promotion

Apple promotes Jeff Williams to senior VP

Apple has updated the executive biography of Jeff Williams from vice president of operations to senior vice president of operations, explaining that the decade-plus veteran of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is "responsible for end-to-end supply chain management and dedicated to ensuring that Apple products meet the highest standards of quality."

Williams, who will continue to report to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, had served as vice president of operations since 2004, and prior to that had been head of worldwide procurement. AppleInsider was the first to catch wind of the promotion.

There have been no explicit signs … Read more

Want more followers? Twitter may help you buy some

Want more people reading your tweets? Twitter may offer you a hand--for a price.

People familiar with the company's plans say it has been discussing yet another revenue generator: think of it as a "Promoted Tweeter" product, which highlights specific user accounts, designed to bump up follower counts.

My sources weren't sure about the business model behind the product, which may be because Twitter itself doesn't know yet. Some obvious possibilities: Twitter could charge users based on the number of followers they acquired, or simply based on the exposure their Twitter accounts received.

Twitter wouldn'… Read more

Looking for an apartment? You may get a free iPad with your rent

How hot is Apple's iPad? Hot enough to use as a promotional tool for everything from buying a new car to renting a new apartment. In Portland, Oregon, while searching for a new place to call home, I came across several ads for apartments touting all the normal amenities, showing pictures of their fabulous views, and describing their "perfect" location. But, in the last couple weeks, something new has appeared on these listings.

With the increasing popularity of Apple's iPad, I would imagine more retailers would start to use it as a potential closing incentive. Car … Read more

Renting your apartment could come with a free iPad

Four free apps to give your new Mac a little boost

Apple has announced its annual Back to School promotion, which includes an online rebate for $199 toward the purchase of an iPod Touch. But, though your new Mac is great out of the box, here are a few free applications you might want to add right away.

Twitter COO details new business model

SAN FRANCISCO--The essence of Twitter's new business model is giving businesses the opportunity to push their Twitter accounts further into the microblogging site's massive audience, Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo said at Twitter's Chirp developer conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Characterizing the new program as "organic to the platform, something that's just 'of Twitter,'" Costolo talked about the thought process that went into the company's decision to build "a monetization engine that didn't just work on Twitter.com and went where the tweets went."

The company insists that "promoted tweets&… Read more

Twitter goes corporate, adds search ads

You're going to be seeing search ads on Twitter after all.

Adding to the whirlwind of announcements leading up to the company's first annual developer conference, several news outlets late Monday posted interviews with Twitter executives to unveil a search ad program that will put brands' messages into users' Twitter streams.

Early Tuesday, Twitter unveiled the program, "a simple service we're calling Promoted Tweets," heralding it with a short FAQ on the Twitter blog to give a sense of what's coming with the company's new "non-traditional" approach to advertising:

You will … Read more

Final Fantasy XIII offers up a tablet, too

Now, we're always a fan of strange promotional materials here at CNET, but Square Enix offered up something both odd and, oddly, cool in today's mailing. In a thick envelope, which we first thought was a very, very advanced copy of Final Fantasy XIII, came an invitation to a San Francisco launch event, with nary a disc or box in sight.

But wait, what's this? In a second Mylar envelope was the source of all the bulk: these thick acrylic faux-tablets. It looks like Square Enix is trying to get in on tablet-mania, too.

What are they, … Read more

A super Super Bowl

America still loves big TV! As you probably know by now, Sunday's game was the most watched event in television history, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M*A*S*H." No amount of marketing can come close to the ability to reach almost one-third of the population. It's television that engages them and entertains them.

It was a terrific game, and the NFL organizes and runs a flawless event. There were so many moving parts. Kudos to its skills at pulling it off.

I spent the game in a trailer with my counterparts in Sales and … Read more

The big game preview

The sports world, the media world, and much of the digital world will converge on South Florida this weekend for Super Bowl XLIV. The game coverage rotates between FOX, NBC, and CBS, and this year the Eye has it, so I am reporting from Miami and will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour in upcoming posts.

In the world of TV production, no single live event requires more equipment, with all the latest in HD video and 5.1 audio, plus rooms and rooms of state-of-the-art digital editing, graphics, and production equipment.

In the world of TV marketing, there is … Read more