Ubiquitous Marketing

Ubiquitous Marketing is the personal weblog of Keith O’Brien, editor-in-chief of PRWeek. All opinions and work represent that of Keith O’Brien and not of his employer. Topics covered include marketing, PR, advertising, journalism, culture (both mainstream and alternative), and their inevitable confluence.

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Entries Tagged as 'Food'

WOM for when your mouth is empty

April 9th, 2007 · No Comments

I had the pleasure of talking with Paul Rand, formerly of Ketchum/currently of Zocalo Group, for this exact story.

The most interesting thing he said was about how customer relationship management historically focussed on the biggest spenders, not necessarily the biggest advocates. Forward thinking WOM specialists are trying to change that.
That commentary came to mind when [...]

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Tags: Customer Service · Food · Marketing · Word-of-mouth

The perfect time to hate-on ads

February 4th, 2007 · 1 Comment

I’m more than a little tired of manufactured hype re: the Super Bowl re: companies debuting their buzz-y advertisements.
When I was in Dublin for the 2001 Super Bowl, I was forced to watch Sky commericals for Ahhh Bisto and Boots, as the network only picked up the game feed. I survived.
Tis the time of the [...]

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Tags: Advertising · Food · Marketing · Web 2.0 · Word-of-mouth

The abdication of certitude?

January 31st, 2007 · No Comments

Minor little things catch my eye.
Like the New Yorker’s “Table for Two” section, which, this week, alerted readers to a new noodle bar Kampuchea. As demonstrated by a recent New York magazine article on David Chang of Momofuku Noodle Bar, noodles are hot for some reason. And, given its the New Yorker devoting its minimal [...]

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Tags: Food · Music · Weblogs

Tied in

December 28th, 2006 · No Comments

Video games and movies have been tied together for as long as the computing age has been around. From the ET Atari video game to the Mortal Kombat movie franchise, entertainment companies smartly realized that consumers would not, could not get sated on content they identified with or enjoyed.
And while blockbuster/action-type movies were ideal candidates [...]

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Tags: Food · New comms tools · Web 2.0

Toast - 9.18.2006

September 18th, 2006 · No Comments

Spinach E. coli nightmare continues (AP, CNN.com)
Yahoo to launch integrated marketing campaign (Reuters, CNNMoney.com)
Why not chat with a Detroit corpse collector? (NYT Video)

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Tags: Crisis Communications · Food · Technology · Web 2.0

Marketing taste

August 27th, 2006 · No Comments

In the same conversation alluded to two posts agao, the intersection of Apple, design, and marketing came up. My contention, flawed or brilliant as it may be, was that Apple gets a huge pass on glitches and iPod frowny faces. Dell, on the other hand, gets no such pass because its design conveys a product [...]

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Tags: Branding · Design · Food · Marketing · Ubiquitous

Some thoughts about Agency.com

August 6th, 2006 · No Comments

Because, perhaps someday, everyone who at least swam near marketing in their careers will be judged on the astuteness of their take.
1) Think of the children! Effect on recruiting will be a muddled affair, with ultimately a negative effect. It will scare off all “good talent” because would you really want to work for that [...]

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Tags: Advertising · Branding · Food

Such progress… for this?

July 18th, 2006 · 2 Comments

I am what you would call a minor MySpace user. I set up an account to learn about the space for work and enjoy the occasional "friend" requests from people I see weekly and those who I haven’t seen in years.
And I think corporations have a great opportunity to set up a presence. The [...]

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Tags: Customer Service · Food · Web 2.0

One cup, multiple brews

June 11th, 2006 · No Comments

Hope you’re enjoying the World Cup. Fans in Germany are likely enjoying it a bit more given they’re able to enjoy their own local beer at the stadium, even though Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive beer sponsor of the tournament and, according to reports, was mulling literal enforcement of that phrasing. After much debate, World Cup [...]

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Tags: Benign Corporate Patronage · Food · Sponsorships · Sports

Best marketing is a good product

June 4th, 2006 · 1 Comment

While everyone, even marketing men and women, love talking about how they DVR past commercials when they’re watching TV, few conference minutes are spent on consumer-focused magazine ads and the influence they may have on general-interest magazines (save for the Target-New Yorker advertisement situation).
Even though advertisements are taken as obvious magazine participants, there is at [...]

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Tags: Advertising · Food · Media