Score one for the Iranian protesters — at least when it comes to marketing.
Just last week, the Iranian protests dominated conversations across the media and the Internet. Then yesterday, not at all surprisingly in our celebrity-obsessed culture, Michael Jackson’s death wiped the Iranians off the evening news, the front pages of newspapers, and the social media trending topics.
Ahmadinejad couldn’t have asked for anything better. (more…)
"God I need an exit strategy... or a man... maybe both at the same time..."
Too many entrepreneurs treat their start-ups like Hollywood relationships: the affair begins with a lot of passion, is great for headlines, and might even lead to deals, but as soon as things get a little rocky — or something better comes along — the entrepreneur is outta there faster than you can say “Renee Zellweger”… (more…)
Just over a year ago, Wired magazine proudly proclaimed that the future would be free, an argument based partially on ad-supported free sites like NYTimes.com. Of course, it was hard to take this manifesto seriously since Wired still charges for their magazine (cover price $4.99).
It was also misleading because it appeared during the height of the second dotcom bubble, when most of the free websites and services weren’t really living off their ad revenue. Some still aren’t. The New York Times website, for example, couldn’t exist in its current form without the financial and content support from its parent company. (more…)
A long time ago, in an Internets far far away, the people were promised a galaxy free of corporate-empire dominance, where the little guy would have a fair and equal shot at being heard, where small businesses could claim riches once envisioned only by multinationals, and where unsung individuals would finally be sung. The playing fields would all be level, and there would be many goals to shoot at… (more…)
Illustration by Jeremy Hidalgo (www.borntodesign.net)
Here’s expensive proof that I should stick to marketing and steer clear of the stock market: I invested in two radio companies.
The first, Westwood One (WWON.OB), seemed like a stable cash flow deal. Westwood One produces radio programs for syndication, including broadcasts of NFL games. The way I saw it, demand for pro football is insatiable, and since we mere mortals can’t invest in the NFL, this is the next best thing, right? Well, apparently not. As advertisers fled from radio, so did investors. Westwood One is now worth 9 cents a share and was recently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
The second, Sirius satellite radio (SIRI; now called Sirius XM — at least for the time being…), is worth even less: 6 cents a share. They’re seeking Chapter 11, and according to Rory Maher of paidContent.org, we Sirius common shareholders are about to get hosed. My investment in Sirius was pure speculation, since I was looking for some wild risk to balance out my boring bank CD’s. (Yay, excitement.) Since my friends who have Sirius love it, I thought it might have a future. Of course, I violated my own personal rule: don’t invest in anything that I don’t personally use. If I wasn’t willing to shell out $13/month for radio, what made me think the rest of America would flock to it?
Just like in the interactive zombie film The Outbreak, you keep running from the creatures, and just when you think you’ve found a new sanctuary, they sniff you out and keep coming and coming and coming…
The creatures I’m talking about here are Hollywood stars and studios, and the “you” is the independent movie producer or fan looking for a place to call their own… (more…)
In its infancy, Facebook sucked for advertisers, as its mostly collegiate users ignored mass marketing en route to mass socializing. No surprise there: Facebook is a social network, so its users were using it as intended.
But the commercial disinterest of Facebook users meant that marketers were wasting their dinero. For us refugees from the full-frontal ad assault called MySpace, that was a good thing. For Facebook’s investors? Not so much.
Then a couple of transformational events occurred… (more…)
I recently had lunch with an entrepreneur to discuss her marketing problems. She had launched her company with a PR campaign, and the initial results were spectacular, with major media coverage and a torrent of traffic to her site… But that torrent dried to a trickle as the press and consumers lost interest. In just a couple of years her company had become “old news.” Since her operations were now sucking up all of her available cash, she wanted a low-cost marketing option, and she called me to discuss this viral marketing thing… (more…)
“… While the internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn’t matured as a distribution mechanism… It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the Internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forgo their fair value in more traditional media…” – Kyle, South Park
I know, I shouldn’t be quoting cartoon characters as proof of anything, but sometimes the greatest truth is found in satire. And the April 2 episode of South Park, “Canada on Strike,” is satire at its best, skewering everyone from the Writers Guild of America to Denmark to the stars of YouTube… (more…)
Video site Stage6 got the deep-six and called it quits. This comes on the heels of the fire sale at Revver, which ultimately sold for $5 million — less than half of the original investment that was pumped into it. But these weren’t the first signs of an industry decimation…
As a Samuel Adams drinker and stockholder, I don’t partake in Budweiser’s anemic brew, but I’ve always loved their brilliant, often hilarious marketing. Until now…
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder & Fusion Director of the L.A.-based marketing agency and production company Atomic Tango. For Cool Rules Pronto, he draws on two decades of experience in advertising and entertainment, including 15 years in new media. He has created campaigns and projects for agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and Magnet Interactive, and for such clients as Toyota, MCA Records, National Lampoon, Nissan & Infiniti, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, the NFL on Fox and numerous startups.
Freddy also serves on the Board of Directors of City Garage Theatre in Santa Monica, California. He holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from USC (go Trojans!), and currently teaches marketing through Antioch University L.A. and the University of Wales/Robert Kennedy College. He also wrote the satirical book, Claw Your Way To The Top: Ten Things I Learned About Business From My Cat, which he'll get around to marketing someday.
