Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Play. Learn. Save the World.

“The generation that grew up with Super Mario is entering the workplace, entering politics, so they see games as just another good tool to use to communicate” says Henry Jenkins, an MIT professor quoted in Sunday's New York Times. The Times piece, “Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time”, explores and reports on […]

Learn More July 24, 2006

Agitating Again: “Funding Father’s” New Book Released

I'll never forget the phone call I received from Richard Viguerie, often called the 'funding father' of the New Right, on election night 1980. A dozen liberal Senate candidates, and presidential candidate John Anderson– campaigns that Craver, Mathews, Smith & Company had worked on that year — had just gone down to in landslide defeat. […]

Learn More July 21, 2006

Poetry or Persuasion?

Once again the Pew Internet Project has produced a research masterpiece with its just-released study, Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new storytellers. In addition to reporting all the valuable demographic data (12 million blog creators, 57 million blog readers), Pew drilled into the motivations and behaviors of bloggers, producing many rich insights. Looking at […]

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If She’s An Anthropologist Hire Her for the Development Office!

There are 8.9 million millionaire households in the U.S., up nearly 50% in two years. The heads of those households could fill 100 football stadiums the size of Notre Dame's. But even if millionaires are now a common species, they are hardly homogenous. Just ask cultural anthropologist Larry Samuel of the firm Culture Planning. Although […]

Learn More July 20, 2006

We Should All Be Such Smart Marketers

The Kaiser Family Foundation has just issued a report on the online marketing of food products to kids. Looking at 77 websites from the likes of M&Ms and PopTarts, the study found that the sites overflow with clever engagement devices, like advergames (73%), sweepstakes (65%), on-demand TV ads (53%) and incentives to buy (38%). On […]

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Email Marketing: 2005 Benchmark Study

Q: What's the best day(s) for sending email messages to assure the best open and click-thru rates? A: Friday and Sunday are running neck and neck. Q: What type of lists generate higher response? A: Smaller lists work better than larger lists. In fact the larger the list the moredifficult it is to improve response. […]

Learn More July 19, 2006