“Commit” Date

One of the best integrated marketing and community involvement programs related to healthcare in the region (in my opinion) will be showcased on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007.

The American Marketing Association-Houston’s Healthcare Special Interest Group (SIG) will host the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center’s presentation of its high-powered, multi-faceted “Commit for Life” program.

You could call it “Marketing for Blood,” but thanks to everyone who participated in this program last year, donations helped save thousands of lives and helped The Blood Center exceed its 2006 goal of 273,000 units. (In 2007, the need has increased to 290,000 units.)

The Commit for Life program is a partnership between everyone in the Houston region and Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center that’s focused on saving lives, today... and in the future. Today, The Blood Center has grown to serve more than 220 health care institutions in the 25-county Texas Gulf Coast region. Developing the willingness to give blood on a regular basis is tough but effective work, as I think you’ll see at this AMA SIG presentation.

I started giving blood when I was a teenager, back in Atlanta. Now I participate in the “Commit for Life” program myself. I’m delighted to learn how The Blood Center encourages blood donations so effectively. I think you will be too.

So…commit your time for April 4th. Write it down. The SIG program will run from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM – place to be announced. And watch this space for more info as SIG program is developed.

Addams, Laocoön

How to tell this story as succinctly as possible? Start with marketer/author Robin Landa. She recently asked a question in one of my discussion groups: I submit to you that any art director worth his or her salt should be able to discuss Picasso’s work intelligently. That art director should be well read and versed in the arts. This should be a given. How can anyone who aspires to design or communicate through a visual medium not be interested in all things visual and the related arts, such as, painting, literature and film? That said: Please list the essential films, books, and/or art works that any art director should know.

A number of members pitched in (me and my big mouth included). We suggested a variety of materials, plus what some of us felt ought to be “driving forces” behind every creative person’s education. Generally we thought it should be quite broad.

Yesterday, taking a break from writing direct mailers for point-of-sale terminals, I looked through an old cartoon book from my collection: Favorite Haunts by Charles Addams. The cartoon above appears on Page 42. It struck me that this, in part, is an extreme example of what Landa was asking about.

This cartoon is at least 30 years old, maybe more. Addams was extremely popular in those years. His sense of the humorously macabre showed up in cartoons everywhere, from The New Yorker to Playboy. He invented “The Addams Family,” after all, fabled in TV and film. When I worked at BBDO, we even commissioned an Addams cartoon for a Honeywell ad in the wee ’80s. (Addams died in 1988 after a very long career.)

Charles Addams presumed that quite of lot of people, particularly those who read The New Yorker, would recognize his visual play.

Those with a “classical” education, or spent way too many years reading Greek and Roman myths, would. It’s the cartoonist’s take on the statue of Laocoön and His Sons. Also called the Laocoön Group, this is a monumental marble sculpture that’s now in the Vatican Museums in Rome.

Thought to have been created in the 1st or 2nd Century BC, it shows Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents. Why? Because Laocoön attempted to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse. According to Virgil’s Aeneid, the god Poseidon (who was on the Greeks’ side), sent the sea serpents along to get these doubting Trojans out of the way.

Addams replicated the scene using sausages in place of sea serpents – which is amusing to look at, and reasonably funny if you get the in-joke. Now it’s 30 or more years later? Do you recognize the cultural reference? How about your buddies in design, art direction, advertising or what-have-you?

Creative people should have curiosity bumps the size of Stone Mountain. We trade in metaphors and allusions (when we’re lucky) and we should be in touch with enough history and art to give us some extra horsepower when it’s time to create memorable messages.

On the other hand, the Addams cartoon’s pretty extreme (perhaps there was a copy of the statue on display in a New York museum), but especially today. Cultural references shift from decade to decade, even year to year. Go too far outside the cultural mainstream – a stream that’s gotten shallower but broader in the last generation or two – and you’ll lose your audience.

Don’t let that stop you from knowing, though. The more you stuff into your mental attic, the more likely you’ll find a good answer to a tricky challenge…like man-devouring sea serpents.

In addition to serving as a Distinguished Professor in the Kean University Department of Design and running her own branding firm, Landa is the author of ten published books on creativity and design, including Graphic Design Solutions. Her articles have been featured in HOW, Print and Icograda magazines. Favorite Haunts © 1976, Charles Addams. Thanks to Stacy Allen for the technical assistance.

Drillinginfo Collaborative

Ever since Roger Edmondson became marketing officer for Drillinginfo, he’s been working to put the Austin-based oil & gas information company into a new space vis-à-vis the market.

Drillinginfo is an active network of 10,000 North American oil and gas stakeholders, in about 3,000 companies, dedicated to providing and expanding the digital availability of current and historical oil and gas data.

Because it’s open source, engineers, geologists and landmen can use Drillinginfo on-line to expedite the process of looking for leasing opportunities in specific areas of interest. It’s also disruptive – any subscriber can access any data in the system any time, anywhere. (We used the words “unprecedented access, exchange and management of knowledge” to get the point across.)

What are “landmen,” you ask? For those of you unblessed by working in the patch, a landman is a company employee or self-employed individual who secures oil and gas leases, checks legal titles and attempts to cure title defects so that drilling can begin. If you’re politically correct, there are as many women as men who are landmen…which is why we often call the category “land services.” But out here, it’s still landman. Which leads, of course, to this chestnut: “What is 1+1?” The engineer answers, “Exactly 2.0000000.” The geologist says, “About 2.” And the landman responds with, “What do you want it to be?”

You can see the first portrayals of the company’s new position above. Roger and I worked hard to position the company against the competitive field and we arrived at the “Open to Explore” idea at the same time, in the same conversation.

Then Steve Willgren of Willgren-Rios Design brought the idea to life in a clean, effective way by combining classic type, “wide-open-spaces” photography, and white space (oilpatch marcom’s most precious commodity). Standing out in the oil-and-gas data space ain’t easy, yet here they are, one brochure for geologists and engineers and one for land services.

The copy inside is collaborative: I wrote on it, Roger wrote on it, even Drillinginfo’s Chairman, Allen Gilmer, wrote on it: more words than I’d like, fewer words than Allen would have used…but the message gets across clearly in each brochure. We supported the text with screen captures of Drillinginfo software tools and lease maps. Screen captures are standard for this part of the industry; but we kept ours large, supported them with captions to keep that stuff out of the brochure texts, and maintained white space. It’s worth holding the line on this design discipline, because wide open spaces are critical to the new position.

The company’s founders (and Roger) are classic Texas. I think that the “Open to Explore” position, created by us, visualized by Steve, is fresh and spacious. Thanks to everyone for letting me work on these: good examples of a productive partnership.

Anna Nicole

As a Smith of the broad family of that name, Anna Nicole Smith did more for jeans than “Trade” and “Mark” ever did for Smith Brothers cough drops.

Though she didn’t last as long, Anna Nicole Smith was one of those arresting people that occur at the intersection of human being, personality and brand. I confess, I liked her. I’m sorry that she’s gone. Life will be some less colorful as a result of her death. I remember when she first appeared in the Guess ad campaign and boy, howdy, those were great days. (I’m not alone on this – see Sheila O’Malley here.)

Smith replaced supermodel Claudia Schiffer in the Guess ads – not just for jeans, but for the whole Guess line in sultry black and white photographs. The one to the left is the one that I remember so well, though.

Guess was one of the first companies to create designer jeans and during the 1980s it was one of the most popular jeans brands. Because of shady labor practices (as well as the overtly sexy content of its advertising), the company struggled in the ‘90s. By the turn of the century, though, with Guess promoting a different look and sense of style, the controversy that surrounded the company during the nineties had been pretty much forgotten.

Then, the Marciano Brothers (quite distinct from the bearded Smith Brothers) brought sex back. Guess’s sales began to take a turn for the better. By 2005, Guess was catching the eye of a lot of people (mainly teens) who didn’t recall Guess's earlier history. The company still grabs celebrities, sometimes people like Paris Hilton who are famous for being famous. But to me, Paris ain’t no Anna Nicole Smith, and I think her image has always part of the brand package. Today, Guess Inc. is selling at about $85 a share.

According to CNN and AP, Paul Marciano, CEO of Guess, has said: “She had something magic…from the first day I met her, every moment was filled with excitement and drama. Her personality was very complex, but she had a charming, sexy and seductive side.”

You want your brand to buzz? Then you can hardly beat the use of these kinds of personalities. Anna Nicole Smith is beyond the buzz now – and I kinda miss her.

Ad © Guess Inc. All rights reserved.

Collier’s Type

We’ve had posts here and here about designing type and designing with it. Today, Steve Collier, a former Houston designer/illustrator now living in Seattle, is guest-posting about the same subject. He began with this quote from classic type designer Giambattista Bodoni: “The letters don’t get their true delight, when done in haste & discomfort, nor merely done with diligence & pain, but first when they are created with love and passion.” Here’s Steve’s own words.

My first encounter with type was during my graphics training years at the University of Southwestern Louisiana through a staff professor who was just absolutely incredible, John Sniffen. He worked in New York for a number of years in the advertising profession and for reasons I am not certain, he signed on as a professor in the Commercial Art department teaching lettering. From the old school of crafting type with tools of the trade, brushes, chalks, pencils, sticks, etc., his hands moved with precision, balance and design to form the most beautiful typography I had ever seen or experienced. It was truly an amazing act to witness, unbelievable.

Through four years of college, then working in graphic design for many years, I was fortunate to have encountered numerous other professionals who specialized in typography, crafting and mastering the art such as Herb Lubalin (a founder of ITC, editor of its magazine U&lc. In 1984 he was posthumously awarded the TDC Medal, the Type Directors Club award), Tom Carnase and Michael Doret, to name a few.

Conservatively, there are about 1894 people working in type design; 191 working in the field of typography listed on the Internet; and I would be afraid to quote how many designers who daily overlook the necessity of good typography. There is a need to devote the time and effort in making good typography an essential part of executing any design project. The Herb Lubalins, Tom Carnases and Michael Dorets are people whom I have been inspired by and learned from through the years. To this day they and others contribute to my growing and learning.

With all this in mind, I have taken on personal projects involving type, like the alphabet series (see “Airplane,” above). It was originally created for the Corbis web site, which I have been associated with for several years. The alphabet series was designed with its intent to be used as posters, book illustrations, learning aids or whatever suitable applications the imagination of designers could conceive. It was an exercise that allowed me to project back to the basics of the alphabet integrating visuals and color in exploring the possibilities of incorporating type with graphics.

I experimented with the three elements that make up most projects: letterforms, colors and graphics. It was one of the more interesting and “fun” projects I have completed. I recommend reaching back into the past, forgetting about computers that demand too much of our attention and time, forgetting about deadlines and revisit the art of typography in the privacy of our creative minds and knowledge banks. Good typography is an art that demands attention to detail and dedication in seeing the letters in relationship to each other, space and form. A few tips may be in order (compare these to Susan Kirkland’s tips):

- Don’t mix more than three type styles in one page

- Use sans serif in titles and serif in body text

- Use italics sparingly

- Create contrast

- Don’t use display fonts or too many colors in body copy

- Don’t forget typography is supposed to make the text easier to read

- Use light colored backgrounds with black text for best readability.

Herb Lubalin said, “You can do a good ad without good typography, but you can’t do a great ad without good typography.” ­ From Seattle, my best to all in Houston and watch the kerning….Steve.

Thanks to Steve, now Senior Designer of GalleryPlayer, Inc. The company offers to the public high-resolution art and photography for big screens: rear projection, plasmas and LCDs. Currently, he is designing the packaging for the DVD, SD products and support materials for GalleryPlayer partners like The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; MoMA; and The de Young in San Francisco. He’s still involved in the Houston market with several of his original clients, and with good friends who enjoy his gumbo extravagantly.

Digital Spain

Barcelona is hot, with Europe's major annual mobile phone conference, the 3GSM World Congress, going on this week in Spain’s second city. Yahoo!, for example, has announced, for example, that it’s signed up top corporate advertisers to use its advertising system to run brand ads on mobile phones in 18 countries. Lots of exhibitors, like AdMob, are pushing the mobile marketplace hard as the place to advertise. (AdMob’s website shows an instantaneous update of ‘Live Ad Requests,’ which is compelling.)

A correspondent of mine, Paul Ashby, has just returned from a holiday in Spain – in a more restful portion of the country – and sent these brief notes along:

The advertising/marketing scene in Spain is, not surprisingly, remarkably similar to that in the rest of Europe. Online is attracting increased spend and the Spanish advertisers believe that that is because the key features which they are beginning to find attractive are:

1. It shows what works and doesn’t.
2. Accountability has driven success, driving further investment.

In Spain, as elsewhere, what has emerged is a market polarisation. An increasing number of marketers are committing significant resources to making a success of online business, while a bigger number have done little or nothing.

As one Spanish ad man said to me, “They’ve spent the past 10 years doing what worked…and now it doesn’t!”

The work ethos is taking hold in Spain, best expressed in this little story told me by my Spanish advertising friend, “Sell your soul. Make full use of your spare time; if you already have a second job, take on a third!”

One interesting theory emerging from Madrid is that digital and paper will retain their distinctive strengths and may often be able to promote each other, in other words, during the course of this year print and pixels can enjoy a symbiotic, profitable existence. Spanish agencies seem to be panicking now, desperate to associate themselves with digital. “Putting it at the heart of the company” and even putting it in their job titles.

One of Dialogue International newer members, BelowGroup, is cool enough. It has offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla, Spain; and Lisbon, Portugal. A look at its website will give you a visual hint (see its BeOn operation) about what’s happening with digital advertising on the Iberian Peninsula. I don’t know if any of the Below people are attending 3GSM this week…maybe they’ll send me an IM.

Paul Ashby, whose blog you can read here, has been pioneering interactive communication to the advertising and marketing community for 30 years. He intro’d the first regularly scheduled interactive game show sponsored by P&G, and has used interactive techniques in print, radio, TV, and direct mail. As a result, he’s built up a large body of experience and independent research that helps compare how effective interactive communication (properly executed) is to regular advertising. Thank you, Paul, for the contribution.

Consulting Tactician

Will you see a clip about a “consulting advertising tactician” on YouTube? No. Is there room in life for one more title? Maybe. Will you read about it here on my weblog? Yes.

After several years’ mulling, I have coined consulting advertising tactician as the best way to describe what I generally do for a living – It encompasses my “copywriting, advertising tactics and branding” language into a holistic approach. The new phrase knits my capabilities together and defines the value I add to my clients’ efforts.

Look at it from the top down. Clients (or good marketing agencies) are supposed to define business and marketing strategies. The whys and the wheres are strategic matters and should be decided at the upper levels of a corporation – even though they sometimes are not. In classic military thinking, a strategy is the art of using battles to win campaigns or entire wars, operating on a different scale: regional, national, global.

Strategies are absolutely necessary for tactics to have an enterprise-wide effect.

But frequently, the tactical plan needed to make the strategy a winning one goes missing. Sometimes, implementers jump directly to the tactics they know (ads, direct mail, events, brochures and so on) in the hopes that getting a sales message out in these forms will win the war. Sometimes, mid-level decision-makers don’t quite know how to develop a comprehensive approach to taking the strategy to market…or don’t realize that there may be new elements which can become powerful tactical weapons.

When “battles” are fought out individually, divorced from the strategy, without assembling the tactics into a strategically embracing campaign, there is no overall victory. Each battle may be successful: the direct mail campaign may have a terrific result; the webinar may pull in hundreds of participants. But the strategic effect is lost.

Nope, this isn’t a flashback to marketing warfare. Yep, companies recognize that something is missing. Agencies do too, which is why some people have titles like ‘strategic planner.” This term is vague; it’s never quite captured what the job is.

I am a tactical planner as well as an executor of the tactics themselves. It was one of my jobs as Creative Director for many years. Now, because I freelance, I’m a consultant.

So clients who have needed plans that connect their strategies to their tactical executions have called on me to develop these plans for them. A consulting advertising tactician does three things (at least, this one does).

First, fit together a company’s marketing objectives with an experienced and nuanced view of a particular market – and the customers at whom the tactics will be aimed.

Second, represent the customers’ human nature and the appeals of the company’s products or services to it.

Third, work directly with clients to produce a step-by-step plan for getting the strategy into the marketplace, define the nature and the timing of individual tactical elements and propose measurement of results.

Condensing consulting advertising tactician into an elevator statement isn’t immediately easy – but that’s one of my jobs as well. So consider this a work-in-progress. Stay tuned for the next development.

My thanks to War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, by Manuel de Landa. Photography © Photographer: Jonny Mccullagh Agency: Dreamstime.com

Be Silly

Today is Saturday. Do something with yourself. Be ridiculous. Get out of the house. Go on. Get!

Typeface Comedy

In “Invisible Numbers” here, I pointed a finger at architects and builders who delight in hiding street numbers, making them impossible to see while you’re driving by.

I also introduced myself (and you) to APHont, designed specifically by the American Printing House for the Blind for “low-vision” readers. It’s worth noting that APH doesn’t use this font on its own website. (And you should really take a peek at the Society of Typographic Aficionados’ site. It’s worse.) Paul Nini was subtle in his criticism about it, as you can read in the February 4 post. Which lead us to into the realm of type and design.

Designer/writer Susan Kirkland is very direct in “Tips on Type.”

Personal computers have lifted the barriers to copysetting and I know more than a few typographers who get their share of hearty laughs each time an award show goes up. The amateur typesetters are everywhere, sitting at their keyboards pecking away at the regression of professional typesetting. I hope when they see the new readable typeface for the visually impaired, it inspires them to take the lead and design something beyond APHont.

The “history” of type can be comically short. Designing type started just after the printing press was invented. Designing with type became an art form in the past couple of hundred years max, with particular emphasis on the last century. Wrecking a layout with bad type, ignoring the wise rules of type design: these have been with us forever. Sometimes it’s hanging right in front of us. If you can’t think of an immediate example of your own, just Google “bad typography.” The results are laughable – or downright ugly.

There’s no substitute for a talented eye on the font front. I’ll admit I’ve been lucky. I’ve worked with designers and art directors who genuinely cherish great type. Susan is one. Rosario Laudicina of Pensar LLC is another.

But just as the advent of “desktop publishing” empowered everyone to make their own brochures, the computer (as Susan says) makes miss-designing with type too easy. There are plenty of typefaces to go around and most of them are used badly. Learn the rules – or team up with a great designer – and produce outstanding creative.

To start with, read more about good type design in Susan’s recent post.

Patricia Breen Treat Seeker Ornament from Neiman-Marcus. No longer available, thank goodness.

Reflected Glory

I just had an e-mail from Julie Pitts at Direct Marketing Network (DMN) announcing that the Houston-based agency had won big at the recent international MarCom Creative Awards competition.

According to its sponsoring organization, the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, this competition has grown to perhaps the largest of its kind in the world. The competition is so well thought of in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants. The winners range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 50 companies – and at least one energetic and growing agency here in Houston. (Example: this past December, DMN was selected by American Airlines Federal Credit Union as its direct marketing agency.)

DMN-created campaigns for clients Kraton Polymers, Reliant Energy and Advanced Data Exchange were chosen from more than 5,000 entries in this year’s competition. A website for Kraton and a direct mail campaign for Reliant Energy went “Platinum.” The Advanced Data Exchange sales promotion kit won a Gold Award.

And two direct mailers for Reliant Energy, conceived by DMN’s Charles Eldred and yours truly, were Gold Award winners as well. One of the Reliant pieces, “Alarm,” is pictured above – a clever use of an everyday object, I think.

My thanks to Principal Pam Lockard, Charles Eldred, Shannon Rasberry, John LaCour and all the other DMN-ers for giving me a chance to bask in their glory, reflected in the shiny finish of the agency’s newly gained MarCom award statues.

Photograph © 2007 Direct Marketing Network. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Schoenbeck’s Take

Super Bowl XLI is history. At first it seemed as if something unusual might actually occur: that the game was going to be more interesting than the advertising – especially if one were a Chicago Bears fan. However, it was not meant to be.

Regardless of your predilection however; when it comes to the Super Bowl, there is no denying that the numbers are impressive, even if most of this year’s commercials were not. Forbes Magazine has deemed it “the most valuable sporting event” in the world weighing in at an impressive $379 million*; followed by a distant second ‘Summer Olympics’ ($176 million) and the ‘World Cup’ (at a paltry $103 million.)

Of course, what makes it so valuable to CBS, the NFL and AFC, the coaches, players and anyone else who happens to have a ticket on this gravy train are the almost sixty commercials, each of which coughed up a record $2.6 million (per 30-second spot – you do the math) to reach the more than 90 million die-hard couch potatoes (curiosity seekers and a few Prince fans) who tuned in.

WHY PRINCE? Of the last five Super Bowl acts, these performers (including the Rolling Stones, U2 and the unforgettable Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson duet) have seen an average 187% increase in album sales in the week following the game. Paul McCartney scored an impressive 542% increase in 2005, thereby preventing a collection agency from foreclosing on the mortgage of his mansion.

This is not to mention, which I will anyway, the pre-game programs (that began last Thursday): Road to the Super Bowl, All-Iron Team, Super Bowl Today and the Kick-Off Show among others, providing those who want to be associated with the game the opportunity to do so at a fraction of the cost.

But I digress. What, you might ask, motivates these advertisers to spend their lucre so willingly? Advertising companies included many of the biggest name brands in their respective categories (Automobiles – Chevrolet, Honda, Toyota; Beer – Bud and Bud Light; Cosmetics – Revlon; Soft Drinks – Coke, Sierra Mist, Snapple; Snacks – Doritos, Snickers and Emerald Nuts).

EMERALD NUTS? Once again, Diamond Foods announced that it would be back with another commercial for Emerald nuts. “The Super Bowl still has a huge lure, and it’s a great creative platform to really show off your ads,” says Andy Donchin, national broadcast director at media-buying agency Carat. “It’s an engaging event, and people watching the game also watch the commercials.”

Which is one reason Emerald joined those who bought ad time. Emerald’s attempt to stand out in the Super Sunday featured theater and music personality Robert Goulet, who plays off the energy that nuts can provide. (Remember him? His presence may well suggest that when an advertiser spends more than $2 million on air time it cannot afford to hire big-name, expensive talent.)

Apparently Flomax prostate drug, King Pharmaceuticals for heart medication, Garmin GPS Navigator and Go Daddy also feel this is a worthwhile investment.


GO DADDY. The CEO of this august institution, Bob Parsons, wrote on his website, “…after watching our commercials, the vast majority will smile, then try our company. Then after they have a chance to experience our outstanding customer service, great products and prices they will become customers for life. That’s why GoDaddy.com is now the world’s largest registrar — more than twice the size of its closest competitor!”

To paraphrase Leo Burnett, one of advertising’s icons, if I want to get noticed I can walk around with a sock stuck in my mouth. Regretfully, most of the commercials appearing in this year’s Super Bowl weren’t really all that super. In fact, many would have been better off buying a pair of socks.

If you didn’t have the occasion to see them yourself, you can check them out here (or any of the more than 28.5 million websites listed on Google; which is one of the reasons for running a Super Bowl commercial in the first place). Perhaps you’ll find, as I did, that the majority of these efforts lacked substance.

Disappointingly, the Bud Light commercials (Rock, Paper and Scissors; Great Apes; Wedding Reception; Fist Bump and Hitchhiker) were surprisingly puerile and perhaps a bit crass. They bordered on insulting the viewer as well as the drinker, especially when compared to the Budweiser spots (Spot the Dog; Wink and Crabs), which at least had charm and made one feel good about being a Bud drinker.

NOBODY DOES IT BETTER. Perhaps the most memorable commercial in this year’s line-up was the Doritos commercial (Live the Flavor) created by one of its consumers, Dale Backus, at a fraction of the cost of a normal production as the result of a contest developed to engage greater interaction with its audience. So much for an ‘advertising agency!’

THE UNMENTIONABLES. Then there were the “unmentionables” – which I will mention anyway: Career Builder, Go Daddy, Emerald Nuts and Snickers. They were definitely “sock ads” and may be the topic of conversation around the water cooler; but for all the wrong reasons.

Does this mean the days of “great” advertising are over? Is Leo turning over in his grave? No. Coca Cola came through (Timeline; Happiness Factory and Video Game – a 21st century version of “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”) with some simple, memorable and relevant creative that, dare I say it, had something to do with the product (which the Chevrolet commercials didn’t). The Blockbuster commercial (Mouse) was not only cute, but also had a strategy and everything to do with the idea.

MVP AWARD. Ah yes, the idea…which leads me to the MVP (Memorable, Valuable and Plausible) Award: TA DA! This year is presented to Toyota Tundra for its commercials (see Saw and Ramp). These two spots were not only engaging and memorable…but had an idea. They related to the product and provided a striking, but believable demonstration of its performance.

As Leo once wrote: “We want people to say ‘That’s a hell of a product,’ not ‘That’s a hell of an ad.” I’m sure he would agree that after watching this year’s Super Bowl extravaganza, this is something which is not likely to be said about most of its advertisers.

My thanks to guest blogger (and Bears fan) Rob Schoenbeck. He grew up in Chicago and started his career in marketing there. After five years he was lured over to the agency side by The Leo Burnett Company, where he spent the next 22 years working with virtually every client in the agency; beginning in the US, then Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. He subsequently moved to Houston with BBDO to manage the Texaco and Shell business. From there he moved on to Fogarty Klein Monroe as SVP responsible for all CPG Clients including ConAgra Brands. He has also served as COO of The Cartel Group, a multi-cultural San Antonio-based ad agency.

Currently he is sharing his vast experience and guidance as CEO of his consultancy, Carpe Emptor. Rob brings a strong strategic perspective and a wealth of packaged goods experience combined with a fresh approach to every project he tackles.

*Included in this figure are advertising revenue, sponsorship revenue, ticket receipts and licensing income.

Invisible Numbers

A beautiful three-building set on Post Oak here in Houston is a pain in the ass. Designed by big-name architects Johnson/Burgee and completed between 1975 and 1981, One, Two and Three Post Oak Central represent really quite excellent architecture…and ignorance about the needs of people to find them easily.

For example, the Turkish Consulate is inside the building at 1990 Post Oak Boulevard. Google it and you’ll even find the zip code, so you can use Google Maps or Mapquest to locate it properly. But which of the three buildings is “1990?” One? Two? Three? Even after having visited this lovely complex a number of times, I couldn’t immediately tell you.*

You sure won’t be able to identify the correct building easily as you drive by at 35 miles per hour because the street numbers are not readily visible on the complex’s signage.

It is an act of architectural hubris (“Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance”) to assume that people will be so familiar with your property that they don’t need no stinkin’ street numbers…just One. Two. And Three.

I’d been looking for an opportunity to point this out and it arrived via the AIGA’s Clear: Journal of Information Design. Paul Nini wrote, in “Typography and the Aging Eye: Typeface Legibility for Older Viewers with Vision Problems,” about type designs and sizes:

The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. 13 percent of the population is currently over 65 years old. In 30 years that group will double to 66 million people. People change as they age. Sensory, cognitive and motor abilities decline. The built environment is not typically created with the needs of the aging population in mind. How does the choice of typeface in signage systems, for example, impact the older viewer who is experiencing vision problems typical to that age group? Are certain typefaces more suitable to the aging eye?

The writer is talking about type. He points out there’s already a type font for aging eyes, APHont, designed by The American Printing House for the Blind, specifically for readers with vision problems. It incorporates consistent stroke widths; a “j” and a “q” with underslung descenders; open counterforms; and larger punctuation marks.

As a designer – and a good one – Nini says that APHont may not be an aesthetically pleasing typeface, but it’s a starting point for accommodating the needs of aging eyes.

I’d suggest starting the process earlier: building architects and owners should decide up front that they’re going to put the street numbers…well, up front. Where everyone can see them.

Johnson/Burgee is hardly the best-known offender; try looking for a street number on a wide array of shopping centers and strip malls – if the little storefronts have numbers at all, they’re too small to be seen from the street.

At the beginning of World War Two, the British feared invasion by the Germans and so removed all the road signs in the country. If you’ve been outside of London, you’ll recognize that this act alone could have stopped the Wehrmacht in its tracks.

My plea for architects, developers and builders is similar to many clients’ cry, “Make the logo bigger.” Put the street numbers of your office buildings and stores where ordinary people can see them easily – and big enough to see from inside a moving car. Boy – I’m glad I got that out of my system!

*Three Post Oak Central is 1990 Post Oak Boulevard. Top photo courtesy of Houston Architecture.Info; APHont from AIGA.

Iacocca’s Ram

“Why would Dodge manufacture a car called Ram?” This is one of those odd-duck questions that came up recently on one of my discussion groups. (The same fellow also asked, “Why are black olives packed in cans and green olives come in jars?” and “Shampoo is available in many colors, why is the lather on your head always white?” It’s questions like this that keep psychiatrists in business.)

In this case, though, there’s a great brand story behind the question. And thank the Lord for Google.

According to the late Mike Sealy (among others), the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company (one of Daimler Chrysler’s forerunners) produced trucks since 1917. Dodge actually used a ram’s head hood ornament back in 1933 to characterize its trucks as rugged vehicles. The original hood ornament was designed by Avard Fairbanks, who was influenced by the Art Deco motifs popular during the 1920s and ‘30s.

The symbol was dropped in the 1950s.

The brand icon was resurrected for 1981 when Lee Iacocca (then ChryslerPresident and CEO) and Dodge's marketing team decided to name Dodge's trucks after the tough beast and brought back the old mascot when it re-designed the Series D pick-‘em-up trucks. Re-shaped again and again, Dodge Ram trucks have been named Motor Trend magazine’s Truck of the Year twice. The second-generation Ram won the award in 1994. The third-generation Ram Heavy Duty won the 2003 award.

Now on the face of it, my disccusion-group colleague asked a silly question. But according to Fairbanks’s family, the story goes like this:

For two weeks father worked on all sorts of models from mythology creatures to various powerful animals. Finally, he called the designers and Mr. Chrysler in to see three models of a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, a ram. He proposed the charging one. They asked, “Why a ram?” Father responded, “It is sure-footed; it’s the King of the Trail; it won’t be challenged by anything.”

They nodded their heads. Then father, with a bit of corny humor, added, “And if you were on the trail and saw that ram charging down on you, what would you think? DODGE!” To which Walter Chrysler excitedly replied, “THAT’S IT! THE RAM GOES ON THE DODGE!”

It’s not Lee Iacocca’s ram at all – it’s Walter Chrysler’s. And it's a great brand story.

Stoneworth Subtle

“Below the radar” is one way to put it. But the principals of Stoneworth Financial here in Houston, Evan Betzer and Charles Harris, made a better point about a recent three-part project.

“We’re guides and servants for our customers,” Evan said. “We want them to be thrilled at the end of the transaction – and we’re not the heroes of the story. They are.”

The word you seek is “subtle.” After an era when Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) firms bathed in a triumphant public light (and some still do), Stoneworth Financial wants to maintain its quiet, graceful presence in the regional marketplace. For its five-year anniversary, the principals asked me for three things.

First, re-design the Stoneworth horse from its original, graphically complex Chinese watercolor style to an image that’s still classy, but easier to understand and reproduce on letterhead and business cards.

Second, help clarify and sharpen the firm’s story in terms of copy – that is, a more understandable sales proposition that emphasizes its approach to customer relationships.

Third, modify the look of the company’s website for additional clarity – a new look without departing from its primary guideline: Stoneworth is a financial firm and wants to preserve that dignity.

Subtlety is harder than stridency. Fortunately, I had the design help of Kay Krenek and the illustration capabilities of Mike Dean…and they deserve the credit for staying faithful to our clients’ direction. I’m particularly fond of the green-and-silver look…we keep calling the verdant color greenback. (Evan would like to find another word.)

As for the writing – well, click through to the site and judge for yourself.

There’s a story behind “The Stoneworth Horse,” by the way. You can read it for yourself on the new website – it’s intimately connected to the reason Evan and Charles feel that subtlety is the better part of success. My thanks to them, such excellent clients.

Ben Silver

After 20 years, I owe Sue and Bob Prenner an apology. In 1985, they opened a 2,000-square-foot shop in Charleston, SC, a few years after they took over the company named after its founder and Sue’s father, Ben Silver.

Signalwriter talks from time to time about long-lasting brands, Ben Silver is a fine example, since the company itself has been around since well before the Kennedy presidency and it’s still going strong, with stores in Charleston and London.

What caught my eye, back in 1986 or so, was Ben Silver’s collection of British striped ties (called repp ties) – the classic “old school” ties that are associated with English public schools and units of the UK’s armed services.

There are specific striping patterns tied to famous regiments of the British Army – like the red tie with white stripes above left, for the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, the 33rd/76th Foot as it was then, before the Brits consolidated its regiments.

At the time, alongside my duties as Creative Director at The Quest Business Agency, I was also writing articles for Sperry Defense System’s house magazine: about antique militaria, the history of warfare and weapon systems. I stumbled across an early Ben Silver catalog with photographs of British school and regimental ties and thought up a piece about British Army regiments that served in America during the Revolution, using photos of their regimental ties as the illustrations.

(I also liked the neckwear: I was quite the preppie in those days and the repp patterns were perfect for my mixed creative/business persona. I could look good and have a military history lesson about the tie at the same time.)

I wrote to the Ben Silver company asking for the loan of half a dozen of the ties I could then forward to Sperry to photograph for the article. I asked for the Wellington, the Royal Artillery, the Buffs and the Hampshire Regiment. The ties themselves would be the centerpiece of the article, and I’d make certain that Ben Silver got credit in the article. The company was glad to send me a package containing the ties.

The article was written but never published. Sperry turned into Unisys; my contact moved to another job in the company; the magazine died a quiet death. Ben Silver never got its credit.

Yesterday while Barbara was cleaning out the back room, I unearthed the original Ben Silver catalog. How old is it? Back in the mid-‘80s, The Duke of Wellington’s regimental tie was $28. Today, on the Silver website, the price is $80.

Great ties. Long-lasting brand. Sue and Bob, I apologize for not delivering on my promise. I still have the ties. (Wincing.) Do you want them back?

Continuing Mirus

Why would I show you a new ad for Mirus, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company specializing in exception-based restaurant management? I posted about Mirus more than a year ago – where’s the news?

The news is, Mirus is upholding a tenet of advertising that is “mainly honored in the breach.” (Shakespeare first said this, so let’s pay homage.) That tenet is Continue the Campaign.

Far too many companies change their advertising concept like people use Kleenex: use it once and throw it away. That’s not just a waste of money, it undercuts the effort to build brand equity, a form of investment that is understood by a lot of companies (large and small) but completely ignored by others (large and small).

For an active, imaginative firm like Mirus, it’s eminently bankable. It has kept its marketing communications concept stable, even as its messages change to address different elements of its customers’ and prospects’ needs. In this new ad, the message is about a major benefit of its web-delivered exception-based restaurant management solution: instant visibility of critical operating information. Restaurant operators are, generally, experienced professionals. They can solve a problem once they know what the problem is. The trick is to find out – quickly – what’s going wrong that should be going right.

By addressing one issue at a time, Mirus is practicing what Alan Vera of The Quest Business Agency has called “platform-plank communications.” That is, build the communications structure one idea (or plank) at a time; let it settle into the minds of the prospects; then add another plank to the marcom structure.

Marilyn Muller and her team at 20/20 Exhibits get the design credit; I craft the messages.

But the real nod goes to Mirus president Dave Bennett and marketer Billie Light . They keep to the bold red-and-yellow graphic style and photographic approach that has characterized the company since it began actively communicating with its market 15 months ago. As this and other Mirus ads keep appearing in magazines targeted at the restaurant business, they are building an identifiable message platform one plank at a time. Adding power to the brand. Continuing the campaign.

“Kleenex” is a trademark of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, lest we forget. The ad above is © Mirus, 2007. All rights reserved.

Soft Sell

Today’s guest blogger is Adam Halpern. He’s President of Soft Sell, the company he created to train non-sales, “customer-facing” employees to generate sales from every customer interaction. His recent trip to California is actually an adventure in reverse psychology, so I asked him to create a post about it…because everyone (especially a consultant) needs the occasional reminder about how to sell better. His story:

What do you get when you mix sumptuous wine and sarcastic sales people? This sounds like an opening line of a bad joke, but it’s how I spent the last 48 hours of my life: as a keynote speaker for a high-tech software sales conference in Sonoma, CA. The topic of the presentation was Behavioral Styles and Selling – what I like to call “Why do people think salespeople are obnoxious?”

My session was the last one of the day. I had the pleasure of following a riveting 1½ hour session on database modeling. My challenge was to engage an audience that knew I was the only thing standing between them and free food and alcohol.

I opened the presentation with a few thought provoking questions. Why do salespeople seem so irritating? Were they born that way? Is there a “how-to-be-an-annoying-salesman” school that produces people like this? And could their prospective customers have something to do with it?

These questions got their attention. In fact, I told them, a little bit of all these things are true and there is scientific data to back it up. Once you understand the psychological dynamics involved in a salesperson or an overbearing co-worker – or your slave-driver boss – they become less unbearable. And, who knows, you might even start to like them.

People have different preferences in music, automobiles and ice cream. They also have preferences when it comes to interacting with people. These biases are a normal part of defining who you are as a person. The same holds true for communication and behavior styles.

The four types of behavioral styles can be summarized with the acronym “DISC.” DISC assessments are a widely accepted psychology instrument used for quickly analyzing and describing behavioral styles. Let me summarize.

“Dominant,” or “D” behavioral-style individuals, are results-oriented. These people get in your face aggressively when selling. They thrive on solving problems and making quick buying decisions. These individuals are fast-paced and like to be in charge. They become impatient with people or situations that hinder them from accomplishing their goals. So they’re more task-oriented than people-oriented.

“Influence,” or “I” behavioral-style, individuals are frequently thought of as “people persons.” These salespeople talk your ears off until you buy. They’re enthusiastic and upbeat, enjoying the interaction with others in a humorous, lighthearted way. They appear to be the eternal optimists, seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. They are quite persuasive about things they’re passionate about.

“Steadiness,” or “S” behavioral style, is also people-oriented – but at a much slower pace than the “I” style. “S” persons don’t like to be forced into making changes or quick decisions. They’re patient, loyal and calm, making them excellent listeners and peacekeepers when conflict breaks out. Their focus is on cooperation.

“Conscientiousness,” or “C” behavior, is quality-focused, slow-paced, methodical and task-oriented. “C” people focus on the details and are primarily concerned about doing things the “right” or “correct way.” They are analytical and frequently set higher standards for themselves than others.

When I do a seminar at a sales conference, 49% of my audiences are usually D style and 49% is I style. The other 2% are C or S types: they don’t realize they probably should not be in sales. This means most of the people I am presenting to either want me to hurry up and finish, or are ignoring me because they are thinking about the party later that night.

The key to winning over this audience mix is to keep it “edutaining.” Keep the jokes coming. Keep a fast pace. The nice thing about D and I types is that they are not shy. If you do a good job, they have no qualms about telling you so. Of course, the converse is also true.

The presentation was met with a loud round of applause. Selling ideas at a sales conference is no different than selling widgets. Interacting with different customers (and people inside your own company) in the style they like instead of the style you like is the key to making yourself easier to work with and therefore more successful.

People prefer to do business with people they like. The most effective salespeople adjust their communication style to match the behavioral styles of their prospects, customers and associates. The most obnoxious ones don’t.

The trick is staying mentally flexible and adapting accordingly. Learning how to interact more effectively will put you far ahead of the competition. Good luck and good selling!

My thanks to Adam and all the salespeople at the Sonoma conference.

Energy Tips

Just completed: a new booklet for Reliant Energy that coaches new homeowners how to save money on their electricity bills.

I participated in the project as copywriter for Active Imagination. The agency did a fine job of organizing, designing and producing the piece – especially within the context of Reliant Energy’s existing graphic standards.

What Active Imagination has created is a colorful, warm-hearted instruction booklet with dozens of energy-saving tips. Including a couple I didn’t know (or remember) myself, even after years of doing this kind of work for the “retail” part of the energy market.

I stocked up on compact fluorescent bulbs for the house because of information I discovered during the research phase. In the decade or so since I originally considered fluorescents for our home’s various reading lamps and work lights, I found out that fluorescents have become far more effective and a lot less expensive.

You’d think a company that’s in the business of selling electricity would shy away from telling people how to save it. You’d be wrong (or cynical). It’s part of Reliant Energy’s public mission to instruct its customers on ways to conserve energy.

Remember too that the user’s manual is one of our business’s basic building blocks.

Think about this concept two ways. First, every new system (including a house) has a learning curve that’s got to be climbed in order to achieve the system’s highest level of efficiency. Don’t doubt the “house as a system” approach: E-Star has been promoting it for years:

Understanding the interrelations and accommodating them requires effort from the design phase through all stages of construction. The net result is a home that performs better on many fronts: energy efficiency, comfort, durability, safety, and affordability.

Reliant Energy works closely with builders to deliver better-performing homes to the housing market. The wire-bound booklet Active Imagination has created for the company is clearly focused on helping readers climb the learning curve faster.

Second, Reliant Energy faces a competitive market – new homeowners can choose some other company to be their electricity provider. So anything that helps Reliant Energy’s prospects (say, people moving into a new home) become customers is what we’d call “a good thing.” Good for marketing and good for branding.

Eighteen months ago, I asked in this space, “When does an instruction manual or a user’s manual serve as a marketing tool? The right answer is…always.”

Thanks to Active Imagination and Reliant Energy for the chance to work on this small but attractive piece of “houseware.”

ÖYKÜ Hospitality

Let me tell you a little story.

There’s no hospitality like Turkish hospitality: something I’d read about, but discovered first-hand when I met with ÖYKÜ in Istanbul. In a city with more than 10 million friendly people, the visit to ÖYKÜ is a standout.

ÖYKÜ is one of Turkey’s leading independent advertising agencies. It joined Dialogue International in July, 2006 and has more than 50 people in two offices, Istanbul and Ankara, the nation’s capital. It’s a signficant addition to Dialogue International, which now stands at 24 advertising and marketing agencies.

It’s also a big reason I went to Istanbul. I wanted the chance to see one of Dialogue’s newest members with my own eyes. (Since I’m Chairman Emeritus of Dialogue, I guess it’s okay to drop by for a visit.)

I think I met most and talked with most of the Istanbul team – even had a chance to sit down around a conference room table with them.

Then a long lunch and more talk…about advertising, about the future of Dialogue, about the Turkish economy, about politics. Beyond any walk through a local bazaar, ÖYKÜ is an adventure in a dynamic marketplace.

For all this, I have to thank the agency’s president, Necati Özkan; the agency’s strategic planner, Renan Tavukçuoğlu; and Pelin Özkan, the managing director of publishing house Kapital Medya.

The new ÖYKÜ office here is in upscale Akmerkez, one of Istanbul’s modern shopping, office and residential complexes. Having recently pitched and won new clients like Kiddo, the Turkish childrens’ footwear store chain as well as the 35-year-old Laressa Furniture store chain, ÖYKÜ has also started its WOM division with projects for Danone (with Renan as its director); it’s already a powerhouse for Turkish infrastructure companies’ advertising and media relations.

More important, it’s an outstanding group of people, passionate advertising professionals in a dramatic city. ÖYKÜ is intimately involved with the whole Turkish market because of its client base, its advertising activities, and magazine and book publishing (through Kapital Medya). I could feel the vibrations of the economy in the ÖYKÜ office.

Read about what’s going on in Turkey in any decent newspaper or web news service: upcoming presidential and general elections mean potential instability in both the economic and political environment – in the short term. There’s the issue of EU membership as well.

I got a good sense of this from Necati. Not only the founder and president of ÖYKÜ, he started his career as a political consultant in 1983 during Turkey’s general elections, served as a campaign leader for the Turkish Socialdemocrat People’s Party and lectures about Communications at Maltepe University. He’s the author of books about Turkish political campaigns and about as interesting a lunch companion as I could ever expect.

It’s a particularly fascinating position from which to run an ad agency – especially because of the “bi-lateral” connections with other Dialogue agencies that have been walking the same political consultancy/advertising path.

Necati feels just as passionate about the potential of our 20-year-old network of independent advertising agencies: it has formally added ‘Dialogue International’ to the ÖYKÜ company name.

ÖYKÜ will host both Dialogue International’s Managers Meeting and Creative Forum in Istanbul in April, 2007. I’m glad to have seen for myself what’s on offer in Turkey.

Especially since the agency is dedicated to building stories about its clients’ brands. In English, öykü means “little stories.”

Smoking Area

Barbara and I stopped for a moment outside a small bazaar in Istanbul to rest – and light up. As we puffed away, a well-dressed man just across the narrow street attracted our attention by asking the familiar question, “Are you American?”

He was standing outside a carpet shop. QED, we suspected he was starting the by-now-familiar procedure of getting us into the store, offering us apple tea and showing us…carpets. But politeness always counts, so I answered, “Yes – the last two American smokers.”

Instead, we got another question: “Do you know who smokes more than a Turk?”

Barbara and I looked at each other…we couldn’t think of an answer. So I called back to him, “I don’t know.”

He responded, “Two Turks!”

Three second later, all of us were laughing our heads off. Turks smoke like chimneys in Victorian London.

A couple of days later, we were in Athens. As we finished checking into the hotel, we paused to fish out our packs of Marlboros. Stratos, the on-duty desk clerk, then told us exactly the same thing with just one word changed.

“Do you know who smokes more than a Greek?”

This time, we knew the answer: “Two Greeks!” More laughter. We felt right at home.

This, then, is the story of Turkey and Greece. Two nations united by a common gag.

Eating Greek

We’d never have found the Stoa Attalos Restaurant in Monastiraki without the odd wanderings of Alan Hill of Milton Keynes, UK. Having hooked up with Alan and his wife, Barbara (named just like mine), at the Delphi Art Hotel, we had a few ouzos to cement the new trans-Atlantic acquaintanceship. Along about dinner time, Alan and Barbara wanted to take us to a place they’d tried a couple of days before.

So off we tramped into the gathering gloom of an Athens evening, first hiking the long way down from the hotel to Monastiraki Metro Station. Alan was certain the restaurant, whose name he couldn’t recall, was around the station to the east, so we tramped up and down a couple of hills.

By this time, the full moon rising over the Acropolis, with the Parthenon lit up so brightly, made it worth the walk. But as we circled around the streets behind the Tower of the Winds, it was clear that Alan didn't quite remember where the place was.

We stopped and consumed more ouzo to fortify us, then wobbled back down toward the Agora.

I said, “There’s a street we haven’t tried.” So we swerved left onto Adrianou: it runs just on the north side of the Agora itself…and after about 16 tourist restaurants that looked pretty much alike, Alan stopped and flung out his right hand: “That’s it!”

And it was.

The Attalos has excellent food, “contemporary and traditional Greece meets with the spirits near the monuments of the Ancient Agora and the Acropolis,” according to its website. I think the spirits come in bottles.

Barbara and I went back the next day for lunch and would have gone more often, except the place was closed by the time we got back on Sunday – New Year’s Eve. Too bad: the host promised they’d have stifado, the classic Greek stew made with rabbit.

So when you go to Athens, don’t mess about like the Barons and the Hills. The address is Andrianou 9, Thisio, in Monastiraki Center. Any taxi driver will get you there; better yet, take the Metro. You’ll get great food and drink and the prices are reasonable.

Or take the coward’s way out and walk around to the other side of the block. On Ermou Street, there’s an Applebee’s. Believe it.

Delphi Art

“A hotel isn't like a home, but it’s better than being a house guest.” I had to look this up – it’s by William Feather – because the Delphi Art Hotel in Athens deserves much more than a standard tourist’s website description.

Our stay here on St. Constantine Square was enjoyable and the hotel itself is a cozy example of an older hotel – a small neoclassic-style building that goes back to 1927. In time for the Olympics, it was renovated from top to bottom – and that included the management and staff. So it’s somewhat arty, comfortable and tremendously appealing. The people have a “strong service orientation.” Read this to mean we were never without a coffee or ouzo even while we played cribbage in the lobby on New Year’s Eve.

The tiny square, about the size of a house lot here in Houston, is named after Agiou Konstantinos – St. Constantine – because of the very large (and probably pretty ugly) church completed in 1896. But you can’t tell that the church is ugly on the outside because it’s draped in netting, currently undergoing a very long renovation itself. The inside is…glorious in the tradition of Greek Orthodox churches. This puts the hotel itself about four blocks west of Omonia Square, which gave us easy access to the excellent Metro station.

The Greek National Theatre across the street is also being rehabilitated. So the Delphi Art sits like a little jewel box surrounded by packing crates. The hotel’s appeal is inside.

Neat rooms, all modern conveniences and plenty of smiles make the place a treat…not quite home but warm-hearted and cheery. The current management team came with the hotel’s renovation and it’s plain where the smiles originate: Foni Bitra and her husband Christos have put their combined travel agency and professional experience into the place and made it a family operation.

Foni explained the efforts they’d put into making the Delphi Art a great place to stay – including wrestling with the city authorities to speed up refurbishment of the church, the theatre and the little square. To grow the clientele and keep it, they focus on one-to-one marketing, making each guest feel a bit more welcome and a bit more comfortable than many of the other couple of hundred four-stars available for the traveler in Athens. Check out the photos on the hotel’s website for a better look at the fixtures and fittings.

It’s no chain hotel, no costly pile in the full-dress European tradition (like, say, the five-star-plus Grande Bretagne up on Syntagma Square which, coincidentally, was German Army headquarters during the occupation of Greece in WWII.)

I’m embarrassed to say that on New Year’s Day, Christos’s mom, elegantly dressed for an upcoming lunch, emptied our ashtrays while we were talking to them. The family dropped by the hotel to break open a pomegranate in the corner of the lobby steps – a New Year’s Day good luck tradition.

William Feather was an American publisher and writer who died at the age of 92, primarily famous these days for being so damn quotable. He must have stayed in some good hotels because he got it right about the Delphi Art: it isn’t home, but we were treated much better than house-guests.

Best wishes – and many broken pomegranates to come.

National Oil

Tourist Athens, tourist brands: BMW and McDonald’s, Gucci and Bill Blass and all the others. Starbucks is here, though Jacobs Coffee, a German brand owned by Kraft Foods, is giving it a run for its money in Flocafe cafes throughout the city.

Local brands are a bit harder to find unless you go into the local grocery stores. Nevertheless, there are some powerhouse brands here: Ioli Water, a product of Athenian Brewery, is constantly top-rated by reviewers. Its bottles feature labels by various artists.

Through great personal effort, Barbara and I tasted a large number of different ouzos, the licorice-tasting aperitif that’s Greek indeed. We can report that the very best is Sans Rival Ouzo from P. Thomopoulos & Son SA, produced in Piraeus for about a hundred years.

My favorite (and not so local anymore either) is probably Minerva Olive Oil – which is no small brand here. In 1904, the Karakostas-Giannakos Company expanded its activities and began to trade in olive oil, the most valued product grown on Greek soil. The Minerva bottles, with the goddess Athena as the company’s symbol, are obvious on Greek grocery store shelves. I don’t know why Athena is on the bottles when the name is Minerva...I suspect it has something to do with Athens being the company’s home base. Its original office, as far as I can understand it, was here in Omonia where we are staying.

Since it’s now an international company itself with a wide range of products, it’s not so surprising that its agency is TBWA Athens – its web site was created by “Greek Geeks.” Really.

But you do have to get off the tourist squares and streets to find the local products...not just branded ones, either, but the staples of everyday living from fresh fish and meats to nuts and bolts. That’s the best way to tour anyway, no matter where you are in the Euro Zone.

Happy New Year to oil!

Talking Turk

Is it possible to have an outstanding customer experience in under two hours? Apparently it is, with Turkish Airlines – Turk Hava Yollari. This carrier supplied the link to Athens from Istanbul, the only non-KLM leg we’ll have flown.

Our very early AM check-in went smoothly and we ambled down to the gate to find a rare light flight, maybe because it was early, Maybe because it was Tuesday, maybe because the “second day of Christmas” is a holiday in Greece. The THY check-in agent was completely friendly and when she saw my height, she changed our seats to the emergency exist row without being asked. The THY Airbus 330-200 was immaculate; the aircrew was capable and everyone smiled.

A call to the airline number in Istanbul on 25 December had already prepared me in a way – impressed the hell out of me in fact. Come to find out that THY has already won a couple of awards for its call center.

I read in the airline’s flight magazine, Skyways, that THY’s Chairman, Candan Karlitekin, had laid down these “good customer” initiatives at the beginning of 2006. They had a positive and measurable effect on us in what is, after all, an hour-and-forty-minute flight. THY code-shares with American Airlines (yuck!) to Chicago from Houston and thence overseas. It’s an airline that deserves a second look – especially since it’s the off-season for Istanbul.

What’s a good customer experience worth to THY? About $500 for our two tix, this time.

The key point is that this relationship started with the call center – your choice of Turkish or impeccable English, helpful and friendly in every way. Once again, it shows how critical an outstanding call center is to good customer interface…and a worthwhile try-out if you’re looking for good call center examples. Happy New Year to all.