Do you have a Beethoven or a Hasselhoff?
I am an avid music lover. So much so that my iTunes is filled with over 529 days ( or over 13,000 songs ) of playable music ranging from classical to rap. Music to me is one of the truest ways to express yourself or a message you wish to convey. Those with musical talents truly have an art of expression and that art is a powerful and effective way of transportation of information. With this said, what if I told you that your brand needs to... Read More
Killing the Mosquitos
Have you every tried to please everyone in a day? How about for 12 hours? Better yet have you ever tried to please everyone around you for an hour? I will go out on a limb and say yes, you have tired, “tried” being the key word there. The crazy thing is tomorrow you will wake up and try it all over again. My advance—don’t. Stop right now and know that you can not nor will you ever please everyone. Trying to please everyone... Read More
Time for a “Time Out”
In the business world we tend to think that pushing ourselves to the limit is what will breed success. I want to defunk that theory and give you a new strategy to incorporate, called “Time Outs”. As you may or may not know, I am a father of five children and one of our family traditions are “Time Outs”. Not those where our children are sent to their rooms or noses in the corner, these are treats. Every so often my wife and I will take... Read More
Is honesty over rated? Really we are advertising here.
A few days ago I read a blog post from AdAge and Bob Garfield on the topic of KFC and their recent ad campaign and yet again KFC got me thinking. The blog post dives into some of the ‘issues’ with KFC and I encourage you to read it, but I want to take this in a different direction. I want to discuss a principle that seems to be leaving the world as a whole and more noticeably leaving the world of advertising. It all started decades ago and... Read More
Mark today on your calendars…today is a day of change
So after 17 years of business I can truly say that what I am about to share with you, is the most exciting project I have ever worked on. After months and months of work I would like to present to you Media Lemur. For the first time in the world’s history print can truly become digital and not just a PDF, website or screen shot of print editions. This won’t be a ‘flip book’ or a flash plug in, Media Lemur is a full feature digital creator. The... Read More
The digital door is wide open—Anyone ready to walk in?
So this week we had another player enter the digital media world, WIRED. How did they do in this humble marketer’s opinion? I give it a two out of five stars. It is an okay start, but honestly coming from a leader in the geek world I truly expected more from WIRED. They did nail down the rich media content, but the delivery of the content was still laced with the feel of print and not the feel of digital freedom. The ads are nothing more... Read More
There is just too much static…so just ignore it.
In the world of marketing and advertising there always seems to be something new, something better and something you just HAVE to use. After 17 years of watching, living and experiencing this, I have come to a solid conclusion—no. No I don’t have to use the newest, latest or most revolutionary thing out there to be successful. In fact it is just the opposite. The most successful marketing and advertising campaigns use the oldest techniques. I... Read More
Your reach might surprise you
For the last week I have been fighting a nasty flu bug and have not had the opportunity to post. While I am not at 100% I wanted to get back to the writing world, so here we go. During my ‘rest’ I thought about a lot of different topics to write about, but one that kept coming out on top was ‘reach’. In advertising your services or products, this is one of the most critical pieces to success. Understanding your reach is something that... Read More
You don’t, you can’t, you just shouldn’t
Why such a negative title? I have a strong point to make and sometimes adding a bit of negativity to your message helps send the message home. I get asked often how to create the perfect advertising campaign. At a lunch, in a meeting or at a business conference I will be asked, “How do I create a successful advertising campaign?” My reply is short, simple and to the point, “You don’t.” That is right you do not create a successful or... Read More
Write it, type it, post it, tweet it, status it…what is it all?
Another buzz word to really catching on fire in 2010 is ‘Content Marketing’, well what is it? Funny how we use these words in hopes to identify a process in an industry ( whether that is the medical world, auto industry or anything really ) and then we have to write blogs and articles just to explain it. This is one said blog, an explaining blog. ‘Content Marketing’ is advertising or marketing with content. Simple right? Implementation... Read More