How to turn off Facebook Places
This is a great article that clearly defines how to manage Facebook Places, a solid read for anyone who uses the platform.
It has come from MacLife and Florence Ion, but I thought I would post the entire article.
How To Turn Off Facebook Places | Mac|Life
Facebook Places has us a little bit paranoid. After all, the idea of our friends checking us in at the yogurt shop isn’t something that we want leaking out. We’re yogurt fanatics and we wouldn’t want the word to get out to our friends and loved ones. So, if you’re wondering how to turn off Facebook Places and keep your friends from outing your addiction to frozen treats, read on.Restrict access in “Things I share”
Under the Privacy settings, go to Custom and “Customise settings.” This will take you to the page that will allow you to select what other friends can see. We set this to “Friends Only,” but you might be okay with letting “Friends of Friends” know where you are.
Keep others from mentioning you under “Things others share”
Keep your friends from being able to check you in with them by
disabling “Friends can check me in to places.” Your friends might be
annoyed with your decision, but remember this it is your privacy. You
can still be tagged in status updates, however.
Change the settings under “Applications and website”
This one is tricky and took us a few clicks to find. Scroll to the
bottom of the privacy page, and under “Applications and websites,” edit
“Info accessible to your friends” so that “Current location” and “Places
I’ve visited” are not checked off. This will ensure that your
information is not shared with any of the applications, games and
websites that you and your friends might use.
Facebook places
Facebook just announced Location Based Services integration, with Facebook Places. This is required viewing for any marketer or agency professional, or just about any entrepreneur. But from a marketing perspective this is going to require those who are looking at retail, ooh, POS or any environmental marketing to consider the social media, mobile and digital impact of what they do.
From a user perspective now you can not only provide your status update but incorporate the location, context and ideally the people around you.
But this is very significant for our business, while LBS isn’t new (its been around for years – the wireless company I started was one of the first to create Location Based Services – 1999), this is the first time its available at scale. While Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and others have been in place the scale has never really been there. Now that Facebook has integrated LBS into its platform 500m+ people have access to this tool’s capability and over 150m people using Facebook mobile can begin to be using it directly. Users can now share where they are, see which friends are in the local area, and discover new places by following where others from their social network have checked in.
Some interesting things to think about:
- Retail, POS, OOH, Experiential have a new requirement and that is mobile and the digital/social experience. How do you want your audiences to engage with your experience on the mobile platform while they are there and what will they be talking about?
- How will you reward customer loyalty? Provide customers a reason to keep coming back and “checking in” to places, as well as share that with their networks
- Places will be a wonderful tool for promoting business and experiential marketing as well as providing special offers.
- APIs and data of facebook places will be a great resource for applications, start thinking about how to leverage this resource of information – Marketers should be thinking about this as well as entrepreneurs.
There is a Facebook Places FAQ for Advertisers here http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=places#!/help/?page=1159
As well as a user guide for Facebook places here: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=places
VMM – MDC’s DSP is Hiring
One of our firms Varick Media Management – our demand side platform is hiring, you can reach out to Darren or myself bberger@mdc-partners.com:
Talent Needs: Job Opportunities | Darren Herman
Talent Needs: Job OpportunitiesPosted by Darren on Aug 11, 2010 • (Comments)
One of the most amazing things about starting a business is being able to provide career opportunities for people at all stages of their life. I’ve listed a few opportunities below and if you or someone you know is interested in one of these, please do not hesitate to reach out. The company is Varick Media Management which is the demand side platform and infrastructure for MDC Partners agencies and brands directly. The team is located at 160 Varick Street in New York City. I will refer all qualified candidates to the HR coordinator and the respective designee at VMM.
Investment Manager (Top Line Revenue Growth Driver): Looking for someone with 1-3 years of experience to evangelize and drive top line growth of VMM to agencies and brands. We are looking for someone who has experience in making the complex very simple; someone who is extremely personable; and who can present themselves well to a group. Compensation is based off of a package of competitive base salary + performance + benefits. If you are interested, please contact me.
Chief Marketing Officer (Strategic Sales): We are looking for someone with 10-25 years in the business who has sold into strategic accounts ($10MM+/yr) for the past 5+ years. Will be responsible for driving the direction of the Strategic Accounts as well, as, overall company marketing and identity. Candidate may have an immediate open-to-hire for junior marketing coordinator to help with internal and external marketing efforts. Responsibilities will be to drive top line revenue growth for the direct to brand channel and will have a new client goal quota. Re-iterating that this person will be responsible for targeting specific clients (directly) and signing a specific number each year. Compensation is based off of a package of competitive base salary + performance + benefits. If you are interested, please contact me. Looking for someone who has played a similar role at former ad agencies, research firms, ad networks, and top tier publishers.
Infographer: We are looking for someone who is a master of data manipulation and visualization. We’d like to bring someone on board who can tell stories once given a data set. The ideal candidate will be able to recognize patterns within data, illustrate complex scenarios in simplistic forms, and create visuals that are easy to comprehend. Visuals will be used both internally and also sent to clients to illustrate a particular problem or solution. This role with support marketing, account, trading, and investment management. Compensation is based off of a package of competitive base salary + performance + benefits. If you are interested, please contact me. Ideal background would be a mathematician + design.
VP Client Services (title to be figured out): We are looking for someone who wants to run the Client Services team and work closely with Investment Management. Should have 10+ years experience within market research firms, agency brand planning or account management, or account management at complex advertising technology solution houses (ad networks, exchanges, etc). Must be unbelievably personable, academic curiosity, a born leader, and detail oriented. If you are interested, please contact me.
My interview today on Bloomberg
About the new contact less transaction platform that AT&T, Verizon and others are launching in the US
Integrating creative, social and production to deliver true sales results – Old Spice
If you haven’t had a chance to see the amazing Old Spice Campaign by Weiden and Kennedy look anywhere on the internet and you will find it. The campaign, which did include the usual print, tv and other traditional media, really built its buzz around digital and social media. It wasn’t just the creative idea which was brilliant, it was really the execution, production, distribution, and ultimately the ability to create and deploy almost real time high-quality content efficiently and I am sure cost effectively that makes it so amazing.
The campaign, staring the spokesman Isaiah Mustafa, a former football player, now turned smooth talking spokesman, responded to over 186 social media comments with funny videos including responding to Demi Moore and Alyssa Millano, as well as this one to George Stephanopoulous:
Re: @GStephanopoulos | Old Spice
and the entire campaign had over 40 million views of the responses, 94 million views of the youtube channel and over 120k subscribers.
The most important part of this entire campaign is this paragraph burried deep in this article:
According to Nielsen data provided by Old Spice, overall sales for Old Spice body-wash products are up 11 percent in the last 12 months; up 27 percent in the last six months; up 55 percent in the last three months; and in the last month, with two new TV spots and the online response videos, up a whopping 107 percent. “Our business is on fire,” Moorhead says. “We’ve seen strong results over all of our portfolio. That is the reward for the great work.” (See also: “OId Spice Campaign Smells Like a Sales Success, Too.”)
Spice It Up
The Old Spice campaign has certainly garnered attention, but did it work?July 26, 2010
- Eleftheria Parpis
Isaiah Mustafa, the buff, bare-chested Old Spice guy in the shower, may be the man of the moment. But it was Bruce Campbell, the B-list cult movie actor, whose droll humor introduced the world to the 73-year-old Procter & Gamble brand’s cheeky new attitude in Wieden + Kennedy’s “Experience is everything” campaign back in 2007.
Rather than throw out all the old, Wieden embraced the heritage of the brand, including its seafaring theme, but gave it an ironic twist to repackage it for the modern young man who might remember Dad’s cologne and appreciates a satirical take on that ancient history. The Portland, Ore., agency, which won creative and media duties on the brand in 2006, kept the cursive script logo, the clipper ship from the fragrance bottle and the whistle from the jingle.
Campbell was the first of many Old Spice men. Tony Stewart did “Armpit Marketing.” Will Farrell sported Old Spice in a 12-spot series as his Jackie Moon character in a cross-promotion with the movie Semi-Pro. As a former TV doctor, Neil Patrick Harris recommended Pro-Strength antiperspirant. And LL Cool J found his cool with Old Spice Swagger.
Google opens the door of mobile to the masses and pushes their platform
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
Google is opening up the mobile platform to the masses by providing a set of tools that lets give everyone from six graders to lit majors tools for building mobile applications and being able to launch them on the Android platform. Using a GUI the application lets anyone build applications without the need for a PHD in C++ or an engineering team of HTML 5 developers. The application system also allows users to create “disposable” applications, simple solutions that fit an immediate need, can be built quickly, launched on the mobile device, used for a few hours and then disposed of.
Not only is this a direct shot at Apple, which is known as a walled garden on the application and content to their iOS4, but it continues to position the mobile device as a fully functioning consumption and creation device.
I am looking forward to seeing the new content available, the new marketing opportunities that become viable and the continued success of this mobile, personal, portable and highly targeted platform
Looking at the world through these 3 charts adds a unique perspective to advertising
My friend Niel Robertson wrote this article about how he looks at business through these three charts: Distribution Curve/Bifurcated Distribution, Sigmoid Curves, and Network effects. Its interesting to apply these different charts to current and future business models: Search, DSPs, Media consumption.
He also makes an interesting analysis of the professional services business as how it is counter to the Network Effect, in fact its much more of a linear effect – therefore takes considerable time and effort to grow and scale since adding each additional customer requires almost as much (sometimes more) costs as the previous customer. This is very relevant as the advertising industry begins to look at potentially finding network effect solutions for the marketing and advertising industry for scale – a great example is Demand Side Platforms and their effect on the media buying and planning industry. Once you have established your DSP, your next primary cost is data, with some staff costs, but the incremental cost of adding an additional customer is lower as the business scales especially if you can gain economies of scale around data and audiences. . .
Everything I learned in business I learned from these 3 charts | VentureBeat
Everything I learned in business I learned from these 3 charts
July 8, 2010 | Niel Robertson(Editor’s note: Niel Robertson is the founder and CEO of Trada. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
I’ve been building venture-backed businesses for over 11 years now. In that time, I’ve seen a sea change in how businesses are put together. Engineering approaches, marketing approaches, pricing, service delivery … they’re all dramatically different than what they used to be.
But what I’ve come to appreciate is that, ultimately, businesses live and die on three simple dynamics: Distributions, network effects and sigmoid curves (s-curves). Almost all problems (and most opportunities) come from understanding how to take advantage of these functions – rather than fight against them.
Distributions – A distribution is a measure of how tightly grouped something in your business is. For instance, if you plot all of your customer deal sizes in a distribution, you’ll identify some interesting observations. You might see a tight packing around the mean (average), which indicates that most of your deals are about the same size.
You may also see a bifurcated distribution – which means you have two types of customers. (For discussion’s sake, let’s say one has a peak value of $1,000, while the other’s peak is at $100,000). If you find yourself in this scenario, you’re likely heading towards a problem.
Got a big idea for an agency? MDC Partners is listening with our wallets open.
The advertising industry was built by people that didn’t believe in the status quo. They were sitting in their current jobs and believed that they could do it better, smarter, more creative and deliver more value to their clients. They pined, they collaborated, they worked at midnight when their current jobs ended, they sometimes took jobs as fry cooks putting it all on the line, until the moment that their business finally began. . .and then they put their name on the door and changed the industry.
MDC wants to make it just a little bit easier. With an idea and a brilliant submission, MDC will invest $1 million in starting up the next new transformational marketing communications business and own 51 percent.
I am excited! oh and just in case you didn’t know the email address is startup@mdc-partners.net
‘Million-Dollar Challenge’ for New Marketing Firms – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com
Venture Capital
‘Million-Dollar Challenge’ for New Marketing Firms
June 25, 2010, 2:29 amThe TV quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is about to get a Madison Avenue version, “Who Wants a Million Dollars to Start an Agency.” MDC Partners, the holding company based in Toronto that owns agencies like Crispin Porter & Bogusky and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, plans to announce on Friday what top executives are calling the “Million-Dollar Challenge.”
Would-be entrepreneurs will be invited to submit business plans for agencies in any area of marketing communications. MDC will review the submissions, choose at least one plan from among 10 finalists and invest $1 million in starting it up in exchange for a 51 percent stake in the new shop, Stuart Elliot reports in The New York Times.
The proposal is to be described by Miles S. Nadal, chairman and chief executive of MDC, at a seminar at the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. The seminar, titled “How to Build an Agency From Scratch,” is to feature Mr. Nadal as the moderator and Chuck Porter, chief strategist of MDC, as a speaker.
“It’s a great time, as we come out of the recession, to back entrepreneurs,” Mr. Nadal said in a telephone interview from Cannes on Wednesday. “There’s such an amazing amount of talent in the world today, to not capitalize on it would be a lost opportunity.”
Apple iAd debuts on July 1
With over $60 million in commitments?!? wow
Apple to Debut iAds on July 1
Apple to Debut iAds on July 1
Over $60 Million in 2010 Commitments from Leading Global BrandsSAN FRANCISCO—June 7, 2010—Apple® today announced it will debut its iAd mobile advertising network on July 1 on iPhone® and iPod touch® devices running its iOS 4 software platform. iAds combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of Internet advertising, giving advertisers a dynamic and powerful new way to bring motion and emotion to mobile users. iAd will kick off with mobile ad campaigns from leading global brands including AT&T, Best Buy, Campbell Soup Company, Chanel, Citi, DirecTV, GEICO, GE, JCPenney, Liberty Mutual Group, Nissan, Sears, State Farm, Target, Turner Broadcasting System, Unilever and The Walt Disney Studios. Apple has iAd commitments for 2010 totaling over $60 million, which represents almost 50 percent of the total forecasted US mobile ad spending for the second half of 2010.*
“iAd offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web, and offers users a new way to explore ads without being hijacked out of their favorite apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iAds will reach millions of iPhone and iPod touch users—a highly desirable demographic for advertisers—and provide developers a new way to earn money so they can continue developing free and low cost applications.”
“iAd will allow Citi to reach millions of people on their iPhone and iPod touch,” said Lisa Caputo, executive vice president and CMO, Citigroup. “iAd gives us a remarkable level of creativity for creating ads to connect with our current and future customers in a more interactive style than ever before.”
“iAd is going to revolutionize mobile advertising,” said Rob Master, North American media director, Unilever. “With iAd, we’ve been able to create some of our most powerful and compelling ads ever. iAd is the perfect mobile format to reach and engage with our customers.”
