Yellow cab rides in New York are the source of many things. Unfortunate smells, Funny anecdotes and near death experiences are just a few of them. What I hadn’t realized until I took two rides last week is that they are also the testing ground for behavioral economics theory as well.

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Here is a link to an intriguing New York Times article on virality by John Tierney. A good deal of thinking has been done about which articles NY Times readers choose to share, and why. You might be surprised by what type of articles are most shared, but the reasons why (emotional communion, among others), are very interesting. Especially when you think about the Times readership in terms of being an audience you might want to reach, and what types of content could engage that audience enough to inspire pass-along.

Facing pressure for heightened accountability, many marketers are putting much more emphasis on measuring actual performance of their programs.

Having helped many clients build state-of-the-art direct marketing strategies, I have compiled five typical mistakes companies make in designing their marketing strategies. Hoping we can all learn from the mistakes of others to build better and more effective campaigns, I suggest these mistakes as five ways of increasing marketing effectiveness through better planning — rather than better measurement after launching a plan.

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The Conversation of the Future?

Over the holidays, my 12 year-old son went shopping for a present for his mom on his own. After browsing around in Borders bookstore, he sent me a text which listed the things he was considering. I suggested he send me a photo of his favorite option. He did, I approved, and I can still recall the feeling as if I participated in the decision, even though he was exercising his independence. What a great experience and a nice connective moment for us both.

This got me thinking about what it means — or doesn’t mean — to have a conversation in an age of mobile ubiquity.

Humans have long enjoyed the art of the conversation. These days, we “talk” in many ways, including in person, over the phone, texting and tapping social media applications. What if brands spent less time prying their way into those conversations, and more time adding value by making it easier for us to converse about our brands and products?

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Effective, cost-efficient segmentation is the holy grail of email marketing. This Holiday season, a major retailer resolved to maximize revenues from the email channel by segmenting their customer base and sending more targeted emails.

To do this, they challenged agency partner Ogilvy to help them overcome two of the biggest hurdles most companies face when they decide to segment and target: what to do with the data, and how to keep creative costs reasonable while increasing the number of versions exponentially.

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