This may seem like an random posting, but, does anyone else remember how in college marketing classes, we were told that calculating advertising people were putting images of butts in ice, naked women in background wallpaper and all sorts of other subliminal placements? Well, at this point in my career I’ve worked for agencies large and small, and in a variety of different markets, and I have yet to see any creative ever put a single sublminal sexual image in anything. Not that we wouldn’t or anything, but we just don’t have the freaking time–client deadlines being what they are! This isn’t a moral declaration or a invitation to misbehave, but I just thought it was worth bringing up.

Bernie Marcus can’t stop smiling.

The Home Depot founder is beaming as he enjoys the $250 million dollar gift he’s given the city of Atlanta, the newly opened Georgia Aquarium. And he’s not the only one to have visited the world’s largest aquarium. The aquarium was expecting 10,000 visitors for its opening day last wednesday, and officials believe they beat that number. Two million people were forecast to enjoy the attraction next year, and the aquarium may revise that number upwards as well.

The aquarium is the centerpiece of the city’s plan to reinvigorate Atlanta’s tourism efforts. “Atlanta has never been a major tourist destination,” Marcus says, “because there’s never been a major draw.” Marcus feels the Georgia Aquarium could become that ‘must-see’ destination that will turn on the tourism pipeline that city officials are hoping to develop.

Many experts are betting the addition of the world’s largest aquarium will be the magic bullet that the city has been looking for. And that has Atlanta’s city leaders very happy.

But 2 hours to the north, another city and their leaders are casting a very concerned eye to the south. While Atlanta is hoping the Georgia Aquarium will boost the city’s tourism dollars, the stakes are much higher for Chattanooga, where the Tennessee Aquarium has literally reinvented the city. Once labelled as ‘America’s dirtiest city’ by former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, the aquarium began a renassiance for the city when it was opened in 1992. Since that time, over 100 shops and restaurants have sprung up surrounding the aquarium, shifting the city’s image from being dirty, to being one of the nation’s cleanest and friendliest.

And it’s that image that the Tennessee Aquarium thinks will be its best weapon against the Atlanta Aquarium. While Chattanooga can point to the clean and friendly atmosphere downtown, these are the exact qualities that many visitors say Atlanta’s downtown area lacks. And these assertions weren’t lost on Marcus, who campaigned vigorously to end ‘aggressive’ panhandling by the homeless downtown, even to the dismay of some city officials.

Of course there’s also the costs to consider. A one-day pass for a family of 4 would cost you $57.90 at the Tennessee Aquarium, and $89.50 at the Georgia Aquarium. Add parking and you approach $100 for the day.

Still, it may not matter. The city will be bringing in several high-profile events to the downtown area, such as hosting the Sugar Bowl this year, the World of Coke exhibit, and starting in 2007, the city will host the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The city is hoping that it can bring in so many popular attractions that visitors will overlook the cost and atmosphere, to experience the area.

With the Tennessee Aquarium claiming that 25% of their current visitors come from the Atlanta area, the success of the Georgia Aquarium, and Atlanta’s ability to change its downtown image, could eventually decide the fates of both cities. For now, city leaders in both areas will have to play a very nervous game of ‘wait and see’. Rick Nall, VP Marketing, Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau: “I feel like, and I feel like many others in the community feel like- probably the (Georgia) aquarium will have some impact, we just don’t know what it is.”

Tip #1 in what I hope will be an ongoing thought process: BUILD A WEBSITE. I put this off for months after I finished school. I wasn’t familiar with html or web design software, and didn’t feel like learning it. I spent a small fortune mailing mini-books to anyone who would look at my work. I’d drop one in the mail and then make a phone call a week later to make sure it got there. Then I’d call a week later to see if anyone would give me their thoughts on it. After sending out what felt like hundreds of books, I got fed up and decided it was time for a website. The horrific learning process that I’d been avoiding took me all of two days. The ease with which I can send out my work pays for those two days many times over (not to mention the money I save on mini-books). I have instant control over the work that someone sees when they look me up. I can add new work without having to resend mini-books to my entire contact list. And its a lot easier to find email addresses for people at agencies than it is to get them on the phone. Is the mini-book dead? NO. I still have people who ask for them occasionally, but its usually after they’ve looked at my work on my website. Want to see what I’m talking about? Check out my site at www.dannynathan.com.

Many times when I need inspiration for my next post, I’ll go to Google, type in a few words, and see what news stories I can come up with. Yesterday I went to Google, under News, and searched for marketing+blog. One of the entries I found was a press release saying that Joe Vitale has a blog. So I went to his blog, and after reading for a few minutes, found this gem: People buy for emotional reasons and justify their purchase with a rationalization. I spent all day reading a buncha advertising and marketing blogs each with hundreds and sometimes thousands of links, and none of them had anything as powerful and true as that simple statement on a simple blog with zero links. Until now.

At least if you live in the UK. The Marketing Store has created a promotion that will include 3D figurines in Nestle cereal brands such as Shredded Wheat, Golden Nuggets and Shreddies across Europe, Latin America and Asia until the end of December. Consistent with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, you take the figurines and put them in the freezer for 10 minutes, which changes their color to stone. Then you can remove them and breathe on them as Aslan did in the book, and they return to normal color. Not sure how long children will be patient enough to wait 10 minutes for this to work, but I’m afraid the fact that I think it’s cool as hell probably says way too much about my maturity level.

Starting next year, anyone can be their own Media Planner with Tivo. Beginning next spring, Tivo will let you choose what advertisements you want to see, based on product categories such as autos, travel, and consumer goods. The key is that, for now, this option is available by ‘opting-in’ from the setup in your profile. From the company’s press release: “Today television advertising is almost entirely delivered when adjacent to mass programming. For the first time, advertisers will have the ability to deliver television advertising, on demand and targeted to consumers, without the limitations of traditional television media placement. Advertisers will be able to reach viewers in the market for a certain product or service. Ads will be delivered to subscribers who can conduct a search for a product by category or associated with keywords, utilizing the same revolutionary keyword search techniques offered with Internet advertising, resulting in increased relevancy for the consumer, as well as efficient, measurable results for the advertiser.”

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been pretty quiet around here lately. Partly because I’ve been busy, but also because I needed to take a little time to figure out my tact. At first I was hesitant to write much about myself for fear that it would ruin whatever amount of credibility I had as a blogger. I have since come to the realization that I have no credibility and therefore have nothing to ruin. So here’s the short version… I’m nobody. I’m the guy at the very bottom of the barrel. I’m a Jr. Art Director. And I’m unemployed, which, as soon as we have worked somewhere for a couple of days, we call “freelancing”. Those are the negatives. Now to turn the negatives into positives. What’s good about being a Junior? I’m unabashedly ambitious. I’m fully aware that I have more to learn. I’m willing to work for peanuts. And I know more about what’s going on in the industry than most agency people. It’s my job to know. It took me a little while to realize that being at the bottom, doesn’t mean that I have nothing to offer in an arena like this. In fact, it means that I have a lot to offer. Just from a different perspective than some of the other bloggers here. Where does that leave us? Well, I figure that its time for a swing in perspective. You don’t go through an extensive job hunt without learning a few tips worth sharing. You also don’t go through that hunt without coming across some questions that need answering. So I’ll attempt to do both. I’ll share some tips that other Juniors might find useful, and I’ll ask the questions that I hear us Juniors asking one another rather than the people we should be asking. That means that I need your help coming up with some decent answers. If you want the long version, or you just want an opportunity to vent about this “Junior” thing, feel free to get in touch with me. I’m always looking for a new perspective.

The initial results are in from Budget’s historic blog-only campaign, Up Your Budget. The numbers: $160,000 paid as prize-money $20,000 for paid ads on 177 blogs The blog pages on which the Budget ads appeared had 19.9 million impressions, which generated about 60,000 click-throughs to the Budget blog, accounting for about half the total traffic to the Budget blog, according to Scott Deaver, Budget’s Executive VP of Marketing. Not bad for a 4-week campaign. Budget has indicated that they are considering launching another blog-only campaign in the spring of 2006. But the key here is, the initial numbers are in as far as cost and results, and they look to be very good. My guess is that many companies were waiting to see what Budget’s results were before pursuing using blogs for stand-alone campaigns. Now that we’re seeing that Budget hit a home run with their campaign, it will be interesting to see which companies are next to jump into the blog-only game. And will we see them before Budget launches their next blog-only campaign in the spring of next year? Interesting times, interesting times.

I read an advertising blog recently where the author told us to ’seek out exceptional minds’. The author of that blog often recommends people that have blogs that he thinks are exceptional. However, these blogs are almost always blogs that everyone has heard of, and ones with a ton of links. Of course, a day or so after he mentions them, they return the favor and mention his blog. Which usually prompts him to acknowledge them mentioning him. Exceptional minds stick (and link) together, I guess. So he is correct to say we should seek out exceptional minds. But actually SEEK them out. Exceptional minds are everywhere, some are on blogs with 5000 visitors a day, but many are on blogs that won’t see that many visitors in a year. So in an effort to REALLY seek out exceptional minds, I found the following advertising and marketing blogs. These are all smart people that you might not have read before. Quiver Quill Open Method LLC dim bulb New Media Marketer Thirdway Advertising Blog Style Station These are talented people that are going to have very successful blogs in a year’s time. We can either read them now and enjoy the ride, or deem them as ‘exceptional’ a year from now when they have a few hundred links to their blogs. Again, this isn’t a popularity contest, it’s a talent contest. Seek out the talented minds, not the popular bloggers. Being popular won’t make you talented, but being talented can make you popular. I’d rather be talented. Wouldn’t you?

I came across this Adweek article from Brian Brooker, the CEO/CCO at Barkley Evergreen and Partners in Kansas City. It’s an excellent perspective on how creating great work and productive client/agency relationships can cause some conflict. And how agencies need to intelligently and consistently stand up for themselves. True

As the NY Times reports today, businesses are beginning to actively court bloggers to promote their products. Here’s a quote:

General Motors has also started to treat some Web log writers as it does traditional journalists, and is deciding which bloggers to invite to media showings of its new cars. “It’s very similar to media relations, but it’s a little more grass roots,” Mr. Wiley said. “The level of respect for certain influential bloggers is certainly growing.”

I think you’ll only see more of this in the future, in a way bloggers are becoming ‘online media planners’, with the best part being, the companies don’t have to pay for the advertising! Hmmmmm……..’online media planner’………think I’ll go work on my resume for a bit…..

Traditionally, stock-picking shows and segments have been about as exciting as watching oatmeal cool. Pencil-necked financial geeks speak a language that only wannabe day-traders could understand, and that’s assuming they stay awake long enough to hear the analyst’s pick. Then again, Jim Cramer isn’t your traditional stock picker. He screams. He throws furniture. He runs into the audience and grabs members and is swarmed by estatic fans. He throws fits when callers ask about a ‘bad’ stock. And his fans are loving every minute of it. So much so that Cramer’s show, Mad Money, has become CNBC’s highest rated show. But antics will only get you so far. In the end, a stock analyst still has to make the smart picks, and that’s what Cramer does. He said Google would hit $300 a share when it was still a $100 stock. When it hit $300 he said it was headed to $400. Now that it’s hit $400, he says to keep buying. He still runs his own charitable fund, and is said to be worth as much as 100 million. As Cramer says “I’m not here to make friends, I just want to make you money”. So what’s the message here? How did Cramer and CNBC take an idea that has never really worked, and make it the cable channel’s hottest show? It’s all in the presentation. Cramer’s off-the-wall nonstop style has made him a huge hit with fans. Blogs are devoted to the discussing the stock picks he makes each day. He recently had his first live show, which included an interview with Donald Trump where The Don called him the best stock picker out there. The show was such a success that another is scheduled for next Wedsnesday night. Which again proves that it all depends on how you market and present the product.

Adfreak has a story about college dropout David Everett, who literally took to the streets with his idea for a new business, after his instructor gave Everett’s idea a ‘D’. Everett has upgraded the old sandwich-board with flat-screen TVs instead. The cost to hire your own living billboard? Around $2,500. According to his website, http://www.adsonfeet.com/: AdsOnFeet provides its customers with a new marketing tool and associated service. Our walking video billboards offer a unique way for businesses to grab the attention of, and connect with customers in areas of their lives practically untapped by traditional marketing media. AdsOnFeet has in a sense created an entirely new media platform versatile enough to maximize clients visual impressions all over the globe.

Ok it’s time to gloat. 2 months and 2 days after Chris left the first post here at BMA, the blog has officially cracked Technorati’s Top 100,000. Technorati’s rankings fluctuate as they are constantly tinkering with their ratings system, but out of almost 22 million blogs that Technorati tracks, Beyond Madison Avenue is currently ranked 87,181st. Of course that ranking could easily have changed by the time you read this. You didn’t think we were going to sit still, did you?

Take a networking site originally designed to compete with the likes of LinkedIn and Friendster. Add some of the world’s most popular musicians and their fans as part of an online community that currently boasts 37 million members. The result is MySpace, and it’s the hottest music destination on the internet. How hot is MySpace? Chris Carrabba of the band Dashboard Confessional calls it “the world’s most powerful marketing tool at the moment“. “It’s the first place people go now,” he says. “If they heard a Dashboard song they wouldn’t go to my site to check it out, they’d go to MySpace.” MySpace lets artists post their music, as well as information about the band. And MySpace’s status as THE spot for music on the internet means their visitors get to hear new music before other sites. The band Foo Fighters recently offered a Podcast on the making of their new album, and many bands will offer new music for streaming or download through MySpace before it reaches stores. Madonna’s new CD ‘Confessions On a Dance Floor’ was streamed exclusively on MySpace. Since MySpace is first and formost a networking site, as you might have guessed, the growth of the site has been a boon to unsigned and new bands. So much so, that MySpace has created its own record label, designed to capitalized on the talent that is drawn to the popularity of the site. Also, given that the online community offers instant reviews of unsigned bands, MySpace will have an excellent idea of how well received a potential artist would be by the public. Adding a record label seems like the natural extension for a website that’s rapidly evolving into a brand. “It’s become a lot more than a Web site,” MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said. “It’s become a lifestyle brand. It makes a lot of sense to come up with a record label. Radio has become less and less important…MySpace, by getting so huge, can truly move the needle in terms of musical tastes.”

Call me cynical, but I can see some retailers creating potential problems for themselves and fielding complaints from many angry customers on the eve of the official launch of X-Box 360. As early as midnight tonight, Microsoft’s new gaming system, X-Box 360, will be available for purchase. Over 4,500 retailers are expected to start selling the console at midnight, including Wal-Mart. Best Buy will open an hour early for the launch. But here’s the kicker: No one is saying how many consoles will be available. Microsoft won’t. Best Buy has said that each store will have “a minimum of ten units”, but won’t accept pre-orders or rainchecks. If a major retailer like Best Buy won’t guarantee having over 10 consoles tomorrow, how many will smaller retailers such as EBGames or Babbages have? One blogger reported that his local GameStop in California said they would have 5 consoles at the most. Somehow I’m guessing they’ll be more than 5 customers there wanting an X-Box 360 tomorrow. So the question I have is, have these retailers been advertising that they will only have 5-10 consoles, and that it’s first come/first served, or have they been plastering ‘X-Box 360 will be here Nov 22nd!’ signs all over the store with no mention of quantity they’ll have for sale? My guess is it’s the latter, and the retailers will be more than happy to try to sell you a game for your 360, or a raincheck for the console, when you get there at 12:02 am this morning, and find the store is already sold out of X-Box 360s.

A few days ago I received an email from a woman that was a recent graduate. After graduating in the spring from a major university, she has spent the last few months freelancing, and has created a blog as a tool to aid in her job hunt. Upon reviewing her blog, I was instantly impressed with her knowledge of the advertising and marketing industries, and her communication skills. And my bet is that any employer that reads her blog will be as well. The great thing about blogs is that they are honest. This is especially true when they are used by employees as a personal marketing tool. A quick scan of my posts here will tell you if I have any idea what the hell I am talking about, and if I have the ability to communicate effectively with my target audience. The days of emailing off a resume with a ‘Here’s why you should hire me’ cover letter are over. The first product a marketing professional will promote, is themself. A blog is a great tool to do this with, and one that many employees are adding to their job hunting arsenal. In response, I think you’ll start to see more and more employers and recruiters turn to blogs in the coming year to fill their employment needs. And when they do, we’ll be waiting. But don’t take too long, good talent goes fast.

Need a moment of inspiration or maybe a break from the saturday workload? Here’s a short by Spike Jonze. It was presented to me as being new work, although I can’t confirm it. Either way, it’s a cool way to take a break for a few minutes. Enjoy it here.

As this week proves, I am often behind. But one great way to get ahead is to check out Talent Zoo’s The Naked Career. Sally Hogshead dishes with the industry movers and shakers, and her current interview is with Mike Hughes. Adweek has tabbed Hughes as one of the best creative directors in the nation, and Ad Age says his agency (The Martin Agency), is one of the three-best creative agencies……in the world. Hughes talks about both the personal and professional obstacles he has overcome to become one of the giants of his industry. Hogshead’s interview with Hughes is available as a stream, download, or via podcast. While you are there, check out the archives, which include interviews with Nancy Vonk, Luke Sullivan, and Lance Jensen. Great way for you students to get ahead of the game, and your instructors.

APG Chairman and allround planning guru, Russell Davies, has launched the Account Planning Group of the Web:

“I’ve always really liked doing training and stuff; poisoning the minds of young planners and bringing them over to the dark side, and I don’t really get to do that in my current job. And I get loads of emails on this site from people looking to become planners or junior planners asking questions or for stuff to read, and I try to answer, but I don’t really have good answers to that kind of thing.

So, instead I thought and try and launch a free planning correspondence course. Because it’ll be interesting.”

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/…