Burt Helm has an interesting piece in the new BusinessWeek about how many advertisers are now offering free services to lure people into looking at, interacting with, or forwarding on their brand information. Anyone who has used Free411 rather than spending $1.50 to get a simple number is a consumer of these new ‘useful’ ads. [...]
I had some interesting conversations today about marketing and the future evolution of brands, a few hours’ worth with one of my favorite clients, the rest with my favorite colleague and someone I was meeting for the first time. It has always been interesting to me how spending time with truly creative thinkers ups my [...]
In recessionary times (see under GE, Earnings Statement, 4.11.08), companies nearly always become more conservative about the value of marketing. That’s no surprise, though I’m still taken aback, working through my third economic downturn in this industry, at how quickly the winds shift. Just yesterday I heard about a client whose $10 million marketing budget [...]
