LinkedIn: Have a Creative, Dynamic, Problem-Solving New Year

Ah, corporate buzzwords. They’re enough to kill the forward-looking momentum in any strategic, synergistic meeting. And yet they’re used all the time in LinkedIn profiles.
Photo Courtesy of Roman Schvets/Flickr

Digital Marketing Start-Up Thismoment Raises $7.3 Million From Sierra Ventures

Another day, another pile of funding for a social marketing start-up.

Viral Video: Getting Jiggy in the “Whole Foods Parking Lot”

This is one of the more perfect spoofs, as a yuppie-in-the-hood raps about quinoa in the “Whole Foods Parking Lot.” Yes, quinoa. Also kale.
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Lady Gaga + 126,000 Pasty Geeks + Vegas = BoomTown Nirvana

The iconic singer and performance artist Lady Gaga will be appearing at the Consumer Electronics Show later today to unveil “creations” she came up with for Polaroid, as its creative director. Gaga said a year ago here that she would be coming up with “prototypes in marrying the fields of fashion/technology/photography innovation.” Oh, goody. Fishnet stockings that can post pictures to Instagram!

Fitbie: MSN and Rodale Launch Health and Fitness Site

MSN is launching a new health and fitness site called Fitbie today, in partnership with Rodale. It’s yet another move into niche content sites by the Microsoft portal, similar to those being made by AOL, Yahoo and Demand Media in an effort to dominate key consumer categories. Fitbie will be powered by MSN, which will sell advertising for it. Rodale is providing both original content and also material from its magazines, such as Men’s Health.

Yahoo Acquires Ad Start-Up Dapper

Yahoo doesn’t just shed top execs–it actually buys stuff related to its core online advertising business! Thus, today, it announced the purchase of Dapper. Dapper, Yahoo said, “enables advertisers and agencies to quickly and easily build dynamic ad creative, leveraging data to automatically show the right product, offer, or message with each impression.”

Shooting from Carol Bartz's Hip: Apple's iAds Are Just Awful, Which Is Why Yahoo Buys Them!

If you’re going to trash the competition in the online advertising business in a widely quoted press interview, it’s probably a good idea to check if someone on your staff was, you know, buying up the very product you dissed. That’s precisely the case with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, whose shoot-from-her-hip stylings in a wide-ranging chat with Reuters, published earlier this week, took aim at Apple and its mobile iAds product.

YouTube’s Sales Pitch: Please Buy Ads! And Please Make Them Like This!

So you’d like to start advertising on YouTube but aren’t sure how to do it? Google’s video site has some advice: Make awesome clips that people want to watch!

Can Apple Maintain Status as Religion of the "Creative Class"?

Apple’s core following has traditionally been the creative class. They are graphic designers and artists, and they constitute a “church” of sorts. “When you find other Mac users, they’re so happy to find other people, it’s like the underdog,” says Peter Isgrigg, Product Manager at Apple specialist Tekserve in Manhattan, and self-proclaimed Mac fanatic, and subject of my new video on Apple’s cult-like status.

Got Yahoo? Internet Giant Hires Goodby as Top Creative Agency for Its Ongoing Brand Revitalization.

In a shift that is sure to be much commented on by the advertising industry, Yahoo has tapped Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to take the lead for its creative, advertising, digital marketing and strategic planning efforts. The San Francisco-based Goodby, which is owned by the Omnicom Group, is known for innovative ideas and has done such memorable campaigns as the terrific “Got Milk?” campaign. Perhaps a “Got Yahoo?” campaign is in the future? Until now, the top job of goosing Yahoo’s tarnished brand, as part of a recently launched $100 million marketing push, has been helmed by Ogilvy & Mather.
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Thinking Outside the Pod