It was the summer of 2003. I had just finished my first year of college down South, returned home to Pittsburgh and landed an internship in the Steelers’ marketing department. Walking into Heinz Field’s corporate offices was like something out of a movie for someone who was born and raised in ‘Steelers Country.’

I remember like it was yesterday sitting down in the boardroom as a manager sat across the long, brown, intimidating table ready to grill me. Forget a suit, I was dressed in old Catholic school gear I had dug out of my closet and forcefully asked my mother to dry clean! That table was all that stood between us. I was expecting the usual litany of dress code rules, vacation allowances, etc., when he caught me off guard and said, “What does marketing mean to you?” It would be two more years before I would even take my first marketing class, and so a stab in the dark was all I had going for me. Throughout the next four months, I learned an insurmountable amount of information about promoting the Steelers brand to better the community and serve the fans.

These early lessons have carried over into my current career, as I watch many of our members and readers engage consumers—rather than fans—to buy and interact with their companies. Fortune recently released a list of the top 20 most admired companies:

1) Apple, 2) Berkshire Hathaway, 3) General Electric, 4) Google, 5) Toyota Motor, 6) Starbucks, 7) FedEx, 8 ) Proctor & Gamble, 9) Johnson & Johnson, 10) Goldman Sachs Group, 11) Target, 12) Southwest Airlines, 13) American Express, 14) BMW tied with Costco Wholesale, 16) Microsoft, 17) United Parcel Service, 18) Cisco Systems, 19) 3M and 20) Nordstrom

These companies obviously all benefit from extraordinary marketing and/or advertising departments. For me, good marketing means taking creative risks. Taking the big chances is sometimes worth it, but sometimes it doesn’t pan out quite as you’d like. Take Cartoon Network’s gaffe last year, for example, when large, electronic light boards featuring characters from its popular “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” giving the middle finger led to bomb scares and the closing of multiple bridges in Boston. How is one supposed to know when a marketing gimmick or promotion has gone too far? How should CEOs react when marketing departments propose such big ideas?

Enjoy the following hilarious clip from CollegeHumor.com that pokes fun at the Cartoon Network scenario.

What does marketing mean to you?

Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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ERA’s eRetailer Summit is off to a great start. We’ve already exceeded last year’s total registrations before the tradeshow floor even opened! Whenever I attend conferences, I always seem to find myself drawn to the education sessions, rather than the tradeshow floor. My instincts proved correct today when I learned more about blogs within an hour than I had learned in the past three months. I’ll begin implementing what I’ve learned moving forward. I hope you check back often as our blog continues to grow and expand in quality and quantity.

Earlier today, I also had the pleasure of eating lunch while listening to a keynote presentation from YouTube’s Brian Cusack. Among many interesting statistics, he addressed the rapidly shifting media consumption habits. It turns out people are spending as much time engaging with online content and videos now as they do watching TV. Don’t believe it? If you’re reading this blog post, you’re part of that statistic.

Since you’re clearly not watching your TV right now, enjoy the following video I came across while checking my email today. It’s definitely not something I want to think about when I board that plane on Wednesday!

How do you think marketers and advertisers will adapt if these viewing habits continue?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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I was having lunch the other day with ERSP Program Analyst Bob Hilleman and our former ERSP colleague Tessa Barrera. Soon, the conversation turned to the subject of traditional television and print advertising and how these promotional vehicles (though still packing a powerful punch) will soon be considered the advertising models of the past. We discussed how new outlets such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Twitter have arisen as new outlets for marketers to explore. Yes, marketers are realizing that as technology advances so must marketing, and these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. However, perhaps looking at why traditional marketing campaigns succeeded can help guide the jump into exploring the new media.

Think back to the advertising campaigns that you remember: M&M’s “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”; Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” and Campbell Soup’s “Mmm…Mmm good.” All catchy taglines tied to successful advertising campaigns that appeal to the consumer’s feelings of trust, quality and security. By building a recognizable brand, the advertising worked to reinforce and create the connection with the consumers by appealing to their emotional sense of quality, fairness and connection. What makes a successful brand and a successful advertisement is that emotional connection. Consumers have to invest themselves into the subject, the character or the product.

More and more, new technology is on the rise. YouTube or Vimeo features short, digestible clips. Twitter issues one-sentence updates. Tumblr is built for short and quick blogging. The focus is on content, quick, constantly updating, but never in-depth. This speed, this bite-size focus is being heralded as the wave of the future, but it doesn’t allow for the building of a brand. It’s focused on tiny bits of information ready now, not to be stored away but to create a temporary quick fix for a need of information. It’s exciting, it’s constantly moving, it’s cutting edge. Yet, it is also, as of now, fairly impersonal. Consumers are there for the speed of changing content, not for the emotional ties to others. Tubmlr is attempting to incorporate those two aspects—building on the social connections of a Facebook, but still on the speed of a Twitter. Yet still, even with the social networking tie-in, the speed of the information has not yet been harnessed to achieve emotional connections. (more…)

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Since its founding 21 years ago, Hawthorne Direct has never been afraid to take chances. The company launched a new website—The Hawthorne Videoactive Report—just a little over a year ago that features a brief daily newscast about interactive, video-based advertising.

I caught up with Scot Wilcox, the Report’s writer and editor, to chat about the site—and its relationship to the parent company. Hawthorne has produced about 220 reports to date, and Wilcox thinks that the project is hitting its stride. “The Videoactive Report is pretty multi-faceted,” he says. “It’s a way to share good information, to test new ideas and to ensure that we stay atop the hot trends. That’s not to say that our agency will offer every single tactic we talk about, but you certainly can’t innovate from an information vacuum.”

The project is the brainchild of DRTV pioneer Tim Hawthorne, a founding member of what is now ERA. According to Wilcox, the Report reflects Hawthorne’s creative and community values: “Tim has been out there networking and sharing his ideas for years. The blogosphere is a particularly efficient medium to continue that process. Plus, we’re doing it in video, the most engaging format there is.”

Although the site includes advertising news, Wilcox explains that “the HVR,” as he calls it, is more of a trends and analysis site. “Don’t forget that we’re first and foremost an advertising agency, not the Associated Press,” he says. “We really don’t worry who’s first with a story. What we care about is how these events impact the agencies doing the work.”

Perhaps the site’s most interesting feature is that Hawthorne Direct views it as a hybrid of sorts: part working content site, part test lab. For the daily videocast, the agency has tested different formats, emphases, production software, studio arrangements and distribution options. The website also provides the agency a vehicle to test layout, optimization, ad creative, media buying and social networking. Wilcox says that from the agency’s perspective, The Videoactive Report will always be something of a work in progress, but viewers should still enjoy it as a time-saver. Deputizing someone else to scour hundreds of resources for the critical content should always be appealing.

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Earlier today while “Facebooking,” I saw that my friend Savannah had posted a YouTube video on my friend Emily’s wall. The video was a teaser/preview for an upcoming string of new episodes for MTV’s widely popular “The Hills.” Although the show is completely ridiculous, it is a mindless, guilty pleasure nonetheless. I quickly copied the link and placed it into e-mail to shoot out to a few friends, jokingly telling them to mark their calendars for March 24th when the show returns. Although I’m slightly embarrassed, executives at MTV should be thrilled that this viral transgression of its content happened. Moreover, it was my friend’s response to my e-mail that I found most interesting.

“Sorry bro, I can’t tube at work,” Boris said. It was at that moment that I realized ERA’s keynote speaker at the upcoming eRetailer Summit in Miami on Monday had truly made the map. Like its parent Google before it, YouTube has become an action verb! Join me in Miami on Monday to hear YouTube’s Brian Cusack discuss the promises and challenges of video in advertising.

Click on the video if you’d like a peak at the senseless L.A. drama.

Hopefully, I’ll see you in Miami where we can discuss issues that actually matter, involving not only your bottom line, but also your company’s future.

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Amnesty International “Protect the Human” project has gone to some interesting lengths to promote its cause for human rights. It’s even employed shock tactics to drive traffic to its website. However, one of its recent campaigns pokes fun at the DRTV industry.

As an industry that’s had its battles with credibility, many direct response marketers try hard every day to improve our collective image. This is one of the main reasons ERA (formally NIMA) was founded in the first place!

Does this sort of joke offend you? Or, are you flattered that an international cause would use a faux live shopping segment to promote its agenda?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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At a conference two weeks ago, I had the unique pleasure of hearing Ricky Van Veen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of CollegeHumor.com, speak about engaging users and developing ad platforms. Van Veen started CollegeHumor.com as a freshman at Wake Forest and by 2006, Barry Diller was knocking down his door to buy the site. Now part of the IAC family, CollegeHumor continues to engage its users on an interactive, participatory level. “Everyone forgets that viewing videos on TV is a passive activity, but viewing videos online is an active activity,” said Van Veen, acknowledging the delicate balancing act of mixing online entertainment with brands and advertising.

During his keynote, Van Veen said he has monetized CollegeHumor by starting a t-shirt company (BustedTees), which sells shirts on the site. He also tries to entice brand advertisers, but most importantly, he likes being upfront with his audience- letting them know that they’re being advertised to. Van Veen thinks the Internet content world is heading toward the migration of advertising budgets and big talent. Can anyone say Budweiser and Will Ferrell?

While discussing online videos, Van Veen talked of an inter-office prank-rivalry between two employees, Amir and Streeter. He then shared this hilarious video with attendees. I thought it might be fitting for a cheap laugh. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Were you at Electronic Retailer’s LiveEdit Lab in Santa Monica on January 30th? If not, you missed out! Enjoy a slide show from the event.

Save the date! Electronic Retailer LiveEdit Lab New York: April 30, 2008

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