Author Archives: Steve Hammer

How Twitter generates so much hype

By this point you’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of Twitter.   Everyone from Oprah to CNBC has spent time talking about the microblogging system and its phenomenal growth.  A far fewer percentage of people … Continue reading

Posted in Viral, buzz | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

When Brands go Social

These days it’s all about social media.  If you aren’t on Facebook, then you just aren’t marketing.  It’s created a rush of entry to create fan pages for brands, even more so during the land grab that was vanity naming.  … Continue reading

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What if everything on the internet shouldn't be free?

There’s a wide conception among consumers that everything on the Internet should be free.  The success of companies like Craigslist have promoted the notion that other than ordering products, everything else should be free.  The work of Internet opinion leaders … Continue reading

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Fixing a problem is the best path to loyalty

It might seem counter-intuitive to some, but when you’ve screwed something up is the best time to build customer loyalty.  Your angry customer could end up being your best.  It’s all in how you handle it. The Ritz-Carlton has understood … Continue reading

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Top Chef and Product Placement and much more

I’ll freely admit that I’m a devoted fan of Bravo’s Top Chef.  As a foodie it’s one of the more interesting shows over all.  However, as a marketer, it’s fascinating in terms of marketing opportunities. Product placement is one of … Continue reading

Posted in branding, mass media | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

More on how worthless free has become

After my recent post on the death of free, I attempted to run an ad on Yahoo’s network for our free dating site, downtoearth.com.  The ad was pretty simple.  It text in the ad read simply Online Dating.  100% Free. … Continue reading

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The sad death of the word Free

Allow me to write an obituary for what was once an appealing and meaningful word.  Sadly, it was beaten to death by advertising claims and shows no hope of recovery.  Certainly in the days before the Internet, it had been … Continue reading

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When competitors react. Questionable brand strategy?

Gatorade for years has dominated the sports drink category.  The product itself was the stuff of legends.  The brand became an icon.  Who can forget “Be like mike?”  It’s orange lightning bolt is instantly recognizable.  Decades of research, including a … Continue reading

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The buzz and PR strategy of a rejected ad

The NFL and the super bowl have recently been the targets of an agressive buzz strategy that works quite well, unfortunately.   Submit an ad that gets rejected, but follows all of the listed rules.  GoDaddy went from just another web … Continue reading

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Are misattributed comments worse than anonymous ones?

A bit of a self-debate here, but I’m actually wondering if misattributing a comment is worse than just doing it anonymously. I’m certainly no celebrity, but I have seen a bit of attention lately. I also don’t have the most … Continue reading

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