It’s the security lines at airports that make me feel most alone in the world.
All that patting down, removing items from my person and from my belongings… For those few minutes where you shamble through the security scanner, barefoot, divested, unconnected, surrounded by strangers, and observed by cameras and armed security officers, I feel totally, and helplessly alone.
I’ll come back to that in a moment. But first–have you looked at the growth of social marketing activity lately? Exponential growth, faster than any other medium. It took television 30 years to reach an audience of 50 million people; Facebook did it in just two. Over 95% of Generation Y use social media.
The question that fascinates me is simply, “Why?â€
Continue reading “Social media & the unbearable loneliness of being”
Buzz over the New York 2009 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is growing and top designers from across the world are taking center stage, introducing their long anticipated collections. This is how the fashion industry has operated for nearly 100 years: Designers secretly produce the fashions that they feel are most relevant to their lines, and retailers decide what items are most relevant to their customer base. But the fashion industry is at the verge of a tipping point — one that could change this system forever.
One of the challenges of working in digital media is feeling like a blind man. You can hear, smell, taste the changes happening around you–but it always feels like you’re missing part of the equation; where is this going, what is happening next, what is at the horizon line? That’s how most of us who are honest about it feel anyway. It took 
The green marketing space is exploding with new opportunities for brands to make their mark. And it’s no surprise why: According to a study released by Strategic Oxygen, GCI Group and Cohn & Wolfe more than 70 percent of global respondents said they “probably†or “definitely†would increase their preference for a brand’s green products if they were convinced of the positive impact on the environment and business. Almost 60% said they would expect to pay a premium for green products.
Americans more than ever are heading online to get purchase critical “information.â€Â Given the tough economic times, the value of every spare dollar means that people have to be more thoughtful about how they spend it.
To remain successful, marketers MUST market in the social web. According to a May 2009 Anderson Analytics’ survey, 52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social network. No matter the marketing goal, from customer service, branding, and lead generation to direct marketing and e-commerce, there is a place for social media in the marketing plan.
Yet another cute Twitter name for leveraging the micro-blogging solution has emerged this week with Fox’s “Tweet-peats” which refers to the behind the scenes tweets on about certain Fox  shows during repeat broadcasts.
When clients visit the Lab, they always want to know:Â But what does social media mean to me? And ultimately, they want what Cuba Gooding Jr.’s 
Local is the new hottie and everyone wants to date her! The promise of local (in terms of content and targeted advertising) has long been the promise land for all of us emerging media types. With the growth of broadband and IP related content solutions, the dream of targeting relevant content/ad messaging can become a reality. Semantic solutions are allowing us to learn about users and IP-based data allows us to push down that marketing funnel and deliver the dream of relevant messages. Cable has been playing with DMA and SubDMA targeting for the last few years but has yet to really land the plane. For the larger cable and satellite solutions it’s a numbers game. They need access and affectability in more regions and households to make this a true play and they aren’t there yet.