Just before I left for vacation, fellow PR guru Arik Hanson posted this detailed Q&A as part of his PR Rock Stars series at Communications Conversations.
I highly recommend you add Arik’s blog to your reader of choice. He has an insatiable appetite for digging into how marketers think (and sometimes more intriguingly, what makes them tick).
Daytona International Speedway
Henry, the tour guide
Victory Lane
Doc Hudson
Daytona 500 NASCAR Experience
Daytona Beach
“Please Only Pop One Time Before Purchase”
“No Matter How Good”
“Free Ride in a Police Car”
Glitter Caps and Visors
“If you have Comcast, TV will work”
Jenny Squared (plus a wee one in the oven)
“Where Dreams Come True” (unless your husband won’t let you buy it)
Shamu
Budweiser Clydesdales
Dolphin Rodeo
Little Oedipus
Steel Drums
Gpa and Gma
Three Generations Racing Monster Trucks
I have a new post up over at Social Studies: “Just Who Is Twittering“
Also, can’t miss the opportunity to share our official Socializers rock video from Halloween:
Remember last year when Twitter was crashing all the time, they disabled the search feature altogether and people were making Failwhale art?
Then mid-July Twitter bought Summize, the most reliable Twitter search tool among a handful of options. I tweeted at the time something along the lines of, “Oh great, Twitter bought Summize and is going to ruin it, too.”
I can’t find that particular tweet for you today, because..yep…I just got a Failwhale trying to do a search.twitter.com (the new summize URL) search.
Great…
Hooray for 2009.
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I attended the first 2009 Conversations About the Future of Advertising event (CATFOA) put on by Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) and Minnesota College of Art and Design (MCAD) at the Fine Line Music Cafe (FLMC) last night.
Wow, that’s a damn lot of acronyms there (WTAHOALOAT).
If you’re not already familiar, “CATFOA seeks to improve the quality of interactive marketing and advertising developed in the Twin Cities through enlightening presentations and their resulting conversation.”
Last year’s events were both informative and popular, bringing in a good assortment of nationally recognized media and marketing folks, including Joseph Jaffe (sporting shiny white tennis shoes, mind you) and Adweek’s Brian Morrissey.
Last night’s speaker was Alan Wolk, a New York marketing consultant known for his marketing blog, The Toad Stool, and most recently for his blog series, “Your Brand is Not My Friend.”
Here are a few highlights (captured in <140 character succinct bites, of course):
It has to be tough to come in from out of town and have to tackle a diverse crowd of consultants, agency veterans, designers, copywriters, social media gurus and/or recently laid-off folks who may or may not already know lots or very little about what you’re talking about. Hell, I’m still struggling with it. We’re a diverse group.
Unsurprisingly, the questions from the audience showed this diversity — from basic, “How do I know if my company should/should not be blogging?” to the more complex “How you monetize and prove ROI for social media tactics?”
Alan did a good job focusing on top-level concepts and citing a few real world case studies. And since some of us were ready for the 201 and 301-level discussion, his presentation helped kickstart post-lecture networking discussions among attendees, and you know me, I always love the opportunity to bring the interactive marketing community together and pool our intellectual capital (buzzword bingo, ftw!)
CATFOA provided that very opportunity last night (and free food, to boot). Thanks to MIMA, MCAD and Alan!
Check out the upcoming speakers and tell your coworkers they are missing out if they don’t show up (btw, it’s free):
A few weeks ago I took Grant to Monster Jam at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. For some time now, my son has been fascinated with monster trucks, largely due to his love of the cartoon series BIGFOOT Presents: Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks, which features talking monster trucks who have adventures that all revolve around smashing cars, jumping off ramps and mudding.
Being a man and all, I inherently love the concept of monster trucks. Giant tires. Roaring engines. Smashed metal. Brutal car-on-car violence. What’s not to like?
But I can’t say I had ever considered actually going until seeing Grant’s reaction to the SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! Monster Jam commercial (to be honest, it was a Saturday, but you get the idea).
It was AMAZING. I know I had just as much fun — or more — than he did. Except Grant’s talked about it every single day since January 17, and much to his mom’s chagrin, we frequently reenact sweet ramping jumps off the living room’s ottoman.
SVP Digital, Weber Shandwick
Music Writer, Perfect Porridge
Early Adopter | Citizen Journalist | Father of 3
