Comments on: What would you call open-source marketing?

By: Vikram Rajan

Vikram Rajan — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:21:27 +0000

Brand Hijack is a great book specifically on “letting go” of your brand and allow the community of fans/consumers to propogate it in a myriad of creative ways.

While open-source marketing sounds cooly apropos for the web 2.0 generation, it’s same ol’ grassroots marketing (or campaigning). The marketing media (as in medium, or materials, collaterals) and marketing channels may change/evolve/grow but the concepts remain the same.

Bush/Cheney/Mehlman used the Influentials (another great book – better than Tipping Point) to further their grassroots message within their strong community of fans. Bush & Obama had similar communication philosophies and thus policies (see last Sunday NY Times article on “Obama and The Press”).

The faces change. The message remains the same. The channels keep multiplying. It’s up to us as personal brand leaders to tap into a community (“find a parade and get in front of it” – is a nice quote that I don’t know who to credit).

~ Vikram Rajan
PracticeMarketingAdvisors.com

By: trademarks and copyrights | Digg hot tags

trademarks and copyrights | Digg hot tags — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:25:27 +0000

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By: Jeremy Costin

Jeremy Costin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:55:50 +0000

Interesting that you are distinguishing between user-generated, or fan-based, marketing (which seems to be how I’ve so far described it) and viral marketing. I see them as two facets of the same stone. But the way in which you distinguish them will, I think, be very important for me to consider as I flesh out this concept for the larger work with which I am concerning myself.

The judge issue you’re looking at is estoppel, in a sense. You allowed X and Y to be done despite your right to prevent it; you can’t just willy-nilly change your mind now – there is a deemed permission. Now does the deemed permission extend to Z? Very good question. I’m printing this one out for the research folder!

All this does is remind me that you and I need some serious beer time. Maybe as I work on this stuff, I’ll try to create a monthly “media/sports/tech law and scotch/martini/beer night” or something like that. I’m curious to see what others will think of your questions and my responses. Lots to think about now.

By: Derek Rawlings

Derek Rawlings — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:29:02 +0000

Well, this kind of marketing shares a lot of similarities to some forms of viral marketing, though unlike viral marketing its origins lie with the individuals who founded these movements.

I do believe that a name is required for these efforts in the very least so that marketers can attempt to derive a numeric value for this by and large free content. How does “Consumer Moderated Advertisement” strike you?

What interests me about this marketing format are the soft boundaries that are created. Ford drew the line with these calendars at a very boneheaded level (to use your terminology), but there are clearly instances as well where someone’s brand has been legitimately taken too far.

When this happens would a judge ruling on such a case where a company believes their property was being used unjustly deem that since a company allowed X and Y that they have little legal ground to stand on when they want to deny Z (even if Z pushes boundaries further than their alphabetically inferior predecessors)?

By: Bruce McIntire

Bruce McIntire — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:00:09 +0000

Hello.

I like your site and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links.

Thanks in advance