Despite the horrific job market for teens and twentysomethings, be comforted in knowing that those folks--the millennials, as you might know--are in awesome shape psychologically. They’re confident and self-aware and just gosh darn happy to be here. If you believe the reports, we should all be jealous of them. They are truly the bee’s knees when it comes to being a really excellent generation.
But could they be just a little too laid back? With the extremely high level of convenience that technology affords them, some might even call it lazy. What started with the remote control way back in the day has evolved into speed dialing, spellcheck, and now, The Square.
I like this technological advancement, although I’m not sure I’d use it. I trust my friends to pay me the $5 I lend them at the Dairy Queen. What bugs me is the utter lack of enthusiasm the seller of the Square has for it’s product.
I’m not asking for Billy Mays to come back from the grave, or even the Shamwow guy to step in. I just can’t imagine our hero/narrator being any less excited—interested, even—in the product he’s hawking. Maybe this soothing pitch is what works for the millennials who would be interested in purchasing the Square. Maybe they’re just that happy to be around on this fine day and this soothing pitch is just right.
One word of advice, though, to Mr. Bearded Flannel Square-seller and friends:
The world belongs to the enthusiastic.
And PS, so do the jobs.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The answer to every question you'll ever have
If the path you’re on seems like the right one, did it happen by chance or intent?
If things go your way, is it because of what you’ve done up until this point in time, or because karma smiled on you at just the right moment?
Does success happen because you worked your butt off, or because you just got some good old fashioned luck?
Can you be a factor can you be in determining how It will all turn out?
The answer to all of the above is an easy one, of course.
Yes.
Chance, intent, diligence, karma, hard work , luck…they all go hand in hand, as inseparable as an Olympic Ice skater and flowing tears. Make friends with them all and It will be fine.
There’s no right way, of course, and you’ll get there in the way that’s right for you. But I can tell you this: trust your instincts, be optimistic and enthusiastic, and look at things differently as often as you can.
Twist the way you approach a challenge or situation. Don’t always take someone else’s word for it. You’ll get run over, physically and emotionally. And once in a while, take five seconds to watch something like this.
If things go your way, is it because of what you’ve done up until this point in time, or because karma smiled on you at just the right moment?
Does success happen because you worked your butt off, or because you just got some good old fashioned luck?
Can you be a factor can you be in determining how It will all turn out?
The answer to all of the above is an easy one, of course.
Yes.
Chance, intent, diligence, karma, hard work , luck…they all go hand in hand, as inseparable as an Olympic Ice skater and flowing tears. Make friends with them all and It will be fine.
There’s no right way, of course, and you’ll get there in the way that’s right for you. But I can tell you this: trust your instincts, be optimistic and enthusiastic, and look at things differently as often as you can.
Twist the way you approach a challenge or situation. Don’t always take someone else’s word for it. You’ll get run over, physically and emotionally. And once in a while, take five seconds to watch something like this.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Hello. I’m the new proud sponsor of anything you ever liked.
Now I just need to create a marketing campaign behind it.
With the further splintering of ad dollars into millions of small pieces, the once untouchable, previously big-money world of sponsorships is a prime target for fresh thinking, given it’s potential for low cost potential to reach large numbers of people. Not since Chico’s Bail Bonds stood behind the Bad News Bears have so many interesting partnerships been forged. Here’s two companies who have twisted the way people have always thought about sponsorships.
P&G, "the proud sponsor of moms.” Why not? Who else could doubt the claim, and who else could challenge them on it? Talk about a smart way to speak to a very very big target. Moms break into dozens and dozens of demographic profiles, but psychographically, and putting Wife Swap aside, moms are moms are moms. And it fits into so much they do. Well done, P&G.
On a totally different line of thinking, Prilosec OTC would like to be "the sponsor of everything.” And everyone. You can read about it or check out their digital effort to find 1000 people to become the “official _____ of Prilosec OTC” is really smart. Check out the site.
Now’s your time to get officially sponsored. If you’re a mom, P&G’s already got your back. And if you ever dreamed of being the Official Prilosec OTC baseball team, you better hurry before Morris Buttermaker beats you to it.
With the further splintering of ad dollars into millions of small pieces, the once untouchable, previously big-money world of sponsorships is a prime target for fresh thinking, given it’s potential for low cost potential to reach large numbers of people. Not since Chico’s Bail Bonds stood behind the Bad News Bears have so many interesting partnerships been forged. Here’s two companies who have twisted the way people have always thought about sponsorships.
P&G, "the proud sponsor of moms.” Why not? Who else could doubt the claim, and who else could challenge them on it? Talk about a smart way to speak to a very very big target. Moms break into dozens and dozens of demographic profiles, but psychographically, and putting Wife Swap aside, moms are moms are moms. And it fits into so much they do. Well done, P&G.
On a totally different line of thinking, Prilosec OTC would like to be "the sponsor of everything.” And everyone. You can read about it or check out their digital effort to find 1000 people to become the “official _____ of Prilosec OTC” is really smart. Check out the site.
Now’s your time to get officially sponsored. If you’re a mom, P&G’s already got your back. And if you ever dreamed of being the Official Prilosec OTC baseball team, you better hurry before Morris Buttermaker beats you to it.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Welcome to Facebookland
Yet another reason why Facebook continues to lead the internet in awesomeness and will likely continue to do so for a very long time.
Actually, you can thank Petesearch for this entry, since that’s where you can find this incredibly intriguing way of dividing up the country via Facebook profiles. Of course, without Facebook, this analysis would be impossible. Amazing to see how deeply Facebook has become intertwined in our lives. And how quickly; seems like I was just marveling about how kids don’t call each other on the phone to make plans anymore, they just text or IM. Now they Facebook each other.
Don’t be surprised if someday, your great great grandchildren are voting for political office via Facebook, obtaining passports (from Facebook) to cross Facebook-designed borders, and arguing with their parents about dating a girl from an area of the world that isn’t compatible with their own Facebook-created land mass.
Gotta go. Just got a new friend request.
Actually, you can thank Petesearch for this entry, since that’s where you can find this incredibly intriguing way of dividing up the country via Facebook profiles. Of course, without Facebook, this analysis would be impossible. Amazing to see how deeply Facebook has become intertwined in our lives. And how quickly; seems like I was just marveling about how kids don’t call each other on the phone to make plans anymore, they just text or IM. Now they Facebook each other.
Don’t be surprised if someday, your great great grandchildren are voting for political office via Facebook, obtaining passports (from Facebook) to cross Facebook-designed borders, and arguing with their parents about dating a girl from an area of the world that isn’t compatible with their own Facebook-created land mass.
Gotta go. Just got a new friend request.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tadpole escapes, becomes a Prince
How many ideas have you had that didn’t become real?
How many times did you think of something in the middle of the night that would make you rich and famous, but you decided you’d wake up in the morning and write it down, only to just remember something about a cantalope and JD Salinger?
You could ensure that you always remember your ideas like Michael Keaton’s Bill Blazejowski (“I'm an idea man Chuck, I get ideas, sometimes I get so many ideas that I can't even fight them off!”) in the highly underrated “Night Shift,” by dictating all of them into a recording device. But then you have to bring them to life.
And that’s the tough part. How often have you had an idea at work that you knew, that you were 100% certain, would be massively, hugely, rdiculously successful, if only you could sell it up through the internal ranks, and then convince the client of it’s genius, only to have it die somewhere along the way, due to someone’s fear or lack of confidence or shortage of funds or one of 6,438 other reasons great ideas can get killed?
Well, for every tadpole of an idea that you wished you could get swimming, every brilliant thought you’ve ever had between 4-8 beers and/or 1-4 AM that you just couldn’t get off the ground once you could see straight, and for every frenzied, rushing sperm of a germ of a notion you’ve had that couldn’t be fertilized, we present Bloomframe, in video and in words.
I don’t know how they got it done, but this is one of those ideas that seems too smart, too obvious, too we-must-get-this-made to ever actually get made. Someone had a notion, fought for it, pushed for it, found others who loved it and believed in it, and somehow, it got made. That’s the story I want to believe.
Who doesn’t love balconies? Why can’t everyone have one? Now you can. Well done, Bloomframe. The first models are bound for the Netherlands. When it becomes available over here, I’ll take two.
How many times did you think of something in the middle of the night that would make you rich and famous, but you decided you’d wake up in the morning and write it down, only to just remember something about a cantalope and JD Salinger?
You could ensure that you always remember your ideas like Michael Keaton’s Bill Blazejowski (“I'm an idea man Chuck, I get ideas, sometimes I get so many ideas that I can't even fight them off!”) in the highly underrated “Night Shift,” by dictating all of them into a recording device. But then you have to bring them to life.
And that’s the tough part. How often have you had an idea at work that you knew, that you were 100% certain, would be massively, hugely, rdiculously successful, if only you could sell it up through the internal ranks, and then convince the client of it’s genius, only to have it die somewhere along the way, due to someone’s fear or lack of confidence or shortage of funds or one of 6,438 other reasons great ideas can get killed?
Well, for every tadpole of an idea that you wished you could get swimming, every brilliant thought you’ve ever had between 4-8 beers and/or 1-4 AM that you just couldn’t get off the ground once you could see straight, and for every frenzied, rushing sperm of a germ of a notion you’ve had that couldn’t be fertilized, we present Bloomframe, in video and in words.
I don’t know how they got it done, but this is one of those ideas that seems too smart, too obvious, too we-must-get-this-made to ever actually get made. Someone had a notion, fought for it, pushed for it, found others who loved it and believed in it, and somehow, it got made. That’s the story I want to believe.
Who doesn’t love balconies? Why can’t everyone have one? Now you can. Well done, Bloomframe. The first models are bound for the Netherlands. When it becomes available over here, I’ll take two.
Friday, February 5, 2010
One way to save $4.3 Billion
From the “Why hasn’t anybody thought of this before?” department (Great Britain branch):
Shatter-proof pint glasses.
As the guys from the Guiness commercials of a few years back would say, “Brilliant!”
Government officials estimate that 2.7 billion pounds, or just over 4 billion dollars US, will be saved in health care costs in “Glassing” incidents. Glassing is pretty much what it sounds like—folks using shards of glass as a weapon. Nothing like too much beer and a nice piece of sharp glass to get the blood flowing.
But some smart and curious Brit thought about things differently, and figured out a way to make the drinking experience safer--and as an added bonus, one of the designs in play, will keep the beer cooler, too.
If they keep thinking this way, who knows how else they’ll make the beer drinking experience better and safer? I’ll tell you one thing:
If I’m the guy who owns the biggest plastic darts factory in England, I’m smiling right now.
Shatter-proof pint glasses.
As the guys from the Guiness commercials of a few years back would say, “Brilliant!”
Government officials estimate that 2.7 billion pounds, or just over 4 billion dollars US, will be saved in health care costs in “Glassing” incidents. Glassing is pretty much what it sounds like—folks using shards of glass as a weapon. Nothing like too much beer and a nice piece of sharp glass to get the blood flowing.
But some smart and curious Brit thought about things differently, and figured out a way to make the drinking experience safer--and as an added bonus, one of the designs in play, will keep the beer cooler, too.
If they keep thinking this way, who knows how else they’ll make the beer drinking experience better and safer? I’ll tell you one thing:
If I’m the guy who owns the biggest plastic darts factory in England, I’m smiling right now.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
A site that’s everything it’s cracked up to be
Quick, informative, entertaining, functional. Wouldn’t you love for your site to be that way? Or your communications plan? Or your very existence?
These folks have cooked up a quick and fun site that’s all that. It’s a nice smile for a Wednesday morning.
These folks have cooked up a quick and fun site that’s all that. It’s a nice smile for a Wednesday morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)