There is apparently a “new” Internet sensation wherein a man’s wife records him sleep talking. This Sleep Talking Man sensation is not new. A friend of mine has been doing it now for years. His name is Nate. While he has not recorded his sleep talking adventures in sometime, I believe his website is a bit more interesting because it displays the actual recorded versions of his somniloquy.
Some of my favorite quotes from his sleep talking website are the following:
“Have some chocolate with oxygen.”
“But my 305 instincts are kickin’ in.”
“Drop it like it’s hot like everyday!”
“Did you give her some negatively charged booty?”
“What’s the luh for?”
Anyway, if you’re looking for some good entertaining stuff, it is certainly the place to check out. I’ve been reading lately all over the web about this other Internet sensation for sleep talking, but there are a few out there doing it–he’s only one of the few.
This morning I was up at the University of Utah when I saw a little sign off to the side of a walkway. What really got my attention was that the sign was partly hidden behind the low hanging boughs of a tree. My first instinct was to walk to the other side of the walkway so that I could read what it was advertising; The Ultimate Sidewalk Sale.
I immediately though that it was a rather weird placement for a sign. Why didn’t they put it out in the open where people would see it more? As I was thinking about this I saw several other signs, all partially hidden behind trees, planter boxes, etc. Then the marketer in me kicked in, and it hit me.
The reason why the campus bookstore was advertising in this overt and somewhat abstract way is because it gets attention. This is what I like to call ambient advertising. Place an advertisement in an ambient, somewhat out of the way and unusual place and it is sure to get noticed.
Why is Ambient Advertising So Effective?
Because of the advertisements unique placement, people that notice the advertisement notice it more than had it been out in the open. People tend to ignore advertisements that are slapped right in the middle of their view. On the flip side, if an advertisement is placed in their periphery or in a highly unusual location then they notice and they often think about it.
The more you can get a prospective customer to notice and think about your product, the greater the probability that they Continue Reading »
Today I was in the middle of a conversation and hit a proverbial wall. I needed a word to describe a potential product that I’ve been working on. The product is still in R&D and still ‘under wraps’ so I didn’t want to make the mistake of using it’s name. I needed something else to call it, but the word I normally would have used in a situation like this, widget, has been de-definitionized. What I mean to say is that the old definition that I’ve lived with for my whole life has been replaced by a new one. The new definition, while now only adopted by tech savvy geeks such as myself, does not allow for the use of the old definition in most conversations.
Definitions
Old definition: widg-et (wĭj’ĭt); an unnamed or hypothetical manufactured article
New definition: widg-et (wĭj’ĭt); an element that runs on a social networking site or a computer users desktop that provides useful and timely information Continue Reading »
Thomas Friedman, in his best selling book The World is Flat, writes about the boom in technology as “steroids” that have the potential to heighten our abilities.
I call new technologies the steroids because they are amplifying and turbocharging all the other flatteners (the idea that the world is becoming an open global market). They are taking all the forms of collaboration… – outsourcing, offshoring, uploading, supply-chaining, insourcing, and in-forming – and making it possible to do each and every one of them in a way that is “digital, mobile, virtual, and personal,” … thereby enhancing each one and making the world flatter by day.
Through this mention he coined the idea that technology can act as steroids which can inseminate business and personal growth with success and achievement. He focused mainly on how technology enriches our abilities to collaborate, work more efficiently, and to be more innovative. He didn’t touch on how technology acts as a steroid in the social media and marketing aspects, however. I’ll go out on a limb and say that it was because his first edition was published in 2005, long before the rise of the Twitter/Facebook/MySpace empires.
I would like to take the opportunity and build upon his theory that technology is a steroid to success. In today’s world technology not only increases our productivity but also provides us with with many new methods by which we can market ourselves, our ideas, our products or our businesses.
Here are three steroids that can help you get your idea/product/self to market:
Medial-TEXTalin. This steroid increases strength of marketability and gives your marketing muscles a lot of WOW factor. Om Malik, a popular tech blogger I like to follow, wrote in a blog this morning about how text messaging was used with American Idol to generate a lot of cash. “AT&T says the most recent season of American Idol show generated 78 million text messages — up from 67 million last season.” This is not to say that you, who probably don’t have any revenue sharing contracts with AT&T, can make money directly off utilizing text messaging in your marketing. It does show how successful text messaging in marketing is becoming. Teens are texting a ton! Capitalize on it! Check out how Projective Marketing delivers results in text message campaigns it runs for clients. Continue Reading »
I’m sure you’ve all seen some great online videos. They’re funny, they make you laugh and then they get spread to all your friends when you email them a link or post the video on your blog! The purpose behind these videos is entertainment… sort of.
The reason why people post these videos is for entertainment, usually. Some people have really gone all out making a fun to watch video and have then become famous because of it. I think it is safe to say that these videos are being posted primarily for entertainments sake. That being said, a HUGE underlying factor behind a lot of these video postings is web traffic. Why would someone want more web traffic to their blog or website? Because web traffic is the currency of the internet. If you have a lot of unique visitors to your website then you are wealthy.
Do viral videos really help someone market themselves, their business or their idea?
You bet they do! Take Blu for example (Blu is his pen name… not totally sure who he is. A Google search turned up nothing, so I went to see who his website is registered under and it is registered to a Sabbadini, Gilulia… maybe that is his real name?). He has been blogging for a couple months at least. He also has a sweet website. However, his web traffic was quite low until he released an awesome video online.
His video, seen here, has been viewed 1.2 million times! It has been posted on blogs (like I’ve done here) over 400 times! There have been over 6,000 people that have commented on his video! According to the viral video chart it is the most viral video right now.
According to Alexa (one of the top dawgs in tracking web traffic) his website has grown hundreds of times over in the past two weeks.
The way he brought in all this extra traffic is through putting his web address at the top of the video, like is seen in the video here.
How can I use viral video marketing to push my own business or idea?
Great question! Keep watching this blog to find out. Nate, VP of Sales at Projective Marketing and I are both really excited about this viral video marketing project we’re working on. We’re going to release the case study on our own video bit by bit over the next couple of weeks, so keep reading to find out more!
