Strange things keep happening at the Texas Rangers ballpark, where in July a fan fell from the upper deck trying to grab a foul ball, instead splattering five really unlucky spectators down below. (They’re all fine, by the way). This time, it was a pre-game promotion that went wrong. more
Will Federal Express begin targeting certain customers for custom rate increases above and beyond the general rate increase? more
Nobody succeeds all the time. Everybody fails some of the time.
Good marketers succeed more than they fail … but when they fail, they still are winners. Why? Because good marketers leave their ego at the door and look at failure as an opportunity to learn and thus improve.
What can you learn from failure? more
(The following is a public service announcement - not really!;)
You…..Didn’t really think that there was going to be some vast dialogue going on? Chalk this one up to some free time on my hands, but here we go…..
Everyone duck because here come all the marketing geniuses clogging up the media channels with “I told you so” - or worse yet - slowly reversing their positions.
O wait - what am I doing right now? Gut check - O Yeah…I was just watching and laughing the whole time…Ok I’m good..I passed my version of ‘The Mirror Test” which BTW is a great new book by my good friend Jeff Hayzlett - Former CMO of Kodak - Available everywhere…with my ADD I’m waiting for the audio version…moving on…. more
Here’s an article from the New York Times that is going to make consumers stop and think for a second. The ratings and review both e-commerce merchants and consumers rely on so much may be a fake.
According to the article, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that California-based marketing and P.R. firm Reverb Communications had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients’ games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.
Here’s the complaint filed with the FTC.
And here’s what Tracie Snitker, the founder and VP-communications of Reverb Communications, had to tell the Times about the settlement:
Ms. Snitker declined to be interviewed, but in a statement she said that in discussions with the trade commission, “it became apparent that we would never agree on the facts of the situation.”
“Rather than continuing to spend time and money arguing, and laying off employees to fight what we believed was a frivolous matter, we settled this case and ended the discussion,” she said. Ms. Snitker said that the settlement did not involve any admission of lawbreaking.
Well, the facts seem straight-forward to me. The P.R. firm posted reviews about their clients’ video games without disclosing their relationship with the client.
Surely you’ve noticed the increase in state lotteries popping up, upping the ante with sports and entertainment tie-ins and bigger and bigger prize pools. Seems like another example of forward-thinking revenue generation, right? more
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