B2B Viral Marketing

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Marketing Sherpa turned me onto a case study around Arbor Networks, Network Security Firms, viral marketing initiatives from 06. It turned out to be a success because the team thought about the marketing in a holistic manner. Everything was tied together, and they really covered their bases.

The team created a game featuring “real” techie-types fighting an evil virus, then they created a 12 episode podcast with Captains of Industry, a series based on “a fictional financial institution was being extorted by cyberterrorists who were taking down the network.” They pushed their initiatives through advertising, blogging, PR, trade show activities and sposorships , direct mail, online ads, print ads, glued in offers and email ads in ezines.

The response, for the B2B space, were phenomenal. They made sure they stood out, the pushed everything the right way. Their traffic doubled each quarter, they recieved 40,000 visits to their blog, the podcasts were downloaded 24,000 times and they’ve been getting targeted traffic from search. Nice work Arbor Networks, way to engage you’re audience.

Now Thats A Guerrilla Marketing Campaign Story – Saatchi & Saatchi

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Saatchi & Saatchi is a familiar brand to us all in marketing and advertising. I was checking out thier “who we are” page and noticed this nice little story about British Airways. Talk about a real balls out effort.

“We were responsible for the world’s most effective direct response advertising. After the first Gulf War, no one was flying. All the more reason for British Airways to launch their “World’s Biggest Offer” which appeared for one day, running in 29 languages, in 69 countries and in nearly 300 publications. It was seen by over 100 million people, and a world record figure of six million responded.”

How Far Will We Let Advertising Go? Hallmark Tries to Capatilize on Drug Addiction, Cancer and Other Hardships

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Seriously. Sometimes I see advertising, ok, very often I see advertising and I think to myself, “this is rediculous, how could this company willingly attempt to gain customers by playing on emotions or taking advantage of our hope or hardtimes…?” – but this is just too far. Adfreak called my attention to it.

Hallmark decided to release a bunch of cards that are meant to be given to people on a “journey” such as drug addiction, cancer, miscarriage, aging parent, divorce… They are calling them “New Cards With Real Words for Real Life” and it somehow makes me want to puke.

I think there are some things that are sacred, that you really shouldn’t blatantly *try* to make money from… a doctor getting rich from saving someone from dieing of cancer or a counselor that helps save a broken marriage is one thing – but Hallmark is just trying to make a buck of sadness, misery and tragedy. Not cool.

The Future of IT

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Brian Burnham is a smart guy. Read what he thinks about the future of IT business.

“This progression from hardware to systems software to applications software, to network, to service, and now to data has such a compelling momentum that leads inexorably to the question – What’s next?

One way to look at that question is to argue that we have arrived at the end of history. The progression to date has been up the stack in a classic architecture diagram, data is on top of that stack, and nothing sits on top of the data. I disagree.

The genius of Craigslist is in its governance system. It is its lightweight governance system that allows 21 people to administer 300 sites in 35 countries. I believe that the basis of competition in web services will shift from the data to the system that manages the acquisition, and use of that data. The governance system that yields the most utility for the largest number of users with the least overhead will ultimately manage the largest communities with the most valuable data.

Is there a basis for competition beyond the governance systems underlying these services? If pressed, I would guess it will be values. It might be possible for two equally effective governance systems to compete by internalizing different values. One could perhaps embrace openness and diversity at the cost of some efficiency and the other could be optimized for efficiency for a more homogeneous set of users and interests. After that maybe they will compete on aesthetics or maybe there is no more “stuff on top” as Nicolas Carr once said to me. Maybe then we really are talking about the end of IT history. What do you think?” via

Littlebigbrands.com – Blog of the Century!

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Ok, this should get a laugh out of just about anyone who finds a great site and looks for the blog in hopes to get to know the team and their expertise. Littlebigbrands.com seems like a pretty cool design/dev firm so, like always, I looked for a Blog link in the navigation, and like always, I found it. To my surprise I was greated by this amazing blog that speaks loud and clear to the accelerated life of marketers today.

Quote of the day – “the right marketing company” – Miller Beer VP Media and Marketing Services

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“As we evolve our digital-marketing approach, we will be looking to develop more programs that naturally engage consumers in ways that tap into meaningful spaces where they spend their time,” Jackie Woodward, Miller VP-media and Marketing Services

Game Theory

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Worth a deeper look:

“Game theory studies decisions made in an environment in which players interact. In other words, game theory studies choice of optimal behavior when costs and benefits of each option depend upon the choices of other individuals.” – via

Is Donald Trump a Spammer? His landing page has a “virtual salesperson” to stop you from pressing X!

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Thanks to Mark Cuban for pointing out Donal Trump spammed him Always nice to know who doesn’t care how they gain followers…

That isn’t the creepiest part though. Check out Donalds page, then do the same thing I did – cringe a bit, and click the X that makes you feel so good to click… but wait! A chat window pops up saying “Wait! Before you go…” and this dude starts talking, saying crap to get me to sign up…

At first I think its a real person, I’m like “no way, you gotta be kidding…” I even ask where they are located, to try and figure out what country Mr. Trump is using to supply his chat team… and I quickly realize its an automated machine. /Sigh … at least he’s not paying real people to do his dirty work THIS time.

Quote of the day – Graywolf

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“don’t spend your time perfecting something that doesn’t need to be perfect.” via

How to be an A-List Blogger by Jason Calacanis

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Straight from an “A-List” bloggers mouth.

“Want to be an A-list blogger?
1. Go to Techmeme.
2. Look for the top three stories.
3. Write about them every day.
4. Go to the blogs of the other people who are writing about these stories and comment.
5. Do this every day and attend every conference going.
6. And you’ll be an A-lister.
Write once every two weeks and wonder why you aren’t an A-lister?” – Jason Calacanis

Jason, I thought you were about sincerity, *real* writers writing *real* things. I’m happy to hear you’re well aware that you are a business man and a marketer – I thought you hated us ? Re-blogging for the sole purpose of becoming an A-lister is not the best possible advice is it? I guess at least you are “transparently being authentic” about how you’ve made it as a “blogger.”

“Yes. Transparency counts. … But if you’re going to make a media business out of it, you never ever want anyone to be able to say that you benefited from the people you wrote about. … All you have as a blogger is your authenticity, your trust.” – Jason Calacanis

I agree with you on that, Jason. All you really have as a human being is your authenticity and your trust. You seem to do things your way, and by your own rules. For that I respect you. However, I believe the REAL way to be an A-lister in any field is to have something of a value, something people want – work really hard (really really hard – live it and breathe it), present it to your audience with honesty, promote it with integrity (but by all means promote it), treat your industry, colleagues, clients, vendors, partners and competitors *with respect* … and here’s the kicker… the most important part of making it to the top *avoid, at all costs, hypocrisy* – because readers are real people too, and no one, I mean no one, likes a hypocrite.

Quotes from JC via.

Straight from Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales – Whats Next After Wikipedia?

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NewScientist interviewed Jimmy Wales. The final question’s answer was the most satisfying to an open-source-lover such as my self.

Q: “What’s your plan for search?”

A: “It’s too early for specifics, but one thing that has worked is an alliance in which people contribute to a free software project. We saw this succeed with Apache, the open-source webserver. Apache was a tiny group of volunteers, yet the vast majority of its code has come from companies who paid people to work on it. It’s essentially an industrial consortium that has been able to fend off Microsoft’s closed-source webserver. So it makes sense for second-tier search companies who are falling behind Google to contribute to a free search software project that will make us equal to Google in terms of search quality.”

An alliance in which people contribute to a free search software project that will equal (maybe surpass) Google in terms of search quality? I’m all for it. This could reposition advertising mechanisms and possibly reshape the way we search for, and interact with, information, products and services. Good or bad aside, my gut tells me its a step in the right direction.

Word to Remember: Infomediary

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“Formed from a combination of the words information and intermediary, an infomediary is a Web site that gathers and organizes large amounts of data and acts as an intermediary between those who want the information and those who supply the information.

There are two types of infomediaries. Some infomediaries, such as Autobytel.com and BizRate.com, offer consumers a place to gather information about specific products and companies before they make purchasing decisions. The infomediary is a neutral entity, a third-party provider of unbiased information; it does not promote or try to sell specific products in preference over other products. It does not act on behalf of any vendors. The second type of infomediary, and one that is not necessarily Web-based, is one that provides vendors with consumer information that will help the vendor develop and market products. The infomediary collects the personal information from the buyers and markets that data to businesses. The advantage of this approach is that consumer privacy is protected and some infomediaries even offer consumers a percentage of the brokerage deals.

The term infomediary was coined by John Hagel in his 1996 article entitled “The Coming Battle for Customer Information” in the Harvard Business Review.” via

Familar to The Unfamiliar

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“There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.” -George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)