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Influential Interactive Marketing

Reflections on creating compelling marketing, advertising and public relations

"Askvertising" And The Future Of Online AdvertisingNovember 19

About a year ago when I was in the market for a new digital SLR camera, the first place I turned was a site I have often visited over the years for authoritative advice on cameras. The site, Digital Photography Review, or dpreview.com for short, features complete and exhaustive reviews of digital cameras on the Internet. It's not a magazine, but a free online labor of love from some hardcore photography enthusiasts.

The site features affiliate links that you can click on to purchase your new camera, and the commissions go back to dpreview. I ended up buying my Nikon D80 by clicking one of the site's links (and it's still the site that I visit to lust after the new D90). Unlike most online advertising, however, the links often come with the endorsement of the site, and the explicit request to click on them. In other words, the site ASKS you to click on their ads - a growing phenomena in online advertising that I call "askvertising." "Askvertising" is the situation when the content creators or owners of a website are actively requesting that users click on the ads to help support the site or to get useful information.

Got Controversy? Why Your Brand Needs One TodayNovember 18

A recently released book that I contributed to asked the question with it's subtitle, "why don't they get it?" It's a fitting question today, as brands are often divided into those that understand the power of conversation and those that don't. Slowly, however, brands are adding their names to the ranks of those that get it. Dell and Comcast are often being praised as two shining examples due to their willingness to have a conversation with customers and actively use of social media tools.

There is one fact, however, that is often forgot. Both of those brands first entered into using social media out of necessity. More importantly, they started after major brand controversies. Dell had to reinvent their reputation after Dell Hell, and Comcast had to combat the incredibly damaging Technician Sleeping On The Couch video. Similar to the natural phenomenon of some forests needing fire so they can properly burn and new seeds can be released, evolving brand communications seems sometimes to adhere to a similar pattern.

Here are a few reasons why having a brand controversy may be your company's best hope to reinvent itself and start to embrace social media tools that initially seem new and scary:

1. Forces you to listen fast. Relying on daily or weekly media clips is no longer fast enough

4 Ways Social Media Could Save The ArtsNovember 17

Last week I had the fortune to be part of an event that we should all care about. It was a meeting of the National Arts Marketing Project, a conference sponsored by the Americans for the Arts and designed to help art based organizations around the country use marketing to drive more engagement, subscriptions, and attendance with patrons (a much better word than consumer, by the way). To understand the vibe of the event you need to look no further than a colllection of titles from some of the sessions put on during the three day conference:

• Are You An Urbanite? Attracting Young Ticket Buyers and Donors
• Hacking h live Twittering, or making a cast available after a performance for flipcam interviews with video bloggers. The point is that every arts group needs to find a way of helping word of mouth about what they are doing to travel.

Trendspot: A Potential Influx of ExpatsNovember 16

Regardless of how you feel about the way that the US presidential election turned out, there is one fact that seems fairly indisputable ... the world outside of America overwhelmingly supported Obama over McCain. One site in particular that crystallized this truth is called www.iftheworldcouldvote.com. The site invites people outside of the US to share their choice for president and nearly 1 million people from 213 countries shared their votes with the results about 87% in favor of Obama. Add this to the dozens of groups (many with thousands of members each) on Facebook all supporting Obama and you could point to a definitive pattern of support from outside the US for Obama.

So now that he has won the election, what is this likely to mean? Hopes were high even before the results of the election about the potential impact on America's reputation that Obama's election could have. Some media outlets are already reporting about widespread optimism and goodwill towards America that has not been seen since the days directly after 911.  In my own network of friends and colleagues living outside the US, there is one interesting development in particular that I think may shape this country in the next few month

Something to Believe InNovember 15

There's a singer named Israel Kamakawiwo from Hawaii that I first rediscovered during a good friend's wedding. You may not know who he is by name, but you have probably heard his often replayed rendition of "=Over The Rainbow" at some point in your life. It was the song that my friend came down the aisle to her wedding with and probably one that has made it into many other weddings as well.

He was a big man who created music that he loved and brought a region to life with his presence. In a time where people obsess over their looks and consider surgery to fix any perceived flaw, he was huge (nicknamed "The Gentle Giant") and from Hawaii (so he often performed shirtless). Not something you see every day, but if you watch the video below you can see how this overweight but talented man gave hope to an entire region. Israel was a local hero.