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The so-called viral marketing, word-of-mouth marketing or as other people prefer to call it - guerrilla marketing, found its place in the net. The issue of such shady business was taken into consideration by the Federal Trade Commission. More details about this case are discussed in the article at www.washingtonpost.com website. Not so long ago, this kind of promotion had a bad impact on Sony’s image. This problem concerned the blog titled alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, which was operated by a company hired by Sony Corp. You may read about that in articles at www.gwn.com and www.younewb.com websites. However there is also an article about a reaction against PSP graffiti promotion (allegedly sponsored by Sony) available at www.gwn.com website.
You may also check www.ifilm.com website with big collection of 2006 best “viral” movies. Not all of them concern marketing and promotion.

Thomas Baekdal presents seven ways for efective viral marketing of which you may apply in the net, in his short but pithy article. Additionally he puts there some interesting movies connected with the subject.

According to the statement of the proper company, the graphic you see in the topic of this post is also the one and only logotype, trademark visible from the outer space. More details (even a movie about creating this presentation) are available at Michael Castellon website. I do not know about English speaking readers but Poles have a joke similiar to this situation.

The Americans sent a space probe on the moon, after landing the crew report:
- Huston. We see there a Russian research station. What should we do?
- This is Huston, just watch and report further.
Some time is passing.
- Huston. The Russians start to act strange, they started to paint the moon on red. What should we do?
- This is Huston, just watch and report further.
After some time…
- Huston. The Russians painted half of the moon. What should we do?!
- This is Huston, just watch and report further.
And once again after some time, the crew is a little bit more nervous.
- Huston. The Russians painted the whole moon on red!. What should we do?!?
- This is Huston. Just take the white paint and put there “Coca-Cola” inscription. Over and out.

Maybe it is funny but Aleksander Lavrynow, Russian space ships designer has patented a device which will allow to put in the space advertisements seen from the Earth. More details about this iisue at www.twojepc.pl website (sorry English readers it is in Polish language).
Let’s shift the ground. The FCC will take a close look on Internet advertisers who use the HTTP cookies technology. Some details in the article at www.businessweek.com

How is it possible? Just check www.msfirefox.com website. ;)

When you living in London one of the first thing I started to appreciate (also based on my interest with the rail) was an incredible undertaking: Transport for London - www.tfl.gov.uk, well prepared information website, Oyster card and of course the oldest subway/metro system id est London’s tube. I must admit that, even delays and closed stations during weekends will not discourage me from this positive opinion. Additionally, speaking about the business, all those things you see around you only show that managers of the TfL have great understanding of the market and pretty good marketing skills. As an example let me use www.undergroundernie.com website, with funny tube’s cars and pleasant supervisior Ernie (Gary Lineker gives the voice for this figure). Besides this website there is also a clothing collection prepared for children. Moreover the official merchandising of the “Underground” mark or “Mind the gap” one. All this stuff deserves respect. I simply bought the “Underground” t-shirt. :)

There is nothing to write anymore. Just go and see what’s written and shown at www.pcworld.com website. Quite good combination.

Today the winner of EU’s 50th anniversary logo competition was announced at a ceremony in Brussels. The Commission and all other European Institutions will use the winning logo for events during 2007 related to the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty. Member States, national, regional and local authorities are invited to use the logo for their events too. The winner is Polish student Szymon Skrzypczak. Much more details in the European Commissiat press release IP/06/1415 on 17 October 2006. Congratulations!

AOL cancelled the premiere of Weird Al’s video “White and Nerdy”. The reason was that someone leaked out this movie on the net. There is Weird Al’s comment/statement about this issue. You can also watch it.

I somehow think that it is a clear example of a viral marketing. What is your opinion?

Microsoft cares about publicity just check for example www.microsoft.com/presspass website. Nintendo opened its press site for WII also - www.press.nintendo.com/wiipreview. Supposedly it is accessible only for users with login (guest) and password (nintendo), but as you can see those data are widely available in the net. Clever marketing move? Speaking about such players I wonder if France will consider Microsoft to open its ZUNE standards as they did with iTunes. Well if owners do not this, the legislator can not cope with it (it is more easier to prohibit then to allow) then programmes must do it. You can read about that at www.engadget.com website in the article with all telling title “iTunes 7 patches QTFairUse 2.2, QTFairUse 2.3 patches iTunes 7″. Nothing more to write. Being around such topics. See Dave Chappelle’s visualisation of the Internet i.e. spam issues and illegal downloading, etc. ;)

If your passions are branding and brands issues then you’ll find something interesting on websites mentioned below. Initially check www.goodlogo.com website with very interesting combinations and articles. A website dedicated for designers to exchange logotypes in vector files formats - www.logotypy.intertop.pl. Check also www.logotypes.designer.am. It is quite lovely but I am not sure about its creativity attitude, briefly - free logotypes from designers for designers. And last but not least Vitaly Friedman’s website - www.alvit.de. It is a very big and nice compilation of links about design aspects. Have a nice surfing.

Viral marketing rocks and it creates a lot of confusion. I wrote about www.swansea-res.org.uk website, especially about files available in its download section in May. There are some movies to watch in MOV file. The same advertising movie is available on YouTube.

You may suspect that someone took the Sony Bravia advertising movie idea.

We were also wondering with Marcin Sochacki about the reason of such action. Allegedly an organization is protesting about something but they make available a real high quality video to the public on its website. After short research we have noticed that whois is prompting on advertising agency website - www.chiadvertising.com. Viral marketing. Perfect job. Marcin was delighted with the webmaster’s job too. This www.swansea-res.org.uk website layout looks like from the 90′ies. Super fake isn’t it? Today I received an e-mail from Agnieszka Konopa. She pointed me at www.smog.pl website. A title of the post is “Advertising on a patent”. There are many comments claiming copyright infirngement etc. Pretty funny.

I heard Billy Talent’s “Devil in a midnight mass” while the TV was accidentally turned on and there was some VIVA or MTV music channel style choosen. The first thing I did, was to check all info about this band in the Net. I was shocked and my jaw dropped when I saw all my search results. Here it goes. No wonder, the official website is www.billytalent.com, music video of my favourite pieace I can watch and download from www.media.nettwerk.com website (MOV file, 21 MB) and some other songs I may hear on band’s profile available at www.myspace.com website. Wow. Power of thought over internet’s marketing and very good business model for selling such kind of creativity in full effect. No silly “DRMs”! I think maybe those files formats are not appropriate but hey! I am going to buy their album anyway. Respect for what I found. And on the margin of this post - it is not a sponsored link soever.