Confessions of a Salvation Army bell ringer

Yesterday I was awarded the privilege of ringing a Salvation Army bell for two hour. It was probably two of the best hours I've spent in some time, giving me a chance to help out a great cause, meet dozens of people and had a chance to reflect on the season and humanity. It was a very busy two hours.

The holidays are special for all of us for a variety of reasons. The clang, clang, clang of a bell and a red kettle are apart of the tapestry of memories that make up the Christmas season for me. Now after the two hours of standing out in front of a Walgreen's in Elkhart, Indiana I have more vivid images to associate with the holiday season.

My favorite image was one of my first donors of my shift. The biggest obligation of being a father is teaching your child, and I had a front row seat. Across the parking lot, I watched a dad grab change from his pocket and place in the hand of his son, probably around 4 years old. Side by side, they walked towards my station, and I could see the excitement of the son as he drew closer and closer. I'm not sure who's smile was bigger; dad, mine or the little boy as the change slid off his hand and settled in the bottom of the kettle. The boy had donated pennies, but it was the teaching of giving to others that I have to believe has the potential to pay off with a lifetime of generosity taught by this dad.

Other images of the day were skewed by my marketing mind, as I found myself analyzing the customers and demographic profiles of my donors. The older and more beat up the pick up truck, the more likely the donation from the driver. Worn denim and work boots were also a good sign for a folded dollar or some change making its way into the bucket.

There were additional benefits for me by ringing the bell. That included a chance to say thank you to total strangers that dug deep into their wallets to give a dollar, when they themselves might be trying to figure out how to make their ends meet. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty well convinced I saw that scenario played out more than once during my shift.

Lucky for me the temperatures for early December were above normal. I had prepared for frosty conditions, but was treated with near 50 degree weather. More than a few hearts were melted by a simple "hello", "have a great day" and "Merry Christmas" which I offered up to all that passed by. During my interactions with passer-bys, you get the sense sometimes that saying have a nice day to someone is the only positive words and interaction some are having in their life.

Ringing a bell and filling the kettle has deep trandition for the Salvation Army, dating back to 1891. According to the Salvation Army, the typical kettle raises $30 per hour with an active bell ringer. The money raised helps people within your community that otherwise might not have a hot meal, a warm bed or an opportunity to rise up from their situation.

For the rest of the holiday season, I think one of the saddest things I will see will be an unmanned red kettle stand in front of a store. No bell to grab your attention, no opportunity to donate and someone missing out on the chance to watch the residents of your community at their very best, donating their hard earned money and creating smiles, memories and a sense of community for all.

I'm sure every Salvation Army still needs bell ringers. For a large section of the US, you can visit http://www.ringbells.org and get signed up. For those reading in Elkhart where I was lucky enough to volunteer, visit http://elkhartin.volunteerfirst.org.

Merry Christmas!

Black Friday stressing you out? Then check out this fake Black Friday ad for a laugh or two

A little fun in the midst of Black Friday craziness, thanks to Jeff Wysaski of Pleated Jeans. Holiday inserts have become as much a part of the Thanksgiving holiday as turkey and football to some people. Wysaski is just doing his part to have a little fun and provide a smile.

Thanks to his skills in Photoshop, Wysaski has created his own Target ad and posted at a Target store. While I'm sure the store manager didn't see the humor, I certainly do. Where do I go to buy a gift that they will only use once? Target has just the thing! Did Skittles branch out from candy to TV maker? According to this Target, the answer is yes!

Mashable has the full details on the fake Black Friday ads. Tired of family stress, of shopping or possibly eat turkey, then check out this Target ad.

The tale of the quickly vanishing family owned media company

It was a bit of a nostalgic week for me on a couple fronts. First off on Tuesday, I celebrated my one  year anniversary in my current role with my current organization. Then on Wednesday, it was announced that the first newspaper I worked for full time was sold. Both events caused me to reflect.

The very first newspaper I worked for full time was the Greenfield (Indiana) Daily Reporter, owned by the Brown family and Home News Enterprises for over 100 years. Their headquarters, and frankly the main focus of their company was the newspaper in nearby Columbus, Indiana. But still, it was very obvious that this was a family business. Profits were important but being active and contributing members to the community were highly valued as well. As a result, Greenfield, Columbus and the other communities that HNE operated in benefited. http://www.therepublic.com/view/local_story/The-Republic-other-HNE-propert_1446645932

The community that is the newspaper industry also benefited from HNE. They encouraged active participation in industry groups, like state and local press association. Because they cared about more than the bottom-line, their employees, their industry and their communities were all better as a result.

As I said, Tuesday marked my one year anniversary at my current position. Federated Media is also a family owned operation. The Dille family in Northern Indiana, like the Brown family in Central and Southern Indiana have operated their business for generations. The same traits that I respected in how HNE operates are very evident with my current employer. Profits are important, but being a good corporate citizen is a driving force of the organization.

Federated is a radio focused company today, though its roots are in the newspaper business. The newspaper that I work at is their only newspaper in the organization today. Federated and HNE have adapted to the changing tides of media in this digital era. Both would say that they are communications / multi-media companies today with a focus on audience no matter what the platform. But any media company can say that.

I would suggest that what sets them apart is that they would say that they are an employee focused company that finds ways to connect the community with advertisers. That connection with the employees and the community is what makes family owned media companies unique.

The new owners of HNE say that they will remain strong in the community. I truly hope that is the case; for the community and the employees. Big corporations in the media business is far from new, and their are some good corporations out there running TV, radio and newspapers. But more often, the bottom-line wins out, people get forgotten, corporate citizenship is lost and the product suffers.

New York Times has more subscribers than ever and how that can translate to other publishers

Tis the season for statement of ownership ads running in newspapers and magazines across the country. It is the chance to see the numbers behind the numbers when it comes to circulation numbers.

Frankly it isn't the most exciting ad that will run in the publication, especially if you are the publisher trying to make the numbers tell a good story. One of the exception might be the New York Times, who announced today that they have more subscribers now than they have at any time in their history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/business/the-new-york-times-reaches-a-milestone-thanks-to-our-readers.html?_r=1

The New York Times has reached the 1 million mark for digital only subscribers. Add in the 1.1 million print / digital subscribers and the audience opportunity is stronger than it ever has been in the 164 years of Times publications. Pretty impressive, but not terribly easy to replicate.

Unique content is the key to publishing's future; print and digital. The Times by its very nature has that type of content, and there are others including the Wall Street Journal. Every publisher has the opportunity to find their unique content. As it was described to me recently at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, you have to determine what content you can provide that is the best in the world. In many cases, publishers are the best in the world at covering their local market. But what else? The key to success is finding those additional niches, especially since local broadcasters and internet only sites are also trying to fill the local information market.

Internet hoaxes within social media feeds dupe millions

I guess it started back in the 1960's with the "Paul is dead" hoax surrounding Paul McCartney's death. Probably earlier frankly, but the concept of a hoax was tougher and more isolated pre-internet days.

Today, the internet hoax is a daily occurrence. In fact in the past week, I've seen fake death announcements for both Willie Nelson and James Earl Jones. Both are alive and well as of my writing this post. It is such a regular occurrence now that The Washington Post has a digital culture critic, Caitlin Dewey that does a weekly column titled "What was fake on the Internet this week". I highly recommend the column, as it keeps me up to speed on just how gullible people are plus it is pretty clever and well written. 

The scary thing about these scams and hoaxes is the alarming amount of people that get their news solely from their social media feeds, especially Facebook. Real news outlets, such as the Washington Post fact check and sift through the garbage to report on the facts. Online outlets like the Business Standard News (B-S News) continue to hook people on these fake news stories and make money. 

The James Earl Jones story is a great example. The Facebook feed, if anyone would bother to click on it links to a display that reads "you got owned!" Problem is, thousands (millions?) of people never click. They just go about their day thinking that the voice of Darth Vadar, Mufassah and CNN is dead. 

Legit news sites have to do a better job of marketing themselves as the reliable, trustworthy source for news and information. Fighting the social media feed of 'news' is the next battle for consumer's time, and it is a battle that most news outlets are losing.

Social media outlets, especially Facebook have been given by default an extremely important task of informing the population. I would say that they are failing so far, allowing bogus claims to seemingly dominate the platform because of the share-ability factor and click through rates these often get. It is a fine line, trying not to sensor information, but there has to be a responsibility to promote factual and reliable content. 

In the meantime, news outlets online need to work on creating confidence in their product by the general public. Educating the general public on what to look for in terms of if the source is leg it or not needs to also happen. Facebook can help on that if they wish, and hopefully they will.  

How legacy media can position itself to compliment SEO campaigns

In my early days of advertising sales for a newspaper, one of our biggest competitors was yellow pages. There were multiple books competing in a relatively small market. In fact, I worked at a newspaper that even started its own yellow pages product.

Clearly times have changed for yellow pages. They are doing so much more that an annual directory; a directory that is likely to go away in many markets. Honestly, I'm not sure where my phone books are at my house.

Yellow pages are offer a wide variety of services to help them survive. Among them, yellow pages offer SEO, SEM, text clubs, mobile advertising, web hosting, online directories, and...oh yeah yellow page ads!

Selling against the yellow pages was an important training session. I hired consultants to help sell against yellow pages, with some level of success. The key was pretty simple:  sell top of mind awareness (TOMA) campaigns to businesses that would run at a high frequency in the local newspaper. That way if consumers were reaching for a phone book because of a need, they would turn to the white pages and that directory instead of the yellow pages and the ads.

It wasn't rocket science, but it worked. The percentage of referrals to yellow pages for event their best categories was very small, while newspaper readership was strong (and it still is!). As I read an article about the importance of SEO, I started thinking about that old tried and true strategy.

Barry Feldman's from feldmancreative.com writes about the importance of SEO. I don't diminish the importance of SEO by suggesting reps sell against it. While I would sell against it, I would prefer actually sell it as a solution to a customer, and in fact my current company does.

I do think that legacy media like newspapers need to get back to TOMA selling as either a way to combat SEO or to compliment it if you are offering it to customers. The same principle applies to SEO that did with yellow pages. Run high frequency campaigns so that when that go to Google to search, they are searching you specifically instead of your industry type.  A specific search is the same as getting the consumer to look your contact info up in the white pages directory instead of being exposed to the open market through yellow pages.

Marketing win for Arby's for their handling of The Daily Show with finale TV spot and social media posts

Kudos to Arby's for making the best of a bad situation and turning it around into a win for their marketing team and their brand. Arby's Restaurants have been the butt of numerous jokes and jabs at the hands of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.

The finale for Jon Stewart's run on The Daily Show is coming soon, and Comedy Central's working on selling out the available inventory. Estimates are the :30 spots are going for $230k each which is a nice boost from the typical $46.2k per spot earlier this year.

Arby's is buying a spot on the show, despite hundreds of lampoons by the writers of the satire show. The TV spot from Arby's features a collage of the comments made by Stewart with the tune "Thank You For Being A Friend" playing in the background. "Not sure why, but we'll miss you" is on the screen as the commercial ends.

This isn't the first time the Arby's marketing department has gained free publicity and positive brand awareness off of The Daily Show. When Stewart announced he was leaving The Daily Show, the Twitter feed for Arby's offered him a job. That message was retweeted over 2,000 times.

Does Jared still have marketing power for the Subway brand after recent allegations?

Having a celebrity endorser has a lot of upside potential. Look no further than NIKE and their relationship with Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan shoe model was a good shoe, but made great through its association with #23.

But even Jordan has some rough waters, when he had some accusations for gambling issues. Jordan righted that ship and, even now years after retirement, is a prolific commercial pitchman.

Which leads to the question of Jared Fogel from Subway. Jared is a well known guy internationally as the person that lost a lot of weight eating Subway. For me living in Indiana, he is also a local guy that is pretty well known too.

This last week has been tough on Jared. Police raided his home in suburban Indianapolis in connection with a child porn investigation. As of today, no one is directly connecting Fogel to child porn, but rather an associate of his and the Jared Foundation. But not all of the information is out yet.

Gawker.com reported this week that Fogel allegedly ran a lending library for porn while a student at Indiana University. In fact, according to their article, that side business was a part of what led him to start eating Subway sandwiches all of the time.

How Subway handles this image crisis with their spokesman will be very interesting to watch. Jared has meant a lot to that brand. Remember a few years ago, he had a diminished role as spokesman and their sales dropped prompting his return. Suspending him as spokesman is the smart choice for Subway, and if they find any link to illegal activities by Fogel rest assured he will be completed dropped.

If they find no wrong-doings by Fogel, can the brand still associate with him? I think that is a tough reality that Subway and Jared are facing. Right or wrong, newscasts, Facebook posts, news stories and blog posts (like this one) are casting a conversation about child pornography and a brand spokesman. That is bad for Jared, and thus very bad for his ability to be a pitchman for any product.

Jared's hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star has a good story in today's edition about whether the image of Jared and the brand of Subway can be repaired.

Gannett's stand alone newspaper company launches June 29

Did you notice anything different yesterday in the media world? Probably not, but it was a new day at least for Gannett. The long awaited split between broadcast and print occurred yesterday, June 29. Despite clearly defined plans for digital transformation, how this impacts the two companies long term remains very much in question.

The newspaper side of the business retains the Gannett name, while the broadcast side takes on the name TEGNA. TEGNA is an anagram for Gannett without the double letters. Gannett's revenue growth has come from their broadcast side, which many says have helped prop up the print side of their business.

With broadcast gone, how will Gannett whether upcoming storms? First quarter advertising revenue was off 9%, with projections for second quarter not fairing any better on the print side. Programmatic ad buying for online publications impacts larger markets and national websites most, and that is the segment where most of Gannett's websites would fall. This leaves a lot of questions yet to be answered.

Rick Edmonds wrote yesterday on www.poynter.org that "Gannett shares were down 5.2percent for the day (with stocks generally off 2 percent because of the Greek and Puerto Rican debt crisis) TEGNA's shares were up 5.1 percent."

Granted, that is only one day of trading but something definitely worth watching to see if Wall Street is buying what the new Gannett is selling. Locally, Gannett titles are spinning this as a way to build up community journalism.

In Indianapolis, publisher Karen Ferguson penned a nice column about the changes and how it strengthens Gannett and specifically the Indianapolis Star. And while Indianapolis celebrated Gannett Day with a mayoral proclamation, no one is proclaiming this is a successful model. At least not yet.

Future of USA Today could be linked to future of entire newspaper industry

I don't think it is breaking news to anyone to say that newspapers have been struggling. Shocker, right? Clearly that isn't a surprise, but I have to say I was a little surprised to hear the comment this week by USA editor in chief David Callaway.

Speculating on the future, Callaway said that he could foresee that USA Today could end in the next five or six years. I understand and actually agree, but I was surprised that he said it; out loud; to a reporter.

But the rest of the story is where I think the future actually is for USA Today. The product will still be around in some form, and I believe that will be a printed format as well as digital. Gannett has started offering their product as a daily supplement to Gannett properties. The first to do this supplemental approach was the Indianapolis Star.

Using national and feature sections from USA Today allows a newspaper to have a wide scope of content with no reporters, editors or page designers. It costs them newsprint, but they have saved on newsprint through other cuts. While I don't know if any newspaper has done this yet, they could also drop or significantly reduce the AP contract, if they are relying on USA Today for national coverage.

USA Today still have the reach with their content, and I'm sure there is some sort of advertising revenue share. So the advertising department has an increasingly bigger audience to sell.

Gannett started shopping around the supplemental content to non-Gannett properties a while ago. Schurz Communications is one example of a company that is adapting the new USA Today format to their daily products. They are not the first newspaper company to add this USA Today product, and I don't suspect the last.

While USA Today as a stand alone product might be short lived, the product will evolve and be around. For some newspapers, it could be a unique revenue stream and expense reducer which will continue to be important in the future of all newspapers.

Phantom update from Google is real, and having impact on website rankings

Have you noticed that your Google ranking and thus your site traffic has dropped? Well, you're not alone!

Google has finally come out acknowledged that they have tweaked their quality score, and as a result that change has altered search engine ranking since roughly the first of May. According to an article on Search Engine Land, the change was to its "core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals."

This change apparently had nothing to do with the 'Panda' or 'Penguin' filters. Informational sites and "How To" sites are potential targets for this change according to Hubpages.

Check out Search Engine Land's post from earlier today on the changes and possible impacts at http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118.

Lessons learned on how social media works in 2015 from Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price

Every business is trying to adjust to the new era of media, instant access through Twitter and other social media outlets. Major League Baseball is an entity that has actually done a very good job of harnessing the power of the internet.

Their MLB At-Bat app is the number one sports streaming site. That success has added to the already rich coffers of baseball team owners. But Major League Baseball's oldest franchise, the Cincinnat Reds might still be struggling on the uses of digital media. Well, at least their second year manager Bryan Price.

Price blew up at 'beat writers' for his baseball club, upset that they were reporting on personnel changes. In one case, the reporters were announcing a change in the roster even before Price had a chance to break the bad news to the player being sent back to the minors.

The five minute and thirty four second rant featured several f-bombs and some creative ways to describe animal waste. While this rant was very good, it wasn't the best in baseball history. That still belongs to former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia.

While we can laugh at a crazy baseball guy who was frustrated by poor performances from his team, I do believe there is a media lesson to learned here. If a reporter is talking to you, even if they are really friendly, remember they have a job to do. And that job is to find out information that people want to know about you and your organization, and report it.

Perhaps someone should tell that to Price. Here is one of his quotes from the rant:  "Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job."

Actually Bryan, it is.

Long gone are the days of beat reporters not telling all they see. Babe Ruth got away with that, President Kennedy got a way with that too. But that was long before social media made everyone a reporter, and breaking news 24 hours a day. 

Being combative with the media is rarely successful. Partner with them, and while they won't bury news for you they will often work with you to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Any company spokesperson needs to be trained on the latest in social media; how it works but also why things happen the way they do. 

How did the newspaper industry lose its classified advertising business to such an ugly, scam filled site like craigslist?

In sports, there are times when the underdog wins the game and you can't help but wonder, "How in the world did they ever win?" In the newspaper world, I sometimes can't help but say that very phrase when it comes to craigslist.

craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.

The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.

Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.

They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.

We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.

I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.

Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.

How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?

There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.

And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.

The history of native advertising as told by HBO's "Last Week Tonight"

As I head to the Mega-Conference in Atlanta this week (big conference for newspaper and online publishers), my goal is to learn more and understand what I already think I know a little better. That might be tougher than it sounds, given the ever changing landscape for publishing and marketing these days.

Native Advertising is a great example. It has been around for us to get taste of what it can be. In some businesses, including mine we have a baseline for revenue that we can now build on for the coming year, hoping to replicate the huge growth we all read about in various publications and websites. 

In preparation for Mega-Conference, I have received dozens of notes, calls and emails from current and potential vendors. All of them asking for a few minutes of my time to discuss possible business partnerships. The best one of all of them came from a friend of mine, Paul Camp from Content That Works in Chicago. Content That Works has been trying to get out in front of the native advertising game, and has done a good job so far.

But even Paul and Content That Works won't pretend to know all that there is or where this potential beast is going. And they don't take themselves too seriously either. Check out this roughly 10 minute history and commentary on native advertising, from HBO's show "Last Week Tonight"

http://youtu.be/E_F5GxCwizc

Happy Monday!

Speeding up TV programming to delivery the necessary impressions for advertisers

Many years ago during my radio days, I would substitute host for a popular oldies show "Sunday Night At The Oldies." This was late 1980's and we were still spinning actual records for our music, as compared with digital music libraries that stations have in place today.

When we set up the turntable, the rpm's were actually slightly excellerated. It may have been explained as to why, but I honestly don't remember the reason. As I read today's issue of The Wall Street Journal I am reminded of this practice and may have found out why this was done.

Forward (pun intended) to today, and cable channels are speeding up their programming to fit more commercials. As the cable world continues to fragment, ratings have dropped meaning to delivery the needed impressions, cable networks are having to deliver more ads.

It has been common practice to eliminate or at least limit intro and ending credits. Law and Order normally has a 1 minute 45 second intro, but it is only 24 seconds on cable today. But now programmers are playing with the speed of the actual show.

Does Jerry Seinfeld sound a little high pitched on TBS? Probably so, as they are using this technology to speed up the episode. My favorite example of this is with the Wizard of Oz. The munchkins are already with squeeky high voices. They are using the technology for this movie, making the voices even higher.

As the audience / programming revolution continues, the business side of programming will have to continue getting creative to squeeze out the audience and the revenue necessary.

A couple stories on this topic:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/speeded.asp

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-tv-shows-are-sped-up-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-1424301320 story is behind the WSJ paywall.

What the Super Bowl taught me about being a better person, stronger businessman

It has been a week since Super Bowl 49. The game was excellent; but for me the halftime entertainment and the commercials were average. But that is not my observation from the big game. I think a lot of people could learn lessons to help better themselves in their lives through some key events that happened.

This is not about Pete Carroll's play calling decision, though I would have run it. I grew up in a family that spouted the Woody Hayes philosophy to passing the football (Hayes was the long time head coach at Ohio State University). Hayes is quoted as saying that when you pass the football, "only three things can happen, and two of them are bad."

This is about Malcolm Butler, the New England Patroit defender who intercepted the Seahawk's pass in the end zone to secure the win for the Patroits. On my drive into work the day after the game, ESPN's Mike & Mike secured what I think may have been one of the first interviews with the newly minted football hero.

What struck me most about the conversation was the path that Butler had taken to get to the iconic game. He didn't get recruited by the big programs out of high school, didn't get drafted once he was done with college and didn't get the mega-signing bonuses that you see and hear about all of the time. Malcom Butler comes from very humble roots, and not that long ago.

The next time you visit a local Popeye's for some chicken, look around. Probably not the place you'd expect to find a Super Bowl champion, but that is where Butler found himself just a few years ago. After two years of high school football in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Butler attend the football powerhouse of Hinds Community College. And he was kicked out, and ended up at Popeye's working part time. Eventually he made his way to West Alabama, a division two football program.

When asked about his path to the Super Bowl, the ESPN announcers asked him if he ever thought that this could happen. His response was something everyone should pay attention to and try themselves. Butler talked about never giving up, and always striving to improve and get to the next level. That obviously applies to football players, but what about for you? For me? Too many times the obstacles in front of us can make it appear that the goal is just too far away, too unobtainable. Working at Popeye's after getting kicked out of school in 2009, it would have been easy for Butler to give up. But he didn't, and climbed the mountain to reach the ultimate in football.

But his amazing story isn't done with that!

In the interview on ESPN, they asked him about the iconic play which is considered by many as the greatest single play in Super Bowl history. Butler told the story of how they have practiced that very play during the week in preparation for the game. In fact, he failed in the practice and the scrimmage team beat him and completed the pass.

It is very important to practice. In sales, very few salespeople role play enough to practice their pitch and learn from their mistakes. But Butler did. The practice taught him what to look for, and he adjusted in the real game and made the catch that brought the championship to New England.

Never giving up and always strive to get to the next level in your personal development. Keep practicing and learning how to do your job or whatever the task right. Make your mistakes in practice so that when the spotlight shines you are ready to sieze the moment.

Super Bowl advertising price tag is about $4.5 million for a :30 spot for the game this Sunday

"If you build it, they will come" is a phrase most closely associated with the sport of baseball, and specifically the movie Field of Dreams. But that phrase is also appropriate when discussing the ever-growing success of football's Super Bowl coming up this weekend.

In good economies and bad, the total amount of advertising spending has had a steady increase year after year. This year will prove to be no different. The NFL has stumbled on an event, #49 this Sunday when New England plays Seattle, that is amazing thing to watch unfold.

The biggest audience, the best creative and the tension of an event combines into a marketers dream. The beauty of the Super Bowl is that the event means different things to different people. For me, the event is the game even if I am an advertising and marketing professional. But for many people, probably the majority that tune in each year, the event is the advertising and creativity on display.

The Wall Street Journal has compiled some great insight on the marketing associated with the Super Bowl. This year, a :30 spot in the game went for $4.5 million dollars. The mix of advertisers has changed over the years, including less automotive this year. There is no shortage of takers for the limited inventory to reach 100 million Americans. Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article written by Steven Perlbert and Willa Plank.

Can American consumers not handle an emotional advertising message?

If you go looking for trouble, eventually you are going to find it. This week, people on that quest has focused on McDonald's and a TV ad that they ran last weekend during the NFL games and on the Golden Globes. I was watching the football games last week and saw the ad as it ran. I had a reaction as well, but much different than those seeking controversy.

Click here to view and decide for yourself!

The TV spot in question showed a montage of McDonald's restaurant message signs, and the messages that they have conveyed over the years with a children's choir singing "Carry On" in the background. Most were very personal and touching, but a few placed focus on national tragedies. "We Remember 9-11" and "Boston Strong" were two that people found offensive.

Not only did I not find it offensive, I found it to be a moving tribute. I recall thinking at the time that this was McDonald's 2015 version of the classic Coke commercial "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing". Very positive, and a great branding commercial.

American's are funny about TV commercials. Perhaps we want to be moved to buy something but do not want to be moved emotionally. Is that possible? Sexual content is commonplace in commercials in Europe and Australia, but largely taboo in the U.S. And now a simple image within a McDonald's commercial is too much for some.

The AP's Candice Choi did an article about the reaction. You can get more details at:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mcdonalds-walks-fine-line-signs-170028992.html

Newspaper protects the First Admendment and scores a marketing win at the same time

To say that it is tough to publish a newspapers these days is a big understatement. The pressure comes from many different angles: owners/stockholders who want to make more money, digital competitors trying to take audience and diminished use of traditional print by consumers just to name a few.

Add in a crack-pot politician threatening to go against the First Admendment of the Constitution, and you've got the situation being faced by the Frederick News-Press in Frederick, Maryland. Local councilman Kirby Delauter decided recently to threaten court action if the local newspaper printed his name. Nevermind the Constitution which protects the press or any other rational thought, Delauter felt he was above the Bill of Rights.

Delauter has since apologized for threatening the reporter and the newspaper. But the lesson learned is in the reaction that the newspaper had to the initial issue. Their editorial, which they actually released online prior to print, was intended to achieve two goals; both of which they knocked out of the park in my opinion.

First, they wanted to send a message to Delauter, and any other hack politician for that matter, that the Constitution still matters, and the local newspaper still matters. My guess is this stand has been a huge win for the News-Press in their local marketplace. Like the politician or not, people tend to rally around when an official tries to bully people, or institutions in this case.

Also, this has been a huge plus for the newspaper with marketing. I'm in Indiana blogging about this, and found out about this situation from a local TV station. The web traffic they have been able to harness from this on some level has to mean money. More than money is the opportunity to show staffers and advertisers the power of their digital platform.

To truly appreciate the creativity put into the situation, you need to read the official editorial published about four days ago. You can read it on the Frederick News-Press website, at:  http://m.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter/article_da85d6f4-fa3c-524f-bbf6-8e5ddc0d1c0a.html?mode=jqm

It is a great editorial with some hidden jabs in it. For instance, if you take the first letter of each paragraph they form the name of the politician, Kirby Delauter.

Brilliantly done. Kudos.

Smarter retailing by businesses to target consumers without discounting too much in advertising messages

January 1 is always a highly optimistic day for all of us. A clean slate of a year in front of us, and hopefully perspective on the past year. Here's to a happy and prosperous New Year for us all.

Looking ahead to 2015 for marketing and advertising, one of the big trends to come will be the use of data to target advertising messages even more than we've seen in the recent past. This past holiday shopping season has several examples in it which I believe are big signs for the future.

The best example is Kohl's, at least in my household. It seems like we get Kohl's offers weekly through direct mail, in addition to their inserts in the daily newspaper. The direct mail often has the peal away sticker with a discount coupon. The longer you go between making purchases on your Kohl's credit card, the larger that discount sticker; topping out at 30% off I believe. While I don't have inside information on how Kohl's does their mailing and discount patterns, it seems obvious to me that they have tied in their marketing database with their credit card database, taking consumer spending habits and blending them with discount offers.

Kohl's is certainly not alone.

The Wall Street Journal's Shelly Banjo had a great article on how retailers are targeting offers to consumers to not only lure shoppers, but to also increase profit margins, average sale and more. The Wall Street Journal article is behind a paywall, but you can read it on Yahoo Finance.

Smart retailing will get more people in the store, but will also keep average sales higher since they are not offering deep discounts to consumers that are willing to pay full retail price. From the article:

A fifth of online shoppers are considered true “discount junkies,” people who make purchases only when plied with discounts, according to new data from AgilOne Inc., which works with 150 retailers to analyze customers’ purchases and predict their behavior. About 15% of shoppers generally pay full price for items and don’t bother searching for sales.

It is hard to predict what 2015 will have in store for us. I do believe retailing will continue to see difficulties, despite a solid retailing holiday season. As old-line retailers like Sears / K-Mart struggle to find black ink on their ledgers, smart retailing like described in this article might be a way to increase sales, traffic and profitability.