Monday News: Google & bad marketing, what free speech?, comic book films, and mid-air wedding
How Google Analytics ruined marketing – Even if you aren’t in the business of marketing a product, Samuel Scott’s article on how Google Analytics changed marketing is worth a read. Not only does Scott argue that Google shifted the landscape to favor online rather than offline marketing, but he also claims that many online marketing “experts” don’t really understand marketing and have hopelessly mixed up and screwed up fundamental marketing concepts and terms. By way of example, Scott talks about a marketing campaign that would reach people who watch the television show “Friends:”
I could run an advertisement during an episode of “Friends.” I could pay NBC to have the coffee house hold an event that would feature my product in an episode. I could hire a “Friends” actor to appear in an infomercial that would air directly after an episode. And so on.
Now, none of this would be “television marketing” because “television marketing” is not a “thing.” “Television” is a marketing channel, not a marketing strategy. If I choose to advertise on television, “advertising” is the strategy, the advertisement itself is the content and “television” is the channel over which I transmit the advertisement.
In the same way, “Facebook marketing,” “social media marketing” and “content marketing” are not “things.” “Facebook” is a marketing channel. “Social media” is a collection of marketing channels. “Content” is a tactic, not a strategy. “Content” is produced in the execution of strategies such as advertising, SEO, generation of niche links and publicity. – Tech Crunch
Sheriff Raids House to Find Anonymous Blogger Who Called Him Corrupt – So this is chilling. A Louisiana police officer’s house was raided by a sheriff who insists that the officer is an anonymous blogger who has criticized him on a “watchdog” blog, using public records as sources. Not only does the officer deny that he is the blogger in question, but political speech is core when it comes to First Amendment protection.
“The law is very clear that somebody in their private capacity, on private time, on their own equipment, has a First Amendment right to post about things of public concern,” Marjorie Esman, director of the ACLU of Louisiana, told The Intercept.
Larpenter told WWL (TV): “If you’re gonna lie about me and make it under a fictitious name, I’m gonna come after you.”
Esman said the Sheriff and his deputies were forgetting something. “The laws that they’re sworn to uphold include the right to criticize and protest. Somehow there’s a piece in the training that leads to them missing that.” – The Intercept
50 Years Of Comic Book Movies Supercut – Wow, not only have I forgotten about more than a few of these movies, I think some of them should be forgotten altogether (Dick Tracy?!). Although it was fun to revisit movies like American Splendor and Hellboy.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Batman: The Movie, which starred Adam West (Family Guy) as the Caped Crusader and was released by 20th Century Fox in July of 1966, the YouTube channel, Moon Film, has put together a super-cut of 100 comic book movies over the past 50 years. – ComicBook.com
Man Proposes to Girlfriend Mid-Flight Then Surprises Her With Wedding – I can’t decide whether this was cute and romantic or a glorified elopement that will eventually make the bride feel cheated out of a planned wedding.
So with the help of Austrian Airlines, Bogner, 36, planned to not only propose but have a surprise wedding during their flight to Athens, Greece. Eiche’s best friend Petra kept the bride-to-be busy, while Bogner arranged their nuptials.
He secured an engagement ring, the wedding gown, the bridal bouquet, the wedding bands, a violinist and an officiant to perform the ceremony.
Eiche said she had no idea what was happening when she boarded her flight, thinking she was going on an average vacation and not her honeymoon, until she heard singing. – ABC News
I hate surprise public proposals (if you need overwhelming public pressure against female singleness to help coerce her into agreement… no, dude). Exponentially more no to surprise public weddings. I would have been the person who objected at that one. She was literally trapped. Where was she going to go if she wanted nothing to do with it?
People repeat their weddings all the time, so I wouldn’t worry about her missing the experience. I worry about the dubious consent issues underlying these relationships, which I doubt are confined to whether and how marriage will occur.
I’m on the fence on surprise public proposals, since some people will be thrilled to get one. But in a place that the person being proposed to can’t leave? Followed immediately by the wedding? That’s so potentially problematic in ways far beyond cheating someone out of a wedding, I physically cringed reading that bit.
I always hope the “surprise” part of the proposal is the timing. That it is something the couple has discussed, and agreed on somewhat informally, and they have committed to the relationship, and he is just going all out on the actual question.
“Hey, we’ve been together for x number of years, wanna get married?” “Sure. That’ll be good someday.”
I’m always afraid she REALLY wants to say “No”, but also wants to be nice. I had a boyfriend long ago who told EVERYONE, even my nail lady, he was going to buy me a ring, and gave it to me in front of the whole family. BUT, he didn’t ask any questions. Very awkward. Thank God he didn’t ask anything, because I’m not that nice. He was gone not much later.
Thanks for the link to the Google Analytics article! As a former marketing communications professional for many years and the oldest staffer where I know work, what Scott describes is all too familiar. I’ve already forwarded to several colleagues.
I hope so, too, @MichelleinTexas! Count me in amongst those who would have LOATHED a public proposal, and double that for a surprise wedding. Ugh, ugh, ugh. If my spouse to be hadn’t known even that, well, he’d deserve the
“no” :( That said, as @Lostshadows said, some people love the pomp! More power to them, and to their loved ones who know them well enough to make it a welcome surprise!