Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your…wait a minute. It’s Tuesday, October 17. Christmas is still 68 days away. Is it too early to haul up the holly or spike the eggnog? I haven’t even finished shopping for my Bert Macklin Halloween costume, but advertisers and media outlets already want me out Christmas shopping and spreading holiday cheer. Is it too early? Are consumers ready to pay attention? Earlier this week, Target jumped in front of the pack to become the first major retailer to air a Christmas-themed television ad. The 30-second spot features a big >>

I like to think of myself as a marketer. That’s where I’ve spent a large part of my practical work experience and it’s what I teach at UIndy. But, officially, I am a media psychologist (or at least that’s what my PhD diploma says!) Not many people have heard of ‘media psychology’, although it is an official division of the American Psychological Association. According to the Media Psychology Research Center, media psychology “applies psychology to the complex system of human behavior and the evolving media landscape.” The discipline encompasses a wide spectrum of influence that includes social media, communication strategy, >>

A handful of hospital and medical centers have just begun testing a remarkable new technology being called “…the body’s check-engine light.” At least that’s how Michael Seid, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, has talked about its potential. For many chronic conditions with predictable patterns (like depression, pain or diabetes), the behavior pattern is a predictable one: “the more they suffer,” writes Matt Richtel of the New York Times, “the more they draw inward.” And because doctors may not see these patients as their symptoms progress, a new app uses the technology in their cell phones >>

Thanks to long-time friend Brad Gillum and all the good staff here at Willow Marketing, I am fortunate to be able to spend four months (August – December) working as an unpaid intern during my sabbatical leave.  My goal is to get hands on experience and hone my skills in search-engine advertising.  To earn my keep, I thought I should help pick up the slack and contribute to the Willow blog. As a college professor at the University of Indianapolis, I work daily with students whose goal it is to join the marketing profession.  Professors are continually looking to anticipate >>

Since I’m writing about what’s new “In Marketing News” this week I have to cover the biggest marketing-related crisis communications event to take place thus far for the month of September. GoDaddy’s drama.   GoDaddy, arguably the world’s largest domain admin and one of the biggest website hosts, experienced some major downtime on Monday (9/10). GoDaddy.com was offline for several hours and a large majority of the millions of websites hosted by GoDaddy were also unreachable. Another BIG problem was that any domain registered with GoDaddy that used its name servers and/or DNS records were also down for the count. >>