When spamming someone bites you back

I am almost in shock of this post on the wired editor’s personal blog that discloses the emails that he has blocked because he got unsolicited emails pitching Press Releases for products, services, and who knows what else because he is a PR person in public lists. I have to say it was a bold move to do that and he must have had clearance from his employer to do it.

It would have worked if he just blocked them personally, but publishing the list holds this to another level. A public standard of corporate acceptability. And that has gone out the window in buzzy boom market and companies where the greed level is high and the oversight is low. I applaud him for publishing them and it is very entertaining to read through the 199 comments on the post. This brings the issue into the online conversations of a lot of people and may even influence the future actions of overzealous PR people.

New Hospitality Marketing Trend

I walk to work here in Chicago and have noticed that there are more small boutique hotels popping up around downtown all the time. I have also been reading about the hospitality industry changing it’s strategy from big brands that offer exactly the same boring box rooms in every city to individually styled local flavor boutique hotels that are smaller and more intimate. They like this because they get to charge more money for this unique and higher class service. (take this Montreal Boutique Hotel for example) Some of these boutique hotels are also owned by the large hospitality conglomerates. I would compare it to people stopping shopping at department stores that have predictable offerings that are all kind of lackluster and the same like Sears and Macys in favor of specialty stores like pottery barn and crate and barrel who specialize in housewares and furniture only and have a lot more variety. In a world that bases growth on worldwide standarization of work roles and manufacturing processes this tells us that people like individuality. They like different things in different cities, and that local businesses should have an advantage against the huge global brands.

Holy Jebus Google Stock hits $700.00 per share

I thought that the Google stock had to top out at 3 or 4 hundred dollars. Apparently the $700.00 price proves I was wrong. What I wonder is why does it keep climbing? Are Google revenues still climbing that much? They aren’t doing that much more now than they did when they went public. Why is it still forecasting such growth? I have heard that stocks don’t represent present or past revenue and growth they represent what these forecasters and market traders think will happen over the next 6-12 months. So what’s in store that drove up the share price $100 bucks in less than a month? I work with google media and I have no idea. they lost out on facebook ad serving and selling and adwords is getting too expensive for some small and medium size businesses. And some forecasters still think it will hit $900 by years end in 2 months. I can’t possibly see that as a justifiable price. It so buzzy though and it does drive all other online media to be perceived as more successful right now. Is it a bubble ala 1999-2000 all over again? I am not sure, but I personally think there will be another recession around 2010. The old 30 year boom bust cycle has been condensed into 10 years by companies shortening the lifespan of products and maximizing their growth methods to grow revenue the same amounts in less time than it took pre- internet. If it becomes less than 10 years in each cycle it will be a really scary roller coaster ride. So lets not be all speculative and buzzy about everything on the net. Look at what drives revenue and converts into sales and don’t take too much buzz into account as far as what media to buy and what companies to invest in.

Bedbugs are awful

A few years ago I noticed some red bites on my leg and thought for a while that I had brought bed bugs into my house via a trip and hotel stay I had for work. (this makes you rethink the process of packing and unpacking with the suitcase on your bed) It turns out that there was no evidence of any bed bugs in the house so I was lucky this time. And they don’t usually hang out in the midwest which made it a little less likley. They prefer to live up east for some reason. Now travel is the main reason you get them and pick them up in hotels that don’t clean well. They are also different than dust mites. You can easily see them and the symptoms of bed bugsand you can’t see dust mites at all. Dust mites are microscopic. I do have these, as alomst everyone does, and encasing my mattress in a vinyl cover has stopped some of my allergies. I still need a duvet cover that is miteproof although it will have to be fabric and washed every 2 weeks which is somewhat a pain. Anyway, I just wanted to post the differences between these since they are getting so much press these days and everyone is going through a panic about finding out whether they have them or not.

Super Bowl Sunday 2008 Almost Sold Out

I’m not sure why the 2008 super bowl ads are almost sold out in October when the game isn’t till February but maybe the holidays inbetween now and then have something to do with it. If you are one of the people who is buying one of these very very expensive FOX $2.7 million dollar 30 second ad spots here are some tips:

1. First consider is it really relevant to advertise in the super bowl? Is there a need for your product in February? Is there a relevance to families, football and/or men? These are the core demographics. If it’s not a match, skip it no matter how badly you want the publicity. 

2. Make em laugh. Funny ads have staying power both at the watercooler the next day and for months afterwards. If people relate to the humor in the situation its even better.

3. Use something new. Don’t run some old ad we have seen a million times already. New creative or no creative is the way to go.

4. Don’t bother with celebrities. Unless its particularly relevant to your product. And I don’t ever really think it is. They raise costs dramatically and don’t really raise the appeal of what a super bowl watcher is looking for.

5. Remember to support this really expensive placement so it is not instantly forgotten before consumers get out their pocketbook. Support the super bowl ad with a well diversified campaign offline, online and everywhere else. This means everything from TV commericals for weeks afterwards, search ads, social networking if possible, blogs if possible,  a microsite or at least a mention of the ad on your home page and make it available to view online, print ads if you still do that, emails linking to microsite and coordinating online display ads too.

6. You can make spending this much money on an ad a publicity event in and of itself. It is cheezy though and people don’t really care unless they are benefitting from it. A press release can be ok, and reveal some hints about why the ad will be appealing, but leave the big reveal of the commercial for the actual game. But again this is totally stupid if your ads are not new, not edgy, not funny and not successful. So, proceed with caution here.

Review of Sidestep for traveling

I first heard about sidestep.com for traveling about 3 years ago. Someone in my office was using it to find travel deals on flights they had to make for work. The company did not have a policy about using a travel agency so it was up to each person to find their own flights and book them on their own. I still do this, since you never know if there will be a flight when and where you want it if someone else is booking. I am also really picky about which airlines and which airports I use. I have traveled enough to know some are crappy and so frustrating it’s not worth saving 20 bucks. So, I am looking at Sidestep again today and see that round trip flights for a week in Hawaii from ORD are $879.00.  (yes, we have a client in Hawaii, and some extra time there with Maui outdoor activities would be fun)   The site takes a long time to load the search results because it is pinging for data at so many other sites. After that I get a long list of airfares from all kinds of airlines. You get to purchase direct from the airline and Sidestep earns a commission for the sale. It pretty much condenses your search and really works for finding new airfares you don’t see listed elsewhere. So now about Hawaii…

How to prevent cancer? Be thin.

I have been more interested in how people can cut their risk of cancer latley since I found out that despite my family history of no cancer I am just as much a possible target as anyone else. Today the BBC email I get reported on a new study that had 10 points to follow for reducing your risk of all types of cancers. I found that it was much more specific that a lot of other lists I have seen naming foods specifically that you have to avoid. This makes these points easier to follow. Here is the list:

RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE:

 

Limit red meat

 

Limit alcohol

 

Avoid bacon, ham, and other processed meats

 

No sugary drinks

 

No weight gain after 21

 

Exercise every day

 

Breastfeed children

 

Do not take dietary supplements to cut cancer

Oprah Winfrey’s School for Girls Has an Abuse Scandal?

What is going on here? Despite being a project that was set up and funded entirely to help, teach and be a safe place for these girls to learn and grow up, there have been reports of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by some of the staff and teachers at Oprah Winfrey’s School for Girls in Africa. This is dissapointing that there are some people who still think those behaviors are acceptable in this world, and it is even more sad that no one was there that knew better and had the power to stop it.  I hate when high powered people get all the acclaim for a project and then they walk away as soon as the cameras are off and they let someone else run it and don’t have any involvement day to day. I think that this proves that any project you put your name on you have to be personally involved with to manage. It’s impossible to guarantee that things will go according to your standards otherwise. This is just more reason for building a school to help kids here in Chicago next time. Staff and Teachers here would be more visible by the public and in the media and it could ensure greater transparency in the education process and deter this kind of thing from happening. Because apparently screening processes were not able to weed out staff and teachers that have done this kind of abhorrent behavior before. All these girls wanted was a safe place to learn and to get their lives on a better track to succeed. Now they have even more to deal with. It is just so sad.

Carbon Neutral Search Engine

If you are like me you like all kinds of new green products that are coming on the market these days and reducing the carbon footprint we all have in life. Organics help us and the earth, squiggley bulbs help save a ton of energy and Al Gore nobel prize winning dude’s movie The inconvienient truth showed us that we all have choices we make every day that impact the planet and we can make small changes that have a big impact over the world as a whole. I think more people are accepting that Global Warming is happening in their lives and making changes now. One new cool site I found out about is the Carbon Neutral Search Engine. I think that using online search and computers in general over mountains of paper is better already, and when a search engine offsetts its carbon production from things like electricity and travel it’s even better. (how can the companies we all work for be more green too?) I think that the process is that they fund green projects by buying carbon credits and those green energy processes offsett their regular energy use. Its just a greener way to search. Check out their blog for more detailed information!

Who buys American Domestic Cars?

With Toyota on top as the world’s largest auto manufacturer now, one wonders who still buys american cars? I personally own a saab which is built in Sweden but owned by GM which is American. Who knows where that lands. But as far as traditional US built American brands go Ford, GM and Chrysler are the ones we used to call the big three. Now plagued by outdated impressions of bad quality and really high pension and health care costs of it’s workers they are not producing as many cars or selling as many in the US. It shows that the domestic brands are still skewing older than the imports, they also seem to center around the old manufacturing “rust belt” cities who are still feeling the pain of the loss of manufacturing jobs to japan, china and mexico. They are also skewing towards old media usage, which doesn’t mean they are the biggest new technology users or adopters. (which correlates with lower education levels in my mind) So, how can the American car brands buck the trend and get hip, young and relevant fast? (before their customers die?) Hybrids? Crossovers? Independent High quality and reliability awards? I’m not sure. Here is some data from the center for media research today that has some new stats and Here’s the full report:

The Iron Belt Wraps Around Domestic-Only Auto Owners

A newly released 88-Market national report from The Media Audit, analyzing automobile ownership by brand, reveals that 38% of U.S. adults own domestic-only brands, compared to 25.4% of U.S. adults who own foreign-only brands.

The surveys, which were conducted between January 2006 and April 2007, found that among those who are the most loyal to owning only domestic brands are adults who own a truck. According to the study, 47.5% of truck owners own domestic-only brands, making the audience 22% more likely than the average adult to own domestic-only brands.

Older adults are are also more likely to own domestic-only brands. Among 50 plus adults, 42.6% own only domestic brands, a figure that is 12% higher than that of the average adult.

The average age for the nearly 40% of U.S. adults who own domestic-o! nly brands is 47.2 years old, compared to 44.1 years for adults who own foreign-only brands.

The top ranking market for domestic-only automobile ownership is Detroit, Michigan with 73.4% of adults in this market owning domestic-only brands. Toledo, Ohio ranks second with 66.6% who own domestic-only brands, followed by:

• Peoria, Illinois (65.3%)
• Buffalo, New York (64.4%)
• Grand Rapids, Michigan (60.1%)
• Dayton, Ohio (59.7%)
• Akron, Ohio (58.3%)
• St. Louis, Missouri (57.4%)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (56.2%) 
• Cleveland, Ohio (55.6%)

The analysis further reveals that domestic-only vehicle owners exhibit above-average usage of television, direct mail, radio and newspaper. Those who own domestic-only brands are:

• 18% more likely to be heavy television viewers
• 12% m! ore likely to be heavy direct mail users
• 9% more lik ely to be heavy radio listeners
• 9% more likely to be heavy newspaper readers

Safe Christmas Gifts for Kids

With all the toys from China coming over with lead these days, parents and relatives are looking for safe alternatives this Christmas instead of the usual dolls, action figures, cars and other plastic toys that are popular. This Christmas the gifts under the tree are going to look a little different. They will be a mix of college savings bonds, computer software, board games (scrabble and others if not plastic) , clothing, books and anything else not plastic that parents can think of. One  good idea is learning related materials, books, games and software are good because they are fun and functional. If you are researching some new ones and want a free educational software trial this one may be of interest to you if you have kids between the age of 2 and 10. (yes kids use the computer at age 2, they may think its a toy but they use it) CD Earth’s Fun with Learning Volume 1 is an educational software CD packed with 70 learning activities for kids ages 2-10. The CD has 70 engaging, educational activities and games. They cover topics including math, reading, typing, science, computer literacy, geography, art & music. Each activity has several levels that automatically adjust to a child’s growing abilities to help them get ahead. It sounds better than guessing about what has lead and what doesn’t and getting the kids to play educational games is always a good thing.

Holiday Time off

It’s only the end of October but yet the holidays are in full swing. I had to submit my vacation days off today because they are first come first served and many people want the same days off every year and then there is no one in the office when a client needs something in an emergency. So I will be working some of the time between Christmas and New Years this year. One day I will get back to that blissful place where I can take 2 whole weeks off like when you are a kid on Christmas vacation. But it’s not likley that it will be any time soon. We get less vacation as a country than the averages in Europe, but far more than the factory workers in China. Consider us in economic purgatory for the time being.

Housing Slump

I am getting more and more scared of this housing slump. Don’t get me wrong, I am in my place to stay and have not entertained any thoughts of moving to a more appropriate living space since this all started this summer and I will be in my current condo until it is most likely paid off. In fact I am trying to get to the point where I can double my payments to save a boat load of mortgage interest by paying it off early. 

This mortgage blog that says they have free mortgage quotes has news and articles about the housing bust and has a tough love view of the market. They say it is good that people are loosing homes that are not in a position to pay them off or make payments and that this is a natural adjustment process in the economy. I don’t agree with that.

I think that the Realtors and banks should have to deal with the penalty of not making as much money now that they pushed the boundaries so far and offering fixed rate refinancing to people who can’t afford these balloon payments is a good thing for the economy and helps them learn their lesson, because they created this problem. You cant plaster every surface with ads and run TV commercials 24/7 on every home makeover show there is and say it’s the consumer’s fault.

The Realtors, banking, finance and housing guys pushed too hard and got people to sign on to bad lending deals that are impossible for anyone to pay. And they thought they would get away with it? That it’s ok? They should be responsible for cleaning up the mess. It’s their problem.

Happy World Internet Day

I am not sure when this holiday started or if anyone really recognizes it, but happy world internet day. You are within the 1/2 of the people in the U.S. or the unknown number of people in the world that are able to access the internet. Congratulate yourself for that and for a good hair day.

We think that the internet is no big deal now, because most of us use it so ubiquitously and some of us make a living from it. Who would have though that was possible in the early 90′s? How did we ever live without it? I noticed that there are specific characteristics of internet people:

1. We don’t own phone books, address books or other written on paper type records. Some of us are not even getting paper bills anymore, and do all our record keeping online. What this means is that we aren’t record keeping at all really. We get easy access to the info when we need it but businesses hold our info, not us. And sometimes if you want your own information that is more than a few months old you have to pay them to access it. Ouch.

2. We don’t know how to read a map without step by step directions attached. Duh, pre mapquest we all just got lost all the time. Maps are hard to read, directions are easier, and GPS is great, but some day if that won’t be available (even for a short time) we won’t be able to leave the house.

3. We surf aimlessly for hours rather than socializing and it shows. We get less done even though we have tools to be more productive and the internet tests our ability to stay focused and on task and not to procrastinate. It’s just as much a time waster as a productivity and information tool. Hello Twitter.

4. We have generally no idea we are all being watched. Not by people or the CIA, but by companies and Google archiving every click and interest we explore. All in the name of targeting up for ads and studying human behavior online in order to build more profitable (more seductive) websites that sell more stuff. Hello Conversions. 

5. We do have a greater view of the world outside our home towns but at the same time we only search for and look up information that justifies our own personal views. So, instead of getting closer together about ideas and community, we are actually getting farther apart. Writers know that you get more readers and page views if you write something polarized and sensationalized to the extreme and a lot of people (including the media themselves) do this. Then people who are living at that extreme feel justified. I am not sure where this goes, but somehow I doubt it will end well.

So, while we celebrate all the good that has come from the internet today, we should also probably do a reality check if we’re the ones celebrating such a niche holiday. It might be a good time to turn off the computer and just go for a walk outside and call your mom to say hi also.

Hillary Clinton and Cosmetic Surgery

Ok, no one was going to ask this question about the political race for President in 2008 so I will.

Can Hillary Clinton win and be president without another face lift or her teeth veneers replaced?

You think I am joking???

I was looking on the debates and online and the pictures of her and she looks the way she looked right after Bill left office. She was wrinkling up a lot and she had a face lift (I am guessing)  and it all smoothed out again before she was running for senate. (but no one mentioned it) Now she has a lot of wrinkles again and there was a picture of her on Drudge that looked like her teeth veneers were not looking too good either. Apparently cosmetic surgery doesn’t have the shelf life that we think? or is it really about who you choose to do the surgery? Botox is a lesser invasive process but in Hillary’s case freezing up your face reduces expressions and that would be bad for a politician.

I am not to the age yet where this is a concern (nor am I on TV) but if I was in the media like Hillary and had wrinkles like that I would consider a month vacation to work this out. I would look for a board certified surgeon and a top rated clinic that has people available as references that you can personally talk to. A good question for Hillary and everyone else to aks is how long will the effects of this surgery last? How long will it take to heal? What are the side effects and risks of this procedure. And if it checks out where the reward outweighs the risk, and you can afford it, go for it.

In a role like hers, Hillary has to be seen in the media every day. How she looks determines how people percieve her, and unlike men, women don’t look smarter and more distinguished with wrinkles. I think she would be doing even better in the polls if she had gotten another face lift before all the campaigning started. And it’s ok to admit it. People will be ok with her getting plastic surgery because they benefit from it too. They have to look at her every day and will appreciate the difference. The american public accepts these procedures now and they are very common. It’s not looking awful for Hillary yet, but it’s not what it was once either. No one wants to age, and no one thinks it’s fun, but sometimes it pays to get some work done to turn back the clock when you are in the media’s focus 24/7. It’s a superficial business to be in, but politicians accept that when they decide to jump in the race.