Made Me Laugh Really Hard... Twice

While I am on the subject of commercials, this one made me laugh really hard, like maybe the hardest I have laughed at any commercial.  Then, just before I posted in my site, I watched and laughed again (this time I was in class so I had to do my best to muffle my laughter).

Well done Vonage, maybe someday I will buy cell phones from you... maybe.

My Favorite Olympics Commercial

If I am going to post my favorite Super Bowl commercial, then I think it is only fair to post my favorite commercial from the Olympics.  Kevin Hill gets a shout out for the recommendation.  Thanks Kevin, and you were right, it does go straight up on the blog.

One question I have with this ad is it promotes the P&G brand, which is the brand behind other huge brands like Crest and Braun and dozens of others.  Who buys P&G though?  Does someone who buys Crest also buy Old Spice?  Not sure why they went after P&G, but I bet they had a darn good reason, judging buy the quality of the commercial they produced for the spot.

Prepare yourself... this one's a heart wrencher.

You Need to Do More Networking

"Hey man, watcha up to?"


"Oh, not much, just doing some networking."

"So... wait... what exactly are you doing?"

"Just networking, man"

"But... what's..."

Ever felt like everyone is saying how valuable networking is, but nobody is defining it?

When you hear that you need to "network more" or "network better" what do you do???

Well here is one example of how to network better and more.

Step 1:  Choose a company or profession or organization that you want to know more about, get an opportunity with, or have some other interest in.

Step 2:  Sign up for LinkedIn, and join all the groups you can find that are relevant to your interests.

Step 3:  Search for people, and type in "[company name]" and wait for results.

Step 4:  Anyone that pops up in the results with a little bubble next to their name that says, "group" you can send a personal message to.

Step 5:  Craft a well worded, intelligent sounding personal message that
          a) introduces yourself
          b) Expresses interest
          c) Seeks for further communication through e-mail or phone

Step 6:  Send your message to every person you possibly can that is related to your passion or company

Step 7:  Wait for responses, when they do come, make sure you respond promptly with insightful questions on the company, the experience of the individual, the area of location, etc.

Step 8:  If they offer to help, ask them to help by refining your resume.  Also, if they offer to receive phone calls, make sure you call them (of course, with prepared questions)

Step 9:  If they end up reviewing and making suggestions on your resume, do your best to implement the changes that they gave you and then send it back to them with a message that states how thankful you are and that you wanted to show them the results of their suggestions.

Step 10:  At this point, the magic will happen.  That is not to say that every time you get here people will hire you or give you what you want, but they will have sufficient contact with you to make a far better judgement than with one piece of paper.

Enjoy.

My Favorite 2010 Super Bowl Commercial

Google's new commercial is absolutely amazing.  I also have a personal bias for this particular commercial because it fits well with a heavy research project I have been doing lately.  The research project is to determine how, why, and if Sex (sexuality) actually sells.  What I am finding is beyond fascinating, and a subject for another post (mark my words).  One study suggests that companionate love (that lovey-dovey sweetheart non-explicit sexuality type of love, the old school chivalry type of  love) is actual more effective in advertising on ad recognition, processing, recall, and attitude towards brand.  Google's ad is a perfect example of non-sexual love sells, and I have to admit, I am sold.





Other Honorable mentions:

Slow-mo + classic audio recording= great commercial


Made me laugh.


Made me laugh, harder.

Skittles Is Still Weird, But Smarter.

(From Brandweek)

                Last year, Skittles decided it would jump all over the newest internet craze: social media.  Its site revolved completely around Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, and other forms of social media shoutouts.  Among other problems, funny little punkers begin punkin’ the Skittles brand by posting inappropriate content coupled with the word “skittles”, which would pop up on Skittles’ site.  Although that was a significant problem, it wasn’t the only or biggest problem.  The biggest problem is that people are growing weary of social media.  It is overused, and although it can be a nice supplement, it becomes like that one song on the radio that at first you love, and then you get bored of, and then you can never listen to again.

                Skittles, however, being a clever brand, has felt the wearied waves wafting from their customers, and have aborted mission “overdo the social media thing”.  Instead, they have decided to do what is most likely to build real brand power, and create a site with a whole culture about it at http://www.skittles.com.  The new site still uses social media, but instead of just prostituting the asset, it uses it to help create a culture of total silliness and goofiness, but occasional hilariousness.  Which is really right in line with their whole big idea in marketing, (judging by their commercials).  This makes for an extremely consistent marketing message, whether or not the message makes me want to eat more skittles, I am still undecided.