double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

How?

Sometimes Why.

The questions above are used by journalists to capture all the most significant information about a story.

Why?

Why is on the list too because I wish to emphasize its double-meaning (i.e. “A,E,I,O,U, and sometimes Y”)

Let’s see what Google thinks about these questions vis-a-vis auto-suggest:

 

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

How?

Why?

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Google.com/Voice

You seldom see “Bad” in a subject line along with Google, but “Google Buzz” and “Google Wave” have significantly under-performed (as far as Google product launches go).

Here’s a Google product launch that is GUARANTEED to reverse that trend…

Google Voice:

I first blogged about Google Voice when Google acquired Grand Central back in 2007 (I’m still bothered by this Caller ID issue FWIW).

This week, Google Voice was released as a FREE product.

I signed up right away – I suggest you do the same.

Here is the FREE Google Voice phone number I signed up for:

My Current Mobile Phone #:     XXX-XXX-XXXX

My Google Voice Phone #:       XXX-ABC-XXXX

There are many ways to choose your own FREE Inbound Google Voice Phone # (including vanity letters), but I chose the similar-numbers-approach.

This product launch is a game-changer for Google and for DoublePositive.

I guarantee it.

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Agreement Represents another Top-tier Client Addition to the Managed Services offering from DoublePositive

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Education-Management-bw-55070469.html?x=0&.v=1

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/education-management-corporation-online-higher-education-edmc-ohe-selects-doublepositive-marketing-group-as-its-online-marketing-agency-of-record-2010-06-01?reflink=MW_news_stmp

BALTIMORE, Jun 01, 2010  — DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. announced today that it has been chosen by Education Management Corporation — Online Higher Education (EDMC OHE) as their Online Marketing Agency of Record for all Online Marketing across all EDMC OHE brands (including South University Online, Argosy University Online, and The Art Institutes Online). EDMC OHE is among the largest providers of private post-secondary online education in North America. This agreement builds upon the existing LIVE Hot Transfers(TM) relationship between DoublePositive and EDMC OHE.

Founded in 2004, DoublePositive has expanded its offerings into the Education, Insurance, Mortgage, and Automotive industries. As the leading provider of LIVE Hot Transfers(TM) for sales organizations, DoublePositive broadened its offerings into Online Marketing Managed Services in 2009. The DoublePositive Marketing Agency of Record agreement with EDMC OHE follows a similar agreement with a national auto insurance carrier.

"Having developed a strong partnership with EDMC over the years, we are thrilled that our relationship has grown to encompass Managed Services for EDMC OHE and all of their brands," said Sean Fenlon, CEO of DoublePositive. "We are deeply embedded within EDMC OHE in order to push their online marketing up and beyond best-practices."

Any business that can add genuine value to this relationship between EDMC OHE and DoublePositive are asked to contact Casey Cook immediately using the contact information below:

Casey Cook, 410-991-4510
casey@doublepositive.com

Post By
Sean Fenlon

I love Apple.

Not just because they’re huge:

At this moment, their market cap is $245 Billion — that’s more than Walmart, GE, Google, Cisco, and IBM. They’re only 10% less than Microsoft’s market cap of $272 Billion, and worth more than HP and AT&T combined (well… almost).

Not just because I’m a user of many Apple products:

I currently own 3 iPods, an iMac, an iPhone, an AppleTV, an AirPort Extreme Router, and an iPad and new MacBook Pro are on their way.

Not just because I own their stock:

I bought their stock in late October 2008 at $91.49 based on some good advice from Warren Buffet.  It has grown 300% since then to $269.74 (as of today). Margins are fantastic as well.

Not just because Steve Jobs is my favorite entrepreneur:

I quote Matt Coffin “He probably is perfect – Pixar only produces $1+ Billion movies – and it is Steve Jobs’ SIDE Business!”  BTW, as a side note I completely agree with the premise, the analysis, and the description of Steve Jobs in this blog post by Ben Horowitz – Marc Andreesen’s VC partner – defending their investment strategy preference for founding CEOs.

http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/

While all of these things certainly play a role, I love Apple because I LEARN from Apple, I’m ENTERTAINED by Apple, and I’m INSPIRED by Apple. That is something only great art can do for me.  As a business, Apple is art (whereas Google is science).

I LEARNED from Apple that you can acquire an entirely independent business in January and then turn that business into an integrated product launch by April.

In January of this year, Apple acquired Quattro Wireless.  And on April 8th announced the iAd product based upon the Quattro Wireless platform.  Another side note — with Google’s purchase of AdMob and Apple’s purchase of Quattro, I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to predict that Microsoft will acquire Millennial Media in the near future.

I have been ENTERTAINED by Apple’s products for years, but most recently I have been entertained by their high-stakes corporate strategy to completely avoid any compatibility between Apple’s mobile products and Adobe’s Flash.

I originally viewed this strategy as simply closed-network chest-thumping, but then I read the letter Steve Jobs published today on the Apple website which articulates six reasons why Apple won’t support Flash technology on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. If you read these reasons and digest them, they all make complete sense. A great decision (while provoking a highly-entertaining battle).

I am now INSPIRED by Apple’s liberated and practical acquisition of Siri.

Siri is an iPhone app – a really cool Virtual Personal Assistant.  Apple is certainly NOT in the habit of buying their app developers. Moreover, in the tech sector, the emphasis is always on core technologies (i.e. “proprietary” or “secret sauce” or “patents”) – Siri does not fit this mold. Siri is a service that pulls together all sorts of services and technologies OTHER COMPANIES have already created (e.g. buying tickets on StubHub, dinner reservations through OpenTable, third-party speech recognition, etc.). I LOVE this kind of play – I often refer to this as “Second Layer Technologies.” I consider DoublePositive to be a “Second Layer Technology” play. We certainly did not invent Internet Leads. We do not have a patent for Call Centers. We have considerable proprietary technology for lead optimization, but we INTEGRATE with best of breed providers for technologies outside our wheelhouse.

In the past, “Second Layer Technology” plays have been undervalued, if not dismissed, as Middleware. However, a company as brilliant as Apple obviously feels otherwise about Siri which inspires me to think of DoublePositive in a similar light.

Did I mention I love Apple? :-)

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

DoublePositive posted a Twitter status update merely seconds ago about LeadsCon.

Now when I perform a LeadsCon search with the hash tag, I see the actual Twitter post:

This is all very interesting.

http://blogs.doublepositive.com/2009/12/03/google-alerts-very-interesting/

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Happy New Year Everyone! :-)

I am going to try and do a repeat performance to last-year’s real-time blogging at the stroke of midnight.

I’m using Google again as the clock (EST):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=time

I should concede that Google is certainly cyclical if not bullish on Predictions in general:

No matter.  Personally, I’m always bullish about predictions. But then again, I’m biased. ;-)

Here are my Predictions for 2010:

1.  2010 is the Year of the (Internet) Device and of the (Internet) Transfer

iPod, iPhone, iSlate = LIVE Internet Communication devices. DoublePositive handles LIVE communications with consumers better than anyone and transfers calls over voice lines and data over Internet connections.

2.  2010 is the Year of the Musician

The Greatest Musicians of our Generation Go Device-less in 2010:

• Pat Metheny (Orchestrion)
• Bobby McFerrin (As Usual)
• Guitar Hero & Rock Band Champions

3.  Some Great Internet Companies Go Public in 2010

• QuinStreet
• Glam Media/Demand Media
• LiveOps
• Etc.

4.  Some Great Internet Companies DO NOT Have an IPO in 2010

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

5.  Food Rules the Day

Most adults in 2010 will take a hard look at their own body weight. They will also come to the realization that diet affects this number far more than exercise. However, Cooking is an art with many artists. Grocery shopping, prepping (a la sous chef), serving, and cleaning is not art and is not fun. The process of finding a place that will sell you food that is good for you and your family will rise to new heights in 2010.

6.  The Ultimate Currency in 2010

A lot of debate will circulate about the ultimate currency of Gold/Money (from many countries). Also, the evergreen debate that Happiness/Laughter is the ultimate currency in the entire universe will continue.

However, my prediction for the Ultimate Currency in 2010 will be the Consistency/Predictability of People/Humans.

7.  Avatar dominates movie chatter but never eclipses Star Wars

I understand that James Cameron is a fan of George Lucas and has always been chasing him professionally. Avatar will not allow Cameron to eclipse Lucas. The technology and science is far superior in every capacity, but the art of the story line does not even hold a candle.  Lucas simply uses The Force better.

8.  A new “simple” philosophy is taught to youths that gains traction:

• Go to school – stay in school
• Get married – stay married
• Get a job – keep a job

9.  LIVE STILL MATTERS

Please see Predictions for 2009. Nuff said.

10.  2010 is the best year in years for all of us in the FREE-est and most-TRANSPARENT country on the planet.

The USA economy will find a “New Normal” of 10% unemployment will continue to prosper. However, most working adults will “feel” this prosperity in 2010. 2010 is the year.

Cheers all! :-)

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

Any self-respecting-predicting-blogger always needs to review his past predictions before moving on with the new ones.

Let’s take a look at my Predictions for 2009:

http://blogs.doublepositive.com/2009/01/01/goodbye-2008-review-2008-predictions/

Oops, wait. That was 2008.

Here is 2009:

http://blogs.doublepositive.com/2009/01/01/hello-2009-predictions-for-2009/

Here’s what I predicted.

1. Things Changed

Yup. Nailed that one.

2. People and Businesses Will Try Harder than Ever to Avoid Pain

Yup. Nailed that one.

3. People and Businesses Will Try Harder than Ever to Gain Pleasure

Yup. Nailed that one.

4. "Other" People in our lives become more clearly classified as either People, Friends, Community, Network, Associates, Colleagues, Traffic.

Tough to be objective about this one, so let’s see what Google says:

Hmmm. I know I’m biased, but I think I’m right on this one.

5. The "Best" Athletes Emerge

This prediction-headline doesn’t say enough. The rest of the prediction was as follows:

2008 was the year of the athlete. Tiger Woods (winning the U.S. Open on a broken leg), Michael Phelps (winning 8 Gold Medals and setting a new world record), the Redeem Team, etc.). However, something tells me the REAL athlete stories won’t break until 2009. No clue who or what they might be, but my Spidey-senses are tingling on this one.

Wow, I named Tiger Wood and Michael Phelps. Both fell hard in the headlines in 2009 for different reasons. I’m equally shocked that the redeem team (of whom I was critical of for poor teamwork) has "Emerged" as the "Best" behaving athletes.

I’m biased but I want to take credit for nailing this one, but I won’t take credit for it in the total since it is far too subjective.

6. Internet Collaborative "Art" is officially born.

Yup. Nailed this one. Guitar Hero. Rock Band. YouTube. It’s now here and it’s awesome. Nuff said.

http://www.amazon.com/Maestro-Surprising-Story-Leading-Listening/dp/1591842883

7. Science Wins

Easy prediction, so I don’t deserve any points/credit for this one either.

It’s simple.

Science scales. Art doesn’t.

8. Mobile Explodes (but not Mobile Advertising. yet)

iPhone changed everything in mobile. iPad may do the same:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=ipad

The very word "mobile" now sounds outmoded if not antiquated.

Specific to the prediction, I call it a push. Ask any consumer about Mobile Advertising in 2009 and nobody ever noticed a blip on the radar. However on the B2B side of that same question, we witnessed the smartest company ever (Google) acquire AdMob for a reported 20X top line revenue (for a not-profitable business). Shortly thereafter, the biggest VC Fund on the planet (NEA) invested heavy in Millennial Media.

So, maybe "Mobile" did explode this year. ;-)

I am going to count this as a miss.

9. LIVE Matters

Yup. Nailed this one. I know personally, I shook more hands and looked into more eyes this year than ever before in my life.

10. Don’t Panic. Be Happy.

Yup. Nailed this one. At least I did what I predicted.

All totaled, I give myself 8 out of 10. A solid B.

Now on to 2010 and BEYOND! :-)

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

I’ve been a long-time user of Google Alerts.

http://www.google.com/alerts

Like most, the first alert I setup was my own name.

I’m also an active user on Twitter.

Very interesting that for the first time (just moments ago), I received a Google Alert from a Twitter update I just Tweeted moments ago:

I clicked this link:

The Google Alert term was “Sean Fenlon”

Bottom line is that Google is now real-time search.

I promise. it all makes sense.

SPF

Post By
Sean Fenlon

This is a fantastic interview video. 

Jason Calacanis (who is very smart and successful) interviews Matt Coffin (who is very smart and successful) on TWiST #27:

http://www.blip.tv/file/2852558

Matt Coffin was the first to hear the Calacanis/Mahalo pitch and the first investor in Jason’s most recent startup Mahalo — he also sits on their board.  Matt was also the 27th guest on Calcanis’s TWiST. ;-)

Matt Coffin was still the head of LowerMyBills.com when they began their partnership with DoublePositive back in 2006.

For those that prefer to just read highlights rather than watch, here are my most memorable Matt Coffin moments:

Startups are INCREDIBLY DRAINING!

Startups are also INCREDIBLY ADDICTING!

Matt recaps the story of LowerMyBills.com through 2007.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is EVERYTHING.

Steve Jobs is the active Entrepreneur/CEO Matt admires most.  “He probably is perfect”

-Pixar only produces $1+ Billion movies – and it is Steve Jobs’ “SIDE” Business! :-)

It’s a long video but awesome-ness is front-loaded.  The call-ins are plenty interesting, but only if you can commit another hour or so.

SPF