It’s difficult to put a value on buzz marketing by people who volunteer, or are located by marketing agencies, to promote products through e-mails, blogs or conversation in exchange for free samples or early access to products, reported the National Post Sept. 15. “That’s been a holy grail for while,” says Robert Kozinets, professor of marketing at York’s Schulich School of Business. “It’s a very hard thing. Once a company gives up the control that’s necessary for a word-of-mouth marketing campaign, it becomes very hard to track.”
The techique is also controversial, noted the Post. Most of the major agencies that recruit Buzzers strongly encourage them to reveal their motives, but there’s nothing actually binding Buzzers to reveal to others that they are getting buzzed. “Word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing, tribal marketing – whatever you want to call it, it’s the Wild West right now,” Kozinets says.
Learning on the job: Lessons from an internship
His tone was confident and he didn’t mince words. And, lucky for me, I listened, wrote Richard Bloom in his ongoing series on life as an MBA student at York’s Schulich School of Business, in The Globe and Mail Sept. 15. “You’ll learn way more here. Trust me on this one,” said the executive of an Internet start-up project, when discussing the possibility of my working at his media company over the summer. And so, I chose the startup, working in a strategic role for the Internet arm of a rival newspaper. It was a jam-packed three months, complete with numerous high-level meetings, a presentation to senior management, the creation of a Web site from scratch and the preparation of a strategic report for a new product.
Singer/performer alumna played leading roles in G&S productions
Jane Penelope Glasser (MA ‘91) died June 9, 2006 at her home in Toronto, reported The Record (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo) Sept. 15. Born on May 6, 1943 in Kitchener, Glasser graduated from the University of Waterloo, and later obtained her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from York’s Faculty of Graduate Studies. In her early years, Glasser was an accomplished singer/performer with leading roles in Gilbert & Sullivan productions throughout high school and university. Following a brief career as a secondary school teacher, Glasser expressed her exceptional gifts through her art. She also wrote about the arts and worked on film and video productions. Throughout much of her career, Glasser was intensely interested in Native Canadian spirituality and art and studied with several shamans.
On air
- James Sheptycki