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Feb 18 2013
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Putting The Pieces Together Before Falling Apart

Posted by | Peeks | No Comments

Polar Bear Puzzle

After just three hours of attempting a 1,000-piece puzzle, my fiancé and I decided to toss in the towel. In that short amount of time, we realized two very important things:

  1. The minimal amount of color variance in the Planet Earth puzzle featuring a polar bear and its cub in the snow can drive a person insane.
  2. My systematic approach to solving the puzzle did not fit with her text-message-my-sister-or-plan-our-wedding-or-watch-TV approach.

Before the pieces came together, our relationship (and sanity) would have been compromised. As she Googled “Galapagos Islands weddings,” I built the border – unsuccessfully. There were at least twelve floating pieces that could fit in more than one location without enough evidence to justify any particular spot.

However, the experience did yield a creative punishment for our planned children: thirty minutes of silent puzzle time.

The puzzle is yet TBD, but will likely be just as difficult.

Feb 17 2013
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The Engagement Paradox

Posted by | Items to Ponder | No Comments

I recently popped the question. A bubble floating around in front of me had the words “will you marry me” nested inside it and I took a pretty little diamond ring and poked right through it.

“Yes.” That’s what she said.

Over the course of two weeks I have heard, “so, when/where are you guys getting married?” from every single person we have delivered the news to, whether via text message (SMS), multi-media message (MMS), phone call, social media, or the grapevine several of my friends/family keep referencing. Some of those in the know have even inquired twice.

Is that something that needs to be established right away? Is it similar to engagement photos, selecting a wedding cake, buying a house, having kids, and joint-checking accounts? I do not think life should work like that.

Why can’t the date and location remain TBD for a week, or a month? Why can’t the exact date and location be a non sequitur to sharing news of the popped question?

Marriage is not the “next step” and logic should never determine how you allocate your heart.

Sep 28 2012
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F*ck Cancer

Posted by | FYI | No Comments

Yep. That’s how I feel toward all cancers. According to the Official Sponsor of Birthdays®, 1:2 males and 1:3 females will develop some type of cancer in their lifetime.

I do not like those odds. So, in October, I ride my bike in support of the most common cancer women get – breast cancer.

Help me in my fight by donating to the Mamma Jamma Ride.

Thanks for your support.

Regards,
Ross

The Official Sponsor of Birthdays is a registered trademark of the American Cancer Society

Sep 18 2012
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Excel Pro Tip: Hiding Formula Errors

Posted by | FYI, Marketing | No Comments

I’m an Excel nerd, but by no means am I all-knowing when it comes to best practices. I use Excel to manage several important spreadsheets, at the top of that list is my company’s yearly marketing plan, (what my marketing efforts live and die by). One of my formulas aggregates analytics data to give me an overview of performance for various metrics, but if there’s limited data, or data hasn’t been entered yet, I still want the “totals” column to be accurate. In order for that to happen, the other formulas cannot throw an error into the mix. So, I need to effectively hide the formula errors in Excel.

A good friend of mine, Andy Row, is an Excel genius, so I often ping him to help me with complex functions or formulas. He recently noticed my Tweet which referenced one way to hide annoying formula errors in my marketing plan. Upon seeing that Tweet, he suggested an easier and more efficient way to do the exact same thing.

A common error is “#DIV/0!”. To avoid this, in the cell making the calculation that returns the error, use the following formula:

=IFERROR(formula, “-”)

This will return a hyphen in the cell if the formula results in an error. I use a hyphen instead of a zero, or space, to prevent other formulas that reference the cell from returning inaccurate results. Also, according to Andy, the space can sometimes cause other formulas to break.

Sep 04 2012
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Why I Avoid The News

Posted by | Items to Ponder, Peeks | No Comments

On the way to dinner last evening, my girlfriend began reading the local news that took place over the past few days.

Three alcohol-related car accidents, which resulted in two deaths; a sexual assault; and an argument at a night club that ended in gunfire, injuring five and killing three others.

The driver in the fatal head-on collision fled the scene – leaving their passenger in critical condition and the female driver of the other car dead.

Both driver and passenger fled the scene in another accident after rolling their car, but the passenger was later caught.

Five people’s lives are over, a woman will likely have permanent physical and psychological damage, and two cowards have yet to be brought to justice.

This local news could have happened anywhere in the US, and likely did – in some cases to even more of an extreme.

I like believing there are good people in the world, and there are; unfortunately, the ones that make prime-time news are oftentimes not.

This is real life, and you wonder why I avoid the news.

Jun 20 2012
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Regarding Dave Chappelle’s Composure

Posted by | FYI, Really? | No Comments

Tickets to Dave Chappelle

I complain when something is wrong. This is the first time I have felt it necessary to write a letter to the editor of several local papers regarding something I found “wrong” – us.

Last night, I attended Dave Chappelle’s surprise performance and could not believe what I unknowingly became a part of. Here’s what I wrote, verbatim.

I drove home from The Paramount Theatre on Tuesday night in silence, feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and quite pissed off.

The vague questions and severely outdated movie quotes were almost as disrespectful (and annoying) as the shouts comprised of unambiguous words like the current year, a city, his name, and the college you clearly didn’t learn any manners at while attending.

As an audience member, I would like to formally apologize to Mr. Chappelle. Sorry we wasted your time. Sorry we claim to love you, but have not figured out what that means. Sorry we transformed the area beyond the stage into a room full of drunken idiots at a UT pep rally, circa 1998.

And, to those I described in paragraph two: I have never wanted to see a stand-up comedian more than I wanted to see Dave Chappelle, and will likely never get to again. Thanks, dip-shit.

Sincerely,
Ross

I feel much better.

Jun 11 2012
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Writing an Effective Email Subject Line

Posted by | Marketing | No Comments

Email remains a strong medium of mass communication in business. However, the presence of SPAM has made it more difficult for marketers to get their emails delivered and opened – even when the message is warranted, relevant, and sometimes requested. To that end, a compelling subject line is paramount, especially when reaching out to recipients for the first time.

The internal marketing department, or corporate marketing partner, should be responsible for coordinating all mass emails. This way a group of (presumably) experts that can determine appropriate timing, content, theme, call-to-action, and place of each email message in the marketing plan. That said, there are times when an email needs to be sent to a small group of people (i.e. fewer than 20 recipients) and there’s literally no time for the approval process.

In these instances, the sender (usually a salesperson) is responsible for determining the specifics, and with those specifics, the email subject is arguably among the most important, because it’s the first thing the recipient sees after the sender’s name/email address.

So, for those rogue marketers, here’s an abridged list of best practices for writing effective email subject lines:

  • 60 characters (max) – most devices cut off anything longer, and shorter is often better
  • Reiterate the point of the email
  • Be friendly and avoid sounding corporate (“Let’s grab lunch next Tuesday” vs. “Join ABC Corp. for a Lunch and Learn next Tuesday”)
  • Include the basics: where, what, when (the sender’s email address will indicate the “who”)
  • Never mislead the recipients
  • Avoid spammy (see below) and unnecessary words, excessive punctuation, symbols, and ALL CAPS
  • Check for spelling/grammar errors
  • Remain positive and relate to the recipient (e.g. “Nice meeting you at happy hour last week!”)

TIP: When sending a small marketing email on your own, always BCC the recipients.

In general, people open emails based on how important the email is on an individual level. So, when writing the subject line, consideration should be paid to the individual recipient’s motivations.

Here’s a short list of spammy email words. Hopefully you get the idea:

  • Free
  • Now
  • Save
  • sex-related words
  • medical-related words
  • Credit
  • Apply now
  • Double your
  • Enlarge
  • Buy
Jun 05 2012
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Using Wikipedia as an Inbound Marketing Tactic

Posted by | Marketing | No Comments

Wikipedia is an online information portal comprised of user-generated content – meaning anyone [that is registered] can add, edit, and moderate the site. That said, don’t try and manipulate Wikipedia by adding falsified, or promotional content, because your content will get reviewed and you may get banned from the site. Not to mention it’s just plain rude.

Wikipedia is a huge wealth of knowledge, so you’ll find entries on almost any topic. If you’re interested in driving more traffic to your website and increasing your brand’s market reach, Wikipedia can provide you with a good starting point.

For instance, let’s say you’re a sports construction company (e.g. Hellas Sports Construction) that specializes in synthetic turf and your company was selected to perform the field construction on Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. If someone hasn’t already updated the information on that page, you (or your marketing department) could do the following:

  • Create a Wikipedia account, and/or login
  • Visit the page you wanted to edit (i.e. the page for Cowboys Stadium)
  • Add a section that outlines the field construction and synthetic turf system
  • Include any appropriate links to existing Wikipedia articles, or your website
  • Submit your changes to the site

You now have valuable, keyword-rich content about your company and an inbound link from one of the top websites on the Internet!1

Editing Wikipedia can be a time consuming process, so be careful. When you get started editing one entry, you may find several others that need to be created/edited to accomodate links between pages.

Please Wikipedia responsibly.

[1]: As of 2007, Wikipedia automatically applies the nofollow tag to all outbound links, because there were too many spammers trying to game the website into getting better SEO rankings, so don’t think you’re site is going to get ranked higher because it’s got a backlink on Wikipedia. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

Apr 02 2012
0

Should You Show Your Sympathy

Posted by | Blog, Peeks | No Comments

I believe in taking care of oneself. Granted, there are times I want to be the small spoon and have soup made for me, but for the most part, I try to be self-sustaining.

Along those same lines, I tend to keep those around me at a distance. It’s safer that way, but I’m slowly learning I need to open up more.

When I see people in need, which is technically subjective, because they may, or may not, actually be in need, I sometimes lend a hand. Other times, just having empathy for the person is more appropriate – especially if the person interprets assistance as pity and finds it disrespectful, or off-putting.

In situations I have no control over (again subjective, because one could argue that every situation can be influenced), empathy always wins. On the other hand, in situations I can directly impact, I let my actions do work (guided by sympathy).

When I talk about sympathy in this regard, I mean the action of showing pity for someone else – regardless of whether they need (or want) it.

Personally, I feel (word-choice) that empathy is more important than showing sympathy – at least when it comes to oneself, because being able, or at least trying, to relate to others in need makes us more human.

Every time I see someone that is, by my ignorant determination, less fortunate (again subjective, because one could argue they are more fortunate in hundreds of ways), I try to position myself in their shoes and imagine who that person is, how they landed at this spot at this time, what they do for a living, and what a day-in-the-life is like.

The stories I make up for some people are quite far-fetched. It’s all part of being an experienced people watcher.

Jan 09 2012
1

Prediction: Pay-per-spot Advertising

Posted by | Ads, Items to Ponder | No Comments

I predict that all advertising will eventually become a bidding system, or pay-per-spot advertising, similar to Google’s AdWords model.

Implementing a bidding system across all electronic forms of mass communication (that are Internet-connected) and having controls in place, will increase the quality of the ads, the competition for these ad spots, and the effectiveness of the ads. Not to mention, publishers stand to make more money on each spot, which should control the cost to the consumer (print and broadcast subscribers).

Remember how annoying and irrelevant early Internet ads were? Google’s AdWords model increased the quality (they actually score ads based on various criteria and won’t serve “bad” ads), and led to improved targeting, and less-invasive/more-relevant ads.1

I feel the same thing will happen within other media, too…

Print.
Almost all newspapers and magazines are offered online (i.e. they have a website). The ads displayed online are either media buys, or auction-based and served through an ad network. Now, these printed publications are being offered through Internet-connected tablets (e.g. the iPad) and ads are placed based on what was in the print version.

However, as these devices become more connected (i.e. Wi-Fi costs decrease, and public bandwidth expands), they can update more often, or even on-the-fly, leading to the ability for advertisements to be streamed from an online source the instant they are accessed.

Streaming ads can be personalized based on you’re location, whether or not you’re traveling (e.g. moving or standing still), the time of day, the weather at your current location, and various other environmental factors that can tailor the ad experience to the user making the ads more effective and increasing competition for these spots.

While ads haven’t really reached this pinnacle of personalization, they do take into account the time of day, the show you’re watching, and if you’re logged in, the person watching the show (i.e. your viewing history, etc.).

Television.
Google TV Ads are already based on their AdWords bidding system, and if you watch TV through an online source (e.g. Hulu), you’re already seeing these ads.

Factors that influence the cost are popularity of the show and the dayparts in which you’re trying to advertise, so again environmental factors influence the ads you’re seeing, and advertisers are already bidding on those spots.

Radio.
I think radio will eventually catch on and do the same as they realize that increasing competition among radio advertisers will promote growth in the industry, and increase the quality and effectiveness of radio advertising (as it has online). Google tried this a couple of years ago, but was unsuccessful (I think it was too soon).

This is just my opinion, so please take it for what it’s worth.

[1]: There are various compliance organizations that protect consumers, ensuring ads are not invasive.