friend of gavin

this is the second time that i feel the power of the community.
a friend is in trouble and the community of fellow bloggers is moving quickly.
we did not meet in person, but our minds did it.
so spread the voice and feel it.
for details: http://www.noeldavies.com/?p=31
for donation: http://www.chaosscenario.com/friends_of_gavin/
to encourage them to recover: http://www.noeldavies.com/?page_id=9

let's get lost

i'm back from two days trip to my parents'home.
it's a 1.100 km round trip. i have to cross tuscany, driving through maremma and close to florence and the chiantishire, then the hills of the appennini, and the pianura padana.
when going south back to my home i take another motorways which pass along the sea until rome. if you have seen the movie "il sorpasso" directed by dino risi, with vittorio gassman and trintignant, well that's the road i mean.

these are two of the most important motorways and people is driving back and forth going north to the mountains and going south to the sea.
every italian was on these road al least once a year.

but this time i was impressed by the number of cars with gps device. it seemed as all the drivers we met did never drive on these motorways before, nor there was clear indication of cities and direction. thousands and thousands metallic voices telling you when to turn left or right, how many meters before your next way out, which way to get home.
all of a sudden we discover ourself lost in our own way to get around, scared by the unknown streets bringing us at home.

and it looked to me as a metaphor of how we have lost or shift control of our lives.
we delegate too much to tech device or other people for what?
these commodities should deliver to us the advantage of spending time reading, chatting with friends, sharing ideas, enriching our lives.
but is it really so?

Technorati Tags: marketing, car navigation system, gps

the z-list bloggers

this meme is getting better and better.

this is the great list of the z-list bloggers.
by the way i'm in it, somewhere.

copy the list and post it in your blog.
tons of happy bloggers will flow in your blog.

enjoy.

http://blog.creativethink.com/
Soloride
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
Troy Worman's Blog
The Instigator Blog
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That's Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
darrenbarefoot.com
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com

Technorati Tags: the viral garden, marketing, Z Listers

happy whatever you believe in

no matter what you believe in, my best wishes for great seasons' holidays.
take care of you and your families.
and do not forget about the less lucky people and animals.

g., alessandra, zen, clone

Technorati Tags: xmas, seasons' greetings

piergiorgio welby, a modern hero for the civil rights-part 2

this morning Piergiorgio Welby died.
the nature did what the men were not able to decide for.
the weird thing is that just yesterday the chairman of governative commission said he was not in critical condition: shame on you, mr. franco cuccurullo, shame on you.

this was my post early this morning.


Now I have to apologise with mr. cuccurullo.
in a press conference of late this morning, the radical party claimed to have applied euthanasia to Piergiorgio.
the md who follow the process was a friend of mine, who work in my hometown hospital.

Technorati Tags: piergiorgio welby, euthanasia

dear amazon.com

Da: store-news@amazon.com
Oggetto: Amazon.com: Send Me "Lucky"
Data: 20 dicembre 2006 13:09:46 GMT+01:00
A: gianandrea@mac.com

Hello from Amazon.com,
Thanks to the recent purchase(s) you made in the Beauty, Apparel, or Shoes stores at Amazon, you are eligible to receive a one-year subscription to the special Amazon edition of "Lucky" magazine, a $12 value. This special edition is available only to Amazon customers, and includes a special supplement, "Lucky SHOPS Amazon," which features every month a set of must-have products at Amazon as selected by the editors at "Lucky."


from: gianandrea@mac.com
to: store-news@amazon.com
re: Amazon.com: Send Me "Lucky"

dear amazon.com,
as you should know, i did not make any made any qualifying purchase in your beauty, apparel and shoes store in the last two weeks not i did it before.
i understand that my name may be in some way misleading but i can confirm to you that i'm a male, straight, and the free subscription to lucky is rather out of target.
another reason for this, is that i should live in the states to be eligible, while i do live in rome, italy, europe.
i wish to confirm to you that i'm a barnes and noble client and, after having seen this mail, i will remain their client. at least, up today, i received my books and not shoes, heels or whatever.
anyway my best season greetings to you and to your customer care.
sincerely, g.

Technorati Tags: marketing, email, amazon, e-commerce

50th and would like something different

this is my post #50!!!!
and i would liked to post something different that this story about sony flog.

but i came to read this astonishing comment:

After coming clean about the blog, Sony decided to ban further comments on the blog, no doubt in anticipation of a stream of angry complaints from readers. But at least one comment did make it past censors, coming from a person claiming to be an executive with Zipatoni, the agency that worked with Sony to create alliwantforxmasisapsp.com.

"Please know that we approached the client initially with this scenario and they said 'who cares if people find out? As long as it is funny, we do this stuff all of the time,'" the commenter wrote.

just to summarize:

1. you try to fool us
2. you were caught
3. you try to censor the net and the blogosphere
4. you don't give a damn about prospects and bloggers
5. you try to fool santa claus

shame on you!
refer to:
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/12/15/
sony-admits-launching-fake-blog-blocks-comments/

Technorati Tags: psp, alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, sony, flogs, marketing, advertising, web 2.0, ethic

piergiorgio welby, a modern hero for the civil rights

this post as nothing to do with marketing.
this post as a lot to do with marketing, ethic, civil rights.
piergiorgio welby is an italian citizen affected by an impairing and deadly disease: muscular dystrophy.
he now fights for the right to end his life and his pain.
euthanasia is not in the provision of the italian law.
my opinion is that it should be a right for persons affected by deadly diseases.
this is his video sent to giorgio napolitano, the president of our republic.
it's in italian but disease does speak the same language everywhere in the world.
for more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6174603.stm
http://www.lucacoscioni.it/piergiorgio_welby_scrive_al_presidente_della_repubblica

Technorati Tags: marketing, ethic, civil rights, muscular dystrophy, euthanasia

customer care

my beloved nephew, giacomo, 12 y.o., plays basketball and is a huge fan of kobe.
on the 10th of december, i placed on order on the nba online store: the home jersey of the lakers with the kobe name and number. cool. the original jersey from the states!
i received two mail of confirmation and a bill of 76 usd.
today i got a mail from the store which say:

Dear Gianandrea,
We were unable to ship the item(s) below from order 12656967 due
to a lack of availability from the manufacturer. We apologize for
any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact us at 1-866-746-7622 or
internationally at 1-715-261-9588.

Sincerely,
NBA/WNBA Store Customer Service

that's it?
dear NBA/WNBA Store Customer Service
get some suggestions:

a) you may offer another version of the lakers jersey (you sell six different version)
b) you may offer another item of the lakers selection of the same cost
c) you may offer other items at a discount
d) you may be quicker in checking your availability ( 6 days seems quite a long time)
e) try not to run out of stock at least on xmas

i was a first time customer and now i'm a never again customer.
sincerely,g.

Technorati Tags: customer care, shopping, christmas, online store, nba, kobe bryant

save the date: jan.20th barcamp in rome

on jan.20, 2007, there is a barcamp in rome.
for me it's a great opportunity to meet the rome and the italian bloggers community.

for more info:http://barcamp.org/RomeCamp

Technorati Tags: communication, web 2.0, rome, barcamp, social network, blogging, net economy

again and again and again....

this time the super hype psp by sony decide to tackle wall-mart. how? with a fake blog.
yes, a fake blog.
through the ad agency zipatoni (ok, you may laugh about the name) sony produced a brilliant blog named All I Want For Christmas is a PSP. the bloggers are two assholes trying to sell that they do speak a hip hop slang. i'm not mother tongue, i do live in italy, but i'm rather confident that hip hop slang is not that one. read this: "yo where all u hatas com from... juz cuz you aint feelin the flow of PSP dun mean its sum mad faek website or summ... youall be trippin."
they pretend so much that eventually got discovered. a blogger (Chris Heuer) traced the whois of the blog, reporting:

Domain Name: alliwantforxmasisapsp.com

Created on..............: Tue, Nov 14, 2006
Expires on..............: Wed, Nov 14, 2007
Record last updated on..: Tue, Nov 14, 2006

Registrant:
the ZIPATONI co.
Gregory Meyerkord
555 Washington Ave. 3rd Floor
St. Louis, MO 63101
US
Email: greg.meyerkord@zipatoni.com

come on, you pretend to be tech dudes and get caught in such a stupid way.
and by the way, the good old greg is one of the two bloggers!

for more: Adrants » Sony Takes It Up the Ass For Fake Blog

Technorati Tags: sony psp, flog, marketing, advertising, womma

tags, people, commitments

several things happened during these last days that made me think. some sad, some rewarding, some happy.
when i start posting comments at the dailyfix, lewis green was from the very first moment ome of my favourite contributor. sharp and straight on the concept with a strong sense of the business ethic. i commented on dailyfix and on his own blog. during the week end his mum died. 91 years old: not bad. but what i found really touching was how he described his relation with her. straight on the concept:

And as her only son, I remember rages and beatings and personal attacks. It was the only way she knew to teach me values. It took me 30 years to get over the pain, but the values stuck.

In these words you read only the love that a son can conceive for his mother.
the sadness in his words remind me of a blues song.
god bless your mum, lewis.
http://lgbusinesssolutions.typepad.com/solutions_to_grow_your_bu/2006/12/
where_has_the_t.html#comments

yesterday i've entered into second life. i wrote something about it, few weeks ago. not necessarily favourable to it. but if i want to understand it and make my mind about, damn it, i have to try sl.
there are good friends already in, ck, tim jackson, maybe other than i still do not know. the first half an hour was pure fun: try make a yourself in the virtual world. well mine virtual myself is definitely not resembling the real myself: too hairs, beautiful nose, etc.
but on january 11, there is a call for a seminar on dailyfix about sl.
yes, i know that this will help me in getting a clear idea of what sl is and how it can contribute to my business and to the business of my clients.

and last, ann handley in a today post does mention me.
this is a real reward. i start this blog few weeks ago, sometimes is good and sometimes sucks. it remind me of how the virtual myself ( Gianandrea Ra ) stroll in sl: to make it through a door i walk against the wall at least three or four times.
i'm on my way learning a lot from experienced marketers from around the world and hope this will reflect sooner or later from my blog.
thanks ann.
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/12/closer_to_home.html

Technorati Tags: lewis green, second life, ck, tim jackson, ann handley, dailyfix

rock the kitchen, issue #2

as the season's holidays are approaching, the weekly dinners are more and more frequent.
so be prepared for an overload of food and wine (and beer).
on wednedsday, we have a friend for dinner ( hannibal the cannibal, i suppose).
fabiana is a very good friend of us, used to work with me and two years ago went to london to be part of the starcom staff on p&g account.

entrèe king prawns on toast
main course chicken breast with mixt vegetable wok fried

entrèe take two king prawns for each person and leave the skin and the head. marinate them with a vinaigrette of oil and curry ( three table spoon olive oil and a tea spoon of curry for 8 king prawns). cut 8 slice of french bread and toast them. squeeze a tomato on the bread. in the meantime grill the king prawns for two minutes. then put a king prawn for each slice of bread, add some other vinaigrette, salt and pepper.

main course put 800 gramms of chicken breast, chopped, in the wok with a table spoon of olive oil. brown it. take away and in the same wok add another table spoon of olive oil. add the minced vegetables ( 1 red and 1 yellow pepperone, 1 onion, 1 tomato, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot and 1 courgette). cook them for 5 minutes, then cover with beef bouillon and let cook for 20 minutes. add the chicken and allow another 10 minutes. serve with basmati rice.

offer mexican beers or aromatic white wine ( traminer)

Technorati Tags: cooking, advertising

bookworm : the new cool

ck, the most charming and coolest mind blogger in town, has developped another amazing project with Marketing Profs: the Marketing Profs Book Club.
what's that? a book club in the virtual kingdom?
yes and it's a cool idea.
get more info here:
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/12/move_over_oprah_we_marketers_h.html

or here:
http://www.ck-blog.com/cks_blog/marketingprofs_book_club_hosted_by_ck_1/index.html

ps: the title is copyrighted by ck

Technorati Tags: Bookworm Rule!, CK, Christina Kerley, Marketing Profs, Citizen Marketers, Book club, MarketingProfs Book Club, Marketing Book Club

why we could not live without Wal-mart

I'm always amazed to see how companies can act weirdly with their work force.
the latest example is again our friend at Wal-mart.
the company came out with a new program to say thank you to its workers.
The store manager will meet a group of 10 workers every week and the store crew will get an additional 10% extra discount for the holidays purchase.
The program includes several new perks “as a way of saying thank you” to workers, like a special polo shirt after 20 years of service and a “premium holiday,” when Wal-Mart pays a portion of health insurance premiums for covered employees.
wow, 20 years at Wal-mart and i get a brand new polo!

for more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/business/04walmart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, wal-mart

internet, the UN and the freedom issue

the ITU, the UN agency which is the global arbiter of radio frequencies and standards, has a new boss, Hamadoun Tourè from Mali.
at his first conference he said: “I wouldn’t want to see the I.T.U. trying to take over Internet governance,”.
he stated that the ITU is the only nonpolitical place in the UN, where eventually Syria and US sign the same document.
this seem to be a good start.
this week in Honk Kong there is the ITU Telecom World, with expected attendace of 70.000 people.
for more :http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/technology/04telecom.html?ref=technology

Technorati Tags: ITU, internet, web 2.0, United Nations, telecom, ITU Telecom World

media agency, part 4

a recent article from the NYT claims that UK is the new hometown for the internet advertising money. UK is outscoring US with an amazing 10,5% share on the overall adv investment vs a 5,6%. and a lot of expectation soared that online may top tv investment in 3/4 years.
but, as always there is a but, there is an expectation of a reduction of investment as online is cheaper than traditional mass media and web 2.0 communication formats are still less expensive than mass media format.
less investment can't cope anyway with the current remuneration structure (a fee, a percentage on the total investment) but should drive agency, media and creative, and clients to negotiate new solutions.
manhours could be ok but, from a client point of view, is difficult to check it.
paid for results could be better but leave the agency in a weakness position because they do no control all the process and performance may be affected by weakness out of their control.
and from a financial point of view, with quarterly report due, this is a hell of a prediction to do: how much i'll be paid next year?

any suggestion?

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, media agency, creative agency, web 2.0, mass media

the lap dancer

yes, the milan subway is not as the new york one, nor paris or london. three lines, 50 stops and that's it.
but in the last days, it's a hot place to be for a great urban legend.
several witnesses claim they saw a girl getting into the train, removing her raincot and lap dancing in a catsuit.
the newspaper website which gave first the news almost get out of service for the click (200.000 in 12 hours) and several bloggers are spreading the virus around.
nice virus, indeed.
why a lot of marketers doesn't catch how simple is to build a hype?

Technorati Tags: subway, viral, bloggers, lap dancer

passions make us free

my good friend tim jackson posted a great article on his blog about how he races (bike race). what's great into it is that you feel the river of the passion flowing across his words.
passions make us free.
i'm 47 but i started to snowboarding one year ago and bought a kona freeride bike.
when i'm skyrocketing down a hill or a white road, that's the perfect moment.
the moment when our inner part shows at its best.
but it's the passion that i feel when i talk about wine or art.
too many, you may say, not so much i would argue.
and passion is the real added value we can put on the table on our day by day life, to mark the difference in doing a job or in living it. and that's something that the discerning clients and customers clearly perceive.
live you passions.

http://masiguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/why-do-i-race.html

Technorati Tags: passion, snowboard, freeride, bike

psiphon yourself

do you live in a country where internet is seen as a kick in the ass? where wikipedia is a monster enemy? where the information is under control?
well a first answer to get out of this madness is on its way.
psiphon.
it comes from the university of toronto and is going to be released on dec.1.
how it works?
if living in a country without censorship, you download the application and turn your pc into an access point. the unlucky guys living in restricted access countries, log on with an encrypted connection and surf freely.
it can work for circle of people and it won't be easy to spread it around but at least it works.

Technorati Tags: internet, web 2.0, censorship, psiphon

this ad rocks!

get linked here and enjoy!
sorry madams, men only.
anyway this is a great, cool way to go viral and get engaged!

http://www.lynxblow.com/

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, viral marketing, web 2.0

the beauty of seeming effortless

i went through this seth godin post and i cannot agree on his conclusion.
it may be correct the perfect companies do not exist, that perfect place to work does not exist, but it's clearly part of a marketing effort to look better and effortless.
i believe that no one can really think that apple do no struggle to keep its place in the market, and so it is the same for starbuck, etc.
perfection comes at a cost but it reward a lot more than ugliness.
the effort of any company should be to seem effortless and creative, even if they sell tyres.
and tell me, frankly, if you have to choose to work for a leader what will be your choice, then? wall-mart?

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/6965560

Technorati Tags: marketing, advertising, apple, starbucks, wall-mart

why do always bother you?

is marketing sometime boring? do we read too much bs around?
i decided to open a weekly window on something more funny: the dinner of the week.
i'm rather good at cooking (it means that up today none of my guests went to the hospital or died for :-))) and at least once a week a invite some friends for a dinner.
tonight: all meat (sad for vegetarian, but next week i'll find something for you too)

entreè paella of chick peas and sausage
main course fillet in crosta of dried tomatos and almonds
wine 2003 pinot noir from chanson pere et fils (burgundy)

entreè coarse chop the sausage and brown it without any dressing. take it away from the pan. put in the same pan some olive oil and onion, red pepperone and a tomato (all the three minced). when start to brown add the rice and make it lightly toasted. then add some beef bouillon, wine, paprika and saffron. let it cook for 15 minutes, covered. then add chick peas and the sausage and adjust salt and pepper. let it cook for an additional 10 minutes. when ready serve it in small quantity with minced parsley.

main course prepare a puree with dried tomatos and add the minced almonds. cover the higher side of the fillet. put in the oven warmed up at 220° for 15 minutes. serve with romana lettuce.

what you need to feed four people:
the entreè 250 g of sausage, one onion, one red pepperone, one tomato, 280 g of rice, paprika, beef bouillon, saffron, one glass of white wine, 250 g of chick peas, parsley, olive oil, pepper and salt

the main course 4 fillet of 200 g each, 4 table spoon of dried tomatos and 4 of almonds, salt and pepper, romana lettuce.


enjoy!

Technorati Tags: cooking, advertising, marketing

is copyright the killer app to user generated content websites?

part 2:
maybe not if the majors acknowledge that they have to learn to swim in the digital stream.

at the Future of Television Forum at New York University's Stern School of Business, David Poltrack, CBS's chief research officer, said that "If they're [consumers] going to steal it, give it to them anyway," he said. "But also make it easier to access and present it better than YouTube or BitTorrent or anywhere else."
adage reports
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=113262

Technorati Tags: you tube, digital world, bittorrent, ipod, itunes, high definition tv

best clients?

these are my two dogs, zen and clone. both recovered from the streets. solid companions went through several changes in my life. they are always pushing me to get up early in the morning, to get out of home no matter the weather, to walk and run five minutes more than the previous day, to explore and be curious, to know other dogs and owners, to talk and share knowledge and information, to spread the information about dogs' food, veterinary, etc.
they do reward me with friendship, loyalty, caring. a rather high remuneration, isn't it?
do our client pay the right money for all the above?

any client like this one?

" i spent a really sad afternoon with a model with a glazed face, trying to push some life into her. after that it was totally worthless and i was totally disappointed." this is a letter that henry matisse wrote to a friend on june 1941.
how many times you felt like this after a presentation or a meeting with clients and/or partner advertising agencies?
how many time you had the feeling that the audience around the table just cannot get the point and were wasting your time?

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, audience

is copyright the killer app to user generated content websites?

since the world has learned that my space and you tube and these sites were not on line for a cultural purpose but to make money (ie since a big company with deep pocket bought it), their staff more under pressure are the legals.
the majors, music and movie majors, got into the playground to close a deal with them or to sue them.
what i found great is that the latest legal action against my space, which came from universal, is considered by the major as a test to provision of the federal laws.
marketing vox reported:
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/11/20/universal_music_sues_myspace_for_copyright_infringement/index.php

did news corp or google get into the user generated content arena too late?
did they pay too much money now that they have to share advertising revenue with all other majors?

Technorati Tags: my space, you tube, copyright, money, advertising

google, you tube and the corporate responsibilities

few days ago, a blogger found on google video a clip with some students beating up a young with the down syndrome.
after that, google removed the video and the story went into a court and the students were detected and kicked out from the school.
on la repubblica, the major italian daily, vittorio zambardino, a journalist and blogger, posted in his blog titled scene digitali (the digital scene) a very interesting article on tuesday, 14 november, and one of saturday, 18 november. the both generated more than 200 comments (really a lot) with some interesting results:

- there is a certain confusion about the medium and the message.
some people say that if google did not displayed the video no one would have known it. other say that they should have call the police
- internet is a free land without boundaries and with no rules and censorship
- some people do not get the point that google, as most of the companies on line, are there to make money
- internet is no longer a place where you may hide yourself. you can be tracked in all you time spent online
- there is a call for a civil reaction
- schools are in danger to become a land with no rules
- technology is amplifying everything as never before
- the user generated content business model calls for a higher control from the companies to avoid illegal contents to hit the net

http://zambardino.blogautore.repubblica.it/

it's all in italian but worth to give a look.
i'm available for support in traslation.

Technorati Tags: google video, google, you tube, internet, web 2.0

the beauty system claims another victim

a 21 y.o. model from brazil, ana carolina reston died for anorexia in san paulo.
she was working for some of the most important model agencies, like ford, elite and equipe. at the moment of her decease, her weight was 88 for a 5,8 height.
r.i.p.

Technorati Tags: beauty system, fashion system, anorexia

and they call it summer

this is a special post for masiguy.
mid august at les deux alpes.

Technorati Tags: mountain biking, freeride, les deux alpes

media agency part 3

the crucial question coming from part 2 is: would not be possible to structure the business in a wiser way?
you invest on people and resources and infrastructure and then the client leave and you have to shut premises and loose talents and money.
the entire process involving media agency is in three main steps:

- strategy
- planning (delivering media plan)
- buying

- strategy must remain in house as it is the core of the business
- buying could be appointed to a buying center common for more than one agency (let's consider that today the big players do own at least two media agency each) to exploit any volume benefit, where available
- planning activity could be deployed to separated companies as for the buying.

what if omd built a company for buying and one for planning for all their media agencies?

groups of buyers and of planners, that you can shift from one account to another if you loose a client. on such big numbers of clients, the chance to fire people is definitely lower and this approach makes easier to retain and invest on them.

the other advantage is to change the remuneration structure with a cost per each service and eventually a higher recognition for the most valuable service, such as strategy.

too complicated? or too simple?

Technorati Tags: media agency, advertising, marketing

media agency, part 2

i come back on the media agency world.
recent clients' move has highlighted another of the key weakness of the current structure of the media agency (as well of the adv and marketing agency overall).
many local branches are open to serve a major client only. you know the big clients ask for an office in borat's country, too.
but when they shift the account into other agency, local branch do normally close the premise and fire the employees: elvis has left the building.
and then?
don't you think that it may be possible to strucure the business in a wiser way?

Technorati Tags: media agency, advertising, marketing, borat

an ipsos mori reasearch run in europe on 2.200 interviews provided some interesting results.

- 90% of the french say they are familiar with blogs
- 58% of the italians, 55% of the germans and 51% of the spanish claim familiarity with online diaries
- britons are at 50%
- about a third of the europeans inteviewed said they has been put off making a purchase after negative comments on blogs, while 52% said they bought something after positive reviews.

as trusted information source:

newspaper 30%
blogs 24%
tv adv 17%
emailing 14%

for some more:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061111/wr_nm/britain_blogs_dc

Tags: blog, advertising, information, newspapers, tv, email marketing

a couple of days ago, ann handley in the blog daily fix posted an article dogged by dodgy ads. some mail systems do use tune-up that match advertising with email content. this sometimes proves to generate mismatch and weird effect.
most of the readers and bloggers complained about the poor screening capability from supposed cutting edge sites.
today on la repubblica, the major italian newspaper, there is an article about a problem on google video.
under the category funny video an asshole posted a video in which some others assholes are beating a poor boy with the down syndrome in a classroom.
fact is the no one in google take care of what happened until three days ago someone got the video to a judge who order to remove it immediately.
now, several hundreds persons downloaded the video before anyone took an action.
how it can happen?
no one in google video is running some screening about what it is posted?
the association of the parents of down kids has sued google.

Tags: daily fix, google video, down syndrome

the italian minister for the politic about youths, giovanna melandri, has taken action against the catwalk displaying models too thin.
she asked to the fashion companies to collaborate and to not have anorexic models on the catwalk.
she pointed out that she doesn't want to force anybody right now but only asked for cooperation.
any further action could be taken after the next fashion shows in february.

Tags: eating disorder, marketing, obesity

internet has played a big role in the us mid term election.
the two parties anyway approached the medium in very different way in terms of planning and tone of the communication.
rimm-kaufman group released a study on this.
even if in italy internet is not so spread as in the us and the politic parties seems rather illiterate on the matter, this is a topic than will become more and more important in the next polls. so give a look and try to learn something.

http://rimmkaufman.com/articles/election06/index.html

Tags: internet, political election, mid term election, polls

ooops. since youtube has become part of google empire, traffic flattened.
according to alexa and the related graph.
reason why:
- young people do not like much big corporation?
- the copyright infringement that force to take away a bunch of funny clips (eg comedy central)?
- the feeling that youtube is no longer a playground but a business area?
- the feeling of being betrayed in a free trade zone?

any suggestion?

today starts the euroblog 2007 research for practitioner in pr and communication.
fill up the form.
and, by the way, give a look at the 2006 results in the pdf

http://www.unipark.de/uc/euroblog2007/

womma has put under review edelman's membership for a trial period of 90 days.
adage reports.
from my point of view, this move could be fair if it really helps in making clear the rules are written to be followed.
i do believe that edelman is smart enough to avoid other mismatch (hope so).

http://adage.com/article?article_id=112947

i don't know if you have may same feeling when approaching a client or looking at strategies implemented to launch products.
i feel around a lot of fear. people is scared by the danger of failure or loosing the job.
when you work with subsidiaries, there is a shift of responsibility bottom up: if the hq decided so why i should challenge them (even if i know they are wrong!).
everybody looks at the competitors and what they have done ready to replicate it.
i'm afraid that doing so companies are loosing a lot of opportunity and a lot of talented people who rather prefer to focus on an honorable career than on setting milestones in the business.
what about you?

today i went through a post from lewis green about how movie market is not investing in internet.

http://lgbusinesssolutions.typepad.com/solutions_to_grow_your_bu/2006/11/thick_as_a_bric.html#comment-24936145

some interesting data

If the MPAA has it right, those under 30 are far more likely to be frequent moviegoers than are those 30 and older, and nearly half of all 18-to-20-year-olds saw one or more movies per month in 2005. eMarketer says that 73.7% of 12-to-17-year-olds in the US currently use the Internet, and projects that 83.9% will by 2010.

italy is still far from this penetration but how it happens that the movie launch is still going through tv campaign at high coverage ( and i do mean high coverage, not high target coverage), outdoor in the main cities, some radio and a little bit of internet?
why it is so hard to have these people to change their mind and try something different?
this should be the world of dream, right?
this should be the world of imagination, right?
this should be the world where creative people works to sell us fantastic stories, right?
why they sell them as fmcg?

womma has published the ethical blogger contact guidelines.
for reference see:

http://www.womma.org/blogger/read/

it's more than a need for everybody in the market to get guidelines so that in the future no on can say i did not know it.

do you remind of the ck post about beauty and marketers'responsibility and all the comments?
i found this great ad. what do you think about?

if this story of false blogs should proliferate, in a short time we may see a new professional profile arise: the flogbusters!!!
flogbusters united.

oops, they did it again!
apparently another big company has been found flogging.
the consumerist reports that something strange with mcdmillionwinner and 4railroads.
adrants is quoting the news too.

here it is the link:

http://www.adrants.com/2006/10/following-walmart-mcdonalds-caught-with-f.php

the happiest happy hours south of ground zero???
is it a new address?
do you plan to have a tube station, too?

on the latest issue of a weekly female supplement to one of a major daily, i saw an ad featuring kate moss.
well, i'm happy for her if she recover from her nightmare.
few pages on there was another ad featuring kate. and then another one. and a fourth one and i wasn't ever at half of the mag. ehi, but wait a minute. i do remember of kate, what about the brands? does it make sense to pay a model thousands of dollars and get mixed up with several other brands loosing any distinctiveness?

you may, or may not, have heard about the wall mart and edelmann story.
blogs have been debating about it since weeks now.
eventually, edelmann took the whole responsibility and apologize.
to believe them or not, it's a personal problem.
but the issue of the flogs is much more than a personal problem or an edelmann problem.
it's about the bad guys and the good guys that are around in the blogs world.
we are all aware that any business environment is infested by people lying and looking for easy money or big money.
but in the internet world, it's definitely harder to detect them as it is definitely harder for them to recover when they are detected.

i found this catchy comment from sean carton:

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623787

what happen when you set up a project, build a community and then, all of a sudden, you turn to be too much hungry for money and let the big companies to get in and disrupt the balance?
this is the story of second life, an interesting project of virtual reality, where people built their own virtual business and life. they all lived in a "beautiful" world made of small business. and then the big companies got in claiming they are changing the world.
now the native second-lifers are on revolt.
this may turn to be an alarm to all the guys thinking they can get into any business disregarding the people already in.
and this is, again, the old story of the customer care: you do not care about your first customers, the ones who get into when you were a small site, gave you trust and money. and now you pay.

media agency: the next endangered species?

i used to work in media department earlier and media agency later for the last 16 years.
big agencies, big names, big money. fair enough.
but since i left the agency, 6 month ago, i begin to look at them in a more disenchanted way.
results (with some exception, indeed)?

- no big changes in all these years
- money comes mostly from buying and not from strategy or planning
- in some countries, money comes part from client and part from media owners
- no real standing to say to a client don't go on tv (e.g.) or challenge him/her on strategic approach
- no real standing to tell to a client that the agency job is worth more than the miserable commission paid on average

media agencies had the great chance, around mid 90s, to become the real comunication center and this because they had in their hands the research on target definition. but the focus went on the commission to be paid for planning and buying. so they became a commodity and commodities are choosen by their price.

now with a media scenario more and more fragmented, new media already on stage and other probably to come shortly, again there is a chance for media agency to evolve from this commodity position.

the future of media agency may be in shift the buying into separated entity and keep in house the strategic process. becoming think tank they can leave the commodity area and negotiate a fee for buying and a remuneration for the strategy and planning.

will they grab it or will they be the next outsourcing service?

have you ever thought at the car retailer as someone who just chase you until the car is out of the store?
have you ever thought that you would like someone to remind you that you need to make periodic maintenance, change oil or whatever your car need?

just think about receiving an email or an sms telling you that you have to get back to perform some maintenance. helpful, isn't it?

currently i'm not aware of any customer program to follow you since you left the store and until you come back to buy a new one.
expensive? maybe but....
complicated to implement? yes but...

well, too many questions for a post, but i really like to have some answers.
cars are expensive and customer care should go further to add value for your money, even if you do not buy a porsche or a ferrari.

yesterday on the marketing profs blog section, ck (christina kerley, a new york based professional) posted some meaningfull thoughts about beauty and marketers responsability.
briefly, we are all in charge whenever false or misleading message get to teens and tweens and drive them to eating disorders. what is really impressing is the thread that followed: 30 comments were posted and some unique point of view.

- beauty is in the hand of marketers
- the message is that you MUST be thinner and thinner
- meanwhile the fastfood deliver to you thousands of calories and fat
- eating disorders hit kids younger and younger
- we are all into it because of being parents or relatives of teens and tweens
- we all knew someone with eating disorder and know about the consequence

get there and give a look at http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/10/face_it_marketers_beauty_is_ou_1.html

this is the picture in the usa but what about europe? and italy? are we really different?

in the last five years, in italy obese people index grew of 25%.
36% of the kids aged 9 yo is obese
3 millions people suffer of eating disorder.
10% of the girls suffer as well.
in europe obese people index grew between 10% and 40% with higher index in eastern countries.

we are all in business to make our clients more profitable but the ethic side of marketing and communication should not kept apart.
what about you?

this morning, as i was creating my profile, i begin to think that most of my passion, wine, mtb, contemporary art, are not advertised at all outside their inner circle. you find ads on related mags or dedicated tv channels, you must do some cherry picking to find some ads in major mags. and word of mouth, let's call so the expert voice, is the engine moving the business. the result is that if you are not an expert or you do not have a friend into it, price is what make the difference: an expensive wine must be tastier than the less expensive, a bike frame at 3.000 euro (or dollars) must be better than one at 2.500. weird, isn't it?

Hi, everybody. This is my first blog and my first post into. So let me talk about me briefly. I'm a long time practitioner in media and advertising. On mid May this year, I left the company to explore new life and career opportunity.
My interests span from cooking and wine (setting up a respectable cellar), contemporary art (attended a course at Sotheby's London), freeride mountain biking and my two dogs. I do have a girlfriend, too (forgive me about the listing, darling).
The next post will be about a real bizandbuzz matter, so stay tuned.
ciao,g.