Forge Ahead

Ford Explorer Boasts 140,000 Facebook Fans and Skyrocketing Sales

The new Ford Explorer has been out for a little over a year, but it hasn’t been until now that Ford has pulled out all of the stops to engage its very spirited base. With 140,000 Facebook fans, Explorer is already ahead of its SUV competitors in engaging consumers (and future consumers) through social media [...]

Netflix Edges Away from Its Iconic Red Envelope DVDs, Toward Streaming Video

The announcement recently that Netflix has changed the functionality of its Website to, in essence, encourage users to select streaming video options for their movie viewing rather than receive DVDs through the mail did not come without its detractors. In fact, judging from this article, the move (even if it came on MLK day) was [...]

Yes, Your Logo is That Important

Strong corporate design can never be understated. It represents consumers’ visual associate with the company, gets seated in their memory and translates into value every time they make a brand association. And for companies that can succeed in creating a direct and strong connection between their corporate identity and their name, their brand experience or [...]

Who You “Like” on Facebook Matters

So the results are in – and just in time for the New Year. MSNBC gives us a guide of the top brand names on Facebook. So who are the winners? Well, the #1 makes sense, but the rest of the field may surprise you. The top brands in terms of annual advertising spending don’t [...]

You Could Learn a Lot From a Pizza Chain

Just read a fascinating article that answered a question I brought up during a cocktail party not a month ago: whatever happened to Little Caesars? While the article brings up a number of noteworthy points, its main thrust is that in marketing, less is more. Little Caesars sat second behind only Pizza Hut in ’94. [...]

SOPA is Bad. No, Seriously.

Posted by BPMangus on January 18th, 2012

SOPA, and it’s sister act PIPA, are two pieces of legislation that have gotten an ungodly amount of press on the Interwebs (mostly on the geek sites I frequent), but I remain unsure of how aware the public at-large is of the possible affects internet censorship could have on their online experience.

If you’re not familiar with these Acts, please read the following synopsis. There’s a good reason Wikipedia took their site offline today (as well as dozens of other lesser known sites). These Acts aim to fundamentally change the way people use the internet and the way new startup tech firms innovate and evolve the online experiences of us all.

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues. If you care about tech progress, you should care about advocating for the blocking of these bills.

DO NOT Follow these Brands

Posted by BPMangus on December 29th, 2011

Every year, well known brands disappear, falling off the map like ships off a flat globe. And chances are, you don’t even notice.

As I’m sure you don’t want your brand to be one of these “missing persons,” check out the list of top brands that became extinct this year. (courtesy of 24/7 Wall St)

Learn from their mistakes.

Steve Jobs’ Life Lessons – Learn from Them

Posted by BPMangus on December 19th, 2011

While TIME declared 2011 the “Year of the Protester,” many would argue that it was the year of Steve Jobs. I’m not an Apple fanboy. I’ve never owned an iPod, an iPhone or an iPad. But I can’t deny the contributions these technologies have made to the way I live, work and play, because they’ve had an influence on many, many successive and adaptive innovations.

If you want to read 20 life lessons from the King of Apple, check them out, care of Mashable, here. They’re not to be missed. RIP Steve.

Take Your Photoshopping…

Posted by BPMangus on December 6th, 2011

Great piece by Jon Steinberg in AdAge this week about the turnabout we’ve been seeing with advertising – moving away from picture perfect imagery and too-good-to-be-true good looks to the gritty, grainy reality of life.

The proliferation of home made video and the thickening of consumer skin has made real life storytelling the best way to win hearts and minds in media saturated 21st Century America. Check out the article here for more insight into this new ad paradigm. I think the fundamental changes we’ve been seeing in the genre will be here for some time.