Whatever the reason, it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

A wise man once told me, a brand is simply what people perceive of your company. So, if you want it to be boring, stagnant and like everyone else’s, by all means, go with the crappy marketing. But, if you want to stand out, inspire others to talk about your company and the cool stuff you’re doing – give it some thought. It’ll be worth it. I promise.

Here’s a great article from a brilliant mind at 37 Signals. The author is Jason Fried. I’m picking up what he’s laying down, as this is what inspired me to actually write a blog post – the first in quite some time. There’s always room for good thinking. No opportunity is too small, no brand is too well-known.

Just some thoughts. Also, I’m pledging myself to be a more committed blogger.

Jon

1. Always send a thank you note. I know, sounds simple, right? Send one. Trust me, you’ll stand out.
2. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Cliché, I know. But it’s true. If your first idea isn’t well received use that as motivation until you get it right. Or until you inspire someone else to get it right.
3. That brings me nicely to my next point…bounce ideas off each other. When you’re stuck or need a change of pace, use the people around you. You never know what you’ll be able to come up with.
4. Have fun. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’s going to show. Obviously, not every day is going to be perfect. But work hard. Have fun. And it’ll make the not-so-perfect days worth it.
5. The best way to hold a broom: one hand firmly at the top and the second hand partly down the handle. Move hands back and forth, sweeping all around the office. Listen to music – it’ll help.
6. Learn from your mistakes. Cliché number two! But, it’s true. Listen to what the people around you have to say (especially when you’ve made a mistake). Use that to become better.
7. Keep up with social media. Look for new ways to do old tricks. Always be up to speed with what’s going on in the (advertising) world around you.
8. If you believe in your idea, fight for it. Because if you don’t, no one else will.
9. Best way to do dishes: grab bucket full of dishes, go down the hall to the bathroom, scrub, scrub, scrub, dry, put back in bucket and bring back to put in office. Again, listen to music it helps.
10. Beer and homemade cookies always equal a good going-away gift.

Well, I’m sure I’ve learned more than just that…probably. But, that’s all I’ll share with you. Hope you guys have a great weekend.

As always thanks for reading,

Sharon

Here’s why it works:

It’s all the questions we’re dying to ask Tiger ourselves, but can’t. It’s taking Tiger from a golf (and Nike) icon to a humbled individual. Instead of glorifying him, it’s subtly chastising him. It’s making him seem, for once, an actual person who makes mistakes instead of a sports image who can do no wrong. It’s honest. It’s gripping. It’s memorable. And it’s completely unexpected.

Here’s why it doesn’t work:

Skipping over the fact that it’s his DEAD father talking, there is something creepy about the commercial itself. Maybe it’s the fact that Tiger looks actually apologetic, opposed to his calm, rehearsed persona. Apart from that, there’s just something uncomfortable with staring at this new Tiger. In addition, it seems like a bit of a cop out. Almost like he is using his dead father and his newly humbled position to trick us into forgetting and forgiving the mess he’s made.

But, then again, maybe that’s just me. Decide for yourself.

As always, thanks for reading.

- Sharon

So… we loved it. At first sight, too.

Now we get that Super Bowl ads usually tend to lean heavily on humor. But Google’s ad was a refreshing break from the flying chips and the talking babies. Why was this ad so great?

Google…

• executed brilliantly with zero talent costs
• used their interface as the visual, making it about as ownable as you can get
• told a story (and a timely one at that with Valentine’s Day coming up)
• tapped into the emotions of viewers (little humor going on, little love going on, some surprises going on)
• had an ad that resonated through literal noise (think about how many ads you couldn’t hear because people were talking at your party)
• and of course, it aligned with their platform – user friendly with no clutter and clean communication

In case you didn’t see it, the spot told a love story in a nonconventional way. It was simple. It was memorable. It was ingenious.

.

Have a great weekend. And happy Valentine’s Day.

So…

1. More blogging. Lots more blogging. We’re doing okay on the micro side of things, but don’t write enough on the macro. We preach it to our clients but we have a hard time doing it ourselves. Yep – need to fix that.

2. More reading. Lots more reading. Industry stuff. Fun stuff. A library of everything. We think it’s important for inspiration, and, well, the old noggin in general.

3. Quit letting the award annuals pile up. We love looking through them – so, we should probably do it. It’s a good way to find inspiration and learn from the greats.

4. More sack lunches and sample days at Straub’s. This whole Central West End thing is hurting the pocketbook. First Herbie’s, now Pi. It’s getting ugly.

5. Continue to pursue hobbies. I just got a nice camera – I want to use it more and really learn the craft of taking a good photo. Joe likes to cook – he should do that more. Hobbies are important. They help keep you sharp and focused at the 9-”5″.

6. Encourage clients to do “due diligence” of research. Makes for much more effective work in long run.

7. Continue to be a student of SEO. A local ad guru told me it grew 5,000% last year. Ummm…probably need to stay on top of that then.

8. Always keep the big picture in mind. Always.

9. Make it to the West Coast on business. Seattle’s been calling our name. Hmmm…Filson is in Seattle.

10. Continue to hit the gym. We bought company passes to a nice little fitness club. Unfortunately, the weights don’t lift themselves. The person signing us up forgot to mention this.

11. More brainstorming over beers.

12. Rework biz plan. That’s a goal every year. We did it last year and helped a good deal. Keeps things fresh. Keeps you focused and on-task. A business plan is a living and breathing thing. Needs to be treated that way.

13. Stay up on daily inspiration. Blogs, Twitter links (deep breath – can get overwhelming).

14. Hire a new Gorilla or two. We’re getting to that point. We have a couple great candidates in mind. They’d be tremendous assets to the team.

15. Redo our Gorilla website. We have some great ideas and sketches. But, we need something that’s clickable.

16. Continue to build relationships with current client base. We’re blessed with a good one, need to keep them all on board by offering them good thinking and great service.

17. Most importantly, continue to have fun while doing it all.

All the best in the new year – hope it’s prosperous to you and yours.

Jon

Well, now we kind of want to be like his advertising agency. They continue to produce great work – work that has truly elevated his brand. In tribute to yet another great spot that launched earlier this month, here’s one of our all-time favorites. It’s been around for a bit but still a very cool ad.

The “a-ha” moment – that rewarding occasion where all of a sudden you just get it. Life’s full of them and so is great marketing.

From smart logos and witty taglines to great television and radio spots, nothing rewards an engaged viewer like a clever reveal. These are the little moments that make a crappy Super Bowl worth watching. These are the little pieces of brilliance that make you rip an ad out of a magazine because you thought it was clever or funny. These are the ideas that inspire – or at least nerdy ad guys like us.

So with no further ado, some inspiration: an “a-ha” ad we stumbled upon named “Mr. W.” Click the link below. It’s worth the two minutes.

Mr. W

Yep, you guessed it – another film-related post. I can’t help it. I see something I like and I immediately want to tell everyone about it, encouraging them to hurry out and see whatever caught my fancy. In this case, it’s the new Batman (The Dark Knight). So…go see it. It’s terrific. The effects are great, storyline solid, villains eerie and new gadgets, well to sound like a teenager, awesome.

With that said, like any business owner, I couldn’t help but think about business while I was sitting in my seat trying to get away for a bit. In my case, it was discovering the strength of the Batman (the actual superhero, not the overall comic) brand. It’s all stuff that’s been in place since the POW! and BOOM! days of old, I just simply failed to realize until recently.

My realization came in the fact that Batman (again – the actual superhero, not the comic) is the perfect metaphor for a strong brand and strong marketing. He’s a culmination of so many important factors: a strong name, a strong logo, always has a finger on pulse of new technology, attentive to PR but not dedicated to it, etc.

But really, I think what should be most noted, is the attention to the Batman brand experience. He’s more than what’s mentioned in the paragraph above. Put simply, Batman’s cool, and he’s such by a perfect orchestration of intrinsic characteristics. Anything Batman puts his name on or uses is easily identified as being part of his brand. I guess the easiest comparison would be the classic Apple computer example. Everything from in-store experience to the actual use of their product feels the same – same with Batman.

He’s modern and edgy yet still leans to the conservative side. Anything he does is going to be strategic and smart. He’s effective and efficient in all of his efforts. He always utilizes the sleekest, most current technologies. All of these things build to create the perception of what we know as Batman.

Your brand is no different. You have a logo, tagline and website – great. But what kind of promotions do you have running? Do they line up with your brand platform? What about your ads? Do they have the same look and feel as other marketing pieces? It’s this idea of consistency and cohesion that makes for a strong and memorable brand – hence a classic “brand” like Batman.

Thanks for reading. And go see The Dark Knight.

Jon

“If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough” – a memorable line delivered by the fictitious newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane in the cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane. It’s a bold sentiment that can be applied across life’s many platforms. However, I find it’s truth to be particularly relevant when thinking about the role a strong website can play in the small business landscape.

It’s that idea of making your brand look bigger than what it actually is that I find so interesting. It’s a thought that’s always kind of been in the back of my head, but it took a film from 1941 to make it really jump to the front. It’s something that small business owners often face in everyday marketing – you of course know you’re legit; you just have to convince your audience that you’re legit as well.

The way of doing that in today’s digital-centric landscape: a well-designed, well-written, easy-to-use website.

As pointed out by Nicholas Carr in his recent book The Big Switch (which I strongly recommend), companies such as Craigslist and PlentyOfFish serve thousands upon thousands of people on a daily basis. And that makes sense because they’re big companies, right? Not so much.

At the time of Carr’s publication, the companies were 22 employees and 1 employee, respectively speaking. I thought this was pretty amazing considering these are two very well-known, web-based companies. While their sites are not design-focused, their structures were built for usability, making them popular choices for their intended markets. What started small has now evolved into two significant players. I’m sure that’s something you wouldn’t mind as a small business owner.

I guess the takeaway is fairly simple: a strong web presence is getting more and more essential. The web is allowing for a bigger, more impressive “storefront”, giving the smallest companies an equal voice on a national, even global scale.

Thanks for reading (and sorry for the delay in the first post).

The writerly half,

Jon