Archive for May, 2008

If you’ve got something to market, there’s nothing like finding a group of consumers already interested in what you’re selling. The search marketing industry is built on what writer John Battelle has called “the database of intentions”: Figure out what people are looking for, then serve up ads they’re likely to find relevant to those desires. Google made $5.2 billion doing just that last quarter. more

There’s a point where technology and marketing converge, where making something easier to do also makes it easier to persuade people to do it often. And among the nation’s retail food chains, the pizza category seems to be the hotbed of innovation.

That makes a certain sense. Pizza is much more likely to be home-delivered than either chicken or burgers, so the easier its players can make the ordering process, the more convenience-minded customers can be led to opt for pizza over those other choices—or over rivals’ pies. more

TV viewers who grew up in the mid-Atlantic region—I count myself among them—may cherish fond memories of the commercials featuring Tom Carvelas, founder of the Carvel retail soft-serve chain.

Actually, I don’t recall Carvel showing up often in the ads, which usually featured real workers and franchisees self-consciously making ice cream specialties for the camera. Carvel’s contribution to the spots was primarily as voiceover. But what a voice. It’s been described as “gravelly”; in fact, it sounded like he’d been gargling lugnuts. more

You may not know what “FiOS” stands for, but communications provider Verizon is running an online promotion that should take care of that. They dearly hope so, because FiOS is an important key to the company’s future.

The acronym refers to Verizon’s “Fiber Operating System”, the fiber-optic network the carrier is building that allows it to bundle television and high-speed Internet services with digital phone services. The service lets Verizon compete with cable companies’ bundled offerings, and Verizon is so far the first large U.S. carrier to sell it. more

Sometimes it seems as if mobile marketing has been waiting for its moment in the spotlight about as long as the Chicago Cubs have been waiting for a World Series win. And like the Cubbies, mobile too often seems poised for a winning streak, only to wind up in the cellar for another year. more

The mantra in the early days of the Internet was that “content wants to be free.” The last decade has added some important qualifiers to that, leading YouTube to pull copyrighted material and some big media providers like The New York Times to swing pendulum-like between paid subscriptions and complete availability.

But HarperCollins Publishers says it has seen strong results from a pilot program that follows that Web-pioneer dictum by throwing selected titles up onto the Internet cover to cover, permitting readers to consume them in toto on their PCs. more

Scion, Toyota’s youth-oriented brand within a brand, does marketing differently, to say the least. The car maker has opted for the road less traveled in most of its online promotion, favoring independent film and music festivals, presence in virtual worlds, and hip-hop-flavored video as ways to promote its vehicles. more