The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Where were you during Barack Obama’s inauguration? I was in Miami Beach, perched on a white leather sofa in the lobby lounge of the just-refurbished Fontainbleu Hotel. Yes, it sounds fabulous; it wasn’t really. more

If President Obama could endorse products he’d probably become the richest man in the world in a very short period of time. But since he cannot, others have been perfecting the art of profiting from his words and likeness.

This was never more apparent than during the course of the inaugural festivities in Washington, DC, where about 500 enterprising street vendors were the latest recipients of Obama mania. Pins, flags, calendars, T-shirts and mugs were standard fare sold on every street corner and by vendors lined up along the streets near the major events at The Mall and along the parade route. Everyone was buying, sporting pins on their hats, flags in their pockets or woolen Obama hats to fend off the cold.

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Right before the holidays I joined Facebook, to see what was up with our spiffy new Chief Marketer page there.

I’ve been having a lot of fun connecting with friends from college and even elementary school. And yes, just like we’d love you to “fan” Chief Marketer, I’ve become a fan of things as diverse as Diet Coke and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Those, of course, are current popular obsessions. It occurred to me this past weekend as I was wasting time searching old drinking buddies looking up work colleagues that the site could also be a great way to test the waters for reviving or revamping old brands.

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In a sign of the times, Google has decided to end its experiment to sell print ads through the search engine. This will impact 800 newspapers. The reason: It simply was not effective. Recently Google also ended its catalog search feature.

In a sign of the times, Google has decided to end its experiment to sell print ads through the search engine. This will impact 800 newspapers. The reason: It simply was not effective. Recently Google also ended its catalog search feature.