Influence Marketing? Vertical Networks’ Opportunity, Recession Marketing Jitters

Posted on | March 23, 2008 |

Holidays - albeit short ones - are good times to catch up on your reading - and if you did not, well, I did it for you and found a couple good reads you might enjoy.

1. A really good string of discussions (studies, articles & commentaries) on the myths and realities of viral marketing - if you missed it - culminate in The Myth of A Listers and Influencers. Here, Guy Kawasaki continues on the theme of Duncan Watts (Yahoo! Research) and the demise of influencers and A listers (from the Fast Company article Is the Tipping Point Toast? by Clive Thompson) and blends in findings from a recent CNET Networks three-part study titled “The Influencer Study from CNET Networks”.

2. (more) Good news for Vertical Publishers - online ad money is moving into premium content environments, and the portals and major online ad platforms are probably not going to be the ones selling it. Read more from Dave Morgan.

3. Digital Media Prospers, Traditional Suffers In Recession - for a look at how different media formats might be affected should the US economy slide into a recession - (and thank you Erik Sass for an article which does not depict “recession” as a current economic foregone conclusion) - measureability reins supreme.

4. If you indeed have recession jitters, the current issue of Advertising Age has a couple good articles on why marketing in a recession is not all bad - read Recession Can Be a Marketer’s Friend, Recession Can Be Breeding Ground for Next Big Idea. (subscription required - or go grab the issue just lying there in the waiting room).