Advertisers Starting to Demand Results?

While going through the closets at my new home away from home, , I noticed that discusses some recent comments by one of Proctor & Gamble’s marketing executives. Emma Jenkins, Head of Interactive Marketing for the consumer goods conglomerate, the following comments about online advertising and agencies:

We absolutely do want big ideas, but in the end the creative needs to deliver. Business objectives need to be embraced all the way through the creative agency from the account manager onwards.

Drama’s Roundup - January 23, 2008

Publicis’s Levy: Too Many Companies Chasing Too Few Dollars Online
Why It’s Interesting: Even though this was published in early November 2007, I just came across it and found it to be even more relevant now given the economic landscape has worsened considerably. When the CEO of one of the most important advertising companies in the world (and one of the most tech-friendly) says that far too many companies are chasing too few dollars, makes reference to the first .com bust and calls Facebook’s valuation “insane” because it’s “unbalanced relative to the potential advertising value” of the service, it’s worth taking note.

Free 23andMe!

I was amused to see that 23andMe, the “web-based service that helps you read and understand your DNA” that I named one of the Dumbest Startups of 2007, is giving away 1,000 of its kits to attendees. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is in Davos, but he had already purchased a 23andMe kit so he has decided to give it away to the most deserving TechCrunch reader.

Drama 2.0 Looks to Bring Rap Music to Web 2.0

Rap music has a special place in my heart. As a kid, I grew up bumping Run-D.M.C. and my love for the beats (and sometimes the lyrics) has remained. While rap music’s evolution has often sadly mirrored the increasing materialism in society, I must admit that I still listen to it and am often entertained by some of its absurdities.

As most of my readers know, I love parody so I figured it was time to write a Web 2.0 rap song. I decided to do it using one of my recent favorites, the Make it Rain Remix by Fat Joe featuring R. Kelly, Birdman, Lil Wayne, T.I., Ace Mack and Rick Ross.

Why Are These People Invited to Conferences?

The Digital Life Design conference in Munich hosted a session “Humans Disrupting Algorithms” and featured Jimmy Wales of Wikia and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo. According to TechCrunch:

Jimmy and Jason each gave a brief overview of their human powered search engines. Jason railed on Google and other big engines, saying algorithms have failed to control spam and SEO gaming, and that humans must be involved to get good results. Jimmy was more circumspect, and spent most of his time arguing that large numbers of people will be willing to spend time helping Wikia Search develop good results.

I’ll Say Sorry, But I’m Not Taking Off My Glasses

CNET News.com’s Caroline McCarthy has written an interesting (if not entirely enlightened) article and for somebody who “believes that, despite popular opinion, the Web can actually help your social life,” Caroline, surprisingly, comes closer to getting it right than I thought she could.

Her article is inspired by the case of Corey Delaney, a 16 year-old Australian who got in big trouble for throwing a wild party and proceeded to become yet another Internet celebrity when a video of his ridiculous television news interview spread virally through the legions of YouTube time wasters. His now-famous line, “I’ll say sorry, but I’m not taking off my glasses” has now been turned into a t-shirt. Just what the world needs.

I’m an E-Consultant

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve joined the team at and will be calling E-consultancy.com my new home away from home. Yes, Drama 2.0 will be posting on the pretty much daily during the business week so be sure to check out my first post and to tune in regularly for all of my future posts.

Some of my readers might ask “Why E-consultancy.com?” Because E-consultancy.com focuses on Internet marketing and ecommerce, it’s the perfect place for me to take my act since my interests in the Internet, media and marketing go far beyond the walled garden of Web 2.0. I’ll be able to write about a broader range of topics. E-consultancy.com has also been around since 1999, so it’s bubble-tested and Drama-approved.

Play Poker, Win VC Funding

What would you do to get VC funding? If you’re not playing poker in Silicon Valley, you might want to start. A recent Wired article details the chronicles of 28 year-old Zach Coelius who has worked his way into Silicon Valley’s inner circles by playing poker. His new startup, Triggit, just raised $500,000 from Bay Partners, the firm that never received the memo announcing that the New Economy was a sham.

This time, however, they’re investing for all the right reasons:

The World Economic Forum, “an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas,” is holding its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 23 - 27. Business leaders, politicians, intellectuals and now bloggers will come together to discuss how to deal with the mess of a world they’ve helped create. Since the organization was formed in 1971, they’ve failed to deal with anything, but warm fuzzy feelings are created when guys like Bono, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton all get on the same stage and reaffirm their commitment to improving the human condition (once they take care of their other business, of course).

There Will Be A Fund

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