The Sights and Sounds of Internet Week NY
A host of us at Horn are attending Internet Week NY this week. Here's a quick snapshot of what we've experienced on-site at the main area. Need oxygen? Demand Media (client) has the set-up for that. It's great for hangovers, I hear. Want some time in the spotlight? Yahoo is making... Read full post »
In 2012, There Will be an Ad Tech-pocalypse... Maybe
Many ad technology companies will fail in 2012, or shortly after that. Ok, that may be too harsh, and may be too specific. The reality is many businesses, in general, will fail in 2012. However, the reason I point to ad tech companies is because of what happened in 2007. According... Read full post »
Video Interview with Giles Fraser, Co-Founder, Brands2Life and Oriella Network
On a recent trip to visit our long-time partner Brands2Life in London, I had a few minutes to catch up with Co-Founder Giles Fraser. Don't miss this exclusive video interview discussing the latest in global communications. Read full post »
Facebook Ad Unit Kicks Off Advertising Week
It's 10 am, I've had two cups of coffee and two pieces of pandesal. I am ready for Advertising Week. Inevitably, this is a big news week for advertising technology, and kicking it off is Facebook with its new premium ad unit that will be sold direct. ClickZ points out, from... Read full post »
20 Thoughts for 20 Years
...I've actually had more than 20 thoughts in 2 decades but here are the ones that have come back the most often as friendly reminders and occasionally, to haunt me. Enjoy. 1. If you don't have a plan, you don't know where you are going. Have, and share a vision, make... Read full post »
"Duck Hunting" with Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher
This week I'm pleased to share a recent video interview from our Innovator Series with Tom Foremski, Editor of Silicon Valley Watcher. http://vimeo.com/24227420 Horn Group Innovator Series - Tom Foremski, Editor of Silicon Valley Watcher from Horn Group on Vimeo. In this clip, Tom talks about how being a CMO is... Read full post »
Video Interview with Ann Winblad, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
In this week's Innovator Series interview, I talked with Ann Winblad, Founder and Managing Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in San Francisco. Horn Group Innovator Series - Ann Winblad, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners from Horn Group on Vimeo. What I admire about Ann is how... Read full post »
I Want Online Video, Don't Care How, I Want it Now! - Musings on IAB Digital Video Marketplace
This past week I had the privilege of attending the IAB’s Digital Video Marketplace Conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in NYC. The event was well attended and representatives from some of online video’s hottest companies, including our own client Auditude, were present on the stage and exhibit floor. It's obvious... Read full post »
David Moore on 24/7 Real Media and the Future of Internet Marketing
This week I'm proud to share a recent interview with Dave Moore, Founder, Chairman and CEO of 24/7 Real Media. Horn Group Innovator Series - David J. Moore of 24/7 Real Media from Horn Group on Vimeo. I've gotten to know Dave over the last several years and he's been a... Read full post »
Geoff Moore on The Future of Business
As part of our 20th year in business, we decided to launch "The Innovator Series": informal video chats with some of the industry's most prominent executives and influencers we've had the pleasure of doing business with over the years. Here now, the first, with Silicon Valley business guru and long time... Read full post »
Can Austin Sustain SXSW Interactive? Please, I Hope So…
I’m recovering this morning in Austin, Texas, coffee in hand, after spending the past several days hiking downtown Austin to soak in as much of the South by Southwest Interactive experience as possible. And I’m exhausted. SXSW celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with another 30-40% growth in Interactive attendance. That’s... Read full post »
3 Tips to Help Build Your Brand with Online Video
In the second part of our series on online video, we have compiled our top three tips to help marketers and communicators build their brand with video. Check out our video below, and if you are interested in exploring what video can do for your brand, give us a call today!... Read full post »
Trends in the Magazine Publishing Industry
Two trends in the magazine publishing industry from Horn Group on Vimeo. If you'd like more information on these trends, I suggest checking out this recent article from Advertising Age. It's also worth noting The Daily's launch this month and how iPad only newspapers and magazines will affect the publishing industry. Read full post »
4 Reasons to Add Online Video to Your Marketing & Communications Strategy
Hello and welcome to Horn Group's new series on online video best practices! At Horn Group, we know seeing is believing and we’re big proponents of using video to get messages across. Our Interactive Design practice even has a specific focus on creating compelling videos to help clients maximize audience engagement.... Read full post »
Watch Out PR People, the iPad-Only Paper is Here
The buzz has been building and PR people have been wondering…when will News Corp.’s iPad-only newspaper, The Daily launch? The answer arrived today. Read full post »
Did Somebody Say Bubble? Bring It On!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I was working in the tech industry during the first dot-com bubble... and it was AMAZING! There were tons of parties, opulent offices (some with shark tanks), companies getting funded and awesome giveaways at tradeshows. However, something this good... Read full post »
How Social Tools will Change the Enterprise
Last week, a few of us from the Horn Group attended GigaOm's Net:Work conference and enjoyed a spirited session with Marc Benioff being interviewed by Victoria Barrett. Marc's focus was squarely on the impacts of social tools in the enterprise and specifically how Safesforce.com is using their own tool, Chatter, to... Read full post »
The Best & Brightest in Clean Technology in 2010
With the end of the year approaching, we wanted to take the time to reflect on the past few months in clean technology innovation. As reported by Greentech Media, “In 2010, the global greentech market was about $10 billion, and by 2020, it could grow to $80 billion.” We’re preparing for... Read full post »
Timing Your Facebook Outreach; It Does Matter
When should you post Facebook content for a client? A recent study by Vitrue, as reported by Mashable, answers this question. Read full post »
Caging a Tiger? Thoughts from the tech community on TechCrunch and AOL
Since its first post five years ago, TechCrunch has become one of the most influential media outlets in the tech community. There's been plenty of speculation about how AOL's purchase of TechCrunch will affect the editorial coverage. We decided to survey our community – tech companies, influencers and PR people –... Read full post »
More on OMMA Global - Arianna Huffington's Keynote
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend Arianna Huffington’s keynote speech at OMMA Global. Huffington appeared in front of a packed house to start out day two of the conference. Huffington started out with some best practices she has deployed in the short five-year history of Huffington Post. Transparency is... Read full post »
Tech Innovations: The Future is Bright & Green!
Living in California, more specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, we tend to forget how privileged we are to have the ability to experiment firsthand with new technologies - from the Internet to PDAs to social networks. Beyond computing technologies, California is also becoming the epicenter of green technology innovations.... Read full post »
NYC: The City That Never Sleeps...on Innovative Companies
Attention, future Web moguls: New York City is the place to be! Here are a few more takeaways from a thoughtful discussion by Web entrepreneur Kevin Ryan at a Manhattan hangout. Read full post »
PR Needs to Think Mobile
If someone asked me to give up my iPhone for a week the payout would have to be huge. I am addicted to the thing and love going online while out and about. And I am not the only one. According to the Mobile Marketing Association and Luth Research, one in... Read full post »
Is Google Priority Inbox a PR Professional’s Worst Nightmare?
Last week Google announced their latest email feature, Google Priority Inbox. The Gmail enhancement aims to unclutter your inbox and sorts emails by importance. Essentially, Google crawls your email and decides what’s important then pushes those emails to the top of your inbox, while pushing less relevant emails lower down. To... Read full post »
The Next Cool Search Engine is IBM... or Not?
I am thoroughly impressed by how IBM’s Watson is progressing. We’ll soon see how good it is when it takes on real people in Jeopardy. For those unfamiliar with this initiative, I can only describe it as a supercomputer that has the logic reasoning that is very close to how humans... Read full post »
Email vs. The Stream for Optimal Project Team Communication
I spotted this interesting post by Dennis Stevenson titled "Why would you abandon e-mail for Streaming tools?", which was a reaction to an article by Stowe Boyd "The Business Case For Streams versus Email". Both are worth a read, and got me thinking about how we communicate and how our messages... Read full post »
Does My Business really Need an iPhone App?
After seeing the lines and frenzy outside Apple stores the last few days with the launch of iPhone 4 with iOS4, there's no question that the iPhone is red hot. That is, if Apple's sales figures and the interest in the last 3 iterations of the iPhone didn't tip you off.... Read full post »
Hallelujah! IE6 Usage Falls Below 5% In The US
According to StatCounter via TechCrunch, IE6 market share has dropped below 5% in the US, while IE8 is still on the rise. What this means is that our Interactive Services team has further justification for having dropped support for IE6 last year, following in the footsteps of a few companies we... Read full post »
No More Fear of Failure...
Last week I went to the first FAILfaire NYC, organized by MobileActive.org. I was first turned on to the event when I saw a tweet about it from another project manager that I’m connected with through the “Project Managers on Twitter” (#PMOT) group. Now, failure is nothing new to project managers,... Read full post »
Freemium dinner with Emergence Capital and friends
By Amy Grady Wednesday night, Brian Jacobs and Gordon Ritter, general partners with Emergence Capital, hosted a dinner at 5A5 to discuss emerging business models with some freemium company executives including: Jason Lemkin, CEO, Echosign; David Sacks, CEO, Yammer; Ivan Koon, CEO, YouSendIt; Brent Chudoba, VP Business Strategy, Survey Monkey and... Read full post »
After the social media frenzy...what's next?
In the movies, we know something big is about to happen when 1) an animal stops in the forest, cocks its head and listens intently; 2) a character walks into a darkened room without turning on the lights; or 3) the music swells. In real life, however, we rarely if ever... Read full post »
Getting the Word Out, about the After School Art Class and Project Tasks
I’ve been thinking a lot about communication lately, both because I’m a project manager and well…that’s what project managers are supposed to do, and because I’ve had my share of frustration with my older daughter’s preschool and their process of sharing information. It’s funny to me that professionally I try to... Read full post »
Online Video Debate Takes Center Stage at Beet.tv Roundtable
The future of online video was in question at the recent Beet.tv roundtable run by Andy Plesser and his team at 30 Rock in New York City. Co-monitored by CNET’s editor in chief Dan Farber and Techcrunch.com’s Erick Schonfeld, Horn Group client Amir Ashkenazi, CEO of Adap.tv, sat alongside leading executives... Read full post »
On The Scene at nextNY Shake Shack Community Gathering
Horn Group joined our comrades in the NYC tech and digital media community for burgers and beers last night at its "unnofficial" social hub, the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. We were one of the sponsors for the first nextNY Community Gathering, which included a mix of VC's, journalists, entrepreneurs... Read full post »
Web 2.0 Expo SF: Everybody into the pool!
Ah Web 2.0 Expo, you're all grown up. Funny this time, walking the floor and seeing so many big booths, big brands. Collaborative technologies are filtering into the enterprise, some more smoothly than others. Sun, Microsoft, Cisco-Webex, Oracle, Disney, IBM, Adobe ring the floor. I had to laugh, though, seeing the... Read full post »
PR Scobleized
I think a large percentage of the audience at The Bulldog Media Relations Summit in San Francisco earlier this week were absolutely stymied by Robert Scoble. The well-known blogger and tech evangelist delivered a second day keynote titled " The Future of Social and Consumer-Generated Media" I thought it was entertaining,... Read full post »
AdAge Digital: Damon Wayans on Dealmaking
Damon Wayans certainly got the crowd's attention on the "Talking Talent" panel. He recently launched WayoutTV.com, which he called "In Living Color 2.0" Moderator John Battelle, Founder of Federated Media cut straight to the point with him, asking, "How are you getting paid?" Damon said he goes after partnership deals with... Read full post »
AdAge Digital: Brands As Content Creators
The following is cross-posted on PRNewser, mediabistro.com's PR blog, for which I serve as co-editor. We're here at Advertising Age's Digital Marketing Conference in New York. This is the first AdAge event to sell out, as they had to open a second room for simulcasting. AdAge Editor Jonah Bloom emerges to... Read full post »
Monthly Blogoshpere Recap: February
Wow, what a month. A movie that felt like it was made in 1980 wins the Oscar and nobody watches. A pioneering Internet company on its last breath, fights off acquisition from Redmond, while the most watched piece of media in world is a viral cell clip of the Indiana Jones... Read full post »
End Hits & Hints from Blogosphere for 2008
Hello everyone. As we start a new year with an expanded roster of top notch clients, I am providing this post and Ken is making it required bedtime reading (yes he can see you sleeping) to all Horn Groupers (and of course everyone else out there!!). For your downtime to soak... Read full post »
Sign of the Future - or just jumping on a fad?
I find this fascinating. Congressman Ed Markey's avatar spoke at a conference in Bali. In addition to wondering why anyone wouldn't want to go to Bali, I'm curious to see if there will be more of this in the political world or if it's just a flash in the pan. The... Read full post »
Facebook's About Face
I have a feeling everyone's going to be talking about this today, Mark Zuckerberg's apology for the debacle that is FaceBook's Beacon. (Josh Quittner was even declaring Facebook dead, having "jumped the shark") In a column this morning, David Kirkpatrick pooh-poohs that theory, Saul Hansell implies it's a little late, Om... Read full post »
Monthly Blogosphere Recap for November
Ok, so for the Horn Groupers based in SF, I can speak for all of us when I say that November began with more than a little extra congestion around the office, thanks to OpenWorld. Yes, we survived the evening walks to BART and Muni through throngs of white-collared shirts and... Read full post »
How to Lose Friends and Influence, People
So I open my email this morning to discover that I now have one less friend than I did yesterday. On Facebook. Turns out my friend Jordan saw yesterday's NYT article about Facebook's new advertising strategy; that they plan to sell "ads that display people’s profile photos next to commercial messages... Read full post »
Thoughts from Ryan and Shannon on Web 2.0 Summit
Can you spot the apps in the clouds? Smell the AJAX in the canopy of startups? It’s ok folks, it's only the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Summit, where the man himself comes back to survey a bit of the marketing mayhem he was instrumental in creating. Our takeaways from this year's conference... Read full post »
Techmeme Leader Board
I'm a huge fan of Techmeme, checking it several times a day to see what's being most discussed in the blogosphere and news sites. Now they've launched the Techmeme Leader Board which ranks sites based on the number of headline space they've gotten on Techmeme over the past 30 days. The... Read full post »
A Few Thoughts About TechCrunch 40 from Ken Shuman
Hey everybody, meet Ken Shuman. One of our favorite newer folks here at the Horn Group. He doesn't have his Typepad act together yet, but we love him anyway so I'm posting for him. How could you not fall for this face?- Martha I spent yesterday at TechCrunch 40 in San... Read full post »
What's All The Fuss About?
Today is a major milestone in the tech industry. No, it’s not the Netscape IPO and it’s not the crash of the dotcom bust, rather it’s the day we have all been waiting for. Drum roll please…today the iPhone becomes available to the public! Boring! Ok, I admit that the iPhone... Read full post »
What's the Value of Customer Service?
Lately I’ve been thinking about the value and importance of customer service. I must admit I’ve never had a horrible experience, and maybe that makes me one of the lucky ones, but a recent conversation with an eWeek reporter made me wonder: how bad is it really? There have been countless... Read full post »