Google Product Integration Fail

Friday, February 5th, 2010

So I went to view Google Ocean Showcase (which is supposed to be cool) in my default browser – Google Chrome. Unfortunately it failed. So did Google’s internal development team that should obviously be using their own browsers.

Dear Enterprise-Rent-A-Car

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Got this email from Enterprise earlier today and felt compelled to reply to their warm subject line.

My Response

Dear Enterprise, I’m sorry, it’s not you, it’s me. I’m just not ready to have those feelings for a rental car company and I love my wife.

I know you miss me, and there are times I miss you too, but someday we’ll look back at the time we had together and realize that rental car companies shouldn’t be this close or personal with their customers. No hard feelings? I’ll keep you mind if the price is right on future travel plans and I appreciate your heartfelt email.

Warm Regards,

Brian Schwartz

You Don’t Need A Blog

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Read the post at Spoke Marketing's Spoken Whirred blog.

Billy Mays – Stop Yelling at Me!!

Monday, November 17th, 2008

I often watch The West Wing re-runs when I'm working at home and since I'm working I don't use the DVR as quickly as I would if I was actively watching the show. 

Most commercials harmlessly play in the background, however I can't help but nearly jump off the couch as soon Billy Mays starts yelling about Oxi Clean or some other home cleaning product. 

I don't understand why Billy Mays must yell at me every time he is on TV.  Also, why is this an acceptable and popular form of television advertising?

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all.  But please stop yelling at me.

Pandora – Localized Advertising Confirmed

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

So today I'm listening to Pandora again and I see the ad below, confirming what I guessed at in a previous post – Pandora is geographically targeting ads to users. 


This banner ad is specifically for an open house at the University on November 21. This Open House is in St. Louis.

The landing page is also well-done because it's well designed and has the requisite social media sharing toolbar.  Although it should probably list the address of the open house on the landing page somewhere. 

 
A few years ago I managed a similar campaign for another college in St. Louis, and although those campaigns were successful at driving traffic from direct mail, organic searches and pay-per-click advertising , it
would have been nice to use other tools like this.

Well done Fontbonne and well done Pandora.

Spoke & Creative Reason Update

Friday, October 24th, 2008

So the full blown announcement has taken longer than expected.  But as mentioned in the previous post, Creative Reason has merged with Avalanche, AdMeyer Marketing and Chuck Hart Design to form Spoke: Marketing | Branding | Interactive.  We have our email announcement queued up and just about ready to send with transition letters to existing customers to follow shortly thereafter. 

I've been busy adding content to the Spoke website and will continue to finish it up.  As we wrap up the merger, I will begin to phase out pages from this site that are extraneous, but I will continue to keep the blog running for the time being.  Eventually I plan to transition this content to a new blog (tentatively titled  Spoken Whirred) for Spoke. 

I have several ideas for new posts on advertising and marketing, but haven't had the time to write them yet.  Expect some new posts soon.

Don't forget to check out our Spoke Marketing site and let me know what you think. 

Spoke

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

We Are Spoke

Creative Reason is merging with Avalanche Consulting Group, Admeyer Marketing and Chuck Art Design to form Spoke, an agency focusing on Marketing, Branding and Interactive in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Look for a full-blown announcement next week and specifics next week (I am posting this from an airport as I have been traveling all week).

We Are Spoke

Monday, September 8th, 2008

October 1st.  More to come.