How I Love A Good E-sig... almost as much as I love the proper use of the passing lane.

For the moment your e-sig is a key way the world finds you – it’s a “click and go” world, so your e-sig needs to be that simple too. And yet, so many people don’t even use an e-sig – even when they have one provided to them by their company. It may be personal and familiar for me to sign off with an “lc” and assume the person I’ve just asked to get back to me has all my info – but it’s not smart and can actually be highly annoying.

I have vendor partners I want to recommend to others because they are G-R-E-A-T...but when I go to find their latest email for their details, low and behold I find a cutesy, “TX! ap.” So now I’ve got to burrow through my contacts or search online or, or, or…you get the point. Of course, I love recommending my favorite people so I usually go to the trouble but not without a few choice sailor’s words flowing forth in the process.

Then consider that you’ve got an emergency. You just got an email saying, “Urgent. Problem with the e-newsletter! Your programmer used the old link which takes your clients to last week’s deal which is unavailable. Client is pissed. Please call ASAP to discuss solutions!! TX!!!! tb.”

I feel another wave of obscenities coming…

So please, be kind and e-sign:-) lc

The 24 hour workday creep – a manifesto of sorts...

You know that moment in Jerry Maguire when Mr. Cruise does his “all I need is this goldfish” speech to see who will follow him in founding his New World Agency? Crickets, right? That and Renee’s scrunchy face. Well, here’s to hoping this doesn’t land me in the same situation. Because I’ve been thinking…

Surrounded as we are by a sea of iPhones, blackberries, wi-fi hotspots and 3G (check that 4G), it’s easy to think that better connectivity means better service. And sometimes, it does.

But I’m here to argue for restraint. I’m here to argue that putting off a reply to a 10:30 pm email until 8 am the next morning might make for a better reply. Here’s my math.

Good work takes focus
If you’re at your kid’s ballgame, out to dinner with the significant other or just vegging out to an episode of Dancing with the Stars, odds are you are not “in work mode.” Which means it’s likely that the 48 character email you fire off from your blackberry is at best, not very well thought out. If it’s not on fire, odds are it can wait until the morning.

Our time has value
As professionals, we sell many things: creativity, strategic insight, experience, organization. But at the end of the day we sell hours, and those hours have to have value. When you literally “phone it in” with a late night or weekend response you devalue the worth of your time – and don’t even get me started about the likelihood of actually billing that time. We have to value the hours we sell if we expect clients to see the worth in what they are buying.

You need a break anyway
Study after study shows that disconnecting from work – even for a little bit – can make you refocus and perform better at the task at hand. It can also help remedy some serious issues that take a real bite out of productivity, like getting a good night’s sleep. So go ahead, leave the phone in the car the next time you grab 30 minutes for lunch. Try connecting with a sandwich instead.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when you have to field an issue outside of work hours, and when that happens thank the cellular gods for full bars. But on the day-to-day, run of the mill regular old work stuff, try staying the hand – or restraining the thumbs – and see how it feels. I’m betting you’ll feel better, and your work will be better, too. Worth a try right?

Of course, I just finished this at 10:39 at night. Look for my next manifesto about practicing what your preach.

Chik-fil-Awesome

I confess – like many of us raised down south, I have a real weakness/problem/addiction when it comes to Chick-fil-A, so keep in mind this marketing “opinion” may be seasoned, lightly battered, and served up piping hot with a pickle on a white bun. That said, the new “Reserve your free spicy chicken sandwich” promotion is pretty smart any way you slice it.

First off, Chik-fil-A is introducing a spicy sandwich, which in theory is a marriage made in southern fried chicken heaven. Unlike a lot of quick service restaurants (Or QSR’s for us in the club), Chik-fil-A almost always practices brand extension with relative restraint – they do chicken, period (except on Sunday, the one day of the week I wake up with a dyslexic-cow-sized CFA craving).

So off the bat, they get points for smart marketing in terms of “P for Product”. But the real smarts of this intro is the integration of a simple web element to corral and enhance the classic “free sample” tactic other QSRs have used ad nauseum to hype new menu features. Instead of “for a limited time” lines usually trotted out for new offers or the cattle call “free for the first 100 people” location stunts, Chik-fil-A has created a reservation system for lucky (and quick!) fans to secure their FREE spicy sandwich. It’s simple, it’s organized, it’s interactive, and it will generate a healthy list of fans that Chik-fil-A can connect with time and again. Not to mention the fact that the tactic itself has been wildly hyped, so much so that in Atlanta (my hometown) there isn’t a reservation to be had.

Smart + simple usually equals effective. My only critique? With no seats at the virtual table left to reserve, I had nothing to slake my desire for spicy, chicken-y goodness. A consolation coupon would have been nice. That and a Sunday drive-thru open every now and then.

Will the Real Atlanta Sports Campaign Please Rise Up?

As a native and a fairly afflicted sports addict, I listen to a lot of sport stalk radio. And as you’d imagine, with a relatively “target narrow” medium like sports talk, nearly 99% of the advertising I hear connects with my inner target demographicalness directly and effectively. Some notable exceptions exist – hair loss cures and divorce attorneys – though I pretty much remember all of those ads too, because as a long-time listener (first-time caller) I hear the same handful of ads repeatedly. All the time. Over and over.

Needless to say, for me, almost all radio advertising gets at least a little stale. Worse so when multiple advertisers jump on the same tired concept (for a while no fewer than 10 local businesses were offering stimulus packages). Well now, two of my beloved home-town franchises seemed to have crossed their campaign streams, as evidenced by the new Falcons’ advertising that sports the old Hawks tagline, “Rise Up”.

The Hawks originally “Rose Up” in 2007-2008, limped into the playoffs, then eventually lost in a pretty charged-up series against Boston (which sparked the next year’s slogan “Shock the World”). That was just two seasons ago, yet somehow the Falcons are now “Rising Up” in 2010? Don’t get me wrong, I like the new Falcon ads a ton; they feature a gospel-preacher-with-a-bag-of-SportCenter-analogies vibe that are really well written and expertly delivered. But we couldn’t come up with a new tag? I mean, if last year the “Hunt Was On” for the Falcons, why do we have to settle for a retread tagline?

Rise Up, Falcons, and grab a new tagline (and a couple defensive pieces couldn’t hurt either).

A Marketers Holy Grail of Commercials

While watching the Olympics I saw what was quite possibly the best commercial I've seen in a long time- if not ever. The spot, titled "Hands", is for Delta's Pilar faucet with Touch20 Technology. Apparently the spot has been around since at least this summer - but it is new to me so please forgive my dated praise.

This spot stands out above the rest for the following reasons:

• It's the perfect blend of merchandising meets marketing. For once, these two disparate yet intrinsically linked disciplines joined forces to create something that actually communicates the product benefits in a way that is meaningful to consumers.
• The contrast of the dirty, sticky hands on the black background is a striking balance of gross reality and artful beauty.
• The music is infectious. Come on, who doesn't love the Count from Sesame Street!
• It's simple. It's focused. It's powerful.
• It's not just creative for creative's sake - It's effective. I don't know about you, but I WANT one - no, NEED one.

Kudos to the client and agency who produced this.

Awesomer Bowl?

The inevitable post Super Bowl advertising blog post is here. I’ll try not to repeat what everyone else is talking about (but probably will). Some observations:

1. Volume Turned Down: Is it me or did it seem like the volume of ads was down? Maybe it was because the game was compelling, or because CBS threw-in a lot of ads for their own programming, but volume seemed down.
2. Don’t Believe the Hype: the vaunted pro-life Tebow spot barely registered, as did the not-really-all-that-steamy-or-sensical GoDaddy ads. La-lame.
3. In Need of a New Gameplan: Budweiser and Bud Light, two big brand Super Bowl stalwarts are falling flat these days. Budweiser, let go of the Clydesdales thing…and Bud Light, please try and find a campaign out there somewhere – your schizophrenic attempts to make us laugh are doing just the opposite (sad when the old Auto-Tune T-Pain joke is your best offering).
4. Surprisingly Strong Veteran Play: Doritos, thank you for being less “extreme” and more obsessive – it’s a lot easier to relate to a guy being buried in a massive casket of Doritos than it is to see said Dorioto-er doing a backflip on a BMX bike.
5. Really Really Surprising Veteran Play: Not the brand, but the stars – Snickers use of Betty White and Abe Vigoda! Simply awesome.
6. Shockingly not shocking MVP: Can Google do no wrong? Absolute genius – you got drunk people to read – and the cognitive process to well, process.
   
7. Questionable Calls: The census bureau really needs to get people to participate? Really? And Coke spends all that money on the Simpsons, and then…well, not much happens.
8. Surprising Rookies: The creepy Denny’s chickens were pretty awesome, and I’ll take odds on the number of folks that line up for that free Grand Slam breakfast.

There was plenty more of the expected - yes, talking eTrade babies, yes, slow-mo NFL fan mania, yes plenty from the online employment folks, yes, more ads with men running around in their tighty whiteys (2 that I counted), awesomer nuts - or was it popcorn, and yes, Charles Barkley acting like Charles Barkly (which is still worth watching).

Probably the biggest surprise for me this year was there was no surprise – nothing that sticks out or sticks to my brain anyway. Except maybe that new Bud Select 55. 55 Calories? Wha? How is that even possible? ( über lame commercial, but the message got across).

Here’s to seeing something surprising next year – like the Falcons in the Super Bowl.

Watch Super Bowl spots

Celebrity Endorsements in the Year of the Tiger

In the media maelstrom that has overtaken Tiger Woods, one question has somehow gone unasked: “Where was the Buick in all of this?”
 
I realize that Tiger is technically an endorser for GM, but for the last few years he has been filmed and photographed pimping one brand only: Buick. Yeah, that Buick.  But when it comes to driving around the neighborhood and running over fire hydrants, Mr. Woods opts for the sexier, brasher, better-appointed Cadillac Escalade.  The cad!
 
This of course raises a problem many of us in the marketing business have with celebrity endorsements – they are obscenely expensive and 9 times out of 10 are utterly unbelievable.
 
Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to sports figures endorsing sports related equipment (especially shoes that bear their name), I get it. There are even some believable food and beverage endorsements; Jen Anniston with the ever-present Smart Water bottle, Jamie-lee Curtis yogurting her way to better digestion, and of course Wilford Brimley for Quaker Oats (I’d bet that guy eats oatmeal 5 times a day). But Tiger Woods – billionaire, icon, reasonably stylish dresser – driving a Buick Enclave?  How stupid do we look?  
 
John Daly and a case of Bud.  Phil Mickelson and a box of Twinkies. These are endorsements I can believe in. Tiger, it’s time to step out of your Enclave and sell us something we can believe in (on many counts).