I'd like you to productize your value proposition in order to find synergies around our talking points and action items

Your mission: get into bschool.
Your deliverable: a ppt presentation.
You will be judged by: a second year student.
Ready, set, synergize!

To get into the Chicago School of Business, ppt is your deliverable. No need to slave over an essay - when 4 slides will do. This saddens me greatly. I am, after all, MA'd in English, and a great lover of our language. I am not a big lover of the ppt dumbing down of America. This totally turns me off. I think it also says something about the quality and depth of the students Chicago wants this year. (One reason they went to this application style is that it was less boring to read than essays.) Seriously. They stated that as a reason.

The quote I like the best:

"If there's one foundation of business, it's innovation, and this is your chance to elevate yourself and show you can do something innovative," he said.

That 'he" is Michael Avidan - the second year MBA who will determine if your ppts get you to the next round. Ahh, the innovation!

This blog post was brought to you by Microsoft. Where do you want to lower your bar today?

Learn more.....

Sighs.

"Never ending" hype about Web 2.0

MySpace and Isobar & Carat recently commissioned a report about social networking that focuses on MySpace. Though offering nothing ground-breaking, it's a quick read and basically reinforces what you already know. It also has some nice charts and stats to add credibility to our trusted paradigm, that is, people are really into this social networking thing. All kinds of people are into it, of all ages, and the interest is building, not waning. And they are really, really into it. A lot. When you study the stats, it can get a little overwhelming.

We also know that marketers have caught on. Now we (the marketers) just have to keep focusing on how to exploit this new medium and the people that spend so much time there. We will have our evil way with them. Oh yes, we will.

I will say that I found some of the interviewee quotes a little disturbing. Here are two:

“I can’t come home from school and not want to go on MySpace.
I wake up in the morning, brush my teeth, and go on MySpace.
I have to in the morning. My mom gets so mad. I have to check on
MySpace in the morning because maybe at 3:00 in the morning
someone wrote me a comment. I just have to do it. It’s addictive.”
— Britney, 17, Los Angeles

“It just hooks you in there and you’ll just sit there and you’ll look at
people’s profi les or you’ll just randomly browse what’s going on, and
you just can’t stop. And you’re looking at the watch and you thought
you’d just sit down for a minute and you ended up sitting for an
hour, like what the hell am I doing?”
— Paul, 25, Chicago

I'm not really sure why I find them disturbing, I'm all about connecting and connecting online is the bomb. But some of the comments seemed to broach on internet addiction. Good stuff for marketers. Weird stuff for our society.

5 Signs Everything dot.com is dot.com again (in Austin) and 5 Reasons It's Not Quite There

1. CA tech companies are trying to lure away Austin developers - I've heard a lot about this lately. "Like dude, I see you loving on our geeks." But alas, we know about your evil income tax.
2. Everyone who wants one has a job.
3. There are brand new shiny startups - but this time they come with (gasp) revenue models. Ok not all of them.
4. Everyone's talking about online community (but now we call it Web 2.0).
5. All the good sushi places are PACKED.

What I Miss From dot.com Days

1. Charging my clients $150/hour.
2. Being in my 20s.
3. Ignorance of the term and implications of "budget."
4. The sock puppet.
5. The parties. Can anyone say "LAUNCH PARTY!!!" Sure, there are still parties around events, but excess is tempered with drink tickets and hangovers.

In short, I'm glad the economy is back, I'm glad that some of the stock that I own is actually publicly traded, and I'm glad that my favorite sushi restaurant is doing so well.

But I miss being naive and thinking the money would go on forever. Dot.com 2.0 is really burdened by this whole reality thing.

It's not your information... it's how you *use* your information that matters

I saw this map recently linked from a post that made it onto Techmeme:



According to this map from National Geographic, I should have been living large while I was in the Bay Area. That wasn't really my experience, but perhaps all those single men are geeks that don't get out much.

In other strange map news, I read a recent New Yorker article about "million dollar blocks" in NYC. These are not where the wealthy live, but rather, where the very poor and oppressed live. "Million dollar" refers to how much is being spent to imprison residents of those blocks.

Informative, yes.



Here is a Village Voice article about the same topic (the New Yorker isn't online).

Both maps could form the basis of many a research paper (the second one is a whole research initiative). And both are super valuable because of the way they combine information.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Mmmm. Mashups.

News Flash: Online Community Doesn't Matter to Retailers

Jupiter Research released a new Report in which they take the interesting and somewhat befuddling stance that "social and community network sites have little impact on influencing online retail sales."

I know, I'm staring at my screen in amazement too. To me, thats somewhat akin to saying, "friends and family have no impact on determining what people buy." Because, of course, in our digital world much of our traditional social interaction happens online. Ok, so perhaps if you are selling glucose monitors for seniors, social networking isn't going to make a huge difference to your bottom line - but if you are selling the latest greatest tech gadget or any item aimed at teenagers - you better get online into your marketing plan.

The other thing that is really confusing about this, is that marketers KNOW that these community sites matter - and they are increasingly seeking more devious ways to get their messages embedded around, beside, and within them.

Here is a quote from the Jupiter report:

"Retailers would be better served to take a step back and evaluate how effective tactics really are – and with whom – to make a stronger impact with the right audiences rather than succumbing to trends,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch.

And here's another:

“From a branding and advertising perspective, social and community sites are garnering a great deal of influence online,” explained Patti Freeman Evans, Senior Analyst with JupiterResearch. “But when researching a product online, shoppers are looking for fundamental information, not entertainment or social interaction. In the end, the consumer is still interested in convenience and efficiency and social and community sites are just not that efficient.”

I think Jupiter totally missed the point. People are going to these sites and interacting with other people. When they considering a purchase, they ask their online friends about their thoughts. When it gets time to research specifics, yes, they may be looking for information. But lots and lots of statistics say that even at that point, online reviews of a product have an enormous impact on online sales.

I haven't read the whole report, because it costs money and information wants to be free. But unless it totally contradicts what the press release says... all I can say is... Hi Jupiter - this is the modern world. Sit down, stay a while, and we'll show you around.

Your Girlfriend Did What to Your PS2?

Ads are truly getting daring... and it's not often that an ad gives me pause... but this pair that PS2 is running in India sure did!

You can see them full size here and here.


Read the MSN post about it here.

It's not so much the copy - which didn't make a ton of sense and looks like a maniac cut it out of the newspaper - but the tag line! Gasp. Check it out in the bottom right corner. Yes, you saw it.

I'm not sure... but I think I'm offended. And I know if I were the Indian girlfriend of a PS2 owner, I'd mad as sh-t. :)

Facebook vs. MySpace

The preps vs. the outcasts?

Evidently kids know this already - but Facebook is for good kids and the party people all hang out on MySpace. Who knew? Turns out marketers knew. Those smarty pants!

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html