You’ve all got that local business that has its own celebrity. You know, the funny guy doing his own commercials? The one with the catchy jingle?

Looking for something a little different (but not for long) to promote yourself, your brand or your blog? Consider video blogging. Basically you cover what you would in a typed blog, but you record yourself speaking about the topic.

One day, I saw a link to The 5th Door on my Google RSS. Intrigued, I clicked on it. It’s a Toyota website, consisting of bios and blogs from 5 urban (read: black) dudes. It’s a little hard to follow why exactly Toyota’s using these artsy hipsters to market their Toyota Matrix, except that if [...]

Here’s the second case study I promised last week:
The Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Hangout was a comprehensive promotion by Bandai America for its Spring 2008 Ben 10 toy line. The Ultimate Alien Hangout called on fans to complete their original Ben 10 toy collection (before the new Ben 10 Alien Force toy line hits [...]

At BlogHer, I was lucky enough to meet Leslie Galerne-Smith, a Senior Account Executive for The Rogers Group, an LA-based PR firm with some major clients. She shared with me a few case studies of some pretty interesting marketing and PR campaigns for Bandai America, and I wanted to share them with you (look for [...]

Here’s something fun for Friday. QuickBooks has come up with a clever website that I will predict will spread like wildfire (like the Elf Yourself campaign I went on and on about at Christmas). You can create your own jingle for your business with their Jingle Generator. Now, before you get all excited like I [...]

I’m a sucker for free stuff. My very first forays onto the internet in 1995 consisted of scouring the 5 sites out in cyberspace for free samples, whether I needed them or not. So you can believe my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the goodies we got at BlogHer 08 [...]

Last week I was at a blogging conference, BlogHer 08. The marketing and advertising around me was mind-boggling. And the shwag. Oh, the shwag! But that’s another post. Big corporate sponsors like Quicken and Microsoft spent thousands of dollars trying to get our attention. But you know the marketing that impressed me even more? This:

Now, [...]

Black and white ads for watches and luxury cars fill high-end magazines. They’re serious and expected. But on the opposite end of the spectrum are ads like the following. These are companies who take a light-hearted approach to marketing and even make fun of themselves. It’s surprising and refreshing.

* Who would [...]

Marketing That Works: Interactivity
I am a fan of the show, “The Office.” One day at the end of a recent episode, there was a commercial with a website on the screen: www.dundermifflininfinity.com. Curious, I checked it out. The site is set up as a complement to the television show: it’s your chance to become [...]