October 14, 2005

"Desperate Housewives" On the Move

Our geek-in-residence, Jay Stecher, doesn't look like a geek...but he is head-over-pocket-protector over the new iPod. He's already dreaming up applications for our clients...video workshops, video home tours, episodic advertorials, etc.

He has espoused on these, along with a list of Ten Trends to Watch that he gathered somewhere in cyberspace:

1. Portability of video content
2. Blogs
3. The rise of celebrity weeklies
4. Media transparency
5. The growth of Hispanic market
6. Business woes for newspapers
7. Digitalization of print media
8. Media consolidation
9. Source agnostic/disintermediation
10. Refining media measurement

With so much going on, how could anyone get bored in our business?!

Lexus Listens to Customers

Ed Wax told me about the new Lexus hybrid SUV. He said that the company did customer research and discovered that much of their market will be from environmentalists. So, they eliminated any wood trim on the interior. Clever move. Wouldn't want those customers thinking Lexus was wasting trees.

Advertising Non-Profits

We were talking about this the other day. And I recently had a chat with a major consultant to non-profits who was bemoaning the fact that non-profits often lack the necessary commitment to get their stories out.

He told me about a board meeting of a major non-profit in Atlanta. The institution's leadership said that they were really going to make a commitment to marketing, allocating a total of $500,000 to it. A Coca-Cola exec who was on the board inquired, "What are you going to do the second month?"

Non-profits - like for-profits - need to make consistent commitments to communications. And they need to fund them properly. Especially in this tough economic time when there are so many demands upon philanthropic resources.