Content as Perspective

For those of you that have been reading my posts regularly, you know that I have little tolerance for silly ads that lack content and that only those messages that get to the heart of the brand are worth sending. Something I’ve seen recently on HGTV (which is an iteration and longer form of [...]

Paying Dues

There’s something to be said for paying your dues. It’s only right that we should have to go through all the same…um…stuff…that others have suffered before us. Much of the time.

When you’re building an organization, hoping to hire the best, you may not find the best senior-level people with all the industry-specific experience [...]

Creativity Is Evolutionary

My oldest daughter is an avid reader. In the latest book, she came across a new term for her—mortal ingenuity. We had her talk through what it most likely means. It reminded me of something one of my college English professors beat into our heads that rings true still. Creativity is [...]

Great Results Can Be Greater

Yesterday, I wrote about metrics and the importance of measuring relevant data—that which guides you to real growth. Carrying on with that theme, I saw a piece from Brandweek last week about Levi’s and viral videos. The article celebrated a new viral video from the denim giant focused on their 501 line of [...]

Use Relevant Metrics

Measurement is the bane of our existence. The only way for us to know if what we are doing is effective is to measure the outcomes. But measuring stuff isn’t easy. In fact, we might be measuring the wrong stuff.

First, there are things that we know. It may be sales to [...]

Proper Shelf Sets Exist for a Reason

Over the past week, I have had the occasion to peruse the aisles of both a large grocery and a national home improvement store. In attempting to locate what I needed, I was lost navigating the bizarre organization of the merchandise.

Let me offer some examples. One of the items on my list was [...]

Knowing Your History versus Holding on to the Past

I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of my best friends from high school. We hadn’t seen each other in over ten years and spoken in about five. He still had family in the New Orleans area when Hurricane Katrina hit, and he told me about his grandfather having to [...]

Should Have Included Nextel

When I wrote yesterday about ads missing the mark, I should have included Nextel in the mix. They had the perfect opportunity to show how they help real people work smarter and decided to go for humor instead. Let me set the stage.

Nextel has two new commercials. One is a group of [...]

Some Ads Miss the Mark

National advertising campaigns don’t come cheap. The concept, production, placement and associated commissions add up quickly. Even a pure cable TV run will end up costing in the hundreds of thousands. So, if you are going to make that kind of investment, you want an ad that makes sense, gets the message [...]

Should GE Sell or Partner Appliance Unit?

GE announced last week that it is considering selling, spinning off or partnering its appliance unit. My first thought went to why they would want to dump it at all. GE has a long history of dumping underperformers (units and people). In December they put their finance unit (or at least some [...]