So, I just saw an advertisement the other day for an idea that has been around awhile, apparently. Regardless, Wal-Mart is breaking into a pretty exclusive target audience for clothing retail. I honestly never thought a child (newborn through seven-year-olds) could ever have an opinion or be persuaded to care what they’re wearing or how they look (outside the direction of their parents). On the tail of the Abercrombies and Hollisters of the world starting to drill into the middle school age kids minds that what they wear says who they are, which seemed destructive enough in the easily persuadable mind of such adolescents, I thought that would definitely be the line in the sand never to be crossed. However, without breaking stride, another retailer (Wal-Mart) has proven me wrong.

:: continue reading this ocean post ::

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

The attached presentation was given to Miami Ad School on February 25, 2008 and to the Campaigns classes at the University of Minnesota on February 26, 2008. It was a great opportunity for us to talk with the future of the Advertising industry and enjoyed the passionate conversations with the students. Thank you to those students and Eva for hosting us.

Also, thank you to Professor Pounds and the students at the University of Minnesota for their hospitality. It was outstanding to see and hear such a wide array of interests, aspirations, backgrounds and talents. If we were unable to answer any questions due to time please drop us a note.

Best,
Chris & Joe

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

This presentation was given to the Human Factors class at the University of Minnesota on February 18, 2008. We would like to thank the students and Professor Huff for having us in the class. If there were any other questions or comments regarding the presentation we encourage you to communicate with our team through this blog.

Regards,
Lisa, Chris & Joe

I’ve been talking to lots of advertising and marketing students lately about the future of advertising. I am probably the worst person to be talking to these kids about this. I don’t like advertising and never have. I don’t care about it and don’t find most of it entertaining or engaging in any way. If I want to be entertained, I will go to a movie, thank you. I don’t think most people are all that engaged with advertising. Oh, I think they will talk about the super bowl spots, because that is one of the main points about watching that game. Or they might mention a favorite ad to a friend because it makes them laugh. But I don’t think most look forward to their morning commute just because they will get to read the billboards on the way to work. I have to admit in my younger days (when I had more free time) even being a little vindictive with people trying to market to me. I’ve been known to fill direct marketers pre-paid envelopes with other direct marketers junk mail just to prove a point. I stole this idea from a good friend of mine. Don’t bother me with that stuff.  Thus my issue with talking about advertising … I don’t think there is a future for it…though I have colleagues who will disagree with me and that’s why I work with them. There is very little advertising in my present, let alone my future, because I use technology to avoid it.  Since I don’t have the advertising vernacular in my vocabulary, I’ve developed my own over the years as it applies to online media. And I’ve come to discover how close it is to the world of product development. When it comes down to it, we develop online products. These products communicate. They save time and they save money. They help people do business in new ways. We develop these products for people; people who want to save time, make their lives easier and find new information or ideas. We want to do more than help people pass a minute or 30 seconds of their time. We want to improve their lives, even if it is in a very small way. Think about things like finding out what salaries for your industry tailored to your location www.careeronestop.com or things like being able to get wine recommendations based on your taste and style www.artisanvineyards.com. I don’t think I am alone out there. Advertising has to shift its focus. In fact, the whole notion of advertising has to go away (okay, change) for marketers or business managers for that matter use the medium in a way that can affect their businesses the most. Here is some inspiration from one of the gods of advertising planning……Russell Davies to get you moving in the right direction!

I found these earbuds when I realized that my ears would never accommodate the regular Apple iPod ear buds without serious pain or plastic surgery!

They’re pretty awesome and have different sized rubbery things so they snug right inside your ear. Plus they block outside noise so you don’t have to crank the volume high when you’re in a noisy situation.

Drawback: You can’t hear things around you, so unsafe for outdoor use.

They’re on sale right now too!

(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

The following Quicktime was the PowerPoint presentation given to the Interactive Advertising class at the University of Minnesota on February 14th. If any students from the class had any questions for us that we were unable to get to because of time, we encourage you to ask them here and we’d be more than happy to engage in a dialogue regarding your question. Thank you Professor Huh and the students for having us in your class, we enjoyed it very much.

Regards,
Chris and Joe

Alright, I admit I haven’t written down many cohesive thoughts in the last 10 years since giving birth to two wildly fantastic children with, of course, the exception of their entertaining phraseologies and countless grocer lists organized categorically; fruit at the top and freezer items nearing the end of the list. By arranging the fruits and vegetables @ the top of the list leaves little room in the cart as we reach the ever popular frozen foods isle where a barrage of textural, sinfully tantalizing frozen delights ablaze in the full color spectrum scream out, “Pick me, pick me!” I think the other day one package actually winked at me. How could I turn down this advance? When you are wading knee deep in your fourth decade on earth, any form of flirtation is flattering; even if it’s imaginary!

So here I find myself in a new job with a blog entry deadline to express some observations, a self-examination if you will. My co-workers here have been kind enough to offer up guidance and encouragement; launch me down the Yellow Brick Road to Oz. “Write about anything”, they say. “Write about the banana sitting on your desk.” This banana, by the way, was not the item that winked at me but I will graciously consume it anyway for its naturally fortified potassium and pleasing texture reminiscent of childhood. This blog entry may have no beginning or end but I think I have managed to fill up the middle with enough jibberish to qualify an entry on the wild world web (as my 8 year old would say).

The marketplace is swarming with new technologies and products that promise to make our frantic lives easier and more efficient so we can get more done in less time with less effort. Work less and get more. Talk less and say more. You get the picture. We’ve always got too much to do and too little time. So it’s only natural that we’re drawn to technology that makes our to-do list a little less daunting and life a bit more enjoyable.

:: continue reading this ocean post ::

Is MSNBC running Apache? While browsing the popular news site for more tidbits on the big game today, I came across this screenshot (at about 2:45PM CST on 2/3).

Of course, it could’ve been faked, but I assure you it wasn’t. A quick test on Netcraft revealed the site had been running IIS 6.0 as of October 2007.

A hoax? Or maybe they’re ramping up capacity in preparation for the Super Bowl.  Then again, maybe this is old news…