As you’ve probably heard, national hero Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25th. The first human to set foot on the moon, not only was Armstrong smart, he was apparently a great writer. His immortal words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” have gone down in history as one of the greatest quotes of the twentieth century. It’s well deserved—was that not the perfect thing to say? Imagine trying to come up with a tagline for space travel; I can’t imagine a better one. To think, what if Buzz got out there first? And all he said was a loud, “Eat it, Russia!” The moment could have gone an entirely different way.
The one point of contention from Armstrong’s moon landing quote is whether it was “one small step for a man” or simply “one small step for man” as it’s been known. Slate has a great piece on this from a reporter who was actually in on the debate at the time. In that moment, the reporter and others listening to Armstrong just weren’t sure which he said. They collectively agreed there was no “a” and released the quote that way. But Armstrong himself insisted he did say “a man” and the reporters were wrong—even though a cleaned up version of the landing recording supposedly makes it clear there was no “a.” More evidence he has the heart of a writer: we’re stubborn and we can’t stand being rewritten.
Mental Floss has a collection of letters Armstrong wrote that give another glimpse of his writing prowess. In this letter of thanks to the people who designed his spacesuit, you even get a bit of his humor:
To the EMU gang:
I remember noting a quarter century or so ago that an emu was a 6 foot Australian flightless bird. I thought that got most of it right.
It turned out to be one of the most widely photographed spacecraft in history. That was no doubt due to the fact that it was so photogenic. Equally responsible for its success was its characteristic of hiding from view its ugly occupant.
Its true beauty, however, was that it worked. It was tough, reliable and almost cuddly.
To all of you who made it all that it was, I send a quarter century’s worth of thanks and congratulations.
Sincerely,
(Signed) Neil A. Armstrong
This has to be one of the more endearing thank you notes I’ve ever laid eyes on. It’s benevolent, unassuming, and funny in the most charming, self-deprecating way. Armstrong was just a great writer. He could pull off poignancy and humor with equal eloquence—any writer will tell you that’s not an easy feat.
Space travel is all well and good, but the man would have made a great copywriter. And the fact that he can steer a spaceship, well that’s just the sort of color agencies look for on a resume.
Will any of you take me up on this? Unless your job is to operate a computer – get away from your computer!
Get out of the office, and leave it behind, chained to your desk where it belongs.
The best ideas have been received in bars and coffee shops, garages and showers, beds and walks and shopping trips. Digital tools are so seductive, our lust for seeing our idea produced is so overwhelming, we are missing the whole game. A generation of campaigns created inside the box of the tools provided by devices will look old hat, and the first fresh style that comes from another place will stand out like a lightning bolt. Get up. Get up now. Plan a couple of hours. Go have coffee and talk about people and ideas, and scribble on napkins or in your sketch books. Bring back some gold.
When an idea is right, the rough on the cocktail napkin will sell it. Too much executing is a road of pretty pictures that leads to a Hell of mediocrity. Stand up. Stand up now. Take your favorite thinking partner. And go live a little.
Will you take me up on this? It could change your world, and ours.
Any agency worth its salt has a ping pong table. It’s a pervasive phenomenon, but why?
As David Ogilvy said, “When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good advertising.” There’s definitely been research to back that statement up; one study from Australia showed that cruising the internet just for fun during work hours increased productivity in employees. As the study author put it: “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration… Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity.”
A New York Times article says something similar, that concentration is similar to a muscle, “It becomes fatigued after sustained use and needs a rest period before it can recover.” (Read the full article). Their solution is breaks—even better, a break that involves physical activity. We could outfit every agency with a treadmill, but ping pong is conveniently made for teams—perfect for a AD/CW pair.
Next time you are pushing yourself to think to no avail, try a little ping pong. While you probably deserve a break, you might also need one.
On Fast Company last week, Baratunde Thurston, comedian and former Director of Digital for The Onion, recounted a social media anecdote that would make any digital marketer squirm: he mistakenly activated a 3rd party tool for Twitter that spammed The Onion’s entire following every time they got a new follower. While his story may give me nightmares for weeks, the portion of his piece that really stood out was the importance of brand authenticity within the social space:
“For companies that see this new frontier as a marketing opportunity (and that’s basically all of them), it is a thin line between relevant and creepy stalker. You want to be where the conversation is and join it in an ‘authentic’ way, but just because someone is talking about your product does not mean he wants to talk about it with you. Should every human gathering place be targeted for interactive marketing campaigns? How would you feel if you and your friends were out dining, discussing Game of Thrones, and an HBO executive suddenly joined your table screaming, ‘Winter is coming!’”
Social marketing broke down the wall between brand and consumer. It offers such a valuable opportunity for open communication—but with this open communication comes new challenges. Companies need to achieve a seamless social strategy that users will get behind, rather than a “marketing ploy” that users will shy away from. The key to successful social marketing is authenticity.
When approaching social strategy, ask yourself: Would I personally share that post/tweet? What does liking this page say about me as a person? What value does my brand provide to our following? Don’t focus only on what you want your customers to do for you. Define how you want your customers to view your brand. Stay true to your brand voice and engage the users.
We pride ourselves on doing heroic things for our clients. But working with organizations like National Jewish Health puts that kind of heroism in perspective. In our client’s organization, people are routinely retrieved from death’s door, as NJH is recognized as the world’s leader in curing MDR (Multi-Disease Resistant) lung infections. Returning soldiers have hope of better heath and breathing because of National Jewish Health. The best practices of respiratory medicine, the technology that becomes the standard, and the breakthroughs that give people life and breath… it really is true that the people of National Jewish Health NEVER SAY NEVER.
We’re so proud to share the news that National Jewish Health has been rated by US News as the Number One Respiratory Hospital once again for the 15th year in a row.
Loyal readers will know that while I cover sprits regularly, I rarely drink or endorse vodka, which I consider the lowest common denominator in the spirits world. Since the basic idea behind making vodka is to erase all flavor – the opposite of just about everything else we eat or drink – it seems kind of pointless.
Most great spirits have history and strict rules of production – good rum is made from sugarcane, Scotch from malted barley, Bourbon from corn – whereas vodka can be made from virtually anything containing sugar or starch, from potatoes and wheat to beets, grass or soy beans, even maple syrup. Most vodkas are more science project than craft, the result being clear, tasteless, diluted alcohol.
But it does not have to be that way. While vodka can (and usually is) made from inferior ingredients in a highly processed commercial fashion to produce a pedestrian product, there are a handful of producers who take just as much care in every stop of the process as the distillers of other fine spirits, it’s just that they are a lot fewer and farther between. I just found one I am really impressed with, and not merely because it tastes really good. I like everything about Double Cross vodka, from its story to production to ingredients to the bottle. I like the passion, and as vodkas go, Double Cross hit it out of the ballpark. Read the full article here.
Spots for Tradestation and Forex.com made Futures Magazine’s list of the very best of television advertising targeting traders and brokerage customers. Being included on a list along with such huge-budget classics as The E-Trade Baby and other eight-figure advertisers is a proud achievement that we’re delighted to be able to share with these extraordinary clients.
Marketing to traders is a wonderful microcosm of marketing and advertising, where psychology meets economic decision-making at superhighway speeds. We loved working with the team at Forex.com to build the brand and business, and we’re loving every minute of working with the truly extraordinary people at Tradestation on building the strongest and most substantive brand in trading.
Here’s what Future’s Magazine has to say…
Over the last couple decades, trading has gone from a select few traders in Chicago and New York to being accessible to nearly everyone. With accessibility comes advertising. To get noticed by the general public, brokers’ marketing departments are finding more and more creative ways of catching the public’s eye. Read the full article here.
http://youtu.be/YIzj8rNYf04
When it comes to technology, flash and pizazz are not everything. TradeStation makes a nice contrast here explaining what it actually offers customers. By focusing on what actually is important (execution), it highlights just how ridiculous some marketing claims actually are.
This woman knows exactly what she wants, and not just from her trading brokerage. Of course, knowing who can give you what you’re looking for is the real challenge. Watch this one all the way through and you’ll understand what we’re talking about.
It seems like a simple enough truth. It doesn’t take that many Venn diagrams to reach this conclusion. But it’s easy to slip into the pattern of viewing clients as just forces in nature that must be overcome, instead of seeing them for what they really are – human beings who happen to be paying us to solve a some of their problems.
Every time I remember to see clients in the latter light, it makes for a more real conversation and a more successful meeting. And every time I find myself in the former frame of mind, it proves to be a trap. Staying mindful of anything 100% of the time is an impossibly tall order, but over the years I’ve found two little exercises that help me with this one.
1. Think about yourself as a client.
I don’t have to remember that many edit sessions to pull up a time or two when I was, for the editor, a difficult client. Maybe I asked for more options but then came back around to the first one because I needed more context to be sold. Maybe I said something that clouded an issue because I was talking at the end of a long day when I should have been shutting up and going home. Or maybe I said one thing, then got more information or context or time to mull it over, and then, shockingly, changed my mind. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to have reasonable standards for our clients. We should. As should all of the editors I’ve tortured over the years. But that “reasonable standard” has to allow for the flaws that come with being human.
2. Try to understand how hard their job is.
Everyone’s job looks easier from a distance. Clients don’t always realize how much work something requires on the agency side. And the reverse is also true. But even clients have clients – other people in their organizations that they have to answer to. And as much pressure as we feel (rightfully) to show results, they feel it even more acutely and directly. Often, to be the decision maker on the client side is to stake your job on every campaign, or at least a large portion of your credibility. That’s an incredible amount of pressure. And it explains why sometimes decisions take longer than we think they should, or why feedback is sometimes less than crystal clear. It’s our job to help them work through those things – and we’ll be better at it if we also make it our job to do a very simple, very human thing: empathize.
