Talking About My Education: New Media and Other Conferences, Seminars and Events

If President Obama is a nerd, then I am definitely a geek. In elementary, middle and high school, I dutifully followed my father's direction to do any and all extra credit. In college, having calculated the cost of each individual course, in fact, lecture, I opted to take four extra classes - one more per year than required. And now, I have become the guru of "continuing education," industry conferences, topical seminars, webinars, podcasts, you name it. Here are some examples:

Upcoming:

Social Media Week: February 1st-5th, 2010

The Official PressLift Launch Event

Recently Attended:

The New Age of Social Media, Monday, February 3rd, 7-9pm. SLC Center - 352 7th Avenue, 16th Floor - New York NY.

This event, in conjunction with Social Media Week, featured a panel that discussed the "truths and myths of social media." They were:

Eric Hamilton - Author, Social Media Branding in the Age of Obama
Ellie Nieves - Founder, Leadership Strategies for Women, LLC
Orietta E. Ramirez - Lawyer, HR Professional & Employment Blogger
Mike Street - Director of Social Media Marketing, Zezza Network

Moderator:
Anthony Quinones - CEO & Chief Creative Officer, Q Ball Media, LLC


Branding The Future With Social Media, sponsored by Pepsi Refresh, Monday, February 3rd, 2010, 10:30am - 12:30pm. New York, NY

The opening session of Social Media Week will focus on a top-level discussion of the increasing importance in utilizing social media to grow and develop corporate brands in the twenty-first century.

SPEAKERS:

Brian Morrisey, Digital Editor at AdWeek, will moderate this panel with panelists,

Lauren Hobart, Chief Marketing Officer of Sparkling Brands, for Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages,
Max Schorr, Co-founder of GOOD, Inc.
Facebook VP of Sales Tom Arrix
Frank Cooper, Chief Engagement Officer of Pepsico.


Social Media Week Official Press Conference, Monday, February 3rd, 8:30-10am. The Paley Center for Media - 25 West 52nd Street - New York, NY

Screening of "The Paper Chase," Friday, January 29th, 2010 - Harvard Club of New York

Baratunde Thurston, America, Race, and One Year Into Our Nation’s First Half-Black Presidency. Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Breaking Business Books: "The Power of Many" by Meg Whitman, Former EBay CEO, on Life and Business, Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

"Over-Under, Sideways-Down" - screening of the 1979 film followed by discussion with director-producer Steve Wax

Keynote speech by Louise Richardson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor University of Saint Andrews - expert on terrorism, January 21, 2010

iPhone workshop at Apple Store, Upper West Side - Monday, January 19, 2010.

Aperture workshop at Apple Store, Upper West Side - Monday, January 18, 2010.

Meeting of the Minds Webcast Series: 50+ Metrics Every Marketer Should Master (an Update)

Sponsored by American Marketing Association and MarketingNPV

Paul Farris of Darden School at UVA will offer an update on the new 2nd edition of 50+ Metrics Every Marketer Should Master – and discuss the additions and changes to the key metrics shaping marketing measurement. He’ll also share with us some new research into who is using which types of marketing metrics and how.

· Which metrics matter most?
· The evolution/update of marketing metrics
· New metrics for marketers to know

Speakers:
Paul Farris, Landmark Communications Professor, Darden School, University of Virginia; Author of 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master
Pat LaPointe, Managing Partner, MarketingNPV (moderator)

-- January 14th, 2010 @ 1pm ECT

Meeting of the Minds Webcast Series: Effective Marketing for the Economic Recovery -- Presented by: American Marketing Association in cooperation with MarketingNPV

Speakers:
Dave Reibstein, William Woodside Professor of Marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Author: Dynamic Competitive Strategy
Pat LaPointe, Managing Partner, MarketingNPV (moderator)

Dave Reibstein of Wharton will share his learnings on effective marketing during the economic recovery. Should we be waiting until the recession is all the way over? Should we be returning back to the original spending levels—slowly, immediately, or even exceeding the previous levels? Should we be spending differently in the recovery stage? Dave will discuss how spending should rise or fall as economic conditions vary, and when marketers should look to reallocate spending between acquisition and retention based on the type as well as the length of the recession.

* Recessions - what type of effects are being felt in your industry?
* How does a recession affect your total spending?
* What steps should you take in the allocation of spending between customer acquisition and retention?
* Should you wait until the recession is over to start increasing your spending?

-- December 15th, noon CST

"Market Forecast: The Economy and Markets at the Crossroads" NYSSA (New York Society of Security Analysts) - The stock market rally that began in early March sparked hope that the global economy has seen the worst of the recession. Yield spreads have moved closer to normal and credit has begun to flow with greater regularity. Yet, there remains significant doubt among many investors that the rise in stocks and the return to some semblance of normality in the credit markets is justified by the current and future state of the economy. Additionally, a high and rising level of concern of many investors is the degree of government activism exhibited by the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress. Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

"Understanding Social Media: An Introduction." Fridays with Vistage - Social Media Webcast with speaker Gini Dietrich. Friday, July 17th, 2009. I thought this would be kind of elementary as it was promoted as an intro to social media for executives. It definitely started out that way and reinforced most of what I already knew from my own experience, from Steve Wax at Campfire and from OMMA Social - among other social media sources; however, as Gini got more specific, there were some interesting tidbits, and I always find that the more you immerse yourself in a topic, the more knowledgeable, fluent and comfortable you become - even if it's your area of personal expertise. Moreover, I discovered after the fact a Twitter discussion community full of social media fluent participants and a total audience of 1,000 people according to one tweet. I'm looking forward to next Friday's installment (and hope to post some key takeaways).

"Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29: A Screening and Q&A with Director Kevin Rafferty '69." Harvard Club of New York - Wednesday, July 15th, 2009.

Advanced Investing Committee Meeting. NYSSA (New York Society of Security Analysts) - Tuesday, July 14th, 2009.

"Inter-Ivy Comedy Night." Penn Club of New York - Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

"What is Twitter, Facebook? LinkedIn? Hulu? And Why are They Important to You?" Harvard Club of New York with speaker Shelly Palmer - Later revised to: "What is Twitter? And how did it become a force in Iranian politics?" - Organized by Karen Levine, Program Committee, Harvard Club of New York

"Advanced Excel for Data Analysis" New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) - Streamline your number crunching process and conduct more in-depth analysis with sophisticated techniques. Minimize manual labor, save time and perform more detailed analysis quickly. Develop more efficient ways to apply commonly used formulas. Discover often overlooked Excel formulas. Analyze data using functions such as pivot tables, sumif, sum+if, transpose, working with arrays, vlook-up, subtotals, and regression analysis. Enhance your spreadsheets with data validation techniques, automation of alternate row shading and much more! Increase your Excel efficiency up to 75%.

"6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times" New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) with speaker Whitney Tilson - During recent years, a flood of liquidity fueled a worldwide asset bubble, in which the most significant element was the Great Mortgage Bubble in the United States. The unwinding of this bubble remains the primary driver of the credit crisis that is reverberating through the global financial system. Value investor Whitney Tilson, co-author of the recently released book More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times, will share an in-depth analysis of the state of the housing market and a prediction of what the future may have in store. This session will conclude with an overview of the current opportunity set, discussing what has already been priced into securities and where the best opportunities can be found on the short- and long-side.

Inaugural Meeting of the Wharton Marketing Professionals Association (WhAM) -- Presented by Wharton Dean Tom Robertson and Marketing Professor Dave Reibstein. Wharton Dean (and former Marketing Department Chair) Tom Robertson launched the Wharton Association of Marketers (WhAM!) in New York on Tuesday, March 17th. Sponsored by the Wharton Club of New York -- WhAM! is the first Wharton alumni program of its kind -- an exclusive network dedicated to the professional, career and personal growth of the best trained, most elite group of marketing professionals in the world -- Wharton Marketers!

In his launch address Dean Robertson also provided an update on the state of the school, followed by Professor Reibstein's update on the University's latest developments and initiatives in the field of Marketing - March 17, 2009

It's Heee-rrre: Hyper-Local Targeting

6 months ago I wrote that the next most important trend in digital and social media would be hyper-local targeting (or micro-geotargeting, if you will). At that time, the poster child was Yelp! With Yelp and a handy-dandy GPS-enabled smart phone, you could walk out of your office and ask the Yelp! application to tell you the closest place to get your keys copied or have a manicure or find out whether there are any dance clubs on the Upper West Side for your friend who wants you to throw her a bachelorette party. A neat concept in June 2009.

The concept did not, by any means, start in 2009. Back in early 2006, in a report I wrote about the mobile landscape, I included the practice of targeted SMS mailings in which a retailer such as Subway could send a text message to a consumer passing by the store at around noon offering a right-place, right-time promotional code for a lunch special. The concept was perfect. How much closer to recency could you get. The logistics were a little clumsy or perhaps hypothetical or vague - involving opt-in mailing lists and limited #s of messages per month from a community of 3rd party advertisers, but the idea was exciting.

I also read, at the time, about a practice in Vegas, whereby your hotel would ask you to sign in via your mobile device when you landed at the airport to expedite your check-in. The hotel was then able to track you as you moved about the strip and send you messages luring you back on-site with offers of free meals if you wondered off to another casino. A little creepy, but pretty cool.

Then, a few years ago, Google introduced the ability to keep track of your friends (or children, as my sister-in-law enthusiastically observed) via Google Maps and the GPS chips on their phones. Slightly creepy, again, but reminded me of the magic map in the first Harry Potter book, so, again, kind of neat - though I did not participate, in part because few, if any of my friends knew about this.

Fast forward to the new decade. I've been using UrbanSpoon since it first burst onto the scene via the iPhone commercial and have dabbled with Yelp! on occasion. In addition, I've become a big fan of the iPhone MobileMe functionality whereby you can locate your phone using its gps chip should it be stolen or lost. And I've been using the GPS function of Google Maps for ages to find myself, find my way out of Central Park, find my way to a restaurant a few blocks away in East Hampton, etc. It all started with my Blackberry, at which time, I found it to be a very neat feature. And, now, with the iPhone, the graphics make it even better as you watch your little blue dot get closer to the little red pin of your target destination.

And now, I have been introduced to "FourSquare" - an iPhone and also Droid application. With this application, you sign-in to a location when you arrive. This act then sends a notification to your friends as to where you are and also tells you which of your friends are at the same location - as well as telling you who is the "mayor" of that venue, meaning that he or she is there the most often. Well, the implications of this application for marketing - both local and behavioral are tremendous - as you can see from the discussion around Chris Brogan's posting on American Express' Open Forum entitled: "Get Ahead of the Location Game." (The link to this article was sent to me by a friend WHILE I was writing this posting!)

The FourSquare application is not yet high profile as far as I can tell, though I am am sure it will come up many times during Social Media Week next week. I heard about it from a recent grad on the Program Committee at the Harvard Club and found that Matt Blank, CEO of Showtime was already aware of at, whereas a senior executive at a major ad agency was not. So I predict that it is something that will be become better known in the next few months. And, of course, it will be come more powerful with more participation.

Some people will scoff at the start, finding it to be odd that you would want to share that information with others - these are the same people who scoffed at Facebook when I joined in 2006 and now spend 6 hours a day with it. And, as with Facebook, I will be careful as to the people with whom I choose to share this info - likely friends and Frolleagues. (Frolleagues are colleagues with whom you are friendly enough to connect on Facebook).

As with Facebook, by the way, a not so ideal impact of the application is that I am regularly reminded that a Frolleague of mine goes to the gym once or twice a day while I... well I go less frequently.

In addition to signing in to locations and tracking your friends' moves throughout the day, FourSquare invites you to comment on nearby venues - it gives you a list of options based on your GPS - and to read tips from others. It also gives you visibility into twitter feeds from people in your nearby location.

As I was writing this blog in my head, I logged onto Yelp! on my iPhone and, of course, they have the same functionality in terms of signing into a location, so there seems to be a coming together of Yelp! and FourSquare. I am not sure of the business models of these apps, but the potential is huge and, after all, Google didn't have a business model for nearly six years!

"The Power of Many" - Life Lessons from Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay

In preparation for attending a recent talk by Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and current candidate for Governor of California, I did a little background reading. Here are some of the highlights from what she has said or written that I feel are worth sharing:

“Try something. You can always recalibrate and adjust later.”

This reminds me of one my FAVORITE musical lines – from Sondheim’s “Move On” - I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not.

Focus on the good things can come from an action rather than worrying about what might go wrong.

She was on Goldman Sachs’ board but didn’t feel she had a lot of financial services expertise. She resigned Goldman’s board and joined P&G’s a few days later. She started her career with P&G as a brand assistant for “Toilet Products” including Head & Shoulders. Her first project was to recommend the size of the opening on the shampoo bottle. The answer came from the consumer. They wanted a smaller opening so that could “have more control in the shower.”

Talking about her days at eBay:

The regulation (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was that if you do not police your site, you can’t be responsible. Her laywers, therefore, advised her not to police the site even though she knew that bootlegged copies of the “Cop Killer” videogame were being auctioned. Henry Schultz of Starbucks, who was an eBay board member, advised her as follows: “Don’t let the lawyers run your company.” I believe that advice came from Schultz; in any case, it’s good advice. Nonetheless, the seminal question that defined eBay going forward did come from Schultz and was as follows: “What do you want the character of your company to be?”

Good question, and the one that every marketer should ask himself. This was a question I asked The California Travel and Tourism Commission, when I worked with them. In this case, the question was about who their audience was. Was it the hospitality industry, tourists, advertisers… Their website did not have a voice. Their printed materials came from Sunset Custom Publishing. I recommended that they look to Sunset for their editorial voice.

This is also one of the key questions a marketer should ask when developing a social media strategy. What is being said about me now? What do I want my personality or character to be? What role do I want to play? Advisor? Helper? Expert? Advocate? Access to inside info and deals?


Meg graduated from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1979. While this was not the trailblazer generation of female MBAs, women were definitely in the minority. When she joined P&G, she was one of perhaps four women in a class of one hundred. When she started, women were not authorized to travel for business because it was not deemed to be safe. She and her female colleagues got this policy changed!

Sunday night, I saw a film called “Over-Under, Sideways-Down” at the Anthology Film Archives here in New York. The film was produced and directed by Steve Wax, one of the founders of Campfire Media and a client of mine. It was set in 1979, which was obvious from the attire, cars, technology and mindset. When the wife of the protagonist suggests that she get a job as pursuit of a new job seemed fruitless, the husband rejected the idea out of hand. “Who would take care of the children,” he bellowed. “They need their mother.” The film, by the way, which was dated in terms of historic setting, rang completely true and relevant in the context of the economic situation in Detroit, middle-America, and even here in NYC. It was actually quite depressing in its claustrophobic tone.


Meg’s advice: “Always deliver the results.”

“If you are always in the neighborhood of good results, you will always get the credit.”

This last bit of advice came from Mitt Romney, one of her mentors from their days at P&G. (Gives some insight into her choice to go into politics.)


At eBay, she could gauge the state of her eBay community based on the number of emails she received in a day. She had a one-to-one dialog with her consumer base. If there were 200 emails, all was well. If 5,000… well, there was a problem that was pretty easy to identify by scanning a few email headers. Hence, her overriding theme: “The Power of Many,” which is the title of her book, subtitled, “Values for Success in Business and in Life.”

iPhone, iApps, iTunes, iFacts

Several weeks ago, I posted a blog entry about iPhone/iTouch applications that included Fun iApp Facts, Tips for Marketing an iPhone App and Other iApp Observations. As I have attended OMMA conferences, Digital Downtown and had direct interaction with iPhone Apps, I have been updating this blog. However, the entry is getting longggggg, so I am starting anew - appropriately at the same time that Apple is launching a new iPhone. I am blogging live from the OMMA Social conference as a starting point and may also include up-to-date facts from "Marking an iPhone Application."

As of January 5, more than 3Bn iPhone apps had been downloaded - 18 months since intro of app store -- 77 countries -- 100MM+ apps available. (Apple.com)

1Bn apps downloaded between September 28th and January 5th alone, i.e., within 3 months! (Apple.com)

There are predictions that the Android will have 150MM applications by the end of 2010. (January 2010)

300 million Americans have some kind of wireless device. (December 2, 2009 - CEO of Verizon Wireless via Ad Age podcast)

Apple was the first company to market its device in some kind of meaningful way. Up until that point, wireless devices were typically marketed by the wireless carriers. It was during that period that Verizon focused nearly exclusively on its "Can You Hear Me Now?" campaign. Once Apple broke this barrier, consumers started to choose networks based on devices rather than coverage. Verizon Wireless then turned its attention away from the coverage message. However, in the last few months, Verizon has introduced the "We've Got a Map for That" campaign, which I personally think is extremely witty - particularly as someone who has suffered as an iPhone user who had to make the switch to AT&T and has nostalgic feelings for my old network, i.e., Verizon. This, together with the Google Android phone will begin a new chapter in this story so stay tuned.

Personally, I am sticking with the iPhone because (a) there are 100,000 apps - though, really, how many of those do I use? This question echos the fact that although I have up to 1,000 digital television channels, I watch only a handful on a regular basis. Still I do like to know the other TV networks are available to me should I need them (b) as someone in digital media I must use an iPhone or iTouch to stay in touch, and the iPhone is far superior (c) I have nearly two years left on my contract with AT&T (d) I love the Apple stores, and there is one that opened up 7 blocks from my apartment (e) There are a LOT of things I like about the iPhone and its operating system and intrinsic applications. (December 2, 2009 - opening thoughts based on CEO of Verizon comments on Ad Age podcast)

There are now more than 100,000 iPhone applications (November 16, 2009)

6 out of 7 people do not have a smart phone. This offers a potential market for the just released Twitter-only device that taps into local cell phone networks with no monthly fee (New York One - November 5, 2009)

AT&T has renewed its exclusive contract with Apple for the iPhone. However, Verizon Wireless' answer to the iPhone — the Droid — will go on sale Nov. 6 for $200 as the company taps the growing appetite for smart phones that go far beyond making calls. The Droid could help Verizon retain its status as the nation's largest wireless carrier and contribute to a turnaround of its manufacturer, Motorola Inc., which hasn't produced a hit since the wildly popular Razr phone in 2005. The new device also could give a boost to Google Inc., which used the Droid to unveil mapping software that could challenge standalone navigational devices, sending GPS gadget maker Garmin Ltd.'s stock plunging. (Pioneer Press, October 28, 2009)

BusinessWeek reports that there are 1 million mobile applications across 12 mobile application stores, i.e., there are 15MM non iPhone apps and 11 non-Apple application stores (October 23, 2009 - BusinessWeek Behind the Cover Story podcast: The Apps Economy)

100MM people are registered in the iTunes store. 70% (confirm) are in the U.S. (Matt Blank, October 14, 2009)

Showtime keeps a very high split of each dollar spent on a Showtime series purchased on iTunes. (Higher than what Kliavkoff reported for NBC a few years ago.) CEO Matt Blank is thrilled that consumers beyond the network's 17MM subscribers now have access to their programming - for monetary purposes, branding benefits, and word of mouth marketing. Showtime does not monetize programming in the same way as non-premium networks that run advertising. A good Showtime program builds the Showtime brand, which then drives subscription revenue. Showtime was once criticized for this single source of revenue model, but it seems to be serving the network well in these challenging times, particularly given the outstanding lineup of distinctively Showtime original programming. (based talks by Matt Blank, October 14, 2009 and George Kliavkoff, June 15, 2007)

Less than one week after introduction Apple had already sold 1 million iphone 3GS (June 23, 2009)

B2B Social Media - in progress...

Ok, so I kind of leave off mid-sentence and needs some editing, but I have to get some deals on holiday cards at Papyrus before I meet a contact for drinks in Alice Tully Hall and then meet a friend at the ballet. By publishing this to the world wide web, I know I completed something tangible today.

Social Media

What Is Social Media? Social media is a collection of online applications, platforms and media that aim to facilitate interaction, collaboration and the sharing of content. It uses Internet and other digital technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). Social media is intrinsically connected with what is called Web 2.0 in that it facilitates the creation and exchange of user generated content (UGC).

Social media may sound daunting, but is really nothing new. The world wide web had its start on message boards, chat rooms and peer to peer communication. Social media tools are easy to access and not particularly technical. They are fueled by innovations in web development, computing technology and broadband proliferation.

Social media is often associated with the “consumer” space, either being used by consumers for their own purposes or used by businesses that are using it to communicate with their consumers.


However, social media is also used by B2B marketers such as Intel. It is used by companies to increase internal communication, involvement and insight. One of the most powerful aspects of social media is that it allows companies to have dialogs with their constituents and to listen in on conversations among those people. Hence the use of internal social media not only facilitates greater coordination among employees, it gives senior management a better understand of their employees and access to how their messages are being received and to what’s really happening “on the ground.”

Social media has also become an integral part of industry conferences, sales meetings, networking events, seminars, webinars and other professional interactions. Here are some examples:

(1) A leading business school recently rolled out a virtual learning series to its alumni worldwide. Participants call into a conference line, where they listen in on a talk by a professor on a topic of interest. They are able to submit questions for the speaker via email – collected and curated by the moderator. And at the close of the call, they are invited to continue the conversation via the alumni LinkedIn group.

(BTW, I would love to create this program for my own MBA alma mater - so if you read this and went to my school and make it happen before I do, please don't forget about me...)

(2) The American Marketing Association hosted a webinar this week about...

I'm back online - more online dating nuggets

Last night I reconnected with a classmate from college and his wife of three years. Where did they meet? Match.com. More and more often, I am meeting couples who met online. So.... I'm giving it ANOTHER shot. This works out in your benefit, because you get to share some of my favorite excerpts from the online dating ecosystem...

...Starting with this headline:

MY MATCH WOULD BE SOMEONE INTELEGENT ATHLETIC AND CONFIDENT

hmmmm... well I guess there's something for ying and yang.


Chemistry.com tells me that "adventurous, risk taking men and women" - of which I am evidently one - "are not comfortable with public displays of affection."


I cannot quite reconcile the relationship with those two items and welcome your suggestions! That said, I do find it quite interesting. This sheds light on the disconnect I often feel on first dates, when my counterpart expresses surprise that I would share personal information on a social website but demonstrates no reluctance to kiss me in public within three hours of meeting. My comfort levels are, as you may have guessed, the inverse. I had up until now attributed this mismatch to a difference between Gen X and Boomer - albeit young, which may be a factor as well.


I sent a "wink" to someone on Match.com that looked like he might be interesting. I admit that this is a very lazy attempt at online dating, but, hey, I was probably watching TV and eating at the time, so I had limited typing ability. In any case, the response below started out well, a few allusions to my profile, but devolved into a form letter. My dear suitor, (a) less is more; quit while you're ahead, (b) don't underestimate the value of spell check and (c) if you're looking for a long term relationship, don't refer to it as a "L.T.R."

"I am so impressed I think John Bolton is propably the most knowlageble guy ( Or Gal ) when it comes to forign policy . I love tennis aswell and im sure if we ever played I would kick your butt . Im looking for a L.T.R a keeper a woman I wake up next to and think how lucky I am to have such a special lady in my life . A woman who loves to curl up together on the couch for a movie or a show , but loves to be active in all ways . A woman who loves to dress up in something sexy takes my hand and we hit the town , or just stay home in sweats and a tee shareing a pizza and some wine over a great conversation . A woman who enjoys a good physical relationship , im not looking for a buddy never the less friendship is probably the most important part of any L.T.R . A woman who loves children and knows all is right with the world as were lieing in bed between our children as i read them a bedtime story . I always thought a woman like that must be special , what do you think ?"

Why Teach? This Is Why.

In 2003, I taught a number of classes at the Katherine Gibbs School of New York. These included Advertising, Sales, Finance, Economics and Mathematics. Having attended college and graduate school with some of the hardest working, most highly motivated, most competitive students in the world, and having just taught a class at the prestigious Stern School at NYU, it was a culture shock to encounter a classroom of students whose attitude towards school was, for many, jaded, wary and frustrated.

While virtually all of my classmates and students at Harvard, Wharton and NYU saw their attendance at these schools as part of an educational plan created years ago and never questioned, my Gibbs students had graduated high school but had not gone on to college. Enrolling at Gibbs was, for them, a first step towards getting a college degree, or a way to actualize a dream to own their own business, "become a CEO," create a line of licensed products, or simply move out of their role at the checkout counter of a retail chain.

Teaching these classes - particularly the large ones - was often frustrating and surprising. There was cheating, lying, real or forged doctors' notes for missed classes, no-shows for exams, and in-class cell phone usage, talking and eating to contend with. In addition, there were competing drains on their time - families, work, and, in one case, an unwanted pregnancy. But, as many teachers will tell you, among the frustrations, there were also gems. Students whose lives were truly touched by their interaction with me and my enthusiasm and commitment. Students that I exposed to experiences that were commonplace to me but first-time opportunities for them - such as seeing a video of a ballet dancer (I don't remember the context) or even an office environment. And many were affected by the opportunity I offered them to excel - without cheating.

At NYU, I often drilled students with practice questions for exams. I made a game out of it. During these Jeopardy review sessions, I would go around the room, presenting each student with exam-type questions. I would continue to feed each student questions until they got one wrong. Then I would ask the rest of the class to try to answer the problem and teach the topic to the rest of the class. If no one could adequately explain the answer, I would take some time to review that topic - therefore pinpointing the subjects that needed the most explanation. And, of course, there was candy involved, thanks to the generous budget of the Marketing Department.

At Gibbs, I would drill a student until he or she got the question RIGHT, keep score and reward the high scorers with magazines and other loot from my publishing jobs. And for the Gibbs students, not only were they given the questions in advance in the form of problem sets but ALL the exam questions came from these problem sets. So if they mastered the problem sets, they could master the exam. In fact, for my first class, the largest, I provided the actual exam in advance. Students had a direct roadmap to acing the exam (some with a 100% score) if they so desired. Many did not, which was disappointing and somewhat perplexing, but some did, which was a confidence-boosting, elation-creating and often first-time accomplishment for the student, one that did not come from cheating but from preparation.

Another opportunity I offered for success was extra credit. Seeking out and taking advantage of extra credit was a no-brainer for me - a habit my father had instilled in me at a young age. It still shocks me that there were students at both NYU and Gibbs that did not answer extra credit questions on exams - particularly because they were usually giveaways in which it was hard to give a wrong answer.

Well, in my current endeavor to digitize all paper in my apartment - a daunting task that initially freed up a lot of shelf space in my closet that is now populated by shoe boxes, making me wonder whether my purchase of a high-end scanner was an enabler or gateway for shoe purchases. But I digress. The point of this 6am entry is to share with you some of the interesting and inspirational responses I received from my students to these extra credit questions and to the questions I asked at the beginning of the semester in an effort to get to know the students and have them identify a goal towards which they were working.

Without further ado, here is a sampling - as written including spelling. But one last caveat, these papers do not include the questions, so I will have to surmise them from the answers.


1) What did you learn from this class and how will it help you professionally?

"I have definitely learned that listening skills are important. In the past, I was a bad listener. I would interrupt a relative or a friend when they are in the middle of their sentence. And at the job, I definitely did evaluative listening because I tried to listen but did not try to understand. Since I started my "Principles of Sales" class, I am practicing active listening; I must say that it is difficult, but it will get easier with practice.

Professor, I was not practicing active listening when you told the class about the elevator [I pointed out that two bells means the elevator is going down, one bell equals going up], but I will try to remember. I would also like to tell you that you have truly been a great influence on me. You have patience and tolerance and therefore, empathy. This I have also learnt in this class.

This will help me in my professional life because I want to have a sales career; I am in a sales career, and I will need to practice active listening so not only will I hear the words of my customers or prospects but I will also feel their emotions and sence their thoughts. I will be aware. This will help me personally because now I wouldn't get yelled at by my relatives and friends for interrupting them."

"From this class I have learnt to deal with customers in a better manner and how to explain the feature benefit and the advantage. I also understand what is takes to be a good salesperson not only wanting to make money but to satisfy the customers with what they need."

"Before I took this class, marketing is very abstractive. For business, most important things are production and selling. Those are what I have though before I took this class. But I have learned selling is a part of marketing and we can not separate marketing from any business."

What's Old Is New Again

In 2001, the publisher of the five-month old LUCKY magazine asked me to write a presentation addressing the question: "Why Launch a Magazine about Shopping at the Beginning of an Economic Downturn?" I gave her three answers: (1) Consumers are ready for the combined benefits of fashion magazines, catalog shopping & e-commerce, (2) Twenty something women who love to shop... love to shop! and (3) When times are good, you should advertise; when times are bad, you must advertise.

As part of the presentation, I included a line chart showing the decline of the Dow Jones from 11,600 to 9,200, which I then covered up bit by bit with expert opinions supporting the importance of maintaining marketing budgets during a recession. These were the following:

- "Companies that increase their marketing activities during the recession are more successful than companies which cut back." PIMS database of 1,000 companies.
- "Economic downturns reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one." Strategic Planning Institute
- "The most successful companies [maintain] their advertising investment when the economy slows down and weaker competitors cut back..." London Business School
- "During an economic downturn, a strong advertising/marketing effort enables a firm to solidify its customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors, and position itself for future growth during the recovery." Coopers & Lybrand
- "Maintaining 'Share of Mind' costs much less than rebuilding it later on." American Business Model

I have always felt a sort of sympathy for car manufacturers spending millions of dollars on television advertising that was bound to get lost in the clutter of two to three automotive commercials per commercial pod (one national, one local and, more recently a second national ad separated from the first by some kind of "pod-breaker"). Personally, I found myself forwarding through automotive ads on a somewhat regular basis despite my being generally inclined to watch TV commercials. But it was a no win situation for automotive brands. While magazine publishers tried valiantly to impress upon them the value of print advertisements, car companies could not afford to take money out of TV so long as their peers were still there.

Fast forward to 2008 and 2009 and a sudden automotive silence within TV commercial pods. It was eery and a bit scary. Careful what you wish for - one might say. And then came the Super Bowl. During the game, there were two brands who dared to pony up the money for multi-million dollar spots: Hyundai and Audi. Audi, the insurgent brand that has often been willing to take risks, positioned its brand against other luxury autos through years, coming out as the only one with the performance attributes worthy of a James Bond. Hyundai, meanwhile, showed compassion for a country of would-be consumers paralyzed by their fear of losing their income. "If you lose your income, we will allow you to return your Hyundai," the announcer promised. Quite daring. Now, American Express will reimburse you (up to $300, I believe) if you break something you buy with the card or change your mind and are unable to return it. And that strategy has often given me the piece of mind that allowed for the indulgent impulse buy. But this is taking that concept to a whole new level! And rightly so. Truly brilliant, I think, to address the problem head on. To remove the roadblock on the path to purchase.

So the message was smart, but equally as important was the audacity on the part of both car companies to see this calamity as an opportunity and to finally gain the unique benefit of television advertising without getting lost in the clutter. Did it work? Yes, it did. Both Hyundai and Audi have experienced increased sales in 2009 - an achievement not to be underappreciated.

-- Originally posted May 14, 2009

Hot Buttons

One of my co-workers had a dramatic reaction to an energy drink at work today. She was shaking uncontrollably, got faint and couldn't move. By the time I came out of the conference room, the entire office had circled her desk. They had tucked her into her office chair with a blanket and were feeding her little bottles of water. Her left leg was like restless leg syndrome to the max, but I was told she was doing better than when this started. There was someone from building security who was on his walkie talkie, and they were all waiting for EMS to arrive.

Well, on a few occasions, I have had to call 911 while at home - once for an accident, once for a fire and once for a fainting spell - and the fire engine always arrived in about 7 minutes. However, in this case, it took forty-five minutes for the medics to arrive. My colleague didn't have a doctor to call, and my doctor wouldn't give advice to a non-patient. So, we were all kind of paralyzed, waiting for help. In any case, this extremely long preamble is an intro to some of my hot buttons, i.e., things I wish people didn't do:

I hate it when...

(1) People don't get out of the way for ambulances.

(2) People don't move into the train to let other people get on.
(I WILL mow them down if I have to...)

... I'm sure the others will come to me

The Anti-Foodie...

My Favorite Foods:

I often find myself saying, "This is one of my favorite foods." So I thought I would see whether I can limit my favs to a list of 10. It's not a very healthy list, but oh so good!

(1) Hot fudge sundaes - I don't care how many fancy desserts there are on the menu, this is the best - especially at Cafe Luxembourg

(2) Macaroni and cheese - I lived on this in business school. The real thing - Kraft. Now it's Smart Ones and Amy's soy cheese...

(3) Cherries - better than candy, and because they're available only a few months a year, I never get enough

(4) Chocolate covered strawberries - milk not dark

(5) Jicama - picked that up at Canyon Ranch - doesn't seem to fit with the others, does it...

(6) Brownies - the kind made from the box; none of that fancy stuff - and no nuts

(7) Veal parmigiana - fabulous at Becco - although it's hard to find bad veal parm

(8) Malted milk shakes - Ronnybrook in Chelsea Market - to DIE for!

(9) Brussel sprouts - do you believe me? It depends completely on how they are prepared.

(10) Caramel apples - they have these Wollman Rink. Oh so good.

What are your food favs?

The Elevator One-Sheet

With each client engagement, my elevator speech gets more complex and lengthy. At this point, I need a ride to the top of the Empire State Building to do it justice. I specialize in doing something that has not been done before - or that I have not done before. I excel in defining and addressing the unknown. In driving revenue growth and profit improvement. In creative problem solving and in bringing structure to chaos or opportunity. And so, I have attempted to summarize this in a one page graphic.

Does it resonate with you?

The Digital Wave and the Google Tsunami

I have 25 1/2 hours to finish Ken Auletta's new book "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It" before I meet him for drinks and oversee his speaking engagement. I've read about 8 chapters so far. That leaves a couple hundred pages to go. In the meantime, here are some tidbits I found worth writing down (or the digital equivalent thereof)


Notable Nuggets

Preface

Google is run by engineers, and engineers are people who ask why: Why must we do things the way they’ve always been done? Why should all books ever published be digitized? Why shouldn’t we be able to read any newspaper or magazine online…

Founded in 1998. Started turning a profit in 2004

Messing with the Magic

Google in 2002 had scanned or indexed 3.1 billion web pages, about 80% of what was then www. By early 2009 there were an estimated 25.2 billion web pages.

Google decides whethere the link is relevant and assigns it a value. The quantified value is known as PageRank, after Larry Page.

AdWords – allows potential advertisers to bid to place small text ads next to the results for key search words.

The minimum bid per keyword is set by Google. A commonly searched word or phrase like eBay or JetBlue might cost only a penny or two, while a more esoteric phrase like helicopter parts might fetch fifty dollars a click.

In a second advertising program, AdSense, Google served as a matchmaker, marrying advertisers with Web destinations. If Intel wanted to advertiser on technology blogs or a hotel in London wanted ot promote itself on travel sites, Google put them together via a similar automated system.

Google performed several hundred million daily searches in 2003. Today the number is 3 billion.

Google helped advertisers target consumers not just by age, sex, income, profession or zip code, but by personal preferences for leisure time actvities, frequently visited locations, product preferences, news peferences, etc.

From a peak daily newspaper circulation of 63MM in 1984, circulation slid an average of 1% each year until 2004, when the drop became more precipitous.

On a typical night in 1976, 92% of all viewers were watching CBS, NBC or ABC; today, those networks (along with Fox) attract about 46% of viewers.

Old media companies were atrapped in the “the innovator’s dilemma,” what Clayton M. Christensen described in his book of that name, and well-managed companies that, confrtoned by new technologies or new business models, floundered by fierceley defending their existing business models and not changing fast enough.

“Don’t be evil.”

The number one network television program in the 1988-1989 season was “The Cosby Show,” which was watched by 41% of HHs with TV sets; 20 years later, the top show was “American Idol,” it reached just 1/5 of those watching TV.

Most employees are alotted a day a week, or 20% of their time, to work on projects they feel passionate about.

Burning Man – the annual anarchic –animistic retreat in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert that cultimates in the burning effigy of a giant wood and dessert brush “man.”


Starting in a Garage

Bill Gates in 1998: “I fear someone in a garage who is devising something completely new.”

Innovation is usually the enemy of established companies.

Page and Brin met at orientation for incoming Stanford graduate students – 3 years before founding Google in a garage.

Their fathers were college professors, and their mothers worked in science. Both attended Montessori elementary schools.


People

Messing with the Magic

Eric Schmidt - Chairman and CEO
Sergey Brin
Larry Page

Stacey Savides Sullian – Dec 1999 - #50 – chief cultural officer
Hal Varian – chief economist

Terry Winograd – Larry Page’s graduate school mentor at Stanford

Anne Wojcicki


:

Pricing in a Downturn

The following excerpt is from a whitepaper written with two of my colleagues at Abbey Road Associates. Abbey Road is a business consulting firm that specializes in pricing strategy. I work with Abbey Road on a project basis. If you would like to read more of this paper, please contact me at karenlevine@abbeyroadassociates.com.

"Quick Checklist for Pricing in a Downturn"

Which pricing strategies address falling demand in an economic downturn? The pundits generally say ‘wake up, pay closer attention to customers, and be more targeted in your pricing.’1 Good ideas certainly, but what should you do specifically? Which price initiatives do, or do not, work?

From working with clients in industries which entered the recession early (e.g., print media, construction and commodity capital goods) we believe there are five key strategies, generally requiring intelligent use of tools, to combat falling revenues. The key to success, in all cases, is not to assume that market-facing management becomes magically smarter. You may need tools to change behaviors.

So, the answers occur in strategy + tool combinations. Most of them focus on understanding the customer buying decision, which is the driver of price sensitivity.
Know the decision, and you can optimize your pricing.

Strategy 1: Adjust your understanding of value and its capture.

With the downturn, the value of your offer has changed both in aggregate, and by component. For many industries the value of your after-sale service has increased, while the value of new widgets has fallen. This is a direct consequence of your customers feeling poorer, or having their budgets cut. While such cuts will preclude purchase of new units or services, the old units are now integral to customers’ businesses, and so must be maintained, recession or not.

Evidence of this sort of shift comes from recent IBM earning results. Unlike its more manufacturing-oriented peers who experienced sharp revenue declines, IBM exceeded earnings because it had shifted its business to over 60% service and lease revenues—which were less subject to capital expenditure cuts.

The tool required to best propel a change in focus is a quantitative assessment of your offer components’ value. That tool may take three forms:

-- A detailed model of your customer’s business, showing how they make financial and purchase decisions
-- Conjoint or other analysis of customer views, or
-- Best of all, a rigorous analysis of customer behavior and testing of purchase/price behavior through regression or similar techniques.

The sooner you understand which categories of spend must continue, and which categories will be cut, the sooner you can adjust your price structure. We have found this analysis produces the best programs for preserving revenues. Often, a price increase on less price sensitive offer elements will offset reduced demand for former flagship products.

In simple terms: assuming your “normal” revenue mix is 70% new sales, 30% follow on, and the recession causes new sales to fall by 20%, we find that often you can make up much of that fall by raising follow-on prices (by as much as 50% in some cases!) Naturally, to avoid customer rebellion, finesse, messaging and superior bundling techniques are required to pull that off.

Strategy 2: Improve the value message.

This strategy is linked to the first strategy; in a nutshell it says that customers do not always realize the value of what you offer. While many sales forces say they sell value, in fact most do not. This is because in good times, in many industries, a sales rep does not do best by selling value. Rather the rep does better by raising awareness and inserting themselves into a buying process. In a downturn, the value communication role becomes more important.

The tool required for this role is to equip and train the sales force with specific messages and evidence of your product’s or service’s value. For instance, surprisingly few companies engage third party evaluators to compare their product with competitors. Credible third party evaluators are plentiful: often university professors will evaluate your product for little more than the cost of samples. Evaluation organizations such as J. D. Powers are very important elements of a value message when customers are parting with their money with increasing care.

Strategy 3: Make a third party pay, e.g., the IRS.

Many companies believe that once the product or service has been delivered, the pricing process is over. Wrong. We find that many buyers are able to obtain reimbursement of their costs, and that a majority of buyers can be educated on the tax consequences of their purchase. You as the seller impact both taxes and reimbursements, and you neglect an important element of net realized price if you ignore these impacts.

The means to effecting this is to understand your customer’s tax or reimbursement opportunities. For instance: if you sell to lawyers who can obtain client reimbursement of electronic research but not books, sell your electronic and print research in bundles and on the invoice allocate most of the price to the electronic. For instance: if you sell bundles of telephone and video services, do not allocate them equally on the invoice. Allocate more of the bundle price to the potentially tax deductable telephone line, and educate customers on why you have done so. A final example: if you are a not-for-profit performing venue selling 10 performance season tickets for $300, and individual performances for $50, then grant season ticket holders who donate back tickets for a performance they cannot attend a tax credit of $50, not $30.

Strategy 4: Better identify customer price sensitivities.

In some cases, a high priority should be to better understand a particular customer’s price sensitivity and the possibility of cancellations and defections. This will identify when you may need to offer a greater discount to retain the business, or when a discount is unnecessary. It takes segmentation and moves it to a more granular level.

The tool is a “risk scorecard” which rates the likelihood of customer cancellation due to price. It takes the collective wisdom of your best sales managers, and some quantitative testing, and distills the 4-6 key measures which precede a cancellation. Such measures might be usage, your price relative to competitors, or the process by which your customer makes buy/cancel decisions. Use of such a card is simple: sales management answers the 4-6 questions, and you get a score which says “Discount X%, Y% or None at all.”

We recommend a simple execution of this tool. The reason for this is that humans know more about key customer price drivers than do your systems. Frequently, the most important inputs to such a tool are known first by sales representatives or brand managers. For instance, a key factor could be a change in how purchases are approved, such as the switch between single decision-maker and committee, or a credit crunch in a particular geography or end user industry.

The benefits of this tool can be enormous. We repeatedly find that less than two-thirds of cancellations are price driven, so should not be addressed through price. Indeed, lowering price can sometimes destroy trust and set in motion further purchase reviews.



Footnotes:

1 For instance, the current McKinsey & Company January 2009 Quarterly We suppose the pundits include us, as we wrote Chapter 6. “Boom and Bust” in Winning the Profit Game. Smarter Pricing, Smarter Branding (McGraw-Hill, 2004).

2 The idea is that context sets price. While the customer may buy the same thing as always, the value and ability to price are different. For instance, while the orchestra may be the same, the price of a single performance is not the same as a series. So, if the season pass holder turns back in a single performance, it’s worth $50, not $30 ($300 divided by 10 performances.) This is hard-nosed value assessment.

If you would like to read more of this paper, please contact me at karenlevine@abbeyroadassociates.com.

Copyright Abbey Road Associates 2009

Dear Bloggitor...

From Edwin Scholte on September 23rd, 2009:

Dear Karen,

Since this did not fit the response box on your blog, and also because I do not want to spam your blog, I am sending you this response by mail.

Thanks for sharing your point of view and experiences about developments in the media industry, very interesting. Allow me to add to the mind-sharing process with a short point of view about how the traditional media industry is faced with a challenging, but exciting quantum leap change in customer demand, while the subsequent required quantum leap change in business model, in many cases, appears to lag behind.

One of the most significant developments in my opinion is the growing divorce of distribution from content creation in the value creation process. This evolution became most visible with the entrance of iTunes into the music industry. The enforced role change of traditional industry players that used to fulfill a dominant role in the entire supply chain of artist intellectual property creation and distribution to end-users, resulted in a halo-effect on related industries in which value creation is (or: used to be) dependant on the connection of intellectual property creation and supply chain control.

Another, but similar, example is the upcoming rise and increased acceptance of e-books in general, and the delivery mechanism thru Amazon’s Kindle in particular. While e-books are not a new phenomenon, the increased acceptance makes this a transformational development that forces traditional book publishers to structurally re-think business models.

It is obviously easy to perform post-mortem analyses that rationalize why things happened the way they happened, however the key forward looking question remains how these developments are truly going to change the game of content creation and distribution in the future.

Most new entrants choose a business model that focuses on either content creation, or distribution. Besides differences in required resources and capabilities, this also makes sense from an investment perspective since both operating model and risk profile of these two structures are fundamentally different from each other. The former business model is mostly being structured around relatively stabile intellectual property driven revenue streams, such as licensing. The latter business model is mostly being structured around relatively volatile traffic driven revenue streams, such as advertising.

On the other hand, most existing players continue to exploit a business model that is a hybrid of structures. Rather than strengthening competitive advantage thru innovation within the core, many mature players in the media industry decided to expand into adjacent sources of non-competitive advantage driven value. Publishing businesses that entered the seminar and conference business form one example, while adjacent advertising models form another example of a commonly exploited incremental revenue generating tactic. As could have been anticipated ahead, in many cases these adjacent value creation tactics turned out to be non-sustainable under pressure (as seen in current economic downturn).

This seems counterintuitive because theoretically established players should be better positioned to win when the core game is changing. The hurdle however is that it would take a ‘strengthening by elimination’ type of strategy to unleash this potential, and such a strategy is usually perceived as a high risk strategy.

When ranking the utility of a ‘doing nothing’ scenario against the utility of making the wrong transformational decision, the typical course of action is a risk-averse staging strategy. This strategy, which parallels the ‘dollar cost averaging’ strategy as known from the investment industry, may be perceived as less risk-full but in fact lacks efficiency and fluidity to take advantage of rapid changes in a value accretive way. Consequently, the only option to end at the winning side of the table is to go all-in with a strong commitment to succeed. Said differently, there is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant.

At the end of the day the ultimate question however remains if existing mature players will be able to pro-actively enter the new game with a credible confidence to win, rather than a re-active participation to protect value.

Behavioral finance learns that the fear of losing typically outweighs the desire to gain, but time will tell.

Best, and look forward to read more of your point of views. Edwin.

The Mystical Woman with the Camera

As I was walking home from a disastrous date on the opposite side of Manhattan, comforting myself with a podcast of the Rachel Maddow Show, a woman came rushing up to me frantically asking, "Where is the cross town bus? On what street is the cross town bus???" Well, I recognized her from the Harvard Club, but she didn't know me, and I didn't let on. "I don't live on the East side," I said. "I'm sorry" and pulled out my iPhone in a futile attempt to figure out the bus system.

"I'm in a rush," she said. "I have to go see a celebrity." "Oh, who is it?" I asked, not really that interested. "Darryl Hannah," she joyfully replied. "She's at Barnes & Noble."

"Hanna Montana?" I said. "Oh, Darryl Hannah. Yes, my nephew has a photo with her... or is that Bo Derek?"

"Well, how are you getting to the west side?" she asked anxiously. "I plan to walk," I said. "In the dark?" she exclaimed. "No!"

Just then, another ear-budded woman came into my companion's orbit, and she repeated her question, "Where is the cross town bus? Is it on this street or 67th?" The woman couldn't answer her interrogative and so my new companion dismissed her in a way that quite annoyed and antagonized the woman, who exclaimed that she should get a map!

But this did not deter her. "Come with me," she said, as she accosted other people on the street. Finally someone from a crowd yelled after us, "It's on 67th Street."

"Come with me," she repeated, and we hurried to 67th Street. Just as we got there and were trying to ascertain whether there were in fact bus stops on this thin, dark street, I glimpsed a bus, a block away, making its way up the narrow thoroughfare.

With my park-crossing sneakers on, I made good time to 67th and 5th, where I reached the mythical bus-stop. And just as she caught up to me, the bus pulled up and opened its doors. She wasted no time, stepping in front of the patiently waiting bus-riders, and got onto the bus.

At Columbus Avenue, she jumped off the bus and started heading north. "But the entrance is right here," I called after her. "No," she said. "She'll be HERE."

As we turned the corner to the less than savory street, she spotted a town car. Not a very nice one, but nonetheless a black sedan with an ethnically head-dressed driver. "This is it," she said. "All these people are autograph hounds." I looked around at the sparse collection of somewhat seedy individuals.

Just then, a garage door opened that I didn't even know existed, and an entourage of people with incredibly high heels emerged - including Darryl Hannah. The autograph hounds descended, and my new companion nicely asked, "may I take a picture?"

"Of course," said Darryl Hannah, who seemed sincerely sweet despite her stiletto heels. And my friend took three lovely, lovely photos.

With that, my partner in adventure headed south where, she said, the Jonas Brothers were likely to be found. And I walked home in awe of this mystical woman, who seemed to know exactly where to be and when.

More Mortgage Meltdown: Noteworthy Nuggets from a Talk by Whitney Tilson

I've just attended a very interesting lunchtime talk at the New York Society for Security Analysts (NYSSA) and found the speaker not only smart, knowledgeable, informative and interesting but also a source for a number of pithy statements worth sharing. Below are some of my key takeaways and notations:

- The average annual income is currently in the low $40Ks, up from the low $30Ks in the 1990s (I had thought it was $55,000 back in 2005).

- At the peak of the housing bubble, a consumer could borrow 9 times his or her income, so long as the money was going to buy a house (or home), of course. (I included "home" because condos and coops were the first to default.)

- At the peak of the housing bubble, the requirement to demonstrate your income went away. "Literally, if you had a pulse, you could get a mortgage of several hundred thousand dollars."

- Prior to the bubble, 2% a year was the worst increase in home values. The change is now SIGNIFICANTLY negative.

- Mortgage resets are what started the surge of defaults. Following the first few years of "teaser" interest rates, mortgage payments reset to much higher rates. If a home owner couldn't refinance anymore, he or she would default. As home values fell, consumers had trouble refinancing.

- An audience-member from Britain reported that 40% of Americans "in this non-socialist country" do not pay taxes - as part of a question to Whitney during Q&A.

- "Wells Fargo is the Walmart of Banking..."

- "If Wells Fargo is the Walmart of Banking, Citibank is the K-Mart of Banking."

- Wells Fargo securities are likely to double in 4-5 years. (Don't quote me, i.e., Karen, on this.)

- The Borders Group hit 35 cents at its low and reached $3.53 today - a ten-fold increase. (What does that say about the outlook of traditional booksellers and/or Borders' preparation for the digital world - there, I got my allusion to new media in.)

- Mortgages were the largest debt market at the peak of the bubble. Everyone (bankers) wanted in.

- The housing bubble was much bigger than the Internet bubble.

- High end investment bankers, e.g., Merrill Lynch - and particularly CEOs and those in Fixed Income (i.e., securitized loans) were making multi-multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses. 2,000 people were sharing an enormous bonus pool. The average was $5MM, and I-Bank CEOs were earning $35MM a year. There was no way they were going to point out the dangers (and lack of sustainability) of what was going on: "They're gonna ride this horse until it keels over!" (That was one of my FAVORITE quotes from the talk.)

- California accounts for 10% of homes, 33% of foreclosures and 43% of home value. (43%!!! Seriously? Did I hear him correctly? That's out of control.)

- GDP is made up of Consumer Spending, Corporate (Business) Spending and Government Spending. (Wow, I remember those macro-economic equations - good old friends). The ratio is 70:10:20. That is the logic behind the stimulus spending, to make up in some way for the lack of consumer and corporate spending. Saving rates are way up. (As Jeff Sachs said when he spoke at the Harvard Club, we want people to spend - need it now - but we want people to save - personal debt, i.e., over-spending or deficit spending, is what fueled the fire.)

- Sales of new homes were up last quarter - that's because home builders were cutting prices on new homes to get rid of inventory: "Home builders dumping homes are not a green shoot in my opinion." (I like the "green shoot" terminology."

- "Jim Cramer [who says we have hit bottom] is right, but about a year too early." We are halfway through total losses. (Oy Vey.)


And so it goes. Excellent talk.

With All Due Respect...

With all due respect and in my humble opinion, this is something I would advise against including in a dating profile:

"...I love making out, have a passion for running, cooking, baking & movies."

It seems to me that a person should "love" making out with a particular person, not as a independent concept - with all due respect.


Somehow, however this works:

"...I like sex, pizza with real olives, dogs, enough money for a good coffee, accordions, handmade things, good art, bad art that is better than good art, books..."

Women are desperate for men with a sense of humor - that and a good golden parachute.


I must say, I really like turn of phrase at the end of this self-description:

"I am bright, creative, grounded and realistically idealistic."


On the other hand, when a 55 year old man (seeking a woman 35-50) uses the pseudoynm "YoungAtHeart," it doesn't make him seem youthful - in my humble opinion.


It seems that there are some men who feel that there are some women who have misled them through their online dating profiles:

"So I've been on a few dates with women that say they are petite... Being 5'2" or under doesn't constitute petite. Then there are the athletic/lean/fit types. Again...ladies....that means present not 10 yrs ago. And speaking of 10 yrs ago....even if you look younger than you appear... please use today's age not the one represented in your old picture. Now please understand, I'm not perfect nor do I represent perfection...however... what you see is what you get....visually and on paper."

Hmmmm... I wonder what kind of success he's having with that siren's song?

Are these sites spreading love or fueling the jadedness of the local NYC population? Have these online personas become their own bad will ambassadors?

In my case, I seem to benefit from this mass misrepresentation as the men I meet in person profess stunned amazement that I resemble my photos and physical description. One wonders but must be optimistic in the face of such sad, sad tales. On the other side, there are the increasing number of happy couples who are rumored to have met online. Are they the exception or the possibiity?

Spot the Placement, Place the Spot

As promised in a previous blog posting, I have created a repository for potential product placement spottings:

(1) My Name Is Earl - a few weeks ago -- QVC open heart necklace

(2) The Wrestler - no obvious product placement; possibly Tylenol or RAM trucks

(3) Sierra Mist on Colbert, Jan 8, 2009 (as you may know, he makes his placements "humorously" obvious)

(4) Elle Magazine on Ugly Betty. This is an ongoing plot element. Is it possible that HFM is paying for this? - Jan 8, 2009

(5) in Zohan: Sony Erickson phone, possibly Moishe's moving (local brand?), possibly Sony, itself. - Jan 6, 2009

(6) In "Taken:" Audi automobiles. Somewhat subtle in that the cars were moving so fast that the grill was a little fuzzy, but still obvious to those of us sensitive to this kind of thing. Confirmed in the credits. Positioning consistent with Super Bowl ad, and cars looked good in silver. Audi and Hyundai are two brands taking advantage of the reduced clutter in automotive TV advertising. It will be interesting to see how it plays out., February 27, 2009

(7) Stephen Colbert, March 11, 2009 - Sierra Mist

(8) Frito Lay on The Daily Show - March 2009 - Jon Stewart suggests sponsored medals of honor. Frito Lay is owned by Pepsi; there seems to be a bundled purchase incorporating brand mentions on both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert shows. I remember when sales executives could not fathom the idea of value added packages a la the magazine world. It was 2003.

(9) Stephen Colbert, first week in April -- mention of Sierra Mist during interview with head NAA (Newspaper Association of America) - suggested that newspapers incorporate product placement, e.g., "Obama, while enjoying a refreshing Siera Mist..." (Note that, like Doritos, Sierra Mist is owned by Pepsi. Doritos officially sponsored the "Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert's Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign Coverage.)

(10) "United States of Tara," April 5, 2009 -- Gene Stuart (Nathan Corddry) asks Kate (Brie Larson) for a Sierra Mist - is it coincidental that Sierra Mist is showing up on Colbert and Tara -- do they have a brand placement strategy, or is it coincidental? Or does Sierra Mist suggest a particular type of personality for Gene -- different than a Coke kind of guy?

(11) "ER," April 2009: In exchange for an undisclosed amount of money from the Gates Foundation, ER's producers agreed to a plot line centering on a kidney transplant for one of the leading characters. Promoting organ donation is one of the Gates Foundation's causes.

(12) Viacom, April 2009 -- The Gates Foundation struck a deal called "Get Schooled" with Viacom (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, etc.) in which the networks will incorporate messaging that promotes education and healthy living.

(13) Jon Stewart, April 15, 2009 -- uses Tostitos and Buick as hypothetical brand sponsorship. (The Tostitos brand is owned by Frito Lay, which is owned by Pepsi; Colbert's Pepsi chip of choice is Doritos.)

(14) Procter & Gamble - in-school sexual education programs and materials: Old Spice, Always, Secret brands.

(15) Stephen Colbert - Pepsi (I think this mystery has been unlocked long ago.)

(16) Hasbro has upcoming films based on its Transformers and G.I. Joe brands set for release this summer, and Monopoly, Clue and even Stretch Armstrong films are in development. In addition, Hasbro will pay Discovery $300 million for a 50% stake in a new network which will replace the existing Discovery Kids (60MM homes), making Hasbro the first kids' marketer to create a branded cable network. (Ad Age)

(17) KFC Grilled Chicken - "Gary Unmarried" - May 6, 2009 -- not even a little bit subtle. 2 bags, one bucket - huge branding/logos. 60 seconds of dialog about the chicken and the "herbs and spices" including, "doesn't taste like KFC." "It's the new Grilled KFC." The KFC thread follows us throughout the episode including a follow up discussion about the new grilled chicken between Gary and his brother on the floor of a Las Vegas casino.

(18) Stephen Colbert -- Sierra Mist, Sierra Mist, Sierra Mist - consumed 5+ cans over the course of the hour and even offered it to his guest - an expert on healthful eating... That said, Colbert does not sell out as he makes fun of the beverage industry's objection to the currently proposed soda tax.

(19) The Chinese Ugly Betty is evidently out of control with Unilever brand placement of its Dove products. Because the show is set in an ad agency rather than a fashion magazine, there are extensive opportunities for brand integration - much along the lines of our "Mad Men."

(20) Starbucks sponsorship of MSNBC "The Morning Joe" for $10MM (June 5, 2009)

(21) G-Force film in Gary Unmarried episode July 2009 - Gary given the nickname "G-Force" followed within minutes by an ad for the film in the next pod of commercials.

(22) Desperate Housewives - Sprint (Edie's shopping bag) and Lexus (nearly an infomercial by Bree)

(23) During season 6 (Jan. 16 May 23, 2007), American Idol featured 4,349 product placement occurrences. As of March 31, 2008, the number of placements featured during season 7 was surgingAmerican Idol had already racked up 3,291 occurrence (Product Placement News)

(24) Product integration/media buy for final episode - $3MM for 2 minute integration and 30 second spot (iMedia podcast - but I'm blanking on the brand at the moment)

(25) When an athlete, e.g., Tiger Woods in U.S. Open, wears a sportswear brand, the manufacturer enjoys a 10% bump in sales. (July 20, 2009)

Who's Tweeting Now?

This is a Twitter-like blog post about who's doing interesting things with Twitter:

- A program called TweetDeck purports to integrate social net platforms. (Jed Dineen, April 16th, 2009)

- Love this video created for Sprint Now network (4G) http://tinyurl.com/db26ho - cool stats, visuals - "233,267 people just twittered. 26% of you have no idea what that means." (April 7th, 2009)

- Twitter founder interviewed by Stephen Colbert: http://tinyurl.com/cmbqoz (April 3rd, 2009)

- Caldwell and Banker paintings have facebook pages, blogs and twitter feeds (April 1st, 2009)

- Met someone who is creating a twitter-based dating service (April 1st, 2009)

- 100 Twitter tools: http://tinyurl.com/bbkxtb (via @addthis) (March 11th, 2009)

- Evidently Twitter traffic jam was due to Skittles making its home page its Twitter site (March 3rd, 2009, Facebook salesperson)

- I'm told that "tweeting" is the term used for posting a Twitter entry, while "twittering" is the term for reading posts - Cathy Smith, May 2009

- Ian Williams (Twitter co-founder) talking about Twitter's origins and evolution, which has been driven by the way users have adopted and adapted the technology - TED conference, February 2009


- Twitter Value application puts a value on on a Twitter-er based on the quality of the person's network of followers - very interesting BusinessWeek cover story: What Are Friend's Worth. (I've listened to the podcast with journalist Stephen Baker and editor-in-chief John Byrne.) Interesting observation: Yahoo! found that people who IM with each other (via Yahoo) are four times as likely to click through on the same ad as someone outside this circle.

- Dennis Leary asks us to use our "Tweety Pages" (as well as our 'Facey Spaces" and "Bliggidy Blogs") to tell our "book wormy anti- boob-tubey" friends about Hulu so they can watch free TV on the "one screen you drag around with you everywhere." Well written, well executed, thought provoking campaign with a variety of star-driven executions.

- On May 30th, I tweeted the following: "Recently discovered & love this website/podcast series/service: http://www.yogadownload.com/ 20 mins of yoga when I don't have 2 hrs for gym." Almost immediately, the following Twitterers started following my tweets: "Everything Yoga" and "Snack Sound." I, in turn, checked out what they had been tweeting, found it of interest, and started following them. Pinpoint targeting based on behavior and proclaimed interest. Clearly, these other Tweeters have filters in place that notify them when someone uses a relevant key word. And that's how it works.

- 10% of Twitter users create 90% of Twitter activity (Harvard Business Review, June 1, 2009 )

- Onion Web Editor and Huffington Post Blogger Baratunde Thurston created a satirical Twitter Feed called @The Swine Flu and executed an integrated campaign that included FaceBook, which he said is more viral. I have embedded the video "Everything I Needed To Know About Social Media, I Learned from Being @The_Swine_Flu" from InternetWeek; however, I should warn you that it has explicit language:



- Twitter.com had 17.6MM unique visitors in May 2009, up from 600,000 in 2008. This compares to 70.3MM unique visitors for Facebook and for MySpace (17.28MM and 17.25MM respectively). (ComScore, June 15, 2009)

- Putting Twitter into Banner Ads: "Volkswagen banners include a Twitter evaluator that will match users to a VW model based on the content of their Tweets. After you enter your Twitter name, the banner trolls through your recent updates, even floating recent keywords in the banner before arriving at a car." Crispin Porter campaign - summarized by Brian Morrissey, Ad Age, June 18, 2009

- Determined to change the negative perceptions about the plastics industry created by its critics and opponents, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. is getting ready to launch its social media-based Internet campaign aimed at the 50 million people in the millennial generation. The major thrust of the multifaceted educational and outreach campaign will be Internet-based and social media venues like YouTube, flickr, myspace.com, reddit, dig, friendfeed, twitter and blogs to provide information and create conversations among 18-28 year olds. (June 22, 2009 - PlasticNews.com, July 7, 2009 - Ad Age 3 Minute Podcast)

- A Twitter conversation between Coke and Pepsi... (more later - heard about it from a colleague at Razorfish)


This post was originated April 16th, 2009 and is being continuously updated.