Home sweet home. After a couple of great days in Toronto I’m heading back to Montreal in an hour via Via Rail. The train is oddly efficient; faster than a car and much less frustrating than flying.

It was the Canadian Marketing Association’s Digital Marketing Conference version 2007. Tons of great speakers and some terrible choices amongst them as well. Nevertheless, it’s worth the networking alone and meeting a few people in person that have held my attention in the last many years. It’s nice to not to be behind a computer at times.

I hope to take some time this weekend to reflect on the event. Until then, I’m hitting the rails.

Cheers to everyone I met! See you next time around in the T DOT.

Filed under: Travels

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Funny “think piece” in NYT’s Circuits section: Pogue’s Imponderables.

There are more than a few funny questions to ponder over including:

* How come cellphone signal-strength bars are so often wrong?

* Laptops, cameras and cellphones have improved by a thousand percent in the last ten years. Why not their batteries?

* Wi-Fi on airplanes. What’s taking so long?

* Would the record companies sell more music online if it weren’t copy-protected?

* Do P.R. people really expect anyone to believe that the standard, stilted, second-paragraph C.E.O. quote was really uttered by a human being?

So true. So true. Read them all here.

Filed under: Funny

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There has long been controversy brewing about site measurement. This time, a NY Times piece titled “How Many Site Hits? Depends Who’s Counting” is tackling the issue. Advertisers want to keep their budgets down and publishers wish to benefit from having accurate circulation counts.

One aspect of the debate is critical to me:

Both comScore and NetRatings are cooperating with audits by the Media Rating Council, a nonprofit organization that has approved ratings systems since the 1960s. Among other issues, the council is investigating whether the companies’ panels actually represent all Web users.

In my eyes, the actual makeup of panels from comScore or Nielsen/NetRatings needs to reflect the makeup of the internet population being monitored. I’ve never met a single person who is tracked by either company. I suspect that our core demographic of 18-35s are underrepresented as well.

I will only know for sure when Fixion Media ponies up tens of thousands for such measurement. We can only hope it’s more profitable than self-reporting traffic data.

Filed under: Publisher Side, Client Side, Measurement

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One local corner store… funny story… they have an old school cash register. No bar codes here. Just old fashioned Sharpies.

Power to them… Marketing is a balance of old and new thinking. Old and new technology. Marketing is not a function of primate wants. That is to say, I want to know the price of a product; all taxes & tips & gratuities & service charges & “bullshit” & profit margin included. Holiday resorts call that an “all-inclusive package”. It’s a rational ideal.

Filed under: Rants

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The sign of a great client lies not with the amount of the budget allocated to your coffers, but with the qualititative nature of their collective integrities. And I quote:

I’m very sorry for the delay. We came into some bad financial issues over the past few weeks. You are one of three on the very top of our list to pay. We will take care of this shortly. Again, very sorry for the delay. thank you for being patient.

Now that’s class. If only all clients could have similar courtesies.

This post is inspired by Andy Nulman.

Filed under: Fixion Clients, Client Side

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The crowd loves it:

Thanks to XK for the tip.

Filed under: Video, The Future

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I got a few tweets about a video called Digital R/evolution. It’s not as good as The Machine Is Us/ing Us video but its points are well taken.

I do want to take issue with one of the lines in the Digital R/evolution video, which states that “today we create more information than the experts“. True perhaps but this is unimportant to the debate. I can only assume the term “expert” means anything from business leader, politician, intellectual elite, and/or ruling classes? Who knows. Regardless, on the whole we might produce more information but let’s be honest; the lowest common denominator doesn’t have much impact on society.

We should recognize that information on its own is a powerless entity. The only things that matter are the circles of power and influence that you live and work amongst. Just ask the experts.

Filed under: Rants, Video

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From the New York Times:

In a surprise appearance on Mr. Stewart’s show just after 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Mr. Colbert arrived on a bicycle piloted by someone in an Uncle Sam costume. Propping his feet on a hay bale and cracking open what appeared to be a beer bottle, Mr. Colbert, in character as a conservative blowhard, told Mr. Stewart that he had “decided to officially consider whether or not I will announce.”

But on his own show, which began at 11:30, he touched off a cascade of red, white and blue balloons by declaring, “After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call.”

Sure, he’s hawking a new book called “I Am America (And So Can You)” but that shouldn’t stop Stephen Colbert from running for President as a “favorite son” candidate in his native South Carolina. Beyond potentially influencing the race as a Democrat and/or Republican–correct, he wants to run both primaries–it is unclear as to what his real motives are.

Though, I suspect that Stephen Colbert doesn’t care much about book sales or TV ratings. His legacy is at stake here. The bright spot here is that he’s already a legend. Doubt me? Check out his appearance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner from a couple of years ago. He can stump the best of them.

Colbert Links:

The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
Stephen Colbert (Wikipedia)
Stephen Colbert - Character (Wikipedia)
Colbert Nation
MakeMeAmerica.com

Filed under: Personal Branding, Politics

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As an old-schooler circa early ’90s internet user, it’s tough at times to wrap my head around the sheer speed at which consumers of media users are integrating the web into their daily lives. In this AdAge article it is reported that 16% of households watch television online, which is twice as much as the previous year. Mandatory advertising and small screens aren’t going to stop this train anytime soon! On the flipside, the message for content producers is that there is money to be made:

“Over the next few years, the growing popularity of viewing TV episodes/shows online is going to have a huge impact on the way brands and advertisers communicate with viewers,” Shari Morwood, exec VP of technology, telecommunications and media at TNS, said in a release. “If advertisers can effectively leverage the online video platform, we should see much more interactivity and emotional connection between brands and the online TV viewing audience.”

I haven’t had an emotional connection with a brand since I fell in love Grey Goose’s intoxicating smoothness last weekend. But I digress. The point is well taken.

Filed under: Publisher Side, Media Planning, Television, Online Video

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Global Neighbourhoods (RSS) today posted an interview with Josh Hallett of Hyku, LCC about social media. When asked “what motivates corporations to adopt social media tools?”, Hallett responded:

I really hate to say, ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ or ‘Fear’ but sometimes those are great motivators. They tell themselves about community and engagement, but it’s not until they actually get out there that they realize that those things are real and have a benefit. This is especially the case for organizations that haven’t generally opened themselves up to the customer/public, etc.

While I agree that fear is a convenient barrier to change, the real fear lies in any attempt in changing the status quo which tends to destabilize the pillars of power. In other words, the dollars start flowing erratically thus cannot be controlled by the usual suspects.

Let’s be real: corporations aren’t afraid of tools like RSS and instant messaging or even cute destinations like Twitter, Flickr, Jaiku, Facebook, and Second Life. They wait until markets become stable and commoditized. Then they can sweep in and steal your lunch.

Gotta love the free market.

Filed under: Rants, Social Media

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