How Old Spice Revived a Campaign That No One Wanted to Touch The Modern Media Agency Series is supported by IDG. Ad agency JWT has used mobile marketing for two brand name clients. During a marketers’ panel discussion, John Baker explained the important role mobile played in a promotion for Zyrtec and for a campaign across media for Macy’s. Maybe advertisers should stop hoping that their new campaigns should be super-successful and instead wish for them to be moderately well-received. After all, almost no one has been able to create a second act for ad campaigns that become cultural touchstones. If anything, adding a social media layer to a successful campaign only raises the stakes as bloggers, Tweeters and Facebookers pile on to celebrate and watch to see if new ads live up to the set standard, then mercilessly scold it for not doing so. "It was definitely daunting," says Jason Bagley, a creative director at Wieden. But who would play Mustafa's foe? Upon meeting Fabio, Bagley and Allen soon discovered why. Eventually, they found a rhythm.
Just Don't Go, the Sequel? - Innovations I regularly teach a graduate seminar on academic labor, but I’ve always hesitated to teach William Pannapacker’s, aka “Thomas H. Benton’s” inflammatory—and now classic Chronicle article—“Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go” (January 30, 2009). I always felt that its compelling combination of cold logic and cynicism would depress my graduate students beyond recovery. But a Ph.D. student recently did a presentation on it in my current seminar, working up the courage to look into the abyss. Graduate school aside, I believe one now has to wonder if going to college is a sensible decision. First, the economy and consequent employment outlook for college graduates. So here’s my somewhat obvious question: Is it worthwhile for high-school graduates to go to college right now? Return to Top
Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By - Tony Schwartz by Tony Schwartz | 11:17 AM November 1, 2011 Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. This myth is based on the assumption that human beings are capable of doing two cognitive tasks at the same time. We’re not. Instead, we learn to move rapidly between tasks. If you’re on a conference call, for example, and you turn your attention to an incoming email, you’re missing what’s happening on the call as long as you’re checking your email. On average, according to researcher David Meyer, switching time increases the amount of time it takes to finish the primary task you were working on by an average of 25 percent. Difficult as it is to focus in the face of the endless distractions we all now face, it’s far and away the most effective way to get work done. Myth #2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better. Think for a moment about how you feel when you’re performing at your best. Myth #3: Creativity is genetically inherited, and it’s impossible to teach.
A Guide to Generating Leads on LinkedIn To me, LinkedIn has always seemed like more of a place to hunt for a new gig than anything else. And since I haven't been in the job market for a while, I've paid it little mind. Plus, I've always thought LinkedIn was kind of ... well, boring. If Facebook is a rave at a hip downtown hot spot, LinkedIn is a stuffy reception with piped-in music at one of those soulless function facilities conveniently located at the end of an exit ramp. Does that sound harsh? For sure. While the early adopters flock to Google+ and our kids and moms become power-users on Facebook, LinkedIn is where business gets done. LinkedIn, it turns out, is a happening place. All of this adds up to making LinkedIn the dark horse in social networking. It turns out--as I suspected--there's an awful lot of job searching going on at LinkedIn. So how might companies use it to win new business, specifically? Target searches for keywords you've identified as central to your business. Does all of this work? Like this article?
Losing Control Is Complexity’s Greatest Risk : Managing In most companies, there's no organized measure of complexity. Understanding how to reduce it can lead to profit. November 01, 2011 The complexity of every business in the world is increasing daily, by leaps and bounds. When RIM’s Blackberry system stopped working, one of the likely contributing factors was its inherent complexity. When General Motors was taken apart and dramatically restructured in what was a Herculean effort to reduce complexity, the efforts paid handsome dividends in both profit and market position. Wise men have written about management: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Companies spend a huge amount of time and effort on "risk management" without realizing that the greatest risk is a "loss of control." When complexity reaches critical levels, it not only damages profitability, it increases the risk of losing control. Innovators worry that complexity management will constrain their creativity, but it doesn’t.
Chocolate Guinness Goodness Recipe at Epicurious Editor's note: This recipe was developed by Shane Philip Coffey, the chef at Alias restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side. This rich and luscious dessert came about because I needed a special dessert for a St. Patrick's Day tasting menu. I was on a mission to use my favorite beer, Guinness, something I consider to be one of Ireland's gifts to the world. As the 17th of March drew closer, I looked for inspiration at my favorite Irish pub in Manhattan. As I savored my pint, I saw a Guinness poster that said, "My Goodness, My Guinness!" Make the effort to find a good dark chocolate (about 70 to 72 percent cacao).
How web entrepreneurs made money, thanks to Google - Page 5 Nupur Amarnath, ET Bureau Sep 18, 2011, 07.40am IST At 27, Amit Agarwal grew restless. A techie working in Bangalore, he wanted to live with his family in Agra. But what about the monthly pay cheque? The first post was the review of a new printer he had bought. Agarwal didn't know it then but the blog would become his full-time profession. With little to no capital required, taking your business to the web is clearly the way forward. Bhawani started blogging as a 22-year-old in 2006 and soon realised that it's the only business where there's an assured 100% year-on-year growth. Unlike Agarwal, Bhawani has a team of content writers (four on the rolls) and is soon planning to move out of his home office and set up a team of 16 writers to feed his 40 websites. But as Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development and supporter of many internet-oriented businesses, famously said, "Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant." Find a Niche Get the Numbers
9 Tips for Raising Startup Funds on AngelList Joshua Baer is the co-founder and CEO of Otherinbox, a prolific angel investor and the director of Capital Factory, Austin’s seed-stage incubator. He founded SKYLIST in 1996 from his college dorm room at Carnegie Mellon, and created UnsubCentral in 2004. You can follow Joshua on Twitter @joshuabaer. AngelList is an online community that matches startups with investors to streamline the fundraising process. I've personally raised $1 million from AngelList for my startup, and have helped dozens of other startups raise $3 million more. Try a similar strategy by adhering to the following steps. 1. AngelList is brilliantly designed to make it easy for investors to write checks to entrepreneurs. Naval and Nivi, the founders of AngelList, took the very best social mechanics from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to create a "social proof" that ultimately makes investors comfortable writing checks. 2. Create a profile and mark it private. Include numbers. Focus on traction. Don't focus on press. 3.
Kindle Ebook Publishing Primer by Ruth Francisco Experienced ebook author Ruth Francisco wrote a wonderful ebook-publishing guide for folks just getting started. She’s the author of Amsterdam 2012 and other popular titles. This post appeared on Authonomy and Kindleboards and is reprinted here with permission. This is a fact: Epublishing is revolutionizing publishing, an event no less important to intellectual discourse than the penny newspapers of the nineteenth century. Epublishing is a viable option to seeking a traditional publisher. There is no charge to upload your manuscript to Amazon Kindle (or any of the other ebook platforms, including Smashwords, PubIt, Kobo, iPad, Borders, Android, Sony, and Diesel). There are a handful of simple steps. For Kindle, it is easier if you have a U.S. bank. Have several people proof your work. Do an Edit/Find on redundant and passive words, such as ‘that’, ‘starts’ and ‘begins’, ‘of the’, ‘turned’, ‘the phone’ and ‘some of the’, ‘was’ and ‘were’. (NOTE: Many prefer using the EPUB file format. 11.