Kilroy is Here… And Here… And Here

Hop around on the Web (especially Twitter) and you’ll see a common design trend: Cropped head shots–cropped for bios, avatars, for a lot.
If eyes are the window into the soul, a photo of a cropped human face is the window into Web 2.0 personal, digital branding.
Consider:
There’s the famous top half of a head (Seth Godin, [...]

Microbrand Monday: Moots

Small is the new big, right? That’s what Seth Godin preaches. 
But in certain things, no. Not yet, anyway.
Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, BMW are jumbo brands that still dominate the automotive industry, despite the meltdown of 2008. 
Titleist, Callaway, TaylorMade, adidas and Nike are brands that still rule the high-margin product offerings in the golf industry that feeds [...]

WWJJD? (What Would Jeff Jarvis Do?)

It’s a brave new world full of a billion voices, tapping away, sounding off, getting snarky, demanding their due. Anyone with a computer or smartphone can jump in and say something. And somewhere, someone is listening, if just for a nanosecond. 
So does traditional “media” including newsprint still matter?
Simple test:
When I sent an @ Twitter message [...]

Extending the Brand in the Most Interesting Places

Run DMC popularized adidas Superstars in the 1980s, and the official urban market for sneakers was essentially born.
Getting a brand into new markets never ends. The latest adidas market foray? Women’s pumps.
Below a photo courtesy of the Satorialist. I joked to an adidas buddy about the similarities in use of three stripes for the heel, [...]

Online Marketing: What Works?

Two interesting reports supported by interesting data.
Not the same conclusions.
Fred Wilson, high-profile VC whose firm invested in Twitter, posted that online banners work, just differently from search, according to comScore.
Meanwhile, this story in the NYT looks at brand advertisers’ challenges to engage folks in social networks such as Facebook. The writer opened up an account [...]

Personal Brand & First Amendment Blogging

Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester’s social media analyst, posed a question this week on how corporations respond to personal brands.
The two most interesting parts of the post:

Are there risks associated with personal brands?
Do you have a First Amendment right to blog?

The first idea of possible “risks” for the corporation made me immediately think of Dan Pink’s book, Free [...]

What Will Sell in 2009

Get out your yellow wristband. Lance Armstrong’s on the bike and will race in 2009.
He’s doing it to raise awareness for cancer research through his Livestrong organization. He shares his training on Twitter, often with a dozen or more funny and inspiring missives per day. 
But Lance retired in 2005. How, you might ask, did this happen?
There [...]

Nokia N97 Colors Itself Different

Did the tech press and bloggers doubt that Nokia, the number one cellphone maker in the world, would come up short on its latest smartphone? Lots of technical muscle, for sure.
Yes, Apple’s iPhone is synonomous with hip, intuitive user experience, not to mention a selection of optional applications already a year ahead of the competition.
But [...]

Tiger Woods Never Looked Comfortable in a Buick

News today that global icon Tiger Woods and Buick have cut ties comes about 5 years late.
GM’s strategy to spend a reported $7 million to $8 million a year on Tiger to promote the Buick brand did little to convince golfers (and other Tiger fans) to ditch their Lexus, BMW, Mercedes Benz or other premium [...]

Will You Join Us?

A barrel of crude may recently dipped below $60. And oil companies are wise to start talking about environment. The latest: Chevron and it’s www.willyoujoinus.com campaign.
A sampling of copy from print ads featuring earnest and environmentally serious faces:

“I will leave the car at home more.”
“I will at least consider a hybrid.”
“I will unplug stuff more.”

While [...]