WHO'S READING WHAT YOU'RE READING?



Parents often tell their children you are often like the company you keep. Readers of MyOpenKimono are flung far and wide within our industry, and by last count, to over forty-five countries.

Our partners at StatCounter provide rich insight into the source of a visitor down to the company level. In many cases a deeper view can reveal the person and his/her approximate location pinpointed on a Google satellite view. Scary, huh.

So who's reading MyOpenKimono? Here's a partial list, representing about ten percent of the blog's readers. You're all in good company.

AdScam
Advance Publications
Advantage Sales & Marketing
Agency Spy
Akqa
Alm Media
Amazon.com
Ameritech
AP - Associated Press
Apple Computer
Aquantive - Seattle
Arena Capital Partners
Arnold & Co.
Audium Corporation
Avenue A / Razorfish
Bank of America
BBDO
Big Fuel
Broadbandenterprises
Burson Marstellar
Cablevision Sales
Carat
Carat - Poland
Carol H. Williams Advertising
CIT Group
CMP
CoActive Marketing
Cox Communications
Danger.com
D'arcy Masius Bention & Bowles
Datran
DDB
DDB -Chicago

Ddb Worldwide
DELL
Deutsch

Dgwb Advertising
Digitas
Doner
Donovan Data Systems
Doubleclick.
Educate Inc
FEDEX
Fishs Eddy
FIT
Foote Cone
Footlocker
Freud Comm PR
Front Porch Inc
Gillespie
GoDaddy
GOOGLE
Grey
Greylock Partners
Guidant Insurance Group
Harris Corporation
Hearst
Hnw Inc
Horizon Media

IAB
IBM
iCrossing
INOC
IPG Global Information Services

Jack Morton WW
Johnson & Johnson
JWT
Katz TV Group
Ketchum
Ketchum - Pittburgh
leaderberkon.com
Lehman Brothers
Leo Burnett
MacDonald Media
Magna
Mascola Advertising
Mccann-erickson Inc
Mckinney-Silver
Me Dium Inc
Medco Health Solutions Inc
Mediasmith
Memetrics
Microsoft
Mindshare
Mitsubishi Foods
Motorola
MPG
MPG Spain
NBC Universal
New York Times
Newspaper Direct
NJ Transit
Olympus America
Omnicom
Omniture
On Demand
Organic
P R Taylor Group
Pace Advertising WPP
Paradigm Music
Paradyme Capital
Personnel Decisions Internatio
Polo Ralph Lauren
Publicis
Publicis & Hal Riney
Renegade-Marketing-Group
Rodale Press
Ruder & Finn
Ryan Partnership
Sales Athlete
Salomon Inc
Samsung
Sanofi-Aventis
Savvis
Shubert Organization
Starwood Hotels
Strata
Sussman -Morris
Symantec
Targetcast
TBWA
TBWA Chiat Day
The Martin Agency
Time Inc
towermedia
Tribble
Tribune
True North
TV Guide

UNICEF
United Nations
Universal McCann

Universal McCann J3
USNews & World Report
Valueclick
Vansken Group
WebMD
Western Intnl
Westmark Harris Real Estate
WPP
Wpp Group U.s. Investments
Wpp Group Usa
Yahoo
ZIM2
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

CUIL IN A DEEP FREEZE



Tracking the share of searches performed on CUIL (the self-proclaimed "Google killer") since July 29, the news is not so cool for CUIL. They've hit rock bottom just thirteen days following the debut. See my original post here.

Can they come back from the cryogenic state they're in? Not likely.

So much for the investments made by Madrone Capital, Greylock Partners, and Tugboat Ventures.

The ship is sunk ...buh bye.

Date WW US UK

07/29 0.10 0.11 0.19

07/30 0.11 0.12 0.19

07/31 0.08 0.09 0.10

08/01 0.06 0.07 0.09

08/02 0.05 0.07 0.09

08/03 0.04 0.04 0.08

08/04 0.03 0.04 0.06

08/05 0.03 0.04 0.05

08/06 0.03 0.03 0.05

08/07 0.02 0.03 0.01

08/08 0.02 0.02 0.01

08/09 0.02 0.03 0.01

08/09 0.01 0.02 0.01

Note: These figures (courtsey of StatCounter) show the % of searches performed using Cuil relative to the total number of searches performed. This information is based on a total sample for the period of over 365 million page views globally.



OUTSTANDING CREATIVE PICKS



From time to time this blog posts on the creative geniuses in our industry, unbridled by the many marketers that are willing to move into a more creative realm. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, often heartbreaking but always brilliant.

What follows are several print ads, outdoor executions and TV commercials crafted by a cross section of agencies both here and abroad.

Enjoy . . . .

Is the following art or is it a commercial? A brilliant execution.


The next pick takes me back to childhood with a unique twist at the end. It's not what you think.


Not a television commercial ... guess where it belongs.



The following executions will roll without explanation. They speak for themselves.











If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter.


Reading the finer print, this is an ad for a funeral home. Genuis!


The following print ad give Bentley Motors the last word in a recent "we are better than you" war between top brand auto makers.

Cheers!

GOOGLE'S GPHONE ... SNEAK PEAK?





The buzz around the release of Google’s GPhone appears to focus on this year’s fourth quarter. If I were to place bets on the styling of the device, it will likely mirror that of HTC’s (the device manufacturer) Touch Diamond, released overseas earlier this year and pictured here. A call to HTC confirms release of the device in the US in the second half of the year …. Coincidentally dovetailing with Google’s entry.

HTC’s Touch Diamond and Touch Pro models appear to blanket all of the functions (and then some) inherent in Apple’s iPhone. Not available in the US and supported by the ubiquitous Google, we can expect the GPhone will give Apple a serious run for its money in a few months. It’s price tag overseas is high .. as much as $499, but expect that to drop significantly for the US market.

Apple’s misstep (or strategic blunder) may be its inability to maintain inventory at levels that would provide instant gratification to its customer base. More than a month after its release, the iPhone is still not available without a long waiting list. Coupled with the recent press concerning dropped calls and lost signals, it allows Google easy entry to fill the void.

I've given up waiting, finding many excuses not to purchase the iPhone. I don’t need ‘pretty”, I need a phone that’s dependable.

Here’s a list of just a few pluses for the Diamond:

• Comes with a super cool touch-based interface, with a really rich media kind of feel to it.
• Like the iPhone it has built in sensors and accelerometer, so that it can react to the different angles you are using it with.
• It has built-in email support, calendar, Word, Excel, tasks.
• It can display images and video clips in a lot of formats (more than the iPhone).
• It is not restricted to iTunes software, or the iTunes Apps.
• It comes with Opera instead of internet Explorer, and what a great browser that is. It is actually better than Safari.
• It supports higher 3G speeds than the iPhone.
• It comes with Google Maps, YouTube, PDF and a ton of other applications that has already been made for Windows Mobile 6.1.
• ...and it small enough to not feel like a brick in your pocket.

Gotta run …. phone’s ringing.

GUESS WHO FOR PRESIDENT !!

The video that follows is a great example of the power of viral marketing, set in motion by a very clever public relations effort on the part of VanksenCulture-buzz, an agency that focuses on Word of Mouth (WOM) communications.




With offices in New York and Paris, in the agency's own words "We believe in the “consum-actor”, the power of iconoclastic ideas, permission marketing, collaboration marketing (word-of-mouth), the power of communities, the combination of genres and 360° approaches."

Have fun with this .... we certainly did.

GOOGLE SQUEALS



The eight hundred pound gorilla oinks!

Last month saw a significant up-tick in Google’s market share for search in the United States. A whopping 70.77%, sourced from Hitwise, representing a year-over-year increase of ten percent, banked off of the declines for both Yahoo and MSN during the same period.

Click graph to expand

How much higher can Google’s market share go? Some analysts expect Google to hit one hundred percent, effectively monopolizing search (if it hasn’t already done so). At that level, according to a Credit Suisse analyst, Google may well be on its way to a $900 share price. Has the search engine turned from a heavyweight gorilla to a monopolistic piggy? Or is it all Wall Street hype?

Who are these analysts and what methods of madness are they utilizing to assume that Google will be permitted to reach that stratospheric target for search? Analysts argue that the cost of maintaining technology to keep pace with Google will be too restrictive to support a viable business model. That’s a doubtful scenario.

Assuming a “counterintuitive” position, I believe market forces will eventually dictate a realistic valuation for Google, bringing it down from the giddy heights it’s enjoyed. Certainly not $900 and not even $400. Generously, a market cap of $90 billion and a stock price of $290 could easily be realized by 2010.

In a four month period beginning November 2007, Google’s share price plunged from a high of $741 to $413; a drop of 45 percent. History will repeat itself, but for different reasons next time around.

GOOGLE'S BIG STICK


Very quietly, last Friday afternoon, Google sent out thousands of notices (if not many, many more) to bloggers that it shut down their ability to post until such time that they could identify if blog spamming had occurred. The lock-down began as a trickle in mid-July, several weeks before the surge at the end of the month.

Of particular note was the theme of blogs that were affected. While anti-Obama blogs were the first and loudest to cry foul, many political, adult and left-wing blogs were trapped in a Google-esque loop with no human connection. Political blogs, Gossip Blogs, left wing blogs, religious blogs, Peace blogs were all on lock down with the same "spamming" notice as excuse, and no extra explanation or help from the Google mother ship.

Conspiracy theorists suggest that this had something to do with either Google censoring anti-Obama blogs or a bad beta test of the software they will be using to censor the coverage of the controversial Chinese Olympics. And while there was the odd "arts and crafts" blog that got censored too, the big majority of the blogs shut down were blogs that at one time or another had negative things to say about both Obama or the Olympics, or posted porn.

Needless to say, bloggers were not a happy lot and Wordpress.com (competition to Google's Blogger) benefited with a surge of new sign-ups.

In the words of one blogger....."Without any notice, apology, or explanation, my posting privileges have (sp) been reinstated. Blogger's "guilty until proven innocent" approach is appalling. As bloggers, it is a good thing we still have choices, and I have exercised my choice to leave Blogger and establish a new home at Wordpress. (I have been advised that Wordpress investigates charges before taking action.


What was Google thinking?!

Let's take this "exercise of power" one step further into the realm of media and advertising control. Assume for the moment that Google wins the battle to manage, sell and control how all media channels are priced, parceled and invoiced. As the single largest player in the game, pricing is no longer demand driven. It's dictated. It becomes inelastic. Brands that cannot afford or are ill-equipped to find other communication outlets will pony up and adapt to the price shock. Combine this hold on media with the enterprise software that agencies utilize to manage and pay media invoices (did someone say Donovan Data Systems?), and both brands and agencies will find themselves under the same thumb that bloggers "gently" felt.

Most of the blogs have been opened to posting and any scenarios as to the cause may be simply speculative. But the toys still belong to Google and they get to make up and change the rules whenever they want.