19 | marzo | 2010 | gabriel catalano

Archivo por días: 19 marzo 2010

Los directores de comunicación leen blogs de marketing, tecnología, economía y comunicación

Marketingdirecto.com 19 marzo 2010

Con motivo de la organización de la jornada “Los blogs en la comunicación de las empresas”, Dircom ha elaborado un sondeo entre sus 630 socios para conocer los blogs más seguidos por los directores de Comunicación en España.

Así, el 44% de los encuestados se declara seguidor habitual de El Periodista Digital y el 30% de Espacio Dircom. Un porcentaje algo menor de dircoms lee con frecuencia los blogs Comunicadores del siglo XXI, Comunicación Interna y el blog de Iván Pino.

En cuanto a los blogs generalistas, los que consiguen más adeptos son el Blog de Marketing en español (42% lo lee frecuentemente), el de Enrique Dans (28.57%) o Microsiervos.

La mencionada jornada ha sido inaugurada por José Manuel Velasco, presidente de Dircom, y Samuel Martín-Barbero, Decano de IE School of Communication–IE University.

Ambos han hablado de la importancia de la “alfabetización digital” no solo de los directivos de la comunicación y de los estudiantes -los profesionales del futuro, nacidos en la era de las nuevas tecnologías.

Además, se ha puesto de manifiesto la situación del blogging en España y la necesidad de mejorar la formación de los comunicadores y concienciar a las empresas de las ventajas de mantener una presencia activa en redes sociales para incrementar la presencia en sus públicos objetivo. Sigue leyendo →

Ewanick Leaves for Nissan

...and a bit of everything! 19 marzo 2010

- Andrew McMains and Todd Wasserman
Hyundai’s lead marketer, Joel Ewanick, is leaving the company to become vp-marketing for Nissan.

Ewanick, who was also Brandweek‘s Grand Marketer of the Year in 2009, succeeds Christian Meunier, whose appointment to president of Nissan Brazil was announced Feb. 5.

In his new role, Ewanick will be responsible for “all facets of marketing activities for Nissan brand products in the United States, including marketing communications, C&I (contests and incentives), pricing and product management,” according to a Nissan press release.

Ewanick served as vp-marketing at Hyundai since 2007. Since that time, Ewanick introduced the Hyundai Assurance Program, which was credited with doubling the amount of consumers willing to buy a Hyundai.

A Hyundai rep said, “We’re sorry to see him go. He did a tremendous job and we wish him luck.”

Ewanick will be succeeded in the interim by Chris Perry, who is currently the director of marketing and advertising. A search for a new CMO is under way.

Nissan’s lead creative agency in the U.S is Omnicom Group‘s TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn. The automaker’s major media spending — excluding online outlays — totaled $310 million last year, according to Nielsen. Sigue leyendo →

Dealing with office distractions

Ideas + lo que se me cruza..., Smh.com.au 19 marzo 2010

Workplace distractions have been around forever. Take any bunch of people, throw them together and they’re sure to do things that will get on some people’s nerves. Usually without even knowing.

But it seems to be getting worse. Part of it might be caused by so many people being bored at work, something I blogged about last week. Technology also creates more distractions. What are the worst ones? According to this list, they include email, web surfing, loud work colleagues, technology glitches, flirting and birthday celebrations. What’s the best way of dealing with them?

Distractions seem to be more of a problem now with everyone having internet access and the open plan office. It’s a point made by Sam Leith in The Guardian. : “Most of the most enjoyable episodes of my working life have been in open-plan offices. If I’d had an office of my own I’d never have heard my combustible colleague on the next desk giving a distinguished critic a paint-stripping torrent of abuse on the phone. I’d never have known who was having an affair with whom. I’d never have been able to meerkat up over a partition to eavesdrop on a tantrum, or muscle in on other people’s birthday cakes. I’d never have witnessed the awesome sight of one of my more gormless colleagues plotting against someone on his mobile phone – while standing right behind his prospective victim’s wife.”

How bad do distractions get? According to one study, people can waste two hours a day on distractions. Sounds scary although I’d take that number with a grain of salt. How did they actually conduct the study? Were they standing there with a timer? Wasn’t that distracting? Still, it does suggest there is a problem. Sigue leyendo →

McLaren to build high-performing sports cars

Smh.com.au 19 marzo 2010

Formula One car maker McLaren unveiled plans on Thursday to build a range of commercial sports cars, using race technology to take on other high-end European manufacturers such as Ferrari and Porsche on the highways.

McLaren is banking on renewed spending after the global economic downturn to bolster demand for its first offering, the MP4-12C, which will go on sale in late 2011 with a hefty price tag of between £125,000 and £150,000 ($207,434-$248,921).

“Following any recession, there’s a resurgence,” McLaren Automotive Chairman Ron Dennis said. “We intend to catch that wave.”

The new Mclaren MP4-12C road car is unveiled at the Mclaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. Photo: AP PHoto

“Our volumes are very much linked to how we see the recovery,” he added.

The company aims to make up to 1000 of the 12C cars next year, with up to 40 per cent being sold in North America.

It will compete with the Ferrari 458 Italia, priced at around £170,000 ($A282,110), and Mercedes SLS AMG at around £145,000 ($A240,624). Sigue leyendo →

30 Best Clone Themes for WordPress

...and a bit of everything!, Plugins + Drivers y de ese tipo de cosas!, wpjedi.com 19 marzo 2010

Posted by WordPress Jedi

You’ve got to love what WordPress is all about. Not only is it a killer CMS but it also lets you create sophisticated websites fast. And you can even try to clone what others have done in the past. Whether you want to clone Facebook or just want to have the look and feel of Digg on your site, you can do it all with WordPress clone themes. And most of these themes are cheap or free, so you won’t have to spend too much money duplicating the look and feel of a site such as Digg.

With that in mind, here are 30 awesome WordPress clone themes:

1. OneNews: clone the legendary AllTop portal on WordPress with OneNews. Very easy to customize too. Just add your feeds, and you are ready to go.

2. WhiteHouse Pro: so you want your site to have a similar look and feel to the White House’s website? Then WhiteHouse Pro is for you. It comes with an optional BBpress addon as well.

3. PopURLs Clone: clone the good old PopURLs aggregator on your WordPress blog with PopURLs Clone for WordPress.

4. Facebook WordPress Theme: FWT lets you clone Facebook’s blog on your WordPress site.

5. CryBook Theme: Crybook is a very cool clone of Facebook. Get your Facebook WordPress site up fast!

Sigue leyendo →

3 Ways to Fight Apathy

...and a bit of everything!, the99percent.com 19 marzo 2010

Amidst a tough economy and a competitive business environment, we all face trying periods. Sometimes we are liable to get tired and let our minds wander. Rather than stay active, we might slip into a passive state. Unfortunately, small and growing businesses can’t afford to lose energy. Great decisions and thoughtful solutions require focus and full participation.
In my experience on creative teams, I have found that active engagement is the “special sauce” for breakthrough realizations. Fighting is a good thing. Passionate viewpoints spawn heated discussions. And if one person starts to detach, the chemistry of the entire team suffers.

For this reason, apathy – the state of not caring – is dangerous. As leaders, we must fiercely defend the chemistry of our teams. When you see any degree of apathy, you must address it.

Consider a few approaches for confronting apathy:

1. Call it out.
When a colleague disengages during a heated discussion or difficult project, call him or her out on it. Sometimes we lose focus without realizing it, and we rely on our team to bring us back. Simply asking, “Are you following me? Does this make sense?” Or asking for feedback on the process itself might solve the problem. If you fail to call it out, you will find that apathy is contagious.

2. Talk it out.
Apathy often has roots that run deep. Sometimes it is a personal issue that is causing the turmoil. Other times it is a disagreement or a miscommunication between team members. Whatever it is, it will only become worse without discussing it. Teams should foster an open atmosphere where people can discuss tensions as a way of resolving them.

3. Introduce new challenges & pose new questions.
Sometimes apathy can be traced to a lack of feeling challenged. Behance’s Chief of Design, Matias Corea, suggests adding new challenges into the mix as a way of re-engaging checked-out team members. Sigue leyendo →

35 Hot-Shot Photos With Perfect Timing

...and a bit of everything!, Advrt. de BEST (Para reir un cacho) 19 marzo 2010 1 comentario

The most hilarious and off-the-wall images are taken at the right time and right angle. But capturing these bizarre moments is not a piece of cake for many. Many times you have to wait hours to just take that perfect shot and only once in a while you get lucky enough to get your right shot actually right.

Today we present some of the beautiful photos shot at exactly the right moment.