Marketing is a funny thing.

It’s everywhere, in essentially every form you can think of, whether you’re aware of it or not. Probably at least in part due to omnipresence, I think it’s earned a bit of a  negative stigma – one some might even call unfair.

I mean me. I’d call it unfair.

Now, that negative stench that some attach to different examples of marketing  is sometimes earned. I don’t regard everything from the consumer product pantheon as saintly gospel. For instance, one of my favourites is the “Our brand/product is a party and super hip” trope. How and/or why is Miracle Whip a party (thank you Colbert for skewering this)?  That said, this keynote from the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show might be the most ridiculous example of “we’re cool and you should like us,” in my opinion. So bad it loops back around to great (watch and manage the thoughts of “why” if you have a few minutes):

 

We’ve looked at the bad, and that rabbit hole goes deep. Yet why do people still lap up marketing when it’s pulled off well? What is it about cocksure (come on, when else am I going to get to use that word?) marketing  that is attractive  to everyone, despite everyone generally saying the opposite about marketing as a whole?

The long and short of it is that most can’t tell when marketing blurs the lines, whether through repeated exposure or subversive work. I rarely eye-roll as thoroughly as I do when someone tries to tell me “marketing doesn’t work on me”. They then proceed to use a mass-consumer item that is not the *objective* best product in its specific category (in a lot of cases, seems to rhyme with shmiPhone, a product of a certifiable marketing zenith), and cannot articulate why. Fun little experiment.

Now I’m not some terrible, unfun child of a Truant Officer and Debbie Downer (it’s an abomination to just think about that). I just wanted to point out a little fallacy because shit-disturbing passes the time. Marketing can be interesting, and (dun dun dun) not bad at all. Entertaining, emotional and engaging even. Is 98% of it kind of aggressively mediocre? If you use a fine toothed comb, sure. But then again, what genre of creative production *isn’t* mostly just that? If gold was easy to produce, it wouldn’t be worth as much as it is.

In any case, before you write off the entirety of marketing, take a breath and see if you can find some that resonates with you. There’s a lot of it out there, and to dismiss it all is literally to shut yourself off from a whole world of creative genius (and albeit, a decent amount of fluff to sift through). The good stuff is worth it, trust me.

EXTRAS:

Here’s one of my favourites from over the years. Hope to one day be a part of creative as compelling as this.

 

 

Welcome to my new personal site!

After two-odd months of a bit of trial-by-fire web design, this little project is in go mode. It wasn’t without its challenges, but I’m glad over — mostly because I got more than just a website out of it.

Building this site reminded me of a few ever-valuable lessons. It  taught me  what it’s like to really stretch yourself again in areas you’re not insanely familiar with, and that you can be better at things than you think you are — perfectionist or not.

Above all, it was a great reminder that just like Harvard neurologist Alvaro Pascual-Leone says, the human brain is plastic, not elastic. You can’t force yourself to change or learn things immediately, but repeated exercises and reinforcement of your behaviour will help you mold your life and in turn, your skills. Pretty good fuel for tackling anything that at first glance seems a little daunting.

Best thing about this new site to me? I’ll be able to get a little bit more varied with it than I did on my old exclusively-weblog haunts. Full disclosure: some implementations are going to be rockier than others. That said, if I’ve learned anything in my relatively short yet diverse communications career, you don’t get anywhere without trying something — even if it means you have a bit of pie on your face to show for it. Expect this to become the hub for nearly all of my content whether it’s something I’ve made, want to share, or just find cool.

While I’m happy with what I’ve made, the perfectionist in me is not satisfied just yet. I’ve already jotted down plans for both behind-the-scenes enhancements and front-facing improvements to the site, and am working towards a little pet marketing project of mine that has a tentative go-live of early next year. All in good time.

In the meantime, I’d love to know what you think about the current look (my unabashed nerdy side is labelling it the Mark I). Any and all feedback is fair game. Drop me a line if you’d be so kind, either here or on Twitter. Cheers!

It’s a little unsettling just how many messages we’re bombarded with in a single day, much less over a few weeks or months. If I remember correctly from my office on wheels, I think it’s 55,000 on an average day? That’s a pretty penny’s worth of ad buys.

The shocking part about the bombardment that we face daily is that it’s not just from ads — it’s from essentially anything and everything we look at, including nearly every person we run into during our daily routine, including strangers. If you sit down and break down ow many messages and cues you take in on your walkabout, it’s probably pretty close to this Simpsons clip.

Well, I’m guessing it’s a little less painful, but you get the point. Messages are everywhere, and breaking through the noise — in a positive or negative way — isn’t  easy. This doesn’t just apply to things like ads, but it also works for anything where there are parties competing for a  relatively scarce objective or goal. Competing job applicants, rival products, competition hopefuls — the list goes on.

There’s a lot out there to cut through — how something sets itself apart, or defines itself relative to its competition, is key. Doesn’t matter if it’s people, products, or people products. Consider it a reminder to point out your niche and go after it.

– Mike

PS – I’m cutting through the noise pretty well on my bus, judging by the looks I’m getting. The looks you get when writing on the bus are pretty priceless. A little bit of confusion, a little  bit “look at that hipster doofus, thinking he’s better than me” (or so I infer). In any case, this format is working for me, and I hope it is for you, as well. Hit me in the comments to let me know what you think.