marketing Tag

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Guy Who Likes To Question The Answers I used to read and recommend eMarketer, simply because they have numbers and pie charts and other examples of statisticulation. That made their articles seem more rational and realistic than 98.76%* of the blogposts written by social media gurus, who like to turn their personal whims and opinions into “10 rules for this” and “20 best practices for that” with no data to substantiate their arguments whatsoever. But this morning I came acrossRead More

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Hype Assailant; image by Jantusia via Wikimedia Commons… I LOVE to dispel hype surrounding social media and marketing clichés like “engagement.” But sometimes, even my fellow hype-assailants go astray and perpetrate some nonsense of their own…Read More

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Avid Inc. Reader If you’re an entrepreneur or run a small company, you should read Inc. magazine. One issue contains more insightful, practical advice than some of the semester-long classes I endured in business school. And a subscription to Inc. will put you back a whopping $13 – or less than the price of a movie ticket. (Should you invest in advice from business experts or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? You decide…) But no one is infallible. Not even me.Read More

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + 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 fromRead More

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Guy Who Likes Tools (The Non-Human Kind)… My father ran a plant nursery up in Oregon, and for years he enjoyed a steady business with few disruptions beyond the weather. Then one day Walmart lumbered into town, and like a scene from a Godzilla flick, they began crushing everything, including mom-and-pop shops that had served the community for decades. Some store owners heard the best way to beat the low-price leader was customer service — after all, : “It’s all aboutRead More

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Sucker for Shows about Advertising… Just saw AMC’s “The Pitch,” a 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. This episode featured two agencies, WDCW and McKinney going after the Subway breakfast account. My thoughts? WDCW had better talent. Their writing was clever, and even their stock-photo selection was funny. And that goes to show thatRead More

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC 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

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Lifelong Fan of the Warlord of Mars… Forget the 10-foot-tall 6-limbed marauding Martians – the biggest challenge facing John Carter is his name. Or more exactly, the fact that Disney used his name as the title to his movie. Creating the second-worst sci-fi movie title of all time, Disney named this $250-million epic about red planet warfare “John Carter.” Yes, really, “John Carter.” Think about it. I mean, how can you not feel your blood racing at the sound of it?Read More

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Guy Who Prefers Talking Over Stalking; illustration by Shane Clester… If this is the social media revolution, wake me when it’s over. Social media was supposed to forge stronger relationships between companies and customers. It was also supposed to provide a massive improvement over traditional advertising, since social media doesn’t “interrupt” people when they’re trying to enjoy their favorite reality shows. In this revolution, customers aren’t pestered by marketers; rather, they give “permission” to marketers by visiting their websites, signing upRead More

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Practicing Skeptic; photo of uncut industrial diamond ready for hyping by Shieldforyoureyes Dave Fischer… I once met this millionaire who made his fortune selling diamond jewelry through supermarket tabloids. What kind of jewelry sells through the cheesiest rags on the planet — newspapers you wouldn’t dare use to line a birdcage lest you kill the bird? These were genuine diamonds — genuine industrial diamonds, that is, worthless in the general jewelry market. Yet the tabloid readers saw the word “diamond” andRead More