Lessons on Advertising Culture from Stan Richards

October 8, 2012 Leave a comment

I recently had the opportunity to take a tour of the offices of The Richards Group, led by the legendary Stan Richards.

Stan Richards the richards group

Stan Richards, founder of the The Richards Group

And I have to say, it was pretty cool. I’ve been to many other agencies – Arnold, Digitas, Saatchi & Saatchi, StarCom/MediaVest, Weber Shandwick, Publicis, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Sterling Rice, TDA, Hill Holiday, DeVries, MS&L, and countless others. But never has a founder of the agency taken the time to visit with me, to give me a tour, or tell me about the culture of the company he or she founded. Granted, most of them have long since passed away, moved on to other agencies, or retired, but still, this was cool.  Read more of this post

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It’s business school, not a waiting room

September 19, 2012 5 Comments

Gawker is eagerly reporting that admissions to two-year, US, business school programs has dropped. With a healthy dose of schadenfreude, they gleefully report that all those people who went to business school hoping to help themselves during the recession wasted their money.

While their attitude and sense of self-righteousness is misplaced, the core of their argument is not.  Read more of this post

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Call me a hypocrite but…

July 25, 2012 Leave a comment

I guess it’s hypocritical to like things like this AND work in advertising,  but I can’t help it. I was raised with my father frequently lamenting about the “nightmare of capitalism” and while I may not have fully embraced it, I still get fired up by this sort of thing.

 

Click on the image to see others from this project from Brandalism (which by the way, is an AWESOME name for what they do).

And a shout-out to the blog ObsessiveCompulsive for finding this and sharing it with me.

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Things left on the printer.

April 16, 2012 Leave a comment

I like seeing the things that people leave on the printer at work. Today’s offering is a print out of an article titled “Why being in your 20s is awesome.”

Article

Who printed this? Why did they need to print it? If they are in their 20s, and need help reflecting on its awesomeness, it seems unlikely they would print out a piece of paper about it. More likely they’d read it on their smartphone, laptop, iPad, etc. Maybe it was a baby boomer, struggling to understand their 20-something employees. He or she printed it out with the intention of reading it on their train ride home to suburbia.

We may never know.

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Hot Tub Boat

March 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Not quite a crime machine, but still impressive.

Hot Tub Boat

Hot Tub Boat

The boat can accommodate up to six persons while underway, and eight at dockside.  It is powered by an almost silent electric motor at approximately 4 to 6 knots.

More from the manufacturer: HotTubBoats.com

 

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They don’t make them like this anymore.

February 20, 2012 1 Comment

On February 8th, the world lost a great adventurer. John Fairfax was one of, if not THE last great adventurer in the world. Unlike “adventurers” of today (a list which includes one of my personal heroes, Sir Richard Branson), he didn’t make a fortune in business and then set off to become an adventurer. By all accounts he was born that way. Or at least, started out his adventurous life at a very young age.

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If you don’t know me—

January 19, 2012 4 Comments

Don’t ask me to connect on LinkedIn. I get that you want to grow your network, or sell me some new chotchke that your company just developed. I get it. I can see the value for you. But why do I want to open up my newsfeed to your spam, or my network to your requests for introductions?

If you want to talk to me, send me a message. Or tweet at me. Or post a comment on my blog. I’m pretty easy to find. I’m the only “Ezra Englebardt” in the world, if you try hard enough you could probably find my home address on one of the various social sites I post to regularly (but please don’t come to my house).

But blindly adding me on LinkedIn, when you for a company like AdSalesForYou or some other spam sounding company is NEVER going to happen. I’m more likely to help a deposed Nigerian prince get his family’s fortune back.

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Using your out of office message as a means of communication.

January 16, 2012 Leave a comment

A friend of mine was recently emailing with a very high profile tech pundit and received his “out of office” message. It’s pretty ridiculous. Take a read (I had to redact some portions, sorry):

Hello,
I’m now getting emails at a level that I can’t respond to everyone. This is an automatic response to an email you sent to [REDACTED]. I will make a best attempt to get back to you, especially if you are sharing world-changing technology with me.
I do read every email, butI only can reply to about 10%, sorry. If you are desperate please call me on my cell phone at [REDACTED] (if I’m available I will pick up, if not, keep calling back until you get me). Best to call me in mornings at 9 a.m. to 10a.m. since that’s when I’m most likely to be in front of my computer with my calendar available (the rest of the day I’m usually meeting with entrepreneurs).
To PR people, if you want me to cover your product you’ve got to give me more than one day warning. I do videos and I’m already scheduling out February of 2012 (yikes!). I don’t do press-release rewrites like other tech bloggers. It’s best to get in touch with me at LEAST A MONTH before you launch (right now my calendar is totally booked until mid-February). To see a successful pitch, see how Flipboard pitched me (it is my favorite startup of2010):[REDACTED] (Flipboard showed me what they were doing THREE MONTHS before they shipped!)
I specifically am looking for world-changing technology and startups looking to build world brands, if you have one, please be persistent. I am often out shooting and miss cool stuff once in a while. If you are looking for more about where I’m publishing, visit [REDACTED]which has links to all of myblogs, and social media accounts.My calendar is here so you can see what spots I have open: [REDACTED] Another way to get through to me is to talk with my producer, [REDACTED]. You can reach him at [REDACTED].
Thanks and sorry if I don’t get back to you.
WOW. That’s pretty much all I can say. Granted, this is probably one of the most powerful men in the tech world, but still, sending out detailed instructions on how to email him as an auto-reply is a little much.

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How QuiBids and other penny-auction sites work.

August 25, 2011 4 Comments

Have you seen those awful QuiBids spots on TV? The ones where they say you can get an iPad for pennies? Well, as every econ professor I ever had told me “TINSTAAFL” – there is no such thing as free lunch.

A lot of people think it’s a straight up scam, that the auction sites just take your money, or that the products don’t really exist. That’s not exactly true. In fact, you could potentially get a good deal on an item, but QuiBids (and its competitors) are getting a much better one.

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