I feel it is always important to rethink things in order to refresh your prospective and ideas. The back to basics idea came to me last week mainly when I received a reminder for a community that I had forgotten I signed up for. I really enjoy trying out the latest software, apps, concepts, you name it I sign up for it. However, with trying out all the newest things comes the fact that great ideas, quickly becomes diluted with trying to mash together or add on the newest buzz of the week. Soon the original idea is no longer there and gets lost.

So, I am going back to the basics of the things I use on a daily basis to try and re-capture some of those original ideas. Some of which I know are still very valid and simply need to be launched.

Here is the list I am going to start with, in no specific order:

1. WordPress
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Netvibes
5. Google Reader
6. The Flock Browser
7. Link Building
8.
9.
10…….30

Time to get started. If anyone has or knows of well written 101 documents that I should read, please send them or link to them in the comments of this post.

Today reading about the factory workers in Chicago protesting the loss of their jobs, I really started wondering if this is the next evolution in the way we see businesses competeing in the global market place. Let me explain. From the article that I read on Yahoo, it stated that -

JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to contribute $400,000 to Chicago’s Republic Windows & Doors LLC.

So what is so uncommon about this? Well atleast up ’til now we have seen large numbers like this fly across headlines almost daily, millions, billions, these numbers are so large that individuals really don’t need to concern themselves with them. But here is the difference about this, the reason this company was forced to close down and give their employees only three days notice is because Bank Of America, a competitor of Chase bank, would not grant the company the credit it needed to keep its doors open (no pun intended).

$400,000 is not that large of a sum for companies of this size, however what Chase Bank just did was marketing genius. Essentially, they purchased a $400,000 ad spot that reached every newspaper and news website’s homepage. The message was, “hey look at us, we are so stable that we can afford to help make a happy holiday for the ex-employees of a company our competitor forced to shut down.” They look like a hero in the financial mess that our country and the world is in. Even in their press release they state that they do not expect any of this contibution to return to them. However, it will. It will in the 250 employees of Republic Windows and Doors who have now just switched banks to the one who just gave them an extra paycheck. It will in the hundreds more who are in fear of their own banks closing and are in search of stability. It will in the thousands more who are hoping for a lottery style payout from Chase.

Has the old beast of marketing stategy and creative advertising finally been killed by the simple buying of customers?

The first being a book that I grabbed off of the shelf at the office called Logo Lounge. My brother picked up this book a while back and I have seen several like it before. However, I highly recommend this one since it is simple. It consists of all types of Logos from all over the world and the book is categorized into styles of logos such as Typography, Initials, People, Birds, you name it. I went through this book tonight for about an hour looking at logos, some familiar others not so. I finally put the book down because I was getting frustrated thinking about how I didn’t want to “rip off” a logo from a product that already existed.

Instead, I started watching the Food Network and eventually found my way back to my laptop to give it another go. All the time Diane had been sitting on the couch taking apart dozens of picture frames that she has been collecting from thrift stores, clearance racks and the occasional yard sale. Since before we had moved in to the new house, we have had the idea to decorate our house with strange vintage advertisements, hence the collection of frames. To help with decor, Diane’s parents found two very old issues of LIFE magazine and gave them to us over Thanksgiving. How old? 1936. Oddly enough, beat up 1936 LIFE magazines are really not that valuable in terms of resale. What they are valuable in are the number of great advertisements inside of their pages.

Diane had carefully taken each issue apart and divided the ads into groups, Hygiene, Liquor and Oppressed Women. She then pitched each ad to me as if we were in an episode of Mad Men to see which ones I felt would be acceptable for the house. Don Draper, eat your heart out. Some I liked, others were just dull, or too hard to understand. One thing I did notice, advertisers used a lot more ad copy in the 30′s. When all was said and done we had decided on over a dozen new ads and Diane had them framed up. Looking at this new collection, it hit me how simple the logos for these companies really are, Johnnie Walker, Royal Typewriters, Electrolux, and even Ex Lax. All of these have simple logos made up of only great typography, no icons needed.

I booted up Photoshop and I had a new logo for my new project finished in a matter about 10 minutes. I love when inspiration hits and it makes you want to stay up all night coming up with more ideas.

This past weekend I helped my brother clean out his garage that had been filled with old toys that my parents brought out to us from Wyoming. Now, ironically my garage is filled with these toys, but I had a chance tonight to start going through them and cleaning them up to donate or sell. While I was unloading some of the boxes, besides being nostalgic, the thought came to me about how companies create flash in the pan buzz about toys simply for the holiday season. I wonder how many children beg for toys during the holiday season that only months before they had never heard of? I’ll be honest I know I did that as a kid and I am sure my parents were not too pleased that I lost interest only weeks after the holidays were over.

I feel this is exactly how the Internet has come to operate on a constant level, not just for holidays or special events. We are all glued to email, Blackberry, Iphones, laptops and desktops, waiting for the next buzz to come our way. It could be an email from your boss or the top story to break on Yahoo. It could be any number of internet guilty pleasures we have all come to embrace. Yet just like the toy that we begged our parents for each Christmas, we lose interest after a short time and are off to see what is new on YouTube.

The thing is, very few people recognize that this is how they are living their lives. Advertising people especially need to make sure they take a step back from the BUZZ in order to keep a window open so that they might be able to grab some of their customer’s very short interest span. (I would use attention span, but I don’t think any of us really pay attention) I think about how much time I spend, after I hear about a new innovation or marketing tool, waiting to see the practical use for it. Rather, I should be looking at what need it fulfills and why there is even a need in the first place.

Think about it, what need did the Hampster Dance really fulfill for anyone ? All these things did was kill thousands of hours of time and unimaginable amounts of brain cells. But wait… think about all the traffic that that webmaster got simple because of a flash in the pan?

Here was their list and if the stunt resulted positively or negatively:
1. Aqua Teen Hunger Force – The Boston Bomb Scare – Negative
2. Nathan’s Doc-Approved Dogs – Positive
3. Last Days of Disco – Chicago White Sox “Disco Demolition Night” – Negative
4. Oprah’s Free Cars – Negative not for Oprah, for Pontiac
5. Taco’s New Bell – Fake purchase of The Liberty Bell – Positive
6. Steal This Identity – LifeLock – Negative (Lesson here, don’t challenge hackers.)
7. Guinness’s Bar Book – Positive
8. Snapple’s Giant Meltdown – Negative (honestly, I have never heard of this one.)
9. By Land, Sea and Air – British billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson – Positive
10. Name That Town – Hey for a 1950′s radio show this was ground breaking – Positive

So it is Friday and I am in a marketing and advertising critique mood, so here are my picks for my favorite and least favorite marketing stunts and advertising endeavors. (mine are in no particular order)

1. Kleenex Napkin commercial – “They don’t fall off your lap!” – I wrote a post about this commercial back in September.

2. Zoo York Roaches – Having been a skateboard kid growing up, this is one of my favorite Shock and Awe campaigns.

3. VW’s Tribute to Jerry Garcia Ad – I have the issue of Rolling Stone that has this ad in it. I think it is the definition of knowing your customers.

4. Budlight’s “Real Men of Genius” – Anyone who still enjoys or is forced to, listen to sports on AM radio is with me on this. Great way of using an inexpensive advertising medium.

5. Save By Zero! – I personally hate this commercial – Not only does it not make sense – this YouTuber says everything in his title for this clip, “Toyota Saved By Zero Loop From Hell Campaign” – Oh and don’t forget The FIXX sang that song.

6. Apple’s “1984″ – I am a huge Orwell Fan, and yes this commercial was genius, but anyone in advertising knows this. (awww remember books?)

7. Affiliate Marketing. – Hey some one buy this or buy this Please, Please, Please buy this.

8. Golden Palace.com - Jesus Toast, forehead ads, pregnant ads, oh and you can gamble there too. It was fun while it lasted.

9. Cap’n Crunch – I feel this was the beginning of the demise of literacy. Do kids even know how to spell Captain? When did MTV become a word? I would love to just LOL about all of this, but it really concerns me how the intelligence level is going down and the apathy level is going up in our society.

10. Viral Marketing – The reply all button started it all and now if you make a fool out of yourself or do something creative and it is digital, everyone knows about it.