This week Gabriele and I attended a wine dinner at River Bend Bistro, a favorite neighborhood spot. The featured wines were from Crivelli, a producer specializing in lesser known varietals from Monferrato, in the Piedmont region of Italy. Crivelli wines are distributed by Downey Selections, and owner Brennan Downey sat with us for dinner. Downey […]
Does you company know the kind of information prospects want to receive from you? According to a survey released last month by research firm Market Connections, many government contractors talk about themselves rather than share information government buyers are seeking. Titled the Federal Content Marketing Review 2015, the report is a good read and available […]
Late last year I purchased a 2006 E46 M3. It was maintained extremely well, but there were a few things I looked forward to doing on the car. Now that the long winter season is over, it’s time to get to work. This weekend I changed the oil, swapped the tires side to side, checked […]
This weekend we caught up with some old friends over dinner at Le Diplomate. This relatively new French place in the Logans Circle area of DC has received a lot of good press and it was on our list for places to try. So when my best friend’s wife picked it for his surprise birthday […]
The technology publishing company GigaOm closed its doors last Tuesday. As a consultant working in the technology space for many years, this news really struck me. Back in the day I’d occasionally pitch GigaOm for my technology clients. You really had to know the space to have any chance, which I always respected. And way […]
Good question – why are they? This was the title of a conversation thread started recently on Bimmerfest.com. The conversation crystallizes perfectly the gulf of understanding between old school BMW enthusiasts and the majority of new BMW purchasers today. The original poster (OP in forum lingo) cannot fathom why anyone would be excited about an […]
When putting a marketing effort together, it’s important to understand how various types of content contribute to the overall campaign. I’ve written previously about the PESO acronym for content types — Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned. This way of looking at content makes it easier to distinguish the different types and how they complement each […]
A fantastic source for information on Pinot Noir is The Prince of Pinot, published by retired physician William “Rusty” Gaffney. Since retiring from his practice in 2001, Dr. Gaffney has written the PinotFile, an online newsletter exclusively devoted to Pinot Noir. As a retired doctor, Gaffney has long been interested in research attempting to document […]
Here’s one of the best, most succinct videos I’ve seen defining quality content marketing. It was done by a former client of mine, George Stenitzer. A few years back Tellabs, a manufacturer of telecom and optical networking equipment based near Chicago was a major client of mine. I have telecom experience so I enjoyed the […]
Things have been quiet on the BMW M car front for me lately. That’s a very good thing to be able to say, but it hasn’t left me much to write about on the Wheels front. Last week a small issue surfaced that reminded me some DIY fixes can be very simple. The driver side […]
To be an effective marketing consultant today, you have to embrace continual learning. That’s something that is easy to say, but hard to do. It’s hard to follow through on for two main reasons — human nature and time. We all say we will pursue continual learning, but human nature prefers to focus time and […]
2014 was another successful year for chrisparente.com. I’d like to say thank you to all of my visitors, and I wish you all the best in 2015. 2014 was a year of transition for me. Early in the year I launched my own content marketing firm, StoryTech Consulting LLC. I’m very happy to say the […]