Jennifer Slegg Interviews Yahoo! SVP Steve Mitgang

Jennifer doesn’t put up daily interviews, but when she does, they are interviews that make you take notice.

The interview of Yahoo! SVP Steve Mitgang focuses on the release of Panama. New metrics like assists and number of interesting and many other new items are discussed. The interview lasts about 60 minutes.

Good job Jen!!!

Forrester Consumer Conference - Mobile Marketing’s Play In The Channel Strategy

Charles S. Golvin, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Where do you fit in? Discussed Crest toothpaste mobile campaign example

What tools are available, what is the reach, what are the learnings?

Tools available today:
- Messaging
 - Voting
 - Promotions
 - Search
- Mobile Browser
 - Banners
 - Interstitial
 - Search-based
- Applications and content
 - Free / discounted services

New mechanisms are emerging
 - Physical proximity
 - Coupons and loyalty (Cellfire)
 - Using location (opt-in) to improve targeting

Where does mobile fit?
Eyeballs>>Awareness>>Consideration>>Preference>>Personal>>Loyalty

What is the reach of these tools?
1 in 4 receive text messages regularly

Youth see their mobile phone differently

Think Europe is so far ahead? Think again…
 - Internet penetration is higher in USA than Europe

What does the data mean?
 - Mobile campaigns need to target data adopters

It’s still early
 - Most US consumers still use voice
 - Mobile formats are small and generally difficult to use
 - Ad Standards need to be developed
 - Mobile is a unique channel

Compared with the fixed Web, consumers’ mobile experiences are:
 - Abbreviated
 - Transactional
 - More tied to the physical world
 - Successful campaigns embrace these differences

Best practices
 - Target mobile early adopters
 - Immediacy factor
 - Tailor content to mobile screen and user’s process
 - Use promotions to boost response rate
 - Employ creative or ad formats that match product or service
 - Time campaigns for maximum business ROI
 - Tie mobile to offline marketing

Tomorrow’s mobile marketing next practices
 - Integrated marketing campaigns
 - Performance-based metrics
 - Smart use of innovative functionality
 - Location sensitivity

Forrester Consumer Conference - Tuning Into Mobile TV

Charles Glovin gave the presentation

TV be gone!

Mobile video takes many forms.

What is the timetable for success?

Key elements for success…

                        Person to Person       Application to Person
Not Real Time   Video Messaging          Video Downloads 
                        Video Streaming
Real Time         Video Phone                Broadcast TV
                        P2P video streaming     Live Video Streaming
- SeeMeTV

- I-report on CNN

- MobiTV >= 32 channels well known brands – currently repurposed cable content

- GoTV >10 channels

High speed cellular networks are expanding adoption during 2007 to 2008

Broadcast is more efficient than streaming

And new networks are under construction

- True broadcast video, optimized for mobile devices
  - Launching in early 2007 in limited markets
  - Around 25 video channels, plus audio programming
- These new network operators will be wholesalers to the mobile carriers
  - All interactivity will come from the cellular network
  - Excess capacity can be used for datacasting and personalization

New mobile services are slow to catch on.
  - Price, battery life, size and style are decision points
  - Service has to be widely available.
  - Consumers have to understand the proposition
 
Mobile TV has some additional hurdles
  - Content with broad appeal
  - TV needs to look like TV

TV is just one piece
  - TV on mobile will always be inferior
  - Differentiation lies in its interactive capabilities and in location
  - Enables conversations

Mobile TV’s success is several years away

Success in Web 2.0 - Notes from Paypal cofounder Max Levchin and YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim

I didn’t go, but my good friend Jonathan Andrew Wolter went to the ACM Relfections Projections conference and provides a great post on some of the key speeches at the conference. Enjoy!  

Forrester Consumer Conference - NASCAR Presentation

Mike Helton, President of NASCAR, was a fascinating speaker. He talked about many things that as someone who was a big NASCAR fan as a kid, I was never even aware of that were amazing to learn. Two things stand out:

1. NASCAR is intensely focused on relationships and partnerships.

2. NASCAR has always been focused on customers.

It’s no wonder that they are so successful!

The thirty-one degree banking at Daytona built with customer experience in mind – being able to see the whole track at once! I never thought about it before, maybe the best customer experience involves things you don’t even notice. 

NASCAR is now the #2 sport on TV only behind only the NFL, 75 million viewers

Mr. Helton  believes that access to the drivers is critical piece of the success.

Recently opened a new LA office, NYC office, creating opportunities of NASCAR drivers to be in everyday life and making appearances in show business.

All of the sponsors work closely with licensing and headquarters. Sponsors are critical not only to underwriting the costs, but to other aspects of the sport as well.

NASCAR has always taken advantage of technology. (what a great mantra and it’s true)

NASCAR has racetracks, car owners and drivers who are independent – Mr. Helton expressed amazement that it all works sometimes. 

All in all, when I saw Mr. Helton on the agenda, I truly had no idea what to expect, I saw a new side of NASCAR, one that made me appreciate the other side of NASCAR.

How to View My Speech at eComXpo

I would love it if you could take a few moments to log into www.ecomxpo.com

- Visit education center

- On demand presentations

- Click on attend now on my speech after scrolling down

Please enter my blogging contest.

Danny Sullivan to Continue with SES (Official)

Incisive Media and Danny Sullivan today announced that both parties have signed an agreement to continue to work together to produce the market-leading Search Engine Strategies series of conferences and exhibitions.

This past August, Danny Sullivan, who has always been an independent contractor, announced his intention to step away from active involvement with SES at the end of 2006. Since then, both parties have remained in contact and have reached an accord to extend their relationship through 2007.

Questionable Google Ads For Splog Creation

Mass Blog Creator on a domain called Googlenizer? Make thousands of dollars each month? This can only mean one thing, splogs. Why does Google allow advertising for tools known to be creating the duplicate content problems?

Billy Dexter - MTV’s Chief Diversity Officer

Billy Dexter is a power networker in Keith Ferrazzi’s league. I had the priviledge of seeing Billy speak this week at a National Black MBA event here in Chicago. He is dynamic, funny and charming. He currently serves as MTV’s Chief Diversity Officer, it was not a job he asked for, they asked him. To study Billy is a great case study of the importance of personal branding to future success.  

Billy was working as a headhunter on the search at the time. MTV couldn’t decide which candidate to select and met with Billy to discuss the issue. After the meeting, MTV HR called Billy and said they changed their mind, they wanted to hire Billy instead! He thought they were joking, but they weren’t. They asked him to make his offer for them. In his words, he went “real ghetto with it”. They accepted his initial proposal untouched and h felt like he should have asked for more! I’m not doing the story justice with this blog entry, you should hear him tell it one day!

One of his networking tips that is distinct is that Billy says, “people need to feel comfortable with you.” It’s an interesting concept, one that Billy himself is a bit challenged to explain more deeply, though he claims not to be a natural.

Here are some of Billy’s tips for success:

- Develop a script to engage people and your “30 second commercial”

- Attend an opportunity event frequently

- Develop both up and down mentoring

- Study, refine and prioritize your personal and professional networking contacts

- Put your execution plan on paper by date and context

- Find ways to make connections with others

- Constantly monitor you results celebrate your accomplishments and adjust your plan, if required   

As I stated, Billy Dexter is both interesting and enganging, I look forward to building a relationship with him over time.

If you ever need someting to start a conversation about with Billy - try golf, he is an avid golfer!

You May Hire Another Candidate

But I may work for your competitor…

My Speech at eComXpo Now Has a Contest

In conjunction with my discussion at eComXpo about “Mobile Search Marketing: The Coming Evolution of Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Customer Officer”, I’m announing a contest! Prizes will be awarded via random drawing on Monday, October 30th, 2006, odds of winning depend on number of entries received and viewed via blog search engines.
Prize #1 - Dalka will be giving out one of his famous blog interviews to one lucky winner! (estimated value - priceless!)
Prize #2 - One eComXpo University Pass to allow leisurely viewing of content at a later time after the close of the conference, a great value if you missed part of the show. (estimated value - $99)

To enter, simply answer the following questions in a blog entry before the close of eComXpo:
1) Who exports what cereal to what country and why?
2) Who had a flat tire?
3) What three disparate data sets does David advocate tying together to create a customer driven experience?

Susan Bratton’s New Podcast Series

Susan Bratton has a new podcast series, you should check it out!!!

McKinsey Quarterly E-mail Snafu

Segmenting e-mail audience further to send less e-mail is good.

Sending an e-mail out that has a link like this isn’t.

Competizione - Blogging Contest Central

Competizione was recently launched. Competizione is the first place I sent my new contest.

What a fun and naturally link friendly blog to run! I bet they’ll see some pretty off the wall and neat stuff. I wish them luck in growing an interesting and diverse fan base!

An Indeed.com Alternative

Getthejob.com is a new job aggregator that differentiates itself from indeed.com in that it doesn’t pick up  postings from headhunters, third party recruiters or too-good-to-be-true scam jobs. They claim that 70% of the postings can’t be found on commercial job boards. They do have Ladders affiliate ads however, so the option is still there, it’s just in a less spammy format on an ad on the side. I like this and it’s potential. What it lacks in comparison to Indeed is the freshness date of the listing, this is a major oversight that, once rectified, would make it a superior product.

What I’m not certain about:

- Mr. Amato states, ”Most employers don’t post ALL of their openings on traditional job sites because it would be cost prohibitive, but they do post them to their own corporate career center, which costs nothing, we help jobseekers find these hidden jobs.” This is not 100% true - for some reason many employers do not post all open jobs, choosing to keep senior jobs private and undisclosed. This is most unfortunate as many qualified and passionate seekers are not enabled to be looked at and more employers need to look at becoming fully transparent.

- How does one know that these companies actually utilize posted resumes and not primarily from recruiters?

- Mr. Fulton then states, “This allows jobseekers to read the entire job description and apply for the job using the companies preferred application method. It is believed that resumes passed directly through a company career site are more visible than those transmitted through a third-party site.” Based on what?

- Not having a searchable resume database is interesting, but it’s very time consuming to fill out things with an uncertain outcome.

Overall, I appreciate Bob Etheridge for calling me and informing me about the service, with a few tweaks, I could see it becoming a strong player in the marketplace.

Jason Jacobsohn of Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Center Interviewed

My good friend Jason Jacobsohn was recently interviewed by Tom Long in a one hour podcast. Jason talks about the services of the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center, the emerging tech scene in Chicago and gives advice useful to any emerging small business. Good stuff. He also appeared in a networking article recently.

If you scroll up a bit you can also hear a podcast from my friend Tom Casale.  

In future interviews on Chicago tech, I’d like to see the Chicago community talk about how do we get passionate business talent injected into these businesses to accelerate the growth process. Tech is about enabling a business purpose.

Lee Odden - an Interview by Neil Patel

Neil Patel at Pronetadvertising has a nifty interview of Lee Odden about search engine and social media optimization and related topics. I’m not surprised to see that Lee focuses on customers first, he’s such a warm and friendly guy, you can’t help but like him. Good reading…

Is Your Resume Going Into Spam Oblivion?

This excellent article discusses the major problems with this issue. While you can’t eliminate it completely, it contains some good tips to reduce the issue.

Chicago GSB Named #1 MBA by Business Week - 10 Metrics to Redesign

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Chicago GSB) was rated the top MBA program in the Business Week bi-annual MBA survey of recruiters and students.

As a proud alumni, I want be clear that I appreciate the quality students, alumni and faculty at Chicago GSB.

However, theses surveys have not changed much since the rating systems were started several decades ago. What’s missing from that survey is alumni and the alumni experience now that MBA programs are a mature and not a growth industry. The metrics and experience here is much more unclear and are overdue for significant redesign.

Some questions I’d like to see in a redesigned survey that should carry a one third weighting alongside current students and alumni:

1. What is the alumni satisfaction rating of the institution from alumni at the 5, 10, 20 year mark?

2. What Internet based networking tools are in use? For example, I’ve asked Ted Snyder for a Simple Machines Message Board for all alumni (privacy set to no outside view) for several years and this has not been made a priority which is sad as it’s simple to implement. I want to be able to post obscure topics and find that needle in the haystack, whether I’m going to Shanghai and need to network, what to find others interested in using blog buzz to help price options or other new topics of interest. In other words, which school has not only the best network, but a culture of lifting all boats and leaving nobody behind?

3. What percentage of the alumni does the institution have accurate contact data for in a shared directory for all alumni to use? What is the strategy to create value so that all alumni are excited about staying in touch with the school and the network?

4. What is the ratio of dollars spent on alumni every year versus new student attraction? If it’s a quality alumni experience, the ratio will be less. This is a simple metric to calculate once the data is transparent.

5. What percentage consider themselves fully employed and utilized?

6. Do salaries really go up from graduation level or are most of these salaries higher due to churn and burn industries with long hours? Stated a different way are the salaries the GMAC publishes for the sole purpose of student attraction misleading? Some suggest that they are. Considering the GMAC publishes these studies during the application season, the business school self-reported salary data is highly suspect.

7. As the baby boomers age and pockets of shortages arise, we need to change the campus recruiting policies to focus on hiring gifted thought leaders based on competencies regardless of year of graduation - there are pockets of underemployed MBA’s form the 2001-2003 era that should be redeployed fully to roles worthy of their skills - the current process doesn’t allow this to occur and it is obsolete - it exists only to encourage student attraction and influence each year’s performance stats - you see it in the Business Week stats - it’s all about salaries (which are inflated because they are mostly not jobs with normal hours) - isn’t there more to life than just salary?

8. What percentage of the alumni are currently giving gifts to the school?

9. What percent of alumni are living in the geographic region of their choice?

10. Does the school have functional and relevant alumni activities both in industry verticals and in geography?

These are just a few of the metrics that I would invite Business Week, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times to explore fully for overhaul. Please feel free to comment and add ideas to this discussion, link to this post or forward it to anyone via e-mail whom could influence this positive and needed metric changes. Thank you for joining the conversation for needed reform.

Another Established Personalized Service Put to Rest by Macy’s

Marshall Field’s was slaughtered, now Macy’s killed the personalized stationary in the store too. It’s interesting how much this relates to recruiting.  

Personal stationery makes you feel like you’ve arrived. For the person on the receiving end, opening the envelope is like opening a gift.

The ladies of the Personalized Stationery Team were like fairy godmothers. They knew their products, their manners and what was appropriate for every occasion. They helped customers create a first impression that made a statement before the recipient read a single word.

It could easily take hours to choose stationery, which is nothing when you consider it can take years to use it up. A few weeks after placing an order, the stationery arrived in the mail, appropriately. Inside the cardboard mailing boxes were the stationery boxes themselves, sturdy, tasteful yet fancy. The stationery fit perfectly inside its box. The paper was bundled with a sealed paper ring, the envelopes underneath neatly stacked like folded laundry.

It then goes on to say:

The online stationery shopping experience promises the full dose of isolation and frustration. There we’ll be, staring at the computer screen, clicking down endless selections of paper, trying to discern on a flickering screen the true texture and weight of paper, wondering what color it will it be in real life. No one will be there to suggest the perfect color of ink, or a squiggle or flourish or icon that will turn mere paper and ink into a personal trademark.

Sounds to me like an exact replica of what is happening in online recruiting, a working process has been replaced with and isolating and frustrating process that doesn’t bring true thought leaders into leadership roles. What is the quality of the paper and sentence structure - who is this person? We need to put the most talented hiring managers back into the final selection of sourced resumes before recruiters call.

keep looking »