About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
This summer, Rebecca McDaniel partnered with winemaker and client Domaine Serene to promote Pinot Noir as a summer beverage alternative in Surdyks’ Drinks magazine.
In part 3 of a 6 part series on the life passions of Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb’s partners and staff, she provides background on this series and discusses the value of a personal connection in a professional relationship.
Listen to Rebecca McDaniel on Enhancing the Client Relationship [12 min]
Bill Lofy, Wellstone Action‘s Communications Director, and I talked about his two new books; Paul Wellstone – A Passion for Politics and Politics the Wellstone Way just as they hit the shelves.
Be sure to catch Bill on his national tour promoting his Wellstone biography.
If Camp Wellstone comes to your neighborhood, I highly recommend it- no matter your political affiliation.
Growing up, I remember my grandmother and her sister making homemade lefse. Jen knew of lefse and knew that it went really well with butter and sugar. Huh? Butter and sugar? I suppose you could.
In my world, lefse is filled with far more interesting flavors than sugary butter. Like a layer of mashed potatoes (yes, even more potato) topped with a layer of salmon all rolled up like a Norwegian tortilla.
My grandmother when asked why she did this, responded something like;
“We needed something that would keep the men full on the farm.”
I was reminded of this family history as Jen and I pondered our first bite from Joey D’s. I suspect the same reason is behind Chicago-style Hot Dogs and deep dish pizza.
The first year Jen and I were back in Minnesota, we hit the State Fair twice. This was the year they debuted deep-fried Snickers bars on a stick and deep-fried Oreos (BTW, Yea on the Snickers, Nay on the Oreos).
If you attempt the Snickers bar, eat it as you leave the fairgrounds, wash it down with $1 all-you-can-drink milk, and have someone else drive. The sugar coma will hit exactly 10 minutes after you pull out of the parking lot – you’ll wake up 3 hours later disoriented.
However long the line is at Mouth Trap Cheese Curds, you must stand in it. At the end is the best cheese curds in the upper midwest.
Kristina from BrainTraffic and I were discussing podcasting over lunch today, specifically – relationships between advertisers and podcasters. As always, we concluded the most logical, credible solution is the conventional, NPR-esque, announcer-mentioned sponsorship IT Conversations is exploring.
As Kristina stated, this model helps guarantee the both podcaster and advertiser are interesting and appropriate to the listener. In the best case, the result is a “peanut butter in my chocolate” combination like IT Conversations and GoTo Meeting. This combination raises the credibility of both brands. I might even be able to use GoTo Meeting to create an IT Conversation. Everyone wins, including the listener.
Worst case scenario, it’s an advertiser trying to buy street cred like:
In this case, the opposite happens, both brands are discredited.
From Laura Reis at The Origin of Brands Blog:
Back when Saint Paul the Auto Repairman fixed my tie rod end, he noticed the front brakes needed to be done and warned:
“You’re going to lose a caliper.”
He also warned the alignment was off. To go straight, turn the steering wheel 60 degrees off normal. No, Jen didn’t want me driving the car until both problems were fixed.
I poked around CarTalk’s MechanXFiles for a reputable repair shop nearby. I found Stinson Auto, just a few blocks away.
Yeah, it’s that local, half-run down auto shop you drive by and wonder if they’re any good or just a front for the mafia.
I gave them a call, dropped the Neon off, and at about 4pm, they call me with an estimate. Reasonable, especially considering they planned on fixing it yet this evening.
Six hours later – yes – 10pm.
“This is Joe from Stinson Auto, wondering if you’d like to pick up your car yet tonight.”
(I waited until morning)
They far surpassed my expectations on all accounts, that’s NE Minneapolis for you.
Thanks Joe.
Stinson Automotive Inc
(612) 788-9229
3300 Stinson Blvd
Minneapolis, MN 55418
The first two posts I read in the news reader this morning were on cooperation. Both with the same “conflict is generally unnecessary” point. I thought you’d enjoy.
In Newsweek’s cover story “Reading Your Baby’s Mind” on baby’s brain development, new research is profiled into the “babies learn foreign languages easily” phenomenon. The research states, a baby can easily learn a second language easily only if the secondary language is spoken by someone the baby has an emotional connection with.
That’s right, language tapes in the background are just that.
This isn’t something we outgrow.
The New York Times article Team-Building With a Twist details the pains companies are going through to connect their employees on an emotional level.
As with babies and foreign languages, it only clicks if the parental figure finds it valuable enough to join in:
Get your Trading Spaces and HGTV fix in the first First Craft video-cast.
Jen walks you through how to make your walls more interesting with a few inexpensive, blank, pre-stretched canvases and some stylish wrapping papers.
Watch the Wall Art Demo with Jen [17 min]
Over the weekend we set up and launched the CollegeRecruiter.com podcast using BetDirCaster.
Integration into their existing site went quickly. More quickly than I anticipated. I’m excited about podcasts like this; timeless information to a niche audience in 10 minutes or less.
If you’re using BetDirCaster and having problems with the track description displaying correctly, download the latest BetDirCaster. Progress has been made on that bug, and I could use some feedback on how far along we are.
