I came across this slideshow on reception theory on SlideShare on Reception Theory. And it was a very interesting, clear read. Reception theory View more presentations from Rob McMinn As a media planner, I have been exposed to a number of 'frameworks' that tried to explain how audiences access, process, and relate with information that they encounter about brands. The one that I found most interesting was this chart (which I think is overused but still relevant though in need of further improvements to take into account how audiences have evolved). In essence, the above suggests that the communication effectiveness... Continue reading

The Facebook Wall is a very important piece of digital real-estate... Maximize it! Continue reading

Social media - facilitated by digital so it is real-time - is where it's at and where it will be! Continue reading

Integrity in Analytics is needed - whether it is in the area of psychology, primary research, science, marketing sciences. Continue reading

via www.youtube.com Marketing has borrowed quite extensively from Finance in the last 10 years. As marketeers, we've started talking about returns on investments - finding the "biggest bang for our buck". Some (like my former team in a previous company) have started talking about risk management procedures - not just in managing contracts (and employing "options"-like buying techniques), but also in delivering gross impressions and shares. All these are well and good. Perhaps this is one way of the marketing department proving themselves to the finance department - an attempt to say that 'we are more than just an expense... Continue reading

I came across this video just today (a year old, really, so quite old by internet standards). It is about banking and how consumesr are changing the face of banking. What I really liked about what Brett King, an author, said in the opening of the video: Just because you are a bank and you have a banking licence doesn't mean you have an exclusive on banking. And another one: If customers don't want to come to the branch..., we just serve them where they are. Continue reading

The purpose of an elevator pitch isn't to close the sale. The goal isn't even to give a short, accurate, Wikipedia-standard description of you or your project. No, the purpose of an elevator pitch is to describe a situation or solution so compelling that the person you're with wants to hear more even after the elevator ride is over. via sethgodin.typepad.com. Emphasis mine Well said. Continue reading

via www.youtube.com Interesting thoughts from Tim Ferriss - he of the 4hour workweek phenomenon. I admire him for being a lifelong learner. I am not sure about his thoughts about Gladwell's 10'000hours. But you gotta give it to Tim: he is perhaps one of the few (at least in the public's eye) who endorses lifelong learning. Continue reading

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Data availability is no longer the problem. Accessibility is no longer the issue. The cost of acquiring data has gone down dramatically. Neither is the technology behind data collation the problem. There are a myriad of options that one can collect, store, discover, collate, systematize, analyze, and use data. Continue reading

When you've got the answer to the right question, it begets a new, very important question: So what? Continue reading

If you don't know the question, any answer will be good enough. Continue reading

Give a numbers-orientated person two sets of numbers - and she will be able to fit a curve to the two sets of numbers without really knowing what those numbers mean and stand for. Have a look at the latest NASDAQ indices - and run them through some curve-fitting exercise, or if you're feeling a little too sophisticated, use a neural network and have it "learn" the ups and downs of the curves - and project the future. Ask anybody to conduct a survey and with the plethora of free (or cheap) surveying tools and panels online, you'll have 300... Continue reading

What excites you about the future? Here's one that I am very excited about - Corning Glass. Read on to find out why I am so excited by this. Continue reading

So they like you - they even love you. They read and consume every single update that you post. But what does it give you? Does it build your business? If it doesn't, then what's the point? Continue reading

I have been playing around with Paper.li and have a couple of 'newspapers' (here is an example) that are gathered from tweets and RSS feeds of people I follow. The main purpose was, well, selfish: I wanted to get a glimpse of the tweets and feeds in one go for my own reading pleasure. But it seemed to have caught on a little bit given the retweets and "thanks" I have received on Twitter. And a friend of mine asked me, "How do you find time to curate all these?" Well, it's automatic so I guess, the only time I... Continue reading

Lots of interesting stuff from AEGISMEDIA covering mobile, content, and new media technology In this issue of their quarterly updates, of note are the emergence of social commerce in China, Ticketmaster's Facebook-integration that allows you to choose seats with your friends, and half-lives of posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. You can get more of their updates their SlideShare Feed here. Next Generation Media Quarterly October 2011 View more presentations from Dan Calladine Continue reading

via www.gapingvoidgallery.com I have been quite known to ask weird questions to potential team members. Some of my interview questions for junior or mid-level positions in a media/comms planning role include things about outer space ("how many planets are there do you think?"), ET ("do you think there's intelligent life out there or are we just wasting our time and money looking for it?"), and the more-technical stuff ("how would you explain to me linear regression if I were a 12 year old boy?", "what's degrees of freedom in stat testing?", "what's the probability of rain tomorrow, do you think?")... Continue reading

NUMERATI is now live on Facebook. Click through to www.facebook.com/Numerati.Solutions for more information. NUMERATI empowers marketeers make sound, fact-based decisions using bespoke marketing research and analytics particularly in these challenging, continuously-changing times. NUMERATI does this through 1. The use of advanced statistics (attitudinal-behavioral-demographic-based segmentation, econometrics-/regression-based modelling) 2. Providing advice in optimizing returns on existing marketing research and learning programs 3. Designing marketing learning and research programs which include bespoke metrics development, dashboard development, qualitative/quantitative research results "deep-dives" and integration, and what-if simulation 4. Providing strategic planning advice and consultancy 5. Training and marketing-skills development For more information, visit us on... Continue reading

What do consultants do, really? Continue reading

It is quite amazing how marketeers are now so enamored by "the social". But as early as the 1990s, I have seen studies that showed that "recommendations from friends, family, and other people" are as effective or more effective than any form of advertising. A former colleague was not convinced by it - to the point that she junked the research and called it "irrelevant and potentially, not valid". I guess the problem was, when you say "recommendations are far better than any form of bought advertising", you're essentially saying that "you don't have so much control over your brand... Continue reading

A former client goes "You don't have to change behaviors in order to build business. Besides, advertising cannot change behaviors." I say, "Bollocks". Continue reading