In a post at the Marketing Minute, blogger Drew McLellan admits he gets some rather strange mail. "But I have to say," he notes, "chocolate-covered grasshoppers might just top the list." The unusual package arrived from Grasshopper.com, which provides integrated telephone services, and McLellan praises the company for a well-executed ... more

Looks like the recent $100 million ad blitz for the McCafé seems to be working. The McDonald's experiment in the specialty coffee arena may now have bumped Dunkin' Donuts from the No. 2 spot. But how? more

"Do you know what attracts your readers? What headlines they respond to most? Do they respond to pictures? Do they know what your offer is?" asks Peter Da Vanzo in a recent SEObook.com post. Testing will give you answers, but it can be tedious and costly. Da Vanzo offers the following ideas for quick-and-cheap, ... more

The current ad campaign from brewer Dos Equis features a fictional spokesperson it calls The Most Interesting Man in the World—a dashing chap engaged in a series of action-oriented vignettes that might remind viewers of vintage undercover-themed television shows like It Takes a Thief or I Spy. Filmed with the ... more

In a post at the Deliverability.com blog, Dennis Dayman presents a short series of off-the-cuff emails that his wife wrote in response to his question about video in email marketing campaigns. Dayman wanted to know whether she—a stay-at-home mom—found the concept appealing. In her first email, she explains that the ... more

In a piece at The New Yorker, James Surowiecki recounts how two companies—Post and Kellogg—reacted to the Depression. "Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising," he writes. "But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new ... more

Good news for all you budding Spielbergs out there: YouTube this month made it possible to automatically seed freshly uploaded videos across popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and even news and feed aggregator Google Reader. This means you no longer have to wait for your (undoubtedly stunning) viral somethin'-or-other ... more

Chad White of the Retail Email blog was impressed when he recently received an email from Lands' End with this subject line: Free Shipping + 20-50% off summer! Swim, shorts, polos and more. "I really liked this checklist approach to listing departments," he explains. "It feels less like it's pressing ... more

Contextual ads, whether delivered by Google, Yahoo, or any other company, are not standalone ads in the way that a newspaper classified ad is. In fact, your pay-per-click ad is simply the connector between a desired keyword or phrase and a destination landing page. So while you may have some wonderful ... more

Entrepreneurs, by definition, don't play it too safe. So for a company that serves startups and small businesses, what better way to launch a rebranding campaign and generate buzz than doing something novel and risky—but being wicked smart about it. Which is where the bugs come in. more

It's safe to say the first batch of post-dot-com-bubble brands have come into their own. Brands like Google, eBay, and Amazon. The one thing that sets them apart? They became successful without the support of television advertising to help launch them. more

To make an in-house SEO effort successful, you must first gain buy-in from the three main "layers" in most large organizations: executives, management, and everyone else. So says Duane Forrester in a recent post at Search Engine Land. He likens working with these groups to making a layered sandwich. To ... more

If you're a man, your father probably taught you how to shave your face. It's highly improbable, though, that he included a lesson on shaving the rest of your body. And as "manscaping" starts going mainstream, many might wonder why a man would let his razor wander southward. An animated ... more

In this regular Daily Chirp feature, William Arruda shares some of his favorite television ads. And he offers up a lesson for how the ad relates to your personal brand. Today, he looks at Target's "New Day" commercial. more

Right in time for the much-anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update debut on June 17, AdMob has introduced a slew of ad units that will help enterprising advertisers make the most of mobile marketing. Among the cool features to check out:  Mobile social networking, which lets users access your ... more

It might sound counter-intuitive, but "sweating the small stuff" is actually a recipe for success. In fact, it can be one of best weapons in your business arsenal. more

Search queries, the exact word or phrases a person types, are a vital clue into the objectives of the searcher and how valuable that person is to your business. Is each searcher relevant to you? Are all the search queries equally valuable? Can you write a single text ad that matches ... more

Have you heard this one? "All the research shows that companies that spend on marketing during a recession come out ahead of the competition as the economy rebounds." It's a catchy buzz phrase—and if people believe it, even better. But here's the thing: What research, exactly? more

To differentiate itself in a crowded consumer-electronics market, Sony Electronics leveraged a bond—James Bond—with sister company Sony Pictures. A Bond-themed interactive game and sweepstakes resulted in 45,000 clickthroughs to product pages—and a 12-15% increase in sales of those products. more

When you first arrive at the Blue Penguin website, it looks much like any other—with a logo, navigation buttons, a subscription link and some written content in the center. But then something happens. A man standing only a few inches high wanders across the screen and addresses the visitor. ... more

In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters significantly outperform those with more than 35. "According to the email marketing software-on-demand provider," says Magill, "messages with subject lines ... more

Rodney King famously asked, "Can we all get along?" And in a delightfully low-tech video currently making its way through the blogosphere, Red House Furniture of High Point, North Carolina, says the answer is an emphatic yes. Set to the tinny strains of a Casio keyboard-style soundtrack, the one-and-a-half minute ... more

Once in a while, a digital ad grabs you just like that. And one thing that really boosts its impact is if the person featured in it is—you. Read on:  Last year, to sell tickets to its women's basketball games, Gonzaga University released a video of a coach calling the ONE person whose attendance would ... more

"A subject line … invites others into your email marketing open house," says Josh Nason in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you have something to sell or a message you want to get across, that subject line better be good—or else your prospects might head to a different neighborhood." Nason ... more

We all know that content is king in search engine optimization, but in a recent Search Engine Land post, Daniel Waisberg reminds us that "usability is queen." According to Waisberg, the synergy between content and usability design can be a powerful generator of website conversion rates. To help search marketers optimize ... more