Pedal

Photo by night86mare
I’m out. I’m going “off the grid” this weekend and I’m pumped.
Without going into much detail, imagine canoes, beer, lots of friends and family and glassy rock-bottom water so clear you can see the fish swimming along. You start to get the idea.
As I head out, I’ll share this bit of advice from Dick Costolo, [...]

I’m Juiced

Check it out, I’m Juiced (look for me in the upper left, third bullet…).
For those non-local, Juice is the youthful kid sibling to the Des Moines Register (where I worked for a short stint in the sports department).
Usually, if you say you’re in Juice to a friend they assume it’s in the form of a photo [...]

Skeptical? How about a video referral?

I just read Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Sales Bible.
The title isn’t too far off – it’s full of lots of little nuggets for how to better yourself as a salesperson. It’s chunked up into lots of lists of very practical techniques you can put to practice to improve your results.
In a nutshell, it’s not about quick [...]

A simple way to differentiate your brand: Lose the Times New Roman and Arial

A really simple way to create a different footprint with your brand is to use a unique font.
Pretty much everyone in the world seems to use Times New Roman for their serif font (the fonts with the little lines extending from the letter points) and Arial for their sans serif font (…y’know, sans the little [...]

Harvesting creatives

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw this clip on how creatives are “harvested.”
Well done, and cheers to Paul McEnany for pointing to it.

How did you spend your stimulus check?

Have you seen this site yet?
How I Spent My Stimulus.com is a pretty interesting look into our economy at the moment.
There’s people who’ve used the money to teach art in Nicaragua alongside those who’ve bought large murals of Van Morrison.
Personally, mine went into my bank account and it’s probably well gone by now.
How about you? [...]

Tomorrow’s brands and the death of layers

As more and more companies begin to realize how ineffective mass, blind advertising is, significant focus will shift to the identity, voice and social value of the organization itself.
Although, the title of this post is a bit misleading because this isn’t happening overnight. At least not for most of the big guys – or none [...]

Thanks Lexicon

Just wanted to give a public thanks to the good peeps over at Lexicon. They’re a custom publishing shop here in Des Moines. In a nutshell - they’re especially good at helping individuals and organizations share their story.
I stopped by today for a lunch date with a friend. Jim, their photography guru (and casual motorcycle enthusiast), [...]

A list of Des Moines advertising and marketing agencies

I was doing a little research and thought I’d share it with the world. Here’s a list of advertising and marketing agencies based in the greater Des Moines area, their focus (roughly), and links to any blogs they may have:

Big Blue Sky Marketing – Web strategy and commerce; branding
Catchwind – Mobile marketing
Cooper Smith & Co. [...]

You need a manifesto

Anything with purpose needs a manifesto.
You need one. Your company needs one. Your campaign needs one. Your organization needs one.
Maybe it’s on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, framed over your desk. Maybe it’s quietly developed and revealed through thousands of blog posts. Maybe it finds you, perhaps in the form of a fortune [...]