peep the technique

Communication Dedication: 15 Amazing Graphic Designers

2009-10-12T22:24:00.000-05:00

Communication Dedication: 15 Amazing Graphic Designers: "

What is it that makes a truly effective piece of graphic design? Is it just the skill that allows an artist to balance shape, color, texture, typography, photography and negative space to send a message – or is there a bit of magic to it? Creative talent is a tricky and elusive thing for most of the population, but some lucky people have it in spades.

These 15 graphic designers have managed to create work that stands out in a crowded field, using a diverse array of techniques, programs and materials.

Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis is one of the most influential talents in the history of graphic design, with an incredibly vast portfolio of work that has made a deep impression upon many other graphic artists worldwide. Davis, who is now a professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts, pioneered a type of graphic design that utilizes Flash-based programs that he created himself to build images of “dynamic abstraction”, as Davis himself describes them.

“Working this way allows me to generate an infinite number of compositions,” Davis explains in an Apple Pro Profile. “I set the boundaries and the rules, but whatever comes out at the end is a surprise. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It could look cool. It could fail. It could be life-changing. There’s always a surprising sense of discovery with this process, because I’m setting up an environment and allowing a scenario to live within it.”

Pawel Kaminski

There’s a sense of movement and urgency in every single one of Pawel Kaminski’s designs, something that gives them a vitality that can’t be ignored. Kaminski, of Poland, is quoted by SpeckyBoy as saying “I wouldn’t attribute my design passion to any serious philosophy, I feel this is a good way for artists and designers, you have to be open to most adventures from life. And sometimes a simple lack of words can be easily expressed through illustrations and art, design what you love.”

Chuck Anderson

If there’s one element that ties all of Chuck Anderson’s creations together, it’s light. Anderson’s work is bursting with light effects that make his designs crackle with intensity. The prolific young designer has worked with an impressive range of clients including Paste Magazine, ESPN, Reebok, Absolut Vodka and Honda.

Anderson told Abduzeedo, “I don’t think I really have a set source of inspiration. To be honest, I just really love creating things that are striking and fun and vibrant. Things that jump out as far as color goes. You’ll see in my work a lot of times really intense light and color – I really enjoy creating things that feel supernatural and like they came straight out of my imagination.”

Dries Schaballie

Graphic design, concept art, art direction, illustration, 3-D modelling – Dries Schaballie does it all. Co-founder and director of Sevenedge Interactive Media, Schaballie has a fascinating portfolio of works that are alternately dreamlike, gritty and playful.

Simone Magurno

San Francisco-based, Italian-born graphic designer Simone Magurno has worked with Nike, Microsoft, Xbox, Target, GAP and many other clients and her work has been featured in Computer Arts Magazine and Digital Arts Magazine. Her designs, which are often web-based, have a clean, slick, modern quality that really allows the content to shine.

I Love Dust

The team at ‘I Love Dust’ design – one part Icelandic, five parts English and one part Chinese – can’t be separated from one another when it comes to their work, but their designs speak for themselves. Specializing in graphic design, illustration, motion graphics and product design, this team of creative powerhouses has one of the most distinctive styles in the biz.

Erik Finsrud/The Norik

Erik Finsrud, known as ‘The Norik’, went to school for audio engineering but fell in love with design somewhere along the way and now spends his days creating colorful graphic art for clients like Spike TV, Nestle, 1800 Tequila and Universal.

On his website, Finsrud notes, “Design to me, is about stripping away arbitrary distractions from the communicated message. Aesthetically I feel a design should be stimulating to the point of curiosity. A lot of my work also falls into illustration, which I feel is more about creating a visceral experience, although I still have a tendency to apply the minimalist principles of design.”

Paul Lee

Graphic designer Paul Lee of Los Angeles has worked with Lexus, Acura, Google, Adobe and Sony. His work has a characteristic elegant iciness to it that makes it all the more memorable, and results in a cohesive portfolio that reads almost like one continuous piece of sophisticated design.

David Mascha

Vienna-based artist and designer David Mascha who has been working with several different design studios since 2005. Mascha’s work has been displayed in exhibitions in Asia and Europe, print magazines and books and has also appeared on lamps, furniture and clothing. Mascha has a whimsical abstract style, employing bright colors and bold patterns and shapes against stark backgrounds for maximum graphic effect.

Kevin Lucius

Kevin Lucius is a graphic designer from Columbus, Ohio. Among his more recent work, an interesting retro modern aesthetic has emerged, mixing vintage colors, textures and imagery with clean, modern shapes.

Julien de Repentigny

Bold, exciting, fresh and most of all, fun: all of these words can be used to describe the work of Montreal graphic designer Julien de Repentigny. Typography takes center stage in three-dimensional designs created from materials like paper, ice and candy. Such unusual physical methods of creating his work might just make him the antithesis of completely computer-reliant graphic designers.

Kofi Ansah

Ghana-born, Italy-raised and UK-based graphic designer Kofi Ansah is only 20 years old, but his eye-catching work leaves little doubt that he has a long and distinguished career ahead of him. Ansah is currently an undergraduate student at the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in Chislehurst, Kent.

Formtroopers

Creative partners Toke Blicher Moller and Jeppe Bingestam, a.k.a Formtroopers, run a full-service progressive design studio in Denmark with a particular focus on motion and graphic design. Clients include MTV, The Discovery Channel, Pepsi and Warner Music.

Rob Morris

Australian graphic designer Rob Morris describes his style as “heavily influenced from the modernist school of design, employing simple shapes and clean typography.” His work has appeared in online design galleries, magazines and books worldwide and his clients include government departments, Broadway.com and rapper Jay-Z.

Justin M. Maller

Another Aussie, Justin M. Maller, has an altogether different style that focuses on his immense talent for illustration – but also, coincidentally, did design work for Jay-Z. Maller, based in Melbourne, has produced concept art for a diverse array of companies worldwide and is the creative director of depthCORE, an international modern art collective.

More Awesome Recycled Works from Trash Artists

Why waste money and add to the world's waste by buying art materials when there are so many strange and interesting objects out there to use for design projects instead?

17 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

Wonderwall

2009-10-12T21:30:00.002-05:00

Wonderwall

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8 Tricks That Will Help You Connect With the Right People

2009-10-12T14:46:00.003-05:00

8 Tricks That Will Help You Connect With the Right People

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From my boy David Neff's blog

2009-10-09T14:07:00.002-05:00

501derful.org – Info Lust Friday

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22 Awesome Adobe AIR Applications for Designers

2009-10-09T11:39:00.002-05:00

22 Awesome Adobe AIR Applications for Designers

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How Twitter changed the circulation information

2009-10-08T21:57:00.004-05:00

Read the full story.

45 Inspirational Corporate Website Designs | Inspiration | instantShift

2009-10-08T21:43:00.002-05:00

45 Inspirational Corporate Website Designs | Inspiration | instantShift

The Only SEO Tools You’ll Ever Need - Nettuts

2009-10-08T21:37:00.002-05:00

The Only SEO Tools You’ll Ever Need - Nettuts

25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together | Webdesigner Depot

2009-10-08T21:16:00.002-05:00

25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together | Webdesigner Depot

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25 Black & White Minimalistic Web Designs - Webitect

2009-10-08T20:54:00.004-05:00

25 Black & White Minimalistic Web Designs - Webitect

20 Free Useful Tools for Designers and Developers | Presidia Creative

2009-09-14T00:33:00.001-05:00

20 Free Useful Tools for Designers and Developers | Presidia Creative

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The consumer decision journey - McKinsey Quarterly - Marketing - Strategy

2009-09-14T00:24:00.003-05:00

No more funnels? Things aren't that simple. Read more: The consumer decision journey - McKinsey Quarterly - Marketing - Strategy

The Art & Science of Seductive Interactions

2009-04-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

The Art & Science of Seductive Interactions

View more presentations from Stephen Anderson.

An Internet Watered Down

2009-04-13T16:20:00.001-05:00

Caught this preso today and thought it was too good not to share. Spread the word and demand more from your mobile internet experience

An Internet Watered Down

View more presentations from johnep.

Leadership Manifesto

2009-04-01T20:38:00.002-05:00

Great article on leadership from by George Ambler on The Practice of Leadership blog. Check out some highlights below:

Leaders shape the future. Leaders bring change and challenge the status quo. If there is no need for change, then there is no need for leadership.
Leadership is a choice. Leadership is a choice to live our a vision and purpose daily. Leadership does not just happen.
Leaders are made and not born. Leaders know who they are, understand their unique purpose, strengths and skills. They use who they are to bring their vision into the present.
Leaders live their vision. They become the change that they want to see in the world. They set the example and show the way.
Leaders incite conversation. Leadership is about making a difference and driving change which stimulates conversation and debate. The ideas that get talked about are the ones worth talking about.
Leaders understand that character matters. Character establishes the foundation for trust. Without trust you cannot lead.
Leaders invest in themselves. Leaders take care of their spiritual, emotional, mental and physical needs.
Leaders are results focused. Leaders initiate and make things happen.
Leaders inspire. Leaders cannot achieve their visions alone. They inspire others to come alongside and participate in the journey.
Leaders develop others. Leaders are always looking to develop others.

Seven Unthinkable Ideas From SXSW Interactive 2009

2009-03-29T20:59:00.002-05:00

Check out this interesting Advertising Age article by Patrica Martin on trends uncovered at SXSWi.

Some highlights:

having a higher purpose is more than a good idea, it creates a striving culture that delivers to the bottom line.
Marketing and customer experience are the same thing.
in a knowledge economy people hate feeling like they suck at something. Consumers like to master cognitive tasks.
the internet has made "free" a disruptive force -- deal with it or die.
get real and personal to win audiences and advertisers.

Being Imaginative, Original and Fresh

2009-03-25T12:26:00.003-05:00

Thank you Idea Sandbox!

Chase more lions

2009-03-17T12:18:00.004-05:00

Found this AWESOME quote about life and risk taking today on George Ambler's Blog, The Practice of Leadership. Click here to read the original post.

“Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!”

Your greatest regret at the end of your life will be the lions you didn’t chase!

Emotional vs Rational Branding

2009-03-05T11:41:00.003-06:00

Great article on Karin Koonings' blog, The Essential Orange, on brands and companies creating emotional connections.

Peep it!

MSN's Wonderwall

2009-03-03T01:10:00.004-06:00

Have you guys discovered MSN's Wonderwall?

The site's killer feature is a scrolling wall that is a grid of photos. Mouse over for a snippet or click for more info & links. It's pretty cool, interactive and a great design. The site is probably not as tacky as it's competitors and thus may not grab the eyeballs it deserves but at least the UX doesn't leave you wanting some kind of cleanse.

How to Be Incredible

2009-03-02T23:49:00.003-06:00

Found this great article on Derek Halpern's blog Prevential that lists 15 Steps to Be Incredible, outlining how to achieve your goals and start your journey of success.

Have sources of inspiration to share? List them in the comments section and lift the world up, one reader at a time.

Transparency is the new marketing

2009-03-02T17:54:00.002-06:00

Very thoughtful article by Clay Shirky on the McKinsey What Matter's website about perception, reality and transparency. This may be bad news for those who aspire to influence... or is it? Read more here - "Transparency is the new marketing."

6 Ways To Make Web2.0 Work

2009-03-02T11:40:00.002-06:00

Check this out!

Kaizen vs Field of Dreams

2009-03-02T01:58:00.003-06:00

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy which focuses on continuous improvement using small steps. Modern businesses who understand our new digital world, and the hyper-competitiveness it breads, recognize their audience's need for fresh content and regular interaction. Now content is a broad term and the distribution can be varied but what's often underestimated is the consumers desire to be communicated with and reminded of a brand's promise. Meeting that demand requires an adherence to a philosophy of continuous improvement to all customer touchpoints but specifically web properties.

As I get off my soapbox, check out a great post I rediscovered by Dmitry Fadeyev that speaks about Strategic Website Design and reminds me how dead the "If you build it, they will come" strategy truly is. However, what is very much alive is believing in order for the incredible to come true, you must first believe in the impossible.

Brand Fushion - DC & Agnes B

2009-03-02T01:17:00.003-06:00

File this one under:

Don't be afraid to take risks
Believe in your customers willingness to follow your leadership
Merging brands builds brands (if executed well)
Collaboration inspires

Check out this lil project with DC Shoes & French Designer Agnes B. Only 1500 pairs being manufactured worldwide and something tells me they will not be making it to my home town. So if you're interested in doing some early birthday shopping I'm a size 11 (americano).

Read to Achieve

2009-03-02T01:05:00.004-06:00

Looking for business inspiration or a good read? Check out this cool list of 100 Best Business Books from the guys behind 800-CEO-Read. Good stuff here on Leadership, Management, Strategy, Marketing and Innovation. A lot of actionable stuff here too. View the full list of books here.

Have some books that have inspired you that aren't on the list? Post them in the comment section and make the world a smarter place.

Experience Inspires Loyalty - for brands too

2009-03-02T00:52:00.008-06:00

Check out this great e-book on customer experience from Bruce Temkin. Some great insights into how to stay focused on experience based differentiation. Sometimes the obvious only seems obvious after you've seen it written down - thus making it not obvious and why you should read it. (Even I can be as profound Yogi Berra.)

Read more of Bruce's insights in his blog Customer Experience Matters.

Explore the world (and origins) of Patagonia Apparel

2009-03-02T00:34:00.004-06:00

I love interactive websites & authentic brands. It's refreshing to experience Patagonia's Tin Shed - it's cool, attractive, functional and full of great content. Click here to check it out!

Have a favorite branded microsite or branded content? Share it in the comments section and help promote creativity and elegant execution.

Great article on the Customer Experience

2009-02-17T14:51:00.003-06:00

Read more about the 6 Laws of Customer Experience here or download the pdf.

100 Best Business Books of All-Time

2009-02-10T15:10:00.001-06:00

Trouble finding some good reading? Check out this great list of the Business Books.

Get things done with Productive Magazine

2008-11-24T01:31:00.002-06:00

Click on image to read issue!

IKEA’s Guerrilla Interior Design in Russia

2008-11-16T17:50:00.000-06:00

From PSFK

IKEA undertook an interesting publicity stunt in Novosibirsk, Russia recently. The ubiquitous home furnishings company completely decked out four subway cars in IKEA gear. Seats were upholstered in colorful fabric and curtains hung from the windows. Nice (legal) guerrilla style interior design. It would be great to see more of this stuff - understated advertising that actually improves a space.

McDonalds goes unbranded in Japan

2008-11-16T17:43:00.000-06:00

From PSFK

McDonalds recently launched a campaign to bring the quarter pounder burger to Japan, which includes the converting of two of their locations in Tokyo into exclusive Quarter Pounder shops, but in an interesting move they are positioned under a completely new identity and as such are missing the McDonalds brand.

Instead of golden arches these restaurants have a sleek, minimalist black interior with Le Corbusier sofas, red and black packaging, and a style quite unlike any other of the company’s previous refits. The menu consists of single and double Quarter Pounders only, a new name for the Japanese consumer and one that McDonalds are very cleverly promoting. The temporary brand silence is carefully undeceptive, encouraging consumers to find out more- a competition running alongside the launch asks applicants to name the fast food chain who launched the Quarter Pounder in Japan and win a sightseeing trip to America.

Greed, stupidity and bad luck

2008-11-16T17:28:00.003-06:00

Sci-Fi Producers propel us towards future media integration aka TransMedia

2008-11-09T21:06:00.003-06:00

The nerds won the war a long time ago and now they/we (bc we're one world) are bring a new bend to multi-channel cross-promotions.

Read More about TransMedia, the beauty of back-end deals and Tribal Marketing.

Police State Marketing

2008-11-09T20:54:00.003-06:00

Read how Trent Reznor and NIN used Alternative Reality Gaming to promote their new album. Pretty cool!

MadMen and their brilliance

2008-10-05T17:16:00.003-05:00

Spotted this article in New York Mag and thought it was a very interesting review of some of the most successful ad campaigns. Check out "The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold" and see which one grabs you the most.

What's Next In Marketing & Advertising

2008-05-27T10:02:00.000-05:00

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81 - One Line Marketing Ideas

2008-05-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

81 One Line Marketing Ideas - Upload a doc

Brand vs Utility

2008-03-13T14:22:00.000-05:00

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Money Quotes presentation shares tasty nuggets from THE MYTHS OF INNOVATION

2008-03-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

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Follow-up: Genius pays off!

2008-03-10T16:17:00.004-05:00

CP+G's Burger King campaign rocked (as I mentioned in a previous post) and now there is data to show just how succesful the campaign was with viewers and in boosting sales.

Read the WSJ article here.

Little Book of Leadership Powerpoint

2008-03-09T23:44:00.001-05:00

| View | Upload your own

Check out my new obsession

2008-03-09T22:59:00.002-05:00

Obsession is a strong word but I really dig video online. So I created a blog to archive and share some of my favorites. Check it out by clicking here!

Best Kept Marketing Secrets

2008-02-08T17:23:00.000-06:00

Some really good tips on this post from Small Business Trends. Here are a few favorites:

◊ Toby Bloomberg, Diva Marketing – “Forget what your mama or your preacher taught you. The Golden Rule does NOT work for developing marketing strategy. Your customers do not want to be treated “as you would like to be treated.” In understanding your customers you might discover that their values, needs and expectations differ from yours. New Golden Rule For Marketers: Do Unto Your Customers As THEY Would Like To Be Treated.”

◊ Andy Birol, Author of “The 5 Catalysts to 7 Figure Growth” – “In striving to please their customers, too many marketers believe they must exceed expectations. Better yet, marketers should just ask and listen, for what they will learn and hear is often a different, more modest need, which when fulfilled, will profitably delight the customer.”

◊ John Battelle, Searchblog – “The best kept secret in marketing is to invest your time in eliciting and responding to your customer’s feedback, even if it’s negative. It’s the secret to building a network of evangelists who keep on giving back to your business ….”

How Nike Just did it!

2008-02-08T16:47:00.000-06:00

This is an extract from CNBC of Dan Wieden of W+K talking about how they came up with the legendary Just Do It slogan for Nike.

You can catch the whole show on CNBC on February 12th.

Via W+K

Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets

2008-02-01T00:40:00.000-06:00

Check out what some of the world's best marketers and business experts consider the best kept marketing secrets.

Click here to read blog article

Search Marketing Fact Pact

2008-01-25T15:23:00.000-06:00

Ad Age just published a new report on search marketing. Below are some of the stats that are most interesting, you can also read the complete search marketing report.

People ignore PPC ads 88.5% of the time - the PPC ad click through rate is only 11.5% in total. This means that SEO is a critical tactic for reaching the vast majority of people who ignore ads.
Marketers are shifting budget from outbound marketing to inbound marketing - 20% are shifting budget from print advertising and 16% from direct mail to search marketing.
31% of searches contain 4 or more words - about 1/3 of searches are for long and unique phrases.
65% of marketers who do PPC ads manage less than 500 keywords in their campaigns - most companies have a relatively small set of keywords that apply to their business.
There were 9.82 billion searches in the US in August 2007. There are over 3,500 searches in the US per second.
Google hired 5,000 people in 2006, doubling their workforce, and on average Google generates $950,000 in revenue for each employee it has

Lessons from a Startup CEO

2008-01-21T21:29:00.000-06:00

"12 Learnings From My First Turn As Startup CEO"

GREAT article from Jason Goldberg formerly of Jobster.com sharing some of his experience and wisdom guiding a startup company. Goldberg shares some amazing growth that I am sure came at a cost to himself personally and professional. Good luck in your future endeavors amigo!

Email Marketing Data

2008-01-21T14:03:00.000-06:00

Ever need to get information about email marketing? Trends, best practices, tips & tricks? Check out EmailStatCenter.com, might just be what you need.

Leaders Are Rarely the Best Performers

2008-01-21T10:48:00.000-06:00

Leaders Are Rarely the Best Performers

A symphony conductor is usually a good musician, but seldom a world-class performer. The most effective university deans are often not the best professors. The ability to lead … to Engage Others and to Turn Them On … rarely coincides with being at the tip-top of the … Individual Performance Heap.

- Tom Peters

Leadership is kinda like kissing... everyone thinks they are good at it
but only a few people know what they are really doing.

Paris knows branding

2008-01-15T11:46:00.000-06:00

"Paris Hilton is some sort of branding genius. She inspires me."

— Alex Bogusky, chief creative officer, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Read the Fast Company Article
Learn more about CP+B

Must have email marketing tools

2008-01-11T20:53:00.000-06:00

Check out these great e-mail marketing tools and blog posts from Melinda Krueger and MediaPost.

Post 1
Post 2

Helpful Firefox extensions

2008-01-07T11:20:00.000-06:00

Check out Graywold's SEO Blog and this great list of Firefox extensions.

Kwik-E-Mart equaled Kwik-E-Sales

2008-01-06T20:23:00.000-06:00

From John Moore's Brand Autopsy blog

The Simpsons movie tie-in with 7-11 got lots of digital ink last summer. Marketers, like Jake McKee, raved about it and shared photos galore. Evangelists created a blog about it. Even Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield cooed about it.

No doubt ... 3 out of 4 marketers would agree this movie promotion was a creative success. What about a sales success? After all, sales is the true measure of a marketing campaign.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the promotion was a sales success.

"The 7-Eleven chain ... saw major sales lifts at the 11 U.S. stores that were converted for the month of the promotion. The company says total merchandise sales doubled; fresh bakery sales increased sevenfold and customer count went up almost 50%.

Moreover, 7-Eleven says the promotion garnered about $7 million in free publicity. The 7-Eleven Web site on July 11 received 10,420,730 hits. The site typically gets an average of about 400,000 hits a day."

Did the record companies hand Apple a million dollar business?

2008-01-06T18:27:00.000-06:00

Stumbled upon this great Wired article on digital music and found an interesting explanation of what transpired between record companies and Steve Jobs to allow for Apple's dominance in digital music distribution. Check out the blurb and the entire article. It's kinda fun watching the metamorphosis of the music business.

From the article "Universal's CEO Once Called iPod Users Thieves. Now He's Giving Songs Away"

As Steven Levy writes in The Perfect Thing, his 2006 book about the iPod, when Apple was trying to start iTunes as an online music store it had trouble convincing the major labels to offer up their music. Apple managed it only after Jobs launched a charm offensive against Morris. According to Levy, a big factor in his success was Jobs' assurance that, since it was limited to Macs, iTunes could affect, at most, 5 percent of the market. (iTunes for Windows came out in 2003.) Whatever the promises, once the mighty Universal signed on, everyone else followed.

With the record companies on board, Jobs did something remarkable: He turned the labels' demand for bulletproof DRM into a way of locking up the retail end of the online market. Jobs argued that in order to make Apple's DRM software, called FairPlay, effective, it had to be proprietary — and since Jobs won't license FairPlay, tracks sold on iTunes can be played only on iPods. (Similarly, the iPod won't play DRM-encoded files purchased through other retailers.) This lack of interoperability, combined with the iPod's overwhelming dominance, gave Apple a stranglehold on the digital music marketplace. And Jobs got to be the good guy with consumers, blaming the mess on the music industry's pigheaded insistence on DRM.

When I suggest to Morris that the labels gave Jobs license to create what was in effect an Apple Walkman that played only Apple cassettes, it's Caraeff who answers. "Looking back, the best thing we could have done would have been to mandate one format," he says. So why didn't that happen? Morris is happy to field this one. "It never crossed anyone's mind!" he exclaims. "We were just grateful that someone was selling online. The problem is, he became a gatekeeper. We make a lot of money from him, and suddenly you're wearing golden handcuffs. We would hate to give up that income."

Those cuffs get tighter every day. This year, 22 percent of all music sold in the US will move through iTunes. "If iTunes gets up to 40 or 50 percent, they'll have too much power for anyone else to enter the business," says James McQuivey, who analyzes the digital music industry for Forrester Research. If the labels want out, they have two choices: Find a way to unseat the iPod or allow iTunes' competitors to sell unprotected files that can play on Apple's ubiquitous device.

Click here to read entire article

Think | Inspire | Mobilize | Empower

2008-01-02T14:35:00.000-06:00

Read Nikos Mourkogiannis' Job Description for leaders.

Spokeo

2008-01-02T10:23:00.000-06:00

Having trouble keeping up with all your friends and all your social networks? Check out Spokeo and peep on yo friends a bit!

Have you discovered Jott?

2008-01-02T10:21:00.000-06:00

Gotta try this Jott thing out!

Drawings that Will Change Your Life

2008-01-01T19:18:00.000-06:00

Ralph Perrine believes drawing to be indispensable to good planning and good collaboration—the top two critical skills for success in life. Click here to see how Ralph shares twelve drawings to help bring focus and clarity to teams and any personal planning.

Whopper Freakout

2008-01-01T18:41:00.000-06:00

Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Burger King Freakout... pure genius and absolutely awesome!

Web Strategy 101

2008-01-01T18:32:00.000-06:00

Read Jeremiah Owyang's list of the marketing tools available on the web.

Mark Cuban's Success & Motivation

2008-01-01T17:26:00.000-06:00

Read the Mark Cuban story from the renegade himself. Click here to visit the blog and read it yourself.

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

2008-01-01T16:26:00.000-06:00

A must read! Bruce Mau's An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

10 blogging tips from 10 bloggers

2008-01-01T16:16:00.000-06:00

Check out this great article by Joe Kutcheraon on blogging fundamentals.

10 blogging tips from 10 bloggers

Add traffic to your blog or webpage

2007-12-26T15:20:00.001-06:00

Check out Seth Godin's ebook about getting traffic to your website. Turns out getting traffic is quite simple.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Book of Lists

2007-12-26T15:02:00.000-06:00

Check out this great post from John Moore's Brand Autopsy...

I’ve already shared with you Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s list of Critical Customer Service Skills EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS book which shares a deep-dive profile into the reasons why Enterprise has become a highly successful $9 billion dollar business. their employees must have. That list was plucked verbatim from the

There are many more worthwhile lists in the book which are ripe for any company to plug ‘n play into their business. Review the following lists, taken as is from the book, and determine which aspects your company should aspire to follow.

ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
12-Steps to Building Relationships with Customers
1. Acknowledge the customer’s presence with a smile or handshake.
2. Be enthusiastic.
3. Always make eye contact.
4. Speak in a friendly manner.
5. If you know the customer’s name, use it in your greeting.
6. Listen actively and carefully without interrupting or allowing yourself to be distracted.
7. Offer solutions.
8. Provide unsolicited help (directions, maps, etc.)
9. Be positive in your comments [to customers].
10. Remember: It’s the customer’s perception that matters.
11. Try to anticipate the needs of customers. Always hurry to help.
12. Never use industry slang or terminology [with customers].
[source | EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, pgs. 98-99]

ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
8-Steps to Dealing with Angry Customers
1. Actively listen with an understanding attitude.
2. Record what the customer tells you.
3. Apologize.
4. Find out what the customer wants.
5. Propose a solution and attempt to get the customer’s buy-in.
6. If the customer doesn’t like your solution, ask them what a fair resolution would be.
7. Follow-up by calling your customer to ensure satisfaction.
8. Never let the customer lose face.
[source | EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, pg. 100]

ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
Eight Core Values
1. Our brand is the most valuable thing we own.
2. Personal honesty and integrity are the foundation of our success.
3. Customer service is our way of life.
4. Enterprise is a fun and friendly place, where teamwork rules.
5. We work hard … and we reward hard work.
6. Great things happen when we listen … to our customers and to one another.
7. We strengthen our communities one neighborhood at a time.
8. Our doors are open.
[source | EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, pg. 199]

Top Reasons Employees Choose to Work at Enterprise
1. The opportunity for growth and promotion.
2. The company’s excellent reputation.
3. Enterprise’s customer-friendly focus.
4. Promotions based on performance rather than seniority.
5. The fact that Enterprise is a growing company and an industry leader.
6. Enterprise’s commitment to leadership.
7. The strength of Enterprise’s friendly, highly motivated workforce.
8. The company’s policy of promoting from within.
[source | EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, pg. 90]

Google's Philosophy

2007-12-26T14:52:00.000-06:00

Google's ten things it has found to be true are:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.

Read the entire Google Manifesto here

Where Do Ideas Come From?

2007-12-26T14:48:00.000-06:00

"I want to do things that have a better chance of being thought of as original," Grazer said. "I do everything I can to disrupt my comfort zone."

Check out the New York Times article on Brian Grazer

What is a brand and how do you bridge the gap between strategy and design?

2007-12-06T00:50:00.001-06:00

| View | Upload your own

How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design

SlideShare Link

Stay Humble

2007-11-10T23:09:00.001-06:00

"You get a different view from the ground floor than from the corner office."

—Alex Frankel, author, "Punching In"

Beyond the 4Ps: The 5Ts of Marketing OperationsMarketing Operations Emerges as a Discipline

2007-09-26T23:04:00.000-05:00

Marketing Operations Emerges as a Discipline

Faced by unprecedented demands, many CMOs have commissioned a marketing operations organization to tackle these challenges. Originally designated to create metrics and dashboards for accountability, marketing operations is increasingly being treated by leading companies as a foundation to the marketing function.1

Marketing operations is the only function (other than the busy CMO) that manages marketing from an end-to-end perspective. Marketing functions such as PR, product marketing and regional marketing only see a portion of the big picture.

"Marketing operations ensures marketing is run as a business," states a VP of Marketing Operations at a major Silicon Valley firm, "We strive to enable the marketing organization to be streamlined in day-to-day processes so they have time to think, focus on the customer and to innovate."

Should Facebook take the money and run?

2007-09-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

Recent reports value Facebook at $10 Billion. So the questions is should Facebook go public? $30 million in profits from $150 million in revenue... worth $10 billion?

Founder of Tripod, Bo Peabody says no. What do you think? Kara Swisher says not so fast.

Leadership is critical to cultivating diversity and encouraging innovation.

2007-09-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

Interesting video on Innovation at Google. Check it out!

Fast Forward to minute 49:00 for quote on leadership.

Branding Periodic Table

2007-09-26T22:24:00.000-05:00

Brandon Fritz, of Kolbrener, has compiled a list of major branding terms in a super-creative "Periodic Table." Click below ...

Brand Autopsy's Conducting a Marketing Physical To Ensure Brand Health

2007-09-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

Check out John Moore's "Conducting a Marketing Physical To Ensure Brand Health" slideshow. Some interesting perspectives on branding.

Facebook, Schmacebook

2007-09-19T14:14:00.000-05:00

If content is king, will Myspace trounce Facebook? Read this interesting Fortune article to see how these similar companies are really quite different.

Global Branding Requires Local Sensitivity

2007-09-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

I promise you that I wasn't researching bachelor party venues when I came across this interesting article in Adweek about Branding Sin City for the Las Vegas Tourism Group. The article demonstrates that marketers can't paint with one broad stroke but must customize their messaging for every market.

This brings up a point my boy MitchyK and I toss around and that is, when do brands become too big? What do you think? Comment & share your thoughts!

Getting our butts kicked again...

2007-08-31T18:21:00.000-05:00

U.S. Can't Compete With Japanese Web Quality
The Washington Post

Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service in the Land of the Rising Sun is anywhere from eight to 30 times faster than the U.S. (depending on where you live)--not to mention cheaper. Studies show that it has the world's fastest connections, too, which will likely make Japan the vanguard of Internet innovation for years to come.

Indeed, the U.S. lags behind Japan, South Korea and much of Europe in terms of broadband speed, and lack of regulation by the U.S. government is partly to blame. Intense lobbying by telecommunications firms has protected U.S. firms from being opened to wider competition. Competition in the wire market, in particular, is what's driven Japan's rise to prominence. By offering big phone companies huge subsidies, the Japanese government compelled Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to a nationwide build-out of fiber-optic wire to homes. The shorter, faster wires enable the transfer of information at speeds of up to 17 times faster than in the U.S.

The result? The Japanese can watch broadcast-quality, full-screen HD television over the Web, an experience that puts our grainy, windowed, broadband video to shame. The quality is so good it even allows doctors to make crucial surgical decisions through video conferencing. - Read the whole story...

You can't handle the truth!

2007-08-29T17:59:00.000-05:00

... about Internet video.

Millions of people are watching online but is anyone raking in the money? Read this story to find out.

Multiprong Approach is how they do it in Showbiz

2007-08-29T17:36:00.000-05:00

An official Web site is no longer the automatic centerpiece of media campaigns for new movies, and there is a budding trend to launch more than one site for the same movie. Rather than attempting to just build traffic from scratch, movie marketers are placing content such as trailers, tie-in promotions and ads on sites with huge audiences such as Yahoo Movies, MySpace, YouTube and Google. Read this article to learn more.

Professional Social Networking Sites - A workaholics dream!

2007-08-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

I'm still not sure if professional social networking sites aren't part of a larger conspiracy to get everyone working 24x7 but check out this article on the topic from WSJ.

Optimize your images and Optimize your world

2007-08-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

Check out this short article that outlines the Six Steps To Image Optimization courtesy of Search Engine Land

Internet Godfather Predicts End of Broadcast TV

2007-08-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

Vint Cerf, one of the researchers who helped build the Internet, is predicting that we soon will be watching the majority of our television through the Internet, a revolution that could herald the death of traditional broadcast TV. Cerf is now a VP with YouTube owner Google.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google

Myspace to the press: Where's the love?

2007-08-27T19:52:00.001-05:00

My friends and I ask ourselves, why does Facebook get all the attention? Is it the clean interface, is it opening up their platform to developers, is it because the good PR? Or is everyone involved a beneficiary of a well hyped Facebook come IPO?

Regardless, Myspace is kicking their butt... at least in all measurable stats that is. Check out this GigaOM blog article on the matter.

It's a fragmented world but Rupert gets it

2007-08-27T17:39:00.000-05:00

You don't get to be a billionaire not being right most of the time. Check out my boy Rupert Murdoch's email about traditional media companies in this new media world.

News Flash: The Illusion of Internet Privacy is Waning

2007-08-24T18:05:00.000-05:00

1.6M Get Phished from Monster.com

Researchers at infrastructure software provider Symantec have discovered that hundreds of thousands of jobseekers' personal info has been phished from Monster.com.

According to AP News, Symantec uncovered 1.6 million entries on a Ukranian server.

Users of Monster are asked to submit their resumes to the site. Meanwhile, phishers create accounts posing as companies offering jobs to jobseekers. Even if seekers don't take the bait, phishers still get valuable personal data.

As the internet grows more intimate, there continues to be an ever-growing demand for personal information from users. Security Analyst Ron O'Brien told AP, "we have become a nation of people who want to be cooperative." That quality apparently has its pros and cons.

Consumer Branding = Emotional Branding

2007-08-22T20:35:00.001-05:00

Check out this ABJ article on Dell's ad agency search and The Butler Bros. ideas on how the company should connect with consumers.

Marketers Start to Use Social Networks for CRM Instead of Ads

2007-08-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

If Social Networking Sites are to move away from being the equivalence of bus stop ads and billboards for marketers they're going to have to engage consumers to interact with their brand. Check out this interesting Ad Age article on the subject.

Humans Heart Status Quo

2007-08-22T19:32:00.001-05:00

"The medical community wants to maintain the status quo in a system that everyone agrees is broken."

—Michael Howe, CEO, MinuteClinic

Read the article

Meet the people tracking your every move. Not really... no really.

2007-08-20T19:24:00.000-05:00

Yes they are! ComScore: Advertising.com Tops Ad Sites For July

ADVERTISING.COM REMAINED AT THE TOP of comScore Media Metrix's Ad Focus Ranking for July, reaching 88% of the more than 180 million Americans online.

Great Quotes from CP+B's JEff Hicks

2007-08-20T19:21:00.000-05:00

CP+B's philosophy, noted Hicks, "is turning great marketing into great results for clients."

Hicks said the role of advertising is to push consumers towards products.

"At the center is the product. Advertising is at the periphery, with packaging and customer relationship management and distribution as the layers between it and the product. Our job is not to interrupt but to create content that's entertaining."

Hicks added that marketers should get comfortable with consumers messing with their brand.

"The best marketers are realizing this is a foregone conclusion. We encourage our clients to participate."

Read the whole story

There is still some fight in this Ol' Media dog?

2007-08-20T19:16:00.000-05:00

More Newspaper Sites Add Online Video
More than 90% of the top US newspaper Web sites now have online video. While these sites may not be a threat to YouTube yet, they do feature viewers' favorite content.
Full Article

Thoughts on Advertising

2007-08-20T08:48:00.000-05:00

Straight from the Pulse...

So David Lubars is a bad ass. He is one of Madison Avenue's media darlings. From what I can tell this guy "gets it." I first learned about him from a great article in Business 2.0 (is that really going away?). He is a creative big shot at BBDO, a place that has many big time corporate clients. Here are some highlights:

Leadership - Creativity - Humor : Lubars also tried to keep things light and breezy: He rented school buses and a mid-town movie theater one day and took the gang to a showing of Team America. He also removed Sann's office door and replaced it with a glass one ("a very symbolic gesture," says one BBDO staffer). And he roamed the halls and talked to everyone -- another contrast to Sann, who'd tended to keep to his inner circle.
"in the digital era, you can't just buy people's attention anymore. You must engage them."
"ideas that are most horizontal" - meaning concepts that can work on TV, in print, on the Web, maybe even on a street corner." This was a rude awakening for ad people trained to think of 30-second TV skits; they had to cast a wider net for ideas and learn to work in unfamiliar media formats."

From an Ad Week feature:
"Imagination at work is an entire corporate philosophy that can be spread across all media. In today's world, clients need a really big idea that can be executed in all different ways. The idea is so big and simple that you can communicate it in a text message. But you shouldn't do these things because it is cool to do. It has to be routed in the needs of the client. This is a large client, and this is how to communicate the brands core strength and values.
GE Imagination at Work
Ecomagination

Rupert has what my Grandmother calls Ganas

2007-08-15T00:14:00.000-05:00

After buying the WSJ for almost $6 Billion Rupert Murdoch wants to quit the subscription business and give it away for free. Is online advertising worth more than $65 million dollars per year? As my friend Whitney Houston says, "hell to the yeah!" This dude might be one of the last visionaries in media. Read the BW story on Rupert's latest plan.

News Flash: Old Media Still Works

2007-08-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

After 50 years of perfecting a mass communications platform it turns out that TV still matters. After surviving the threat of Remote Controls, Cable Broadcasters, VCRs, DVDs and the Internet maybe broadcast advertising ain't going away either. Check out this Adweek article on a survey of the "State of the Media Democracy."

You mean we can't be wrong 97% of the time anymore?

2007-08-14T22:11:00.001-05:00

Good news: Web 2.0 offers marketers unimaginable access and knowledge

Bad news: Now that you have all these fancy ways to measure effectiveness, how is it going?

The accountability bullet is getting harder to dodge with the plethora of tools available to interactive marketers. Does that mean Marketing can better be run as it's own business unit? I say, uhhhhh probably but check out this marketing sherpa article on 5 Steps to Better Marketing Operations and see what people are saying.

Has the context of Social Networking changed?

2007-08-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

The legendary Mitchy K sent me an interesting post from Dana Boyd's blog discussing how Social Networking Sites have lost their context.

I thought Dana made some keen observations but perhaps the early adopters' disappointment comes from misguided expectations of the trade off between privacy and utility of SNS. You cant have both unless you're prepared to work at striking the balance that works for you.

I have discovered thatonline privacy in many respects is an oxymoron. Thus, instead of fighting it I've accepted it and opened all my SNS identities up to the public. Does this limit my ability to fully express myself? Sure. But the idea that one could express themselves and share drunk pics or whatever on the internet and not have those available for the world to see may have been unrealistic. Time will iron this out... the code of conduct on SNS's will be widely known and accepted. The answer may be categorizing friends in the web3.0 version of SNS's

Emerging trends in interactive from Austin, TX

2007-08-12T15:48:00.000-05:00

Listen to podcast coverage from iMedia's agency summit in Austin, Texas, discussing the hottest in emerging trends, including widgets and user-generated content.

Who has the power to change the world? You do.

2007-08-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

"The idea of the states banding together and being able to set the rules of the game to directly elect the president is a new idea. And I think it is grabbing people's attention and gaining momentum."
- PETE MAYSMITH, the national director of state campaigns for Common Cause,
which advocates a national popular vote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/us/politics/11vote.html?th&emc=th