Giant Balloons Company

What if when you went to a website to buy or read something you only saw exactly what you came to see? What if websites were specifically customized to your every need? What if every brand’s website was a personalized experience designed just for you? Wouldn’t you love that! Wouldn’t your brand’s customers love that! Of course they would. So how do you personalize your brand’s online experience for your customers?

You download and read this IBM whitepaper, Marketing in the 4th Dimension: Four Keys to Personalizing the Web Experience. In this whitepaper, you will learn how to use data (both online and off) to personalize web experiences, develop customer profiles that will allow you to deliver those customized experiences and learn how some big brands accomplished this task.

Bringing back really, really bad memories of LA Gear, a new ad created by RealNormal/Beef & Sage (WTF kind of name is that?) introduces the Big Red soda Pump Bottle. That’s right. Now when your Big Red soda gets flat, all you have to do is push the pump a few times and your soda will, once again, be carbonated.

In the ad, a gang of boom box-fueled breakdancers dressed like, well, like they were in an LA Gear commercial, runs into a bit of trouble when their soda goes flat.

And that voiceover? Good God. Shoot me now!

While on a faux photo shoot organized by Olson, Sports Illustrated and Maxim model Chrissy Teigen was interrupted mid-photo shoot by an epic downpour of Skittle released from a box above her head. Teigen made the most of the surprise by writhing atop the skittles as if she were in bed with a harem of men.

If only Don Draper knew this was the future of marketing.

Does marketing automation sound like something Honda does when it whips out its ASIMO robot at trade shows? While that certainly might be some form of marketing automation, it’s not the kind or marketing automation we’re talking about. Today’s fastest growing brands are using marketing automation-fueled, repeatable marketing and sales 2.0 techniques to grow revenue predictably and reliably.

This whitepaper from Marketo will teach you why companies that implement a marketing automation system to support their marketing and sales efforts are better equipped to manage lead flow and process leads more efficiently. This paper outlines how marketing automation optimizes marketing programs and can help companies:

• Create a faster and more predictable revenue cycle
• Increase profitablility with tactics that result in higher conversion rates
• Align the efforts of marketing and sales teams to substantially increase top-line revenue growth

Download the whitepaper now to learn how marketing automation can improve your brand’s performance.

David Ersati has been running for political office in Dayton Ohio for 20 years. He has never been elected. Perhaps being arrested for disrupting a public meeting while wearing a ninja mask might have something to do with his failed bids.

Currently, Ersati is running for Mayor and has launched a unique campaign to support his bid. Rather than placing yard signs all over the roadsides of Dayton, Ersati decided to do something a bit more helpful to the community. He bought several hundred basketball nets (which costs less than yard signs) and installed them himself on some of the city’s run down, uncared for basketball courts.

In the video below, Ersati points out hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money have been spent on land and buildings with no public use. He aims to spend less than $10,000 and vastly improve public spaces in doing so.

Ersati is pounding the pavement in Dayton to garner sponsorship for his basketball court improvement project/mayoral bid. Will this unique political marketing effort finally get Ersati elected? History is certainly against him but we do like his effort on this campaign.

In the past we’ve written about the increasing popularity of content marketing and its benefits, like the fact that it typically costs over 60% less than traditional marketing. And, as pointed out in the comments by reader Rhona Wilkins, “Content style ad formats are already replacing typical banner ads. Orgs like Outbrain, Adblade, Google, Kontera and others have changed how ads look. “

As content marketing rises in popularity, much has been written about the practice and there is no shortage of books on the subject. One such yet-to-be-published book is being authored by Bruce Clay and Murray Newlands.

Bruce Clay is an online marketing guru who spends 9 months a year traveling around the world as a keynote speaker and teacher of SEO, and also runs a number of agencies across five continents.

Murray Newlands is an AFFY award winning reporter and the founder and editor of TheMail.com, an online publication that covers digital marketing. He recently authored Online Marketing: A User’s Manual. We asked the authors a couple of questions.

Murray, why should brands and agencies care about content marketing?

“If brands aren’t already utilizing content marketing as part of their digital advertising strategy, they should start as soon as possible. Content marketing is quickly becoming one of the most effective means of not only generating clicks and conversions, but also spreading brand awareness. Plus, if brands are able to create and implement a great content marketing strategy, they can greatly reduce their digital ad spend, and ultimately cut costs while increasing revenue.”

Bruce, why is content marketing news in the SEO industry?

“We know that Google focuses on delivering relevant, useful and unique content at the top of its search results. However, the search engine is using more signals than ever to determine content quality, including social buzz, author authority, content freshness, backlinks and indicators of searchers’ personal preferences. As a result of this complexity, a content marketing strategy for creating engaging, useful and shareable content is a significant component of SEO.”

The book will be released in several weeks. There’s more info here.

Working with BBDO New York, Footlocker is out with a new commercial entitled Harden Soul featuring NBA players James Harden and Stephen Curry. In the ad, Harden wants to branch out by cutting a new R&B single in the studio. Thankfully, Curry arrives and saves Harden from embarrassment who when he hears himself, utters, “Is…is that me?”

Somewhere in there is a message about Footlocker having “all the fresh, new gear.”

The onslaught of real-time social data means that, as marketers, we now live in a world of “presentism” where everything is real-time, always-on, pervasive, and constant. We can no longer predict the future because it’s already happening — right now.

To thrive in this new world, your traditional processes and supporting tools have to change. You need integrated team structures and streamlined processes that help you get your messages to the right audience in real time. Get started with these 5 rules for real-time marketing.

Download the free report now to insure your marketing organization is properly set up to implement real-time marketing.

This is, perhaps, the most interesting TV commercial you will see in a very long time. And by TV ad, we mean a TV ad for a TV. In this case, a Samsung TV. Created by 72andSunny and called Meet the Family, this ad introduces us to a family that just got a new SmartTV from Samsung.

But first…OMG! This family is interracial! Yes. Interracial. Call the cause groups! This one could get ugly! My God, the wife is Asian! And she’s married to…OMG…a white guy! Good God, the interwebs are going to light up with this one.

Anyway, it is on of the most well-paced commercials of any kind we have seen in a very long time. Dad, mom, daughter, son and grandfather all get great lines and all interact with one another perfectly! And with awesome dialog like, “I don’t know, calling girls and hanging up” and “Which one of you yahoos put our TV on the curb,” It’s like they’re a real family. But that couldn’t be true because, as we all know, no one wants interracial families in advertising, right?

Do you like Australian DJ, singer and dancer Havana Brown? Will you will be attending Affiliate Summit in Philadelphia August 18-20? Then you might be interested in knowing Brown, whose hit, We Run the Night, topped the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and hit number 26 on the U.S Billboard 100, will perform at the Clickbooth/MaxBounty/CPAWay Affiliate Nation party Monday, August 19.

The party will take place from 9PM to 1AM at Lit which is located at 460 North 2nd Street. Along with Brown, there will be dancers, performers and, of course, the all important open bar. We will be there taking picture of all the pretty people so don’t be shy. Find the guy with the camera and give him your best duck face!

Wanna go? RSVP here.