An Ad Giants sponsored adventure.

Woodhouse Day Spa, an Ad Giants, client was highlighted recently as a small business success story on the Fox Business Channel. Behold.

When I run across an old song, film, or quote that really seems to stand the test of time I’m often conflicted. On the one hand I’m impressed with the wisdom of the person or persons behind the work. On the other hand, I’m discouraged because the truisms they reveal still seem like revelations rather than common knowledge. (For me, a few films in this category are A Face in the Crowd and Meet John Doe.)

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Like the rest of the country I truly enjoyed Dave Carroll’s musical treatment of the confrontation between United Airlines and his guitar, and while most consider it a cautionary tale for the airline industry and its customer relation and PR policies, I’m looking at it from the other angle, the guitar’s. Here’s the story, and the vid follows.

Mr. Carroll could easily have left the guitar’s brand generic, but he chose to identify it as a Taylor. I’m no mind-reader, but I think it’s safe to assume he did so because for guitarists, the destruction of a Taylor is particularly tragic, and not just because Taylors fetch top-dollar. The instruments and the company are highly regarded and, in my opinion (I own one,) deservedly so. Without getting too nichey about it, I’d say it’s because the company radiates quality and innovation as manifested in their products. That’s something consumers can pick up on, something they appreciate, even revere in a culture of too many  compromised, throw-away products. While I don’t know how this story nets out for United, I know it’s a win for Taylor.

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I was reading some thoughts on physical versus virtual, about how the physical reaches our consciousness in different, more instinctive ways, and it made me think of our Pitchrocket product. While PitchRocket routinely produces dramatically better response rates in all its contact media, three-dimensional (a physical object) direct mail is an especially consistent performer. Maybe that’s because physical objects are more memorable and reinforce the personalization of a campaign.

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Many of us are doing more work with our voices, for presentations, recorded videos or podcasts for corporate or personal purposes, yet few of us put much thought into the mechanics of our voices. But when we do, it can make things easier with fewer takes, less editing and more comfort, mostly as the result of better breathing. Here’s some explanation, and about half way through, exercises you can do to get control of your breathing. Singers, I know, sometimes have their own routines. I remember reading that Don Henley likes to spend a lot of time on an exercise bike before performances to get blood and oxygen flowing. Most of us don’t have to be that serious about it, and judging from what I’ve heard in karaoke performances, most of us haven’t.

Not having a plan rarely works out well, whether it’s playground design or marketing, and poor execution can sabotage the best of plans. So Ad Giants will help clients sidestep both pitfalls with a strategic partership just announced with Moderandi, Inc.

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I wrote a long while ago about an audio interface I bought, the Focusrite Saffire, which I bought used off eBay. I just love the sound of its converters. But recently I had some trouble with it when I could not get signals out of its mic pres, which meant I couldn’t use my condenser mics with it. Though I had a workaround through another piece of gear, I did miss the sound of the Saffire. I wasn’t too upset about it, though, because, after all — I bought it used.

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Tough times are old news, but the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) put some numbers to it, and they’re painful. Their survey shows that 93 percent of marketing industry respondents are focused on cost savings and reductions with 37 percent planning to cut budgets more than 20 percent.

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It’s been a while since we talked about us, Ad Giants, so here’s an update (there’s even more in the pipeline.)

First, we’ve redesigned the Ad Giants site to accommodate our expanding arsenal of marketing products. The most recent addition is PitchRocket, which you can explore at its new home. It will be formally unveiled at the IFA Show.  We’re especially excited to offer a solution as innovative and effective as PitchRocket now, to help marketers adapt to current economic realities. Clearly, the time is right, according to research cited here: [Read more →]

Our friend Eric passed on this Wired story about a novel concept in the UK. Well, I say it’s novel, but I think I remember hearing about it a year or more ago, though maybe that was when they were in the conceptual stage. It’s only UK at the moment, which is a shame because last month’s “Matter” included a BBC audio sampler. And let’s admit it; the Brits are pros at comedy.

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