"Being creative is a full-time job. You never disconnect. To some degree you’re always thinking." http://t.co/eC7aWIIKcv #MiamiAdSchool
— Miami Ad School (@miamiadschool) March 19, 2015
Realization
Yesterday afternoon I was able to get together with a couple of colleagues here in Boise. We talked about the usual things — families, life, kids, etc. We also talked a little shop, of course. It was a good chance to catch up with some old friends that I haven’t seen in far too long.
But later that evening I had a strange realization — in some ways, I’ve inadvertently become the Kevin Bacon of the agency world here in the Treasure Valley. Between the places I’ve worked and the people I’ve worked with, there’s a good chance you could connect anyone from Seattle to Salt Lake and points far beyond through me.
Nothing more than a humorous observation on my part, of course. But for Pete’s sake, please don’t start calling me Kevin Bacon.
Crap. Too late. It’s going to be a thing, isn’t it?
An abundance of alliteration
Alliteration is nothing new (its first known use is circa 1624), and it can turn a nice phrase, like wild and woolly or babbling brook. But lately, there seems to be an abundance of it. Case in point:
Seen on a billboard: Your Posterior Plumbing Experts
Heard on the radio: Snot Specialists and Test drives for Testes.
Well done or going for a cheap laugh?
Know How Indeed
While watching the Daytona 500 a little over a week ago, I happened to catch this spot from NAPA:
It made me laugh, enough so that I posted this shortly thereafter:
Okay, that #napaknowhow spot made me laugh.
— Brian Harrison (@brharrison) February 24, 2013
To which the folks at NAPA quickly replied to with this:
@brharrison Shhhh! Matlock's on.
— The NAPA Network (@theNAPAnetwork) February 24, 2013
A perfectly appropriate response, and a great example of an organization recognizing that social is not a stand-alone channel, but rather something that can be woven throughout everything. And given the speed of their response, I have to assume that – much like Oreo during the Super Bowl – they knew exactly when their spots were scheduled to run, had the right people in the room, and had a plan in place for their responses.
And now, a little more than a week later, I’m writing about the entire thing here. NAPA Know How indeed. Well done to everyone behind this.
Doing things differently
Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve heard so many people, companies, brands, etc. talk about how they ‘do things differently’ than anyone else. About their patented, trademarked, put-our-seal-and-watermark-on-it way of doing things.
But here’s the thing — when everyone is ‘doing things differently’ in their own way, no one really is. It’s a sentiment that was similarly echoed in David McCullough’s commencement speech to Wellesley High School recently (which you should really watch if you haven’t taken the time to yet).
So, the question I’ll pose to you dear reader is this: What can you do differently today? Does it have to be something earth-shattering? No. Take, for example, this recent piece for Coca-Cola:
In reality, there’s nothing spectacularly unique about the content. It came from security cameras that are everywhere you look. But by using that footage differently, Coca Cola found an entirely new source of content, all while maintaining – and in many cases reinforcing – their Happiness brand position.
What can you do differently today? Tomorrow? Next week? Think about it, and then go do it.