Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

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Want to influence China? Forget Olympic Torch Protests!

China’s power today is driven by economics first and foremost. Want to lead the charge, make a difference, influence their human rights policy? Forget the Olympics, forget Olympic Torch protests. The Olympics are symbolic, and while as a Buddhist, I certainly acknowledge and applaud any attention given to the plight of Tibet, protests will accomplish very little in the long run.

Want to really make a change?

Every time you go to the store, check to see where a product is made. If you have a choice between goods made in China and any other nation (and you may not), buy the product made somewhere else as often as you can.

Commit today to buy 25% fewer goods made in China, and 25% more goods made in the USA or other countries that support the human rights initiatives you value.

Economic power made the giant, and economic power can change its course on human rights – but only if you have the will as a consumer to vote with your wallet, no matter how great the sale is.

April 8, 2008
Arrive Smarter

I’m loading up my iPod before heading back to Boston, and it occurred to me this simple thing:

With as much content as we have available to us – TED Talks, Google Talks, Google Employee Discussions, NY 2012, PodCamps, etc. – if you own the gear and don’t arrive at your destination smarter than you left, you’re not taking advantage of the technology.

If you have an iPod capable of video (and yes, I recognize many don’t, but for those who do…) load up your personal graduate school of life and arrive smarter.

April 3, 2008
Why The Rick Astley YouTube Rickroll Matters

It’s all good fun today on April Fool’s Day as Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up is linked from all of YouTube’s featured videos. Just fun, right?

Heck no. There’s a lot more to this.

We’ve heard a lot of metrics about YouTube and other social sites, about how many users there are. But what would happen if one video were promoted by YouTube to the near exclusion of everything else?

That’s today’s Rickroll. It’s not just an April Fool’s Day prank – it’s also a clear demonstration of how many users YouTube could aggregate to a single video if they so chose, and you can bet big media and marketers will be paying very close attention, particularly if the number of views heads into the tens of millions in just 24 hours.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: the Rick Astley video has embedding disabled. Why? It can’t be just a licensing thing. What if YouTube wanted an accurate measurement of plays just on YouTube.com? You’d have to disable embedding.

What, do you think this link is going to go anywhere else besides that video?

April 1, 2008
I have 2 SocialThing Invites. Want one?

I have 2 SocialThing Invites. Want one?

Here’s what you must do. Get THREE people to register for PodCamp NYC, and in the “how did you hear about PodCamp NYC” section, have them put YOUR email address (munged is okay, like cspenn at gmail dot com) and the word socialthing. Example:

How did you hear about PodCamp NYC? Heard from cspenn at gmail dot com / socialthing

First two people who refer THREE signups to PodCamp NYC gets the invite.

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March 31, 2008
Why Twitter Matters : It's Your AP Newswire
Lots of debate lately about Twitter – what it is, why it matters, how to use it. I’ll throw this thought out there:

Twitter is my personal AP Newswire.

Here’s the thing. I can’t afford a Bloomberg terminal ($1,800/month) or an AP newsfeed in real time and I’m unwilling to even spend on real time stock quotes, since by and large I don’t trade in equities. However, there are LOTS of people on Twitter who either work at or have connections in the companies and industries that I follow and study.

A few examples:
- On the day of the Bear Stearns crash, a Twitterati told me about conditions at Merrill Lynch and what was the thinking there
- Jay Moonah tipped me off to Google AdWords Demographics before the post showed up in Reader
- Pick any major newsworthy crash/disaster recently, like crane collapses or aircraft issues. Twitter has it long before CNN.
- A Black Hat SEO recently disclosed a VERY cool trick for gaming Digg on Twitter. Never would have seen it otherwise.
Scoble‘s on track – it’s about who you follow that gives Twitter its value, and not who follows you. Being popular is fun, being informed is valuable.

For me, Twitter is my AP Newswire…

…I’d wager, in fact, that it’s faster than AP.

Names of some parties have been withheld for their protection, and in some cases, you won’t even find them in my public “people I follow” list.

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March 30, 2008
Snapple Antioxidant Water is a Soft Drink

A few folks have been mentioning Snapple’s new soft drink, Snapple Antioxidant Water.

“Wait, it’s water, it’s not a soft drink!” I can hear Marketing shouting.

I beg to differ.

Exhibit A: water.

Ingredients: Water.

Serving Size: 1 cup (240ml)
Servings per Container: About 2.5
Calories per serving: 0
Total calories per bottle: 0
Total Fat: 0g % Daily Value (Fat): 0%
Sodium: 0 mg
% Daily Value (Sodium): 0%
Total Carb: 0 g
% Daily Value (Total Carb): 0%
Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 0 g
% Daily Value (Protein): 0%
Niacin (B3): 0%
Vitamin B6: 0%
Vitamin B12: 0%
Pantothenic Acid (B5): 0%
Vitamin A: 0%
Calcium: 0%
Vitamin E: 0%
Magnesium: 0%
Zinc: 0%

Exhibit B: Snapple’s drink.

Ingredients: Purified water, sugar, potassium citrate (electrolyte), citric acid, natural flavors, fruit and vegetable juices (for color), modified corn starch, calcium lactate (electrolyte), calcium gluconate (electrolyte), magnesium lactate (electrolyte), vitamin E acetate, calcium disodium edta (to maintain freshness), grape seed extract, zinc gluconate (electrolyte), vitamin A palmitate, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), manganese gluconate (electrolyte).

Serving Size: 1 cup (240ml)
Servings per Container: About 2.5
Calories per serving: 50
Total calories per container: 125
Total Fat: 0g % Daily Value (Fat): 0%
Sodium: 0 mg
% Daily Value (Sodium): 0%
Total Carb: 12 g
% Daily Value (Total Carb): 4%
Sugars: 12 g
Protein: 0 g
% Daily Value (Protein): 0%
Niacin (B3): 20%
Vitamin B6: 20%
Vitamin B12: 20%
Pantothenic Acid (B5): 20%
Vitamin A: 10%
Calcium: 2%
Vitamin E: 10%
Magnesium: 2%
Zinc: 2%

Lots of stuff in Snapple’s drink that you won’t find in authentic water, including the 125 calories per bottle.

Is it a good drink? That’s opinion. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say. Is it water? Hell no. It’s got as many calories per bottle as a 12 ounce Guinness, a small soda, a 12 ounce orange juice, and infinitely more calories than unsweetened coffee, tea, or water. If you drink 5 bottles of water, at the end of the day, you will have consumed 0 calories. If you drink 5 bottles of Snapple, at the end of the day, you will have consumed 625 calories, or a Burger King Whopper (no mayo).

What does this mean from a marketing perspective? By calling it water instead of a beverage, drink, etc. – pretty much anything that’s not water – it’s inherently misleading. People who drink it without reading the label and believe that it’s a substitute for water are in for a surprise, especially in their waistline. And Snapple’s not alone, not by any means. Sobe, I’m looking at you. Call it what it is – a soft drink. It may not be carbonated, and it may have more vitamins than a Diet Coke, but it’s still not a water substitute, and drinking it in lieu of water, if you’re thinking about health and weight control, will unpleasantly surprise you.

Updated:

I did some quick checking around. I found that another beverage, based on the marketing tactics above, can also be called antioxidant water!

Yes, it’s true – with only 160 calories per bottle, plus healthy doses of polyphenols, as many health benefits as red wine, and the antioxidant ferulic acid, here’s my antioxidant water!

Please consume antioxidant water responsibly.

Fun experiment: of all the people who drink antioxidant beverages, how many could even explain what antioxidants are?

Updated again:

Snapple’s marketing agent is going to send me some of their antioxidant water for a taste test and review. I plan on reviewing Snapple, tap water, bottled water, and beer.

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March 27, 2008
Learn to use the power of the Dark Side

Learn to use the power of the Dark Side of the Force. Listen to the best marketing podcast ever produced in a doughnut shop with my friend and co-host John Wall. In this week’s episode, it’s a Google showdown between for-profits and non-profits, and why it will make your keyword costs go through the roof.

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March 27, 2008
Scholarship Search eBook on WCVB Boston 5

Happy to say my Scholarship Search Secrets eBook was profiled on WCVB Boston 5 on the 6 o’clock news. That eBook, now in its fourth iteration, is one of the products of the Financial Aid Podcast – doing daily scholarship searches for 3 years makes you good at finding scholarships!

Original blog post and eBook download link is here.

And yes, that’s a Goodbye Planet Earth sticker on my MacBook Pro. That’s also Jacob Lewin, son of PodcastingNews.com’s Elisabeth Lewin and James Lewin.

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March 25, 2008
Easter Egg Hunt
Chris Brogan wrote:

Here’s what you do: find a “hidden gem” blog, someone who you think is writing good stuff, but who has only one or two comments per post. Write a blog post telling us just a little bit about that site, why you like it, who should become a regular reader, etc. Make sure there are TWO links in the post: one to that new site so we can find it, and one back to [chrisbrogan.com].

Actually, despite having published over 1,400 blog posts and 760+ audio podcast episodes, the vast majority of my posts on FinancialAidPodcast.com get zero – yes, zero – comments. I’ve debated for a long time why this might be. Comments are enabled, no registration required, etc. so it’s not necessarily barrier to entry. I think it might be the case that for my audience, it’s perceived as an “expert” blog and therefore audience members are reluctant to contribute, treating it more like an information source than a discussion.

The desired audience is fairly inclusive – students, parents, families, financial aid professionals, and anyone who likes:
- Free stuff
- Job hunting tips
- Personal finance
- and of course, help paying for college
So, Chris Brogan, send over the commenting hordes!

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March 23, 2008
Google out to bat for non-profits, hits home run

Google announced a slew of products specifically tailored to non-profits two days ago.

First, all their apps – Google Apps for Domains, etc. – are all free.

Google Checkout transaction processing is free to non-profits until 2009.

Here’s the game changer. Google Grants is an application process to qualify for free AdWords advertising. Where commercial organizations pay out the nose for top keywords, if your non-profit is a certified 501(c)(3) and is chosen as a Google Grants recipient, you can go head to head with corporate America for mission-critical keywords and spare your budget.

This is big – very big. It will give non-profits access to huge audiences and resources without needing huge budgets, and the smaller the non-profit, the more benefit they’ll be able to get if chosen for the grant.

Hats off to you, Google. You may be Big Brother, but at least you’re more or less benevolent.

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March 20, 2008

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