Inimitable Leader – Steve Jobs

His impact. His vision.

Guest post – authored by John Biggs of Tech Crunch.

An inspirational tribute to Steve Jobs.

- a passionate generation-changing cultural leader -

- Apple founder and long-time CEO -

Intro – Joanne Maly of Lincoln Maly Marketing

No doubt, each of us experienced our own personal reactions and emotions on Wednesday evening, August 23, 2011 when Apple announced that Steve Jobs was resigning as CEO of Apple because of health reasons.

Steve Jobs personally impacted the culture of America and the world with his own entrepreneurial spirit and vision, as well as the creative culture of excellence that he has inspired and exemplified for more than a generation. Mr. Jobs has become more than a business leader, technology icon, and innovator.  The creative genius of Mr. Jobs and his very public life helped this man become ‘a real person’ in our lives even though we have never met him personally. We are sad for his failing health and for the loss of his continued ‘thinking-outside-the-box’ inventions.

The day after the announcement, I read the following post written by TechCrunch.com editor, John Biggs and was inspired by the beauty of the John’s words and the simplicity with which he captured the impact, spirit, and legacy of Steve Jobs.

John Biggs has graciously agreed to allow me to include his TechCrunch,com post on the ‘Simply Said’ Blog. Thank you, John.  - jlm

John Bigg’s bio follows at the end of this Simply Said Blog entry.

Steve Jobs: The End of an Era

by John Biggs on TechCrunch.com, August 24, 2011

We all know the broad strokes: a boy is born to a graduate student and her Syrian boyfriend. She places the boy for adoption. He comes to live with Paul and Clara. Paul is a machinist who moved to San Francisco after WWII. He grows up in Santa Clara county. It’s flat, lots of one story buildings, mostly middle/upper middle class, outside of the bad parts. Parts of it are pretty, parts aren’t. He wasn’t coddled. His biological mother makes his adoptive parents promise to send him to college. In fourth grade he has a great teacher and, presumably, another and another.

His parents scrape to send him to Reed. He drops out of college and starts dropping in on classes that interest him. He makes money returning bottles and he hits the Hare Krishna temple now and then for a free meal. He takes calligraphy, eschews the typical coursework, and at age 20 he and a buddy start a company.

He’s a buddhist with a temper. He cuts down rivals and builds up a team of 4,000 dedicated to his singular vision. He’s ousted, builds another company or two, and comes back. He’s kind of a hippie, enjoying Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He loves music.

He’s leaving, now, the victim of something gnawing at his health like sea spray whittles a wooden pier.

Where does that leave Apple? And where does that leave us?

I wasn’t always a Mac lover. I thought they were over-priced and pretty, the candy colors far too silly for my 486 tastes. Any chip that had the word Power in its name was overcompensating, I wagered.

But over the past decade I learned the satisfaction of a machine that just works. It’s a machine that the boy put most of his life into, a machine that has the heart of a much older thing, a thing that lay blinking and frantic in a Stanford computer lab somewhere and then, over time, shrank down to something you and I can fit into our pockets.

Many complained that the ecosystem that he created was a walled garden, but I’d equate it to a pasture. “The reason everything looks beautiful is because it is out of balance,” wrote Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. “But its background is always in perfect harmony.” In the front, anything can happen. In the back, perfect calm and order.

There is a strain of Internet thought that requires us to tear down, to refuse to see the other side. There will be plenty of that going on in the next few days as talking heads talk. But name one CEO who, on leaving his company, will raise such a wave of well-wishes and interest? When Michael Dell dodders off or Howard Stringer plops into a club chair for his final cigar, will anyone care the next day?

We all know the broad strokes: The man got sicker, he almost quit, kept at it. He embraced a successor and groomed him to be as calm a force as he once was. He kept us surprised, entertained, constantly speculating. We wondered where he was. If he was well.

We all know the broad strokes: He isn’t well. He’s stepped down. Another Buddhist (or near enough to one) said “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

Godspeed, Mr. Jobs. We’ll miss you on stage.

About John Biggs

John Biggs lives in Brooklyn, New York and writes about technology, security, gadget, gear, wristwatches, and the Internet. After spending four years as an IT programmer, John switched gears and became a full-time journalist.

His work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, Sync. John has written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.

John Biggs is currently Editor-in-Chief of CrunchGear.com and he runs the BigWideLogic.com family of blogs, including SlushPile.net and WristWatchReview.com. John also runs the HourTime Podcast with Ariel Adams.

Thank you for allowing us to share your post, with our Simply Said Blog readers.  - jlm

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It’s Contagious.

I love the new definition of contagious these days. Not medically speaking, of course.

For many businesses, the trend du jour is to be perceived as different, bold, edgy, creative and fun — and to have your message spread with a mind of its own.

The goal is to have your message reach potential eyes, ears, fingers, computers, ipods, ipads and mobile phones as quickly and as broadly as possible.

Undoubtedly, there are many an ad agency and product company who woke up this very morning hoping that someone on their staff would have a simply genius idea today. And they hoped that idea would result in a print ad, tv commercial or online video that in turn would then spark a contagious flurry of viral proliferation throughout every social media medium.

The Old Spice – If You Have It – commercial continues to have its own afterlife on the internet for instance, long after the actual spot aired on tv.

The ideal scenario is to have the germ (ahem, I mean concept) eventually disseminated across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Hulu, MySpace, Google and Bing, etc. The inspired graphic, the 30-second tv spot or the one-minute video would catch the imagination of the public and in a nano-second, we would see the idea-as-a-finished-product then proliferated across the world’s airwaves and web-ernet with immediacy and ‘contagious’ enthusiasm.

An example in point: the Roller Babies viral video produced by Evian cleverly spread the product’s targeted message across the internet through subtle fun.

Instead of virus symptoms being the topic reserved for doctor offices, we now spend time talking about viral basics in our conference rooms. We analyze an idea for success fundamentals such as message clarity and visual creativity. We probe ideas for elements of uniqueness, factors of fun, the possibilities for success, and hopefully, the potential for a full viral outbreak.

Last year’s amazing public singing debut of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent swept through social and traditional mediums with a vengeance. Companies dream of a similar word-of-mouth success.

This new world of viral thinking has added a whole new world of fun and energy to business.

In essence, we have a new vernacular for successful marketing and advertising. And the word contagious now enjoys a whole new reputation.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook Fan Page.

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I am one of the millions who look forward to the annual Super Bowl Football Game, but I will confess that I am not a pro football game fan.

I am however, a non-carded-but-nonetheless-still-certified Super Bowl Ad Connoisseur. (now, there’s a cool Twitter #hashtag for you.)

There are numerous statistics out there to prove that the annual Super Bowl ad-watching frenzy has now reached almost epidemic proportions. AdWeek columnist and marketing expert, Pete Blackshaw tweeted this same fact on Thursday, February 4. “Most Super Bowl Viewers Tune in for the Commercials,” he tweeted. Pete (@pblackshaw) used a recent study by Nielsen to back his claim.

There are many of us out here in the arm-chair-watching crowd who feel that the four quarters of football activity Sunday, February 7 are in reality, the necessary skeletal frame on which the guts of the competition are really tested, aka, the awesome, creative annual commercials. My apologies of course to the professional players who will be competing this coming Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV.

Nielsen found in a recent survey that 51% of the (90 million +) Super Bowl viewers “enjoy the game’s ads more than the action on the field.” Source: NielsonWire.com – January 20, 2010.

The Super Bowl night is frankly an advertiser and marketer’s dream. It is like watching the Emmy’s. The Academy Awards. It might even beat the finale of American Idol. Or the last episode of the last Lost.

The cost for one of the Super Bowl ads is no hiccup. According to msnbc.com, the cost of a 30-second spot for Super Bowl I in 1967 was as low as $37,500. Twenty years later, a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl was $600,000. This year, it is reported that CBS is asking $2.6 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot. (Source: www.msnbc.com)

There is no doubt that major corporations have been sequestered behind iron-clad, double-bolted doors creating this year’s blockbuster Super Bowl commercials. And the unveiling is just a little more than 24-hours away.

No doubt too, the post-game viral afterlife of these Super Bowl commercials and the inevitable social media traffic (via blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn and FaceBook posting) can be considered priceless.

And so I ask, “Coke, Pepsi, Annheuser-Busch, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Doritos, Apple, and E*Trade — what will you perennial favorite Super Bowl commercial producers show us this year?”

Given the nation’s economic woes, the world’s focus on the plight of Haiti, and more, I wonder, will we see a litany of comedic 30-second spots — or will advertisers wow us with themes of sentimentality, the outdoors, or the memories of youth. Perhaps we will see a theme in the commercials for high-tech, light-flashing, fast-moving 30-second vignettes (similar to many of last Sunday night’s Grammy Award musical routines.)

Your thoughts? What do you think this year’s Super Bowl XLIV commercials will be like?

Will there be any commercials that make advertising and marketing history?

Yes, advertising history – like the unforgettable, dramatic Apple commercial introducing the MAC computer, against an eerie backdrop of a prison-type setting, the sound of rhythmic, marching feet, and the visuals of bald-headed, blank-staring men and women garbed in grey-prison-type uniforms moving in robotic symmetry?

Apple\’s 1984 Macintosh Introduction Commercial

TV commercials mirror our culture and yet, at the same time, they help sew the very fabric of our culture.

Note: Part II of this blog post will be available Sunday evening, February 7 …. after this Sunday evening’s entertainment.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook Fan Page.

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Looking for Marketing Excellence in Holiday TV Commercials

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

We’ve heard it said a hundred times – holidays bring out the worst – and the best – in people. For this post, I would like to add an extension to that old adage: holidays bring out the worst  – and the best – in marketing efforts – namely, TV commercials.

A seemingly steady stream of holiday-themed-30-second (going-on-five-minutes) commercials visit us, uninvited, each winter holiday season. I have begun to now identify some of the main culprits this year as ‘the bad’ and ‘the ugly’. Of course, there are examples of ‘the good’ as well.

Simply said, we have a potpourri of ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ commercials regularly interrupting our lives in our family rooms and living rooms this December. Laughingly too, some of the worst creative commercial offenders also have the largest ad budgets.

I have conducted my own non-scientific study of some of the 2009 season’s spots and have analyzed why – despite jingles, bangles, and red and green pizzazz – many of these commercials seem to conjure up memories of unpleasant reactions (similar to an attack of mosquito bites, biting into a lemon slice, or sipping a bitter glass of wine.)

My criteria for the good, the bad, and the ugly ratings was culled from years of knowledge shared by excellent graphic artists, research articles, personal observation and intuition, and of course, ‘some’ experience in the area.  When judging your own TV commercial experience, your criteria will be based on some of your own experience and training – but both of us will need to add in our own individual tastes when rating commercials.

A pattern evolved in my review of over forty 2009 holiday commercials for this post. I’ll share my ratings here but I wonder … which commercials are your good, your bad and your ugly? What criteria do you use to make your own selections?

The Good

- The good commercials may take an often-used theme (e.g., receiving an engagement ring during the holidays) but then approach the idea with emotion, creativity, and a sense that ‘this is a genuine moment.’

- The good spots make strong use of basic Marketing 101, Cinematography 101, Consumer Behavior 101, and Design 101 concepts.

- The good spots have incorporated age, gender, ethnic and cultural demographics subtly and effectively.

- The messaging and scripts in the good commercials are often simple. Simple phrases. Limited verbiage. Songs with clever, new lyrics (to traditional holiday tunes) are not sung too fast.

- The good spots are visceral, often emotional, and feeling-based.

- The good commercials incorporate scenes of lightly falling snow or gentle flurries, and feature soft and often-diffused colors and simple visuals.

- The music in the good commercials is not clip-artish but instead is original, non-abrasive and enveloping. If the spot includes bells or chimes, these are not the same bells or chimes that we have heard on three other holiday commercials in a two-hour window. The sleigh bells don’t resemble Mannheim Steamroller electronically-created music.

- The good commercials invoke a reaction that I would like to watch that spot again (a bit similar to wishing for a rerun of an old Hallmark holiday show like “The Gathering,” or the perennial favorites “Miracle on 34^th Street”, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “White Christmas.”)

- The good commercials leave viewers saying to themselves I want to be there, go there, do that, wear that.

‘The List’ of ‘The Good’

The Disneyland 2009 Holiday Commercial

This year’s Disneyland holiday commercial offers us 30 seconds of visual eye-candy. Period. The spot’s creators didn’t fall for the temptation to say a lot. The text and the print-over copy simply states ‘joy to the small world.’ Even the treatment of the Disneyland.com address is creative – from the branded use of the word Disneyland to the sprinkling of Tinkerbell fairy dust over the word Disneyland. There is the most obvious call-to-action – visit Disneyland. The final result – the best of the good and we could watch the commercial again without feeling bombarded and annoyed.

L.L.Bean 2009 Holiday Commercial

The 2009 L.L.Bean holiday commercial captivates you immediately with its original chime sounds, the quiet feel of each video vignette, the slow-motion of the hikers, runners, sledders, and the gentle-falling flurries, and the young girl sweetly blowing a mist of powdery snow.

Even the unobtrusive voice of the commercial’s narrator doesn’t jar us out of our own personal experience while watching the 30-seconds of fine videography.

One objectionable fine-tuning criticism of this commercial though was that the very first text words used in the spot are… ‘every penny counts.’ I wish L.L.Bean had stayed with the simple magic of their spot and chosen to not interject a jarring economic message as their first visual message point. The commercial’s now-second text-over … ‘every memory counts’) would have been a strong text lead-in. That message could then be followed up with another text-over … ‘every moment counts’. The producers could have then perhaps included these simple text-over messages… ‘be family’ … ‘be a friend’. I believe the commercial’s effectiveness would have been stronger with these tweaks.

The call-to-action L.L.Bean discount slide at the end is simple, effective.

Zales Jewelers 2009 Holiday Commercial

We expect jewelry store commercials every winter holiday season and frequently the spots can feel expected and non-original. This year’s Zales holiday spot taps into the moments of raw emotion. The commercials provide soft backgrounds, simple shots, persons we relate to, and a purity of moments and memories we remember, or long for. The spots succeed too because they focus on the receiving of the ring, not the worry of buying. By focusing on the quiet intimacy of others’ holiday moments, Zales doesn’t need to say much – and they don’t – thus not detouring – or deterring – from the magic of the simplicity of the commercial. In fact, the bulk of the verbal comments in the spot are different variations of the word ‘yes’. A simple text-over slide with the solo diamond ring, followed by the strongly-simple placement of the Zales logo on a simple grey-white background, says all the commercial needs to say … and that is …  ‘Say… I love you like never before … with the Celebration diamond. Exclusively at Zales.”

The Rock School – Nutcracker – 2009 Holiday Commercial

Think December and you think of ‘The Nutcracker” and multitude performances of that treasured ballet. Philadelphia’s Rock School’s 2009 commercial for The Nutcracker is so well-produced and viewer-enticing that I’ve included it as one of the good holiday commercials this year. The piece is simple with soft fades and titillating moments of colorful performance visuals. The minimal use of script in the commercial is handled effectively with superimposed short phrases (fairy tale holiday; the new classic; Nutcracker 1776.) The last text-over slide provides viewers with all of the important – and simple – next-steps to ‘get this experience’ (i.e., the necessary buy-your-tickets-now information.)

The Bad

When reviewing commercials in-depth for this post, I saw many Target-looking, Gap-acting, Apple-imitating, Disney-cloning commercials… but, bottom line, ‘they were not.’

Electronic-ized sleigh bells were the ‘bells de jour’ this year and if you would do a similar exercise, you might find yourself laughing, as I did, when you realize how many companies are using the same sleigh bell sounds. Somewhere out there, a savvy sleigh bell entrepreneur/slash/semi-musician is making a fortune on sleigh bell royalties. (Note: why didn’t I think of that?)

For those holiday commercials that aren’t ‘really bad’ but just plain ‘not good’, there is thus the category: ‘the bad.’

‘The List’ of ‘The Bad’

Hallmark 2009 Holiday Commercial

Feelings-prominent holiday Hallmark commercials have become a branded product of themselves. The commercials possess a popularity not dissimilar to the pull of the Super Bowl in that many viewers watch that annual football game to be sure to catch all of the special-occasion commercials. There must be a high level of creative pressure on the Hallmark team to produce a home-run each winter holiday… much less each major holiday throughout the year.

I was disappointed with the Hallmark 2009 holiday commercial. The 17-second-long Hallmark delivery truck spot is clever, but feels as if it should receive one of those nice-teacher-nice-effort compliments and not a good ranking. This is unfortunate because it does appear that someone went to ‘a lot’ of trouble creating this commercial and making the spot ‘work.’ Perhaps therein lies the source of the problem. Are we viewers being asked (told) to understand that Hallmark provides ‘love, caring, joy, wonder, concern, thoughtfulness, wonder, etc.? Hallmark, how about picking your top three emotions and going with those? Otherwise, we have a case of packing so much into the package, that we’re not too sure at the end of the commercial what we feel – much less what we are supposed to do next.

Target 2009 Holiday Commercial

Target offers a series of similar-themed holiday commercials this year. In this particular Target holiday spot, the viewer is privy to an intimate Christmas morning moment with a wife unwrapping a flat-screen TV. We are thrust into a ‘tense’ family moment and are put into one of those awkward, uncomfortable minutes while the couple debates (in front of their eye-focused young children) Santa’s choice of spending this season. The commercial doesn’t offer good acting, good script, a good take-away feeling, a good memory, a good anything.

The final short music clip of ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ feels as if these music bars were thrown in for good measure.

An interesting note is that so many companies and advertisers are trying to imitate Target with their almost iconic red/white color theme; its traditional fun, product- Kaleidoscope-type ads. Yet, Target itself has deviated from its own success history.

Acura 2009 Holiday Commercial

This year’s Acura holiday commercial could have made the good list with its creativity alone, but some elements in the final spot cause enough conflicts that I’ve chosen to bump them to the bad category.

The commercial begins with an original friendly tune … but stops … and then picks up the melody again half-way through the spot. The final result is a feeling that we have a cut-and-paste music track as the commercial’s foundation.

The quick, fun video clips that provide the base (for the first half of the spot) each focus on a simple image, simple activity, and excellent photo concepts – but the camera focus in several points is skewed. We are also left wondering who is unwrapping present #1 and what is that present anyway?

Garmin 2009 Holiday Commercial

Some elements in the 2009 Garmin Holiday Commercial are excellent, but there are enough of the what-were-they-thinking? type bumps that, based on this post’s judging criteria, this potentially-home-run commercial moves to the bad grouping. Garmin tries to achieve something that in my mind is a sure-fail. They’ve taken an identifiable, fast-paced holiday tune and created their own lyrics with this result: the first-time, second-time, and even the third-time viewer is left working hard to hear what the vocalists are saying.

At the end of the commercial’s song, the lyrics say (in tune with the music) ‘fun local tips at finger tips’. That tagline is good enough that I would have liked to have seen that as a text-over on the screen – in addition to – or even instead of – the final script/text tagline ‘follow the leader.’

The Garmin commercial provides us with an example of the often-used, check-out-line-mimicking holiday bell sounds. And… who does the scary clown appeal to in this commercial? The look, feel, and treatment of this holiday clown almost conveys a Chucky-like karma and it doesn’t seem like a strong fit with the total package, especially in a spot that does have some strong creative elements. Kudos go to the Garmin creative team though for their effective reinforced take-away message  – go to garmin.com

The Gap 2009 Holiday Commercial – Tween Demographics

Gap commercials are traditionally identifiable, fun, memorable, and successful. This year’s Gap ‘Kids’ holiday commercial misses the mark on several key elements. The child dancer/singers’ lip-synching is not only off, it is distracting. There are numerous moments in the 30-second spot that the visual photography is out-of-focus. There is such a quantity of fast-paced-quickly-sung lyrics to follow that you have to watch the spot several times to catch everything and work hard to follow the script. The youths are in fact talking about a ‘moose’ (why, I don’t know) but it definitely ‘sounds’ like they are singing about their boots. Final result: such potential that missed the mark.

The Ugly

In addition to not offering all of the elements we might observe in a strong or a good holiday commercials, the ugly rating is reserved for those commercially that appear to be inexpensively-produced (if not cheaply); offensive; message-off-targeted; visually-poor; and musically-challenged.

Commercials in this category are actually not all that uncommon and fall into the category of I-would-not-want-to-watch-that-again. I liken these holiday commercials to the many holiday TV specials (e.g., a Lifetime Channel-type production similar to ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and I Wish I Hadn’t.’)

‘The List’ of ‘The Ugly’

Overstock.com 2009 Holiday Commercial

Overstock.com seems to have a large holiday advertising budget this year and unfortunately that means that their ugly-ranked commercial is airing frequently. The solo female vocalist’s voice is not lip-synched. Ditto… some of the other chorus singers’ synching. Not only is the mouth-synching off-kilter, but in the final selection of the commercial, the clapping rhythm for the chorus members is off as well. The music utilizes the above-described clip-art-type tech-type holiday bells. I need to ask: Is the white-fur-trimmed-coated-boot-wearing-out-of-date-hairstyle-red-lipsticked-only-walking-a-lot star the focus for Overstock.com … or is the focus the Overstock.com products, free shipping, unique service, great pricing? The first time I saw this spot, I was across the room and didn’t know this was an Overstock.com spot until the end, and had initially thought that perhaps this was a commercial for fake snow, red lipstick, fur coats, or perhaps face lifts.

This commercial again reinforces the issues that arise in a short commercial spot that use specifically-created new lyrics for a fast-paced traditional holiday jingle. The result so often is that we viewers (or listeners when the spot is also cross-pollinated on radio) miss the cute lyrics. I mentioned above that many companies try to duplicate the old Target-type ads with the almost all-white, sterile background scene set with highlighted ‘Target’ red products or apparel. This is one of those commercials.

Old Navy 2009 Holiday Commercial

According to this post’s criteria, this year’s Old Navy holiday Modelquin commercials are rated as one of this season’s ugly offerings. The commercials feature manikin ice skaters (super modelquins) skating to a cut-and-paste type electronic holiday jingle tune.

The spot begins with a fast (very fast) title text-over slide announcing the Old Navy Super Modelquins vignette. The commercial’s visuals and the production quality are marginal and accompany an even poorer script. Why is Old Navy using manikins? Why the addition of the female manikin’s British accent? Why the corny humor? After you watch this commercial, you are left with this question, is this really the best Old Navy can do as a large national company?

IHOP 2009 Holiday Commercial

I’ve been impressed by the remaking and rebranding of IHOP as a product itself over the last five years, but this year’s national IHOP holiday commercial takes the company back more than a hop and a jump. The showcased pancakes don’t look tasty; they do look out-of-focus and as if they have been sitting on the conveyor belt too long. The Nutcracker jokes about Halloween costumes are corny and meaningless – and take up 6-plus seconds of the total 17-second spot. The Holiday Hotcakes text-over appears so quickly (2-seconds) that it can be missed or at least not fully caught. The last 2-second quick text-over of the IHOP website and core information appears on the screen so quickly and in such small scope that it isn’t visible and thus, not effective.

The Gap 2009 Holiday Commercial – Adult Demographics

Gap has tried to be all things to all people in this year’s adult-targeted holiday commercial featuring a rap-friendly, somewhat-clever, trendy, politically-correct and politically-safe holiday theme. I believe their end result is a off-message, hard-to-understand, lyric-heavy, words-unclear, noise-infused, semi-creative commercial. This spot mentions Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, Solstice … and taps into the green initiatives and liberation movements. Whew! That is a hefty agenda for a 33-second spot.

Which commercials are your good, bad and ugly? What criteria do you use to make your own selections?

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing page.

Feel free to join the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook page as well for regular updates on excellence, creativity, management, leadership, motivation, marketing, and corporate communications.

Hmmm…. the weather…. and business.

How do these two apparently separate categories relate? And, how does the weather tie-into a blog post reflection on inspiration, innovation, and creativity?

The weather can of course provide us with an always-safe entry-point topic when we find ourselves at a networking meeting; when we are chatting with a potential customer; or, perhaps, when we need a buffer conversation before a meeting begins.

Actually though, the weather is a lot like business … and life.

Weather is global and multi-demographic. In fact, weather is possibly one of the purest examples of a multi-dimensional product. Weather transcends language, cultures, generational differences, sex, intellectual abilities, academic degrees, professions, left and right brains, and even Myers-Briggs personalities.

But, for a moment, I’d like to go one step deeper and explore how the weather resembles the challenges – and the rewards – of our own creative paths.

Would you agree that we all have droughts of energy, inspiration, motivation and direction?

And, then there are rainy days – or worse yet, a complete rainy week. These weather elements can indeed tax our patience and drain our creative juices.

On the flip-side though – if we think positively – these same rainy days can also offer a sense of quiet, rhythm, and calm that can be perfect for nurturing new life, new ideas, and fresh buds of creativity.

Can you recall one of those exciting, don’t-happen-often moments when you had a lightening-bolt, aha brainstorm thought. Or, better yet, a lightening-storm moment.

Seconds like that stand out in each of our memories. If we can capture the power of these episodes, they could perhaps result in the launching of an innovative new product, defining a new campaign, and even determining our own future.

No doubt too, we can all relate to those mornings that we walk outside to start our day and we abruptly face a sea of fog.

These days are not totally unlike those mornings when our brains seem filled with their own mental haze and, try as we may, we too have zero visibility and little direction. We persist though, knowing that we have to find a way to work through the grey mist. We’ll quickly grab an extra cup of cappucino with a dab of cinnamon and nutmeg, or (foregoing any diet resolutions) we munch on a rich, chewy, double-chocolate brownie before our first meeting (and yes, it is ok to have a brownie for breakfast.)

Then, there are of course rainbows – and rainbow moments.

Have you ever been in a meeting when the ideas start percolating and then one suggestion literally feeds off the one before it? The energy can be so positive, that we could almost swear that we can taste ‘it’. Allowing and encouraging a full-color-spectrum of original ideas can, in fact, add to the very color of our company. Absolutely, creativity and positive energy is contagious. We can experience our own multi-colored, panoramic, inspired – and inspiring – creative phenomenon.

Many of us can relate as well, to those days when it seems that we have been dealt with a hurricane-force workload. We can begin our day with an organized, quiet schedule that then, quite literally, blows apart with unexpected tasks and must-do’s. We’re then confronting a tornadic force that needs to be reckoned with immediately.

We can be beaten-down by the forces of the winds upon us – or, we can choose to see these times as opportunities for more creative approaches to weathering the storm.

There are occasions, too, that I can remember in my own career and life where I ended the day with a complete brick wall – and, at the same time that I needed to be thinking of a ‘new and awesome idea’ for a client’s Marketing Plan. My brain cells might have been churning, but I was only ending up with a grey, blank night sky. However, after some sleep and brain cell ‘rest’, I would wake up at 4 a.m. with my own sunrise – fresh thoughts and new ideas.

Literally, it was a new day – filled with energy, vibrancy, and color. These sunrise mornings are a good reminder too – for business, and for life – that outstanding sunrises often follow dark, dreary evenings.

And, likewise, if we can continue to think positive, even bitter winter days filled with ice and snow don’t have to be negative, dead, non-motivated days. Instead, winter weather actually adds a crispness to our thinking.

Cold, challenging days demand an extra sharpness to our routine. They force us to tread carefully, to plan thoughtfully, and rise to the challenge.

So… how do you weather your own weather challenges? How have you encouraged creativity in yourself and your team despite the gray periods – the cloudy weeks? How has a storm within your own life resulted in new insights?

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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Today’s Simply Said blog post is dedicated to B and R.

Creativity is like juice. It can give you an inspiration buzz similar to drinking a 10 oz. glass of freshly-squeezed chilled, foamy orange juice on an empty stomach.

And yet….

Creative energy can be easily sucked out of us by our own and others’ negativism, woe-is me talk, and by focusing on the reasons ‘we can’t’ instead of focusing on the reasons ‘we can.’  Relentless talk about the downturn of the economy, disappointing political heroes, and business leader trust gone awry, can almost visibly drain the inspiration right out of us.

I have an image though that I’d like to share with you …. and together then, perhaps we can all … break free of the things that are holding us back from being all we can be, and start again to ‘think large’, and believe in the big picture and in fact, a bright picture.

Here is your picture for the day.

Barnacles.

Barnacles are an unattractive, pervasive crustacean. (My apologies to all barnacles.)

Instead of working hard and ‘crawling after their own food’ barnacles glue themselves to rocks and other living and non-living things and wait for food to wash by. (www.library.thinkquest.org). Once something alive, free-floating and yummy swims by, that’s when the barnacles reach out their barbed legs and grab onto whatever and absorbs or ‘sucks out’ the oxygen of its grabbed prey. Through adulthood, the barnacle species will remain in their ‘spot’, held permanently by one of the strongest-known natural adhesives.

Barnacles have ‘trap doors’ that rhythmically open and close. (www.chesapeakebay.net).

An unscientific, personal interpretation of the above description:

a)  Barnacles are lazy and are leeching off of the energy of others.

b)  Barnacles ‘stick’ onto unaware passers-by.

c)  Once grabbed, the passer-by is definitely ‘stuck’.

d)  If not alert, the unsuspecting can fall into the barnacle’s ‘trap door.’

A business and ‘real’ life interpretation of the barnacle saga:

a)  In our own worlds, both business and in our ‘real’ lives, we need to be wary of the lurking barnacles around us.

b)  Barnacles need our creativity and energy to feed themselves.

c)  Barnacles can be people, businesses climates, work settings, the news, ourselves …. anyone and anything that can suck our own oxygen or drink our creative juice.

d)  The barnacle folks will glue-us-back from being all that we can be.

e)  It’s easy to be unaware that we have even fallen into dangerous waters where our creativity and spirit are threatened. It can just ‘happen.’

My thought for the day then?

For me, I’m going to think about what lurking negativity is ‘out there’ and ‘within me’ – holding me back from all that I can be. And then, I’m going to go against the scientific theory of being stuck by ‘the strongest known naturally adhesive’. I then plan to break free of any barnacles that are holding me back.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.

Zappos.com sells shoes.

Well, actually, Zappos sells shoes … and backpacks … and purses … and jewelry … and housewares … and paraphernalia … and more.

Even prior to the July 22, 2009 purchase of Zappos by Amazon.com, there was a buzz about this company that defied the norm. As a person who loves to delve into the why’s of business success stories, I was curious about Zappos.

Note: I am apparently one of a few people out there who has never purchased anything from Zappos.com or ‘watched’ my new shoes’ hour-by-hour, animated delivery tracking visuals on the company’s website.

There are perhaps figuratively a ‘ga-zillion’ online stores and e-commerce sites. So then, why this ‘love-fest’ for Zappos? Is Zappos the Lance Armstrong of retail.com? And if you built a pyramid graphic representing online retail merchants’ customer popularity, would Zappos be at the top of that apex?

I visited the home page for www.Zappos.com, and at first glance, it appears to be just another ‘order-your-shoes-from-us’ site. Given the hype, I suppose that I expected to see a product inventory catalog page more like the bells-and-whistles-explosive-color-fun-to-use Disney.com site. Almost disappointingly, the Zappos.com landing page is plain, functional, and just ‘there.’

But the company’s bells and whistles come in another way. In fact, the company’s differentiating strengths practically shout once you navigate through Zappos.com.

A visit specifically to the Zappos customer comments page told me the real Zappos story. That’s where I found a literal litany of warm and fuzzy user comments. http://www.zappos.com/n/showtestimonials.cg

The Zappos magic is that they have blended the lessons that business owners in our grandparents’ days knew (the customer comes first) with trend-setting e-marketing and retail technology. The company works from a starting point and a basic philosophy that ‘our customers rule.’ From that philosophy, Zappos has shaped a business strategy that is creative and demanding. And, from that strategy, they have then developed an order and delivery operation that is best-in-class compared with their competitors. The company continues to deliver on their promise and wow the industry.

Customers gush over the service they have received. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos had some pretty effusive comments as well about his newly-purchased company. In a fun YouTube video, Bezos casually chatted about Amazon and his company’s new ‘toy’ (oops, I mean, his Zappos purchase).

Bezos said, “Zappos has a customer obsession that’s so easy for me to admire.”

He continued, “I get all weak-kneed when I see a customer-obsessed company, and Zappos certainly is that. Zappos also has a totally unique culture…and I’m super excited about that.”   Source: Los Angeles Times article: http://bit.ly/O6Q3h

I’m hooked on the Zappos concept and on their company goal for nothing-short-of-excellent-performance.

Now, the question is…. What kind of shoe do I want?

I’ve copied some of the Zappos.com customer comments below to give the readers of this Simply Said blog some ideas for implementation in your own business and life.

Zappos customer Margaret says:

I’m just writing to tell you how fantastic your customer service is! I am really impressed with the speed and accuracy of incoming orders as well as returns. …. Zappos is fantastic ….! We will continue to use Zappos in the future!

Zappos customer Amy says:

… I love shopping with you and will continue to do so. Your service is outstanding.

Zappos customer Elaine says:

… I just love Zappos. Your site is so easy … Your customer service is outstanding. It amazes me I can place an order one day and the next day it is sitting on my porch. … Great Job Everyone!

Zappos customer Alicia says:

… How cool! I was certain there was a mistake, I knew I had just ordered the shoes yesterday – and they were here today!

Zappos customer Brian says:

… There is NOTHING out there like your company. Everything about it is perfect. Awesome!

Zappos customer Denise H. says:

… Wow… I am very pleased to do business with a company that goes the extra mile and that truly understands the meaning of customer service.

Zappos YouTube video

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.

In America, at 12:34:56 a.m. today, July 8, 2009, the full numerical sequence was… 12345678909.

That daggoned ‘0’ before the ’9′ messes things up a bit… but nevertheless…..

Being a historical moment and all, perhaps it would be good to make a list of new intentions for the rest of your life (a little like a New Year’s list, but on a full-life-scope.) After all, it won’t be 07/08/09 again for another 100 years.

Short of that same ‘ol take-stock-of-your-life activity though, why not seize the moment – or at least the 07/08/09 day – to reflect on other out-of-the-ordinary natural occurrences that happen regularly, and think, now, how you and your business can capitalize on the opportunities that such events bring along with them.

By the way, if you missed celebrating the 12:34:56 a.m. time on Wednesday, you can always shoot for 12:34:56 p.m. time, when the phenomenon occurs again just after noon. And, if you are in the eastern time zone at that moment, you could perhaps board a jet flying west and then celebrate this numerical experience twice in your life.

How could a business have creatively capitalized on the 07/08/09 occasion?

Here are just a few thoughts:

1. Local TV Station or Local Online News Site: Viewer or reader voting poll for the favorite charity out of a selected organization list, with a donation of $7,809 going to the top three winning charities. Prizes would be awarded at 7 p.m., at 8 p.m.; and again, at 9 p.m. on 07/08/09.

2. Gas Station: $.07 cents lower than the competition on regular-grade gas; $.08 lower on super-grade gas; $.09 lower on premium-grade gas on 07/08/09.

3. Clothing Retail Store: Brightly-printed t-shirts commemorating the day; only available with a purchase on that day; at a cost of only $.07 for a small; $08 for a medium; and $09 for a large. (e.g., “I bought my shirt on 07/08/09 at Macy’s.”)

4. Mega  Stores like Target, Meijer, Wal-Mart, K-mart: Specific and different, super customer specials at each of these times: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on 07/08/09.

5. Online Merchandise Sites like ebay.com and amazon.com: Special discounts on 07/08/09 only, on items won or purchased or that have a 7, 8 or 9 as the first number in the product’s SKU.

6. Online Shoe Sales Sites like zappos.com: Special discounts for customers who order shoes in size 7, 8 or 9 on 07/08/09.

Through quick, free-flowing, idea-charged brainstorming, the sky is the limit on inspiration. Whether the day is 07/08/09 or 10/15/09, encouraging good ideas, fertilizing those ideas, looking for opportunities, and seizing special moments…  are some of the surest ways to achieve extra company and product exposure, create higher customer awareness, and build consumer and community loyalty.

Is it too early then to post an entry in our Covey Planners and Outlook Calendars for six months before 10/10/10?

And hopefully, we won’t wait that long for some blockbuster brainstorming sessions.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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This morning, I found myself working as fast as my brain could take me. At one point, I just stopped, took a breath, said ‘whew.’ It’s funny how that ‘whew’ sound, in fact, did remind me to stop ‘running’ and spend a few seconds instead stepping back, look at the project’s end-goals, and re-strategize.

This ‘whew’ moment reminded me of the old Warner Brothers Road Runner cartoons. Poor Wile E. Coyote tried every trick he could think of — and he fell for each quirky ad promise for a sure-fire end to his nemesis, the always-clever Road Runner.

In the 50’s cartoon version of the age-old David vs. Goliath story, despite the obvious odds and literal roadblocks, Road Runner wins the challenge in every episode. In spite of Wile E. Coyote’s never-ending pursuit of Road Runner, the sprightly, little bird outsmarts his ‘hungry’ competition through humorous antics time and time again. On a second-level though, Road Runner wins because of astute, crafty, clever ingenuity. He doesn’t just pursue or run, he strategizes and ‘tacticizes.’ (so, there’s a new word for you.)

Does this scenario remind you of business and marketing?

For the last few years, we business professionals are constantly being asked to do more; do ‘it’ with less, do ‘it’ faster; and then come back to the table with high-five-level ROI. Period.

In a world of ‘don’t-tell-me-how-just-tell-me-that-you-did-it’ mentality, there is an easy tendency to speed through the planning and strategic part of an initiative. Research is big. Operations – perhaps even bigger. But, without inspired and well-considered marketing and communications, we too can face our own roadblocks and the wrong results we had anticipated.

We could just speed faster like Wile E. Coyote, but it could ultimately take us to a dead-end. We could easily imitate leaders in our individual areas of business, duplicate what they are doing, or one-up their efforts.

Or…..

We could stop, take a breath, (say ‘whew’’) and ask what can I do differently? What idea hasn’t been tried yet? What is my instinct telling me – as well as – my experience and research?

I wrote myself a message on a Post-it-note today. It says simply: “Beep-Beep.” That Road Runner sound will be my own reminder message to ‘stop’ and creatively out-think the competition before I speed ahead.

To help you too think like a Road Runner — with ingenuity, guile, and quick-wittedness (and some humor), I encourage you to stop and say ‘whew’.

Perhaps, a visit to this fun link of some fun Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoon clips from Warner Brothers will trigger some of your own creative ideas: Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.

“Be excellent at what you do” — one of those six-word parent mantras we hear from the time we are sitting in a pumpkin seat observing the world around us.  I truly think that when we are six-months old, we do want to be ‘good’, be ‘great’, be ‘excellent.’

But, that is before we find out that it is just plain ‘hard’ to go the extra mile and work to get an “A”, be first in line, win the blue ribbon, go for the cum laude.

Super marketing ideas, ad campaigns and business plans start out in the same place that non-super ideas, campaigns and plans begin… in a pumpkin seat, if-you-will.

But it takes something special to get raw, undeveloped ideas to a point where they stand out in the pack. Something (or someone) special has to take a ‘little’ idea, think it through, give it life and juice, develop a team, win management buy-in, and turn the little ‘it’ idea into a WOW campaign.

The new Dunkin’ Run promotion has given us just one of those ‘WOW-now-that-is-cool’ moments. http://www.dunkinrun.com/

The bottom line for the Dunkin’ Run concept itself is that we are asked to follow four simple steps to get some steaming hot Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee and chewy, icing-covered donuts for our office friends. Dunkin’ Donuts has come up with an out-of-the-box, fully-integrated marketing campaign encouraging us to Invite, Order, Run, and Enjoy. A fun, colorful, interactive, contemporary, user-friendly theme is pervasive throughout the program’s graphics, website and social media campaign. Dunkin’ Donuts deserves at least a blue ribbon for this marketing concept.

Ideas (and people) can get stuck in a pumpkin seat spot or they can take off and find their own ‘limitless’ future. With inspiration, freedom to be creative, and perhaps some magna cum laude execution, we can each reach one of our own WOW moments.

Please feel free to leave your comments in the space below. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.