Yaffe Tidbits

Have You Had Your New Year's Freak Out Yet?

It's a condition people who work in business, especially business owners, are prone to: The New Year's Freak Out. You know, that moment when all the festivities are over and you realize that a lot of things have been piling up on your plate while you enjoyed your holiday. Now they need tending to, because business never really stops. It's kind of a "holy crap!" moment.

I had that moment early the morning of January 2nd. I woke up and was lying in bed thinking about all the stuff I need to accomplish over the next few weeks. I have two big presentations in two weeks, regular work staring me in the face and all the social media for the company, including editor/writer of this blog. Plus, a guest blog I'm working on and some stuff with Blog Off II, an international competition I was a judge for. Anyway, you get the picture. After the Christmas holiday, New Year's and my daughter's birthday (she's a New Year baby, now 19) were over, my business person brain clicked back on. And I had a little freak out moment as my brain started doing complex calculations of work divided by hours avialable to me. How about you, have you had your "freak out" moment yet?

I found that making out lists and spending a few hours putting together a plan of attack eased my mind, or at least lulled it into momentary silence. Spending a little time over the weekend just sorting through some of the smaller stuff and getting it off my plate helped to. 2010 is off and running. I look forward to seeing what it brings. But, I can't sit and watch to see what happens. Because, as it happens, I gotta run! How did you handle your New Year's freak out? Or are you still in vacation mode?

Mike McClure, Partner, ECD & Social Media Guy On The Run

Happy Holidays from The Yaffe Group

We hope today (Christmas Day) and every day finds you feeling happiness, peace and fulfillment. We look forward to the New Year and hope yours is both spectacular and prosperous! Here's wishes from some of the Yaffe Group people:

Wishes that the good tidings and warmth of the holiday season be yours throughout the year. - Susie 

Season’s Greetings Friends! May you have a spectacular New Year! - Love, Lauren

May the holidays find you filled with joy and may the coming year be filled with wonder - Mike

Merry Christmas to all and the best and brightest of New Year's. And Remember..only 52 days to Daytona!! - Sheila

To our retail clients, a traditional retailer toast: “Merry Christmas and to the best New Year’s Sale ever!” - Michael

Wishing for everyone, DAYS FULL OF PRAISE AND PEACE, GOOD WILL ON EARTH; throughout the New Year. - Leslie

Peace and prosperity for all the Christmases to come - Jane

Happy Holidays. Here's to the good times we've had and the better times ahead. - Fred

And from the rest of the Yaffe elves, all hard at work making the "toys" to make it a happy new year for all our clients: Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!

Ad of the Week: Garmin Holiday Squirrel

This is my favorite holiday ad this year! Not schmaltzy like so many of them, doesn't fall back on old cliches. In fact, it's a completely bizarre grouping of non-related things, not really tied into a holiday theme except, the rewriting of the words to a classic Christmas song. They did a great job with the same basic premise for last year's spot - only this one is waaaay out there.

Would love to have been in the room when they pitched this one. "We open up on a knight in full armor and pull out to reveal he's in a beat up old station wagon with his knight gear strapped to the roof going in city highway traffic. Then we cut to a leprechaun running in the rain, he's in a triathlon. Which of course segues into a Yeti creeping through the woods holding a big teddy bear, stalking a camper. But, wait it gets better... we cut to grizzled, fat Scottish golfer in full kilt. As we follow the golf ball to the whole, it goes by a tiny squirrel playing a tiny mandolin. See how we did that, came full circle back to the era of the knight? What do you think, JB?"

And yet, it all ties into the product benefits. These guys are my heroes. Here's the spot:

Garmin 2009 Holiday Ad: Squirrel

If you'd like to submit an ad or web video for ad of the week, leave a comment here, send us an email at fans@yaffe.com, post it on our Facebook page or send us a tweet.

Marketing Musings on a Thanksgiving Morning

Sitting at home watching the Thanksgiving parades on TV, I'm struck by how much marketing has changed in recent history. Sure, that's something I've known for some time, but watching the parade has crystallized how different things are, all in one little microcosm. I've worked with large retailers here in Detroit before, planning their Thanksgiving marketing. It mostly consisted of running their image and customer service type ads during the family ordinated parade and then hitting the rest of the day hard to with their ad to drive sales on Black Friday. It's much more complex today. Here's some of the trends I've seen:

Product Placement. The first thing that struck me this morning was the more integrated use of product placement. Corporate sponsorship has always been part of the parade experience. But today, I think Hoover took it to another level. They had a dance team featured in the parade. One of the professional dancers from Dancing With The Stars lead local dancers in a routine where they each were dancing with the newest high tech Hoover vacuum cleaner, much like the Fred Astaire spots they did a few years ago. The parade announcers spoke about the dancers and Hoover for at least 3 minutes. They talked about the features of the vacuum and how everyone wanted one. One announcer talked about how he had just gotten one at home and it was amazing. That's a lot of good value for Hoover - and no one was flipping away during a commercial break, because it wasn't one.

Multi-Media Rules. It's no longer sufficient to just run TV spots. You need to operate in multiple mediums at the same time. Honeybaked Hams had a good example of that working today. They had a promotion with the local TV station that was running during the parade. It involves TV, web, customer generated content, a contest, engaging their customers - all the things you need to do these days. They ran an ad that said, "When families get together for holiday hams, fun things happen." and then invited people to take fun or funny pictures of their families at the holidays and post them on their site.

Mobile Tie-Ins. Detroit's most upscale mall, The Somerset Collection, had an on-going text contest along with running their regular TV spots during the parade. it was also tied into the local TV coverage. The announcers encouraged people to text in to win gift cards to the mall. Then, throughout the parade they would put up people's names and the Somerset name as they gave away each gift card. Again, it got their name out there in a positive way over and over again, without being in a commercial break.

What did you see this Thanksgiving that illustrated the way marketing is changing? I'd be interested to know.

Mike McClure, waiting for turkey.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Well, here it is the day before Christmas and I'm here with a skeleton crew manning the Yaffe ship. It's a good day to catch up on things, because things are so quiet. No meetings, no presentations, nobody bringing the latest crisis. I did need to talk to one client today, but that's okay, I might as well earn my pay while I'm here. Who knows, I might even clean up my desk while I'm here. Naaah.

Anyway, as the holidays approach, their seems to be this faction in America that thinks just because someone is sensitive to cultural differences and says happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas they have let "them" take away the real meaning of Christmas. Personally, I think that's a load of crap. First of all, I am a Christian who's quite involved in my church. Just so you don't think I'm just some hippie anarchist bleeding heart creative type. I have a lot of non-Christian friends, they often wish me Merry Christmas. So, it's not "them" who are the ones taking the Christmas out of Christmas.

I just don't understand what all the hubbub is about. I just think it's polite, if you don't know for sure the leanings of someone to wish them a happy holiday. It doesn't diminish my beliefs or my holiday any at all. In fact it enhances it. I can experience the good will towards man (and woman) that is an integral part of the Christmas spirit. I feel good wishing friends and complete strangers alike good tidings. That's what the season's about. Love and good will for all.

And that's what I wish for you this joyous season.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Mike McClure, ECD

Cool little tech Gadgets for Christmas

Here is a smattering of gift ideas for the geeks in your life this Christmas season.

When I was growing up my dad had the absolute coolest Christmas music collection of any parent I knew. Our relatives always wanted him to bring his music over to play at their houses during the holiday get-togethers. Unfortunately, he used a cardboard box not an ipod to cart it around. His music was on vinyl albums. Yes that’s what I said…albums. I’m the one who inherited the collection a few years back. I don’t have a turntable and until recently didn’t know how to get these albums digitized. Several companies are marketing turntables that plug into your PC this holiday season. Check out the Audio Technica version at Costco (online at www.costco.com or in stores for about $70).

I have an iPod that I listen to in the car on the way back and forth to work. When my cell phone rings it is always a pain to fumble around getting the iPod ear bud out of so I can either answer the phone or lord forbid, I need to fumble even more to find my Bluetooth headset. We now are in off Daylight Savings Time so this means the drive and hence the fumbling is usually always done in the dark. Voila! The Anycom BluNa attaches to the end of your iPod Nano and will broadcast to any Bluetooth Headset. Retails for about $120 but can be found online for as little as $45. Checkout www.buy.com or www.anycom.com.

Finally, if you’re sick and tired of turning on your notebook just to find out if the restaurant or building your in has Wi-Fi or not the next gift is definitely for you. Try this new T-shirt from ThinkGeek. It automatically detects the presence of 802.11 wireless networks. The radio waves from the tower light up according to the strength of the signal. OK, 802.11 is not the fastest of speeds but better than nothing. Look for the Wi-Fi Detector shirt at www.thinkgeek.com for about $30.

If Mrs. Claus is reading this she’ll have a pretty good idea what Mr. Claus would like for Christmas. If not, would somebody send her a link and remind her that I take a 2XL in t-shirts.

Mike Morawski, CDO

The marketing of Super Mom

Talk about your Super Moms! Who has time to do all this stuff? In today's weekly Trend Talk, we discussed a new website that, in their words, "is the home of the first online series by moms for moms and about moms starring Leah Remini." It's a site that invites moms to write and submit their stories of both touching and embarrassing moments with their kids. Then, other moms read them all and vote for their favorites. The ones receiving the most votes will be turned into webisodes of this ongoing "mom sitcom" by professional writers, directors and actors, starring Leah Remini of The King of Queens fame. It's called In the Motherhood, and you can visit it by clicking here.

It's a digital marketing effort with an odd pairing, sponsored by Sprint and Suave. But, it combines a lot of trends we're all aware of these days. To reach today's busy consumers, you need to have an online presence, you need to do something different and entertaining, you need to connect with a community of like minded individuals and sometimes you need to pair up with odd bedfellows to do it. This site does all that well. Two brands reaching out to the busiest of consumers, the Super Moms. Happy mother's day to all of you.

Mike McClure - not super enough to write at home after writing at work all day

What Came First the Rabbit or the Egg?

I have been puzzled for too long about the origins of the Easter Bunny and his connection to the mysterious colored eggs.  I decided to investigate into this great mystery that no one seems to have the answer to.  And now I am reporting the findings to you. 

It is thought that the hunt for eggs came first, with no association to the rabbit. As children searched for the eggs, they flushed out rabbits and thus began the stories of the rabbits leaving the eggs. Eggs were traditionally given out at the start of Spring in Egypt and Persia.

Historically, the rabbit, hare, and eggs in folklore have their basis as pagan fertility symbols, signifying Spring and new life, and the worship of the goddess Eostre or Eastre (usually shown with the rabbit as her symbolic animal). To entertain a child, the goddess turned her favorite bird into a hare, which immediately laid colorful eggs. When the Christians moved into the pagan's territories, they decided that the custom of coloring eggs was not harmful and adapted it to their own festivities.

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following a full moon, so the moon was used to figure out the date of Easter every year, and the hare (not the rabbit) was the symbol of the Egyptian moon. The hare was always been portrayed with its eyes open, watching the moon. In fact, the Egyptian word for hare is "un" which means open. Hares are born with their eyes open, rabbits are born with them closed. (Historical Information Complements of Marian Murdoch BellaOnline's Animal Life Editor)

Angie Kowalska,

Intern Extraordinaire 

Questions about Canada? Ask Sheila.

At this special time of year in the United States, and by that I mean Thanksgiving and not “The End of Nascar Season”, I thought it might be appropriate to answer the question that I get every year, being the resident British Canadian on staff, and that is “Why does Canada celebrate Thanksgiving in October?”  Well let me respond…it’s because we don’t celebrate the same thing at Thanksgiving.  You are celebrating the Pilgrims first winter in the New World, and we are celebrating the end of the harvest.  England also holds Thanksgiving on a Sunday in October.

Here are a few other things I have been asked over the years.

How many people live in Canada?  There are about 32 million of us and we mostly live within 50 miles of the border.

Are there Christians in Canada?  Yes lots

Do you have Christmas on the same day as the US?  Strangely,….Yes

Is it really cold in Canada? Yes, and it is really hot in the summer

Do Canadians really live in igloos?  That’s a secret; you’ll just have to visit to find out

Did you also know that in the oil sands north of Edmonton in the Province of Alberta there are 3 trillion barrels of oil just waiting to be extracted?  Actually they use a steam extraction process which only becomes economical when oil hits $50 a barrel.  Fort McMurray is the last stop on the long trip up to the tar sands and it’s very much the pioneer town with more bars and casinos than actual residents.

Canada also plays an important part in helping the US wage the war on terror.  They tend to do it very quietly though.  In Afghanistan Canada has a large contingent of troops and have been taking many casualties lately.  My friend’s son lost both of his legs in a roadside bombing incident in Kandahar Province earlier in the year.  He is finally at home after many surgeries and is learning to stand up on his new legs.  He has to wait until next year to get his super hi-tech legs which are made in the U.S.  Unfortunately one of the wages of war is that technology is able to produce legs with joints that act like our natural ones.  He is a very brave man and we are all pulling for him to make a full recovery.

Canada is also a great place to visit…..from the fantastically modern city of Vancouver with it’s mountains and oceans, to the majestic Rocky Mountains, across the plains to the vibrant city of Winnipeg, through the forests of Northwestern Ontario, through Toronto and Ottawa and into Quebec to Montreal where the French culture surrounds you; to historical Quebec City with its wonderful restaurants and artists quarter, and on to the east coast where the Atlantic Ocean pounds the quaint little fishing villages on the shores of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New Brunswick. 

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I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.  I wish you all a wonderful Christmas Season and remember only 82 days until Daytona!!!!!

Sheila Smith

Yaffe Bureau of Canadian Affairs