Author Archives: Michele Warther

10 Challenges Digital Marketers Will Face in 2012

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At the conclusion of the recent New York City Digital Collective, PepsiCo’s Bonin Bough – Global Director of Digital & Social Media and the other hosts closed the day with a recap of the biggest issues the group shared they will be facing in 2012.

iMedia Connection covered the event and gathered ten of the challenges they voiced.

1. How do we “talk digital” with the C-Suite? How do we help them have a better user understanding of today’s platforms, devices, and services?
2. How do we find the right talent?
3. How are we keeping open communication between digital teams and business teams?
4. What do we do when guidelines and restrictions are slowing down processes? (How do we build trust?)
5. How do we go from innovation to experimentation?
6. How do we make sure advice from both inside and outside the organization is equally weighted?
7. How do we counter an organization’s cultural fear of innovation?
8. How can we develop better dashboards, so we can see real-time innovation progress?
9. How do we best manage project ownership?
10. How do we continue to put consumers ahead of the brand when planning content and campaigns?

How many of these will you face? What else would you add to the list?

Marketing Infographics – Are They More Than Pictures and Words?

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As I was updating my Pinterest board on Marketing Infographics, I got to thinking…..if a picture says a thousand words and then you add to it, does it say a thousand and one words now?

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly.

Modern practitioner Edward Tufte describes the process of incorporating many dimensions of information into a two-dimensional image as ‘escaping flatland’.

Nigel Holmes calls them “explanation graphics” – dealing not only with the visual display of information but also of knowledge – how to do things.

How are you using them? Or are you over them? Want to create one? Here’s an infographic on making infographics – I think I hear the space-time continuum folding over on itself.

May The Force Be With You. And Maybe Some Antacid too!

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While we were spending some time reading in the living room this afternoon Vivian was pulling out toys from her bins, when out popped – Watto the cup topper. He was followed in short order by Anakin, Queen Padme Amidala, Nute Gunray, Sebulba, Jar Jar Binks and Darth Maul. I had to chuckle a little as I thought back on how we came to get these.

It was 1999, living in LA and working for Razorfish. When Episode One tickets went on sale the whole office was online, on their cell phones and on land lines trying to buy tickets for the show. There were tons of promotions going on but the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Tricon Global) one wasn’t to be beat. A new limited edition cup topper “head” with cup “body” each week highlighting main character and they were different to each restaurant so you could only get 1 a week or until they were gone.

I remember BJ, Tom and myself visiting each location each week to get a new one. Of course by that time I think we had also seen the movie 3 or 4 times too!

Opening night was in Marina Del Rey and that same weekend in Westwood Village, followed by 3rd St. Promenade and Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

We still have a few of the cups around and most of the toppers, but no Mace Windu, R2D2 or Yoda.  Looks like a could get the whole set on eBay for $85 (including straws!) but I’ll settle for the ones I have and the laugh I got thinking about collecting them.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to the Webtrends Blog

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wt.blog logo from jeremy - updated from orangeIt was three years ago today that the Webtrends blog was launched with an inaugural post from Barry Parshall. I recall being at home when it got finally got online around 9:00pm, we originally hosted it with WordPress.com using their VIP services (many thanks to the Automattic team!) about 5 minutes after the launch was surprised to see our first comment from Avinash Kaushik come in – he is definitely on top of what’s happening.

The launch was quickly followed by securing our brand name in about 85 other locations and establishing our corporate standards for social media. The first piece I created was for the blog, which was later modified to be more encompassing of all channels and integrated into our HR polices which are reviewed during the on-boarding process for new team members.

Earlier this year the blog won a top 10 corporate blog award in great company with Radian6, Exact Target, Hubspot and Playstation. As the editor I was humbled to be included along with the best-of-the-best examples of businesses using blogging for real results.

Over the years the blog has gone through many changes from a change in the corporate palette (from Orange to Blue to Black) to a mobile version and migrated to a WordPress MU hosted with Network Redux which now what many of the Webtrends sites run on from the Engage Conference to the Webtrends Agency site and Release Notes to the recent re-launch of the Webtrends.com.

Many thanks to the vibrant, bright and opinionated authors who have put together some prolific content over the years and many thanks to all the talented developers, designers & code-monkeys who have have poured their heart and soul into the blog through it’s many iterations. Thank you Vince, Mark, Jeremy, Mr. Diggles, Ben, Peter, David and Ilana – you are all amazing!

Below are a few highlights of those changes over the years from the original launch including the mobile site.

mobile blog from ilana