Little Black Dress Approved. Straight From The Dry Cleaners.

This morning our dry cleaning came with a little something extra: advertising. Rather than the traditional unadorned garment bag, it was branded with very targeted advertising from Degree Ultra Clear for Women. Degree's tag line for the product is "Little Black Dress Approved" and stakes it claim as an antiperspirant that won't leave you looking like you wiped a chalkboard with your top. Interestingly, the items we picked up today were all for women. This is very targeted marketing, indeed. But I am anxious to see if there is an advertisement for a men's product the next time we pick up our cleaning and have Jim's items in the bag.

Unilever (the maker of Degree) has really focused on context for the brand exposure. Look at the message on the faux dry cleaning ticket:

We Remove White Marks. Degree Ultra Clear Helps Prevent Them. - Your Cleaner

The best part? The bottom of the garment bag tells me how to get a free sample of Ultra Clear. Targeted. Specific. And a call to action. This was money well spent for Unilever in my opinion. And I doubt I'll be the only one to give it a bit more exposure. What would have become an immediate bit of trash became the object of an impromptu photo shoot. I am really impressed with the thinking behind this campaign. Now I'm off to request my free sample.

Small Business Blogging Interviews

Business Blogging is still in its infancy, primarily because the idea of using blogs to make money hasn't yet permeated into the national consciousness. Far too many news articles and trade publications discuss the use of blogs to start a conversation with an audience, instead of finding novel ways to take advantage of the self-publishing nature of blog software.

One of the people boldly swimming against the tide of public opinion is Brian Brown of Pajama Market. Brian interviews small businesses that use blogs to market their product, and then posts those interviews and reviews on his website, Pajama Market.

Dennis Kennedy and the St Genevieve Winery are two St. Louis examples of business blogs, but Brian also has retail shops, personal and professional services, and small businessnes that often use more traditional marketing avenues, but lack the budget.

Is Business Blogging right for you? That's the biggest question Franki and I get when someone calls. From large corporations to one-man (or one-woman) shows, everyone thinks that blogging is for someone else, but not for them, despite evidence that GM, Southwest, Starwood Resorts, Sun, Honeywell, Wells Fargo, and a host of other corporations, not to mention hundreds of microbusinesses have used blogs successfully.

Can blogs help you? Yes. They are a form of marketing, just as radio, or print or direct mail is a form of marketing. The question is not if blogs can help your business. The question is whether the time and money invested in blogs help your business more than another form of marketing.

To find out if Business Blogging is Right for You, click on the link or check out the box to the right.

Take the Bus

This example of outdoor advertising strikes me as so creative it deserves its own post. While I'm still not certain which North Sea Jazz festival this is promoting, the campaign is making its way around the web this morning thanks to its clever application. Kudos to the agency. Thanks go to Adverbox for the link.

What Do Monster and eHarmony Have in Common? They Both Sell Hope.

I'm married and gainfully employed. Not exactly the target demographic for either company. But the current campaigns for both Monster.com and eHarmony simply cannot pass without mention. After wondering why the two stood out, I realized one simple truth: They both sell hope to the masses.

Let's look at Monster first. They've been coming at us with clever commercials for years. The memorable "When I grow up" series was good. "Never settle" was a great tagline. But I'm a big fan of the new "Today's The Day" message. It's filled with expectation and optimism that's infectious - even to non jobseekers. If you've seen any of these energetic TV commercials (which, sadly, I cannot seem to locate anywhere online) you know what I'm talking about. Anyone who's ever landed a job they really wanted can relate to the candidates dancing in celebration of the news. That's marketing. That's great marketing. It's happy. It's inspiring. And best of all - I never forget that it's Monster selling us that dream of hope.

On to eHarmony...

I'm a long-time skeptic of online dating. I live with the belief that it is an amazing tool for "other people," just not me. I have no reason to dislike them, it just never appealed to me as a desirable way to find a date. Because of this, I used to fast forward through the eHarmony TV spots without delay. But something changed a few years back when it's founder, Dr. Neil Clark Warren started showing up on camera.

It doesn't always work when a frontman steps in front of the lens, and Dr. Warren has certainly drawn plenty of fire and satire for his appearances. But it made me slow down and listen to the message. His goal was obviously to build trust and credibility. To make is seem less like art and more like science. Today's eHarmony commercials all clearly focus on the success rate of finding "the one" by joining. Even I get excited for the people in the commercials who seem so blissful. But as Jim has so eloquently pointed out, statistically your chances of marriage don't really improve when you join eHarmony. In fact, you're just about as likely to find a mate without signing up. But they're not selling statistics. They're selling hope. Plain and simple. And the cosmetics industry is any example, people will wait in line all day and pay big bucks for hope.

It isn't that these services don't work for some (or many). They do. But much like buying lottery tickets, people tend to look at these as the solution to a problem rather than the tools that they actually are. Posting your resume or personal profile online is much better than sitting at home on Saturday night unemployed and alone. But it doesn't replace picking up the phone and meeting as many people as you can. If signing up for services like these makes you feel better and you begin to expect success, I believe you're far more likely to recognize it when you meet it. This is precisely the nudge it takes to get some people off the couch. If that's you, by all means sign up and get out there. There's nothing wrong with "buying hope," just don't expect it to come in a bottle and cure all that ails you.

Usings Blogs To Market Yourself at Trade Shows

Do you attend trade shows or expos? Is there a major industy event you regularly attend? Have you ever paid for a booth or tried to get leads by attending a conference.

Then you should have a blog. I want to show you an example of why. I was on a panel at the Kennedy Expo in May on the topic of Blogs in Corporate Recruiting Departments. After the event, I reported on my time there, discussing companies I saw, people I spoke with, and specifics about the conference including where we ate, stayed, and how the conference was run (very well, that's how it was run).

So please try this.

Go To Google.com. Type in "Kennedy Expo"

Four of the top six results are blogposts I wrote for Recruiting.com and StlRecruiting.com.

In other words, when people curious about the Kennedy Expo go to Google and search for information, four of the top six posts also mention my company and my blogs.

I wonder how much vendors spent trying to get leads from that conference. Where are they in the search engines? I wasn't selling anything, but if I was, at least in the online world, I would have first crack at people who went, wanted to go, or heard about the event.

That's the power of blogging. Now, it's not as easy as just starting a blog, and voila! search engine placement. But Durbin Media Group can teach you how this works.

If you're interested, that is.

Durbin Media (Brandstorming) in the Post-Dispatch

Franki was featured in the Business section of the Sunday Post-Dispatch under the title, The Blog Lady. She had the pleasure of interviewing with Jerri Stroud a couple of weeks ago, and we were very happy with the resulting coverage.

The key to the article is the focus on branding, instead of blogging. Jerri got our take on how to use blogs exactly right. It's the message that matters, not the tool.

"Companies can use blogs to learn what customers want from their products, to get feedback on potential new products or to build awareness of their products among potential customers."

The article also hit on one of the most important aspects of blogs - greater SEO.

"Blogs can drive traffic to a company's website because each posting creates a unique Web page, Durbin said. Search engines find those pages and point browsers to them if the posts contain terms that people are searching. From reading a blog, surfers often will click onto a company's regular site."

In fact, we're going to lay it out on the line for you. If you're spending more than $5,000 a year on SEO or PPC (Google AdWords), you should really consider contacting a blog consultant immediately. If you're coming to this from the Post-Dispatch article, and are curious about business blogging, check around the site and don't forget we have a free meeting Friday, October 6th at 7:00 a.m. at Kaldi's in Chesterfield. Hope to see or hear from you soon.

Gender-Specific Sony Bravia Ads Target "Commercial-Skippers"

In their latest move to engage DVR-owning ad-skippers, Sony has created a new spot for the Bravia line. To hook viewers, the commercial will pause and show two buttons on the screen labeled "ending for men" and "ending for women." DVR-free households will notice a brief pause in the ad before a choice is selected automatically. Those with DVRs can make the choice themselves and may catch the one-second features and optional endings unavailable to the TiVo-challenged. Either way, the features are all available online.

So that's the rundown, but does the gender-specific messaging work? We sampled all of the spots this morning with mixed results. While Jim rolled with laughter between bouts of "that's hysterical!" cries, I was left feeling they'd missed the mark for my gender. Wait a second. He gets an appearance by Peyton Manning and leather-clad comic villans, and all I get is a sappy romance story and an nostalgic shoe musical?

Granted, I wouldn't be caught dead with a romance novel. Preferring instead to cling to my WSJ and the latest copy of Fast Company. But they still missed me with the shoe-centric featurette. This should have worked on me, but it was far too Betty Boop and not enough Manolo Blahnik. Why does this matter? Because of the two of us, I'm the one who longs for the widescreen plasmas and the latest wireless gadget designed to improve my life experience. And I'm not alone. Women make up a significant portion of the electronics consumer market.

This is the only commercial currently planned for the Bravia until the end of January. They've invested a solid $13M on the campaign, so hopefully they'll fare as well with the buying public as they did with Jim. Still need more? Check out sony.com to see all four optional endings and download extras like wallpaper.

Iococca vs. Dr. Z? My Guy Wins Every Time.

The Journal just ran an article on the possible end of the Chrysler Dr. Z campaign. Facing a painful fiscal quarter, the domestic automaker is reassessing the strength of their current advertising strategy and its possible deleterious effects on their bottom line.

Interestingly, studies show that the ads are memorable and effective in getting the core message across. The spots have 43% higher brand recall - and a staggering 63% higher message recall than other Chrysler ads. But is that enough?

In the mid-eighties, Lee Iococca rescued Chrysler from a near failure and brought the automaker back to life. Lee was my first idolized corporate mogul. In junior high I read his autobiography like it were a roadmap to success. He's a remarkable guy with chutzpah, gravitas and unwavering vision.

When a personality like Lee's takes over as corporate spokesman, we already have a history with him. A familiarity. It was admirable for the head of a floundering company to stand before the crowds and ask consumers to give the brand another chance. His trademark line was "If you can find a better car, buy it." And it worked. He even returned in the 2005 ad campaign alongside Snoop Dogg and Jason Alexander to push the "Employee Pricing Plus" promotion.

But the Dr. Z campaign is different. Billed as CEO Dieter Zetsche's "alter-ego" - Dr. Z is pitched as a nutty professor of sorts. He isn't acting as a spokesman, he is playing the role of a fictional character that tested well in focus groups. It's a risky approach, to be sure. Most viewers aren't even sure it is the CEO.

In the end, I'm not sure consumers want CEO's to be pitching major brands at all. It rarely works as well as it did for Dave Thomas of Wendy's or Iococca back in the day. It makes us nervous when the top guy seems to have enough time on his hands to make a series of flashy TV commercials. Unless a company is doing damage control in a Martha Stewart-esque way, I'd just assume not see the CEO in the place of an actor on the small screen. Just my two cents, but Richard Edelman seems to agree. In the same article, he had this to say:

"Dr. Z was a crazy move. We are not in an era where CEO's are seen as rock stars."

As for Chrysler, they've not announced plans to pull the campaign yet. But for now the broadcast and print spots have been suspended while the company focuses their ad dollars on fall clearance and new model announcements. A spokesman says they are mixing it up so as not to seem "boring." Hmm... I'm skeptical of their committment to the chief and the campaign itself. Sounds like it's time to get Iococca off the golf course and back in front of the camera.

On coffee...

Jim and I are in our seventh week going coffee-free. The question people ask (as do we) most often is "why?" To be fair, we don't intend this to be long-lasting. We simply wanted to see if replacing our morning (and mid-day, and afternoon) coffee with decaf green tea truly would result in the physical benefits touted. What were those benefits? Increased energy, weight loss, sounder sleep, better hydration and better skin to name a few.

A byproduct of this experiment is a fascination with all things coffee. We dream about it, we talk about it, we visit coffeehouses (for the tea, of course) and we consider drinking it again. Soon. What stops us is the fact that we do sleep, look, feel and live better. Even if only temporarily.

What prompted this post was our near breakdown this morning. We commented on the convenient drive-through at our neighborhood Starbucks as well as the superior brewed coffee at our favorite Kaldi's. And although we eventually decided to work through the pain and get to work sans-caffeine, I found this news story of particular interest. This, my friends, is dedication to the cause. (See the full cached article here.)

Like I mentioned, it's only temporary. And a month from now we'll be visiting Rome (aka the Italiano coffee capital). I'd say our green tea experiment will be but a distant memory by then. But we've had a good run and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good health boost. But I'll be thinking about that guy in the article above as I sip my tea today with a mix of disbelief and admiration.

Friday Roundup

What a fun week. The campaigns just kept coming out, one funny spot after another. Sit back and enjoy great efforts by some surprising brands.

• More on this in an upcoming post, but 'Look Again' at this attention-getting commercial for Holiday Inn.
  
• Nissan has us laughing with (and relating to if you ask Jim) "cramped car syndrome." The cure for this ailment? The New Nissan Versa.
  
• Funny? No. Just good fun. Apple steps up the energy in this new spot for the Nano which has been "completely remastered." Love it.
  
• Sprint's unleashing a new campaign dubbed "Sprint. Power Up." and the first spot is aimed squarely at Cingular. Great commercial.
• Those of you with accident prone friends will enjoy (or recommend) these commercials from Anthem Insurance.
• Lastly, enjoy this new T-Mobile spot introducing us to the "Kid Connect" service. Check out "Reactions."

Big Plastic Factory Goes Public

Core has been a St. Louis creative force for as long as I can remember. Now they are taking their quirky web-based comic strip public. The once private Big Platic Factory, dubbed "experimental candy-noir," features a cast of odd characters that live, dream and blog before our very eyes.

What began as simple creative release turned into a cult following among friends and family of the artists who created this fictional world. As subscriptions and inquiries grew, the team realized they had something worth sharing with a broader audience. The semi-bi-weekly series now features collaboration from musicians and other creative artists.

It's an odd little collection of shorts to be sure, but even AdCritic has started getting the word out about Core. To me it's less about the enigmatic comic and more about how something recreational and fun can turn into business gold. Its the driving force behind the success of viral videos and random YouTube stars.

By lowering the barrier to entry we've enabled everyone to exercise their creative muscles, not just big agencies. Technology is ripe and at our fingertips. Venues to show our wares are available within a few mouse clicks. Anyone can showcase their talent and share it with others (who knew the Numa Numa guy would be such a hit?). Sure, you get 95 duds for every 5 winners. That's the beauty of CGM and the power. What better time to be part of the online community?

Sounds like it's time for Jim and I to make all those videos we keep scripting. Stay tuned, friends. Stay tuned.

What Web 2.0 Is To Me: Jim Durbin

In the first version of the web, content was generated by companies and distributed to the consumer as advertisement freebies that brought the public to your site to tout your brand or convince them to buy your products and services. The return was the hope the consumer would buy those products and services directly from your site or affiliated sites.

So the goal was traffic, to get enough people to buy. You invested in websites and servers to TELL. The Web 2.0, in my opinion, is best referred to as a Mash-up. The point is user-generated content and user control of other content. With the advent of self-publishing and the tools to connect and filter information, user communities are making content their own, whether that's combining music and video on YouTube or just forwarding good commercials to all of their friends and family. Web 2.0 is often referred to as freedom, but its really just the freedom to use content in anyway we see fit.

The latest generation of users doesn't see anything wrong with appropriating intellectual content, from music downloads to images on google to term papers, and many companies and industries rightly see this as a threat. The intellectual capital and money they spend on marketing controls their message, and when users take that content, or create their own, companies are left out of the message making business.

The problem in combatting the freedom is the people you're cracking down on aren't distributors of content, but the very customers you hope to convince to buy your product. You can sue a teenager for downloading your song, but how does that help you convince the teenager to ever buy one of your albums again? Copying CD's and selling them in China is one thing, but telling a kid who downloaded a song that he owes thousands to a music company isn't going to win you any new customers.

The point is to begin embracing the new use of content, making it easier to swap, forward, and edit, so that consumers have the choice of what they would do with your content. Give them easy access so they don't feel the need to go around you. Learn to work with them, so their creative energies are a positive addition to your marketing, and not a hindrance.

Afterall, this public that wants to create their own content still wants to buy more. And they need the tools and creativity of the corporations. So tap into the their energy, their free work, their unbilled hours, and help build online communities around your products, services, and industries. It costs less, gives you more, and allows you to participate ahead of your
competitors. It protects you when you're online, allows you to respond and listen, and is the essence of Web 2.0.

After all, most of it is free. Rather than fighting that freeness, use it. These people who create their own content often work as drones at corporations, never using their potential - but then going home and setting up charities, organizing youth sports leagues, building homes, plannig vacations, and using the web to connect online.

Why is it people will see work as a chore, but a blog, or a user group as a labor of love? Much of it has to do with the concept of ownership, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Tapping into their work, you can help pick, choose, and filter the best ideas, the ones best suited for your industry, and utilize their desires and work to make your products better, promote them more, and if you do it now, get the first truly publicity as a company that gets it. As a company that gets Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is about community. It's about assembling, filtering, and combining. Companies that will succeed will do so by LISTENING, and providing a platform or portal for their product evangelists. Like a good leader, the smart Web 2.0 companies will get out of the way of the marketing efforts of their best customers.

It's Finally Here: TiVo Series3

Yes, it's true. After much delay, TiVo lovers can now purchase the Series3 box which records in HD. In comes with 250G of space and the ability to record two shows at once in HD while watching another (yes, third) show in HD at the same time. Life just keeps getting better.

As luck would have it, Apple (another fave brand) just announced iTV today. The new device will allow you to receive content from iPhoto or iTunes via your TV. Another great step towards bridging the gap between TV and our computers. But those of us with TiVo know we have this functionality at our fingertips already: TiVo Desktop.

We do tend to be evangelists when we think a brand really gets it right, and TiVo comes close to topping the technology list in terms of how it enhances our life. Last night we were able to look at vacation photos with friends from the comfort of our living room. All through TiVo. TiVo Desktop allows you to broadcast your music and pictures via your WiFi network. Brilliant.

With the new hardware, TiVo has set out to crush the competition that has sprung up since 2002. It isn't just an upgrade, but a very different product from the previous release.

"This is a whole new platform for us," said Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing. "Our objective was to build a best-in-class DVR. It's reflected in the price and also in the make of the product."

At it's current price point, I hope he's right. The $799 cost will likely even keep devotees clinging to their old boxes praying they don't wear out. Hopefully in the coming months they will offer slimmed down versions with similarly scaled down price tags. In the meantime, we'll be treating ours with a little extra TLC.

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Touchstone Intelligence Is Not A Jason Bourne Nightmare

I received an e-mail from Chris Saad of Touchstonelive, describing some media they received, and just for a second, flashed back to a couple of Robert Ludlum novels and an image of Matt Damon beating the snot out of me.

But that was Treadstone. Touchstone Live is one of these new breed of intelligence filters that organizes your RSS feeds (and other material) into a coherent picture for you to quickly read the day's news.

I completely dig this stuff, though I am without an invitation to the alpha. I'm looking around trying to correct that (maybe this post will help). Basically, companies are attempting to clear up some of the data smog by offering you technical solutions to the overwhelming flood of information that is available.

The collection part is good, but to date, I've seen nothing that beats a good human brain, Google, and an RSS reader, but that may be on the verge of changing. The biggest problem is semantics. Computers, no matter how fast or powerful they are, still aren't capable of recognizing words as symbols for other words. Thus, a computer program can't recognize puppy as a kind of dog, unless puppy is coded as a kind of dog in the system.

The popular myth that the software "learns" is just hype, as the computer can analyze, but learning is an entirely different state of affairs. Currently, your brain still wins, but someone well versed in online monitoring, a good writer, and a possessor of TouchstoneLive or competing products is going to be a very influential force in aggregating information.

Or so we all hope. In the meantime, I'll keep using my skills to present the information through our market research reports. After all, there's already more than you can read out there - taking more in is not the problem, it's compiling the report that brings the value.

"Realty" Shows Coming Your Way Soon: ZipRealty and Reply.com

A story in the WSJ describes a new breed of reality realty marketing (yes, it's a bad play on words), as the masses just got a voice in the marketing of homes.

ZipRealty.com and Reply.com are two sites that hope to bring a social media component to how you buy your homes.

The basic premise is house-buyers now have a free forum to rate houses on the market, all without the "gushy marketing" of real estate agents desperate for a commission, or homeowners trying to sell properties without letting the flaws be known.

The agents are of course, crying foul over comments left on the site, citing the concerns that buyers wanting to drive down the value of the house, or competitors trying to sell their houses will leave nasty comments, but the truth will be let out, and ZipRealty monitors the comments, kicking out the silly and the slanderous ones (examples on their blog).

This was coming - but no one should be surprised. Real Estate agents are one of the fastest growing segments of business blogging, and anyone with a decent sized blog attempting to sell their house has an advantage in terms of showing off the neighborhood, embedding videos, and suggesting prices (all SEO-friendly activities).

The broader trend is that of information seeping to the surface. Every home has flaws, but until now, that information has been kept secret by homeowners and agents. That's not illegal, but no one is required to tell you that once a month, the neighbors hold a party that leaves trash in the street for a week. No one is required to talk about the neighbor who mows their grass at 6 a.m. on Fridays, or the teenagers who camp out in front of the house every day until the parents come home.

That information will, in some ways, start to creep out about neighborhoods, bringing a more realistic picture to the home-buying process. Somewhat.

One thing to remember is that anonymous opinions hold little weight on the internet. Too much astroturfing is going on for people to believe everything they read, and the people who hold the best information (neighbors and the sellers), both have a motive to keep quiet. The neighbor who spills the beans about the poor quality of a house or neighborhood has to one day sell their own house. Complaining about someone's house brings down property values, and that can have an impact on your own home.

When all is said and done, I would say that websites that provide reviews are net-positives, but if you're really worried about selling your house - start your own blog. The best way to counter negative press is with positive press.

Battlestar Galactica SciFi Webisodes are Here

The SciFi Channel is releasing a series of 10 webisodes to build buzz for BSG (That's Battlestar Galactica to all you none-fans) before the season premiere.

The merging of online marketing to television is a welcome addition, though I wish they had made the videos easy to forward. The idea behind pre-release teasers is not new - I can think of the Clone Wars episodes on Cartoon Channel that launched before the Star Wars III came out, and they told portions of the story that made a difference in the plotline for the third movie, but more important, it helps to shore up opening day audience when you pre-sell anything.

One of the strategies we recommend to clients is using the pre-sell method in all marketing they do. The cheapness of social media gives you the ability to launch blogs, podcasts, short videos, postcards, e-mails, whisper campaigns, billboards, and every other marketing vehicle under the sun to let the general public know that something big is coming.

There are three rules, however, to pre-release marketing, that cannot be ignored.

1) The product must be good. As we found out for Snakes on a Plane (which is getting terrible reviews), a bad product cannot be masked with good marketing, online or off.

2) The pre-release marketing can't be better than the product itself. This ties into the first rule, but all too often we see a great lead-up with no pay-off, or a thriving community built that sets expectations too high. If anyone remembers Majestic, the online-offline integrated conspiracy game launched by EA int he summer of 2001 a few years ago, they know what I'm talking about. The pre-game communities were more interesting, more creative, and more fun than the game itself.

3) Timing is everything. Publicity tends to rise and fall like the crest of a wave, which is to say that excitement generated about a product has a certain sweet spot you have to hit if you want to convert interest into action. Starting a marketing program too early risks disappointing your target market, but starting a program too late means you'll get little impact. Starting the program after you released the product is just plain foolish.

I'm eager to see the new webisodes, as I'm already a BSG fan, but as I said, I think portability of the video would make a big difference. Yes, you lose some traffic that way, but the ability to forward material to friends without directing them to a new site is a key aspect of viral marketing. It becomes a question of tracking versus barriers to word-of-mouth.

For ideas on how to pre-market , send me a note with your product and we'll find out if there's a way to help you build buzz before the launch date.

Brandstorming is now, Brandstorming

The name of the blog you're reading is Brandstorming. It was Franki's idea (most of the good ones are), and we looked at acquiring the name when we first started Durbin Media Group.

The name was, of course already taken, and we didn't want to bid on it because we were saving our cash flow for the business.

About a month ago, Miki Saxon, who runs RampUpSolutions, and who blogs at MAPping Company Success, sent me a note letting me know that while looking for my blog, she stumbled across http://www.brandstorming.com and saw it was available.

Franki and I were seven months into the business, and are pleased at the growth of the brand, the blog and the business, and after a couple of conversations, decided to make the bid.

We bid 2/3's of the asking price (we later found out that you should start at 1/2), and the owner accepted. After using the 2C0.com checkout process (they even called to make sure the transaction was real - nice security feature), the domain was transferred to our register.

We haven't changed the main address - but you can now access this blog by typing in www.brandstorming.com in your address bar.

Long term, I think this is a good strategy. There's a lot to be said for owning your own domain, and the name brandstorming, is just such a good one. Now we need to get to work on stlrecruiting.com, if we ever have the time...

Friday Roundup

Ahhh, sweet Friday. Here's the weekly roundup of noteworthy ads and promos. These are short but sweet. We'll catch you back here on Tuesday.

• Watch this spot with the volume off first. Then listen to see how clever this Cingular spot truly is.
  
• Lexus has several very nice ads for the US Open sponsorship. Each is a witty ode to 'destitute tennis balls of the world' and manages to be elegant yet funny. These are terrific spots. (Thanks, AdFreak)
• If you've never worked among other creatives in a competitive environment, this may be lost on you. But for those in the know and for our friends at big agencies, enjoy this ad.
• 'Absolute on Ice' will have a whole new meaning to you when you see these ad spoofs.
  
• Starbucks promotion too successful? Apparently yes. Read about it on AdJab.
  

Spicing Up Your Proposals

Proposals are sometimes a little dry, so we decided to have a little fun with ours. We've altered our proposals to include the following wording:

Collaboration: Schedules and timeframes proposed for marketing promotions are based on the assumption of accurate feedback and prompt sign-off from . While the staff of the Durbin Media Group has been known to pull off miracles, we’d like to point out that the parting of the Red Sea actually took several days.

The question is whether having a little fun when pitching a client is a net positive or a net negative. On the one hand, nothing is worse than poring over Terms and Conditions. On the other, proposals are supposed to show your proficiency - can you be flippant?

The proposals we use are our contract and our roadmap. Should we fill them with legal language? It takes half of the fun out of working. My view on contracts is simple. If the two parties have to turn to the contract and have lawyers parse the language, you've already lost.