Ad News and Views from Around the Web

How clients put the squeeze on agencies; world’s best yodels; no business like “shoe business;” how people share info, and more

Three ways clients push agencies to save money
Agencies: forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. BNET offers tips on how your clients may try to put the squeeze on you.

Yodel Studio Winners announced
In October, the Yahoo! Yodel Studio set up shop in Manhattan’s Times Square, inviting the charitable to record their own versions of our infamous yodel. Yesterday we announced the best yodels at—where else?—Yodel Anecdotal.

Steve Jobs without the turtleneck
In a feature article on BNET, Brent Schlender compares Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz’s efforts to make Yahoo! better company to those of Steve Jobs when he returned to Apple. We favor the comparison.

Zappos.com CEO talks success at PubCon
Highly successful online shoe biz entrepreneur, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com—where, admit it, you spend a lot of time drooling over Manolos when you should be poring over spreadsheets—offered up his success secrets at last week’s PubCon. TopRank’s Adam Singer gives you the synopsis.

Social media hotel
Who is using social media marketing best? You would think the answer might be found somewhere in the high tech industry. But iMedia Connection’s Abe Mezrich has found a boutique hotel in New York that encourages visitors to Tweet-up their experiences and sing its praises on TripAdvisor. The caveat? You better have a darn good product and a lot of happy customers.

Study shows the surprising ways people share info
Social Media Explorer’s Jason Falls writes about a new study by social media player, Social Twist, that illuminates how people share info online, and is surprised by some of the results.

Stiff resistance to pay walls
Noting a Forrester study, blogger Greg Sterling shows that consumers are just not going to put up with pay walls when it comes to accessing online newspaper content. No one wants newspapers to succeed online more than Yahoo! but pay walls? Let’s put it this way:  The author of this post once worked at a magazine whose editor had a rubber stamp that said, simply “BAD IDEA.”

Creative spotlight: Guitar Center’s Wish List Poster Generator

ClickZ’s Zachary Rodgers illuminates the Guitar Center’s amp-up of an old idea: the holiday wish list. The Wish List Poster Generator lets users create their own wish list posters in a variety of musical genres. Poster creators are also given discount coupon, which is a good thing, says Rodgers, because “at least you’ll get a few bucks off your next box of picks when your dad fails to spring for that $999 Bass Pro Power Amp.”