Nielsen reports that Google is still the top web brand in 2011, followed by Facebook, which is where Americans spend the most time online. According to Nielsen’s Q3 social media report, Facebook users spent 53.5 billion minutes on the site in May 2011. (I bet I work with some of those Facebook enthusiasts.) It is also the top social networking site through mobile devices: 46,500,000 unique audience members.
At right is a sign spotted days ago at a closed Borders in Chicago. There are a lot of fourth-grade-level bathroom jokes I could make, but I won’t. I will agree, though, the sign makes a good argument for the brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Also of interest in the wake of the Wi-Fi-only Xoom release: A February article from Tech Republic on how to hack the NOOK Color into a full Android tablet. As the story responsibly notes,
if you do this, you will void the warranty. Proceed with caution.
EARLIER: A roundup of e-textbook developments and forecasts, as well as a student’s two cents on the shift in the industry.
ED’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. It does not endorse any product, services or agency. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
Kenny Powers is back hawking K-Swiss Tubes during the sweat-soaked, beer-stained, testosterone-fueled insanity that is March Madness.
Yes, this news is about as fresh as a towel on a locker room floor – I have to admit that I had forgotten about our loveable anti-hero and his side job for K-Swiss (NASDAQ: KSWS). Even so, I want to quickly examine the most recent leg of the campaign I wrote about last summer. “Tournageddon“ is a balls-to-the-wall social-media push that starts on Facebook and ends up on Yahoo Fantasy Sports.
Fans can submit their picks, pore over team analyses, get recaps filled with Kenny’s insights and — ultimately — they can spend more times him and his Tubes. And when fans are done killing time mourning their busted brackets, they can download the Muscle Machine app from iTunes or let Kenny manage their Facebook page with the Workout Wingman app. The idea behind the Wingman app is you’ll be “training in K-SWISS Tubes like a true frickin’ champion” instead of Facebooking (fat chance) and Kenny will answer your friends’ posts (“You’re f-in’ OUT, MOM!”).
Since I last wrote about Kenny Powers and Tubes, the Tubes site has been overhauled with a very masculine red and black theme. Very fiery. Powerful. Like Hell. Makes me want to go buy some Axe body wash or something. Lame jokes aside, it’s a very comprehensive e-commerce portal: Shoppers can customize a pair of Tubes, watch the very funny advertising spots featuring Patrick Willis and Jeremy Shockey, connect with Kenny on Facebook and Yahoo, and even order season one of Eastbound & Down, the critically acclaimed six episodes that introduced us to a foul-mouthed has-been ballplayer that somehow stole our hearts.
I think what I appreciate most about the Tubes campaign is how all the copy maintains Kenny’s voice, such as it is outside of the HBO series, while promoting the athletic shoes. It’s unlikely actor/Kenny creator Danny McBride was available to whip up copy for 72andSunny, the agency behind the Tubes campaign, so props to the writers for keeping Kenny real and an appropriate PG-13. He’s still a crass buffoon, even when he’s not dropping the f-bomb after every third utterance.
Finally, here’s Kenny in the spot “Gravity,” featuring New Orleans tight end Jeremy Shockey. I had planned to post this a long time ago, but I couldn’t find it and then I eventually lost interest. Perhaps the lackluster second season of Eastbound & Down played a role in my forgetfulness.
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that textbook publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson have invested in Inkling, the San Francisco-based e-textbook developer.
Inkling declined to disclose the specific amounts McGraw-Hill and Pearson invested or the total funding it has raised so far. The start-up’s current investors– Sequoia Capital, Felicis Ventures, Kapor Capital, and Sherpalo Ventures–also took part in the financing.
EARLIER: A roundup of e-textbook developments and forecasts, and a student’s two cents on the shift in the industry.
14% of all U.S. adult Internet users will be using Twitter in 2013
Twitter usage rate among 18- to 29-year-olds is double that of the 30-to-49 group
A revised 2012 forecast that says 24.1 million U.S. adult Internet users will be on Twitter. The previous forecast had predicted Twitter would reach 36 million.
The whole report will cost you $695, but the summary itself includes some not-insignificant numbers. It’s definitely worth checking out.
ED’S NOTE: This post reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. It does not endorse any product, services or agency. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.
Burger King jumped ship after seven years (no loss there), and Groupon’s Andrew Mason is still apologizing for the Super Bowl ad that has been wrongly vilified as the most tasteless spot ever produced in the history of advertising. It’s more than a month after the Super Bowl. Are we really still talking about this? Did the ad really hurt the deal-of-the-day site? Not likely. We are still talking about this ad. No one will shut up about Groupon. The publicity couldn’t have been all bad.
C’mon, didn’t Groupon know what agency they were hiring?
If you don’t want flavor, don’t order the curry. Here’s a similar sentiment from the Ad Age story:
The situation illustrates a classic tension in marketer-agency relationships: Clients say they want to take risks, but later realize they weren’t ready or can’t stomach the criticism associated with them. And CP&B is nothing if not a risk-taker, known for ads that reap miles of PR, even if they stir up controversy.
In response to visitors’ interest in The Wall Street Journal story on e-textbooks, I’m now covering textbook publishers’ response to industry demands. As a marketing student who spent a child’s ransom on textbooks this semester, and the semesters before that, I understand the need to find a lower-cost alternative to traditional textbooks. And although I’m tablet enthusiast who is always eager to see what added value emerges as the technology becomes more sophisticated, I’m a compulsive highlighter, note-scribbler and paper-clipper, all of which makes me feel like I learn more. So it’s likely I’ll be slower to adopt e-textbooks.
I doubt I’m the only student who feels this way about textbooks, but as the industry shifts, students’ purchasing habits will have to change. In the spring issue of College Services magazine, Jade Roth, of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, discusses the slowth growth of the e-textbook market — which she attributes to technological and content limitations — and the surge in purchases last year. Roth reports B&N campus bookstores enjoyed a 3000% increase in e-textbook sales last year — the same year 14% of students reported buying an e-textbook. Roth cites e-readers’ improved functionality and integration among the reasons more students — and faculty — are turning to e-texts.
What’s not mentioned — and I understand why; the author works for B&N — is the 900-pound industry disrupter: the release of the iPad last April. Suddenly the world was introduced to a slick and pretty tablet from a company that can do no wrong. Apple’s halo is super shiny, and it’s understandable that more people — including students, despite iPad’s price tag — would flock to a tablet computer. And if we couldn’t afford an iPad, maybe we went with a NookStudy or a Kindle as e-reader sales doubled in 2010.
In the wake of the iPad/e-reader explosion, social learning outfit Xplana has revised its five-year projections for the e-textbook market. Rob Reynolds blogs that the Xplana report predicts “eventual dominance of digital (textbooks) over print an inevitable outcome within five-seven years.”
Meanwhile, Reuters tells us that the Association of American Publishers reports January e-book sales (not just e-textbooks) jumped to $69.9 million compared with $32.4 million in January 2010 — 115% increase. Reuters reports adult hardcover and paperback sales dropped in January, but sales in the higher-education category, which includes college textbooks, were down only a bit: $382 million from $387.6 million in 2010 — perhaps further proof that the skyrocketing e-textbook market is far from maturity.
@MichelleCMariea Twasn't my 1st time hit. :-D I should know better by now. Guess my spring training isn't going as well as she'd like.~14 hours ago
Unexpected inspiration for runners: the thunderstorm that moves in when you're 2 miles from home -- without a phone. #speedtrainingfordummy~15 hours ago
@mpob Thanks for coming out last night! Forgot to tell you: My purse crisis wouldn't be if I hadn't let the iPad dictate size for 2 years!~22 hours ago
At right is a sign spotted days ago at a closed Borders in Chicago. There are a lot of fourth-grade-level bathroom jokes I could make, but I won’t. I will agree, though, the sign makes a good argument for the brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Research firm eMarketer gives us a peek at its new report on Twitter usage, which offers some juicy predictions for marketers.
In response to 
