After the blundering of Exec’s at Yahoo! it’s harder and harder to look at the company with promise.  They couldn’t get a deal done with Facebook – open raw egg – they are left in the dust by a company they helped get started (Google was used as their search provider) – pull arm back – and Microsoft bids to take over the company – thrust unformed chicken goo at face.  It’s especially embarrassing when Yahoo!’s CEO Yang comes with out with the proclamation that they are undervalued because the acquisition of Yahoo! would add significant value to Microsoft.  Ummm, yeah… that’s why they want to buy you.  Is there another reason to spend billions?

So where does Yahoo! go now?  Are they really going to fall so fast that they will quickly become a trivia question answered by Alex Trebek?  Google seems like the clear leader in “Search” and I don’t think it would be fair to compare it to Yahoo! because that’s not really what they do anymore.  They aren’t really a great starting point to find information.  I think they excel in providing information.  Instead of categorizing them as “Search” or a “Portal” I think it would be best to describe them as “Media”. So if Google is a phone book then I’d say Yahoo! is a magazine.  If you have a purpose and want to find something begin with a phone book.  If you have nothing to do and would like to have interesting information brought to you then pick up a magazine.

Yahoo! and Google just aren’t comparable and I believe that Google will continue to grow more than Yahoo! Nevertheless, there is certainly a demand for an Internet-Media site and Yahoo! is probably the best out there right now.

Google is probably more comparable to Microsoft because it acts more like an online operating system for its users. It’s an interface that makes it easier for users to do what they want.  That’s why, if the leaders of Yahoo! weren’t so biased against Microsoft, the deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft makes sense.  Society is always looking to be entertained, which is why Yahoo! is such a good idea.  So, Yang, wipe that egg off your face and get a deal done that will help keep Yahoo! the premier media site online for a long time to come.

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“Black History Month” is right around the corner and the Superbowl is only days away. Laws, media & society has helped make racism less of an issue. As you can imagine, this blog isn’t about the equality of African-Americans in general rather how the marketing world incorporates Blacks, or doesn’t.

The biggest marketing day of the year is coming up, SuperBowl. In fact, many people watch this event just to see the commercials. You would think that the world’s most popular sport, with African-Americans making up 67% (according to the University of Central Florida’s 2006 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Football League), played during “Black History Month”, with the worlds largest television audience that you would see a gleaming example of equal opportunity for African-American actors and models right?

Breaking down these barriers may have a long way to go. Having reviewed all commercials played during the 2007 SuperBowl it may look like a success at first glance, with 42 of the 75 commercials having a Black actor in it. That’s not quite a full picture though. Of those 42, 12 play a secondary role. In fact, another 14 play such a minor role that you have to be looking to even see them. I call that a “background” role. That leaves 16 commercials, or 21% with African-Americans getting the lead role. Certainly not terrible considering the Black population makes up roughly 12.5% of the U.S. population (2004  Census Bureau).

Let’s be truthful here, corporations are afraid to include anything other than an attractive white actor(actress) to promote their product.  Take a closer look at those 16 commercials.  Two were commercials for movies with African-American leads and 6 commercials were based purely on athletes that are Black. Companies looking to create a commercial that searched into the acting talent pool to promote their product during a sport dominated by African-American athletes and played in Black History Month found a Black actor only 8 times.  That’s exactly the same amount of commercials that used animals.  Yes, like gorilla’s and lions, those kind of animals.

Having worked in the marketing field for a while I’ve seen that the problem is even worse in typical advertising.  There are a few exceptions but corporations, for the most part, stick to what they believe will work.  White and gorgeous. They shouldn’t get all the blame though because marketers market what works.  If you want to help give an equal opportunity then buy products from companies that take the chance of showing diversity.  Support their decisions and they will take notice.  Marketing with diversity has made progress but it still has a long ways to go.

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The winner if HookorSink.com’s first every contest is Jonathan! His shoe name of “Sync” and a slogan “Because life has a rhythm” was a great idea and caught the attention of my wife. She’s the demographic that would buy this shoe and much more unbiased than I am!

Congratulations to all who submitted their ideas. The input far exceeded any expectations for this contest and you should all be proud to know such talented people. Congratulate the winner but also take a moment to enjoy some of the lesser known awards handed out:

Most Outstanding Product Name & Slogan

Sync
Because life has a rhythm

This is a great concept and really dials into the hot trends of mp3′s and urban attire. Side rant – It’s worth pointing out that Nike+ doesn’t work for runners that sweat on the iPod. Come again?

Most Likely to be Used by Nike

Crius- very cool use of Greek methology. Except the dude wasn’t a main character. Who wants to buy a shoe about someone sitting on the bench?

Most Unoriginal Idea

“Kickers” and “Kicker” submitted by Same White and David. It was cool once but very uncool twice.

Most Likely to get HookorSink.com Sued

SHOOZAM! for copyright infringement. Great idea but HookorSink.com doesn’t have deep enough legal pockets to go to battle on that one.

Best Product for Shoe-Wearers Under 4 years Old

Snap – What parent wouldn’t want sneakers that kids could snap on? Works well with kid-leashes.

Soon to be in a Rap Video

Tie between “Tone Locs” and “Azzphaltz”. Would it be pretentious to just call them “Bling”?

Most likely to have edible shoelaces

“O-Sole ‘O’ Me-o” – Shoes come with Parmessian cheese.

Caught Red-Handed Award

Lew submitted ‘TBX’. Very cool idea but not mine. Lew Sr. crept into the party and tried to score some of his sons cash.

Most Likely to be Worn by Nathan

Rain Walker – flurry, fall, flood with style. It doesn’t have to be raining for that dude to flood.

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The HookorSink.com’s first ever contest! Winner would be guaranteed $25,000 if staff wasn’t short about $24,980. So instead the winner will get a free movie and popcorn at any AMC Theater (still a $20 value) along with eternal bragging rights. So lace up your creative mindset and get ready for some marketing fun!

Background: HookorSink.com has decided to jump into the shoe market with a simple design for every day walking (Nike logo has been replaced with cool Hookorsink.com logo thanks to Jonathan). There are some heavy hitters already dominating the industry so HookorSink.com will need to jump onto the scene with a splash!

Target Audience: The initial design will target mostly males between the ages of 25-35 who are the newcomers to Corporate America. Average household income ranges between $80k and $120k. The most common car driven are BMW’s. Most own an iPod.

Objective: Using the design shown above create a name for the shoe along with a slogan that will help distinguish it in a highly competitive market.

Judging: The contest will be closed at 5pm Friday (11/9). The winner will be announced Monday (11/12). Multiple submissions are allowed and must be entered as a “comment” to this post. Equal value will be given to submissions first all the way through last.

There’s no pressure to do anything great or anything at all so have fun. If nobody submits an idea then HookorSink.com gets to go to the movies all alone and that would be terrible so give it a shot.

DISCLAIMER: THERE IS NO REAL HOOKORSINK.COM SHOE! (image taken from Nike.com’s interactive “Create your own shoe”)

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The Internet is about to go through it’s next phase of evolution; networking meet mobile. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s long awaited secret project for it’s Google Phone will be made public today. Here’s how today will mark the transition to Web 3.0, mobile Internet.

The popularity of cell phones has exploded in the last several years, just take a look at everyone on the freeway to see how common they are. Smartphones certainly took cellular communication to the next level and Apple gave it a pretty case when it launched the iPhone. The media darling does just about the same thing a lot of other phones do but with a much cooler interface. Revolutionary, hardly. At least until the Google Phone launches.

What we know about phones is about to get turned on its head. Google believes that consumers shouldn’t have to pay for their phone. That’s not a typo, Google started their project with the intention of giving it away for free and earning money through their ace-in-the-back-pocket advertising. This new phone is based on a premise that makes Apple and Microsoft shiver at night, “Open”. It’s believed that Google will announce their new phones capabilities but not be talking about a cool zooming feature, rather the ability for 3rd party software makers to write programs until their hearts are content.

There’s no need to worry about being compatible with Microsoft Office because Google already has an online version that is free. No kidding folks, free software and free phones. It’s hard to imagine that a company would have the brass…. bank accounts to think about doing something like this but Google does. In fact, their focus on advertising has rocked the Internet as we know it and left no one behind. The theme of repetition is worth it here too, the premier Internet company will be offering free phones with free applications and completely free for 3rd party developers to join in the party.

Still not convinced? “But wait, there’s more”. Xohm, a Sprint company, is believed to be in development with Google. Of course you don’t know who Xohm is. Imagine the difference between your home computer switching from dial-up to broadband and then apply that to a mobile network. Voila, you have Xohm. It’s like this super fast, super cool mobile Internet connection. Unless you’re a nerd and follow this stuff you’d know that all the major players have been fighting for this next generation mobile Internet (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) and Sprint has come out on top with Xohm.

You think communication is cool now just wait until mid 2008 when Google launches a revolutionary phone (and not revolutionary like the iPhone, with it’s neato zooming capability, like seriously revolutionary) on an entirely different mobile Internet and you’ll see what the next level of the web is going to be, Web 3.0.

No award from HookorSink.com, rather a suggestion. “Hook” or get off the pot.

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WashingtonPost.com reports that Sean “Diddy”, “Puffy”, “Puff Daddy”, “P-Diddy” Combs is adding something new to his business award shelf with a recently signed deal to market Ciroc Vodka. At first glance it looks like he’ll be sponsoring this high-end adult beverage but a closer look reveals he’ll be doing a lot more. Sean will be responsible for brand marketing, where to sell it and attracting “movers and shakers” to the line.

For around $100 million.

Once a musician, Diddy branched out to other endeavors like his own clothing line and a reality TV show on MTV. Why not add Vodka?

As one of the few pop-turned powerful African American leaders this recent move can only be for money, ignoring social morality. There are two numbers why that’s so important, 35 and 104. There are 35 million African Americans that need a better example than someone buying clothes, driving fancy cars and drinking lots of Vodka. And how does P-Diddy look past the 104 million people between the ages of 15 and 34 (July 1, 2006 Census Bureau) that are being molded every day into believing this is an MTV world? Apparently with rose-colored glasses worth around $100 million.

Puff Daddy-O is probably happy as a clam to have so much money and an equally impressive amount of power. Lucky for him he’ll now have an adequate supply of liquor to drink his social responsibility away!

Ohhh, big bucks. No. Puff-Puff-Pass on P-Diddy’s new deal, he gets a “Sink” rating from HookorSink.com. The most intoxicating marketing discussion on the web!

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Nevermind the spooky children’s fables that market fear during Halloween like poisoned candy and blade-filled apples. The real story behind Halloween is frightful enough to wake the dead. According to the National Retail Federation consumers will spend over $5 billion in 2007 with the average person spending nearly $65. Each person will spend a little over $23 for costumes, nearly $20 on candy, almost $18 on decorations and just under $4 on greeting cards. Though, if you can find costumes for $23 please write to any of the writers at HookorSink.com.

Specifically missing from those statistics is the huge trend towards theme parks special Halloween events. The parks, along with other haunted houses, is estimated to bring in between $300 and $500 million. While entrance to these scary nights used to be $13 (for frighteningly symbolic reasons) they have soared to $65 in some places. In California alone there is Knotts Scary Farm (Knotts Berry Farm), Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios), Disneyland’s HalloweenTime (Disneyland, duh), Mickey’s Halloween Treat (California Adventure – Disneyland II), Fright Fest (Six Flags Magic Mountain), Brick-or-Treat (Legoland), Nick or Treat (Great America) and Halloween Treasure Hunt and Scarecrow Alley (Gilroy Gardens – need some garlic?). Say that three times really fast.

Not really your bag? Perhaps you’re one of the 80% of Americans that plan on watching a scary movie. Is there any other reason 30 Days of Night was the top movie last weekend?

Halloween is rapidly becoming one of the biggest consumer spending events of the year and may only lose out to the Christmas/New Year Holiday season. So before you dismiss it as that October thing, think about how to get a piece of that rather large pie!

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Despite it’s long tradition of sponsoring the “minor league” of NASCAR, Anheuser-Busch decided not to renew it’s sponsorship. Instead, Nationwide Insurance has taken over the duties. Beginning in 2008 it will be known as the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The seven year agreement is believed to be in the $70 – $80 million range.

Anheuser-Busch decided that it needed to revisit its billion dollar marketing budget and that title sponsorship wasn’t enough, instead focusing on the driving teams.

Nationwide wasn’t the second choice for sponsorship though. After deals fell through with Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, AutoZone and others Nationwide stepped in. NASCAR needed only two weeks to to get the deal done.

Sponsorship is big bucks though and the $10 million isn’t all. ESPN made a deal that will have Nationwide spending $4 – $5 million annually on commercials and it’s track deal with Motorsports Inc. is around $4 million a year. In total, Nationwide will be spending about $20 million a year on the sponsorship.

Kind of ironic that an insurance company is sponsoring the riskiest cars being driven legally.

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Google’s share prices have quickly surpassed $600 per share. Not bad for a company that has been traded for only three years (August 2004) and set its opening price at $85. Since Google hasn’t done anything specifically amazing lately this rise in price indicates a general confidence in the company.

Google recently said it will begin showing YouTube clips on “thousand of other sites” and trying to capitalize on the in-video advertising.

With Internet ad spending reaching new highs and Google making a name for itself as the premier company that can help make it work for you, it’s no wonder their stock prices are going higher.

For what its worth, in the same time frame Yahoo!’s stock prices have done remarkably little.

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50 Cent touted his feud with Kanye West to sell more albums in a dramatically declining environment for sales. No need to get appalled though, exploiting sensationalism is nothing new. Just ask the Beatles who enjoyed the hype of the ongoing conspiracy theory “Paul is Dead”.

In November 1966 it’s rumored (website detailing 358 clues) that Paul McCartney drove off in a rage after fighting through a song that wasn’t going the way he wanted. Not long after it’s said that he crashed his car so badly that it burst into a fire and eventually exploded, leaving few witnesses. The wreck was said to have knocked all Paul’s teeth out, burned his hair off and broke his fingers (preventing him from exiting the car). Once the Austin Healey exploded Paul was decapitated. Rumor or truth?

This eventually led to the growth of a massive urban legend that the remaining three Beatles replaced Paul with a look-a-like and left clues to tell the story without ever admitting it. A great example of that is the Beatles album “Yesterday and Today” which shows “Paul” sitting in the middle with two decapitated dolls pointing to his head. Harrison is in the background holding a doll head that has no hair and no teeth. However, there is a false set of teeth on McCartney’s arm. Coincidence or playing into the hype to help sell albums? It certainly didn’t hurt!

Before you roll your eyes at 50 Cent for using boxing-like hype to promote the sales of albums don’t forget that musicians have been doing this for a long time, whether you believe the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy or not.

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