Columbia, doing everything in its power to whip up enthusiasm for the three-disc set (two DVDs, one remastered CD) commemorating the 30th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, sent out the above email a few days ago offering recipients access to a podcast about the making of Springsteen’s hallmark album.

“This 7-episode series takes the listener from inception to completion of the seminal album through audio highlights,” states the email. “In order to subscribe to this podcast, you must be using iTunes or similar software to transfer the audio files to your portable device.” This is the Feedburner link, in case you’re interested.

Gotta give the Columbia marketing folks credit on this one: This is an excellent blend of email and podcasting to deliver a highly relevant and valuable message. The email carries no overt call to action to buy the set — any fan receiving this email knows the anniversary box is out there. But Columbia is fueling the inclination to buy with real content here — seven podcasts that look like they’ll total about an hour of audio. (Right now, only the first two installments are available.) I’d love to see the final metrics on this mailing: I suspect the conversion percentage (those who opened the email that went on to download the podcasts) is deep into the double digits.

This Forbes article is raising all kinds of hell among bloggers.

It shouldn’t. All it proves is that blogging is above the heads of Forbes generally, and Daniel Lyons specifically. They just don’t get it. Big deal. Live and let live, I say. We’ll find out soon enough who’s right: Forbes and Lyons, or millions of bloggers (who, it should be noted, since Forbes is all about the money, also happen to collectively buy an awful lot of stuff).

This is simply a case of misinformed preaching to the choir. The alarmist tone of the article (blogs are “the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns.” Flee! Flee!) is speaking to a specific audience that would prefer to myopically view blogging as a passing fad, not a communications sea change that needs to be at least acknowledged and at best embraced.

What “specific audience” do I mean? Quite simply, companies that want to control any and all information about themselves that exists in the public realm. Because the blogs don’t play the old media game, they’re “more of a threat than people realize.” (Quick, get the duct tape and plastic sheeting!)

Fundamentally, blogs are about passion and honesty, not blood sport and extremism. Companies that communicate their unique passions with honesty and openness, that deal with the public in a human way, and that hold to these principles over time, are the ones that will thrive in the (for the record, I despise this word) blogosphere.

Shouldn’t this be old news by now?

[Edit: Dave Taylor has an excellent post about this article here.]

Takeaway for marketers: When the Emperor’s butt is flapping in the breeze, bloggers will be the first ones to say so. Ignore them — or insist that the Emperor’s pants are divine — at your peril.

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.”
—Mel Brooks

It wasn’t too long ago that Kryptonite bike locks literally became a business case study in how not to deal with potentially damaging information posted online.

Sony could become the next.

Spreading like wildfire is word that copy-protected CDs from Sony dump malware-style software deep in the guts of your computer. You can get in touch with your inner geek and explore all the gory details in this superlative post from Mark Russinovich (actually a good read; if you don’t want the gory details, at least take a look at the reader comments). Here’s Mark’s takeaway, and what you need to know:

“Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.”

As PC World writes in a good overview of this issue: “Sony has dealt itself a serious blow, and the best thing it — and the rest of the music publishers — can do right now is condemn this practice, apologize to the customers that were affected, provide a method to get this junk off affected PCs, and make declarations that they will never, ever do this again.”

Will they? Or will they become the next case study in how not to deal with customers online? The answer may depend on how close to heart Sony takes Cluetrain Manifesto thesis #12:

“There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.”

(Edit: “Spreading like wildfire” is hardly hyperbole — at 7:30 this morning, eastern time, “Sony rootkit” is a top-10 search term at Technorati.)

Anyone who has worked with AdWords a bit knows the frustration of trying to generate maximum clicks at minimum cost. Call it “gaming the system” or “optimizing a campaign,” it more or less amounts to the same thing: Trying to tweak the parameters of your AdWords account to deliver the best bang for the buck.

Robert X. Cringely reports here on an AdWords experiment, and concludes that trying to win at the AdWords game is like trying to win in Vegas. You may … but in the long run, the house always comes out on top. There’s a follow-up piece here, and a third piece here. Good stuff.