Category Archives: Business & Marketing

Pork Board sees light (feels heat?) of citizen media

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A few days ago I posted about Jennifer Laycock getting hassled by the National Pork Board because she was selling T-shirts they felt infringed on their trademark and campaign “The other white meat.” Laycock was surprised by the Boards threats, and wrote an impassioned blog post about the situation.

It looks like the Pork Board realized that hassling an activist blogger over a T-shirt that parodied their branding in the name of a good cause (breast feeding) would probably hurt their brand more than it would ever protect it. Laycock reports that “I have received an apology from Steve Murphy, the CEO of the National Pork Board and we are currently working toward a resolution.” [via Podcasting News]

Big Pork puts squeeze on breastfeading blogger

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Jennifer Laycock runs a blog called The Lactivist and writes about breastfeeding and human milk banking. It’s mostly a gathering place for breastfeeding moms to come and share their thoughts and experiences. Yesterday she received a cease and desist letter from a law firm representing The National Pork Board. The gist of the letter was her use of the phrase “the other white milk” violates their trademark on the phrase “the other white meat.”

I’m certainly not qualified to argue who is right or wrong in this case, but I’ll bet the folks at the National Pork Board didn’t expect their letter would get any publicity.

$1.6 million for Branson.com

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So says pal Morris James. “The most money ever paid for a dot-com address for a city was for Branson.com. Commercial real estate broker Larry Milton and his wife plunked down $1.6 million for the address last year.”

For that kind of money you’d expect to be at the top of the Google ranking and Branson.com is (the top of the non-paid results). The link reads: “Branson.com: The Official Website.”

Like Morris, I wonder what makes the site “official?” Would the local Chamber of Commerce have a better claim on that distinction?

Stories like this always remind me how fortunate we were to register (waaaay back when) our company names (Missourinet.com, RadioIowa.com, Learfield.com). But one of my favorites is Legislature.com.

Demystifying blogging

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My buddy Chuck posted the following to his blog (AgWired) today:

“Hi there AgWired fans. This morning I’m doing a new media presentation with the folks at John Deere and their agency, BCS Communications. This is an example post for the presentation.”

So what? For many (most? all?) of the people in the room, updating a web page is a Dark Art. Magic. At the very least, a pain in the ass. Some person or persons (or a committee) has to approve the copy and then send it to the web people and –eventually– the web page gets updated.

Chuck just logged in to his Word Press account. Bangs in the copy above…hits the submit button…and publishes for the world to see. It took less time than it is taking me to tell you about it.

I’ve used this analogy before but it’s a good one. When a room full of execs see a demo like this (I wasn’t there but I’ve done a few of these)… it’s like the scene in every Tarzan movie with the Great White Hunters “make fire come from stick,” or when they crank up the movie projector (where did they plug it in?) for the pygmies.

Sheryl Crow reads (and plugs) the Wall Street Journal

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“Adventures in Capitalism” was the tag line for The Wall Street Journal’s previous ad campaign, in 1997, to promote the brand. The paper was recently made over — taking three inches from the width and adding an emphasis on forward-looking journalism — so it’s time to freshen up with a new campaign. [MSNBC] “Every journey needs a Journal,” says the new tag line, positioning the paper to speak less to readers’ inner Striver than their inner Seeker.

The ad blitz — which begins next week in major publications and Web sites — are essentially celebrity endorsements, highlighting the Journal’s role in the inspiring “life journeys” of a diverse mix of people including singer Sheryl Crow, “Freakonomics” coauthor and University of Chicago professor Steven Levitt and Jack Burton, founder of Burton Snowboards.

The Journal wanted people who weren’t megafamous but who “had an interesting life journey, read The Wall Street Journal and were successful.” Ping me if you spot one of these ads.

AgWired: Guerilla video

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I refer you, once again, to AgWired for a good example of how easy it is to add video to your blog or website. Chuck Zimmerman is covering the International Poultry and Feed Expos in Atlanta. His posts include –as always– still images and audio. But he is increasingly dropping in short video clips.

He’s just roaming around the floor in this clip but he could just as easily have stopped to interview an exhibitor or speaker. The operative word here is “easily.” He ran the video through Windows Movie Maker (free) for a quick edit and a title…uploaded to YouTube (free)…and then embedded their flash player in his post. Done.

Contrast that to dragging around a cameraman and sound guy (expensive) who have to get back to a studio for post-production (expensive: time and money). Then you gotta get it to the TV station or cable channel and blah, blah, blah. Chuck is carrying everything he needs on his back and if the expo hall is wifi’d…all he needs is a place to sit down.

Go away! We’re busy!

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If you email the Missouri State High School Activities Association, you are likely to get an automated response that includes the following:

“The MSHSAA staff will respond first to more traditional means of communication such as telephone calls, written correspondence and faxes. The MSHSAA office can be reached at (573) 875-4880 during regular office hours. As time permits, staff will reply to email messages that include the sender’s complete name, address and phone number.”

I don’t even know what to say about this. It speaks volumes about how the organization views its relationship with the public it serves (?). I am inspired to create a new category here at smays.com: Clueless and Proud. Say it loud!

Get A Mac: Surgery, Sabotage, and Tech Support

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Get a Mac In the first new Mac ad, PC is getting surgery in order to receive all sorts of upgrades to run Windows Vista. Tech Support involves the PC receiving a camera upgrade (via masking tape to the head) so that he can do important business things like videoconference, only to find out that Macs come with built-in iSights now so they don’t need to upgrade. In Sabotage, the PC has decided to sabotage the commercial altogether and replace the Mac with another actor who says everything the PC wants him to say. [Infinite Loop]

The men and/or women responsible for writing these commercials are the very same people that played Keep-Away with the fat kid’s hat a lunch time in the 7th grade. Until he cried.

Google deal with CBS Radio imminent?

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Merrill Lynch broadcast analyst Jessica Reif Cohen expects Google will team with a CBS Radio in a wide-ranging advertising deal. In a nutshell, Google would allow advertisers to bid for radio airtime using some of the same functionality as its online sales tool. But again, no deal has been announced.

Cohen estimated that a Google deal to sell 10% of CBS Radio’s advertising inventory would generate approximately $200 million in revenues and that the upside for CBS would be two-fold: “1) attracting new (likely smaller) advertisers to its platforms a la Google’s experience with search, and 2) creating a more efficient sales model that reduces the friction/cost of selling advertising.” [LostRemote]

Seth Godin on the iPhone

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Seth says there are two kinds of people in the world:

“The folks that want (need!) an iPhone, and those that couldn’t care less. And of course it’s not just Apple and it’s not just phones. It’s every single industry in the world. You’re not likely to convert one group into the other. What you can do is decide which group you’d like to market to.”

There you go. I am in the first group and Jobs sold me in the first five minutes.