Tak Tik Boom

Broadcast Rules: I Guarantee It

Some Friday frippery...

Broadcast Rules. I
Guarantee It.

Last week, George Zimmer, founder of The Men’s Wearhouse,
was fired as their TV and radio spokesman. This made headline news all across
the U.S. and created a firestorm among Men’s Wearhouse customers. I’m just
wondering, exactly who would give a shit if some online advertiser changed
their ad campaign? Who would even notice?

And

The Seven Secrets Of Successful Lazy-Ass Bums

I hate working.

I hate sitting in an office. I hate going to meetings. I hate writing performance reviews. I hate "nurturing" people. I hate listening to bullshit artists and know-nothing loudmouths who dominate our business. Yet somehow I managed to be reasonably successful.

Here are my 7 secrets of success.

1. Assume everyone is faking it. Nobody knows a thing about advertising. All the

It's That Time Again

Once a quarter I make you pay for access to this semi-lucid blog by filling you full of shameless self-promotion. Today is that day.

We're going to start off with the book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. We've been the #1 selling advertising book in the U.S. for several months now at Amazon. But today I'm going to throw you a curve and reprint some excerpts from Amazon reviews in the

Historical Novel Society Conference 2013

Very chuffed to see Spirit of Lost Angels highly recommended at the HNS 2013 conference in H.F. "Off the Beaten Path".

Beware Of Marketers With Ideologies

In 1996, Seth Godin had this to say to Fast Company...

"I guarantee you that by the year 2000, Internet banner ads will be gone."
Oops.

Let's be fair to Seth. He's a very smart guy and he has been right about a lot of things. But the problem with the above statement, like so many aspects of marketing these days, is that it is rooted in ideology.

Seth's ideology was "permission marketing."

How To Make Printed Marketing Materials Work for You

The very-talented Jane Dixon-Smith, of JD Smith Design fame, and my fellow Triskele Books colleague, blogs this week about marketing options available to authors. Choosing well-presented, professionally-designed material can make your books stand out from the crowd.
Check out Jane’s advice on this week’s Triskele blog.

Apple Has Nothing To Say

Almost 2 years ago, when Steve Jobs stepped down as ceo of Apple, I wrote...

Advertising will be an early indicator of whether people without vision and taste are moving in at Apple.
One of the things I said to look out for was "Creeping Brandism"...

Creeping Brandism: The Apple
brand was built bottom-up. That is, the products defined the brand.
Virtually every Apple ad was about a