Advertising Archives - Page 8 of 12

01May 2006 by Bob Cargill

Blog, Interrupted

Advertising, Blogging, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Public Relations

After more than 26 months and 62,000 words, I’ve decided to give this blog a rest. It may not be the end for A New Marketing Commentator, but it will be at least a short hiatus. I’ve spent between five and ten hours a week since February of 2004 in the blogosphere, most of those hours researching and writing original posts, and my gut tells me it’s time to pause and refresh. I want to concentrate fully on my search for new work and free up more time to spend with my family and friends. I also need to measure the benefits of independent blogging for me at this point in my career and give careful consideration to expending such creative energy – sigh – in other areas instead. Please…

26Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

Student Blogs: A Sign of What’s to Come

Advertising, Blogging, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing

Last Friday, I was invited by my friend, Leslie Dangel, to deliver a guest lecture to a class of marketing students she teaches at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She’s asked me on a number of occasions in the past, and I always enjoy the experience. This time around was no different. I first spoke about running the Boston Marathon for charity and the five different fundraising campaigns I’ve conducted – on behalf of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (’96), The Home for Little Wanderers (‘02 and ’03) and Children’s Hospital Boston (’05 and ’06) – as part of the Boston Athletic Association’s Charity Program. I then showed the class a wall calendar we used as a self-promotional, lead-generation piece when I worked as a creative director at Boston’s Yellowfin Direct…

24Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

Why Johnny Can’t Brand: “Action is Branding”

Advertising, Branding, Client Service, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing

“Too many folks think “branding” is what airlines do when they repaint the planes every few years, or what banks do when they refresh all the signage in their lobbies and reengineer their logos,” write Bill Schley and Carl Nichols, Jr. (partners at david, inc., an international brand consulting firm), in Chapter Two of “Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea.” “In the airlines’ case, they spend millions to update the image on the tails of their airplanes," add Schley and Nichols. "Then they arrive late, stick you in a cramped seat with your knees bumping the food tray, charge you $1,000 more than the guy sitting next to you because you committed the crime of not including a Saturday night stay, and lose your…

19Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

A Memorable Boston Marathon Experience for More Reasons Than One

Advertising, Boston Marathon, Branding, Cause-Related Marketing, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing

Thank you once again to those of you who sponsored my participation in the Boston Marathon this year. You helped me raise a personal record total of $3,550 – and counting – for Children’s Hospital Boston. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your support. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this fundraising campaign in the near future, but while the marathon memories are still fresh in my mind, I thought I would at least give you the latest tally now and also let you know how I did as a runner. Not only did I exceed my previous fundraising high this time around, but I also had a very good day on the course. My finishing time was 3:52:49, my best time in a marathon since…

13Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

It’s Easy to Fall Silent Amidst the New Din of Agency Blogs

Advertising, Blogging, Branding, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Public Relations

So many advertising, marketing and public relations agencies are dipping their collective toes in the blogosphere lately that unless it’s the likes of Hill Holliday or Edelman we’re talking about, it’s not really big news anymore when any single one of them takes the plunge. That was certainly not the case as recently as just a few months ago, but blogging has finally eclipsed the tipping point and suddenly everyone and his or her brother wants to get in on the action. Understandably so. Given the paradigm shift toward transparency and immediacy that’s now underway in corporate communications, the benefits of business blogging – as long as you do it right – far outweigh the costs. As I wrote here in this space back in December of 2004, “a blog…

03Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

Lose the Vowels, Gain a Following

Advertising, Branding, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing

I suppose I could change my name to BB CRGL. And as for my blog, that could be reinvented as NW MKTNG CMNTTR, or some other such cryptic arrangement of letters, sans vowels. That, at least according to an article I read in the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe (“Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson), would make me hip to what the author characterizes as “a phenomenon that stems from the growing acceptance of shorthand in text-messaging, communication that encourages users to get as much said in as little time and space possible.” The article begins with the following… Vwls R so ystrdy. From Motorola’s SLVR phone to Levi’s DLX jeans, merchants are unveiling new products with compact names that feature…

31Mar 2006 by Bob Cargill

Ted Demopoulos on BusinessBlogWire: The Four Types of Business Blogs

Advertising, Blogging, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Public Relations

Ted Demopoulos (public speaker, consultant, blogger and co-author – with Shel Holtz – of the book, "Blogging for Business" ), guest posting on Business BlogWire, writes about the four types of business blogs… 1) Internal blogs: Internal blogs are used for internal company or project communications, and are not available on the Internet. 2) Problogs: I call blogs started primarily to make money, for example through advertising and affiliate programs, problogs. 3) Company Blogs: These are blogs started to help support an existing company or product. 4) Independent professional blogs: These are similar to company blogs, but are written – and owned – by individuals. About the latter type, Ted cites two examples of independent professional blogs, Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion and my blog, A New Marketing Commentator. And I…

23Mar 2006 by Bob Cargill

Hill Holliday Enters the Blogosphere in a Big Way

Advertising, Blogging, Direct Marketing, Marketing

A little more than five months ago, I wrote right here about Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that had shed its Web site entirely and instead staked a claim in the blogosphere. That was them. This is Hill Holliday we’re talking about now. Yes, not just one of the best known, but one of the best -- period -- ad agencies in the country has apparently gone the “all-blog format,” which is how Adrants’ Steve Hall recently characterized HH’s exciting, new Web presence, adding... The beauty of this approach, what many agencies still need to discover, will catapult Hill Holliday into the "conversation" about advertising. The site will get natural Google love, Technorati love and proliferation throughout the blogosphere's link-fest, something a static agency site can…

20Mar 2006 by Bob Cargill

Web Marketing Association’s Study Scores PR Web Sites Low

Advertising, Blogging, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Public Relations

In case you missed it, the Web Marketing Association (WMA) recently released its Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR), which “provides industry benchmarks for Web site development and is based on data collected from 9,748 Web site evaluations since 1997.” You can sign up to get your own free copy of this report here. In his summary of the report, Adrants’ Steve Hall said “public relations sites ranked low across all categories,” a finding that prompted the following comment from another Steve in my blogroll, Micro Persuasion’s Steve Rubel… When I read this my gut says that the adoption of blogging and other social media technologies on agency sites will separate the men from the boys, the ladies from the girls. As agencies begin to blog (or not), their writing skills…