Posts tagged ‘marketing’
A labor of love – Web redesign
At Northwest Missouri State University, a group of us have been working hard for several months to redesign our Web site. It’s been a true labor of love to bring our site back into modern times.
Check it out at www.nwmissouri.edu.
For more Web design inspiration, check out the following sites:
Why the VW ad is so effective
Every year, I say I’m going to watch the Super Bowl and pay attention all the way through. Apparently, I forget my ADD media consumption every year. So, as usual, I’ve spent most of the Super Bowl so far on Twitter, on http://www.brandbowl2010.com, reading Tag Surfer on WordPress and checking weather updates for tomorrow. Oh, and kind of watching the game.
Most of the ads so far this year have been lackluster at best. The Doritos ad elicited a slight chuckle, but the CGI was so ridiculous that it made the ad feel cheap. There were too many pantsless men for my taste (and unattractive pantsless men at that). Boost Mobile’s ad looked like it was shot on an iPhone with 5 minutes of planning – all in all, a pretty pathetic showing. Notable exceptions: Coca Cola. This might be because they’re basically advertising to me – I love the Simpsons and am dying to go on a Safari. ETrade – the talking babies are always great. And best of all (at least, as of 7:45) – the VW ad.
Why was the VW ad the perfect Super Bowl ad? For one, it was funny, and it got your attention. But most importantly, it drew upon an experience that everyone has had with the brand – who hasn’t played slug bug? By drawing on your memories of this game, it not only brings a nostalgic feeling, but it also highlights that the bug is not their only notable product offering. Way to go, VW. Hope other companies begin to show the same advertising adeptness.
Speaking of advertising adeptness – let’s talk a brief moment about Mullen.com. This company could not have generated more buzz for themselves during the Super Bowl if they had bought out every commercial spot tonight. By making the brilliant Brand Bowl Web site they are showing their amazing Web creation skills, they are emphasizing that they have a finger on the pulse of what social media users are saying, and they are generating more conversations than both football teams combined. It’s been fascinating to watch the overwhelming stream of reaction to the ads and to be an observer of instant focus groups. Making following this uncountable data that much easier has been Mullen’s remarkable achievement. Bravo.
Strategic planning, Super Bowl and sappiness
The Super Bowl is tomorrow, which can really only mean one thing – delicious snacks and hilarious ads. Oh, and I suppose a football game as well.
We have pulled pork sliders on the menu for tomorrow, complete with slowcooked brown sugar coated pork, coleslaw, bread and butter pickles and cheese all on hot rolls. Yum. I think the food is enough to make me forget that the Vikings didn’t make the Super Bowl.
Today started off with the first of many Northwest Missouri Dream Factory strategic planning meetings. I have the honor of leading the strategic planning meetings, and later writing the plan as well as the marketing plan. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help establish the objectives for this fantastic charity, and it is exciting to think what the future may hold for our organization. My main goal is to increase awareness of our group and raise our profile in Northwest Missouri. Check out our Facebook fan page here, and read about dream child Hayden here.
Tonight, my sweet husband kept me company as I worked on craft projects in the kitchen. (More on this later) He put music on his iPhone and we began to boogie across the hardwood floors. When the project was finished, we chilled on the couch and watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which has to be one of my new favorite movies. The animation is incredible, and this movie is one of those great kids movies that is written with enough intelligence to be good for adults, too. Lazy Saturdays are my favorite. We’re still just hanging on the couch, watching the Eukanuba National Championship and squealing over the cute dogs. (Come on, Cairn Terrier!)
It never ceases to amaze me how well Matt and I mesh together, despite having very different personalities. We are coming up on our 2-year anniversary, and it feels like we got married yesterday, and like we’ve been married forever at the same time. I am so thankful for my goofy husband who willingly goes to craft stores with me, who loves animated movies as much as I do, and who is always up for a spontaneous dance-off.
So , in honor of the love of my life, one of my favorite poems:
A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
“Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”
So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers’ love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, ’cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
The perfect gift, the perfect chicken and the perfect fit
Tonight I was cutting out fabric to make a sweet gift for a coworker’s coming baby, half-watching Man v. Food with my husband on the Travel Channel. It switched to a commercial, and we were not paying much attention when all of a sudden, we saw a quick peak of a long recognized Pittsburg hot spot – Chicken Mary’s.
We both stopped midsentence and stared. Surely, Pittsburg, Kan. was not just on national TV. And then we saw it – a woman wearing a Chicken Annie’s tshirt that looked exactly like the one hanging in my closet. NO. WAY.
The new Food Wars show on the Travel Channel, which begins airing in March, is claiming to finally put an end to the chicken wars in Pittsburg and declare a chicken champion. How amazing is that?
And, what brilliant marketing is this? At our house, we are huge lovers of anything they show on the Food Network and the Travel Channel. However, it always angers us that they never seem to leave California or New York for anything. It’s almost comical at times. Bobby Flay is going to throw down for the best Maine clam chowder in …. Manhattan, NY? For the best empandas in …. Manhattan, NY? The best southern fried chicken in … New England? Bravo, Travel Channel, for spreading your boundaries outside of the traditional filming areas. Those of us in the Midwest are thankful that you are recognizing that there is life beyond the coast. And, beyond metropolises! Not only can you drum up more interesting shows, but you can increase your viewers in the Midwest. The New York Times is unlikely to cover your TV show when you film yet another wonderful restaurant in New York City, but I know that Pittsburg’s regional media was all over it.
My family experienced the same excitement recently when watching American Pickers, a show based out of a small town near the small town in Iowa that my entire extended family either lived or currently lives in.
Now, if only we can get the Travel Channel to Maryville for a Hangar vs. Pagliai’s pizza showndown …
Anyway, back to the quilt. I love fortuitous finds. (Hence the extreme excitement over the Pittsburg TV show.) My coworker, who hopefully isn’t reading this (Darren, if you’ve read this far: LOOK AWAY), is nicknamed The Rocket Scientist. He is always solving problems, constructing solutions and fixing computers. When wandering Sarah’s Fabrics in Lawrence, the most amazing fabric store within a 2 hour drive, I stumbled upon the Rocket Scientist collection of fabric by Keri Beyer for In The Beginning. I couldn’t resist picking out a few and am so excited to make a sweet little receiving blanket for the babe to be.
In a world of mass media, mass design and mass consumption, here’s to finding the perfect fit.
New toy
An area I really need to learn more about for work is the creation and editing of videos. After going over different options for how I can improve in this area, I decided the way I learn best is to dive right in and get hands-on experience.
And so, we ventured to one of my favorite places in the world – Nebraska Furniture Mart. And a stressful hour later, left with this beautiful device:
Happy January to me!
We’ll see how it goes. Is there anything better than bringing home a new toy?
Modern mind, vintage heart 
