The Big Fat Marketing Blog

You could be a winner…if you’re willing to pay shipping and handling and give up the honor seven days later.

The One Show is offering creatives the chance to “test drive” the Gold Pencil award a week.

Charlotte, NC-based agency Boone Oakley created the campaign to help promote the call for entries for the 2009 competition.

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I’m one of those people that believed the Walmart ads that said that if I shopped there I could save thousands of dollars a year. Simply put, that’s price promotion, which should be high on all marketers’ lists as people worry about their jobs and putting dinner on the table.

Case in point: one 14 1/2–ounce can of College Inn chicken broth at Walmart, 79 cents, versus same can at my local C-Town, $1.29. Same savings go for cereal, milk, paper towels and lots of the other items I buy there. more

In these desperate economic times, there are those who remain boldly optimistic. Take Burton M. Tansky, chairman/CEO of luxury good cataloger/retailer Neiman Marcus, for example. more

Now that the presidential nonsense is over in the US, media outlets will begin to panic as they will not have the ad revenue generated by both parties and their respective groups to rely on.With the change in leadership also must come a change in marketing thinking.

As things continue to soften, smart marketers are changing their messaging platform in order to deal with the slower economy. The Wall Street Journal goes into some detail on how some brands are adapting. Even really high end brands like Lexus are testing message platforms, with Lexus touting “lowest cost of ownership in its class.”

Are you testing your messaging and changing with the times?

A ‘Marvelous’ Mistake. In a publishing faux-pas rivaling “Dewey Defeats Truman,” the Daily Bugle jumped the gun Tuesday and projected Stephen Colbert as the new president-elect. Wired has the story, true believers.

Disney by Design? Is a Mickey Mouse t-shirt too pedestrian for you? How about a $3,900 Disney inspired wedding gown? Is that more your speed? The New York Times reports on the Walt Disney Co.’s bid to become a lifestyle brand.

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Multichannel Merchant’s Operations & Fulfillment Advisor covers the contact center industry from the merchant’s perspective. We are always looking for good story ideas about hot new trends in customer service.

Are you doing anything new or innovative in your contact center? Have you discovered a new way of recruiting, hiring or training reps? Have you deployed any new technologies (for example Web chat, live video, unified communications)? Have you found new ways to cut costs in a down economy? Do you think you have the hottest contact center team on the planet? We want to hear your story. Please drop me a line at patrick.barnard@penton.com.