Bob Knorpp has a big time podcasting gig with Ad Age now, but the guy knows who is friends are. Four of those friends, myself included, jumped on a call with Knorpp last last night for the 129th recording of TheBeanCast.
Listen via iTunes now, or if you prefer, download the MP3.
One of my favorite exchanges of the night came as we discussed cause-related marketing. My friend Bob Hoffman, President of Hoffman/Lewis and keeper of the Ad Contrarian blog, mostly finds cause marketing to be a cynical ploy by brands to gain social favor. He pointed to Pepsi Refresh and declared it little more than a marketing “stunt.” I said Pepsi Refresh is more than a stunt and added that I don’t really care if a brand’s motivations to do good in the world are self-serving. The good still gets done, so cause marketing is all about the win-win, in my opinion.
It was also fun to “meet” and hear from Duane Forrester of Microsoft and Kevin Briody of Ignite Social Media. One of our more meaty discussions took place early in the show, as Knorpp drove us to discuss Facebook’s new email product. Forrester and Briody focused on the mobile play from FB, while I took note of the integrated communications platform idea. I mentioned that an 18 year-old doesn’t want email at all–it’s too dam slow. Facebook’s new product will make email available (for attachments and such), but it’s not an email-centric proposition.
If you have an interest in these topics–we also talked about Google TV, the launch of Path, using YouTube comments for brand benefit, and more–I hope you’ll give the show a listen.