The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Sadly, the economy has forced me to drop something I have been extremely loyal to over the past eight years in this house: Cablevision, or more important, News12 Connecticut (Cablevision’s local news station).

Switching to AT&T’s U-Verse triple-play service this week was bittersweet (Hey, I now have the NFL Network and Cartoon Network West, so I can wake up to Aqua Teen Hunger Force). But the horrible call center experience I just had as I said good-bye to Cablevision took that edge off a bit.

Moral of the story: Your loyalty to a brand can switch in the blink of an eye when you get an extremely poor call center experience. And I hope my call was being monitored… and I probably need some anger management. more

Don’t ask me how I learned this, but a major B2B outfit recently tried its hand at a Webinar.

People showed up—several hundred, including non-clients. And they liked what they heard, for the content was relevant and there was no hint of a sales pitch.

But there was one problem: Except to get an e-mail that a recorded version of the Webinar was available, the registrants never heard from the firm again. more

Don’t ask me how I learned this, but a major B2B outfit recently tried its hand at a Webinar.

People showed up—several hundred, including non-clients. And they liked what they heard, for the content was relevant and there was no hint of a sales pitch.

But there was one problem: Except to get an e-mail that a recorded version of the Webinar was available, the registrants never heard from the firm again. more

This wasn’t supposed to happen—but it did.

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Every year, Godiva runs a Valentine’s Day sweepstakes in which one lucky winner receives a slip in their box of chocolates telling them they’ve won a fabulous prize.

This year, the winner gets a weekend at a chocolate themed hotel room in New York. Chocolate adorned tables and chairs. Chocolate adorned lighting.

Is it just me, or does this sound kind of awful?

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It’s Super Bowl week and that can only mean one thing: Time for stupid questions from ignorant, sleep-deprived journalists. As a former sportswriter, I know only too well the impossibly awkward position when during a post-game press conference, a seemingly enterprising young newspaper man asks the coach a question that makes the media gathered shudder and quietly wince in internal anguish. more