On Saturday, I attended Audi's complimentary two hour session at Summit Point racetrack in West Virginia, as the the result of an invitation I received as a current Audi owner. I thought it would be a great way to spend a few hours on the weekend and get a ride in the 2009 A4. Instead, I experienced a great example of experiential marketing and even witnessed a prospective Audi customer turn into a likely purchaser.

De-averaging your marketing investments and paying close attention to how your incremental marketing investments pay off is a post I've been intending to write for a while now. The good folks at Rimm-Kaufman group, however, saved me the trouble with yesterday's excellent PPC Averages can Hide Incremental Nightmares.  Please take the time to read it. As I [...]

Are the Beijing Olympics headed for an opening ceremony marketing problem? Today's Wall Street Journal raises the specter of athletes wearing masks to the opening ceremony and causing China to lose face. Other blogs and sources are starting to pick up on this. What if 10 or 20% of the athletes in the opening ceremony [...]

A recent study, carried out by Marketing Management Analytics, Financial Executive and Ed See, makes me think that more senior marketing executives should double-check the shine on their resume and perhaps consider a few more networking lunches in the near future. A very brief summary of that report found in Ad Age frightens me and brings to mind a few courses of action that you can take today, if you find yourself in a similar situation.

"Warning: Habits May Be Good for You" explores how an anthropologist turned to marketing experts from CPG companies like Procter & Gamble to help increase the incidence of hand-washing with soap after using the toilet in the nation of Ghana to improve the health of children. Obviously, this was an important effort and I was encouraged to see marketing practitioners as instrumental in helping achieve success in this endeavor. As I was reading the article, it struck me that many of the techniques used are found in Robert B. Cialdini's classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I'd lent out my copy a few years ago and, thankfully, had to buy a new version which includes an epilogue written by Dr. Cialdini in 2007. My re-re which triggered my thoughts on social media.

What's the value placed on a social media marketing campaign by the marketers that develop the campaign? It's hard to tell, because one typically can't get access to the key metrics associated with the campaign, particularly sales attributed to the effort and ROI. I was intrigued by a new social push by Sony Ericsson for the Z750a flip phone, created by their agency, Iris. The campaign is titled "Bringing Purple Back."