Online Marketing Blog

About a month ago, I did a post about a fellow who is working to raise money and media attention in order to secure a sponsor for a marriage proposal during the Super Bowl, “One Super Proposal“. My freind, Joe Morin is helping this guy out with media relations as is Greg Jarboe on the PR side of things.

Joe told me last night he posted an announcement that “JP” will be doing a segment on “Good Morning America” tomorrow morning. JP’s identity will be disguised so as to not tip off the lucky lady he plans to propose to. For those of us working during that time, I hope Joe and JP will be posting a copy of the show to YouTube or Google Video.

One of the areas of online marketing and PR that continues to gain interest is buzz marketing through blogs and similar consumer generated media. Blogs are many things including marketing tools and also voices to be heard. Consumer voices that provide insight into your marketplace. The availability and ease of communications and creative tools make consumer generated media a force to be reckoned with.

Today I noticed that Al Gore’s Current TV is looking for consumers to create commercials for its commercial sponsors (AdJab). I think you’ll see more of that as marketers and comsumers embrace the medium.

At the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York last week, Rebecca Lieb moderated a session including Dave Balter from BzzAgent, Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen BuzzMetrics (Intelliseek) and Jim Nail of Cymfony who presented on creating and measuring buzz using blogs.

The Magazine DM News publishes a supplement called “Outlook” each year that collects interviews and articles from some of the leading direct marketers and their perspectives on the coming year in direct marketing. Executive Editor, Mickey Alam Khan has provided a list of trends that coincides well with what we’re seeing “on the ground”. A few trends related to search and blog marketing:

• Buzz marketing or word of mouth will be big – at least the buzz about buzz marketing will be big
• Ecommerce will emphasize “interactions not transactions” per Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli
• Mergers are acquisitions of direct, interactive, search and email marketing agencies will rise. This notion is supported by a recent report from AdMedia Partners (pdf).