Guarded Consumer Optimism

MediaPost Publications Change Noted In Consumer Spending Expectations 01/28/2009

According to the latest ChangeWave survey of U.S. consumers . . . shows some intriguing signs that consumer spending may finally be stabilizing after a prolonged slowdown . . . the 90-day outlook is not quite as horrible as it was in the December,

Other findings:

• Five percent said they are very satisfied with the current state of their personal finances;
• Twenty-six percent said they are now more confident in the U.S. stock market;
• Respondents reporting spending less to save money is up (18% to 41%), while the number spending less to reduce debt is up (24% to 36%).
  

Quite a change in six weeks. Perhaps it is optimism over the new administration? Maybe we have learned to live within our means? If that is so, does that make eight years under GWB almost worth it?

Tags: consumer optimism, spending down, savings up, debt down

Lizard Lake

My friend, Lee the Lizard, stopped by to tell me that the DreamWorks, SoBe, Intel, NBC Plan 3-D Super Bowl Ad is posted on YouTube. If you want more information, please see this post: Advertisement as Entertainment, Otherwise, just get ready to laugh!

Lizard Lake



The behind-the-scenes video below is below:

Tags: lizard lake, lee the lizard, dreamworks, sobe, intel, nbc, 3d ad

Cool Tool : Free Graphic Program

I stumbled upon a website called Paint.net and found a free graphic program that has many of the capabilities of Adobe Photoshop.

Simple, intuitive user interface--every feature and user interface element was designed to be immediately intuitive and/or quickly learnable without assistance. It is also designed to be immediately familiar to users of Paint and Photoshop.

Layers--This allows you to compose one complete image from a stack of other images that are blended together.

Unlimited History--Every action you take on an image is recorded in the History window, and is only limited by available disk space and memory.

Support for many popular file formats--The following file formats are supported: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TGA, DDS, and TIFF. The native Paint.NET image type is PDN which preserves layering.

Download Paint.net here | Paint.net tutorial forums here | Online manual here.

Effects and Adjustments--You can apply many special effects to your image, and support for image adjustments is also possible.

Full Support for Dual- and Quad-Core CPU's, and 64-bit--Paint.NET is fully optimized for the latest in processor technology enabling dramatic performance improvements and the ability to work with larger and more images.

Tablet PC Support--The Paintbrush tool supports the Tablet PC's pressure-sensitivity feature, allowing you to draw in a more natural and artistic manner.

Extensibility--Paint.NET supports plugins that add new effects, adjustments, and file format support.

Free-Paint.NET is provided for no cost with generous licensing terms.

Tags: free graphics program, paint.net, photoshop clone

Heroic Individuals : Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was blessed to grow up during a time of heroic individuals.

• Men, women (and children) who were not afraid to sit at white lunch counters;
• northern college students who risked their lives to register voters in the unfriendly south;
• families braving dogs, fire hoses and angry police to march in a peaceful protest; and
  
• one scared black teenager, walking through a line of National Guardsmen to enter college.

It was an exhilarating time to be alive and to be an American. Things were changing. Men were breaking the sound barrier, circling the planet and flying to the moon. It was a time before the three assassinations that bled hope from a generation. It was before the disillusionment set in about the Viet Nam War.

One man who illuminated this time period was Martin Luther King, Jr., and it is his birth that we celebrate. Although he was born on January 15, his birth is celebrated officially, with a Federal Holiday, on a Monday closest to that date.

MLK, Jr. was a wonderful orator with the booming voice of a minister. His speeches were mesmerizing. Sometimes, I read the passage below and think he must have had a premonition of his own death.

. . . And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

Martin Luther King Jr.,
Speech in Memphis, April 3, 1968
King was assassinated the next day

Even if he did suspect his time was near, he would not take additional precautions. He was used to the bombs, telephone calls and death threats that plagued his last years on Earth. He was a man of the people and he wanted to be where they were.

Tags: mlk jr, mlk birthday, heroic actions, assassinations, civil disobedience

Changing Marketing Forever (CMF)

Some people you probably know already from various programs around the Internet, like Turnip, Ben Barden and Stan Hayes have started a new advertising program called CMF Ads. (CMF stands for Changing Marketing Forever!)

CMF Ads is different from most advertising programs on the Internet today in that everything is transparent.

• The only way to receive credits is to buy them or to earn them from advertising placed on your blog. Every credit is purchased.
  


• Advertising for the second or subsequent time on a blog will allow you to see your advertising history, including statistics for completed ad campaigns.


• You may view the statistics for the ads you have placed as well as for ads placed on your sites. These stats include total page views, unique page views, total clicks and unique clicks.

Other unique features include:

• Manage multiple sites from one control panel with simple drop down menus.
  


• All pending ads that require approval will appear in the same place. Even if you have multiple sites, all ads are approved from one page - no need to switch accounts.
  


• There is an active forum and private messaging system.


• Support is there when you need it.


• There is a directory for blogs and a directory for advertisers.

What should you do?

While the beta testers are trying to break the system and the admins are pulling their hair out, you should prepare for the public launch. Sign up for CMF Ads, add your blogs to the directory and join the forums.

Tags: cmfads, changing marketing forever, ad widgets

iContact email marketing services

Chances are if you receive an email newsletter, it was sent through iContact. There are many choices for email marketing service, but iContact has passed the test of time for many marketers.

iContact has developed whitelist agreements with most major Internet Service Providers, so emails sent through iContact Email Marketing are delivered to the inbox and not the spam folder.

Currently, you may sign up for a 15-day free trial of iContact so you may try the system. During the free trial period, you may want to read the articles on Email Marketing.

iContact provides message scheduling, SpamCheck™, open and click through tracking, bounce back handling, subscription management and integrated survey tools.

If you decide to continue the service, the minimum monthly price is $9.95. This includes the use of over 300 templates, 500kb of image hosting, survey creating tools, unlimited email lists, newsletter archives, rss feeds and autoreponders.



Above is a screenshot showing the user-friendly iContact interface, If you are an email marketer, try iContact for free. Compare what you have been using to what iContact offers and see which one will work best for you.

Tags: email newsletter, icontact email marketing service, newsletter service, auotresponder

Gitmo to Close!

Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he had ordered aides to draw up plans for closing down the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Days after the election, the ACLU called on President-elect Obama to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay and shut down the military commissions on his first day in the White House.

You may have heard the news this week that five high-profile detainees attempted to submit guilty pleas before the government’s ill-conceived military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. But, by the end of the day, their pleas were tied up in a blizzard of confusion over unresolved legal questions.

What’s happening at Guantánamo flies in the face of justice, fairness and our American ideals. Please take a moment to tell President-elect Obama to close the prison at Guantánamo.

Tags: guantanamo, gitmo, close gitmo, civil rights violation, violation of geneva convention

Advertisement as Entertainment

DreamWorks, SoBe, Intel, NBC Plan 3-D Super Bowl Ad - Advertising Age

Powered by Intel, viewers will see a trailer in 3D from the DreamWorks movie Monsters vs. Aliens (nice tie-in).

There also will be a 60-second advertisement for SoBe Life Water featuring the dancing SoBe lizards that were so popular last year.

The lizards will dance Swan Lake with football players and movie characters. Viewers will be told to hold onto the 3-D glasses to view an episode of Chuck airing the next day.
.
Advertisement as entertainment is full engagement with your audience. This is going to rock.

Tags: sobe, dreamworks, collaboration, super bowl ad, 3D glasses

Virtuality Adds New Dimension to Multimedia

Richter Studios for Nielsen Answers
all rights reserved

As someone who remembers programming with punch cards, computers without Windows and hand coding HTML, there is a brave new world on the web today. Forget web 1.0 and web 2.0, we are now experiencing the growing pains of the birth of web 3.0.

How can a company or a brand prepare for an ever-evolving web? Step into the future with the help of professionals, like Richter Studios and their Web, Interactive and Video Production Service. In the decade since Richter Studios' inception, the team has been involved in the evolution of digital technology. With over 250 video projects completed, Richter Studios remains on the leading edge of innovation in multimedia.

Richter Studios believes in an all-digital workflow. The video is recorded by high-definition digital cameras in the 1080P format directly from an infinity background (green or blue screen) to a hard drive.

Of course, Richter Studios has shot video on location, such as Venice, Rome, London and Paris, and from extreme aerial positions, such as 60-story-high construction cranes, helicopters and skyscrapers.

Once the video is captured, the designers, animators, editors and programmers go to work on MAC desktops or multi-touch tablets. There they apply the illustrations, animations, virtual backgrounds and special effects to create the final product.

Virtuality adds a new dimension to multimedia and Richter Studios is your guide to web 3.0. Enjoy the ride!

Tags: video production service, interactivity, virtuality, web 3.0

John Lennon Imagines a Better World

John Lennon Imagines One Laptop per Child in Ad for Nonprofit - Advertising Age

Imagine every child, no matter where in the world they were, could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop, and more than imagine, you can change the world (PSA voiceover with John Lennon).

People do not know what to think about John Lennon's voice and face in the PSA for One Laptop per Child. According to the article cited above, writers on Boing Boing said, "Resurrecting the dead to shill modern products is not going to catch on," adding, "Digitally, it's creepy." Please, shut up. You were in diapers when John Lennon died. His magical music is still meaningful to generations. The PSA was done pro bono by Taxi, New York and permission was given to use the voice and picture of Mr. Lennon by his wife, Yoko Ono.

The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. I believe John Lennon would support OLPC. Lennon could imagine a better world in the midst of an illegal war, religious intolerance, racial tension and Watergate. He had the talent of writing songs that allowed us to imagine right along with him.

John Lennon loved to be in the news and to make people think. I can imagine that he is quite happy with the contretemps he has caused -- again.

Tags: psa, one laptop per child, john lennon, contretremps

To My Blogging Friends . . .