Meet my new friend, (insert your brand name here)

August 31, 2009 in Advertising, CRM, Online Marketing, Social Media
Tags: dos equis, dos equis academy, emarketer, josh fleming, Social Media, social media lead generation, social media marketing, social media statistics, the most interesting man in the world

A large majority of marketers are still under the belief that social media is a medium to connect friends to friends. These same marketers have yet to embrace the concept that friends can actually be friends of brands. Finally, we have some solid proof. The folks at emarketer released this study today. Here are the [...]

Worst of the Week: You Pick ‘Em

August 28, 2009 in Advertising, Creative and Design, Online Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: admavericks, bad advertising, Central Iowa Business Magazine, Des Moines Radio Group, iowa health, KCCI, KCCI.com, vantus bank

The kids are back in school, the Fair is over, summer is winding down and it’s been a busy week.  With several nominees for worst of the week, we thought we’d keep it light, airy and local this week by commenting on a few of the best nominees: First, a friend of AdMavericks sent this [...]

Fiat Gets It

August 27, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, That's Kinda Cool
Tags: facebook, fiat, FiatMio, market research, twitter

We spend a lot of time helping clients understand social media and the ways it can be used as a marketing tool.  We try to convince them that marketing with social media is different than traditional marketing.  That it’s about spending the time to build relationships with people – not blanketing them with messages.  In [...]

Shout out for Ingersoll Live ’09

August 26, 2009 in Creative and Design, That's Kinda Cool
Tags: ADIO Chiropractic/The Stickel Chiropractic Group, Badower's Reichardt's on Ingersoll, Bauder's Pharmacy, Beeline-Blue, Caribou coffee, Dahls, des moines east village, des moines event, east village, Fitness By Design, Freedom Financial Bank, Great Harvest Bread, greenwood lounge, ingersoll ave, ingersoll avenue, Ingersoll Dental Group, Louie's Floor Covering, MediaCom, Palmer's Deli & Market, Star Bar, Tandem Brick, The Mansion, US Bank and Voss Distributing LLC.

This Saturday, August 29th, from 4-11 p.m. will be the annual Ingersoll Live event. There will be kids activities, beer and wine, food, art, vendor booths and live performances by Faculty Lounge, Sonny Humbucker and the Isiserettes Drill & Drum Corp. This is no small time deal either. Past attendance has been in the 6,000 [...]

Is Social Media Just A Fad?

August 26, 2009 in Advertising, Lessing-Flynn, Marketing, Online Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, That's Kinda Cool
Tags: Advertising, brand, is social media a fad, Social Media, social nomics

Or Is It The Biggest Shift Since The Industrial Revolution? There is never a better way to kick off a client meeting or internal brainstorming & planning session than with a video that will get everyone in the mindset for change. Thanks to fellow Ad Maverick, Fleming, for getting me geeked up about this new [...]

Marketing’s Biggest Risk? Not Taking One.

August 25, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing
Tags: ad taglines, advertising movie, advertising taglines, art & copy, art and copy, art and copy movie, film, just do it, nike, think different, wendy's, where's the beef

“The frightening and most difficult thing about being what someone calls a creative person is that you have no idea where any of your thoughts come from really.  And especially if you don’t have any idea about where they’re going to come from tomorrow.” That’s the lead-in quote from the trailer of Art & Copy, [...]

Job Applicant Stories

August 21, 2009 in Lessing-Flynn, That's Kinda Cool
Tags: cover letter, funny stories, hiring, interview stories, job applicant, resume

If you’ve been to Lessing-Flynn’s Web site then you know that our approach to business is the same that it has been for 102 years. Help brands tell their story. So it should come as no surprise that on our Web site’s job section, we ask job applicants to do the same. Tell us a [...]

Worst of the Week: Lazy Show Marketing

August 21, 2009 in Advertising, CRM, Marketing, Worst of the Week
Tags: bad marketing, brand image, Event Marketing, exhibitor, iowa state fair, lazy employees, lead generation, marketing strategy, trade show booth, trade show marketing, varied industries building

Last weekend, I spent a good part of the day at the Iowa State Fair with the family.  We took a quick stroll through the Varied Industries Building.  I wish I would have had my camera out to demonstrate – as there were several worst of the week candidates all in one building! According to [...]

The Value of a Professional Photographer

August 20, 2009 in Advertising, Marketing
Tags: agency photography, american society of media photographers, asmp, dslr, point and shoot, product photography, professional photography, richard sanders

In this day and age everyone is a photographer.  Most of us have camera enabled wireless phones, a cheap digital camera or some a high-end DSLR.  Think about it, how many times have you been somewhere and there is NOT a camera?  Gosh, if I were running for a political office, I’d be nervous someone [...]

Foster Farms Says No to Plumping

August 19, 2009 in Advertising, Agriculture, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media
Tags: Advertising, advertising campaign, facebook, food inc, food marketing, Foster Farms, Marketing, natural food marketing, organic food marketing, Say No to Plumping, twitter, youtube

Here’s what I like about a new ad campaign from a company called Foster Farms.  A lot of food companies have tried to position themselves as a healthier alternative vs. their larger, industrialized competitors, using claims like ‘natural’ and ‘organic.’  Foster Farms actually takes the next step and provides the consumer with an actual benefit [...]