Thanks to everyone at the PRSA event today, you have access to the deck (no password!). And for more info you can check out the categories on the right side of this page, check out the audio program at Marketing Over Coffee, or listen to the rambling banter over at The M Show.
This weekend I went with my wife to her 15th reunion at Williams College. You would be harder pressed to find a greater disparity than the difference between the communication with a Williams grad versus what I receive from my alma mater, University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
My wife is involved with some of the fundraising for her class, as a result there is usually something in the mail from them every week.
I get the alumni magazine and an email from the department I graduated from, and that’s about it.
As a result, my wife’s class of 500 students, at my last check, gives as much to their school as my class does. I believe my class has about 3,000 students, of course this number is squishy, I think there was 3,000 my freshman year, but we were told only 2 of 3 would make it to graduation, at the same time students were added to my class from community colleges and other sources that kept the number fairly constant.
How does this culture start, and can it be recreated by the larger organization? Is it squelched by bureaucracy?
The good news is that I finally have a Willams ’93 baseball cap, and shall now refer to myself as J. Joseph Wall III.
The latest Marketing Over Coffee is up for your listening pleasure:
I also found an interesting article on Harvard Economics. The author put forth some theories on why the major is so popular. As an Econ major this was my favorite point:
 “A fourth explanation is that economics is a practical and marketable degree. Many economics graduates land starting salaries in six figures. Economics is good training for business school, law school, or a career in public policy. With the growth of health economics as a field, even some pre-meds sensibly consider our department. The list of successful people with economics backgrounds spans many walks of life: Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Diane von Furstenberg, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump, Kofi Annan, Sandra Day O’Connor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meg Whitman—even Gene Kelly, Mick Jagger, and Tiger Woods!”
Bids vs. Views vs. Deal size. 3 tied at $1,525.
Ok, so I’m very late to the party for this stuff. However, if you are like me and just stumbled out of your cave this morning and haven’t heard of these two programs please mark them as required viewing:
The Merchants of Cool and The Persuaders.
Some of the concepts that jumped out at me (besides being a little creeped out by Song hitting the KoolAide crack pipe so hard):
Shelf Space vs. Brain Space – Unfortunately there’s less brain than shelf.
How Videos race to the bottom – You only have 2 minutes to hit so there better be a crotch kick or beautiful woman in there quickly.
Should Pitches Aim at the Head or the Heart? Is marketing like running a cult?
Bob Garfield of Ad Age had my favorite quote:Â “There’s no secret that the American public is willing to consume crap. They are very particular about which is which – they don’t want the purity of their telecrap to be adulterated by merchandising of fast food crap.”
My head exploded when I read this last week. Worse yet, I think he’s right. What do you think?
OPML file for Google Reader : SEO Blogs to import to your Google Reader
This post is for attendees of the presentation for PRSA in New York City on June 9th.
Any other topics that come up can be added here:
DNA for Flickr for more photostats. N.B. – This was from an attendee, I have not tested this, use at your own risk.
KeywordSpy for watching your competitor’s ads – I have used this service (and had it used against me).
I was tagged recently by Jeff Cutler to mention 5 things that the average reader would not know about me. Here goes…
There you go….
I’m back and throwing a punch this week for DYKC’s Friday Night Fights!
From Superman 676, this month. I’m very excited about next month, author James Robinson will be taking over the title and rumor is it’s for close to 2 years. If you’ve ever thought about reading a comic check out Robinson’s run on Starman
Follow up to the Social Media Consultant Auction. While checking out the rates I found a similar offer to Golf with Tiger Woods. We’ll call that one an outlier.