Online retailer Woot.com has incorporated bidding on keywords like “GOOG” and “Google Stock” into their SEM strategy for quite a while now however they just recently updated their campaign to feature some rather unique choices in copy. As a result several tech news blogs have picked up the story, asking users whether or not the new campaign had gone too far with the current state of our economy. Overall the responses have been fairly PRO woot.com, with the exception being in regards to one specific new ad whose headline begins with, “Before you jump out of that window…” On TechCrunch, user Chrisco pointed out an October 7th LA Times article describing a despondent Los Angeles man who’s financial grief led him to kill his wife, mother-in-law and 3 sons, all before ending his own life in his Porter Ranch home. The ad, along with the rest in this new campaign, are below:

What’s interesting is the relationship that Google and woot! share. Woot! has relied heavily on word-of-mouth to gain popularity however they’ve benefitted greatly from Google’s AdSense program, even to the point of being a focal case-study on the Google AdSense website! Not only that but Woot.com has had a long history of running campaigns targeting users who are searching for Google stock prices, primarily being positive in nature. An example is one shown below, which was taken a little less than two months ago on August 22nd. The copy reads, “Filthy Rich? We’ll help. - Throw away your newfound cash at Woot. You’re welcome.”

Also: If you’ll notice on the header banner for this post, there is another ad that appeared when searching for GOOG (Googles’ stock symbol) - “Looking for God?” It goes to show you that Woot.com isn’t the only one trying to market themselves in this economy.

So, given the current events, do you think that Woot.com has crossed the line with irresponsible ad copy or are people over-reacting to some tonge-in-cheek sales copy?

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Marketing genius = Having Trey Anastasio fake a massive oxycontin addiction for the last two tours, ruining show after show, only to queue up the eventual breakup, breakdown and then re-uniting of those boys from Vermont. With the hordes of faithful followers combined with what will most likely be an unprecedented number of teenage trust-fund hippies (who only know phish through their copious live show releases), the organization can set ticket prices at a record high without fear of not being able to sell-out the three night run (March 6, 7 and 8th) in a place dripping with Phish history - The Hampton Colosseum.

Should be interesting to see the marketing onslaught that will rear it’s ugly head in preparation of this concert - Marketing to hippies is never a pretty sight. Ohh, and go check out www.isphishtouring.com - It’s updated.

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AT&T and BBDO NY have recently been airing two commercials as part of their 2008 Beijing Olympic Games campaign. Butterflies (shown above) began airing about a week before the opening ceremonies with We premiering on August 8th.

AT&T is the “official telecommunications sponsor” of the Olympic Games and also secured an exclusive deal allowing them to offer live coverage of the games on their mobile network (A move that had Verizon grumbling).

Butterflies features American gymnast Nastia Liukin and promotes their live coverage of the games, available on the AT&T wireless network.

We, displayed below, shows us the three ways in which viewers can watch the Olympics via the AT&T network - by TV, PC and mobile phones.

“The three-screen spot covers all of our business technologies,” said Daryl Evans, VP-advertising and marketing communications at AT&T. “ “We’ is a brand ad that captures the excitement of being a fan of Team USA.” [source]

In addition to traditional advertising methods, AT&T has also released a “Team USA Soundtrack” with parts of the proceeds supposedly going to help the US Olympic Team (whatever that means). These songs will be available for 99 cents each from iTunes or from their special soundtrack website - www.att.net/TeamUSA.

Songs included were:

For Butterflies:
Lauren Connolly and Tim Bayne were the Copywriter/Art Director duo. Pysop was the post-production company used with original music from Amber Music. Todd Mueller was the director (Brett Nicoletti edited).

For We:
Lauren Connolly and Tim Bayne also created this piece but The Director’s Bureau was used as the production company. Mike Mills was the director with Haines Hall as the editor. Sea Level was the FX/SFX company along with Spotwelders as the post-production company.

Music was The Crane’s Wife by The Decemberists.

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On the heels of the latest Kanye West Absolut Vodka ad, comedian & actor Zach Galifianakis has released his third Absolut Vodka advertisement featuring Tim and Eric from the “Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job.”

Zach was asked to make an ad for the vodka brand as part of their ongoing artist series. According to the initial release, he agreed as long as he got to “do what he wanted without any restrictions.” This can be seen in the off-color, long-format releases that he has produced. If you’re a fan of Zach, or even Tim & Eric, you’ll most likely love these spots.

An interesting campaign by Absolut. These ads clock in at over 4 minutes long each, making them internet releases only, yet are being spread like wildfire through the various fan communities that support them.

You can view the first two Zach Galifianakis commercials below:

The First Zach Galifianakis Absolut Vodka Commercial (Featuring Tim & Eric):

The Second Zach Galifianakis Absolut Vodka Commercial (Featuring Tim & Eric):

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Coming soon to a late-night TV near you - Kanye West in the premier installment of the “In An Absolut World” campaign.

The rapper, who’s latest tour is sponsored by the Vodka brand, appears in this “low-fi” infomercial spoof trying to sell “Be Kanye” tablets - complete with cheesy voiceovers, special effects, and the “stand in front of a moving galaxy” bit that was so common in those classic informercials from the 80’s.

In addition to the television spot there’s also a print campaign that can be found in the latest issue of The New Yorker as well as on select NYC subway trains.

image courtesy of the World Store Blog.

There’s also a small companion website for this spot over at www.bekanyenow.com.

The 2008 “In An Absolut World” campaign will also feature Perez Hilton, Eddie Izzard, Editors from Thrillist.com, Treehugger.com, Style.com, as well as various Live Earth Filmmakers.

This campaign was produced by Winslow Dennis from TBWA\Chiat\Day, NY and featured Paul Krik as the Director (Tim Naylor as the DP). On the production side, Emily Plunkett was the producer with Elizabeth Krajewski as the E.P.

Dave Herman edited this piece for Jump Editorial, NY. Roberto Serrini was the assistant editor and Maniac, NY was the VFX company used (With Nicholas Sasso as the Lead Flame Artist, Charles Self as the Producer and Stephane Guyot mixing the sound).

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6 Career Tips from Jeremiah Owyang. - Great advice for anyone, even those who find themselves in that grey area of not knowing what career path to take.

New Ways To Find Business Mentors from GeekPreneur. Some tips on how to find successful entrepreneurs who are willing to lend a helping hand/give advice.

Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation - A great article on how Pixar tries to keep their employees in a constant state of collaboration, including having the bathrooms centralized to help avoid the emergence of workplace segmentation.

Zivity hires Napster Co-founder Jordan Ritter as CTO - this should be interesting - sleazy executive finally lands the gig he’s been waiting for… a fully-funded soft-core porn startup.

How To Get A Job In Venture Capital - Interesting follow-up to a previous article on how to break into the funding side of the business.

image courtesy of Mohamed Shaaz

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Following Chris Anderson’s recent experiment with his latest book entitled “Free,” book publisher No Starch Press has released two of their most popular books by Wired news editor Leander Kahney - The Cult of Mac & The Cult of iPod - in full unaltered versions on the infamous p2p torrent site, www.ThePirateBay.org

Here are brief reviews of both books:
The Cult of Ipod - Leander Kahney:

Wired news editor Leander Kahney follows up his bestselling The Cult of Mac with The Cult of iPod, a comprehensive look at how Apple’s hit iPod is changing music, culture, and listening behavior. The Cult of iPod includes the exclusive back story of the iPod’s development; looks at the many ways iPod’s users pay homage to their devices; and investigates the quirkier aspects of iPod culture, such as iPod-jacking (strangers plugging into each other’s iPods to discover new music), as well as the growing legions of MP3Js (regular folks who use their iPods to become DJs).

The Cult of Mac - Leander Kahney:

No product on the planet enjoys the devotion of a Macintosh computer. Famously dedicated to their machines, many Mac fans eat, sleep and breathe Macintosh. In The Cult of Mac, Wired News managing editor Leander Kahney takes an in-depth look at Mac users and their unique, creative, and often very funny culture. From people who get Mac tattoos and haircuts, to those who furnish their apartments out of empty Mac boxes, the book details Mac fandom in all of its forms. This paperback edition includes an all-new chapter about the iPod, updates throughout, and new photos that reflect current Apple technology.

To Download Via BitTorrent or Direct Download:

Via torrent (you will need a BitTorrent client like µtorrent[pc] or Transmission[mac/linux] to download):

Via a direct, non-p2p, download link (no registration required) :

Taken from the No Starch blog, they describe their take on the decision:

At the same time, this has been a very empowering experience. Rather than agonize over the appearance of electronic versions of our titles on torrent sites (I have, and I’ve tried to stop them), I think it’s worth trying to use P2P to help us to increase the visibility of our titles in a crowded market. (I can’t stand those Windows help files anyway.)

We believe that when people read our books they’ll see how they good they are, and they’ll buy them. It happens to us all the time at almost every show that we go to. Many people buy literally armloads of our books. It’s kind of amazing, in a good way.

Instead of fighting something you have no control over, why not embrace it? Instead of trying to ignore what some consider a threat to their business they have used it to increase brand awareness. I thought this was a great example of a company adapting to real-life consumer trends, not to mention just one more example why 2008 will most likely be the “year of the free” with companies giving away their products/services in exchange for user evangelism.

Something else to note:
Since downloading the two eBooks, I have gone on Amazon.com and purchased both. To be honest, I already own The Cult of Mac and didn’t really think Cult of Ipod was worth the buy, but I wanted to support this experiment.

I did enjoy reading The Cult of Mac though (I and suggest you go out and either download or buy a copy yourself). It’s a great read on consumer evangelism vs. loyal customers. This copy will be going out to a random friend. The cool cover designs were produced by Derek Yee. For more of his stuff, go check-out his portfolio section.

Both torrents have been on the top 10 list for e-book downloads on ThePirateBay.org and the news story has received over 800+ diggs on social link-sharing site digg.com. [last checked 3/22]

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It is definitely something that you don’t see too often these days, especially in long-form copy.
For more great pearls of wisdom from some of advertising’s best, I’ve kept up an online storage of interesting articles that can be reached by following the “Knowledge Base” link on the right sidebar of my blog.

But here is - How to create advertising that sells - by David Ogilvy. (click on the link or image for the full-size version, i know the following cropped one is too small to read).

So what do you guys think, is self-promotion a thing of the past? Or have we just forgotten that every now and then, advertising does actually work…. even if you happen to be your own client?

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Up next on the list is a re-design that I’ve already started for this blog, however it’s not quite ready for me to show you yet… so you’ll just have to wait.

So go check out the new digs, I have a few features that haven’t been activated yet, as well as a header treatment that should be in place tomorrow, but let me know what you think. Any and all comments, suggestions, complaints are welcome!

Addicted to 1s and 0s - your new source for all things tech.

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Repeating the stunt from last year, select White Castle locations will be offering a “special” Valentines day service involving white table cloth, waiters, and your very own candlelit White Castle romantic dinner. I think it’s hilarious that they’re doing this again, apparently last year there was enough of a turn-out to garner a second go at it, although it seems as if this year there are fewer participating locations. To participate all you have to do is follow the instructions below to secure your reservation - dinner will be served between 5 to 9PM tonight.

To make reservations head over to http://www.whitecastle.com/valentinesday/ and select amongst the following participating locations for more information:

Sadly I guess none of the Atlanta locations wanted to participate, but the site promises to post pics following tonight’s romantic evening, so if you have any interest at all in seeing what this circus show must have been like, check their website again tomorrow.

Image courtesy of Yum Sugar

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