The New York Times this morning features an interesting case study about a small company faced with the choice between a traditional advertising strategy and a social-media/web-based plan for marketing its new line of products.
Those products: hand-rolled cigars from the Dominican Republic.
Pretty tradicional, no? Turns out, that’s not where the company’s mindset is.

Though the EPC [...]

Damian Kulash has really taken it to the mattresses with EMI.
You may remember about a month ago, the frontman of virally famous OK Go posted an open letter to the band’s forum complaining about how its label, EMI, had quashed their recent attempts to get the word out about their new album and tour via [...]

If you thought old brands couldn’t learn new tricks, then WD-40 has something to show you.
The highly multi-purpose product was originally developed by aerospace scientists during the Cold War as a means of protecting missiles from corrosion. The name stands for “Water Displacement, formula 40.” Since then, it’s become the epitome of the household brand.
You [...]

Why is there no obvious opposite of self-promotion?
Think about it. What word or phrase concisely denotes the reverse of that practice which so many of us are trying our best to master, whether we admit it or not?
Self-promotion is hard and often necessary work. In fact, you’re probably reading this now because of one of [...]

Trix are for kids. What’s for grown-ups?
Kashi, yo.
You may have noticed the 26-year-old, La Jolla-based company’s cereals, waffles, snacks, pizzas and healthy versions of Hot Pockets on the shelves at the grocery store, each with the proprietary blend of seven whole grains and sesame.
Had you asked us a few days ago whether Kashi was [...]

One of the great benefits of Facebook is that it helps businesses, especially small ones, connect with customers. Shoot, given that the site just broke the 400 million user threshold, it helps you connect with pretty much the whole world.
As CEOs of big corps on down to mom and pops have caught on, [...]

Nothing says “I love you” like a steaming stack of 10 sliders, two 21-ounce sodas and a heap of fries glowing in the candlelight as it flickers against your true love’s cheek. And all for just $10.79.
That’s what White Castle thinks, anyway, and considering that the fast food chain has been running its Valentine’s Day [...]

Lego comes from the Danish for “play well”: leg godt. But earlier this past decade, the toy building block company’s products were doing anything but in the marketplace. In 2004, Lego charted a $344 million loss.
It took a new strategy to rebuild Lego, one that involved designing products based on Hollywood blockbusters like Indiana Jones [...]

Pretty much every American generation has grown up with its own flavor of beverage ads.
For the Flower Children, it was all about Coca-Cola, climaxing with the famous “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” TV ad.
For Gen X-ers, there was the Pepsi Challenge blind taste tests, which led to the development of fiendish [...]

Or so one could infer from Last.fm’s amazing stream charts that show, month-by-month, which artists got the most listens in New York and London vs. the world (click the links to download full-size PDFs).

Working with the Newspaper Club, a group that helps people print their own newspapers (how cool is that!?), the folks at the [...]