Musings on interdisciplinary scientific research, trends and findings that affect (and, in some cases, effect) the way we market goods, services and opportunities.
According to Stuart Elliot writing in the New York Times, the recovery in advertising spending continued in the fourth quarter last year, according to a report that is to be released on Thursday morning, resulting in a solid full-year gain compared with the results of 2009. Ad spending in the United States in the fourth …
As reported in Nature, researchers in Korea have created a new metamaterial with the most extreme positive index of refraction yet – a whopping 38.6. The metamaterial operates at terahertz frequencies and the team believes that it could find use in a number of applications including high-resolution imaging. So, if you didn’t specialize in optical …
Digital Screens are about to get big . . . REALLY BIG! Read More »
According to Richard Stevenson, a freelance science and technology writer based in Chepstow, Wales, writing for the IOP, researchers in South Korea and the UK say that they have produced the first large-area, full-colour display based on red, green and blue quantum dots. The technology could spur the launch of colour TV screens combining a …
The recent rise in daily deals Websites (like Groupon) and the rise of mobile applications has proved to small businesses that an online presence does drive in-store traffic. I’m not really sure why this seems revolutionary, people in our industry have been claiming that for years. I think it’s because there is so much more …
A psychological scientist in Germany has found a way that cell phones, and specifically texting, have hacked into our brains. Just by typing the numbers that correspond to the letters in a word like “love,” we can activate the meaning of that word in our minds. The results are published in Psychological Science, a journal of …
Eye tracking isn’t a new concept to advertising, but the technology used for eye tracking is – and it’s getting better. James Breeze, usability specialist and CEO of Usable World has a blog about eye tracking (and other things) – it’s really good, go check it out. Anyway, I’ve seen tons of studies about eye …
One of my best friends is just about the greatest salesman you’ll ever meet. We got to know each other long ago when I was working as a copywriter at a software company and he was, naturally, working in the sales department. Most of the sales people who worked there were either on the obnoxious, …
Ask even the most seasoned Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists and they’ll tell you that the rules of the game are constantly changing. Your website is at the mercy of the search engines and their algorithms. Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask – they all keep their cards held close to their chest as far as what, …
Advertising is really about telling a story. The way we tell the story depends on the length of time we have to tell the story and the method by which we are telling the story (TV, radio, etc.). but the simple fact is that we are all captivated by a good story. Jessica Marshall recently …
I was reading an article by Jim Giles about crowd-sourcing. Crowd-sourcing is one of those buzzy new technology trends that I generally try to avoid writing about. It’s not that I am against it or anything, it’s just that a lot of people have already written really good articles / blogs / books about it. …
