Confessions of a Shopaholic: Sad & Ironic

While seeing a movie over Thanksgiving (the new James Bond), I noticed the following signage for the new movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The movie is based on the "Shopaholic" book series - but it really couldn't be hitting theaters at more ironic time. Shopaholic's tag line is "all she ever wanted is a little credit..."

Not only did that help get us into this mess - it's a feeling that is (and will continue) to be commonly felt throughout the country.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Shopaholic Plot:A college grad named Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) moves to Manhattan to nurture her shopping addiction and get involved in the New York magazine world. Though she is up to her neck in debt, she becomes a financial-advice columnist and even manages to fall for a wealthy entrepreneur.

Shopaholic Cast:

Isla Fisher as Rebecca Bloomwood Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandon Krysten Ritter as Suze John Goodman as Rebecca's father (Graham) Joan Cusack as Rebecca's mother (Jane) John Lithgow as a publishing magnate Kristen Scott Thomas as a magazine editor Leslie Bibb as a fashion magazine staffer Lynn Redgrave as a doyenne of a publishing empire Julie Hagerty as a business magazine assistant

If JibJab / HSM3 do it Right, KFC / Guitar Hero 4 do it Wrong

I wrote about JibJab's terrific viral marketing alongside High School Musical 3 (which grossed $42m over the weekend) and said that web / social marketers should aspire to create such engaging, cleverly branded campaigns.

Try JibJab Sendables®

The I caught a glimpse of Kentucky Fried Chicken's new Guitar Hero 4 campaign ... which is the exact opposite. The commercials, which run every five minutes on ESPN right now, feature a box of chicken, mashed potatoes and mac & cheese inside a Guitar Hero 4 box. Nothing more is mentioned about a promotion - but I don't get the sense that people will flock to KFC to eat out of a Guitar Hero cardboard box. Nor do I think that people already eating there will pay much attention to it either.

I am sure JibJab could whip something together that features users in concert atmospheres (how many people would jump to put themselves on The Boss or Guns 'N Roses?!)... wouldn't that be more exciting and effective?!

KFC Guitar Hero 4

Twitter - Experiencing Windows 7 Via Twitter (Rather than Blogs)

Techmeme is filled with major tech sources covering Microsoft's Windows 7 debut (TechCrunch, D6 Highlights, WebWare, Engadget, and many more). But the action is also being covered actively (perhaps even more actively) on Twitter. In the last two minutes, John Battelle, Jason Calacanis, Loic Lemeur and others have tweeted updates, insights and analysis... starting conversations and valuable dialog.

It's well known that Twitter is as much a short-form of blogging as it is an instant source of news. In fact, one of the first users I followed was @redsoxcast - a user that broadcasts nearly every Red Sox pitch. I pay for MLB.com's service - but actually prefer following @redsoxcast because it is portable and always accessible.

What I am struck by, however, is that this is the first robust, instant dialog I have followed on Twitter. I have followed one-person updates before (like the Oscars or Red Sox games... but I haven't yet seen this level of interaction. Of course it's covering a tech event... but if Twitter can amass this sort of activity across multiple, they will be a major player in news and a major competitor to bloggers.

A Twitter search for "Ballmer" on Twhirl:

My live Twitter feed - notice the updates are all Microsoft and Red Sox

The Trouble with PerezHilton.com As a Business (Perhaps Blogs For that Matter)

Want celebrity gossip? The online destination of choice is PerezHilton.com - which, according to Perez, boasts larger readership than People Magazine (the perennial #1 print magazine). That success has turned Perez into a star - he has his own MTV and VH1 shows, is seen in celebrity magazines galore and he's fetching sponsorship deals both personally on on his website.

So you would think that PerezHilton.com would be growing because of all of this. Wrong. Pageviews, uniques and visits are relatively flat (perhaps even down).

Why? Simply put:because blogging doesn't scale.

As Perez Hilton becomes more of a star, his focus clearly has shifted. There are fewer daily blog posts and, more importantly, fewer 'meaningful' blog posts (there is now lots of content about Perez himself). There is only so much time in the day and only so much juicy gossip.

Meanwhile, there are ways to solve this. Blogs like TechCrunch, Valleywag and others are hiring full staffs and publishing content more regularly. In fact, PerezHilton.com is quickly taking a backseat to TMZ - which is using its growing staff to out-pace Perez on all fronts.

Gawker is another great example. Sites like DeadSpin.com have strong traffic in their verticals, but they too become flat over time. Growth then comes from the larger network and increase authorship. Kotaku.com, for instance, is surging and Valleywag.com is growing nicely behind it's increased authorship.

PerezHilton.com:

The GawkerNetwork:

Top Sites Reach Reach% gizmodo.com 8,705,071 28.8% lifehacker.com 5,701,369 18.8% kotaku.com 4,498,218 14.9% gawker.com 3,247,225 10.7% fleshbot.com 2,137,780 7.1% consumerist.com 1,966,213 6.5% jalopnik.com 1,758,997 5.8% defamer.com 1,721,438 5.7% valleywag.com 1,304,718 4.3% jezebel.com 1,297,423 4.3% deadspin.com 1,231,847 4.1% io9.com 1,154,466 3.8% wonkette.com 961,723 3.2% gridskipper.com 471,975 1.6% idolator.com 319,265 1.1% gawkershop.com 9,543 < 0.1% gizmodo.net 8,145 < 0.1%

Determining the 2008 Election Winner Based on Web Traffic - Mitt Romney & Barack Obama?

Can web traffic and data determine the likely outcome of the 2008 election primaries? I put each of the major candidates through Quantcast and the results are quite revealing. The charts below are estimated 'unique users per month' and it should be on an apples-to-apples basis because none of these candidates are truly web 2.0 / dorky enough to actually 'Quantify' their websites. If you look at both the aggregate numbers and the traffic growth, the results are pretty phenomenal. Mitt Romney, for instance, has seen significant, rapid growth while Hilary Clinton has the largest aggregate numbers - but her traffic is actually declining.

Ron Paul is famous for his web popularity (just read the front page of Digg at any given moment) - and that translates into larger overall numbers than Romney, but his traffic is steadily growing while Mitt's is surging.

The biggest surprise is Hilary Clinton - clearly she has the biggest brand name, but to have declining traffic during the primary season is an awful indicator!

Mitt Romney

Ron Paul

John McCain

Hilary Clinton

Barack Obama