Hello and welcome to my blog!

My name is Patrick Di Chiro, and I am the founder and CEO of THUNDER FACTORY, an integrated marketing firm headquartered in San Francisco. In this blog, I examine the convergence of marketing with technology, culture, politics and the global economy. If you like what you see, please spread [...]

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Were you as bemused as I was to read the Ad Age article this week about the venerable "brown spirit" Canadian Club and its new campaign to make their brand cool and relevant again? The print ads aim for what Ad Age calls "shock value" (really?!) by showing shots of fifties/sixties era men "partaying" with gals sporting bouffants and [...]

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The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently completed its annual meeting in Phoenix. In addition to consuming a lot of shrimp and chardonnay, the 1,200 attendees (a 25% increase over last year, according to the ANA) seemed to be focused on two main issues: digital marketing and consumer behavior targeting.
With respect to digital marketing, the [...]

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In June I wrote on this blog that the current web 2.0 phenomenon was not in any immediate danger of entering bubble territory. My reasoning for this statement was that, unlike the shaky underpinning of the first Internet wave, the web-driven media revolution that has been picking up steam during the past several years is looking pretty permanent. For example, New web [...]

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