“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.” —David Ogilvy (1911–1999)

It’s a fact that brands can’t be manipulative or overpromising anymore, at the risk of losing credibility and spending a huge amount of money to get back on their feet. It’s a good thing, as they now have to challenge and re-create themselves, finding new ways to leverage based on authenticity, trust and listening, to engage people and raise [...]

I’m not in on the online dating game, but lately everywhere I go, it’s all everyone is talking about. Perhaps it’s because many of my single friends are considering it or have already delved into the cosmic world of online dating (usually out of pure frustration with the men or women they’re meeting—or not meeting—in the “real” world).
Or maybe my peers are finally embracing the fact that we live in a digital world, so why not cast a larger net [...]

“Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.” –Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (economic thinker, 1911-1977)
What is totally new with the digital era is that we are freeing a part of ourselves from material consumption. I’m not saying that virtual consumption will replace its material counterpart, but it’s obvious that a part of what we used to do offline is now moving online, completely virtual—like news, music, books, videos, games, applications, virtual goods, etc. Losing a part of the contact [...]

As marketers work around the clock to leverage the newest social media platform, I can’t help but reflect on my first uses of social media. I’m a firm believer that you can’t evolve or grow without knowing your roots and learning from your past—and I realize now that in my past, I was engaged in social media before there was such a thing as “social media.”
It was about 13 years ago when I created my first site—a “Power Rangers” fan [...]

The newest internet celebrity isn’t a smoking baby, nor is it middle-aged mousy woman with an incredible singing voice. Meet Zach Anner, a self-described “wheelchair-bound lady magnet,” who is winning hearts as he competes for a chance to host his own talk show on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Zach’s contest entry gives his own personal hilarious take on his disability, calling cerebral palsy the “sexiest of the palsies” and discusses his dream to host a travel show for people who [...]

When I think of the phrase “The Beautiful People,” the popular, catchy song from a few years ago by Marilyn Manson comes to mind, but ask some of my single New York City girlfriends and they will sing an entirely different tune that is virtual, attractive and now very controversial.
In fact, I couldn’t believe my ears when they told me about Beautifulpeople.com, a dating website where admittance is based on your level of attractiveness. Yet it wasn’t the site, launched [...]

“A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man … His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.” – Niccolo Machiavelli (Italian philosopher and writer, 1469-1527)
No matter times or places, “influence” has always been the Holy Grail. The social media revolution raised this notion to a new level: Almost everything [...]

Originally posted on eurorscgpr.com.
In his recent live exchange with Republican lawmakers, President Obama was criticized for failing to follow through on his promise to make the debate over health-care reform transparent by televising negotiations on C-SPAN.
Though he did admit it was a “legitimate criticism,” President Obama also pointed out some of the logistical hurdles that can arise with efforts to improve transparency:
“Look, the truth of the matter is that if you look at the health-care process—just over the course of [...]

People used to conduct business through conversation, discussing the weather, family and politics before finally bartering their way to a deal. Not so today. The book The Cluetrain Manifesto is based around the concept of markets as conversations and says the most important feature of the Internet is that it allows people to have conversations directly.
The book was the first that encouraged businesses to move from “What does my website need to look like?” to “How can we use online [...]

This is the first in a series of three.
We just finished conducting one-on-one interviews with some of the brightest minds in the social Web. Here are some of their insights, which we shared with our general managers yesterday in Paris. Check in tomorrow for more of what these leaders have to say.
B.L. Ochman, president, Whatsnextonline.com:
“For big corporations, this stuff is still very scary…. Anyone who is a consultant must tackle fear.”
“A lot of companies should take their websites down, because [...]