Why David Armano (of Logic + Emotion) rocks, and why his blog is one of my very favorite among favorites:

"We’re focused on relevant, groundbreaking solutions that fuse style and substance—insight driven creative, supported by technology, which ultimately leads to measurable results. Not merely flashy creative or fleeting viral campaigns, but rather, applications that shift consumer behavior, brand experiences that deepen customer relationships and game-changing strategies that meaningfully impact the bottom line."

Via AdPulp by way of the Yeti.

Your turn: What's your elevator pitch?

Flashback to my first job out of college: Semper Fi - French Style

On November 11th, 1918, an Armistice was signed in a small train car that officially ended WWI - The war to end all wars. Though WWI didn't in fact end all wars, we still observe the date, which is something I hope we never stop doing.

Roby's week "en images," as they would say in the old country:

Some sweet, sweet words of wisdom from Advergirl:

What's the number 1 reason agencies lose accounts? I would argue that it’s complacency. The agency is coasting. They probably don’t even realize they’re doing it. But after years with a product, it’s easy to get too close to it, to lean on old insights, to produce rather than create.

Taking a strategic approach to every project is fighting the coast.

But, more importantly, it's getting to do the best at your job - who wants to be a pair of hands when you can be a leader?
* * *

This is pretty cool. Waste five minutes today playing with it. Why? Because it's fun, quick, and it'll tell you a thing or two about brand you.

So Roby is alive and well, but we may be out of contact for a while. His unit has a new mission and a new secret FOB... so we won't know for a while if he'll still have internet access. If he doesn't, he won't be able to post to his blog regularly, which sucks.

War is hell, after all.

If like me, you're fanatical about a) access to relevant (dare I say actionable) data and b) new ways of communicating or presenting this data, then you will love this site.

I was trying to explain to a few colleagues the other day that I needs tools to visualize data and business processes in 3D. I'll bet that if I dig deep enough, this site will have what I am looking for. (Please please please?)

Roby's week in Afghanistan: A photo journal.

Read all about his adventures here.

Happy Thanksgiving, bro.

Perhaps the best way to say hello to a meal, ever.

Seattle, WA.

Here are some of Roby's thanksgiving week images:

My favorite images from Roby's adventures in Afghanistan this past week:

This brilliant project lives squarely at the well-traveled intersection of nerdy, creative and cool. Click on the image to see the island in its full topographic glory, or go here to get it from the source. (via Orange Yeti.)

Ain't creativity fun?

David Armano, over at Logic + Emotion shares some thoughts on the perils of specialization when it comes to certain overlapping/fuzzy diciplines:

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Thanks to Andy Woolard for introducing me to Pundo3000: A German website that compares photos on product packaging with the actual product inside. In some cases, the two are quite similar. In many cases, however (as evidenced by the example above)... not.

Check out a few of my favorite (you can click on each image to see full size versions):

Starting today and lasting through the rest of his deployment in Afghanistan, I am going to reserve a little bit of bandwidth every weekend to bring you some of my favorite images from Roby's quasi-daily photo diaries.

Three words: Incredible.

Don't read about this movie. Don't look for teasers or spoilers. Just go see it.

Overheard today on Buzznet:

I'm sitting here watching Rocky Balboa on Showtime, and... I'll be damned: It's actually pretty good. What's really surprising is that Stallone wrote and directed it - and both the writing and the direction are pretty tight. Who knew.

Preconceived notions and all...

Here I was, thinking Sly was all washed out, and then he comes up with this little gem.

I should have known better.

Taking inventory of ALL preconceived notions about everything and everyone, and throwing them out the window in bulk.

Via Jennifer Rice's What's Your Brand Mantra, Mark Hurst's brilliant little primer on the difference between Customer Service and Customer Experience:

Let's travel back to 2005, when Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) hadn't yet been hijacked by clueless and myopic marketers looking to make a quick buck off the promise of this strange but powerful thing called authenticity:

From a two-year-old post by John Moore on his Brand Autopsy blog:

From AdPulp's David Burn:

From Lord's oddly brilliant GLA blog:

Last night at Alcohol Wednesday I think we as a group came up with a great idea.

Mike Bawden (who was kind enough to quote me on his blog a while back) once wrote one of the simplest yet most astute observations about leadership that I have ever read:

Nick, over at SEENcreative, gives us this (via orangeyeti):

"A Zune for everyone." That's our motto. (We're squirting music all over the damn place!)

Big daddy is coming soon. Its first public event might have to be an upcoming BLT at the OC's galactic headquarters.

Yeah, iPods are cool - if you want to be like everyone else - but Zunes can squirt. There's something to be said for that.

Also known as steamed dicky.

Seriously.

Spotted Dick pudding.

Sounds delicious. Way to go, Heinz.

:D

photo by xris.