Digital marketing allows us to tell the brand’s story in greater depth. Broadcast and print media are more than just vehicles to drive consumers to a website. And websites are more than just places for orders to be accrued. These are places where consumers can forget that the product is a cog in a conglomerate’s financial agenda, and get lost in humor, beauty, silliness, or truth. And maybe even fall in love with the brand.

Sounds nuts? It isn’t. I love the new Fiat 500. I love everything about it. For …

So Google+ is all the rage.
Or is it?
I wouldn’t know. Haven’t received an invite. Which got me to thinking, why does Google always require an invite when they roll out a new social media platform?
Are they trying to make it seem exclusive? In which case, that sort of defeats the whole purpose of social media, no?
Are they trying to create buzz? I suppose. But don’t they risk alienating those who don’t get invites early on?
Or are they simply trying to avoid overwhelming the system? Which, if true, would really make …

Every so often I hear someone criticize Facebook as a place where people waste time and check out drunk photos of strangers.
Well, sure, it can be that.
But it can also be a lot more. It’s all in what you make of it. Kind of like life.
Life can be a frivolous pursuit, filled with drunken nights and lazy days. And that’s okay, if that’s all you’re looking for.
But life can also be a dynamic, rich experience, where you interact with interesting people and build great relationships.
For some reason, many people don’t …

I recently ran into an old friend on Facebook, someone I hadn’t talked to in a dozen years. We traded private messages and it was great hearing what was up with his life.
But about 24 hours later, I realized how he was really using Facebook. None of his status updates were about his kids or his travels, or his life.
They were along the lines of “THE MOST STUPENDOUS INCOME OPPORTUNITY IN THE HISTORY OF HEALTH PRODUCTS! WHO WILL WIN THE BMW THIS WEEK????”
“TEAM RED IS OUT FRONT BY 22% THIS …

So, every creative department in the country (except just maybe, the folks at SXSW who are nursing hangovers this morning) are looking for opportunities to “engage” audiences in a timely way.
Bing just showed us how not to do it.

When the vast devastation of Japan quake and tsunami became apparent, it was the number one topic of discussion everywhere. Bing decided to offer $1 for every retweet to Japan relief, up to $100,000.
For some reason this particular offer provoked all kinds of rage on Twitter, and they ended up issuing an apology.
A few …

-Could you e-mail that to me?
-Oh, it’s on the server. Great.
-I looked on the server, it’s not there.
-Why would it be in the accounting folder?
-Ok, I’m looking in accounting and I still can’t find it.
-Ok, I’ve found it, but it won’t open.
-I put it on the server. What’s the difference? Then no, I didn’t save it to the server.
-Sorry.
-Because you didn’t tell me to save it.
-Use Time Machine.
-No, I don’t know how it works.
-Yes, I put it on the server.
-It opened on my computer.
-I don’t know, try opening it in …

There are people out there who hate “change.”
They’re called old people.
Old people love to bitch about shit changing while talking about how the old way was so much better. Go out to eat with your parents. They’ve been going to the same restaurant since you were living with them. And that place has not changed a bit.
Change requires adaptability that pushes our brain and forces us to move forward.
It also weeds out the old farts.
Think about that next time you complain about the new Facebook interface or the new Meetup …

I had a conversation with a Director today. We hadn’t spoken for four years. When we last talked, he was a film holdout. At that time, he had all the cliché things to say about shooting digitally, and he was probably right. “There’s nothing like the warmth of film,” and, “digital just isn’t there yet.”
But since then, something happened, and he’s changed his tune. “Digital definitely has a place. There are times when I am watching a movie, when I honestly can’t tell if it was shot digitally, or with …

Let’s face it, for decades now, print has been considered the bastard child of advertising. Nobody wants to work on print. If you ask a team to work on a print campaign, their eyes glaze over. Those eyes say, “please, shoot me.”
“So, I want you to spend two nights trying every conceivable design permutation. Then, if you are lucky enough to sell the campaign, you can spend three days refining that look. This will be followed by another seven days fleshing out the campaign, with 27 different lines. Then, you’ll …

So this guy thinks he’s going to kill all ad agencies. If I hadn’t heard that line about a thousand times before, I might be a little bit afraid.
But his overreaching hyperbole does not negate the fact that our business has never seen change at the rapid pace we are seeing currently.
Advertising experienced a revolution when TV became king about 50 years ago. But that’s nothing compared to what we’ve seen in the past 3 years.
The explosion of social media has been thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Companies …