Placement Project Drawing: A Grand Prize Worth Cage Fighting a Grizzly For

Wouldn't it be nice to know exactly what you were doing wrong at interviews? To get instant feedback from the source, instead of calling your friends after interviews to do a blow-by-blow and speculative analysis on whether or not you'll get the job and if not, why?

We've all been there. Prepped and ready for the interview of a lifetime, we think we nailed it, but as a couple days, then a week, then two weeks go by with no call back, the questions creep in... Was it what I wore? Is it my qualifications? Did I answer that question the wrong way? Did I ask for too much money? Did I not sell myself well?

Well for one lucky winner...the days of endless self-doubt and post-interview flagellation are OVER!

In addition to being privy to some super-insightful insider information on personal branding and the art of getting hired, Placement Project attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a drawing for the aforementioned JobSeeker Holy Grail of Preparation Awesomeness.

All you have to do is register to attend The Placement Project at www.forwardama.com, grab your booth passport when you check in, visit all of our sponsor booths for a stamp during Joint Networking with Forward '09: Brandologie, and enter to win:

• 1 hr Personal Branding Consultation with Lynette Xanders, Placement Project Panel Moderator and Founder/CEO of Wild Alchemy
• 1 hr. Online Personal Optimization Consultation with Kent Lewis, Placement Project Keynote and CEO of Anvil Media
• 30 Mins. Mock Interview/30 Mins. Candid Feedback with Matt LeBlanc, Placement Project Panelist and Branch Director of FILTER
• 30 Mins. Mock Interview/30 Mins. Candid Feedback with Gordy Seeley, Placement Project Panelist and Creative Services Manager at Razorfish
• 30 Mins. Mock Interview/30 Mins. Candid Feedback with Ben Elkin, Placement Project Panelist and Talent Acquisition Manager at Nike
• 30 Mins. Mock Interview/30 Mins. Candid Feedback with Jenny Livermon, Placement Project Panelist and Recruiter, Enterprise Staffing at Starbucks

I told you it was worth Cage fighting for!

So, go to www.forwardama.com and register, otherwise, you may have to do this (below) and nobody wants that...

NYT: keep people shopping with "it's new" strategy

In the advertising section of today's New York Times, Stuart Elliott reports that companies like General Mills are churning out new products to pique people's interest and keep them shopping rather than saving or going without.

What about our local food companies, like Dagoba, Kettle Foods, Bob's Red Mill and Reser's?  What strategies are these companies (and their respective marketing and/or PR agencies) employing to keep sales up?  If you're a local food company, or have one as a client, please share your strategies and/or "wins" in these recessionary times via the comments section.

Read the full article.

"Don't judge too quickly. We won't."

You may recall a couple of these spots if you watched the Super Bowl this year, but you may not remember (before this post) what brand was associated with the spot.

David, the brand manager from the ThirdWay Advertising Blog, who reviewed the two spots aired during the Super Bowl, didn't seem to think it hit the mark.  He uses the IAG National Consumer Survey to validate his opinion.  The survey, which, according to his post, "[shows] both spots on the top 10 list for 'Most Liked' but neither on the top 10 list for 'Most Recalled,' for which the measure is recall of the brand name."  So yes, in his narrow view, these commercials might be a humorous, yet ineffective, bit of branding.  

But he forgot to widen his scope to include the YouTube factor.  

As of 5:56 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, YouTube had 68 results for "don't judge too quickly commercials," a phrase that populated itself after "don't judge too."  The second search result has had almost 1.7 million views.  And I found out about these spots from an email forwarded to me from a person that had received it as a forward.

The spots aren't where Ameriquest missed the mark.  Here's where they fumbled the proverbial ball:

• There's no Ameriquest channel on YouTube for them to host the conversations that are happening on the Internets; and
• The company's Web site looks like a glorified "parked" site.  The header even lists the site as being "hosted for free by GoDaddy."  Lame.

Final word: commercials are worth wasting a few minutes to watch (click play below), but Ameriquest's overall brand strategy blows.

Want to watch other funny commercials?  Check out Funny Place: the funny side of advertising at funnyplace.org.  They also include print ads on their site.  The only standard, as far as I can tell, is that the ad (in whatever medium) has to be funny.