June 18th 2009
Jammie Thomas, a young mom who has become the Joan of Arc of file sharing, was found guilty of violating 24 song copyrights, and fined 1.92 million dollars, yep, about 80k per tune. Justice? Ars Technica The jury found Thomas-Rasset’s conduct to be willful, which means that statutory damages under the Copyright Act can range […]
June 16th 2009
Capgemini and the “Big Reveal” Professional services is a staple of airport advertising. But having seen this one at least one thousand times I still don’t understand how it sells Capgemini. Is the blue-suited lady the consultant, and is she inspiring her clients to disrobe? Or are the super hero-suited businessmen the consultants, and she’s […]
June 11th 2009
Last night, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak’s Chief Marketing Officer, received the Business Marketing Association’s Marketer of the Year Award. Besides being a force in Kodak’s increased focus on business customers, he’s been a long-term contributor to the BMA and other associations that help elevate marketing. Though this was shot from a few rows back, I hope […]
June 10th 2009
At the Quad Cities Ad Federation in Moline we discussed how sometimes related drivers combine to precipitate market trends, and ended up with a diagram that I’m calling a “bankshot.” The general pattern is that a predictable driver causes a predictable outcome, and a modifying outcome builds on that to create a second condition, which […]
May 22nd 2009
I’m digging out my high school letter jacket to return to Moline, Illinios, where I’ll be talking to the local advertising federation on June 9th. The topic, Digital Direct Marketing, is about how to assemble systems and practices to provide more personalized relevant online experiences. Details here. Retention is the New Acquisition I’m planning to […]
May 20th 2009
I was back at RISD having a discussion with some online marketers, and I found myself rattling through a list of my favorite online marketing tools. Sometimes just knowing where to find a few good tools is a resource, so in that spirit, here are a few online tools I like to keep at the […]
May 14th 2009
There are a lot of situations where allegations of trademark infringement are counter productive. As you’ve read here, overly aggressive enforcement can lead to unexpected, damaging, consequences for brands. Deutsche Telekom: threatened a tech blog for using magenta headlines, the color they reserved for tMobile. Monster Cable: the litigious audio wire vendor has threatend baseball […]
May 5th 2009
Technology and ambition fills our lives. As parents, professionals, friends and members of gyms, the edict to “Be All You Can Be” is a self-escalating puzzle. Simplicity and transparency have emerged as important brand promises in promoting political candidates, financial services, packaged goods and foods, and technology. It is easy to recall recent cases in […]
May 1st 2009
In a win for both fair use advocates and brand holders, the Fifth Circuit has interpreted the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d), and the duty of trial courts to carefully consider fair use and irreparable harm issues when ruling on a request for injunctive relief. See Southern Co. v. Dauben Inc. The […]
April 30th 2009
For the second consecutive day, Facebook has been attacked by phishing scams. Unsuspecting Facebook users get a message from a friend urging them to “check this out” and including a link to a Web page that appears to be a Facebook log-in page. It is, however, a fake site which steals their log-in credentials, and […]
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