BradBerens.com
Thoughts about where our real and digital worlds collide.

  • Social Media Quote of the Year: Facebook is like a tattoo…

    Social Media Quote of the Year from our 16 y.o. babysitter Emily Wolfram: “Facebook is like a tattoo. Make it trashy and it will keep you from getting jobs in the future. Keep it classy and it will be something you have your whole life.” This is one smart kid. I’m continually impressed by her…

  • Mom for a Day. Oy Vey!

    My wife Kathi left to teach in L.A. this morning and so I became the POD (Parent on Duty), also known as “Substitute Mom.” That was less than 12 hours ago & I’m totally frazzled. Unlike most of my posts, this has nothing to do with media– think of it as highly individualized anthropology.  Cue…

  • TV Trans-Genre Moments: Last Night’s “Castle”

    Note: Massive, Promiscuous Spoiler Alerts– you have been warned Last night saw the fourth season premiere of “Castle” on ABC, and it was an enjoyable hour-long police procedural that has as its main job to UNDO everything that had been done during the cliff-hanger end of the third season, but in doing so the show…

  • Interesting Tidbits for September 10th

    Things worth reading for August 22nd through September 10th: Gartner Negative on PC Growth – Zacks.com – Last of several links about the lack of growth in the PC market. Gartner Cuts PC Growth Estimates, Blaming Economy, Tablets | News & Opinion | PCMag.com – Third of several links about the lack of growth in…

  • Ecosystem Shakeups: Q&A with Urban Airship CEO Scott Kveton… Or… Amazon, Apple & Android: Oh My!

    Matthew Ingram’s GigaOm article last week, “Amazon shows media companies the future of the web,” provocatively argued that the e-commerce giant’s Kindle Cloud Reader was more than just a way around the 30% cut that Apple charges for books purchased via the Kindle app on the iPad or iPhone.  What the e-book retailer has also done…

  • 

Portland Startups to work with Target, Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Wieden + Kennedy

    Our industry has relapsed into a high digital startup fever, but this time with a new twist— brands working directly with entrepreneurs in order to find the next hot digital companies at the earliest possible stage and to stay at the sharpest edge of marketing innovation. We’ve seen this elsewhere with the PepsiCo10 in New…

  • Netflix’s Big OOPS– didn’t these guys take Psych 101?

    Topline takeway for this post: Netflix has screwed up, turning unconsidered background choices into front-of-mind considerations. They don’t understand how pleasure and satisfaction work. I’m on vacation and somewhat unplugged, but I was still connected enought to receive a surprising email from Netflix yesterday saying that if I want to retain both unlimited streaming and…

  • Interesting Tidbits for June 21st

    Things worth reading for May 30th through June 21st: Xbox Will Introduce Interactive Ads to Games – NYTimes.com – Neat! Nielsen sees Web grocery growth, plans new service | Reuters – Digital Lifescapes: More Mobile Broadband Subscribers than on Wireline – Onswipe Wants To Make Slate, Forbes And Your Website Feel Like A Native Tablet…

  • New Evernote Trick: Combine & Print Notes

    Post Updated: Feedback from Adam Boettiger showed me that my initial post wasn’t clear.  I’ve now clarified the paragraph with the asterisk, below, to make my point pointier. I’m becoming more and more fond of Evernote, but I also like having a printed-out copy of my multitudinous To Do lists so that I have an…

  • The Death of Media Channel Loyalty: What the New Pew Data Shows Us

    Over the holiday weekend the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released data showing that 24% of internet users have placed calls online, up from 8% of internet users in 2007. The precise wording of the question was: “Please tell me if you ever use the internet to make a phone call online, using…