Things Other Than Blogging

I'm going to be spending the next several weeks with my computer turned off (okay, turned somewhat off) doing things other than blogging.  I will be posting intermittently, if at all.

Keep the faith, baby.

The Facebook Enigma

An online article from The Wall Street Journal yesterday called "Valuing Facebook's Ads" reinforces the nagging doubts I have about the value of advertising on Facebook.

Amazingly, Facebook has a 24 share of all display advertising on the web. This is more than twice the share of its next rival.

The problem, though, is that it only has a 9.5 share of display advertising dollars.

In other words

Beating Their Heads Against The Wall

For several years now, we at Ad Contrarian Global Headquarters have been ranting about the astonishing stupidity of marketers for relentlessly chasing young people and ignoring people over 50.

Just to recap the case:
People over 50 control over 75% of the financial assets of the US.
Baby boomers dominate 94% of all consumer packaged goods categories.
They purchase almost 40% of consumer packaged

Emotion Is A Response, Not A Stimulus

In the early to mid 90's, Toyota and General Motors shared a manufacturing facility in Fremont, CA. The plant had a line that built the Toyota Corolla and the (Chevrolet) Geo Prizm. It was the same vehicle, built at the same facility, by the same people. At the end of the production line some cars got the Corolla badge and some got the Prizm badge.

At one point, the Corolla sold for $1,500 more.

Funky Friday

Research or Baloney?
In Nielsen's "Three Screen Report" for Q4 2009, there was a number that confused the hell out of me.

According to their data, between Q1 2009 and Q4 2009, average time spent on the internet dropped about 10% from 29 minutes a day to about 26 1/2 minutes a day.

This seemed impossible to me. For this reason, I left the number out of my post about the report.

It turns out

A Book Called Dignity

I think you will enjoy a short video done by our staff in support of a book called Dignity. The book honors indigenous peoples around the world and celebrates Amnesty International's 50th anniversary. It was shot by Dana Gluckstein.


Credits:
Creative Director: Miles Turpin
Art Director: James Cabral
Writers: Desmond Tutu, Oliver Albrecht
Editor: Nic Bucci
Producer: Jay Cortez
V/O: Hugh

Facts Are Old School

I was recently told an interesting story by a business associate. A woman this guy knows is an executive at one of the world's most well-known corporations.

Although she is very high up, the corporation is so big that there are a substantial number of people at the corporate level who are above her in the pecking order.

Recently she made a presentation to the upper echelon of corporate

Champions

Congratulations to the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants.


(Only 15 weeks till spring training.)

The Politics Of Advertising

Tuesday is Election Day. Thankfully, we will be rid of some of the most awful, cynical advertising I've ever seen.

Political advertising has been horrifying for a long time now. But it has reached a level of nastiness and deception that I believe is unprecedented.

Politicians of both parties rarely even bother to state their cases any more. They just focus on driving up their opponents' "