Facebook is taking over the world...

Or at least the United States. The big news today is that Facebook has reached the 300 million user mark, which is quite the feat considering I remember when I signed up about 5 years ago and it was only available to college students.

The bigger thing to note here is that the population of the U.S. is at about 307 million people right now, and it looks like Facebook will soon have more users than the United States has people.

Sort of makes me feel like a proud mama - Facebook is all grown up!

It also marks the first time that they've actually seen some profits, here's the deal:

As Facebook has grown, it also has drawn criticism from privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which says people on Facebook unwillingly give up personal information to advertisers and Facebook application developers.

In a video interview with Fortune, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook gives its users robust privacy controls.

She also told Fortune that a new approach to online advertising has helped Facebook's revenue grow throughout the recession.

"Our advertisements are very much part of the user experience," she said. "So the same way you can RSVP for an event on Facebook -- you know, a party your friend might throw -- you can RSVP for a movie premiere. And that's really a movie advertisement saying, 'Our movie is opening this weekend. Do you want to go?' "

Read the rest of the article here.



(Courtesy of CNN.com)

Proofreading: The Lost Art

Without further ado, your Tuesday afternoon silliness...

These are headlines that probably should have been proofread before they were published:

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
War Dims Hope for Peace
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
And the winner is....
.
.
.
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Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Number 9...Number 9...

In honor of 09/09/09 - a day I've been counting down to for 6 months - here's a short film for The Beatles Rock Band game that was released yesterday. (I saw it when watching John Lennon's film Imagine on Palladia last night.)

Even though it looks waaaaay better in HD, it is 100% worth watching:



(Courtesy of YouTube)

Yahoo! and Microsoft to Challenge Google Search?

Yahoo! will soon be using the bing search technology to power it's own searches, but only on the back end. This means Microsoft will have a bigger share of online search (about 30% of the market), and be positioned to take on search giant Google.

So if you've been optimizing and marketing your website with Google and thinking you're all set - think again. Even though Google controls much of the internet search today, this Yahoo/Microsoft partnership opens the door for some real competition.

Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age writes:

Turning up on the first page of organic search results when someone types your product or brand into a keyword box is pretty much the cost of entry for any substantial e-commerce entity or marketer. And for the past decade or so that's meant pretty much one thing: optimize your site for Google, maybe a tweak or two for Yahoo, and everything else, well, didn't matter all that much.

"If you were well-optimized for Google, you were pretty much set, because it means you were well-optimized for everyone else out there," said John Ragals, chief operating officer of digital agency 360i. "The gap wasn't significant enough to warrant the extra investment."

But Bing is quite a bit different from Google and Yahoo, both in the way it ranks pages and the way it presents results on the page. And if search becomes more of a two-player market, it could mean a return to the late '90s, when it was common for marketers to create separate pages optimized for Yahoo, Google, Lycos and AltaVista, and as they do now for the iPhone or other mobile devices.

"You'd effectively have two pages, one for Google and one for Bing," said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com. If all goes according to plan, Yahoo will make the switch to Bing's organic search results in the third quarter of next year, and then fold in Bing's paid search results soon after.

Other interesting reading on the subject (links directly to article):

Yahoo! still intends to compete with Microsoft on internet search
Yahoo unveils new features
Microsoft, Yahoo's next battle: Antitrust probe



(Courtesy of AdAge, bloggingstocks.com, San Francisco Chronicle, and Chicago Tribune)

The Slammer - Nothing Sells Newspapers Like a Mug Shot

One newspaper that's still alive and kicking is The Slammer, a 15-page collection of crime stories and mugshots that's apparently selling like hotcakes in Phoenix right now. From The Slammer website:

Why is The Slammer important?
The Slammer provides important information related to your community- local arrests, sex offenders, fugitives and most wanted, missing persons, and many more note-worthy crime stories concerning your area. We have numerous success stories of helping find absconders from the law.

There's nothing I love more than finding absconders from the law. Except maybe using the word 'absconder' in an actual sentence.


(Courtesy of Ad Lab, abc15, The Slammer)

RadioShack would like you to call it 'The Shack'

Apparently the 'Radio" in the name sounds too old-timey, so RadioShack is re-branding itself as 'The Shack' - a move that doesn't just happen overnight:

Analysts say that a brand overhaul requires lots of time and capital — and consumer acceptance.

Sales of sports drink Gatorade have suffered since changing its name to "G" in January. After a test earlier this year to change its name to The Hut, Pizza Hut is sticking with its original.

There's also risk involved, especially as the company markets itself as The Shack but operates its 4,450 U.S. retail outlets as RadioShack. The company's logo also will go unchanged.

Martin Bishop, director of brand strategy for the San Francisco office of design and branding firm Landor Associates, says there's a logic to what RadioShack is doing. " 'Radio' sounds old-fashioned, and they want to sound cutting edge," he says.

But Bishop warns of possible trouble. When Federal Express changed its name to FedEx, he says, "FedEx had no other meaning than Federal Express. With The Shack, there is a contrived familiarity that I'm not sure is helpful."

Yeah, I don't know about you but "The Shack" conjures up images of leaky tin rooftops and dirt roads for me - not exactly the techno-savvy image I think they're hoping for...

Anyway, I posted all that to get to this gem, one of my favorite current ads:





(Courtesy of USA Today, YouTube, and Radioshack)

The Monetization of Mimi: Mariah CD to Have Ads

Aug 1, 2009 By Becky Ebenkamp

As music sales continue to drop like they’re not so hot throughout the industry, Island Def Jam Music Group is jamming on a new business model: integrating brands into artists’ CD booklets.

The first deal, created for the Mariah Carey release Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel on Sept. 15, is a 34-page co-production with Elle magazine that includes lifestyle ads from Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffens, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism. Providing the experiment goes well, the label is eyeing bigger brand deals for booklets of CDs by Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West and other artists.

The mini magazine contains Mariah-centric editorial (“VIP Access to Her Sexy Love Life,” “Amazing Closet,” “Recording Rituals”) and lifestyle advertising along with lyrics and other CD booklet elements. Elle contributed the editorial and designed the layout.

The booklets were created for the first run of U.S. CDs (1 million) and the first 500,000 overseas, said Jeff Straughn, svp-strategic marketing for Island Def Jam Music Group. It will also be available in a digital format for those who buy music online. A condensed version of the Mariah mag, sans the 14 pages of CD-specific material, will be inserted into 500,000 subscription copies of Elle’s October issue, which arrives mid-September.

“The idea was really simple thinking: ‘We sell millions of records, so you should advertise with us,’” said Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group, a unit of Universal Music Group. “My artists have substantial circulation—when you sell 2 million, 5 million, 8 million, that’s a lot of eyeballs. Most magazines aren’t as successful as those records.” Carey was “very open” to the concept when Reid showed her a mock-up of the booklet in a magazine format that included brand imagery synonymous with her lifestyle. “I wouldn’t want to do Mariah Carey and Comet abrasive cleaner,” Reid said, laughing. “I wanted things that really reflected her taste.”

Reid said the program was unprecedented. Terry Dry, president of Los Angeles-based digital-word-of-mouth marketing agency Fanscape, agreed, saying that the CD booklet advertising is a first, though he wouldn’t be surprised if more labels look into doing the same thing: “Hollywood Records [Disney], I know they love to monetize all over the place for something like a Jonas Brothers record. Open any rap record and a couple of inserts will come flying out, usually for a business the artist is a part of. I wouldn’t be surprised if 50 Cent had a Vitaminwater thing.”

Labels are looking for ways to eke out extra bucks, borrow equity and cut costs anywhere they can today. Year-to-date album sales were down 13.9 percent for the week ending July 19, 2009, compared with the period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan (227 million units vs. 195.5 million units). Of those 2009 sales, 18.9 percent, or 41.9 million, were digital. Ad revenues are subsidizing 100 percent of Island Records’ costs for the Carey booklet, but label execs also see the alliance as a way to expand distribution at a time when the local music store is becoming as rare as the Beatles’ Yesterday and Today LP with the “Butcher” cover.

“We don’t have music retailers any more, so a smart consumer products company that understands the value in distributing music is going to restore the vitality of our business,” Reid speculated. “If we distribute music properly and if it’s done tastefully, it could be a huge profit center for all of us. That is the missing link—we need partnerships.”

To underscore the point: At one large retail establishment, partner Elizabeth Arden is allowing the label to cross-promote the release. The CD Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel will be merchandised directly outside Walmart’s music aisle with Carey’s new signature Arden fragrance, Forever, which has its ad on the booklet’s back cover. The CD and scent will also be displayed together in the beauty department.


(Courtesy of Brandweek)

Official Tarp Sponsor of the Boston Red Sox

I was watching the Red Sox game last night with a few friends, and when we were done laughing at Youk for throwing his batting helmet at the pitcher while charging the mound after getting hit by a pitch, there was a rain delay and the tarp came out.

I don't know if I've just never noticed before (and I don't know why I was at all surprised knowing the team's history of odd sponsorships) but there it was - the Bob's Stores logo:



That got me thinking of other sponsorships around Fenway, and I remembered I had seats on the Right Field Bud Deck when I went to a game in June:




And that led me to continue finding other interesting Red Sox sponsorships. During my search in the depths of the interwebs, I found this funny blog post from Surviving Grady, which I'm posting here for your amusement:

So, having been kicked out of every other bar in town, I found myself strolling into a 99 Restaurant the other day, and saw a sign on the door proudly proclaiming that the 99 is, in fact, "The Official Family Restaurant of the Boston Red Sox." Just a few days earlier, while fetching one of my kids a Hoodsie cup, I saw that Hoodsies have also achieved lofty "official" status, being the "Official Ice Cream of the Boston Red Sox." So it got me thinking. Am I, as a fan, doing enough to live the "official" Red Sox lifestyle? And could I go through an entire day utilizing only those officially sanctioned-by-the-Red-Sox products?

I'm happy to report that I'm almost there. I spend most of my free time sleeping on a couch procured through Jordan's Furniture, the Official Furniture Store of the Boston Red Sox ("Julian Tavarez buys all his bedding and harnesses here" would have been a great Sunday-circular headline, IMO.). I'm often found drunk in local alleys in my Schilling jersey from Bob's Stores, the Official Apparel Store of the Boston Red Sox. And this blog gets typed up on a desk brought to me through the good folks at W.B. Mason, Official Office Supplies Supplier to the Boston Red Sox. If I can round the day out with a couple meals at the 99, getting my blood alcohol content checked by the good docs at Beth Israel (Official Hospital of the Boston Red Sox), taking a business trip on The Official Airline of the Boston Red Sox, snapping some photos for this silly-ass blog with my Nikon (Official Camera of the Boston Red Sox), making some hefty withdrawals from the Official Bank of the Boston Red Sox, experiencing only music that is channeled to me via products bought through the Red Sox' Official Sound Partner, and limiting my noshing to Official Snack Foods of the Boston Red Sox, then I could do it even better.

(Courtesy of Youtube, Boston.com, & Surviving Grady)

Size DOES Matter When it Comes to Newspapers

But it may surprise you to find out that smaller may be better...

As I touched on in a previous post, smaller community newspapers are continuing to flourish even in these tough times for the industry.

The AP reports that the hyperlocal focus of these daily and weekly papers makes them an asset to the communities they serve:

CNN is not coming to my town to cover the news and there aren't a whole lot of bloggers here either," said Robert M. Williams Jr., The Times' editor and publisher. "Community newspapers are still a great investment because we provide something you can't get anywhere else."

The scarcity of other media in small- and medium-sized cities has helped shield hundreds of newspapers from the upheaval that's causing dailies in big cities to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline.

Less competition means the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers remain the focal points for finding out what's happening in their coverage areas.

In contrast, large newspapers carry more national news, as well as local, and have many competitors, including Web sites and television and radio stations. They report much of the news the day before printed newspapers reach homes and newsstands. Large newspapers' Web sites also provide the news for free a day ahead of print editions.

And the larger the paper, the higher the operating costs. While the major players have had huge staff layoffs, fought with the unions, and stopped printing on certain days of the week, the small papers don't have many of those concerns simply due to their size.

That's not to say that community papers don't face challenges - the changing marketplace has affected everyone across the board.

"It would be wrong to assume there is some sort of bubble over our market," said Chris Doyle, president and publisher of the Naples Daily News, a daily newspaper in southwestern Florida with a circulation averaging about 64,000 during the six months ending in March. "We are becoming leaner, more scrappy and more aggressive than ever before."

So if you're looking to market your products or business in newspapers, go where the readers are:

Rather than filling their pages with material that is readily available on the Internet, smaller newspapers focus on the politics, business, sports, crime and community affairs occurring in narrowly defined geographic areas — a county, a town or, in some cases, even a few neighborhood blocks.

"If it walks, talks or spits on the concrete in our area, we cover it," said John D. Montgomery Jr., editor and publisher of The Purcell Register in Oklahoma.

(Courtesy of the Associated Press)

Interactive Travelers Insurance Wall Ads

After returning from an out-of-town family vacation on Tuesday, we passed some pretty cool interactive wall ads for Travelers in the airport terminal. Not the first time I've seen them, but definitely still worth sharing.

True to form, my 7- and 10-year old cousins and I waved our arms and jumped around like lunatics while our parents stood there saying "Huh, I didn't realize those pictures moved."

Click Here to check out how it looks in person!


(Courtesy of Monster Media)