We work hard to carefully choose high quality advertisers on our site. This month we ran a campaign with a highly innovative and educational broker tradeMONSTER.

We’d like to thank tradeMONSTER for their support and we hope our audience has found the synergy valuable.

Sincerely,

Derek & Damien Hoffman

Founders, Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Do you think your company is a compliment to Wall St. Cheat Sheet? Contact our marketing department by emailing info at wallstcheatsheet.com

Motorola (MOT) is attempting to recreate the buzz from their RAZR phone. When I first saw the Super Bowl commercial with Megan Fox (see left), apparently I was not focused on the product. After seeing a new commercial tonight, I’ve decided Motorola absolutely bombed so hard I would immediately fire the person in charge of branding.

The newish software is called MotoBLUR. My first reaction is “confusing”, “fuzzy”, and, of course, “blurry”. Aren’t these the exact opposite perceptions you’d like to create for people who are relying on you for sound, pictures, video, and organizing social media?

To make matters worse, the newest commercial for MotoBLUR says we can view Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace all on one tiny screen and then asks, “What do you get with MotoBLUR?” I answered the television, “Attention Deficit Disorder.”

For all you youngsters reading about those basic psychology principles which apply to marketing … they work. If you stray from those axioms and get too cute, your product will become a blur.

One day in the distant future, Goldman Sachs (GS) will pay a fine and taxpayers will somehow benefit. But until then, the real winners are Goldman’s lawyers.

Goldman General Council Gregory Palm will now play eenie-meenie-miney-mo to see which white shoe law firm will work diligently to drag out this case at $1000+ an hour.

You know who else wins? We do because this will keep Goldman’s shield holders off the streets where they have been known to solicit 15-year old girls for illegal activity.

Attention all hot spots in Manhattan: quickly switch your marketing bait from bankers to lawyers. It will pay dividends.

Last night, Duke beat Butler in an absolute thriller of a National Championship basketball game. Moments later, the newest economic bubble inflated when tens of thousands of orders flooded into Duke University for Duke 2010 Basketball Champion merchandise (below is the marketing email I received shortly after the game).

BusinessWeek reports that “When Kansas won the national championship in 2008, its licensing revenue exploded to $2.5 million, $1.5 million more than the previous year’s.” So, this morning I called the on-campus Duke store and a staffer confirmed that sales were 3-5 times more than a typical day. Further, the staffer said they expect this trend to continue for a few weeks.

Thus, March Madness is a story of two lotteries: the athletic one on the court and the financial one in licensed merch winnings.

Social media is quickly becoming part of our everyday reality. However, the landscape is very dynamic. Platforms such as Friendster and MySpace were eventually trumped by Facebook. Now we have Twitter. Is that merely another stepping stone toward something better?

I caught up with successful branding and marketing strategist Eric Tsai to get his thoughts …

Damien Hoffman: Eric, what is social media marketing?

Eric: Social media marketing is to conduct marketing activities via social network channels or platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Damien: How can companies keep up with the rapid changes? When should they get involved with a new platform?

Eric: Companies should maintain focus on their core strategies and only adopt what make sense accordingly.  There will always be new technologies and concepts.  Keeping up means achieving similar results with new tools.  Do you know where are your customers?  Why are they using certain platforms?  It’s also important to consider your company’s ability to handle and utilize new concepts and platforms.

This is why pilot programs are important.  We can see companies like The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are trying very hard to reinvent their broken business models.  I think they’re doing the right thing because trying is better than doing nothing.  Getting involved with new platforms is a tried-and-true process.  These platforms must also align with your internal structure, company culture, and resonate with your customer.

When search engine marketing (SEO/SEM) first came out, many companies were slow to adapt.  Only the “early adopters” (see Roger’s bell curve) truly benefited.  Once Fortune 500s entered the “early majority” phase, it became clear search engine marketing was here to stay.  That’s when small and mid-size businesses caught on in the “late majority” phase.

There is definitely risks involved when investing in new platforms.  However, ultimately it’s part of the innovation process that companies should consider. When a technology starts to get commoditized, it’s time to innovate.

Damien: Do you think Tumblr is the next Twitter since Twitter has the character limitation and a very high abandonment rate?

Eric: I don’t think Tumblr is the next Twitter because it’s another micro-blogging platform with different feature and focus.  It’s like asking if Blogger is better than Typepad, WordPress, Posterous or all the other blogging platform out there.  The key for Twitter is to find their niche audience.  Many people use a combination of both Twitter and Tumblr by pushing out the same content via both platforms, or they use each very differently.  For example, I use Twitter mainly to inform and deliver content to help people interested to learn more about marketing, branding, and social media.  On the other hand, I use Tumblr as my photography exhbit of brand space and interaction.

Even though Twitter has a high abandon rate, it’s still growing fast and the people that stick with Twitter are usually very loyal.  Plus, many popular 3rd party apps are already integrated with Twitter.  Even Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM aggregates Twitter content — so it speaks volumes about the strength of the data from Twitter.

Damien: What other platforms should companies be watching?

Eric: It’s important to realize that platforms are created by identifying emerging trends.  I’ve always recommended companies to not just focus on the platform, but the trend of where consumers are going to be, their communication habits, and the influencers in those areas.

Platforms come and go.  So, what happens if Google is gone tomorrow?  How will your customer find you online?  If you provide enough value, people will find you.  Just like print will never go away, it has its place.

With that said, I think companies should realize continueous advancement in connectivity and real-time web.  This leads to a lot of new ways of looking at technology that can help achieve amazing new concepts like “augmented reality” and “location based” platforms.  These tools can aggregate data and connect peoeple instantly.  If you think from that angle, it’s easier to identify which platform fits your business model and how it will benefit your overall brand strategy.  At the end of the day, success is about business not technology.

Damien: Eric, thanks for your thoughts on social media marketing.

Eric: My pleasure. Thank you.

Wonder what it costs to have your product or service attached to modern gladiators under stadium lights? Ad Age reports this year NBC’s Sunday Night Football took in an average $339,700 to capture a 30-second share of consumer attention (-21.8% year-over-year).

Other top eyeball magnets included Grey’s Anatomy ($240,462/30-seconds) and Desperate Housewives ($228,851/30-seconds). On the flip side, you can reach consumers in between Jay Leno jokes for between $48,803 and $65,678 depending on the night of the week.

This year’s rate drops were expected “With the economy weighing on marketers’ ability to spend.” However, my contacts on Madison Avenue say some firms are starting to spend again and others will soon follow suit as the fear of being left behind spreads to Mad Men like H1N1.

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