Are you a bright object giving off your own light? Or are you simply reflecting the light of others? Hmmmm. Are you a Sun? Or a Moon? Well, whichever one you are, there’s need for both. It seems most people would rather be the thing generating light, but there’s a real place for those that [...]
Transmission and Reflection
Everyone loves the creamy middle except me
It’s the middle of a twinky or a ding-dong. The pie filling, not the crust. It’s the easiest thing to like, the obvious, most unanimous decision. It’s what sells. Or is it? Well, you’d think so right? Not so fast. I’ll break it down scientifically for you so that you see that the creamy middle [...]
A Little R and R
But not the R&R you’re thinking. I’m talking roles and responsibilities. It’s pretty amazing that I keep coming across people who really don’t understand the role and responsibilities of positions at an advertising agency. The different disciplines own certain aspects of producing a piece of marketing communication, and some of those responsibilities obviously overlap in [...]
Black Holes and Lucky Charms
It’s a tale of gravity vs. magnetism. On the surface, both seem to do the same thing. One is something that pulls you in, the other draws you in. And I think it’s kind of cool to use these terms when talking about brands and how they affect the purchase behavior of consumers. Gravity seems [...]
Arrr, it’s Meta Intelligence!
Yup, it’s a new term that I’m coining. What does it mean? Well, it has to do the value of user comments made possible by this whole ‘web 2.0′ world we live in. You know, the digital world where everyone has an opinion and we’re not only giving you ways of expressing them, but we’re [...]
User Experience or Useful Experience?
That title was something I tweeted a while back that I, personally, thought was clever. It’s based on what I believe is a lack of understanding when it comes to the role of a User Experience specialist. I sometimes get asked by young designers what the role and responsibility of UX is exactly, how it [...]
Is social media redefining the word ‘friend?’
A few years ago, a colleague was telling me about how Germans define several levels of relationship and rarely refer to anyone as being a friend. The word ‘friend’ was reserved for special people in their lives who held emotional influence over them. At that point, he told me he had divided people he knew [...]
Separation Anxiety (AKA, I’ve lost my office)
Ok, so let’s start here: Open Plan. Now that we understand the wiki entry, let’s take a look at the real world of no walls. My agency recently moved to a spectacular new location in Manhattan’s Flat Iron district. If you’re not familiar with it, let’s just say it’s got it all: park, restaurants, night-life, [...]
Out of the Corner of My Eye
During a meeting last week, a conversation arose out of a realized need that we have a better understanding of consumer behavior rather than attitude. It was pretty interesting. Here’s why. Have you ever participated in a poll, or survey and answered a question one way, but really you embellished or just flat out lied? [...]
Circle Takes A Square
A colleague recently told me that they wondered what the significance of their job was given that most of what they did was mostly or completely ignored in the end. As a creative in the marketing industry, I’ve become used to having most if not all of the originality or creativity sifted out of my [...]
Pimp My America
What’s more American than branded entertainment? And what’s more American than PES?! So, from those 2 questions we can create a third: “What’s more American than branded entertainment created by PES?! Here comes Fireworks by PES
Facey Spaces & Tweetery Twits
I’m up to my eyeballs in clients trying to figure out how to make a buck for next to nothing. They all hear about it, videos going viral, bloggers becoming unwitting brand ambassadors, tweets that are deafening etc., etc.—you get the picture. Every one of them asks the same thing, “why aren’t we taking advantage [...]