Advertising & Marketing

Remember that picture above? Samsung was the sponsor behind Ellen DeGeneres’s headline-grabbing, record-breaking, Twitter-busting “selfie” at the Oscars. For Samsung, it was part of a much larger, longer-term march to become one of the most talked about brands in America. For quite a number of years running, Coke was the most talked about brand in Continue Reading →

9.2 quintillion to 1. Yea, you were TOTALLY going to win. Millions of people filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket in the ultra-slim hope of being perfect and winning $1 billion. After only two days of hoops, everyone was busted. One guy in Illinois actually was perfect — until Dayton came along. Thus, Warren Buffett, the master of risk management and mad Continue Reading →

Paul Bailo, a fellow member of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and an executive and entrepreneur in the overlapping worlds of marketing/digital/data, recently told me that everyone has an asterisk. It was the first time that I’d heard of this concept. On Google’s first page for “everyone has an asterisk,” most of the links discuss baseball where Continue Reading →

President Obama wants Millennials to understand the Affordable Care Act and consider signing up for health insurance. So, the president enlisted a popular celebrity to put the legislation in plain English. Easy explanation, right? The White House can’t afford to overcomplicate heath care with 20-somethings. Why? In the final days of the open enrollment period, over four Continue Reading →

By now, you’ve heard at least a dozen times… through a variety of mediums, that Microsoft will end support of its XP operating system on April 8. If you’re like most people, you probably experienced one of three reactions: confusion, skepticism or excitement. The truth is that all of those reactions are warranted. It’s true Continue Reading →

Everyone, it seems, has heard that people are far more likely to share their bad brand experiences than positive ones. Probe further about whether they have actually seen evidence of that, and the answer is generally, “no, but I’ve heard it’s true.” Well, the fact is, it’s not true. Positive WOM is far more prevalent Continue Reading →

Entrepreneurs should limit the number of issues that upset them to very important events, such as those on this short list. 1. Did Someone Get Hurt? If an employee, customer or anyone associated with your company gets hurt at your business or working for your company, you need to immediately help that person and protect Continue Reading →

Every year in mid-March, tens of thousands of people exchange business cards in Austin, Texas. After all, there’s no better place to mingle with the “who’s who” of the tech and music scenes than South By Southwest (SXSW), the annual festival of all things new, hip and cool. In fact, on March 11 rocker Neil Young Continue Reading →

Since employees are one of the most expensive lines on most P&Ls and have a significant impact on revenue and profitability, entrepreneurs must personally take responsibility for hiring employees. As a journalism major who worked as a newspaper reporter for a short time, I find that the core journalism questions can help with most decisions, Continue Reading →

I love viral marketing. There’s something awesome about a company bucking the traditional path of advertising their product and going in a completely new direction. Whether you’re pushing a hit TV show, deodorant or a pointless movie remake, there’s something inherently charming to me about doing your own thing. (EDIT: It turns out the campaign Continue Reading →