Have you ever got in a fight with someone and ended up much better friends? Well I wonder if all the people out there who are slapping GM around with the Chevy Apprentice “negative ads” aren’t actually putting more of a human face on GM? After we slap around the bully aren’t we now somewhat more connected to them? They respect us more, and we realize that they are just a product of their bad upbringing.

I mean, take a look at this ad and don’t tell me you feel a bit better about GM, even if it’s just because it calls the Chevy Tahoe gay.

I’m not going to run out and buy a Tahoe, but somehow GM has managed to humanize themselves just a little bit by not taking down all the negative ads that were created for them.

There’s now an entire site dedicated to voting on the negative ads, go take a look and prepare to be blown away by the creativity

BTW from a publicity standpoint this is an absolute slam dunk, picked up by New York Times, CNET, Nightline, rocketboom (yes, that’s right nightline and rocketboom in the same sentence

Eric Mattson of Marketing Monger is in the process of doing 1,000 podcasts around marketing topics, and i’m glad to say I am interviewed on number 76. Lots of topics covered from co-creation, value chains, competitive advantage, and viral marketing. I talk again on the idea that companies need to have a portfolio of viral experiments, and on a related note check out this comment on JaffeJuice about the 24 hour ad agency

“The 24 Hour Ad Agency.” The focus isn’t on spending 4 months crafting the hell out of a 4-color magazine spread, but on creating new ads hourly, even minute-ly. Match the audience’s appetite for content, versus just living up to the agency and client’s abilities to clock thousands of hours on one idea. It’s as much about constantly measuring the pulse of society and the client brand in that environment, as it is reacting almost instantly to the culture.

I was just listening to the For Immediate Release Podcast (which I highly recommend), in which they were interviewing Larry Weber, Chairman W2 Group, a holding company for marketing 2.0 companies. Now, that is pretty interesting in its own right, but the thing that really struck me was when during the interview they brought up that “co-creation” had been a bit of a buzzword at the marketing innovation conference. Well I like the sound of that, talk about a little validation. Anyway, I found the schedule for day one, the “CMO summit” and low and behold it seemed they talked about co-creation all day. Damn, I wish I had known about it and I wish i’d gone. Models for innovation: creating successful new products and services
New product innovations are increasingly involving co-creation with customers and partners. What other innovation processes are working and how can they interact with co-creation? Case studies will be discussed, successful (and unsuccessful) strategies shared, new methodologies analyzed, and existing approaches that work affirmed.