Danica Patrick featured in myNationwide Magazine

Danica Patrick, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Indy Racing League star is featured in the February edition of myNationwide Magazine. Danica joins Junior Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. as spokespersons for Nationwide Insurance.

The article provides insight into her career both on and off the track including her many commercial advertisement endeavors. Though a polarizing driver among some NASCAR fans, Danica's supporters are just as passionate as those not sold on her. She's the most successful female race car driver in both NASCAR and Indy Racing League history so she's set and is setting the example for many future little girls who want to race some day. Here's to a successful year of racing.

Checkout Danica Patrick's feature in myNationwide Magazine.

Chrysler 200 Wieden + Kennedy Television Ads

Chrysler and Wieden + Kennedy team up for the best 2011 Super Bowl ad "Imported from Detroit" featuring Eminem. The ad announces the new Chrysler 200 but the message is how Detroit is bouncing back by delivering an product worthy of international recognition. If you saw my previous post on the Grand Cherokee, I'm very impressed with Wieden + Kennedy's ability to deliver impactful creative to the target audience. My only question is why Chrysler chose the 200 and not the flagship 300, which this commercial was certainly worthy of introducing.

Check it out below and comment:

Jeep Grand Cherokee Wieden + Kennedy Television Ads

Wieden + Kennedy Television Ads

Wieden + Kennedy's television ads for Chrysler have my attention. And no, I'm not, nor have I ever been a Chrysler customer. I have nothing against the brand other I've always been a General Motors or Toyota guy. The Grand Cherokee ads released in 2010 (My favorite is the September 11th release) and the Chrysler 200 ad released during the 2011 Super Bowl are examples of impactful, attention getting creative that is very tightly aligned with the brands they are promoting. (I'll cover the Chrysler 200 in my next post)

The Jeep Grand Cherokee

The Jeep has been and was known for years as the ultimate street-ready off-roading vehicle. OK, maybe not the Grand Cherokee model but certainly the Wrangler and the Cherokee. However, the Grand Cherokee historically had enough off-roading capability to sell to suburbanites who wanted to believe they had the option to go off-road rather the vehicle really could hang with the real off-roaders or not.

I didn't write, nor do I have insight into the marketing strategy brief Chrysler delivered Wieden + Kennedy, but I assume the target audience was men 30 to 60 who want more off-roading functionality than the sanitized cross-overs offer. Or as Wieden + Kennedy noted the, faux-by-fours. Regardless of the brief, they delivered a spot that clearly gets the attention of and the message across to 4x4 owners like me with families that like to venture off-road and actually use their SUV's for hauling and towing things bigger than bikes and canoes. View the spots below and note the strong wording in the text intro that sets the viewers frame of mind:

In a class of vehicles populated mostly by mall-crawlers and faux-by-fours, the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee separates itself by combining the craftsmanship you expect from a Grand Cherokee with the Trail Rated off-road capability you expect from a Jeep.

I'll cover the "Imported from Detroit" television ad in my next post.

Zanesville Blue Devil Football in the Playoffs

High School Football Playoff Time

My alma mater, the Zanesville Blue Devils football team completed the 2010 high school football season with a 9-1 record for the second year, but this year, we are playoff bound. The Blue Devils will play at Marion-Franklin in Columbus tonight and I'll be there to support.

The Season

Though the team compiled an impressive 9-1 record, just like last year, a lot of the teams on the schedule played poorly and had bad records, which provided Zanesville fewer points in the playoff ranking system. The result is the Blue Devils are the 8th seed and lower ranked than some teams with worse records. But, once you're in, all of this no longer matters, win and you advance. The Blue Devils are averaging an impressive 39.9 points per game.

The Game

Marion-Franklin is top ranked in the region and has a very fast team. Zanesville has speed, but not as much. Instead, coach Grandstaff will do his usual job of adjusting to the situation and use his team's size to control the ballgame. The weather may help the Blue Devils. As of this morning, it's snowing lightly on the west side of Columbus and as a former player, I can attest that cold temperatures can reduce the effect that speed can have on a game. Passing can be hurt as well, but both teams do that well.

What the Media is Saying

Various media outlets have provided game previews: Zanesville Times Recorder, The Columbus Dispatch, JJ Huddle playoff bracket (requires Adobe reader).

Ohio University Homecoming 2010

This Saturday, I'll be taking the kids to Ohio University's Homecoming 2010. It will be a chance to share the sights and places I used to visit daily and weekly is always a special opportunity. Plus it's going to be fun to see the many changes that have occurred on campus since my last visit. Note that my last visit from spring quarter, but since my time living on campus, it seems that nearly half the town has changed.

Commercialism

East State Street is much more commercialized and there is even a Walmart, which I never thought would happen considering the local business friendly atmosphere that existing in my day. I assume some of the local-business culture still exists from my day, considering it was only 10 years ago. Some of my favorite restaurants are in Athens and use locally grown ingredients and the best is Casa Nueva. Some other restaurants have even closed; however, that just means there are some new locations I have yet to discover.

Scripps School of Journalism

For a few years now, I've been coming to campus at least once per quarter to speak to Scripps School of Journalism students about Interactive and Digital Marketing strategies and tactics. I always leave the students with my experience of what public relations means once out of school. It's really defined by each company, and so today's students must be able to adapt to the organization in which they are employed. This requires students to have a broad background with exposure to a variety of communications and marketing disciplines. In short, I enjoy my time giving back and sharing my knowledge at my alma mater.

NASCAR Browser Theme for Internet Explorer

At Nationwide Insurance, we just announced our first NASCAR browser theme for IE. This is adds to our existing NASCAR browser theme for Firefox. Make sure to check it out and download.

LeBron Leaves Cleveland for Miami

LeBron announced tonight on ESPN he's leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. He said he's seeking a place where he can, "win now and in the future." In his mind, this meant he couldn't play in Cleveland.

I grew up in eastern Ohio and the Cavaliers are my favorite NBA team. I'm very upset to see LeBron leave, and more upset that he has to leave since he couldn't recruit another star to Cleveland. However, I'm also upset with the pathetic reaction from fans in Cleveland. Lets use our heads and think about the long-term impact of such short-sighted reaction. (Check out http://www.cavfanatic.com/ for some of the comments being made on the team's official site) Wonder why LeBron's leaving?

1. He wants to win now: and this can't happen without recruiting at least one superstar. No offense Shaq, but under the age of 40.

2. Cleveland fans are not appealing to star players: he would have stayed had he been able to recruit a superstar. He tried to get Chris Bosh, but he said "no." We'll never know how many other players were turned off by Cleveland. Cleveland fans....did you ever wonder if the harsh responses to past Browns and Indians players, coaches and owners went unnoticed by those stars that have the options play in other cities??? I'm sick of the juvenile act and I'm a fan living in Ohio. We'll never get the top players, coaches, etc.

3. The NBA is a poorly managed league: it's all about the big markets, and it has shallow, shortsighted objectives. Just like Major League Baseball, NBA small market teams and their fans are treated second class by the league office. This isn't my opinion, just look at what teams win the most games and championships. If the league wanted to fix it, regulations would be put in place like the NFL.

In all, I'm most upset with the league. I don't blame LeBron for wanting to be in a better place to win. The league has failed the small market fan and I really don't care to hear the league whine when profits decline league-wide when fans turn their loyalty to other sports. My hard-earned money won't be spent to watch perennial losers. That's not entertainment, that's foolishness.

Most popular sports

While I'm at it, I'll share my thoughts on MLB. As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I'm through with the league office for letting the Pirates go 18 years without a winning season! That's right, not a winning season since the large-market San Francisco Giants took Barry Bonds away. What a joke, and don't bother telling me it's poor team management. That doesn't explain the other losers like Kansas City and so on. No wonder the NFL and college football are the most popular American sports; especially when the small-market teams (Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New Orleans) win championships.

NASCAR Drivers' Meeting Webcast: Kentucky

It's not often that NASCAR broadcasts a drivers' meeting to the public. In fact, I've been told its only happened once, when Sprint broadcasted a Sprint Cup drivers meeting via its mobile app, and it was accessible only via Sprint mobile phones. As for the Nationwide Series, it has never had a drivers' meeting broadcast to the public. Since we at Nationwide Insurance are always looking for ways to bring fans closer to the NASCAR action, we thought a webcast at our Nationwide Series site would offer an unique insider experience.

After much planning and anticipation of the end result, I'm glad to say the webcast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers' meeting at Kentucky Speedway turned out great. As you know, in my Interactive Marketing position at Nationwide, I have been working very closely with my partners at Turner Entertainment; specifically the partners assigned to NASCAR, based in Atlanta and Detroit. Though we've had our www.NASCARnationwideseries.com site up and running since the week prior to the season's launch at Daytona, there are still times that we launch a new tactic that gets me excited; this was one.

The satellite truck, microwave and IP-based backups, and other complexities had me eager to see us pull the webcast off... and we did. Checkout the highlights from the meeting for yourself. (Highlights should remain live through June 18)

If you're one of the very few fans to get into a drivers' meeting before, you'll recognize how this meeting was run just like always, without any "playing to the cameras". Well... OK, Kenny Wallace and John Aman did acknowledge the camera, but other than that, it was as authentic as it gets. Great job Nationwide and Turner!

2010 Triple Crown Thoroughbred Horse Racing

My Horse Racing Background

I'm a Horse Racing fan and have been at least since the late '90's. I've been waiting to witness the first Triple Crown since the year of my birth. I'll let you all do the research to determine that year, but those of you who are horse racing fans already know.

A few current and past-coworkers of mine make at least one trip a year to Scioto Downs to bring our families together for fun and show our skills (or lack of) at picking the best pacers and trotters. My dad and I ran a long string of making an annual trip to the Little Brown Jug, the mecca of Pacer Racing in Delaware, Ohio. My dad learned horses from his dad (my grandpa was also a regular at the Little Brown Jug) as well as his time working the stables at the Muskingum County Fairgrounds in Zanesville as a kid. I like to think I've leveraged all this experience to deliver some expertise when making my picks, and I've had some success the last few times out.

Kentucky Derby

I'm a big fan of the race that happens the first Saturday in March at Churchill Downs, yet have never had a betting interest. (Nor have I attended in person, though I wish to.) I rarely even have a favorite, but I must admit, I'm a Calvin Borel fan and have found myself pulling for him since his first Derby win in 2007. His genuine love of the sport is what I glean from being around guys like my grandpa, dad, their friends and others like them at the track. They're interest is deeper than placing calls at a window, wearing expensive clothes, big hats and drinking $1,000 Mint Julips out of sterling silver engraved cups.

Calvin's win this year was his 3rd in the last 4 races at Churchill Downs on Derby Day and certainly cannot be considered luck. This guy is a very good, if not great jockey that needed the confidence of winning in 2007 to allow him to take the risks needed to win in 2009 and 2010. And by the way, I'm most impressed by his accomplishments in 2009. He won the Derby on a horsed named Mine That Bird, a 50-1 long-shot and two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes (and after having been pulled off Mine That Bird) he won the race with a filly named Rachel Alexandra. This was the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes since 1924 (85 years) so no small feat in itself.

Calvin won the 2010 Kentucky Derby on Super Saver. The horse won with his signature riding of the rail, but I didn't see the potential to win the Triple Crown and neither did a lot of those in "the know".

Preakness Stakes

Calvin rode Super Saver in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico outside Baltimore. His loss meant another year without a Triple Crown winner. Lookin At Lucky's victory was no surprise as his had 2-1 odds at the race start.

Belmont

For the first time that I can remember, neither the Derby or Preakness winning horse will run in New York at the Belmont Stakes. This is a sad state of affairs for the sport in my opinion.

What's wrong with Thoroughbred Racing?

Don't tell me that going over 30 plus years without a Triple Crown winner isn't a problem if you're managing a sport that has an aging fan base and needs some younger fans. I'm not here to state what the issue is for sure, but those closely to the sport than I have speculated that the breeding isn't what it used to be. So this means all the horses racing genetically are not differentiated enough for any one horse to win three consecutive races in 5 weeks. OK, I may be making more of this than there is, so I'll end on this fact. The Triple Crown has only been won by 11 horses in it's history.

HTC Evo 4G

First 4G Phone Ever

A title such as, "First 4G Phone Ever" may mean little to you if you don't know much about the mobile space, but trust me, this is a milestone. The phone will work on the nation's first and only 4G wireless network from Sprint.

A Little 4G History

For years I've been reading about the frequency spectrum auctions in Washington, D.C. the potential wireless speeds offered by 4G and the advent of High Definition television. OK, this seems like I'm just dumping information at you so I'll reserve the history of events surrounding 4G for later. But you can't discuss this phone without realizing the historical value. For what seems like at least 10 years, I've heard about the possibility of blazing fast surfing of the web wirelessly via a wireless carrier and it's finally here with the HTC Evo 4G.

The Device

The stat sheet is amazing, but the major features that stand out to me are:

• Only phone capable of 4G network data connectivity/speeds
• 4.3" screen capable of HD playback
• Rearfacing, 8.0 mega-pixel HD 720p camera
• Video telecommunications using the a front facing, 1.3 mega-pixel camera
• HDMI output to your HDTV @ 720p
• Mobile hotspot (can serve as router to 8 computers via Wi-Fi)
• Android 2.1 OS
• 1Ghz Snapdragon processor
• Digital compass
• FM radio (hey, I'm a radio guy, just wished it had AM too)
• and more

Checkout the full spec. sheet at Sprint.com. And, the pre-release review from Engadget and the video below.

Here the phone is video teleconnecting with another HTC Evo 4G. Now you'll be able to do video calls from your mobile.

HDTV delivered to a television by the Evo 4G

It's Mine

I'm getting this phone on June 4 when it hits Sprint stores. As a Sprint customer for over 10 years, I have seen the company deliver on its 3G network prior to any other carrier (for that matter, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T still have areas of the U.S. without 3G coverage) and I have faith that working with proven 4G supplier Clearwire, it will pull off 4G.

As with any new smartphone with these kinds of stats, some have already starting calling this an iPhone killer. This will not happen as Apple loyalists will stick with the iPhone for reasons beyond my understanding, but only time will tell for sure if this image will be true.

The Google Phone - Nexus One

My Interest in Mobile Devices

Those of you that know me, know that my position as Interactive Marketing Consultant at Nationwide Insurance has been working on a full breadth of websites, microsites, email, mobile, social media and search marketing tactics. However, outside of work I have interest in some areas more than others depending on my interest cycle. You know what I mean, sometimes an email peaks your interest and your evaluating email metrics and best practices to sharpen your knowledge. However, mobile devices have always been a passion of mine. And I mean even beyond cell phones; I've had my share of GPS, two-way radios, marine radios, shortwave radios, etc.

Google Nexus One

At a recent Interactive Marketing conference held by Resource Interactive, I was lucky enough to win a brand new, Google Nexus One. The phone is a blast, it's a multimedia powerhouse that plays video and leverages the many apps offered for Google's Android operating system. However, the most appealing feature to someone like me is the future-proof promises from Google to keep updating this device so it doesn't become outdated in months like the Apple iPhone and other devices frequently do. Let me, you probably know a friend or colleague who paid top dollar for the iPhone, only for a new version to come out weeks later at the same or lower price.

The device is out in America on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks and Google has released plans for a CDMA version for Verizon Wireless and Sprint. My big question is, with all the manufacturers building phones with the Android operating system, will Google allow the non-Google Phone devices become outdated while they update the Google Phone?

Check it Out

As with any popular device, many websites have detailed information on the Nexus One. Check out this CNET.com video:

I'm Waiting on the HTC Evo 4G

Though I own the Nexus One, I'm sticking with Sprint and waiting on the HTC Evo 4G, which is scheduled for a June 9 launch. Be sure to check back for my pre-release review of that device.

Social Media is about Engagement Marketing, not Direct Response

Engagement is Critical

You know I'm always surprised at work when an agency proposes an interactive marketing tactic that leverages our social media channels and it has no engagement value. Just to reiterate what you've heard me say before, shamelessly hocking of products and services on your company's or clients' Facebook or Twitter pages (and other social media platforms for that matter) is missing the point. Social media is about engagement and interaction with your company or client's fans, customers, potential customers, stakeholders, etc. Social media is not a direct response marketing vehicle. It's frequently quoted by "experts" that, "If your channels have little to no two-way communication, it might be a sign that you aren't maximizing its potential." But how true is this? Is this always the case?

Is a Lack of Interaction an Indicator of a Lack of Engagement?

No, social media metrics are still being discovered and discussed by every company in the space. So what's that mean to you? Don't let a lack of commenting lead you to stopping the channel due to a perceived lack of engagement; you may regret later and starting it up at a later time could be more difficult than you think. For example, I've seen some statistics indicate some 60% to 70% of "active" (don't ask me what they are defining as "active") social media users/consumers rarely comment, but are regular consumers of content. They are reading your messages, watching your video and viewing your photos.

Definition of Engagement

Depending on the objectives you have for your social media channels, the activity noted above might be exactly what you desire for engagement. Why? Because social media engagement varies by company, by marketing campaign and each social media channel within every company. For example, if you're company is treating your Twitter channel as a new communication vehicle to pitch stories to the media, simply having a reporter read your posts and click any hyperlinks to your website or writing a story about our company based on the post is engagement.

How to Judge or Measure Success

In short, don't let others tell you what is working or not working, without you and them first reviewing your objectives and desired outcomes of your social media activities. Success will look different on every channel and may even vary by campaign. And don't beat yourself up if you can't produce definitive reports, nearly everyone company, including the major ones are struggling with social media metrics.

Cable and Mobile Device Broadband Speed Tests

Broadband Benchmarking

I'm waiting to buy the new HTC Evo 4G from Sprint on June 4th to replace my current Samsung Instinct. The Evo 4G is the first phone to run on a 4G network in America. I'm benchmarking my home and current 3G cell phone speeds for comparative reasons. I'm using DSLreports.com for the tests. The tests used were the cable broadband speed test and mobile broadband speed test, both are available for you to use for your own tests. Also, I didn't use, but you may want to if you have an iPhone this iPhone broadband speed test, which claims to also test all smartphones.

Wide Open West

My home cable provider is WOW Cable Internet and though I don't need to run a test to know it's far better than Time Warner Roadrunner, (which run super thin cable to my home from the local box that degraded the signal strength no matter the package I bought) I want to benchmark it to the speed I'll get with 4G wireless. Here's the results at 7 a.m. ET on a Tuesday morning. If you can't see the graphic below, the download is 2033 kbit/sec. and the upload is 1015 kbit/sec. Not bad considering I pay for 2000 kbit/sec. Glad to see that unlike Time Warner, WOW delivers slightly over the speed I'm paying for and not like Time Warner that is ran slightly under when I had it.

Sprint's 3G network

Running my Samsung Instinct's built in browser, I ran a text file test and found 284 kbit/sec. This was consistent in two tests, which included downloading 400kb and 1mb files.

Time to Wait

I'll have an update in June once I have the 4G phone, it will also be interesting to see if the WOW stats change. I know that local usage and lower speeds too so maybe a mid-afternoon test is in order.

Ohio University Advances to the 2nd Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament

As an Ohio University Alum, I'm very excited to say that the Bobcats did what those of us who follow them knew they could do. They played unselfish basketball and punched the Georgetown Hoyas, seeded number 3, in the mouth on national television in prime time. Maybe the timing of the game and the fact that Georgetown commanded a large East Coast audience did my cell phone ring with text messages and voicemails all night. I had folks I hadn't talked to for some time and were not fans of Ohio University sharing their excitement for the upset. And, as avid sports fan, I'm sure everyone in America that watches college basketball is aware of the Ohio University Bobcats today. Lets hope the ride continues with a win over Tennessee. And if it does, expect to hear "Cinderella" modify the Bobcats name throughout the rest of the tournament. Go Cats!

The "roadblock" on OhioBobcats.com - March 19, 2010

OnYourSideline.com - Dot the "i" in Script Ohio

I know, it's late in the 2009 football season for this post, but if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you already saw this video. I'm excited to share the OnYourSideline.com website I helped build at Nationwide Insurance to support our sponsorship of the Ohio State Buckeyes. The website included a sweepstakes with a bowl trip, create your own dot the "i" video, Google map with game viewing locations and an application that features central Ohio agents.

Here is my video and the closest I'll get to dotting the "i" with the Ohio State Marching Band. Enjoy and make your own at OnYourSideline.com.

Scientific Adam and Biblical Adam

Scientific Adam
I watched Search for Adam, which is a show from National Geographic where scientists seek to utilize DNA to identify our common ancestor. It's very interesting to see how DNA can trace ancestry and how famous people's DNA has proven them to be of difference ethnic origins than popularly believed. In particular, Thomas Jefferson is proven to be of Middle Eastern descent. They traced him to around modern Lebanon. Yet his physical appearance is European. More interesting is how physical appearance seems to have limited correlation with your DNA. It's as if your appearance can relatively quickly adopt the 'local' look within a matter of few generations. I guess adapting to your environment?

The show also covers a study of the great Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan. His empire covered as far east as Korea, west as Turkey, south as China and north into Russia. His descendants number 16 million today, confirmed by tracing DNA. This is likely the result of conquering other peoples and taking their wives as their own.

As I do my own research I'll provide more detail on what I find, but for the rest of this post, let consider the info. from the limited research I've done and examine the facts from the show. Three of the world's major religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism teach the creation of man by God. The show therefore sets out to find DNA proof that every living human can be traced to one man's 'Y' chromosome. In summary, they successfully do so and they believe he is of east African origin. However, according to the show, this Scientific Adam, likely isn't the first Adam of the three major religions. Instead, he's a descendant of the first (Biblical) Adam.

Who Could Be Scientific Adam?
The show stops there and doesn't offer an explanation for who Scientific Adam is, other than to say (based on science or hypothesis) that he's not the first Adam, which I'll refer to as Biblical Adam going forward. I'm going to research, but my Christian Bible understanding already tells me this could be Noah, one of his ancestors or one of his sons. Note this quick background on genetics, the 'Y' chromosome is only in males and only comes from the father and is only passed to the son, therefore only men are studied here. However, be advised that a University of California at Berkeley study suggests we all have a common female ancestor as well, she's labeled, "the mitochondrial Eve", the show did not cover here and neither will I in this post.

The show concludes that the 'Y' chromosome can pick up unique deformities/mutations/flaws (I'm not using these words scientifically here) over the generations. These are harmless and have no negative health impact. Scientific Adam has a mutation on his 'Y' chromosome. Therefore, there is no human alive today with a 'perfect' 'Y' chromosome, if you use this logic (I cannot validate this, just going on what the show said).

One more point needs made. The Biblical Adam was created by God prior to the "fall of man", which was triggered by the first sin by Adam and Eve. Therefore, if he was created by God to have domain over the perfectly created universe (Gen 1:26-31, Gen 2:1) one could deduce his 'Y' chromosome might have been, or likely was, perfect.

Lets assign names to Scientific Adam
I'm willing to put names to Scientific Adam and I believe he can be narrowed to; Biblical Adam, or one of his descents, such as Noah, one of Noah's grandfathers or one of Noah's 3 sons that came off the ark to re-population the world with Noah's 3 daughters-in-law. If Noah, he was 10 generations from Biblical Adam and therefore the opportunity for a chromosome flaw was likely there. If one of Noah's sons, he's 11 generations from Biblical Adam.

What does the flawed 'Y' Chromosome mean?
Maybe absolutely nothing, and since I'm not a geneticists or doctor, I can't say with certainty. But consider, this, God destroyed the earth with the Flood due to humanity's wickedness. This wickedness included intermingling with fallen angels and thus a gene pool problem was possibly introduced into the human race (I have no scientific evidence, but my opinion is it's possible based on the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis chapter 6, note this is another topic for another day, but follow me here). Consider that all beings (man and animal) were annihilated on the earth except those on the ark. This suggests God wasn't exaggerating with his statement that all the earth was wicked.

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.'" (Genesis 6:5-7) *

Therefore, I'll deduce even those who God saved were only saved for their faith and personal relationships with God and not their perfect actions or their perfect genetics. So, wickedness may explain the genetic flaw in the 'Y' and the Flood my explain why all 6 Billion of us alive today are cousins, with one common great-great...grandfather who had a genetic 'Y' flaw.

Lets explore scenarios next.

If Biblical Adam
If you are following me on this, you may also be thinking of this scenario. God may have changed, Biblical Adam's 'Y' chromosome at the instance of the first sin back in the Garden of Eden. If so, Scientific Adam, may in fact be the same man as Biblical Adam. However, this seems unlikely. Why?

More Biblical research reveals that the Garden of Eden existed with four rivers running through it. The Euphrates is noted in Genesis as one of the four. This river runs through modern day Iraq. Scientific Adam is genetically traced to people now living in a region that borders Ethiopia and Tanzania in east Africa. If Biblical and Scientific Adams are the same man, he likely would have had to migrate to east Africa, which is well over a 1,500 mile trek and start his family there. Highly unlikely without a vehicle to transport him.

I should also note that the show did mention there is a belief that Scientific Adam likely had brothers and/or male cousins. The show didn't explain this statement so I don't know if this was hypothesis or fact based on DNA samples of deceased humans whose DNA is not represented by a single living human today. If this statement is based on DNA from deceased bodies, could this be from humans killed during the Flood or earlier?

If Noah's ancestors
Biblical Noah populated the world and Noah was 10 generations from Biblical Adam. It's not unreasonable to believe that Noah or one of his ancestors, such as his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. migrated to east Africa. This is difficult to follow since whichever of Noah's ancestor had the last 'Y' mutation could be Scientific Adam.

If Noah
This is easy, Noah would be the last male to have the last 'Y' mutation and his exact chromosome was passed to all his sons.

If one of Noah's sons
It gets tricky here so follow me and hope I don't misrepresent. The simplest scenario is two of Noah's three sons only had girls. Therefore their 'Y' chromosomes ended because they had no male descents to carry it on. In this scenario, the only 'Y' that passed was from the last remaining son of Noah who passed his along through son(s). The scenarios are endless here, but one of three tribes could have killed off the males of the two others, etc., etc. and may combinations of these could explain. Note, Scientific Adam could still be Noah in some of these scenarios. Scientific Adam could be one of Noah's sons if one of them had a 'Y' mutation that made their 'Y' different from Noah and only their 'Y' survived to us today.

Summary
I'm not going to address timeline as that could really become a long post, but know that at least three times science has changed its opinion how far back the human race started. The lesson I learned is that it is likely that we today are 200 to 300 generations from Adam, which means we are much closer in history to Biblical Adam than scientists originally thought.

It's safe to say that Biblical Adam is the father of all mankind and Noah is the most recent, common ancestor we all have. Depending on how you identify Scientific Adam, the base of our human tree could be very tall and skinny if one of Noah's ancestors is he, and I believe this to be the case. Why? I believe either the first sin by Adam resulted in an immediate 'Y' mutation or the wickedness prior to the flood introduced it and Noah happened to carry it with him on the ark and into the post-Flood earth.

*The Terrible Flood of Noah, by Lambert Dolphin Lambert Dolphin, Physicist Website

Goodbye 2009 and Welcome 2010

Happy New Year
And I hope that you and your family had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Ours sure did. We had family travel in from all over the U.S. and we even took our first trip to see friends in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Minneapolis
It was Lauren's first airline flight and although we prepared for the cold, it was much colder in early December than we expected. The difference in temperature in Minneapolis compared to Columbus, Ohio is significant, even though we are both Midwest states. We grilled outside in temperatures of -3 degrees. Oddly, after only 4 days, my body adjusted to the point that I was only wearing a long sleeve shirt on 30 degree days in Ohio. However, that has changed. I'm back to being cold when temps are in the 30's.

Christmas
Jesus Christ is the reason for the season if you need a refresher and we enjoyed Christmas Eve service at our church. Lauren enjoyed holding the candles as we sang. She also joined in the singing of Christmas songs.

My cousins came in from Oklahoma and Texas and we had fun catching up and playing games. Eric, head boys Chaplain at Oral Roberts University, who just left Oral Robert's funeral earlier in the week, delivered the Sunday message at Wings of Hope Tabernacle. We set up a slide show of his recent missionary trip to southeast Asia for all to enjoy. He and I have plans for delivering a conference via the Internet soon.

2009 recap
Our family enjoyed the news of another child on the way. Our first son is due in the new year. Our daughter is learning more and more daily. The basement project is officially started and we'll be looking for new equipment for the basement including a new HDTV. Misty is well into Nursing school and I started a new position as Interactive Marketing Consultant for Nationwide Insurance, which I really enjoy. It provides me the opportunity to utilized the problem solving skills I obtained with my MBA.

Fantasy football was a relatively good year. In my ESPN Pick'em league, I won the championship by picking the most teams to win. Last year, my "ace" Bob gave me a "lock" and we were booted out week 1. Also, I played in the fantasy football championship game, but lost by 20 points. However, I did win the office title by advancing further than any of the interactive marketing department folks.

My Steelers won the Super Bowl with big plays from Ohio boys. Harrison from Kent State dominated on defense and returned an interception for touchdown. Ben Roethlisberger from Findlay threw to Santonio Holmes from Ohio State to clinch the victory. The Cavs disappointed with a loss to Orlando in the conference finals and the Browns need a new coaching staff. Yes, I'm a Browns fan when they don't play Pittsburgh. The Blue Jackets are beyond frustration, so I won't comment.

2010 Blog
The direction of the blog has changed. If you've been following me, you know I've mixed in a lot of non-interactive topics. This will continue in 2010 as I cover many topics. I hope you enjoy and don't hesitate to comment, rather you agree or disagree, it's all my opinion, so no worries.

Nationwide Bank's Bank-to-Win Game

Nationwide Bank found success last year reaching out to its core customers using a daily instant win game. The game is engineered by ePrize which specializes in sweepstakes, instant win games, etc. Bank to Win is an example of how a marketing campaign can engage customers, including potential customers, on a daily basis to keep your brand top of mind when consumers begin to shop. Enter Nationwide's Bank to Win today or use the widget below.

Powerboating - Offshore Powerboating

If you've been out with me on my boat, you know I'm not setting any speed records. I have a 1985 Sea Sprite Mark Continental III with a 140 horsepower inline 4 Chevy engine. It gets up to 30 to 35 mph depending on what all we bring on board. However, because my boat doesn't push the limit on the waves that doesn't mean I don't enjoy boats with a lot of speed.

I've had an interest in boats ever since I can remember. My parents tell me that I was out on our family's boat when I was 6 months old. We went on the Muskingum River to watch the July 4th celebrations. We launched in our 14 foot Malibu Lone Star from Ellis Dam and sat just north of the entrance to Lock 10. I often watched Miss Budweiser, Circus Circus and the other hydroplane challengers of the day when the races were covered by ESPN when it was still a new network.

My family didn't take the boat out much once I was in junior high school, so my interest waned to some exist until my week-long stay in South Beach Miami in 2002. It was my first real experience around off-shore boats. Not only did the boats look nice, but they had the largest gasoline engines powering them and some even utilized turbine power like some naval ships and commercial airplanes use. So in short, we are talking about boats with hundreds and thousands of horsepower and pounds of thrust. No, I didn't get to ride or drive any of them. In fact, few owners of boats way north of $100,000 would consider letting admirers "pilot" (drive for you landlubbers) their boats.

I'm sure I'll post more about boats, but for now. Take a look at some of my favorite off-shore boat videos on YouTube.

2006 Offshore World Championships in Destin, on Florida's West Coast
- Didn't two of these pass my boat on Buckeye Lake a few weeks ago?

2009 CMT Awards coverage by Nationwide Insurance

The 2009 CMT (Country Music Television) Awards will be covered via social media by Nationwide Insurance. From the night before the show, the red carpet and after the show, make sure to follow along at Nationwide's Twitter channel. If you want to watch online, CMT will broadcast the show live on it's site. Or, you can watch it here, which is my recommendation...



Coverage is available at Nationwide's Facebook and Flickr pages as well. Make sure to share your thoughts on Nationwide's social media coverage of the CMT Awards.

Twitter from Dover International Speedway

The Twitter experiment with the Nationwide NASCAR sponsorship has been a success. We are now Twittering from every race and providing Insider commentary and photos for the whole weekend, not just for the Nationwide Series races. Fans are able to request photos and they have done so every week since we started...and we've delivered. Check it out if you haven't yet at the Nationwide Twitter page and let me know what you think.

Are branded browser themes effective?

Are browser themes a good interactive marketing tactic for brand awareness? Further, are they beneficial as a sales tool? I've researched the opinions of many "marketing experts" and there is no clear agreeable answer. Most agree that if executed correctly, keeping your brand in front of users as they browse their favorite sites offers great brand awareness. Hours of exposure counts for something and arguably is more valuable than the alternative of paying for a banner visible for 13 seconds during a basketball game broadcast.

So what is the secret to a branded browser theme execution? It's all about the permanent hyperlinks to support your online conversion tool. Realize that this is my opinion, but unless you solely have the objective of brand awareness, what else does a theme offer? Make sure you have a toolbar that offers valuable links for your target user group and keep them updated. As with any web property, if the links go stale the browser theme will appear dead. Why permanent hyperlinks? If you simply make your toolbar blend in with those that come with the browser, chances are it will not be utilized as it will not appear customized as part of the theme.

Again, I'm not the branded browser theme expert, but I've executed one. Check it out and download it yourself at Nationwide Series Insider download page. This theme works only on the Mozilla Firefox browser platform, so make sure you visit using Firefox.

I did this theme with an expert in the field. Brand Thunder is a company that specializes in creating browser themes and has numerous, high-profile properties as clients including Ohio State Buckeyes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Sugarland, Julianne Hough, Vodafone, Universal, Cleveland Cavaliers, Major League Soccer, Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadians among others. President Patrick Murphy has been and is a great partner to work with and I highly recommend.

To summarize, depending on your target audience, a branded browser may have incredible acceptance or none. Do your keyword research on what your target audience is searching for and be a partner and meet that need.

Nationwide Insurance launches Apple iPhone application

I'm proud to announce that our Interactive Marketing department just launched our first application for the Apple iPhone. Check it out and download load it from iTunes for free.

Here's what it can do:
- Call emergency services
- Call for a tow
- Help with collection and exchange of accident information
- Insurance lookup
- Start a claim with Nationwide
- Locate nearby Nationwide Agents
- Take accident photos for your records
- Use phone as a flashlight

If successful, more applications are to come!

NASCAR weekend at Talladega

You know that I have a team in the Interactive Marketing department at Nationwide Insurance that has been working with our Public Relations team on Twitter'ing from our NASCAR Nationwide Series races. Our goal is to show fans that we're able to provide an Insider perspective. Checkout what we did this past weekend at Nationwide's Twitter page. I think our team is starting to get the hang of Twitpics.

Our Nationwide Series race had a great ending with David Ragan taking the lead in turn four of the final lap. And the Sprint Cup race ended with Kyle Busch getting into a serious wreck in the dash to the finish line with Brad Keselowski getting the win. Make sure to what the video recap of David Ragan's victory at Talladega at the Nationwide Series Insider. Recap the action from the Sprint Cup at ESPN.com.

Restrictor plates will be the topic going forward as Busch blames them for the wreck, but I highly doubt allowing the cars to go from 185 mph to 220 mph will prevent future crashes, but time will tell what changes come.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Nashville Tweet

As you know by now, I manage Interactive Marketing for Nationwide Insurance's NASCAR sponsorship. I have an Interactive Marketing team that meets weekly to identify opportunities utilizing free tools and those that require funding. Recently, we were looking for new ways to provide Insider content to Nationwide Series fans and decided to leverage Twitter.

Nationwide has a Twitter channel that has been active since 2008. This weekend NASCAR is in Nashville, and the only race in town will be the Nationwide Series race. We thought it would be the perfect weekend opportunity to bring an Insider perspective of the race to our fans. Catch all the action starting on Friday and throughout the race on Saturday at twitter.com/nationwide.

So how do I think this will play out? Time will tell, but I know that just mentioning that we plan to do this has yielded new followers to our channel. Preliminarily, it would appear that this weekend will be a success in obtaining new followers, but long-term we'll need to ensure we offer compelling content to maintain our new followers. I believe this is the ultimate measure of success.

I'm ready for this weekend and I know our public relations team that will execute from Nashville is excited to provide you an Insider perspective. Our social media consultant Shawn Morton and I trained our Public Relations team on Twitter and they were very active in testing using their mobile phones to update, utilizing Twitpic and the many API's that work with Twitter.

Many companies are trying to find ways to leverage social media to support business needs. We at Nationwide plan to do just hat by using social media to build upon the relationships we have with NASCAR fans and as the official insurance provider of NASCAR, make every NASCAR fan a Nationwide customer.

March Madness at CBSSports.com

If you play NCAA Tournament fantasy basketball on CBS Sports, you probably received the email below.
--------------------------------------------
WARNING: ENTER YOUR BRACKET BEFORE THURSDAY!

IF YOU TRY TO ENTER YOUR PICKS AFTER 11:59 PM ET on
WEDNESDAY, YOU RUN THE RISK OF GETTING SHUT OUT.

The first day of NCAA March Madness is the busiest day
of the year at CBSSports.com. Starting Thursday morning,
millions of folks sign on to finalize their bracket picks
before the morning deadline. The high volume
of traffic may make it difficult for you to enter your
picks.
Don't wait until Thursday, ensure your bracket is entered.

THERE ARE GOING TO BE PEOPLE WHO GET SHUT OUT.
DON'T BE ONE OF THEM!
----------------------------------------------
I'm playing this year, but not in the league that generated this email. However, as someone that works in the interactive space daily, it humors me what generated this email. I bet it went something like this.

IT manager to Interactive Marketer for NCAA March Madness: Hey Toni, could you make sure your communications with fans encourages that they sign up and fill out their brackets early?
Interactive: How do you define early?
IT: Well, how about spreading out the marketing messages so we have even numbers of people signing up from after Sunday's selection show through Thursday's games.
Interactive: Really, how do you think we pull that off?
IT: OK, the real issue is, last year, the Thursday before the tournament was our busiest day of the year and our load-balancer and servers couldn't keep the site up.
Interactive: So some fans got shut out?
IT: Yes
Interactive: I think you guys better figure a way to increase capacity, management isn't going to like me turning fans away to our competitors because you can't take on all the new fans.
IT: Fine, we'll take care of it, we'll just pull your email list off the database and send our own email to the people who played last year.

And by the looks of the email I received, that is exactly what happened. Someone in IT wrote an all text email in all caps with the urgent request to fill out brackets on Wednesday. Many email etiquette rules violated here, but I guess they got the point across. Hope you didn't get shutout, I made my picks on Wednesday.

More newspapers to Fold? Google buying Twitter? US buys AIG and gives execs bonuses?

As mentioned in my last post, I'm going to focus on three events in the news: Google is still rumored to be buying Twitter, AIG executives take out huge bonuses on the taxpayer's dime and the media is taking bets on which major newspapers will fold next.

More newspapers gone?
One of my first posts was around the future of the media and how the Internet is impacting traditional media. My thoughts haven't changed much on the topic, some newspapers will fold, some will go exclusively online and others will be bought. Still the good ones in the right market with the right audience and right mix of content will survive. However, no paper will survive without an interactive online website. No, interactive doesn't mean putting print online. I've done that and seen the disaster is causes for web usability. However, exclusive articles, searchable archives and multi-media such as audio and video interviews and specials will increase audience and possibly keep the traditional paper channels sales up.

MarketingCharts produced two articles that forecasts how bad the horizon appears for traditional newspaper powers. I read "Top 10 Newspapers Likely to Fold Next" and "Local Newspapers Won’t be Missed by 42% of Americans". In short, some big names could be online only, bankrupt or sold in a short time period. Also, not many of us will miss them. Not, sure I agree totally, but there is no denying the shift in demand from consumers. I hope these institutions find a way to survive, but that will only happen with integration online. Give the readers news as it happens via text alerts, ways to interact and voice their opinion and you'll always have an audience.

Newspapers on 24/7 Wall Street’s top- 10 list:

The Philadelphia Daily News
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Miami Herald
The Detroit News
The Boston Globe
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Chicago Sun-Times
The New York Daily News
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Will Google buy Twitter?
All of us in the interactive field have been wondering who will buy Twitter. I don't think it's an "if", but a "when". Problem is Twitter doesn't have a revenue generating business model....yet. When it does, look out. The traffic visiting Twitter will make it an Ad serving engine and where there is ads, there is revenue. Google has the resources to augment the Twitter business model and the marketing dollars to execute on it. If Google doesn't buy Twitter, who will? If you ask Andy Beal, it's a foregone conclusion so why look past Google.


AIG just doesn't get it.
While Detroit's auto executives ask the government for 30 billion and are battered for flying separate planes to the District of Columbia instead of pooling in one plane; AIG takes 200 billion from the government and its executives pay themselves 185 billion in bonuses! Bonuses for what? Convincing the government that its one of the companies that we the people "can't afford to let fail"? Last check, General Motors' CEO Rick Waggoner is paying himself $1 in salary in 2009 until the company turns a profit. The officers at my employer Nationwide Insurance didn't get any bonuses. I guess that philosohpy is beneath the AIG executives. Do they feel they should be rewarded for the strategy that drove the nation's largest insurance company into a financial hole that required the US government to take on 80% ownership of the company? Leadership like this is why the country may enter a socialist movement, where teh government controls private business since it can't seem to regulate itself. No, I don't support socialism in most cases, but something has to give.

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ohio

A lot has been in the news since my last post. The 65 teams have been set for the NCAA tournament, SXSW conference is in process, the markets have been up or even every day and it's St. Patrick's Day. However, I'm going to focus on three things: Google is still rumored to be buying Twitter, AIG executives take out huge bonuses on the taxpayer's dime and the media is taking bets on which major newspapers will fold next.

Alright, I can't ignore St. Patrick's Day considering the city I live in and my wife is Irish. So, I'll cover the three topics in my next post.

My experience with Ireland is my experience in Dublin, Ohio. So, it goes without saying that I'd like to visit the Ire sometime soon so I can provide an indepth report for you, but no worries and don't cry for me. Just like last year, the family will visit the local Irish pub and enjoy Irish Fish n' Chips, Corned Beef and Hash, Shepard's Pie, you get the point and now I'm hungry. The big question is, which Irish pub to visit. Here's a list of my favorite in priority order (note that I've included my wife to help prioritize):
1. Claddagh - can't miss here and ask for the "Joyce Snug" when in downtown Columbus.

2. Brazenhead - If partying with single friends, try 5th Ave. in Grandview, Ohio, but if you want the authentic Dublin, Ireland feel with actual furniture imported from a pub in Ireland, go to the one in Dublin, Ohio. Note the sign on the wall above the main bar "Joyce and Dublin go hand in hand."

3. Old Bag of Nails - Get the fish n' chips.

4. Rusty Bucket - Americanized Irish pub.

5. Fado - If at Easton Town Center, this is your only chance to get a taste of Ireland.

What to eat? Irish Cod never fails. And if you can find an Irish pub near you with good seafood, go for it, but Irish staple foods are cabbage, beef and potatoes and any pub worth its salt has several items with these main ingredients.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

The market bounces back - for a day

I was surprised to turn on CNBC on the drive home to hear that the markets had all bounced positive. In fact, today was the highest gaining day of 2009 for Wall Street. Good news for the economy, but of course the question is, can this be sustained. Well, I'm not sure anyone knows for sure, but lets examine what drive the rally.

It's been no secret that the demise of the banks has driven the entire economy into a hole. Without liquidity, the banks couldn't lend and therefore new business couldn't get the credit needed to start or survive. Unable to buy supplies, cover payroll and so on, businesses laid off employees and some closed. Today, CitiGroup announced it turned a profit in January and February 2009. This was unexpected and the good news was something investors with money on the sidelines had been looking for. Finally having a reason to invest, they put money into play. The assumption much have been that other financial stocks will also show profits. I say this because all the major US banks saw an increase in stock price; Bank of America, Chase and Citi.

If you're like me and you invest in the open market on your own. You want to know if this is a market rally or just a positive trading day. My guess is we'll have to monitor the Asian and European markets and make a decision come tomorrow morning. However, my thought is we'll see the market drop again before a sustained rally. Will it drop tomorrow, this week? No clue, however, today's news is positive. One, it tells me that the banks may have finally hit their lows. Two, investors with money on the sidelines are ready to jump in when business starts showing a profit.

I'll close by pointing out that the old advice to keep some money in the market at all times applies here. If you didn't have money in today, you lost out on a 5 to 6 to 7% gain depending on the index you usually invest. Depending on the company, you missed a 35% gain such as PNC Bank saw today. I'm not recommending putting a lot of your money in, but if you have some that you plan to put in once the market hits bottom. Make sure it's liquid so you can react on short notice. Or, better yet, put it in the market in the morning if Europe is riding high or wait for the next low.

UPDATE: Jim Cramer offered his perspective on Mad Money tonight. Check out his video below. And speaking of Jim, one of my favorite online applications is his sound board.

UPDATE: The Japanese Nikkei is up Nearly 4% as of 10 p.m. Eastern time. Lets see if this rally makes it through the day and through Europe.

Will social media replace mass media?

Will social media surpass mass media for how we get our news? Well, at work I often hear people say they get their news from Twitter before other channels such as mass media even break the story. I often find myself doing the same. I receive text message updates from all the local news channels and I'm connected to several local reporters via Twitter. I've been saved from long traffic delays on my way in to work using the traffic updates from @Karinanova (Twitter shortname). That is news to me, and more important to me at that time of day than a story about a water line break last night on the other side of town. Come to think of it, there is no doubt that I have been notified of more late breaking news by Twitter in the past 8 months then from television or radio news, probably combined. It's also no coincidence that I've had Sprint's Unlimited data plan for that same 8 month period and incur no additional fees for all those text messages.

However, simply getting your news first from Twitter, doesn't mean you'll consume all your news from that source. Consider that it's limited to 140 characters per post and often the news is coming from someone using a mobile device. Chances are long posts with detail will not be the norm. Instead, you'll follow up online or via another channel like radio or television for news depth.

So what are my thoughts on this question? Social media will integrate with mass media to the point that one day we won't differentiate. News sources such as CNN will simply follow those on Twitter posting the latest news, send reporters to investigate, or contact the writer of the Tweet for more information. The news source will then create a more detailed report and provide the depth on its website or other channels.

In summary, Twitter is capable of depth, but it's not easy using a mobile keyboard or being limited to 140 characters. And until battery life for Internet notebooks increase, I think it will continue to break the news faster than mass media, just as it has for the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the US Airways A320 water landing in the Hudson, but further depth will come from other channels.

So lets talk about those other channels. Depending on the type of news, there are other social media that can serve as great sources. Facebook has the volume and audience, but it's more social amongst friends than hard news focused. This may change with the release of its Facebook Connect functionality that allows developers to add commenting on their site that will show on the site, but also on the "wall" of the commenter's Facebook page so others can see. Flickr, Qik and YouTube and provide rich media, but provide limited opportunity to commentary with text. Time will tell, but don't dismiss the opportunities for things to change quickly. All social media sites are quickly creating API's to allow mobile contribution. And, mobile penetration in the US and Europe has surpassed desktop/laptop penetration. With nearly everyone having a device that can break the news, count on someone to become the site for breaking news.

I could be wrong about how the public will adopt newer technology, but it's safe to say that as of today, Twitter is and will increase its ability to drive the news, at least in the near future. However, depth will likely continue to be consumed somewhere else.

Visit to Ohio University Journalism School

Zach Mason and myself, are alums from Ohio University. We were asked by Professor Bojinka Bishop to come back and speak to two classes in the journalism school. We spoke to her Corporate Social Responsibility and Media Relations and Publicity classes on how they can leverage the Internet on the topics. While there, we were asked a few questions on how students can prepare for life after school and how our careers grew after graduation.

You can see the video by going to the Scripps School's website.

Websites I've worked on

Much of the work I've done isn't understood by friends and family, but they all surf the web so this should help. Because this information seems to be a mystery, it's only healthy to list here:
- Nationwide Series Insider
- Nationwide Insurance
- Huntington Bank
- Wings of Hope Tabernacle
- www.zacharysdelicatessen.com/

Of course the work I've done on email marketing, ATMs, within banking offices, Point of Sale systems, print and event promotions is harder to share. However, if you visited the Texas State Fair, Ohio State Fair New York State Fair, Arizona State Fair or Erie County (Buffalo) New York Fairs, or Columbus Clippers baseball in 2001, you probably saw my work.

What topics will I cover?

I have a lot of ideas, but lets put a few on the table right now.

- NASCAR fans and online consumption
- NASCAR and the economic downturn's impact
- Mobile internet
- Mobile banking
- Mobile marketing
- SMS/text marketing
- My top trends for the next 5 years in interactive marketing
- Search engine optimization - dos and don'ts
- Search engine marketing - dos and don'ts
- My Samsung Instinct Mobile phone
- The future of wireless carriers
- Internet usage by consumers
- How consumers interactive with their companies

Why blog now?

There is a simple reason I'm starting this blog. Many family members, friends at work and others ask why I don't put my experiences and interests online. Most recently, during a visit to speak to students at the Scripps Journalism School at Ohio University, I was asked to join other grads who had blogs. I thought it was a good idea.

Some of you know this isn't my first blog. However, I removed the old one about online banking when I left Huntington, so we'll continue from here.

Welcome to the first post

Welcome to my first blog post on Interactive Marketing and Technology. You've probably found this blog from a search and you're wondering what it's all about. I plan to cover a wide variety of topics related to my experience, my current work and my interests. Expect to see me discuss trends, my thoughts on future technology and marketing and what I've found to be most effective. However, most of this will be around Interactive Marketing since this is what I do currently for Nationwide Insurance. However, those of you who know me are well aware my interests are broad and we'll post about those interests. So, just wanted to warn you before you see me post a purely political, religious, sports or environmental post that has little to do with interactive marketing or technology.

Here's a little about my experience. I currently work for Nationwide Insurance at the Columbus, Ohio headquarters in corporate internet marketing. I manage the Internet Adoption program and NASCAR Interactive Marketing. I've worked in positions/departments that were titled electronic marketing, eCommerce, internet marketing, ATM marketing, marketing intelligence, marketing research and so on. I've been the director of marketing for a small restaurant chain, event marketer that traveled the country, marketing planner, market planner, marketing research manager, business consultant, and interactive marketing product manager for Huntington Bank. You might find it humorous that I did color commentary for a local radio station's sports programming for 5 years. It seems like a lot, and the skills I've learned have been numerous: financial forecasting, budget planning, project management, email marketing, sports marketing, marketing campaign management, human resource management and so on. It's all very similar to me, but often is viewed as separate disciplines to many. I'm fine with however you want to refer to what I do.

If you care about education you'll want to know, I have an MBA from Ohio Dominican, a Masters in Sports Administration from Ohio University, a Bachelors of Science in Public Relations from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and a minor in sociology.

I have a great family on both sides that we love to spend time with. We attend church at the following churches, Wings of Hope Tabernacle and Christian Fellowship Church.

My interests are technology, sports, family, history and cars.