Comments on: does this mean the blog is now officially mainstream media?

By: AccMan Pro

AccMan Pro — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 20:03:54 +0000

Love-hate relationships

I have a love-hate relationship with marketing. On the one hand I recognise it is necessary, on the other I find it hard to see how marketers justify their sometimes madcap ideas. Today, I hopped over to Hugh McLeod’s site (you’ve got to visit it at le…

By: The TrueTalk Blog

The TrueTalk Blog — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 07:01:10 +0000

Lost Your Budget?

How much fun are we having out here? Lots. Why? ‘Cause we’re really getting into the game. Huh? OK, the gamification of life is moving on at a pretty good clip at this point, right? World of Warcraft has millions

By: richard

richard — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 04:47:18 +0000

Wow, the company that employs staff that are willing to bad-mouth customers on their own blogs now runs a blog and hires blog types to give themselves a better image.
http://foo.ca/wp/2005/07/26/budget-post-the-third/
Maybe they’ve learned not to call people morons when they call in or comment on the blog…

By: Patrick O'Leary

Patrick O'Leary — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:23:32 +0000

Can you get the IT guys running the Budget thing to start paying attention to their email? Their registration is still broken for people with apostrophes in their names. I even sent a suggested fix with my reply to their “it’s fixed” message, which was wrong. I would very much like to enter–I have a sneaking suspicion that a city very near to me may appear at some point during this promotion.
Nice cartoons, though.

By: Greg Yardley's Internet Blog

Greg Yardley's Internet Blog — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 18:19:36 +0000

Three quick bits

Three thoughts this morning, not necessarily related:
1) The new Google Base tool (screenshot, not yet released) looks like an excellent way to upload product attributes and other information – which Google will then incorporate in their Froogle lis…

By: Marketing Begins At Home

Marketing Begins At Home — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 18:02:02 +0000

Onwards….

When I find myself (as I often do) dragging the brood down to visit the folks in Florida, not a trip goes by when I don’t visit the Budget Rental counter in Palm Beach Airport. Not for any other reason than they are the cheapest and tend to get …

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:51:20 +0000

“Lately this blog has entered the Rubel-Scoble-Searls [RSS] tech-utopia new-agey buzzworded twilight zone.”
Lately? I’d say I’ve been there for a while. Take two and call me in the morning

By: Christopher Coulter

Christopher Coulter — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 16:50:06 +0000

Hahhaha, back-to-back contradictory posts. One says ‘word of mouth’ or ‘attention getting’ is wrong and not how you market. And then the VERY NEXT post is praising a whole bloggy-word-of-mouth campaign. Irony abounds.
And your ‘disruptive’ post, shows such a lack of basic economics that I am at a sheer loss as to where to even begin. Starbucks is about the SOCIAL, not the Wifi (as just a few miles outside of the Bay Area you hardly see any notebooks or giddy gadgets). Ford’s revolution was the assembly-line, which enabled massive consumer production (not a disrupter, rather an enabler). And Harley disrupted nothing, they are all about image, the originals. And you got the timeline wrong, the first bike Harley made was in 1903, with the company being incorporated in 1907. Jap bikes didn’t really become a force until post WW2. And Jap bikes certainly aren’t cheap, they just have a differing focus, streamlined, smooth and fast, high-tech which can be EXPENSIVE tech. Harley is All-American 1950s Diner feel-good Power Rock muscle. iPod didn’t disrupt paying for downloads, people have been paying for many downloaded things for years, iPod just made it cheap and easy and beat back the Industry naysayers. And the Boca guys from IBM actually themselves did more to “disrupt” the mainframe than Apple. But with Big Iron as strong as ever the key phrase is not ‘displace’ rather ‘in addition to’. And Linux didn’t disrupt the freeware idea, it made it more popular perhaps, but then look — the leading Linux versions, if used in Enterprise spaces still cost, of course, up front is cheaper. But it’s a grand gloss-over to assume Linux is ‘free’, as costs can be measured in many ways.
(PS – Lately this blog has entered the Rubel-Scoble-Searls [RSS] tech-utopia new-agey buzzworded twilight zone. Take two and call me in the morning).

By: Ty

Ty — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:07:58 +0000

To be sure, the idea has a degree of merit. For the most part I agree with Mr. Collier’s assessment. The success of this compaign doesn’t ride on the noteworthiness of the idea, but on the inevitable trajectory of the blogging phenomenon. However, there is something to be said for being first to capitalize on an opportunity, so I don’t begrudge them their fun. In fact, I am pleased to see bloggers experimenting with variable profit models.

By: shelley Noble

shelley Noble — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:10:15 +0000

I love Hugh and all his ideas. tip: Fix the typo on the west video clue, Journey not jorney.

By: Chris Busch

Chris Busch — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:43:41 +0000

Up Your Budget (Rent a Car)

Budget Car Rental has launched a new campaign with no promotional support other than blogs. The Up Your Budget promotion features a 16 city treasure hunt with $160,000 in prizes. Four $10,000 prizes hidden each week for a month.

By: Crossroads Dispatches

Crossroads Dispatches — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:03:36 +0000

An Internet Fed Mostly by Amateurs is Fascinating

I don’t want to read blogs by political extremists, listen to podcasts recorded by droning amateurs, or watch videos produced by talentless would-be directors – even though the Internet makes all that possible. I want to get my news from

By: Mack Collier

Mack Collier — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 08:20:57 +0000

Why people are taking this seriously is because its a revoluntary way to advertise and market a company’s product/service. If you think people are talking about this because of prizes being hid in 16 US cities, then you are totally missing the point, IMO. Others can likely make this point better than I, but I feel that the excitement about this campaign revolves around the fact that this is something that’s never been done before. For the first time, a campaign is launched on blogs, and supported by blogs. Since there won’t be any ‘traditional’ media exposure, it’s completely up to the viral tendencies of blogs and bloggers as to whether or not this campaign will work, or bust.
It could easily do either. Either way, there are going to be a TON of people paying VERY close attention to how well this campaign
goes.
Personally I think it’s exciting as hell, but that may just be me.

By: Andrew Denny

Andrew Denny — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 06:05:39 +0000

I might be missing something, but is this blog/competition of any interest to those outside the USA? Indeed, is it of any remote interest to those unwilling to travel too far?
The prize is quite small (

By: Licence to Roam

Licence to Roam — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 02:55:35 +0000

I want to play – Budget Cars and Blogs

BL Ochman has been working on a new campaign for Budget Car rental,called Up Your Budget, using blogs to power the campaign – a Treasure Hunt across 4 weeks and 16 US cities. That’s US only – therefore I can’t…