What Every Leader Can Learn From Banksy via INC.com
I’m a huge fan of urban art and graffiti. Banksy is a hero of mine. While I don’t intend to deface any property – I still love his art. Check out this great article!
What Every Leader Can Learn From Banksy via INC.com
As we’re entering the holiday season, and as we’re reminded of the beauty and power of simply saying, “Thanks,” I want to take a minute to reflect on what we’re thankful for at Hatcher Media.
One of the things we’re very thankful for is Freshbooks. If you have ever been fortunate enough to recieve an invoice from us – you’ve seen Freshbooks at work.
Basically – it’s an online accounting and invoicing system – much like Quickbooks – but web-based. I have an annual fee to use it – but that fee has paid for itself by taking care of recurring annual invoices (like webhosting) that I would have been forgetting!
If you need an accounting system – give Freshbooks a chance. It’s great stuff! I’m thankful for it’s simplicity, and their great customer support!
#thinkbigthursday is our day to dream for something bigger than what we’ve got! So we’re gathering advice from people who have done more, gone farther, and we’re thinking big!
What You Need to Know About Grabbing Your Domain Name via INC.com
Whether you are ready to have a website or not – you definitely need to grab your domain name NOW. Here’s soem advice.
The desperation to find an available domain name has gotten so extreme that a grammar checking and proofreading company is calling itself Grammarly. At least they got the dot com. Loverly and Respondly used .ly to nab their sil.ly domain names. In case you missed the memo, .ly is the country-specific domain extension for Libya. Serious.ly. I’ve been to Libya and even I didn’t know that.
What You Need to Know About Grabbing Your Domain Name via INC.com
As we’re entering the holiday season, and as we’re reminded of the beauty and power of simply saying, “Thanks,” I want to take a minute to reflect on what we’re thankful for at Hatcher Media.
First of all – we’re thankful for Good Clients. Clients who communicate their needs to us – who give us a shot to help them market their business. Clients who have dreams and goals, and invite us to be a part of making them happen.
We’re thankful for the opportunity to help those clients think new thoughts, dream new dreams, and take big hairy ideas and make them money in their pockets and food on their tables.
We’re thankful that those good clients say thanks back to us by paying their invoices on time, so we can put food on OUR table too!
We’re also thankful for good clients who help spread the word to their friends and neighbors about the service we give them.
Most of my clients become my friends. And this makes owning and operating a business worth the effort and energy. Thank you, friends, for thinking of Hatcher Media.
#thinkbigthursday is our day to dream for something bigger than what we’ve got! So we’re gathering advice from people who have done more, gone farther, and we’re thinking big!
As a design / marketing person – and as a person with an undiagnosed slight case of O.C.D. – there are often marketing campaigns that physically cause me pain. By the way- our Rainbow Graphic for this is a perfect example – it uses the fonts I hate the worst – and it illustrates that design CAN be bad, and that it matters. Throughout the month of October, as we get closer to the spookiness of Halloween – we’re look at some of the SCARIEST marketing pieces that I’ve ever seen!
First of all – this commercial is produced well – and it looks great.
But I almost feel like it’s playing a race card.
Don’t misunderstand me because I think it’s AWESOME that they have a beautiful, strong, successful black woman featured as the driver of this car in the commercial.
What gets me is the commercial leads up to a climax – this moment of anticipation to see WHO IS DRIVING THIS CAR?! and the mention royalty – and you see a foot, and there’s suspense – and the music drops out – and then the reveal – and I expect to see a celebrity, or royalty, or SOMETHING that makes me feel that payoff as I’ve waited to see who is in this car.
For some reason – I feel like the advertisers WANT the shock of her race to be the point of the reveal.
I don’t want to think they were intentionally doing that…. but the way the commercial plays – with it’s build up and release definitely communicates this… “Wait for it – we’re going to surprise you – and the surprise is….. wait for it… wait for it…. she’s black.”
I’m glad she’s black – don’t get me wrong – but with that buildup – maybe they should have used a black celebrity – so that that “payoff” would have some weight. I may be completely wrong in this – maybe that feeling is completely unwarranted. Maybe the advertisers just didn’t realize that the commercial would create such a buildup before the reveal – and maybe they just thought that the reveal of a beautiful woman was enough.
The commercial just leaves me unsettled. I think that it communicates an unintended (or maybe intended) message that “You don’t expect black people to drive nice cars like this.” And I think that’s not the right message to send.
By the way – this commercial features a black family driving a car, and it doesn’t do it with a “gotcha” feel at all. I love this one. This one is GREAT marketing.
Tell me – am I way off? Am i just being overly sensitive? Am I missing something? Send me a comment to weigh in your thoughts.
#thinkbigthursday is our day to dream for something bigger than what we’ve got! So we’re gathering advice from people who have done more, gone farther, and we’re thinking big!
5 Tips for More Effective Brainstorming via Inc.com
I’m a big fan of bubble charts – but this article gives some good insight on the brainstorming process!
There are countless ways to brainstorm, but humans are creatures of habit. You probably haven’t broken out of your go-to methods since you were forced to in college. That’s OK, because it just means you have an abundance of options at your fingertips. Whether you’re an executive, in the creative field, headed back to school, or in the hospitality industry, creativity is key. Everyone can get stuck sometimes, but how you pull yourself out can make all the difference.
Do you even realize when you’re brainstorming? Think it’s a buzzword best reserved for kids who are strapping on those invisible thinking caps? It’s actually just a means of opening your creative floodgates so you–and your work–and your employees, will benefit.