Bob Garfield: Your Data With Destiny

Assume that, in the near future, connections between marketers and consumers will not be principally forged via display advertising but will be otherwise cultivated online. Assume that technology will offer more and more highly refined means for the marketer to learn about the consumer and the consumer to enjoy a real benefit in exchange -- search and widgets being exhibits A and B.

Thank you for so stipulating. But if the lingua franca of our online future is indeed personal information, where will that come from?

Your Data With Destiny - Advertising Age - Digital

I assume most people who see this will be reading Garfield's Ad Age column. That's why I don't repost it here. But every now and then, Bob's got something big and important to say. Today's column fits that bill.

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Marketers Love Conversation, Unless the Consumer Starts It - Advertising Age - Digital: Columns

I dare you to find a feedback form that winks even a quasi-friendly smile. And if you find one that allows consumers to truly communicate in their native voices -- complete with links, photos, audio clips or videos -- I'll eat my just-published book.

Marketers Love Conversation, Unless the Consumer Starts It - Advertising Age - Digital: Columns

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Coming Soon: A Web-Wide Social Network? - Advertising Age - Digital

Sites are blendingThe moves are unrelated, according to the companies involved, but they all suggest what many web watchers and pundits have been expecting: that social-media tools and services would spread throughout the wider web, rather than stay contained within a single service.

Coming Soon: A Web-Wide Social Network? - Advertising Age - Digital

Want a look at what a more open social online environment may look like? Check out my FriendFeed account - http://www.friendfeed.com/miggon/.

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Google Pricing System Plagues Players Like P&G - Advertising Age - Digital

For years, consumer-package-goods marketers saw search advertising as mainly for direct response, not branding. But now that more are heeding data showing search's potential as a branding vehicle, they're running into a new problem: The pricing model wasn't really set up to serve them, and in some respects it thwarts them.

Google Pricing System Plagues Players Like P&G - Advertising Age - Digital

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