Guest Blog Post on Blellow

Today I did a guest posting on http://www.blellow.com. Click the link below and show me your support, as well as supporting Blellow, it's a great community to belong to.

http://budurl.com/xbzr

Keep EVERYTHING...I mean it

Its pretty sad when not having anything to write about actually reminds me of something to write about.

That said...if you've designed it, written it, drew it, thought of it, whatever...KEEP IT...especially if you couldn't do it. You never know when stuff may come in handy. You may need inspiration, for a blog post...or a design layout, or a new kind of muffin. Whatever. When I was younger and used to write poetry, I kept it all. Even the horrible crap. I had folders and notebooks full of all kinds of stuff, gems and garbage alike...because I never knew when a good idea might strike. I wasn't one of those guys who kept a notebook by the bed and would wake up in the middle of the night to write something down, but after several things were lost because of missing earlier material, I resolved to keep everything from then on.

I still have outlines of stuff I did in Marketing 101 in college. I still have completed assignments from Audio Production on tape. Why? Because you never know. Something I said on air once back in 2001 may be the perfect slogan for something next year...but I won't know if I didn't still have that tape so I knew exactly what I said.

Will I ever need any of it? I have no idea. But it's there...and I'm happy it is.

What's some random stuff you've kept over the years that's helped you do whatever it is you do?

Thanks for reading...

Depression and Social Marketing

I often wonder how different my views on social networking and social marketing would be if I wasn't on anti depression medication. There are times when I curse social networking, when I really kind of need to talk to someone but nobody's around to chat with....but when people are around and sharing thier ideas, experiences and such, its invauluable.

I'm sure there are times when I hesitate and miss making a connection or replying to a twitter post or a facebook group message...but I'm thinking everyone is like that. Because with social networking and marketing, the whole idea is that there are connections everywhere and if you miss one, you will be able to make another one.

Has anyone else wondered if their social networking or marketing experiences are clouded or heightened by anything??

Thanks for reading...

Blast From The Past - Local Advertising

When I was younger, my favorite commercials were the local ones. You know, the ones with horrible production values, lousy scripts, and the store owner from down the street making an ass out of himself on camera in the name of another dollar. As a kid, I had a really odd sense of humor, and stuff like everyone's favorite liquor store owner, Connecticut's own Crazy Bruce, made me laugh my little head off. How can you not find this funny?



and we cannot forget the Tires Plus Wheels guy, another local legend.



There's always Bob of Bob's Discount Furniture, the guy that did the Ruby Vine Railroad Discount warehouse, or something like that...even today, Connecticut has Stephen Barbarino car dealers doing the low budget thing.

When I was little, they would make me laugh, and not knowing anything at all about advertising or marketing, had no idea that over twenty years later, I would still remember them and be writing a blog post about them. Looking back on them, it was very obvious that local businesses were willing to do just about anything they could to stand out from the national advertisers that got 99% of the advertising time on television. If they had to sing a stupid song, or a funny dance, or just make an idiot of themselves on TV to get noticed, they would do it.

There's really nothing like those ads on TV these days. There are very few businesses willing to do what it takes anymore, and that's a huge problem.

Where are you from and what were your favorite old horrible local commercials? I know you have some.

Thanks for reading...

Good Message vs Big Message

Today I learned that bigger is not always better.

Specifically this particular lesson was in social marketing. There are so many different aspects to social marketing that it is really hard to be in the right mindset for every part of it. I was talking with @unmarketing and @jasontryfon and a few others, and I had expressed about inequality in different circles of twitter. Then both of the guys told me that they viewed things differently....on Twitter, everyone has the same chance to say what they want to say, and people will listen. If you have something worthwhile to say, it will be heard. It doesn't matter if you say it to 100 people, or 10000. If what you have to say is right or good, people will hear it. Quality statements and contributions win over quantity.

I still feel like the little brother that gets stuck playing deep left field, but little brother grows up.

Step Outside The Box - Literally

Going along with my previous post about coloring, is this one, that was slightly inspired by it.

Why stop at coloring outside the lines? That is a figurative excercise, which is indeed important, but sometimes you need to be literal. Step outside the box.

Why should you do something the same way it's always been done? Tradition? Bullshit. Because you know it'll work? Bingo. Try something different. Take a look around where you are now...chances are a lot of the stuff is there because someone took a literal step outside the box. Putting your product in an unusual place...changing its form factor....changing what it's used for. Selling music at Starbucks. Selling food at a bookstore. Writing a diary on the internet. Email.

Each of those was done because someone thought outside the box. Most of those we take for granted today...what will we take for granted tomorrow?

Thanks for reading...

Outside The Lines

Remember when you were little and started learning how to color? Take one crayon, and just go all over the paper without even realizing that the lines were there for a reason. I am getting to witness this kind of thing firsthand, because my nephew is starting to flex his creative muscles with scribbles and such. It looks like such a joyous experience, I wish I could remember that time in my life.

Why do we stay in the lines now? Isn't marketing and advertising about drawing outside the lines? How else would we come up with anything new? Please remember that time in your life when it was a joy just to scribble purple over Santa Claus, or make a black Easter Bunny...and put that into your work.

Thanks for reading...

When You Fail

It will happen. Everyone fails. Everyone drops the ball.

Obviously recovering will depend on what exactly failed, whether it was an entire campaign, or just a particular part of one. It may not even be your fault, or even your company or your product's fault. That failure may even lead to something good....revolutionary, even.

Think of how many things in marketing, advertising and even product packaging have evolved over the past.

The saying goes, that for every warning label you see, some idiot did what it says not to do. I hope you're not that idiot, but maybe we should thank those idiots.

What are your favorite failures and/or recoveries in marketing or advertising?

Thanks for reading...

Self Marketing

Regardless of job status, age, gender, whatever classification you want to go by, one of the most important things about you is your image according to other people. Not yourself, other people. We all know how to do things and make things and whatever else that gives off the image that you want to project. Unfortunately there are very few jobs right now where what you want to show or to be is not what everyone else wants to see. Self Marketing, putting forth the best image of yourself for OTHER PEOPLE is one of the hardest skills to learn, yet you are expected to know how to do so before you know how to do anything else.

The difficult thing about Self Marketing is that almost everyone that can see your personal brand isn't looking for the same thing. Adapting yourself to conform to the widest set of opinions possible without compromising your own ideas and opinions is again, probably the hardest thing a person has to do. Most people have trouble thinking from the perspective of someone looking at them, rather than projecting out from themselves.

It's weird, because when you are young you're trained to care about your own image for the most part, and learning how to see yourself in the minds of others is pretty much shuffled to the backseat...and then you hit the real world, and are surprised to learn that you've been doing everything ass backwards your entire life.

Thanks for reading...

Consumer Reaction

So.

I just saw the new commercial starring the Sham-Wow guy. The slap-chop.

I know the goal in advertising and marketing is to get a reaction from the customer and get them to remember your product. Sometimes it does seem like we remember the stupid commercials more than good ones, though. Commercials by their mere existance are annoying and interrupting what we tuned in for, but why is it that purposely annoying commercials get more of a reaction from consumers?

Although, if the commercial is so horrible that so many people remember how horrible it was and what product it was for...was it really a horrible commercial?

Thanks for reading...