The Pro Shop

I’ve written a fair amount about the ways that individual retail brands are using social and mobile marketing to get closer to their customers, enticing their biggest fans to step up and advocate for the brands, and monitoring social media as an early warning system for CRM problems.

But I had a chance on Monday to view digital media takeup from another retail perspective: that of the shopping-center landlord or property manager. I sat in on a panel discussion at the Fusion conference going on in Chicago that week, mounted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade association for the shopping center industry. more

By now we all know that the Apple iPad will go down in history as the most revolutionary device since the opposable thumb, and the most tin-eared product name since Dr. Crapper’s brainchild.

The naming problem can be overcome if the tablet gets enough lift among the public. (Who would have given odds that everyone would want a Wii?) But the revolutionary promise could come true. Consumers are buying portability in their electronics. Recent forecasts from the Consumer Electronics Association predict that this year’s hot categories will be wireless handsets and especially smart phones (52 million to be sold globally in 2010) and, in the PC category, lightweight, stripped down netbooks (30 million units to be sold this year.) more

It’s hard to take your eyes off the scenes of devastation in Haiti, or to focus on anything beyond the truly horrific suffering: On Monday it was estimated that the death toll might reach as high as 200,000, and that three-quarters of the capital city Port-au-Prince was in need of reconstruction. Shattered infrastructure and the lack of a strong government presence are exacerbating the problems by making it difficult to get rescue teams to those who might still be alive, and needed supplies to the survivors.

But in one way, Haiti has been fortunate: When it comes to financial support, new media—and specifically mobile–have stepped up to provide swift, frictionless new ways for ordinary people to contribute cash to the recovery efforts, deploying channels resources that were not readily available even a few years ago. more

So I was sitting at my desk today, gulping cold coffee and working on an item for an end-of-year/ looking-ahead feature in our upcoming issue of Chief Marketer magazine about Google’s plans to become King of All Monetizable Media. I had just written that Google’s interest in mobile marketing extends beyond search to delivering display ads of all kinds, when the news came over the wire that the company will purchase mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million in stock, regulators willing.

Hey, I should be grateful. Companies usually wait to announce acquisitions like that until print magazines have been in the mail for 24 hours. Those of us who still have print deadlines can sometimes get paranoid about brands’ uneering ability to blow our news angles once too late to do anything about it.) more

Judging by the enlightened opinion from the dais at last week’s ad;tech conference in Chicago—and by the chatter from the auditorium, show floors and breakout-session hallways—both marketers and agencies are expecting to see sunshine peeking through the economic clouds by the end of this year, and perhaps by the end of the quarter.

No one expects that recovery, if it comes, to bring marketing budgets back to pre-recession growth rates. To beat the weather metaphor to death, no one’s actually buying sunscreen. But they are taking off their hip boots and—carefully, tentatively, in a controlled fashion—seem to be getting back to the business of trying to find and talk to their customers in a fragmented media world. more

Look, we’re all under stress. On the personal front, our 401Ks are MIA and our home valuations have put an unfortunate new spin on the phrase “sweat equity.” Meanwhile our workplaces are pressure cookers, with bankruptcy filings, layoffs and salary freezes. (Not here at Promo, of course. We still keep a basket of benjamins by the coffee maker for lighting our lunchtime Cohibas.)

The point is, we as a public are getting cranky, and we may be less prone to put up with some of the things we found fun in 2007 or at least tolerable last year. And that seems to have been part of AT&T Wireless’ miscalculation in firing out text messages to “a significant number” of its 75 million user base, reminding them to tune in to the Tuesday night launch of the eighth season of “American Idol” on the Fox Network. more