Zyou may not have known, but Advertisers know exactly what YOU want!!

In the 2002 film Minority Report, audiences were shocked by scenes in which public advertisements could scan star Tom Cruise’s profile and pitch him ad content based on his tastes. This was pure Hollywood of course, but even avowed sci-fi geeks wondered if it was a signal of a new invasive age in advertising.

The Nielsen media family is widely considered a relic from a bygone era of billboards and TV spots, but the company is still at the forefront of compiling ad metrics. Their most prized tool is Ad*Views, a software program that provides current and historical metrics on 17 different media types in over 200 markets.

Nielsen has partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment in developing a measurement system to track data from advertising embedded in video games. Though still a nascent market, both Google and Microsoft have started ventures to help them compile gaming ad metrics. Last year, Nielsen announced Mobile MRI, a joint-venture with Mediamark Research and Intelligence, to track users by detailed behavioral, psychographic, demographic, and product information.

And Nielsen is not the only company to have latched on to your everyday activities. While video games certainly offer a host of possibilities, social networks could be on their way to become one giant petri dish of metrics. Roughly 80 million Americans visit a social networking site once a month and the most popular of those sites, Facebook, offers demographic and profile information on users who click on site ads making for potentially a massive pool of advertising information.

It’s not just new media either. A group of traditional billboard advertisers headed by Clear Channel have adopted a new system in which cameras are used to track the duration viewers look at outdoor advertisements. Around the corner is even a technology that will allow advertisements to scan the Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones of passersby. With that prospect, the reality signaled in Minority Report might not be that far off.

Branding Yourself

What happens when you type your name into Google? How about when you click the ‘images’, ‘news’ and ‘blogs’ buttons? If you don’t know the answer, it may be time for you to take control of your personal brand.



You might not know anything about manipulating Google, but if you’ve applied for a job or met with a prospective client or even gone on a date, you can bet that the person you met with took a few minutes to Google your name. It’s an increasingly common practice and what they find could make or break the relationship you’re trying to create—whether it be personal or professional.

No Press is Bad Press, But Let’s Aim for Good
Julia Allison is hands down the best example of someone who knows personal branding in and out. Type her name into Google (go ahead, try misspelling it if you’re not convinced) and you’ll find oodles of links about her. She’s been called an “internet celebrity,” a status she’s achieved by putting herself out there – both on the Web and in the real world. She gets bad press from time to time — as all celebs do — but the point is her name is very well known across the Web. She was featured on the cover of Wired magazine, has been on multiple talking-head TV programs – and has transcended the digital divide to the tangible world. And she hasn’t done anything that noteworthy to get there. So how can you get yourself out there, but skip the bad press? Glad you asked.

The Basics: Facebook and LinkedIn
Facebook and LinkedIn are the two primary social media applications you can use to mold your personal brand. Facebook is a bit of a quandary when it comes to your professional life so it’s good to keep your profile private, untag bad photos and only “friend” people you’re actually friends with. But it can be useful if you write a blog or belong to professional/volunteer groups because you can create a page about your blog and ask your FB friends to follow you. This will become important later on.

If you walk dogs for a shelter on the weekends, you can show your support via a FB group and add a link to this page from your blog. We’ll get more into linking later in this series, but adding links is key to controlling your personal brand online because it gives Google more information about you by connecting the digital bits and piece that pertain to you.

LinkedIn is a vital tool for showing off your professional skills. It takes very little updating and it is first and foremost your digital resume. I can’t tell you how often I learn about someone I’m writing about from their LinkedIn page. Be sure to keep your info updated and public (if you’re comfortable with that). Also, before you upload a personal photo, be sure to label it your_name.jpeg (gif, tiff, etc). Now when someone Google image searches your name, this photo should show up.

Going Deeper: Blogging and Twitter
By now you have probably heard of Twitter, and you undoubtedly know about blogging. Using these tools in conjunction, and linking to your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, can greatly increase your Google standing (meaning when someone searches your name, it’s more likely that something you’ve put on the Web will show up, not a picture of you from high school looking disheveled). Blogging is one of the best ways to tell people about what you know, and make yourself look like an expert in your field in the process, or at least give the impression that you’re so into what you do that you blog about it. Employers love that kind of thing -if you go into a job interview and tell the hiring manager you’ve written about his/her company, you’ll immediately get points.

Writing regularly about something you love (preferably within your line of work) can provide a framework for Google to build on, too. For example, I write about advertising on a blog called AgencySpy. I post 5-10 times per day, which is a lot, but you can probably do 3-5 posts a week without spending too much time. If I applied for a job at an advertising agency, I could send them a story I’ve written about something they’ve done. It’s a way to show I’m interested and knowledgeable about a particular company. It’s very easy to send someone a link, so the blog is a great way to get noticed. I recommend Tumblr or Wordpress – both are very simple to use and take a few minutes to get your first post going.

Twitter is a relatively recent addition to the social media world. You can create an account and find your friends (Twitter can scan your e-mail if you allow it to and find people you know who are also using the service), follow them, and let them know what you’re up to. Why is this valuable? Twitter lets you write 140 character messages, including hyperlinks, which when sent pop up on the screens of everyone who follows you. You can very easily share your thoughts (blog posts) with a number of people all at once.

Following people who you find interesting is easy, too. Let’s say you can’t get enough New York Times – follow their Twitter feed and you’ll actually be connected to the paper. I tend to follow what I call “thought leaders,” people who have interesting ideas and share links I might also like—like the experts on Big Think—or people who write entertaining messages.

Amplifying Your Brand
The last aspect of growing your personal brand is getting mentioned by others in your field. Traditionally this was the role of trade publications. Maybe you’re not the top dog walker for the Humane Society, but odds are you have a friend of colleague who is also interested in what you do who writes a blog (you’d be surprised!). Ask to interview them and see if they’ll do the same for you. Then send the link to your interviews around to other people you think might be interested. If there’s a trade publication (or blog), send it to them – editors are always looking for new, fresh content. The point is getting content about you out there. We’re not talking about personal diary type stuff, rather your thoughts on the best techniques for grooming a shorthair Schnauzer (using the dog theme).

This might feel like cooking with an Easy-Bake Oven, but trust me it’s not. By adding content to the Web you increase Google’s ability to define who you are digitally. And the more people that see the grooming story, the higher Google will rank it and it will become more visible to people who search your name. In future posts, Big Think will more fully explain ways to take advantage of our unique idea-creation technology to promote your big ideas to other thought leaders and throughout the web.

You can learn anything from anyone..

This is a great story that I came across that should give you some insight on how to better sell yourself…

When I was younger, quarters were precious, i thought they could buy anything.

One day, I’m walking down the street and a guy comes up to me and says, “Do you have a dollar for four quarters?” He held out his hand with four quarters in it.

Curious, I engaged with him. I took out a dollar bill and took the four quarters.

Then he turned to me and said,
”can you spare a quarter?”

What a fascinating interaction. First, he engaged me. A fair trade, one that perhaps even benefited me, not him.

Now, we have a relationship. Now, he knows I have a quarter (in my hand, even). So his next request is much more difficult to turn down.

If he had just walked up to me and said, “can you spare a quarter,” he would have been invisible.

Too often, we close the sale before we even open it.

Interact first, sell second!

The perfect example of CLEVER Marketing!!

This is a great example of someone knowing the core values of their targeted market.



Id probably love to try to hit this guy, i think the quaters would be better thrown than spent on the Race car game at the movies.

The best idea is right under your nose!!

Tap’dNY is a New York City bottled water company with a local twist and knack for honesty.
They don’t travel the world from Fiji to France seeking water or offer the usual bottled water gimmicks. They work with NYC’s public water system to source the world’s best tasting tap water, purify it through reverse osmosis and bottle it locally, leaving out ludicrous transportation miles.

They claim that this is a honest and local alternative to thirsty New Yorkers, giving them a smarter choice: to drink their own (award winning) water.

So I strongly suggest that you really pay attention to your surroundings for the countless opportunities to explore. And if you don’t see any…MOVE!

Guess whos Ad this is..

This is a very subtle McDonalds’ ad for 24hour service in Australia…which I think is hot, i must say!!
If you dont see it.. the golden arches are made from theheadlights(look at the ground)

Advertising in the clouds!

Flogos are taking your marketing to the skies, and then some. It’ll shape your logotype into a “cloudy” mixture of soap-based foam and helium - and send it off to drift for miles, as high as 6 kilometers up.

Any form can be made (of any color) and almost any specified location covered. The company seems to maintain that “flogo” shapes are environmentally friendly (they just evaporate after a while, and airplanes will fly through them like through any cloud.

YOU NEED HATERS IN YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN!!!

I was on Asher Roths wesite checking out his new music video "I love college" (Go check it out, buy it on itunes, do what you can to support) but anyway, i was on the site, and after i got done watching the amazing video, i scrolled down the page and saw this video...I died laughing, she was basically hating on Asher Roth because he's a talented artist, and he is bound to blow up because of his talent. He is Upset that she spends hours at the computer doing homework while others are out getting paid to do something they love.... Remember Asher.. We NEED haters!! If you only have 100 haters, you need to find someway to get 200 by the end of this month!! Haters are great for marketing and stuff like that. In the video she said that she downloaded the song and was listening to it. Asher may not get paid for downloading the song, but there are databases that keep track of online downloading and filesharing so he is being recognized for her downloading the song, and he is definately being recognized. HATERS ARE GOOD FOR MARKETING!!