Trinkets, trash and adult colouring books
Your brand is your user experience
Merry Amex-mas (Augmented Fun From Down Un)
Where do you stand on SOPA and PIPA?
A medley of miscellany from the marketing and advertising blogs:
Distracted Daddy
Grip copywriter Ian Simpson is on paternity leave – except he calls it manternity leave . . . He’s writing about the whole ordeal on his new blog, Distracted Daddy. “I’m a new dad with a new baby and a new blog. Hopefully I can learn how to do one of these new things well. Preferably, the new baby thing.” Recent posts include, “Dirty baby. Clean bath.” and “Baby AKA Baby.” Fun stuff from a funny man.
The Grumpy Brit
The ludicrously articulate scribe over at The Grumpy Brit continues with his insightful if prickly observations about advertising and its practioners. “. . . right now the marketing and advertising business is swarming with teachers while doers are decidedly thin on the ground. And like all teachers in the more rarefied realms of education, this lot spend most of their time traveling to august congresses and symposia, tweeting the future and churning out recondite papers (thus ensuring the future of august congresses and symposia).” I think this means advertising conferences are bad.
Makin’ Ads
Here’s some advice that’s probably good: “Copywriters should read poetry. Frequently.” So says Makin’ Ads’ Greg Christensen. “Poetry avoids clichés. It evokes images. It leads you down a path you hadn’t planned on traveling. And isn’t that exactly what you want to be doing as a copywriter?” Click through for his recommendations.
The Ad Contrarian
The unnamed shift disturber called The Ad Contrarian is talking specifics. “. . . throughout my career one of toughest things I have had to do is to convince my clients to be more specific.” Instead of burying our messages in vague promises (Cheap! Good! Fast!), he suggests hanging our value proposition on exactly that thing that makes our product special. (It’s $3.99! It will cut both tomatoes and shoe leather! It goes 122 km/h!) “The more specific the promise, the more believable the proposition.”
Jacoub Bondre
May 10, 2010 @ 10:17 am
I love these pieces on other great blogs. What I hate is trying to find time to read them all ;)
Courtney Lunn
May 10, 2010 @ 10:45 am
I agree with Jacoub. I read a lot of design blogs, and I have to spend at least 2 hours/day reading only about 85% of new posts on each blog.
I find it easier though now that I RSS feed most of the blogs.
And I find adding a bit of humour (like Distracted Daddy) makes it more welcoming for users to come back and read what’s been going on in his world next :)
Distracted Daddy
May 11, 2010 @ 3:04 pm
Thanks for the write up. Manternity leave is going well. I’ll have to stop by the office with the baby soon. I forgot, do we have change tables in the washrooms?
Ian aka Distracted Daddy