Monthly Archives: May 2010

Idol Predictomatic. Social media monitoring American Idol prediction.

I haven’t watched much of Amer­i­can Idol. I’m really not a fan of the sign­ing but I am a fan of using social media to pre­dict pop­u­lar­ity con­tests. So lets give it a go. First lets look at sen­ti­ment. Seems my taste for indie rock (and not pop bal­lads) isn’t shared by every­one. Sen­ti­ment for these

Lost. Is everyone feeling as let down as me? Let’s find out.

What I found to be a rather dis­ap­point­ing finale to ABC’s Lost is per­fect time for a lit­tle sen­ti­ment analy­sis fun using the social media mon­i­tor­ing tool Social Radar. What do I expect to see after the end a show that was much loved show? I’m expect­ing to see a real dive in some pretty pos­i­tive

Why your advertising sucks part 4: You want it to do everything.

Image via Wikipedia Quick, how many copy points can you fit into a 60 sec­ond radio spot? The answer should be one. But many ads that really suck the big one are about two or three things – maybe even more. This is real easy to observe in a print ad. Just open your local news­pa­per

Hey, account guy, where’s your book?

Image by Street­Fly JZ via Flickr Every cre­ative in the busi­ness has a port­fo­lio. It’s our call­ing card, our proof of worth, and our stamp of iden­tity all rolled into one. Resume? Why do peo­ple even have those when a book says so much more about your abil­ity to work won­ders day in and day out? It’s

Why your advertising sucks part 3: You think people are stupid.

Image by byzantin3 via Flickr David Ogilvy said 40 years ago “the con­sumer is not a moron, she’s your wife.” It seems not every­one lis­tened because the indus­try con­tin­ues to insult her. Ogilvy’s quip may be one of the most quoted phrases in mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing but mar­keters often don’t think it applies to them.

Why your advertising sucks part 2. The power of no.

What’s worse than a yes man? Easy. A no man. (Or even a no woman.) Cor­po­rate cul­ture breeds them just as inces­santly as yes men. And, unfor­tu­nately, so do many large adver­tis­ing agen­cies. OK. So who is the “no per­son?” And how do they make your adver­tis­ing suck? Imag­ine a smart, no non­sense woman who has the power

Why your advertising sucks. Part one: Trust.

Image by thorin­side via Flickr You prob­a­bly agree that most adver­tis­ing isn’t cre­atively great or even good. From the out­side, one might think it’s a busi­ness filled with dumb, untal­ented peo­ple serv­ing mar­ket­ing depart­ments filled with bean coun­ters who couldn’t care less if their dol­lars are pro­duc­ing a fetid mess. Truth is, too many adver­tis­ing agen­cies