Marketing Recap of the Olympics

Big winners and losers. Laura Ries has a detailed summary of what companies and individuals won big at the Olypics. From Michael Phelps to Liu Xiang. Well worth a read here.

Changing Apathy To Activity?

Starting today, X Box Live users will be able to register to vote for the upcoming US Presidential elections in November. This recent partnership between Microsoft's X Box 360 and Rock The Vote will give 12 million X Box Live users access to registration materials, in hopes of exciting the young voters to turn out on election day.

Pros: X Box Live hosts a large community of young Americans that could change from undecided or apathetic youth into excited and involved voters. It is good to see politically connected groups positively reaching out to youth (especially males) who have been previously viewed as desensitized trouble-makers responsible for the downfall of society because of playing Halo and Doom.

Cons: The X Box Live community is also made up of a lot of gamers who are not old enough to vote, who would also think it was funny to try to fool the system into thinking they could vote or worse yet, try to crash the system. If not launched with proper security measures, you can bet that some in the X Box Live community will not become active in the ways that Rock The Vote would want. There is already a growing cloud of doubt looming over the online messageboards as to whether the system will accurately give all the registered information on election day.

While Rock The Vote may have a huge opportunity to capitalize on connecting with a popular social network, they also have a great deal of risk in front of them. The biggest challenge in reaching the X Box Live network users may not be one that Rock the Vote can even do anything about - a large portion of the youth are just not that excited about the candidates. Many have been ranting online about their disappointment in the candidate options and how they believe this new partnership really won't help the election at all. Depending on your views of the candidates, this may raise a huge question for politicians and marketers alike: If you don't have substance, can you make people buy something?

Party Like It's 2012

The Beijing Olympics are officially over. Now we can get back to our normal lives...or start thinking about the 2012 summer Olympics in London. It didn't take long for London to roll out the online promotion for the 2012 games.

Below is a trailer for the video contest for the 2012 games.




Read about the official contest here.

21 tips to increase blog traffic

Who doesn't want more blog readers? Exactly. Check out how to increase the number of viewers/subscribers to your blog here.

Dancing With The Stars

This is the first time I have seen one single topic occupy the top 5 searches on Google Trends. Therefore, I feel compelled to write about it even though I have no real interest in the story. But for the massive amount of you who want to know who is on Dancing With The Stars this year, the list is below:

Kim Kardashian, reality TV star

Cloris Leachman, Oscar-winning actress

Maurice Greene, Olympic sprinter,

Lance Bass, former N' Sync star

Rocco DiSpirito, TV chef

Warren Sapp, NFL star

Misty May-Treanor, Olympic beach volleyballer

Toni Braxton, Grammy award-winning R&B star

Cody Linley, that cute kid from "Hannah Montana" show

Ted McGinley, veteran actor (who I hated on "Happy Days")

Brooke Burke, actress/TV personality

Jeffrey Ross, celebrity roaster and comedian

Susan Lucci, "All My Children" star

How to create a parody video

1. Make sure it is relevant.
2. Make sure it is a topic that people are interested in watching.
3. Make it short.
4. Make it funny.

This video covers all four. Relevant because it just happened and the Olympics just finished. Numerous slide shows of the race have been posted on YouTube. It clocks in at 1:06, thus short. And finally, it is a funny idea.

Check it out.