April 2nd 2010
This Tuesday I had the challenge and opportunity to talk with a team of 20 legal marketers about how online experiences build and validate brands. It was a smart room; I’m glad to have been invited. How Do You Make a Great Page? Since my presentations are illustrations, you may get only the flavor of […]
March 25th 2010
New Haven law firm Stratton Faxon sued Google for selling competitor ads triggered by searches on their name. Specifically, they alleged that these ads interfered with the firm’s business relations with clients, were an unfair business practice under Connecticut state law, and resulted in unjust enrichment. Read the details on Lawyers and Settlements. Note the […]
March 24th 2010
Everyone likes samples. To advertise, the Mint should offer money. James Gardner of Adverlicious kindly shared this bad airport advertising from Boston’s Logan Airport. It stands outside the gate for the commuter flights to New York at Boston’s Logan Airport. James doesn’t recall ever seeing a child on the commuter flights he frequents. Further, the […]
March 20th 2010
This week, Greenpeace posted a gruesome anti-Nestlé commercial on YouTube complaining that Nestlé SA buys palm oil from companies that destroy the Indonesian rainforest to plant oil palms. The 60-second video depicts a bored office worker enjoying a Kit Kat, which, rather than being the popular chocolate-hazelnut ladyfinger-style confection, appears to be a chocolate-covered ape […]
March 19th 2010
World traveler Jay Ratcliffe sent this one in from the Las Vegas airport. Imagine seeing this ad just after TSA screeners have taken your nail clippers and liquids in containers of >3oz. Who at the airport hasn’t felt a the need for a machine gun, at least for a brief rental? Where else could you imagine this […]
March 3rd 2010
The Hitler Downfall meme is everywhere (we’ve already covered copyright issues of the Hitler Downfall video). This weekend, the New York Times even published a primer on making your own version of the scene, in which der Führer’s fury at the collapse of his plans can be translated into the latest pop-culture news. Bob Battle’s Virginia […]
February 28th 2010
Bad advertising is the fun pause that refreshes here on UsefulArts. On our previous bad advertising safaris, we’ve: Found the the worst law firm ad ever, and helped get it pulled down. Treated the airport as a museum of misfit ads. Pointed out that UPS has a pretty bad tagline. Chronicled the offensive or silly […]
February 20th 2010
The uniformly wonderful Georgetown Law prof, Rebecca Tushnet, notes in her 43(b)log a recent opinion of the South Carolina Ethics Bar that is somewhat dismissive of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. State bars are struggling to figure out how to regulate everything from keyword advertising to chat-room participation to marketing done by intermediaries. There […]
February 11th 2010
The most frequent response to my question about what online law issues our readers are most concerned about centered on the still undetermined law around the use of trademarks as to trigger advertising in search engines. The issue is both prominent and vexingly permanent in the minds of both IP layers and and search marketers. […]
January 23rd 2010
My still germinating collection of 2010 predictions will have to include one of this blogs repeated themes, the impending rise of regulation of digital marketing. (See my post “Regulation is Headed Toward Digital Marketing, Do Something.“) Now that the FTC has staked out a requirement for bloggers to prevent the false appearance of independence if […]
The future of digital experiences will be built by strategists who grasp the full array of emerging business, social, and technical models. Specialties in user experience, branding, application design, and data science are laying the foundation for richer user experiences and business models breakthrough products and revenue based marketing.
UsefulArts is a soapbox to discuss the front line of digital experience, and the agencies and platforms that enable it. Digital business needs a cadre of leaders who can connect c-level enterprise thinking with the ways these new interaction models can help organizations to matter more to their most important stakeholders.