Imagine this: You run a company that is in dire financial straights, so much so that you’ve sent your CEO to Washington to beg for a bailout. Sales are down and not looking to go up anytime soon. What do you do? You cherish every customer you have, and especially try to take care of all those people who love your brand so much they’re promoting it for you, right? Embrace Web 2.0, build your community, find new ways to market? Apparently not, if your name is Ford. Instead, they’re suing — that’s right, suing — people running Ford fan blogs for using their trademarks without permission. And what’s more, they didn’t even tell their Digital Communications guy that they’re doing it. So much for fostering community.
Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category
December 5th, 2008
The red bucket has moved online
I think one of the most common images of the Christmas season is not necessarily something you first see but hear. The ring of the Salvation Army red bucket bell. I always feel a little guilty walking by that bucket and not reaching in to my pocket to just throw something that I might have on me. After all, these people sacrifice their valuable time for something good. That opportunity to donate to the red bucket has moved online. (more…)
December 2nd, 2008
e-Rockin’ in the Free World
It’s a great day to be an unknown musician with an Internet connection. Have a cross-country eJam with old bandmates for a virtual reunion. Connect with new musicians across the globe and collaborate with them in live sessions through Indaba Music. And for you harpists just waiting to show off your shredding skills online (can you shred on a harp?), now there’s YouTube Symphony. Upload your tunes and you just might be discovered as the next, uh… who’s a famous harpist? This is an interesting effort by Google to promote online communities, engage an audience that hasn’t really found an online home (one that upscale advertisers could be interested in), and show that YouTube is a destination for not only drunk-girl-runs-into-a-bathroom-stall-door videos but also serious content (another example: YouTube Screening Room). It actually is a pretty cool idea… (more…)
November 22nd, 2008
What do you think is the best review site in the (web)land?
An interesting discussion has been floating around the office this week and I thought I’d try and settle things from our reader’s perspective as well. We’ve been wondering which of the following reviews sites is the best: Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB (these are the only ones that have been brought up in serious discussion, but I left room in the poll for “other”).
Let the games begin! (more…)
November 19th, 2008
How to handle being ripped off on YouTube.
You can yell and scream and sue, try to pull every clip of your show off of YouTube, or you can do what Monty Python did, and launch your own channel. They’re putting their own stuff up, and instead of going after illegal clips, they’re taking the most-watched clips and making sure to put new versions up in high quality. And what do they want in return?
“None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”
I think it’s nice to see someone realizing that youTube ripoffs are inevitable, and instead of fighting it, using it as an opportunity to embrace their fans and increase their audience.