I’m kind of a nerd. I think just about anyone who finds themselves gravitating towards highly technical topics tends to be—at least at some level. As such, I tend to consume a fair amount of nerd-centered media, one of which is Cracked, an online publication that is known for “X insane things that Y” types of list-based articles, many of which have to do with marketing. Sure, their tone is a bit cynical, but I’ve been reading their articles for well over a decade, and have been following their video content off and on since it was first introduced. That being said, a recent video of theirs didn’t seem to stick the landing with me. Usually when they have content about marketing, they’re presenting real absurdities, highlighting legitimate problems or concerns, or showcasing the worst-case-scenarios from well-intentioned but ill-thought-out marketing efforts. In their recent 6 Bizarrely Specific Commercial Tropes that...
Jingle Theory: The Marketing Math Behind Christmas Carols
It has begun. As it has every year around this time. As it will every year to come. The nightmarish soundscape synonymous with ravenous hordes packed tightly together as they drive themselves half-mad in pursuit of joy. Those tormentors of the service workers, drowned them in cheer until they wish themselves deaf. The scourge of jingling bells and caroling choirs. The drummer boys and tannenbaums. The Bing and the Bublé. The Christmas carol. Okay, that might be a little over-dramatic. But you can’t deny that Christmas carols—some of them, anyhow—can get a little bit old after a while. Particularly when you’re forced to listen to the same one or two albums over and over again for about two straight months. Even those who love the season have one or two songs (or, at the very least, renditions of songs) that they could do without—yet once a song enters the Christmas...
Fast vs Cheap vs Great: A Treatise for Impossible Expectations
There’s a Venn diagram floating around the creative marketing world that’s famous among graphic designers (pictured above). The joke is that you can only ask for two, and the one you don’t pick will burn you in the end. The joke plays with the notion of standards vs expectations—a notion that slaps entrepreneurs and business owners in the face time and time again.
Com-placehold-ency: The Dangers of the ‘Band-Aid Web Page’
Marketing is all about presentation. It’s how businesses put their best foot forward, and make sure that your first impression is always a good one. And still, a number of businesses often find themselves with sections of their websites—or even their entire web presence—walled off with a ‘coming soon’ placeholder page. It’s not just small or local businesses, either. Large companies, and even some marketing agencies, will find themselves hiding behind a placeholder website for months on-end.
New Year, New Venture: 3 Steps to Successfully Starting Your First Business
Whether it’s starting your first business venture, eating healthier, making more time for your friends and family, or getting svelte at the gym, the ‘new year’s resolution’ is famous for giving people the will to make some positive changes in their lives—and infamous for not giving them the structure to maintain that change for more than a few weeks.
But Wait, There’s Trump: Salesmanship Meets Politics
Like many copywriters, I can be a bit of a language nerd. Understanding how others’ perceptions of us are coloured by the words we use is an extremely important skill that everyone in marketing should at least understand, if not outright master. And when it comes to wizardry of public perception, you can’t ignore the Republican nomination of Donald Trump.
