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We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For

February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Click here for more Obama videos.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Music, Politics, Video

My New Toy - Ricoh Caplio GX100

February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

After several discussions with my graphic designer/photographer, I just purchased the Ricoh Caplio GX100. Stay tuned for more photography. And Matt, be prepared. I’ll probably be comparing camera notes with you at Blogger Social.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Random, Technology

Seize Marketing Moments… Dunkin Style

February 26, 2008 | 2 Comments

Brilliant! Dunkin Donuts is seizing the moment with a masterful marketing move:

When Starbucks shuts down all of its nearly 7,100 national stores this evening for employee retraining (some of the contracted Starbucks are on a different training schedule), Dunkin Donuts will hand out free small hot lattes in all of its 450 Chicagoland stores.

Source: Chicago Tribune

I wrote about a similar, equally brilliant tactic by Illinois State University in July of 2006.

UPDATE: My local Dunkin Donuts told me that they gave away 56 coffees yesterday evening. And my colleague said her Starbucks tasted horrible this morning - so bad that she actually tossed it. I think more training is in order… and more free Dunkin Donuts coffee too. By the way, a great conversation is taking place at Ken Wheaton’s Adages blog - Ken asked who benefits the most from the Starbucks closure?

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, News, Strategies+Tactics

My Nordstrom Creative Strategy

February 24, 2008 | 8 Comments

I worked at Nordstrom for three summers during college and I will forever be a Nordy. Not because I’m 6′ 5″ and it’s one of the only places with clothes and shoes that fit me, but because Nordstrom is where I first learned and used SWAT - sales with advanced techniques. Boy, did I know how to sell children’s shoes!

A year ago I wrote about the legends of Nordstrom’s unbelievable customer service. Around that time, I was extensively researching Nordstrom for my MBA creative strategy class. Throughout the whole semester, we worked on stepping-stone projects that culminated in one final presentation. The assignment was to determine a company problem and a strategic creative solution. Unfortunately, the professor also asked us to take a stab at some of the creative tactics, which you’ll notice aren’t so creative. Sorry.

So, here is my creative strategy for Nordstrom. It may be a bit dated already. Since I’m a PR guy by education and trade, I’d love to hear thoughts from some of the creative ad bloggers, including John Moore, Darryl Ohrt, CPJ, Leigh Householder, Mark Goren, Ed Cotton and David Armano. For the record, the class was very casual so I took a slightly humorous approach to presentation, which you’ll notice with some of the image choices.

| View | Upload your own

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Design, Educational, Management, Marketing, Presentations, Strategies+Tactics

The Last Handwritten Newspaper in the World

February 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

According to a Wired article (see photo gallery), the Musalman is possibly the last handwritten newspaper in the world. Four professional calligraphers spend three hours on each page every single day to put out this daily paper.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Educational, History, Links, Media, Video

Power Profile: Todd And

February 22, 2008 | 11 Comments

To kick start my next 500 posts, I thought I’d profile myself, author of Todd And, which sits at No. 115 on the Power 150 (02/21/08). It’s been almost a year and a half since I started blogging and I don’t talk about myself much on this thing, so why not?

The photo was taken at 5 p.m. this afternoon while my colleague demonstrated his Ricoh Caplio GX100 camera. As you can see, I’m listening intently… and now I want one. Here is my Power Profile:

What blogs do you read most often?
I imported the OPML file of the Power 150 into my Google Reader so I just read the entire river of news from all 575 marketing and media bloggers. When I’m not browsing them all, I tend to read Matt Dickman, David Airey, Kami Huyse, Neatorama, Boing Boing, Techcrunch and the rest of my blog roll.

THE Q&A WITH MYSELF CONTINUES - Read more

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Blogging, Links, Marketing, Media, Music, Power Profiles, Public Relations, Social Media

FIVE HUNDRED POSTS!

February 21, 2008 | 22 Comments

Today is my 500-post birthday!

I originally planned to share a bunch of historical stats and write a lengthy post about why I blog and what I’ve learned. After several drafts, I decided against it. It just seemed to be too much. Too wordy. So here is my cliff notes version:

By now, most of you know this is a hobby blog for me, not a business. I post random personal thoughts and discoveries relating to the very serious but often comical crossroads of marketing and media.

This blog started out as an experimental archiving system for me to document cool marketing and media stuff I found online. Over the last two years, it evolved into much more.

Blogging has forced me to stay on top of marketing trends and new media tactics. It has been a school of social media and I’m very thankful to all my fellow marketing and media bloggers for being so generous with their knowledge and thought leadership. So much of what I’ve learned has been applied to my career or assisted my tactical decision making in one way or another.

Beyond what I’ve learned and taken away from the blogosphere, I’ve also attempted to give back. In addition to my own regular posts and a few tiny projects like my phone-phriendly website list and accreditation analysis, I’ve also made one major “legacy” contribution - the Power 150.

More important than any post or product, I’ve made several new blogger friends and acquaintances. As a hobby blogger with a nine-month-old daughter and full-time job, I don’t have as much time for blog conversations and extensive commenting. And frankly, the nature of my posts (mostly multimedia and short insights) doesn’t encourage comments. So, while I may not be the most conversational blogger at times, I greatly value the relationships I have made with such incredible authors like Drew McLellan, Kami Huyse, Chris Thilk, David Airey, Charlie Moran, Gavin Heaton, David Armano, David Meerman Scott, Chris Brown, C.B. Whittemore, Matt Dickman, Scott Baradell, Ann Handley, Daniel Honigman, Todd Defren and several others.

I’m also very thankful to all those who have linked to me and sent hundreds of new visitors my way. Here several of my best referrers:

Brand Flakes for Breakfast
Marketing Facts
Communication Overtones
Marketing Vox
Creative Generalist
Branding and Marketing
Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog
Online Marketing Blog
CustomersAreAlways
Brendan Cooper
Duct Tape Marketing
B.L. Ochman
Search Engine Journal
Emergence Marketing
The Publicity Hound’s Blog
Strumpette
Experience Manifesto
PR Blogger
‘Cross The Breeze
Influxinsights
ExperienceCurve
The Social Media Marketing Blog
the brand builder blog
adliterate
Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Blogging, Links, Management, Marketing, Media, News, Public Relations, Random, Social Media

Brand New Power 150 Badges

February 20, 2008 | 3 Comments

I’ve noticed a lot of Power 150 blogs attempting to customize the Power 150 logo to better fit their sidebar needs. Since not all bloggers are created equal with design skills and software, I went ahead and slapped together about 20 new badges. The badges range from 80 to 470 pixels wide and include multiple styles. Click here to browse all the badges. Please save and link to them from your own server. Also, I’m happy to create a custom badge for your blog if you don’t see something that meets your needs. Email me ‘offline’ to coordinate.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Blogging, Design, Marketing, Media, Power Profiles, Public Relations, Social Media

Fly on the Wall: Fixing the Newspaper Crisis

February 20, 2008 | 1 Comment

Sam Zell’s Talk at the Chicago Tribune from margaret on Vimeo
Length: One hour - Source: Daniel Honigman
Due to its length, I highly recommend watching at least the first 25 minutes and the last few minutes starting at 57:15 for the most emotionally-charged Q&A.

This is it! This is your opportunity to be a fly on the wall during the Chicago Tribune stop of the great Sam Zell Tribune Tour of 2008. As the Tribune Company’s new chairman and chief executive, Zell visited several company offices to share his vision with employees.

As a straight-talking, gunslinging business executive, he also shared a few vulgarities. At the Orlando Sentinel, Zell was caught on video saying f@%k you to a reporter after her question.

Beyond the bad language, which isn’t the story here, this video is unbelievable insight for any management student or business executive wanting a case study on how to build the bottom line and save a company in a downward spiral. It also provides some great talking points for leaders to take note. And for those monitoring media trends, this is the best behind-the-scenes glimpse I’ve seen of how one newspaper plans to tackle the crisis.

According to today’s Tribune story and the video above (skip to 57:15):

“I’m not disrespecting anybody. I’m trying to make everybody uncomfortable,” Zell said. “This business has been eroding before your eyes and you’re worried about my language? … Everything I said was with an intent to get everybody to get off their [behinds] and understand this is a crisis. We’ve got to save this business. We’ve got to make this work. And we’ve got to prioritize what we get all pushed out of shape about. … If we keep operating the way we’ve been operating, there is no future.”

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Educational, Management, Media, Presentations, Strategies+Tactics, Video

Monday Marketing: Thinking in Solutions

February 17, 2008 | 3 Comments

Source: Marketing Facts

The song is a new favorite called Paper Aeroplane by Angus & Julia Stone.

The commercial belongs to Maandag.nl. I don’t speak Dutch, but I think they’re referring to reinventing or reclaiming Monday as something new. Instead of dreading Monday as a day of obstacles and headaches, look at Monday as a day of opportunities and clever solutions.

Not sure what service or product Maandag is selling other than a good message, but here is the full music video.

As marketing and PR professionals, we are constantly evaluated by the creative solutions we execute. So maybe Monday is the best day of the week for marketing executives who think in clever solutions. Enjoy your Monday.

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