NPR’s Claude Brodesser recently asked Wired Magazine’s Chris Anderson for his thoughts on the size and effectiveness of movie marketing budgets. Claude suggested that the new Indiana Jones movie was so highly anticipated, had such awareness and pedigree that despite opening to over $311 million worldwide, Paramount must have overspent in its $100 million plus marketing campaign. Right?

Nobody knows anything.

Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman’s famous dictum about Hollywood starts to answer the question, Chris Anderson completes it. (more…)

Tip of the hat to Kirk Skodis who turned me on to Mitch Joel’s blog, Six Pixels of Separation. In anticipation of this week’s Advertising 2.0 panel in New York, Mitch’s macro perspective on the value of Social Media has added relevance:

What if everything we knew about Marketing and Advertising until now really was just an anomaly…maybe what we’re really seeing with Social Media and Web 2.0 is how Marketing, Advertising and Communications was really meant to work… even as traditional agencies continue to clamp on to business as usual. (more…)

My recent post “Economic Constipation and Digital Malnutrition” was an attempt to critically analyze Mark Cuban’s provocative May 4th post entitled “The Ala Carting of Video on the Net - Will it lead to disaster?”.

Incidentally, it was my most trafficked day and much to my surprise, I received a comment from one of my favorite bloggers, Hank Williams, who writes the influential whydoeseverythingsuck.com?”

Mark’s post has sparked a debate that has spilled over from the circle of web video bloggers into a broader conversation. Next week I’m in New York for the Advertising 2.0 event and plan to bring Mark’s position, and my rebuttal, to the panel on which I’m speaking. (more…)