fell short.

Among Facebook’s tight-knit group of co-founders, Chris Hughes has always been the idealistic one.

When the social networking site first took off in 2004 and his roommates Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz dropped out of Harvard to make a killing, Hughes—a middle class kid from North Carolina—returned to college and graduated, writing a thesis about Algiers. When candidate Barack Obama intrigued Hughes, he shocked Facebook CEO Zuckerberg by quitting the company to work in the unprofitable world of campaign organizing, where Hughes helped to build and run MyBarackObama.com, the candidate’s groundbreaking online organizing tool. When the presidential race ended and Hughes needed to chart his next move, he tried venture capital, doing a stint as “entrepreneur-in-residence” at General Capital Partners in Cambridge. But he kept asking himself what he could do to contribute to the greater good.

“We have a real problem when it comes to giving,” Hughes said. “People tend to give around moments of crisis, at the end of the year, maybe when they see a really dramatic photo or video.”

So Hughes traveled to Africa, India, and Latin America. He spoke to development gurus like Jacqueline Novogratz of the non-profit Acumen Fund and Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University economist famous for his proposals on how to eradicate global poverty by 2025.

“I was constantly thinking, ‘What do I know and how can I use what I know to help these people?’” Hughes said of the social welfare thinkers and activists he met during his travels. “I took some serious time trying to think through that question.”

Where he ended up was Jumo.com—a new networking site to connect non-profits to the public and to one another, which soft launches Thursday morning. By fall, members will be able to use Jumo to learn more about social justice causes, donate money, and find out about opportunities to volunteer time and skills. The name means “together in concert” in Yoruba, a language spoken in Eastern Senegal, which Hughes visited last April and fell in love with.

On Jumo, Hughes says, a college student looking to volunteer during spring break will be able to type in the dates of her vacation, the regions to which she’d like to travel, and see a comprehensive list of volunteer opportunities. A lawyer fluent in Spanish might be able to help Latin American governments rewrite building codes to better protect against earthquake damage. A Washington, D.C. woman who gives regularly to Planned Parenthood could learn about related, smaller organizations that need support, such as Hughes favorite One by One, which funds the $420 surgery that repairs obstetric fistulas, a preventable condition caused during childbirth that can lead to a lifetime of stigma for affected women, who often leak urine and feces out of their vaginas.

Hughes recently relocated from Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood to the Village to be closer to friends, he says, yet—perhaps a sign of his desire for do-gooder, bohemian cred—“I felt sort of bad about leaving Brooklyn.” Jumo, a non-profit, is now his full-time job, and since he decided to move forward with the idea in January, he has been able to raise about $500,000 from individual donors, hire two full-time staffers, and rent office-space in SoHo.

Whether the non-profit sector is ready to embrace a new social networking platform remains to be seen, especially given these organizations’ often-limited staff time and lack of familiarity with cutting edge technology. And there’s competition—Ning, for instance, allows non-profits to build their own branded social networking websites using pre-fabricated tools. But the most formidable rivals are Hughes’ old friends at Facebook, which already offers the application Causes, on which users can donate money and promote non-profits to friends. Hundreds of thousands of non-profits are members of Causes, and in the application’s first two years, 25 million Facebook users “joined” at least one of the causes. But according to a Washington Post report, the majority of Causes non-profits have never received a single donation through the application.

via thedailybeast.com

Good for Chris Hughes. There have been a number of small companies, mostly not for profits, trying to create a better, easier way for people to get involved in volunteer activities. Looks like Jumo may eat them all.

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

Fotobabble: Add Audio to Your Pics

2010-03-01T13:37:00.001-05:00

via readwriteweb.com

This seems like a cool app. Not essential to living and breathing....but cool nonetheless. Could be a really cool way to provide more living memory to kids pictures. (Yes, I have three kids and take lots of pictures. Some of which have very funny stories about when or where they were taken.)

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

The Most Influential Cause Marketing Campaigns - GoodWorks - Advertising Age

2010-02-16T10:10:00.001-05:00

The Most Influential Cause Marketing Campaigns

Cause Marketing Forum Founder Offers His List of Top Efforts

Posted by David Hessekiel on 02.10.10 @ 02:10 PM

David Hessekiel
Thousands of programs designed to do well by doing good have been launched by businesses and nonprofits over the last 30 years. Many have been short-term and pedestrian, while others have been inspiring and impactful.
As we enter a new decade, I've tried to identify the most influential cause marketing campaigns. My hope is to educate and be educated by inspiring a dialogue on the most outstanding work in this field.
1. American Express Statue of Liberty Restoration (1983): During a three-month period, American Express offered to contribute 1 cent for each card transaction and $1 for each new card issued and backed the offer with a substantial media campaign. The effort raised $1.7 million to restore the statue and Ellis Island, moved the needle for Amex's business and gave birth to the field of cause marketing.
2. Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives (1999 to present): This has become one of America's best-known breast cancer campaigns. The fact that consumers save and mail in millions of sticky lids to raise 10 cents each to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure is testimony to cause marketing's motivational power. Yoplait does a masterful job of integrating this transactional program with its sponsorship of Komen's Race for the Cure, continually refines the initiative and supports it with paid and earned media. To date it has raised more than $26 million.
3. Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (2004 to present): Unilever didn't adopt a cause; it created one with breakthrough creative that sparked an international discussion of beauty stereotypes. It developed the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and hopes to reach 5 million young women with information on positive body image by the end of 2010.
4. 1,000 Playgrounds in 1,000 Days (2005 to 2008): The Home Depot and KaBOOM took employee volunteerism to new heights with this national three-year program to build great places for kids to play within walking distance of their homes.
5. The Members Project (2007 to 2008): Promotions that ask consumers to direct corporate giving are growing common, but American Express pioneered the use of social media and buttressed brand appreciation with this effort. Over two years it gave away $4.5 million, including top winners the Alzheimer's Association and U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
6. Whirlpool and Habitat for Humanity (2004 to 2007): The appliance maker transformed its previously little-known commitment to provide a range and refrigerator for each Habitat home built in the U.S. into a major driver of brand loyalty with a multimedia campaign featuring Reba McEntire. What's more, they did all cause marketers a favor by measuring and sharing the impressive results.
7. Lee National Denim Day (1996 to the present): A traditionally male brand, Lee made huge inroads with women by embracing the breast cancer cause in a unique way: It empowered consumers to organize workplace drives at which employees contributed $5 for the right to wear jeans to work on the first Friday in October. Over 13 years, the program has raised nearly $75 million for breast cancer research and advocacy.
8. Product (Red) (2006 to the present): Founders Bono and Bobby Shriver boldly threw out the cause-marketing rule book to create (Red). Their privately held company created and licensed a hot brand to The Gap, Apple, Armani and other marketers and staged an unprecedented launch. Although often criticized for a lack of transparency, (Red) has raised more than $140 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and continues to attract new corporate licensees such as Nike and Starbucks.
9. Live Strong Bracelet (2004 to present): When the Nike and Lance Armstrong Foundation came up with this idea to raise funds and awareness for the supercyclist's cancer charity, no one dreamed it would become a worldwide fashion item worn by presidential candidates, movie stars, kids and grandmothers. To date, more than 70 million of the glorified yellow rubber bands have been sold for $1 each.
10. What did I miss? What do you think are the most influential cause marketing campaigns of all time? Either comment here or go to www.BestCM.posterous.com to critique this list and nominate great attempts at doing well by doing good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Hessekiel is the founder and president of the Cause Marketing Forum, a business dedicated to helping companies and causes succeed together. Its eighth annual conference will be held in Chicago on June 2-3.

via adage.com

Cause marketing is not easy to do....there needs to be a real cause. Sometimes marketers can create one by tapping into real consumer values....sometimes consumers create their own and adopt brands or anoint brands to the cause. This was a good article about some of the most important cause marketing campaigns. I think what is missing however are the public health campaigns which in many ways have been the most effective and visible of these types of campaigns.

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

2010 Massachusetts US Senate Special Election Results - Map

2010-01-20T09:02:00.001-05:00

via boston.com

Wow. The map of results is telling. He won nearly the entire eastern half of the state. Tells me that no one understands how health care reform benefits them.

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

Video - Video Central - FOX Sports on MSN

2010-01-11T11:03:00.001-05:00

via msn.foxsports.com

Geeks Gone Wild! Fox Sports has a great sense of humor. How many of these guys are we going to be working for in 15 years?

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

Ford's Turnaround Can Provide Important Management Lessons -- NYTs article "Ford's Bet: It's a Small World After All"

2010-01-10T11:10:00.002-05:00

Alan Mulally has played his hand very well. Ford has had no choice but to change and he has set out a strategy that just might work.
Mulally has developed a simple strategy that requires all parts of the company to work together to achieve. The goals are clear and the company has been reoriented to achieve the goal. This is true leadership.
By focusing on building cars that people want to drive, Ford is becoming a car company again after morphing into a finance company where cars were a by product of the production capacity that the company possessed.
Have you seen the new Taurus? Mustang? Edge? They are actually good looking cars and solidly built. Time will tell, but Mulally's strategy seems as good a chance that Ford has.
Ford’s Bet: It’s a Small World After All

By BILL VLASIC

Published: January 9, 2010
DEARBORN, Mich.

Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

At what was called the Michigan Truck Plant, Jon Topping, left, and Sharath Veldanda prepare to modify an assembly line to produce the new Focus.

Enlarge This Image

Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

Alan Mulally, Ford’s chief, with clay models of various Ford cars. He says buyers worldwide look for the same qualities.

"HE blew into the Ford Motor Company in 2006 as an outsider from a different industry, and he was hailed as the latest in a long line of purported saviors of a faltering, century-old automotive icon.
At the time, skeptics in the clubby world of auto executives whispered that the newcomer, Alan R. Mulally, would be swallowed up by the complexities of the car business, his ebullient personality smothered by the feudal infighting for which Ford had long been famous.
Yet three years into his tenure as chief executive — and with a host of still nettlesome challenges awaiting him — Mr. Mulally has thus far proved to be the unifying figure that Ford has needed for decades.
His vision is distilled in the laminated, wallet-size cards carried by tens of thousands of Ford employees that spell out his management principles beneath a simple heading: “One Ford ... One Team ... One Plan ... One Goal.” And on Monday, at the opening press conference of the 2010 Detroit auto show, Mr. Mulally will unveil the car that embodies his strategy for returning Ford to its status as a leader in the global auto industry.
That car, the new Ford Focus, is arguably as important to Mr. Mulally as the Model T was to Henry Ford, the founder. Despite some previous efforts, the Focus is Ford’s first truly global car — a single vehicle designed and engineered for customers in every region of the world and sold under one name. It is small, fuel-efficient and packed with technology and safety features that, Mr. Mulally believes, will appeal to consumers in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The car also represents what Mr. Mulally calls the “proof point” of everything he has done since joining Ford after a 37-year career with Boeing: he hopes that the vehicle will provide a rolling blueprint for generations of Ford cars to come.
“If we were going to be world-class, we needed to pull together and leverage and use our global assets around the world to create a powerhouse ‘One Ford,’ ” he said in an interview in his office at Ford’s headquarters. “It’s exactly why we are here.”
In an industry populated by naysayers and familiar with wrenching disappointment, Mr. Mulally’s doubters have largely disappeared because he has already delivered more than what was expected of him when he replaced Ford’s chairman, William C. Ford Jr., as chief executive.
One of Mr. Mulally’s first, prescient acts in 2006 was to borrow $24 billion, which later gave Ford the cash it needed to stave off the government-sponsored bankruptcies of its crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler. He has also shifted Ford’s emphasis away from trucks and sport utility vehicles to cars and crossover vehicles, and dumped luxury brands like Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston-Martin that were consuming Ford’s resources and distracting management.
Perhaps most important, Ford has shrunk drastically, shedding jobs and factories to better align its production with demand. For decades, Ford executives and workers labored inside a bureaucracy that made decision-making cumbersome and often undermined dexterous responses to market shifts. It was a system that also withstood repeated efforts by others to streamline it.
But under Mr. Mulally’s hand — and in response to a downturn that threatened the very existence of Detroit’s Big Three — Ford has finally started to run a tighter ship.
All of this is beginning to show up in Ford’s bottom line. It reported $1 billion in earnings in the third quarter of 2009, its first profitable quarter in nearly two years. Mr. Mulally, however, says he doesn’t expect Ford to become “consistently” profitable until 2011. (Coincidentally, that’s when the new Focus will begin appearing in sizable volumes in the United States and Europe.)
While the Focus is only one of several new products on the way, it is the centerpiece of Ford’s transformation from a truck-heavy manufacturer to a producer of smaller, lighter and more environmentally friendly passenger cars.
The impact of the Focus on Ford’s global operations is even more significant. While Ford has been an international company since early in the 20th century, its overseas divisions have long operated as semiautonomous units geared to individual markets.
In the 1990s, Alexander Trotman, then its chief executive, developed a plan called Ford 2000 to standardize some vehicles around the world. The new system saved money, but the products it yielded were successes in some markets and flops in others. The initiative was summarily dropped by Mr. Trotman’s successor, Jacques A. Nasser.
Upon his arrival, Mr. Mulally took his own shot at knitting together Ford’s far-flung operations, seeking the economies of scale that a “world car” could bring.
“Why are we doing it this way?” he asks. “Because we believe the customer requirements are going to be more the same around the world than they are different.”
INDUSTRY analysts have long derided Detroit automakers as being overly fixated on the United States market and unable to see how vehicles designed for Europeans and Asians could appeal to American consumers.
“There’s nothing revolutionary about selling the same car around the world,” says John Casesa, an industry consultant. “Toyota does it. BMW does it. But the Detroit companies were always disproportionately run around their North American strategy.”
In that regard, the Focus is Ford’s first big bet that it can effectively sell a single, largely uniform car — with variations to come later — in several global markets. Currently, the company has three engineering “platforms” serving what the industry calls the C-car segment — essentially, compact vehicles the size of a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic. The three platforms account for annual sales of about 1.1 million vehicles, although the various models are substantially different inside and out.
The new Focus is built on one platform for all markets, from Shanghai to Seville to Seattle. The platform is also flexible enough that it can be adapted for different body styles, whether hatchbacks or small crossover vehicles.
Within a few years, Ford expects to sell as many as two million vehicles a year off the new C-car platform and to save billions of dollars in costs by avoiding multiple platforms.
“The Focus represents the first tangible evidence of a global strategy,” says Mr. Casesa. “For the first time, Ford is executing it and not just talking about it.”
A YOUTHFUL-LOOKING 64-year-old with close-cropped red hair and a toothy smile, Mr. Mulally is relentlessly optimistic and perpetually in motion. Educated in engineering at the University of Kansas, a father of five and married for nearly 40 years, he can be so exuberant that he’ll sometimes hug people the first time he meets them.
But Ford executives quickly learned that beneath that sunny disposition was a demanding and competitive executive."
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Sign in to Recommend Next Article in Business (3 of 26) » A version of this article appeared in print on January 10, 2010, on page BU1 of the New York edition.

via nytimes.com

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Dos Equis - Most Interesting Man Introduction commercial

2010-01-07T21:31:00.001-05:00

via splendad.com

I love this Dos Equis campaign. I imagine it has increased their sales. Their distribution has improved in the last two years and this campaign is catchy enough to increase sales.

Stay thirsty my friends!

Posted via web from Bill's posterous

College Students: Facebook Only Game in Town

2009-12-11T10:57:00.002-05:00

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the social network of choice for college students in a study by Anderson Analytics.

College Students: Facebook Only Game in Town

It makes sense that one network would be seen more positively and used overwhelmingly by specific market segments. After all, a social network is like an online party. Why would choose to go the lame, barely attended party? You wouldn't if you were typical. So someone has to win, and that is Facebook.

Celebrity Endorsers -- Quick Gains for Awareness, Large Reputational Risk You Don't Control

2009-12-09T17:46:00.008-05:00

This just in....celebrity endorsers are a risky marketing strategy. It certainly works. Tiger Woods as your spokesman was a sure way to gain awareness. But guess what? All celebrities are human, and this past week only reinforces this. It can be a good strategy, but have a plan when your spokesman beats his wife or crashes his car after a bender in Vegas.

It can be risky to place the reputation of your company in the brand of a celebrity. You can't control their actions and that is a direct risk to your business. I prefer to control as many of the risk factors that are controlable. Some aren't controlable. But your company's reputation should be.

Its not a surprise that Pepsico would make this move, especially because the product wasn't that good and I suspect wasn't selling to projections.

PepsiCo Drops Tiger Woods Drink

By COREY DADE

PepsiCo Inc. is dropping a Gatorade drink named after Tiger Woods from its lineup, and television ads featuring the golfer haven't been aired since a storm of publicity erupted over his car accident last month and subsequent revelations about alleged extramarital affairs.

Mr. Woods has been at the center of a media frenzy since he crashed his Cadillac Escalade outside his Florida home Nov. 27, setting off a chain of events that has opened his personal life to scrutiny and led him to admit unspecified "transgressions." For nearly two weeks, news media have continued to closely monitor Mr. Woods and the comings and going of his family.

On Tuesday, Mr. Woods's mother-in-law was treated for stomach pains at an Orlando-area hospital and released. Barbro Holmberg, the mother of the golfer's wife, Elin Nordegren Woods, is staying with the Woodses during a visit from her native Sweden.

PepsiCo said Tuesday the move to drop its Gatorade Tiger Focus sports drink is part of a broader overhaul of its Gatorade brand that has been in the works for months, and isn't connected with Mr. Woods's recent troubles.

Advertisers haven't aired TV commercials featuring Mr. Woods since shortly after the scandal broke, according to monitoring data from Nielsen Co., which scans the prime-time, evening news, late-night and sports telecasts on major broadcast networks and 19 cable networks. The Golf Channel isn't included in Nielsen's tracking.

Most recently, Gillette ran a 30-second TV spot including Mr. Woods on Nov. 29, Nielsen said. That ad, which also features baseball player Derek Jeter and tennis player Roger Federer, aired eight times in November. It was the only ad including Mr. Woods that Nielsen recorded during the month, said Aaron Lewis, a spokesman at Nielsen.

It isn't clear what, if any, other commercials featuring Mr. Woods might have been in the works or slated for broadcast at the time of the accident.

Gillette, a unit of Procter & Gamble, hasn't pulled any ads, said Michael Norton, a Gillette spokesman. "We are running our media schedule as planned," Mr. Norton said. He said Gillette has one ad in rotation that includes Mr. Woods, and that he doesn't know when it is scheduled to return to the air. "We haven't made any changes at this time to our marketing strategy," he added.

PepsiCo said it is discontinuing Gatorade Tiger Focus and some other Gatorade drinks to make room for a new lineup of products focused on athletes and sports performance. A company spokesman said the new offerings will be released soon, but declined to provide specifics.

"We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus, along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010," Gatorade spokeswoman Jennifer Schmit said in an e-mailed statement.

Gatorade Tiger Focus hasn't been a strong performer; volume in the first 10 months of this year was down 34% from a year earlier, according to Beverage Digest, an industry publication and data service. Tiger Focus accounts for about 4% of overall Gatorade volume, Beverage Digest said.

Ads and promotional matter featuring Mr. Woods continued to run on sponsors' Web sites Tuesday. A section on the Nike Inc. Golf site dedicated to Mr. Woods continued to display Web videos featuring the golfer, as well as his line of apparel, balls and golf clubs. "Being the best takes dedication, patience and insight. For Tiger Woods, these are the pillars of his approach," the site read.

Representatives of Nike, Gillette, Electronic Arts and laser-eye surgery chain TLC Vision Corp. said Tuesday that their sponsor relationships with Mr. Woods hadn't changed. TLC Vision continued to feature Mr. Woods prominently on the homepage of its Web site.

Among other companies with which the golfer has endorsement deals, jet-rental company NetJets said in a statement Monday that it continued to support Mr. Woods. Sports-collectible retailer Upper Deck and phone giant AT&T declined to comment. Consulting firm Accenture and watch maker Tag Heuer, a unit LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, couldn't be reached for comment.

Why Do Illegal Drugs Have Such Better Names Than Legal Drugs?

2009-12-09T17:20:00.002-05:00

Have you ever noticed this? There are all sorts of creative names for marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, etc.

What about high blood pressure medicine or cancer drugs? Here's a list of the top 200 prescription drugs. A sample from the list:

Avodart
Byetta
Cardura
Cozzar
Tricor

And the list goes on and on with non-existent word names that, with rare exception, tell you nothing about what the drug actually does. No wonder drug makers need to spend million and millions on advertising. If they didn't, why would you ever remember the name Vytorin?

There are a couple of drug names that are better than the others.

Flowmax for one. It just sounds like a drug that helps you pee.

And Plan B. Well, if you didn't want that pregnancy......you are looking for a plan.

So here's my idea for the pharmaceutical industry. Get a bunch of college guys who use drugs from time to time and create a bunch of real world creative teams to name your prescription drugs. The results can't be any worse. And you can probably pay them in pizza and beer.

Mary Jane, reefer, speed, weed, crack......these are much better names and names inspired by the use and experience of the actual drugs. I am certain that my team would have come up with a better name for Viagra. Liftoramus or Erectilomax perhaps. They couldn't do worse. Let's give it a shot.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Hessekiel is the founder and president of the Cause Marketing Forum, a business dedicated to helping companies and causes succeed together. Its eighth annual conference will be held in Chicago on June 2-3.

bill oleary's blog

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By COREY DADE

Why Do Illegal Drugs Have Such Better Names Than Legal Drugs?