A friend of mine called a few days back, and asked if I would help him out by preparing a show-and-tell presentation on all the exciting things one can do with PDFs. He was hoping to inspire a number of people in his company to consider changes in their basic workflow. The fight had been uphill so far, and he was hoping that a disinterested third party could help his crew open their eyes to new possibilities.

At the same time, I’m working with a web programmer who stays up every night trying to learn all there is to know about his craft, which is growing faster than the speed of his T3. I sometimes fear that he’ll sacrifice practical simplicity for a big pile of bells and whistles.

So, how do you know what change is good, and what’s bad? I think you have to balance benefits, risks, and learning curve.

People who dislike change consider the learning curve first, and bail right there. Why invest in something new when everything is going along just fine the way it is? They need to be convinced that benefits are real, and risks are manageable. If you can’t back up your claims, they may be right. Leave it be.

The easy-to-convince don’t care about the learning curve. It’s icing on the cake to them. To this crowd, change itself is counted as a benefit, and risks are given hardly a glance. A gentle reminder that technology needs to be tested and all hours must be billable will immediately brand you as the office buzz-kill. You need to remind them that Eureka is not meant to be a part of the daily vocabulary. But again, listen. Sometimes it’s true. A new idea can open a door that you never thought of opening before.

So, is there a formula? Nah, That would be too easy. Like everything else in life, seek balance, see the world through another’s eyes, and trust you gut. Having a Plan B can’t hurt, either.

I had so much fun writing my first blog that I’m back for more!
Thanks to everyone for reading it, by the way. I know Larry had asked if I would put up the Olympic Sealy spots I referenced. If you go back to the first post and click more…they are there.

So my favorite commercials have either great music, star power, or a tad of reality. (Sound familiar?) Here’s my plug for great music.

Doin’ things is what I like to do. Not a great descriptive sentence, not really a great sentence at all. But in the capable hands of They Might Be Giants and Hill Holiday, it’s an amazing jingle that will not leave my head! The first time I saw this spot I said, “That is the stupidest song…doin things is what I like to do (in an over the top “stupid” voice)…no kidding.” Then the next time, by the end of the :60 I was humming. Next day: “I’m slightly more efficient than I previously was…” What?!? Yes, it was stuck.

I like the beat, the melody, the harmony…plus it’s a commercial jingle that has the words “efficient”, “productive”, and “previous” (TWICE!)…how can you not appreciate that?!

My choice for this blog started some debate in the office. Mostly about other Dunkin Donuts commercials that people don’t like (specifically the moving one), and even one about how no Dunkin commercial will ever top “It’s time to make the donuts”. While I cannot dispute the iconic nature of the “Time to make the donuts” guy, I will argue that these new spots (specifically this one) are more effective in getting the product message across. You’re slightly more productive, now than previous because - you’re running on Dunkin…

I dare you, triple dog dare you, to watch this spot and then not have this song in your head the next time you walk down the street with a DD cup in your hands.

Slightly related: They Might Be Giants have been around since 1984 and have released many albums as well as done commercials, TV theme songs and kids albums.
Apparently during a 2004 tour, TMBG recorded songs about each of the venues they played, including The Egg.

A shameless plug here for itcamefromschenectady.com, the official website of the 24-Hour SciFi Movie Marathon The Mossey Group is co-presenting with Proctors Theatre in September. Tickets are available through the site–if you dare!

A WebMD article says most of us suffering increased memory loss needn’t worry, we are just reacting to the sensory overload from all our electronic gadgetry. It makes our brains fuzzy. I agree. I can no longer figure a check tip in my head, for which I blame Microsoft Excel and my dependence on formulas. And now I’m shopping for a GPS because I’ve forgotten how to get to Troy.

Thanks to texting I can now understand a message like: “I’m nu N town, cn Ive Drections 2 yr house?,” in which I take no pride. It took me longer to figure out what FYEO meant than the time it saved the writer, which I resent. A recent misinterpretation of F2F caused some embarrassment. And I’ve learned and forgotten on several occasions the meaning of LOL and, apparently more importantly according to my daughter, its subtler nuances.

I now deliberately ignore my cell phone about every third time it rings simply as an assertion of personal freedom. It interrupts my thoughts and I just can’t seem to get the train back anymore. This is all classic ADD and should we be concerned about lng trm fx?

Here’s where I was going to tie this all together into a relevant marketing observation. I can almost remember what that was. BRB.

When Larry first told us about the blog on the website, he indicated that he really wanted everyone to contribute.

I thought, “Hmmm, ok. Blog. I can do that.”

Then I thought again. What would I possibly blog about? Being the Mossey staffer with the longest commute, I could share my thoughts on gas prices…ummm, no. Having two children younger than 5, I could share endless rants about children’s programming…hmmm, maybe. Or being an avid fan of musical theater, I could share my thoughts on the “Hollywoodization” (it’s a word – it’s all over other people’s blogs) of Broadway…ahhh, next month. (Just kidding). One thing I do feel fairly safe in talking about, is what I like and why. I figure if you like it too, then we’ve got something to talk about. If you don’t, then we still have something to talk about. So here’s my first Mossey Group blog:

I pay attention to commercials. (Big surprise!) When I see one that sparks my interest, I can’t wait to see it again. When I hear one with catchy music, look out. To me the most memorable commercials either have great music, star power, or reflect a little bit of real life. (But not too much…we need something fanciful) The spot I’ve attached here has the latter. I love this spot. This video has Spanish text, but the message is unchanged.

So why do I like this? Because I’m a mommy! The little bit of reality here is that my kids would do this every night if they could. And if they could magically flop down and fall instantly asleep…I can’t even finish that thought…there are no words. You see, it’s only been a few months that my kids have shared a room and both been in “big kid beds”.
The novelty is still fresh for them and bouncing back and forth is a nightly ritual. It’s actually rather precious, as they usually try very hard to stay as quiet as possible but inevitably end up giggling or full out laughing prompting a trip up the stairs by yours truly. “Guys, you need to lay down and go to sleep. No more jumping.” “Why?” “Because I’m the mommy, and those are my directions, that’s why.” And every time I say it, something deep inside cringes a little. Do I really expect a 4 year old and a 2 year old to believe this as a reasonable explanation…well, yes! Anyway, when I hear the thumping on the floor and the stifled giggles through the monitor, this spot comes to mind.

So we’ve got the little bit of reality covered. What else? Come on! The kid is cute, the footsie pjs are cute, and the bouncy music is catchy. I also really like that there is no voice over. You get it. I could have done without the snoring sound effects…but that’s minor. Sealy carried this basic principle into their advertising during the 2004 Olympics. You may remember the high jumper, the swimmer, the gymnast, or the synchronized swimming pair, who fall instantly asleep on their Sealy mattresses. Again, no voice over, save for the whispered “Sealy, official supplier of the US Olympic team.”

Bravo, Sealy! (Or should I say, Sealy’s agency!) This is one of my favorite spots ever!

For More Videos Read the rest of this entry »

Traditional media planning devotees often find themselves facing-off against online fanatics, both sides fighting for the same piece of the budget, both sides squawking about efficiency. So is it really a zero-sum game? Or should these two worlds old and new be playing together, making their sum larger than their parts?

There are certainly things traditional media as in broadcast and print sells well, and better than any other. Likewise for the online world. If you target properly, and your message is fairly close (don’t want to ask too much or give too much weight to the self-important creative types who already claim all the glory), the medium won’t matter again.

You can pay for a gazillion google words and misspelled phrases, and you can win the search engine game. But who cares if you’re winning on topics that don’t get you to the next step. What of the client who’ll pay anything for a word, and it successfully generates clicks, but the clickers are academic researchers, or worse, students doing their term paper? For all the science and measureability of online marketing, you can still pay for a lot of sludge.

At least with broadcast and print, you know about the unwanted folks you’ll reach, you’ll make a decision based on those numbers, and not kick yourself after the fact, like you can do with a misguided online campaign.

Awards shows, can’t live with ‘em, but it’s an oversight to ignore work that might bring recognition to clients. We try to be selective choosing awards shows, the entry fees will kill you, but the local Ad Club NORIs are pretty much mandatory. It’s always a crap shoot, but we did well this year, all TV work.

Two of our pet projects were competing in the single spot category—Saratoga Gaming’s “Vapor” spot and Stickley Audi’s “He Said, She Said,” which I wrote for the Mountain View Group. Stickley’s win didn’t surprise me as the spot had more content, more acting. It was certainly the greater writing challenge. Vapor has the better backstories, but you’ll not pry them out of me.

SEFCU’s “Myth/Fact” TV campaign belies its budget, which speaks to the capabilities of my friend Bill Brandt at Upstate Studios/CBS-6, who has directed similar projects for me and always overdelivers. Also a case of a client trusting our creative, which we reward with our hardest efforts.

Proctors’ “Bugs! 3D” spot was a labor of love—free love. It was an adventure, as are most of the projects we share with our friends at Proctors, and producer Sam Goldstein and I worked closely with our Proctors counterparts on the spot. I will only accept blame for the writing. Oh, and the cheesy voiceover. Clarification: intentionally cheesy.

Last week the NY Times reported on a technology that lets billboards identify the category of people – pedestrians, not cars– who looked at it, and/or passed by it. We all know that if electronic media offers anything over print, it allows us to measure better. But is it so important to measure everything?

The new technology puts tiny cameras on billboards which can determine the gender, approximate age and length of time the person looked. The data, of course, is logged and yours to analyze.
Put aside the privacy concerns that groups are sure to voice, and consider the value of the technology. The companies claim that when the technology is mature, the billboard will eventually tailor to its viewer, not unlike an online ad. An ad for a middle-aged woman passerby will be different than one for a teen, and so on.
As a media planner, I’m all for being efficient. But is it realistic? Ever walk down the streets of NYC? Or Chicago? Rarely does one person pass a billboard by oneself. So what happens as throngs go by? What about a mother and daughter, or a couple, or two strangers?
And isn’t this going to give away all the secrets a media planner holds sacred? Won’t the world figure out that this billboard is actually targeting them, and then what? This so-called “smart” billboard’s biggest feature will be to make consumers aware how savvy media targeting has become. And then there will be no one left to out-smart.

In short - Video Blogging. According to the wixi definition its defined as a form of blogging for which the medium is video.

Not only is it a way to generate revune from pre-and post roll advertising, its also consistant with videos place in the ‘new web order’

Many say No to Flash. Online reports say search engines can’t index it, third-party analytics software can’t track user activity, and more often than not, it has functions which require longer loading times.

I say Yes to Flash, as long as it’s being used by the right web developer - one equipped with the knowledge and understanding of flash’s native language and how to use it with other script languages.

Analytics In my experience, I have seen challenging scenarios with clients who wanted animation and dynamic features only available in Flash, but were afraid to use Flash. They had heard about search engine optimization, and were afraid that the site couldn’t be tracked via analytics software, nor indexed in Google.

This isn’t necessarily an issue. Using a script language (which is the liaison between the web site and analytics application) and Flash’s native language, not only can a developer construct a site of greater ’search relevance,’ but he or she can also measure a greater amount of user activity with standard analytics software. A non-Flash application (AJAX, XHTML, PHP) can track incoming/outgoing links, page views, bounce rates, and view time. A Flash application, however, can additionally assign custom behaviors to track rollovers, server file activity, drag instances, right click instances - ultimately allowing you to have a better behavior snapshot of the user.

Search Engine Indexing The same scripting technique can prepare your Flash site to call on an outside application to populate the source - Simply meaning, you can program your script language to provide the search engine with the relevancy-rich version it needs for indexing, while displaying the media-rich Flash version to the user - killing two birds with one stone. Doing this optimizes your site more for relevancy than crafting your SEO campaign around the now defunct keyword stuffing, meta-tag stuffing, link indexing and other techniques listed in ‘top SEO techniques’ search result listings which actually hurt your page rank. (Remember the web isn’t about hits and page views anymore, the whole 2.0 movement is about relevancy, user behavior research - giving the user the content they really want - filtering out everything else.)

Loading Times Most flash developers use flash to get the functionality they want with no programing knowledge. Relying on tweens, movie clip instances, and button actions, results in files four and five times the size of a non-Flash site. Users open their browsers and see a blank white screen. Unaware of the content loading in the background, they leave the site, or register a ‘bad experience’ with the site. Some fix this by applying a preloader which, while the content loads, displays a bar informing the user on how much time is remaining. However, using pre-compiled classes and Flash’s native language, a Flash site with video, animations, graphics and audio need ever be larger than 70k per page (notably smaller than the size of a regular non-Flash site).

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In short - Flash developers who are aware of these techniques can actually take your Flash-based site far beyond the functionality, interactivity and dynamics of a non-Flash site.