Cobble Hill Interactive: Digital Sales & Marketing Consulting

perhaps it was Elmer’s who invented the internet.  The web as glue is in full swing.  Observe, just this week alone:

1. For the second consecutive night, on a two separate networks, a tv show I was watching ended with a URL, and some additional, only-available-online, content.  We’re not talking rehashed, repurposed, repeated highlights either- we’re talking genuine, 100%, never-before-seen, FRESH CONTENT… completely free.  You think that traffic source comes any more highly qualified?   

   [Note: Sadly, in both cases the networks utterly failed to follow up the successful driving point (i.e. tv show) with a funnel point that leads the visitor into a scenario where some interaction can take place.  That sound you hear is the cash register signaling yet another squandered opportunity, the likes of which becoming even more critical with continual traffic cost inflation.]

2. FX unleashes a contest which collects CGM.  What type of consumer generated media, you ask?- the type that got Chevy in such hot water a few months back.  This one incentivizes submissions with a $50,000 check.  Oh yeah, and one more thing worth noting, they only accept submissions through myspace! 

   [Note: Sadly, because their site is 100% designed in Flash, linking to it, creating a buzz, and sharing the viral WOM becomes far more difficult than it should be.  Oops.]

3. Our copy of Strategy + Business arrived at the office offering a field guide for the new Marketer (yes, I did wonder if they’d include a reading list, and if Waiting For Your Cat to Bark would top the list.) and a cover story entitled "The Future of Advertising Is Now" (free registration required).  It’s well worth the read, and a harbinger of things to come.  They predict marketing excellence in organizations who:
   • "Shift spending and management attention to
     digital media, and use those media to more effectively influence
     consumer purchase behavior.
   • Develop formats to promote interaction with audiences, especially their most likely consumers.
   • Create new research approaches and metrics that measure outcomes, not inputs.
   • Combine “above-the-line” advertising (TV, radio,
     and print) and “below-the-line” marketing (promotions, sponsorships,
     events, public relations) in new two-way, integrated campaigns.
   • Create their own branded entertainment assets and appeal to customers directly through them."

   [Note: As far as I know, they weren’t intentionally referring to the results of planning marketing strategy with Persuasion Architecture, but it sure sounds like they were.]

   Did I mention, it’s only Wednesday?