Friday Roundup 15th August 2008

Who do you want to win? McCain or Obama?

Daljit Bhurji posts this week about the McCain camp's recent success in closing the lead the Obama team enjoyed in all things digital. Important stuff.

But not quite as important apparently as getting hold of tickets to hot events, as David Meerman Scott's post "The Scalper's Got my Baby" earned most views on MarCom Professional this week.

Looks like marketers know what's important in life! In case you were wondering what this has to do with marketing communications, David's post explores the way in which the so-called Ticket Jedi markets himself, particularly the achievements of his YouTube videos and resultant book sales.

A short Roundup this week, as I guess most people are taking a well earned break this time of year. See you next week.

Best regards, Andrew and the MarCom Professional team.

New MMA Mobile Advertising guidelines

by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile

Our friend Russell Buckley has been busy as the Global Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association. They’ve just published their latest set of guidelines so take a look. Over at MobHappy, Russell tells us that the guidelines are for public comment too so if you want to have your say you need to do so before 5th September.

The guidelines include updated information on the mobile web, multimedia messaging and mobile video and TV. For anyone working in the industry, it’s a must-read. More...

Conflict. To make your marketing much more interesting, add conflict

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

I was fortunate to have taken a bunch of fiction writing classes and spent a lot of time writing fiction prior to starting this blog and writing books about marketing.

Something you learn very early in creative writing classes are the various elements of the craft like plot, dialog, characters, setting, and the like. But what I always recall as being a particularly important element in fiction is conflict.

According to Wikipedia, conflict is "a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. More...

The Evolution of Public Relations (and what the future holds)

by Trevor Young of One19

Public relations is going to move as the marketplace evolves and be part of all new technologies, according to Bruce McKenzie, Senior Vice-President, Entertainment Marketing, MS&L in a video interview to celebrate 10 years of PR Week (US) magazine.
"The fact that I'm here just shows the evolution of public relations to more communication-based marketing solutions for brands way beyond traditional PR," says McKenzie, who has no background in PR per se but in entertainment marketing. More...

The Scalper's Got my Baby

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

For an interesting use of video check out those produced by Max Deale, author of the self-published book Sold Out, So What! The Secrets that High-Priced Ticket Brokers and Scalpers DON'T want you to Know!

This excellent little book (you can read it in an hour) is for fans of concerts and sporting events and teaches the art of scoring tickets to sold out events and always sitting in the best seats in the house. I've been going to concerts since I was 15 and had accidentally discovered and used some of Deale's techniques. More...

Is McCain Catching Obama Online?

by Daljit Bhurji of Daljit Bhurji

I was asked to contribute to a fascinating article in the National Journal, a leading US political magazine, on Friday in response to the initially surprising news that John McCain is actually outspending Barack Obama on Google. Figures released by Nielsen Online show that McCain’s campaign purchased just over 7 million impressions via Google AdWords in June, compared to just over 1 million for Obama.

However, the really interesting stats are for spend on traditional banner advertising, where Obama is trouncing McCain. More...