Atomic Tango

Game Of Drones: Why Klout May Be More Risk Than It’s Worth

May 19th, 2012 · Random Observations

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Professional Klout Abstainer

I often start my posts with a joke, so here it is:

Klout.

Not laughing? That’s because the joke may be on marketers who think Klout is a good tool to promote their brands. Why? Because not since spam has any marketing tool engendered this much hostility. Foursquare comes close, but Klout occupies its own circle in marketing Hades, nestled between telemarketers and those talking banner ads that proclaim you’ve won a free iPod.

Consider this cartoon from the popular webstrip xkcd:

XKCD on Clout

It was featured in TechCrunch by a sympathetic writer and—

What’s that? You don’t know what Klout is or why it should provoke such raw anger from a cartoonist? Lucky soul. That’s like not knowing what waterboarding is. I envy your innocence. Now let’s despoil it… [Read more →]

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What Does “Professional” Mean in the Social Media Era? Not This…

May 9th, 2012 · Media Review, Uncategorized

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango, LLC + Social Media Realist

Harvard Business ReviewLots of people sharing a Harvard Business Review blog about what it means to be professional in the social media era. It begins with a compelling example of how the Susan G. Komen Foundation bungled its recent image problems, while Planned Parenthood used social media to handle their controversies with aplomb. Nice case.

Then the article spins out of control… [Read more →]

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Bye-Bye Best Buy: A Cautionary Tale about Social Tools

May 4th, 2012 · Case Studies

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Occasional Tool User

Best Buy?

Image source: MilkYourMoney.com

WalMart threw a wrench into the system… [Read more →]

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Ad Nauseam: The MySpacification of Facebook (Continued)

April 20th, 2012 · Case Studies

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Former Facebook Advertiser

Facebook Ads

Ads that appeared on my Facebook page. Why do I feel like these ads are related, and that clicking any of them will get me into trouble?

In part one of this series, I talked about the aesthetic MySpacification of Facebook: how the popular social network’s design went from clean to pure cornea gumbo.

Now let’s talk advertising on Facebook.

I used to buy Facebook ads because I was enamored by the targeting capabilities. For example, when promoting a local theatrical production, I could easily target the zip code and even a surrounding area, the right age group, actors and directors and other theatre types, fans of the playwright, and people who might like the play’s subject matter. In addition, I could easily test ads and make changes, and switch payment from cost-per-thousand views (CPM) to cost-per-click (CPC) at the touch of a virtual button. The tracking data showed me what was working and what was not. This seemed like the perfect ad platform.

Then I noticed that “not” was becoming more common than “working.”
And I’m not alone in this discovery… [Read more →]

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MySpace, Part Deux (And Yes, I’m Talking About Facebook)

April 20th, 2012 · Case Studies

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + former AOL-user turned MySpace-user turned Facebook-user turned Next-Please!-user

[Thanks to Jon Burk, Marketing Brand Manager at JBM Los Angeles, for inspiring this rant.]

Gumbo

Easy on the eyes, yes? Signature gumbo from Bozo's Seafood Restaurant in Metairie, Louisiana. Photo by Jason Perlow via Wikimedia Commons.

There’s a great term in the book Jargon Watch, a small dictionary published by Wired magazine back in the Pleistocene Era (circa 1997): Cornea Gumbo. It refers to “a visually noisy, overdesigned PhotoShopped mess,” as in, “Gawd, we’ve got to redesign that page, it’s become total cornea gumbo.”

Cornea gumbo aptly described the hot visual messes that constituted many websites in the mid-90s. In a pique of nostalgic democratization, MySpace launched in 2003 and enabled everyone to capture those halcyon days of web design. Where web development once required an overpriced HTML-jockey who had taught himself PhotoShop, MySpace provided the tools to stew up your own gumbo, spiced up with social features borrowed from Friendster which had borrowed them from AOL. (Anyone who thinks social media is a modern phenomenon obviously skipped WWW history class.) Using MySpace on a heavy basis (as I frequently did) required frequent scraping of one’s retinal cones and rods to remove all the accreted and burned-on images.

Then came Facebook… [Read more →]

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iTwin’s Facebook Marketing: Tell Me Who You Are Before Asking Me To Like You

April 10th, 2012 · Case Studies

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Guy Who Actually Reads the Ads

I confess: I clicked an ad on Facebook today. Really. Now, you know that Facebook ad clickthrough rates are so dismal (about 1 out of every 2000 views), that even Facebook execs are talking more about “branding” and “awareness.” But I couldn’t help myself. I love me some gadgets and marketing, and this ad for the iTwin featured both… [Read more →]

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zAMbies?! My Quick Take on “The Pitch”

April 10th, 2012 · Media Review

"The Pitch" Subway episode

Hmm, I'm suddenly craving human brains... not sandwiches

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Sucker for Shows about Advertising

Just saw AMC’s “The Pitch” — a new reality show about ad agencies going head-to-head to land an account. Although it contained the usual heavy-editing and over-dramatization of most reality shows, it was fun to second-guess real agencies in action… [Read more →]

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Go Figure: Silly Stats in the Social Media Fantasy League

April 4th, 2012 · Random Observations

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC

Bull Mascot

Don't know what kind of player it is, but that's sure a lot of bull...

Imagine that you own a basketball team, and you send your talent scout out to find a new player. He comes back and presents two options:

  • Player A: averages 9 points a game, including 1 three-point basket per game
  • Player B: averages 24 points a game, including an average of 2 three-point baskets per game

Both play the same number of minutes per game, and both want the same amount of money. To your surprise, your scout recommends hiring Player A. “Why?!” you ask incredulously. “Because,” the scout replies, “Player A gets 33% of his points from three-point shots, and Player B gets only 25% of his points from three-point shots. That means Player A gets 32% more points from three-pointers than Player B.”

As you stare in stunned disbelief, the scout takes it as a signal to continue… [Read more →]

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Guest Blog: Letter to Who Dat Nation – Saints and Sinners

April 1st, 2012 · Random Observations

by Emir Phillips, MBA/JD/Etc. + Author + Diehard Saints Fan

Who Dat? NationFreddy’s Intro: Why is there a diatribe about New Orleans Saints football, crime, and punishment in my marketing blog? A lot of reasons.

  • First, it’s a knee-deep, Mississippi-mud-thick, Tabasco-and-vitriol-infused jambalaya about football, and I love me some spicy good writing about the world’s greatest sport.
  • Second, I came this close to becoming a New Orleanian: I reluctantly turned down Tulane Business School to stay in L.A. and attend USC instead – two years before Katrina struck. Funny how life can be massively altered by one decision.
  • Finally, for us marketers, this fan’s rant is a classic example of how one of the most powerful brands in the world, the NFL, is far from being “customer centric.” Customer-centricity is the trendy new strategy favored by almost no one but naïve marketing writers.

As the case of the New Orleans Saints bounty program demonstrates, brands have multiple stakeholders they need to consider. Realizing that it’s impossible to please everyone, the NFL went ahead and pissed some fans off – such as my friend here. The strength of a brand can then be measured by how many of those fans stay loyal despite being mad as hell. (And I know that Emir will continue to watch every Saints game this season and beyond.)

I agree with a lot of what’s in his post, and disagree with some of it. (I’m a huge fan of Peter King, who Emir maligns below.) But what matters here is the passion: a sign that a brand has achieved marketing nirvana (beyond sales, of course).

Warning: lots of semi-obscure football, religious, historical and literary allusions ahead, but that’s half the fun of this piece. As they say in New Orleans, laissez les bons temps rouler! [Read more →]

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What Color is Your Bunny? Feature Creep and New Media Marketing

March 27th, 2012 · Random Observations

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC

What Color is Your Bunny?

How's white with markings? Is white with markings tasty enough for you? Photo by Bakasama at fr.wikipedia.

True story: A man walks by a pet store and sees rabbits for sale. He tells the clerk that he’ll take one, and she asks him what color he’d like. The man responds, “I don’t think the snake cares”… [Read more →]

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