It's one big thing: Integrated Media. Lately, there has been a flurry of very exciting technology...advanced, proactive database management, retargeting (which lets you follow a prospect around your site...and around the web), and breakthroughs in pay-per-click strategies and search engine optimization, as well as a rising tide of social media channels. These provide a great punch to existing media vehicles. By focusing on each client's assets and opportunities-owned media (website, collateral, service mix...physical location), earned media (press coverage, social media responses, search engine optimization...direct selling), and bought media (print, television, radio, outdoor, direct mail, online "click through" advertising, and pay-per-click…

Back in the day, advertising followed standard formulas. Television advertising worked something like this:- Open with an eye-catching shot along with a provocative statement having to do with a common problem or issue in the lives of your target audience- Demonstrate the product while extolling its features and benefits- List benefits on screen in supers- Wrap up with an answer shot to the opening shot, along with a smart, quippy announcer "wrap"- Beautiful product shot, with tag line said and supered- Fade to black.Then, on the 1984 Superbowl, Apple changed everything, when they did this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I

It's a small world. And it keeps getting smaller. When you do business in a community for a few years, you eventually "know" everybody. It used to be a source of amazement to our crew when they would bring a new business prospect to the table, only to learn that we already know the company, the marketing director, the CEO, the founder, and the founder's mama. After a while, you hit another phase. Where people you know meet people you know. And then, your six degrees of separation have forks in the road. We have an old "downtown" friend (from…

I was in Asheville over the weekend. So was Mr. Obama. Tried to hook up, but it didn't work out. I did, however have an interesting encounter with the Secret Service. Pretty cool, actually. This was my second experience dealing with the protectors of the President of the United States.A few years back, George W. Bush came to Greenville. In fact, he was there to give a speech at Wyche Pavilion, which was right behind our offices. So we got a front row seat. The day before, some very official looking guys came into our offices, poked around, talked on…

What are they called? The ones that get way up in the air, point their beaks strait down, tuck their wings, and dive like spears into the water, smash through the surface, and spear fish like six or eight feet under water. Not sure what they're called. But they sure are daredevils. The amazing thing to me is that they're diving into dark water, yet, they come up with fish more than half the time. How does that work? Amazing. I've been feeling sort of that way on the new business front. Point your beak at something, get up insane…

I was away for a couple of weeks, doing the annual tour into the frigid north. We got to visit my family, Anne's family, and some perfect strangers in Lewisburg, West Virginia. All three were very enjoyable experiences. My brother has a very cool coffee shop, Ladybug Coffee and Galleries, to which I would love to show you a link. But it's very word of mouth, so there isn't a link as far as I know. Still, we spent several hours there on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Drinking awesome coffee, prepared by my master barista nephew Mark. Got to…

Love the word. Love the ax. Anne got me a little koa ukulele (ooo-koo-lay-lay) back in March, when we were in Honolulu. It's awesome. Now, there are the $10 ukes you can get at tourist traps or on EBAY. Can't even keep them in tune. Then there are the real ukuleles starting with mahogany and spruce axes made in china-nice enough, but they don't appreciate. Then there are the koa axes, wood harvested in Hawaii, shipped to china, parts cut in china, shipped back to Hawaii, assembled and finished in Hawaii. That's what I got-affordable, sounds great, and appreciates over…

People who try to make the marketing communication business about self expression, hipness, getting your name out there, making friends, making a favorable impression, or making a difference are about on my last nerve. As Bob Sugar said, "This is show business not show friends." Marketing is nothing more and nothing less than making the cash register ring. Or as a good friend of ours says, it's..."Transactions, baby."