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For Netflix, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand

There’s always money in the banana stand.

So says George Bluth, the patriarch of the well-to-do, quirky family chronicled in Arrested Development, a sitcom which ran quietly on FOX between 2003 and 2006 but developed a rabid cult following its cancellation. In the years following, rumors of a fourth season and a movie in the works popped up time and again. Then finally, in 2011, Netflix agreed to license and exclusively distribute a fourth season through its streaming network.

That entire season’s 15 episodes were released on May 26. Continue reading “For Netflix, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand”

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Fresh Content! That’s the ticket!

A parking ticket is like a mosquito bite.  It’s annoying, it itches, it lingers and it leaves a scab, or a dent in your wallet, if you scratch too much.  The funny thing is if you ignore the itch and don’t scratch it, the mosquito bite fades away pretty quickly. Summer is coming; you should try it.

The problem with a parking ticket is if you ignore the ticket, it will definitely not fade away.

Fast forward to six months after ignoring my ticket. I now have a $100 dollar fine and am standing in a line with 170 other people that decided to also ignore their ticket.  We are all facing the same direction and have that blank stare of desperation as if a guillotine was waiting to take us out of this misery. I look around after the mullet of the guy in front of me stops being hilarious and notice that the walls of the courthouse are chipping, the smell is musty, the area is dark and gloomy and the officers look bored out of their mind.  It is nine in the morning on a Tuesday and the ticket booth is open but the courtroom has yet to open its doors.

Continue reading “Fresh Content! That’s the ticket!”

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What Inspires You? Memorial Day Traffic Lines?

shutterstock_118633888There’s nothing worse than hitting traffic on your way home, following a chaotic, nightmarish-type of day.  After all, you are tired and hungry, debating whether you have any sort of energy left to head to the gym and all you can do is stare at the bumper in front of you.

Well yesterday, the traffic got to me. I may only live 6.1 miles from work but even I had had enough of staring at “Baby on Board” and “If You Can Read This, You are Following Too Close” stickers. So I did what any true New Yorker does and made friends with the shoulder lane until I found the exit.

Continue reading “What Inspires You? Memorial Day Traffic Lines?”

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Squeaky Clean Content

My monthly car wash ritual is the same every time. I plan for the entire process to take 20 minutes tops, in and out. After the interior vacuuming is said and done and the wet wipe is quickly applied to the interior, the half way mark is purchasing the “new car” scented tree.  The final part is easy; just pull up to the grumpy underpaid worker holding an insane amount of dollar bills, pay and tip him and I’m out.  Seems simple right?Not today. A new overly energetic college kid jumped in front of my car and skipped his way to my window to immediately inform me of the four choices they now offer. The ultimate wash (guaranteed for seven days!); the wheel blaster wash; the clear coat application wash; and the rust protector wash (or the basic water and soap wash).

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Why Content Marketing Makes Sense

If you had the choice to interrupt your customers or to provide them with enriching content which just so happened to capture their attention, which would you choose?

Such is the difference between traditional marketing—billboards, radio spots, television commercials and newspaper ads—and content marketing. Whereas the former aims to grab a hold of the viewer’s attention for a brief moment, the latter seeks to provide the same viewer with multiple forms of valuable content in order to help build and grow a long-term relationship. Traditional marketing is expensive and provides not much more than a distraction. Content marketing offers valuable information and entertainment which lasts longer and can be shared on social networks with ease.

In light of this, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that businesses are increasingly looking toward upping their content marketing efforts. According to Jonathan Lister, who oversees the North American advertising sales and operations for LinkedIn, 18.9 percent of marketers focused primarily on content marketing in 2012. In 2013, that number has jumped to 34.8 percent. Continue reading “Why Content Marketing Makes Sense”

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The Imminent Ubiquity of Content Marketing: What Happens Next?

Content Marketing Institute Founder Joe Pulizzi explores a really interesting question in one of his more recent blog posts: Once all brands have started embracing content marketing, what happens next?

Ah, the great old question of what comes next.

We certainly all asked it a few decades ago when the world was first introduced to the mobile phone. And while bulky and hefty, we quickly watched as it paved the way for the dominance of smartphones, apps and the BYOD revolution. Fast forward to today and the competition for your consumer-ready hands is fierce.

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Ahh, Coke’s New Marketing Campaign Makes Me Thirsty

This is the age of the mobile device. The days of print advertisements wane in the rearview as we now drive down the highways of the future.

In order to stay fresh and relevant, firms need to rethink their marketing strategies if they want to connect with and convert a target market that is always evolving.

And the fine folks at Coca Cola seem to have done just that.

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I don’t even drink Coke—I’m more of a water-and-coffee-drinking guy—but there I was on a Friday afternoon, staring at a virtual paper cup bearing the soft drink company’s logo. The cup was shifting back and forth across my computer screen, and I was charged with pulling back a virtual sling shot and trying to aim a virtual ice cube into the cup in order keep its virtual contents at the perfect temperature of 37 degrees. Continue reading “Ahh, Coke’s New Marketing Campaign Makes Me Thirsty”

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Are You Just Waking Up to Content Marketing?

In Washington Irving’s classic tale Rip Van Winkle, a young man leaves his home along the Hudson River for a sojourn into the Catskill Mountains where he encounters a group of strange, bearded men. As the story goes, Rip proceeds to drink their liquor, and soon falls into a deep slumber.

When Rip finally wakes up, the world around him seems like a very different place. He is startled to learn that he too has grown a long beard. The stock of his gun has rotted away, and his dog has run off. This is because Rip did not sleep for just one night—he was out cold for 20 years. Confusion mounts as Rip walks into town and discovers how everything around him has changed. Continue reading “Are You Just Waking Up to Content Marketing?”

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Afraid of Striking out at the Content Marketing Game? Don’t Be

shutterstock_89687209When we think about fear, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s iconic statement from his first inaugural address undoubtedly comes to mind: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

It’s an incredibly simple but powerful statement. After all, why fear something that is out of our control? Why play the “what if” game instead of simply living life? We spend so much time worrying about something that can happen as opposed to just dealing with adversity when it comes our way.

Continue reading “Afraid of Striking out at the Content Marketing Game? Don’t Be”

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Marketing Lessons from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

What do blazing guns, bucking horses and covered wagons have to do with your website? A lot.

In fact, one could argue that cyberspace offers much of what our young country did just before the turn of the 20th century—new opportunity, innovation and excitement. Just like miners used to examine mountain shafts and riverbeds for nuggets of gold, today people comb through social media to find new bands or artists. Likewise, finding new ways to edge out your competition online is like striking oil. The rugged, unknown path to glory on the Internet is free for anyone to traverse down just like the journey out West.

The thing is, it took a lot for people to pack up and leave home—which is where people like William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody came in. Cody was a master marketer, whose traveling caravan of “Rough Riders of the World” catered to the imagination of settlers to be. The show would rope people into buying a carefully constructed image of the great American West through his circus-like exhibitions. It was a place where citizens could come face to face with danger, without getting killed. And as it turns out, May 19th marks the 130th anniversary of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjIH5AUglos]

Continue reading “Marketing Lessons from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West”