While most copywriters have avidly studied Claude Hopkins’ Scientific Advertising, very few have even heard of Theodore MacManus, let alone read his book, The Sword Arm of Business.  And yet MacManus was, in some ways, a more successful ad man, having:

Established his own (very successful) ad agency Launched the Dodge and Chrysler brands Hired and mentored Leo Burnett, creator of the Marlboro Man, Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Doughboy, and many other advertising icons that made his clients rich Turned positioning…

...continue to read "Sword Arms vs. (Semi) Scientific Advertising"

A lost wallet lies on a Manhattan street, stuffed with cash. A white middle-income male, New Yorker, between age 30 and 44, picks it up. Will he look for the rightful owner, or pocket the cash?

With that level of “targeting,” it’s anyone’s guess. There just isn’t enough information available.

But if George Costanza, the white middle-income male New Yorker between age 30 and 44 from “Seinfeld” picks up the wallet, everyone knows exactly what he’ll do.

He’ll keep the money.

By allowing you…

...continue to read "The Case for Persona-Based Lead Generation"

Chris Anderson, editor in-chief of Wired and author of the bestselling book-turned-Web 2.0-buzz-phrase, The Long Tail, launched a juicy cover story today.

In “Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” — which, as one might expect, is available for free at Wired.com* — Anderson argues that, across industries, businesses are baiting new customers with free stuff.

Of course, that’s nothing revolutionary. But it is evolutionary in the sense that we’ve come to expect some level of “free” something. In fact, we’re…

...continue to read "WIRED Sees a Future in “The ROI of Free”"

In a move that should add fuel to the debate over the writers’ guild strike, MTV Networks has announced that all episodes of its grotesquely funny cartoon satire hit, South Park, will be shown in their entirety online. MTV’s decision to host the South Park archives online for free comes just over a month after they did the same thing for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, resulting in significant boosts to traffic and ad revenue.

While the move is win-win for…

...continue to read "How Viacom Could Have Avoided the Writers’ Strike"

Let’s say you need to unload a promising-yet-way-overestimated tech company you bought for $2.6 billion in 2005 dollars. Where do you turn — eBay? What if listing a “Buy it Now” price isn’t an option? What if you are eBay?

The New York Times has some bubble-bursting hindsight on the broader effect of eBay’s soured Skype acquisition.

Skype earned $90 million during the second quarter of 2007, far below eBay’s projections. EBay said in a regulatory filing that the charge was “the result…

...continue to read "EBay Lowers Reserve on Skype"

When trying to measure the ROI of your website, you need to take into account the ways you engage prospective customers when they’re earlier in the buying process. Yes, some people are ready to start some sort of relationship with you; meaning, of course, that they fill out the lead form. (You’re only asking for the least amount of information, right?).That’s a measurable success. But don’t forget those who were engaged enough to spend some time on your site, gather information,…

...continue to read "Is Your Lead Generation Site Proposing Marriage on the First Date?"

With paid search, even the most shocking news isn’t really. Consider these figures just in from ClickZ:

Despite continued growth in search spending, ROI on search campaigns in Q1 was down 43 percent since last year, according to the latest search trend report from DoubleClick’s Performics unit. That makes sense when you think about it, since more and more advertisers are competing for the same limited pool of clicks, bidding up prices and squeezing their margins in the process. The winner in…

...continue to read "Holy Traffic Cost Inflation: Paid Search ROI Down 43%!?"

Business Week columnists Clayton M. Christensen & Scott D. Anthony make some pretty provocative comments about maximizing shareholder value in their column “Put Investors In Their Place: Why pander to people who now hold shares, on average, less than 10 months?”

For instance…

Perhaps it is time for companies to adjust the paradigm of management responsibility:

“You are investors and speculators, not shareholders, and you temporarily find yourselves holding the securities of our company. You are responsible for maximizing the returns on your investments.…

...continue to read "Investors, Speculators, Shareholder Value, and Other Half-Truths"