What if you could offer a true training “experience” that provides newly hired or promoted first time leaders the skills they will need to effectively delegate work, set and execute direction, establish constructive dialogues, build trust and credibility, motivate their teams, and work effectively in the agency environment?
Here’s an answer: TASL.
My colleague Thomas Trumble (@TPapi) wrote a recent blog post about the year's top search terms compared across Bing, Google and Yahoo!.
When reviewing the results keep in mind that the top search terms are not computed in the same way by each search engine so this is not a wholly accurate comparison. The results say as much about how each search engine is used as they do about how the search engines think about themselves. Bing seems like a soccer mom concerned about current events (Swine Flu, Stock Market, Cash For Clunkers) and using celebrities (especially dead ones) to ease that fear (Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays). Google’s the techie hipster with it’s love of social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Hi5) and some TV (Hulu, Glee). Yahoo’s the middle American with their love of WWE, American Idol, NASCAR and Britney Spears.
Read his post to see the Top 10 search terms for 2009.
Hi All,
Last week there were two articles in Advertising Age which spoke to the
increasing participation of client side procurement in the marketing services
arena. The basic message was something I've been saying for years (I can say
that now, I'm over 40) which is: "Classical" or "Commodity" based procurement
does not work well in the creative world of marketing services. There are
elements of "classical" procurement which hold true in any category, but in my
humble opinion the "classical" approach does more damage than good. Ultimately
the "classical" approach hyper-focuses on cost (a feeding frenzy) and fails to search for the best
fit or value! The irony of it all is that actual costs many times end up being
higher because of all the critical nuances the client procurement department
failed, or didn't know, to take into account when making a selection.
However, I'm obviously a fan of procurement. Unfortunately bad news gets all of
the attention. I'm here to tell you that the majority of procurement
professionals want and try to do the right things, have the best of intentions,
and many do an excellent job. However, the good ones don't get any press!
No, it's the rogue "man-eaters" that get all of the attention leading to a
general consensus that all procurement is bad. I'm here to remind everyone that
seeing "Sharks" in the water is a sign of a healthy eco-system. The fact we are
seeing procurement more involved is an excellent indicator to me that we are
close to a healthy economy.
Listen, it's OUR responsibility to prove our value, efficiencies and ability to
do more with less. We in the marketing services industry need to embrace,
tailor and evolve procurement so it works within our creative category.
Procurement and Strategic Sourcing are here to stay. We can continue to fight
it (and lose) or we can actively work to help procurement properly evolve
within marketing services. This can only help make our industry’s eco-system
healthier and sustainable.
What say you?
Chris Richards and Miles Platt from our London office discuss the economic impact of the current economy on the experiential marketing industry in AV Interactive.
There will be much written about the new deal announced today between Microsoft and Yahoo! After over a year of very public dealsmanship (sorry about that one, but I couldn't think of a better way to describe it), which included Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang abdicating his position and bringing in Carol Bartz, who might get along better with Steve Balmer, the two companies finally came to terms.
In a nutshell, Microsoft is going to power Yahoo's search engine, and Yahoo! is going to be the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers -- who were the real objective of the deal.
Initial market reaction to the deal is negative for Yahoo (which doesn't get an upfront cash influx), neutral for Microsoft -- their internet business has always been a money loser, so it's not going to be a short-term material influence -- and also neutral for Google, the 800 lb. gorilla of search marketing.
Of interest to me is the microsite that Microsoft and Yahoo! set up to share details of the deal. Check it out here with a URL that characterizes their take on the deal: http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com. Interesting way to get the word out.
I saw a preview for Discovery Channel's highest rated programming...Shark Week! As Director of Procurement for Jack it got me to thinking about the relationships between client marketing teams and their own procurement teams (sharks). The more I interact with fellow procurement professionals the more I experience the wide spectrum of relationships client procurement teams have (or not) with their internal marketing departments. The relationships run the entire spectrum of possibilities of "valued team member" to "evil necessity". Unfortunately, most relationships trend towards "evil necessity". There are many reasons for these poor relationships, but in almost every case it can all be boiled down to a main nugget of truth! As with any relationship it all starts and ends with communication!
A couple months back, our London office created the launch event for Alex Rose's Start, Think 'n' STOP campaign. Channel 4 covered this story in their Battlefront series. Below are two edited clips of the coverage. WARNING: These videos involve extremely inspiring stories and will most likely make you feel like "If a 19 year old with not a ton of advantages in life can do so much--what is stopping me?"
Continue reading "Start,Think 'n' STOP Event Video Coverage"
