http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com By <a href="http://www.thunderfactory.com/thunder-factory/thunder-factory-team.html">Patrick Di Chiro</a>, Founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.thunderfactory.com/">THUNDER FACTORY</a>, a San Francisco based integrated marketing firm with other offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Houston Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:57:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A popular urban legend is that celebrity deaths always come in three's. Not sure if that is really true or just a myth, but three true celebrities died in just the past few weeks, and also one marketing legend. It's interesting to me that these four individuals were marketing and ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/remembering-4-marketingmedia-icons/ And what a week it was. Herein are some observations, random and not so much, about the week just past in the intersecting worlds of news, culture and marketing: D-Day Anniversary -- Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the end of the ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/the-week-that-was-d-day65-paid-content-or-not/ Oh the glory and wonder of cheesy advertising! I am not talking about just the usual groaners, like TV spots for toilet tissue or even the mini masterpieces from Billy Mays -- the OxyClean, MendIt and Big City Sliders pitchman. I am talking high cheese here. The real stinky stuff. For that ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/cialis-viva-viagra-redux/ I am sure you heard the blockbuster technology news this week that Microsoft is trying yet again to take on search giant/monopolist Google with a new search engine called "Bing." We shall see if we end up respecting -- or "disrespecting -- this Bing. The Microsoft marketing people are trying to ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/never-disrespect-the-bing/ In my previous post, I launched a contest to come up with ideas on how to save newspapers -- and more specifically, professional journalism. My probably Quixotic effort is called the "Saving Private Newspapers" Business Model Contest. So far I have received a few good ideas (thanks, Athena!), with most of ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/a-brilliant-use-for-newspapers/ Another interesting week in the worlds of marketing, media, culture and politics (and all of them mashed together). Some random thoughts: Oprah Gains a Million Twitter Followers -- That is a clear demonstration of the mainstreaming of Twitter, and social media in general. It stands to reason ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/the-week-mainstreaming-of-social-media/ Back in the day, in the pre-web, pre-digital, pre-Twitter era, they used to define publicity as "free advertising." (I say "they" because I never subscribed to that definition of publicity.) That was, of course, wrong. Publicity is anything but free. It takes a lot of work and diligence to generate publicity, especially ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/debunking-a-common-social-media-myth/ I have no qualms whatsoever about challenging marketing orthodoxy. In fact, I do it all the time (or, at least I try). So, it was with that perspective that I was intrigued by a recent Ad Age guest commentary on the use of customer segmentation in marketing. The provocative headline of ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/to-segment-or-not/ It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Allow me to share some random observations on matters of marketing, culture and politics -- all of which are favorite subjects of mine: I noticed a fascinating statistic this past week about typical users of Twitter. Seems they are ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/that-was-the-week-that-was/ I was talking recently with a good friend of mine, a brilliant marketing guy who lives in, and literally adores, Austin, TX. On that same day, Dell Computer, the leading corporation based in Austin, and long the company that made Austin a "company town," just announced steep sales and earnings ... http://www.ideadrivenmarketing.com/the-game-changers/