Category Archives: Strategy

P90X-off is on

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Today is June 1st! And today starts the P90X challenge between Russ Dahlberg and myself. You may see the infomercials on late night TV for the P90X. It is supposed to get you rediculous results in 90 days. Just take a look at this guy!

get_results_img The infomercial is full of shots like this. Why the P90X? I have no clue. Am I susceptible to late night infomercials? Other than the Hercules Hook, Kinoki Footpads, The Clapper, Head on (Apply Directly to the forehead), Extenze 4 Males and anything Billy Mayes sells, I scoff at infomercials. For me it is all the real people in the P90X infomercial who send in home movies that sold me on it! So on to the challenge! Check out the P90X product on the web There have to be some rules so this thing doesn’t get out of hand:

P90X Rules:

  1. No banned substances as stated in the WNBA Drug Policy.
  2. Before and After Photos must be supplied for Judging. The before photo must prove start date so as to not submit a picture form 7 years ago.
  3. The winner will be defined by the most dramatic change in physique after the 3 month period (50% value).
  4. The “after” photos will be posted on amIripped.com for a period of 2 weeks. The person who wins the most battles after that period wins (50% value).
  5. If the winner cannot be decided by these 2 tests, the contestants will go down to the Venice Beach boardwalk and ask people walking by who is more ripped.

Russ, do you have anything you would like to add?

Are you ready for the P90X challenge? If you would like to be a part of this gruelling competition just respond in the post. We could push the date out a bit just for more competitors. As it stands if one of us drops out (Russ), the other will be going against himself. If you want to discuss (ie talk smack) about the challenge, we will use the hashtag #P90xoff on Twitter.

My BestBuy is Better Than Yours

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800px_best_buy_logo_svg

I like BestBuy. I don’t like shopping (food, clothing etc.) but I love going into BestBuy. I equate it to the HomeDepot experience but for the geek in me. When I walk in I feel like there are limitless possibilities on the things I could buy that would improve my life/productivity/entertainment. Sometimes when I am just having a bad day, I like to wander around and see what marked down movies are on the racks (like Delta Force 2 for $5.99!). And I am okay with the fact that they seamed to have crushed most of their competitors, because I REALLY like BestBuy.

So about 8 months ago when they sent me an invite to their new Premier Silver program I was excited. The fact I earned an invite due to amount of money I spent in a 12 month period did nothing to dull the moment. They had a new program, that was more exclusive than their regular one, and I was in! Some of the benefits include being able to buy stuff earlier than other people! I was also able to buy ColdPlay tickets before they went on sale once that was a nice benefit. Pretty, pretty, exclusive stuff! Sometimes when I am checking out at the counter I just like to find a reason to bring up the fact that I am a Premier Silver member. It is more or less my status symbol, my Amex Black Card.

Every so often I get something in the mail. Not like what you get, because I am Premier Silver. Whereas your mailer has product shots and prices, my mailer has lifestyle shots and calls to action!

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BestBuy has worked hard to create a program that is somewhat aspirational to my demographic (non married males, ages 25-35) and it works. It seems like they have put a lot of effort into their messaging and  have certainly worked to design the marketing materials to match. There is just one problem. They went through this entire process to setup a new membership/rewards plan, but right here on the cover they lose me:

[singlepic id=14 w=250 h= float=left]

To me it is saying, “To Marc Van Norden our valued customer, or anyone else.”. You expect anything labeled “Current Resident” you expect to be coming from the city, or grocery store. For me it hollows the relationship. If I take the time to give you my information so you can talk to me that is something every business wants. I don’t think there is any reason to add the “Or” in addressing me. It is something small, but sometimes those are the things that are overlooked and can have an impact on the customer/company relationship.

I just thought they liked me better than everyone else……I guess not…….(sniff, sniff)

What do you think?

UPDATED (6/1/09)

I sent my post to Barry Judge, the  CMO over at BestBuy via twitter (his handle is @BestBuyCMO). He was very responsive and receptive to my thoughts. Mr. Judge asked  me to log the idea to BestBuy’s idea exchange website: http://bestbuyideax.com/ for consideration/review.

Earlier today Barry sent me a tweet. He said, “Dug into issue & has to do w/postal regs/costs. Still we should take cost hit to make a more personal impression w/ this group”. Even as I was writing the post I assumed it had something to do with Direct Mail pricing etc. I think this would be a smart spend. Instead of putting out another type of campaign, fix the one they have. We will see.

You know those companies who are to busy to pay any attention to their customers? The CMO at BestBuy is not one of them. His responsiveness and and follow-up go a long way in my book! (Thanks Barry!) I will post an update if I hear anything else, but for right now they are going to look into it, despite the cost to them. Smart move.

Vendor / Client relationship – In the Real World

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Is your life like this? Are you constantly trying to sell your client on the value that you bring to the table. The same client who was searching for said qualities in the RFQ, RFP, and the 3 rounds of designs and boards!? Good times………I especially like the last 5 seconds, that drove it home! This is true whether it is the Idea (straight advertising creative), or the execution (consulting and services).

Thanks @tbrunelle

You Own This: Pieces of American History

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Dorothea Lange's M̀igrant Mother

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

“Migrant Mother,” by Dorothea Lange, is the most famous photo in the Library of Congress. This 1936 portrait of Florence Thompson and her children symbolizes both economic hardship and the strength to survive. The Library is honored to preserve Lange’s original camera negative and makes the digitized photo freely available.

The Migrant Mother is one of the most iconic photographs in American history. It was shot during the great depression of the 1930′s. The project, sponsored by the Gvmnt’ under the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information and was meant to document the plight of Americans across the country during that time period. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks were all contributors to the project. Because the project was Government sponsored it means they were working for you. Think of it as your grand parents tax dollars hard at work. Most of the pictures under the FSA are rights free and are allowed to be used and duplicated. You can even order prints on line at the Library of Congress.

“Publication and other forms of distribution: Permitted. Most photographs in this collection were taken by photographers working for the U.S. Government. Work by the U.S. Government is not eligible for copyright protection (see page 5 of the Copyright Office’s Circular 1, “Copyright Basics”). However, the FSA occasionally and the OWI frequently bought or otherwise obtained some photographs from other sources. All known information about the source of the images is found in the labels on the photographs. Patrons are advised to check for copyright before publishing or otherwise distributing photographs credited to other sources. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.”


Doreathea Lange

The library collection was digitized during the mid-90′s (which is  the reason for the lack high quality scans) and have been online and available to the public.  Over the last couple years the LOC has done a great job at expanding access to their  library. The LOC has a Flickr account of which you can subscribe too. They are also on twitter talking about events at the physical Library (in Washington D.C.) as well as the unveiling of newly published photo sets. The latest set called “FSA/OWI Favorites” is one of the best in my opinion.

What the Library of Congress is doing as an organization is smart. Rather than invest a ton of time and money to rebuild it’s own infrastructure it is using the platforms available (like Flickr and Twitter) to reach it’s audience. By adding content on these networks also allows for users to share and spread the content with ease, as these features are built into the platforms.

What Are Your 5 Favorite Sites?

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Being out in the field looking for a job is certainly a change of pace. Over the last 3 years I can’t count the number of interviews I have been a part of. In the last 6 years I probably been on the other side of the table a handful of times.

I went in for an interview last week and everything was going pretty good. In my opinion any interview should just come across as a good conversation for both parties. Not one side asking questions and the other one answering them. I felt we were having a good conversation that was flowing and painless. The hour we spent talking seemed to fly by. Towards the end of the conversation the interviewer asked me a simple question and I dropped it! It was something so basic, something I have asked candidates hundreds of times. A question that you ask just to get a sense of a candidates web savvy, “What are your 5 favorite sites?”. And I dropped it! I remember stammering out, “ESPN of course…”. The one site any employer would rather not hear, “The World Wide Leader” in killing productivity. I think I also threw out Mashable.com but for the life of me I can’t remember anything else I might have said.

Even as words were coming out of my mouth I knew this was a question I should have a very easy answer for. After the interview later into the evening I was still thinking about the botch and actually trying to answer it for myself. The patterns in which I consume information have shifted. In the past I would have 9-14 bookmarks and maybe 10-15 rss feeds to go thru on a regular basis. But when work starts piling up the last thing I had time to do was go and peruse sites. I would bookmark, star, tag, digg and add to delicious. But then the list of tagged items would be long and over the course of time the list of must visit sites and rss feeds grew unmanageable.

It took me awhile, but then I realized, I don’t have 5 favorite sites! I still get information, links and opinions, but it is not necessarily from an aggregate site like Digg. Instead of being directed to content that is surfaced by general popularity, I have chosen to be influenced by individuals that I respect and trust. Twitter, and the people I follow has somewhat replaced my need to subscribe to any particular site. And the content that the individuals do surface tends to have a more direct connection with my interests versus most popular. A lot of the times I am connecting with the individuals who are writing the content for the sites we visit. For example I follow:

Andy CarvinAndy Carvin

NPR NEWS

Ken WheatonKen Wheaton

Writer for Ad Age

JeremiahJeremiah Owyang

Sr Analyist, Forrester

NASANASA

NASA

Kevin RoseKevin Rose

Founder of Digg

Pete CashmorePeter Cashmore

Founder of Mashable.com

Michael LebowitzMichael Lebowitz

Founder of BigSpaceship

This is a good cross section of news, science, advertising, social media, and technology trends. And for the most part these people are pretty consistent with engaging thier audience. Not that it is necessary, but you will watch or hear about stories on twitter before I see the article come out from AdAge (who I also follow) or NPR. Twitter has cut down the amount of scanning I need to do (but don’t have time for) by 60%. I obviously still do explore on my own, and if I had to pick 5 sites (after much deliberation) they would be:

Adobe Labs

http://labs.adobe.com/

QBN (News Today)

http://www.qbn.com/

Slate Magazine

http://slate.com/

The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Mashable

http://mashable.com/