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ad:tech Chicago 2006, Blogging, RSS, Podcasting, Vidcasting

Brian Bloom – Liggett Stahower
Heather Stefick – Hentel – Duck brand duct tape
Michael D. Moore – Director – Purina Interactive
Robert Claypoole – Product Director – Vistakon

Moderator: Henry Copeland, CEO, Blogads.com
Heather: Duct tape was invented in World War 2. Used afer the war and use spreads to this day. Fun, Friendly, Helpful, Imaginative. Expand market to tech-svvay audience. Duct tape has a cult like following. 30 million hit of duct tape during prom dress contest month. World’s largest duct tape flag – as large as a basketball court. Festival – 25,000 event visitors (personal engagements), 4,903 website hits, 27.5 million impressions.

Purina – Michael D. Moore – Purina.com/downloads
Re-purpose existing assets; little to no new content creation
Created podcast from radio show. Ties in heavily with event marketing. Numerous usage of RSS feeds. SMS tips, wallpapers, ringtones. Audio outpacing Video by 4x.
Uses Arc Worldwide – based in Chicago.

Vistakon – Robert Claypoole – Editorial strategy of podcasts – tracking, cross-promotion are very important.
Authentic content, integrate it in future marketing initiatives. “If only our lawyers were as excited about this as everyone else was.”

Question: How do you promote the podcasts?
Answer: Feedburner, other content, banner ads, Yahoo front page (Purina) and mentioning in other podcasts (Vistakon).

Podcasting is an intermediate step to blogging.

How do you make a podcast search engine friendly?
Michael – not yet. No transcripts used currently

Direct response – wireless comparable to e-mail. RSS – publisher mindset.

Change Management – support is critical.

Vistakon & Purina – testing and learning. No management barriers, support, small tests, low risk, raise the profile to legal, etc.

Many podcasts led to page on Itunes site for Purina. Media choices – shifts from traditional advertising also being seen at Purina.

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Hiring from Outside Your Industry is Smart

I’m reading “Creating Customer Evangelists” by Ben McConnel and Jackie Huba (Customer Evangelists blog RIP) right now. It’s a great book and a lot of world has not fully implemented the powerful lessons of the book.

The chapters on Mark Cuban stand out in regards to the hiring of Matt Fitzgerald as Chief Marketing Maverick: “Instead of selecting a marketing person from the NBA or the sports industry, Mark consciously made a decision to hire someone from outside the industry,” Fitzgerald says. “He believed the NBA marketing community was too in-bred so [Cuban] was looking for a marketing person with a fresh perspective and ideas.”

These concepts when combined with Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book, “Naked Conversations” make a powerful foundation for transformation. What is needed is these parts with a dose of change management as these changes are not at all little.

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Catch-up: Through the Voice of Peter Harkins

In our increasingly thriving tech community here in Chicago, one of the more unique people is Peter Harkins. Peter is incredibly bright and talented in terms of both programming and comnon sense beyond his years. He is responsible for the current version of the Sociable plugin. In fact, I recently learned that an introduction I made led to him getting a desirable programming project. Not that he needed the help, he turns down several programming job offers per week. Ah to be a programmer and not a leader capable of becoming one of the most notable agents of change management of the 21st century!

Anyway, I bring Peter up for a few reasons. He has an amazing a sick wit and yet is so humble. He is one of many of my new friends that I’m so glad to have met, I’d love to be in a position to partner with him someday to drive a company to greatness. First he wrote a nice summary of this week’s Vox Non-launch Party. Then there of course there is that now famous programming post.

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Steve Ballmer Speaks – Should Steve Spin Off MSN?

There is an interview in the Wall Street Journal today with Steve Ballmer.

First I’d like to say that I wish they would have hired me to do the interview as it was mostly a rehash of many things Steve has already said save the Bill Gates is leaving and how does this affect you.

For example the article says: “Google Inc., meanwhile, has outpaced Microsoft online, poached key Microsoft employees and will likely become an even greater Microsoft rival in years to come. The Internet search company’s rising share price has raised debate over what more Microsoft can do to retain and attract employees.”

An intelligent question about whether MSN needs to spin off a portion of MSN to create a high growth currency would have been nice on this issue.

Asking about Yahoo! when Microsoft just hired the CEO of Ask is just plain silly – especially since this issue has been talked to death. A question about what exactly Steve Berkowitz’s mandate is and whether Ask might be acquired makes a million times more sense than to rehash the Yahoo speculation.

If anyone at Waggoner Edstrom is listening, I would to have one of the first public MSN interviews of Steve Berkowitz, a groundbreaking and unique conversation, you may find my contact information in my about section.

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Cellular Startups and Carriers the Next Google(s)?

The Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article today about how celluar carriers are shying away from partnering with Yahoo! and Google and instead forming partnerships with smaller entities that they can control. It’s interesting and exciting to me because it’s a modified pay per call play – not just search. This is truly exciting and potentially extremely lucrative.

I would like to invite Brian Lent, CEO of Medio and Dan Olschwang, CEO of JumpTap to have an interview or podcast on this blog shortly. Learning more about the specific people involved at the major carriers would be most interesting to me and I might make the same offer if they were to contact me. Seeing this article gives me significant context to the comments in the recent Google earnings conference call. I look forward to networking more with people in the mobile marketing space.

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UPS – Not Customer Focused

Today’s WSJ Journal talks about UPS software. Well, I actually consider UPS to not be customer focused and in need of resetting it’s priorities. What I mean is that the person being shipped to is the ultimate customer not the shipper. The person receiving the package is the one paying for both the shipping and your salary and is the true ultimate customer. It’s about time UPS spent both time and money on acknowledging that reality and serving that customer as a true customer not an object there for UPS convenience. 

Hardly any of their software focuses on satisfying the one receiving the package. Allowing people to control the last mile of the package, electronically instruct UPS where and when to leave it is where they should be focusing their efforts. In my post about my recently purchased Dell computer, I discussed how UPS shipping was the worst part of the experience. When is UPS going to recognize the people being shipped to as the true customers of the organization? Millions of people are impatiently waiting for you to change.

(In my case this is made worse as the local office refuses to put a regular driver on my route – after several years)