Brilliant!!!

Yeah I know, brilliant is the Guiness thing but that's the only word to describe the new online campaign from Budweiser. The King of Beers teamed up with the Jib-Jab, Kings of Online Political Satire, to create a great online spot called "Roll Out the Barrel." Fun, to the point and in my opinion, really damn effective. Who can't laugh out Clydesdale running over the Miller Beer Guy or the line "that import in your glass, tastes like a monkey's ass"? Tasteless humor...what the Internet does best.

MySpace defining new music

Over the past few weeks, I've seen Myspace getting a ton of buzz in the press about what they are doing in the music industry in terms of supporting/breaking artists. I've worked with these guys on a few projects and I have to say, they really do have their stuff going for them. What is great about MySpace (and sets it apart from sites like Friendster) is the connection they have with artists. For instance, I just received a note that Aware was setting up their Reps on MySpace and also supporting their new artists like Kyle Riabko on the site. The site allows fans to feel a true connection with their favorite bands. And then on the flip side, the artists feel like they have a true connection with their fans. It's a win win all around. Not too bad for a site that is barely two years old...

XBox 360 Revealed

Microsft just finished announcing the new XBox 360 on MTV. While the special was actually pretty lame (you can tell MS played a bigger role producing then MTV), the system looks amazing!!! I was hoping Microsoft would try and make the 360 the center of the digital entertainment living room and they didn't let me down. Here are the highlights in my opinion:

• Built in Wi-Fi to easily tap into home networks
• A 20 gig hard drive that is upgraded
• A free level of XBox live for game downloads and micropurchases (a potentially huge revenue stream)
• Built in Windows Media Center Extender making the XBox a stereo, DVR, etc
• An interchangeable faceplate so the box can blend into your decor (and your signficant wife won't yell about it sitting out)
• HD capabilities (and what appears to be a partnership with Samsung based on the co-branded commercial that ran during the MTV special)

The biggest question that went unanswered is whether or not the box will be backwards compatable with current XBox games. Big mistake if it isn't. Also, rumor has it that Halo 3 is coming out in 2005 for the launch. While MS didnt confirm the rumor, it would explain why Halo 2's storyline ended so abruptly. Overall, marketers take note. If gaming wasnt on your radars yet, it better be by Holiday 2005.

Much ado about nothing

Today's NY Times features a story in which Nick Denton, the much hyped publisher of Gawker and other high profile blogs, claims the hype of blogs is overstated and overrated. Here are just a few of the thought provoking snippets:

"The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe," Denton said. "They want to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed."

"There are too many people looking at blogs as being some magic bullet for every company's marketing problem, and they're not," Denton added. "It's Internet media. It's just the latest iteration of Internet media."

The debate continues

So it seems as if the debate over character blogs just won't die down. The discussion kicked up again today over on AdRant's when Steve Hall posted about our "blog". Love to hear your thoughts? Are we marketing devils for putting the site up? Or are we just following a consumer is boss approach? And if you fall in the middle, what do you think we need to change to make it better?

Ford has a news leak

Looks like Ford is getting into product placement in a big way and now everyone knows it thanks to a memo leaked by a Ford employee. Just goes to show that in today's age, if you are going to e-mail a memo to your employees, you might as well do a press release to the public at the same time.

Odd sounding numbers

So Pew has a new study out that says 25% of Internet users read blogs. No way these numbes are right. Now I work in marketing, surrounded by incredibly bright people that are on top of where consumer trends are going. Yet if I look around just my immediate marketing group of 13 people, I would say only one or two read blogs (or have ever read blogs). That's no where near the 25% that Pew claims. Dig a little further and I bet the question was worded to the effect of "have you ever read an online commentary". Call me a skeptic, but something just doesn't seem right...