Coupon Mashing

Google maps has had a coupon feature for something over a year when the search giant combined Google Maps with Valpak.com's local merchants. Customers can download and print coupons to be redeemed at a store location or local business. Some recent activity (i.e. Google registering of coupon-specific domain names) may be indicative of a re-focusing on this activity. Transfer the same logic to the mobile version of Google maps and things become interesting...

Having the Haystack Help Find The Needle

How advertising and marketing services agencies have changed:

• From brand and product centric to customer centric
• From a focus on awareness to a richer one on advocacy
• From shouting (even targeted shouting) to listening
• From artisanal to tech-savvy
• From intuitive to analytical
• From standalone to holdings to a networked eco-system

This (yet to be fully realised) vision is about better listening to and therefore better understanding the consumer and broader groups of consumers. Ultimately it is about, having the haystack that is the community help you find the needle.

The Killer Application

Looking for a killer for a Web 2.0 application? Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget has one for you:

This application will provide businesses with a communications epicenter that employees can use to send and receive any type of digital media, including text, documents, audio, and video—all for little or no cost. Always on, this application will be based on an open standard that allows all employees to connect with the members of their social network regardless of what network they belong to or what Internet-enabled device they use.

The above was part of a debate on the future of email in the Business Week Debate Room. read more here...

The Future Of The Website

In the series, the website is dead - long live the web...

EBay has released an experimental new desktop client which adds animation and very nice dynamic graphics to searching, browsing and bidding for items on the site.
The application gives buyers and sellers the (more ore less) full Ebay experience without ever having to open a browser. Further proof, if any were needed of the blurring of the lines between applications and the web. In addition the desktop application provides a more interesting, entertaining and engaging customer experience,

Should you win an auction, you can pay for your items right there in the application.

Very interesting and well done. More here...

Twingly - A New Look at the Blogosphere

For a refreshing change on you desktop's idle moments, Twingly screensaver brings an up to the second update of global blog activity to your screen. Created by PrimeLabs in Sweden, the screensaver can be downloaded here...

A Personal Favorite...

An example of really smart, strategic, creative and marketing technology minds coming together for one of my company's clients. The full site is here...

It Won't Hurt A Bit

Microsoft, along with a number of partners, from medical providers to patient advocates and device manufacturers, has launched HealthVault. The concept is aimed at helping people to better manage their health information electronically. Users can download health records from providers like doctors, hospitals, health care providers etc and upload data from devices such as blood pressure monitors. Users can also enter data from their workout routines...

The service is free will be monetized primarily by search traffic, as it's tied to Microsoft's health search engine. According to Peter Neupert, vice president of the Microsoft Health Solutions Group, "search is a big market and we can monetize this around health searches with online ads."

I see two risks, will people trust Microsoft - so long associated with weak security and hacking? After all - medical information is even more sensitive than financial records. Secondly, the competition is lining up, the health care providers. Google and

Trust In Advertising

Brian Morrissey from Adweek published a story this week on a Nielsen study of customer confidence in ads. Not too much there is surprising (customers have high confidence in CGM - reviews, recommendations blogs etc). That newspaper, magazine and TV ads outscored contextual search links and banner placements might be though. The study had more than 26,000 respondents in 47 markets.

The full article is here.

Leading Digital Marketing Tool? E-mail.

According to the most recent The McKinsey Quarterly, e-mail marketing retains its importance in the digital marketing mix.

In a survey of 311 marketing executives, McKinsey found that 83% used e-mail, ahead of display ads, paid search and online video.




























Over one-half of respondents also said they planned to increase their e-mail spending in the next three years. Great way to start a conversation assuming that you target your message to the audience segment you are trying to reach - otherwise no matter how pretty your layout, it's just more spam.