Category Archives: opinion

By hook or by crook, by book or by NOOK

Maybe it’s the bookworm in me, but the more I see the latest work from Barnes & Noble for their NOOK tablet, I more find myself liking it.

This spot is part of Barnes & Noble’s Read Forever™ campaign, billed as “a celebration of reading.”
And while this spot is specifically for the NOOK Color tablet, it [...]

Posted in observations, opinion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A review of the Boise State University portfolio show

Designer and friend of the blog Ryan Lascano attended the Boise State University Winter 2010 Portfolio Show last week.  Take a few minutes to read his reaction to the show, as well as the comments and discussion that have since followed.

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Playing Around with a Crazy Idea

And I’m sure you’re thinking — yeah, like that’s anything new…
But hear me out.
What is still one of the biggest issues facing agencies and marketing professionals today?  Talent.  Finding, recruiting and retaining talent.
More often than not, an agency’s future employees won’t just show up at the front door gift-wrapped and sporting a big red bow.  [...]

Posted in observations, opinion, talent | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Predictions and Trends

Its that time of year again.
The time when everyone and their dog, cat and goldfish makes their predictions about what the biggest trends will be in the coming year.  And, like every year, its a shot in the dark.  Sometimes those predictions are right, sometimes they’re horribly wrong.
That being said, this year I say we [...]

Posted in for discussion, observations, opinion, worth mentioning | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Why I Don’t Write About Layoffs Anymore

For the past several months, you may have noticed that news of layoffs has been absent from the Idaho Ad Agencies blog.  And it’s not an accident.
Several months ago, I made a conscious decision to stop writing about “layoffs, downsizing, staff reductions” or whatever other name you want to call it.  Why?  A few different [...]

Posted in opinion, updates | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Is it Better to be Bad than Good?

That is the second half of a question that’s been bouncing around in the back of my head for some time now (we’ll get to the rest of it in a moment).  Allow me to explain…
When it comes to marketing and advertising, good is just that — it’s good.  It meets the client’s objectives.  It [...]

Posted in commentary, observations, opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

On Award Shows

Our friends at The Denver Egotist have a great opinion on the state of award shows:  Award Shows Need to Evolve or Die.

And just in case you were wondering what their opinion really was, here’s a short snippet from the piece:

The problem with award shows right now is that although they celebrate creativity, most [...]

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The Slippery Slope of Spec Work

It seems the City of Portland is experiencing the spec-creative backlash as we speak.
Yesterday, the news got out that the City of Portland has proposed a design contest to redesign PortlandOnline.
From Silicon Florist:
Now, you can try as hard as you might, but few things can be as insulting to people as telling them their work [...]

Posted in observations, opinion, worth mentioning | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

File this in Today’s Random Observations

*Opinion*
It’s interesting that I’ve received reports from several sources about layoffs, however there has been no movement on the website(s) of the agency/agencies in question.
It makes the company look bad by not being forthright about their staff.
It also does a disservice to the individuals who were affected.  It has the potential to make it seem that the [...]

Posted in commentary, opinion | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Where’s That Line Between Reporting and Opinion Again?

Something about the Idaho Business Review’s cover story this week about “Greenwashing” just rubbed me the wrong way.
Maybe it’s the interviews that seem to end with more questions than answers.
Maybe it’s because Simon Shifrin takes a residential developer, and their agency, to task in a thinly veiled ‘you’re not being open and honest’ sort of [...]

Posted in idaho business review, news stories, opinion | 2 Comments