According to Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth College, businesses often overestimate the value of experience. In fact, he says experience can actually be a liability during challenging times of change. From my standpoint, I've seen that exhibited many times, usually in the guise of "We've never done it that way before." Or, "That would never work here." I'm a huge supporter of the value of experience, but when you view the world exclusively from that perspective, it can be a lia ... read more

We'll be finding that as the economy worsens, more boundaries will be falling away from online advertising. We'll be seeing banners get larger, more pre-roll ads before video clips, and more spyware. That's the downsize of a bad market. The pressure builds, and the intrusiveness of the web expands. Ad restrictions will be tossed aside in order to have more impact. In the process, I predict that ... read more

Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday. I reported on a similar campaign in London recently. I always get a kick out of campaigns that tell us not to believe in God, but then tell us to be good. I'm wondering where exactly, do they base their idea of "good?" ... read more

One of the reasons for the polarized culture in America is marketing. Marketing and branding are about finding target audiences. It's about the niche. Searching for the niche is a good marketing tool, but even when it's applied well, it's about dividing, not unifying. The ultimate result is in politics - where political messages are being targeted to particular groups within the culture. Much of those messages point out the differences between groups in an effort to ... read more

Brand expert Simon Williams says "Brands that influence culture sell more; culture is the new catalyst for growth." The concept of changing culture is hot. Look at Google - it's revolutionizing the way we work online - both personally and corporately. There's also a rush for brands to be green and help the environment. Those brands are getting a lot of buzz right now. Right or wrong, the perception of impacting culture adds an important layer to your credibility. The perception is that PC's are for bland business people, while Apple is for culture shapers and creators. What are you doing to impact culture? Whatever it is, you need to be talking about it. ... read more

Branding Faith is just out, but now I need your help sharing the message. Here's the top 10 reasons this is a critical message for anyone concerned about being heard in today's media-driven culture:

1) When researchers tell us that we're being bombarded with as many as 3,000 advertising messages a day, more Christians need to understand the power of the media and how it impacts our lives.

2) Pastors teach or preach in services for 1-2 hours per week. But in a nation where the average family watches TV and surfs the web 5-7 hours per day - who has the most influence?

3) At a time when Nike, Starbucks, or Apple tell the best stories, how do we re-capture the ability to share the story of our faith with the culture? ... read more

Here's my column in Ministry Today magazine about branding churches and non-profits. I'd love to hear your thoughts. ... read more

I've gotten some good questions about the recent addition of ads on the blog, so I thought I would share my thinking. To be honest, it's a complete experiment. The Google Adsense model is so interesting to me - the way it filters advertising content based on the content of the site. However, it does have problems, and we get the occasional dating service, or strange and inappropriate advertisements. But I'm not going to drop it yet. We're tweaking the filters, to see how accurate we can make it. Also, we're trying to tweak the layout, so the look doesn't detract too much from the visual flow of the blog itself. But as always, ... read more

Last week, I had an interesting experience in the Dallas airport that made me realize just how much everyone in your organization needs to live your brand. I've always been fascinated by Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, not only for his vision, but the way he designed the stores as a 3rd place (after home and work). The design, attributes, and products in a typical store were carefully developed, and his desire to reflect a great coffee experience is notable. But last week, I was reminded that with thousands of employees, just how hard it must be for Starbucks (and other big companies) to train employees to live out the brand on a day to day basis. ... read more

With the upcoming release of my new book, and the more I study branding as it relates to non-profits, churches, and ministries, the more I'm drawn back to religion itself. Over and over, branding experts point to religious faith as the template for real branding. Here's a few interesting insights from Martin Lindstrom on the religious context of branding. I'd be curious about your thoughts on the issue... ... read more

Let's talk a bit about the "Self-Reliance" campaign by Indian casinos across the country. If you're from a state that doesn't have them, then you won't understand. But here in California, we're inundated with TV commercials that don't promote casinos or gambling - they promote Native American "self-reliance." I'm all for self-reliance, and I'm all for Native Americans. But as a media strategist, I have to hand it to the creative person who came up with the idea of cloaking gambling in a positive moral attribute. You're not losing money, your helping an entire race become self-reliant. From a marketing perspective, that's genius. Moral hooey perhaps, but genius. ... read more

Michael Boerner at iQuestions shared an interesting chart with me recently on how Nielsen Media Research tracks the impact of internet advertising. It's a "visibility map" and I've attached it as a .pdf to this post. The chart reveals that the prime time viewing audience for TV is evening hours between 7-10pm (nothing new there). Likewise, the radio prime time is early morning drive time, and slowly falls off over the course of the day. But the internet brings a different perspective altogether. The internet "prime time" creates a ... read more

While teaching in Moscow, Russia a few years ago, I watched a block of religious programming on a European TV channel in my hotel. I was surprised to find that of about 6 programs I viewed, only one had done anything related to local customization. In other words, the program open and close, structure, and even commercial spots were the exact same as the program that had been broadcast in Cleveland or Tulsa. It goes without saying that ... read more

The Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge, TN, continues it's very expensive advertising campaign, promoting their petition "standing up" for Jesus Christ. The AP estimated their original USA Today full page ad cost nearly $100,000, and today while I traveled through Ohio, another ad appeared. At least today's ad was more of a statement, rather than an attempt to sell tickets, as I commented on in my earlier post. I appreciate their boldness and their desire to honor God. The question (as it nearly always is on this blog) is one of strategy. ... read more

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.
-- Anais Nin

As a commercial director and media consultant in Hollywood, perception is my business. I deal in the visual world of products and people, and how they are perceived by the viewing audience. Today, in a media-saturated culture, perception is the currency of choice. Public relations has become an art form as celebrities, politicians, and companies confront the need to impact and control public opinion, and the issue of perception has become a critical part of advertising campaigns, press releases, and public statements. ... read more