Duck and Cover - flying shoes in Iraq

"This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," the journalist shouted (in Arabic). After seeing the video on CNN, I couldn't understand what the guy was shouting while he is being attacked by the security, but I was watching the news today, and the reporter was saying while he was throwing his second shoe "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Today there's a protest all over the middle east to release the reporter, but he is been held by the security and might be charged with an assault. This will go down in history as Bush ducked from shoes attacked in press conference.

Big Three auto CEO - From private jets to hybrid cars

The Big 3 have launched a massive campaign to repair their public image. In the latest automaker about-face, GM CEO arrived at the bailout hearings in a Chevy Malibu hybrid - jet not included.

Both Ford CEO and Chrysler CEO also drove - as in, no private jet - to the bailout hearings in hybrid cars made by their respective companies.
These moves come in the wake of massive public outrage at the Big 3 when its CEO's arrived in Washington for the first bailout hearings in private jets and without detailed plans for how they would handle the bailout money. Outraged headlines such as "Begging for public funds in private jets" popped up all over the media.

VW Unpimp your ride

Sarah Palin and the "You've Got To Be Kidding" Tour

Yet she has a bright political future. She has the ability to tell a story that motivates. She fills arenas and generates enthusiasm. And with the Republican Party's problems with the female vote, she could be the answer to many of their problems. Sarah Palin is not going quietly into the Aurora Borealis. This moose-hunting Momma and political gunslinger will be back. Anyone who underestimates her appeal and unbridled ambition has not seen the bodies left behind in her home turf of frozen tundra.

The Long Tail - Chris Anderson

The long tail article by Anderson, covered how the media and entertainment industries will succeed not by pushing only mass market hits that are popular among many but by also mining the "long tail" of interest among a few in less-popular books, songs, movies and more. As we discussed in class that top 20% in any market makes more profit than the other 80%, however Anderson in his article says, that the other 80% can create as much profit as the top 20%. Sure, maybe thousands want to buy a hit song. But add up all those who want to buy lesser-known titles, and they might generate as much or more revenue than the hits themselves. As a merchant, you want to tap into both the "head" of interest and the "long tail" that follows behind. The first is we forget that the 20 percent rule in the entertainment industry is about hits, not sales of any sort. We're stuck in a hit-driven mindset - we think that if something isn't a hit, it won't make money and so won't return the cost of its production. We assume, in other words, that only hits deserve to exist. Like executives at iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix, has discovered that the "misses" usually make money, too. And because there are so many more of them, that money can add up quickly to a huge new market.

The tail makes much more sense when you see charts that illustrate it, such as the one below:

The point I was explaining in that article is that there are a large number of queries that happen far less often than the "leading" terms like "hit song" or "just a song" at the head of the list. Most queries form the long tail that's illustrated behind the head. Tap into the tail, and you've got sizable traffic, as well as traffic that often is reported to convert better than less general terms.

In other words, search has a long tail too. While it might not be new to search, it's certainly great to have the tail becoming more popularized in general. That's because it will further help those search marketers who mistakenly fixate on only the most popular terms to realize they need to consider the tail as well.

War, Inc (Movie or Reality)

War, Inc. is a political and advertising stratgies that takes place in the near-future. Cusack plays Brand Hauser, American private corporation run by a former U.S. Vice President. In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the warn-torn nation offers, the corporations CEO hires Hauser a corporate assassin who is hired by the Tamerlane Corporation to kill the middle-eastern oil minister in the recently “liberated” Turaqistan. The Tamerlane Corporation has just completed the first ever fully corporate armed invasion of a sovereign country, and Hauser is sent in with the cover story that he is preparing the Tamerlane trade show to promote the company’s interests in the post-war country.

One of his main duties at the show is to help organize the very public wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) who is a national pop star and super-skanky sex icon. And while I’ve never cared much for Hilary Duff, she seems like a totally different person when you see her playing the slutty, half-naked seductress. The movie itself is quite entertaining, and very funny. There’s absolutely tons of situational and ironic humor. Like the fact that all the tanks have advertisements attached to them. Or that the headquarters for the head boss of Tamerlane is a bunker under a Popeye’s. And everything is just way over the top. Like the soldiers, who act as though hopped up on way too much caffeine and who just scream and shoot everything in sight. I could go on and on about the humor. But the idea behind this movie, is this actually going to happened, is large corporation will be so big to the point they influence government, and persuade other countries to keep having wars because it's good for business. This movie might be very humor but it actually touches really good points behind this humor, and we can see some it actually happening........I recommend you watch it.

Coca Cola - Rats Mission

This Coca-Cola ad one of the funniest and creative ad I saw for soft drink. I like the idea for having rats creating vegetable costume to sneak in the fridge. But this is not the end, after sneaking in the fridge, the rat finds out that he is not the only rat wear a vegetable costume to get Coca-Cola. Then the commercial change to Hollywood scene, because all 3 rats will have to fight to get what they want. The idea was pretty fascinating. As I always noticed, European commercials are more interesting and well done than American's commercials.

How much profit does iTunes makes on music?

Apple has repeatedly said that its iTunes Store operates at "just above break even"
Apple's iTunes Music Store could capture 20 per cent of the US paid-music download market, claims Needham's analyst Charles Wolf in a report this week.

Wolf believes Apple could generate annual revenues of $600 million through its store, and that this figure could increase. He describes the Store as "providing an arguably superior customer experience."

His figures represent Apple's potential yield from porting its service to Windows. The store's sales have settled to about 500,000 per week. "This demand appears to be significantly higher than Apple or the labels anticipated," he says.

Wolf advises: "At a profit of less than ten cents per song, the Music Store does not represent a major income opportunity for Apple. Pull-through sales of the iPod portable music player is likely to represent a far larger one, in our opinion."

His report – which claims that the market for unauthorized downloads now exceeds retail music sales – suggests that Apple's dollar-per-download model could capture around 16 per cent of the free file sharing market.

"This translates into $2.9 billion incremental revenues for the US music industry, equivalent to over a 20 per cent increase in annual revenues," he wote.

The analyst takes a look at the economics of the service, which he estimates earns Apple between five and ten cents per song, or $25 million in annual revenues and $2.5 million in annual operating income.

On a 99 cent single, Apple pays about $0.65, he claims, and adds: "Apple incurs three variable expenses in delivering songs. One is the cost of servers. A second expense is bandwidth," he says.

The third major expense for Apple is credit card charges. Credit card companies charge 25 cents for each transaction plus 2-3 per cent of the amount charged.

Because 46 per cent of music sold through the store are albums (at $9.99), and because singles buyers tend to buy multiple tracks in each purchase session, and because Apple combines individual transactions made each day before recording transactions with the credit card companies, credit card charges are kept low, Wolf says.

"Apple receives some price breaks from the credit card companies because of the sales volumes it generates," he adds.

iPod sales also benefit from Apple's music strategy. Releasing a Windows version of the service means: "Apple will offer music management software for portable music players that is arguably the best in the market." Sales of Windows version iPods now exceed those of the Mac version, Wolf reveals, "with the difference continuing to grow,"

The analyst estimates that Apple's annual revenue from the store once it releases a Windows version will be around $600 million with operating income of approximately $60 million.

"If we've erred on this assessment, it's probably on the low side with respect to possible revenues but on the high side with respect to the margin that Apple is likely to earn," he writes.

Apple closed at a 52-week high last night – $20.90 per share.