Google Alerts Make Me Happy

So, on Saturday I posted in regards to the Google Alert I got that appeared to be saying that Coremetrics had moved its support to India. Less then 24 hours later, I get another Google Alert for Coremetrics. This one was for my post. No, this is not the first time one of my posts has triggered a G-alert, but it is a good example of how quickly blogger.com and blogspot.com blog posts are being indexed by Google. I wonder if someone at Coremetrics has seen either of my posts and/or the initial Google Alert?

Two lessons to gleam from this:
1. Learn to use Google Alerts to protect your brand and watch your competitors.
2. Blog posts continue to be a sound part of a well rounded SEO campaign.

Grounded in Music Concert - Nov 5th 2007

A good friend of mine is one of the founders of Grounded in Music. The purpose of this non-profit is to raise money to be used to purchase musical instruments for under-privileged youth, provide education in musicianship, teach music theory, and offer music-related opportunities outside of performance.

Bring the Music Back
Benefit Concert for Grounded in Music

Live at Antone's - downtown Austin
Monday November 5th, 2007 - 9 PM

Performances by:
Adam Hood - Sonny Burgess - Doug Moreland - Jason Allen
Josh Grinder - Owen Temple - Ryan James - Ryan Turner
Justin Johnson - Kyle Park - James Speer - Plus Special Guest

Tickets available at the door or online at Front Gate Tickets for $10.00.

Doors at 8 pm - Show at 9 pm

Who's Watching Who #7

Is Sunday the end or the beginning of the week to you? Either way, today we post a Who's-Who of folks that have contacted us and/or checked-out the blog and/or called to praise/complain, and/or any combination thereof over the past week. It was a busy week.

Adobe - Software Giant - Worldwide
LinkedIn - Online Networking - Mountain View, CA
MDC Partners - Agency Network - Toronto and New York
Ramholtz Publishing -Lead Generation - New York
WPP Group - Agency Network - Worldwide

Veteran Visitors who came back for more (and more):
Crispin Porter + Bogusky - Ad Agency - Miami and Boulder
GSD&M The Idea City - Ad Agency - Austin, Tx
McGarrah Jessee - Ad Agency - Austin, Tx
Porter Novelli - PR Agency - Worldwide

Been to the blog but don't see your company on the list? Shoot us an email or post a comment. If you email us, make sure you send it from your company email account so that we know it is the real-deal. Let us know what you think and maybe share a bit of info. The worst that will happen is that you get a free link to your site. Not a bad trade for a bit of good SEO if you ask me.

Coremetrics Moves Support to India?

No, Coremetrics has not outsourced its customer support to India, but, at first glance, this Google Alert had me thinking they did.

Happy Anniversary GSD&M

GSD&M Idea City is celebrating its one year anniversary of losing Wal-mart as a client by announcing that it has lost the AT&T account. The festivities are all the more festive as GSD&M-ers reminisce on a year that also includes the losing of the Chili's Bar and Grill and Tostitos accounts as well as the not-winnings of Terminix, Domino's Pizza, and the US Census Bureau account. GSD&M has also reported that no immediate layoffs are planned as part of the celebration and that they will work hard to find work for all that need jobs. In honor of the great year, happy hour parties are planned tonight at two popular watering holes. The over 35 crowd will be meeting at Donn's Depot while the under 35 will be hooking up at Molotov Lounge. Pink slips will get you access to the VIP rooms at both venues.

On a more somber note, GSD&M did win the John Deere and World Market accounts in the past year.

I WANT MY LINKEDIN!!!

OH MY GOD! WHY OH WHY? I NEED TO CHECK MY LINKEDIN!
I know I don't pay a dime to use LinkedIn, but is it too much to ask that it be up and running right now? Oh well, I'll go mess around with some free Google tool instead.

nFusion wins nAward

nFusion, an Austin based digital-centric marketing agency was selected as “Best in Show” in the movie/film category by the International Academy of Visual Arts. The award was won for the advergame Adopt-A-Sloth, that the group created for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s DVD release of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. With roughly 2700 entries, awards are presented to the top 1% putting nFusion in with the in crowd. From nFusion's press release: nFusion CEO John Ellett said, “Adapting the characters of Ice Age II to a series of Web-based advergames was a fun project and, more importantly, playing the game has been fun for movie fans.”

Microsoft Beats Google

(It felt so unnatural to write that title.) Microsoft will buy a 1.6 percent cut of the Facebook pie for $240 million. Along with the deal, Microsoft has agreed to sell ads for Facebook overseas. Microsoft already has a deal with Facebook to sell banner ads in the US until 2011. Microsoft needed this win. Google does have a deal with MySpace, but Facebook's user growth rate is outpacing MySpace's at a 6:1 ratio. That obviously is a huge gap, but keep in mind that Google is besting Microsoft in internet revenue at 7:1 ratio.

I was hoping to get a quote from Google but my calls to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have not been returned.

Where's my Lucite Brick?

Facebook recently sent out invites carved into lucite bricks to New York based advertisers and ad firms. The invites are to a November 6th event in which Facebook is going to "unveil a new way of advertising online".

More on the invites and the possible social site's "new" plans:

Facebook woos Madison Avenue on the cheap - Valleywag
Facebook Set to Introduce Major Ad Play - Advertising Age

Digital Agencies Ready to be Picked?

Keeping in the theme of acquisitions of interactive agencies like Austin's own Springbox and other consolidations a recent Advertising Age article spotlights the Hottest Digital Agencies Around.

My take on this is that the firms wanting to keep up have two choices:
(and their best bet might be to choose both)

1. Hire up the best interactive talent possible as fast as possible, while keeping in mind that the best talent might actually be current client-side folks.

2. Acquire (or merge with) a top-notch interactive agency and hope like hell the cultures fit. Two greats apart might equal a mediocre once together.

Any Press is Good Press...

...even if it is easily self-generated PR.

Austin Online Marketing Agency Launches Blog

Austin Interactive Agency Bought

Viewpoint, a New York based interactive marketing and online advertising agency, has reported that it will acquire Austin based Springbox for about $5.5 million in stock and cash.

From a recent Austin Business Journal article: "The acquisition of Springbox aligns perfectly with our strategy to enhance our Web-based product offerings, in order to meet the escalating demand for creative digital and Internet solutions that we see from our clients," says Patrick Vogt, president and CEO of New York-based Viewpoint. "We are very excited to join forces with Viewpoint, because they truly have complementary Internet marketing technology solutions," says Adam Moore, co-founder of Springbox. "Our companies share a strong customer-centric focus, and together we will provide a full range of digital marketing services and technologies."

Springbox currently employs about 30 and is on track to book roughly $6 million in gross revenue this year.

Who's Watching Who #6

Just as with sundays gone by, today we post a Who's-Who of folks that have contacted us and/or checked-out the blog and/or called to praise/complain, and/or any combination thereof over the past week. It was a busy week.


Austin American-Statesman - "News"paper - Austin, Tx
BizJournals - Publisher of Business Journals - Nationwide
Bulldog Solutions - Lead Management and Optimization - Austin, Tx
GSD&M The Idea City - Ad Agency - Austin, Tx
Microsoft - trailing behind Google as usual
StaleLife - a collective of creatives - Austin, Tx
Shift Communications - PR Agency - Boston and San Francisco

Veteran Visitors who came back for more:
Crispin Porter + Bogusky - Ad Agency - Miami and Boulder
Google - face it, they are always "watching" us

Been to the blog but don't see your company on the list? Shoot us an email or post a comment. If you email us, make sure you send it from your company email account so that we know it is the real-deal. Let us know what you think and maybe share a bit of info. The worst that will happen is that you get a free link to your site. Not a bad trade for a bit of good SEO if you ask me.

My Pal Comes to Town

Paypal has opened a technology center in Austin at 7700 West Parmer Lane. The new and first office in Texas will be run by Director/General Manager Terence Spielman.

In a quote to the Austin Business Journal, Spielman said "we firmly believe the strong pool of talented technology professionals here in Austin will help expand the backbone of PayPal services to ensure that businesses and individuals can make secure online payments anytime and anywhere."

The center will employ around 100 by the end of this year with the goal of having 300 on staff by the end of 2009.

Saturday's Snapshot Scene #2

What better way to share your company culture with the world then by posting a ton of random photos on the web? Photo sharing sites sure make it easy for us to over-share don't they?



Bulldog Solutions - Austin, TX
Marketing Lead Management and Optimization - 2007 INC 500
Pictures of bulldogs - Shocker!.

PayPerPost - Orlando, FL
Name says it all - pay for or get paid for blog posts
Step 1 - Coat body with whip cream...

Yahoo Good to Google Great

Yahoo announced that it had exceeded third quarter expectations by increasing it revenue by 12% to $1.8 billion. After increased expenses from business expansions, Yahoo was left with $151 million, a 5% decrease, in profits. Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Lang said: "Moving forward, we are focused on three big, multi-year objectives: to become the starting point for the most consumers on the internet; to be the 'must buy' for the most advertisers; and to deliver open, industry-leading platforms that attract the most developers."

Google also topped estimates, but did so in an oh-so-much-more-profitable way. Earnings for Q3 came in at $1.07 billion (46%) besting Q2, which came in at $733.4 millions. Revenue for the third quarter was $4.23 billion, not to shabby.

I was hoping to get a quote from Google but my calls to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have not been returned.

Cost Per Lead is OK Dave

So, I'm currently behind on my reading of Brandweek and just finished up the October 1st issue. The issue contains an article on cost per lead marketing written by David Mammano, Publisher of Next Step Magazine. Next Step is, according to Dave, "a magazine for students that helps them plan the path that their lives will take after high school." Nice, but my post is not about his magazine. Dave suggests rather bluntly that all marketers should abandon their cost per lead activities and "instead focus on creating a compelling marketing campaign." I guess a "compelling campaign" can't include CPL?

Dave rambles on a bit about how, in the magazine world, CPL just doesn't work as people will not tell you that they saw the ad. I agree if all we are talking about is a plain ad. I must respectfully point-out that unique phone numbers, unique urls, and promo codes can be use to perfectly track the CPL business. I think where CPL does fail is in its execution. I think an honestly run CPL buy can work well for both sides. The magazine can help the advertiser understand the need for better tracking. The advertiser can then share the results back with the magazine and so the circle of a mutually beneficial relationship can be formed.

Bugs Takeover Idea City

That's what happens when you lose the Terminix account to Publicis. The pest-control company recently announced that Publicis Groupe's Publicis, Dallas had won its creative ad business, beating out Austin's own GSD&M Idea City.

Per MediaPost, "The move comes after a restructuring by the exterminator, which was acquired as part of a leveraged buyout of parent ServiceMaster, and the arrival of a new chief marketing officer at Terminix. The company spent $19.3 million on media last year, and $14.7 million in the first half of this one, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence. Incumbent Stone Ward in Little Rock, Ark. had the Terminix business for nearly 10 years and did not participate in the review, although it will continue to provide interactive marketing and internal branding services."

Who wants some BBQ and Money?

If you're in the mood for some bar-b-que and you just happen to be looking to score some VC funds, then tonight is your night. StarVest Partners, a New York based venture capital firm is hosting a meet-and-greet at Lambert's Downtown Barbeque restaurant from 5 to 7 pm. According to a recent Austin Business Journal article, StarVest has "millions to spend" and "wants to dig deep into the Austin technology scene. StarVest's focus is on businesses that offer tech as a service through software, marketing, eCommerce and more.

I wonder if they want to invest in an up and coming blog?

eMarketing Presentations and Bad Manners

As promised, here's a link to several of the Innotech eMarketing presentations. Rohit Bhargava's "10 Truths" presentation is probably the most interesting one currently posted. Bulldog Solutions' presentation on benchmarking is also posted and it is mildly interesting, but I was rather unimpressed with their President Todd Davison taking a call during another person's presentation...and I don't mean he left the room to take the call, he took it right there at his table.

Who's Watching Who #5

Sunday is a good day to reflect. We do this by posting a Who's-Who of folks that have contacted us and/or checked-out the blog and/or called to praise/complain, and/or any combination thereof over the past week.

Ice.com - Online Jewelry Retailer, OR
Powerset - Natural Language Search - San Francisco, CA
Rob Levitsky - Manager of Deadhouses - Palo Alto, CA
Webtrends - Web Analytics Solutions - Portland, OR

Veteran Visitors who came back for more:
Apogee - Search Marketing Agency - Austin, TX
Crispin Porter + Bogusky - Ad Agency - Miami and Boulder

Been to the blog but don't see your company on the list? Shoot us an email or post a comment. If you email us, make sure you send it from your company email account so that we know it is the real-deal. Let us know what you think and maybe share a bit of info. The worst that will happen is that you get a free link to your site. Not a bad trade for a bit of good SEO if you ask me.

Blogging @ eMarketing Summit

Seeing Allen Olivo, Vice President, Global Brand Marketing, Yahoo! Inc., at the Texas eMarketing summit was really cool, but hearing how Yahoo! pulled a big brain stunt at Time Square did not hit as close to home as Rohit Bhargava's (left), Vice President, Interactive Marketing at Ogilvy Public Relations, presentation of the "10 truths of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World":

1. Your secrets are not secrets
2. Authenticity, not transparency
3. Personality makes it real
4. They know you are marketing
5. Falling asleep on hold is bad
6. Screwing up is an opportunity
7. In strangers we (now) trust
8. Features don't matter
9. Your mom reads blogs (seriously)
10. Relevance is content, not ads

The podcast of his presentation, which explains the ten truths, as well as the rest of the presentations should be posted soon and I'll try to post links as soon as they are available.

Deja Vu - Well, sort of

So, a week ago today I attended Online Market World in San Francisco. Today I attended the Texas eMarketing Summit here in Austin. A week ago I posted in regards to Brett Hurt, Founder of Coremetrics and CEO of Bazaarvoice, endorsing Google Analytics. Tonight I post in regards to Coremetrics' Director of Strategic Accounts, Ian Strain-Seymour, also endorsing the use of Google Analytics for small businesses and web-masters. Ian did mention that free tools like Google Analytics are great for companies like Coremetrics as they give people an idea of what is possible with analytic tools and sets them up to want/need a bigger tool someday.

Wouldn't it make sense for Coremetrics or any of the other big boys of web analytics to offer an extremely low cost or free version of their tools as a way to get the small fishes hooked? Why give that honor to Google while hoping that Google doesn't offer a paid service someday and just keep all those users for themselves?

Side note: Kent Lewis, Founder of Anvil Media of Portland, was part of a couple of presentation. Nice to have some non-Austin blood at the event this year and nice of Kent to plug the event on one of his blogs - SEMpl Thoughts

AdSense in YouTube Player

So, Google is now offering an AdSense embedded version of a YouTube player. Video shown is "controlled" by the content on your site and/or a category setting within the settings of the player. The AdSense ad is "controlled" in a similar fashion. I wonder if The Butler Brothers have gotten many clicks from their AdWords ads being shown on this blog? (At the time of this post, the Adsense ads on this blog were showing The Butler Bros ads a majority of the time.)

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Who's Watching Who #4

Sunday is always a good day to reflect. As we have for the past month, we'll do this by posting a Who's-Who of folks that have contacted us and/or checked-out the blog and/or called to praise/complain, and/or any combination thereof over the past week.

Marvin - Windows and Doors - What?
Porter Novelli - PR Agency - Worldwide

Veteran Visitors who came back for more:
Bazaarvoice- Social Marketing Solutions - Austin, Tx
Campbell Mithun - Ad Agency - Minneapolis, Mn
Crispin Porter + Bogusky - Ad Agency - Miami and Boulder
DDB Needham - Ad Agency - Worldwide
T-3 - Ad Agency - Austin, Tx

Been to the blog but don't see your company on the list? Shoot us an email or post a comment. If you email us, make sure you send it from your company email account so that we know it is the real-deal. Let us know what you think and maybe share a bit of info. The worst that will happen is that you get a free link to your site. Not a bad trade for a bit of good SEO if you ask me.

Coremetrics vs. Google - Hurt Weighs In

Online Market World - Thursday 10-4-07
Some industry experts weighed in on the obvious need to use some type of analytics tool to track visitors and actions on your websites. The panel, actually speaking on word of mouth marketing, was made up of Michael Ratner, Bill Hanekamp, Scott Sigler, and Coremetrics Founder / Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt. The panel briefly discussed the use of analytics tools and Hurt admitted that, even though he founded Coremetrics, Bazaarvoice uses Google Analytics. The dollar signs were a little dimmer in Brett's eyes yesterday.

Google's New San Francisco Office - Pics

Google's New San Francisco Office

So, We did swing a meeting with Google. You might think this meant a drive out to Mountain View, but no, we got to meet with them in their three day old offices near the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building. Lots of blue, red, yellow, and green balloons hanging from the ceilings. Printers named after San Francisco landmarks and conference rooms named after neighborhoods. The offices on the bay side had very nice views of the bridge. The sign (at right) read "Welcome to the new Google San Francisco office!!!" and then also had a little map of the floor as well as info on what to do if you are having any tech issues.

After a nice presentation from the Google team, we were treated to dinner at a near-by restaurant. You hear about how smart Googlers are. After meeting with these "kids" all in their early to mid twenties, I must say that they were some of the most articulate and intelligent people I've met with in quite some time. Thanks Google.

Go West, Young Man

Indiana newspaper writer John Soule's 1851 advice is my motivation for the week as I get ready to head out to San Francisco to attend Online Market World. From the event's site: "Online Market World is the first event to address the entire e-commerce lifecycle as well as integrate and include all functional areas of the organization. Online Market World is an ecommerce event that provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn about and discuss the critical issues and trends that are suddenly changing global online markets." I'll post a couple of times during the conference and hope to squeeze in a visit to Google's new San Francisco office as well.

Heading out west to OMW? Shoot me an email as I would love to get others' take on the event.