What makes a great commercial? If you could choose Seattle’s Best Commercials Ever, what would be on your list?

A week before the Super Bowl I posed that question to readers of The Talking Horse Blog. Minutes later I had my first answer.

Since then I’ve received dozens of suggestions. Mainly from advertising and design professionals, but also from friends who say they hate advertising. Right before they recall an old commercial that they love.

That’s what choosing the best commercials in the last 50 years is really all about.

It’s not just about winning awards. It’s about how thirty seconds of film can hold us captive in front of a TV. It’s about creating something new and different. How a well-crafted message can turn a business into a household name. Or add to local lore.

Most of all, it’s about something that makes us think or smile, that we never forget. That’s what makes a great commercial.

To make the list below, commercials had to be suggested by two or more people. Some good ones got left off (as did some bad ones.) Are your favorites on the list? If not, now’s the time to add them.

The top 10 local commercials of all time will be announced the evening of The Big M Awards, May 17 at the Center For Urban Horticulture.

And how will the winners be determined? By you – The Supreme Court Of Seattle Advertising.

No fancy robes required.

To help select Seattle’s Best Commercials Ever, send your email address and suggestions to david@horsfallcreative.com.

Seattle’s Best Commercials Ever

Alaska Airlines – “Taxi,” “Change For A Dollar,” “Cutting Corners,” “Purchasing Agent,” “Getting There,” “Sky High Airlines,” “Little Things”

Bardahl – “Gummy Rings,”

Boeing – “Globetrotters,” “Lonely Man,” DaVinci,” “Someday”

Bon Marche – “Day-O,”  “Bon Girls”

Cellular One – “Fast Talker”

Dick Balch – car-smashing commercials

Eagle Hardware & Garden – Edgar Martinez “Light Bat”

Ivar’s – “Dances With Clams”

KPLZ – “Alcatraz”

Longacres –”Doo Dah”

Olympia Beer – “Guy On Bus”

PEMCO – “4-Way Stop,” “Goat Renter Guy,” “Sandals and Socks Guy”

PeoplesBank – “Member FDIC. And the human race.”

Pizza Haven – “Pizza Heaven”

Puget Sound Bank – “Robbery,” “Last Independent Bank”

Puyallup Fair – “Do The Puyallup”

Rainier Bank – “Veterinarian”

Rainier Beer – “Motorcycle,” “Frogs,” “Beer Crossing,” “Cousteau,” “Running of the Rainiers,” “Mickey Rooney Mountie,” “Mickey Rooney Wild Rainiers,” “You’re The Tops”

Seafirst – 1986 Olympics “Rowing”

Sea Galley – “We’ve Got Crab Legs”

Seattle International Film Festival – “Do You Like To Watch,”

Seattle Mariners – “Larry Bernandez,” “Jamie Moyer Slow Pitch,” Ichiro “Epidemic,” copywriter “Chimpanzee,” Edgar “Opening the Roof,” “Batter’s Box”

Seattle Supersonics – “Gary Payton,” “Nate McMillan”

Thomason Auto – “Greatest Auto Dealer”

Virginia Mason – “Cochlear Implant,” “Heart Attack”

Washington Lottery – “Flightless Birds”

Washington Lottery –  “Big Houses,” “Street Performers,” “Opera”

Washington Mutual – “Friend Of The Family”

Washington Mutual – “Rodeo Grandmas”

Washington State Department of Health – “No Stank You”

Washington State University – “Allez Les Cougs”

Weyerhaeuser – “Tree House”

If you’ve never thought about a bucket list or are too young or too engaged in your career, you may want to come back to this article in a year, or 10.

But for those who are in their twilight years, or have seen their ranks diminished by the timely, or untimely, loss of friends, making a bucket list may have crossed your mind. If so, let me share an experience gained while drifting into my 70s.

I made a conventional bucket list a few years ago, from taking my grandchildren to Washington, D.C., to getting to the base camp of Mt. Everest, to hiking in the Alps to publishing a book of poems. In deference to my age, I took off a climb of Mt. McKinley, but maintain a hike of Bailey Range. My bucket list, like most, includes going places, seeing things, collecting a few more experiences.

But this past year, my old friend Peter Lewis (Audisee, Car Tours and hundreds of audio triumphs) mentioned to me a name from our past, George Toles. If you don’t know George, I can sum him up in a word: gentleman. In a business where we were sometimes not at our best, George is, still, a good and decent man.

I recalled to Peter a very shameful incident in my life in advertising where I participated in a scheme that resulted in George being summarily fired from the Kaye-Smith studios in Seattle. Spend much time in advertising management, work in New York, L.A. or be a Mad Man graduate and you may find you’ve sullied yourself by letting ambition override common decency and good sense.

When I told Peter I’d never talked to George since that awful event, he said he was going to hang up and told me to sit down right then and write George what I had just confessed: I was a jerk, and I am sorry for it.

George’s reply to my email was, of course, loving and forgiving and we engaged in a nice exchange of emails and we began to discuss the idea of making amends—trying to make things right, apologizing, praising, admitting and asking for forgiveness. Our dialogue leads to George completing a wonderful song lyric and then a recorded piece of music.

OK, Bill, there are others out there who need to hear from you. And they take precedence over the terrestrial destinations on my traditional bucket list. I’ve got work to do.  A new bucket list, this one with the names of people I need to make an effort to say, I’m sorry to, or thank you for being my friend, or I wish I didn’t have to fire you like that.

You can’t run an advertising agency, be in the media business or work in a creative industry that lives and dies by unfathomable client vagaries and not have gotten your hands dirty. It can be a tough, mean and nasty business and you may have some amends to make. Who’s on your list?

This doesn’t necessarily lead to redemption or excuses from those bad behaviors, but I can report that from George Toles I have gone to others. And, while most were genuinely glad to hear from me, one said, “It’s too late for that, Bill.” I had waited too long.

Metaphysics wasn’t exactly running rampant on Madison Avenue in my day and I’m sure the same was true on Wall Street and Fleet Street and Wilshire Boulevard, where the intense competition caused unintended consequences. And, if we‘re honest, some were intended.

I also tracked down some former teachers, an ex-boss who taught me some life lessons, a mentor and three college roommates and all of those contacts were poignant.

So, thank you to Peter for pointing me in a new direction, to George for being so graceful and to Larry Coffman, who said this might make an interesting article. I hope he’s correct.

•

Bill Hoke is a former advertising agency creative director and lives in Kitsap, where he is semi-retired. Contact him at hoke@creativeconsulting.com and check out his entertaining and informative commentary at www.marketingimmortals.com.

Search Engine Optimization: Three words that strike fear into the hearts of many entrepreneurs.

Fear not, brave business person. Simply follow these easy steps and your website will begin its trek to Page 1 of Google. It’s not difficult and, fortunately, you have few competitors who know what they’re doing.

Here are some quick and easy ways to get started. Spend 30-60 minutes a day on these (or more time if your want your site to progress to Page 1 faster) and you’ll soon reap the rewards in sales and recognition.

1. Find the keywords/phrases that your customers are using to find you.
2. Use these keywords in your website: In copy, in the title bars, behind pictures and your meta-tag section. Use each keyword no more than three times per meta tag.
3. Get a www.youtube.com account and post videos there. Use your phone or get a flip video to shoot the videos. They’re not expected to be perfect.—just get started!
4. Write on your blog every day—sometimes just a couple sentences or paragraphs.
5. Write for www.ezinesarticles.com.

Keywords are key to optimizing your site. These are words people enter into search engines to find your company. You may think you know what words/phrases are being usedß. Be prepared to be surprised.

You’ll probably find words you thought were being searched and find that they aren’t and you’ll find other phrases that may seem unlikely. Most people don’t use one search word any longer. It’s usually phrases or long-tailed keywords.

Become familiar with Google Keyword Tool. You will use it often. The easiest way to get there is to Google “Google Keyword Tool.” You’ll go to a page that requests you enter several keywords that you want searched. Enter the words and it will give you back about 100 words that match your request, or are similar. It gives you good ideas! You want to choose words that have low or medium competition and the most searches. You’ll use these words in your title bar, meta tags, behind pictures and in your copy.

Select words from the list presented by the Keyword Tool according to “Searches” and “Competition.”  Ideally, you’ll have keywords with searches in the millions and low competition, but you’ll settle for the highest number of searches you can get and medium competition. Select the words that fit your criterion and download them into Excel. You’ll see numbers under the “Competition” tab. Use the words with the lowest number the most.

First, place three to five of your keywords on the Title Bar of each page of your site. Then rewrite some of your website copy to include others, place a BUNCH of them behind pictures (your site should include plenty of relevant pics), so that they show up when you pass your mouse over the pic and list five to seven in your meta tags. You can find your meta-tag page by left clicking on your web page and click on “view source.” You’ll see if you have any tags.

You’ll drive traffic to your website from your YouTube account, your blog and your ezinearticles.

In the description of all your videos in your YouTube account, the FIRST word should be your website, beginning with www. The description of your video that follows should be keyword heavy (keywords may be one word or a phrase—phrases are the most commonly used). YouTube is a PR 10 website, the highest ranking Google gives. Driving traffic to your site from a PR 10 elevates your site.

Most people think they need to write a dissertation on their daily blog. You don’t. The web spiders love relevant content updated often. Writing a paragraph of keyword heavy, relevant content will push your site up in the rankings. It just takes a few minutes a day for huge rewards. Be sure to add pics or videos to your blog.

EzineArticles is another PR10 site. It’s a user-friendly site that knows how to optimize and they’ll help you drive traffic to your articles on that site. Again, in the bio section at the end of each article, list your website so those interested in what you have to say may visit your site. Keep the bio relatively short and offer something free for visiting your website.

The web is truly a great equalizer. You don’t need a ton or money to succeed on the web; just a little time and knowledge. See you on Page 1 of Google.

•

Katie Evans is the Founder and President of the Living Lite Hypnosis Centers, Inc. Living Lite currently has offices in Seattle and Lynnwood. As a small business person, Katie has had to learn to wear many hats and has become quite well-versed in web marketing. Her business is currently offering 3-hour weight loss hypnosis classes being marketed by online coupon companies. She is sought after as a speaker on Small Business Survive and Thrive Tactics as well as many health-related topics.

Katie is available to assess your website, find your best keywords and work with your webmaster to optimize your site. Her fee is $75 and hour with a 2-hour minimum. Mention this article and the first 2 hours are $125.

In a former life, Katie was married to the late Seattle Times columnist, Walt Evans.

Contact Katie @: 1-877-206-1332 • katie@livinglitenow.com • www.livingliteathome.com

]]> http://marketingnw.com/blog/seo-three-words-that-strike-fear/feed/ 1 http://marketingnw.com/blog/tale-of-%e2%80%98mystic-pug-tarot%e2%80%99/ http://marketingnw.com/blog/tale-of-%e2%80%98mystic-pug-tarot%e2%80%99/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:28:04 +0000 mnw http://marketingnw.com/?p=2846 By John Schuler

It’s believed that some 900 years ago, The Pug sat atop a throne of feathers and moss in a part of  China seldom visited by Westerners. From his perch, he would order villagers to bring him tokens of appreciation in exchange for the wisdom he passed down.

But that has little to do with this story. This story, in fact, began much later, about 1566 in Cremona, Italy, where a band of monks, for the most part, went about their typical monk lifestyles.

It is told, even to this day, that these monks were banished for dabbling in black magic. But that is far from the truth. It was not black magic that earned the monks an early departure, it was the Mystic Pug Tarot deck that they relied on to tell fortunes and make predictions for the local villagers. That’s our story.

It’s a story developed seven years ago to promote Topkote paper, a product of Marubeni Pulp and Paper out of Los Angeles. The project began as a simple Christmas card and turned into a deck of cards that demonstrated the company’s product in new and exciting ways. The company’s distributor liked our approach so much, they paid to have 25,000 decks printed and shipped across the country. A win for our client!

The deck came with 30 cards, a box and an instruction manual. Recently, we caught wind of an original deck selling for $90 on eBay.

Six months back we were sitting around eating, drinking and watching the ferries go back and forth when someone suggested we take The Pug and make a smartphone app. It sounded fun,  so we did—an office version of the Mystic Pug Tarot with characters you might run into every day at work.

Our art director, Michelle Stewart, who worked on the original Pug deck, updated the look and feel, formatting it for mobile devices. We then tweaked the instructions to bring purpose to the product as an app.

Our biggest challenge was coming up with more than 250 ways of saying, yes, no and maybe. People hid. Missed deadlines. Procrastinated. This doesn’t happen on our clients’ projects, by the way… but this was for us. We eventually landed on our list of answers and were off and running—to our developer.

About eight weeks later, The Pug came to life on our smartphones and it was glorious. We know this, because The Pug said it was glorious. Making The Pug was one thing; marketing it was something completely different.

To get the word out, we turned to our master of PR, Leslie Cohan. Leslie worked with our team to create lists within the Pug community (yes, there is a Pug community), veterinarians, tech publications and a few secret lists.

We created a custom Pug website (www.mysticpugtarot.com)  and  all our materials directed people to it, where they could read about our creation, see that it was right for them (this applies to everyone) and link to the Apple app. store to download the product. We also created a custom video that showcased the app.

Well over 14,000 editors opened and read Leslie’s press release, and the Internet was abuzz with “Pugs to predict future.”

Today, just a month after its release, The Pug is being used in 40 countries with followings in such places as Australia, Algeria and Pakistan.

When we created the Mystic Pug Tarot seven years ago, we wanted to give people something they could have fun with, interact with and get a laugh out of. Our latest rendition continues that mission.

 •

John Schuler is the founder/creative director of Exclaim. His business card features the new Exclaim logo and other key contact info.

May I suggest a New Year’s resolution? If you and your company haven’t yet embraced “social” as a valid media channel, 2012 is the year you need to dive in.

That’s not the resolution I’m suggesting, however. I’m proposing that you throw away your old “this is how we do it” book and begin designing an all new media approach from scratch.

I’m certainly not urging you to throw the baby out with the bath water. But I am counseling you to get out of your safety zone. Shake it up. Try something new. And do it not with trepidation, but with excitement.

1. Listen first. There are lots of free tools on the web that allow you to see in almost real time what your customers have to say about you. Use one of these tools or Google or Bing your company and see what comes up.

2. Have the end in sight before you begin. Ask yourself this simple question. What do I want someone to do in response to my activity (whatever that activity may be)?  Do you want to grow the number of “likes” (fans) you have on Facebook? Do you want to propagate your opt-in email list? Do you want to nurture a two-way relationship that could grow or do you just want to sell something today. If you can’t answer this simple question, you’re not ready to go to Step 3.

3. Choose the medium that best addresses your intended target and your desired response. You have a myriad of choices. None of them is right or wrong. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, Google+ and more. How do you choose? Go back to Item #1. When you “listened,”  what did you hear? Where are your customers or prospects hanging out? Where do they post comments? How does what you do and what you want them to do figure into their aspirations? That’s where you set your cross-hairs.

4. Pull the trigger. Guy Kawaski, an early Apple Macintosh evangelist, author and tech entrepreneur suggests that, when it comes to social media and the web, we should embrace a philosophy long ago abandoned by the corporate world. That philosophy is, “Ready, Fire, Aim!” or as Nike proclaims,“Just Do It!”  In the fast-paced world of social media, the work is never done, the campaign is never polished. It just needs to happen; now and often!

5. Evaluate, and reload. This is no different than in any other campaign, except for the pace you need to work at in these channels. If your plan is not working you’ll know it within hours, not days. If you’re not getting the desired response, try something else, fast. There are a few other things you need to know. Each social channel has its own etiquette.

Twitter operates like a headline service, so it’s OK to post to Twitter multiple times during the average day if you have information your intended audience might find useful.

The quickest way to get “un-liked” on Facebook is to post too often. How often is too often? It depends on your audience and their needs. Ditto for email blasts. Daily email blasts are obnoxious. How many daily deals and offerings are clogging up your inbox?

The biggest thing to remember is that social media is not advertising. It’s not about blasting our message to the masses. The masses really don’t want to hear from you via social. In social, more isn’t better than less if those you’re engaging with enjoy engaging with you. No one wakes up in the morning wondering how your company is doing. You want to engage? Learn what your customers want and give it to them.

The year’s resolution? Make it happen. Now! Then do it again and again and again. As Nike once proclaimed (thanks to Seattle ad great John Brown), “There is no finish line.”

•

Steve Lawson is president of Friendly Voice, which helps companies large and small engage customers through social and traditional media. He can be reached at friendlyvoice.com or 425-649-9114.

Recently I attended a TEDx (see sidebar) event and was inspired by a talk that Jane Fonda gave. She calls the last three decades of our lives “The Third Act,” and says it’s our “Prime Time.”

She encouraged us to see this time as a staircase—“the upper ascension of the human spirit, not a downward sloping curve.” She sees aging as potential, not pathology. And she concluded by asking us “How are you going to use this time?” I’d like to share my plan for the Third Act of my career in social marketing.

I see a world where people are healthy and safe, financially secure, contributing to their communities and protecting the environment. Since 1993, I’ve been studying, practicing, teaching, speaking and writing about social marketing as a strategy to help make this vision a real.

This discipline was distinguished 40 years ago by Philip Kotler as a process that uses traditional marketing principles and techniques to influence public behaviors “for good.” He launched it. It’s my passion now to put it and keep it in orbit and I have three strategies.

First, I will work with colleges and university accrediting programs to require a course in social marketing for degrees in public health, public administration, environmental studies, medicine and nursing.

These professionals are in positions, some on a daily basis, where influencing public behaviors is key to their job performance and success with their publics and patients. I can’t imagine getting my business degree without a marketing course. How can these professionals succeed well without one too?

I will begin with our very own Masters in Public Health program at the UW and will use this experience to develop a national strategy.

Second, I will help develop certificate programs for those professionals in the field who are past the opportunity to have had a course during their degree program. This year I will begin this at the University of Washington’s Evans School. Through a grant from the Puget Sound Partnership, we will be training 125 water quality program managers.

At the successful completion of their course, they will receive a certificate of completion from the University. I’m hoping to do the same for pediatricians, through the American Academy of Pediatrics. Reducing childhood obesity and increasing immunization rates are issues this model can support.

And, also working through the Evans School, I want to develop a “brown bag” session for legislators in Olympia on social marketing—what it is, how it can help them influence desired public behaviors and why it’s a smart investment of resources.

Third, I will help to create a Puget Sound Chapter of the recently formed International Social Marketing Association, similar to the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Marketing Association. A core group of us already are working on a strategic plan, hoping to launch the chapter with our own TEDx event, one that will inspire others through streaming presentations of social marketing success stories.

One behavior change strategy that impresses me the most is the power of making a public commitment. Research says that if you pledge to do something, it can increase the chances by at least 25% that you will follow through. If you make this commitment public, it can increase it by as much as 50%.

So, with this article, you have my commitment to complete these three strategies as part of my “Third Act.” Please feel free to “poke” me on Facebook, LinkedIn or wherever we might meet and ask if I’m on  track—and also tell me how you‘re doing on your Third Act.

•

Nancy Lee is president of Social Marketing Services, Inc. and an adjunct faculty at the University of Washington and the University of South Florida. She has co-authored eight books with Philip Kotler.

•  Hackett Honor:

Printing Prominence: Washington state boasts not one but two printing- firm principals who have ascended to prominent positions with major national associations.

Loken

Darren Loken, president/CEO of Telepress in Seattle, was installed as chairman of the board of the National Association of Printing Leadership during the association’s annual meeting Sept. 11 in Chicago. Loken is an SPU graduate.

He founded and sold a mailing company and joined the former Valco Graphics, moving up to to president and CEO. Upon its sale to Cenveo he became GM in Seattle and later moved to Telepress.

Laura Lawton-Forsyth, president of Lawton Printing in Spokane, was elected chairman of the board of the Printing Industries of America during the association’s Fall meeting in Miami Beach.

Lawton-Forsyth

Laura, a past president of PPI, heads a board that directs the activities of the world’s largest print-trade group, with 8,500 members representing 900,000 employees and $140 billion in sales.

•  Amazing Annabelle :  Leslie Cohan shared some touching remembrances of her “really special dog” named Annabelle (left photo), who died in October. “I was lucky enough to bring her to work with me at some of Seattle’s most creative agencies, like DDB, Dave Syferd & Partners and my new home, EXCLAIM.

“Although she couldn’t contribute to billable hours, I’m convinced that our campaigns were better and more creative because of her just being there. She had a way of making us laugh, with just a look… she connected with people,” Leslie said.

“After I posted the sad news on Facebook, I immediately received messages from former colleagues and clients who shared their stories of Annabelle at the office. I had no idea her passing would affect so many people. As word spread, I received condolence cards and emails from friends and colleagues who had heard the news. Who would have thought that a 16-pound white fluffy Westie would make such a difference in the lives of so many people?

“She died two days after her 10th birthday and  I, along with so many others, will miss her sweet way about the office.”

Her successor is a two-month-old  named Aggie (right photo), also a Westie. She has some tough paw prints to follow in…

Jesse Jones has quickly become a fixture on KING 5’s evening news. His “Get Jesse’ segments on the Seattle NBC affiliate have made the 47-year-old not only in demand as an investigative reporter for viewers needing help with consumer complaints, but he’s responsible for making the feature must-watch TV.

Besides helping to right the wrongs of those who come to him for help, his signature sign-off, “Jesse Jones—KING 5 News!” is unusual for television, in that he almost shouts his name at the conclusion of each segment.

After graduating from Foss High School, the Tacoma native received a football scholarship at Montana State, where he earned a B.S. degree in film and TV production. The burly Jones was the starting fullback on the football team, helping the Bobcats to a 1-AA National Championship in 1984.

He gave pro football a go. “I signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers and got a career-ending injury after the last preseason game,” he said.

Looking for a place to use his degree, Jones caught on at a Seattle station. “I got my first break at KSTW-TV. I’d finished college and wanted a job, any job, in TV. Luckily, Jack Eddy, news director at the station, gave me an opportunity.

“I was hired as a teleprompter operator and night-time receptionist. Then, two years later, they asked me to become a sports reporter. When Jack left the station, a new news director asked me to move to news. I’ve been a news reporter ever since.”

His career then took him to Baltimore, where he was an investigative reporter for WMAR-TV. While there, Jesse was honored as Reporter of the Year in 2000 by the Association of Black Media Workers.

After seven years on the East Coast, he moved to WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, where he won Emmy Awards for investigative reporting three years in a row. Jones returned to his home state in 2005 to go to work for KING. By then, he and his wife Kim were joined by a daughter Cydney, now two.

In 2007, Jones was diagnosed with kidney cancer; during surgery a small tumor was removed. He was clean for three years, but the cancer returned in late 2010 and he began a new treatment early last year. “I went through a very difficult treatment called interleukin-2 in January,” he said. “I’m still battling the disease. I’m hoping for a complete recovery.”

As Jones has dealt with the disease, golf helped take his mind off the rugged treatment. “Golf gave me one thing to look forward to after the crappy treatment,” he said. “In fact, I played long before the doctor would allow me to. I ended up hurting my back,but I didn’t give a crap. It was so fun… and painful.”

He’s also a pretty good stick, regularly shooting in the low 80s. He’s played many of the East Coast’s greatest courses, and says “I’ve been blessed to be able to play so many great courses,” adding that his favorite layouts are those that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

“Golf’s like wine,” Jesse said. “Anybody can pay $200 for a bottle but someone who knows can get you a great bottle for $30.”  And his interest in golf extends beyond just playing. He’s also a course rater for Golfweek magazine.

The economy has contributed to the skyrocketing popularity of his “Get Jesse” segment.“Before the recession people used to blow off losing $100, but not anymore,” he said.

As for his signature signoff, he related that Seattle is a great news town with talented reporters but they all seemed to have a bland way of ending stories. So he thought he’d take a different tack after moving  to Seattle from Cincinnati.

“I wanted to be sure I didn’t make a mistake with using KING (instead of saying WLWT-TV). So I made sure I said it clearly. It’s like a golf swing, once you’re committed to it, you need to finish.
“I was never doing it to draw attention,” he added with a laugh, “but once the station started getting letters, I said, ‘I got you.’ I started going to grocery stores and people were saying, ‘Jesse Jones—KING 5 News!’

“The funniest story was when I went into Costco and saw this elderly couple coming toward me. Right as they passed, the little old lady looks up and says,‘Jesse Jones—KING 5 News!’ She puts her head down and continues walking.”
Go get ’em Jesse.

•
This article was reprinted with permission from Pacific Northwest Golfer magazine. Jeff Shelley is the editorial director for cybergolf.com and golfconstructionnews.com. He also authored three editions of the book, Golf Courses of the Pacific Northwest.