A Science of Stupidities
February 2nd, 2006An inspired rant comes from Eric Weaver at Ad-Verse. He’s sitting in an American Marketing Association web-cast on direct marketing “best practices,” and hating it. (Familiar? Anyone?)
Choice excerpt:
The b-school buzzwords come fast and furious. Precampaign analytics. Customer acquisition models. Proprietary optimization. “How much data is the right amount to collect during the acquisition process?” the speaker asks. “How do you insure your email gets through the spam filters the customer has deployed?”
And I want to unmute the speakerphone and scream ARE YOU F***ING INSANE?!? DO YOU ACTUALLY HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?!? [original emphasis]
I can see right away that this is another case of the Old Guard who “doesn’t get it.” I agree completely; I’ve posted about it. I was nodding my head in agreement.
Within five minutes of reading this I went to a site about RSS Marketing. Surely none of this Old-Guard screw-the-customer nonsense here. Right? Wrong. Check it out.
Wow.
This how-to-evade-their-spam-filters pitch is endorsed by bona-fide-Web-celebs. Do they actually hear what they’re saying? Do these endorsers hear what they’re endorsing?
- Debbie Weil, WordBiz — “I highly recommend it.”
- Lee Odden, TopRank — “This book is worth many times the price…”
- Bill Flitter, Pheedo — “The most comprehensive guide on RSS I’ve read to date.”
- Dick Costolo, Feedburner — “A milestone document…”
There are more of them… Now, what was all that crap I keep hearing about how the essence of the New Marketing is being authentic and real?
Not surprisingly, marketing on the Web, be it 1.0, 2.0, old-style or revolutionary, will feature the same cast as in real life — because it is real life. There are people who make a difference, and then there are the hucksters who feed on greed and insecurity. And then perhaps there are those who lend their name a little too readily.
With thanks to Eric Weaver for screwing my head on straight.
Antony, thanks for the very kind words.
The ad is poorly done because the copy (and site) use the same tired over-the-top promotion tactics as the spammers, but actually, that is a brilliant e-book and I highly recommend it! I think that since RSS marketing is 100% opt-in, they’re trying to get marketers to buy it, but using the bad, old-school approach.
I bought that e-book and it’s REALLY GOOD. Okay, it’s great! I encourage you to get it and you’ll see what I mean.
Email me and I may let you borrow my PDF… I mean, my copy. :)
Eric Weaver | February 2nd, 2006 at 11:20 pm
TEST comment. Please ignore.
Antony | February 3rd, 2006 at 1:40 am
Hey Antony and Eric,
Funny you should mention what I would call a bit “overly enthusiastic” promotion on Rok’s site. I say funny because it’s actually toned down quite a bit from when he first launched it. In the end, the book is quite good and is worth a look or two.
Cheers!
Lee Odden | February 3rd, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Well, that ad certainly underlines some of Eric’s objections.
Unfortunately, though I agree with a lot of what’s being said overall, the sad fact is that even Old School often works. It just isn’t necessarily as effective as New Marketing.
Here’s a toast to the new digital economy…
Brian Turner | February 6th, 2006 at 5:31 pm