Brand Central Station

We don’t include The Blog Maverick blog on our blogroll because, frankly, blogger Mark Cuban spends too much of his time carping about the NBA and technology – rather than marketing which is what is of primary interest here. However, our fellow blogger at The Creative Generalist blog pointed us to this post about the future of HD television – a topic Cuban knows intimately.

For those of you confused by the entire HDTV phenomenon and the on-going struggle between cable and satellite providers, this is a good (but long) read.

Technorati Tags: Television, HDTV, High-Definition Television, HDNet, Mark Cuban

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

It’s been a short week so there aren’t as many blog posts as usual for our end-of-the-week wrapup, but unless you’re not from around here, you shouldn’t even be on the computer! Enjoy the long weekend and please be sure to check back next Monday as we start serving up all the great leftovers from the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Marketing & Media
Silver Bullets In Adland (11/21/2005)
Not Your Daddy’s Out-Of-Home, Anymore (11/22/2005)
Small Business Forecast: A Strong Holiday Season (11/23/2005)
… And Some Not So Good News (11/23/2005)
Blog Advertising’s Future (11/23/2005)

Advertising, Design & Creativity
Advertising That Makes A Point (11/21/2005)
Silver Bullets In Adland (11/21/2005)
Good Boy (11/22/2005)
The Art Of Color (11/22/2005)
The Wonder Of Wonderbra (11/23/2005)
That Darn “Ultradynamic Marketplace” (11/23/2005)

Public Relations & Journalism
Should PR Practitioners Be Licensed (11/21/2005)
Edelman Looks Ahead (11/22/2005)
Mea Culpas – An Effective “BR” Tool (11/23/2005)

Blogging & Web Sites
Bloggers Bust Sony’s Chops (11/21/2005)
Holiday Spirits (11/21/2005)
Mea Culpas – An Effective “BR” Tool (11/23/2005)

Branding & Corporate Leadership
How To Create And Manage Experiences (11/21/2005)
Agency/Client Relationship Report Card (11/22/2005)
Zero Tolerance Rates A “Zero” (11/22/2005)
AT&T Redux (11/23/2005)

Misc.
Mother Of All Deadlines (11/21/2005)
Steve Jobs Gets Punked On SNL (11/21/2005)
A Little Surprise Could Be Big Business For You (11/22/2005)
Shake It Santa (11/23/2005)

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

From the Advertising/Design Goodness blog …

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Graphic Design, Art Direction, Typography, Wonderbra

Small Business Trends blogger Anita Campbell provides a concise overview of a recent survey of over 1,300 small businesses. The survey, conducted by Constant Contact, checks in with small business people in the retail, services and hospitality sectors.

And the outlook seems pretty rosey.

It’s the time of year when we all start doing our business planning. Downloading the Constant Contact report and spending some time on the Small Business Trends web site may be time well spent if your business relies on small and mid-sized companies.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Strategic Planning, Situation Review, Economic Forecasts, Economy, Retail Sector, Service Sector, Hospitality Sector

Skip Lineberg and the gurus at the Marketing Genius blog relay the findings of a McKinsey & Company survey showing US Executives are less confident about the national economy than they were six months ago.

So, who’s right?

It’s no surprise that we find contradictory posts by bloggers who profess to know better. The same can be said (and found) in conventional media.

What makes this post particularly useful, however, are all of the tips and suggestions the Geniuses make when it comes to using their data in your marketing plan. They offer seven very practical, and useful, suggestions for planning your business’ future.

Good stuff.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Strategic Planning, Situation Review, Market Overview, Marketing Geniuses, McKinsey & Company

Colin McKay, better known as the Canuckflak, provides humorous take on the challenges of a very, retail Christmas.

I’m sure there are some internal communications/employee relations issues in here somewhere … but frankly, Colin is just flat-out hilarious and I thought I’d share.

Technorati Tags: Retail, Christmas, Santa Claus, Dancin’ Santa, Holidays, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Canuckflak

Shel Holtz blogs on about two examples of smart corporate blogging – providing what appears to be models for dealing with the inevitable blogging faux pas.

Let’s face it … it’s only a matter of time before we make a slip-up. And the more posts we write, the more likely we are to fall victim to an errant e-mail, misguided media pitch, partially-researched business decision or some other “human” error.

Both of these examples documented by Shel (Krause Taylor Associate’s run-in with blogger Jeremy Zawodny and Pajama Media’s red-faced, re-branding fiasco) are realistic – even likely – scenarios we can learn from.

A must read for PR pros who want to practice online.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Public, PR, Blogs, Blogging, Media Relations, Online Media Relations, Blogger Relations, Blogosphere Relations, Shel Holtz

Peter Brady writes in his Ads On Blogs blog:

“My heart tells me that blog advertising maybe approaching an important cross roads, going from an unruly teenager if you like, to a fully paid up adult of media society. But my head tells me that the cross roads is being called too early, as is alluded to in the “worth watching, but yet to prove worth” bit of the above statement…”

His post is filled with useful links to related articles and should serve as a worthwhile starting point for further exploration of blog advertising for those who want or need to know more.

You may also want to check out these posts:
Ads On Blogs: The Wider Implications of Business Blog Survey

iMedia Connection: Survey of Blogging Awareness

ClickZ: Is Blog Advertising Right For You?

ClickZ: Blog Advertising

ProBlogger: Essential Blog Advertising Systems – Poll Results

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Blogs, Blogging, Advertising, Advertising Systems, Ads On Blogs

Blogger Mike McLauglin, writing on the Guerilla Consulting blog, gives us all a lesson in copywriting for consultants that’s both humorous and to-the-point. His point: if you wouldn’t speak that way (using phrases like “ultradynamic marketplace” or “blunting commoditization”), then don’t write that way.

For those of us who have been in the marketing and ad business for a few years, this common sense approach to writing collateral copy is often a hard-earned lesson.

Mike also links us to a valuable resource for busting jargon – and, no, it’s not one more web site for playing “bullshit bingo.”

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Copywriting, Creative, Jargon

The BrandXPress blog has a great review of the new AT&T brand work posted to its site. The short story: “The new AT&T logo is a basic example of re-branding without reason.”

We’ll go with that.

Although the post is definitely worth the read for folks who do branding … the BrandXPress team has done the background work and provides plenty of useful links to online resources that lay out the history of the AT&T brand among other things. It makes for a great case study, albeit a “do-it-yourself” one.

For more news on the re-branding (although I’m reluctant to call it that), you might want to check out reports from ABC News and the Washington Post. Interestingly enough, both stories focus on the non-changes to the AT&T logo.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Branding, Re-Branding, AT&T, SBC

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

From Frederik Samuel’s Advertising/Design Goodness blog.

Great stuff.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Creative, Graphic Design, Friskies, Advertising/Design Goodness

Monday’s AdPulp blog featured this post concerning agency/client relationships, based on an article by advertising columnist Stuart Elliott from the New York Times.

AdPulp’s Danny G adds to the post with his own analysis of the results of the Salz Survey of Advertising Agency Relations. Refreshing, maybe. Accurate, somewhat. Funny, you bet.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Management, Agency/Client Relationships, Customer Service, New York Times, Stuart Elliot