Brand Central Station

Scott Baradell, author of the Media Orchard blog spends some time dissecting a piece by US News & World Report’s Mort Zuckerman in which Zuckerman calls blogs a “fifth estate,” akin to calling the mainstream media the “fourth estate.”

While Zuckerman segregates the mainstream media and the blogosphere, Steve disagrees. His claim is that blogs are meant to supplement, not part from, the mainstream press.

Scott also objects to associating the term “fifth estate” with the blogosphere. In his mind, the term “fifth estate” always relates to the poor and working class … a group not well represented by most bloggers.

But Zuckerman’s points go beyond these initial observations. It’s important to note a relationship between the erosion of public confidence in the accuracy and impartiality of the mainstream media. It’s also vitally important to address the accelerating media fragmentation that is now occuring as more and more citizens are able to practice their own brand of journalism.

This is a fun post, loaded with information, insights and all the material you’ll need for a lunch hour filled with debate and disagreement.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Media, Journalism, Public Relations, PR, Zuckerman, US News & World Report, Blogs, Blogosphere

Shel Holtz blogs on about employee blogs and uses as his case study, one Doug Edwards, Google’s former director of consumer marketing and brand management. Besides letting Google’s slip show a little, Shel manages to outline the challenges presented by blogs written by former employees:

“Ex-employee websites are nothing new, of course. Employees of Enron who had lost their jobs started several sites that served as resources, gathering places, and support. But this is the first time I’ve seen a blog dedicated to discussion of a former employer.”

So what are the potential ramifications of having HR and internal management practices made public in such a forum? Why are internal HR departments frequently overlooking these issues?

More importantly, what are the opportunities for professional communications consultants?

Let us know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Human Resources, Internal Communications, Blogging, Blog, Blogosphere, Xoogles

That’s a dandy of a question … and it’s one that blogger, Mike Driehorst tried to tackle by himself in this post on what factors companies should take into consideration before launching a blog.

This is all part of a larger Blogging 101 piece Mike is working on for his agency, so feedback is welcome.

Why not get in on the act?

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Social Media, Citizen Journalism, Blog, Blogging, Corporate Communications, B2C, B2B, Blogging 101

All comments (c) 2005, Brand Central Station – all rights reserved. For more information about BCS, please visit our website.

The Hidden Persuader blog points us to yet another iPod accessory. The iBelieve site offers a “sacred accessory” for your iPod and promises to give part of its proceeds to charity.

Given the anticipated success of The Chronicles of Narnia, why wouldn’t this work?

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Promotion, Religious Marketing, iPod, iPod Accessories

Merrell Ligons, author of The New Media Marketer blog provides this take on the future of newspaper web site design. The post reminds us that many newspaper web sites remind us of the printed newspaper.

Merrell suggests that newspapers need to stop looking to see what other newspapers have done and “push the envelope,” instead. Unfortunately, the newspaper business is not built on the backs of people who routinely push the envelope and try to innovate on the fly.

Part of that, I’m convinced, is due to the history of the origins of newspapers as extensions of printing companies rather than as independent, media ventures. Yes, that’s right, newspapers were economic endeavours undertaken by printers who were trying to keep their press busy. As a result, there is an inherent conservative business streak in newspapers that doesn’t usually exist in broadcast or alternative media companies.

Still, there are some newspapers that are trying to break with convention. Merrell points to this post from The Media Center blog which highlights changes made at a number of newspaper web sites ranging from the LA Times to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and more.

Great “state of the industry” type review. And good comments from Merrell.

Technorati Tags: Journalism, Newspapers, Web Site, Web Design

A tip of the hat to the Media Orchard blog for pointing us to SiteScore, a free web-evaluation service provided by Silktide (a UK-based web design/development firm). The service determines how well-designed, popular and accessible your web site is.

Our Brand Central Station web site scored a 7.5 out of 10. How well do you think your web site will do?

Technorati Tags: Marketing, PR Agencies, PR, Public Relations, Web Sites, Web Design, Graphic Design, Edelman, Burson-Marsteller, Ketchum, Ogilvy, Fleishman-Hillard, Hill and Knowlton, Weber Shandwick

Kevin Dugan, the savvy PR strategist behind the Strategic Public Relations blog gives us about a dozen reasons why Target is one of the best retailers out there (please note that I said “best” not “biggest”).

Kevin gives a host of reasons why Target is doing so well and, more to the point, what Target is doing to appeal to teen girls with their up2d8 program. What are the long-term implications? Kevin has an opinion or two on this, as well.

Just as interesting (although it doesn’t get quite as much attention) are Kevin’s notes on why Target needs an employee blog. The last 20% of Kevin’s post provides some compelling reasons (and examples) for considering an employee blog.

A great post with plenty of material and links to stimulate a meaningful discussion in the executive suite, no doubt.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Blogs, Blogging, Retail, Social Media, Up2d8, Target

Apparently not fitnessexperience.com – thanks to Bill Brokaw and the creative folks at his agency in Cleveland, skinny Santas were touting the results. The only down-side to this whole promotion is that the web site doesn’t seem to be completely operational. (Maybe the elves have been spending too much time on the toys?)

A hat tip to Frederik Samuel’s Advertising/Design Goodness blog.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Promotion, Guerilla Marketing, Street Marketing, Brokaw

Special thanks to the Eyes On Creativity blog for this post on a new web marketing tool called Productorials.

The tool “negates long bodies of text” by using video presentations instead. Animated titles in the Productorial call out special features.

Could this be the next multi-media tool to help move B2B marketing further online? Could be. Productorials appear to deliver high production values (at least they did on our computer) and seem relatively straight-forward.

The company explains the appeal of Productorials as follows:

“Customers like to be engaged online. They simply enjoy the educational and entertainment value of interacting with an online video en route to reaching their goals (purchasing, researching, etc.). And quality customer experience translates to higher revenues and increased loyalty.”

“In fact, online video ads increase brand awareness by 10 percentage points, often at lower frequencies than other standard online ad formats (Dynamic Logic). Productorials are online web experiences that are filled with specialty content for the interactive platform and embrace these lean-forward qualities of the web.”

Check it out.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Online Marketing, Web-Based Marketing, Sales, Collateral, Graphic Design, Web Design

I’ve read all the posts from the Clogger blog and am convinced it’s going to make an impact on the blogosphere … or, as “The Nobelizer” puts it, the clogosphere.

Call it an anti-blog, if you will. In fact, I’m sure this blog will generate several detractors who don’t like what’s written.

Then again, I’m not asking you to agree with it.

Just read it.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Bloggers, Social Media, Clogging

We hit on this subject the first time MicroPersuasion’s Steve Rubel brought it up, but it seems important enough to bring forward a second time. This post, which is now being picked up by PRWeek, challenges the leaders in the PR profession to completely embrace social media.

Interestingly enough, I’ve had the honor of banging this back and forth with Richard Edelman this past week on his blog, as well. Richard, Steve and some other big-agency types are now starting to discuss this subject in more detail on a New PR Wiki (set up and managed, I presume, by Steve).

Side Note: When I first brought this challenge up in a conversation with folks from PRWeek, they were unaware of Steve’s earlier “invitation” to follow along/participate in the discussion. I hope, for the good of all PR practitioners out there, that the media covering the PR business will engage in this discussion and help keep the “big guys” real and relevant for the sake of small and solo practices.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Citizen Journalism, Podcasting, RSS, Vidcasting, Vlogs, Weblogs, Steve Rubel, Richard Edelman, Edelman Public Relations, Micro Persuasion

Jeremy Pepper, author of the Pop! PR Jots blog provides a careful analysis of this piece (from BusinessWeek) on Wiki’s and collaboration software.

Jeremy touts the quality of the placement and shares some insights into the legwork required to pull it off. But there’s one detail that’s missed.

It’s always that one little detail.

Good stuff.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, PR, Public Relations, BusinessWeek, Wiki, Collaborative Software, Jeremy Pepper, POP! PR Jots