Links pointing to the future of marketing, from the co-founder of content strategy tool Zuum. The Curse Of Meh A good reminder of how few even good apps make it to the stage of being real businesses. The challenge for brands is to realize what value they gain in terms of customer relations, additional product sales, or other ROI factors that will justify an apps development. Via @dberkowitz Eventbrite unveils At The Door Card reader, turns iPads into ticketing terminals Like Square for iPhones, this is solving a location-oriented ticketing problem for events. And like Square, perhaps the most appealing part of their offering is the data analysis. Via @Aerocles The Real Reason Google Bought Kevin Rose And Milk: It Needs Designers Buying a tech platform for the designers. Nice. Via @jasonkeath Jeremy Lin Hired to Endorse Volvo Putting endorsement deals together at Internet speed. Via @bupbin How ‘Hunger Games’ Built Up Must-See Fever This is sure to be rolled out as one of the years big social media campaigns. And I’m sure it’s been well executed. But keep in mind you’re talking about a product with an existing fan base of 24 million books sold. Via @Aerocles Graphic Design by Muggie Ramadani The designs are nice. If you... Read more

Walking away from a good idea is difficult, but it's often just as important as creating one in the process of making a concept come to life. The agitation that flows from a poorly conceived idea can be endless…I recently told myself that I’d create a relevant and inventive post about the backlash issues regarding the Kony 2012 campaign. A week later I’m deleting drafts, accepting that I simply won’t be writing on that topic. I had overindulged in information about the foundation, and even reached a point where I was researching tax law and angered with each new Google alert, convinced that everyone had somehow found out my idea and stolen it. This was the nod I needed that my idea was no different than any other marketing blogger and I needed to reevaluate. Walking away from an idea is difficult. I had created a state of personal angst that I couldn’t complete a project I had assigned myself. I found myself wishing someone had said to me that it was a poor choice, that it would simply be washed away with the flood of other bloggers pouring out similar ideas. Yet even then, if warned, would I have walked away from my... Read more

Is your business a tortoise or a hare?  Too many digital marketing and media companies – prodded by salivating venture capitalists and enticing exit strategies – jump at the chance to be the latter. The quicker you move, the quicker you get the spoils, after all. But remember the lesson of Aesop’s fable: it’s the tortoise that ultimately wins the race. In any industry, that means a company that rides out shifts in the marketplace and ultimately delivers long-term rewards. Take Apple. When the company was way down a couple of decades back, it resisted buyouts from IBM and Sun Microsystems. Eventually, refusing to give up on its mission of serving customers over quick financial fixes, it won over consumers – and Apple’s stockholders also got their just rewards. That’s a prime example of how long-term planning beats the quick fix. But look at what’s been happening just recently in the digital marketing world. In a mad push for short-term results designed to convince bigger companies to make acquisitions, start-ups latch on to the latest trend that looks expeditious and may prove opportunistic. The prevalence of what might be called “click lust” may have diminished, thanks largely to improved Google algorithms that reward quality... Read more

Links pointing to the future of marketing, from the co-founder of content strategy tool Zuum. Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer This is a good example of the value of community-generated content. The comments are as insightful as the article, and show much broader viewpoints. Secret treat buried in the code at BarackObama.com I haven’t seen many of these Easter egg’s lately, and I get that they’re a little obscure, but certainly add a nice touch of personality to a brand when you hear about them. Via @lowbrowkate How Doctors Without Borders is Mapping the World’s Epidemics They’re using Google Earth, of course. An interesting quote from the head of Doctors Without Borders in Nigeria: “If you’ve got ways to visualize your epidemiology data spatially, it can help you figure out, ‘oh that seems to be along this river,’ or ‘that seems to be consistently in this size of town.’ Those kinds of observations are very hard to make from tables of data, but they’re actually quite easy to make from maps.” Via @2morrowknight How the Wall Street Journal used Pinterest for a fashion story With so much buzz around Pinterest, I’ll be featuring examples of... Read more