Bencastelli.com - blog

Secret to Satisfying Work

Ben Castelli — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:56:13 -0600

I just finished reading Outliers, the latest book by Malcolm Gladwell. I thought is was a good read and as usual contained lots of statistical facts to back up the ideas proposed. One point that really resonated with me was Gladwell's discussion on the 3 factors that result in a meaningful/satisfying job. This trifecta consists of autonomy, complexity and direct relation between effort and reward.

It's simple, but totally makes sense that if you have freedom to work on your own in a challenging job that pays you more when you work harder (or smarter) that you will be happier. It's cool to have a job with Room 214 that contains all 3 of these factors to varying degrees.

outliers gladwell job work

the Soviets just placed missiles in Cuba

Ben Castelli — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:11:11 -0500

So we recently got our wedding photos from our friend and wedding photographer Joe. I thought this was a pretty cool shot and my buddy Jon commented that "looks like you're getting the call that the Soviets just placed missiles in Cuba." I'd have to agree...

ben missiles cuba

Crickets 'n Beer

Ben Castelli — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:31:29 -0500

In the spirit of Andrew Zimmern, bizarre foods Room 214 style amounted to sour cream and onion crickets, quickly washed down with some Flying Dog ale. The concensus was pretty unanimous: none of us would be eating crickets again anytime soon - although Jason assured us the BBQ flavored were much better.

The Flying Dog was good as usual, and the fact that all of their labels have art by the amazing Ralph Steadman doesn't hurt.

crickets bizarre foods ralph steadman flying dog

My Favorite iPhone 2.0 App

Ben Castelli — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:05:16 -0500

Honestly I haven't explored many of the new apps for the iPhone 2.0 upgrade but the one I have been certainly using the most is Pandora. Pandora is a free internet radio service that allows you to simply choose an artist and hear a good variety of other artists in the same genre. I had been researching options to stream Pandora through my home audio system for quite some time but most of the options were either too expensive or required too much work. I was happy find the iPhone synced right up with my Yamaha YDS-10 iPod dock (which plugs directly in the back of the reciever).

The sound quality could be better, but I really can't complain now that I gots free streaming internet radio on my home system - and I get to control the songs.

iphone pandora yamaha

Zappos at DIA: Who were the ad wizards who came up with that one?

Ben Castelli — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:02:24 -0500

With all of the advertising noise in today's marketplace and the struggle to grab consumer attention, I found it pretty interesting that Zappos.com corned a new, unique space: the airport security line.

On one hand I think it is pretty brilliant to identify this new space where people were almost forced to look at the adverts. Also, there is a great chance that people will consciously or unconsciously make the correlation between placing their crappy shoes into the plastic box and recognizing that Zappos.com could be the perfect place to get their next pair of kicks.

I would say that is also a bit dicey as the airport security line can be a very aggravating and stressful place. Not to mention most people I know hate having to take off their shoes and place them into those plastic boxes. Placing ads in such a volatile environment could create a negative association with the brand.

zappos dia advertising

PPC Tip 'O the Month: Pre-qualify Yo!

Ben Castelli — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:31:30 -0500

Not seeing the paid advertising returns you were expecting? Try placing pre-qualifying verbiage in your ad text such as the price or the number of users a software download is valid. A large number of advertisers focus on writing compelling ad text that attracts the largest number of clicks with out thinking about the quality of that click. By adding pre-qualifying ad text, you will likely see a big drop in clicks but will almost always see a decrease in cost per conversion and often times an increase in the number of conversions since more of your budget is going to more qualified visitors. Paid advertising is all about the numbers and thinking in terms of click quality is really important to maximizing ROI.

ppc pay per click roi pre-qualify

7 Great PPC Optimization Tips Over at CTC

Ben Castelli — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:59:33 -0500

I just posted some tips on pay per click optimization and the dangers of "set and forget" when managing campaigns over at CaptureTheConversation.com. While the post focused specifically on PPC, many of the principles can be applied to all online marketing campaigns. Companies often spend a lot of time and money on setting up online advertising campaigns but don't do the regular maintenance, testing and optimization crucial for success...

pay per click ppc adwords optimization

John McCain is Older than Alaska

Ben Castelli — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:00:29 -0500

iGetzit just forwarded me a great blog that is probalby going pretty viral right now: www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com. Basically a long and somewhat surprising list of things younger than John McCain. Some of my favorites on the list are McDonalds, The Golden Gate Bridge, and both of Barack Obama's parents... dude is seriously old. Don't get me wrong, no ageism here, I totally respect my elders. It did remind me of one of my favorite SNL skits.

mccain viral blog dana carvey snl

Google TV Ads, How Much Man

Ben Castelli — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:04:05 -0500

Google recently announced that its T V commercial advertising service was now out of beta and available to the masses. I've managed a ton of online pay per click advertising with Google Adwords and always viewed TV advertising at a whole different level of big money - high stakes - new york city - adman game. Now that any joe schmo with a commercial can bid for top placement, I was really curious how the process worked and particularly how much $$ we were talking about for getting into the game.

First off, the interface is similar to Adwords very intuitive to use. There are a number of options in terms of selecting networks (looks like almost all major cable networks are offered) days of the week and blocks of time. Lets say I have an online bicycle store and I wanted to run national advertising on both ESPN and Versus on Monday in the mornings and evenings:

So for $500 bucks a day and a bid of $5 per 1000 impressions, Google estimates I get close to 100,000 impressions on ESPN prime time and Versus. Not bad, but I really wanted ESPN A.M. for the Sportscenter crowd:

No dice, even at 100 grand a day and the max CPM of $150 the ESPN in the morning is still not available. While gaining the prime TV ad spots may still rely on the NYC admen, the average small time advertiser may have a great opportunity for targeting and testing some smaller niche networks such as Versus where the cost is relatively low and the auidience much more likely to take an action from your message.

google adwords google tv ads

May 1st and its snowing... really?

Ben Castelli — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:52:27 -0500

Actually it is great to see some moisture in some form. It has been pretty dry and windy here lately with high fire danger. Should help green things up a bit here on the front range.

boulder snow

Increasing Conversions with Consistent Messaging

Ben Castelli — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:36:12 -0500

I recently did a post over at our Capture the Conversation blog where I discuss the importance of consistent messaging with online advertising. When engaging in pay per click advertising, I see a lot of clients and competitors failing to maintain the same message from the keyword to the ad copy to the landing page. It's really one of the simplest ways to reduce friction and visitor aggravation. I also offer up a tactic for accomplishing message consistency when landing page development resources are limited.

Oh, I was also able to give a shout out and incorporate my favorite lunch into the post.

pay per click messaging friction lunch

Il mio primo blog

Ben Castelli — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:16:03 -0500

Yo - so I'm really excited to have my first personal blog built on our new Post Zinger RSS publishing platform. After working at Room 214 for almost 2 years and contributing (very intermittently) to Capture the Conversation, I now have a place to break down some insights from my job as an online marketer and throw in a few of the more interesting bits from my personal life.

I really wanted to come up with an obscure name for my blog like endlesswormhole, vistrata, igetzit, or even signalbreach - but in the spirit of being my own brand in social/new media marketing, I figured WTF.

ben castelli online marketing room 214 capture the conversation post zinger