From Lord's oddly brilliant GLA blog:

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

From Tim Coote's always brilliant and enjoyable blog:

“When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them — And nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — But I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If somebody’s thinking, “How can I be really good?”, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.”

-Steve Martin.

Again from Seth Godin, here's a great little post on Marketing. (It's good to hear it from the horse's mouth:)

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?
* * *

From AdPulp's David Burn:

From Seth Godin's blog:

Most industries innovate from both ends:

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:

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

Happy Monday!

As you kick off the week with your next project or some concept you need to turn into reality, here are some timely words of wisdom from Blue Flavor:
A great design has a point of view. A really great design will make a clear statement. It’ll be unique in a way that doesn’t necessarily mean it stands out, but it’ll be clear that it has something to say. As such, there will usually people who don’t “like it” and that’s not really a bad thing.

A great design isn’t done by committee. I don’t think you can achieve great design if you have to compromise to please many. Design is best done with one clear vision and an enabled designer who everyone involved trusts to bring that vision to life.

The best comment about the SuperBowl's chronically lame half time show I've read yet (from From: johnnynotsid on Buzznet):

Subject: HOW BAD WAS THE SUPERBOWL HALFTIME SHOW?

Don't get me wrong, I like Tom Petty but good GOD. DO SOMETHING!

WHIP YOUR GUITAR AROUND! HEAD BANG! BREAK YOUR HIP! Do SOMETHING!

Worse even than Macca did. I thought after Prince we'd be doing better but no...... We're so worried about another bare titty on a Sunday afternoon that we have to get young Santa Claus.

Booyah. From Experience Matters:

This is a cyclist's worst nightmare. The rogue drunk driver. The teenage girl texting from behind the wheel of her SUV. The angry guy behind the wheel of his pickup. The confused ninety-year-old.

The math is pretty simple: Bike and rider (180lbs) + Car and driver (1,000lbs) = roadkill. That tiny little foam helmet won't protect us against a 60mph impact with the grill of a Ford F150.

From CNN.com:

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- A car plowed into a weekend bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others, police said.

Words of wisdom from Adriana Lukas' Media Influencer, via the Only Dead Fish blog:

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."

Excellent post on Business Pundit earlier this month:

Grossing over $150,000,000 in its first two weekends at the box office, “Iron Man” has come out of the gates as one of the top blockbusters of the year. If you haven’t seen it – believe the hype. Bar none it is the best ‘hero’ movie I’ve seen.

Melody from Melody's Reading Corner tagged me for this meme, which is to sum up your life in 6 words. I can't think of anything other than the following right now (and I know it is too tame!) :

Reading as much as I can

Now for the rules:

Awesome post from Chris Brogan today:

I believe we’re going to shift back to thinking customer service and community management are the core and not the fringe. I believe we’re going to move our communications practices back in-house for lots of what is currently pushed out to agencies and organizations. I believe that integrity, reputation, skills, and personality are going to trump some of our previous measures of professional ability. I believe the web and our devices will continue to move into tighter friendships, and that we will continue to train our devices to interpret more of the world around us on our behalf.

Read the rest here.

A post dear to my heart from Go Big:

Reminds me of this one.

Every time I hear someone use the term “viral marketing,” I cringe. I know it seems like just a word, but I think it’s a concept that misses the mark and perpetuates some half-baked thinking.

Every once in a great while, I cave in to common sense and take a sick day. This was the case today. I rested, I slept, I drank soup and tea,rested some more, and worked my way through a giant box of tissues. The result: This completely derivative post. Read it, follow the link to the original piece, and chew on this idea for a while. In the process, give some thought to the role of design in product development, art, publishing, software, websites, logos, advertising, entertainment, fashion and retail spaces.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone. ;)

"The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new become threatening, the old reassuring."

Starting this week, the BrandBuilder blog will be bringing you a little glimpse of the corporate lifestyle... because we're cool that way... and we don't always have time to actually write full-length articles and whatnot. Below are your first two definitions:

"Drinking The Kool-Aid."

To accept and/or adopt the company's culture and/or delusions, as when a formerly uncooperative or oppositional employee becomes completely brainwashed, thinks management is really great, and clams up when drinking with colleagues after work; a reference to Jim Jones' cult People's Temple whose members committed mass suicide.
Bonus definition: "Employee Assistance Program (EAP)"

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?

From infosthetics.com:

Today, I would like to share some great advice with you, courtesy of Dave Armano's Updated Manifesto:

Ask.

David Burn gives us this (on AdPulp) -

Tim O'Reilly talks about the value of putting people from different disciplines in a room together:

"When you actually ignore reality for years on end, payback's a bitch, brother!"
- Bruce Sterling

From the Strategic Public Relations blog:Research shows that half of the agency/client relationships out there last less than two years. This is from a sample of about 140 companies with an annual marketing spend of at least $2 million, including Citibank, General Mills, IBM, GE, and ESPN.

Just when you start to think that the world has indeed become a global marketplace, something like this shakes you out of your pipe dream. From Reuters, via MSNBC World News:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

Lazare Ponticelli was laid to rest in France today after a memorial service with full military honors.

Who was Lazare Ponticelli?

He was the last surviving French WWI veteran.

Tom Asacker brings us another priceless bit of insight about building brands in these chaotic times: