Google doodles are Google's versions of the home page logo that celebrate events and anniversaries. Google today began featuring Sesame Street's beloved characters as a special doodle series in the run up to Sesame Street's 40th anniversary on November 10th.

Big Bird was featured today on the Google homepage. Conveying his height, we only see Big Bird from the waist down; his legs form the L in Google. Other favorite characters will be featured for the next seven days. I was weaned on public broadcasting shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company and Zoom, so I had a visceral reaction to the big lunkhead. I can't wait to see who will be featured next.

Turns out, the Sesame Street characters -- and in particular Cookie Monster with his googly eyes – saw Google coming way back in 1982. Marissa Mayer embedded this video in her blog post today about Sesame Street's 40th.

Jung von Matt/Neckar, a German ad agency, created buzz for publisher Eichborn at the Frankfurt Book Fair this month with an unusual promotion. The agency outfitted 200 flies with ultra light banners to promote their exhibition stand at the show.

The tiny banners advertised the publisher's name and booth number. It read, "Eichborn: Der verlag mit der fliege." Translation -- Eichborn: The publishing house with the flies.

How's that for an offbeat and somewhat questionable tagline and affiliation with insects? I'll avoid the obvious crack about things that attract flies. In fact, it is a clever and buzzworthy idea.

Lest PETA get their wings in a twist, the banner was attached with a bit of natural wax. After a short time, the banner dropped off by itself and the flies were not harmed.

They may not be as safe around me. Swatting at these little buggers is my most common reaction to advertising.

After hitting some of the overlapping parties and events Sunday night during the DMA's annual conference – Xerox's rooftop networking event and the DM Buzz party at the Hard Rock Hotel's Club 207 – I wandered back to my hotel room to find a door hanger ad from iContact hanging on my door.

“The best direct marketing is e-mail marketing,” the sign read, with a button telling me to stop by booth #3025 to learn more. Old-fashioned targeted marketing to tradeshow attendees. I can dig it.

Once in my hotel room, though, I found another much more intrusive ad, this one from First Data, slapped on the hotel mirror. Designed in the style of an old election campaign button, it implored me to “Join the campaign to end 1% response rates.” A third tent-card-style ad promoting direct marketing legend Stan Rapp's new book was perched on the TV cabinet.

Tradeshows by nature assault the senses, and this is a tradeshow for marketers, so we know how that goes. And I'm used to it. But my hotel room? Can't I escape the madness for the precious few hours I actually have in my room? I'd like the direct marketing to stop at my door.

Apparently, I am not alone. As one of my colleagues said, in a text, “I feel totally violated.” My sentiments exactly.

Razorfish is now officially a part of the Publicis Groupe, making Publicis the largest digital advertising company in the world. After acquiring the agency from Microsoft for $286.8 million in cash this summer, the deal is now complete. Razorfish will now be a part of the Publicis division VivaKi Group. The deal also puts Microsoft in a good position. As a part of the deal, the technology giant was given a 3.3% stake in Publicis and a strategic position to sell VivaKi agencies ad inventory through its ad network.

The Austin Business Journal reported yesterday that WPP agency Enfatico has dismissed five senior level creative staff in its New York and Austin offices.

Enfatico, which was built by WPP and Dell to combine the latter's agency relationships under one umbrella, was folded into the Young & Rubicam Brands ad firm earlier this year, as DMNews reported. That move followed a round of layoffs in February.

Dell recently launched its second campaign in the US since the creation of Enfatico in December 2007 targeting small to mid-size business owners.

Bloggers will soon have to disclose the freebies and other compensation they receive as part of direct marketing campaigns and other types of efforts.

The Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously on October 5 to alter guidelines that call for penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, according to the Associated Press. The vote was the first time since 1980 that the commission changed its policies on endorsements and testimonials. The policy is effective December 1.

I'm sure you've seen the Topps baseball card demo where you can hold the card up to a web cam and a 3D image of Ryan Howard appears before your eyes like Princess Leia beaming out of R2D2. With a few keystrokes, you can make him swing at pitches and run the bases. It's the future of print and it's brilliant.

I get off on all that cutting-edge technology that makes our jobs so much fun and infinitely more interesting than it was just a decade ago. And yet, I long for a time when our world, direct marketing, was a bit more personal.

Sure, technology and database software allow us to have more granular detail about our target and talk to them in new and imaginative ways. But what I loved about this business was the chance to make that human connection; to make that brand really connect in a meaningful way. That's what drove differentiation. That's what drove relevance. That's what drove results.

And then last week I read two articles that were music to my ears. The first was in the New York Times about how the music business, that venerable industry that is quite literally being slain by technology, is fighting back with some good old fashion phone calls. That's right. Stars like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers are getting personal phone numbers to post on their websites and drop during TV interviews. Fans of these artists, mostly teenagers, can call in to hear pre-recorded messages from the artists themselves, giving updates on album releases, tours, or what they're doing at any given moment. Some celebrities are even holding “live” sessions where thousands of their fans can listen in (on mute) as they yap away about whatever. Fans can leave their own messages, which will then appear online. And some celebrities are going as far as returning fan calls, for the ultimate human connection. Talk about being authentic!

The other article was about Twitter's new voice service that allows Tweeters and their followers to talk to one another, one-on-one. Suddenly, texts just aren't enough. And that's okay.

What these articles tell me is that while technology continues to bring us new and exciting tools, it's also bringing us ways to get personal again. What goes around comes around, I guess. So embrace technology with gusto. Let it enable your ideas and spur your creativity. Just don't forget the power of the spoken word, and our ability as marketers to make a human connection.

Retailers have taken to elevating the lowly cardboard box that their merchandise often arrives in.

In the most recent example, Columbia Sportswear Co. has found a unique way to be environmentally friendly while also engaging customers with the brand.

When online shoppers reach the checkout at Columbia.com, which launched in August, they are giving the choice of shipping their orders in a previously used cardboard box. More than 60% of online customers have selected the used box option since the site launched.

Customers can also track the life of their box as part of a community Web site created by Columbia at aboxlife.com. On the outside of each reused box, consumer will find a sticker that includes a code and number, which can be entered into aboxlife.com or scanned using a mobile phone. This will enable them to where their box has been, post pictures and stories about their box and periodically return to the site to follow their box's journey. There is even an A Box Life Flickr group and consumers can tweet about their box's journey and share it with the A Box Life online community.

“As a leading outdoor company, it is important for us to provide consumers with options that reduce packaging waste and to make business decisions that will reduce our overall environmental impact,” said Paul Zaengle, senior director of e-commerce for Columbia, in a statement.

Columbia's efforts bring to mind Ikea's advertising campaign from a couple of years ago to promote the opening of the retailer's first store in New York City. For the campaign, Deutsch NY had NYC structure built with hundreds of Ikea-branded flat-pack boxes, which were then used in TV, print and out-of-home executions.

The only thing I hate more than being handed something on the street by someone I don't know is being asked during my lunch break (usually en route to my favorite sandwich shop) to stop and save the world by signing a piece of paper on an overly chipper early-twenty-something's clipboard. This type of overt, intrusive marketing can turn me off to even the most benevolent cause or event being promoted.

On the contrary, a well-produced and well-delivered piece of interesting information can pique my interest in something about which I was previously unaware, apathetic or even mildly disinterested. This weekend I found myself watching episodes of HBO's 24/7, a weekly miniseries that profiles the training of two high-profile boxers for the final month leading up to their match, which, naturally, will be televised on HBO pay-per-view the day after the final episode.

For a DMNews column I'm putting together, I contacted a few industry sources last week about the importance of providing informational content to boost engagement with a brand and drive sales. It occurred to me while watching the episodes that HBO has obviously perfected this tactic because, while watching, I was unaware I was knee-deep in a marketing tool. Before Friday, I couldn't have picked Floyd Mayweather or Juan Manuel Marquez out of a lineup, but there I was, completely engaged with both men and even making predictions as to who would win the fight and why, all due to the interesting content being provided.

Had I known that my Saturday night plans were going to fall through as they did, I most certainly would have paid for the fight, something I have never done before, and it would have been due completely to content that I thought, at first, was just entertainment for entertainment's sake. 

Online marketplaces are getting a lot of attention lately since Walmart and Sears both recently made plays in this direction. Their strategies, however, aren't exactly the same.  

Walmart recently launched a platform where third-party retailers can sell their products through Walmart.com, as DMNews reported. The arrangement allows Walmart to expand its product selection while eliminating one of the biggest burdens of online retail, fulfillment, which is being handled by the third-party partners. In effect, Walmart is the marketing vehicle for these other retailers. This is similar to what Amazon.com does in its marketplace.

Sears appears to be taking more of an affiliate marketing approach. On the Sears Web site, the marketplace program is explained to retailers this way: “For merchants, Sears Marketplace expands their company's online visibility and drives traffic to their site through an efficient, economical business model Cost-Per-Click.”  

“Certainly the affiliate model is generally more lucrative because you get paid just for clicks, irrespective of whether or not anyone converts,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, via e-mail. “The tradeoff is that Sears is taking customers off its site which is risky for consumers who are so far down the purchase process.”

Sears is also connecting consumers with home improvement and repair service providers via ServiceLive.com.  

Sears Holdings recently said it will expand the initiative launched last fall to provide consumers with access to third-party services and products.

“The Sears' Marketplace platform provides new opportunities for us to deliver more shopping choices for our customers as well as open new lines of communication with our business partners,” said Tom Aiello, in an e-mailed statement.

By expanding the marketplace, Sears is looking for “growth in this space” and to earn its “customers trust and build lifetime relationships,” said Aiello.