Category Archives: advertising

The ad is a lie

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

While watching the Olympics, I was struck by a gorgeous animated ad. A lobster conducts an orchestra of other sea creatures playing Gershwin. As soon as I recognized Rhapsody in Blue, I knew it had to be a United Airlines … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, airlines, travel | 2 Comments

Weekly Reader – Jan. 5, 2008 – Pricing, advertising and DVRs

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

This week’s interesting reads: Some thoughts on pricing (Redeye VC) – First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman examines pricing strategies. He starts with pricing of soda in a hotel and found a range of $1 to $4.50. The overall range is … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, marketing, television, weekly reader | 1 Comment

Yahoo! Local gets Yelpy

Posted on December 13, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Yahoo! Local has rolled out some new features to increase the Web 2.0-ness of its local search product: RSS feeds. You can subscribe to feeds of all reviews near you. If you find a reviewer you like, you can stay … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, city guides, local search, search, web 2, web 2.0, yahoo, yelp | 1 Comment

Ethernet everywhere

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Yup, that’s an Ethernet jack above the urinal. I saw this at my friend Kieran’s pub, The Local in Minneapolis. No, I didn’t try plugging in. Here’s what the jack is really used for.

Posted in advertising, fun, marketing, random | Comments Off on Ethernet everywhere

Marketing on social networks

Posted on November 5, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Social networks like MySpace and Facebook are among the leaders in user engagement, with many users returning daily and some visiting many times a day. They’ve almost reached the same level of engagement as email* and have double the engagement … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, facebook, marketing, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | 2 Comments

Barack Obama seeks answers on LinkedIn

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Barack Obama has joined LinkedIn, asking the LinkedIn community about what the next president can do to help small business. Back in January, Hillary Clinton asked Yahoo! Answers users about ways to improve health care. Obama’s LinkedIn profile outlines his … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, elections, social networking | Comments Off on Barack Obama seeks answers on LinkedIn

Brazen highway robbery in Nebraska

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

You see a sign advertising gas at $3.09 a gallon. You pull in and fill up. After filling up, you realize that you were charged $3.59 a gallon for the same grade of gas. Bait and switch? Sounds like it. … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, fun, random | 1 Comment

Google’s $4.55 bag of cookies

Posted on August 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Vending machine priced by grams of fat, Google, San Jose, California.jpg, originally uploaded by gruntzooki. I was visiting my friend Adam at Google yesterday and he pointed out a vending machine in Google’s Building 43. A vending machine on the … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, fun, google, random | 6 Comments

Measuring Web traffic, let me count the ways

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Mark Glaser at MediaShift has a great two-part series on measuring Web traffic. It’s well worth reading for publishers, advertisers and anyone else who cares about how traffic is measured. There are a number of different ways firms measure traffic: … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, media, publishing, statistics | 1 Comment

Pepsi to clarify that Aquafina is tap water

Posted on July 30, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

PepsiCo is planning to clarify labels to tell consumers that its Aquafina water is actually bottled from public water supplies. According to the CNN story, the labels will be changed from “Bottled at the source P.W.S.” to “The Aquafina in … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising | Comments Off on Pepsi to clarify that Aquafina is tap water