del.icio.us tags: cool stuff

You too can own one of those street banners from your favorite art show, courtesy of BetterWall. Be prepared to drop a few dimes, however. If you want to stay on top of new stock, you can sign up for their e-newsletter.

I told Gabby I would find an excuse to come to Minneapolis and this might be it: the Chambers Hotel. Piers Fawkes posted about the Chambers, a "proper art hotel" last month on PSFK. I just stayed at the Hudson Hotel in New York, which has a beautiful lobby, but is not someplace I'll be staying again because I really don't need to bruise my knees on the wall when I sit down to pee.

If you've spent more than five minutes working in a communications agency (like me) — or have ever been presented to by one as a (potential) client — this great piece from the A.V. Club, "5 Trends I Just Made Up Looking Around the Office," will make you laugh — or cringe.

Dooce posted these amazing series of photos of folks in life and death. If you're in London between April 9 and May 18, you can catch Life Before Death at the Wellcome Collection. Update: Jason Kottke thinks the photos should be seen side by side online, giving you another reason to go to the show in London, where I'm guessing they are.

del.icio.us tags 03.19.08

Blogs
Regina Schrambling writes, at The Los Angeles Times about the growing number of professional chefs who are blogging to build their personal brand, demonstrate (through traffic) their popularity to potential restaurant investors and sell product. I'm not thrilled with the folks who let their publicists write their blog posts -- you're missing the point, as far as I'm concerned -- but I love that Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York makes the connection between the zines "he grew up reading in the age of underground punk rock" and his blog, Notes from the Kitchen.

CSR
Allison Mooney at PSFK writes about P&G and Unilever's dueling efforts to demonstrate who's more bad a** on the environmental front as they try to create loyal customers out of young consumers, who are increasingly demanding ethical behavior from the companies to whom they give their money. Sure, as Allison and others have pointed out, contradictions abound but I'm with her when she says, if "eco-minded consumers -- and the earth -- end up benefiting," who gives a toss?


One More Reason to Love Charlie Rose
I disagree with Sandra G, the first to comment on this TechCrunch post about Charlie Rose's commitment to his MacBook Air; Charlie is one of the sexiest men on television. There's a group of us who probably have had fantasies about sitting across from him at his big round table, lamenting the fact that he's so close, yet oh so far away (purrrrr). But a man who sacrifices his visage for his laptop? I'm with you, Charlie. If the house was on fire, my iBook would be the first thing I grabbed.

Search
Overture helps you to pick search terms for a keyword marketing campaign. Brian was the one that told me about it a while back, but I just got around to adding it to del.icio.us. Nothing like getting a peak into the mind of your customer.

del.icio.us tags 02.16.08

According to Business Week, young people are starting to turn their backs on social networks, rejecting the "deluge" of advertising. Over the past four months, research from Comcast indicates that the amount of time that Internet users spend on social networks has dropped about 14 percent. What's an advertiser to do? Collectively, they're spending $1.2 billion in advertising on social networks, a number that is expected to nearly double this year.

Jackie Huba from Church of the Customer reports on new research from Global Marketing Insight that manages to take Oprah down a notch. From a list of 11 influences, African American book buyers are most likely to cite a recommendation from a friend or family member as their reason for buying a book. Miss Oprah is number 6.

del.icio.us tags 02.03.08

At e.politics, Colin gives Obama's team their due: they are managing to bring online and offline organizing together to raise money and deliver votes. It seems obvious, but it didn't happen for Dean in 2004 and Obama is kicking ass and taking names. As Colin says, "These folks are really using the web rather than just throwing things online."

John Bell manages to ruffle a few folks feathers with this post about the need to measure word of mouth with quantitative metrics. I'm with you, John, we can keep flapping our lips about the value of word of mouth, but until we can explain it to the guy with a check book in a language he understands, we're just a bunch of dreamers. I get the ad equivalency model (BzzAgent does it), particularly if you're thinking about trying to make it clear to marketing folks who are turning over part of their ADVERTISING budget to pay for a word of mouth program, but John's "attention factor" sounds a little too mushy at this stage. I agree with what is at the core, but I'm not convinced it won't fall flat when the budgets are being divvied up.

del.icio.us tags 01.25.08

Cohen at UADDIT has posted the "19 Best Ads (He) Has Ever Seen." I like the jobsintown.com "Life's Too Short" spots the best. It reminds me of being little and thinking that there was someone in the speakers performing music live for my benefit.