Monthly Archives: February 2009

Retailers are posting quarterly profit drops of upwards of 50 percent, and consumers are downright pessimistic, holding on to their wallets in ways that border on the historic. Let’s face it, how your business responds in this economy will determine … Continue reading →

The deadline is today for your chance to get some hard-earned recognition for your advertising efforts by entering the American Advertising Federation of Northern Illinois’ annual ADDY awards. Click here for entry information. Entries can be dropped off at KMK … Continue reading →

EcoFont!  Spranq, a Dutch communications firm, has come up with a way to save the environment one blotch at a time. They asked the question: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? End result, by punching … Continue reading →

Today’s economy is shifting the floor beneath all our feet, and smart marketers will give their customers something to hold onto while that happens. Not only are consumers being more discrete with their spending on the extraneous – fancy purses … Continue reading →

Now that I have my traditional Monday morning Austin Powers impersonation out of the way, I thought I would share an interesting article I came across. “The Elusive Advertising Clutter“, by Ilya Vedrashko. We have all heard it before, the … Continue reading →

Using social media sites – you know, Twitter, Digg, Ning, Facebook, et. al. – to market your business or other enterprise is hard. It’s new. It’s complicated. And there really aren’t too many “experts” in the field…yet. You can’t really … Continue reading →

Ah, the local TV spot. Some good, some bad, some so bad they’re good. So how do you make an effective television commercial? It all starts before even one second of shooting takes place. Back to Basics: Effective TV Spots … Continue reading →

Social media has changed the paradigm of the client-business relationship, with clients finally realizing they are, in fact, the reason why businesses stay open. And they’re demanding faster responses and communication channels that make it easy for them to interact … Continue reading →

So maybe you’ve lowered your thermostat to save a few bucks. And you still want to read, eat, answer the phone. Plus, blankets have proven just to difficult to figure out. Enter, the Snuggie. If you haven’t seen the commercial … Continue reading →

In today’s economy, your business might have a cash-flow problem…which leads to late payments for your vendors. Normally, this is an accounting problem, not a marketing one.But, if you get behind on multiple vendors, then you’re at risk to some … Continue reading →

A company, named We POWER, has created a platform that enables advertisements to be placed on wind turbines. Each of the turbine’s air foil blades reflect an image, and as the blades spin, the images appear to move— essentially creating … Continue reading →

This weekend, I had the privilege to judge the ADDY® awards for the Peoria, Ill., chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Sanctioned by the AAF, the ADDY® Awards honor excellence in advertising and cultivate the highest creative standards in … Continue reading →

Read a snippet this morning about some grocers taking advantage of their “customer clubs” to get the word out regarding the massive peanut butter recall. Which led me to think about customer loyalty programs and how businesses can use them … Continue reading →

Which ads did you like? I personally thought the Bridgestone and Careerbuilder spots were funny: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tMMFja-Fw[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUM3SDX4ik[/youtube] According to USA Today, the top 5 “most liked” spots were: Doritos – crystal ball Budweiser – circus romance Budweiser – new trick … Continue reading →

Wow. What a difference a year makes. This year’s Super Bowl ads were, to be blunt, bad. Blaming the economy may be the easy choice, but I’m here to offer another hypothesis: Has the annual Ad Showcase jumped the shark? … Continue reading →