Just had an interesting conversation with a customer service representative at Verizon. You know, America’s most reliable network. It turns out that “the network,” famously represented by a hoard of Verizon employees in their advertisements, are more outdoor cats than indoor cats, so to speak.

Let me explain.

I made a call to Verizon today because, since we moved to this apartment a few months back, we’ve not been able to have any clear conversations on our mobiles without having to stand next to a window or going outside on the balcony. If we don’t, our conversations cut out and sometimes our calls drop. Also, strangely, Verizon to Verizon calls seem to be the worst, and with both of our families exclusively on Verizon, that’s an issue.

Obviously, the reception here isn’t good, and conversations with others in the building confirm that this is a bad spot for Verizon, and a number of people have dropped Verizon when they got here.

No biggie, I thought. If there isn’t reliable service here, Verizon will understand, apologize and let us out of our contract without fees. I mean, if you can’t service a customer properly, you’re not going to force them to keep your service or pay a fee, right?

Wrong.

Continue reading "Verizon – America’s Most Reliable Network As Long As You Are Outside" »

Posted by James at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal talking about the John McCain campaign's effective use of paid search ads to "ambush" Obama related searches. Definitely worth a read for you search marketing types.

One thing in the article that bugs me though is this:

Sen. Obama can also claim a huge lead in nonpaid search traffic, which suggests that he has done a good job optimizing its Web pages for search engines.

I think this is more of a "big brand" thing than an optimization thing. Kind of similar to the reason that GEICO gets as much search traffic on Google as the term "auto insurance."

Picky, picky. I know.

Posted by James at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Todd Dever of Cool Fonts fame passed this video on to me, and I highly recommend watching no matter who you are or what you do. It makes a good case for the progression of media into an active, rather than passive, activity.

Posted by James at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Great spot for the new XBox game, Viva Piñata.

[via The Egotist]

Posted by James at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been spending A LOT of time looking at site that could be a potential like targets for the company I'm working with, and I can honestly say I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the web over the last couple months.

While I think it's safe to say there are a pile of contenders in the property search market, some of the sites that are popping up on the real estate fringe are quite interesting. Two examples I found today are StreetAdvisor and Walk Score.

StreetAdvisor is a site that uses user generated content to help you decided on a street to live on. As with any user generated content site, there are areas that have not yet been contributed to, but doing some searches around the Denver area I found some good reviews for my favorite streets. A very cool concept, and a company that could pretty logically be snatched up by a big property search player looking for interesting neighborhood data.

Walk Score is a site that looks at the schools, stores, shops, parks, etc. and rates address' "walkability score." It's a great tool for anyone looking to move to a city they don't know well, and that might not have or want to use a car in this age of rising gas prices. Not sure if this is a target for purchase, since they pretty much explain their algorithm on their site, and are using Google Maps as their data source. Still, I have a feeling selling out may not really be the endgame for Walk Score.

Know of any other fun sites like this in the property world? If so, leave me a note in the comments!

Posted by James at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's the confirmation.

How long until you think someone is going to use the "fake bigfoot" theme in a commercial.

I give it 1 month.

Posted by James at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ran across this advert in the Frankfurt airport a couple days ago:

It's almost like the printer lost the actual ad copy and instead used part of the copy from the agencies justification presentation to their clients.

I'm not sure if this was a mistake, a high form of "lost in translation" or the future of marketing - full explanation of your targeting strategy in lieu actual feature and benefit statements.

We shall see.

Posted by James at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The execution of this Vauxhall piece is pretty awesome.

First, the Flickr photos of the piece.

Now the explanation.

You've gotta admit, that's pretty rad.

Posted by James at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Did you ever sell lemonade to make some extra scratch when you were a kid? I know I did a couple of times...and while selling the 'ade wasn't that profitable in the burbs, the kids featured in this article are making some serious bucks and learning some real business and marketing skills.

A good example, Fischer and Alston, best friends who run a lemonade stand in Tribeca. Here's a part of their interview with New York Magazine's Joanna Goddard:

How do you make your lemonade?
FISCHER: My family took lemons and squeezed and squeezed. We were sweating. But Alston’s family mixed powder with water. And the thing is, when you taste it, there’s really no difference.

Did you draw signs?
FISCHER: Alston made signs and spelled some things wrong.
ALSTON: When you spell things wrong, they say, “Oh, that’s cute.”

So you do it on purpose?
We misspelled lemonade: LEMADE.

Classic stuff - read all the interviews with lemonade stand entrepreneurs here.

Big thanks to Creative Victuals for the link.

Posted by James at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Take a few minutes and check out Brand Tags.

In short it shows you how people describe big brands in a word using a tag cloud methodology.

Particularly fun is the page for Wal Mart.

Enjoy.

[via Autoblog]

Posted by James at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Alright, so the Loren Feldman - Shel Israel spat might be a little out of hand, but you've got to admit, Loren is making some entertaining videos. This one really cracked me up.

HA-CHA-CHA-CHA-CHA!

Posted by James at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This video captures the magic of the Subaru WRX STI - sadly, it also shows how underwhelming the new body style is as well. Still, great marketing showing the soul of the STI.

Posted by James at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gotta love my sister. Last night she presented me with my marketing hero, Seth Godin, in action figure form. I had no idea they really made these...

Thanks sis!!!

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

...doesn't mean you should.

No, I'm not talking about ski resorts seeding the clouds, I'm talking about this website that I ran across today.

I mean, this is a good looking site - the pictures are good, the design is solid - but then someone decided it would be cool if it was snowing...in all of the still photos.

Just like the process of creating art, web design has a lot to do with knowing when your work is done.

This particular site was done just before it started snowing.

Posted by James at 06:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...if you use it, you might get your ass kicked.

Learn more about the Nubrella here...great concept, but it'll be hard to convince people to look like a Storm Trooper bobble-head when it rains.

[via]

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I mentioned a little while back that I might be speaking at a conference this September in Dallas about online branding and reputation management...well, that was confirmed, so I will be a speaker. Needless to say I'm excited as online reputation management and branding is of great interest to me...but it seems like I'm not the only one who's thinking this topic.

Here's a video from the social media Super-Hero Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how the tech world of 2008 = the hip hop world of 1985.

God, Gary is a stud.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you don't want to read, here's a video version of the post:

As you may already know, Kristi and I have been on the hunt for a new place to live. Something about having rusty, dirty water for the last month (yes, month) has rubbed us the wrong way.

So the last few weeks have been filled with the ups and downs common to anyone trying to find a new, “perfect” place to live in a particular area. Our best friend through this whole process has been that amazing Internet invention, and killer of newspaper classified ads, Craigslist (Hi Craig!).

We’ve been glued to Craigslist, checking it multiple times a day, trying to find a condo that meets our particular requirements for size, cost, finish, location and view. In the process, Kristi and I have seen the best and worst of Criagslist rental listing, and I thought as a public service I’d post our 5 tips for putting rental properties on Craigslist.

They are:

Continue reading "5 Tips for Putting Rental Properties on Craigslist" »

Posted by James at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just a quick video post about why I think SouthParkStudios.com is a good idea, and why the bastards who purposely schedule shows to screw up DVR recordings need to take notice. Sorry about the lighting...maybe I'll get a better lamp sometime. :)

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great find by Seth Godin. Check out this video, and for you marketing folks, think of how what happens in this video applies to your work…

Posted by James at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Don't want to watch the video? You can read the post by clicking through...

Continue reading "Online Reputation Management for Insurance Agents" »

Posted by James at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

...you know they don't take themselves so seriously.

Case in point, when I asked my representative from HotBanana to send me a list of the new features of the latest release of their HotBanana CMS software, one of the six new upgrade selling points was this:

That's right folks, for some reason they decided to call their new WYSIWYG editor the FCK. I mean, I can't be the only one who is mentally adding the "u," right?

FCKing right!

Props to the HotBanana crew for embracing the quirky naming of all things Banana...even if you don't get more customers from it, you sure are keeping me entertained :)

Posted by James at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was looking through the posts on the supercool website NOTCOT.ORG and ran across a great AdBusteresque idea of improving the advertising landscape with moustaches.

The site, MoustacheMe.com, encourages would-be advertisement modification experts (that's the technical name) to buy moustache stickers that can be used on posters, bus stop adverts or maybe even billboards (they don't sell those ones yet).

Like the slightly more extreme Decapitator, the MoustacheMe crew is seems to be making a statement about the advertising messages that surround us. Unfortunately, they don't have the guts to stand for anything, except selling stickers.

Of course, that reduces the need for a good lawyer...

Posted by James at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you look on the right sidebar of the blog you will notice I have added a couple of new things. One is a MyBlogLog widget, which may be the subject of another post, and a widget marked Twitter Feed. But what is Twitter?

That's a great question - and I always have a really tough time answering it. Tonight at dinner, I tried to explain Twitter to Kristi...and failed miserably. So let's look to Twitter for the official explanation from the website:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Interesting, but it doesn't really mean that much to me. And actually, after I first signed up for Twitter, I played around with it for a bit and then stopped using it for a number of months. But after hearing a lot of the bloggers I follow buzzing about Twitter (Hugh being the most vocal) I tried Twitter out again...and you know what? I get it.

So here's my best explanation of Twitter, at least the way I see it:

Twitter gives people in different physical locations the ability to quickly communicate their location, status and points of interest to their friends and contacts in what can best be described as a virtual workplace/cafe. This virtual workplace may be the reason why so many web/independent workers find Twitter so useful - it lets them broadcast simple ideas and concepts with the people they care about without going through the formality of a blog post, email or even instant message.

Now I'm not going to sit here and tell most people to use Twitter - it really seems to only make sense for tech industry and web-savvy folks at this point. But if you are an active member in the online community, it might be time to get involved with Twitter...it's a great way to get in touch with and keep up to date with the people you know and the people that matter in the online world.

I think Hugh put it best, half joking - "Note to World: If you're not on Twitter, I don't want to make friends with you." (Here are his thoughts on Twitter).

If you'd like to check out my Twitter page, you can head over to http://twitter.com/marketingpunk.

Posted by James at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love making short videos for the web. I love it so much so that if I could figure a way to make it into a fulltime gig, I think I would. The big problem is figuring out how to make money off of all that fun online video goodness...I mean heck, even Google seems to be struggling how to make a profit off of YouTube's content.

Jim Kukral, a man who is no stranger to finding ways to monitize content, has figure out how to cash in on video content. Jim runs a podcast called the Daily Flip (subscribe to it if you haven't already), and in the clip below he tells us how we can monetize our videos content by finding corporate sponsorships...take it away Jim!

Posted by James at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love marketing speak. I think it's ridiculous and hurts the companies that use it, but there is a special place in my heart for people who have "turn-key solutions" to stuff.

With my personal love for marketing jargon in mind, I'd like to offer up this challenge/contest...

$5 goes to the first person who can accuratly and precisely tell me what this company actually does. I mean, from the first sentence I can see that they create and operate online tools, websites and services - but what does that mean? Where are the examples? And what does it mean to go "beyond traditional web-page metaphors to deliver rich user experiences?"

No cheating - you have to figure it out just by reading the text on their website, you can't call them.

Leave a comment with your guess.

Good luck.

Posted by James at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Shipoopi!

[Thanks to the Creative Victual Queen for the link...I will never forgive you, but thanks.]

Posted by James at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exciting news - I've been accepted as a member of the "press" (meaning I got a press pass) for the 2008 Affiliate Summit West conference in Las Vegas in a couple weeks! Affiliate Summit is the premier affiliate marketing conference series, and once a year affiliate marketers and merchants descend on Las Vegas to learn, network, and let's face it, party for three jam packed days.

One thing that I like about Affiliate Summit is that I've been in the affiliate marketing business long enough to have seen the conference organizers, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, take the Summit from an unknown series to a world class event. The conference has had its growing pains, but now it has events across the US and even in Europe...a wonderful success story.

Some of you might remember that I went to Affiliate Summit last year through work, but I'm pretty stoked to be going as an independent blogger this go round, with nothing to do but enjoy and document my experience.

I'm hoping to cover most of the conference through video blog posts, technology permitting.

Anyway, more about Affiliate Summit over the coming days. Tomorrow (or soon) - the conference agenda!

Tags: affiliatesummit

Posted by James at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reason I think the logo free grill was the right way to go was this - Hyundai has a branding problem. Many people just can't get over the logo and the sordid past that it represents. Even though Hyundai has turned themselves around and produces high-quality, feature-rich, affordable cars, some people just won't give a second look to a car with the slanted H on the hood.

While I think (and hope) over time people will get over the "Hyundai thing," I think keeping the Hyundai badge off of the front of this remarkable car will let people enjoy what the Genisis is all about, a high-class ride at an affordable price.

Posted by James at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I never thought I would be giving a shout out to the Elle show on this blog, but these two clips made it possible. May I present the difference between an infomercial and reality...

Infomercial

Reality

Marketing lesson of the day - in today's world of YouTube, blogs and social networks, people will see thought your bullshit and spread the word...no matter how hard (or not hard in this case) you try to cover it up.

Posted by James at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Get the details from Jalopnik. Nice job Leo Burnett (make sure you check out their site...very cool).

Posted by James at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So if you walked out to your car and saw this post-it note on your car's mirror, what would you think?

Well for Kristi, who did get this note on her car today, she thought someone had run into her car. Totally freaked out, she walked around her car looking for damage. Nothing. So then, being a woman, in a dark parking garage, she got a little freaked out and worried.

So she got in her car, called to tell me what was happening. We figured she should call and find out what was going on in case her car was broken somehow, so she did. A few minutes later she called me back and told me who left it there. You know what it was?

A FREEKIN' SMART AUTO GLASS TRYING TO DRUM UP BUSINESS!

Unbelievable. Is putting cryptic post-it notes on people's cars and tricking them into calling your company really a good marketing plan? NO. Kristi didn't appreciate it, I didn't appreciate it, and you ladies and gents shouldn't appreciate it.

So let's fight back, eh?

If you have a blog, and you would be so kind, please make a post (it can be super short) that talks about what Smart Glass did to Kristi. If you'd like to voice your dissatisfaction directly, you can reach Smart Glass by calling 303-296-0809.

Thanks in advance for your help. Let me know if you write a post and I'll link to it from here.

UPDATE: Looks like we are getting some traction her. Check out these posts about Smart Glass:

• Kristi's Smart Glass Denver post


• Megan's Smart Glass Denver post


• InsureMe Agent Blog's Smart Glass Denver post


• The Consumerist's Smart Glass Denver post (check the 67+ comments!)


• Jack's Smart Glass Denver post


• DrunkBunny's Smart Glass Denver post


• Brofax's Smart Glass Denver post

Posted by James at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

If you are working on something totally mindless:

a) Welcome to the club, and
b) Here is a download of a great conversation between Seth Godin, Tim Ferris, Chris Anderson and John Jantsch you can listen to so your brain doesn't continue to rot in your head.

You are welcome.

(Source)

Posted by James at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And then there is Pontiac. A brand that can't seem to get any traction. And you know what? I think I'm starting to understand why.

You see, Autoblog recently pointed out that, even two years after it was discontinued, the Pontiac Aztec sold 25 new units in 2007. At first glance you might think, wow, after two years they are still selling Aztecs? That's good right?

Wrong.

You have to think what that symbolizes. That means that there are Pontiac dealers out there who are still showing a car that may very well have been the lowest of low points in modern car design. In the process the dealers are reminding everyone who walks on their lot why Pontiac is struggling in the auto market. Yeah, they might have sold a few Aztecs, but how many sales did they lose by keeping those beasts sitting around, stinking up their new product line?

If your brand is in trouble, find out the cause and do what you can to correct and distance yourself from it. In Pontiac's case, they should round up every "new" Aztec that is left, pay the dealers for them, and quietly donate them to a needy organization...and then never mention the Aztec again.

You gotta lose the losers to save your brand.

Posted by James at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wrote about this at work, so check the post there, but hopefully your business plan isn't like this...

Posted by James at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ugh.

Denver's NBC affiliate, 9 News, has an amazing ability to add innovations to their website that manage to annoy much more than they inform (kind of like their morning show). The latest example of misunderstanding how to translate offline promotional methods to online is this totally awesome page that popped up after I clicked through a story on their homepage...

I'm sorry, but if you are going to run a survey like this on your website, here's some suggestions:

• Ask one or two questions max...anything more is intrusive
• Remember that you are interrupting a process that is not normally interrupted, act accordingly
• Ask yourself if the information you are looking for is worth the inevitable drop-off of users from your site
• ALWAYS PROVIDE A WAY TO SKIP THE SURVEY - THIS IS A NO BRAINER

So there you go 9News...remember that the web isn't TV. You can't force us to do anything we don't want to do...and if you try we know where else we can go to get the exact same news stories.

And if you're taking suggestions, take the STUPID rollover functionality off of the NIMBUS weather thing on the top of your homepage, Make it clickable like everything else on your site...if I open that thing on accident one more time I'm going to come down there and egg your building.

Yeah, egging is how I roll.

Posted by James at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A few months back, BusinessWeek did a total make-over of its magazine and the changes were quite noticeable. At first I was a bit thrown off by it all, but over time I got used to it. Aside from occasional oddities (like the use of drawings of photos while using captions that would fit only pictures in a recent article on ICE immigration raids) things seem to be looking quite good at BusinessWeek.

A great example is the layout pictured below from a recent article on the stealth oil giant Schlumberger. Something about the black and white photo along with the text layout and the use of red for the larger text and page number just make my eyeballs happy. Check it:

Nice, eh?

Oh, and if you want to hear a little more about Schlumberger and how it fits with the idea of Professional Service Firms, check out this post from Tom Peters.

Posted by James at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes when street art and mainstream advertising intersect, the results can be gruesome...gruesome in a good way! Exhibit A - the work of the suddenly famous Decapitator.

Check these shots of to see the before and after pictures of the Decapitator's AdBusting goodness....

Before

After

Check out more pictures here.

Yeah, it's gross, but it takes another blah ad and makes it into something truly remarkable. Not sure if this the the remarkability that Seth Godin was talking about in the Purple Cow. :)

This might be an extreme example, but I'd say this, if you are cranking out the type of AdverPollution that would be more interesting post-decapitation, maybe you should try a bit harder, eh?

Big up to the Egotist for the link.

Posted by James at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hugh MacLeod has been talking about "social objects" for a while now, but I had a hard time wrapping my head around the concept. A couple of his recent posts have cleared things up for me, and if you are trying to sell/market anything, you should hop on the social object train. Read the posts here and here.

As social marketers like to say, it's all about the conversation...or is it that it's all about the people. Either way, getting people to talk about your product is key - which is what social objects are all about.

Also, I wanted to point out my favorite marketing quote ever -

"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.” - Robert Stephens, founder, Geek Squad

All I can say is that it's nice that there is so much unremarkability in the world (job security and all) :)

[Thanks to CreativeVictuals for pointing that one out]

Posted by James at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BusinessWeek has a great article that talks about the short lifespan of people who end up in the Chief Marketing Officer role. It seems that the world of marketing is moving a little too fast for many traditionally minded marketing chiefs to keep up, and the pressures of knowing what to do with new media and old media are overwhelming.

There was one bit of the article I have to point out that seems to really show what today's CMOs are going through...

Marc Lefar, who was chief marketing officer at Cingular (now AT&T (T)) until leaving for personal reasons in April, knew he needed to get his head around a geeky marketing tool called search engine optimization (SEO). Now more important than Nielsen ratings, SEO is used to make sure a company's site shows up as high as possible on search results. Getting this right can mean the difference between capturing a potential cell phone customer or losing him to a rival.

Pretty crazy, eh? I'm glad I got my start in the new media world...trying to catch up later would be really tough.

Posted by James at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seriously, I have never seen a website that uses SitePal that doesn't end up looking creepy.

Want an example?

Try this and this.

Posted by James at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

[NOTE: It's my early New Years resolution to try to put some type of marketing edge on every post I do. I mean, this is Marketing Punk, so there should be something marketing related here, right?]

When Kristi and I were in Venice this spring, we spent one evening doing as Venetians do and went out for cicchetti - Venice's answer to Spain's tapa-hopping. After our second bar, we walked up to a very popular (and Rick Steves recommended) cicchetti bar called Al Marca right off the Grand Canal and near to the Rialto Bridge. Here's what it looked like:

As you can see, the bar was nothing more than an awning and a window on the side of the building. You couldn't go in, and there weren't even any seats or tables. You just ordered your drink, chicchetti and then enjoyed it where you wanted. And when I say where you wanted, I mean you could wander off, go a hundred meters away, around the corner and no one would give you a second glance.

Now here is the crazy part (if you are American) - they gave you real wine glasses and real plates when you ordered food and drinks. No plastic. No paper. The real stuff. Here's a picture.

For Americans, it was a wild thing. How could these people risk losing expensive wine glasses and plates? Don't they lose a ton of them? Can people really be trusted with "the good stuff"?

I'm sure this bar, and all the other bars in the area (who also let you wonder with your drinks), lose some glasses and plates. But by trusting its customers, the bar showed that it respected its patrons, and the patrons did what they could to live up to that respect.

Trusting customers is a great way to show you respect them. Showing respect builds strong customer relationships.

So my thought for today is this:

What can your business do to show your customers you trust them?

Now you know what you can do, try it out and see what happens.

Posted by James at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine a technology that projects sound in to a precise spot, and unless you are in the spot, you can't hear it. What's more, the sound isn't heard through your ears, it is heard because it is banging around in your skull, which serves as an amplifier.

Now imagine who would use such a creepy technology.

No, it's not the CIA. It's marketers.

Learn how A&E is projecting voices into skulls of civilians to promote a show about ghosts here.

[Thumbs up to The Denver Egotist for the point.]

Posted by James at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I mean...what is up with that picture? Is that a dude in a wig or a woman with a Hitler 'stache? I'm so confused?

Posted by James at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just wanted to give props to Hugh MacLeod for writing Blogging is Dead? According to Whom?

When you are a "cool guy" in the tech world, it's certainly not cool to stick up for blogs these days...but Hugh has the nuts to point out that blogs are still a useful tool. Nice to see someone who built their personal brand with a blog not giving it the cold shoulder just because it's not the latest and greatest innovation.

Posted by James at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kristi and I watched the movie The Queen the other night, and I got to say that aside from being a really good movie, it should also be used as a parable for old Madison Avenue advertisers.

I mean, big ad agencies tend to act like the royalty of the advertising world, but over the years their high-horse, Lovemarks, "we make art not ads" attitude has caused many of the big agencies to become totally detached from reality...kind of like the royal family of England. And now, like in the movie, the royal family of Madison Avenue are starting to wake up and realized that the world they once knew has changed...and now they have to try to catch back up with reality.

Don't believe me? Read this article about the folks at Saatchi & Saatchi facing this newfangled creation called the Intarwebs.

Good luck to all the royal families of the ad world...hope you all can find your Tony Blair.