Ever Googled for an area code after seeing mysterious number on your call display? Darren Barefoot reports receiving telemarketing calls from a number that starts with 179. He’s traced the call to a security system call centre. But, if you try to look up the 179 area code in Google, you won’t find anything. That’s […]
“Why do press releases end in -30-?” asked one of my fellow consultants this morning. Press releases (or news releases, depending on your preference) often finish with -30-, -END- or XXX. As a communications professional, my friend knew what -30- signalled, but was interested in finding out the reason for the shorthand. The tale handed […]
A Vancouver company has turned tattoos into marketing for its coffee. The company’s owners sport temporary tattoos of their logo and web address. When people comment on the tattoos, the entrepreneurs have the chance to strike up conversations about the company’s products. Temporary tattoos are clever. But the company also issued a news release, seeking […]
Just a quick note to say this blog now uses text-based URLs. My magnificent developer has added a feature that automatically turns blog titles into URLs. Before, the blog entries were numbered. Those old entries and their permalinks still work. However, the new text-based URLs will make it easier for web surfers to understand the […]
A little ad copy never hurt anybody, right? Well, maybe not, but Tasers may have. So the company can no longer call its product “non-lethal”. Taser will change its product descriptions, as part of an effort to meet US deceptive marketing laws. Here, in Canada, companies are subject to the Competition Act, specifically part seven, […]
Prompted by requests from several regular readers, I (er, um, my developer) have added comments to this blog. When I launched this blog almost two years ago, I was reluctant to include comment functionality. This was due to concerns about spam and inappropriate content. I still harbour these concerns. However, my developer — who handcoded […]
On Tuesday, when I posted about “bumvertising”, Google had 18,600 hits for the word. As of now, Google returns 26,200 results. This just goes to show how publicity and viral marketing (mostly via blogs) can increase your exposure. Update: 36,600 hits on September 23, 2005 (c) 2005 by Andrea Coutu. Vancouver Marketing Consultant. All rights […]
When a friend emailed me about an gambling community’s use of homeless people to advertise its site, I was skeptical. Pokerfacebook.com claims to hire homeless people to hold signs advertising its website. The site even calls this “bumvertising”, a term it claims to have trademarked. Tonight, The Daily Show featured a segment on the website […]
