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A friend of mine sent me a link to a blog post about ODP being dead and wow, the reading was awesome: Check out all the details at: Skrentablog

DMOZ is kicking out editors like Shoemoney because he discussed being able to pay editors to help get listed in the directory.

by: Anne Haynes

Do you have an experience that speaks to Briggs, Stuart and my understanding? Post a comment and let me know!

While on my trip, I continued to read the book What Sticks When I was traveling during Thanksgiving, I sat next to a younger man who was reading the book “Joel on Software”. I was intrigued by the title of this book. While I watched this younger man take in two cocktails reading Joel, I added this book to my reading list. After I arrived home from my vacation, I read the introduction to Joel on Software at Amazon.com and knew instantly this was a book to buy. I headed to Borders Books in Mission Valley, ordered Joel and found “What Sticks”.

Chapter 1: Making It Stick

This chapter touches on the Marketers admitting their current approach to marketing leaves them powerless in the success of their campaigns. The lack of understanding in a fragmented online marketing world renders this experience. Briggs and Stuart give an example of this experience through a presentation Barbara Bacci-Mirque from the Association of National Advertisers gave at a conference. Barbara gives an analogy of the 12 steps program for alcoholics and the 12 steps program for marketers. But what Briggs and Stuart focus on is accountability within the campaign structure. They toss away the belief that praying works when planning and executing campaigns. They believe and promote “continuous tracking with design and experiments” eliminate the need for prayer. The authors continue on to state, “We think it’s problematic to have an advertising agency’s own performance.” Briggs and Stuart feel that an agency should not own the analytics of a campaign, in their opinion there is a conflict of interest. While I do see their point, I also work for an agency that uses, Google Analytics, WebSide Story and Urchin Enterprise for tracking success. Rex Briggs is the founder of Marketing Evolution (a third party analytics performance firm) and is referenced several times within this chapter and others, so I have to wonder if this book is designed to promote Brigg’s company.

Briggs and Stuart introduce the Communication Optimization Process (COP) to remove the, “I feel it in my gut” style of marketing and promote analytics and scientific measurement. What do a Rocket Scientist and a Marketer have in common? They have the same issues. Briggs and Stuart introduce parallels with Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) space exploration project issues and media campaigns project issues. COP is the core fundamental discipline the author’s focus on; Process, Performance, Progress and Contingency plans are the summary areas of attention.

With a history in business process analysis, I understand these issues and truly see the first issue: “Process” being the most important aspect of a successful marketing campaign. When working in small and medium size organizations, it’s important to know who does what and if process is not defined, performance, progress and contingency plans will not be implemented. Accountability is a huge aspect when executing a successful marketing campaign. In some organizations there are no processes, so who does what tends to interfere with success.

The good news is I am still reading this book, so What Sticks cliff notes will continue to come.

Do you have an experience that speaks to Briggs, Stuart and my understanding? Post a comment and let me know!

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by: Anne Haynes

I am in the process of reading one of the best books I have read in a couple of years regarding marketing and advertising; What Sticks by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart.

Since I currently work at an agency, I am always seeking knowledge about agency life, interactive advertising, traditional advertising and rich media. Briggs and Stuart within just a few hours of reading built very strong cases for why collaboration, data analysis, and agency cultures are huge obstacles facing the new marketing and advertising era.

I must give some highlights, because truly everyone needs the cliff notes on this book.

Introduction

When I found What Sticks, I was browsing the business section at Borders Books in Mission Valley, San Diego. I was preparing to visit my family and had a total of about 8 hours round trip to burn on an airplane. The title caught me first, What Sticks as a Search Marketing Manager and substitute media planner and buyer the name stuck and then I read the introduction. Briggs and Stuart build their value very quickly within the Acknowledgements and Introduction of the book; they had huge support when writing this book; Association of National Advertising (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), European Society of Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Newspaper Association of America (NAA), MSN, Google, Yahoo!, 24/7 RealMedia, ABC, Advertising.com, CNET, DoubleClick, Forbes.com, New York Times Digital, Real Networks, Walt Disney Internet Group, and many more.

The fruit of this book analyzed 1$ billion in advertising spend and gave examples of 30 marketers. Quickly, Briggs and Stuart summarized the 275 page book when they state the 12$ million wasted in advertising can be fixed with business fundamentals.

by: Anne Haynes

Since my post on November 24th: Anne Haynes in SERPS

My linkedin profile shows up on Page 1 of Google.

Additionally, after this post the article in the Los Gatos Weekly comes up on Page 1 of Google as well.

Notice the increase in Google referred traffic: