NYCAers created a garden at Horton Elementary School in San Diego on January 17-18, 2008. The garden will be incorporated into the students' curriculum so they will have the opportunity to grow! a garden while simultaneously growing as individuals. This video shows the before, during and after footage of the building process.

By Michelle Edelman

According to Nielsen, 91 million people saw the Super Bowl last year, compared to 39 million who watched the Oscars. Still, the Academy Awards is one of the most tuned-into TV events every year. And ABC charges for the commercial time dearly: $1.7 million for 30 seconds. Thatâs not a huge bargain, considering Super Bowl advertising spots sold for $2.6 million on CBS last month.

If you do some quick math, Oscar viewership is about 43% of what Super Bowl viewership wasâ but Oscar advertising time cost 65% of what Super Bowl viewership cost. A logical assumption might be that Oscar viewers are more attentive, making them a more valuable audience, commanding a higher price per impression.

Realistically, we all know in our guts that this isnât at all the case! Super Bowl ads are watched, critiqued and are an event in themselves, gristed over for days afterwards, while Oscar commercial breaks are less talked about than the actressesâ gowns. Itâs simply an advertising non-event. In fact, common advice to hosts and hostesses of Oscar parties: when the commercials come on, itâs a prime time to do something other than watch them! The best Web-given advice on what to do during the Oscarâs commercial breaks:

o         Play movie trivia games

o         Take a cigarette break

o         Talk (because you really should not talk during the Oscars)

In fact, one well-trafficked site simply stated, âCommercials can drag down an Oscar party.â?

Spike Leeâs commercials advertising the Oscars were far more interesting than any of the commercials that aired on the show itself. His vignettes of real people reciting famous movie lines were funny and poignant, reminding us why movies are important and, therefore, why the Oscars are worth watching. Seek them out if you havenât seen them.

Looking at the commercials on the show itself -- even as a fan of advertising -- I suppose I would advocate talking through them as well. There were some launches like iPhone, and some ads with big build-up, like the consumer-generated Dove Cream Oil. But in terms of entertainment, memorability, and even some attempt at the theatrics of the subject matter of programming? Completely absent. It was a night of everyday advertising. For $1.7 million a pop!

Next year, letâs throw down a gauntlet. Letâs have a two-sided experiment: for the industry to create unique communication that plays to its environment and for the networks to charge appropriately for the time. Maybe then consumers will reward us with their attention.

To the editor:

I read in the newspapers and also saw on the news that the Snickers TV commercial that was shown on the Super Bowl was pulled off the air because it offended gays and lesbians. Iâm glad because, although I am not gay, that Snickers commercial really upset me and my co-workers (who are not gay either). To see two guys kissing is one thing I donât need to see again in my life but thatâs not what bothered me as much as when they realize what they are doing, then recoil, and to prove their manliness they tear out their chest hair and scream in agony. Stupid, right? I thought so and so did the guys at the shop and weâre not talking about the gay part because none of us are gay.

We are mechanics and we wouldnât do that â the kissing or the hair pulling part. Itâs dumb and retarded.

But there it was for the whole world to see -- on the Super Bowl of all places. My wife, my son,  my two daughters and my mother saw it as we have seen it before â mechanics made to look dumb and dirty. Why is it always the mechanics are the ones made to look like idiots? Always with the bad fitting dirty uniforms and ignorant expressions and bad haircuts. Is it because we work with our hands and not in fancy office buildings? Is it because we work with tools and cars and not books? (By the way, computers are one of the most important tools we use to diagnose engine problems.) Can you see lawyers working in that Snickers commercial -- or airplane pilots??  Never happen - itâs always the guys who work their hands, âgrease monkeys âwho are humiliated in front of the world.

The gay and lesbian population demanded the Snickers ad be taken off the air but in my mind it should have been the Auto Mechanics union â because it made us all feel ridiculed and disrespected. And it has to stop. Do you have any idea of the education and the hours of study and text-book reading that is required to stay up on todayâs sophisticated cars?   

I am right with you gays and lesbians who were upset by that commercial â but you have to get behind us mechanics first because it is we who are owed the apology.  Remember, Snickers commercial makers and the rest of you image makers, we can pour sugar in your gas tank and irrevocably corrode your engine in a secondâs time, we can tell you your valves need to be replaced when they are fine and you wouldnât know, we can triple charge you when you have no recourse and we can hike your gas price whenever we want â so next time be sensitive with your stereotypes just to sell your candy.

Best regards,

Stan the Mechanic

AKA Michael the grow! guy

NYCA captured the lively discussion of this year's Super Bowl commercials: the good, the bad, the consumer generated. NYCA's Jon Dupuis joined the panel that also included, Marlee Ehrenfeld -MJE Marketing, Grant Reneiro - Geary Interactive, Diego Pombo - Xpectrum Marketing Group, and Brian Fortini - Sports Illustrated. 

Don't forget to post your comments - we'd like to hear what you have to say! Take a listen as the group discusses whether or not 2.6 million dollars is worth it. Enjoy!

I think the viewer won this year (how very Time & AdAge of me). There were several good spots, and more importantly, not too many terrible spots. I thought the humor was relevant and actually funny. I thought this year'ss stable of commercials was better than the past few Super Bowls. Overall, it felt like there was a theme of violence, slapstick of course, but more than sex or bathroom humor, which we have become accustomed to this time of year.

Going into the Super Bowl, there was a lot of talk about two things: consumer generated content and extending the message beyond :30. How did these issues shake out?

Consumer generated spots (CGS): there were 3 spots that fall within this category: NFL, Chevy and Doritos. Although I did not care for any of the end-results, the big win for these three brands was the engagement they achieved with their consumers for months prior to Feb. 4^th. The :30 spot was just a necessary outcome, and none of these spots were that bad.

- The NFL spot was well done (should have been considering the idea was consumer generated but the spot was produced by professionals), but the message was somewhat lost on me - come on, there are only 2 days a year were sports don't exist, we should be able to overcome the off-season for the NFL.

- The Chevy spot I thought was the worst of the 3 CGS. I never did get a chance to see the actual vehicle - is it cool?

- The Doritos spot was good, but in my opinion one of the worst versions of the 5 finalists. I was happy to see the "cashier" spot come on later in the game, as that was one of my favorites from the finalists (see, I am proof that CGS worked; I spent well above :30 interacting with this brand during the process).

Extending beyond :30: again, spending $2.6M is not enough to standout during this mecca of advertising. Amazing, isn't it? So, were there successful stories of brands extending beyond the :30 spot? Sure, but nothing that stood out to me during the actual game. Most of my engagement happened during the pre-game period (I am not talking about minutes before the game; I am talking about weeks, if not months before the game). CGS was a great success story for this, but I will not go into that again. Other brands like Taco Bell and Snickers had strong online tie-ins. I admit my Taco Bell "improve" spot sucked - easier to critic than create. Snickers offered viewers a chance to pick a different ending to their "Brokeback Mountain Mountain" themed spot. Curious to see where that goes. And the only other spot that is worth mentioning is Revlon and their tie-in to iTunes. My gut tells me this will do well considering Sheryl Crow's popularity, but only time will tell.Thanks for reading. I thought I would share some quick opinions on some of the most popular questions asked at the water-cooler Monday.

 What was the funniest spot?

Blockbuster - mouse

Which spot is the most innovative?

Coke - video game

Which spot did the best job in online tie-in?

Revlon -  iTunes

Which spot had the most hype prior the Super Bowl?

GoDaddy - 2 spots that didnÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂt make the Super Bowl

Which spot will most likely provide the best return on investment?

Salesgenie - terrible, but actionable b2b message

Which spot did you not like?

GM - machine getting fired

Which spot was the biggest waste of advertising dollars?                                                            

Sierra Mist - both spots

What was your favorite spot?

E-trade - bank robbers

Itâs hard to remain immune to the sheer abundance of choice that we have. The era of affordable luxury ushered in by Target is now in full swing. H&M slashed the price of runway style, IKEA allows everyone to have a full house of furnishings, and what we canât find around the corner is available 24x7 on ebay.

All this cheap chic is creating a wave of consumerism that is based less on passion than experimentation. If individuals are on the fence about that ensemble and its price is right, theyâll buy it, more than willing to abandon it if it doesnât work. The search for love is being replaced by the search for new.

Welcome to the era of the Trysumer. According to âTrendwatching,â?  

âFreed from the shackles of convention and scarcity, immune to most advertising, and enjoying full access to information, reviews, and navigation, experienced consumers are trying out new appliances, new services, new flavors, new authors, new destinations, new artists, new relationships, new *anything* with post mass-market gusto.â?

This kind of purchasing ushers in a new era of selling. Lifestyle brands are used to high-styled photography as the mainstay of their advertising. But Trysumers are more likely to respond to marketing that lowers the barriers of decision for a quick purchase. Trysumers will respond to retail experiences that allow them to try out products before they actually buy them. Welcome to sampling as a traditional advertising medium.

Retailers can easily take advantage of this trend in-store, but at NYCA, the full-service San Diego-based marketing agency where I am vice president/director of strategic planning, we know there is much a retailer can do with the marketing mix to make sure Trysumers are engaged. Bag Borrow and Stealâs whole business model is based on the bet that consumers will rent designer handbags at a far faster rate than theyâll purchase them. If a customer likes a certain bag, she can purchase it at a âusedâ? price. Sephora opens the cosmetic world for customers to try any product they wish on their own terms before making a purchase. And pop-up retail formats are opening to give fashion brands a sense of showcasing parts of the product line as a way to give consumers a taste of what the flagship stores are actually like.

The online world is proving to be a very efficient way for Trysumers to get their information fixes. You can âtry onâ? new clothing or styles in SecondLife, and even though an avatar is nothing like a real body, the sense of interaction with a brand is tangibly there. The myriad of consumer reviews allow consumers to talk with others just like them to determine whether an experience might be worth the trouble. And inexpensive products and promotional items can be distributed via yes-its-free.com and other sampling sites. These little bits of brand experience translate to a consumer stopping at the entrance to a store, feeling that this brand is already a part of her life and looking forward to more experiences with it.

By Michelle Edelman

By now, youâve read about estimating media costs in Part I and setting accurate expectations for production costs in Part II. Now itâs time to tackle the notion of paying the advertising agency for their time.

Agency fees can be a confusing concept for clients who are new at building budgets. Many agencies charge their time separately from hard costs. It used to be that agencies worked on media commissions. They would charge companies the ârate cardâ? rate for media, and then keep as their fee the difference between that rate and what they can truly negotiate with media partners. As marketers became more independent from agencies, they wanted to track the real cost of media, and hence separate agency fee contracts were born.

Some clients scoff at paying an agency a fee above and beyond the work they create. The reality is that a good agency can be your businessâ best strategic partner. You can get the thinking of a Big 5 consulting firm for a fraction of the cost. Todayâs agencies are more than souped-up design; good agencies will be interested in building your business, and have ideas for you that extend way beyond words on a page.

Agencies charge for their time managing, strategizing, and partnering on their clientsâ businesses. The typical cost structure is staff costs plus overhead plus a reasonable markup, for the time the agency estimates it will take to execute the specific scope of work you mutually agree on. Large agency networks dictate a markup of at least 20%, so a well-negotiated price from an agency will be less than thatâ but donât forget to compare agenciesâ overhead ratios, as some agencies have tonier office space and more extraneous expenses, so total cost will be higher. It might be fun to go to a slick office building for meetings and be wined and dined by agency principlesâ just know in advance that you are helping to foot the bill in the name of overhead!

A final word of advice: donât let the process of budgeting intimidate you. You are capable of determining how much you can and should spend on marketing. Most companies spend 5-10% of annual gross sales, but companies can meet their goals on far less, depending on what those goals really are. Once you have a rough idea, an agency can help determine how much their negotiating power can save you in media, and other factors that will help you fine-tune that number. Good partnerships are marked by disclosure on both sides of the table, so share as much as you can with your agency.

By Michelle Edelman

In Part I of this article series, we established that you canât just ask an agency how much advertising will cost. Itâs like asking a custom builder how much a house will costâ heâs going to ask you where youâre going to put the house, what type of house you envision building, and what your budgetâs like! Taking this analogy to advertising agencies, Part I was all about location location location. The first of three cost areas: media.

Once you get a rough idea of what media costs will be, itâs time to think about production costs: all the hard costs an agency incurs when it is producing your campaign, from the paper on which brochures will be printed, to the rights to legally reproduce photography, to research that needs to be done to reach a well-targeted strategy. These costs vary widely, as you can well imagine, based on the scope of your project, and how high-end the materials will be. A world-famous photographer will charge more to execute a custom photo shoot, than a local guy whoâs trying to build his portfolio.

Itâs often hard to predict in advance of concepting a campaign exactly what these costs will be -- much like trying to choose exactly what kind of plants will populate a landscape before the plans are drawn up. At NYCA, the full-service marketing agency where Iâm vice president/director of strategic planning, we ask clients which existing campaigns they admire and how they see themselves going to market. Ask yourself: are you in a crowded category, where itâs very hard to gain consumer attention? Or do you need to speak with consumers who are notoriously bombarded by messaging? If so, production costs could be higher, as you need to produce more and better to break through. And what kind of image do you want to project? A good agency will consistently produce excellent work with high production values, but if image is everything, the cost will be higher still.

So before that first agency meeting, avail yourself with whatever information you can. Search âadvertising productionâ? online and spend 20 minutes learning about everything that might go into a campaign. Think about what it might take to sell your product â whether thatâs a celebrity spokesperson or a long education process. All this will help the agency help you get to the right budget range for production.

At the end of it all, the key piece of advice is to remain flexible. If you have champagne tastes and a beer budget, thatâs okayâ IF you are willing to allow the agency a lot of latitude to be creative. If you have high expectations and a low budgetâ youâre going to have to let the agency do a little improvising. The results can be spectacular, but they may not conform to that âpictureâ? you have in your head about what the perfect campaign for you might look like. The bottom line is that if itâs going to attain the goal you set, itâs a good idea.

Next up: Part III, understanding agency fees.

How to message to more than one target audience

By Michelle Edelman

Most good marketers stayed awake during the class which discussed that âtargetingâ? meant what it sounded like: not being all things to all people, but finding one part of a buying population that you could own and driving a single message toward that group.

And then they graduated, only to discover that many brands have more than one target. In fact, many brands have more than one target to accomplish a single sale.

Take business-to-business purchasing, for example. The guy who holds the purse strings is typically different than the guy who has to use the product, and those guys are different from the guy who performs the side-by-side evaluation of the options. Sometimes none of these guys knows each other particularly well, nor do they work together. There are more ânoâ? opportunities in this sales cycle than âyesâ? ones.

Typically, multi-constituent decision processes are not impulse purchases. They are longer timeline, considered purchases. When working on a multi-constituent marketing plan, the key points to keep in mind are:

Know the roles of the target within the sales cycle. Map out the distinct phases of the sales cycle, flowchart style. Think about how decisions get made in each phase. Who is involved in each part of the cycle? What is their role? Where are the points of interaction between the parties?

Understand and master the tipping points. Multi-constituent purchases have higher stakes, so itâs easier for targets to say ânoâ? and be conservative rather than risk a costly mistake that impacts others. You have to identify the ânoâ? points. At each phase of the cycle, what is most likely to raise red flags for target audience members? Track record, complexity, and the need for education are some common blocks. How can your company neutralize these issues, and which target constituents have to be involved in this part of the process? Is there a way to proactively address the blocks, so that you donât run into them at all during the process, or are they a natural part of how your constituents do business?

As well, there are positive tipping points. Things that you can identify that will incentivize the process to move faster. Promotional pricing and other marketing tactics can help push back lengthy evaluations.

Realize that you are creating a conversation. If vacations are planned by Mom, purchased by Dad, and kid-approved, how are you going to orchestrate marketing so that your message causes all these folks to talk? When are they all in the same room together, and what will you say that addresses all their issues in that moment? If they arenât naturally in the same room together â as in the b2b example above â how can you create marketing communications that help them seek each other out? A good example might be a seminar on how more efficient IT operations help drive down the bottom lineâ appealing to the IT person and the finance guy. Involving them in the same content increases the chances they will seek each other out to discuss it.

One such major event happened to me last week: I became the citizen of U.S.A.  After being in the US for 14 years, the day finally came, and it was nothing like I couldâve ever imagined.

For those unfamiliar, the process of becoming an US citizen is pretty extensive one, including loads of administrative tasks.  Permanent residency (aka green card) is the step before becoming a citizen, and itâs like an internship of sorts.  For those 5 years, you have most rights as the citizens (except voting and US passport), but youâre not yet hired. And not everyone is âhiredâ? and US policy typically leans on the people who are in need, have done no crimes and could âbetter the country.  After the 5 year internship, youâre invited for one last set of fingerprints, pictures and an interview with the Homeland Security officer.  Part of this interview is a short test on basic government structure and history of the US.  If you meet all of those stipulations, your application for citizenship is granted, and its all culminated at a Naturalization Ceremony.

I was one of 1400 people and 85 countries represented in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater in the heart of San Diego, Balboa Park for such ceremony.  These ceremonies are conducted on a monthly or quarterly basis in all major metropolitan areas, so quite a few new citizens are naturalized every year. (Between 2000-2005, 7.9 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) settled in the country, accounting for 12.1 percent of the total population, the highest percentage in eight decades. See more stats)

As I was looking around at all different people, I realized that this moment is truly what America is:  New settlers from all corners of the world, looking for a chance to grow themselves and America. I was honored to be a part of this extraordinary experience and begin my new life as the proud citizen of US of A. 

Part I: Demystifying Media Budgets

Iâve been talking to a lot of different companies lately. And maybe itâs just random luck, but the same question keeps popping up over and over:

How much will it cost to execute a marketing campaign?

These are smart and innovative people running smart and innovative companies. They understand the concept of variable costs of goods and services because in many cases, their businesses sell products where range pricing models are applied, at the very least. And they have come to us having been inspired by our previous work, which so obviously is custom-tailored to specific marketing problems. And yet, they are vexed by the only accurate answer we can give at that moment:

It depends.

If youâre one of those executives out there who know you must undertake a marketing campaign in the near future but have never built one directly before, itâs important to understand up front how agencies cost out projects and retainers, and to be prepared to estimate how much you might reasonably expect to spend for your own company.

Marketing campaign costs are made up of three distinct cost areas: media, production, and agency time. Each have different rules governing how much you might expect to spend, how that money will be used, and how to spend most economically.

Media costs typically make up the largest percentage of the spending pie. Of course, this varies by medium, with television time being the most expensive in absolute terms, and online campaigns being the least expensive. Itâs typically not reasonable to evaluate media in the absolute, however, because a more expensive medium may be capable of reaching more of your target audience more effectively. It all depends on whom you are trying to reach and what your goals for affecting them might be.

So the first question we typically ask clients who want to know âhow much it costs,â? is âwhat are your goals?â? Knowing those goals up front will help you plan a realistic budget to meet your needs, and be able to defend that budget to senior management or a board.

In terms of gathering general information about how much media spend might be enough, you may need to go through some homework or exercises on your own prior to contacting an agency, so that you are armed with adequate information to facilitate a productive first conversation. For example, do you know how much money others in your industry have spent trying to accomplish something similar? Call up some of those media reps who are cold-calling you and ask them to do some of the back work for you. Is there a cost-per-lead metric that one of your competitors has spoken about at a conference, or a number that your industry analysts believe is a reasonable line item for a company like yours? A little sleuthing and networking can go a long way toward determining what a solid media budget may look like.

Be sure to stay tuned for Parts II and III of this article series, designed to help you understand production costs and agency fees.

By Michelle Edelman

In a marketing meeting yesterday at NYCA, we were all discussing and evolving our learning on myspace. With 111 million profiles, myspace.com is now the most visited of all Websites. And since the average myspace session is some 22 minutes long, myspace has become sort of a gigantic online reality show, 24/7.

Brands are becoming more and more present on myspace as advertising starts to take holdâ but individual consumer pages are by far the most common. Contrary to what youâd think, many of the consumer pages we run across are more inventive and more vibrant than brand-sponsored pages. This is because, as human beings, we are gifted with a personalityâ and nowhere are our core personalities more evident than on myspace pages! Brands, on the other hand, often appear awkward and tongue-tied like the kid at the dance who suddenly has absolutely nothing to say.

So our group of experienced advertising mavens sought to learn from consumers how to create a great myspace page. One of our team members is a self-proclaimed myspace junkie, so we thought, âHey! Letâs look at her page.â? Her reaction was immediate and visceral: âNO!!! Really. Letâs not.â?

So while this young lady has exposed her personality for 111 million other people to see, she didnât want a half-dozen of her colleagues examining it. The reason is simple. A myspace page makes a person famous among strangers whom they will never meet. Myspace people want to be famous and anonymous at the same time. âFamonymous,â? as NYCA creative director/CEO Michael Mark dubbed it right there in our meeting.

And this is completely natural. How many celebrities try to sneak into public spaces wearing a disguise so that for a brief moment, they can be just a face in the crowd? If youâve ever run into your ex in the supermarket during a quickie errand, you know the feeling. We have the human desire to be recognized above others and to be special. And equally, there are times when weâd rather be invisible.

As more and more people become famonymous, will there be moments when youâre vacationing with friends and some random stranger sidles up to one of you (or your daughter!) and says, âHey! Youâre KIM487! I love your page. I almost feel like youâre my girlfriend.â?

I bet you felt creepy just reading that. But we are entering an era in which privacy is actually opt-in. For example, in Europe, match.com deploys a technology that marries wireless phone GPS with their online dating profiles, to alert a member who is out in public when another member in the vicinity is a close match to their dating desires. So imagine youâre on the Tube in London, and some guy walks up and says, âI just got a match.com alert that we should meet.â? Are you actually happy about this, or are you scanning the crowd for a bobby and the closest exit?

Letâs face it: famonymous is not for the faint of heart. Even for fifteen minutes.

In either case, thanks for reading. Donuts in the kitchen.

This is the first in what I hope will be many entries commenting on the Google Zeitgeist. The idea of the Zeitgeist list is pretty brilliant, really. You could call it a massive wiki-autobiography of America. You could call it a top ten list of pop culture ephemera. Or you could call it âa cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking â some over time, some within country domains, and some on Google.com â that perhaps reveal a bit of the human condition.â? Google does.

The list updates weekly. This blog will be updated accordingly, though perhaps more often as new insights, comments, mistakes I will undoubtedly make, etc. occur.

When I first learned of GZ, and still now, I think the most fascinating question to ask of the list and each item on it is âWhy the interest?â? A more specific wording would have it, âWhy the sudden interest?â? As in, âWhy this week, why now, are there significantly more people interested in this topic than before?â? I find both questions interesting. The latter for essentially asking how each item made the list and the former for asking why the list itself matters.

The format and nature of the blog will most certainly (and should) evolve. For now, Iâm just going to copy and paste the list, write about some things I learned in the process of researching each and perhaps (most certainly) editorialize a little.

The list:

1.   amish

Hereâs the part where I expose my relative ignorance of a subject. While I was aware that there was a shooting at an Amish school last week, I know very little more. I remember the Columbine shootings fine. I was a contributing writer at the Daily Campus, SMUâs student paper, and covered the shootings, pulling wire and interviewing students who were from Littleton. I have a reason for knowing more then about that than now about this, but why donât I know more? The information was there. Why was I less interested in this shooting than Columbine? Why is America less shaken? Is it the death count (15 vs. 6)? Is it the Amish propensity toward cultural self-exile that results in our lessened sense of identification and empathy? Perhaps that two of the 15 dead at Columbine were students on a seemingly random spree and the five girls killed in Pennsylvania were gunned down by a 32-year-old milk truck driver, execution-style, after all the boys and pregnant women were told to leave. It could be that, as tragic as the event was, a middle-aged white male killing a bunch of people just isnât shocking anymore. Whereas the prospect of white teenaged males killing a bunch of people was.

2.   shanna moakler

I had no idea who this person is.

Ah, but after doing a quick search, it became quite clear that weâd have our [cue theme music] Obligatory Hot Chick of the Week! Last week, though unofficially, it was former Miss Teen Oregon, Playboy model and Carter-phile Kari Ann Peniche. I had no idea who she was either, but I am now amply and unabashedly informed. Strange coincidence that both Kari Ann and Shanna were beauty pageant winners and both went on to pose for Playboy. Nevermind that Kari Annâs victories stopped at the Oregon border and legal adulthood while Shanna went as far as to don a Miss USA crown before doffing the rest for Hugh. What I find odd is that poor Kari Ann had her title stripped from her for gracing the pages of Playboy well after her yearâs reign was over while Shanna had buffered her Miss USA and Miss December titles with a leading role in the just-wholesome-enough-for-Blockbuster âPoison Ivy: The New Seduction.â?

So, the answer to âWhy the interest?â? being quite clear in this case, why now? It turns out all one has to do to make news is be pushed down the stairs by Paris Hiltonâs ex. And be a former Miss USA, Miss December and Mrs. Travis Barker. Go fig.

3.   you're beautiful

It took little more than this song for James Blunt to capture the hearts of the American woman for whom Coldplay was too edgy. I hoped briefly that maybe, by sheer coincidence, droves of men had flooded Google to find a new way to express admiration for their girlfriends, wives and congressional pages. But, no, as far as I can tell, the spike in searches for the phrase âyouâre beautifulâ? was due exclusively to Weird Al Yankovicâs parody, Iâm Pitiful, drawing the ire of Atlantic Records, thus delaying the release of Mr. Yankovicâs newest album, Straight Outta Lynwood. Iâm Pitiful, while omitted from the album, can still be heard on Weird Alâs Myspace page as of this writing. [ed. My Cubicle is not hilarious, but a great deal funnier than Alâs song. No offense, Weird. Iâve been a fan since Dare to be Stupid.]

4.   mark foley

The official House of Representatives website page for the seat most recently held by Mark Foley now begins with the headline âCurrent Vacancies.â? I half expected the subhead to read, âNow accepting resumes.â?

In a nutshell, Congressman pushes anti-pedophile legislation, Congressman hits on underage boys, Congressman falls prey to irony-loving liberal media. Side story includes other members of the GOP seemingly complicit through inaction. For probably the best take on the issue Iâve seen, listen to Ze.

5.   bj's wholesale

I have to admit that I not only had zero knowledge of this story, but none of even BJâs Wholesale Club as a retail entity. But for those like me, just think Samâs, Costco, etc. Now just add a dash of racial epithets in the workplace and the picture is allegedly crystal.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued BJâs for allowing racial discrimination against black and Hispanic employees. Demands for back wages and damages have been tossed around and BJâs has officially stated, âWe value diversity in our organization, and we are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination. We will continue to work with the EEOC to resolve this matter as expeditiously as possible." (Read: Quickly and quietly. Weâve already dropped a whole percent in same-store sales.)

Now, hereâs where a line is hard to draw. To what echelon of management do you aim when you file suit for racial discrimination? The one directly responsible for the slurs? Or the one with all the money? To be fair, it could very well be that every attempt was made to alert middle and upper management of the problem so as to settle it internally by, say, firing racists. I donât know. Perhaps Iâm just cynical, but when I see the federal government called in to file suit against a massive corporation spanning the Eastern seaboard for one managerâs ignorance, I smell revenge, not justice.

6.   texas chainsaw massacre

Saw it, visited the actual house where it was filmed on Halloween night 1998. Not in that order, unfortunately. The pilgrimage lacked heft.

Besides being a highly influential work of low-budget horror, it reincarnated as itself, but glossier in a 2003 remake. And the producers behind the remake have created a prequel that came out last Friday. The title remains the same, but with the added suffix, The Beginning, which would seem to preclude any prequels to the prequel. It would also preclude a key ingredient of horror: suspense (i.e.: If the bad guys are in the original, they canât die in the prequel.).

Those punching âtexas chainsaw massacreâ? into Google were perhaps looking for showtimes, but maybe they were wondering whether any version of Massacre was âbased on true eventsâ? as has often been rumored. Well, I did an exhaustive 10-minute search and itâs not. While the character of Leatherface is (very) loosely based on Ed Gein, so is Buffalo Bill of Silence of the Lambs and Norman Bates of Psycho. Even the most devout horror buff would be hard pressed to find more similarities between these three than the whole killing-people-and-using-their-parts thing. As far as the plot goes, all credit goes to the originalâs director/writer Tobe Hooper.

7.   tatana kucharova

I may have spoken too soon earlier crowning Shanna Moakler Obligatory Hot Chick of the Week. Tatana Kucharova won Miss World. And recently.

However, thatâs it. Just won Miss World. Practically all she did last month. No fights with Paris. Not even a skirmish with Nicole. Being an 18-year-old Czech with ready answers to softball questions and Vaseline on your teeth might win you Miss World, Miss Kucharova, but it takes a Centerfold and assault charges to earn you OHCOTW status.

The question I ask here is not so much why the interest or even why now. Both are pretty clear. What I ask is, what is the difference between Miss World and Miss Universe? Miss World, according to Wikipedia, is bigger. More contestants from more places, viewed by more people. Originally intended as a one-off promotion of a new kind of swimwear in 1951, the event was called Festival Bikini Contest. Thankfully, in respect to the gravity of the event far outweighing a trivial contest of curves and charisma, the press redubbed it Miss World. Miss Universe, on the other hand, is the international outcropping of Miss USA which was founded in 1952  by a swimsuit company that had sponsored Miss America the previous year, but was sorely vexed when that yearâs winner refused to model their wares. So, in essence, the modesty of one post-war-era model caused a sort of Papal Schism of the beauty pageants, creating a vast rift in which Ms. Olympia can be found greasing down and pumping up.

8.   johnny cash

Again. I was left confused. The Man in Black died three years ago. Walk the Line was released about a year or two later. My only guess was that due to the recent radio play of Johnnyâs song Godâs Gonna Cut You Down, interest in the posthumously released album American V, A Hundred Highways took off. That could be it. Could also be that Man in White, a novel Cash wrote 20 years ago about the life of the Apostle Paul, was re-released in July with a new introduction by Billy Graham. Buzz about American VI coming out in 2007? The re-release of his San Quentin album? Iâm open to suggestions. Iâm stumped.

9.   hips don't lie

No. No they donât. I can honestly say a hip has never lied to me. Iâve met a few that have made less-than-true insinuations. Some have embellished. I canât remember any that have gone so far as to obfuscate, but then, Iâm only speaking for me. And Shakira speaks for hips all over the world when she says, âbe wise and keep on reading the signs of my body.â? Preach on. Letâs all, each of us, work toward a bright future of 100% hip literacy. The Braille issue could be touchy. Oof, I apologize.

10. line rider

Flash game. Pure genius. Takes the mannequin-falling-through-random-spheres genre to the next logical step. Enjoy.

Steve Irwin made me gasp in life and in death. From my sleepy SoCal living room Iâd squirm with both worry and delight over the hyperactive chubby fella in the short pants, at once chastising him for risking his life while also daring him to go further. Heâd have me shouting at the screen like an overprotective overzealous Little League dad, âWhatâs the matter with you? Leave the poisonous mama boa constrictor alone while sheâs giving birth to those slimy sextuplets! But, hey, while youâre there, why donât you put your head in her mouth?â?

Fear, bewilderment, bravery, giddiness, excitement, nervousness, guilt. Above all, the Crocodile Hunter made tens of millions of us â judging by the outpouring since his accident â feel.

Which, of course, takes us to branding. To selling stuff.

Every episode of âThe Crocodile Hunterâ? was an adrenaline jolt. Steveâs promise was making us feel deeply from thousands of miles away on our lumpy couches what he was feeling inches from painful danger â perhaps even doom. Thatâs why he was loved and hated. Respected and lampooned. Those emotional connections are what brands must make if they are to be not just in our cupboards, but part of our lives. Sure, thinking is highly recommended but feeling is the essential gooey sloppy motivator that makes us act. Feeling makes us loyal. Feeling makes us bond. Feeling grows business. At NYCA (http://www.nyca.com), we call it âattachment branding.â? Like Steve, we have tools to fasten customers to brands. To do that a brand has to know the limits, and tip-toe, dance, high-dive around -- and sometimes over -- them.

See, the Crocodile Hunter was too much. He took too many chances, too big risks and in the end he died for it. But honestly, folks, isnât that what we wanted to see and didnât want to see? (This is the fear, bewilderment, guilt part). Would we have loved him if he was the Caterpillar Hunter? Or if he pointed out wild creatures from afar with his binoculars?  Marlon Perkins of âWild Kingdomâ? was a good olâ guy but he never got close to the Crocodile Hunter on the passion scale because he never got close to the lions and he never got close to us.

Steve was an excitable trespasser who went beyond. And he took us vicariously and reluctantly and willingly along with him to places nice boys have been forbidden to go, hands covering our faces, fingers spread around our eyes. Like a great brand, he transported us. And we loved him for letting us ride shotgun.

Does your brand take you on an emotional journey? Like Mini makes you feel free? Like TaylorMade makes you a feel like a true golfer? Like Apple makes you feel cool?

The Crocodile Hunter was true through and through -- to the death. In fact, he had to die in the act (can you imagine if he slipped in the bathroom!) in order to prove he was too close, that it was indeed too dangerous, that he was the real thing. If you go back now and look at those previous episodes, youâll see how they increase in anxiety voltage. What a promise delivered!

Steve Irwin stood for going too far while always knowing the risks. He was never cavalier (except when he held his kid over the croc). He wouldnât have been who he was if he wasnât scared. He would have been just another âjackassâ?-like reality show numbsoul. The Steve brand clearly labeled his fear with a cautious warning: âNow see here, this rare beauty is the most lethal snake in the world and â look -- when I get near, she really gets agitated. Yikes! One flick of her tongue on my skin and itâs good night nanny. So we have to be very, very careful â Iâll just nuzzle over and see if sheâll give me a French kiss.â? The closer he inched to the jaws of the beast, the closer he got to us. You just knew he loved what he was doing and shouldnât really be doing it. He was drawn to it beyond reason. His body and soul were in it.  In the end he proved that, didnât he?

Authenticity was essential to the Crocodile Hunterâs success, as it is to any brand.  Is your brand true? Or is it a wanna-be? What would it be willing to die for? Was it worth it for Steve? Iâd say no, his kids would say no. What would Steve say? Iâm not sure. Thatâs why we watch, write, care.

Steve will outlive his death. (In fact, Iâm not sure heâs really dead. How can you kill the Crocodile Hunter? Donât you think deep down heâll bounce back?). He lives on  not only because we have him saved on our DVRs, but because he mattered to us. We attached. And the boundary of life/death will not separate us from the cheerful trespasser. Now thereâs his memory, his zoo, videos, books to attach to. Thereâll be line extensions coming up, no doubt. Inspired ideas like âThe Crocodile Hunter Safari,â? where you can safely get too close to wildlife. Maybe even dives at the spot where the stingray got him.

So ask yourself, would your brand outlive its initial incarnation? Write your brandâs obit. What would be the outpouring from its customers? Would they sniff sniff and politely forget to come to the funeral because they had to be at a shoe sale? Would they throw themselves into the grave and vow to always be loyal to its everlasting spirit? Would they do the tango on its gravestone?

Ultimately, it wasnât the love of animals. Or the danger. Or the accent, floppy haircut or even the short pants. It was the dangerous love. He loved beyond. And he got that back.

Poetic how the dangerous lover would get the stingrayâs barb in the heart. But the brand beats on, mate.

3 Things Marketers Should Do Immediately If Their Spokesperson Passes Away

Steve Irwin, the one-of-a-kind Crocodile Hunter, passed away recently in a freak accident that caused a sort of global gapers block on the Web. One of the charming things about Steve was that he was real. He didnât edit out his mistakes so that we could learn from them. He showed human fear from time to time. And he didnât do endorsement deals.

But what if he did? What if Steve Irwin had represented Mountain Dew or Timberland, or Red Bull? Studies show that a brandâs fortunes â at least in the immediate term â are tied to the trials and tribulations of its spokespeople.

The most famous advertising spokesperson to pass away in recent years was Dave Thomas, the founder and face of Wendyâs. Daveâs affable personality and his palpable integrity buoyed Wendyâs in what remains a cutthroat category. But when Dave passed away, there did not seem to be a plan in place to transfer his brand equity smoothly along to other representative elements. The brand floundered. And itâs still not getting it right, four years later.

When you choose a spokesperson, youâre marrying your brand to that personâs life. So what happens if a spokesperson passes away? Here are three things you as the marketer must do immediately.

Alert corporate communications. This is no longer âjust an advertising problem,â? itâs a company image problem, and how your company reacts to the situation can put you behind or push you forward.

The corporate communications folks will need to know, if they donât already,

• How long has the individual been linked to the company?

   

• What made him/her ideal for the job?

   

• How much were sales linked to the endorsement?

   

• How much money was spent promoting the spokesperson?

   

These questions and many others theyâll have for you, are critical in being able to answer the pressâ questions about the spokesperson and what he/she meant to your company. Particularly the question of what made this person ideal to represent the company. This is a chance to restate the values of the company to a listening public.

Plan a tributeâ carefully. Use some advertising dollars to produce a tribute to your spokesperson. Whether itâs a simple letter in the newspaper from your employees to the family of the spokesperson, or a full life-and-times documentary, this is a way for your company to show it deeply cares about its employees and contractors.

But be very careful about these tributes. The public can sense ulterior motives, so donât think you can tag the tribute with a 50-cent-off coupon! In fact, the most moving tributes are unbranded. Consumers will figure out youâre behind it, particularly if you put the film on your website for them to share and download.

But, be aware, this will only work if you can execute immediately. As evidenced by Steve Irwinâs death, the time of interest is only a few weeks long. Later on, you will simply be reopening a wound or preying upon the past.

Change advertising strategies. You need to pull all existing advertising featuring this spokesperson immediately. Consumers get freaked out looking at people whom they know are deceased, preserved on film and selling product. Be like a rhinoceros and stamp out every instance. Donât let networks and publishers tell you they canât. If it was their spokesperson, theyâd find a way! If this action leaves you below the threshold of advertising needed to support your brand, come up with inspired ideas and find other ways you can generate impressions in the meanwhile, including retail exposure, advertorials, and promotions.

Itâs now urgent to reconcept your advertising. To take advantage of the equity your spokesperson brought into the brand, recast your advertising strategy to keep continuity behind the personality and tonality attributes of your spokesperson. Have a short strategy session if the personality and tonality hadnât been documented before, so you can get it right.

Leave your consumers with a warm feeling about your late spokesperson â and your company â while assuring them thereâs still a bright future ahead.

by Michelle Edelman

Imagine youâre on an airplane flying to a business meeting, using your cell phone. After catching up on a couple of your favorite TV shows and checking your email, you summon the flight attendant by text message, order a meal, and pay for it with your online account.

You may not realize it, but thereâs a whole industry out there making this vision of the future a reality. Not in ten years. In two.

Entertainment, wireless, and handset providers are feverishly developing programming and applications they know consumers will love. There is no doubt weâll be able to watch television from our mobile devices very shortly. But will consumers actually pay to watch television programming on their wireless devices for a per-view fee, or even a monthly fee, in addition to their service fee?

For advertisers, this is the billion-dollar question. Our industry is banking on the fact that consumers like advertising to defray the cost of their content. Theyâd rather have free programming and âendureâ? the ads, versus ad-free high-cost transmissions.

Some sources have proclaimed that the 30-second TV spot is dead. We believe the 30-second spot will find new life on mobile devices. At NYCA (http://www.nyca.com), we believe itâs entirely possible that the nature and composition of filmed advertising will change, and that inspired ideas will be needed to grow businesses. For one thing, because mobile media is 100% opt-in, consumers will most likely expect film on their phones to be pure branded entertainment. Also, consumer tastes may be migrating toward faster-moving, hard-driving quick snippets as âimpact unitsâ? on mobile devices. So spots will need to be shorter and more intense.

The best news in all of this is that the mobile platform may be the first to truly connect branding and buying. For years, weâve been talking about interactive television: the ability to buy the product straight from the set during the commercial. But TVs havenât evolved fast enough to realize this vision. Mobile is already showing signs of life in this area. The fact that 41 million votes were cast on American Idol via text message last season is proof enough.

This is the time to experiment, claim territory, and be first. Itâs a brave new world out thereâ again.

by Michelle Edelman

On myspace today, a banner appears:

NYC Fashion Week, Spring 2007 Collections. From the runway to backstage, get your fashion fix here.

In this ânoncommercialâ? social network, a full one-third of the homepage real estate is now promotional material. What gives?

What gives is that myspace.com has successfully evolved from a micro blogosphere to a mass medium. Branding can and should be done on myspace, but itâs not classical âbrandingâ? like youâd learn about at a desk at Wharton. This is dynamic branding.

Let me explain. When someone such as myself writes traditional advertising, we think of what single thing we want to say to our target audiences so that, given a certain number of paid impressions, that idea sinks into the collective populace and starts to produce sales. We think of an image that will rest in peopleâs minds as compelling and representative of the brand, like the iconic Coke bottle or the still images from iTunes.

When we look to extend brands on myspace, itâs a whole different ball game. Our brands should not look to create a single impression for many, but a myriad of relationships and images for the people who will befriend us. We need to speak in a different languageâ shorthanded language. The language of friendship is briefer, more intimate, and it constantly changes. It can have typos, for gosh sake! Itâs not the pristine world of the print ad. Thatâs why some brands, like Walmart, have failed in myspace: by throwing their .com microsite content into myspace, Walmart is saying, âWe donât want to know ya. We just want to sell ya.â?

Another big difference is in measuring what youâre going to get from presence on myspace. You are putting your brand out there not to be the biggest and the best among target audiences you can select from media tools, but to garner relevance among people that choose you. This idea of relevance seems like a big risk to marketers. In fact, Rob Frankel calls myspace a branding failure for this reason. Is it a failure, or simply another medium whose terms we must learn to understand and embrace in order to succeed?  A brand could benefit by having more consumers who know them more intimately. Maybe brand loyalty is going to make a terrific comeback due to myspace!

A third topic that stupefies marketers is the notion of âgoing where the money is.â? If myspace is full of people who are still primarily students, why bother with them? Shouldnât you go where the money is, instead? Problem with this logic is that not only are kids more monetarily endowed nowadays, theyâre the adults of the future. Theyâll work at your company and be in the market for the stuff you sell. Befriend them early and theyâll remember you later.

At NYCA, many of us have created our own myspace accounts so we can start to really understand the people who swear by it. We know this may end up being the way to grow some of our clientsâ businesses, and weâre looking for inspired ideas from the source itself.

Branding on myspace? Btr gt used 2 it, frnd.

By Michael Mark

I have a friend whoâs a real rascal. He wangles his way into places he doesnât belong better than an A-list celeb thronged by his thick-muscled posse. He slips out of trouble like a greased David Blaine. This guyâs smart but heâs no Mensa grad. Heâs not that good- looking, and heâs not well-connected. The tools of his trade?  His genuineness and natural charm. Heâs likeable. Watching him work is remarkable. Itâs not so much what he says â itâs all about how he says it. And donât think heâs some butt-smoocher. Iâve seen him tell people to take a long walk off a short pier, and they look forward to the trip!

My friend is a poster boy for reminding us, as we craft strategies and executions for our advertising campaigns, that brand character can be even more persuasive than the actual selling message.  Itâs hard to be emotionally committed to an attribute. Features donât beget followers.

A great deal of strategic development time is focused on getting the message right: delivering the single-minded relevant point to the target. We task it with being original, unique. Ownable. I was schooled that this was by far the most critical element in strategic positioning because it was where the big idea dwelled. Well, according to Jack Troutâs latest missive in âForbes,â? there are no new ideas anymore. We are blowing time and our clientsâ money with the over-reliance on the rationale. (www.forbes.com/2006/09/13/jack-trout-on-marketing-biz-cx_jt_0915minds.html)

At my advertising agency, NYCA (http://www.nyca.com), we grow our clientsâ businesses with inspired ideas. We know itâs important to concentrate on the brainy quotient, sure, but weâve learned to heavy-up on the tone, the manner, the body. Thatâs where brand personality comes strolling in, dressed for success, making the everlasting first impression before he ever speaks an SAT word.

We can learn from a master teacher: Apple. You wouldnât know it from their raving user base but these are machines, for cripes sake. Plastic, wires, glass and tiny pieces soldered together to help create pictures and words, remember them, and connect. But I know MAC users who would rather go graphic-less in public than fraternize with a PC. They would revolt, feeling like they are betraying their friend. The machine seems to understand them, empower them â but this is lunatic devotion. A MAC has no feelings (yet!) so why does it stir them up?  And, techies, please donât blog/flog me with, âItâs the operating system.â? Thatâs just a microportion of the emotional equation. To see it another way:  Iâd venture that PC people could more easily â emotionally speaking - move to Mac than the other way around. They arenât as devoted to IBM and the like as MAC users are to Apple. IBM just doesnât have the magnetic personality of Apple.

The Apple personality was brilliantly reverse-designed. They may have built the machine first but they sold the personality first. So the initial contact is the embrace of the upbeat, creative, change-the-world brand character before you ever boot up. Itâs in the logo. And at every touch point, the personality is true. We feel the easiness in their open, friendly, clean-lined stores, enjoy the good-natured yet competitive TV ads, groove with (not just listen to) their iPod communications, hug their black-jeaned, bespectacled wonderboy leader. Personality perfectly designed.

Barbara Coulon, vice president of trends for market researcher Youth Intelligence, says that surveys show, "Apple has a clear brand personality. People feel like they are part of a tribe. There are a lot of people who are passionate about it. It's sort of a cult brand. Apple is a way of life." (http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/40151.html)

So study up and invent a brand message thatâs university smart. But invest some creative muscle in developing the brandâs personality so itâs genuinely persuasive.

Great brands have defined personalities within their categories but theyâre not exclusive to their sector, so you can easily borrow inspiration. Here are two examples of one personality statement: Down-to-earth, family-oriented, genuine, and sincere. Now, who would that be - Coke or Pepsi?  Easy. But pour a glass of each and stand an inch from them - you couldnât tell the difference. Brown sugar water is brown sugar water.

Take the same words for a car: Volvo or BMW? Again, no doubt. Because their brand personalities distinguish them as much as their safety or handling claims. Better.

A well-developed personality has the power to engage from afar, stir deep feelings, and make it all up-close and personal. And thatâs the flashpoint where interest moves into buying, and buying into loyalty.

You know, maybe my rascal friend is a genius after all.

Each year, the 4As selects a group of the industry's brightest up and comers to give them an overview of the advertising industry. During the course of the semester, "agencies" are formed to pitch a campaign to a real-world client - in this year's case, Pedigree dog food. (My agency was "Prince & Associates" after the dog one of our group members adopted for the project). Each agency was responsible for a written marketing plan, as well as giving an oral presentation to a group of judges.

After putting a campaign together from start to finish, working with a group of people that were mere strangers three months ago, I feel like I walked away with a great deal more than what I started with. I learned how to manage group dynamics, the importance of knowing the basics and new ways of approaching how I do my every day job.

Group Dynamics

Being grouped with six very enthusiastic individuals from completely different backgrounds and experience levels, proved to be the most interesting and enriching part of the 4As experience for me. The hardest part was figuring out where to begin, and after that, keeping on task. We decided early on to try not to do everything as a group. This backfired somewhat though, because we didn't communicate enough as a whole, and that showed in our overall strategy. While delegation is productive, communication is key in bringing a project together.

Building Blocks

I've been a media planner for nearly six years, so a lot of the topics covered in class were review for me. But what I got out of those classes was a renewed excitement for advertising. I was inspired by things I'd forgotten about and learning different ways of approaching things I already knew. Re-learning tools has given me a stronger base with which to do my every day job.

New approaches

Every agency has its own process of research, ideation and execution. Hearing how other agencies approach projects and campaigns made me realize how much agency dynamics are changing. I was very interested in the idea of "connection" planning: marrying account planning, media and promotions in a way that gives GRPs a little less importance by making the overall experience more meaningful. Evolutions like this get me excited about coming to work and seeing how I might be able to do things differently in ways that will help grow our clients' business.

Knowing the fundamentals and how to work with others are elements of the business that are always going to be there. It's what we do with these elements that make us innovative and successful in achieving our clients' goals. I'd be interested in hearing what other approaches people are taking or what others are seeing evolve as the marketplace evolves.

 Boston:

 I began planning my Boston adventure after qualifying for the marathon last June. I have been running 5-6 days per week since then, but began training specifically with increased mileage in January. The race on April 17^th happened in the midst of chaos, with a continually demanding schedule at NYCA and participation in the AAAA Institute of Advertising Studies, requiring multiple trips from San Diego to LA each week. Ironically, my 6am runs became my source of sanity.

As April approached, I was physically ready, but had not spent the time to mentally prepare. Thankfully, the overwhelming energy in Boston helped me to quickly transition from advertising workaholic to runner. I felt complete support and respect from other runners, visitors from around the world and just about every Bostonian I met over the course of the weekend. You would not believe the crowds of supporters lining up the entire 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to the city.

Despite trying to completely turn off my advertising brain over the weekend to focus on the race, I could not ignore the inspired campaign that Adidas launched as the official sponsor of the 110^th Boston Marathon. As my emotions bounced between nervousness and excitement to exhilaration and pain, I honestly felt Adidas was with me all along the way.

The Creative:

Adidas demonstrated a deep understanding of the passion runner's share and thrive on. Images were focused on the two very important stages of a Boston marathoner's life, the anticipation of the start at Hopkinton and the climatic finish down Boylston Street. Their campaign attached the personal motivations of Boston runners to race numbers, realizing that with over 20,000 runners, comes over 20,000 stories. Reasons included: "For my country","Because it's been my lifelong goal","For the gear", etc. The campaign enhanced the sense of community Boston runners share, from elite to handicapped, in pursuit of the same goal. At the same time, it encouraged runners to celebrate their own personal stories of motivation and success.  

 The Integration:

Perhaps the most genius part of this campaign was Adidas' ability to speak to runners along every step of their marathon experience.

• Gear: extremely popular "Official Boston" clothing line sold via catalogs (sent out pre-race and tied to campaign creative), online and at the race expo. Also given to media personnel and race volunteers.
• Print: Advertisements and editorial in all race related media, including Marathon & Beyond magazine, Runner's World, etc.
• Outdoor: bus sides, taxi tops, shelters, billboards, trolleys. Viewable throughout the city and all along the course.
• Race Expo: huge booth with: gear, professional marathoner autographing, Adidas posters handed out (with all runners listed in the background), dry erase wall for runners to fill in their "reasons"
• Race Day: race bibs, good luck signs for spectators to fill out, recovery blankets

2. Life balance: Europeans in general seem to have a better balance between work and life than other parts of the world (definitely Asia and US). Sure, you have your workaholics like any country, but as a general observation, the workforce seems to value their personal life more and ensure that there is a healthy balance between the two. Several countries in Europe even have extended periods of time off for holiday (anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks at one time): Spain, France. So, as marketers this affects us a few ways:

a. Timing of product launches need to take into account extended holidays.

b. Lifestyle depictions should reflect the appropriate lifestyle image and not one that is seen as emotionally unhealthy.

c. There may be product opportunities that are more relevant to a society that subscribes to this type of living than other markets (e.g. travel, eating out as a family, etc.).

This is the end of my trip! I enjoyed talking to you all on the road. Please make sure to come back and see other crazy rants from other NYCAers in the near future.

2. Experienced - this might not be the right word, but what I mean is that even younger people in the workforce have tremendous work ethic and background. Reason being, every male in Korea has to do at least two years of service in the military. So this does two things: first, they grow up fast in the military and they learn a tremendous amount of discipline; second, the younger work force is still older than other countries where kids come right out of college at 21 or 22 years old - they are not as green.

I am off to London now for my last stop on this round the world trip. Asia has been an amazing experience and absolutely a place that has tremendous growth potential for many companies - the key is to learn each market and not try and force U.S. thinking as it may not be relevant. Don't get me wrong, brand consistency is critical to developing a powerhouse global brand (Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, adidas) but allowing regions or countries the latitude necessary to adapt the experience they create for their consumers is imperative as well.

1. Hong Kong vs. China - they have a saying here "one country, two systems." Even though Hong Kong returned to China rule from Great Britain in 1997 they feel and act very different. Hong Kong is very westernized and most everybody speaks fairly good English. The city itself is one of the largest financial powerhouses in the world. It is some of the most expensive real estate anywhere in Asia. While mainland China (more of the northern part) is poverty stricken. The education level is lower and they do not speak English well at all. You should also keep in mind that there are two main dialects in China (although over hundreds of slight dialect differences throughout the entire country) - Cantonese and Mandarin. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and most of Southern China while Mandarin is spoken in the majority of the country. Most advertising for mainland China, unlike some other foreign countries, should be translated in order to be effective - positive news for advertisers is that the language characters for both Cantonese and Mandarin are the same; it is the pronunciation that is different.

2. Made in Japan - this was an interesting discovery and something that people here are sensitive to because they don't want to be seen as inferior to Japan. Consumers here seem to be influenced by "products made in Japan." What I mean is that there is a perception of higher quality from those companies who are based and produce in Japan. With that said, there are many advertisers who keep their ads in Japanese to try and create this "quality" perception but that is not well received. So, the balance needs to be found by Japanese companies in order to benefit from this perception.

3. Parallel stores - most consumer goods products in China have to deal with the issue of "parallel distribution." What this means are stores that are not authorized dealers of a certain product still sell that product. They buy it at a cheaper price from the black market (or is it grey market?) and are able to undercut authorized retailers by a significant margin. How do authorized stores stay in business? The major difference, aside from the superior experience consumers have in an authorized store vs. parallel, is that warranties are null and void when you buy in a parallel store. Not always enough to stop consumers because they are so price driven.

I am leaving for Seoul, Korea today so I will be posting again in the next few days, once I've had a chance to experience the differences in that market (outside of the drastic temperature decline). Until then, enjoy!

2. Busy - the consumer audience in Tokyo is constantly on the go. If you are going to capture the attention of this audience you either need to find a way to fit within that schedule, be loud enough to standout above the noise, or be prepared to spend for frequency.

3. Clutter - there is so much going on in the city it is extremely difficult to standout. Tokyo alone has a population approximately the size of the entire state of California. Companies see so much potential from a growth standpoint that Tokyo is a must place to be causing that clutter effect.

4. Technology - the U.S. is so far behind this market when it comes to the 3rd screen - cell phones. Here, text messaging is so five years ago (although this is still a main means of communication). Now, people are watching TV on their phone. As marketers, we need to keep up with technology and not allow our home market hold us back from understanding other ways consumers are using technology (eventually we will catch-up).

Tokyo is just the start of my trip. I will be in Hong Kong, Seoul and London over the next few weeks, please check in again to see what I learn from my experiences in those markets.