Password suggestion

Pop-up window from ADP website while surfing on Chrome: 

"Please make your New Password different"!

404: LinkedIn

Interesting: The text on the slippery-when-wet-sign could be highlighted for copy/paste purposes.

YouTube - Channel - User interface tour

YouTube.com

Pinterest - Desktop - User interface tour

https://www.pinterest.com/

Click here for tour of iOS

Escalator broken, sorry for the convenience.

Escalator broken = stair case.

Marketing Stew: Ingredient #3

Marketing Stew, ingredient #3: Create scarcity

The new Google Maps is promoted with a button that says, "Request an invite"

Update on June 7, 2013: I received an email later that confirmed my involvement. When I clicked the link within the email message this page opened.

Congratulations! You're in.

Get ready to try the new Google Maps.

Button label: Start Exploring

Gang has new weapons, Kmart catalogue is available!

Reading an article about Gang violence, this ad appears.

The Facebook advertisement algorithm is working really well.

Elmo says F is for...

Came across this fail page on Sesame Street's website. The flash player did not work
and instead of the lego, they gave me this.

iTunes Welcome screen

Gutter-balls are bad

I think everyone can agree that in bowling a gutter-ball is a bad thing.

Yesterday as I celebrated several gutter-balls at the alley with my coworkers, I wondered how a rut and a groove can have such drastically different connotations.

I am sure you have heard the expression, 
"After he graduated school, he got into a rut. Then later that year, he got into a groove."

Was Louie up, then down; or down then up?

Here is a roll of tape.

Are the arrows indicating the direction of the tape, or the direction of the pull tab?

Affect leads to an Effect

This one is always tricky to remember.

My memory hook is to think of the alphabet. A comes before E.

Affect is an Action.
Effect is a rEsult.

Gold inside an egg (carton)

"This is the Day which the Lord has made: Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalms 118.24

Snow-tober

Good morning Oct 30, 2012

That, which

Recently I realized a rule of thumb to rely on in regard to using "that" or "which."

My pod mate (new age cubicles), Marshall, said:
The phrase following "that" effectively becomes an adjective and is necessary information to define the object.
The phrase following "which" is information not necessary to the object
It also should be preceded by a comma.

So...
The wicked witch lives in a castle that is haunted.
The wicked witch lives in a castle, which is in the east.

Office job with a view

Saw these guys on my way in to work today. I wonder if they zip line at the end of the shift.

G.E.I.Co

I just learned that GEICO is an acronym for Government Employees Insurance Company.

Despite the presence of the word "government" in its name, GEICO has always been a private corporation not affiliated with any government organization. (Via Wikipedia)

Ask for a car wash

My sister just got a new car and she negotiated free car wash service for life.

The tesla roadster base package is $109,000. Apparently no car wash service included.

Walk and chew bubble gum?

On a call I tried to load a webpage in Safari and received this message:

I could gripe about the technology, but then AT&T would rub my nose in it even more. So instead I will call out the use of quotations. 

I appreciate that a reason was provided, yet the use of quotations makes me think the tone is sarcasm as if it were coming from "AT&T. ".   [sic]

Steep and Cheap - Web survey overlay

No Community for you

Well, which device is it available on?

Please Don't Go, Stick Around for 0 More Emails

Typically I delete the spam and junk mail that I receive. Ever so often I spend time finding the 'unsubscribe' link buried at the bottom of the email and try to prevent unwanted emails from ever coming. 

Today the unsub link brought be here: 

Although it seemed a little bit like they were begging for mercy, I was impressed by the second option 'I'll try [ ] more Emails'

The field was defaulted to zero though, which I found odd. At least change it to 1.
I was very curious to see if those last few emails would have included anything extra as to allure me into unsubscribing or if perhaps there would be a confirmation or warning email that our last agreement was about to end. 

What do you think?

Put it in reverse

In like a lamb...

Leap day spiked at 70f

And then crocus' pop up.

An elevated point of view

29th floor of nationwide plaza 1

A.S.I.C.S.

Experience ColumbUS

On March 8 I went to the Experience Columbus Annual Meeting.

Among other awesome speeches, they also unveiled the new logo/campaign for the bicentennial.

Building the anticipation

Skyline Exhibits of Central Ohio hosted a great seminar on Sept 16, 2010.  It covered the marketing insights and ideas for a good tradeshow booth.  Here are my notes:

SESSION #1: MARKETING AT TRADE-SHOWS
Kim Allen, Sudden Impact Marketing 

Pre-show Message:
Build the whole presentation around the message
Make it easy to understand
Concise
Help people get to the show - send them tickets, tell them where your booth is located,
Buy a database or use your current list. If you are exhibiting you might have access to attendee names.
Promote your booth well in advance via multiple channels (online, direct mail, print, radio, email, etc.)
A phone campaign can go a long way.
Consider sponsoring the show, your name can then be more visible

At the show
Explore opportunities for having your name to be more than just at your booth.
The large hotels near the show might have sponsor options
get a list of attendees that are staying at the hotel
hang a banner in the hotel
sponsor doorknob hang tags
closed circuit ads

Follow-up
phone/email/visits
take notes during your conversations so when you follow-up the conversation can continue
Nurture the leads with visits and a planned follow-up schedule
Put your company name right in the subject line 

SESSION #2: LEAD MANAGEMENT
Fred Tuzzi, TriComB2B

You need a system that allows leads to come in, qualify, follow-ups

Paying for a badge scanner is a good idea

Suggested timeline:
Show
post-show email with link to micro site with mini survey.
*call them, identify if hot, cold, or non-lead
hot leads go to sales
cold leads get email a month later
Repeat*
hot to sales
cold to trash

BOOTH DESIGN
Kyle Hickman, Cult Marketing

Discover- ethnography quality trumps quantity
Develop- take info from D1 and create a brand strategy (operations, products, marketing)
Deliver- brand roadmap

Plan of attack - Establish your goals
why are you there?
what results do you want?
a plan that leads your audience towards your goal
goal options- traffic and leads, awareness, show/demo product

Message
know your audience
persuade through emotion
convince them rationally

Attract from a distance
even before they are at your booth they should want to find your booth
create visual interest

Get them inside your booth
popcorn
consider the traffic flow - there needs to be an in/out and a pit stop

Show them the way to your goal
[Christine - painting girls on hillside barn, sun in sky]
Dominant, subdominant, subordinate

Deliver the goods
Staff appropriately
make an impression
hand out efficient materials

Research
hire a third party to call your target clients and ask them who they plan to see and why
ask your clients what they liked about your booth and adjust

And to top it off, I won the raffle prize of a lunch bag from TriComB2B

The need to help

Pawan Murthy spoke at the October 5, 2010 Columbus Young Professionals networking breakfast, here are my notes.

Psychological Egoism - there is no deed that is unselfish (selfless)

I am ok with this theory. If everyone did this and realized it was beneficial, it would happen a lot more often.

Steve Geyer, Founder Shadowbox

The people who know you denots the currency of your success (quality  and quantity, ex: 1M pesos vs 10USD)

Dont put all your emotional eggs in one basket. If you spread things out when something fails all is not lost.

Guard your reputation with you life.

What struggles have you overcome?
What struggles are you working to overcome?

Consider helping others out.  A good way to decide how you want to help is by reviewing the needs of persons.  Maslow's hierarchy is a framework of an individuals needs.

I wonder, is there a group hierarchy of needs framework?
Where do you help?

You, inc.

Ben Blanquera was the guest speaker at the December 2010 CYP CLUB networking breakfast. Here are my notes:

1. What are the five most important things to me? 
2. What are the five areas of my life to which I dedicate the most time? 
3. Do they align? 

Consider treating yourself and guideing your decisions as if you were a incorporated business.

Your assets would be:

1. What you know 
2. Who you know 
3. (I would add, Who knows you)

Also, consider this:

No cutting corners

Wendy served me today!
She seemed reluctant to get her picture taken.  I would think that if she would dress like Wendy she would ham it up.
No worries, I still enjoyed my Jr Bacon Cheesburger

Lizard man

I went to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) in Orlando, Florida.

"Ripley's Believe It or Not" had a booth. The Lizard Man is as a cool guy. Which one do you think is real?

Thanks to Shana for taking my photo with my non-user friendly phone.

I saw this outside of the AMC theatre in the Lennox town centre.  Not sure what they are doing with all the trees. For a moment I felt like The Lorax.

An Evening with Matt Groening

Matt Groening discussed his career in comics and television with Tom Gammill, an acclaimed writer/producer/cartoonist, who has written for such programs as Seinfeld, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Simpsons.

After Groening and Gammill came out, they thanked everyone for coming and introduced a video with some of their favorite clips, also it had some cool entrance music.

Groening shared some great examples of his early work on Life Is Hell and shared his inspirations.

By the end of the session they welcomed questions from the audience.  I didn't have a full idea of what I wanted to ask, but I could not resist the chance to ask something to the creator of The Simpsons.

Only moments after my question I started thinking of better questions.

• "Mr Groening, thanks for coming out tonight.  Could you share how The Simpsons has had to deal with pressure from the networks to include in-show advertising?"
• "Throughout all your experiences what has been the biggest frustration or struggle and how have you dealt with it, and what did it teach you?"

I can't recall the exact question or my phrasing, but it was something to the effect of "You had already mentioned a little about how other cartoons have been an inspiration, can you comment on how Itchy and Scratchy were created and maybe the influence of Tom and Jerry?"  

Groening responded with yeah [something, something]  and then I asked if they ever really completed an episode - especially the one when the nerds unplugged the TV.  He's tried to pitch a full episode of Itchy and Scratchy but it was not received well by the other writers, and so they have never written an full episode.

Here is a follow-up article by the Dispatch

Recently I was downtown and I noticed the bicycle posts were masked for painting.  This seemed normal, except when I got to this bicycle post.  

At first glance I thought the rider made a bad decision by locking on a post which obviously was going to be painted.

Then upon closer inspection I noticed the rider was an early-bird, and not a do-do.

Car powered by ... wind?

There is something new on the skyline of Northwest Central Ohio, a 150 foot wind turbine.

Apparently Byers Auto Group decided to build a wind turbine so as to be nice to the environment.

My estimation is that it is the most extreme of attraction stunts.

Ohio Department of Development Export Awards Luncheon

Ohio DOD Global Export Awards luncheon.

One of the honorees was the Columbus Washboard Company.  I was entertained to learn that they are the last US manufacturer of washboards.

Digital non conference 9-22-10

Notes from September 22, 2010 Digital Non-conference lunch discussion panel (left to right):

• Dave Knox- CMO, Rockfish (moderator)
• America Ferrera - "Ugly Betty"
• Pete Blackshaw - EVP Digital Strategic Services, Nielsen Online
• Drew Buckley- COO, Electus 

Some interesting stats from a video by Nielsen Catalina Ventures

• 59% of us families use TV and the net simultaneously
• By 2020 less than 30% of us households will have kids and most will be multicultural
• 1 in 4 ppl have access to a pc in world

How will the telenovela change things?

BUCKLEY: The Hispanic audience in LA is greater than the population of Chicago. We have to consider building entertainment beyond Univision or Telemundo. So we took the concept of "Pedro and Maria" to MTV. 

But there are problems with who gets the international rights. The network wants rights to produce the concept or shows in order to develop varaiations abroad.

What does digital media do to help you sell?

FERRERA:  The content has to be good first and foremost.  I didn't have choice of having a digital image or not, it was more so deciding to manage it or not.  For example: my friends would text and say, "I'm following you [on Twitter]" and I didn't even know what they meant at the time.   

Digital media has really helped me stay in touch with the fan base.  For example: on my birthday I would say to my fans, "for my bday donate a few bucks to this fund to build schools."   

Pedro and Maria is a great example to develop mainstream shows.  Growing up I was a Latina, but at the same time I was a Latina-teen in a USA surrounding.  

What impact do you see digital involvement impacting success of brands?

BUCKLEY: Fred was successful on YouTube so execs took him and developed his work into traditional media.  It was a risk to take digital to television, but the reality is, is that he brought the viewers.   

A big question is, how do you get the two connected?   Fantasy football has what it takes, since guys are interested to watch on TV and track on-line.

BLACKSHAW: The trifecta of paid media was this year: olympics, soccer, super bowl

BUCKLEY: Fan clubs don't have presidents (or leadership) it is self-lead and evolves all on it's own.

FERRERA: I recently did the first FaceBook talk show about the Dry Land and thousands of people now know about an independent film which otherwise they may not have learned of it since there was no marketing dollars available.

Having the status updates come from the source as opposed to a fan club president garners a much better response.

What do you see the role of brands in future entertainment?

BUCKLEY: It will be hard for brands to reach consumers via broadcast.  Keep in mind Twitter was not part of our lexicon 2008.  The goal then is to identify the solid story so branding can be built upon it.

BLACKSHAW:  Brands will evolve into more of an experience.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS:
What would you have done differently in franchising biggest lose?

BUCKLEY: The Biggest Loser started working with Subway and 24/7 Fitness and other sponsors and help them get media buys.

How do you balance authenticity of a personal brand versus a "faceless" brand?

BLACKSHAW:  How to stay authentic? I make sure I believe in the content and It will be good.  If you compromise the show with poor brand content it will for sure get you.

How do address the negative things in social media?

BLACKSHAW: I don't address them, rather I move toward the things that are popular. It was scary to put myself out there since there were not boundaries. When something bad does happen usually the other fans attack the villan

BUCKLEY:  Sometimes the best approach for monitoring social media is to let it float (whether good or bad), and see where it goes.

How will the social-media interactions play out on Pedro and Maria?

BUCKLEY: We are just getting into the planning and development and writing, butt it will cover things like advising/deciding what music will play when they first kiss.  Just like The Hills decision of LC going to France vs staying with boy friend.

Population of Hispanic in LA is equal to the population of Chicago. How will you balance the need for local markets (ex Midwest, east cost)?

BUCKLEY:  It doesn't mean that it is just in south west. It has to be about content, the fact that they are Latino is nonessential.

BLACKSHAW:  Most people have an latent desire to be Latino.

--

The discussion panel was really enjoyable and it opened my eyes to the trends of where television shows are headed.  I plan to attend the full non-conference next year.

Cats and Dogs

The Siberian Lynx has the largest hind leg among the felines. When running on snow the unique leg allows weight to be distributed over more area (much like a snow shoe) this trait is especially beneficial when chasing fast food.

At this moment this frisky feline noticed was eyeing the dingo, the zookeeper said the Lynx would be very happy to take the canine to dinner (if you know what I mean.)

I got to see these animals and a few other while at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Dinner of Champions which was held at the Columbus Zoo.

Congratulations to Jack Hanna for being named Columbus Dinner of Champions Honoree.

Friday was on fire

Sarah and I made the trip downtown for the free show of WaterFire and Ballet Met's preview show. It was a lot of fun.