Blog o' RAMA

Web 2.0

Tim O'Reilly, of O'Reilly publishing, coined the now popular term, Web 2.0. On his website, he describes it as, "Design pattersn and business models for the next generation software."

There was a lot of controversy over the term, only a year or so ago, but now - anyone writing about or referring to the interactivity on today's Internet, uses it. O'Reilly writes,

"...what was it that made us identify one application or approach as "Web 1.0" and another as "Web 2.0"? (The question is particularly urgent because the Web 2.0 meme has become so widespread that companies are now pasting it on as a marketing buzzword, with no real understanding of just what it means. The question is particularly difficult because many of those buzzword-addicted startups are definitely not Web 2.0, while some of the applications we identified as Web 2.0, like Napster and BitTorrent, are not even properly web applications!) We began trying to tease out the principles that are demonstrated in one way or another by the success stories of web 1.0 and by the most interesting of the new applications."

The article is extensive and requires more reading than one can put in a blog post (or should put in a blog post) so I encourage you to go over and read it closely, for yourself.

In the meantime, I believe O'Reilly is right. Those of us engaged in the interactive web - whether that be social networking, blogging, social media, blogging, wikis, blogging - or whathaveyou, are  prone to describe what we do as Web 2.0. When, in truth, few of us every really understood Web 1.0.

I like the term Web 2.0 - and I use it to refer to a web that allows give and take, conversation, pull-marketing as opposed to push marketing. I like the long-tail concept of Web 2.0 and I like that the term is easy to say and to write. It works better than folksonomy, which is another emerging label people are putting on the way the web works now.

And, still, the Web 2.0 term has its detractors. Those who believe allowing the "masses" a voice in how they use the web, or how they want advertising delivered to them, is tandamount to - chaos. They think we will be overrun with mediocrity. They predict the end of civilization and learning.

And so, it is up to you to decide. It's up to you to accept responsibility for your words - and mine. For content in blogs written by schoolboys (or girls) or blogs written by professional journalists. It's your responsibility to take the Web 2.0 applications and figure out if they are helping make life better, or worse.

Come to think of it - hasn't that been your (our) responsibility all along? I guess Web 2.0 hasn't really changed anything - has it?

Kodak--A Revolutionary?!

On February 6, 2007, Kodak announced its first-ever line of Kodak Easy Share all-in-one printers for the home inkjet printer market.  The press release Kodak published is titled "Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry"  Are you thinking--what is revolutionary about these printers compared to all other inkjet printers on the market?  Let's look at the marketing mix or 4Ps of Marketing.

Product--Three all-in-one printer models with pigment based replacement cartridges:1 black cartridge and 1 integrated color cartridge.  According to Kodak's CEO Antonio Perez, "Kodak is selling the BEST ink at half price, connected to a printer that produce the BEST images and with a convenience and ease of use that's unprecedented in the industry."

Price--$9.99 for a black ink cartridge and $14.99 for the color cartridge(MSRP).  Kodak's strategy is to compete with lower priced inkjet replacement cartridges and competitively priced printers vs. the

Congratulations to Simon School

I just want to congratulate the Simon Graduate School of Business on their recent award! They received a gold award from the Service Industry Advertising Awards for the 2006-2008 Simon's Management Program Catalog. This national award recognizes excellence in publications and marketing materials. According to the D&C article last Thursday, Simon previously was honored for the 2003-2005 catalog.

Great job, Simon School! Can't wait to see if the blog wins Best of the Web in a couple of weeks (see Yvonne's post about the finalists). Your marketing department rocks!

Greatest Super Bowl Commercials ... or Not

Last night, CBS aired "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2007" - an annual tribute to the best Super Bowl Commercials. However, this year they changed how they determined what commercials were included (previously it was an open vote). This year, CBS made a list of the 15 "contenders" that they thought should compete with Coke's 1973 ad with Mean Joe Green which has won the last 6 years.

The result, in my opinion, was a disaster. Although some of the ones selected truly are "classics" - like my personal favorite the 1984 Apple ad that launched the Macintosh computer - many were some of the dumber offerings from recent past. And what was more amazing was some that weren't included. For example, the 2001 Bud Light commercial where Cedric shakes up the beers in the kitchen and ends up drenching his date was included - however none of the classic Budweiser frog spots were. (I wasn't a big fan of the frogs, but they were very memorable, got a lot of recognition, and were well-produced.)

Cause Marketing: Why Should You Care?

If you want to see examples of excellent cause marketing campaigns, I highly recommend checking out the Halo Awards winners from the past few years. The Halo Awards annually recognize the best work in cause marketing -- both from non-profits and corporate partners.

You may be saying at this point - Katharine, this is all fine and good, but why should I care?

Here are some facts and statistics about cause marketing for you to think about:

Follow up on RED: Questions after the fact

Thanks to Jennifer Young, our program chair, we have this follow-up information from Allison Harvey of the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Campaign:

Huge thanks to everyone that attended last week's Go Red event! After the event, I still had a few questions, maybe you did, too?

Allison Harvey was nice enough to spend some time on the phone with me answering my questions. Here's what I learned:

Q. What was the catalyst that made the Go Red initiative possible? After all, the American Heart Association's been around since the early part of the century, why now?

A. There was a growing consensus within our leadership to be more relevant to consumers. We are and have been an organization about the science of wiping out heart disease, yet we depended on consumers for much of our funding. We needed to bridge the gap by increasing our relevancy. At the same time, we had hit a plateau in our fund raising effort. There was an emerging shift in consumer giving, partially due to 9.11 and partially due to a growing distrust of large entities (Enron, WorldCom). Many were choosing to donate to small, locally run charities, instead.

Q. Why did you choose the first Friday in February over Valentine's Day?

A. While it seems like an obvious day to piggy back, we didn't want to compete with Valentine's Day. Our message would never be heard over Valentine's clutter.

Q. Can you tell me a little more about how the AHA at the national and local level?

A. We've got 22 million volunteers!, 2500 staff employees, 2,000 offices, 10 regional affiliates, and one national headquarters.

Q. What is your current role within AHA?

A. Officially I'm the Director of Development Operations. One part of my role is to oversee marketing for core fundraising efforts. The other part of my role is one Special Projects. For example, I was on the initial core team of the Go Red For Women campaign because at the time it was a "special project."

That's all for this installment of, Questions After the Fact. Please note Allison's answers are not in quotes, these are not her literal, word-for-word answers, I left my tape recorder home and took some liberties in edits. But you get the gist, right?

Perhaps you have more questions? If so, send us a note. We'll see what we can do to get them answered. 

Meanwhile, check out this pic from the event.

From left to right: Amit Chitre (local office of AHA), Barb Cote RAMA Membership Chair and kicking Creative Director for Sigma Marketing, 3 Alfred University students, Trina Tardone-Steinhart, John Richelsen.

Go Red: For Women and Men Across America

Today is the first Friday of February. It's also the American Heart Association's National Wear Red Day as part of their award-winning Go Red For Women campaign.

It's a simple, powerful way to raise awareness of heart disease and stroke. By joining together with  thousands of people, companies and organizations, and cities across America, you'll help the American Heart association support ongoing research and education about women and heart disease. Even the City of Rochester is participating! Look for red lights from our own High Falls all the way to Niagara Falls.

A few facts:

• Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American women and men.
• 1 in 3 women get heart disease.
• Heart disease can largely be prevented.
• Before Go Red launched only 12% of American women knew their risk of heart disease.
• In 2006, thanks to Go Red, awareness of�heart disease in women was 53%!

You go RED!

RAMA, Go Red, and Cause Marketing

As many of you know, RAMA hosted the American Heart Association at last week's event about the "Go Red for Women" campaign. Denis already wrote a post on the event itself, and I agree with his rave review -- it was an excellent program -- one of many that RAMA has put on this year! (Yes, I am on the board of RAMA ...)

The most fascinating part of the program for me was the observations Allison Harvey, one of the  creators of the Go Red campaign, made about "marketing" the campaign to potential corporate partners. She pointed out that they not only had to educate companies on the campaign details but also about cause marketing and the difference between it and traditional sponsorships. As someone passionate about cause marketing, it didn't occur to me that top marketers in some organizations are not aware of what it is and why they should care.