Knowledge Generation Bureau / "Turning Information Into Knowledge"
Remember Google's mission: To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful... ?
Recently there have been some commercial spots airing on television. The first time I saw one, I think it flew by my radar. I think I've only seen one of them once on my television actually because I don't watch a lot of TV.
kgb ("Knowledge Generation Bureau"). Have you seen one of these ads yet?
Sorry, I feel forced to get you to watch them NOW before continuing on with this post, for the purposes of experiment; I have a question I need to ask you.
OK, so after watching the first commercial how many of you were made to feel a little clueless? Not just by all the random bits of knowledge they spat out, but that they gave us NOTHING but random bits of knowledge. In the second spot, the only thing they gave us other than random bits of knowledge was a call to action for mobile phone users.
In fact, I recall asking myself, "WTF is the Knowledge Generation Bureau?" when I first saw one of these ads. Actually, I asked that one aloud, and didn't use an acronym. Then I didn't ever think about it again. But if I wasn't so baffled, I probably wouldn't be re-telling that bit of info right now. If it wasn't for recalling that question, I'd likely not have regained the knowledge that I had even seen one of their commercials.
But I also wouldn't even be creating this thread if I wasn't just browsing another (non-marketing related) message forum, to come across a topic titled "Knowledge Generation Bureau," which simply asks a very similar question: "What is this ****?"
"They've run a couple of odd commercials, but I don't see what it actually is."
Well, I did a little checking -- found out what it actually is -- and I think it's knowledge worth sharing with you all. Knowledge Generation Bureau is a new internet company aimed at "Turning Information Into Knowledge," or perhaps that's just a slogan they chose. Another slogan they chose was "Stop Searching. Start Finding." You now probably understand why I've included Google's mission at the top of this post.
Now, what it actually is: It looks like a newly launched (alpha stage) competitor to informational-encycoplediacal sites like Wikipedia, Knol, and so on (is encyclopediacal a word?). I haven't signed up yet, but from doing a bit of browsing it looks similar to Squidoo also.
Now you know what it is. It allows you to add content on basically anything you want. It's organized into categories. One of the categories is "Products." It allows you to add info (or "knowledge"), and a link (nofollow, I checked). There's a spot for ratings, etc. In my quick mull-over of it, I've found that being it's an alpha version it's really not error-free as I've bumped into some fairly easily without even being signed up. It runs with Amazon ads, as well as Adsense from the looks of it. I'm not sure if the user has any options like that but it might be useful information for some of you.
Anyhow, I just figured I would post about this as a way to tell you about something that may end up being a useful tool for you in your marketing ventures. I hope this isn't too "promotional" because that's not my intention.
I'd like to get back to my question: the additional one I didn't tell you about. Yeah, that one!
What are you thoughts, from a marketing perspective of course, on the way that (if you feel so) they have conditioned us as potential targets to feel clueless? Do you find it clever? Are you outraged? I mean these (italicized) aren't specific questions. I'm keeping it open-ended. Do you feel they've done a good job? Are they leaving something necessary out? What impact will this have on their start-up, and will the impact be good or bad? I just want some intelligent discussion.
I think that as marketers, some of us think it's great to know what a product/service actually is if it can help us in our marketing. That's why I gave the info. But I think it's interesting also to speak about the "end customer." The people who could actually show up to use this as if it were a Wikipedia or Knol, or as their slogans seem to suggest (unconvincingly IMO) a "replacement" or the "next level" for/of Google.
Also, any other discussion related to KGB you may have if you decide to check it out or already have might as well be allowable as well since you're already in here.
Anyhow, sorry for making you watch the ads before I gave you the goods, but I think you'll understand why I did it.
Recently there have been some commercial spots airing on television. The first time I saw one, I think it flew by my radar. I think I've only seen one of them once on my television actually because I don't watch a lot of TV.
kgb ("Knowledge Generation Bureau"). Have you seen one of these ads yet?
Sorry, I feel forced to get you to watch them NOW before continuing on with this post, for the purposes of experiment; I have a question I need to ask you.
OK, so after watching the first commercial how many of you were made to feel a little clueless? Not just by all the random bits of knowledge they spat out, but that they gave us NOTHING but random bits of knowledge. In the second spot, the only thing they gave us other than random bits of knowledge was a call to action for mobile phone users.
In fact, I recall asking myself, "WTF is the Knowledge Generation Bureau?" when I first saw one of these ads. Actually, I asked that one aloud, and didn't use an acronym. Then I didn't ever think about it again. But if I wasn't so baffled, I probably wouldn't be re-telling that bit of info right now. If it wasn't for recalling that question, I'd likely not have regained the knowledge that I had even seen one of their commercials.
But I also wouldn't even be creating this thread if I wasn't just browsing another (non-marketing related) message forum, to come across a topic titled "Knowledge Generation Bureau," which simply asks a very similar question: "What is this ****?"
"They've run a couple of odd commercials, but I don't see what it actually is."
Well, I did a little checking -- found out what it actually is -- and I think it's knowledge worth sharing with you all. Knowledge Generation Bureau is a new internet company aimed at "Turning Information Into Knowledge," or perhaps that's just a slogan they chose. Another slogan they chose was "Stop Searching. Start Finding." You now probably understand why I've included Google's mission at the top of this post.
Now, what it actually is: It looks like a newly launched (alpha stage) competitor to informational-encycoplediacal sites like Wikipedia, Knol, and so on (is encyclopediacal a word?). I haven't signed up yet, but from doing a bit of browsing it looks similar to Squidoo also.
Now you know what it is. It allows you to add content on basically anything you want. It's organized into categories. One of the categories is "Products." It allows you to add info (or "knowledge"), and a link (nofollow, I checked). There's a spot for ratings, etc. In my quick mull-over of it, I've found that being it's an alpha version it's really not error-free as I've bumped into some fairly easily without even being signed up. It runs with Amazon ads, as well as Adsense from the looks of it. I'm not sure if the user has any options like that but it might be useful information for some of you.
Anyhow, I just figured I would post about this as a way to tell you about something that may end up being a useful tool for you in your marketing ventures. I hope this isn't too "promotional" because that's not my intention.
I'd like to get back to my question: the additional one I didn't tell you about. Yeah, that one!
What are you thoughts, from a marketing perspective of course, on the way that (if you feel so) they have conditioned us as potential targets to feel clueless? Do you find it clever? Are you outraged? I mean these (italicized) aren't specific questions. I'm keeping it open-ended. Do you feel they've done a good job? Are they leaving something necessary out? What impact will this have on their start-up, and will the impact be good or bad? I just want some intelligent discussion.
I think that as marketers, some of us think it's great to know what a product/service actually is if it can help us in our marketing. That's why I gave the info. But I think it's interesting also to speak about the "end customer." The people who could actually show up to use this as if it were a Wikipedia or Knol, or as their slogans seem to suggest (unconvincingly IMO) a "replacement" or the "next level" for/of Google.
Also, any other discussion related to KGB you may have if you decide to check it out or already have might as well be allowable as well since you're already in here.
Anyhow, sorry for making you watch the ads before I gave you the goods, but I think you'll understand why I did it.