For those of us in Adland, Mad Men is a persistent reminder that not much has changed in our business over the past sixty years (with the exception of all the illegal and non-PC stuff, of course). Believe it or not, agencies are still run pretty much the way they are depicted on TV. Evidently, the great management and technology revolutions sidestepped Madison Avenue. Read More →
Whatever you may be doing at the moment, we doubt it’s quite as unpleasant as the job of the woman in this ad, who’s stuck hand-scrubbing other people’s clothes from within the stifling interior of a … washing machine. It’s one of series of clever ads from Jobsintown.de, a German job board.
You can check out the rest of the series at The Collared Sheep.
Creative Week kicks off bright and early this Monday (May 7) with “The Freelance Shift,” a networking breakfast and panel that looks at the move away from working as a full-time employee — at least in the advertising and tech industries and related fields. Bklyn Haus hosts the breakfast, which starts at 8:30 am at Galapagos, in Dumbo.
Too often, people approach their public speeches as if they were book reports. In lots of book reports, you simply describe something in which you generally have no stake. But to succeed in just about every conceivable professional setting, you need to not just describe your point, but SELL your point. Read More →
If you’ve got a head for marketing and your skills extend beyond pretty words and images to include being savvy with numbers, stats, and analyzing data of all sorts, then your career prospects ought to be very bright right now.
Ad and marketing agencies want people like you, and there just aren’t enough of you. As John Ebbert, the managing editor for a Web site devoted to ad technology, told the New York Times, “There is pain for hiring in digital at all levels.” Read More →
As I mentioned in my last post, there’s an ongoing shift toward giving readers a more relevant, adaptive web experience. This trend’s power starts with the fact that it’s beneficial for consumers–and soon this relevancy will be a requirement. For those marketers who embrace the trend, it will also be hugely profitable.
The experiences that a growing Web population expects—on-demand access to content of particular interest to them–will largely shape how people come to accept advertising directed their way. Today, I can set up and read personalized news feeds, follow the musings and links of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter, and access videos of my choice on Netflix and Hulu. Soon, I’ll enjoy a web experience that doesn’t require me to download or interact with separate sites or applications, each with their own notion of relevancy.
But even in the here and now, companies are learning how to speak (and, more important, be spoken to) in a one-to-one way with customers via social media and other tools. Many companies have someone whose job includes following Twitter feeds that involve their company in order to get real-time feedback. I’d argue that the lessons learned over the next few years will lead to a profound change in the way companies market to their customers–ads will have to become more relevant, conversational, and engaging in order to generate attention and drive action. Read More →
We hear a lot these days about Internet behemoths like Google, Apple and Microsoft–along with that relative up-and-comer Facebook. The first three companies I mention are worth $186B, $305B and $219B, respectively–they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
But I think lots of people have grossly underestimated Facebook. There’s lots of confusion about a $70B valuation for a company involved in a pretty squishy line of work–”social media.” But people are missing the bigger picture. Facebook has 600 million users, and that figure is growing. People who predict its demise perhaps continue to think of it as just status updates. But it’s a lot more than that, and it doesn’t hurt Facebook’s market share that millennials are happy to concede privacy for ubiquity; indeed, many find the very idea of privacy quaint.
Facebook sits on, I think, a far more valuable data set than the giants–it has a wealth of information about people, information that by and large is contributed voluntarily. Let’s agree that, on its surface, Facebook is as easy a company to mock as it is to admire. Many think that Facebook has taken advantage of unsustainable trends, and like Myspace before it, it’s destined to fall to earth. But that’s a mistake born of thinking of Facebook simply as a way for friends to chat with friends. Read More →
Tom Burg, a twelve-year veteran of Silicon Alley, blogs for us about marketing, the digital economy, and how social media is transforming the way we all communicate.
Back in the mid-90s, when I started my marketing career, just about everything I knew I learned through textbooks and classes taught by marketing professors who’d last seen the inside of a boardroom back when Bic pens came to market. Marketing itself was heavily based on case studies and focused on market share, with big budgets tied up in campaigns with a life cycle of six months or more. Unless you worked for a company with virtually unlimited budgets, there was no incentive to do quick tests and refine marketing approaches. Incremental progress was limited at best.
Moving to New York City a bit later to pursue a marketing career in the “Internet” seemed like a pretty safe career bet. I got to conceive and explore new business models; it was great fun. Unfortunately, many of those late-90s ideas were either before their time or required what (seemed back then to be) unfathomable amounts of capital to make work. Then came the bust. Read More →
Rock Your Career: In this series, Allison Hemming takes a rock ‘n’ roll song and weaves it together with personal branding and pop culture topics. Disclaimer: The songs were selected because of their title, not necessarily their lyrics, and most (but not all) songs will be classic rock. Our only hope is that it doesn’t suck. We’re sure you’ll let us know if it does.
Last week, The Pork Council changed its tagline from “Pork: The Other White Meat” to “Pork: Get Inspired.” Regardless of how you feel about the change, I’d like you to chew on why the original tagline worked so well and how you can apply it to positioning yourself. Read More →
Product Management, User Experience, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing
Project Management, Program Management, Production, Content Production
Animation, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Corporate Identity, Flash Design/Dev, Graphic Design, Web Design
Content Strategy, Editorial, Copywriting, Copy Editing, Research, Blog Outreach
Brand Management, Business Development, Sales, Product Marketing, Event/Conference Planning, Promotions, Marcomms, Corporate Comms, Direct Marketing, E-Marketing, Public Relations, Market Research
Account Management, Account/Brand Planning, Media Strategy, Communications Planning, Media Planning/Buying, Social Media, Search (SEM, SEO), Web Metrics & Analytics
Web Development, Front End Development
[no subcategories]
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