Tuesday, April 26, 2005

40% Delete cookies monthly!

Can you believe this, do you know what that does to your web reports! You have to look at them differently form now on. I found this at www.mediapost.com.

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" Until recently, it was widely assumed that consumers did not delete cookies in any significant numbers. But a spate of recent studies, including a Jupiter Research report revealing that 40 percent of Internet users say they delete their cookies at least once a month, indicated otherwise.

'We definitely created a monster when we released our cookie report,' said Eric Peterson, the Jupiter analyst who authored the controversial study. 'But I do think it's encouraging that we're moving beyond the bickering about the numbers and on to larger efforts to resolve this issue.'
"
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Thursday, April 21, 2005

Why use an Agency?

Cory Treffiletti of Online Spin put it like this...

"I believe the agency world is where the best of the best reside. The agencies gather the top talent and put them to work on business to drive results for their clients. The agency recognizes the need for coordinating a strategy that identifies the needs of a segment of the audience and can apply that information to a design that is aimed at driving results. Your "average Joe" will typically do something they think is "cool" without regard for the brand image.

Agencies take the right amount of time to develop campaigns, whereas your "average Joe" will develop a singular idea. Agencies also think about a unifying theme, whereas your "average Joe" will focus on a moment in time or a singular experience. Of course, there are some brands that can survive on the moment, but the stronger, more established brands are focused on a brand. They use the brand as a means to drive growth over a period of time. A moment can show a spike or create buzz, but the moment will inevitably pass; a brand can live on and on."

I believe in the value of Agencies. Too many people run a project and never ask if it was successful, agencies on the other hand sink or swim based on customer results, they also get lots of opportunities to improve their craft.

Think about this, isn't just one additional conversion worth the cost of using an agency?

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Micro Persuasion: "Mark Cuban, Why Do You Blog?
Shel Israel interviewed Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban on why he blogs and out came this gem...
What made you decide to blog?
'It was in response to the media primarily. I was tired of 4-hour interviews being turned into 500-word reports that mischaracterized the interviews. I sat down with Fortune Magazine for what I thought was a serious interview, and it turned into something completely different. Those types of situations were the catalyst.'"

Monday, April 11, 2005

Creative Think: "One day a new product design team got into a really whacky mood and made fun of their product. They were zany and off-the-wall. The meeting was a great success, and many new ideas were generated. The next week, everybody was in a serious mood and no new ideas were generated. Moral: there's a close relationship between the 'aha' of discovery and the 'ha-ha' of humor, and being whacky stimulates your creative juices."

This is a fun online creativity tool. Click the "give me another whack" button to see another idea that could help you solve your problem.
Where to get advertising ideas with attitude:

Check out the blogs below. Fast Company voted them some of the best business blogs around on advertising. They contain lots of ideas and plenty of attitude so they're fun and interesting.
More >>
Good article on Marketing Services online.

Services Marketing Is Moving Online Are You?: "According to the Association for Online Retailers, in 2004 approximately 40% of adults with Internet access researched a potential product purchase online. As services marketers, focusing on everything from high-ticket items to sophisticated buyers, we wondered whether this was also true for business-to-business services.
So, in 2004, the Wellesley Hills Group polled approximately 200 SMB (small-to-midsize business) decision makers to see whether they visited the Web sites of business-to-business companies before they made a purchase from them. About 98% of buyers said yes. Approximately 50% stated that their online experience did, indeed, affect their purchasing decision. "