Jaffe Juice

Seth Godin would be proud. Looks like there's a free prize inside after all. Andy Nulman from POW! Right between the Eyes and one of 2007's MVB's contenders has agreed to "bankroll" a prize for the winner of the MVB's.

So what should the winner get? Someone suggested I should add the Final Four to my blogroll. Easy enough. The only reason I haven't added more is that I'm lazy and also not much of an HTML editor. Shocking, but true.

Also, definitely think a congratulatory button along the lines of "MVB 2007: Final Four", but then again...shouldn't we do the same for all rounds? 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. Radical Trust, what do you think?

I could also invite the Final Four onto Across the Sound - The New Marketing Podcast for a guest co-host episode.

Those are great for the Final Four, but what should the winner get? Suggestions welcome!

PS Round of 32 Results and Sweet 16 pairings will be up on Sunday evening

This is kind of twisted. A couple of years ago, I picked up a factoid about multi-tasking. Truth is I've been using this data point (sourced and all) fairly liberally. Even put it into Join the Conversation.

In my due dilligence, I look to confirm the exact verbiage and all that comes up on the Web is this:

Schulman: That’s right. It’s multi-task, right? I think Yankelovich says that the average 25- to 54-year-old can manage 1.4 platforms of media simultaneously. Which is like, you can IM while you work, or you can talk on your cell phone while you drive (hopefully). They say that 12- to 25-year-olds can manage 4.7 platforms of media simultaneously.

It's my buddy Alan Schulman from Brand New World being quoted in an interview on imediaconnection.com.

So I contact Yankelovich and they say....sorry, not our data.

Interesting conundrum with more interesting implications. For one thing, should iMedia be fact checking better? Why is Yankelovich not monitoring the conversation better and nipping inaccuracies in the bud?

Moreover, my primary interest is to see if the new marketing community (you) can help me get to the bottom of this very profound insight i.e. the multi-tasking ability of 12-24/5 year olds versus 25-49/54 etc. I'd still like to include it in the book.

Signed copy of the new book if you can help me solve the riddle.

Picked up this post on the Valley PR Blog, which refers to this article in the Arizona Republic on Ad agencies evolving.

The post includes this very flattering blurb:

In a fragmented and integrated media environment where designers must think like writers, media buyers understand the interactive space and so on, our titles pigeonhole us. One adman who reinvented himself, calls himself ‘Chief Interrupter.’ He’s more famous for challenging agencies with his new marketing mantra, via his blog, podcast, and of course his book that nails the 30-second spot. I’m talking of Joe Jaffe, who started off in the old networked agency framework, but has now built a ‘new marketing’ agency from scratch

Thanks for the acknowledgment Angelo. We'll keep working hard on executing against this!

Check out Bad Idea, Indeed!, which attempts to find answers to frequently asked questions in the world of digital marketing evangelism. Questions like:

• How far should I go in the dialogue with the users? Can I accept controversy on my website? What moderation level is acceptable?
• Is online advertising making sense without a decent website?
• Are there examples of 2.0 initiatives made by traditional brands that went totally out of hand?
• How can impressions be compared to television GRPs?
• How intrusive should I be? (expandable formats, videos with sound on by default)
• What does interaction rate (only available for rich media formats) tell me about the impact of my campaign?
• Does the long tail change anything to the way I should communicate with my target group?
• Why on earth do people use sites like second life?

I was asked to comment on the question, "how far should one go when it comes to dialogue?" My response, "...you can never go far enough." This absolutely refers to genuine and authentic conversation, as opposed to inciting, provoking or forcing controversy and "buzz"

Here's the full post

Last week's 5 pound drop wasn't a fluke (phew). This week I took off another pound and yesterday, came to the interesting realization that I dropped 50% of what my new baby currently weighs (we had a scan and the baby is 2 pounds now!)

I caught up with one of Jason Calacanis' Calacalacalacalacalaclacasts (where he insulted my weight once again) and on his blog he mentioned that he's been approached by several companies to do something with Fatblogging. I'm interested which ones.

I wrote about Fatblogging in Join the Conversation and noted that the Marketers have - once again - been conspicuously absent from the conversation (take that, Maarten)

On another note, I was interviewed for a LA Times piece on Fatblogging would you believe. Just goes to show, that you never know what is going to resonate and whilst some people have questioned the marketing signficance of a marketing blogger talking about Fatblogging, how about them P.R. apples?

With the voting in and tallied, including two cheaters (who have been paired up against each other as punishment for trying to rock the vote and ultimately set up against Seth Godin), we are now ready to begin the big dance.

The full seedings are as follows and you can click on this thumbnail to view the complete brackets.

More importantly, click here to vote on the 16 head-to-head match-ups. Once enough votes are in, I'll tabulate again and narrow the field down to the "Sweet 16" and so on and so forth.

fyi, David Armano, in a putrid ass-kissing way to influence his growing following put together this very smart post offering commentary and insight on the randomness of the MVB's and also the MSM angle associated with it. Don't let this MVB demonstration of thought leadership go unpunished!

• Jaffe v Seth Godin on the card if all goes according to seeding
• We're rooting for Where's the Sausage heads up against Eggs, Bacon, Chips & Beans!

Vote NOW

Seedings:

1. Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
2. Wired – http://blog.wired.com/
3. Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
4. Jaffe Juice - http://www.jaffejuice.com
5. BrandAutopsy - http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/
6. Russel Davies - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/
7. Church of the Consumer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/
8. Beyond Madison Avenue - http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/
9. Micro Persuasion - http://www.micropersuasion.com
10. "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots" http://www.fightthebull.com/blog/
11. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/
12. Mark Cuban - http://www.blogmaverick.com/
13. Branding Strategy Insider - http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
14. http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/
15. Gaping Void - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
16. PSFK - http://www.psfk.com
17. Creative Think - http://blog.creativethink.com/
18. Radical Trust - http://www.radicaltrust.ca
19. Adverlab – http://adverlab.blogspot.com/
20. SpringWise - http://www.springwise.com/
21. POW! Right Between The Eyes! http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/
22. Adliterate by Richard Huntington - http://www.adliterate.com/
23. "Eggs Bacon Chips & Beans" - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
24. Servant of Chaos - http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/
25. Conversation Agent - http://conversationagent.typepad.com/
26. Hello_World - http://missinglink.typepad.com/hello_world/
27. Where's The Sausage - http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/
28. Modern Life is Rubbish - http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/
29. NussbaumOnDesign - http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/index.html    
30. Pronet Advertising - http://www.pronetadvertising.com
31. CK's Blog - http://www.ck-blog.com/
32. Top Rank Blog - http://www.toprankblog.com

The world is all a-twitter with the demonic rise of Sanjaya Malakar in this season of American Idol. Lately all the talk has been about his hair, but really the story here is about the fact he's been the weakest link for week's on end and yet somehow stays in the competition.

The secret is not his over the top hairdos. And it's not his smile either. Or the fact that every week he becomes more Michael Jackson-ish (weird) It's the "power of us". Its Vote for the Worst.

[update: I've been asked to remove the screenshot from VFTW; I'm not sure why and I'm trying to get to the bottom of this]

"One vote cast for Sanjaya is a vote against Simon" was one of the quotes in 3 (count 'em) articles in USA Today which asked the question for the first time, "could he actually win this thing?"

Suddenly MSM wakes up to realize that the very voting mechanism that is set up to democratize (read: mask and hide the DIRT CHEAP, artificial and seamless creation of a pop idol, whilst selling advertising at the same time - how sweet is that!!!!!????) the process, may very well bring it down.

In fact, many people believe that if Sanjaya won the whole thing, this would cripple the whole AI franchise.

The articles go on to single out VFTW and Howard Stern as being responsible for keeping Sanjaya in, but its really VFTW. Howard Stern does not have the audience (or influence) he once had....this is all about the many-to-many.

Rest assured, he won't win the competition. Although Sanjaya is enjoying his charmed life, the Wisdom of Crowds will prevail as soon as the numbers get manageable enough to counter the voting fragmentation. At the end of the day, talent will shine (go Blake!!!) and Clive Davis will get his boy/girl.

...but along the way, it sure is fun to see Simon Cowell squirming. He said it best last night (paraphrased), "at this point there's really nothing we can say that's going to make a difference. If America wants you in, good luck to them"

Lately, we've been chatting a lot at crayon about blogger outreach and good v bad v ugly pitches.

Every week I get tons of really crummy PR pitches for Jaffe Juice and obviously, I - and the fellow crayonistas - am trying to do things in a unique new marketingesque way.

Worse than your typical "please post about us" PR pitch is the "link exchange" one, which typically comes from an automated merge and purge bot (or at least seems like it)

So I get this today, which totally stood out and caught my attention. I'm reprinting verbatim to give these guys props and also the visibility. Pithy editorial in bold

I saw your site this week as I was roaming through ad blogs yeah, right. Funny, I've always liked the number 725, which, coincidentally, would be the exact number of blogs linking to your site if you were to exchange links with madisonavenew.com it's now 733

I represent advertising legend Harry Webber never heard of him. is that bad?, who is credited with such notable campaigns as “Quality is Job 1,” “I’m stuck on Band-aid Brand,” and “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” among others. For the last few years, he’s published a weekly column drawing from his experience in the industry (which includes a Clio Hall of Fame induction). His articles are read each week by tens of thousands of individuals from hundreds of major corporations, including General Motors, IBM corporation, American Express, and industry powerhouses such as Ogilvy & Mather and Omnicom, to name a few.  never heard of them

By linking to madisonavenew.com, you will be afforded exposure to this international audience of advertising and marketing professionals. Further, your graphic link will be given a highly visible position in the center of the page, directly next to Mr. Webber’s (sometimes scathing, always insightful) column.myself, I opt for always scathing, sometimes insightful

If you’re interested, please send a screenshot of your link to madisonavenew.com come on, don't you trust me?. In return, we’ll upload your link to madisonavenew.com and send you a screenshot. Or please let me know what necessary steps to take to add a madisonavenew.com link to jaffe juice.

Happy rantings always!,

Playfulness aside, this pitch really caught my eye. It was "mass customization" to be sure, but I felt they took enough time to understand me and personalize accordingly. Of course, all bloggers are ranting lunatics, so I guess I shouldn't feel special now should I?

PS One suggestion...provide hyperlinks in your e-mail.

PPS I checked out the site and really like the theme of the current article, "what would you do if you had to start over from scratch?"

PPPS I just linked to you via PS and PPS

PPPPS Now where is my link?

PPPPPS Why is the site so static? Move it to a blogging platform already! I know a great company to help you...

The ANA have just released their 2007 "top marketer issues" and the comparisons to 2006 are quite interesting:

The 3 biggest climbers are "integration", "consumer control" (and how it relates to advertising) and globalization. Dropping down are multicultural and talent.

My thoughts:

1. I'm happy to see marketers revisiting integration. To be sure, 99% of what they're being sold currently is NOT integration. It's imitation or duplication. Looking, feeling, tasting the same is tantemount to a better white noise mousetrap. Those of you who have read Chapter 10 of my book would have the little doodle I constructed (I've since updated it in my recent presentations) about what I call REAL integration
2. I'm a little relieved to see the accountability obsession, as well as building strong brands dropping a notch. Don't get me wrong, they're both clearly important, however there are so many other key initiatives to balance and factor in the equation, for example "innovation"
3. I hope innovation rises next year. I believe this is the number one issue and so with it falling, I get a little concerned.
4. Other than that, it's downright alarming that multicultural and talent are not holding their ground and/or rising in terms of importance. I'm wondering if the people who completed this survey have been living underneath a rock for the past 12 months.

To summarize, this ranking (and comparison with last year) seems to fall neatly into 2 categories. For the most part, items that are past of the traditional methodology (brands, creative, etc) are either holding or falling, whereas initiatives that relate to change (new marketing) are holding or tending to rise.

Via MediaPost and Hat Tip to Jen

32 Finalists...let the Marketing Dance begin

Here is the survey. You get to vote on the 5 most valuable blogs (MVB) under the following criteria:

• delivers the best crash course/introduction to new marketing for newcomers/newbies
• provides essential insights to those trying to get up to speed with the pace of change
• offers superior levels of marketing relevance, value and utility
• demonstrates consistent strategic thought leadership

Again, you have 5 votes. Use them wisely. Vote now.

PS Thanks Scott for the logo

That's like saying Heather Mills dances better with her prosthetic leg than without.

As per Adweek, a Millward-Brown study has concluded that spots shown during programming on the Web resonate far better with viewers than the same 30-second ads on TV, thanks to the Internet's lack of clutter and more attentive (if much smaller) audience.

The conclusion makes total sense, given the lack of clutter (above), but also...interestingly enough...based on the fact consumers are less likely to change the channel online versus TV. On one hand, it's an interesting cultural insight which has an ironic sting...the very same cultural familiarity and acceptance that has allowed the unwelcomed guest of intrusive and irrelevant advertising to stay in our living rooms for this long is now coming back to bite it in the ass (we are equally comfortable with the remote control and our TiVo's)

BUT: at the same time, there is no channel to change really in the online environment either. Well, there are other sites, but with nothing but a 30-second window to toy with, I'll just alt-Tab and check an e-mail or mute the sound, space out and drool...but admittedly get a few seconds of hard sell in.

Implications of the study are that we should NEVER increase online clutter any more than is present (lest we fall into the same downward spiral of TVLand), but at the same time I just cannot condone any pre-roll commercial of any kind as long as it looks, feels, tastes and stinks like the offline equivalent.

While the methodology is apples-to-apples i.e. a TV program with commercials, it still represents a tiny sliver of potential in terms of harnessing either video and/or the online environment.

Harsh or not...Heather Mills ain't winning Dancing with the Stars and if she does, I will go and work for WPP with George Parker as my Executive Assistant.

I got to tell you...all the "Life takes X; Life takes Visa" is pretty much invisible to me. It's pretty banal, but that should not come as a surprise to you given my focus and biases.

Now when I find out Visa signed a deal with Parker Bros and they introduced "plastic" and card readers as part of Monopoly in Europe, I get real excited.

This is cool! This is branded entertainment in the form of strategic product integration/placement. Love it!

Via MVB Finalist MIT Advertising Lab

Just heard about a company called Nutrax.com that uses mobile phone cameras as an online diary to log and track daily calorie intake.

Seems like a great new marketing way to use mobile technology as a means to make the weight-loss process more efficient.

Following my post about MVB's (Most Valuable Blogs), this is the shortlist I received from everyone:

1. Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
2. Russel Davies - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/
3. "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots" - http://www.fightthebull.com/blog/
4. "Eggs, Bacon, Chips & Beans" - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
5. Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
6. Jaffe Juice - http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaffejuice
7. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/
8. NussbaumOnDesign -http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/index.html
9. Beyond Madison Avenue - http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/
10. Wired – http://blog.wired.com/
11. Adverlab – http://adverlab.blogspot.com/
12. BrandAutopsy - http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/
13. Gaping Void - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
14. Hello_World - http://missinglink.typepad.com/hello_world/
15. Mark Cuban - http://www.blogmaverick.com/
16. SpringWise - http://www.springwise.com/
17. PSFK - http://www.psfk.com
18. Adliterate by Richard Huntington - http://www.adliterate.com/
19. http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/
20. http://conversationagent.typepad.com/
21. http://blog.creativethink.com/
22. Experience Planner by Scott Weisbrod - http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/
23. http://www.micropersuasion.com
24. http://www.toprankblog.com
25. http://www.pronetadvertising.com
26. Where's The Sausage - http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/
27. Branding Strategy Insider - http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
28. http://www.ck-blog.com/
29. http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/
30. Church of the Consumer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/
31. Modern Life is Rubbish - http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/
32. radical Trust - http://www.radicaltrust.ca

Next steps:

1) Any last minute additions or subtractions you'd like to insert/remove?

2) I'll put this into a Survey Monkey form and attempt to whittle it down to Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four

Thanks to all who e-mailed me yesterday about upload/download times and also the notion of what I'm calling "Extended Readership". The latter wasn't resolved, but I'm determined to continue my quest to demonstrate a new way to conceive/perceive the full impact of blogger audience/reach/connectivity etc.

Visually, think of Armano's Ripples of Influence and work from there.

Take Jaffe Juice for example:

• According to Feedburner, I have 3,336 subscribers via R.S.S./e-mail
• According to Technorati, I have 1,805 links from 724 blogs
  • Most authorative linking blog is MicroPersuasion with 4,086 blogs that link to Steve (interestingly enough, Steve hasn't linked to Jaffe Juice for over a year!)
  • Jason Calacanis (2,270 blogs) is up there as well (29 days ago) on Fatblogging

So what really is Jaffe Juice's extended reach or readership?

• Ripple 1: The number of subscribers (active or otherwise) - 3,336
• Ripple 2: The number of linking bloggers - 724
• Ripple 3: The audience of the linking bloggers - x?
• Ripple 4: Other? How about transient or ad-hoc visitors via Google Search etc.

Anyway, interested in your thoughts and calculations.

• What is realistic and what is a "reach" in terms of estimating REAL audience.....?
• More importantly, are advertisers underestimating or overestimating the TRUE impact of a typical blogger's influence?

Feel free to comment here, twit or audio (+1 206 203-3255)

I'm doing some final edits to my book and had 2 1 questions which I'm struggling to find answers for. Instead of soldiering on solo, I thought I would reach out to the really smart people - you :)

To the first people who send me the answers (offline please - jaffe [at] getthejuice [dot] com), a signed copy of LA30 of JTC (when it comes out)

Question 1: What is the average upload:download ratio/time? i.e. it takes x times faster to download a 1 MB file compared to upload the same file size. Obviously, this will differ from place to place, but I'm looking for some kind of average/global or otherwise.  - done

Question 2: A blog that has 500 other blogs linking to it would have [x] readers/hip - either directly (itself) or indirectly (the sum total of all 501 blogs' readers). Here's the point...I'm looking for some kind of curve/estimate/guesttimate that approximates average readers by influence/authority. Seems like a technorati type question I'm thinking. Does this even make sense?

If you have questions, skype me on jaffejuice or e-mail me directly.

More questions to come no doubt and more books to give away :)

Hot off the "press", Black Lab's "Mine Again" breaks into iTunes' Top 100 (all singles) at #99 and hits #11 in US Rock. Here are the other digits:

• Canada Rock #10
• Canada Overall #53
• Netherlands Rock # 2
• Sweden Rock #7
• Germany Rock #12
• Germany #73 Overall
• Holland #15 Overall
• Norway #55 Overall
• Norway Rock #10

That's pretty damn impressive and I think if you supported this, you should feel proud. I do. If not, purchase the track here and while you're at it, purchase Ecstasy as well which is one of my favorite songs.

Update: My conversation with Christopher Penn is now up - ATS #73 link here and direct subscription link here

The Travelocity Gnome (300 years old, Male, Hard-body, Rock Steady, North Carolina) is living large on MySpace with 2,251 friends already.

The site itself is really well done and for the most part is just that...a (mini-)site, or is it?

It's a mini-site with "friends" i.e. part of a network and community or perhaps I should say "friends with benefits." Gnome's friends "receive perks such as travel deals and discounts from Travelocity"

There is a raging debate about fake blogs versus character blogs and which are good, bad or evil...but what about MySpace pages?

Personally, I like it. What about you?

Via Adweek

Yesterday was the first Bumrush the Charts experiment, whereby bloggers, podcasters, citizens, humans etc attempted to - flash mob style - propel a particular track from an unsigned/independent band into the iTunes stratosphere. The band in question was Black Lab and the track was "Mine Again"

Christopher Penn, one of the ringleaders, did a terrific job to round everything up. Here are some statistics and learnings.

So did it work? Hard to say at this stage as numbers are still coming in. I do know that "Mine Again" made it to 67th in iTunes Rock charts. As of now, there are 1921 Diggs and I wonder if each of these converted into a single sale, how the track would have done...

As a true experiment, the secret sauce is in the learnings and whether this happens again...the almighty "renewal"

I'm going to be talking with Chris at 3pm today and will podcast our conversation as we debrief each other...

This Fatblogging entry is dedicated to David Goldberg, who asked me PLEASE to stop Fatblogging. Sorry mate, in exchange for your "marketing insights", you have to put up with me posting once a week on my weight loss. Look on the brights side, it's only another 3 months or so until I hit my goal weight of 187 pounds.

The interesting thing is that this Fatblogging exercise (can I classify that as a calorie-burning activity?) is marketing really. There are elements of consumer behavior worth thinking about...there's product placement (Weight Watchers)...there's the ability for a new kind of network to form (just read the comments on my various blog posts)

Anyway, it was a good week in Vegas of all places and I have Red Bull (suger free) to thank for my few missed meals. Last week was obviously an anomaly and it appears that my trend is back on course.

So I'm signing books at THE Conference in Marketing in Vegas and I'm asked the following question: What are the top 5 books you'd recommend I read that would bring me up to speed?

My response was that I haven't really read 5 great (or crap) business books lately due to the fact I've been writing my own. Sure I could have said Wisdom of Crowds, The Ultimate Question etc., but truthfully I've only started and haven't even remotely broken the backs of them yet.

But then I started thinking about blogs and what would constitute what I'm calling the MVB's (Most Valuable Blogs) - not my (or your) favorite blogs per se - but the ones that are most valuable in terms of providing smart, original thought leadership and guidance for people trying to understand and navigate through the new marketing world.

So let's have it. What are your MVB's in the category of smart, strategic and creative leadership?

I'll throw the first into the ring: David Armano's Logic + Emotion

On Thursday, March 22nd, the citizens of the conversation will unite to Bumrush the Charts.

It's a social experiment to demonstrate the power of us. And all you have to do is purchase Black Lab's "Mine Again" from iTunes. I just purchased the track myself.

Here's the link - click now - buy now - vote with your $1 - make a difference!

Here's the UNofficial blog and you can Digg the story here

This isn't just a demonstration of how the world is changing and how great bands like Black Lab - with the support of their community - can get the recognition they deserve...it's also for a good cause: a portion of the proceeds will go to a newly established scholarship fund.

If all goes well, this case study will be in "Join the Conversation"

Go Team...let's make this happen!

My friend Bryan Eisenberg asked me to spread the word on this quick survey on why people comment i.e. the underlying pyschology behind the motivations of commenting and joining the conversation...

Here's the link to the post

For those of you who haven't jumped on the Twitter bandwagon yet (I just did), here is a recap via Wikipedia:

Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It allows users to send messages via phone, instant messaging or the Twitter website.

It's an example of a Micro-Blogging platform.

Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. But some users are starting to feel "too" connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner."

Now comes Twittervision, a maps mash-up which shows you in real-time who is Twittering around the world. It's a nice way to visualize the connected consciousness as I call it.

Anyway, going to begin the addiction today: user name is jaffejuice of course.

Who will be my first message?

Steve Coulson, crayon's CCO, alerted me to this terrific initiative called, "Where's George?"

Using the serial numbers of dollar bill notes, you basically track the life of a $1 bill and follow its story as it unfolds.

Here's the journey of my first note.

1.5 pounds of weight gain this week. This is where Fatblogging meets Willpower squarely in the heart. It's easy to share positive news about weight loss, but when it's the opposite, that's when you question where you should be sharing this journey with so many people.

Guess I'll have to do better next week and say no to the ice-cream Sundaes on American Airlines. They're so delicious and to my credit, I did only have half (half too much it would appear)

This week was spent as follows:

• Sunday - fly to Chicago; Drinks and Dinner
• Monday - keynoted at IEG's Sponsorship Conference; personal thrill to meet and and sit with Jane Goodall. Flew to Paris
• Tuesday - gave a presentation to a CPG company; dinner and flavored vodka in the hotel
• Wednesday - flew to Boston to speak at Boston Ad Club
• Thursday - back to Westport

Looking back, my learnings this week are pretty shamefully obvious:

• Cut down on the alcohol
• Say no to Sundaes and warmed nuts

Week ahead takes me to Vegas (from the frying pan into the fire), but at least I'll be able to get some quality swimming in at one of the large outdoor pools.

This warms my heart and the back of my throat for many reasons, not the least of which are a) I love scotch and b) I'm a podcaster.

As per Adweek, Dewars have inked a deal sponsoring popular video blogger, Ze Frank. Additional props to Blip.TV and Deep Focus for playing their part in making this happen.

"This is the new model," said Dina Kaplan, Blip.tv's chief operating officer. "We're finding ways for brands to interact with a show's audience and the show's creator so they can reach that audience in a much more direct way than is possible in a TV commercial or print ad."

It's definitely bitter-sweet for me as I was soooo close to inking a deal myself between a very large consumer goods company's scotch brands and my podcast, Across the Sound - The New Marketing Podcast. The sponsorship (had it gone through) would have put this one to shame in terms of the strategic and creative tie-ins. Sadly, a slowly-moving agency and conservative client put the kabosh on what could have been awesome.

No Scotch for you (unless you're Ze Frank's listeners)

Of course it's the 2,000 bloggers that won by the narrowest of votes! Can you believe it?

I've taken a gander at an initial mock-up and it looks AWESOME! I'll share it very soon...

So now comes the fun part...approvals. Personally, I don't think this is an issue, but there are enough old farts around me that think otherwise. So here's what we're going to do (I'll list 'em all)

1. If you don't want your beautiful headshot or likeness to be used (the very thought is bizarre given the fact the book is all about the very reason why you're blogging in the first place), leave a comment on this post. Should you want to be a party pooper, you'll need to let me know before end of day, Wednesday March 28th. In which case, your mug will be removed and you will be labeled a party pooper, ridiculed and peppered with rotton tomatoes. For the others, your silence is golden (they tell me this is called "negative consent").
2. As it is likely not all images will make the final cut, if you want to be included REALLY BADLY, be sure to leave a comment here as well. I'll do my best to oblige...
3. Please spread the word just in case some bloggers are asleep at the wheel. My recommendation is to start at the top of the original image and for each blogger to contact the next person in order. In other words, I'll start with Tino and he would contact Daniel Franklin who would then contact Upon Further Review and so on...
4. Also, if you are one of the 2,000 bloggers, feel free to reach out to the next person on the immediate right of your image and start from there...

This could be the blogosphere's biggest approval chain to date. Hopefully no one will break the chain of looooooove :) It's kind of like everyone reaching out to the person on their right and giving them a big bear hug.

Game on... 

I'm sitting in Paris about to leave for London and Boston. I'll be speaking at the Boston Ad Club later today.

One year ago (to the day), I spoke at the same conference, and it was there that I met CC Chapman for the first time...and the rest as they say, is history.

In Paris, I stayed at Hotel Kube, a bizarre and very cool hotel. Besides the Ice bar (who knew vodka tasted so good, so cold), a wall safe which was strategically positioned over the toilet (!), esoteric food (push-push) which reminded me of SNL's Nooni and Nooni skit, a biometric finger-print scanner as a door key-card and a Sony Vaio integrated media center (PC, TV, Music etc), one thing...decidely UNTECH...caught my eye: a beautiful coffee-table book for the Lexus RX.

What a great bit of strategic and creative media placement.

As a current Lexus owner (but about to go all Audi, all the time), it definitely caught my eye and no doubt the eyes (and hearts...) of prospective Lexus owners.

As I always tell marketers I present to: New Marketing is a mindset, not a suite of one-off tactics.

So I'm sitting in my hotel room (Hilton) in Chicago and attempting to download an episode of Heroes via iTunes. I began the process at the Admiral's Club in New York using my T-Mobile Hotspot subscription and carried on here.

Progress report: 179.3MB out of 470.4MB - 3 hours remaining!

That's right...3 hours. Who has 3 hours in a hotel room to spare? (and if I had begun this process outright, it would have been 5 hours)

Given the massive and continuous shifts to more access, heavier file sizes, paid downloads of multimedia etc., many of which happen on the road, shouldn't both the hotel chains, but most definitely in this case, NBC et al be investing in faster connections and supersized servers respectively?

In Life after the 30-second spot, I spoke about a net present value for ROI with respect to campaigns like BMWFilms for example. The gist or proposition behind the assertion was that ideas that kept on producing value down the road - all things being equal - should be rewarded as such.

Take Careerbuilder's "Monk-e-mail" wildly "viral" initiative which reveals 3,450,000 results in Google or 1,013 posts via Technorati. I put quotation marks to refine the search, but without, the Google number is 6,030,000 and taking away hyphens, it rises to over 8 million.

How exactly should blogging be evaluated and "monetized" from a marketing ROI perspective? No doubt, we count "number of mentions" as part of a sweeping and superficial PR methodology, but are we diving deeper in terms of sub-segmenting based on authority, sentiment and other action or impact metrics?

And what about "The Long Tail"? All of these mentions don't just disappear into Bolivian (thanks Mike Tyson) like advertising does.

Perhaps it's time to rethink (or for you first-timers out there, think) how we value a blogger outreach program, how we price it (compensation :)) and how we measure it...not just immediately, but long after the fact.

I put on half a pound this week, which - given my trips to LA and Mexico respectively - is understandable. I also lost 3 pounds last week, so it seems I'm back to a more measured weight loss pattern.

I'm a big believer in Weight Watchers' metered approach, with anything more than 2 pounds a week of loss looked at as too much, too soon.

Anyway, I had some terrific meals this week, including sushi and Mojitos (there's your culprit right there, baby) on a rooftop of a boutique hotel in Mexico City, so I'm not complaining.

Jason Calacanis recorded a Fatblogging podcast last night, but I missed dialling in by about 30 mins as I was boarding the flight back to LGA. I'll provide the link as soon as it's available.