Topics for the 8/9/09 Show

Here are the proposed topics for this week's episode of The BeanCast. Please feel free to send in your thoughts and questions.

You have two ways to get in touch: 1) Send an "@" reply or DM on Twitter to @thebeancast, or 2) send an email to beancast@gmail.com

Please keep your comments succinct. Wordy comments need to be interpreted and I may not capture the essence of what you are asking. That's why I encourage the Tweet option to help keep the question or thought targeted.

This week's panel will be Joseph Jaffe (Crayon), Scott Monty (Ford Motor Company) and Becky Worley (Good Morning America and Yahoo! Tech).

TOPICS

Is The New PR Forgetting the Basics?: By now, hopefully, I've talked enough about the TWiT 202 episode that inspired this topic. What builds better media relationships -- social interactions or reliability of information? Is there a place for a blend of both or do social interactions just get in the way of relationships with journalists? Does establishing yourself as a reliable source of information need to come first? Can a social approach to press relationships actually work against trust? Was a social marketing approach really meant to be used in establishing relationships with journalists? Is the emphasis on social media having the unintended effect of eroding skills in old-school basics like writing press releases and managing information flow? What would you say is wrong or right about most press releases today? (Any more questions you would add?)

Those Creepy Palm Pre Ads: Once again a polarizing ad campaign has caused huge volumes of reader commentary over on Ad Age. This time the ads in question are for Palm Pre. First of all, is Modernista, the agency responsible for the work, justified in saying the polarization is a good thing for the brand? Is the fact that we're talking about the campaign -- both good and bad -- enough to claim that the ads are a success? This is a similar thing that Crispin Porter + Bogusky has said about their Burger King and Microsoft work -- so is conversation now the ultimate goal of good campaigns, rather than instant and positive reception? Why doesn't Palm rely on product demonstration and show product benefits, like the iPhone campaign? Is old-school product demonstration the source of the iPhone campaign's success or is their campaign a luxury springing from the already solid Apple brand? Is campaign like Palm's necessary, since establishing mindshare is more important showcasing the product itself right now or is that just wishful thinking?

Facebook Cracks Down: We've heard the stories about personal facebook data being used egregiously by advertisers. Now Facebook has implemented a program to crack down on violations of policies about sharing data with external ad networks and using user content without permission. Is this just grandstanding or will Facebook be able to effectively enforce their policy clarifications? Is part of the problem that Facebook writes and maintains its own advertiser code of conduct? Will they have to adopt the general code of Internet advertisers to reduce confusion? Will they be forced to in this general crack down by the FTC? What does the recent settlement against Sears mean for all online advertising? (Sears paid consumers for access to personal data, but was seen as violating that trust with excessive data mining efforts.)

The YouTube Version of Adsense: Do contextual ad videos make sense? Will they be as effective as adsense has been? Isn't this just building a video version of ad banner networks? Why or why not? Should we look more at the synergy this builds with Google's most successful venture? Does efficiency of building on top of adsense justify this as a smart move even it results are mediocre?

Sponsored Tweets Launch: We've debated the ethics ad nauseam on the show. Now that "pay per tweet" is a reality, what's the general reaction? Is the reality of the tweeting as ethical as Azea founder, Ted Murphy, has claimed it would be? Ethics aside, will this be effective among the general Twitter population? Which is more acceptable, having celebrity endorsers or popular Tweeters from among the general network populations? Any predictions on where this will be in a year?