tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post6030017649149486387..comments2023-12-23T21:59:20.634-08:00Comments on The Ad Contrarian: Hypocrisy By ProxyBOB HOFFMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05158827977385952634noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-8695784023384807002014-11-03T10:05:42.016-08:002014-11-03T10:05:42.016-08:00This is interesting. While I respect Seth Godin he...This is interesting. While I respect Seth Godin he's been beating this drum for too long.<br /><br />I watched Seth speak at a Google Engage event last year. His advice was to stop doing all forms of traditional marketing and focus on "inbound marketing."<br /><br /><br />You don't have to turn over too many rocks to figure out this is a bad strategy. The channel is saturated, overly competitive, and a has an unappealing "winners take all" attribute...The top 2-3 search results get all the traffic. <br /><br />While listening to Seth's bad advice I couldn't help but think of the ten biggest, most successful companies in the industry...Not many of them employ Seth's recommended strategies. <br /><br />In fact, these success stories do precisely what he attempted to dissuade the audience from doing—what he calls "interruption marketing." <br /><br />I suppose this is self-serving...Tell em' to do what clearly doesn't work, and they'll continue to buy your books, read your blog and look for that life-line that pulls em' out of the perpetual cycle of failure.KJhttp://kj-prince.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-69923219744826295592014-11-03T08:31:43.779-08:002014-11-03T08:31:43.779-08:00I have enjoyed your blog for some time and I would...I have enjoyed your blog for some time and I would love to have heard your talk in London tomorrow - unfortunately it is members only...InLikeFlintnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-60600227700386609552014-11-03T06:33:51.748-08:002014-11-03T06:33:51.748-08:00"I first hear about the death of baseball one..."I first hear about the death of baseball one<br />night last December. A friend of mine, a syndicated sports columnist, called me<br />after eleven o’clock and broke the news. “Hey,” he said, “have you seen the<br />crowds at the Jets’ games lately? Unbelievable! It’s exactly like the old days<br />at Ebbets Field. Pro football is the thing, from now on. Baseball is finished<br />in this country. Dead.” He sounded so sure of himself that I almost looked for<br />the obituary in the Times the next morning. (“Pastime, National, 99; after a<br />lingering illness. Remains on view at Cooperstown, N.Y.”)<br /><br /><br />Though somewhat<br />exaggerated, my friend’s prediction proved to be a highly popular one. In the<br />next three or four months, the negative prognosis was confirmed by resident<br />diagnosticians representing most of the daily press, the magazines, and the<br />networks, and even by some foreign specialists from clinics like the New<br />Republic and the Wall Street Journal . All visited the bedside and came away<br />shaking their heads. Baseball was sinking. Even if the old gent made it through<br />until April and the warmer weather, his expectations were minimal— lonely<br />wheelchair afternoons on the back porch, gruel and antibiotics, and the sad<br />little overexcitement of his one- hundredth birthday in July.<br /><br /><br />I haven’t run into<br />my dour friend at any ball games this summer, but I doubt whether the heavy<br />crowds and noisy excitement of the current season, which is now well into its<br />second half, would change his mind. The idea of the imminent demise of baseball<br />has caught on, and those who cling to it (and they are numerous) seem to have<br />their eyes on the runes instead of that leaping corpse."<br /><br /><br />Roger Angell<br />August 1969<br /><br /><br />Read this passage the other day and felt:<br /><br /><br />1) same shit, different industry<br />2) the more things change, the more they stay the same<br />3) that Bob could have written that pieceGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-8649869098374026222014-10-31T14:00:54.662-07:002014-10-31T14:00:54.662-07:00I'm SO glad you called out Godin on this.I'm SO glad you called out Godin on this.The Sky Is Falling!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-68214185662164981622014-10-30T11:52:49.849-07:002014-10-30T11:52:49.849-07:00Keep at it Bob. If we believed everything every ex...Keep at it Bob. If we believed everything every expert told us, in marketing everything is dead. The problem is, it isn't.Timmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-51788042906218571352014-10-30T10:02:35.902-07:002014-10-30T10:02:35.902-07:00Agreed, Shanghai.Agreed, Shanghai.Lewis LaLanne - NoteTakingNerdhttp://www.mynotetakingnerd.com/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-56634420784339188452014-10-30T06:39:31.129-07:002014-10-30T06:39:31.129-07:00I heard a great quote on NPR yesterday from someon...I heard a great quote on NPR yesterday from someone who observes advertising sales:<br /><br />"If TV is dead like they say, then it's being buried in money."BrendaKilgournoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-50916819240843909192014-10-30T02:01:30.007-07:002014-10-30T02:01:30.007-07:00Go George!Go George!Jeffrey Summershttp://SHGWW.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-51196641722215125632014-10-29T22:16:05.932-07:002014-10-29T22:16:05.932-07:00Lewis,
Mark Twain put it more succinctly "We...Lewis,<br /><br />Mark Twain put it more succinctly "We don't hold beliefs. Beliefs hold us."Shanghai61noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-22003714811329682002014-10-29T17:04:21.380-07:002014-10-29T17:04:21.380-07:00Ironically I was sent this link today. Included ev...Ironically I was sent this link today. Included every tired fallacy and conference platform cliché going in the brave new marketing world:<br /><br />http://wfoa.wharton.upenn.edu/perspective/robbert-rietbroek/#Adrian Langfordnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-26393139956718843442014-10-29T11:31:07.740-07:002014-10-29T11:31:07.740-07:00I've been following this "X is dead"...I've been following this "X is dead" trend for quite a while, and I was guilty of some of it myself in the 1990s. (what? show me someone who learned web stuff in the 1990s and didn't say a few wacky things.) Some basic survival strategies until the current round of BS settles down: http://zgp.org/~dmarti/business/what-brands-can-do-now/dmartinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-50715495973960934912014-10-29T10:15:50.600-07:002014-10-29T10:15:50.600-07:00May we bring Claude Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz, John...May we bring Claude Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz, John Caples and David Ogilvy back from the dead, thank you.Tia Dobihttp://www.ExpandTheBrand.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-5463049773209793012014-10-29T09:20:02.955-07:002014-10-29T09:20:02.955-07:00Making the past irrelevant in marketing today and ...Making the past irrelevant in marketing today and creating phony crises diverts attention away from what the kids don't know and eliminates any reason to learn it.Jeff Shubertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-70817595713401996712014-10-29T07:54:02.691-07:002014-10-29T07:54:02.691-07:00The hardest thing in the world right now is naviga...The hardest thing in the world right now is navigating the subtleties of what is changing and what is staying the same. <br /><br /><br />Generally a lot more is the same than what most modern marketeers have us believe, but the importance of the few things that are changing and the new opportunities are vast.<br /><br />Unfortunately a lot of the next gen ad people are know nothings but with their 10k twitter followers get the air time at SXSW and the next generation of marketers believe their nonsense. But we've also a lot of older advertising types who stubbornly refuse to understand enough of the new to challenge these people and have learned to just duck down.<br /><br /><br />What we need are people who get both worlds and have credibility, I see few of those types around.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-61290344999233535122014-10-29T07:42:55.190-07:002014-10-29T07:42:55.190-07:00It's the difference between being oppressed an...It's the difference between being oppressed and being manipulated. Marketers accept the "bad news" delivered by certain people as fact and that things must change or be new, when in fact they're simply being sold something. Something awful.Cecil B. DeMillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-26587090452300861672014-10-29T06:43:57.144-07:002014-10-29T06:43:57.144-07:00I think we should also consider my twist on Veblen...I think we should also consider my twist on Veblen. He had the Theory of the Leisure Class. Today we have the Leisure of the Theory Class. A whole strata of agency people who do nothing but blow smoke.George Tannenbaumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-57046212373417434022014-10-29T06:42:30.857-07:002014-10-29T06:42:30.857-07:00I've met a few copywriters I wish were dead. O...I've met a few copywriters I wish were dead. Or "ded" as they would sometimes write it, until I righted them. But agree - there's very little employment out of continually declaring that nothing much has changed. The only problem with that is that, actually, nothing much has changed. Not as often as they would like you to think, anyway. Plus ca change....Richardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5249997465016074955.post-39615208006502479122014-10-29T01:00:05.046-07:002014-10-29T01:00:05.046-07:00Totally agree with you. Although I would not assum...Totally agree with you. Although I would not assume that all marketing pundits do it knowingly. They may be so passionate about what they do that everything else seems like getting obsolete, and the fact that there are so many of them leaves a big impact.Hitesh Sahnihttp://hiteshsahni.com/noreply@blogger.com