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	<title>The Official Blog of AREA203 Digital &#187; Points of View</title>
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		<title>Gene&#8217;s Links: Emoticon Tracking, Annoying Personalization, and Succeeding in Digital Marketing</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/genes-links-tracking-personalization-digital-marketing-success/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/genes-links-tracking-personalization-digital-marketing-success/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:58:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gene De Libero</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Gene de Libero, Chief Strategy Officer at AREA203, regularly collects must-know resources from around the web for marketers. Three Tips to Help You Succeed in <a href="http://area2oh3.com/genes-links-tracking-personalization-digital-marketing-success/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p><em><a title="Gene de Libero | AREA203 Digital" href="http://area203.com/#type=details&amp;name=gene-de-libero&amp;related=departments" target="_blank">Gene de Libero</a>, Chief Strategy Officer at AREA203, regularly collects must-know resources from around the web for marketers.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><a title="Three Tips to Help You Succeed in Digital Marketing - Digital Mindshare Inc." href="http://www.digitalmindshare.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Three Tips to Help You Succeed in Digital Marketing – Digital Mindshare Inc.</a><br />
For those of you seeking a career path in digital marketing—whether you’re just getting started, transitioning from traditional marketing, or simply looking for a change of pace from whatever the heck you’ve been doing for the past X months or years—here are three proven tips to help you succeed in digital marketing, and fast.</li>
<li><a title="Consumers Say They’re Just Not That Into Personalized Marketing Messages" href="http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/topics/personalization/consumers-say-theyre-just-not-that-into-personalized-marketing-messages-30338/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Consumers Say They’re Just Not That Into Personalized Marketing Messages</a><br />
Most marketers believe that personalization of the consumer’s web experience is important, but they might run into disinterested—or worse, annoyed—consumers. According to a new study [pdf] sponsored by Lyris and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), only 32% of consumers in the US and UK agreed that greater personalization of marketing messages benefits consumers, while 43% disagreed. Moreover, 70% agreed that many of the personalized messages they receive are annoying because the attempts at personalization are superficial.</li>
<li><a title="Your Computer is Watching You: AOL Rolls Out Emotion Tracking - Forbes" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2013/06/14/aol-realeeyes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Your Computer is Watching You: AOL Rolls Out Emotion Tracking – Forbes</a><br />
One of the fastest growing areas in neuromarketing is webcam-based emotion tracking. The popularity of this technique is underscored by AOL’s new partnership with RealEyes. Be On, an AOL unit that offers advertisers branded video, will provide their customers with quick feedback on how viewers reacted to their videos. The emotions are determined by automated analysis of facial expressions captured by webcam.</li>
<li><a title="The New Mad Men Of Advertising Are... Everywhere – ReadWrite" href="http://readwrite.com/2013/06/14/the-new-mad-men-of-advertising-are-everywhere-thanks-to-crowdsourcing#awesm=%7Eo8K0bf3Pj3vdmh" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The New Mad Men Of Advertising Are… Everywhere – ReadWrite</a><br />
Crowdsourced advertising platforms—some with Silicon Valley backing—are sprouting up to liberate untapped talent from around the world and remake television (and video) advertising.</li>
<li><a title="Curbing Risks in Complicated Projects" href="http://www.strategy-business.com/article/re00239?rssid=all_updates&amp;gko=853a4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Curbing Risks in Complicated Projects</a><br />
Risks crop up throughout a project’s life cycle. They affect cost, financial performance, scheduling, technical feasibility, and a range of other factors. The impact of the unanticipated is usually greatest in complex projects, which may entail wide-ranging collaboration and delicately timed market rollouts. This study found, however, that managers are too focused on fixing problems after they’ve already occurred, and they largely ignore the root causes of risk, which, if allowed to fester, can deeply damage or even derail a complex project.</li>
<li><a title="Take A Look At The Guts That Power Google Glass | Co.Design" href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672816/take-a-look-at-the-guts-that-power-google-glass#1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Take A Look At The Guts That Power Google Glass | Co.Design</a><br />
Some people treat their new gadgets with the utmost care, handling them like they would a newborn chick. Others can’t wait to get home and tear the things open to see what’s inside.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Reused with permission from <a title="Gene de Libero" href="http://www.genedelibero.com/" target="_blank">www.genedelibero.com</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Want more of Gene&#8217;s Links?</strong><br />
To see more posts in this series, visit <a href="http://area2oh3.com/author/gene-de-libero/">Gene&#8217;s author page</a>.</p>
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		<title>[VIDEO] AREA203&#8242;s Ryan Russell: How to Score in Social Media</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/how-to-score-in-social-media-video/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/how-to-score-in-social-media-video/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:49:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Heather Huston</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[What is the value of social media for brands? How should companies be using it? AREA203 Digital social media strategist Ryan Russell tackles how brands <a href="http://area2oh3.com/how-to-score-in-social-media-video/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>What is the value of social media for brands? How should companies be using it? AREA203 Digital social media strategist Ryan Russell tackles how brands can score in social media.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1fEurQXe1A8" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe></p>
<p><em>Follow us on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/AREA203Digital" target="_blank">@AREA203Digital</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Follow Ryan Russell at <a href="http://twitter.com/RyanWPRussell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@RyanWPRussell</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>→ Heather Huston,</em><em> Strategist, Social Media, AREA203 Digital; follow</em>… <a title="Follow Heather on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/#%21/hustonian" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@hustonian</a></p>
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		<title>How to Fight Off Google&#8217;s Second Penguin</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/fight-google-penguin-2-0/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/fight-google-penguin-2-0/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 May 2013 19:47:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brady Callahan</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Google algorithm updates target and attack websites that appear to make their living off black hat SEO techniques, irrelevant content, and shady link practices. As <a href="http://area2oh3.com/fight-google-penguin-2-0/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p><center><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-36610" title="penguin-update-2" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/penguin-update-2-e1369767358315-300x169.jpg" alt="penguin-update-2" width="375" height="169" /></center></p>
<p>Google algorithm updates target and attack websites that appear to make their living off black hat SEO techniques, irrelevant content, and shady link practices. As a SEO firm or large company, you are probably aware of these terms, and if you have a good SEO working with you, you are looking at analytics reports to make sure you have escaped the the wrath of Penguin 2.0.</p>
<p>But if you&#8217;re a small business owner, these terms and <a title="" href="http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change" target="_blank">Google&#8217;s latest algorithm update</a> may not seem relevant to you. But trust me, they are. If your business relies on website traffic and conversions, your full attention should be focused on Penguin 2.0 and the early reports on which websites it&#8217;s affecting and how.</p>
<h3>What Does It Mean: Translating Penguin 2.0</h3>
<p>Typically, when Google adds another wrinkle to their algorithm—or, in this case, updates a previously existing one—it takes days, weeks, or sometimes even months to see the full affect of the change. In this case, early reports suggest the following things about the <a title="Penguin 2.0 Losers | Search Engine Land" href="http://searchengineland.com/penguin-2-0-losers-porn-sites-game-sites-big-brands-like-dish-com-the-salvation-army-160744" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">second edition of the update</a> that specifically targets links and linking practices:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>More Bark Than Bite</em>—The overall affect of this update was smaller (so far) than was expected within the search community. Nobody but the Google engineers themselves know how powerful these updates will be, and the hype for this update seems to have been overblown.</li>
<li><em>Low-quality Sites and Big Brands Hurt</em>—Everything from extremely spam-centric gaming and porn sites to big brands like Dish and The Salvation Army felt the affects of this update. Also, small businesses (maybe yours?) that either didn&#8217;t take SEO seriously enough or couldn&#8217;t delineate between good and bad SEO practices were negatively affected.</li>
<li><em>Digging Deeper Than the Homepage</em>—Some people suggest the major difference between Penguin 1.0 and 2.0 is the depth of the analysis of links. The thought is that, originally, only the homepage and maybe other high-profile pages of sites were targeted. In this update, it seems the algorithm drills down further in an attempt to crackdown on site-wide links and other shady practices sometimes found only on deeper page levels.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Practical Steps Moving Forward</h3>
<p>So, you&#8217;ve been hit. Your web traffic has dramatically decreased in a matter of days and you haven&#8217;t made any major changes recently to your front- or back-end development, SEO, or other contributing channels. Chances are that when your site was crawled by Googlebot, it was negatively affected by the update. Your small business is dependent on your consistent web traffic, so move quickly with the following road map to recovery and success:</p>
<ol>
<li><u>Monitor Your Analytics</u></li>
<p> The proof is in the puddin&#8217;. The decrease in organic traffic that <a href="http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/penguin-2-0-rolled-out-today/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">began on May 22</a>—or soon thereafter—can be attributed to Penguin 2.0.</p>
<li><u>Gather Information and Move On from Past SEOs</u></li>
<p> Do you have a record of any and all changes to your website? If you&#8217;re like most small business owners, you probably don&#8217;t. But start digging: look for records of proposed site changes that were implemented in the past. Most of all, focus on SEO. Have you—or anybody else who was in control of the website at one point—done some &#8220;SEO&#8221;? Finding any record of changes made to the website in the name of SEO were probably black hat and did more harm than good. Spam tactics that used to get rankings on the first page for your number one keyword now get sites targeted and penalized. Move on from those tactics—and that SEO—to a more formidable strategy.</p>
<li><u>Remove and Replace the Bad Links</u></li>
<p> As I mentioned earlier, Penguin predominantly deals with links rather than content or other website elements. Basically, your website was hit because of the quantity of poor or spammy links pointing to it, giving it more value according to most search engine algorithms than it should have. As a result, when you lose the value of those links, you lose your rankings and traffic numbers. You have two choices: remove those poor links pointing to your website or replace them. The correct answer? Both.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/" target="_blank">Google Webmaster Tools</a> is one of many free SEO tools that allows you to download a CSV file containing the majority of relevant links pointing back to your business&#8217; website. You can—and should—find ways to reach out to the webmasters of the poor and spammy domains that linked to you, asking for the link(s) to be removed. Chances are not all of them will cooperate, but make sure you put forth the effort and write everything down. Once you&#8217;ve gone through all of the bad links, use the <a href="http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=2648487">disavow tool</a> within Webmaster Tools to notify Google that you&#8217;re aware of the spammy links and have attempted to address them. This can be a daunting task that takes weeks or months, so it&#8217;s totally normal if you&#8217;re feeling overwhelmed. Need a hand going through this process? <a href="http://area203.com/#type=details&amp;name=seo&amp;related=departments" target="_blank">We&#8217;d love to help</a>.</p>
<li><u>Follow Current SEO Best Practices</u></li>
<p> SEO is a constantly changing industry that has evolved many times in its short existence. However, below is an extremely brief breakdown of what to do to ensure your website is following the best practices:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Content is King</em>—The content on your website should not only be prominent, but it should be valuable to the visitors of your site. If you&#8217;re a clothing retailer, create content that talks about the latest fashion trends, the benefits of one fabric over another, how irritating tags can be on T-shirts, or anything else that will speak to your customer base. Quality and variety (written content, images, video, infographics, interactive elements, etc.) should take high priority in your content strategy.</li>
<li><em>On-site SEO Management</em>—This covers a wide variety of elements that couldn&#8217;t properly be discussed in a single paragraph, but examine your title tags, meta descriptions, images, link structures, keyword strategy, videos, sitemaps, robots.txt file, and more to ensure what you&#8217;re doing is the most valuable for both visitors and the search engines.</li>
<li><em>Social Media Strategy</em>—Don&#8217;t forget about social; it can pay huge dividends for your small business, especially when confined to a local area. If your company doesn&#8217;t currently have a presence on relevant social networks, you&#8217;re missing out on a huge opportunity to speak directly to your customer, have an instantaneous customer feedback channel, and acquire healthy, relevant inbound links to your site. When social media works in harmony with SEO, it&#8217;s a beautiful thing.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<p>These changes take time and energy on your part, but assuming you implement correctly, expect to see your organic traffic numbers return to normal heights. It may take months, but Penguin 2.0 doesn&#8217;t have to ruin the success of your small business. Stay calm and take a deep breath, esteemed business owner: you, too, can fight off Google&#8217;s second Penguin.</p>
<p><em><strong>→ Brady Callahan, Content Specialist,</strong> AREA203 Digital; follow…</em> <a title="Follow Brady on Twitter!" href="https://twitter.com/BradyDCallahan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@BradyDCallahan</a></p>
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		<title>Calm Down. Zach Braff and Veronica Mars Are Not Ruining Kickstarter</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/calm-down-kickstarter-isnt-ruined/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/calm-down-kickstarter-isnt-ruined/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 15:42:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ryan Russell</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Crowdfunding recently got a shot in the arm from big named celebrities like Zach Braff and Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy, the “Veronica <a href="http://area2oh3.com/calm-down-kickstarter-isnt-ruined/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>Crowdfunding recently got a shot in the arm from big named celebrities like Zach Braff and Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy, the “Veronica Mars” guy). Their projects have been the most prominent of the new trend in celebrity projects on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites.</p>
<table style="font-size: 80%;font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;text-align: center; width:100%; margin:0 auto; margin-bottom:15px;" align="center">
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<td><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/VMars7.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-36513" title="VMars" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/VMars7-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="font-size: 80%;font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;text-align: center;">Veronica Mars Star Kristen Bell.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Rob Thomas, the director of the former CW show that has a huge cult following and abruptly ended after three seasons, <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">recently launched a Kickstarter campaign</a> that blew through its $2 million dollar goal (it raised $5,702,153) in a mere 12 hours, setting the record for largest number of supporters (91,585). Braff, who made his name on the hit show Scrubs and as the director for the upstart movie “Garden State,” <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869987317/wish-i-was-here-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reached the goal</a> for his new film “Wish I Was Here” in three days, giving Garden State fans the follow up they’ve been seeking for years.</p>
<p>Celebrities getting involved with their fans, fans getting involved with their cult heroes. Sounds like a win-win, right? Well, indie filmmakers and bands have been trashing these celebrity projects, claiming that celebrities are taking advantage of fans and emptying the coffers of donors who might have donated to other artists who are more in need of funding. Braff recently received even more negative press after<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/whats-really-going-on-with-the-zach-braff-kickstarter-firest" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">securing millions of dollars in funds</a> “gap financing” from Entertainment to help fund the remainder of the film on top of Braff’s own money that he is investing himself.</p>
<h3>Celebrities aren’t the problem. Bad content is.</h3>
<p>The loan made critics call into question whether Braff was giving up the rights to the creative control that donors were funding originally. Braff and his producer, Stacey Sher, <a href="http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/22/18401068-zach-braff-raises-money-and-ire-with-kickstarter-campaign-for-new-film?lite" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">have rejected this notion</a>, saying they gave donors the opportunity to cancel their funds if they desired. She stated “Worldview Entertainment is essentially a bank &#8230; loaning us the &#8216;gap&#8217; between what we’ve raised together and what we need to actually make the movie.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_36512" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 214px"><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/zbraff3.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-36512 " src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/zbraff3-204x300.jpg" alt="zach-braff" width="204" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">&#8220;Wish I Was Here&#8221; Director Zach Braff</p></div>
<p>Braff and Veronica Mars detractors believe that were these funds to be retracted, the donors would immediately flee toward funding smaller projects. They blame the success not on Braff and Rob Thomas’s hard work, on great content, or on the loyal fan bases, but on their name recognition. They believe this is what is to blame for these projects succeeding and other projects failing.</p>
<h3>Melissa’s Kickstarter Campaign of Shame</h3>
<p>Sabrina… er… Clarissa… I mean, <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/318676760/darcis-walk-of-shame" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Melissa Joan Hart used Kickstarter</a> in an attempt to cash in on her fading name recognition and thrust her way into a leading movie role. The results were underwhelming to say the least: 315 supporters gave a little more than $51,000, which is less than 2% of Braff’s total. Why did Hart fail? Click the link to watch the campaign video and you tell me.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/mjh.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-36515 aligncenter" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/mjh.jpg" alt="melissa-joan-hart-video" width="259" height="194" /></a></p>
<p>You didn’t make it through two minutes did you? I’ll save you the pain of the rest: it doesn’t get any better. The rewards are terrible ($300 for her to follow you on Twitter), the team obviously put little effort or planning into it (they never updated the page), and they were obviously doing it to sustain Hart’s career, not make a quality movie (even the video and campaign make continuous “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Clarissa Explains It All” references). Name recognition does not automatically equal success; quality content that has an audience does.</p>
<p>Simply launching a Kickstarter campaign, setting up a Facebook page, or having a great idea does not entitle anyone to success. The best way to sell a product is to have a great product. Braff and Thomas have great products. People loved “Garden State,” and wanted to see more of Braff’s directorial work unfiltered by production companies. Veronica Mars fans have stayed engaged and excited about the show even though it was cancelled in 2007. That is great content: something that more than 91,000 people would give their money for even after six years of cancellation.</p>
<div id="attachment_36528" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/kick.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-36528 " title="kick" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/kick-300x160.jpg" alt="kickstarter-projects" width="300" height="160" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Kickstarter has funded over $528 million worth of projects</p></div>
<h3>Here’s the Deal.</h3>
<p>Don’t blame success or lack of success of your crowdfunding campaign on celebrities using the site. <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/who-is-kickstarter-for" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kickstarter wrote a great blog entry</a> that noted that 63% of “Veronica Mars” and Zach Braff funders had never pledged on Kickstarter before. Since these projects, these new donors have pledged over $400,000 to 2,200 projects. It hardly seems like Braff and Thomas are the bullies responsible for stealing money from other projects. If anything, it seems that they have given the site added exposure, which could potentially assist other projects.</p>
<p>There’s an old saying that says, “Nothing will kill a bad product faster than good marketing.” Rather than focus on the marketing tactics— in this case crowdfunding sites— focus on developing a great product that people will want to buy. Kickstarter is just a tactic, not the reason a product fails or not. Great projects that have an audience and have a great plan will likely succeed. If your Kickstarter campaign failed, chances are your product was going to fail, too. There is no escaping hard work.</p>
<p><em><strong>→ Ryan Russell, Social Media Strategist, </strong>AREA203 Digital …<a title="Ryan Russell on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/ryanwprussell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@ryanwprussell</a></em></p>
<p><em><strong>→ Brooke Fontana, PR Specialist,</strong> AREA203 Digital …</em><em><a title="Brooke Fontana | Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/Brookie_Fontana" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@Brookie_Fontana</a></em></p>
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		<title>Advertising America&#8217;s Pastime</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/advertising-americas-pastime/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/advertising-americas-pastime/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:08:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Will Smith</dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Life and Culture]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[baseball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I Play]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Major League Baseball]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Baseball, said former commissioner Bart Giamatti, breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. In the fall, fans of 29 teams are left <a href="http://area2oh3.com/advertising-americas-pastime/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>Baseball, said former commissioner Bart Giamatti, <a title="Giamatti: The Green Fields of the Mind" href="http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giamatti.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">breaks your heart</a>.</p>
<p>It is designed to break your heart. In the fall, fans of 29 teams are left thinking, “Wait ‘til next year.” And every spring, hope returns to fans everywhere, even Chicago.</p>
<p>How do you create advertising to sell a product designed to break its users’ hearts? How do you keep fans coming back to something that logic says will most likely disappoint them? That’s no easy task, but in an attempt to do just that, this year, MLB rolled out an “I play” campaign for opening day.</p>

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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzTBIaKU9w&amp;list=UUkg6dndJGdOCa4KVWPBjfvA&amp;index=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MLB I Play Commercial: Mike Trout</a></li>
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<p>This campaign obviously ties into fans’ eternal optimism: watch now, because yes, this could be the year your team goes all the way. It’s a smart campaign, dangling the lure of October when it seems most attainable.</p>
<h3>Baseball: We Live for This</h3>
<p>In 2006, MLB advertised its postseason with an “I live for this” campaign, starring long-time Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda. This was an interesting campaign &#8211; not just because it stars baseball royalty &#8211; but also because it attempts a tough sell: getting fans to watch teams they might ordinarily not care about.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFvORwFam3A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tommy&#8217;s Tough Love Commercial &#8211; Cabinets</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLyIPjaZ8FA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tommy&#8217;s Tough Love Commercial &#8211; Tree</a></li>
</ul>
<p>This is another smart campaign, because it’s obviously easier to get a fan of one team to watch another team than it is to get a non-fan to watch a game. Every game has the potential to make history: how many didn’t see <a title="Kirk Gibson's homerun" href="http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25313709&amp;c_id=mlb" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kirk Gibson’s homerun</a> in the 1988 World Series—one of the most amazing moments in baseball history—just because they weren’t Dodgers fans?</p>
<p>So I think baseball is on the right track with its advertising. Encourage the hopes of spring—even (or especially) the unfounded ones—and remind fans every fall that though their hopes may be dashed, this is the greatest game that’s ever been created.</p>
<p>Oh, and go Dodgers. Giants suck.</p>
<p><em><strong>→ Will Smith</strong>, Copywriter, AREA203 Digital</em>&#8230; <a title="Follow Will on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/OurWillSmith" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@OurWillSmith</a></p>
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		<title>Roger Ebert: The Brand—And What We Can Learn from Him</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/roger-ebert-brand-what-we-can-learn/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/roger-ebert-brand-what-we-can-learn/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:42:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Colrus</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[In the days since his passing, Roger Ebert has been mostly remembered for his bar-setting work as a film critic, but as David Carr of <a href="http://area2oh3.com/roger-ebert-brand-what-we-can-learn/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ebert_w.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-35826 aligncenter" title="Roger Ebert" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ebert_w.png" alt="roger-ebert-photo" width="400" height="225" /></a></p>
<p>In the days since his passing, Roger Ebert has been mostly remembered for his bar-setting work as a film critic, but as <a title="David Carr | New York Times" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/business/media/roger-eberts-legacy-as-a-relentless-empire-builder.html?_r=1&amp;" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">David Carr</a> of the <em>New York Times</em> wrote this week, Ebert&#8217;s life &#8220;was a remarkable template for how a lone journalist can become something much more.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Long before the media world became cluttered with search optimization consultants, social media experts, and brand-management gurus,&#8221; wrote Carr, &#8220;Mr. Ebert used all available technologies and platforms to advance both his love of film and his own professional interests.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to <a title="Mark Caro | Chicago Sun" href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-09/entertainment/chi-roger-ebert-funeral_1_chaz-ebert-roger-ebert-richard-roeper" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Caro</a> of the <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, Ebert was a lot of things—&#8221;film critic, newspaperman, social-justice soldier, husband, father, grandfather, and champion of artists and imagination.&#8221; Ebert was also a hugely influential brand that marketers can learn a lot from. And it&#8217;s no surprise, then, that marketers are among those paying tribute to him this week.</p>
<ul>
<li>Lifehacker&#8217;s <a title="Kevin Purdy | Lifehacker" href="http://lifehacker.com/5994042/learn-from-roger-eberts-career-to-build-your-own-small-empire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kevin Purdy</a> says you can &#8220;build your own small empire&#8221; by following Ebert&#8217;s &#8220;passion for your field&#8221; and treating your output &#8220;as a product, not a job.&#8221;</li>
<li><a title="Kimberly Bordonaro | Steamfeed" href="http://www.steamfeed.com/3-lessons-in-personal-branding-from-roger-ebert/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kimberly Bordonaro</a> of SteamFeed says that Ebert&#8217;s life teaches those building personal brands the importance of discovering their passions, adapting to change, and consistently delivering what audiences (or consumers) value and expect.</li>
<li>According to <a title="Phil Rosenthal | The Tribune" href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-07/business/ct-biz-0407-phil-ebert-20130407_1_roger-ebert-chicago-sun-times-audience" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Phil Rosenthal</a> of the <em>Tribune</em>, Ebert &#8220;wrote a business script worth following&#8221; by knowing his identity, knowing his consumers, owning his work, embracing his rivals (like Gene Siskel), embracing technology (like blogging and social media), being transparent, being a mentor, and being great. Rosenthal says that Ebert&#8217;s honesty about the illness that ultimately took his life &#8220;only enhanced his credibility as a critic.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p>Ebert&#8217;s illness (which robbed him of his ability to speak) caused him to rely on the Internet to be his voice. Ebert adapted, creating what Carr called &#8220;the kind of stickiness and durability that media brands crave.&#8221;</p>
<p>He will be missed—and studied—for a long, long time.</p>
<p><em><strong>→ Bill Colrus, Managing Editor, Content Marketing,</strong> AREA203 Digital; follow… <a href="http://twitter.com/billcolrus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@billcolrus</a></em></p>
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		<title>52n52 Book Review: To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/book-review-sell-human-daniel-h-pink/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/book-review-sell-human-daniel-h-pink/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:52:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Patrick Kearns</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Before I got my start in advertising, I worked as an outside sales rep for multiple surfing companies, selling accessories to surf shops up and <a href="http://area2oh3.com/book-review-sell-human-daniel-h-pink/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>Before I got my start in advertising, I worked as an outside sales rep for multiple surfing companies, selling accessories to surf shops up and down the west coast from Whistler, B.C. to San Diego. It was traditional sales, 100% commission, and I drove door-to-door collecting upwards of 5,000 miles on my car each month. I make it sound much worse than it actually was: great pay, open schedule, and the fact that my 9 to 5 meant &#8216;working&#8217; every day doing something I loved—being active outside. I did this for three years before transitioning into an internal marketing position for one of my brands, and then into a position as buyer for one of my accounts, an international action sport retailer. What I didn’t know when I moved away from outside sales was that you never stop selling—ever.</p>
<p><center><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/To-Sell-is-Human-Cover_w.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35775" title="To Sell is Human Book Cover" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/To-Sell-is-Human-Cover_w.png" alt="to-sell-is-human-book-cover" width="300" height="453" /></a></center></p>
<p>This is the central tenant of Daniel H. Pink’s <em>To Sell Is Human</em>: Selling is, in fact, a fundamental part of our human nature. He contends that the line between seller and buyer has been blurred and that everyone, regardless of occupation, spends the majority of their time selling something—an idea, a schedule, an item—to somebody, somewhere. Pink argues that sales now exists in a new state he calls <em>non-sales selling</em>: the act of moving people to do something other than react with their wallets.</p>
<h3>From the Mouth of Experts</h3>
<p>Daniel H. Pink knows a thing or two about writing on the art of motivation. His two New York Times best sellers, <em>Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us</em> and <em>A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future</em>, have collectively sold more than a million copies and have been translated into 33 languages. Pink’s TED talk, &#8220;<a title="Youtube.com" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Puzzle of Motivation</a>,&#8221; is one of the top twenty most-viewed talks of all time. Thinkers50 named him one of the most influential management thinkers in the world. Needless to say, the guy has some serious chops.</p>
<h3>The Act of Selling</h3>
<p><em>To Sell is Human</em> is not a sales textbook on learning more effective selling techniques; it is, however, an insight into the act of selling. The book is broken down into three distinct parts. Part one talks about the state of sales and how we’ve moved from the Fuller Brush man of days past to the 21st century salesperson. Part two gets into the three qualities that truly move others. Pink breaks this down in his ABC’s of selling. Not the “Glengarry, Glen Ross” idea of &#8220;Always Be Closing,&#8221; but instead &#8220;Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.&#8221; Finally, having covered the ABC’s, part three describes what to do next, i.e., pitching, improvising, and serving.</p>
<h3>Sales ABCs</h3>
<p>Pink defines attunement as the ability to bring oneself into harmony with individuals, groups, and contexts. Within attunement are three guiding principles: increasing your power by reducing it; using your head as much as your heart (passion); and mimicking strategically. Attunement is the reason why Pink believes extroverts rarely make good sales people.</p>
<p>Buoyancy is the ability to keep oneself from sinking when rejections feel like tidal waves. It’s not the ‘I think I can’ mentality, but the ‘Damn right, I can’ mentality—keeping the talk track going internally and keeping yourself motivated when things aren’t going your way. Buoyancy is the daily pep talk from your imaginary on-the-shoulder coach.</p>
<p>Last is clarity, or the ability to see people and situations in fresh more revealing ways. Instead of always trying to solve the problem, look instead to find the problem. Clarity requires a slower and more methodical approach to serving your clients.</p>
<h3>A Book that Moves People</h3>
<p>In the interest of time, your attention span, and so that this doesn’t feel like a CliffsNotes edition of <em>To Sell is Human</em>, I kept my focus on part two, as it felt like the crux of Pink’s argument. Don’t get me wrong, though, the &#8216;why of selling&#8217; and the &#8216;what to do next&#8217; are just as important, but if you don’t have the know-how, then you really can’t expect to sell much of anything at all.</p>
<p>Has reading <em>To Sell is Human</em> changed the way I’ll approach selling? Sort of. While Pink makes a good argument about everyone being a born salesman, at the end of the day, someone has to sell the work, the idea, or the agenda. Will I kick off my next meeting with a dubbed-over version of Alec Baldwin shouting Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity? Definitely.</p>
<p><em>This review is the thirteenth installment of ‘<a title="The 52n52 Book Review Archive" href="http://area2oh3.com/?s=52n52">52n52</a>,’ our weekly marketing and advertising book review series.</em></p>
<p><em>→ Patrick Kearns, Creative Director, AREA203 Digital; follow… <a title="Follow Patrick on Twitter! " href="http://twitter.com/noeyeinpirate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@noeyeinpirate</a></em></p>
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		<title>52n52 Book Review: Hey Whipple, Squeeze This (4th Edition) by Luke Sullivan</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/52n52-book-review-hey-whipple-squeeze-4th-edition-luke-sullivan/</link>
		<comments>http://area2oh3.com/52n52-book-review-hey-whipple-squeeze-4th-edition-luke-sullivan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:22:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Patrick Kearns</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[I was recently going through one of my groups on LinkedIn, and a question posed was, “What books should be in the personal library of <a href="http://area2oh3.com/52n52-book-review-hey-whipple-squeeze-4th-edition-luke-sullivan/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>I was recently going through one of my groups on LinkedIn, and a question posed was, “What books should be in the personal library of a young person in advertising?” The resounding answer was <em>Hey Whipple, Squeeze This</em>. This is not really a surprise, seeing as Luke Sullivan has captured what it takes to make a great ad in all mediums—TV, print, radio, guerilla, and now digital media.</p>
<h3>Whipple Never Ages</h3>
<p><em>Hey Whipple</em> has surpassed <em>Ogilvy on Advertising</em> as the go-to guide for creating great creative and better creatives. Now, don’t get me wrong: <em>Ogilvy on Advertising</em> is a fantastic book filled with interesting and relatable anecdotes and the subject of <a title="Introducing 52n52: A New Book Review Series | AREA203 Digital" href="http://area2oh3.com/new-book-review-series/">my first review</a>, but David Ogilvy never released newer versions to reflect the changing mediums and the way consumers interact with advertising, let alone brands. Sullivan is on the fourth edition of <em>Hey Whipple</em> (the first one was released on this date, April 4, in 2003), and with it came a litany of revamped material. At times, this read felt like a new book altogether. I have now read all four editions, and with each read, I come away thinking differently about the way I think, concept, write, and manage.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1555445411.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35555" title="Hey Whipple Book Cover" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1555445411.png" alt="hey-whipple-squeeze-this-book-cover" width="300" height="452" /></a></p>
<h3>Part of the Team</h3>
<p>Another wonderful thing about <em>Hey Whipple</em> is Sullivan’s approach to engaging with the reader as if they themselves are a part of his creative team—willing your work to get better. <em>Hey Whipple</em> isn’t only a spot-on guide to great work, but it also captures what it’s like to work for a great creative team, complete with stories from his own career. It gives great insight about what it’s like to work for great creative directors, horrible ones, egomaniacs, and how to slash weasels, work with and not against account services—basically, all the ins and outs of agency life.</p>
<h3>A Little Background</h3>
<p>Luke Sullivan has more than 30 years experience at some of the country’s best shops including Fallon McElligot, The Martin Agency, and GSD&amp;M, and he is now the advertising chair at SCAD (Savannah College of Art &amp; Design). Luke also has a trophy shelf with more awards than most agencies (20 One Show pencils), has been honored by D&amp;AD, Cannes, as well as every other ad awards show, including the 4-H Club (j/k), and he’s been twice named by <em>AdWeek</em> as the top copywriter in the United States. Bottom line: He knows what he’s talking about.</p>
<p>Of all the books in my ad library, this is by far my favorite, and to be honest, I don’t think this review does it justice. There is enough of an abundance of relatable/actionable info on each and every page that I could do lengthy reviews on the chapters alone. Just buy the damn thing and when you finish, buy another copy and pass it on.</p>
<p><em>This review is the twelfth installment of ‘<a href="http://area2oh3.com/?s=52n52">52n52</a>,’ our weekly marketing and advertising book review series.</em></p>
<p><strong><em>→ Patrick Kearns</em></strong><em>, Creative Director, AREA203 Digital; follow… <a title="Follow Patrick on Twitter!" href="https://twitter.com/noeyeinpirate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@noeyeinpirate</a></em></p>
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		<title>52n52 Book Review: A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/52n52-book-review-technique-producing-ideas-james-webb-young/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:48:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Patrick Kearns</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Okay, I admit I’m getting a bit lazy with these reviews. Scientific Advertising and now A Technique for Producing Ideas are both light reads—the latter <a href="http://area2oh3.com/52n52-book-review-technique-producing-ideas-james-webb-young/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>Okay, I admit I’m getting a bit lazy with these reviews. <em>Scientific Advertising</em> and now <em>A Technique for Producing Ideas</em> are both light reads—the latter being more of a bound whitepaper. Seriously, this book is a scant 48 pages. The issue is I’m knee-deep in the fourth edition of Luke Sullivan’s <em>Hey Whipple Squeeze This</em>, and am really taking my time to absorb it all (more on that next week, hopefully—but pick it up, because there’s a lot more that wasn’t there in the third edition).</p>
<p><center><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/7800978007142625152Pic.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35452" title="A Technique for Producing Ideas" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/7800978007142625152Pic.jpg" alt="a-technique-for-producing-ideas-book-cover" width="300" height="400" /></a></center><em>A Technique for Producing Ideas</em> works and has been working for the last 74 years. Young wrote it in 1939, but it wasn’t published until 1965, and since then, his little tome has helped thousands of copywriters push past their own mental blocks (read: <em>self-doubt-ridden thoughts like, “I suck! </em>or<em> I’m a total hack!”</em>) and go on to produce amazing ideas. This book doesn’t give answers, but it does give tools, suggestions, and outlines on how to get your brain thinking—that is, after all, what we do. We think. We concept. Then, we write. There is no print, radio, broadcast, outdoor, or even banner ad without first there being an idea.</p>
<p><em>A Technique for Producing Ideas</em> is that reprieve you so desperately need when you’ve hit the proverbial wall. The 48 pages I mentioned earlier are held together in a book no more than 6” x 4” with double-spaced lines and leading wide enough that the simple thoughts and insight have room to breathe. There are no charts, graphs, percentages, or other crap to dilute the true message. Instead, it’s just one creative’s easy thoughts on getting to good ideas. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Bill Berbach (the B of DDB) sums up <em>A Technique for Producing Ideas</em> best in the first couple lines of his forward to the first edition: “James Webb Young conveys in his little book something more valuable than most learned and detailed texts on the subject of advertising. For he is talking about the soul of a piece of communications and not merely the flesh and bones. He is talking about the idea.”</p>
<p>Each time I finish this book, I’ll hand it off to a junior writer or someone I see who is struggling to create. It’s like one of my favorite creative directors once said, “You’ve gotta give it away to keep it.”</p>
<p><em>This review is the eleventh installment of ‘<a title="Introducing 52n52: A New Book Review Series | AREA203 Digital" href="http://area2oh3.com/new-book-review-series/">52n52</a>,’ our weekly marketing and advertising book review series.</em></p>
<p><strong><em>→ Patrick Kearns</em></strong><em>, Creative Director, AREA203 Digital; follow… <a title="Follow Patrick on Twitter!" href="https://twitter.com/noeyeinpirate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@noeyeinpirate</a></em></p>
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		<title>52n52 Book Review: Scientific Advertising By Claude Hopkins</title>
		<link>http://area2oh3.com/book-review-scientific-advertising-claude-hopkins/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:20:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Patrick Kearns</dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Claude Hopkins]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Scientific Advertising]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://area2oh3.com/?p=35376</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Writing these weekly reviews has had a huge impact on my available time, and by time, I mean that part of the day where I’m <a href="http://area2oh3.com/book-review-scientific-advertising-claude-hopkins/">[...]</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"><p>Writing these weekly reviews has had a huge impact on my available time, and by time, I mean that part of the day where I’m catching up on TV or losing myself in a game of “Black Ops 2.” It’s been good, and I’m learning and relearning more and more as each book passes through my queue.</p>
<p>My most recent read was Claude Hopkins’s classic, <em>Scientific Advertising</em>. Hopkins was the Ogilvy of the early twentieth century and the godfather of modern advertising, direct mail, and market testing. In fact, David Ogilvy said of <em>Scientific Advertising</em>, &#8220;Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Claude-Hopkins-picture2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35379" title="Claude Hopkins" src="http://area2oh3.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Claude-Hopkins-picture2.jpg" alt="claude-hopkins-picture" width="233" height="360" /></a></center></p>
<h3>More About Mr. Hopkins</h3>
<p>Claude was <em>the</em> go-to man for branding and advertising of his time. If he were around today, he would be the heavy-hitting freelance sniper you call in to win a pitch or up your creative game.</p>
<p>Outside of Hopkins’ many storied accomplishments, the book is a great peek into the life of an advertising copywriter circa 1915. The guy is partly responsible for some of the biggest brands in CPG history: Palmolive, Pepsodent, and Goodyear Tires, to name a few.</p>
<p>I really empathized with Claude as he broke into this business like myself, without a college degree and, as he put it, spending “those four years (college) in the school of experience instead of a school of theory. I know nothing of value which an advertising man can be taught in college.”</p>
<p>The book is full of truisms of digestible information that make sense even in today’s convoluted advertising market. One of the many that stood out to me was this: “The men who succeed in advertising are not the highly-bred, not the men careful to be obtrusive and polite, but the men who know what arouses enthusiasm in simple people.”</p>
<h3>It Gets Better with Age</h3>
<p><em>Scientific Advertising</em> is a surprisingly simple and quick read, one that will take you all of a day to read, but, according to David Ogilvy, one that you should spend two weeks with. I’ll definitely read it again in the future and am glad I picked it up in the first place.</p>
<p>One last thing: Since Claude is no longer with us, I don’t think he’d mind not getting the royalty for your purchase. You can read the whole thing here: <a href="http://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdf</a></p>
<p><em><br />
This review is the tenth installment of ‘<a title="Introducing 52n52: A New Book Review Series | AREA203 Digital" href="http://area2oh3.com/new-book-review-series/">52n52</a>,’ our weekly marketing and advertising book review series.</em></p>
<p><em><strong>→ Patrick Kearns</strong>, Creative Director, AREA203 Digital; follow… <a href="https://twitter.com/noeyeinpirate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@noeyeinpirate</a></em></p>
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