Wall Street Journal Blog quotes Dan Beck on Michael Jackson

“I always felt he would never be an old man.”—Dan Beck, managing partner, Big Honcho Media

Jackson was not only the first African-American music superstar, he was, Dan Beck points out, “the guy who met the beginning of the ultimate media explosion.” Beck, now managing partner of Big Honcho Media, worked with Michael from 1988 to 1996, as senior vice president of marketing and sales at Epic, “when he still had the big career, but there were starting to be cracks in it. The plastic surgery. The charges of child molesting. He was very smart, very competitive, but there were big blind spots.

“He was always about the Big Dream,” says Beck, who came up with the idea for Jackson’s 1995 ‘HIStory, “the Fantasy of it all. I remember Michael walking into a meeting for ‘HIStory’ and saying, ‘I see this album selling 100 million copies.’ The room stopped. It was like, ‘He’s out of his mind.’ But he just looked at us and said, ‘No one ever thought I could sell 44 million. Why can’t we imagine 100 million?”

Read entire WSJ.com Blog post

Dan Beck, Managing Partner of Big Honcho Media, reflects on working with Michael Jackson on Fox Business

Dan Beck, Managing Partner of Big Honcho Media, was on Fox Business on Friday, June 26, discusses his time working with Michael Jackson.










Dan is on at 3:27

FTC: Bloggers should reveal when they're being compensated to promote a product

Consumer Reports' Money blog says that the FTC is updating its truth-in-advertising guidelines, which were last looked at in 1980, to include bloggers among those who have to reveal when they're being compensated. FTC says bloggers should reveal when they're being compensated in some way to promote a product. Read more

Tips on Marketing to the Recession Mom

This recession is deeply and directly affecting women with children. Yet, like Rosie the Riveter from WWII, the modern American mom is a strong woman doing what she always does in a time of crisis: She takes a hard look at things, freaks out in her head for about 10 minutes, and then moves on, creatively working through it, around it, and within it.

After living in a consumption economy for the past 15 years, moms are figuring out how to scale back, without their families noticing too much. Moms are keeping things somewhat normal by doing the same with less, or similar with less. Read article

TV is crucial for reaching Youth Market

A new study from Viacom’s MTV Networks International finds, somewhat unsurprisingly, that television is the most effective way to market to young people 12-24 and has the greatest impact of any channel in shaping their purchasing decisions.

The study, titled “A Beta life Youth,” found that one in four respondents ages 12-24 reported that they first see or hear about brands, products or services from TV ads. Sixty percent of those polled said TV ads play a role in their brand choices. More at Promo Magazine

More Online Radio Gains...

Online radio continues to show significant gains, according to a recent Arbitron study. In the past year, the weekly online radio audience in the US has grown by one-third, based on a survey of listeners aged 12 and over.


The study, a collaborative effort with Edison Research, estimated that 17 percent of Americans tap into an online station on a weekly basis, up from 13 percent one year ago. In total, the weekly online radio audience is now estimated at 42 million, a healthy chunk of the American population. More from Digital Music News

Older generations joining social networking

While online social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are known hang-outs for younger adults and teenagers, older generations in recent months have been taking to the medium at a faster rate than any other age group. Many of these older folks use social networks to keep tabs on younger family members. Read more on CNN.com

Best Universal Pictures opening ever!

"Fast & Furious" sped away from expectations to gross a humongous $72.5 million. That result is effectively double what most industry observers had predicted for the debut of the fourth feature in Vin Diesel's car franchise, and it left in the dust a number of notable records. Best Universal Pictures opening ever (three-day), beating "The Lost World: Jurassic Park's" $72.1 million. read more

Teens are Streaming Music

U.S. teenagers, a bellwether customer for the record industry, bought 19 percent less music last year and instead turned to free alternatives like Pandora.com and MySpace.com, according to NPD Group Inc. more at bloomberg.com

Online Marketing Makes Sense!

For more than a decade, sales strategists have been advising businesses to take their marketing online. Forward-looking companies have heeded this message....businesses need to get with the times and accelerate their investments on the Internet, especially during the downturn. Here are a few good reasons why.