Some of you may recognize the name Marc Andreessen and others may not. Marc is an American entrepreneur and is best known for developing an internet browser named Mosiac – back in 1993. Marc is only one of six inductees into the World Wide Web hall of fame.  Suffice it to say, Marc’s work in coding up Mosaic at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSCA) cracked open a door that allowed the internet to appear on our screens. (more…)

Quick… Double Stuff Oreos or Chips Ahoy? Cheer or Tide? Pepsi or Coke? You’ve already decided before you decided.

New breakthroughs in EEG (Electroencephalography), which is the study of brain electrical circuitry and raw computer processing power, is shedding light on how you buy thing. Welcome to neuromarketing. (more…)

Imagine all the things charities do around the world… supplying food, water, clothing and health care. Now imagine a charity set up to change the way the world computes. Enter the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Caldecote, Cambridgeshire, UK. (more…)

If you find logging into your favorite shipper’s website to track packages takes forever, there is an easy solution. Just type the tracking number into Google and hit return. UPS, Fedex and the USPS are all supported. You are taken to the appropriate website with the current information on the shipment, bypassing the extra keystrokes and clicks. (more…)

Picking up the pieces of a broken dream

You’ve been here before. The creative brief was well thought out. The target audience was “mirco-defined” and the final communication solution tested well in focus groups… Even so, the new launch fell flat with lackluster sales results and now there is a scramble on to come up with a fix.

Your target audience paid no attention to the message and now triage begins. What could have we done better? Maybe we should have chosen the other creative option? Did we misread the focus group results? Did we pick the wrong media selection?

What used to work doesn’t work anymore

Over the last century, advertising results worked well within wide boundaries. Like most companies, your creative messages were accepted by a fair majority of customers and consumers. (more…)

Burger King Fires the King in an Advertising Strategy Switch

Burger King recently “retired” the King character from their advertisements. Industry experts believe the king was forced to leave or be terminated. It’s unclear if there was a non-compete clause in his contract, but it widely assumed he received a substantial severance package.

Not only is the King gone, but so is long-time agency of record, Cripin, Porter + Bousky. After 7 plus years of countless dollars spent on building the King character, Burger King is pulling the plug on him.

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Literally Worth Billions

If you spend very much time online looking for great discounted deals, you have probably heard of a company called Groupon. While you may not know exactly what Groupon does or how it operates, two things are certain; it has raised a lot of seed capital and turned down a $6 billion dollar buy-out offer by Google. How can a company that most people are unfamiliar with and only two years old be worth 6 billion dollars? It’s simple, because financial experts and capital investors say so.

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Understanding the Who, What and Why Will Save You Time and Money
When it comes to web development (building a website), most small and mid-sized companies understand they need to be online, but they usually don’t understand what is involved or what is practical. (more…)

In the Chicago area, basic cable Comcast TV service, which displays about 12 channels combined with cable Internet, costs around $67 a month. A portion of this amount, around $12, is spent on taxes. During a year, a subscriber will pay about $800 a year for this bare bones service. Stepping up to an entry level Comcast entertainment package adds about another $600 a year to that service, tipping the scales at a hefty $1400 a year for “TV” and internet. (more…)