We all recognize that search is a powerful and critical part of every media plan.  But search media is fundamentally different from other types of media.  One of the key differences is that the majority of search impressions are free and this is radically different from broadcast, print or online display media.  In each of [...]

In keeping up with the state of Kinect development, of course I saw the news that Microsoft has announced they will be releasing an official SDK (Gizmodo coverage). In my view this is a good step, but I don’t see it heralding a revolutionary increase in the sophistication of Kinect applications.
The good stems more from a support [...]

My industry pieces of the past have included too much personal exposition. I know this because reading the “published” end products, I can sense words that have met with editor’s affinity for the delete button. That said, I’ll just get to it. Here are some reasonably qualified and wholly unquantified predictions for the world of [...]

E-commerce has evolved considerably since the early days of the late 1990’s. Today, online shopping is a daily activity for almost everyone. And, the growing influence of social media is playing a major role in the ongoing e-commerce evolution – particularly in how bloggers and online “experts” influence consumer purchases.
Many consumers read about [...]

I had lunch with a former colleague the other day who was lamenting about a challenging project he was working on. The dreaded phrases of “round 7 of creative,” “weak research results,” “over budget,” “unreasonable client,” and “me-too product” were all volleyed across the table. I felt badly for him. (I mean, let’s be honest. [...]

According to the “2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” study from King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 73% of US companies with a social media strategy were using branded content they created in their campaigns. Such original content was considered the most important part of a successful social campaign — with nearly half of [...]

This started as a serious and somber post based mainly on Internet privacy and how much we should expect, if any, until I tried to add the finishing touches during the Grammys. Funny, I don’t normally do the Grammy thing. I’ll get my fill of most of those artists at daddy-daughter dances or on Kidz [...]

JC Penney is now the poster boy (or girl) for bad behavior in SEO. They broke one of the cardinal rules of search engine optimization and bought massive amounts of paid links. They were caught by Google thanks to a NY Times article. Their punishment? A huge decrease in natural search traffic thanks to algorithmic and manual penalties by Google (and possibly millions of dollars in lost revenue). So, why did this happen and what does it mean for advertisers? I’ll give you a hint – it means a lot of hard work is in store for advertisers as they look to build architecture, content and links with a “white hat” on

Super Bowl commercials –marketing’s ultimate competition. In case you haven’t heard, real people outside our little world neither know nor care about Cannes and usually cannot pronounce it. By contrast, everyone knows about these commercials – the one-night American Idol competition for agencies and marketers. Hundreds of articles and rankings will tell you how Groupon [...]