http://blog.spurinteractive.com Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:55:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at a luncheon hosted by AAF Houston and the Houston Interactive Marketing Association.  The theme was "what you need to know NOW". These are challenging times for all businesses and now, more than ever, we need to focus our marketing efforts (and dollars) ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/11/20/digital-success-in-troubling-times/ Earlier this week I posted the first of two articles on the challenges of making sense of online campaign results.  The first posting addressed the shortcomings of relying on cookie-based tracking to quantify results.  This posting addresses the supporting role of display and email ads, and explains why Google gets ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/10/03/making-sense-of-online-campaign-results-part-2/ When I talk to marketers these days, one of the most frequently cited needs I hear about is the ability to measure (and make sense of) results from online campaigns. More specifically, the gap in most organizations is their ability to trace results (e.g. engagement, leads or sales) back ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/09/29/making-sense-of-results-from-online-campaigns-part-1/ Earlier this month I wrote about the migration of consumer habits and media dollars from the Yellow Pages to Search.  I posted a Question on LinkedIn Q&A and even though it took a while, some great answers were provided.  Here are some useful bytes that came in after my last ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/08/29/search-vs-yellow-pages-the-sequel/ So you want to make money from a Facebook App... At the recent Barcamp Houston event, I attended a session titled "Facebook App Brainstorming Session".  I had been thinking about how Facebook Apps could be used from a marketing standpoint, and was excited by the prospect of discussing it with others.  ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/08/26/facebook-apps-money-maker-marketing-vehicle-or-charitable-donation/ Last weekend I attended BarCamp Houston 3, which had more than 150 attendees including enterpreneurs, web developers, marketers and a few media folks.  All in all, it was a great experience with some interesting discussions around social media, Facebook apps, web design, marketing, a new visual search engine, and even ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/08/15/barcamp-and-video-blogging/ This week I was asked by one of our (prospective) clients for assistance in building a business case to shift ad dollars from the Yellow Pages to Google and the also rans (aka Yahoo and MSN).  After putting the word out that a $10 Starbucks gift card awaited the first ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/08/07/local-search-yellow-pages-vs-google/ Last week was a busy one.  The Houston stop of the Online Marketing Summit was a great success with 250+ in attendance.  With 2/3 of the audience representing brands (vs. agency and media), it made for some interesting conversations.  For a synopsis of the event, and to learn more about ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/08/04/online-marketing-summit-media-post-and-google-alerts/ Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating on a social media panel at the Houston Technology Center along with Katie Laird and Kelsey Ruger. I didn't see any glowsticks, cell phones or lighters swaying in the audience, but I heard good things and thought you might be interested in ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/07/26/blogging-for-business-recap-and-slides/ Over the past 10 days I've had the opportunity to speak with marketers in Milwaukee, Chicago and Boston (via the OMS tour) about interactive.  Regardless of industry, markets or size, there are some common threads that run through most organizations.  The common challenges are: 1) Figuring out what to do and ... http://blog.spurinteractive.com/2008/07/24/notes-from-the-road-your-unmet-needs/