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Every office has its own set of struggles, areas of needed improvement and goals set for employees as well as occasional special requests to help the company keep moving forward toward success and profitability.

We make demands on our employees, too.  We expect them to work efficiently, manage multiple projects and multiple clients at one time and do it with a smile!  We also hire good, team players with positive attitudes and we respect them as professionals and as people.  As a result, we are blessed with longevity and low employee turnover.

I wonder if the bosses in a new Career Builder survey are as fortunate?  My gut would tell me no after reading what some of them asked their employees to do. The survey, which received more than 3,500 responses, shows that nearly one in four employees have had their bosses ask them to perform tasks unrelated to their jobs. Unfortunately for some, the tasks fell far outside of their job descriptions.  Here are a few examples:

• Boss asked employee to remove her stitches.
• Boss asked employee to clip her dog’s nails.
• Boss asked employee to lend him money for a down payment on a car.
• Boss asked employee to come up with a science fair project for her daughter.
• Boss asked employee to “hook him up” with illegal substances.
• Boss asked employee to be a surrogate mother for her—more than once.

If your boss has only made realistic goals and company requests, consider yourself lucky.  It could be worse…far worse.

Check out the full list of crazy boss requests.

Step right up to the greatest blog in the history of the universe!!!!

That’s one crazy, impossible to deliver headline don’t you think? Did it make you laugh? Did it make you mad? Or was it maybe a combination of both with a little curiosity mixed in as well?

I guess it’s just my way of pointing out how ridiculous some of the claims are in the world of advertising today. Who hasn’t seen an ad on TV that just makes them burst out with laughter because you would have to be a fool to fall for the outrageous claims the seller is trying to get you to believe. I can remember even as a 10 year old kid watching ads on TV and trying to figure out how everybody could be “Number One” in sales or in product satisfaction if my math class was teaching me there can be only one real number one. I came to the conclusion way back then that much of advertising is “just a bunch of baloney”, and I’m not talking Oscar Meyer.

Unfortunately my assessment hasn’t changed a whole lot since my pre-teen days. Now I’m not saying all advertisers are bad or misleading, just that many seem to be in love with the “hard sell” approach when many potential buyers may be really tired of it.  So how do you put together an ad that grabs the viewer’s attention and gets your message across with the goal of increasing sales without the hard sell? I believe there are several approaches that can work including humor and/or exploring a unique style that potential customers haven’t actually seen before. But the approach that seems to work best for me was demonstrated during a recent heavy snowstorm by a TV reporter handling a live shot near Milwaukee. Here’s the link so you can see for yourself.

 http://www.wivb.com/dpps/entertainment/must_see_video/reporter-says-weather-sucks-on-tv-nd13-jgr_5654610

You can see from the video that the reporter is clearly tired from being outside in the cold, snowy conditions for way too long. Maybe the fatigue factor came into play, maybe a producer put the idea into her ear. But for whatever reasons her message “that the weather sucks” comes across as being completely honest. That kind of honesty is so rare nowadays we really don’t expect to see it anymore and when we do it has an amazingly powerful impact.

So could that same kind of honesty work for many business owners trying to sell his product? I say yes! It would take a tremendous amount of courage for somebody to approve an ad campaign that was brutally honest, and some customers would be lost in the process. But think of how many new customers you could make if several hundred viewers decided to give your business a try because they were so tired of all the hyper-advertising that most consumers know just can’t be true.  I know I would stop by a local merchant who used this type of campaign just to see how they ran their shop and if the honesty applied to all the aspects of their business.

Brutal Honesty: In a world of constant spin and exaggeration its power can be beyond belief. I wonder how long before we see another demonstration of its effectiveness? I hope not too long!

P.S. Sorry about the impossibly exaggerated headline. I promise never to do it again, hopefully!

If you haven’t already realized, advertising is everywhere. There’s no escaping it. Nowadays, everything from sports jerseys to movies are riddled with ads and signage. It seems like everywhere we turn, advertisements are being snuck into every nook and cranny imaginable. Personally, I think it’s interesting when a company comes up with a way to advertise their product that breaks away from the conventional norms we associate with advertisements (i.e. billboards, magazine ads). For example, did you know that for nearly thirty years companies have been creating video games for the sole purpose of advertising?

It’s called advergaming, and surprisingly it’s a multi-million-dollar industry. Basically, a company like Coca-Cola will create a normal video game and overhaul every aspect of it with Coke ad placement, so even though it is a playable video game, it’s essentially one huge advertisement. In fact, Coca Cola pioneered the industry with their 1983 Atari game “Pepsi Invaders.”

Players would shoot the letters P-E-P-S-I in order to win the game. After completing the game, a flashing banner would come up that says "Coke Wins!", announcing their victory over Pepsi. Apparently Coke wasn't very subtle back in the 80's.

The game was really nothing more than a Space Invaders ripoff and copies of the original Atari cartridges are a rare collector’s item. However, it gave birth to a medium of advertising that would be continued for years to come.

As technology grew in the 90s, companies were trying to keep one step ahead of the competition when it came to advertising, so advergaming grew even more. Brands such as   7-Up, Cheetos and Domino’s Pizza all had their own advergames in order to capture the younger, video game-playing demographic. Even Chex got into the mix with their own game.

Chex Quest! The game where you could shoot puffed rice cereal at alien invaders, all with with 50 free hours of America Online. Yes, this actually existed at one point in time.

Though the technology had grown and there were now more possibilities when it came to advergaming, many of the games were pretty campy, cheaply made and offered people no real incentive to play the game.

Thanks to the Internet, advergaming has really taken off and become more popular now than ever before. The main difference between advergaming now and then is that companies used to hastily make a video game, pump it full of ads, offer them for free and hope nobody would notice the terrible gameplay and low production that went into the game. They just wanted people to pay attention to the advertisements. Nowadays, companies know that nobody will pay attention to their advergame without offering the user a fun experience. Take for example Old Spice’s advergame, Dikembe Mutombo’s 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World. The game lets players take control of NBA shot blocking great Dikembe Mutombo in order to save the world from apocalypse on December 21, 2012. You can play the game for free here.

Do you have a favorite game that stemmed from an advertisement? Let us know at facebook.com/kmkmedia or twitter.com/kmkmedia.

          The Super Bowl has come and gone, ending the 2012-2013 NFL season, but what a way to go out! No matter who you were cheering for you’ve got to admit the second half was pretty darn exciting with Baltimore hanging on for a narrow 34-31 victory. It was a game actually worth watching, which isn’t always the case.

           The Super Bowl may be the only football game where more people tune in to watch the commercials instead of the game. Was that the case for you? I was fortunate because for me I was actually looking forward to both. I thought the game would be close, which it was, and I hoped for at least one commercial that would break new ground for me, something really creative in a way I had not seen before. 

        I wasn’t disappointed .

        There were many terrific adds which I will watch and enjoy again. They include the Best Buy add with Amy Poehler, shopping for electronics and asking too many embarrassing questions, and the Budweiser add about the man who raises a colt that becomes a Budweiser Clydesdale. Those were great adds that held my attention and made me laugh or almost cry. But they really didn’t break any new ground for me.

        There was only one that did that in my opinion, and it was the Ram Trucks commercial about farmers. It was basically a simple slideshow of photographs accompanied by legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey voicing a tribute to America’s farmers that featured the recurring phrase, “So God made a farmer.”

          According to the Huffington Post the scratchy audio in the commercial came from a speech given by the late Paul Harvey, who many consider to be one of the great radio personalities of all time. He gave the  speech at the 1978 National Future Farmers of America Convention, an annual meeting held by the National FFA Organization , an agriculture education group.

       The Ram commercial begins with a bleak photograph of a single cow in front of a snowy field, and Harvey’s voice says, “And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker. So God made a farmer.” Harvey, who was born in Tulsa, Okla., was often referred to as the voice of middle America, and according to some sources turned down multiple offers to broadcast on the East Coast so he could stay in touch with his listeners and the American people. The unique quality of the audio and the sincerity in Harvey’s voice as he pays tribute to the American farmer, blended with the beautiful photography not only held my attention but made me wonder who was the company who was willing to spend millions of dollars to air this tribute with hardly a mention of their name or product. The “soft-sell” approach actually was one reason why I watched the entire two minute add to find out Ram Trucks was responsible.

       The end result for me is I now think of Ram Trucks as not just another company trying to make a sale, but a very smart organization that produced a really effective add that I would love to watch again. Will the add make me buy a Ram truck? Well, since I don’t drive a pickup truck probably not. But if I was ever going to purchase one, Ram Trucks is probably where I would start to look first.

         Here’s a link for the add. Watch for yourself and make up your own mind. Enjoy!  http://www.hulu.com/adzone/452839

Anyone else looking forwarded to this weekend? With the highlight being Groundhogs Day and the anticipation of Punxsutawney not seeing his shadow, what else is there to look forward to? Oh wait, that’s right, SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!

Yes, that’s the big draw for most of us. According to Huffington Post, an estimated 111 million people watched the 2012 Super Bowl, making it the most watched program…EVER! Now, that may be in-part to the Packers taking-on the Steelers; however, Super Bowl Sunday is also about the commercials. Media Life Magazine estimates 51% of people with household incomes over $50,000 pay more attention to Super Bowl commercials than the game itself.

I have to admit: I am one of those who look forward to the commercials more than the game; however, this year I’m also excited to watch, what should be an exciting game—true confession—I am a 49’ers fan! Yes, it’s true; the 9’ers is the team I grew to watch, who couldn’t, with the Rice/Montana connection they brought passion back to football viewing for me. Don’t judge me; I still root for the Bears!

Here’s a bit of trivia from Wikipedia: “On August 24, Rice officially retired as a 49er, signing a one-day contract for $1,985,806.49. The number represented the year Rice was drafted (1985), his number (80), the year he retired (2006), and the 49ers (49). The figure was ceremonial and Rice received no money.”

As reported on AdAge Media News, the average cost for a Super Bowl XLVII spot is between $3.7 million and $3.8 million, oh, did I forget to mention that CBS has essentially sold out its inventory? Interested in who’s buying what and when? Check out the list on AdAge Media News, along with a few commercials; if I may add my bias, I loved the Kia “Space Babies” commercial. Full confession: I wasn’t able to recall the advertiser, I had to refer back to the title!

Kia “Space Babies”

There are so many opinions about Super Bowl commercials; too sexual, a flop, hilarious, creative, and on-the-mark. Everyone becomes a critic but the two things that makes a commercial successful: the audience remembering the brand and sales.

Here’s a peek at this year’s Super Bowl commercials. http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/cat/2013

So what do you think makes a great commercial?

Since I married a techie early adopter, CES is the topic of discussion every January in our house.

For you non-nerds, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the world’s largest annual consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas. This week, 3,100 exhibitors are showing off their newest products, concepts, and services.  Every year, my mind is blown away at what new technology is available (and what people will pay for)!

HAPIfork Technology. Photo Source: http://asia.cnet.com/meet-hapifork-the-smart-electronic-fork-62220077.htm

The most unusual product that I’ve seen come out of the 2013 CES is the HAPIfork, an interactive fork that monitors your eating habits.  According to HAPILABS’ website,

The HAPIfork gives you precise information about your eating schedule. The HAPIfork alerts you with the help of indicator lights when you are eating too fast.  Every time you bring food from your plate to your mouth with your fork, this action is called: a “fork serving”.  The HAPIfork also measures:

• How long it took to eat your meal.
• The amount of “fork servings” taken per minute.
• Intervals between “fork servings”.

This information is then uploaded via USB or Bluetooth to your Online Dashboard to track your progress.  The HAPIfork also comes with the HAPILABS app plus a coaching program to help you eat better and change your eating behavior.

A fork with an app?!?   Multiple studies have shown that the simple act of keeping a food diary can help you lose twice the weight.  Pen and paper seems like an easier, cheaper, and less embarrassing way to keep tabs on my forkfuls (I actually use a food diary app on my phone).  I prefer apps on my fork and in my belly, not for my fork!

According to HAPILABS, the HAPIFork was originally developed for clinical and medical use against weight gain, digestive problems, gastric relux, and postoperative complications.  In a clinical setting, I suppose it would be beneficial to track how quickly a post-op patient is inhaling their cafeteria cake and advise them to slow down.

How is there a consumer market for the fork with an app?  The diet and weight loss market in the U.S. is worth over 60 billion dollars.  With the steady rise of obesity and desire for a quick fix, there will always be a health/diet fad market. Consumers have fallen for diet gimmicks for ages!

Tapeworm Diet – advertising dated back to late 19^th century.  “Eat, Eat, and Always Stay Thin!”

Vintage Ad for Tapeworms. Photo Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e_mi6Tnpamc/TBqVp7WDHnI/AAAAAAAAAF0/Np4F-XIjR_c/s1600/vintage-ads-diet.jpg

La Parle Obesity Soap – on the market in 1903. “Absolutely guaranteed to reduce fat without dieting or gymnastics!”

Vintage Ad - Obesity Soap. Photo Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z0RipeD81RM/Tf68LBb-BEI/AAAAAAAAAVA/puIY_rEQUh0/s400/obesity%2Bsoap.jpg

Lucky Strike Cigarettes – advertising cigarettes for weight loss to women in 1929.  “To Keep A Slender Figure, No One Can Deny… Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet!”

Vintage Ad - Lucky Strike. Photo Source: http://leibold.com/boldpost_images/lucky_strike.jpg

Hawaii Hula Chair – As Seen On TV Product launched in 2007 – “If you sit, you can get fit!”

Hawaii Chair - Watch the full infomercial on YouTube

Blue Shade Glasses – released in Japan in 2009. “The tinted shades calm the excitation of the brain when the wearer is confronted by fattening food.”

Blue Shade Glasses. Photo Source: http://www.bookofjoe.com/images/2008/03/24/4vbhgsh.jpg

There is a market for any product.  It just takes time and talent to develop a successful marketing strategy that identifies who to chase after and determines how to best allocate your marketing budget.

Stephanie Lammi
KMK Communications Manager

          Well a great big happy 2013 to everyone out there in the blogosphere! Is that the correct term? You see I’ve never blogged before so please excuse me if my inexperience shows during this first attempt. 

           With the holiday shopping season now behind us I thought I’d write a little bit about surviving the holidays and what if any advertising worked on the buying public, or had the exact opposite effect during this “most wonderful time of the year”. For me the holidays are so busy I really don’t have time to search through all the flyers shouting their specials that come in the mail or in the paper. I may briefly take a quick look but for the most part I’m not going to spend 15 minutes searching for those “great Christmas deals”! Radio and TV advertising doesn’t work much on me either, I usually just turn the channel. Advertising emails have absolutely no-chance for me. I’m so overwhelmed with emails that as soon as I can determine which are the ones trying to sell me something they go right to the delete box.

        So what does work on me when it comes to buying holiday gifts? If I’m in a store and see a display with some interesting items at a good price I will take a minute to look them over. There’s something about seeing the item in person and being able to see what you are actually getting for your dollar that makes a big difference for me. I still only buy the item about 10 percent of the time but a good product at a good price will get my attention even if I wasn’t planning on buying it. So what works for you? Do you appreciate all the extra holiday gift advertising or does it all just become too much, similar to how many of us feel with the never ending campaign commercials during the just passed Presidential election? Please, drop me a line and let me know here at KMK Media. Thanks for listening, or is that reading? Bob Ryder

Recently Instagram let its 100 million users know it could begin using their photos in its ads beginning January 16. And that was not all. Users’ info could also be shared with its parent company, Facebook, along with its many affiliates.

The backlash among Instagram users was simple and immediate: “Use my photos and I stop using your service.” Through a series of backtracks Instagram has since said that on Jan 16. it will relase a new user agreement that does not include the use of their personal photos for marketing or sharing purposes.

This will probably go down as the worst marketing blunders made by a tech company this year. So what exactly made this such a huge deal? Was it the poor writing of a few lawyers? Inexperience of the public relations division? Media looking for fresh blood? I would suggest all of the above and a lot more, but would enjoy reading your opinion. Feel free to toss in your two cents and let us know what you think went wrong and how it could have been handelded better.

What makes a great advertisement?  There are no doubt many different answers to that question, but something like “eye-catching” or “attention-grabbing” should top the list.  If you’ve ever been walking down the street and a billboard or sign makes you stop and observe what’s being promoted, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

These are exactly the types of ads German staffing agency “Jobs In Town” has come up with.  Their line of ads run with the slogan “Life’s too short for the wrong job.”  While this is certainly a true statement, putting it visually may seem like more of a challenge.  The company came up with several brilliant images that truly emphasize a terrible job.  Often depicted in crammed spaces with unhappy looks on their faces, these people really look like they can’t stand their job and exemplify the phrase “life’s too short for the wrong job.”  But what sets these ads apart from rest?

Location, location, location.  Another key component of great advertisements.  Sure, these ads could stand alone and get the point across, but what makes them so fantastic is where they’ve been strategically placed.  Each ad depicts a person as if they’re working inside of the machine or piece of equipment they’re placed upon.  For instance, there’s a woman crammed into an ice cream machine, squeezing out soft serve as if she’s actually dispensing it for the customer.  Another shows a man standing inside a photo booth developing pictures, making it look like he’s the one that creates all the pictures that come out.

Have you ever seen an ad that makes an interesting use of their location?  Share your stories with us!