Digg alerts us to “42 Unusually Brilliant Business Card Designs.” Many of them really are. Even if handing out seeds or toothpicks or balloons as a business card isn’t quite your speed, the ideas on display here are sure to feed the creative side of your brain.
Over on Marketing Pilgrim, Jordan McCollum offers an interesting overview of the latest Pew Internet and American Life report, concluding by saying this of Internet marketers:
"… our influence is so subtle that after making a purchase, consumers don’t even realize we were involved. Now that’s powerful persuasion—marketing so subtle and so convincing that you purchase the product and forget the marketing."
One problem for us Internet marketers: If I’m the CMO approving the big checks for Internet marketing spending, I’m pausing before signing if I start to believe that those dollars are going to "subtle" efforts.
Jim Sterne offers a good read for Monday morning, riffing on the intersection of Web metrics and the wisdom of Albert Einstein, who noted: "Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted."
There’s something irritating about this ad that keeps showing up in my email, and it’s more than the fact that "debt-free" and "no-obligation" need to be hyphenated.
There are tons of companies out there looking to help people manage their debt. Makes sense, because there’s a ton of debt to be managed: For example, the average American who has credit cards owes about $8,000 on those cards. As you can imagine, lead generation in this area is a thriving business.
I don’t know anything good or bad about Christian Debt Experts, but tacking "Christian" in front of "Debt Experts" irks me. I’d probably feel the same way if I saw "Christian Macaroni and Cheese" or "Christian Body Wash" in the supermarket aisle.
Taking a commodity product (like debt management or macaroni and cheese) and using a religious adjective as a way to boost sales of something that has no fundamental spiritual component just feels wrong.
The tab: $234 million. The winner: MySpace. Ars Technica reports.
Takeaway for marketers: If you’re not observing CAN-SPAM legislation in your email marketing by now, you’re a schmuck.
