Friday, September 5, 2008

Word of the Day

Today's word of the day: Guerilla Marketing

Definition of guerilla marketing: a nontraditional marketing event intended to have maximum results with the minimal amount of resources.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Word of the Day

Today's word of the day: Circle of Influence

Definition of circle of influence: people who are closest to you and who make up your warm market. These people are easily influenced by you because of your solid reputation in your profession, community or general area of interest.

"Facebook called me a bad name."

We've all heard how social networking sites have advertising based on what items you click on and which sites you visit. All fun and innocent, right? Not anymore.

Facebook is playing hardball.

A writer from the Washington Post told her story here about Facebook calling her "fat" and how she needs to lose a few pounds before her upcoming wedding day. Talk about in your face advertising! How awful.

For those of you not familiar with Facebook, you select your relationship status from the options of: Single, In a relationship, Engaged, Married, It's Complicated and In an Open Relationship. (This particular individual had her relationship status set to "engaged.")

After she got married and changed her relationship status to "married" she was then presented with "Are you infertile?" ads.

Yikes.

Just to see what would happen, I logged in to my Facebook account to see what ads it would show me.

Here is a summary of my profile:

Sex: Female
Age: 26
Location: Ohio
Relationship Status: In a Relationship
Interests: THE BEACH. Cleveland Sports. Photogrpahy. Writing. Traveling.
Favorite Music: I have very random taste in music.
Favorite TV Shows:Sex and the City, Survivor and Ally McBeal.
Work info: Marketing and Advertising

The ads I am greeted wtih are trying to get me to buy competitor's secrets, the Gambling Addiction Hotline (that's odd), the DMA conference and a new hair eliminator promising to remove all of your unwanted hair.

I'm not horribly offended by these ads - aside from the Gambling Addiction Hotline because I've been to one (1) casino in my lifetime and spent roughly $10. None the less, this was a fun experiment.

Has anyone else noticed these in your face advertisements?

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Jessica Simpson's new ad


She sings, she acts, she dates high profile celebrities like Tony Romo and John Mayer - what's next? Endorsing beer of course!

Stampede Light Plus, made by Dallas' Stampede Brewing Company, has signed the catch all bombshell to be the new face of their brand - a vitamin-enhanced beer.

Ms. Simpson has even taken a 15% share in the company to solidify her interest. Although terms were not yet made available, one can assume it's a rather large chunk of change.

In a statement released on her behalf, Simpson said as an entrepreneur she's "always looking for ways to diversify my portfolio with good ideas and good people."

Mind you, her great portfolio includes box office hit "Blonde Ambition" (huh?), skin care line ProActiv (which she admits to never using) and Dessert Beauty (which resulted in a number of lawsuits).

Any guesses what will result from her endorsing Stampede Brewing Company?

Word of the Day

Today's word of the day: Incentivized traffic

Definition of incentivized traffic: viewers of a website who have received a form of compensation for visiting a particular site.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google's at it again

Is there such a thing as too big or too much power? Rightfully so, some can argue both points and each would be correct. But, when internet giant Google launches their own browser, Chrome, is it time for other browsers to say "uncle?"

Click here for the full story.

Word of the Day

Today's word of the day: Mousetrapping

Definition of moustrapping: using browser tricks as a way to keep a visitor captived at a particular site. This often happens by disabling the "Back" button or generated repeated pop-up windows.