When Marketing Geniuses Agree, Run For Cover

Today, we are posting a few quickies...

When Marketing Geniuses Agree, Run For Cover
Some follow-up to yesterday's post about how the ad pundits have been so wrong about TV.

• TV spending accounted for about 57% of total advertising expenditures in 2010
• TV ad spending grew 60% faster than advertising spending in general
• TV viewing was at its highest point ever

Social Media and Business
We all know that social media is a huge cultural phenomenon. What we don't know is exactly how much its impact on business has been exaggerated by maniacal web monkeys.

According to an article in Fast Company called "Facebook Places, Foursquare: Social Media's Tiny 2% Impact On Businesses."

...Based on new data from APT provided to Fast Company, it's clear that location-based services like Foursquare and Facebook Places have--so far--had a minimal impact on businesses.

"In the tests we've seen, we generally haven't seen much of a lift in performance," (Jonathan) Marek (senior VP at at Applied Predictive Technologies) says. "There just isn't the reach in these things today to actually be able to drive the level of change in business..."

Shameless Self-Promotion
In addition to the agency thing, I've been doing some consulting lately. And surprisingly, I'm liking it. I've even hung a new shingle under that stupid dog cartoon at the top of the page.

My pitch is this: There's no shame in being confused by advertising and marketing -- they have become very confusing . But there is shame in squandering money on strategies and tactics you don’t have confidence in. Click here for clarity.

This Web Really Is Worldwide: Once in a while I like to check and see where readers of The Ad Contrarian come from. I'm always astounded. I checked yesterday. Here's where you came from:

United States, Peru, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Canada, India, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Romania, Argentina, Ireland, Slovenia, Italy, Russia, Norway, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Malaysia, Lithuania, Mexico, Switzerland, Kenya, Bolivia, Barbados, France, Japan, Singapore, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Croatia, Vietnam, Kenya, Denmark, Ukraine, Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Belgium, Philippines, Thailand, Hungary, Korea, and South Africa.

Thanks for visiting.

I've Come Up With A Name For My Autobiography
Ever since this quote from Vinny Warren appeared here Monday,"There and then I knew I had the title of my autobiography -- Marlon Brando's Monkey Is Dead," I've been thinking about what I should call my autoboigraphy. 

Last night, I got it -- "Artificial Intelligence."