Unleash your quivering headlines on an unsuspecting world

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

When your new product is ready, will you release or unleash it? Google displays 470 million results for release, and only 8 million for unleash. And this is in the age of sensationalism. By coincidence, a search in Google News for the two words shows two different reports: Health insurers to release report projecting rising premiums Los Angeles Times EC … Read More

Miss the boat? Is the recession already over?

Posted by Dave CollinsEconomy

It depends who you ask, what you read and where you look. It does appear that we’re past the worst of it, but it will be a long time before the recession is well and truly behind us. Everything has changed. Even if most people don’t yet realise it. And guess what? More change lies ahead. In the same way … Read More

Watch out for the Google Wave

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

According to the Official Google Blog, over 100,000 people will today receive their invitations to preview Google Wave. If you haven’t yet heard of Google Wave, it’s a mix of email, instant messaging, twitter and more. You can see it in action in Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009. So what is it? To be honest I don’t … Read More

Cybercrime opportunity and lessons learnt from Norton

Posted by Dave CollinsDigital Marketing, General

The anti-virus companies are the unsung heroes of the modern PC. Back in the day when “normal, everyday people” were only starting to think about buying a PC for home use, the anti-virus companies were ramping up their marketing efforts. And by the time PCs for the home had become a norm, anti-virus software had been transformed from a paranoid-geek’s … Read More

AdWords workaround for the long ad approval process

Posted by Aaron WeinerGoogle Ads

If you’re using AdWords, you have most likely run into the dreaded ad approval queue. Does the following sound familiar? Weeks after creating your new AdWords ads, you phone Google to ask why it is taking so long for them to become active. Google say, “The amount of time it takes for your ad to be reviewed may vary depending … Read More

Google Waffle and the art of quantity hype

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

Google have announced their new DoubleClick Ad Exchange, yet are somehow managing to drown the pertinent facts with an overwhelming quantity of waffle. The Official Google Blog published a post entitled The DoubleClick Ad Exchange: growing the display advertising pie for everyone last Friday, yet the first nine paragraphs of the entry are little more than lengthy yabbering. A total … Read More

Create AdWords image ads in no time

Posted by Aaron WeinerGoogle Ads

We’ve recently been seeing quite good performance with image ads, both animated and static. The problem is the time it takes to have another ad created to your specific needs. It only takes a few seconds to create a new text ad, yet when it comes to creating a new image ad, this can often take a lot longer. Display … Read More

Facebook breaks the rules: positive cashflow… and early!

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

From Mark Zuckerberg’s blog: “As of today, Facebook now serves 300 million people across the world. It’s a large number, but the way we think about this is that we’re just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone. We’re also succeeding at building Facebook in a sustainable way. Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow … Read More

Elevator pitches that work

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

I’m sure you’re already familiar with the concept of an elevator pitch. You’re in an elevator, someone asks you what you do, and you have 15-20 seconds to tell them. It often surprises me how many people can’t describe their business in such a short time span, and of those who do, it’s incredible how many get it wrong. Let’s … Read More

Unhappy is noisier than happy

Posted by Dave CollinsGeneral

From the UK’s SC Magazine: “Barclays Capital Securities and Barclays Bank have been fined £2.45 million by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to provide accurate transaction reports and for serious weaknesses in its systems and controls in relation to transaction reporting.” Barclays fined £2.45 million by the Financial Services Authority for failures in transaction reporting. ‘Serious weaknesses in … Read More