Aspen is expanding it’s North American headquarters outside Chicago to house around 600 employees. The official groundbreaking began this morning as our CEO, Pat O’Rahilly, spoke before gathered employees and community leaders about the company’s 25th anniversary and transformation into North America’s largest privately held marketing services firm.
Today’s WSJ examines one of the core foundations of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing (article here: goo.gl/uz6iG) – identify and engage those people who exert the most influence on other consumers to carry your marketing message. The reporter paints an interesting – and at times, unflattering – picture of some existing influencer scoring models and how people [...]
The debate raged in 2010 about the relevancy of email in an increasingly social world. You saw popular brands like Ben and Jerry’s supposedly declare an end to their email programs. If email has indeed let Oliver into the house, moved to California, or started selling nostalgic memorabilia, then why did email volume reach its [...]
The common water cooler talk these days seems to be “what do you think will happen this year” or as I call it the “what bright shinny object will you chase?” Over the years I’ve learned that I don’t need to be the first one to jump on the “what technology is cutting edge,” maybe [...]
At a recent marketing conference, legendary marketer Bob Thacker jokingly stated when he arrived at OfficeMax the marketing budget was so low, he concluded the only way they could afford to get their message out was to hire the best gossipers they could find. That comment was somewhat inspired in that it correlates with what [...]
In recent days, I’ve been increasingly asked what the 2011 trends will be in social media as various experts offer up their perspectives. Rather than talk about specific channels or the social “fatigue” people may experience in 2011, I typically respond with the following three macro trends that will dictate the success of social in [...]
Is it just me, or have we all lost our ability to clearly describe what’s happening around us? The old adage of Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) appears to going the way of the do-do bird. As agencies, we are struggling lately with one of our core “reasons for being” – making things easier for consumers [...]
Wednesday July 28, DesignChat will be live streaming video of the design and social media discussion with Pete Cashmore. The chat begins at 9pm EST at mashable.com/chat and will last approximately and hour. We will be talking about Mashable.com’s success and how the worlds of social media and design combine to create some of the [...]
You have to love U.S. Bank’s aggressive play to retain customers in danger of trading their NWA WorldPerks Visa cards for the Delta SkyMiles AMEX. It reminds us that while credit card marketing may be down – it is certainly not out. U.S. Bank’s “FlexPerks Travel Reward Visa” is one of the clearest indications yet [...]
With client marketing departments ravaged by layoffs and unfilled openings, what really makes the difference in creating a strong Account Services/Client bond? Here are three somewhat low-tech thoughts often forgotten in the non-stop world of marketing: 1) Open your ears and close your mouth. Bad response rates and tough economic times erode the most stable [...]