Disqus - Latest Comments for lazerow

Re: The AVC Reader Census: A Day Later

lazerow — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:47:22 -0000

Fred-

Here are the most interesting findings:

~ 10% of your audience is female
~ 15% of your audience admits to wearing makeup (rarely to daily!)

So that means that 5% of your audience comprises men who wear makeup at least part of the time. I don't find this incredible surprising given you live below 14th street in a very progressive neighborhood. But you may want to dig a little deeper here.

Best,

MML

Re: lines in the sand …

lazerow — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:27:25 -0000

John, another amazing post. You're on fire. Thanks for making us all think. See you soon.

MML

Re: Things to Do

lazerow — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:06:25 -0000

Reminder ... need a new post ... It's been too long. OK Andy????

Re: The Fine Line Between Informing and Spamming Your Followers

lazerow — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:31:19 -0000

Fred ... you're not the only one who got tricked. I did the same thing. I told Seth I was pissed off. His response: "@lazerow no such thing as free free. Price for trial is that we share the fact with your followers. Lessons from fb app world." I guess there's no such thing as trust either! I'm feeling better today that people much smarter than myself were tricked as well.

Re: The meal we wanted all weekend..

lazerow — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:16:21 -0000

Just pick the date! I'll make my famous flank steak (marinated for 2 days for maximum taste and softness!). Love your food posts. Keep 'em coming. Gotham is now my #1 Wilson site! AVC is now #2 on my list of Wilson blogs.

Re: The meal we wanted all weekend..

lazerow — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:03:53 -0000

OMG. This looks delicious. Kass and I made the decision today to get a grill for our deck despite the city ordinance. This meal looks amazing. You should charge $200 a head for dinner by Gotham and donate the money to charity! You'll have a full house for sure. Go Gotham Go!

Re: bijansabet.com | a tumblelog by Bijan Sabet | Little Shadow - Yeah Yeah Yeahs I had a great day...

lazerow — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:28:21 -0000

Can't wait to see these guys at Bonnaroo!

Re: Stocktwits IS for EVERYBODY…AND Here is How I Use It!

lazerow — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:06:33 -0000

Great post, as always! Didn't know you had all those words in you.

Re: Communicating Changing Business Dynamics To Your Board And Investors

lazerow — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:37:42 -0000

At GOLF.com, Kass and I learned very early on that it's dangerous to "shine the turd." Communicate the good, the bad and the ugly as soon as you can to all stakeholders. Investors and boards don't like surprises. They don't like bad news either but they at least are used to getting bad news.

I also find that it's very important to share the good and bad with employees. Celebrate the wins. But when things aren't going your way, share that as well. Employees who are fully in the loop will jump through hoops for you as a CEO. Employees who are kept in the dark feel the bad news, internalize it, reduce their productivity and start to worry. You're better off letting them own it as well.

On the first all-team meeting after each board meeting, I present to the company what I presented to the board (after scrubbing the data for personal information, salaries, HR issues or anything that one employee would not like another employee to see). I show the raw numbers. The actuals versus forecast. They're all jointly responsible for hitting the numbers ... so they should know them and know where we're standing at all times (for the record, this is easier done when things are going well but also must be done when you hit a bump in the road ... and you will over your career).

Good post. As a CEO, treat your stakeholders as you'd like to be treated if the roles were reversed.

Re: Only Ten Years Too Early

lazerow — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:33:41 -0000

Nice post Fred. It's interesting to look at today's landscape and try to figure out what's too early (semantic web?), what's too late (me-too ad networks? web 2.0 features with no business model?) and what's just on time (mobile, social networks, social gaming -- Zynga is kicking ass and taking names, agency ad solutions, etc.). Be well.

Re: Etsy's Developer Community and API

lazerow — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:55:09 -0000

Congrats! This is HUGE. There's definitely a social Etsy shopping app in here somewhere ...

Re: My new Facebook public page along with a "vanity url"

lazerow — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:12:10 -0000

I don't think restricting your FB circle is a bad thing. I have segmented my circle in the same way. I have my close friends filter and these people care about deeply and I stay in touch with through FB. For the others, I don't show as much but I still can see what they're up to if I want. Or if I need a phone number, I have access to their information. Given you have a blog, you're active on Twitter, among other services, people can find and follow you if they want. I do think the Ashton Kutchar Public Profile trend that is starting is silly and don't see it continuing long term.

Re: Twitter Follwing SPAM…An explanation

lazerow — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:50:25 -0000

OMG. How did I miss this? This is the most ridiculous 44 comment thread on a blog post I've ever seen. I just unfollowed you all.

Re: How Hungry Are You?

lazerow — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:58:56 -0000

Nice talking last night. Always good to catch up. One of the real challenges of being an entrepreneur is tempering both the good and the bad as the line between the too is very thin. What looks like a huge disaster often turns into a small or large success. You should live the life you want regardless of success and failure. And any success just makes it easier to do what you want.

Re: The Joys Of Music Blogging (aka The Rural Alberta Advantage Is Awesome)

lazerow — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:51:57 -0000

You're killing me. Love these guys. Really like their song "Don't Haunt This Place." It has a folksy, rock thing going on. I'm in SF that week. Doh. Would have loved to see this show. Should be a good one. Tell Mark, AT and the gang I say hello.

Re: Will You Be Pittsburgh or Detroit? AND Please Don’t Be Dubai!

lazerow — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:16:24 -0000

Thanks Howard! Pls note that I don't think it's ever too late. Detroit can still transform. Be well.

Re: Companies In the News

lazerow — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:13:45 -0000

DF-

NIce list of clients. 3 of them ... FedEx, MSFT and Intel, are Buddy Media clients!

Rog, thanks for the write up. You're the best angel investor in NYC by far.

MML

Re: The plight of branded ads and the future of social marketing

lazerow — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:14:44 -0000

Are branded apps awesome? Do they suck? There's plenty of data to support both sides.

Saying branded apps don't work is like saying banners, emails, direct marketing, PPC and other forms are digital marketing don't work. Some campaigns work. Some don't, just like all types of digital marketing. All of the data used above is from campaigns that are no longer supported by media. And none of the apps mentioned were built by the leading app-vertising companies (Keith, feel free to share some of Slide's worst performing campaigns).

Consumers engage with branded apps more than any display media. And then the consumer moves on. My question for Keith would be how many users still engage with Slide's banners, buttons and other ad inventory months after the campaign ended? The obvious answer is a big ZERO, or close to it! So judging branded apps by the engagement months after is disengenous, to say the least.

What's better for a marketer? Getting 10M branded impressions to drive 100K engaged users into a branded experience that they use for 6 minutes on average? Or getting 10M branded impressions with no engagement that the user ignores.

For more about braned apps, check out this post of mine:

http://www.buddymedia.com/buddyblog/Branded-App...

For some case studies of branded apps that worked really well, check out my slides from Web 2.0 Expo:

http://www.slideshare.net/lazerow/social-brand-...

Happy holidays to all! Go VentureBeat! Love you guys. A lot. You too Dave! And deep down, Keith, I have some love for you as well despite your constant trashing of the branded apps space without a front-row seat!

Best,

Michael Lazerow
CEO, Buddy Media (the leading developer of killer app-vertising programs for brands like Anheuser Busch, New Balance, Amex, Starwood, Reebok and many others!!!!)

Re: Your Vision Wanted: Future of Advertising & Technologies

lazerow — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:14:18 -0000

Darren, the future of advertising can be captured in 2 words -- engagement and amplification. We've heard about engagement for years and years. And it's been a buzzword for a long time, over- and miss-used for years. But 2009 is the year that advertising is all about engagement and the amplification of that engagement. Engagement and amplification won't be just the goal -- the smartest advertiser will actually only pay for the engagement and pay again for the amplification of that engagement to a consumer with a higher likelihood of buying the company's products or services.

I see this first hand in the branded app space. We're on the leading edge of what I'm calling performance-based engagement marketing.

Earlier this year, Buddy Media launched the BuddyBrain. This technology has truly made social marketing accessible, accountable, and results-driven.

I'll let the findings speak for themselves. In particular, users spent an average of 2 minutes and 35 seconds engaged with our branded applications, or 75 times greater than the time consumers spend interacting with traditional banner ads and five times greater than the time spent watching a typical TV commercial. And 85% of our users returned for multiple interactions with our app-vertisements, with 56% of the total user base returning 9 times or more during the month of testing.

Branded apps aren't the first type of marketing to be engaging. But they are some of the first formats that let advertisers pay for just the engagement, the post-click experience, and not the impressions that lead to it. The impressions are waste. The engagement is gold.

The smartest marketers won't stop at engagement. They will want to talk to consumers post engagement and that's where amplification comes in. How do you continue to talk to the consumer and build a relationship? Many channels and all will be used -- re-targeting on the display front and Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more apps on the social front.

Happy holidays!

Re: Branded Social Applications Come Under Fire

lazerow — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:18:12 -0000

Saying branded apps don't work is like saying all banner campaigns, email campaigns or TV spots don't work. Success comes not just from the tool itself but the use of the tool. I'd encourage you to read my response in iMedia: http://www.budurl.com/brandedapps

Re: We are Sooo F#%&$^%ked…Part Trois (In Honor of my Trip to Paris)

lazerow — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:51:42 -0000

Well said Howard.

Re: Talking Blackberry

lazerow — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:33:27 -0000

News reports today reveal that the Mumbai terrorists used BlackBerries to communicate during their attack. They didn't reveal which one. Just an interesting tidbit ... Happy holidays Fred. The security (they probably used Pins), the ease of use, the keyboard and better form factor made the device the obvious choice for the terrorists.

Re: Friday's friend

lazerow — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:29:18 -0000

This looks awesome! Happy holidays from the Lazerows!

Mike & Kass

Re: A Growth Story

lazerow — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:27:33 -0000

Initial commitments from current clients are promising. We now have the data to show app-vertising is one of the most effective ways to market in the social nets, which helps. Time will tell but so far things are holding up for Q1.

Re: A Growth Story

lazerow — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:45:02 -0000

Great post Fred. We're seeing the same thing at Buddy Media. 2 months of record bookings from new and repeat customers as clients shift large budgets into social media and performance marketing (we're both!). Companies that provide real value and measurable success in the online ad market will survive and thrive. 99% of the other companies won't. Unfortunately for our industry, your portfolio is not indicative of most companies! Though I imagine some are stronger than others, as a whole they represent the cream of the crop. Hope you and the family have a great holiday. Talk soon.