Jaffe Juice

I'll write a longer post soon but for now, I thought I'd officially post about my new Nikon D80 which I received from Nikon (via MWW Group)

I have to tell you that in my humble opinion, this has been the best example of blogger outreach I have either experienced (first hand) or read about.

It shares the same characteristics as the Sprint Ambassador program (of which I am a member as well), namely follow-through. Whereas the Sprint program has sent me 3 rounds of phones and service, the Nikon approach was a lot more subtle. It began with a more conventional blogger outreach following their sublime CGC meets partnership Flickr campaign. I happened to blog about this - favorably. Perhaps this was the trigger that in essence self-selected me as a prime candidate for the "surprise" follow-up.

I love this campaign for many reasons. Yes, of course I now have an approximately $1,000 camera, but that's not it by a long shot. I am not crowing because I got something for nothing (it's actually on loan and I have the choice to extend the loan for 6 months, give it back or purchase it at a substantially reduced editorial discount - the monies going to charity), but rather because the camera helps me be a better blogger/contributor. Nikon has become a conduit or catalyst and in providing me the camera, I'm now giddy with enthusiasm...I've finally activated my Flickr account and am taking pictures like a kid in a candy store.

You may think Nikon has bought me. They haven't. And I'd argue damn hard against anyone who wants to challenge me on this. I have nothing to gain or lose by talking about the camera or the program...and talk I will. And a lot.

This helps continue to legitimize the blogosphere and the new influencers (and I'm not talking about myself, but rather the entire community)

It's smart as hell. This post alone should offset whatever the camera cost Nikon and if you multiply the total cost of the program (I have no idea how many bloggers signed up) by the cost of the camera, shipping etc., it probably will come out under a single half page print advertisement that had to kill a tree for it to live for one day - and one day only.

Anyway, gotta catch a plane. Expect plenty of pics from beautiful Sydney (sorry, Mitch) and remember: with full disclosure, I got this from Nikon and their agency, MWW.

My daughter just started softball and I decided to surprise her and support her team by sponsoring "The Ducklings".

Hopefully my fellow crayonistas will share my enthusiasm for this worthy investment. Who knows...perhaps Jack Welch's granddaughter is a duckling :)

My latest twitter: "I'm a South African watching Australia v Sri Lanka in West Indies from British Airways Lounge at JFK en route Quantas Flight to Sydney, Australia via Los Angeles - surreal"

200.5 this morning. Normally I weigh in on Friday, but this week I was on the road in St. Louis, Dallas and Birmingham.

When I began this journey at 224, I originally said that I wouldn't shave until I hit 200 and I guess that would have been right about now. Thankfully, I decided to abandon my Forest Gump attempt, but it's pretty cool to be approaching this reverse-double-centenial milestone so to speak.

On another front, the visa arrived (Kudos to the efficient Ozzies) and so I'm looking forward to a Geek dinner Down-Under on Wednesday evening. We'll be meeting at the Water Bar on Cowper Wharf, Woolloomooloo from 9.30pm on Wednesday night. Everyone is invited!

How the ozzies will forgive me drinking lite beer :)

Just finished delivering the closing Keynote at the CUES Nexus Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas speaking to various marketing execs representing the almost 9,000 credit unions in the US.

If you're interested in learning more about Credit Unions, here's the Wikipedia link.

I took a bunch of photos with my new Nikon D80 and they're on my Flickr page.

Last night, courtesy of ringleader Paul Mcenany, I attended a Geek Dinner, Dallas style. What really amazed me was how many people that attended had never met each other before.

It's always amazing to be a conduit to bring people together and that's what happened last night.

I'll provide more links later, but to Paul, Jake, Jeannine, Trey, Brent, Sean, John and the rest, thanks for making the effort. Cam, get well soon.

More pics here (photos courtesy of my new Nikon D80 - more to come about this camera, which has been loaned to me courtesy of Nikon)

What do you get when you mix one part Jib Jib, with one part TV Funhouse and one part New Marketing?

You get the Challenge of the Super (insert De-for Barney) Duper Friends

The Super Duper team sent me this today. It's yet another example of how new marketing will continue to erode traditional advertising's hold on political advertising.

Let's face it, political TV advertising is a joke.

Step 1: Candidate A calls candidate B a liar on issue X

Step 2: Candidate B calls candidate A a liar on issue X

Step 3: Repeat A LOT OF TIMES

Worse still, younger consumers are disengaged, disinterested and disgusted.

Now suddenly, we have Barack Obama podcasting, John Edwards twittering, Hillary 1984 spoofs and a very buff Al Gore starring as The Green Solution (get it?) versus Muscular Dick as the infamous "$"

Check out the teaser:

Wise Jas-one Kenobi writes this post about what he calls "abusive pricing" (I normally talk about abusive frequency with respect to media, but that's another story for another day)

He cites being charged $2.80 for a cup of drip coffee at a New York hotel and says the following:

My belief is that the reason people get away with this kind of pricing is because people are not willing to say something. I think that people do predatory pricing because they can get away with it--when confronted they will stop, or at least be forced to explain themselves.

I found it interesting that Jason lets Starbucks off the hook and as I wrote in my comment:

Abusive pricing I guess is a function of what the market will bear. One one hand, it is based on the forces of supply and demand, coupled with the premium afforded to brands.I'm not saying this is right, I'm just saying it is what it is.

On the other hand, you bring up something that has nothing to do with pricing whatsoever, but more about common sense. The best example being the $14 apple.

You're paying $400 for a room, but complaining about a cup of coffee...I guess it all comes down to expectations and the management thereof. There is also the notion of perceived value.

The $14 apple (you've all been there) refers to the single apple you order from room service that comes bundled with state tax, city tax, hotel tax, tax tax, monopoly tax, airport tax, tray charges (sheesh, at least let me keep the tray) and of course the 23% gratuity for the exemplary and flawless transfer of one (1) tray from them to you without stepping on a land mine, landing in a hazard or spilling a drop of the sealed water in the process.

This is one of those cases where companies need to use a bit of subjectivity and good judgement. How hard is it to deliver an apple with a smile and "no charge" for example? But if we do that for one person, we'd have to do that for everyone! SO DAMN WHAT!

Jason's post really gets you to thinking about the P of Pricing. Not only has it become a commodity in many cases, but I believe it can also be somewhat of a liability in an era of "perfect information".

• Is it ok to overcharge based on a notion that brands should command a premium?
• Do brands deserve to charge the kinds of premiums they used to or should premiums be placed equally on "product" and "experience" (I'm alluding to the artificial aura of fuzziness created by advertising)
• At what point do brands cross a line and take advantage of their customers (Apple and iPods perhaps)?

Makes you think...

It's articles like these that make life worthwhile.

USA Today reports that the networks TOP shows are showing rating losses, which no doubt will compound the ever-fragmenting erosion of their viewer base. This, on top of the Upfront process, where marketers will continue (albeit decreasingly so) to pay more money for less audience.

In the past few weeks, a raft of top shows on all major networks have hit record lows: Lost, Desperate Housewives, ER, My Name Is Earl, The Simpsons, Two and a Half Men, CSI: Miami and, just Monday, Heroes. Still others, such as 24, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and American Idol, had their worst ratings in two years or more.

The reasons (or excuses as the article calls it) for the losses are sublime and priceless:

1. Daylight
2. Long Breaks
3. DVR's

Daylight? Jeez, when execs like CBS' Dave Poltrack are attempting to justify the inevitable and permanent migration of audience away from terrestrial and clutter-filled television by blaming Daylight Savings Time, you know the end is nigh.

The only surprising part of the article is that Global Warming, Alien Invasions and Terrorism weren't cited as well.

As I'll cover in my upcoming book, "Join the Conversation", consumers are proactive, professional and producers, however not all consumers are as active in terms of their participation.

Jakob Nielsen talks about the 90:9:1 rule, often referred to as the 1% rule which, put simply states that 1% of visitors or consumers will be responsible for the vast majority of content created. A good example is Wikipedia, where 1.8% of its users are responsible for over 72% of articles generated.

It's not that dissimilar to the 80:20 rule of loyalty and patronage, where typically a minority percentage of customers are responsible for a majority of revenue generated. B2B is a great example (versus the B2C CPG category by means of illustration)

Segue to a Reuters article titled, "Participation on Web 2.0 sites remains weak" with data points including:

• A tiny 0.16 percent of visits to Google's top video-sharing site, YouTube, are by users seeking to upload video for others to watch
• ...only two-tenths of one percent of visits to Flickr, a popular photo-editing site owned by Yahoo Inc., are to upload new photos
• 4.6 percent of all visits to Wikipedia pages are to edit entries on the site.

I kind of wish the reporter had been aware of the 90:9:1 rule before penning the article, or perhaps the editor just chose to use an intentionally misleading headline to draw people into it.

The article then continues to reveal the real statistics that matter:

• ...visits to Web 2.0-style sites have spiked 668% in 2 years
• Visits by Web users to the category of participatory Web 2.0 sites account for 12% of U.S. Web activity, up from only 2% two years ago
• Web 2.0 photo-sharing sites now account for 56% of visits to all online photo sites

The important takeaway is not about "low user-involvement" but rather about a new wave of content "producers" that are anything on the continuum of replacing to complementing the existing media industry.

In addition, I would argue strongly that everyone visiting sites like Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube are participants and by no means passive like the traditional acts of watching television, listening to the radio or reading a magazine or newspaper article.

Going to be doing some quality bonding over the next week or so with fellow Jaffe Juice readers and Across the Sound listeners.

First stop will be this Wednesday in Dallas with ringleader Paul Mcenany

Next stop will be next Wednesday in Sydney, Australia with deviant Paull Young (visa permitting!)

Surreal Social Media which seems to center around the name, "Paul" for some reason.

And while you're at it, take a listen to this week's Across the Sound (Episode 77) with my co-host, Publitas' Greg Verdino. It's a terrific conversation about the New CMO, Creativity in Interactive, Jet Blue, Nikon, AOL and much more.

Lots of news to share (disclaimer: a few of these articles include quotes, interviews or reviews about me)

• Sydney Morning Herald interview and article (Download tco_scan1_low_res_2.pdf) on Jaffe, “the attention-seeking nutter in the new media arena” J
• ABC News article on how the Virginia Tech shootings have impacted news outlets (websites)
• Uber Edition of Alternatives to Second Life (very extensive and informative)
• Paul McEnany article on New Marketing called “Marketing and Technology. For the People”
• Armano-like visualization of “conversation advertising”
• Greg Verdino article on Virtual Thirst
• Variety.com reflection on my MIPTV keynote address

Slight blip this week with a pound gain. I'm not overly concerned given the fact I was on the road most of the week in Cannes. It's also understandable given a few week's of weight loss greater than 1.5 pounds per week (which is generally not sustainable and more conducive to the boomerang effect)

Either way, I'm still 90% of my starting weight and on target to break 200 by end of April.

After having a chat with Tara from HorsePigCow, I stumbled upon a terrific post from October of 2006 (you'll have to look for it via the archives) about "hiring clients" with these 10 pieces of advice:

1. Make a list of at least 10 criteria a client has to meet.
2. Know that the issues you have during the negotiation process are issues that will carry through the rest of the relationship.
3. Be clear on goals.
4. Don't ignore red flags.
5. Avoid working for friends and family.
6. Heed the warnings of others.
7. Set expectations from the start
8. Don't undervalue yourself.
9. Don't take on a 'bad fit', even if you are really, really broke.
10. Never be adversarial. Ever.

The points are great, but what is really great is the notion of the hiring being a two-way street.

Where could this go? The possibilities are limitless. Can you imagine letting multiple clients from the same industry pitch for your service. That's one way to avoid conflicts

On Monday, crayon helped launch our first official effort on behalf of our client, Coca-Cola. I attended the two press launches from a lounge at Heathrow Airport and my hotel room in Cannes! The project, named Virtual Thirst: Coke + Alt + Refresh, involved Second Life, but not in the way you might have thought.

For starters, it was a very atypical entry into the Virtual World of Second Life (Coca-Cola has been very active in Virtual Worlds, but until now had not done anything official in SL). Instead of purchasing an Island and creating a grandeous ediface of brash self-congratulation, this was a lot more understated and ground up. I use the analogy of planting a seed and with the right amount of nurturing, maintenance, light, water etc (you get it), something special sprouts up...

Another nuance was that this was not about SL for SL's sake. Virtual Thirst is about interpreting anything along the continuum of "the metaphorical quenching of thirst" to expressing the essence of the Coke brand and what it means to you. In this particular case, Second Life became the perfect way to bring unfettered creativity and limitless imagination to life.

Finally, the third element to the program was that we worked - and continue to work - extremely closely - with the Second Life community. The initial protoypes (see below) were all created by the SL community; we tapped into an advisory board of SL influencers and finally we have a judging committee of SL stalwarts.

So what is the program? In a nutshell, design (any way you choose to) a "machine" that "vends" an experience. Think the exact opposite of a rectangular box that dispenses cans. Find out more at www.virtualthirst.com or just visit the pavillion on crayonville Island and experience these machines yourself. In the interim, here are some video showcases of the initial prototpes to wet your appettite...'er quench your thirst...you know what I mean :)

The Dance Bottle - created by Audio Zenith

The Experience Machine - created by Zee Kaos

The Vintage Truck - created by Latok Neumann (music by Now is Now)

Jukebox - created Latok Neumann (music by Matthew Ebel)

Here's to the quant jocks.

  The number crunchers.

    The ROI squad.

      The geeks.

        The square pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things clearly.

They're very fond of rules.

     And they have tremendous respect for accountability.

You can praise them, agree with them, quote them,

    Believe them, glorify or promote them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

      Because they sell things.

They validate.    They justify.    They reconcile.

  They defend.    They substantiate.    They rationalize.

    They push the business forward.

And while some don’t see them as rockstars,

   we see genius.

Because the people who are sane enough to think they can boost the stock price, are the ones who do.

Yesterday I keynoted at MIPTV in Cannes and after my presentation, I sat down with BusinessWeek's Jon Fine to chat a bit on stage. One of the questions he asked me was about P&G, who talk a lot about change and moving away from a TV-heavy media budget, and yet remain a heavy and committed TV-adspender.

My response referenced a newly released study, titled "Define & Align the CMO." The study was conducted by MarketBridge for the CMO Council and amongst other insights, revealed the following:

• ...fully half of all executive searches for CMOs last year were conducted in order to replace departing CMOs, rather than to fill new positions.
• One hundred fifty-two CMOs left their jobs last September, setting an all-time record
• CMO failure was seen as resulting from their having "no real authority or clout in the organization" (59 percent) and "a lack of credibility and respect among key stakeholders" (54 percent).
• 62% of board members disagreed that their marketing leaders were providing adequate ROI data whereas CMOs with greater quantitative focus and measurement emphasis have a significantly longer expected tenure, "greater than 20 percent longer"

In other words, just because the networks are still teaming with 30-second spots, doesn't make it right and more importantly, doesn't mean it's working. Bottom line, CMO's are losing their jobs - left, right and center - only no-one knows why? I find that hard to believe, but let me suggest that it's because of the dogged persistence on using staid and irrelevant approaches which no longer resonate with consumers, coupled with the lip-service to change given by executives at conferences, but never followed up on within the organization.

The CMO study specifically calls out CMO credibility and the demise of the "rockstar" CMO in favor of the geek; the quant-jock; the number-crunchers (sounds like 1984 on Acid: Here's to the geeks; the quant-jocks; the number-crunchers....) and while they may not be going to Cannes any time soon, at least they'll have jobs this time, next year...

According to Ad Age, Bud.TV drew 152,000 unique visitors last month (March), 40% fewer than February's 253,000 visitors, according to numbers released today by ComScore Media Metrix. A-B executives have said that they hope to draw between 2 million and 3 million visitors per month by early next year to the online network, which is costing the brewer somewhere between $30 million and $40 million.

The new "Direct to Consumer" venture from Anheuser Busch has come under a lot of scrutiny and criticism of late, but I want to take this opportunity to throw my weight (90%) behind Bud.TV...or at the very minimum the idea behind Bud.TV

Personally, I believe that special interest groups (read: media companies) are responsible for a good chunk of the pushback from the various State Attorney Generals. There is so much hypocrisy involved that it makes me want to puke. We can run alcohol advertising on the Super Bowl, but online is somehow different...

But I digress.

I think it's early days for Bud.TV and I really hope A-B stays the course. On one hand, they're not in the content game and getting involved in this kind of effort is a committment, as opposed to a one-off campaign-like investment. On the other hand, the quality of content on the networks isn't exactly worth writing home about either...

Personally, I'd love to work on Bud.TV - take that anyway you want to. I'm just saying...

Here are some tips I'd give the executives over at A-B (you may be doing this already, but as a blogger that has not been engaged I wouldn't know):

1. You don't need to be running 24x7x365. Start with an anchor tenant like The Sopranos became for HBO and work from there
2. Liberate your content - the more platforms you make Bud.TV available, the more likely it will be to be consumed and embraced
3. Consider bite-sized programming chunks like Current.TV
4. Deploy extensive conversational programs, including blogger/podcaster/influencer outreach.
5. Build community around the content and encourage active participation and co-creation
6. Explore ways to link purchase of product to Bud.TV - reward your customers and turn them into the stars
7. Use traditional media to advertise (yes, advertise) Bud.TV.
8. Use your packaging to promote Bud.TV
9. Use every single one of your Super Bowl commercials in next year's game (XLII) and then pull out of the Super Bowl never to return. The chaos will make even Bob Garfield smile
10. Above all...experiment experiment experiment and be prepared to make mistakes. Your reported $30-40 million investment will be well worth it if you learn from your mistakes and innovate intensely.

There's a lot riding on this and I think there are a lot of people who want you to succeed. There are also a lot of people who want you to fail...don't be distracted by them. Cheers!

The first inaugural (sp?) Most Valuable Blogs tournament comes to an end and Beyond Madison Avenue emerges as the "winner" over Wired, with Seth Godin's blog and Jaffe Juice taking 3rd and 4th positions respectively. Congratulations!

At the end of the day, the MVB tourney was fun and more importantly, provided a pretty extensive list of great blogs (that you might not have been aware of before) to explore.

Andy Nulman and myself will be in touch with some prizes soon. Thanks to all who participated, voted and contributed with ideas, suggestions, badges (POW!) etc.

Good weigh-in this morning. Hit a major Weight Watchers milestone: 10% of my body-weight. I am now 90% the man I used to be.

According to Weight Watchers' website, I should now go and do the following:

• Going dancing (Live from Hollywood, it's dancing with the Fatbloggers) • Trying something new that you've always wanted to try, whether it is a new sport or a new style of clothing. (Bungee jumping for sure) • Cooking something celebratory. Try our Herb-Crusted Beef with Onions. (I'd prefer a pizza...just kidding)

This week in Fatblogging:

• Jason Calacanis called me "less fat"
• Clive Burcham from TCO (my host bringing me out to Sydney) has challenged me to a FatBlogOff - he is currently 85.3 kg's and I was 92.5 kg's when we started the clock (end of my Ozzie tour is the finish line to compare relative weight losses)
• I've been invited to a FatBlogging gettogether in New York City in May. Not sure who the sponsor is yet, but I'm definitely going...

5 tips or insights:

1. Egg white scrambled eggs and a side of fruit (3 egg whites = 1 point; 3 regular eggs = 6 points)
2. Don't eat a meal 3 hours before going to bed (rather skip the meal) - road warrior alert!
3. Exercise is key. I've been swimming. Did 100 lengths last weekend. 1h03. Now I need to mix it up and do some more cardio
4. Bread is the devil (beer is not much better although Heineken light is a good compromise)
5. This isn't rocket science - smaller portion sizes and cut out the crap (e.g. fries etc.)

It's unbelievable to me how many industries fall into the universal suckage category. Case in point, the wireless/cellular category. Cingular (part of the new AT&T) bills itself as the network with the "lowest amount of dropped calls". The airline industry talks about the most on-time arrivals or departures.

Here's a thought: how about not dropping any calls or arriving and departing on time ALL THE TIME.

Corporations fall into a death trap of believing that consumers don't really have choice when it comes to a subset of providers who all subscribe to the same low bar of service and/or expectations. This might be true in the short term, but it also lays the table for a hungry, aggressive, intense and innovative challenger brand to wreak havoc on the incumbents.

MaxJet and EOS Airlines are two such examples.

So too will be wi-fi and VoiP-ennabled skype phones and the like, which deserve to steal the lunch of the lazy and lethargic wireless providers.

Remember the famous line from the movie Rounders (paraphrased): when you sit down at the poker table, look for the sucker. If you don't see them, get up and leave immediately...because the sucker is you." I would think that the exact opposite holds true today. The table is frequently by suckers and sure enough, a savvy player will sit down soon enough and clean up....

I'm heading down to giving a keynote at the DTC Perspectives Conference in D.C.

Here's one of my slides which basically shows that the virtual world of Second Life and the Pharma space are more closely connected than one might think...except for the fact SL has meaning, purpose, relevance and value.

Ford's tagline: Bold Moves

Fidelity's tagline: Smart Move

Hyundai's new tagline: Smart Moves

Has it come down to this?

It all comes down to this - The Final match-up and it's not between who you might have thought...

It's a cinderella story ending with Beyond Madison Avenue up against media-upstart, Wired, for the top dog honors.

BMA shockingly defeated yours truly in a WHIPPING that has my rear ending still stinging. In the other semi-final, Wired edged out Swami Godin in a much closer call.

And instead of the Bold and Beautiful, it will be the Bald and Egotisticial fighting for 3rd and 4th place: Seth Godin versus Jaffe Juice.

So all that is left to do is invite you to vote one final time, after which I will close the book on the 2007 MVB's and figure out some kind of prize in the process.

Click here to take survey

Thought I'd give a quick update on my comings and goings over the next couple of months. Hopefully we can meet up if you're local or attending of the following conferences:

• DTC National Conference - Washington D.C.
• MIPTV - Cannes
• CUES Nexus Conference - Dallas
• Sydney, Australia - "Spread the Love" Speaking Tour, sponsored by TCO. If you're interesting in "booking" me for a speaking engagement, send me an e-mail to jaffe [at] getthejuice [dot] com
• Conference sponsored by Microsoft in Sardinia, Italy

Adweek has an article which highlights the latest round of me-too posturing from Agency-land:

Both holding companies and individual agencies are tapping high-level strategists to serve as digital czars in hopes of catching up to the obviously changing media landscape.

The article cites recent moves by the likes of Ogilvy, Publicis, MDC Partners and Goodby to hire "czar's" to run their digital capabilities and also references the consequences of not doing so (such as Nike's Wieden departure)

In all cases, the shops insist bringing in a high-level strategist is not a sign of digital weakness, but a move to coordinate efforts, both on behalf of clients and internally, with the goal of placing digital at the core of their culture.

I'm not being skeptical about bringing in digital superstars to lead interactive at all, I'm just saying that clients needs to do 3 things first:

1. Look beyond the window dressing. You need to be convinced that the entire organization has fully bought into digital and is committed to a future with interactive as a core component (if not THE core)
2. Has said czar been empowered to do their jobs or are they nothing more than puppets?
3. Who is your digital czar? Without an equivalent in your own organization, how exactly do you expect your agency to be successful?

As Bob Greenberg says in the artlcle:

"Every client is going to have the same kind of situation happen within two years. [Agencies] have to indicate to their clients, to their staff or for real that they're making an investment into digital."

No doubt, we will see more czars being appointed (or is that annointed) in the weeks and months to come. I am still surprised how little the largest holding companies are doing to follow suit. With the exception of Publicis and most recenty MDC, IPG, Omnicom and WPP have been virtually non-existent in terms of like-minded moves. Bizarre.

The MVB Final Four is almost done and I should have the Head to Head Final pairing for you within the next day or so.

To date, I haven't used this podium to ask for your support, largely due to the fact I was the organizer and I also wanted to see how far I got. That said, if you would like to support Jaffe Juice as a contender for the Most Valuable Blog, now is your chance. I'm up against the Zack Johnson of Blogs, Beyond Madison Avenue.

Vote here for Jaffe Juice.

For those of you new to this blog (I've uploaded quite a few new names from conferences I've spoken at recently - welcome!), the list of MVB's represent a great resource to use as a shortlist of blogs to review and subscribe to. They represent a great ecclectic and diverse array of opinion, commentary and insights on the changing field of marketing.

The full list can be found here.

Also, Kevin Behringer is running the Most Valuable Podcast tournament as well and Across the Sound - The New Marketing Podcast is paired up against the Accidental Creative (another great resource) If you'd like to vote for ATS, you can do so here, but more importantly...if you are relatively new to "new marketing"; if you have not subscribed to any podcasts...and in particular marketing ones...take this oppportunity to review the "field" of 16 and experiment with the choices on offer. You'll be glad you did.

Yesterday at Podcamp NYC, on a live recording of Across the Sound, Lynette Young was talking about how her Second Life alter-ego, Lynette Radio, has become a brand. If you think about it, every blogger, podcaster, YouTube producer or Second Life resident is becoming his, her or its own brand in some way, shape or form.

Well, if that's the case...why not start to contextualize the brand equity and integrate it into our vernacular. Hey, it worked for Google and TiVo!

I've started with five people I know. I'll let you carry on from here. Please remember this is in good spirited fun. PS I can't wait to see the various interpretations of "Jaffe" :)

The intern came in the other day with a few novel ideas on how to make the workplace better, but I quickly Verdinoed him

Verdino = To prematurely poo-poo a new idea

With 3 hours to go before the big pitch, we were still lacking a game-plan; what we needed was a means to Rubel our selling proposition into an ordered and logical flow

Rubel = To organize pragmatic and useful ideas into a bulleted list

The new supervisor in the corner office is way too guarded; he keeps ideas to himself instead of Scobelizing them throughout the workplace

Scobelize: The act of sharing freely for the greater good of mankind

My new personal trainer is awesome. She Chapman’s the hell out of me in every session

Chapman: A take-no-prisoners no-bullshit approach to life; (v) To cut the crap and focus on the prize

I could kill that new snotty kid who just moved into the neighborhood. He always gets in the last word and out-Jarvises me in front of the girls.

Jarvis: A bull's-eye, wry and snarky assessment of the situation; (v) To quickly call a situation for what it is whilst leaving a hell of a hangover

This is a very interesting post from Kevin Hillstrom's MineThatData Blog (nice name!)

As someone who works with brand marketers (and monitors various blogs for brand pick-up), Kevin dissected 188 posts from Mack Collier's Top 25 Marketing Blogs (I am 21st) and concluded the following:

• Only 14% of the posts are about brand commentary, about 60% of these articles were negative or critical.
• The top 10 marketing bloggers were largely negative when talking about a brand.
  • Bloggers 11-25 were largely positive in their commentary about brands.
• When talking about marketing strategy, this group of authors was positive by a margin of 2:1
• There is a difference in writing style between the top 10, and bloggers 11-25. The top 10 were more promotional, overwhelming more critical of brands...

One logical explanation of the difference between top 10 and 11-25 is the public visibility, perception and expectations. Negativity attracts more attention than praise. Put differently, being more controversial or heated will lead to more discussion. In addition, leading blogs have got to work harder and certainly need to be more focused and single-minded when it comes to maintaining their position - "links of the day", "top hacks", "lists", "shorter posts" and news headlines are going to "sell" better than longer, more discursive posts.

That's one hypothesis and it is a generalization - one size does not fit all especially in the good old blogosphere, but it does give interesting insight into blogger outreach (which I suspect is the inspiration behind Kevin's post in the first place).

If you're engaged in blogger outreach in any capacity, you know as much I do that you approach your outreach by starting at 1 and working your work downwards. You're prioritizing based on "quantitative reach" and what Kevin's analysis infers is that it could be a catch-22 i.e. the larger the blog, the more likely the response to be negative.

Kevin was "surprised" that marketing bloggers were in fact less negative (snarky?) than he would have suspected. As John Moore from Brand Autopsy (one of the MVB's) points out in the comments section, what might be construed as negative could also be interpreted as constructive criticism.

I just got back from Podcamp NYC. What a great experience to see such amazing people like Chris Brogan, John Havens, Christopher Penn and of course fellow crayonistas, Steve, CC and Lynette.

I sat on a panel on the subject of Social Media Convergence and Virtual Worlds with Adam Broitman (pictured on stage courtesy of my Sprint Ambassador picturemail), Greg Verdino, Mark Wallace and John Swords. Fellow panelist, Greg Verdino, wrote this terrific recap post, with multimedia - including the video of our panel! Now that's real-time turnaround.

I also had the pleasure of recording the 75th episode of ATS live on-site with about 8 listeners who became co-hosts for an episode. It was awesome. You can download the show here or subscribe to the podcast here.

Don't forget to join my ATS twittergroup for episode updates and live call-in details.

Voting is also open for the Final Four MVB's (Most Valuable Blogs). Make yourself heard!

Also, a heads up that David Armano just had an article published in Business Week (how old school can you get (grin)) on a subject close to my heart - the conversation economy. Check it out and also this

Via Adweek, American Express will launch a new traditionally-led campaign with the following tagline, "Are you a cardmember?" It follows the "My Life. My card" which began in Fall of 2004.

Now for starters, I'm surprised MLMC is that "old" - to me it seems familiar enough, and yet still ever fresh and relevant.

Which is exactly why I am left scratching my head going WHY OH WHY O-GILVY would you tamper with a winning formula? Why the need to have to break something that is allegedly fixed?

"Are you a cardmember?" is generic, bland and non-descript. It takes the focus away from the customer (from "my" to "you") and could be any card's tagline. MLMC was all about understated accomplishment. Now, pride is replaced with a snotty, exclusive arrogance. The aspirational quotient is gone. This has (desperate) acquisition written all over it.

If MLMC had a lifespan of 2 1/2 years, I give this 1 year tops.

Not thrilled about being a "cardmember" myself right now.

CC snapped a pic of me in Atlanta exactly 2 months ago and then another one in New York on Thursday.

Here's the before and after and proof that weight loss by community works :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your Final Four: Seth Godin, Wired, Jaffe Juice and Beyond Madison Avenue.

Seth will play Wired in the quintesential old versus new media matchup and Jaffe Juice will play the consortium of bright minds like Paul McEnany and Mack Collier at Beyond Madison Avenue.

The Celebrity SethMatch of Godin v Jaffe is one potential round away :) assuming Seth bests Wired and I take care of BMA!

To Brand Autopsy, Gaping Void, Church of the Customer and Logic+Emotion, that you are MVB Heavyweights goes without saying. Your badge awaits!

The voting was extra tight, with BMA edging out L+E by 1 single, piddley vote! Close call indeed.

Thanks to all who have suggested prizes to the winners. Some of the suggestions include a crayon-hosted party on crayonville Island, guest appearances on Across the Sound, copies of Seth Godin's books (how about a link from Seth Godin :)) and additions to my blogroll. I'll also throw tickets to the Future of Online Advertising conference (which I am not speaking at)

And of course, Andy Nulman from POW! has offered to donate a prize (Andy, I'm thinking some kind of awar