Sometimes you gotta go all in
I played in a poker tournament today, and I kept busy during the lulls be mindscaping paralells between poker and business. Sure, Kenny Rogers got it right with your gotta know when to hold em – know when to fold em song, but you also gotta know when to go all in. Economic indicators are trending towards the end of the recession, so today, we hired a new person and invested onto a new biz pitch. Right thing to do? Not sure until I see where the pot gets pushed, but I feel like I got a pretty good read, and sometimes, you just have to go with your instincts.
Keep Your Chin Up Pryor
I’m a Gator, so it’s hard to say this, but Pryor is a good QB – they need to modify their offense a little to help him, but come on Ohio State fans, get off his back
Behind the scenes at the Cox Communications Shoot
Thanks to the Cox Communications Florida Team for partnering with us on the campaign. Great Times,
MTV VMAs Remix: Kanye West Interrupts Obama’s Speech (HD)
Even Obama interrupted by Kanye
Taylor Swift Wins Best Female Video | Video | MTV
You let your emotions
Opt-out advertising on cable
What if cable advertising had a “bank” of commercials and advertisers could choose to be on level 1, 2, 3 or a, b , c whatever. Point is, that there would be a hierarchy of ads and, using the interactive remote control, consumers could “opt out “of certain ads, ala Pandora radio. Consumers would still be “forced” to watch 120 seconds of ads per15 minutes of programming, but you would only see the ads over and over that you liked or had relevancy to you. The cable provider could independently stream ads to you that other households that liked what you liked selected, ala Pandora – make sense? Then, advertisers would know exactly how many people were actually watching or cared about their ads, cable systems could charge for viewership, advertisers would be forced to create compelling (or at least interesting ads)(which could slow down channel surfing) and me, well, I wouldn’t have to watch those ridiculous Bob Dance commercials with what appears to be an ego-maniac and exploited little girl anymore.
Less than 2 hours until kick-off
So, I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I would like to think that my hobbies are family, friends, Dallas Cowboys then work, but actually its work, work, work, family, friends and then the Cowboys, but today, NO work, only Cowboys and family, as I already have my Roy Williams jersey on (I’m sure Mark Holt, Managing Partner of our Memphis office has his Tony Romo jersey on) and the family and I sitting around eating nachos, zingers, drinking beer and watching the Cowboys on opening day! Thanks Direct TV for the free day of NFL package.
Gave Away a Twitter Account
So, we lost the Sonnys BBQ pitch to Enguage. I hate that part of our industry – song and dance for free, but that is for another time.
Enguage is a national agency with a local Orlando office. We compete with them a lot, it seems. We’re similar size, capabilities etc., but we’re local, so I didn’t like losing a local piece of business to an “outside firm,” but that is for another time.
Enguage is headed by Barb Scherer, someone I really like. She’s smart, savvy and just overall, a good egg. I actually tried to get her to cone to EVOK once or twice before, but that is for another time.
Today, it’s about the letting go of a Twitter account. When we pitched Sonnys, we included social media in our pitch and acquired Sonny’s Twitter Account and earlier in the week, we got a call from the winning agency (Barb) requesting the account. We gave it up, but it was a reminder of the loss and I’ve had better days.
Sonnys is just lucky Barb’s shop beat us and she called or it would have turned into a fan page of my son’s BBQ, and I don’t even have a son. Maybe that is for another time.
Twitter
- evoklarry: RT @babiejenks how many innocent web sites need to die before we, as a species, stop making them out of flash? November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: "LinkedIn and Twitter link up | Reuters" (http://twitthis.com/epzsso) November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: EVOK's 2000th follower is @olagherej - TY! - new logo design on us - contact us @ www.evokad.com - keep 4 urself or donate 2 ur fav charity November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: "Florida Hospital DeLand to go tobacco-free - Orlando Business Journal:" (http://twitthis.com/k6ae3a) November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: @mcerto cool - sounds good November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: @kilz never used it, but I'll check it out biggest advantage over campaign monitor? November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: @mcerto ahhhhhh - Emma - I'll check it out November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: @mcerto Emma? November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: Considering launching agency newsletter with campaign monitor - any other suggestions? Pros? Cons? November 10, 2009
- evoklarry: Been a good night - tired from show but rewarding helping Syd learn her "sight words" - did they call them that when I was in kindergarten? November 10, 2009
Small Agency Diary
- Don't Hire Me Because I'm an Expert November 9, 2009The problem with experts is that they can only really tell you how it has always been done. They can tell you what has worked and hasn't worked. But the funny thing about experts, the thing they don't teach you in grad school, is that experts are looking in the wrong darn direction. They spend life looking backward instead of forward, which makes i […]
- Is Your Agency a Few Phone Calls From Closing Shop? November 4, 2009Four calls from being out of business. That's how a colleague summed up the plight of many smaller agencies. Or the agency business in general. We've seen some fantastic, talented, historic agencies shut their doors this year. Big and small. How can we better prepare ourselves to weather the storm if one or two or three clients pull out?
- How You Can Redefine Your Agency in a Single Moment November 3, 2009Game-changers don't just materialize out of thin air. You can't will them to happen. I suspect they happen like a lot of events in life: You pick a destination and then work your butt off. There's risk too. Losing a key client can be a game-changer. Too much success too quickly has crushed plenty of good agencies. An exciting game-changer for […]
- So U Think U R Such a Professional? Plz! October 30, 2009A memo went out to one of our clients last week that read more like a text message than a professional letter. You know what it looked like: Every third word was abbreviated, as though it was written on the run, from a cell phone. I was appalled, and could only imagine what the client must think: If we are writing to them in such a casual way, what else is b […]
- The Little (14-Person) Agency That Could October 28, 2009The documentary "Art & Copy" recently was screened here for a large audience of advertising professionals who work for small agencies. (That's the only kind we have in Albuquerque.) The audience applauded loudly when the final credits rolled up the screen. They were cheering the revolution of our industry, a revolution sparked by a small a […]
- What's the ROI of Putting Your Pants on in the Morning? October 20, 2009Listen to the agency buzz, and we're all masters of measurement and analytics. Every agency worth its salt claims to not only solve its client's business problems but has the data and case studies to back it up. By the same token, CMOs cite producing measurable results as their No. 1 priority. CMOs want results and agencies deliver. Shouldn't […]
- Small Agencies Make Pretty Good Dates October 15, 2009You know you're probably doing the right thing when you continually lose your people to our industry's powerhouse agencies. It may sound like a negative, but if agencies such as Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Mother, and Chiat Day hire your employees, they obviously think you're doing something right.
- The Time to Re-Invest Is Also the Scariest Time October 14, 2009I've been writing a lot of checks lately to carpenters, contractors, IT technicians, painters and audio/video specialists. That's because I made the decision back in May to renovate our offices in the midst of the recession. As I write this, construction is wrapping up, and we are moving into our new digs next week. Exciting. And scary (to spend al […]
- I Hate 'Creative,' and You Should Too October 13, 2009What was once used to describe thoughtful and novel communications, to describe what we aspire to on a daily basis, the word "creative" has somehow devolved into a pejorative hammer -- a hammer that's often used to beat the life out of an idea into something that's anything but "creative."
- The End of the World as We Know It? I Hope So October 9, 2009As an agency owner and creative director, I am concerned about the real danger that has always threatened our industry: our own unwillingness to push a client's marketing forward.
