Post Office Ad from Down Under

This advertisement comes from Australia, promoting the now ancient art of writing a letter. It works on the principle that holding a letter in your hand has a much more emotional appeal than just getting an e-mail.

PSP in South America

Another great ad… this one appeals in a very intimate way a video game system can effect it’s users….

Craftsman Ad

Very cool and a little creepy…

Hello Banana

I attended a very high-end marketing convention a few years ago in Chicago. Many of the New York Madison Avenue speakers chatted about the future of advertising. One of the speakers pointed out that she felt the future would be in those little stickers they put on fruit. This achieved a few groans from the cynical audience. I kept an open mind about it. And then last week, my banana said something to me… my banana loved me.

Looks like she was right!

The Science of Art, Expression and Markets: Relativity is Everything

Imagine you get a phone call from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, asking if you would like to participate in a safe and simple time travel experiment where they would send you either forward or backward time for twenty four hours. All you have to do is tell them about your experiences when you return. (And yes, I know that the laws of physics state it is practically impossible to travel backwards into time, but this is hypothetical question. So there!)

Knowing that the procedure is deemed and proven relativity safe, you agree and take the first flight to the suburbs of Chicago. After three hours of filling out forms, and a liability clause, you are then asked just how far back (or forth) in time you’d like to go. Fifty years? Five hundred years? Ten thousand years? Five million years? Fifty million years? It’s up to you.

A little lump forms in the bottom of your throat. Probably fifty years, right? You have a working knowledge of 1959, and 2059 wouldn’t be too radically different than now, assuming a world wide catastrophe does not occur before then (hence the liability clause). So you say fifty. The scientist is not pleased. Many people have done the fifty year jump and she’s hoping you will choose a much greater time distance.

This does not bode well with you. 1509? Sure, watching Henry VIII of England getting married Catherine of Aragon might be cool. But that’s within the Middle Ages! No sewers, widespread flu and smelly people that would probably burn you at the stake for being different. (The word for different in those days was “witch.”) And even the ones that speak English will probably have a difficult time understanding your 21st century variation of the language, and that will not help you explain your case during your trail for conducting witchcraft. And 2509 does not seem very comforting either. The only thing you know about the 26th Century was what you read in the novel Brave New World, and besides the socially accepted non-stop casual sex, the rest of it seemed really creepy. And they’d look at you like a primate, so no sex for you.

It just sounds worse the father back or forth you’d travel. Ten thousand years ago was populated with caveman and technology consisted of making fire. And you’d probably get thrown into some sort of zoo if you arrived in the year 10,009. And the only thing you know about that year was what you saw in the movie Dune, and NOBODY liked that.

Any time past that seems irrelevant. Civilizations will either cease to exist or become so far developed they might be beyond your ability to understand them. Then the physical limitations would become apparent. The biology 50 million years (either past or future) will be so different than yours you’ll probably get violently ill. Worst case scenario, you might bring back a mega super virus from the year 50,000,009 AD and kill everyone in the present day.

What does this all mean? Simple, the father back of forth in time you’d travel, the less meaning it would have for you, and the more dangerous it would be. Hence, relativity is everything. We establish our morals, our understanding of our world, our belief system, everything we know is completely attached and embedded with the time and place in which we live. What was accepted 200 years ago and what will be accepted 200 years from now will seem very foreign to anybody alive and well today. The farther you go, the stranger it will seem. For thousands of years in the past, humans lived and died without ever getting to know the teachings of Jesus, the works of Shakespeare, or the art of Michelangelo, simply because they were born too soon. Imagine what you are missing by not seeing the three-dimensional interactive displays an artist will create three hundred years from now with technology not yet developed. Is this fair? Does this go beyond the definition of fair? Is it fair Barack Obama gets to use a Blackberry while John Adams had to use a dip pen? What would John Adams have done with a Blackberry?

Einstein developed the Theory of relativity less than a century ago. To apply this theory to everyday life and observation provides a deep understanding of our lives. Meaning is held within the bowl of spaghetti in your head. To inquire, “What do you think of 1085th Century Toyko” would be the same as asking asking a Dodo bird about an iPod. The father in spacetime two observations are, the closer we reach the infinity mark, and in mathematics we know infinity is a meaningless number, and certainly not fair.

Everything is relative. And relativity is everything. This is the first step in understanding your market. The next step, string theory and how the observation of the ups and downs of life is the system in which meaning can even be established, and just wait until we hit hyper-meaning in the 21st Century… more on that later.

Amazing Window Displays Increase Foot Traffic

Salon Delucca in uptown Port Townsend does an amazing job on their storefront windows. They hire local artists to completely redesign the window each month. Foot traffic has increased dramatically. Fashion salons take note! It’s amazing what a little creativity can do. Even less popular or abstract displays still grab attention… and it doesn’t take a PhD to create an impressive display, just a pool of local talent which can be achieved with the right Craigslist Ad.

Thoughts on Ghost Tweeting and Web 1.0

Who's that man behind the text?

Ghost tweeting. Boo! Personally I’m not opposed to this, but for someone like new media guru Guy Kawasaki I think he should lose a few of his ghost Tweeters as I get at least 84 Tweets from him a day, about all things random, most of which I am not interested in. Steve Crescenzo at Crescenzo Communications is dead on when he says he’s spamming his followers.

Now spamming your clients works in some circumstances. Some people watch those god-awful infomercials and actually buy things from the television. And let’s face it, if they didn’t work… we wouldn’t have so many Home Shopping Networks would we? Some people like to be pooped on, too. There is always a market for something in this world.

Tweeting and Facebooking is a tool. It does not automatically gather clients and generate interest in your product or service. This is the Web 1.0 philosophy folly of “If You Build It They Will Come.” The toolbox doesn’t build the house, the builder does. So why is it so hard to grasp this concept in a virtual world?

Back in the 90’s the book “Being Digital” by Nicholas Negroponte stated the difficulty of putting value on those little ones and zeroes. In some ways, we all experience a backlash of that same notion. Because our generation has no value to virtual content, we see the content we post on the web as disposable. In short, we don’t try hard enough to make our posts engaging or interesting. That is a deadly mistake. every post counts, every moment counts. Never forget it.

Which is why I am not opposed to ghost bloggers under certain circumstances… such as, you happen to be a REALLY BORING person and a lousy writer. To assume we are all a budding F Scott Fitzgerald’s just waiting for the right opportunity is like stating we are all Michael Jordan’s waiting for the right agent to come along and send us to the NBA. Some people suck at writing. It’s just the way it is.

But that doesn’t mean we cannot grow our skills to become savvy internet posters. It’s all about the RICHNESS of the content. When I post articles from The Economist or Fora.tv on my Facebook page, it is something I have either read or seen before hand. It is something that represents me as an individual and a businessperson. It is something important. QUALITY not quantity is the golden rule for the web. People want to get to know you as an individual. So when you post, post something close to your heart and mind. If you wouldn’t spend the time to read it or watch it, why would your friends or followers?

Other things to consider, the time of day or day of the week you make a post is critical. Wednesdays are usually best for retention on more serious subjects. Fridays are best for posting something more fun. If Guy spent a few minutes learning about his followers, we wouldn’t have to bombard them with constant Tweets. The right Tweet at the right time is more effective than a thousand random Tweets. Remember the term it’s all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION? Same goes for the internet, virtual space still operates in spacetime, and the same rules apply. Post each post as if your life depended on it, and you’ll be more successful.

If you do not value those little ones a zeroes like you would oh let’s say, real estate… you’ll lose the game.

Apple Tablet Brings Uncertain Future, Almost Certain Ad Spending

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — We don’t know if media companies will succeed at everything they dream of doing on the anticipated Apple tablet, but we do know what Apple will almost certainly do for them: spend lots of money advertising the thing.

Read the full article from Ad Age by clicking here…

Say Everything: How Blogging Began

From the Berkeley Arts and Letters and The Berkeley Cybersalon

You’ve heard all the arguments about blogging, pro and con. Blogs are a wondrous innovation, keys that have unlocked a vast treasury of self-expression and allowed underdogs everywhere to challenge giants. No, wait! Blogs are a scourge that is debasing journalism, undermining traditional authority, drowning us all in meaningless chatter, and destroying civilization as we know it.

Over the last dozen years, while everyone was arguing about blogging, the new medium came into its own. What started as the passion of a handful of geeky pioneers evolved into the pursuit of millions. That is the story Scott Rosenberg tells.

Say Everything chronicles blogging’s unplanned rise and improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics, business, the media, and our personal lives. What blogging has become, Rosenberg says, is a new kind of public sphere – one in which we can think out loud together.

Watch the program by clicking here…

Make a Larger-Than-Life Impression: Add Jumbo Postcards to Your Marketing Plan

Postcard marketing remains one of the most cost-effective means of getting your name and message in front of prospective buyers. With a postcard, you can target your message to only those customers and prospects who are most likely to want your services.
Unfortunately, standard-sized postcards can sometimes get buried in a stack of mail. When that happens, they can be easily over-looked. Jumbo postcards help to solve this dilemma. They stand out, get attention, and offer more space for your important messages. Here are some more great reasons why jumbo postcards should be included in your marketing plan:
• Jumbo postcards are convenient. Your message is right in front of your customers. They can read your offer or find out about a sale without having to open an envelope.
• They’re inexpensive. Printing costs for jumbo postcards are small, considering the large impact they can have on buyers.
• They’re easy to test. Because they’re so inexpensive, postcards are a great medium for testing the effectiveness of your messaging. Start by sending postcards to a small sampling of your mailing list. When you’re satisfied with the results, have more printed, and spread out from there.
• They’re easy to track—especially if you include a coupon or special offer on the card.
• They make a more lasting impression. How many TV or newspaper ads do you remember after just one viewing? The reason we forget most conventional ads is because they’re a distraction, not the main focus of our attention. A jumbo postcard has staying power. It leaves a more lasting impression because of its size, its content (especially if it includes a coupon or special offer), and its ability to reach a person when they have time to concentrate on reading it.