A drive through downtown Manhattan places you in a dense stew of outdoor advertising. Whenever I drive downtown with my staff, we play a game: we grade the relevance of each billboard we pass.

A few weeks ago, we saw this outdoor disaster: “Martinis Shaken and Stirred you are not. Continental Airlines.” Another, for dog food, featured an adorable canine. But I had to take notes to recall the billboard was for Pedigree.

The other 32-plus billboards we graded didn’t fare much…

...continue to read "The Search for Relevant Messaging, Online and Off-"

A friend of ours, Dave Lakhani, just sent me a copy of his new book Persuasion: The Art Of Getting What You Want . He has an interesting website www.askthepersuader.com to promote the book. It’s worth exploring because it is different. Let us know what you think.

...continue to read "Persuasion: The Art Of Getting What You Want"

Well if you were to follow the advice of some, you would think that the key to getting noticed online sits firmly in the hands of a skilled graphics designer.

From a media perspective; great strategy, contextually-relevant placements and low CPMs are not enough. A great media strategy is only half the battle. Understanding how different online creative units directly affect the consumer, and how they react to the exposure, is just as important. Read the entire article at iMedia

What is…

...continue to read "How To Get Noticed Online"

Did Prilosec "Purple Day" come and go, and I missed it? Did anyone grab a screenshot?

I must admit, when I first read this article on ClickZ News about Proctor & Gamble taking over Yahoo, ESPN and a few other major homepages for the day, I was intrigued. Mostly for the audaciousness of it all, but also because we happen to know a few smart cats over at P&G, and they’ve been known to make the right calls time and time…

...continue to read "Suprising Broca is great… but please remember to have something relevant to say!!"

The e-tailing community is humming with talk about the new effort at the Gap.com. Gap’s aggressive stance on improving its customer experience is a delight to watch. Its goal to cut down clicks and make online shopping even easier has been the focus of a $10 million redesign. A recent “New York Times” article chronicles the experience:

When women browse Gap.com’s T-shirt section, they do not have to click to a new page to see details about the 16 shirts shown…

...continue to read "Grading the Gap.com Redesign"

Steve Kaplan aka The Difference Maker, a great friend of Future Now, just released a book bound for the business best seller list.  It’s called … Bag The Elephant, How To Win And Keep Big Customers.

If you serve big clients or desire to sell to bigger clients, this book is a have-to read. It is stuffed with practical advice, and it will have you taking action and making a difference in no time. 

Steve has offered our blog readers a special time…

...continue to read "Get that big client, Bag The Elephant"

When canned customer service happens to good people.  Here is a recent exchange one of our friends had with Target customer service.

> Date: Wed Sep 07 18:18:27 UTC 2005> Subject; Other questions and comments > To:  guest.service@Target.com > From: Brandon > ————— > 09/07/05 11:18:13 > Comments: I work in the ecommerce marketing/conversion industry and I expected that you guys would have a pretty decent checkout. Boy was I wrong. The issues I had trying to purchase a $100 stereo…

...continue to read "Customer Service in a Can"

Andrew Goodman just released a new book. We just ordered it and we will be reviewing it. Knowing Andrew it will be worthwhile owning.

Here is the description on Amazon.com:

Don’t get lost in the digital haystack! With thousands of links for every search, the chances of your products being found online are slimmer than a needle. But there’s good news: you can pinpoint your marketing message with help from Andrew Goodman’s newly released Winning Results with Google AdWords. You’ll discover AdWord…

...continue to read "Winning Results with Google AdWords"

Bryan and I asked each other that question when we first met Betsy Weber. We thought it might be a "cute" title then; now we know better. Betsy is a relentless evangelist for TechSmith; a software company that publishes three programs we find invaluable in our work 1) SnagIt  2) Camtasia 3) Morae; she never misses an opportunity to make them look good. Betsy is always spreading the word. I don’t know what they pay her or how they measure…

...continue to read "What Is A Chief Evangelist?"

Customers, B2C and B2B, are demanding more transparency and accountability. If you want to understand why companies are not always forthcoming; it may have to do with what is truly in their heart. I’m sure there are exceptions and some companies simply don’t understand what the needs of their customers are or how opaque they seem to customers. Nevertheless, how can customers understand the brand or the core values of companies that don’t truly have any?

The fish always stinks from…

...continue to read "I-N-T-E-G-R-I-T-Y In Marketing?"