MarCom Professional

As most of the connected world knows, Paris Hilton was arrested with her boyfriend on August 27, he on misdemeanor DUI charges, she on felony drug possession charges.

In a September 1 tweet to fans, Hilton said: "These rumors going around are so ridiculous, untrue and cruel. I'm not going to even pay attention to them, because I know the truth."

Whatever.

Wait. There's more. What I absolutely love about this story is that a few days later, Wynn Resorts Ltd. spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne told The Associated Press that Hilton is barred from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore.

Real-Time drafting off breaking news

What Dunne did was absolutely brilliant! Now the media has another news hook. More...

In this spirit, I'd like to talk about Erin Weed and her terrific program called Girls Fight Back.

GFB empowers girls and women from around the world through personal safety and self-defense techniques. The information is delivered via in person sessions on university campuses, at high schools and workplaces. Erin and her team have trained over half a million people.

This valuable content is also available via Erin's book Girls Fight Back!:

Take a look at this interesting montage of television advertising from AT&T from nearly 20 years ago.

The "You Will" series looked at what you will be able to do in the future. It's amazing how many of the predictions the ads got right – there’s an iPad like device, a GPS navigation system, the ability to purchase concert tickets online, virtual meeting software, and on-demand video at home.

There are several things that were spectacularly inaccurate however such as the continued use of a phone booth and fax. (When was the last time you even saw a phone booth?) But it's remarkable how much was absolutely right. More...

I was delighted when Monster reached out to my publisher John Wiley & Sons to request an excerpt of my book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead which I wrote with Brian Halligan and that came out a few weeks ago.

But wait!

Monster, the job site, runs an excerpt of Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead? What's going on here? I needed to learn more.

The excerpt, which they titled Social Media Wisdom from the Grateful Dead: Be Yourself, ran in the Recruiting & Hiring Advice section, which is aimed at hiring managers.

There is a ton of Recruiting & Hiring information in categories that include: More...

I met marketers from both Air New Zealand and the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. I was struck at the time the awesomeness of New Zealanders and their world famous team.

So it is with great excitement that Siobhan shared with me the new safety video created by Air New Zealand for use on their 737 aircraft (which I flew from Auckland to Wellington).

Direct link to Air New Zealand - Crazy About Rugby - Safety Video on YouTube.

What fun. If you're like me and travel frequently, you know how dreadful many of these safety videos can be. More...

I was absolutely fascinated with the live sign language interpreters who were rocking to some of the more popular bands. They were stage right on a platform so that the people in a special section on the left side of the audience way up front could see both the interpreters and the band. And the section was right in front of a set of massive sub-woofers so those in the special section could feel the music. More...

Back in the mid 1990's it was hard to find evidence of love between marketing and sales. At many business-to-business companies the relationship was downright adversarial. Often, the tension extends all the way up to senior management.

It all stemmed from the sales process involving a "handoff." Marketing generated leads, handed them over to sales and then the sales team owned them until close.

Like a marriage gone bad, the circa 1994 dialog was an endless tape loop. More...

Brian Halligan and I recently finished out "follow the band book tour" to launch our new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History.

I created this mini-documentary to illustrate how the Dead freed their music, cultivated a relationship with fans, and built a social network before Mark Zuckerberg was even born. Near the end of the video, Brian and I discuss how every business can use these ideas. Direct link to the HD video on Vimeo.

Artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, The Dead, Phish, John Mayer and Wilco have helped the organization register over 160,000 voters.

One way that HeadCount generates attention is through exclusive experiences where fans can meet artists in person.

My friend Rich Jurek points us to another interesting experience offered by a nonprofit.

The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago is running a Month at the Museum contest. More...

I'm a huge fan of Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that makes it easy for people to both share and build upon the work of others.

With a CC attribution, originators of works assert legal copyright ownership but grant free licenses to creative work so others can share, remix, use commercially, or some combination of mashup.

This strategy of losing control and facilitating sharing of content is dramatically different than the typical corporate approach of demanding email registration via squeeze pages and slapping draconian "do not copy" restrictions on content. More...