Marketing Pilgrim

If you’ve ever played the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, then you already understand the mission of Yahoo’s new initiative, “The Small World Experiment.”

By teaming up with Facebook, Yahoo is attempting to prove that there is always less than six people between any two random people in the world.

Here’s how it works. Go to Yahoo Research and click to become a Sender. You’ll have to agree to some legalese, then you’ll be matched up with a stranger. I was given a man with a tech background from Tel Aviv who now lives in France. Next, you choose one person from your Facebook friends whom you think is most likely to know or get you closer to this person. I went with the most globally-oriented person on my list since I know I have to cross an ocean to make this connection.

Small business owners aren’t optimistic about the future and they said so loud and clear this past July. The National Federation of Independent Business reports a larger than usual decline in their Optimism Index after what was already a downward spiral going back three months prior.

Given the state of the economy, their dim view isn’t surprising but comScore has some good news to share. Over the last three quarters, small retailers have taken home a larger piece of the e-commerce pie.

Not a staggering gain, but at this point, any gain is good news and this is the first good news since they had a 37.2% share back in Q4 2009.

Over the past several years there has been a movement in the marketing world that represents a paradigm shift from traditional marketing tactics and techniques to the adoption of inbound marketing strategies.

One of the pioneers that has helped popularize the discipline of inbound marketing is HubSpot. The company has created and grown a technology platform which allows companies of all sizes to take full advantage of the most effective tools and techniques in the online space and has helped over 5,000 businesses transition their marketing efforts from the ways of the past to the promise of the future.

Sounds like marketing fluff, right? Well, it’s not and here’s why. Along with the individual businesses that have recognized the power of inbound marketing and the importance of having a technology platform to run and manage all the various elements (blogging, SEO, social media etc), agencies of all sizes have jumped onboard as well.

From the news that really isn’t news at all department here at Marketing Pilgrim comes the joining of Foursquare by none other than the White House. Yes, the White House. Setting a new precedent, it appears as if this may be the first location that will be checking in at other locations.

The White House has started a Foursquare account which is just in time for the president’s economic bus tour (does he have to borrow money along the way to gas up the bus?).

The White House blog tells us

The White House is now on Foursquare, a location-based social networking website, which is the latest way for you to engage with the administration. There are over 10 million people already “checking in” around the world, and now you’ll be able to discover “tips” from the White House featuring the places President Obama has visited, what he did there, plus historical information and more.

QR codes are popping up on everything from magazine ads to bus shelters and slowly but surely, Americans are learning to point and click.

comScore has just posted the results of their June 2011 survey regarding the funky, black and white squares and here’s what they found.

14 million mobile users in the US have scanned a QR code. That sound like a nice number until you put it in perspective. It represents only 6.2% of all mobile users.

60.5% of the code scanners were men, mostly between 18-34 with an income of over $100k.

Where did they find these codes? Nearly half said a print magazine or newspaper. A close second with 35.3% was product packaging. Posters, business cards, flyers and storefronts also made the list. The two strange choices were websites (27.4%) and TV (11.7%).

As you travel around the internet on your daily quest for knowledge, you’ll see a lot of ads and the majority of them will come from the retail industry.

According to numbers from eMarketer, retail will spend an additional $1.3 billion on online ads this year bringing them up to an estimated $6.78 billion. The trend is expected to continue with retail claiming the top spot through with $11.08 billion by 2015.

The up and comer is the consumer packaged good industry, though they currently sit in 5th place for online ad share. In the next few years, eMarketer predicts a rise of 14% to 29% per year. That, combined with a slow down by telecom advertising means CPG will move up a notch by 2015.