Deutsche Bank analyst factors in advertising and promotion spending patterns into his buy/sell recommendations which is working against the biggest cutters like Pernod and Diageo.

1. Does your target Digg your ads?

If zapping tv spots wasn’t bad enough, now Digg is allowing their readers to essentially vote ads “off the island” while promoting the ones they like to star status. For the undug, Digg is the highly popular tech-focused news site where the stories are chosen by the users—the more Diggs a story gets, the higher it ranks on the site. And now that ads can be Digged or Buried, marketers will get real time feedback on the relative appeal of their ads to this highly influential target. If you’re targeting techies, this could be the cheapest copy test you ever tried, as well as the most eye opening.

2. Is your marketing worth retweeting?

While the joys of tweeting may still escape you personally, the phenomenal reach of Twitter is undeniable. In addition to the 20 million or so global users, tweets now appear as status updates on Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and other social networks, extending Twitter’s influence to just about everyone marketers might want to reach. This isn’t kid stuff either. Professionals between 35–49 are the biggest tweeters of them all. So, if you create marketing worth tweeting about, the world will find out about it faster than you can say, “Wow that’s tweet.”

3. Do interns handle your social media?

This is not a trick question. We’ve been asked this a lot in the last month and it is a reflection of a naive belief that it is okay to put a brand’s social media campaign in the hands of novices. One senior marketer even told us that his company uses interns for all of their social media and then shrugs off the lost intellectual capital when the interns move on. As social media advances from the experimental phase to the front lines of customer relationship management, building and maintaining expertise is essential to optimizing results and avoiding PR nightmares. After all, would you ever put an intern on the phone with the press or your top customers?

4. How many customer “love letters” do you get a week?

It is a simple fact—beloved brands do better. Becoming beloved requires achieving customer satisfaction on the basics (product quality) and somehow exceeding expectations via service. Zappos calls this delivering “wow” and does this wherever they can. The Apple Store does this with its amazingly knowledgeable squad of orange-shirted concierges. Others use Marketing as Service to foster brand love, as HSBC does with the BankCab, whose riders send at least one love letter every week. So ask yourself, what could your marketing be doing (versus saying) to generate this kind of passion?

5. Do you have an app yet?

2009 was the year of the app rush for marketers. Everyone from Blockbuster to ZipCar, Betty Crocker to Starbucks, and Fandango to The Food Network cooked up mobile apps for their prospects and customers. In fact, well over a hundred brands joined the fun, some with pragmatic extensions of their service offering (like FedEx mobile) and others with engaging entertainment to enhance their brand perceptions (like Scion’s AV Radio). Given the low development costs of mobile apps and the millions of smart phone users, there is still time to get app happy. And while you’re at it, check out the newly launched CALL THE SHOTS iPhone app that Renegade developed for HARLEM, the new ice cold shot drink imported from Holland. It’s fun, it’s free and it’ll answer the question—how lucky are you really?

6. Did you know Renegade moved?

Back in September we said goodbye to Chelsea Market, our home for 10 years and moved to our new digs in the heart of Greenwich Village, just south of Bowlmor Lanes and north of Patsy’s Pizza. It seems that a few of you might not have our new address so here it is: 41 E 11th Street, 3F, NY, NY 10003-4602. Our phone numbers haven’t changed and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Happy New Year!

After six years of riding on the coattails of the world’s greatest golfer and two weeks of controversy, Accenture summarily dumps the man who put them on the map. At this moment, all their competitors are sighing with relief as none of them had an answer to Accenture’s extraordinarily successful partnership with Tiger. Do I think their decision was premature? You bet. Do I think it was wrong? Time will tell.

This much I know–the Tiger Woods-Accenture partnership was as good as it gets for brand campaigns. Launching in 2003 with the umbrella tagline “High Performance. Delivered.”, Tiger symbolized high performance delivered like no other man alive. In 2006, Accenture took their focus on performance one step further by offering up the wisdom they gained by studying 500 high performing companies. The results of this study were made available to clients and prospects elevating the campaign beyond mere branding to something of genuine value.

At this point they also evolved their theme line to the fateful “We know what it takes to be a Tiger.” I guarantee you that up until two weeks ago every Accenture employee around the world loved being associated with the greatest golfer on the planet. His standard of excellence, his clutch performance tournament after tournament undoubtedly inspired Accenture employees to deliver day after day. Accenture stands alone in its category thanks to Tiger. Now that they have dropped Tiger, they are unlikely to find a campaign that will score (pun intended) on so many levels.

For the most part, I’m not a fan of brand campaigns because they offer very little genuine value to the consumer. Most people tune them out because they talk at the consumer and don’t encourage a dialog. That said, a few cut through because of the massive media weight they receive and or the magnetic presence of a celebrity like Tiger. Of those types of brand campaigns, believe it or not, my favorite was Accenture’s use of Tiger Woods.

Undoubtedly the Tiger campaign hastened the demise of BearingPoint who’s sponsorship of Phil Mickelson paled in comparison. Tiger out drove Phil on and off the course. It wasn’t even competitive. Accenture is on the map. BearingPoint is out of business. And both were started within a year of each other. When BearingPoint started to go downhill, its consultants simply walked out with their clients because neither had allegiance to the brand. The Accenture brand, on the other hand, is bigger than any single consultant, thanks in large part to its association with Tiger.

Admittedly the Tiger brand is now tarnished. Can Tiger redeem himself? Of course. America loves come back stories. Look at Robert Downey, Jr. Look at Hugh Grant. Look at A-Rod. He just needs to take a page out of the Scarlet Letter, the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic in which the heroine is forced to wear an A for Adulterer on her sweater but through her good deeds transforms it into A for Able and ultimately A for Angel. I fully expect Tiger to regain the good graces of his golfing fans sometime soon. While I can’t predict how long this will take, I can say with certainty that the A on his chest will no longer stand for Accenture.

The Dallas Morning News carried an interesting story on Radio Shack’s new marketing campaign. The reporter, Maria Halkias included a lot of commentary from yours truly so I thought I just post the whole story. Enjoy.

RadioShack to launch rebranding effort as The Shack

RadioShack is trying to turn up the volume on its image by turning off the “Radio” and calling itself “The Shack.” Not to be confused with the Shaq who’s famous in basketball circles, The Shack apparently is a nickname that employees, customers and investors have used for RadioShack.

The Fort Worth-based consumer electronics chain’s rebranding effort begins Thursday with a national television, print and digital campaign and the start of a three-day launch event in New York’s Times Square and San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza.

The bicoastal hoopla will include 14-foot laptops hooked up to webcams for live video and audio exchanges. The company isn’t changing the name of its stores. Chief marketing officer Lee Applbaum said the nickname is an attempt at “contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand.”

“The Shack speaks to consumers in a fresh, new voice and distinctive creative look that reinforces RadioShack’s authority in innovative products, leading brands and knowledgeable, helpful associates,” he said. The company believes it has “tremendous equity in consumers’ minds around cables, parts and batteries,” Applbaum said. Now it needs to get consumers thinking about its ability to keep them “connected in this highly mobile world.”

Ads in the campaign will focus on mobility and wireless products from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung. “Radio Shack is in a desperate battle to remain relevant,” said Drew Neisser, chief executive of Renegade, a New York-based brand marketing agency.

“The name RadioShack is a quaint artifact in a rapidly evolving marketplace in which mobile devices have become the CE [consumer electronics] portal. Using The Shack as a nickname is a bid to update its image and represent the passion loyalists have for the brand,” he said.

However, company leaders may be “hedging their bets,” he said.

When Federal Express decided to become FedEx, consumers had already been calling the company that, and using the shortened name was a no-brainer, Neisser said.

“If consumers are really already using The Shack, then why not commit fully?” he said. “The only reason I can think of is that they are worried about abandoning the awareness and any positive equity remaining with their old name.” Using The Shack in ads only, “the whole thing could come across as forced at best and confusing at worst,” Neisser said.

The creative campaign was developed by Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners of Sausalito, Calif., which was named RadioShack’s creative agency of record in April.

Late last year I grew a beard, part out of curiosity and part out of solidarity with the down and out. Someone called it a “recession beard” and that suited me fine. Today I shaved that beard. After three days of beautiful weather, I felt I was depriving myself of sunshine, both literally and figuratively.

In a sense, we’ve all been depriving ourselves of the sunshine that comes with optimism, talking about the recession as if it was an inexorable force, a cloud that simply couldn’t be blown away. We’ve bathed in recession-strategies, cynical proclaiming that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Enough already. As far as I’m concerned this recession is over.

That’s right, you heard it here first: The recession is over. Now go tell someone else. And encourage them to do the same. Think of this as a logarithmic round of “pay it forward.” The more we tell each other that the recession is over, the more we will start to believe it and the more we believe it the more real it will be.

Of course, I have no rational evidence to support this proclamation. In fact, rationality has nothing to do it. What we need now is seismic emotionality. What we need now is a tremor of mini-indulgences and perhaps an earthquake of irrational exuberance. Meet a friend at Starbuck’s and splurge on Venti Caramel Frapuccino with whipped cream just because. It’ll do you both good.

No, I did not suddenly take some happy pills. Consumer sentiment is the fuel that drives our economic engine. When we feel better, we spend. And up until recently, we’ve been reveling in our collective misery, and turning penuriousness into an oh-so-chic art form. Enough is enough. Everything is on sale. Buy something already. Nothing like a little retail therapy to shed this malaise.

Earlier I mentioned that I had no rational evidence that the recession is over. And that is true but there is plenty of evidence that our worst days are behind us. In April, consumer confidence actually “soared past forecasts” according to this Yahoo News article. Investor confidence is also growing as the Dow spends a couple of months over 8,000 and the world markets show significant gains. Add it all together and its time to shave those recession beards and let the sun shine in.

A number of my friends have been asking for help as they get started on Twitter. Having written a bunch of emails to them, I figured I consolidate my advice onto one page. For you veterans in Tweetland, never mind. If you are still wondering why to Twitter, read Chris Brogan’s guide for newbies.

1. Where to start

• Register on Twitter.com and provide a complete profile since this will make it easier for people to decide if they want to follow you.
• I recommend you use your full name since this is not about cuteness or anonymity but rather connecting with people you might actually want to meet or at least have a conversation with at some point.
• The next thing I’d recommend is that you download TweetDeck and use this to tool as home base for all your twittering instead of Twitter.com. TweetDeck makes it easy to track the folks you follow, have direct conversations and to “retweet” which I’ll explain more about later.
• When you start visiting other Twitter home pages, you will notice many of have interesting backgrounds or more information. Zugara has created an easy tool to customize your background if you are so inclined.

2. Finding twitterers to follow

• The great thing about Twitter is that you can follow people from all walks of life and it is completely up to you the mix of people you choose to follow.
• To get started, pick a personal passion and a professional passion and look for lists of Twitterers in those areas. You can search for names or topics on Twitter Search.
• Send an email to your peers/friends and ask them if they Twitter. If they do, then go to their Twitter home pages and see who they follow (look for the tiny head shots on the lower right). Then click on some of these head shots and look at those people’s Twitter home page to see if their Tweets interest you. If they do, hit the follow button on the upper left.
• Then look at who these people follow. Ultimately, you start to find the superstars of Twitter who have thousands of followers but only follow a select few. Here’s a list of the Twitter elite according to Twitter Grader. Also, Paul Dunay has compiled lists of C Level Twitterers that is worth reviewing.
• Word of caution–be selective initially about who you follow. It takes a lot of time to follow a lot of people and it may overwhelm you to try to follow too many at first.  One quick means of evaluating a potential tweeter is the ratio of followers to following–beware of the ones who follow thousands but only have a few followers.

3. Read, retweet, share links then share thoughts

• My recommendation is that you spend you first couple of days just reading Tweets to get the hang of it. If you are following people that say interesting things and post interesting links, you will find it endlessly fascinating.
• Then start retweeting or RT. This is the equivalent to forwarding an email and this is very easy on TweetDeck. Just hit the retweet button and then post. Retweeting is a way of paying respect to the author and sharing goodness at the same time..
• I spend much of my time on Twitter reading the articles that others share via links. Because tweets are so short, a whole industry (like TinyURL.com which allows you to create aliases for your shortened URLs) has popped up to reduce the length of these links. Tweetdeck has a built in tool for shortening URLs but sometimes I find it easier to use Twurl which sits right on my Firefox browser. You can download Twurl from TweetBurner which has a bunch of other useful tools.
• Now start tweeting away. My suggestion is that you only tweet about what you’d want to read about. Keep the “I’m eating bagels for breakfast” tweets to a minimum. Honestly, no one really cares unless you’re Barack Obama or Britney Spears (for more celebs who Twitter click here.)
• Once you build a following, you will find all sorts of ways to make Twitter work for you (see my blog post for a few suggestions).

4. Playing catch up

• Twitip.com, Mashable and Twitfacts have tons of useful information about Twitter and will get you connected with all the latest uses, add-ons, variations and extensions.
• Both Blackberry and iPhone have Twitter applications that make mobile tracking and tweeting a breeze.
• Among the essentials add-ons is Twitpic for photo sharing.
• If you are so inclined, you can update your Facebook, Plaxo status and your WordPress blog with your Twitter posts. I have found this to be useful since it simply extends the reach of my tweets and keeps those other pages fresher.
• Once you get the hang of it and start to attract followers, I have found it useful to create an auto response to welcome followers. Some consider this bad form but for busy people it is far better than doing nothing. Tweetburner makes setting up an auto response fairly easy.
• Since you will quickly notice a number of Twitter words like hashtag, tweme, tweetup, and twirt that may not make sense to you, you’ll find this twictionary worth bookmarking.

That should get you started. Have fun tweeps.

As seen today on MediaPost:

Renegade, the New York-based digital agency, announced Thursday that it will operate as a newly independent company.

Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc. has sold its majority interest in the company to Renegade CEO and Co-founder, Drew Neisser. The deal–a result of the directional evolution of both companies–is both amicable and mutually beneficial, according to the companies.

“We believe that being independent will elevate the entrepreneurial spirit that is especially important in this challenging economic environment,” Neisser said. “Without the support of Dentsu over the years, we would not have been able to build the type of organization that we have today. Renegade has always been about helping clients get maximum impact out of limited resources. Being independent will make us that much more resourceful.”–Tanya Irwin 

Thanks to many of you for the various links noting that President-Elect Obama’s Secret Service codename is–damn straight–nothing other than Renegade! Here’s what they said about it on YahooBuzz:

The Renegade Is Loose. We Repeat, the Renegade Is Loose.

The Secret Service takes a lot of risks for the first family. So it’s only fair that the agency gets the honor of coming up with code names for the president-elect and his family. Various sources within the Buzz recently revealed the not-so-secret nicknames. [DREW NOTE--according to Wikipedia, the White House Communications Agency actually comes up with the codenames!]

Mr. Obama will be known as “Renegade” (move over, Lorenzo Lamas). Michelle, a woman of many talents, will be referred to as “Renaissance.” Malia Obama’s name will be “Radiance,” while little sister Sasha’s will be “Rosebud.”

Former Renegade, Rich Ullman who recognizes opportunity when he sees it, asks “now, what are you going to do with it?” Well, great question, Rich. First, let me assure we are delighted with the Secret Service’s selection and honored to share that name with the President-elect but of course, we will be expecting royalties;-) Second, I am working on my annual predictions letter which will be entitled, The Year of the Renegade and will feature hoops as the annual metaphor. Third, for the moment, there is not third. Any thoughts? I’ve got signed photos of my Obumkin and one unused Obama for President bumper sticker for the best idea out there.

While you’re thinking up ideas, here’s a list of secret service names for past president’s. Can you guess who’s who? For the answers, click here.

• Scorecard or Providence
• Lancer
• Volunteer
• Searchlight
• Pass Key
• Lock Master
• Rawhide
• Timberwolf
• Eagle
• Tumbler

At The CMO Club Summit today, I moderated a discussion among 35+ CMOs about social media. It was really a lively conversation representing the range of experiences of these CMOs. The group divided into three segments, from novices to making their way to “kicking butt and taking names.” David Spark provides a quick overview of the discussion on TheCMOClub site (yes, the very same social network that Renegade helped create!) but I thought add some more detail given the broad interest in the topic.

Introduction to Social Media
Here’s the definition of social media marketing from Frog Design’s blog that I used to start the discussion:

Social media marketing is all marketing that utilizes the social graph of both marketer and audience (in fact, the interesting thing is that they can be one and the same) to facilitate and cultivate a conversation. Social marketing is whenever more than two individuals collaborate online or offline for content generation and distribution. Social marketers harness the viral power of social networks in order to grow both the frequency and the reach of conversations exponentially. They know how to feed the social orbit with content that catalyzes conversations. And they understand that an “architecture of participation,” that lets employees be marketers, has become paramount for turning brands into live brands.

Social Media Numbers (or why CMO’s should care)

• 62% of consumers actively seek out and read customer reviews prior to purchase
• 82% of consumers found reading reviews better than researching a product in-store
• 60% of Americans use social media
• 59% interact with companies via social media; 25% do so once a week or more
• 93% of those that use SM believe companies should too
• 56% feel stronger connection to companies that they interact with via SMcompanies should use social networks to solve my problems
• 43% believe companies should use social networks to solve my problems
• 41% believe companies should solicit feedback on their products/services
• 37% want more ways to interact with companies

Renegade also created a Social Media IQ test for these CMO’s at CMOquiz.com which may be of interest.

I had the pleasure of seeing Jim Collins speak at the World Business Forum a week ago. Collins is the author of Good to Great, the only business book I actually read from cover to cover and then re-read. His speech covered much of the same ground as Good to Great and included lots of helpful reminders:

1. Good is the enemy of great
   • It requires the hearts of lions and the courage of elephants
   • Decline is typically self-inflicted
2. Over night successes are typically 20 years in the making
   • Striving for great is a cumulative never ending process
   • “the moment we think we’re great, we’re dead”
   • If growth exceeds ability to hire great people, you’re in big trouble
3. Must have the right people on the bus even before you decide where you’re going
   • Hire self-motivated people who are committed to doing whatever it takes
   • The “plow horse” typically beats the “show horse” when it comes to great CEOs
   • Have the discipline to confront the brutal facts
4. Find your “hedgehog” concept
   • What are you truly passionate about?
   • What can you be the best in the world at?
   • What is the economic denominator that will make the business competitive?

He ended with a to do list for all the attendees, especially the CEO’s in the audience. Here’s his 10-point to do list that I somehow turned into 11 points:

1. Assess your company’s strengths and weakness (with the Good to Great diagnostic tool on jimcollins.com)
2. Figure out the key “seats” on your business “bus” and calculate the percentage of those seats that are filled with the right people and then make an action plan for improving that percentage
3. Establish your own personal “board of directors” that can advise like “tribal elders”
4. Get some young people “in your face” to challenge your perspective on things
5. Build an internal council for key decision making
6. Ask more questions; make fewer statements (he suggested doubling the quantity of questions & repeated some advice given to him years back–spend more time being interested and less time being interesting!)
7. Turn off your electronic devices and schedule time just to think
8. Create a stop doing list (eliminate the stuff you don’t need to do yourself so you can focus on contribution)
9. Forget titles and focus on responsibilities (titles are inherently limiting and responsibilities ensure jobs get done)
10. Make sure your core values are solid and that you and your team are following them
11. Set BHAG (big hairy audacious goals) for 10, 15, 25 year horizons (establish the risks and then remove them).

Collins also recommended tracking down John Gardner’s book from 1984 called Personal and Organizational Renewal (which could take some work since Amazon notes it is out of print.)  So, who’s ready to be great?

Edward Teach understood the fundamentals of marketing perhaps better than any leader of his age. His ship was easily recognized from miles away thanks to an enormous black flag burnishing a distinctive skull and cross bones. A man of extraordinary size, he crafted a unique brand experience for anyone who dared cross his path. Shortly before engaging his competition, he would weave hemp into his enormous beard and then light it on fire. His fiery visage coupled with the multiple guns and swords he stuffed into his pantaloons sent a clear message–surrender or die. More often than not, the mere sight of the flaming Blackbeard was enough to shiver anyone’s timbers and in doing so, he captured over 40 ships in under 5 years, many without a fight.

Lest we forgot me hardies, marketing is a battle for hearts, minds and share points. Make your brand strong enough and the battle is easier. You need to fly your brand flag high and often so everyone knows exactly what it stands for. Create unforgettable brand experiences and the word will get around, your prospects will become customers and your customers brand advocates.

So, aarr you ready to join me in celebratin’ International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

Just got back from 10 days in Asia including six stunning days in Beijing and four eye-opening ones in Seoul. I am still a bit jet lagged and don’t have all my thoughts organized but wanted to quickly bestow a gold medal marketing award to China. Never before has a country had so much to prove and taken up the challenge with so much gusto.

Vinyl by Vera: As a first time Olympic host, China was determined to dazzle the world on and off the playing fields. And dazzle they did. I had the pleasure of visiting six venues and each was stunning inside and out. Colorful vinyl graphics spruced up normally dull stadium interiors and architecturally-intriguing structures like the swimming Cube and the Birds Nest were simply stunning. If I owned a stadium, I sure would be studying the Chinese efforts–a little colorful vinyl can cover up architectural short-comings and lift the spirits of all inside.

Landscaping by Disney: Imagine one of the world’s largest cities was landscaped like Disneyworld and you probably still couldn’t picture the floral beauty that enveloped Beijing. Every street, and I mean every street, had perfectly manicured hedges surrounded by perfectly arranged flowers. Red and green flower trees dotted key intersections. Even construction sites were beautified with obfuscating walls covered with colorful Olympic graphics. Rainbow banners hung from every street lamp and road sign. Bright red lanterns hung from most retail establishments. Every tourist spot like Tienanmen Square, the largest public plaza in the world, had Olympic displays that looked like winning floats from the Pasadena Rose Parade.

No Ad Pollution: Following in the lead of Sao Paulo, Brazil which banished all of its billboard in 2007, the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) used its authority to rid the city of all extraneous billboards. The few remaining boards were all Olympic related, either for the TOP sponsors like Panasonic, Coke and Visa, or for the Beijing Olympics themselves. While this was probably a sad decision for the Chinese out-of-home advertising industry, it certainly illuminated the jarring clutter you often seen in big cities. The elimination of outdoor also increased the visibility of all the new buildings including the amazing CCTV arch and the
torch-shaped building where evidently the athletes stayed.

Lower Air Pollution: For the record, my eyes started to burn the minute I landed in smog shrouded Beijing. After the second day, I felt a constant irritation to my nasal passages. It wasn’t until the third day that I actually saw a bit of the sun. Remarkably, those who spend a lot of time in Beijing, said that the week I was there was the clearest and lowest smog levels they had seen in Beijing in many years. I didn’t feel compelled to wear a face mask like the US cycling team but I couldn’t certainly appreciate their desire to protect their lungs. Take a look at the sky in the picture below (CCTV building) and you’ll have a pretty good sense of the constant shroud Beijingers live with pretty much all year round.

Bottom line–China put on an amazing show. Now how great would it be if the second act involved cleaning up their polluted country. Turns out that is going to take a lot more effort than even the “we can do it all” government of China expected.

Okay, I admit it, I have iPhone envy. About a year ago I was one of the few bloggers not to rave about it. Why? Because I simply wasn’t willing to slide backward into AT&T’s spotty coverage in New York City. Since then, I have been forced to admire the device from a far, taking solace in the fact that other cool gadgets will come along soon enough. Here’s a round up of some of those devices and a challenge to you all to come up with your own concept–winner will get toasted with six bottles of Toasted Head Cabernet.

Chumby–got to love the name of this “compact wi-fi device that displays useful and entertaining information from the web,” according to its website. Who needs a clock radio when you can use this puppy as the ultimate Internet radio player via a wi-fi connection. At $180 bucks, it feels like a great belated father’s day gift for this gadget lover.

Kindle-One of my clients swears by his Kindle, using it to read his virtual New York Times daily and business books when he is on the road. Developed and sold by Amazon, this nifty device will certainly save trees and cut down on your need for new shelves as it provides wi-fi access to over 130,000 books. It is definitely one of those things that is best experienced first hand and at $360 dollars plus a subscription its hardly a impulse purchase. Nonetheless, I could easily see this on my side table in the not too distant future.

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet-According to CNET, this wireless wonder “is a nice, portable device for on-the-go Web browsing, and it has some worthy upgrades.” Not exactly a rave but at $279, this little puppy won’t set you back too much if you simply want a “travel friendly” gadget for Internet surfing and want to garner a few covetous stares in the airport lounges.

There are many others but I’ve got to get back to work. Be sure to let me know about any existing devices you crave and/or ideas for topping these three before the end of the month.�

As a huge Get Smart fan, I approached the new movie with some trepidation. Would Steve Carrell blow it the way Steve Martin did in Pink Panther? Would it be as stupid as the original Get Smart movie initially called The Nude Bomb? Fortunately, Carrell did not try to imitate Don Adams and Anne Hathaway only copied Barbara Feldon’s hair style when she donned a 99-vintage wig for going undercover. Both created new characters that were true to the spirit of the originals while bringing something fresh to the party. Alan Arkin was terrific as the Chief and has the about the best line in the movie when he is nearly speared by a swordfish beak after a wild ride through a driving range. The writers found time for almost all of Smart’s trademark lines (sorry about that chief, would you believe, etc.) and some of his favorite toys (including an updated but still dysfunctional cone of silence). Get Smart fans will find plenty of homages to the original including a cameo by Bernie Koppel, the surveillance fly and “not the Craw–the Craw” which is scribbled on a napkin in the credits. Ironically, about the only Smart line Carrell didn’t say was “and loving it!” which was exactly how this reviewer felt when the credits rolled.

Got this tasty tidbit yesterday from a friend in Pittsburgh:

I voted at 7:45 this morning. As I came out, a man from a local radio station was doing a “Democratic Donut” poll. He asked me to show who I voted for by choosing a chocolate donut (Obama) or a white powdered sugar donut with pink frosting (Hillary). (I refrained from commenting on the racial stereotyping thing with the donuts.)

Anyway, only 45 minutes after the polls had opened, in downtown Pittsburgh, Hillary was almost two dozen donuts ahead of Obama.  In fact, the Hillary donut boxes were almost empty.

Me? I have white powdered sugar all over my suit now.

Talk about tasty research!  Who needs needs Gallup when donuts can predict a slam dunk.

Last night, my daughter and I watched a video on YouTube called “The Last Lecture” which was given by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. We were both weeping by the end. We were both inspired as well. Over a million folks of all ages have watched this video, some finding inspiration, some finding schmaltz. ABC News (Diane Sawyer) ran a full hour story on Mr. Pausch this week which was also a tear jerker as it tracked his battle with terminal pancreatic cancer seven months after his now famous lecture.

Mr. Pausch also recently published a book called The Last Lecture that is getting favorable reviews across the country. Here’s some background on the book from the Detroit Free Press:

Pausch, a professor at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, isn’t about dying, however. He’s about living. Living for his wife and their three young children. Living a good life as long as he can.

A now-famous lecture he gave at Carnegie in September has inspired millions who have viewed it on YouTube to follow his example. He hopes his new book, “The Last Lecture” (Hyperion, $21.95), published this week, will do the same. His publisher is banking on “Lecture ” to become the next “Tuesdays With Morrie,” the mega-best-seller by Free Press columnist Mitch Albom about another dying professor.

It all sounds terrible sad. Amazingly and to his enduring credit, it isn’t. My daughter took many of his suggestions to heart. Of course, she instantly asked to paint her room in response to his suggestion for parents to let their kids be creative and pursue their dreams (I consented!). She also took note about how Professor Pausch had gotten himself admitted to Carnegie Mellon for graduate school after having been rejected. You can imagine how relevant this was to a high school junior who is well aware that the high class of 2009 could face the highest rejection rate in the history of college admissions (the class of ’08 did).

I loved his description of a brick wall as simply a test of how badly you want something. I also found myself checking my own dream list just to make sure I hadn’t written too many of them off (and yes, there is still time for me to learn to surf!) So as you approach this weekend, perhaps it is time to review your personal dream list. If not now, when?

My wife recently vowed not to give another dime to any politician regardless of their affiliation, position or stated angelic mission. Frankly, she’s just fed up with the lot of them and believes she can do more good supporting ideas like the Life Straw, a simply amazing approach to water purification which could help a billion or so people avoid water-borne diseases. Here’s a couple of quotes from their website:

Recognizing the importance of safe water in our daily lives and the billions of people who are still without access to these basic human rights, LifeStraw® was developed as a practical response to the urgency, and confirms our commitment to achieving the MDGs.

Mobilising LifeStraw® offers relief from waterborne diseases of major public concern such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and diarrhea. As a personal and mobile water purification tool, LifeStraw® is designed to turn most of the surface water into drinking water, thus providing access to safe water wherever you are.

Happened to see inventor Dean Kamen (also founded F.I.R.S.T. robotic competition) on Colbert Report last week demonstrating his amazing water purifier (a far more expensive & robust system than the LifeStraw) and was reminded about it by this email from fellow a Renegade (thanks Phil!):

Dean Kamen, best known for inventing the Segway, unveiled his latest invention on the Colbert Report— a filtration system that will turn any liquid into pure water without the use of any filters or chemicals. The necessity for the invention arose from the fact that 50% of human disease can be attributed to pathogens in drinking water, a number he hopes his invention will erase. Kamen’s inventions have always inspired me because they are intended to sustain or improve human life rather than pursue wealth through consumer products like most inventors.

The necessity of this invention far surpasses that of any alternative fuel source we may be in the process of developing. If you think about all of the blood that has been shed for oil, just imagine what chaos would unfold around the world if there was no longer fresh water to drink. To put it simply— this is huge.

VERY DIFFERENT SUBJECT–AFTER ALL THIS IS THE MUSINGS SECTION

To water things down a bit, I thought I’d spout about Arcade Fire’s latest web video which is as cool and interactive as their last one. This time you get to manipulate six music tracks via your #1 through #6 keys as the “Melville-like” video progresses. The song is called Black Mirror and the URL for the video is oh so cleverly… rorrimkcalb.com/arcadefire.html (read about this in Creativity.) One word of warning, you will have some time to look in the mirror as you wait for this site to load…

It’s rainy cats and dogs here in NYC, a perfect day for a little casual web surfing. Frankly, its something I don’t do enough of and have found it thoroughly entertaining and enlightening.

My stops included about 20 different blogs including Noah’s sister’s (she’s blogging about blogs for her college thesis–oh those Briers!) and a Belgian site called BuzzingBee that posted a very funny Volkswagen ad that features a singing dog. Adverblog encouraged a visit to this “hearing test” from the Norwegian Red Cross, one of the cleverest appeals I’ve seen in a long time. They manage to get their message across in an entirely unexpected way–wonder if anyone will find it annoying–I can’t say more without ruining the experience for you.

Speaking of Brier’s, Noah’s recent post on the new Modernista site is going to get a lot of agency heads thinking about their more conventional “who we are & what we do” sites. This one certainly shows they understand the Web 2.0 world. I just wonder if any prospective clients will find what they’re looking for–after about 5 minutes of trying, I couldn’t find one example of their work. Of course, this could be irrelevant since the cool factor probably tells the whole story. (20 minutes later) Realizing I probably overlooked something, I went back and found more navigational options in the upper left hand corner. There I located their mission statement, which I absolutely love:

We believe brands are like people. They have hopes. Dreams. Personalities. Insecurities. But ultimately, brands want love, happiness and a long life just like the rest of us.

And, not surprisingly, they develop relationships just like we do. In our experience, people fall in love with brands that know who they are, that have a clear point of view and aren’t afraid to express themselves.

Our most fulfilling relationships are with ambitious brands who are enthusiastic and optimistic about the world they live in. Our mission is to make these brands matter.

From there, I found myself on Laura Ries’ blog reading her thorough commentary on the Starbucks’ closing and her article called “By the numbers or by the brand.” Looking for a way to comment on her story, I ended up joining Newsvine and posted an extensive comment which begs the question, if a comment is posted in the blogosphere and no one is there to read it does that comment really exist? Gotta go walk the dog while you contemplate that one…

If you go to one museum between now and May 28th, make sure it is the Guggenheim. Chinese artist Cai Guo-Quiang’s exhibit called I Want To Believe is nothing short of mind blowing. The reviews have been universally strong and far more detailed than anything I can offer:

• Newsday: If it weren’t so massive, the arrangement of nine full-sized automobiles hung from the top of the Guggenheim’s spiral, might look like a mobile dangling
• NewYorker: Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese installation and pyrotechnic artist, recently told me that as a child he had a recurrent
• New York Times: Cars and Gunpowder and Plenty of Noise – New York Times The Guggenheim Museum’s retrospective of the work of the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang is nothing if not action packed. The galleries are so rife with the

The guy paints with gun powder. He suspends hurling wolves, exploding cars and arrow-riddled ships. You gotta see it to believe it. And for you Olympic fans, Cai Guo-Qiang is responsible for the pyrotechnics at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games (August 8-25, 2008).

Four years ago I called the 2004 Presidential campaign the first “internet” election (see archived article here.) Things have progressed a bit since then and now campaigners are working hard to see who can get “the viral vote” by unleashing the most contagious, the most shared, the most viewed online content.

In the last week, I’ve received several emails encouraging me to check out various videos for Obama and for Hillary. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given my party affiliation that the McCain camp has left me alone (we’ll see if that continues after the conventions). I already wrote about the massive success of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video. On Friday I received an interesting request from a strong Hillary supporter (and good friend) to not only check out a website but also pass it on to friends in specific states (“especially to Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming and Mississippi”).

Since video views on YouTube appears to be a new measure of campaign momentum (and Barack appears to be winning this popularity contest hands down), my friend’s email also included a link to a YouTube site. Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign, she appears to be losing the viral vote. A quick review of various pro-Hillary videos on YouTube suggests that her most watched segment has only garnered 160,000+ views. Compare that to the over 5 million of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video on YouTube and another 6 million or so on DipDive.com it is easy to see who’s got the “big mo” with the viral vote.

Since comedy also plays a part with the viral vote (remember “this land is your land”), I also wanted to share a bit of light satire that compares Barack and Hillary. Clearly, the creators of this are fans of the former as continuous clicking on the solitary headlines reveals lines like “Barack Obama subscribed to your feed” and “Barack Obama built you a robot.” The complementary but not complimentary Hillary site offers up such lines as “Hillary knows all the words to all Celine Dion songs” and inside jokes like “Hillary voted for Sanjaya,” a reference to a not so gifted American Idol contestant. Don’t forget to click on the headlines to see a broad set and to seek out your pop-culture maven if you don’t understand a particular reference (my son caught one of the references to a Lost, the TV show, character).

I’m sure you’ve seen other examples of the viral vote in action. Keep ‘em coming.

UPDATE 2/28/07 from MEDIAWEEK:

As crunch time approaches in the Texasand Ohio primaries, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has
launched an aggressive local Web campaign and first major Web effort by a presidential candidate to incorporate video. Mediaweek’s Mike Shields and Katy Bachman have the story.

For more details, and for breaking news throughout the day, go to http://www.elabs2.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=cc4,17l8,21,m887,kn0v,646q,7zwm

I was reminded this morning why I like to start the day reading the Sports pages–there always seems to be a story that is inspirational, of individuals overcoming impossible odds to achieve their goals. Here are two of them from today’s New York Times:

The first story is about a Chinese table tennis player who is now pursuing her Olympic dream as an American with the help of a Holocaust survivor who happens to own a table tennis club in Manhattan. Having been selected for the sport by the Chinese system at the age of 3, Wang Chen narrowly missed playing table tennis for the Chinese team in the Atlanta and Australian Olympics. Frustrated by the experience she emigrated to the US in 1999 and all but gave up the sport. That’s where Jerry Wartski comes in–he convinced Chen to teach at his club and ultimately renamed it in her honor. Now 34, Chen is taking one more shot at the Olympic Games, ironically in her native country, but will be doing so in tremendous pain. Get this, when she is competing, she needs three back rubs a day just to be able to stand up straight. Amazingly, at 5′ 10″ she’s too tall for the sport and the strain on her back is extraordinary. Despite the back pain, she was one of only two non-Chinese citizens to reach the quarter finals of last year’s world championship. This automatically qualified her for the Beijing games at which she’ll be representing an under dog American team.

The other story was about high school basketball star from Brooklyn named Erving Walker. Walker, who is a puny 5′ 8″, plays like a giant, recently scoring 28 points including five three pointers in the final minutes of the game. A clutch shooter from just about anywhere, this teeny tiny teen is going to the University of Florida on a full scholarship after having been recruited by several D1 schools. I love this story. This veritable gnome is simply out-dribbling, out-hustling and out-shooting the big guys every where he goes.

The metaphorical opportunities abound here folks–whatever business obstacles you see on your horizon, think of Chen beating the pants off her younger rivals while fighting off near-paralyzing back pain AND Erving zooming past the lumbering giants, too busy being successful to worry about all the reasons he shouldn’t be.

Bad Sports
Now clearly I’m not referring to the scandalous saga of Bill Belichick and his sign stealing video cameras. Patriot fans must be wishing there was a magical delete button for this one–no such luck guys, despite the NFL HQ’s efforts to erase the past (and the tapes), this one will remain big box office until justice is served.

A reporter asked me the other day my thoughts on the Obama campaign and if it was a viral success story. Here’s what I said:

The Obama campaign is an unquestionable viral success and has all the makings of a cult. Obama’s “yes we can” music video has been an enormous success on YouTube with over 10 million views in under one month. That same video is running on a site called DipDive.com, which in less than three weeks has attracted over 6 million visitors. DipDive is ranked by Alexa in the top 7000 sites for US-based traffic [which is amazing given its short existence.] This is viral marketing at its best. By the way, my 17-year old daughter was the first in my household to see the video and she then shared it with the rest of our family. She had heard about it from one of her friends who linked to it from her Facebook page. And so it goes.

Obama has struck an emotional chord with millions of Americans. Not since JFK, has the word “charisma” been so often associated with a presidential candidate. People who know him speak highly off him. I was at lunch with a business associate in New York who had a good friend who knew him from Chicago. That friend heaped praise on him, sufficiently so that my friend in New York was prepared to support him even though she really had no idea what he had done or what he hoped to do. It is almost to the point of blind faith. And that’s what a cult is all about. Many want to follow a leader with a grand promise who exudes confidence. That’s Obama. He makes himself very easy to like. He makes it exciting to be excited about a candidate. My daughter, who turns 18 in August, will be voting for the first time this November and is simply thrilled at the prospect of casting her vote for such an exciting candidate.

If another client says “we need to take this to the next level” I’m going to shoot myself. The bottom line is that at the end of the day even if I go the extra mile I can’t for the life of me level set the conversation to ground zero let alone from 30,000 feet. Perhaps as an industry we need to circle the wagons and prioritize the tried and true, getting back to basics while pushing the envelop. Admittedly this a bit of goat rodeo but if we rally the troops and think outside box we can find the tipping point where content will again be king. I’m certainly prepared to belly up to the bar and do my share without fixing what ain’t broke. I hope we are on the same page here in saying that a little well-placed blocking and tackling will hit the nail on the head and we can all get down to business. Of course, the business at hand is a bit like herding cats requiring your best minds to collaborate synergistically rather than operating in a vacuum.

Dare I suggest that you make it your business to gather around the campfire at the ANA/BtoB Magazine conference called “Taking B-to-B Marketing to the Next Level.” I kid you not. They tell me if you order now you will also get more cliches than you can shake a stick at.

Every once in a while I see a TV spot that simply must be shared. This one comes to me by way of a fellow Renegade (thanks Erin) and is well worth the quick jaunt to YouTube (over 400,000 have viewed it so far so you’ll be in good company). Created in Germany for a company called Eburon, this one stars a rather monstrous looking fellow who wreaks havoc on the streets of his community. I must admit to being surprised by the ending which made it all the more fun (hopefully you will be as well).
Turns out by the way that this ad won the Golden Lion for best advertising spot at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. It was created by Nordpol + Hamburg agency and also drew the support of the German Federal Ministry. It’s spots like this that make me feel good about my career choice. Enjoy.