In a study done by ICOM, male gamers were the go to person by their friends and family on products from movies and TV, to restaurants and the latest electronic gadgets.  A whopping 76.4% of respondents said they were the “go-to guy” when it came to the above products.

The study also reports that male gamers are more social than non-gamers, and therefore tend to go out to restaurtants/movies/etc. more than non-gamers which then translates to greater influence.  In addition, a quarter of this group has also written online product reviews.

That adds up to a group with knowledge of products and services they are passionate about and an inherent interest in socialization—one recipe for trusted influencers.

eMarketer: Gamer Guys Influence Community

This week was the first time I have taught for a Chamber of Commerce crowd. Riverside has weekly “Business in Action” meetings where the Chamber arranges for other members to come in and speak on topics of their expertise. Being a board member for the Public Relations Society of America (IE Chapter) and the Riverside Chamber, I was asked to come and speak on a topic. “Web 2.0: Why is far more important than how” was the title of my 20-minute talk.

In the room were around 30 people. A few young faces dotted the crowd dominated with those 40 and over.

The meeting started with introductions. Each person stood up, introduced themselves, and answered the question: “What is web 2.0?”

Probably 80% of the crowd had no idea what web 2.0 was and didn’t even try. Those that did talked about things like interaction and technology. That’s a good ratio considering I belong to several marketing-specific organizations and I am still floored at the lack of acceptance and understanding of technology and change in the industry.

From the introductions, I knew there would be one issue. An architect in the back of the room when answering the introduction question quite boldly stated: “I have real job. I don’t have time for web 2.0.”

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This is a different take on “cause marketing” – similar to nonprofit marketing but more frequently employed by corporations that are for-profit, using a cause as a method of communicating. This marketing blogger decided to illustrate the importance of split testing a campaign (A/B testing). To begin with, the results were impressive: thes experiment improved the homless man’s earnings by over 100% over several days.

The blogger began his analysis of the homeless man’s campaign by noticing that his signage was in need of an overhaul. It was brown cardboard and largely featured “Hi, I’m Keith” with a number of other details too small to read in passing. In addition, the sign had no major call to action.

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Riverside Independent Film House

PNC is working with the Film House to develop an overall Branding Strategy. Aaron currently sits on the advisory board and will be working with the PNC team to develop an event to launch the Culver Center for the Arts.  The space is located in downtown Riverside and will feature numerous spaces inside including an 80 seat filming room and a dance studio. More details coming soon.

Looking to create more buzz about your product, or deploy ads that drive traffic to your site?

Behavioral targeted ads outperformed run of network ads in a study done by the Network Advertising Initiative.  In fact, behavioral targeted ads nearly doubled the performance, 6.8% to 2.8%.

From the study:

“Over the past several months, policy discussion around behaviorally targeted advertising has lacked a critical foundation, because there had never been an empirical assessment of the value of such advertising to ad networks, consumers, and publishers,” said Howard Beales, author of the report, in a statement.

“This study found that behaviorally targeted advertising is a critical component of ad network, publisher, and advertiser success,” he said. “Behaviorally targeted ads sell for twice the price and offer twice the effectiveness of normal run-of-network ads, significantly enhancing the advertising revenue engine driving the growth of the Internet.”

eMarketer: Behavioral Targeting Doubles Ad Effectiveness

This podcast reviews Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell which asks: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, Gladwell builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages.

Subscribe to and download the podcast at iTunes.com. For show notes and more information on the authors of Cocktail Party Statement, visit cocktailpartystatement.com.