Media Companies Try Getting Social With Tumblr

Over the last few months, other media outlets have caught wind of Tumblr, which is free to use.`

New York Times, August 2, 2010 — Since Tumblr is currying favor among a young crowd, it could prove valuable for traditional companies and media outlets that are trying to build a relationship with that audience. And those companies are no doubt aiming to win points by being early adopters of a site that is on the rise.

Advertise on NYTimes.com Armani Hotel Opens in Dubai's Khalifa Tower

A luxury hotel crafted by designer Giorgio Armani opened Tuesday as the first landmark tenant in the world's tallest skyscraper.

New York Times, April 27, 2010 — The 160-room Armani Hotel Dubai is a welcome bit of good news for Dubai's leaders after the troubled debut of the more than half-mile (828-meter) Burj Khalifa in January. An elevator malfunction forced a two-month closure of the spire's observation deck — the only part of the tower open to the public.

Crème de la Cell: Six-Figure Phones

Depending on their bling factor, most Vertu phones retail from $5,000 to $25,000. (Special editions start at $80,000; one sculpted gold-and-sapphire phone sold for more than $325,000.)

New York Times, April 19, 2010 — To ponder Vertu’s ruby bearings and laser-cut ceramic keys is to imagine Thorstein Veblen, the Norwegian-American sociologist and economist, thrashing about in his grave. In his 1899 book, “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” he coined the term “conspicuous consumption” to describe how people, rich or poor, acquire cool stuff to impress and to establish a pecking order. To this guy, even silver flatware seemed like wretched excess. Veblen would surely have seen Vertu as too-too.

After Bruising Ad Battle, AT&T Looks to Rebrand as Lifestyle Company†

Telecom to Integrate All Communications Under 'Rethink Possible' Theme, Introduce Updated Logo

Advertising Age, April 8, 2010 — AT&T is undertaking an ambitious rebranding effort under the banner "Rethink Possible" that includes a redesign that updates its trademark logo.

The new theme attempts to position AT&T as a lifestyle company and elevate it from the recent ad sniping with rival Verizon. "Rethink Possible" will inform all advertising from the country's fourth-largest spender going forward. "It's not going to be the old model that there's brand work, and then there's consumer work or enterprise work; it's all 'Rethink Possible,'" said Senior VP-Brand Marketing and Advertising Esther Lee. "All of our communications across all of these channels is 'Rethink Possible' and this integration of design."

Hewlett-Packard pitches the Slate ... the tablet that isn't the iPad

Hewlett-Packard wants you to know that the iPad isn't the only tablet device out there

Brand Freak, April 8, 2010 — Concurrent with Apple's release, HP has rolled out this 30-second demo showing all the cool stuff it's Slate gizmo does. As the Silicon Alley Insider notes, this HP blog post doesn't directly mention Apple but implicitly criticizes the iPad by highlighting Slate features that the iPad lacks, like Adobe Flash and Air support and an implanted camera. The Slate is likely to be priced at $549, more expensive than the cheapest iPad (which is $499). HP, which once licensed Apple's iPod, clearly has its work cut out for it, but it's clear that the industry is no longer flat-footed when confronted by Apple's new high-profile releases.

How Ford's Sync Technology Will Turn It Into America's Most Surprising Consumer Electronics Company

Fast Company, April 1, 2010 — A tall woman in a taut skirt enters. She takes my drink order, and then I watch her disappear down a burnished-mahogany-paneled hall. It's library quiet. Through the glass walls of the waiting area, past three Marcel Breuer chairs, I can see another woman seated at a huge desk, in an enormous mahogany office, talking on the phone. Suddenly, she stands up, reflexively straightens her flannel skirt, and smiles at somebody I can't see. Then she looks over at me. Beckons. Time speeds up. I'm ushered across the hall.

The episode of Mad Men ends and reality begins. And there he is, Alan Mulally, the chief executive of Ford Motor Co., his red hair combed in the old-timey coif of a former Boeing engineer. He leaps to his feet.

"C'mere!" he says, and puts his... continue reading

IPad could be Kindle’s first big threat in e-books

Amazon.com has dominated the young but fast-growing electronic book market for the past few years with the Kindle.

Boston Herald, April 1, 2010 — It will take time to determine whether the iPad causes a tremor in the e-reader market, a high-magnitude quake or something in between. But analysts say Amazon should be worried about the new device. Although the Kindle starts at $259 and the iPad is $499, the Apple device offers a color touch screen for downloading books from Apple’s new iBookstore, surfing the Web, playing videos and games and more.

Wikipedia is getting a makeover. Will readers notice?

Wikipedia has spent a long time defending itself against more established reference materials, but now the user-generated encyclopedia is having the opposite problem.

Econsultancy, March 29, 2010 — If enough random people aren't contributing content to the site, it could lose relevance.

The company is hoping that a new redesign will help encourage people to take an active role creating and editing its content. But will readers notice?

As I wrote last year, Wikipedia needs to get people to contribute more if it wants to survive.

Cisco asking for great, brief works of art from your Flip camera

I learned several things by watching videos submitted to a contest called "Do you Flip?"

Brand Freak, March 24, 2010 — Cisco, the marketer behind the ingenious little Flip camera, says it will use random clips from folks, famous or otherwise, in a new ad campaign. Everybody's invited, but there's already some stiff competition (see above) and one vid that reminds me of an old Kids in the Hall skit. People are getting pretty creative in the space of 10 seconds or less.

CMOs Should Think Like Designers

Today's multi-faceted marketing campaigns are design projects.

Forbes, March 15, 2010 — Over the past year in the business world, there has been rising interest in a relatively new concept known as "design thinking." That is, basically, an attempt to simplify and deconstruct the ways in which designers go about creating and innovating. In recent months several books have been written on this subject, which has also been gaining momentum at top MBA programs such as those at Stanford and Harvard.

But one place design thinking hasn't gotten much traction yet is in the marketing realm. I suspect that's because marketing executives are accustomed to thinking of design as a separate discipline from marketing; it's seen as the domain of design geeks who develop cool product features or graphic artists who agonize over typefaces.