Yearly Archives: 2011

Only as Good as Your Next Refresh.

By
Steve Poppe
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In the reporting today following the AOL purchase of Huffington Post there were two points of note worth highlighting.  One suggests that since AOL purchased TechCrunch traffic to the TechCrunch site has increased 30%.  I’m not sure if that as a good or bad thing.  Was the reader gene pool slighting diminished by that add?  I suspect so.  But if TC holds to its editorial mission, that growth may find its proper level.

Secondly, Tim Armstrong was quoted as saying “We are essentially two years away from a growth business on the Internet.”  Hello? It’s the Inter-neck.  It’s a content strategy.  In the content business you are only as good as your next refresh.  I understand about building a mission and infrastructure and team and all that, but if Egypt can change a country in three weeks, I think AOL with some imaginative thinking and mad content posting can add some readers in less than 2 years.  BTW, did anyone read the AOL memo from Mr. Armstrong circulated on the web about his plan to turn the business around?   Maybe that’s why he said 2 years.  Dash that plan and start dialing up the original, thoughtful and creative content. (Oh, and Patch isn’t it.) Peace it up!

Smiles at AOL.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

AOL’s purchase of the Huffington Post 8 hours ago was very smart.  I Googled my blog  (whatstheidea+AOL) to see if I predicted said purchase but did not. Maybe I should use Bing.  (Full disclosure, client. Hee hee.)  Anyway, if AOL’s strategy is to provide the best content on the web, this is a great move.  And I loved Arianna Huffington’s quote in the paper paper — her first as head of the new media property group — that she won’t let her politics get in the way of her job.  Yeah right. That’s what makes the Huff Post great.  She can put on her transformer hat when overseeing other media properties, but don’t change a thing on the Huff Post. Ima (pronounced eye-mah) have to start reading I guess.

And, oh, by the way, this story was not on the front page of the NY Times business section, it was on the front page.  Just under the mast head.  Geezer for important.

Tim Armstrong articulated the strategy to be a content leader… and he is delivering.  Yahoo articulated the same strategy and is not. Nice move AOL. Nice move.  Even Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) is probably smiling.  Peace!

Apple. An opt-in monopoly?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Apple has decided that ebook publishers and retailers, whose books make their way onto Apple devices, must allow the books to be purchased via Apple.  If you are an iPazzle owner and go to Amazon to buy “The Help” there must also be a link to purchase that book from iTunes/Store as well.  Apple will earn 30%.   Sony an ebook retailer has already balked at this dictate.

Apple is not saying you have to buy from them, just that they deserve equal access.  Seems fair enough.  Apple Fanboys and girls may wish to give their hard-earned to their favorite brand, as is their right, but where will this taking a cut of the content stop?  Will Apple at some point want a penny for every phone call that lands on an iPhone?  And how would you sell that to your custies? “It goes to R&D to help design better products?” Might work.

Apple, already an opt-in monopoly of almost cult-like dimension, is creating a platform (read Steve Lohr’s article in The New York Times) that stretches beyond hardware and software and into that amorphous area of services.  They had better be a bit careful though. Opt-in is one thing…dictatorship quite another.  Peace!

New Facebook Ad Program :-(

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The Like button on Facebook is an opt-in endorsement. It was a good idea for these fast-twitch social media times.  It was also a way for Facebook to serve smarter ads without looking like privacy hacks (both meanings).  But that monetization things is getting in the way again, and it coming to Facebook in the form a something called “sponsored stories.”  I don’t know all the nuances of the advertising offering but I do know that if you “like” something or “check-in” somewhere, Facebook is putting your face on a product endorsement.

Can you say slippery slope?

This one, IMHO, will have a shelf life of about 2 months.  I don’t see it working and can imagine quite a backlash.  Both for FB and the sponsoring advertisers.  Time will tell, but this one doesn’t feel right. The influentials will have field day with this.  And blame in on the ad guys. Peace!

Pepsi Give Away.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I wrote recently about Pepsi’s 2010 decision to not run Super Bowl ads in favor the “Pepsi Refresh” project — a corporate effort to take the $20 million it usually spends and fund social projects like new playgrounds, high school band uniforms, etc.  The money would be distributed via a social media circus taking place on Facebook and Twitter.  

Apparently there were over 77 million votes registered in the ether, 120,000 idea submissions and 400 winners to date. The only losers seem to be TBWA/Chiat Day who helped come up with the dog of an idea and Pepsi itself, who saw sales drop 6% in a category that slipped 4.3%.  That’s a delta of 1.7% for those who are counting.    

“True that” I’m all about companies doing go.  But in order to do good, one must be a thriving brand.  Pepsi is not. Colorful, yes. Stylish, yes.  Happy and friendly, dittos. It’s not even holding its own in a tough sugar water market.

Pepsi Refresh was a bold step. Stealing refresh from Coke was an interesting notion. But marketing is about selling. Head of Pepsi Digital, Shiv Singh, says the project was “an investment to build brand awareness and cultivate a long term relationship with consumers. It was designed to drive brand health.”  Let’s get back to brand strategy Pepsi. That’s where health is…not in media strategy. Peace!

The Internet’s Role in Evolution

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I read in the paper paper today of a hypotheses on the ascent of man.  It suggested modern humans were able to leave the African continent and move to Asia —  getting past those pesky Neanderthals –due to…

“the emergence of some social or behavioral advantage — like the perfection of the faculty for language” (source: NYT 1/28/11)

If you think about it, it’s quite logical.  If spoken language (beyond signing and guttural grunts) might be responsible for the “out of Africa” movement and huge evolutionary change, then what might the Internet bring in terms of geopolitical evolution?  A global language, a global governance, peace in the Middle East?  I’m not talking tomorrow, I’m thinking 1,000 – 10,000 years out.

Help me here, comment with your thoughts? Peace!

Yah-Why!

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Back in the 90s when Yahoo! owned the airways (okay, the cables and pipes), my favorite thing to do was log on and scour the list of new sites that joined the Internet that day – all available on Yahoo!.  New sites were organized by topic and type and the growth the wild west was so young, it was manageable.  I loved Yahoo! for that.  Indexing new sites, organizing and sharing them and providing links so one could explore the growing medium. Tres cool. 

According to Alexa, “What’s the Idea?” is the 586,688 most trafficked website in the world.  And holding.  It used to be moving down but the number of new websites turning up every day is startling. That growth has caused Yahoo! to cease publishing all the new sites.  But if Yahoo’s strategy is about content, they might want more and newer ways to make me stop by the site.  Fantasy Football is over and I probably won’t be back until August.

Yahoo needs a focused brand strategy, an idea, and some tight execution to turn this thing around quickly. They’ve got a smart ad agency, lots of people who know and love the brand, but for all the billions in ad revenue they don’t know how to package what webizens want.  The Yaaaah-hooooooo is gone!  Now it’s more like Yah-Who? Or Yah-Why?  Come on Ms. Bartz; you have two more quarters (is my guess). Bust a nut.

Blogs. The engine of social media.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I love bloggers.  I’m not talking about the ones who post every two weeks, I’m talking about those daily posters.  Very few do it for income. They do it because they have a passion for a topic.  It’s the passion keeps them in the game.  The commercially minded talk about building a community or an ecosystem, but they are often really just putting dollars before sense.  The bloggers Ienjoy are those who have “the love” of the topic and seek out other with the love.

Blogs were the first form of social media  — and the engine of social media, but Facebook and Twitter get the headlines.  Facebook is great for stream of life. Twitter is great for topical, staccato bursts.  They are both important social communes. But the blog – that’s where the heartistic stuff happens.

Who is your favorite blogger. Do you know him or her? Can you describe that person?  You bet.  Now look at their Facebook page.  Is your picture better or worse? I suspect the latter. Not focused.  And for brands? Facebook pages are the rage, but really, they are little more than a hodgepodge of selling disguised as community.  The blog is the engine. Businesses need to dial up the blog. Peace!

Munn Rabot. Surgeons.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

My old  TV gave out this week so I went off to Best Buy to get a flatty.  Nice deal but I have to wait until Wednesday – post NY Jets. 1080 something, twice the inches (size queen), 120hz.  Anyway, lots of friends have hi-def and large screens and I’ve always been impressed by the quality of the picture for sports, but last night for the first time I was impressed (watching at my friend Ed’s)by a large format, hi-definition ad.  An ad for New York Presbyterian. This ad would be good on a 4 year old iPhone with a broken screen, but with awesome audio and huge video it made my world stop.

You’ve probably seen Munn Rabot’s first ad in the campaign a while ago with Ed Koch.  Well, this spot could win Sundance. As a movie.  Check it out.

What an “amazing” use of the medium.  The size of the little girl in the screen. Black and white format. The script. I’ve done and seen a lot of good work in the healthcare space – as has Devito/Verdi – but Munn Rabot has pretty much perfected the practice of selling healthcare. Are any of you pharmaceutical advertisers listening?  These guys are surgeons.  Peace.

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