Life on the Edge: Learning from Facebook

The social network provides important lessons for executives—and a key forum for innovation and experimentation

BusinessWeek, April 2, 2008 — For most business executives, Facebook remains a remote, somewhat mysterious, online frontier. Many executives harbor strong doubts that Facebook is at all relevant to "real business." After all, isn't it just a bunch of college kids sharing photos of drinking exploits and trying to hook up with each other?

Let's start with the stats. Facebook now brings together 66 million online users. While many of these users are students and recent graduates, users 35 years old and older account for more than half of Facebook's daily visitors and are the network's most rapidly growing demographic. Currently the average Facebook visitor spends about 2.5 hours per month on the site, which was founded in February, 2004, and was valued at $15 billion three years later... continue reading

TV Makes Strides While Marketers Experiment Widely†

Media Fragmentation, Measurement, Scale and Interactivity Are Just a Few Topics Debated at Our Latest CMO Roundtable

Advertising Age, March 24, 2008 — Is the scale that TV delivers anywhere close to being replaced for marketers? Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom and CMO Strategy Editor Jennifer Rooney recently sat down with Association of National Advertisers President Bob Liodice; Jeff Bell, corporate VP-global marketing for Microsoft's Interactive ntertainment Business; Bob Stohrer, CMO of Virgin Mobile; and Steve Sullivan, senior VP-communications at Liberty Mutual, to answer that and several other critical questions

The Seven Surmountable Hurdles to Marketing Effectiveness

Prophet, April 17, 2007 — One of the most pressing challenges marketers face today is finding the balance between the art and science of marketing to create strategies and programs that meet measurable business objectives. It’s called marketing effectiveness, and achieving it is doable – once some surmountable barriers are overcome.