January 2010 Archives

News Ltd excelled itself this weekend with a piece of journalistic sleight-of-hand designed to deceive readers in the quest for more website clicks. The story - Erotic dancers at charity launch for sick kids - first appeared on the front page of the NT News and their website. It wasn't long before other websites in the News Ltd group picked up on the story's "click potential", resulting in the piece appearing at The Australian and becoming the featured story on the home page of News.com.au.

In their efforts to avoid accusations of bias, the modern news media has become more biased and more distorted than ever before. A perfect example of this 'biased impartiality' occurred this morning on Channel Seven's revamped Sunrise program. In a segment on the climate change debate, Kochie interviewed Dr Ben McNeil - Senior Research Fellow for the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales - and Lord Christopher Monckton. Who isn't.

How did Verbatim's marketing team approach a tech-savvy audience with their functional and boringly inanimate digital storage offerings? By bringing them to life in a gladiatorial fight to the death, of course!

The best marketers have always known that strong cut-through isn't just about meeting a consumers need but also creating an emotional connection as well. Especially in markets where brands and products are closely competitive in pricing and benefits, an emotional edge can be immensely powerful in converting more sales.

I've done many, many different jobs in my twenty-odd years of working life - from the fun (working in night clubs) to the disgusting (drawing lots to see who would unpack the hamper from the old folks home in an industrial laundry). But by far the worst job I have ever done was back in 1996 when I spent three horrible months as a door-to-door salesman.

Probably the most overused cliche in digital marketing today is referencing Minority Report when discussing augmented reality (AR). AR is on many marketing prediction lists for 2010 as the proliferation of 3G smartphones and the convergence of GPS, cameras and applications means location-specific informatin can appear on your phone.