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