Consider the following commercial: Did it resonate with you? If it did, chances are you’re a male, aged 18 to 29, with a fairly poor driving record. No, that’s not an insult – it’s simply that these Vern Fonk commercials (and the one featured above) happen to resonate with that audience. Because that’s their target. When it comes to Vern Fonk though, the content is widely shared. Will it Blend is another example of doing social right: Putting out these little videos on youtube and letting people comment and talk about it. It’s important to use material that your target demographic is going to want to share. And you’ll want to measure it. YouTube has good analytics open for all[…]
Month: November 2008
Bless you business guys on business trips. (DOT COM!) Companies are certainly imploding right, left, and center. The big guys going down hard are taking out quite a few little guys. People who don’t deserve to get taken out are getting taken out, and the guys who caused this are not. Such is economic justice. Productivity per hour should be going up though. I’m making a few changes. For one, I’m changing the way that I do email. Hamel rightly pointed out that it takes a knowledge worker 45 minutes to get back up to speed after having their attention broken, so, I’m only checking email twice a day going forward. We’ll see how far I get with that, but[…]
Why does every action need a deliverable? Alright – there’s documentation. If the goal of a long discussion with somebody is a short list of KPIs, then the ‘deliverable’ ought to be a two page PDF – a cover page, and a short list of KPIs, with footnotes on the exact definitions of what we’re talking about. Simple. If I’m talking to 10 stakeholders – do I need to spend 4 hours after each discussion to put together an ‘echo-deliverable’? Or, is it sufficient to parrot back what I heard from the stakeholder what I heard them say? Isn’t that just 40 hours – an entire week of concentrated effort – on a throwaway document? Moreover, does the echo-deliverable help[…]
I’ve had a few days to think about Petersen’s post on Recession Proof Analytics. First a summary. Then a summary of some of the comments. Then a reflection. Then an invite for comments or cross-blog talking.He cites two arguments in as many months about the importance of analytics in a downturn, and goes onto to argue that it’s not quite that rosy. He rightly points out a development at eMetrics DC – specifically – a quote from Liz Miller that many CMO’s are many years away from understanding the true value of analytics. Petersen goes on to cite 5 things we can do: 1. Focus on Increasing Profits, not Minimizing Spend2. Don’t be a report monkey3. Start watching job boards4.[…]
http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2008/11/web-analytics-is-recession-proof.html Petersen’s posting is actually really awesome on the recession and web analytics. We have to get really good at telling people who don’t know the value of real web analytics, the value of real web analytics.
This Wednesday is Web Analytics Wednesday in Toronto. And YOU’RE Invited! Here’s the sign up link: http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/wednesday/index.asp?event_city=Toronto
I once asked a drunken director at a Yahoo Party last year, “Why wouldn’t you invite a copywriter to an initial brainstorming session?” The director laughed and replied, “Why would you invite project managers? It would not make any sense.” I think there’s been a lot of effort expended at defending seats at the table, and general fighting over it. The “seats at the table” argument is a key piece of social technology, and it’s one of those wicked problems. Who do you invite to set the strategic direction of a pitch or a campaign? Is there a way to balance both effectiveness and efficiency?