2009 Superbowl

Last weekend, I like many others, went over to gather with some friends and watch the most important American sporting event of the year. It occured to me that sports have gotten stale. This year most folks were not excited to watch the game. I don't know if it was the teams, or the half time act (sorry Bruce), but most people where not looking forward to the gathering. I do know that it wasn't the host, he is one of the most likeable guys around, but most people decided not to make the party.

TV and other media mediums are also suffering from being stale. Magazines and newspapers are a dying medium, not because people don't want to read, or be in the know, but because they have evolve to get the information from the Web, in a more instant manner. As such these mediums re-invented themselves to provide up to the minute news, and the latest information in the niches for their audience.

It is time for footbal to re-invent itself. After a great debate during the party, here are some ideas the NFL can use to provide a more entertaining experience and a greater challenge for the teams.

1. Why do a simple kick to a goal post. This just doesn't seem to be a big challenge. Most teams earn the extra point after the sweet touchdown. After all, how hard is it to get an oval shape, leather wrapped, piece of rubber through a Goal posts that is 10 feet high and 18 feet, 6 inches wide. I propose that they make the goal post more interactive to provide a better challenge. For example, if the team is 50 feet from the goal, then the post should remain as is. For every 10 feet they move closer, the post should become 3 feet narrower, so that when the team is at the goal line, the post should be 6 feet wide.

2. For an added more challenging experience with a bigger reward, the team can then opt for a three point conversion by allowing the goal post to sway from side to side.

3. Another addition to the match is to learn from the very popular sport of orchestrated wrestling (WWE). Teams can opt to give up one of their time outs in exchange for sending in a special player at any time in the middle of a play from any spot of the sidelines to block that very special, yet fabulous play as seen during the 2009 superbowl. I'm speaking about the 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison. Think how funny and amussing it would have been to seen a Cardinal run in a pick up Harrison and run him all the way back to the starting point and convert that interception into a touchdown. Of course, this would be quite a challenge, first to knock down a 250LB player and then pick him up and run him back. This would yield a 14 point conversion, surely to put some distance between the two teams.

The bottom line is that altough this are mere farce suggestions, every industry should find a way to reinvent themselves. A way to captivate the audience they once secured, to get back the dollars they once had. If every series ran the same plot line, if every movie had the same theme, they would cease to exist, but why are we still watching a game which has not changed over the course of its history. Sure, players have change, but the game has not. I started following the game, but two years, all I can say is that I'm already bored and not looking forward to the same all next season. The NFL needs to do a better job to sell me back on.

Labels: advertising, brand, Entertainment, Freedom of Speech, techniques, Video Games

You are ready for an update

I recently read an entry on Eric Shanfelt's blog entitled "Publish Web First, Print Second" which further reinforced my accounts from a previous entry Instant Information entry. I have discussed this topic to death, which by the way is endless, in the past couple of month. I have discussed it with colleagues, friends, and just about anyone I know who is interested or willing to hear it.

Yet, little change has taken place. We all continue, day in day out, to use the Web site as a landfill. A place to dump all information, whether relevant or otherwise, and continue to save the best for print. I have also noticed that this is the case for most sites for which I visit and receive a magazine.

It dawned on my this evening that perhaps is not our sites or our processes that need an upgrade, but ourselves. We are at cross roads, a place where digital media is changing the way we obtained our information. We are at the point where most jobs are going digital, yet change hasn't taken place. People still walk into their desks and the only digital they see is their email. I'm referring to the mail clerk all the way up the food chain to the CEO.

I can assure you that less snail mail is receive every day than digital mail. We have completely revamped our immediate communication avenues, but have yet to see that we no longer wake up and go outside to pick up the paper. We instead turn to Google news, MSNBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com or some other .com avenue to be feed our daily dose of information.

Then why is it that most publishers insist in saving the best content for print? Because the senior level editors fear for their jobs, they fear that the pimpled face twenty something is going to come in and replace them.

My mother always told me and re-enforce two important things that I carry with me to this day:

1. Go into any career you want, just make sure you work to be the best in your field.
2. Always associate with smarter people, they will teach you new things and take you to the next level.

I used to think my mother was crazy, but what 12 year old wants to listen to their parents, let alone pay attention to any advice they might have to give.

The bottom line is that if you give the new generation a chance for expressing their ideas, and you surround yourself with the best and the brightest, you will rise in your career as you will have the best team working for you. If you insist in keeping them in the dark basement and cultivate them as mushrooms, they will grow to resent you and you will miss out in sharing ideas and growing your company to the next level. Ever noticed the Windows Update icon that pops up near the bottom right corner of your PC? A little box typically pops up notifying you of yet another update/upgrade to your current flavor of Windows. Don't you wish you came equipped with such an enhancement. Time to update!

Labels: advertising, cms, content management, CSS, Customer Service, Freedom of Speech, marketing

SEO Hackery and sales tricks

I was recently reading an article on SEO Chat, a large provider of SEO tools, articles, and news. I have been exploring and toying with the idea of hiring a consultant/ helper to get better rankings on some terms. I have a lot of experience on SEO, and keep with with the space, but it is always great to get third party validation.

The problem is that when it comes to SEO, you have to open up your entire site to some folks who just may do a hack job or worst, get you banned. This is why I get wary of SEO, thankfully SEO Chat is able to validate my worries, this article speaks of Network Solutions, one of the largest domain name registrars.

It is sad to see such a powerful company diminish the trust of the community by offering trickery and half-ass SEO programs to turn a profit on the less savvy.

Another point not covered in the article is that you do -not- get to select the keywords you want to rank for. They go after low volume low traffic "low hanging fruit" keywords (the sort a crappy site can rank for with the addition of the term into the title tag)

Another bad practice by these registrars, also not covered in the article, but I mostly seen it in godaddy.com, is that they keep track of the domain names you search for. If you search for a domain name a few times, they consider it popular and will self register to themselves and then ask you for a lot of $$$ to sell it to you. I notice this in the past and was happy to see validation from some other users commenting on it at the end of this article.

The bottom line is that we have to be very careful on who to trust. Don't open up your site to just any hack that comes along, especially if the price is too good to be true. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you are in the search for an SEO consultant from the king of all Search Engines, Google.

Labels: advertising, content management, CSS, Google, Search Engine, SEO

Instant Information

The Web is designed as an avenue for providing and finding information, yet many media companies insist on holding back on their content until after their publication is released to the market.

This is a fatal mistake, folks who read periodicals are not the folks tuned in to the Web. A once a month read is not bad, but what about the media junkies who just can't get enough, how do you deliver to that audience?

Some companies don't even bother to put their content online, while others drop 20 to 30 articles onto their site typically on a random fashion and without any organization. To most publishers, their Web site is but an after thought, designed to serve as an advertisement to drive subscriptions for the periodical. Other simply place news and press release items, but leave their readers hanging with original content living strictly on the print pages.

The bottom line is that in today's world the business and money is online. Publishers can save millions of dollars by turning their periodical into digital editions first. That is, release the content to the site as it comes in. Use the print medium as a place to publish the most important stories/articles. Showcase a variety of product and product release, while driving the reader to the site to see a list of all items. Use the medium as a way to sum up the news for the month, but the site as a way to keep the reader vested and interested in checking that site often to see the goings on of the profession.

The reader benefits because:

1. they can reach all the content instantly on the Web site
2. Monitor the RSS feed in their favorite rss reader
3. Get a weekly newsletter with all new content via email.
4. Get a monthly filtered view via print.


The Publisher benefits because:
1. More viewers to their Web publications
2. More viewers means a higher CPM for their Ads
3. A inherited CMS (Content Management System) for their Print Publication
4. A better staffed editorial team that is cross trained for Print and Online
5. Less crunch time, since the articles are pre-edited.

and many more benefits. Now go on and designed a great site with proper navigation.

Labels: advertising, Alexa, content management, Design, RSS, Web Design

Warren Buffet

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet,
the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity.
Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share of stock at age 11 and he now
regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering
newspap ers.
3. He still lives in the same, small 3-bedroom house in midtown
Omaha that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says
that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does
not have a wall or a fence around it.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver
or security people around him.
5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's
largest private jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He
writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies,
giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls
them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules.
Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder's money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His pastime
after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch
television.
8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man, met him for the first time
only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in
common with Warren Buffet. So, he had scheduled his meeting
only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted
for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor have a
computer on his desk.

His advice to young people: 'Stay away from credit cards and
invest in yourself and remember:
A. Money doesn't create the man, man created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don't do what others say. Just listen to them, but do what
makes you feel good.
D. Don't go on brand name. Wear those things in which you
feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things. Spend on
tho se who really are in need.
F. After all, it's your life. Why give others the chance to rule
your life?'

Labels: advertising, planes, techniques, TV

"Winning" Super Bowl shirts end up in Nicaragua

The superbowl this year was a little different for me. Besides being the most boring one I ever watched, I was accompanied by a few friends and colleagues. I never had a superbowl party before, but the turnout was good and everyone claimed to had fun.

Why I am writing about this today, when it happened such a while ago, mainly because I just read story about shirts ending up in Nicaragua. Shirts that were premade with thoughts that the Patriots were designed to be te dream team, with an undefeated season, they were expected to be superbowl champs. Instead, the Giants came out of nowhere with Manning making an exciting fourth quarter manuvering and claiming victory!

Back to the story, "shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children." This is a great act of charity and donation for an empoverish country, but what of the erronous information on them? Should the shirts really be given out even though many are to benefit?

What a dilemma? Erronous information being circulated around a third world country or a nice act of kindness.

The bottom line is that we must put our own selfishness aside for the greater good. I think Voltaire and Locke had it right. These men influence the US founding fathers into creating liberty for all and for all to be free to do what is best for the common good! Locke always aregued that property is a natural right and it is derived from labor, but what labor is there involve in charitable things, but the labor of good. However, in his essay, the social contract, he postulates that an exchange of goods wold not take place if the parties involved whee not satisfied, in the aforementined sory and exchanged took place, therefore it must had been good. Children obtain useless shirts which would not have derived a profit while the manufacturer obtained a charitable tax write off and the gratitude of many.

Labels: advertising, Customer Service, demonstrations, Freedom of Speech, health

Taste or captivating an audience - where do you draw the line

I currently subscribe to many RSS feeds. I find that this is the only way to stay current and up to date on a world where we have less and less time while getting inform more and more.

One of the feeds I subscribe to is Reuters "oddly enough", I find this feed quite interesting as it depicts the unusual and yet real side of humanity. You will be amazed to find out what people do on a daily basis.

However, today I was surprise to read a story about the latest anti-smoking campaign, this time in the United Kingdom. I always found the anti-smoking TV ads in US television a bit distasteful yet effective as they always captivate you, again mostly because of the poor taste. The UK ad shows people with a fish hook through them in quite a grotesque manner. The message "don't get hooked" being delivered with a note regarding the number of cigarettes smoked by an individual annually.

Thought the government said it believed people would not be seriously offended by the ads as the intention was to protect people from the harmful effects of smoking; this ad, attracted one of the highest numbers of complaints the advertising standards watchdog has ever received. Nearly 800 complaints were made about a series of poster, TV, newspaper and Internet ads which many felt were offensive and distressing, particularly to children.

The bottom line is that although this ad campaign turned to be very effective and got more exposure due to the controversial factors involved, sometimes you have to consider the audience and that you may be causing damage. In this case, I agree with many in that it can cause serious mental damage to children, especially since this were posted on billboards, TV ads, and many magazines accessible to minors. Someone ought to start drawing the line for marketeers and ad agencies, one thing is freedom of speech and we all love to have the right, but another is to cause mental anguish to others.

Labels: advertising, reuters, RSS

Powerpoint is next to go down

In an announcement yesterday Google started the talks of releasing Presentation, a PowerPoint look alike for presenting information, the difference, this program is Web based.

Google, who started challenging Microsoft early last year, is seeking the demise of the Microsoft Office Suite of Products one by one, first with its widely used Gmail mail client, followed by words, spreadsheets, and now looking to lure the business community with Presentations.

This company is hitting the mark picking up where others, like Microsoft, have fallen behind, taking advantage of their powerful Web presence and resources.

Describing the 'Presentations' software yesterday at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said that the application will allow users to create and share business presentations over the web. Schmidt used a beta version of this new app to present his presentation slides.

The bigger question at hand is how is the company going to generate revenue from this product since it obviously cannot fill it up with their greatest revenue generator, adsense. Well, they seem to have now start to break off the freeware space as during the product demo, it was also announced that the Presentation software will come in two versions, of which “Premier” version with extra storage would retail for $50 per year. The product is expected to be available this summer.

The bottom line is that although adsense has given the Search Engine Powerhouse a lot of income and they have been able to translate and transplant the text ad model across many of its platforms, we can clearly see that the click fraud cases brought upon Google have taken a told and they have seen the light with the announcement of a charge for this product. What next, a Googal of email storage space for $5?

Labels: advertising, Google, Search Engine, software

Advertising is out of control

First there was Superbowl ads, then incorporating animals into ads, the latest, incorporating ads on eggs.

Reuters is reporting today of a new marketing campaign design towards consumers buying eggs. This, the first of its kind in Japan, will feature stickers posted onto eggs in supermarkets. Ramen Noodles is spending $58,000-$66,000 US dollars on the promotion of it's new chicken ramen instant noodles product.

As we know this kind of campaign is very targeted and promotes good brand recognition. If you don't believe me, then let me postulate this question, what brand of bananas do you buy?

The bottom line is that in the US we have informed consumers to death and it's always refreshing to find someone using a new design and approach to brand and market a product. Although, the sticker on food items is not new, I haven't seen this kind of cross promotion in the market place before. Very ingenious, but does it affect the quality or sanitation of the eggs, only time will tell when we heard of the sticky bird flu.

Labels: advertising, brand, Design, eggs, reuters