Shortly after we saw her in concert one last time, Odetta passed away. A German music magazine picked one of the portraits I had shot of her at Hugh’s Room for the obituary.
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Brilliant
Thursday, November 6, 2008
That’s the kind of feedback we like. Strategy Magazine, Nov 2008. Click image for full size.
Note to Rogers
Monday, November 3, 2008
When telling customers that they can get technical support instantly through an online chat interface it might be worth mentioning that this is a proprietary solution that demands a software download which works on PC only.
Why anyone would not use a browser interface is beyond me, but that’s Rogers for you. At the time of typing I’ve been sitting in a ‘priority sequence’ for 10 minutes and counting.
It’s epidemic
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
I’ve been thinking of going back to school, to get my masters degree. Study part time, evenings and weekends. Diana, one of our copywriters, directed me towards the OCAD advertising masters program.
At first glance, it looks pretty interesting. Tutors with international experience, a bias towards not only social media but also social responsibility. Good stuff.
Then I read this:
The Executive Master of Design in Advertising (EMDes) degree is a unique, cutting-edge program available through the Ontario College of Art & Design.
As opposed to what? A commodity product? Anything less than cutting-edge? This is supposed to be teaching me something new, so what’s with the meaningless buzzwords in the copy?
It gets worse:
You will learn to think globally and master the new language of the global marketplace.
and:
You will become a more advanced multi-dimensional thinker & holistic problem solver.
Let me ask you: What does that even mean? What is a holistic, global, multi dimensional thinker and why on earth would I want to be one?
I understand of course what OCAD is trying to say, I’ve heard these buzzwords enough times to be able to extrapolate what I think the writer really wanted to say.
But why on earth are they being used in the first place, especially advertising a course that is supposed to lead to excellence? What is wrong with using clear, concise language, free from meaningless marketing bumf? Is it the desire to sound more intelligent than we think we are? Is it because we’ve forgotten how to express ourselves clearly and honestly?
The result of this kind of writing is that it devalues what it is supposed to sell. I am still interested in finding out more, but now they have to work that much harder to convince me that this is right school, the right program, for me. Had the writer bothered to find out what the real benefits of the course are, then communicated them in a way that makes an emotional connection I would probably be lining up now, application in hand.
I’ve said this before, a good acid test for copy is to give it to your mom* to read - or your grandma if your mom happens to be working in marketing. If she doesn’t understand what you’re saying, rewrite it until she does. That’s the path to good advertising and that’s something I’d expect OCAD to teach in a masters program.
*Or your dad. Clarity of thought is an equal opportunity employer.
More confusion
Monday, October 27, 2008
I had a visit from a student today. First year advertising, a well known Ontario school. We talked for a while, she had a bunch of questions she needed asking for a class assignment.
I then showed her a couple of examples of what I consider to be clear, concise writing. Like the copy on our website for example. Her reaction was that at her school they were actually being encouraged to use what I call marketing language. You know, big words where small words would do. The reason? She was being taught it would make them sound more intelligent, that CEOs and other senior management would be expecting to hear that language in meetings and presentations.
So what appears to be happening that there are schools out there that are pumping out students who can SWOT analyze with the best of them, but who’ll have the hardest time expressing an original thought in a manner that won’t confuse the hell out of their audiences.
I’ve been sitting in many a meeting where the only reason people weren’t challenged on their opinions was quite simply because nobody had the foggiest idea what they had been on about - but it used the ‘right’ language so nobody dared say anything. It’s deplorable enough that this kind of thing exists in the workplace, but it’s outrageous that it is being encouraged in schools.
Odetta
Monday, October 27, 2008
We were lucky enough to get tickets for Odetta’s two performances in Toronto. She was singing at Hugh’s Room, a perfect venue, with about 300 people in the audience. Having booked dinner we were incredibly lucky with our stage side table, being so close to the her that we could have touched her.
I wasn’t sure whether photography would be permitted (it was) so I had just taken the little Ricoh with me and as per usual it didn’t disappoint. Even at 1/6 of a second and with the lens wide open there’s at least adequate sharpness in the resulting shots.
The performance it self was amazing. Just her and a pianist performing standards from her 50+ year career as a singer and entertainer. Gentle, slow, full of humour and wisdom. I loved every minute of it.
Hurray for Banksy
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Funny, irreverent and just really thoughtful: The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill.
The joy of (online) scrapbooks.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I’ve always liked scrapbooks. A place to keep ideas, thoughts and stuff that might one day come in handy, a creative junk drawer with a purpose. I keep paper scrapbooks for just that reason and whenever I am starting a new project I find myself flipping through them, seeing if there’s any inspiration.
Evernote makes it incredibly simple to keep online scrapbooks. It’s one of these products you never thought you needed until the second you use it for the first time, when it instantly becomes invaluable. Researching a client’s customer base? Clip the results to a dedicated Evernote notebook, then share it with the people in your team. Researching the intricacies of building a backyard bread oven, like I am doing right now? Keep the results in an Evernote notebook.
The best thing is the close browser and iPhone integration. A button click on Firefox or Flock and the entire page is saved. Just need parts of the page? Highlight, click, saved. From your iPhone, send text, voice and image notes to the notebook of your choice. Tag content, find everything that’s relevant in a second.
Excellent. If you haven’t tried it, do it now.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra - get with it
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
My wife took her mother to see Ute Lemper with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra a couple of weeks back.
Just now, as we’re having dinner, the phone rings. It’s a telesales person for the orchestra, trying to push further tickets. I asked him whether my wife gave them express permission to be called. His answer was “not necessarily”.
Who in their right mind comes up with these idiotic marketing strategies? Don’t these people care about the annoyance they cause, the damage they do to their brand?
Some years ago our local jazz radio station, Jazz Fm did the same thing to me until I told them to take me off their list and never call me again. The sad thing is that by calling me until I got fed up with them they put themselves out of contributions I would have otherwise made.
More tea
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Here’s an excellent twitter stream about tea: http://twitter.com/MerkabaTea
Whoever that guy is, he’s doing it right. All information, no sell.
Creating Evangelists
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Some time ago I left a comment on taste.to, a Toronto food and restaurant blog. The post was about David’s Tea, a new tea store on Queen West. Those who know me also know that I am a tea snob fan. I know my high grown Oolongs from my dawn picked Silver Needle, tea is one of the things I am passionate about.
So I checked David’s Tea and was, at the time, unimpressed. I had seen tea stores in London and California that, as far as I was concerned, were doing it right. They were selling high grade teas in a manner that made them accessible to the public. They knew their products, everybody who worked there was passionate and knowledgeable.
In David’s store few pure teas were on offer next to a plethora of flavoured varieties. The staff I talked to were friendly enough but had little idea about the teas they were selling. There was no feeling of passion, of energy. It was just another shop and I thought it was an opportunity wasted.
I left a comment expressing these opinions on taste.to and thought that this would be the end of it. Not at all. Today, David sent me the following mail:
Dear Andreas,
Thank you for your comments on Taste TO. We appreciate your feedback. We recently got in several more high end green teas. We also have a selection of very good white teas and oolong teas. Overall we have around 20-25 high end green, white, and oolong teas – as well as some excellent straight black teas (and we do now have straight Rooibos). You are right that these varieties do create loyalty. We are continually looking to bring in more.
We are constantly working to train our staff so that they are prepared to serve even the most knowledgeable of tea drinkers. I regret that whomever was helping you was not able to present the product properly. I encourage you to go back to the store, and ask to speak with Kim Wiseman. She will be there this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and will be able to assist you. I am also available if you would like to know more about our product, or if ever there is a particular tea that you would like me to bring in. My cell number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Yes we do offer a lot of flavored teas. We do this because there are a lot of people who like them, and have fun with them. We believe the two can coexist in one shop.
We appreciate your business, and hope to see you again on Queen street.
Kind regards,
- David
Pretty impressive. David and I have been exchanging several mails since and I am quoting his mail here with his permission. That one mail changed me from a sceptic into somebody who’ll check out the store once more. If what he has to sell works for me chances are not only that I’ll buy his goods, it also means that I’ll tell my fellow tea-geek friends about his store. In short, he has created an evangelist, somebody who will take care of a part of his marketing for him, at no cost to him.
Pretty damn clever.
Luthansa = fail
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My parents are flying back to Europe via Lufthansa tomorrow. Trying to reserve seats online turned into a complete FAIL. The booking number on their reservation didn’t get accepted, the help desk went home at six in the evening, feedback is impossible via email.
What a joke.
Leadership again
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I’ve been thinking about how to get the leadership story condensed for presentation purposes and I think I am going to use something like this:
Your values are the force that attracts the people who share them. And because you’re being consistent in living these values (right?) they are being multiplied by the number of people who subscribe to them who in return attract more people which increases your attraction. Just make sure you don’t stop being the magnet in the middle.
Yammer
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
It recently occurred to me that I am closer connected to friends and people I work with in external companies - at least in an ambient way - than I am with the people I work with day to day at McDonnell Haynes. I use Flock as my main browser at work, meaning that RSS and twitter updates arrive all day, everyday. It takes little time and effort to digest these messages and it allows me to stay on top of work projects and social life alike, especially as these frequently intermingle.
Today I’ve signed myself and some of our younger creatives up to Yammer. Yammer is a Twitter clone, that has been tweeked for company and business use. It allows for the kind of awareness that we have come to rely on through services like facebook, but does so in a company centered environment.
I’ll update on the results in a couple of weeks. It’ll take a learning curve and it’ll be interesting to see if people will choose to use it.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Leadership
Monday, October 20, 2008
My friend Yasmin and I spent the evening talking about leadership in business. I know, I have an exciting life, but beer was involved, so I don’t feel too badly about it. She, being a business sustainability expert, was looking it from her particular angle, but I think that leadership really permeates everything. Including marketing.
It looks pretty simple to me:
- Find something you stand for. Make sure that people can have an emotional connection with whatever that is.
- Allow people to find you. You can help them find you by putting out conversation starters. If you’re in any way remarkable, people will start talking about you.
- If you should find out that you’re not remarkable after all go back to the drawing board and try again.
- Don’t sell. Today’s market knows when they’re being sold to and they hate it. Allow people to make their own decisions, they’ll thank you for it.
- Once you have people identifying with the values you stand for make sure to live them. Develop them. Move them on. Take them as far as possible and then some. This turns customers into evangelists and delivers the all important leadership element.
- Wash and repeat and watch your business flourish.
Ottawa
Monday, October 20, 2008
Since our arrival in Toronto four years ago, we’ve heard the same story many, many times: “Hey, you’re from Europe? You’ve got to see Montreal, it’s so European.”
The first time we went to Montreal we liked it very much. Liked the people, liked the culture, liked the food. Pretty much liked everything about the place. It was just as advertised, except that it was nothing like Europe. Actually, I am sorry Montreal, it wasn’t all that different from Toronto.
Ottawa, on the other hand, everybody described as being small, boring and inconsequential. Well, we went to Ottawa last weekend and loved it. Ottawa looks and feels extremely similar to a medium sized British town. Manchester comes to mind, or Liverpool. A great market, fantastic museums and a really healthy, interesting mix of English and French culture.
I could easily live there. Maybe I should see if we can pitch for their tourism account.
How to get hired
Monday, October 20, 2008
I am currently getting a boatload of calls and mails from students, asking for internships, jobs or work experience and I am finding myself answering the same questions over and over again.
So over the next couple of days I’ll post a list here, telling you what makes me want to work with people. It’ll always be incomplete and I’ll add to it as time goes by.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you can’t laugh about yourself, don’t get into this business.
- Own at least one piece of original art. It doesn’t matter if it’s a drawing by your kid brother, as long as it is original and it means something to you. Signed posters don’t count.
- Read at least one book a month, every second one should be about the business we’re in.
- Find some blogs that interest you. Read them. Act on them.
- Get involved in the conversation. Comment on these blogs, get yourself a twitter account. Use it. Diana, that means you.
- Talking of which, understand twitter. Really understand it.
- Take a picture a day. Upload it to flickr. It doesn’t matter if you only have cell phone camera with you, having to take one picture every day will make you more aware of the world around you.
That’s it for today. Updates soon.
Fife House
Monday, October 20, 2008
Two years ago we created this campaign for Fife House Toronto:
Tonight is the annual fund raising ball, raising much needed capital to help them continue their work.