The Digital Perm

No shame......

With AMP in your hands.....

Brilliant or idiotic......

Found this over at Brand Flakes for Breakfast and thought it was worth a share.

So my peeps and homies (I am Dutch for those who don't know me) at The Amsterdam Weekly have apparently put a call out to its readers to pitch in and buy the editorial space for the next three issues.  Looks like their investors have retired and cash has started to become a scarcity.

Right.......so how does this work?

Well, each page of the paper has been divided into 204 blocks each block costing €5.

They plan on only printing what has sold. So, if you pay for the cover, they will print the cover.  So on and so forth.

So what do you think?

If your paper, weekly or magazine was in trouble would you pitch in and make sure that it stayed afloat?  Would you really care?

Briliant or idiotic?  I gotta give em credit for throwing it out, but I tend to agree with the comments over at Brand Flakes.  I would be pissed if this was what made it to my door step.

Would love to hear what happens.  Good luck.

Pay attention!!!!!!!

To the details folks.

(photo courtesy of Tiger Droppings - OSU cheerleaders during BCS Title game loss)

Regardless of what you are doing - building a new product, launching a new brand, pushing out a new ad campaign, etc. - the details matter.

Some people say don't sweat the small stuff.  The small stuff does count. Plain and simple.

Viral is PAIN-ful

I think I am going to file this one under - just because you can does not me ya should.

You see, apparently the folks at Bayer after careful due diligence have decided that the best way to reach a younger crowd while increasing exposure and awareness for their new Aleve Liquid Gels product was to enter in the realm of viral and create an online reality game.

According to the article in the NY Times, the "premise of the game is that two characters named Al and Eve (he’s a scientist, she’s an investigative reporter) have identified an online conspiracy by an organization known as P.A.I.N. (People Against Internet Networking)."  "Engaged" readers will then travel from blogs to wikis to networking sites searching for clues.  In the end, the hope is that folks like you and me will become hooked and pass the good word on to friends, family and everybody else on the planet.

When you first visit the site - Aleviator - you are introduced to Dr. Albert Briggs who apparently is in a bit of crisis and needs or help.  At the end of the video, we discover that he has been captured by PAIN.

Before his capture he asks you to search out Evelyn Bloom, an investigative reporter committed to covering the news beyond the news and encouraging “citizen journalism”.

At the bottom of the first and only post you find a comment from Dr Briggs that points you here - a social network created on Ning.

This page also promotes Evelyn Bloom's blog.

So my question is - are you lost because I am. It appears that Bayer is chasing cool but what the outcome is is hokey.  Granted it could be that I am just still on vacation, but I am just not seeing the value in this.

Apparently at the end, Bayer will even make a $5 to $10 donation to the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit group.  But they don't even come right out and say that.  Rather it is supposed to be a surprise.

I love experimentation, but this just seems disjointed.  What about you?

UPDATE: Interested in following the conversation regarding Bayer and their PAINful viral exercise.  check out:

Marketingblurb and Dim Bulb

You're Outta Here!!!!

Nice move NCAA - looks like they booted a reporter The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal from an NCAA baseball tournament game for submitting live Internet updates during play.

What is cool about this situation though is that the official blog for the NCAA - The Double A Zone - is actually covering both sides to the argument and trying to engage the conversation.  Check it out.

So what do you think, do you think live blogging infringes on ESPN's exclusive rights to broadcast the game?  Would you "watch" a blog over the game on ESPN?  I might watch the game live and then look to a blogger for their take, what they see - from their perspective.  The blogger's posts are no match for "live" tv coverage of a sporting event.

Interesting to watch an "old" media organization adapt to the new landscape.  Earlier this year, they faced the text messaging as well.  Twitter next?

Got a viewpoint chime in.....

You know why......because we can

This should be filed under just plain ugly.  Thanks to MediaPost, I have just learned that USAirways will laminate articles and columns from the likes of wine expert Robert Parker and Jack and Suzy Welch to airplane pull-down tables.  The articles will also share space with you guessed it Ads.  (You can read more about it at SFGate)

Appartenly America West has had this for quite some time, but since I rarely fly AW I am bit put off guard.

Seriously, just because you can do this does not mean you should.

Why must you add an extra message in my face?  I have already seen close to 5,000 messages by the time I board the plane.  Now you want to hit me again?

I think what really disturbs is this quote:

"The ads will reach a captive audience of business executives and affluent fliers for an average of more than 2 1/2 hours"

Captive, hmmmmmm let's look that up on dictionary.com.

What a way to foster the relationship with your customer.  Get em while they are captive.  Not engaged, but rather captive (I have another beef with engaged, but I will save that one)

Does this disturb you or am should I just chill?

Biting the hand that feeds you

I am intrigued or better yet confused by Apple's latest move to ban MySpace in their stores.  On the one side, I get it.  You want to sell Macs, IPods, accessories and the last thing you want are people loitering around and not spending money......Wait a second, of course you do.  You want your customer to CONNECT with your products.

That was ANF's big secret.  Create a cool place for people to shop and CONNECT.  They understood community way before MySpace and Facebook.

Apple seemed to understand this as well, but this move is odd to me.  What do you think?

Contacted by KY

Well sort of.....their PR firm Ogilvy gave me a buzz yesterday about a posting I made a few months ago.  They wanted to included in a clipbook for the client.

To tell you the truth I was a bit thrown-off, flabergasted, humored and pumped (my ego that is). C'Mon little old me - the Perm - really?  I hit the KY radar.  I had to tell everyone I knew.  Including my Perm readers.

Now, my question is how many times can you say KY in a day and it be okay - 5, 10, 15, 20?

My second question is can I get a sample?  For a friend of course ;)

I digress.

Still, glad to see someone is out there monitoring the conversations.  Makes me wonder what KY thinks of all this?  If you are out there, I would love to hear from you.

PS - Hey Verdino did they reach out to you?

When is it OKAY to be Temporarily Unavailable?

Honestly, when is is really okay to be Temporarily Unavailable?

You see tonight I learned that my dog's treats - Jerky Treats - have been voluntarily removed from the shelves.  As it turns out, the wheat gluten that was supplied to Del Monte Pet Products - makers of Jerky Treats - actually contained the harmful melamine that has already been attributed to a host of pet deaths and illnesses.  For those not aware, melamine is a a chemical found in fertilizers in Asia - gotta love that.

Well I decided to check out Jerky Treats and see if I can get the 411 straight from the horses mouth and this is what I found:

Okay - granted they did post the press release which took me here.  But I gotta be honest, that does not leave me with a lot of confidence.  So I ask again, when is is okay to be temporarily unavailable?

IAMS - my dogs dry food - is operational.

You would think that this is the opportunity to have a site the serves as the center piece of the conversation with questions and answers.  A chance to instill confidence in your product and service.

Opportunity wasted.

Content targeting

This is just ugly.  Talk about content targeting.    Way to go NYTimes.  Classy.

Update: Ran into this over the weekend and shipped on over to Steve Hall at AdRants.  Check out his post.