For a short period of time down in Eugene, I took a job as Marketing Coordinator of King Retail Solutions. They did interior design and fabrication for retail. The fact that they did both design and manufacturing was the “solution.”
The King Retail Solutions homepage. Click for a larger view to read. We got a new client in Europe within a week of launching the site, who specifically said it was because of the site.
I fought solutions. A lot. I mean seriously. You want one navigation item to be the word, “solutions” and the other to be the word, “integrated”?
Hard to believe I’ve been blogging and working at Pop Art for more than two-and-a-half years now. In that time, I’ve tried to write posts that other writers will find useful, and maybe even demonstrate that we know what we’re doing.
Lately, my blogging has fallen off since I’ve taken on our media planning and buying department. But I thought it’d be a good time to look back.
The fake layout above comes from one of the funniest jokes ever made at Pop Art. Well, it was funny to me, anyway.
Here’s the link to all the WebVisions chatter on Twitter, using just the #wv09 tag. I’ve been going through and reading it to see what people were commenting on — an excellent reminder about how a hashtag can unify and aggregate people’s experiences at an event. And it makes great notes to crib from later…
My Two Favorite Slides from WebVisions
First day, @bikehugger’s slide about how to be interesting online: “Do Epic Shit.”
Each one of @erictpeterson’s slides had his twitter handle and the (wrong) hash tag in the footer. Super convenient.
I’ll keep reading the #wv09 hashtag comments and see what other interesting tidbits I can pull out. I know @texagonian (Kevin Platt) had some good comments and nuggets, as well as at least one laugh-out-loud putdown. As you might expect if you know him.
Every May, I get about 10-15 emails from graduating copywriters hoping to share their portfolio, and looking for copywriter portfolio tips. Most of them suffer from the same problem: no context. So here’s the portfolio tip I usually email back to them.
Dear Madison/Toby/Emily/Tyler,
If I could make just one (very long) comment on your portfolio, it’s this: I want to know why you made the choices you made for each ad/campaign. What business or creative needs led you to these executions? What funny dead-ends did you find along the way? Tell me a little story that explains why you did what you did. Read the rest of this entry »
Writing for the web is no joke, because online copywriting always puts the punchline first. Think about the order with which you tell a joke: first you tell a little anecdote, then BOOM! Punchline. Writing for the web, however, requires you to put the punchline in a headline, in the first sentence, and in the first paragraph.
Here’s why: Putting that point of view and main message right at the top of a web page allows your reader to quickly decide if the information you’re providing is the information they want. If it is, they read on. If it’s not, you haven’t wasted their time. Read the rest of this entry »
They stripped this tool to the bone. There’s nothing left but the tools you need. If you can’t get out of trouble with these tools, you probably don’t deserve to get out anyway.
These ads helped launch the Leatherman Skeletool and Skeletool CX. I carry mine everywhere, and despite how light it is, I can feel it when I’ve somehow forgotten it. Forgetting your Leatherman feels like forgetting to wear your seatbelt. It feels like walking out with your fly down. It feels like going on the jobsite without a helmet. Read the rest of this entry »
I rewrote this headline about a million times. I think I still like "Born in the Wind Tunnel" better, but it didn't explicitly talk about saving money. Go check it out at Drive Cascadia.
In 2007, Freightliner called together all its marketing and advertising vendors to announce its first new truck in nearly a decade. And Freightliner loved this truck. Our job was to get fleets and owner-operators to love it, too.
Here’s the thing: Fleets and Owner-Operators have two very different mindsets. Two distinctly different audiences? Two distinctly different sites. Ah, the beauty of interactive marketing…
And now, something a little more fun. Have fun when you go to Visit Cascadia.
What happens when a storm knocks the power out? You flip the switch back and forth a few times, and then realize the digital clock isn’t on and neither are any of the lights in the neighborhood. Damn.
Carrier wanted help positioning generators as a necessary safety item in areas that fall victim to big storms frequently. Being without power in the middle of a heat wave or a deep winter chill means no HVAC, and that can be dangerous.
We bought space for Carrier down in areas of Florida during hurricane season, and then ran different campaigns. Unsurprisingly, the ad that faked the news killed it.
From the ad, the user arrived at the microsite we built. Generators work by figuring out how much wattage you’re going to have supported by the generator. When the power goes out, those circuits you choose will keep running.
The question is: which circuits should you choose? Go visit the Carrier Generator site: It’s seriously a very cool experience.
No seriously. You should go visit the Carrier Generator site. We had a blast designing this immersive experience.
The Cascadia gave us an opportunity to revisit the Run Smart manifesto.
Breathing New Life into “Run Smart”
Freightliner Trucks is the left brain of the trucking world. They make durable heavy duty trucks that run until the wheels fall off. They pride themselves on total cost of ownership, uptime, and ROI.
They are, however, almost apologetic about it. When they launched the new Cascadia truck — their first new truck in nearly a decade — we tried to change that. Read the rest of this entry »
Only a Guy Named Leatherman could Build a Tool This Ugly
Who gets paid to write stuff this fun?
When Leatherman celebrated their 25th Anniversary, it marked a big year for the company. They rolled out amazing new products like the Skeletool, and planned several more big steps forward. Read the rest of this entry »
