We at Atomic Ideas don't have to tell you that Mondays after holidays are particularly hard -- especially when most of the sentiment has been captured better in song.
So instead offering up another rant on the foibles of advertising and marketing, here's a little something to help you enjoy your Manic Monday. (Click on icon a second time to be able to play video from YouTube)
Everyone at Atomic Ideas (sort of a nuclear family) wishes you and yours a happy holiday. We're Thankful for all of our friends who have chosen us to help them get their message out -- in order to help them sell more stuff (or for at least reading our blog)!
What do you do when you see a brand that is beloved by nearly everyone for it's leading-edge design and cutting-edge coolness factor? Sure, you could try to imitate the design and marketing strategy that made that brand great, or you could just somehow link that product to yours and hope it basks in the glow!
That's what Hyundai did. In an article this morning in the Detroit Free Press Auto Section, Hyundai has announced that they are giving away an iPad to Hyundai Equus buyers when they come back (after a few days living with the car) to learn more about the features and operation of their new Equus. There will even be an Equus App on the iPad to help buyers get the most out of their new car.
Now while I'm all for freebies and gratis iPads, the fact that I have to have to return for a training session for my car and they're giving me an App to aid me thereafter, kind of makes me a-scared. Is this car too complex? I want a car, not life-long recurrent training. To my mind, if it's that difficult to understand, the ergonomics must suck! (Think BMW radio/electronic stacks of a few years ago).
I guess you could argue that Hyundai is just trying to appeal to younger buyers by showing they understand this generation's iPad proclivities, but I think they could have just given the iPad away or announced a "fun/functional" APP instead of linking it to "understanding" the vehicle.
Just one iWriter's iOpinion. What do you think?? Hit the comment button below to let your voice be nerd...er, heard.
In this hectic, crazy, out-of-control world we live in today, isn’t it great that the World Series is back. Why? Because it’s something we can make sense out of. The timing is good for this age-old tradition of baseball to let us escape from the current irrational world of mud-slinging politics and other mindless stuff. It restores a bit of humanity. Just a bit -
As the 2010 World Series begins, here are some inspirational words from some well-known players, writers and thinkers on our great American pastime. - If we could just get them to help us sell stuff.
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“I called off his players’ names as they came marching up the steps behind him. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys finish last.” -Leo Durocher, 1946, casual remark at a practice in the presence of a number of journalists.
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” -Yogi Berra
“You don’t save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain.” -Leo Durocher, 1965.
“We made too many wrong mistakes.” -Yogi Berra
“He could throw a lamb chop past a wolf.” -Westbrook Pegler, on Lefty Grove, 1894-1969: Baseballs Greatest Quotations, 1991
“The future ain't what it used to be” -Yogi Berra
“I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly decided they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a few days to correct that impression. -Casey Stengel
“It ain't the heat, it's the humility.” -Yogi Berra
“He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.” -Yogi Berra
“Ninety feet between bases is perhaps as close as man ever come to perfection.” -Red Smith
“Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.” -Yogi Berra
“I'm glad I don't play anymore. I could never learn all those handshakes” -Phil Rizutto
“In baseball, you don't know nothin'.” -Yogi Berra
“Good pitching always stops good hitting and vice versa.” -Yogi Berra
“It's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and the old-timer's game.” -Vin Scully
"The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely.” -Ted Williams
“So I'm ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face.” -Yogi Berra
“We was going to get you a birthday cake, but we figured you'd drop it.” -Casey Stengel to Marv Throneberry
“Anyone with talent can play in the Major Leagues; for someone like me to stay around as long as I did, I think that's a much greater achievement.” -Bob Uecker
“Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run.” -Branch Rickey
“Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.” -Yogi Berra
“A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.” -David Ogilvy
“In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept destructive criticism. Without 100 percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.” -Willy Mays
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” -Yogi Berra
“Aw, who gib a damn.” -Willie “Pops” Stargell responding to an audio engineer’s direction during a radio commercial recording after the 1979 World Series.
“You can observe a lot by just watching.” -Yogi Berra
With thanks and credit to: BrainyQuote.com, Sports Quotations by Carlo DeVito, and The Oxford Essential Quotations Dictionary
It's Monday, a tough day for thinkers everywhere. So where do lazy thinkers go for ideas for their blog? They google "blog ideas" and up pops no less than 380,000,000 articles with titles like "101 Blog Ideas", "13 Great Blog Ideas," "100 Blog Writing Ideas."
I thought a blog was about getting vital information across, or expressing a burning opinion. But in this information age, I guess a Blog is just about reshaping and repackaging information that's already out there. Some of it, as much as 380,000,000 times!
(And yes, I just googled "Blog Cartoon" to find this, er, blog cartoon)
My friend Russ pointed this story out to me last week from Ad Age: apparently The GAP redesigned their logo and slipped it onto their site last week. It seems, the online public noticed it quickly and vigorously voiced their opinion of the change: they hated it. People thought it was uninteresting, average, uninspiring and lacking in any direction. Also, the question of “why?” came up a lot. What was broken that had to be fixed?
Well, since that story broke, The GAP listened and pulled the new logo and returned to the familiar white type in a blue box logo. GAP North American president Marka Hansen admitted, in so many words, they had made a mistake. She also said that they would not evolve a new logo through “crowd sourcing,” – a plan that was initially offered last week to help ease Gap fans’ logo dislike.
How does something like this happen? Why change the company logo that’s been around for over twenty years? They changed it to an upper/lower helvetica bold in black and floated a small gradated blue box to the right, behind part of the p. (see above) On the Gap site last week they said, "We chose this design as it's more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward." Talk about gobbledegook- the little blue box represents heritage? Heritage?
Does The Gap Inc., which is part of Banana Republic and Old Navy, do any market research? Couldn’t they have done a focus group to see if logo change was even warranted? And most importantly, will a new logo help them sell more stuff?
Tell us what you think?
Here are a few big companies that have made logo changes over the years, (they’re usually quite gradual).
Last April, I suggested that instead of running out and buying a hot new iPad, that maybe the reader could invest in two (2) shares of Apple stock (two shares at the stock price of $242 was roughly the price of an entry-level iPad). The theory being, that if Apple appreciates like it had after the launch of the iPhone, that in six months, the reader would have made $150 on his/her two shares that he/she could put toward buying an iPad -- kinda like getting a 30% discount! http://www.atomicideas.com/atomic-inkspot/2010/04/heres-an-idea-to-help-you-ipad-your-wallet.html
Well, closing price yesterday was $295 and change. Netting anyone who invested exactly six months ago, on 4/11, a little more than $105. Okay, not the 30% we were hoping for, but still a respectable 21% -- all for just sitting and waiting!
**UPDATE: Just four days later, on 10/15, Apple Stock zoomed up $12.43 a share closing at $314.74. Had you waited the four extra days to cash in your two shares you would have netted a tidy $145.48!!! Almost the 30% increase we were looking for!!!!
I think Mad Men might be getting close to "jumping the shark" (TV speak for gone beyond the point of no return).
Beside the often intolerable personal lives that are so much soap opera crap of "anything that can go wrong, will -- and in the worst imaginable way," the "agency business" part of the show that was normally so entertaining, is taking on a soap opera aspect as well.
For instance, the world seems to come crashing down when the agency loses their biggest client, Lucky Strike. So billings are down to $20- $22 million --that's close to a billion dollars in today's money!!. And the doors look like they could shut???? Much smaller clients like Glow Coat (that just had award-winning work done) pull their business because the agency seems "financially unstable?" C'mon!!!! Or that they They are embarrassed to be associated with an agency that lost such a big client????
Any agency today with a billion dollars in billings might lay off a few people after losing a large, long-time client (like Campbell-Ewald with Chevy). But the doors don't shut and clients don't jump ship out of shame or fear of having their agency close it's doors. Why? because any good Agency diversifies. They manage their money and resources.
On the last episode of "Mad Men" the client list included Mountain Dew, Honda Cars (a start-up back then), Samsonite, Playtex, to name just a few of more than a dozen recognizable clients. With a client list that diverse, don't tell me the sky is falling! Don't try to gin up fake drama. The business is interesting and dramatic enough without manufacturing turmoil. Accuracy to the Advertising business is one reason a lot of us ad folk watch the show. But if they are going travel very far down this unrealistic path, a lot of us ad folk just might not watch. (Strike dramatic chord here). After all, unrealistic portrayals of advertising abound. Like the following:
Simple. To differentiate your product!
It's hard to take yourself seriously in this business.
Happy Friday from your friends at Atomic Ideas!
What happened to the good old days when a new law was created, it was simple enough to scribe on a stone tablet and applied to everyone equally? Now in the US a law depends on how old you are, what state you're in, and sometimes what city.
Take the recent texting ban (or ban on using social media while driving). It should be universal, but it's not. How about using cell phones? It's a mish-mash of laws by state and municipality. So to help you make some sense of it all, here is a link to the Governor's Highway Safety Site http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html which has a handy-dandy chart (no, not on a stone tablet) to help you make sense of it all.
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