Suicide-preventing pens!

I’ve been away from the blog for a while helping other people come up with great ideas, but in the words of Sir Isaac Newton, great ideas never take a vacation. Here’s the proof:

Who knew there’s a magical, lifesaving pen out there? A pen that has literally prevented people from killing themselves!

Actually, I don’t have any proof of this, but the last time I lost an entire notebook of notes and thoughts from crucial client meetings, the only thing that stopped me from killing myself was a bottle of Chianti and an Ally McBeal marathon.

So this pen is called the Echo smartpen from livescribe. First, you have to write on a special notepad. Then, when you connect it to your computer, your notes, scribbles, drawings, etc, are instantly and magically uploaded. And when you click back on your page, the pen tells you when you made that note or drawing.

I’m not doing justice to all the pen can do. Put it this way. For anyone who has taken notes and then forgot about…
--Where you put them
--When you had the conversation
--What the context or reason was for the conversation
--What the hell they mean !#$#$%@$%#!#
…this is technological manna from heaven. Gives your brain a break, your anger a breather, your sanity a refresh.

The single biggest question I had: Why didn’t Steve Jobs get there first with an ipen? The answer, of course, is that he was beaten to the punch. By a PC, no less. But like all things PC, it just doesn’t look as cool as the Mac version.

More on great ideas to come.

Please look up when you're talking to me. Or not.

This new development is definitely one of two things:

A brilliant idea that perfectly takes advantage of how things currently work, as well as a way to use new technology to get more kids involved at school.

Or a sad commentary on how unpersonal things will someday be.

I hate the idea of people “talking” to each other a few feet away while looking down at a screen, but I love the possibility of students finding new ways to interpret art.

It’ll be fascinating to see how the next generation is able to relate socially beyond their screens. I have no idea how it’ll turn out, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be good business for chiropracters.

How Social Media helps fuel great ideas

The best ideas come from the gut. They emerge from a feeling that what you’re creating is important.

They gestate for days or months or even years. Consciously or subconsciously, you’ve been collecting all that time and storing stuff up: Experiences you’ve endured or enjoyed, words you’ve heard, images your brain has captured.

You’ve been building empathy.

And then, one day, a ripped photograph shows up in your back yard.

You don’t know the people in the picture, but you know where it came from, because a few days before, tornadoes ripped through cities and towns that surrounded your own. And while your town, somehow, was spared, many, many more were not. Houses were destroyed, and priceless personal possessions were blown away. Some, for hundreds of miles.

The photograph in your hand, of a little girl in a cheerleading uniform, or grandparents on their wedding day, is a visceral reminder that it could have been you who lost everything.

This happened to Patty Bullion of Lester, Alabama. When she found a ripped picture of an older man and his dog, she posted it on Facebook, on a page that she created, titled simply, “Pictures and Documents found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes.” A woman 175 miles away posted almost immediately that the picture was of her grandfather, who had died in the tornadoes. You can only imagine how much the picture must have meant to the woman.

You can read about what happened from there in The New York Times, but as you can probably guess, many, many more items have since been posted, and many people have claimed them.

If you read some of the posts on the page, you’ll see the true genius of Social Media and how it gets people engaged, involved, and prompts them to do something. It certainly proves the power of people who care. That’s the first step in creating an idea that gets people to act.

If you're dying for a good idea...*

Costco, home of 2 pound hunks of mozzarella, 10 man tents and $200 cabernets, sells caskets. If this is not news to you, I’m sorry (in more ways than one).

Let me start by saying, I love going to Costco.

I don’t mind the crowds. At checkout, they get you through the lines amazingly fast, and I like looking at people’s carts while I’m waiting to pay. It’s a great way to see all the wonderful things that are potentially in my future (an 8-pack of John Wayne Certified Organic Black Pepper Flavor Beef Jerky! Who know John Wayne was into organic!?).

I just love all the stuff. I don’t know why four boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios is better than one, but it just is. Maybe it’s American’s unofficial motto (“Gimme More!”) that drives people to fill their Costco carts.

For me, it offers the perverse challenge of getting through the Unofficial Home of Excess without going off my list. I love leaving with just the couple of things we need. I think it pisses some people off, indignant that I could go to Overshop Heaven and leave with just blueberries, batteries and water.

For my latest excursion to Costco I showed up right when they opened on a Saturday morning and took advantage of the empty store to walk down every aisle. I saw all the things I usually miss when I’m flying from the beer to the water to the pharmacy (with a stop at salmon).

At the end of the row with shredders and filing cabinets, I found the above aforementioned casket area. Glory Be! You can buy the last box you’ll ever be in, at the biggest box you’ve ever been in.

It’s genius. They sell tires, and gas, and vacations, and blinds…so why not make what will arguably be your last purchase at the same place where you buy all the things that help you enjoy life? It makes perfect sense. It’s a great idea. A bit macabre, perhaps, but if the Caramel Apple Pie rocks at Costco (which it does), why wouldn’t the caskets?

The only thing I wonder—and I didn’t stay long enough to find out—how many do you have to buy?

*posthumous thanks to Sid Rosset for this oldie but goodie.

The award for best use of hair extensions in a tv commercial goes to…

I love this commercial.

I don’t write about TV ads much anymore because they’re so pre-millennium, but there’s still nothing like moving film to disrupt your emotional state. In this case, in a good way.

This spot captures human nature subtly and beautifully in fun but understated performances. Each time you watch you notice a nice new detail. I especially love the way the dad gets his pony tail and then one more when he hears the second part of the boy’s career goals.

And it clearly brings to life the product’s selling proposition: that there’s such a great variety of flavors, there will be something for everyone.

In a world of executional dazzle it’s nice to see something as mundane as a family dinner become so funny, relevant, and engaging. And convincing. Let’s hear it for clarity and simplicity

How do you Know?

The amount of money spent on determining ad effectiveness is second only to the amount of money producing the work (Or is it? Sometimes I wonder…). The first questions clients ask about a piece of communication is whether it’s getting good ROI, or something that indicates that it’s working.

One of my all-time favorite ad-related quotes is the gem from John Wanamaker, followed closely of course by this one from Amy Adams.

I was reminded of both quotes when I read about the decision facing e*trade about what to do with their advertising campaign: To pull or not to pull. For years, the work has been great. Very memorable, killed on the Super Bowl year after year, even though the talking baby thing has been done over and over since Bruce Willis channeled little Mikey in Look Whose Talking.

My favorite e*trade ad is probably the one with the clown. ("I really underestimated the creepiness..."). I’m sure you have yours.

These are some great talking babies. But once again, the question, “What makes successful advertising?” is being asked, because they continue to lag behind their competitors.

Many agencies say “we’ll make your brand famous,” which makes a ton of sense, especially when a brand has low awareness. But once the awareness numbers are up, clients want sales to go up too. And what makes an ad famous doesn’t always help make people run out of the house to buy.

So what to do? Unfortunately for e*trade, they’ve been hit by factors other than advertising that have affected their bottom line. But the most public way to talk to the street is to talk about changing the public face of the brand, and that means advertising.

So they’re taking an interesting angle, trying to keep it and work with it at the same time. Sounds like a good idea to me. They have such a valuable equity, something that reminds people of their brand, that they can use different ways in different media.

And you can’t say enough about word of mouth. It’s just not something you can buy; having an ownable property is invaluable, and you can’t put a price on having to reinvent the (wheel) every time it’s time to crank up the marketing machine.

My definition of ad success is not really measurable (take that, you quant people). I’ve always believed great marketing communications serve mostly as reminders, and partially as educational tools, and I’d say a piece of communication is effective if the product or service leaps to the front of the cranial cortex when a person is at the point of consideration.You can’t make anybody buy anything (unless of course you’re Steve Jobs).

So I like where you’re going, e*trade. Good luck.

Good news for romantics (and retailers)

You can’t buy love, but according to a study from the National Retail Foundation, people have trying harder to disprove that notion this year. Valentine’s Day spending in 2011 is the highest it’s been since before the economy crapped out.

The average person will shell out $116 on red roses, heart shaped cookies, and I Love You thongs. A hundred and sixteen bucks! I guess someone must be buying a few of these to bring that average up.

What’s the explanation? I have no research on this, but I have a firm belief:

Valentine’s Day is a purely emotional holiday. Nothing rational about it; it’s all about human connection. You could argue there’s a rational reason to give a gift on V-Day, that if you play your cards right, your reward might greatly justify the gift. Probably explains all of the I Love You thongs.

This wonderful research proves that when it comes to selling, heartstrings trump purse strings.

And as an aside, I love the fact that folks are spending more on love. It’s a sure sign that we’re on our way back to financial confidence. POTUS should use this in one of his upcoming speeches. What’s a better economic indicator?