Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Sometimes Innovation is no More Than Doing Something Old ... Better

Take the recent launch of Apple's new Macbook Air. You could hardly avoid the collective swooning of the press over what is must surely be the one of the most striking laptops ever. And you'll pay handsomely to be the first to open its ultra thin cover at your neighborhood Starbucks. Innovative? Of course: Apple continues to school the electronics world in the art of industrial design. But beneath that beautiful sculpted aluminum and glass is a deeply conventional device. What's really new about the Macbook Air? Not much. It's super thin. But it works like virtually every laptop sold... Read more →

Get the Hot Seat with Experiential Marketing

This to me is another way of saying you will be learning from peers as well as the speakers. These opportunities are all about content, and context -- with inspiration wrapped around it. How much is this package worth? That would be $33,633 US. And that is just for starters. Events can really boost your presence on both sides of the conversation -- as speaker and as attendee. A new survey by the Advertising Research Foundation, New York, says that in-person events can move the needle on purchase intent in a range between 11% to 52%. The study that measured... Read more →

Stories That Work - Actionable News with New Media

What if we could put the power of the news back into the hands of the communities the news reporting organizations serve? I was thinking the other day that when I first came to Philadelphia, I used to watch "Action News" from a local channel. Where is the action in the news? Global, national, and local events of import do wake us up to the importance of collaboration, and community. Rarely we learn about many of the less visible organizations and situations we can help and affect personally. I was reading some well thought out advice to traditional and local... Read more →

Branding Lessons from the 2008 Carnival of Venezia

"Imagine Venice. Imagine a wave of emotions that will carry you through the most beautiful city on the world, revolutionizing your every feeling. Imagine thrilling your mind and all your senses. This is sensation, this is the new Venice carnival." [from the introduction to 2008 Sensation - 6 senses, 6 sestieri, the participating zones of the city] The carnival of Venice manages to enroll the participation of citizens and visitors alike who merge to become a community. It's a big public relations and marketing opportunity for the city. The yearly festivities provide a memorable touch point for those who are... Read more →

The Role of the Search Engine in New Media

What role do search engines play in new media? One of the parts of Nick Carr's book, The Big Switch, that I read with close interest refers to the unbundling of media. In the chapter, Carr mentions that at least one major newspaper, The Times of London, admits that it has already begun training its reporters to craft their stories in ways that lead to higher placements in search engines. As long as algorithms determine the distribution of profits, they seem to also determine what gets published. Or do they? Enter a key word or phrase into your favorite search... Read more →

Creativity and Outcome

People often assume that marketers and creative types spend their time having lots of fun making drawings, putting pretty pictures on a board and coming up with snazzy lines. They do call ads creative for a reason, right? That creative work is hard. Especially since it is meant to produce an outcome. Developing creativity in your life is not terribly hard work if you cultivate the ability to keep mind, eyes, ears, in fact all senses, open. The skill resides in applying creativity to seeing a problem or a business need through a different lens -- as if for the... Read more →

Reader's Digest Gets Conversation

“It is the Reader's Digest mission to create products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world. We are committed to understanding, anticipating and satisfying our customers' needs. This takes precedence in all we do.” [Reader's Digest Customer Care] Asked why so many people around the world read their publication, David Ogilvy paid tribute to Reader's Digest in an article titled Confessions of a Magazine Reader. He agreed to do it because he regarded The Digest as a major force in the world. In return for his work, The Digest made a donation... Read more →

Marketing's Killer App: Active Participation

The marketing group inside organizations used to put together lavish experiences and was funded to really get the word out there. Those were other times. By the time I arrived in a company, the funds had been cut down to starving conditions. The opportunity to be creative and stretch both the dollars and the work to affect the maximum impact is very real. When people say "it's not about working hard, it's about working smart," they only capture a tiny part of effectiveness. Being hands-on continues to be a good quality to have for marketing professionals. Plus, in the rush... Read more →

Pricing Strategy

According to research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology, appreciation for a product's intrinsic qualities is subject to a type of information we receive -- pricing. As reported in The Economist, Dr Rangel and his colleagues found that if people are told a wine is expensive while they are drinking it, for example, they really do think it tastes nicer than a cheap one, rather than merely saying that they do. The study suggests two possibilities for this reaction: (1) learning from the choices of... Read more →

My Take on "Join The Conversation"

I'll say it up front for clarity-sake, I liked Jaffe's book, especially the case studies and the section on partnerships. I bought the book last year before my vacation so I could have the time to read and digest it. I also liked Jaffe's writing style -- easy and (dare I say?) conversational. Rather than doing a chapter by chapter review, which many have already done or are in the process of doing, I will build on its premise and touch on a couple of highlights. [In case you think of asking, no I am not one of the faces... Read more →