Jan 30 2008 1:53AM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
humor,
Microsoft,
Marketing,
Technology

Microsoft is running another viral marketing campaign — this time they’re creating a comic strip about IT pros. The strip will run for six months and they’re inviting readers to send in story ideas. That’s right — you think up the situation and they’ll create the strip for it (if they chose your idea).
The HHH Comic Series is a daily web comic that adapts tech stories from actual IT Professionals and Developers - a web comic that reflects the real lives of IT Hero’s such as you. Every business day we will release a new episode driven from suggestions from the IT community. Make sure you sign up for the RSS feed so you can have it delivered straight to your RSS enabled inbox or favorite RSS client when a new episode has been released. And remember - We want you to help drive the story!
You can submit your story ideas here. I’m going to submit one about computing in the cloud.
Jan 26 2008 8:42PM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Technology,
Data analytics,
Marketing
 |
Performance management is the new battleground. And we’ve been saying that for six years, at least. There’s sort of a category collapse going on where CPM and BI, reporting, and analytics are kind of starting to merge. The lines are getting very grey and I think customers are broadly viewing all this stuff now as performance management.
Rob Ashe, Working Under the IBM Umbrella |
So…IBM buys Cognos, Oracle buys Hyperion and SAP buys Business Objects. Hmmm.
Jan 10 2008 3:15AM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Marketing,
Video
Extreme Makeover–Server Room parody. I just wish it was funnier.
Jan 10 2008 3:05AM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Technology,
home office,
Servers,
Video,
Marketing
This children’s book parody is a viral promotion for the Windows Home Server campaign. The author, Tom O’Connor, and his PhD are bogus. The small print on the title page explains that he’s made up. Whoever did write this deserves credit, IMHO. Very clever. Yes, that’s me reading the book.
The campaign is indicative of unusual creative approaches by big advertisers as they seek to break through in cluttered categories like technology. Among the most popular are so-called viral campaigns, so named because they are intended to be passed from one computer user to another with an endorsement implied by such personal sharing.
Stuart Elliot, What Next, Having the Office Christmas Party at Home?
Nov 13 2007 2:31AM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Technology,
CRM,
Marketing,
IBM
The report says that two-thirds of the advertising experts IBM polled expect 20 percent of their advertising revenue to shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years.
Ummm….what does impact-based mean? And how the heck are we going to measure it?
Oct 8 2007 6:34PM GMT
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Marketing,
Web 2.0
 |
“Organizers are afraid that the unconference won’t come together, that it will be boring or unproductive. They lack trust in the attendees to produce a conference that meets their own needs.”
Douglas E. Welch, When is an unconference not an unconference? |
I’ve always been a fan of Douglas Welch. Today I not only tip my hat, I give him this month’s “But the Emperor Has No Clothes!” award. Douglas writes:
Some of my best experiences this year have been the “unconferences” I have attended. These ad hoc events allow for a sense of spontaneity and serendipity that regular life often denies us. Unfortunately, I am starting to see a disturbing trend that threatens to suck the life out of unconferences — too much control.
Organizers of unconferences need to control where and when the conference will occur, sponsors for meals and other perks, bathrooms, etc., but more frequently now, I see organizers pre-scheduling the events more and more tightly. Instead of the typical “sign up wall” of a more open unconference, I am seeing schedules completely decided long before the event occurs.
Douglas has bravely asked what the rest of us have been thinking, “What’s happening to the unconference?”
I’m afraid the answer is marketing.
It was probably only a matter of time until the unconference, that underground ultra-hip name Dave Winer came up with to describe a “tech happening” where the attendees determine the agenda, would grow up.
And by grow up, I mean sell out.
Literally. Continued »