Hey, it’s the 1 year anniversary of The Hopkinson Report! So what’s my secret? Either delve into a topic that you’re really really into, or meet and interview people doing very cool things. As a car geek, I spent 4 hours at the New York Auto Show. So in a testament to my very first episode, the Porsche vs. the iPhone, I’m going to talk about cars, and marketing.
First let’s set the scene… The New York Auto Show is a massive production, a popular trade show that takes place at the Javits Center in Manhattan for up to 12 hours a day over the course of 10 days. Saturday April 11 brought pouring rain to New York City, making it the perfect day to be inside but do something fun. After sufficient food and caffeination, I descended into the belly of the beast.
The crowd was extremely diverse. There were plenty of 30-something white guys like me ogling the latest Porsches, families of 5 climbing in and out of minivans, and gangly teenagers with newly-minted driver’s licenses in the Fast and Furious demo talking tiptronic transmissions.
I also spotted a few secretly giddy Dads that probably implied to their wives that it would be a big chore to lug the boy to the show. Later on, he would ruin his 8-year-old son for the next 50 years by sitting him in the driver’s seat of a $100,000 Mercedes convertible, not realizing he had planted a seed in the kids brain and that he wouldn’t actually get to OWN that car until he was nearing retirement.
But with a fun, free-for-all atmosphere where everyone there patiently followed the car show etiquette of taking turns getting to sit in most any car they wanted, and without the normal stress of a used car salesman in a bad suit hovering over you, it was bliss for a car geek.
Are the new breed of netbooks the real deal or marketing hype?
In last week’s podcast and blog post, I laid out a dilemma for the gadget-obsessed. The Amazon Kindle 2 and a slew of mini notebook computers – or netbooks – have entered the market in the last year or so at a price point of $350.
Is either, or both of them, worth the tech investment?
Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):
The price point of $350 is very interesting, especially in these times. For a lot of people, if there’s a gadget you need for $40 or less, such as a thumb drive, a new set of earbuds, or a case for your iPhone, most likely you’ll grab it as an impulse buy because it will make you happy or more efficient.
If there’s something over $400, like a new TV, a new Macbook, or a video console system and a few games, then it becomes more discretionary and something you put off until you have the budget for it. Or at least that’s how it you SHOULD look at it.
Do I? In looking back at my major geek purchases over the last 18 months, it turns out I’ve been remarkably consistent in my upgrade pattern. Let’s take a look:
Frankly, this analysis is rather stunning. I’m almost ashamed. Three to four years???
The sky is falling! The economy is failing! People are panicking! So why are all these people so happy? I take to the streets to find out why.
It was a simply spectacular fall Sunday in New York City. Much, much too nice out to stay inside and work on a podcast, so I took the streets of Manhattan with my camera to talk to people and find out first-hand how the current state of the economy was effecting them. Here are 5 profiles.
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I have a saying that when you live in New York City, every day is like being on vacation. The sites, the sounds, the excitement. And nowhere is that more evident than Manhattan’s SoHo district. The area is known for it’s cast iron architecture, extravagantly-priced artist lofts, retail and boutique shopping, leggy models, fashion designers, and art galleries.
The variety of accents you’ll hear in just 5 minutes on the corner of Prince and Mercer tells you that visitors from around the globe descend on the area to experience all it has to offer. Surely one of the richest neighborhoods in the country (Forbes has the nearby 10003 zip code as the 14th most expensive in the country, just 4 spots behind 90210) will be feeling the downturn.
Lets see what people say … continue reading the blog post below.
The internet has revolutionized the way we conduct business. But one category that seemingly can’t be brought online is the process of buying glasses. I discuss why it’s so blurry.
Today’s podcast is a bit of a rant. Quite simply, I want to buy new glasses. The problem is, the process of doing so is one of the few things in life that are NOT made easier by the web. Let me explain.
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I am the ultimate researcher. Give me any task, from finding the best digital camera to the best sushi restaurant in New York and I will give you a rundown of all the things you need to consider. In the past six months I have researched Blu Ray DVD players, pillowtop mattresses, external hard drives, portable thumb drives, ski houses in upstate New York, and traditional Japanese guest houses in Kyoto. Really, I’m a machine. Everyone asks me to do this.
All of this is made easier by the web. I type fast, am a Google god, and can open a new browser tab with a new source of information before you can blink.
But none of this matters when looking for new glasses. The system is broken, and I’m going to give you 7 reasons why.
Have you ever thought about what it takes to create and market your own business? The founders of Roomorama.com have taken an existing niche business idea and added social media to it. I interview the founders, Jia and Federico, to see what they’ve learned.
They’ve taken the concept of connecting people looking for short-term apartment rentals in major cities, and added a twist of social media.
Click below to listen to this podcast interview:
Play Episode:
We cover the following topics:
Making the leap from 9-to-5 worker to entrepreneur
How did they get started?
What problem did they see that they were passionate about solving?
Jia’s reaction the week before she quit her day job
Product positioning
Handling online financial transactions
Funding a small business
The Roomorama revenue model
Creating a win-win situation with customers
Advantage of Roomorama vs. competitors like Craig’s List
Using the community and transparency to build trust
It’s the best time of year… football season. Not looking forward to getting angry looks from the wife or girlfriend when you want to sit on the couch all day Sunday? Turn her into a football fanatic in 10 easy steps.
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Hello and welcome sports fans – um, I mean marketing and technology fans. Before I came to Wired to immerse myself in the latest gadgets, technology, and innovation, I spent 8 years at ESPN.com marketing my first love, sports.
So as football season 2008 kicks off, indulge me and I’ll tell you how to turn your wife or girlfriend into a football fanatic in 10 easy steps – think of it as marketing the game to her.
And as a bonus, I’ll give you my 7 rules for scalping tickets – think of that as a tutorial in business negotiation skills.
Note that this was based on a true story, and if you have any feedback, send your comments to: MarketingGuy@Wired.com.
This week’s episode is part rant, part How-to, and part customer service failure, as I take you through my special experience when switching cell phone carriers.
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When you’re just a kid, your mom tells you you’re special. That there’s nobody else in the entire world like you. And as I stood in line, speaking to the hapless worker behind the AT&T counter – telling my story, again – I was beginning to think that, well, that just may be true. Somehow, some way, I was the most unique mobile cell phone customer on the entire planet, and not a single person at AT&T, Sprint, Apple, Best Buy, or the vast expanse of the entire world wide web could solve my problem.
It was the weekend of July 12, and for fans of the Apple iPhone, it was truly Christmas in July. I had held off purchasing the original model, but for the past six months I had subscribed to 3 different iPhone RSS feeds, soaking in every rumor and secret screenshot, and was ready to get my hands on a gleaming new iPhone 3G.
This story is not about my quest to get the actual phone, although it could be. I bailed out on a 4-hour line at the 5th Avenue store in Manhattan that Friday night, was told inventory was sold out at an AT&T store on Saturday morning, arrived too late to get in line at the Apple Store again on Saturday night, but finally clutched the device in my hands after a 2 ½ hour wait at the Soho store on Sunday afternoon. The phone itself was mine.
My story is about what I thought was a very, very simple question.
Marketing can be quite difficult. John Wanamaker, who founded one of the first department stores in the US, is attributed as saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
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Of course, there are always new tools that aim to make marketing easier and more quantifiable. For example, Wired is currently trying out a technology from a new company called SnapAds that simplifies performance testing. They take a banner ad for a Wired Magazine Subscription – you know the ones, “Subscribe to Wired… Just $10 a year” – and simultaneously are able to test 9 different covers, 6 product offers, 7 calls to action, and 10 colors. That’s a lot of data to analyze, and fairly groundbreaking.
So as I was walking home through Union Square in Manhattan recently, I came across an artist displaying his work, and I was struck by something so simple, that I wanted to highlight it and share it with you.
For this week’s podcast, I interviewed Julia Allison, who appears on the cover of the August issue of Wired Magazine. We talked about tips for self-promotion in the new media age, personality-based marketing, and why she won’t be buying an iPhone.
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View photos, videos, and story links in the blog post below:
“BRACE YOURSELF”
Those were the words that Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson said to me when I told him I was interviewing Julia Allison for my podcast.
I’d already seen the media maelstrom that starts churning whenever her name is mentioned. And so had he. In response to a thank you e-mail Julia wrote to him, knowing all the flack he would take for putting her on the cover, Chris stated “Don’t worry—we’re big boys and we knew what we were doing.”
Put simply, what he was doing was marketing. Some people love her. Many people hate her. But what you can’t deny is that she’s a lightning rod for publicity. Would you prefer the alternative of a boring cover that doesn’t evoke any reaction?
I’ve heard more than one person say, “Oh my God, I hate that girl, I was on her web site for 20 minutes and I can’t believe the things she posts on there.” From a strictly marketing perspective, the key phrase is “on her site for 20 minutes.” What is the average time spent on your blog or website?
Julia talks about:
What three elements make the top YouTube video of all time
In this week’s episode, I get away from million dollar advertising agencies with slickly produced ad campaigns, and in the immortal words of the Doobie Brothers, I’m taking it to the streets.
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As an online marketer of “new media” I’m always on the lookout for effective ways to use new technology, be it viral campaigns on social media sites or tapping into new platforms such as the iPhone. But sometimes the most effective marketing campaign is standing right in front of you every single day.
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