Freecreditscore.com=sleazy

Warning to all those watching the hipster ads by Freecreditscore.com

People! The best clue that it's NOT free is when they say it's free!

It's a hook for those who don't read fine print.

The web site itself contains this disclaimer:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

When you order your free credit score here, you will begin your 7-day trial membership in freecreditscore.com. If you don't cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period*, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership. You may cancel your trial membership anytime within the trial period without charge.

Cancel within 7 days or they start charging. 

Not free.

Not hip.

Smart money has one report on this.

Caveat emptor. Beware of scruffy hipsters with guitars.

Colleges, cash in on the Downton Abbey craze

For-profit universities are attracting controversy almost as fast as they are attracting students. Wall Street likes the business: low barriers to entry, high profit margins, and product lines that can scale up. Looming threat: increasing government scrutiny.

But there's no denying the rise of these institutions and the change they are forcing on traditional colleges and universities, which already were recognizing the need to adapt to online learning and the needs of older learners.

So just for fun, what name would your pick for a for-profit university? The Franciscan U of the Prairies became Ashford U.  Beaver College became Arcadia University. Trident University became Trident University International.

For profits aren't alone in changing names, as US News reported back in 2009. (And wait a minute....didn't US News itself have a longer name? Oh, yeah.

It's clear that for profit institutions want a name that conveys a strong brand, rootedness, quality, good experience. Harvard is taken, though Harvard itself had no name till a donor by that name left money.  Duke went through several names before accepting a tobacco fortune.

So I'm thinking of a name that conveys lively people, a gorgeous campus, well-dressed leaders,  upwardly-mobile boarders, cool clothes, a nearby pub, a great library, a regal dining hall and, one must have, fox hunting. For differentiation, you need the unique quality of full pursuit of the uneatable. I'm calling it Downtown Abbey University.

The name says urban and rural, plus people find the campus life irresistible to watch.

Very good, m'Lord.

Integrated marketing in higher education: Nice work at Portland State University

I had a chance recently to hear people at Portland State University talk about what they are doing in social media as part of their overall brand marketing. I was impressed.

At the gathering of District 8 of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, PSU and others are recognizing that universities face great challenges: greater competition for students, faculty, research dollars and donor support. If you factor in the rise of for-profit universities, online learning and a new thinking in how state and federal governments relate to higher ed -- it's a new world. All the more reason to work harder to differentiate your institution and better tell you story. Success means a strong institutional commitment, a well considered plan and measures, execution by people with authority, message discipline and a relentless focus on evaluation and re-assessment. Oh, and some resources. If you don't invest in this effort, you can be certain of falling behind competitors who are making smart investments.

Here's a link to PSU's marketing page. And check out their photo contest.

The people of PSU said one of their foundations for their marketing was a video that sought to capture the essence of their university. Doing such a video is ambitious and risky. So many institutions are doing these -- so how do you re-invent the messages of academic excellence, the student experience and transformation that awaits those for whom your school is a great fit? What visual "vocabulary" and style do you use?  Here's what PSU did. One noticeable element: they embraced the character and beauty of Portland. What do you think?

To take down the other guy, is funny video the kindest cut?

Wit is a strategic asset in marketing communications.

You can use it to disarm an issue, minimize a blunder and change the subject. But when to use it? And how can you do it well and effectively?

Here's a recent video reportedly done by Microsoft to advance its email program over Gmail, Google's free product that comes with ads served when monitoring search gizmos detect key words. I give this a 7. It doesn't reach a 10 because using the child to express moral indignation is overused, but mainly because I'm touchy about picking an actor with hair loss. (Hair-ism is the final scourge in our culture, yes?) I assume not a fragment of this ad is accidental.

I did a piece on Gmail and Google's privacy policies in 2007 for Crosscut.

Now, reaching back a few years into Seattle politics, I still love this video that sought to use humor to break the log jam around our city's debate over replacement of the aging, crumbling, unsafe Alaskan Way Viaduct on the central waterfront. Casting Seattle's Matt Smith in the lead role to stop the destruction of "big ugly things" was inspired. I think the guy scratching himself in the background (at 32 seconds) perhaps was an unscripted homage to Charlie Chaplin. The video failed in its intention. Seattle is year 10 in discussion on this issue. Ugly prevails.

A post script. How did the New York Times learn funny...with celebrities too?

P.P.S. Now, a digression. Half of YouTube is funny pet videos. This one is okay....

.....but this one just kills me. Counting its various postings, I think it's been seen by half the planet.