Archive for January 27th, 2009

Make cell calls from anywhere in the house? … now, that’s progress!

January 27, 2009

Ken’s Take: One of my many hot buttons is awful cell phone coverage.  I get spotty reception in some parts of my home; no reception in others.  What other product has to be taken outside to work right?  Finally, mobile companies are fixing the basics.  Now, if they can only get the price down to $29.99.

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Excerpted from Forbes.com, “Verizon offers $250 in-home cell phone booster”, AP, 01.26.09

Verizon Wireless has started selling a book-sized device that boosts cell phone signals within a home for $250, making it easier for people to drop a home phone line and rely solely on wireless.

The Verizon Wireless Network Extender needs to be connected to a broadband Internet line. Then it acts a miniature cellular tower, listening for signals from a subscriber’s cell phone. It covers up to 5,000 square feet, the company said Monday.

Full article:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/01/26/ap5963881.html?partner=alerts 

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Posted in Telecom | 1 Comment »

Americans cooling to global warming …

January 27, 2009

Excerpted from IBD, “Warm At The Bottom”, January 23, 2009

In a new Pew Research poll , global warming is ranked dead last in a long list of issues that Americans believe are top priorities for the country.

When asked which issues they believed to be top priorities in 2009, Americans placed global warming 20th out of 20.  Only 30% feel President Obama should focus on it.

This is the third year that Pew has polled about priorities, and each year warming has slipped in the rankings.

Full article:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=317607435688171

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Colts Set New Bar for Stadium Sponsorship: "The Appliance Zone"?!?!

January 27, 2009

Excerpted from the New York Times, “Stadium Sponsorship Grows to New Levels”, by Stephanie Clifford, December 10, 2008

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Along with the usual signs from advertisers, the new Indianapolis Colts stadium features a hallway filled with dishwashers, refrigerators and washing machines, brought to football fans by the retailer HH Gregg, which is based in Indianapolis.

It is the latest frontier in stadium sponsorship, showing how far sports teams are willing to go to attract marketing dollars.

At the stadium, there are gasoline pumps in the north gate area, sponsored by Lucas Oil, airplane seats in the AirTran Airways food court in the northwest section and cars in the northeast corner, sponsored by Chevrolet. The Indiana law firm of Baker & Daniels sponsors the club lounges at the western end of the stadium, and Advantage Health Solutions, a medical plan, sponsors the club lounges at the eastern end. Sprint sponsors the east gate, Huntington Bank the west, and Hhgregg the south.

“In today’s world of a very crowded advertising marketplace, it’s very important for facilities to provide the brands and companies they’re associating with a lot more than just signs and tickets, but there is a fine balance of not having it be so overcommercialized that it turns the consumer off from your brand.”

That wem to be a legitmate concern in the new Colts stadium’s “appliance zone” .

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The New York Yankees, New York Mets and Minnesota Twins are among teams offering high-profile sponsorship deals at their new stadiums.

A Mets sponsorship has drawn particular attention. The team sold the field’s naming rights to Citigroup for $400 million over 20 years — and Citigroup is currently getting $300 billion in backing and investments from the federal government. Two New York city council members pointedly suggested that Citi Field be renamed Citi/Taxpayer Field.

Edit by DAF

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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11adco.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

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Posted in Sports Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Do birds of a feather buy the same things ?

January 27, 2009

Excerpted from Ad Age, “Can Social Networks Predict What You’ll Buy?” by Abbey Klaassen, November 17, 2008

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Those stalking the social-networking field are betting that birds of a feather don’t just flock together — they buy together too.

There’s emerging evidence that mapping the online relationships among consumers…can be just as valuable as traditional targeting and segmentation in predicting how people will respond to marketing messages…

“It may well be that direct communication between people is a better indicator of deep similarity than any demographic or geographic attributes”…

In one way, the concept is almost the opposite of collaborative filtering. Instead of associating unconnected consumers through their similar preferences and behaviors, it associates consumers who are already connected and share values and beliefs, a concept called homophily …

Several firms are hoping social-connection mapping will create a more valuable ad experience in social networks…

SocialMedia.com has developed a relationship-targeting technology called FriendRank using data from social-network applications…to construct a sense of where consumers’ strongest online relationships lie … It serves ads within social-network environments and incorporates the explicit associations between two people into its creative. A typical ad might have a call to action or question that is then sent to 10 of their friends. Should they interact with it, it will be sent to their networks, and so on and so on.

“Our thesis all along has been: Ads have to become social themselves…They can’t just be traditional web ads on top of social networks.”

Edit by SAC

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The influence of social networks on purchase decisions could provide significant insights to marketers and advertisers.  However, it is unclear how credible these start-up technologies are in their ability to predict the influence of relationships on purchases. A specific barrier that exists is in the tendency for social network users to “Friend” or “Link in” with many people with whom they rarely communicate, and thus are unlikely to influence or be influenced by.  Among the many firms that are analyzing this social network to purchase relationship, FriendRank seems to be on the right track of first understanding where consumers strongest relationships lie. 

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Full Article:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132582

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Posted in Internet - Soc Networking, Internet Marketing - eCommerce -, Mktg - Internet | Leave a Comment »