Brad Howe Interview: In Morgantown this Thursday

Published by
Justin Seibert
at May 19, 2008 in Business Blogging, Conference News, Conferences, Coordinating Marketing Efforts, Internet, Online Public Relations, Social Media, Speakers and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Brad Howe, Assistant Athletic Director, WVUOne of our two “rock star” speakers this Thursday in Morgantown is WVU Assistant Athletic Director Brad Howe.   He took time out of his day…er night, that is, to answer some questions to give potential attendees an idea of what he’ll be speaking about.  Just as in Charleston last week, attendees will get the chance to ask Brad questions as well.  Go Mountaineers!

1. What has been the biggest change you’ve seen in how universities market and promote their sports programs since you started out at UConn?

The internet is biggest change. When I started at UConn in ‘93 the internet/email was in the very early stages (if we even had it all – I can’t remember ever using it at UConn in the beginning). Now, it is generally the first medium we think of when deciding how to best promote one of our games/events.

We still promote our events through traditional vehicles, but the internet is the one we think of first. It allows the most flexibility and the best opportunity to hit the most people during the course of a day.

2. How are you moving the WVU athletic department forward in terms of new methods of advertising, marketing, public relations, and measuring their effectiveness?

We are constantly looking at new ideas for our web site. Recently, we have started adding more video features to the site. We receive instant feedback with our web site via the traffic. We can see right away if something we did on there was well received. That is tougher with traditional television, radio or print advertising.
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Using a Web 2.0 Tool to Prepare a Web 2.0 Seminar

Published by
Skip Lineberg
at April 24, 2008 in Social Media and Web 2.0. 0 Comments

Jason Keeling and I will present “Business for Breakfast” at the Charleston Marriott’s Whitewater Grille tomorrow morning. That’s Friday, April 25, from 7:30-8:30 a.m. We surely hope to see you there!

Our focus will be Web 2.0: Blogs, Pods and Twitters — How Emerging Internet Technologies Can Enhance Business Communications.

We’ll be discussing the growing importance of blogs, podcasts, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. We will discuss the significance of these technologies to West Virginia businesses and organizations.

In a bit of an unconventional twist, we utilized a Web 2.0 tool, a Zoomerang survey application, to poll our audience in advance of the presentation to assess their familiarity, needs and expectations. Here’s what we learned:

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Do Agencies Get Social Media?

Published by
Skip Lineberg
at April 7, 2008 in Social Media. 0 Comments

Cross-posted from the Maple Creative Marketing Genius Blog

Friend, blogger and marketing genius, Tom Pick of Web Market Central posted this interesting commentary recently. (Perhaps I found it interesting because he cited our firm. Thanks for the compliment, Tom!)

Tom’s thesis is that smaller marketing consulting firms, like ours, are exploring and implementing social media tools (such as this blog), while larger traditional agencies are still relying upon traditional tactics like advertising and PR.

While this is true and we are, indeed, exploring and learning about new ways to communicate and promote, we have not completely abandoned traditional media. Our soapbox philosophy and credo remains: success lies in creating aligned layers of strategic marketing tactics. The Web, blogs, Facebook and Twitter are new, promising (and exciting) channels–not the answer. In fact, we hold as truth the belief that there is no such thing as the answer. Each client is different; each situation with corresponding objectives and audience targets is unique.

Part of the beauty of Web 2.0 and social networking is the relationship aspect. I have not met Tom Pick (in person). Yet, we are working together to share ideas and to promote the best of what the other is doing. And once you jump onboard with social media and embrace the concept, you will meet dozens of allies. I certainly have, and I consider it a true blessing.

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Hasbro and Mattel Scrabble to Scupper Scrabulous

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at January 22, 2008 in Social Media. 0 Comments

Scrabble vs Scrabulous

On one side you have Hasbro and Mattel who own the rights to Scrabble, and on the other you have an unauthorized Facebook application called Scrabulous, which has over 600,000 users and is one of Facebook’s top ten used applications.

If you were Hasbro or Mattel, would you:

a) Be extremely happy at the amount of free advertising?

b) Try and work out a partnership opportunity?

c) Send a letter to Facebook claiming an infringement on your rights and ask for Scrabulous to be shut down.

Answer: c

The Motley Fool makes a great point in an article addressing the issue:

Well, the Internet often seems to have a knack for irritating old-school companies. They generally don’t see situations like this as beneficial for their businesses or brands. They view something like this as an annoyance at best, and threatening or downright illegal at worst.

Just think about it for a minute – you have 600,000 people all merrily interacting with your brand online and you then decide to piss the vast majority of them off. Perhaps Hasbro and Mattel are planning to launch their own branded Scrabble as a Facebook application, but the question remains as to how much damage had already been caused by their heavy-handed Scrabulous tactics.

Of course they have every right to defend their brand rights; nobody is suggesting they should roll over and allow Scrabulous to take their online territory. But, Scrabulous does not have to be seen as a competitor. In fact, both Hasbro and Mattel stand to gain infinitely more by cooperating and partnering with the Scrabulous creators as the fans have already been gathered into one place.

They could actually sell Scrabble boards through the application and even allow the name to be used. They could then roll out different Facebook applications for their other board games. Also, how do you think users will perceive Hasbro and Mattel by partnering and opening up their games online and adding to the fun they’re already having?

As it stands, most people currently regard them as yet another clueless corporate numbnut.

And nobody wants to buy from clueless corporate numbnuts.

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