Monday, June 9, 2008

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Pilgrim’s Picks for June 9

Posted: 09 Jun 2008 09:19 AM CDT

We’re entering our 3rd straight day of 100F+ temperatures in Raleigh! With this in mind, I’m hoping today’s Apple announcements include a waterproof MacBook, so I can start blogging from the pool/beach. :-)

Here are today’s Picks:

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Widgets RockYou World with $35M in Venture Funding

Posted: 09 Jun 2008 09:03 AM CDT

It seems investors have been reading the National Retail Organization’s suggestion that 55% of e-tailers want to focus more of their marketing dollars on widgets.

After recently banking $50 million on widget maker Slide, VCs are back, this time investing $35 million in rival RockYou.

The $35 million likely brings RockYou's valuation under fellow widget maker Slide's, which was $550 million in its last $50 million round from two private equity funds. It's also less than a reported $50-$70 million on a $400 million valuation that RockYou was supposedly seeking. An insider spun this difference in valuation with Slide as a positive thing, though, telling us it would make RockYou a more digestible acquisition target.

$550 million valuation for a widget builder? With widgets still somewhat unproven as a marketing channel, could this be a bubble? Have you had success marketing with widgets? Leave a comment. Thanks!

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New Apple iPhone Coming; Twitter Expects to Go Down?

Posted: 09 Jun 2008 08:29 AM CDT

Hopefully you rely on Marketing Pilgrim to find the best marketing news for you. If you’re monitoring news feeds yourself, you’ll know the enormous amount of buzz/noise surrounding today’s Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference. Here are three things almost certain to happen at today…

  1. Apple will announce a new iPhone.
  2. Apple will announce a new Mac computer.
  3. Twitter will crash.

OK, so maybe we’ll only see 2 out of 3 coming true. Twitter has announced the steps it’s taking to try and handle what will likely be a huge increase in use today–with all the Tweeple talking about Apple.

Over at the company blog, Twitter has revealed three initiatives that should help keep the lights on…

  1. “…utilizing more memcache, employing more read-slave servers, and by fixing some bugs for improved efficiency.”
  2. “We have isolated and created on/off switches for many Twitter features. Should it become necessary to shed incoming load quickly, we can turn off features such as stats, pagination, and several others to preserve the reliability and timeliness of your Twitter timeline.”
  3. Some secret “cool way” to help stability, that Twitter is not willing to reveal. (Update: It’s likely this partnership with Summize)

While everyone was surprised that Big Brown didn’t win at the weekend, there’ll be less shock shown, should Twitter go down. In fact, TechCrunch has news of Twiddict, a service that will save your tweets and post them, the moment Twitter comes back online.

I’m a huge fan of Twitter. I’ve amassed a network of 2,500 great folks. Suffice to say, my fingers are crossed that Twitter has finally figured out how to handle the load.

Budweiser’s “Swear Jar” Online Ad Hits Viral Pay Dirt

Posted: 09 Jun 2008 08:04 AM CDT

If you think Budweiser’s TV ads have lost a little of their edge recently, you might want to turn off the “tele” and instead head online. That’s where you’ll find the company’s risque “Swear Jar” ad.

The video does contain bad language, but it’s all beeped-out, so safe for work…

Funny huh?

How well is this video working for Budweiser parent Anheuser-Busch? Well, the video embedded above has 2.8 million views and a 5-star rating (from 4,706 ratings), and 1,800 comments. It’s part of Budweiser’s online viral effort at Bud.TV.

Not quite the reach of a Superbowl ad, but the edgy-style is perfect for Bud, and the video has gone viral in a big way. Case in point? Even we’re sharing it!

P.S. Drink Responsibly! ;-)

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