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