“Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.”
—Leo Burnett

Five different levels of online marketing trivia, courtesy of the folks over at NetPlus. Test your Web savvy! Or, as the game implores: “Defeat the fifth and final level, become the CMO, and rule the brand.”

(Full disclosure: I made it to Director level before having to start over again as an intern. I hadn’t realized that pigeons are the secret behind Google rankings.)

What do you do when you have a company icon with 85 percent brand recognition? Minimize its presence in the marketplace, of course. This article explains the rationale.

Oops — I should have posted this eMarketer article the day it came out, but it got buried in my emailbox along with 400 or so other messages. It’s a pretty good look at which online marketing tactics do and don’t work.

There’s old news and conventional wisdom (see the takeaway below), but what’s really interesting are the year-to-year shifts: Smart money seems to be moving into SEO as a real tactic with ROI. Meanwhile, looks like rich media is taking a hit.

Takeaway for marketers: Read the article. It’s worth your time. And if you haven’t gotten the message by now: Start off by getting a decent keyword marketing plan implemented, and stay away from third-party email lists.

There’s this trend? I’m sure you’ve noticed it? Maybe not? But it used to be exclusive to 14-year-old-girls? And it’s becoming a lot more prevalent than it used to be?

I’m referring to uptalk? Which is also called high rising terminal? Where it seems like almost every sentence in a person’s vocabulary is spoken as a question? Even if it’s not?

What’s most disturbing about this trend is that people who really ought to know better are speaking in uptalk? I’m talking about professionals in the workplace?

Uptalk is insidious? Because it’s human nature that if everyone else around you is speaking in uptalk, you’re going to start speaking in uptalk, too? But you shouldn’t? Especially in work situations? Because uptalk makes you sound like you’re not sure about what you’re saying? Like there might be other, better ways? But you’re just putting it out there? And shouldn’t you know better anyway? I mean, like, you should be saying, not asking?

I’m just saying. You know. Putting it out there.