FOAMING AT THE BIT

Alan Wolan, CEO of GoGorilla Media wants your froth. His entrepreneurial street marketing firm has been serving up unexpected, out-of-the-box media ideas for several years, creating a buzz for many major (and some not-so major) brands.

Alan is on a track to convince thousands of coffee shops serving up lattes and cappuccinos to “imprint” an advertiser’s message on the froth. Has he gone too far? Is the invasion of your personal space, the froth on your latte, stirring you to take action?

I encourage marketers to visit his site (Go Gorilla), if for no other reason that to just spark an idea.

In the meantime, let My Open Kimono’s readers know how you feel by taking the following poll.

SUPERBOWL: MARKETING VICTORS OR VICTIMS

A week from this coming Sunday, NBC will have sold the last thirty-second spot in the Superbowl, asking $3 million for the privilege. Whether or not NBC succeeds in reaching that lofty goal is questionable given an economic climate that admonishes excess.

On Sunday, February 1, at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, one of the largest television audiences ever assembled will be exposed to Madison Avenue’s star studded parade of “over-the-top” advertisers.

Who cares more? The viewing public or the marketers shelling out uber-bucks for the best seat in the house? Marketers that pulled the plug on the expense this year include GM (a revelation!) and FedEx, failing to deliver a $3 million check. It’s doubtful that viewers will notice they didn’t make it this year.

Predicting a 44.4 rating and a 63 share, the poll that follows should help us decide if there’s fair value in a Superbowl spot (polling is anonymous).

IN THE GROOVE

Pull together about forty twenty-somethings in Florida with an affinity towards music and the web. Let them loose and they’ll quietly create “The World’s Music Library”, GROOVESHARK.

This innocuous little site is sure to capture the hearts of music lovers as a free streaming music service tied to social networking. While still in its infancy with about sixty thousand monthly uniques, watch and “listen” as this site prepares to conquer similar veteran music sites.

Users can to listen to over seven million songs from their extensive song catalogue. The ability to save playlists and embed them on other websites, blogs and social media profiles via their Grooveshark widget adds yet another dimension to the site’s offerings.

Small companies are having a dramatic impact on music distribution methods. Grooveshark is an exciting company in the P2P music space.

Kudos to founders Sam Tarantino and Josh Greenberg .... they are certainly "in the groove". And thanks to industry veteran Art Cohen for introducing me to the site.

IS THE DONUT DOOMED?

Why does your dog pretend to like you?
What's the cost of being a nerd?
Is Google making us stupid?
Is the donut doomed?
When is evil cool?
Is porn adultery?

If the answers to these questions make you stop to think, that's the intent of the Atlantic Project.

The Atlantic magazine suggests there are too many rote answers in the world and not enough good questions. Challenging assumptions to get better answers and to think, the magazine is on course to challenge America to think again.

In style and substance, the Atlantic Project engages, entertains and encourages participation with videos, commentary, blogs and sharing through social networks. It also invites participants to visit the magazine.

So, why isn't the Atlantic promoting this clever creative approach more aggressively to mainstream America? Was that another question?