February 2012
5 posts
Helpful Hints From the Executive Chef
Barry Lowenthal, TMK President, recently wrote an article for MediaPost on presentation skills, noting a reoccurring workshop we hold to help improve all of our public speaking abilities. Frequently listed as a number one fear over dying, read some of Barry’s tips and help banish presentation panic attacks.
What impact will Facebook's IPO have on users?
The recently announced Initial Public Offering of Facebook, the company that revolutionized social media, has users and potential investors speculating about the future of their profiles and their portfolios. Ten percent of the world’s population is on the social network, so changes related to the IPO could impact more people worldwide than any other publicly traded company on the...
Curating Content the Right Way
A lot of virtual ink has been devoted to the topic of content curation. Content curation is the art of organizing and filtering existing content on the web in a way that shares your perspective and says something about how your brand sees the world.
At least, it should be an art. In a time when content is treated as a buzzword rather than a concept, many brands opt for a lazier route....
What Google’s Social Search Means for Your Brand
Google recently rolled out Google+ enhanced search to the public. Though the decision to integrate the social platform with search wasn’t a surprise, it indicates how vital Google+ is to the company’s plan to deliver streamlined, ultra-personalized search results to users. It’s the first major change to the search feature in over a decade.
The new features aim to produce...
Can Cloud Entertainment Storage Save the Video...
In a very short time, online streaming of entertainment stored in the “cloud” has completely changed the way audiences consume content. Do you remember your life before Netflix? No? Me either. It’s a horrible nightmare of DVD cases and CD wallets. Currently 30 percent of all web traffic in the US is Netflix streaming. This big bandwidth means big business.
According to a report...
January 2012
9 posts
Catalog apps drive traffic to mobile
Without a doubt, e-commerce has transformed consumer behavior in the United States. Instead of waiting in long lines or spending money on gas, we can buy virtually anything from online stores. From vintage clothes to oatmeal, the Internet gives us everything that we could possibly want through a streamlined shopping experience.
Still, two-dimensional Internet storefronts can never replace ...
If anything is worth breaking your New Years...
THIS IS IT. One of our Chefs, Allison Walton, recently emailed us about the most genius thing I’ve heard all year - Pancake month. Clinton Street Baking Company is honoring this with a series of special pancakes, and its worth forgetting about the scale for a day. Drooling yet?
Pinterest for Brands
Pinterest, the visual bookmarking platform launched in 2008, recently identified eight brands that best utilize the site’s features to reach their audiences.
If you haven’t started to use it yet, Pinterest is a social network based on things people ‘pin’ that they like, usually photos or items from the Internet that inspire. You can see what your friends have pinned...
What the response to SOPA tells us about the state...
Last week when congress attempted to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two pieces of legislation that would fundamentally change the way the Internet operates, they forgot to consider a significant voice in the debate - the Internet.
Both bills, which initially received bi-partisan support, were indefinitely shelved by the largest online protest in the...
E-commerce is obviously a success; what about...
Believe it nor not, Facebook now has more than 800 million active users. On average, these users are connected to 80 pages, groups, and events. Each day, more than 500 million use an app or Facebook platform on another website. Given such an extensive network of potential consumers, it’s no surprise that brands see dollar signs and actively seek out ways to influence sales, run...
Sales via Mobile Devices Surge in Holiday Season
As life becomes increasingly reliant on mobile technology, it is not shocking that mobile sales saw a significant jump this holiday season. According to the tech consultants at Acquity Group, 52 percent of smartphone users picked up their mobile device this holiday season to research products, redeem coupons, or purchase a gift. On Black Friday and Cyber Monday exclusively, 60 million...
How to Make Your Business Cyber Secure
The recent revelation that a group of hackers in China breached the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s computer network and gained access to everything stored in its systems, including information about its three million members, has increased the urgency for businesses to protect themselves from these attacks.
And large businesses aren’t the only ones that should be worried. Attacks to the systems of...
Augmented Reality Shopping
This holiday season, there was an almost 40% increase in online shopping on Thanksgiving over 2010, followed by a 24.3% growth on Black Friday online sales. Shoppers also used their mobile phones to get the best deals - shopping traffic from hand held devices increased almost 10 percent from last year.
But what if the sweater you bought online (hello clearance sale!) doesn’t fit right,...
Happy New Year!
From our kitchen to yours, we hope everyone had a very happy and healthy holiday season. With our first day back in the office, I bring to you - Darren Herman’s 2012 advertising predictions.
December 2011
1 post
How to Run an Effective Facebook Campaign
Facebook has more than 800 million active users today and it doesn’t take much time reading Pew Internet reports on social media to know that it has become an incredibly big part of people’s lives. To run a successful campaign on Facebook, you have to cut through a lot of noise with great content and personal connections. Here are some basic steps you can take to get your...
November 2011
5 posts
Will Google Wallet Make Customers Open Their...
Google recently launched its newest application—Google Wallet. It’s a neat, convenient app with a lot of potential. But with a one-carrier roll out, it appears unlikely that it will become mainstream in time to affect the holiday shopping season.
As the first to plant a flag on the mobile wallet planet, it seems that Google may have been overeager to beat out the competition. The...
10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Google+
With the advent of Google+, social media users have been given the possibility of a fresh start in their online communications. Since a major social platform doesn’t launch every day, why not take advantage of the “clean slate?”
Invest the necessary time to acquire effective Google+ habits right from the beginning. As with any social media tool, what you get out of Google+ will be directly...
October 2011
9 posts
Social Media Moves Beyond Saying "Hi"
Most of us belong to at least two social networks, some of us dozens. Usage varies from the occasional social dabbler to the full-time obsessive. We build hundreds, even thousands, of connections, both business and personal, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Foursquare, Tumblr, and more.
Content marketing is the latest business buzz word, meaning companies are using social...
Will Social TV Really Catch On
With nearly unlimited entertainment and information options, today’s consumer has a multiplicity of choices. Mobile devices and social media provide an enhanced entertainment experience, one that may drive viewers away from traditional programming, or bring them back to it en masse.
Social media has changed the way we interact with others, share information, and make consumer decisions....
Friday morning Inspiration
By Scott Weiss
“We like what you guys are doing but there’s no way we’d replace the aorta of our communications infrastructure with a beta box from a 20-person startup.” —Director of IT, Fidelity Investments (circa 2002)
Call it the enterprise startup conundrum: how do you earn legitimacy if no one will give you an opportunity to become legitimate? The enterprise world is different from the...
The Onestop Social Network
The hype around the launch of Google’s “Facebook Killer” couldn’t have been much bigger. Now, it’s difficult to fathom that the clamoring for Google+ invites and the frenzied anticipation of adding people into circles started only a couple of months ago.
It remains to be seen what will become of Google+; whether it will go the way of Google Wave or cement a place in people’s daily lives...
Watch“Supersharing and Social Media” - check out our Chief Digital Media Officer, Darren Herman sharing his expertise on the power of shareable media during an Advertising Week Panel with Jonah Peretti.
What Facebook’s New Subscriber Button Means For...
In mid-September, Facebook introduced the Subscribe button as a new layer to the platform’s robust social networking features. Since its launch, the button has quickly caught on among celebrities and business leaders. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recruited almost 7 million subscribers, and rapper Snoop Dogg has more than 150,000.
Given the button’s popularity, how does it...
Presentation Skills : How to speak to an audience...
By Barry Lowenthal
Every year, I give a presentation skills workshop as part of TMK U. Everyone prepares a 3-minute presentation on any media-related topic which they present to an audience of their peers. After they’re done we clap and ask them how they did. Then the audience critiques and then I critique. We clap again. Clapping is important. We evaluate the quality of their slides, whether...
September 2011
5 posts
The Coolest Tech People You’ve Never Heard Of
Cool new tech startups are popping up every day, many of them under the radar. Some tech entrepreneurs have been so successful that they’ve become household names, but many more are totally unknown to the general public. Check out these up-and-coming tech gurus you probably haven’t heard of. Yet.
1. Mike Lazerow, Founder and CEO of Buddy Media
Mike Lazerow founded Buddy Media, ...
SXSW: Should You Go?
Should you attend SXSW?
The short answer: Yes.
For those who don’t know SXSW (said aloud as “south by southwest”) is the name for the three festivals that collectively take over Austin, Tex. every spring.
It is where Twitter first gained momentum, The Hurt Locker made its debut, and hundreds of bands gained cult followings before they were ever signed to recording contracts.
...
Ok, so maybe I had California Raisins as my bed sheet set as a kid, or really enjoyed only dunking Keeblr Elves cookies in to my glass of milk. My dad was a D.A.R.E officer, so I had a lot of exposure to McGruff. Now, I find the E*Trade babies to be way too cute, and how can you not leave out the Old Spice guy. Well, with Advertising Week 8 right around the corner, we want your help to select the...
Facing Social Media Ridicule
Damage control takes a whole new meaning in the Web 2.0 world, where communication across the globe is instantaneous and word-of-mouth means telling 10,000 network contacts instead of 10 friends.
Businesses — even global industry leaders — can quickly go from most-wanted to most-ridiculed with one single mistake that spreads like a virus on Twitter and Facebook.
Public ...
Social Media and Internet Activism
Social media has restructured social activism by allowing thousands of supporters to collaborate, organize and spread their message entirely via social Websites. Whether live protests are planned, announced and organized with the use of Twitter and Facebook or virtual protests collect hundreds of thousands of supporters for a cause, social media has drastically reduced barriers to the...
August 2011
13 posts
American Cancer Strides Against Breast Cancer
A fellow KBSPer, Jayne Jordan, notified the company of a great fundraiser she is taking part in. Please read her message below and contribute in any way you can.
“I’ll be doing the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on October 16. If you’d like to make a donation in my name, please go to the link below… I hope I set up the page correctly.
...
To help get you over the Wednesday hump
A little productivity tip!
Is Controversy the Right Tactic?
Kenneth Cole’s latest social media campaign shows that, once again, the designer isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of what’s safe to talk about in advertising.
Given the retailer’s Twitter misstep earlier this year when it made light of the increasingly dangerous protests in Egypt — and the massive outcry that followed — it seems to be a risk the brand...
The Decline of Wikipedia?
When Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales spoke at this year’s annual international Wikipedia conference, held in Haifa, Israel and boasting over 650 attendees from 56 countries, his tone was of a call to arms: “We are not replenishing our ranks…It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important.”
The truth is Wikipedia, a site that thrives and survives on user-submitted and edited content,...
Memetrackers and the Pentagon
As Admiral Nimitz of the United States Navy wrote in1948, “Technology in warfare, as in all else, has simplified some details but greatly complicated the aggregate.”
Last month the Department of Defense’s Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that it was accepting applications for social media in strategic communications (SMISC), with $42 million set aside to fund...
GRP Is A Lazy Metric, Exposure Isn't Performance
By Barry Lowenthal
The discussion around online GRPs is the wrong conversation.
There’s been lots of discussion about creating a Web version of the gross rating point, which is a number used to measure the size of an audience reached by a media vehicle or plan. It’s the product of the percentage of the target audience reached by an ad times the frequency they see it in a given...
Battle of the Music Sharing Start-Ups
Social music sharing site Turntable.fm launched to great buzz in May with the U.S. launch of Spotify following on its heels in July. Both sites continue to maintain the hype, with Turntable’s rooms often at capacity and Spotify invites still a desired commodity. But will legal issues pull the plug on these digital dance parties?
After one month, Turntable had 140,00 users and is now...
Tell the World -- Domino's Pizza and its...
Go back two years in time and you’ll find Domino’s Pizza Inc. in deep trouble. Its sales were floundering. Its reputation was in tatters after two store employees YouTube’d themselves doing nasty things to the pizza order they were preparing. The market had little confidence in the company as well. Its stock was selling for around $8. What was the company to do? Few thought it would start...
Build Your Brand With Content Curation
Sadly, customers don’t automatically believe advertising claims, so your company must find other ways to establish your expertise and enhance your brand. How can you do this without breaking the bank?
One avenue is content curation.
Content curation is “the art of finding, organizing and sharing the best and most relevant online content on a specific topic or issue,” according to Pawan...
Why We Need A Bloomberg Terminal For Advertising...
By Darren Herman
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about data recently and it’s become the central investment thesis for kbs+p Ventures, our go to market approaches for The Media Kitchen, and how kbs+p communicates vision. My friend and entrepreneur extraordinaire Jon Steinberg says it extremely well, advertising is becoming “guided by math, but moved by art.” For many folks in...
5 Ways Brands Are Leveraging the Digital Talent...
The internet is full of talent, and social media has made it easier than ever to become an overnight sensation. Brands are catching on and finding new ways to leverage this digital talent pool — with success.
At first, many brands sought to leverage sites such as Youtube and Twitter for promotion and many used in-house talent to accomplish this. These efforts have been somewhat...
July 2011
14 posts
DJ Friday!
This past week, Chefs Bruce and Lia played the music for our sponsors the Washington Post and Slate’s DJ Friday! Check our their playlists below (and see if you can catch Bruce’s super subtle theme)
Bruce Cheers Theme The Price Is Right Theme The Wire Theme Step By Step Theme Curb Your Enthusiasm Theme Brooklyn by Jay-Z Friends Theme Entourage Theme Six Feet Under Theme Game of...
