Do you rule technology or does technology rule you?

A website I frequent daily, Lifehacker, has increased my interest into technology thrice fold since I stumbled upon it. It is updated all day long with the new software programs or gadgets to help make your life easier. I'll admit I have tried out a ton of new software because I thought it was needed. (It's funny how that stuff works.. you never know you needed something until someone makes it!) But I digress.

I still find myself carrying around a journal in the car and having a separate one for my work desk because I love to write stuff down. I am a pen multi color highlighter junkie and I love to brainstorm by putting my thoughts on paper. I love paper too. It is something about the writing process that gets my hamster to spin that wheel. I know some people who love to type. They were pretty much born with a keyboard in their hands. They cite reasons, such as "my handwriting wouldn't be legible if I wrote it out" or "it's just faster this way." I could never lead a paperless life.

Personally I have to back away from the computer from time to time. I notice I get frustrated with programs and their lack of efficiency they pose on my work day. I spent an hour and half yesterday trying to transfer pictures off my camera to external hard drive only to find out what I originally formatted the hard drive for isn't compatible with both Mac and PC systems. How does that make life easier? I could have used a 35mm film camera and stored away my pics and negatives within an hour and been done.

But, there are some technology advances I wouldn't want to live without. For example, I need to have my email organized. Outlook has done that for me in the past, but currently I'm looking into other ventures since it seems Outlook may not be able to keep up with me. I love the Instant Messenger in every way, shape or form. I can have direct contact without having to dial someone up or leaving my desk. I know this seems insane that years after its invention I'm still praising it, but seriously can you imagine what your day would be like with out it? (I do know many people DO NOT use it, but that question was rhetorically for the people who do use it heavily.)

We have become addicted to it. Looking at my desk right now I see an iPod, and cell phone (that is never turned off, only rebooted), the most fancy desk phone I've ever used, two computers, and oh yes the good ole' jump drive. (not to mention the fan I have circulating behind me because the office is way hot today!)

So I ask you, dear readers, to post in the comments what software or gadgets you have noticed you either can't live without or would rather throw down the trash.

Meaningless Wordage

When asked why your company/service/product is better than the competition the standard answer always seems to include the words: innovation, experience, or quality. All of these adjectives may or may not accurately describe what you’re trying to get across, but how do those words show the difference between you and your competition? It’s not the meaning of the words that I have a problem with, just the mediocre descriptions of companies using those words…


Innovation:
This is the most overused word within the realm of marketing and business. By definition innovate means to introduce something new; make changes in anything established (according to dictionary.com). It’s like saying “we don’t exactly know what it is we do, so we use fancy words that don’t really mean anything to try and impress you…” Innovation could mean that you just got an iPod, that you designed a prototype for NASA, or that you’ve recently discovered that employees perform better when wearing green leotards and tap dancing to Gershwin tunes. In other words, be specific about why you think you’re innovative. Give examples of improvements you’ve made to services or products and explain why they kick ass.



Experience:
Sometimes experience can cause companies to get lazy, fail to evolve with the market, rely too heavily on past experiences instead of continually growing and searching out new ways to improve their products or services. What experiences have shaped who you are, how have you adapted to changes? Sharing failures and how you’ve overcome them show that you know how to utilize your experience for the greater good of your company, and therefore your clients’ companies as well.

Now that I’ve gone on too long about my hatred of hollow marketing words, I don’t have space (or the interest of you, the reader) to complain about the word “quality,” but you probably get my point by now.

K: I will say this about the word quality: Most companies who use it don't have it.

To recap: when describing your services, products, or company in general, lean toward more specific examples of how you’re innovative, have more experience, or have a higher quality product. It will mean more to your clients, customers and your bottom line. It also forces you to delve into your strengths, and the differences between you and the competition, which is a great start to any good marketing.


Below is IBM's take on empty marketing terms. I applaud this entire campaign.





K: Personally I love the Nissan campaign Shift_Your World. I believe they thought out the useless word box and made a montage of words and images to create a stunning and clever campaign.

Companies using Valentines day as a marketing opp.

A: As promised, but not exactly in the same terms, here is a list of marketing promotions this Valentine's day that we found somewhat creative...Well, as creative as you can get amongst heart shaped food items, sexual innuendo and regular, everyday items turned pink and red for one day out of the entire year. I personally couldn't find many well executed viral marketing campaigns, so you're left with these mediocre promotions/campaigns. So, grab a handful of green M&Ms and delve into the abyss of 2008's Valetine promos.


As mentioned before, here is M&Ms viral mini-site. This is one of my top 2 pics for best Valentine's day marketing. A nice departure from all the pink and red this season!

Almost everyone of these promotions involve food of some kind...including these heart shaped salmon steaks. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and apparently it's a little easier to get there with a heart shaped filet-o-fish.


K: I'd rather cook these steaks than eat a box of chocolates myself. I really appreciate the effort this company put in making the steaks special.


A: Forget the golden ticket from Willy Wonka, meet the Godiva gift box with a winner spending the night in Bryant Park hotel, NYC. Not that exciting you think? How about if that hotel room was made almost entirely of, none other than...Godiva Chocolate? A pretty creative idea, but my only question is, do you get charged if the chocolate clogs the bathtub jets?

K: Chocolate overload!

A: So guys, want to take your significant other on a nice dinner date, but don't want to drop a small fortune in the process? Take her (or him--we don't judge) to White Castle. I wonder if you'll have to order pomme frites instead of french fries.

K: Also check on the website that reservations have to be made!

A: As I was continuing on my path down writers' block this afternoon (due to a lack of truly innovative Valentines campaigns), I checked my mail. The first thing I see on my weekly pile-o-junk-coupon-overload-mail insert was a heart shaped pizza. Papa John's is offering heart shaped pies for the big day. Frat boys everywhere will be jamming Papa John's phone lines, stocking up on Boone's farm, and raiding Blockbuster for any any romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore tomorrow.

K: I absolutely love this idea. What's even better is the website has videos of the creator of Papa Johns showing how the pizza is made. You even pre-order your pizza days in advance. Papa Johns is really taking their pizza sales to new online frontiers.

A: As if pizza wasn't enough, you can actually start tomorrow off with a big giant, you-guessed-it, heart shaped donut tomorrow. Krispy Kreme didn't want to be outdone in the heart shaped food arena, so it came up with this ingenious idea. Nothing like fat, starch and sugar to get you in the mood for love.

The final, and my favorite of all the heart shaped, Valentine's themed campaigns was a site where you can put your own spin on candy hearts and send them to the one you love, or hate. Depending on your mood, or what you'd like your hearts to say. There's no filter for dirty words, so knock yourself out.

That being said, please come up with some interesting Valentine's marketing for next year, so I can have more fun blogging about your company and how you've got mad marketing skillz, yo.

Valentines

K: Dumm.. Da…Dum Dum…..
Yes that most feared holiday called Valentine's is coming up later this week. Honestly, after reading that sentence did you instantly think of pink, red, and all things cupid? Why do people dread this one day? Simple--consumer marketing pushes a view that valentines is for couples only, and gifts need to be pricey. I'm here to rid you of that view and open your mind to how great Valentine's can become. Hopefully it will turn out to be your favorite holiday too (because I'm totally obsessed with it).

First off, Valentines is not just for couples. Seriously…have you looked through the greeting card aisle of Hallmark, Target, or Wal-Mart? Some may say this is a ploy for the greeting card companies to sell more cards, but honestly I think receiving a friendly valentine is awesome.

Think back to the days of elementary and how you had to give everyone in the class a card or treat. How great would it be if everyone still did that? But, no the idea is that if you don't have a "special someone" then you do not get to participate in this holiday. No gift for you. LAME.

Second, gifts do not have to include diamonds and lingerie. (But hey, they will always be accepted!) If your budget is $0, than consider sending a e-valentine. I received a dancing bear from XM Radio. I love it when companies do this kind of interactive web marketing. If you don't think this works than consider how Office Depot Elf Yourself was showcased on the Today Show.

A: I believe I actually created about 10 versions of the Elf Yourself application and sent it out to around 10 people everytime. Aside from filling my friends' email inboxes with mounds of unnecessary emails, I also advertised for Office Depot 100 times for free. Not a bad deal for Office Depot! I love viral marketing if it is executed properly.

Valentine's day is a great time for businesses to utilize marketing opportunities-send out campy valentines to your clients. Send out a packet of green M&M's to stand out from the crowd (but make sure whoever you send it to has a good sense of humor). In fact, the green M&M site is an example of a "viral marketing" campaign.

If you like to bake, make homemade cookies to deliver to potential clients/current clients to stand out from the store bought candy and baked goods. Depending on your business, you might want to sponsor a singles Valentine's party at a local restaurant, bar or club. The possibilities are endless if you think creatively...There's always an excuse to get your name in front of potential business, Valentine's day happens to be one of them.

K: Back to surviving Valentines day if you're single...Who are those people in your lives that help you get through the day? It could be the barista at your local coffee shop that always knows what cup of joe you order or perhaps the trusty secretary in your office. If you don't think you are ready to start handing out Valentines on your own, then try this year to say "Happy Valentines Day" to people you share an elevator with or walk by. I guarantee you will get some reactions and make someone's day better, which, in turn, will make your Valentine's day exceptional.

A: We'll be listing our favorite viral Valentine's campaigns later this week. We'll post sometime before the big dreaded (or anticipated) day. We hope your day goes better than Cupid's...see the video below.

Photography

K: While looking over recent photos of a completed project, we started discussing what makes a good photo. Let me first start by saying, we are judging photos on their clarity and appeal.

Over the years I have picked up some useful rules as to how to get the best shot before dragging it into Photoshop.

A: Although photoshop can work wonders, it ALWAYS helps to start off with a good photo. Personally, I suck at taking good photos, so this blog is 99% Krystal.

I also think that ANY business can apply this when showcasing their products in a catalog, an ad, a tradeshow piece or any other display. Realtors should use these tips to upgrade their glamour shots or pictures of their properties. Architects, engineers, and construction companies should apply this to any completed projects.

K: The first and most important, I believe, would be the use of angles! Really, if you have never tried switching up angles please do so now. Right now. Seriously, stop reading this blog, grab you camera and go!

>A: But, I'm in pajamas right now...I'll take your word for it.

K: What may be boring at a straight angle can become glorious with an above or below angle.

Check out my example:

Here we have a regular picture of an inanimate object, a piano. The shot is head on. Boring.

Now, let’s go to a shot that was taken overhead. Characteristics of the piano now shine through the lens. The contrast of the keys bring a new life that extends through the piano cover which acts almost like a backbone.

In this shot I wanted to put emphasis on the beauty and size of this pool table. The balls were laid out to give a focal point towards an imaginary horizon line, bringing the eye through the photograph.

This photo also brings up the rule of lines. Edges of objects or branches on a tree will never look the same when photographed from this perspective. A simple example of this rule is the bridge.A: This looks vaguely familiar...Oh, good ol' college days, having to walk across this ramp in the pouring rain after circling the parking lot across the ramp for 30 minutes trying to hunt down a space.

K: In this picture, your eyes are drawn to the end of the ramp. The fence chance acts as actual and figurative line drawing your eye to the most important part of the photo.

The last rule is framing. One thing I must stress is that you do not have to fit everything into the tiny digital screen or viewfinder of your camera! Take for example the two photos of the same dining room. Picture 1 is a straight on shot with everything in the dining room crammed into the frame. The second photo only has a partial view of the table. The cabinets and chandelier were taken out. This new picture now follows the rules of angles, lines (edge of table) and framing.

My last two examples pose two extremes. First: sometimes when you frame a shot it is best to fill up the entire frame for effect. Check out my less than an inch tall friend, Caliente Bear.

Now does he seem small to you?

A: He looks like he's jonesin' for some spicy chili.

K: My last and final advice is to experiment! This picture was taken with a long shutter speed at midnight of a mountain bike race.

Have fun looking through your cameras at a different angle.

$2.7 million gets you what?

For our inaugural post, Krystal and I have teamed up to rant and rave about a select few Superbowl commercials. Hopefully you haven't forgotten about all of the ads by now, but if you have we've posted a few to jog your memory.

Bud Lite Firestarter/Fly



K: What a way to poke fun of all the empty promises there are floating around in the consumer industry. The flying commercial vaguely reminds me of "Red Bull gives you wings" series. This is certainly one of the more humorous and memorable commercials that came out of this rather abysmal collection of Super Bowl commercials.

A: I like the idea of making fun of empty promises, however, the ultimate promise is that Bud Lite tastes good, and I have to say that promise is very empty. Plus, I'm beginning to feel about Bud Lite ads the same way I felt after I heard "All that she Wants" by Ace of Base on the radio the 407th time in two weeks (circa 1992).


Sales Genie/Panda




K: What were they thinking? First crisis, they wasted their $2.7 billion on a campy and sub par commercial. Second crisis, even for a sub par commercial it reeked of Esurance graphics and horrible plot writing. I was very glad when it was over.

A: Thank you for the Esurance reference. I’ve never been a fan of their advertising either. Getting back to the Sales Genie ad: were the semi-offensive accents necessary? Are cartoons really the way to reach sales executives looking for leads? Who exactly is their target market? I’m still puzzled by it.

Bridgestone Squirrel



K: More than likely with all that screaming going on the driver would have crashed the car into a nearby tree. This spot annoyed me with the screaming.

A: Although I disagree and thought this was one of the better commercials, I have to say at the end I had no idea what product was being advertised. I thought it was a JEEP commercial, who also did a spot with singing animals (including the wolf that eats a bird and spits it back out in the end).

Gatorade/ field growing



K: Boring. Why waste words on this one?

A: Ditto. I was totally unimpressed and still don’t understand why they’re marketing a non-sports drink with sports related imagery.

Fed Ex Pigeons

K: One of my favorites. Ingenious, hilarious, and special effects worthy of the super bowl. I love the use of GPS and night vision on the pigeons as well. I enjoyed the concept and the clever humor.

A: It fit with their corporate identity and also entertained me. They hit the spot with this ad.

E*trade Baby

K: Absolutely love it. Well that's not entirely true. I loved everything before the baby spit up. The use of the webcam covered up the special effect with the baby's mouth film edits. The follow up commercial really hit an accord with me because of the line, "I really underestimated the creepiness [of the clown]."

A: I hated this almost as much as the Sales Genie commercials. Anything that doesn’t involve diapers or baby food shouldn’t use babies, especially ones that talk. I hated the Quizno’s ads with a talking baby. I really liked the E*trade commercial with the whole family gathered around the computer with the man about to buy his first stock online with his family cheering him on. Much closer to the target market, and a much better commercial overall.