The other day, my boss sent around the following ad with the simple request: “Please help me understand this ad.” What's the story? Admittedly, the ad isn’t great. It’s busy, small, and looks slightly cheap. I understand it’s for either a scanner or a shredder at first glance, but that’s about all I can decipher. Here’s how I responded: The message here is simple. Basically,...

There’s no time for introductions, class is in session. How often do you review your work? How thorough of a review process do you do? What do you do for usability testing? How do you find bugs? How many different browsers, comps, systems, monitors, etc. do you use? Do you re-read your copy aloud, do you pass it off to someone else? Nature Valley didn’t, and now they’re stuck with this: On...

Sorry I’ve been a bit incognito on this lil’ marketing blog lately. As you may have heard, I accepted an offer from 10e20 to be their Director of Social Media. Since then, I’ve gone through the standard “new kid on the block” stuff (minus the comeback tour and Hangin’ Tough encore) getting settled into my new role and returning to the World of the Employed. I’ve written...

I don’t know who to feel more sorry for… the people who created this ad banner or the people who have clicked it. UPDATE:  Here’s another advertising FAIL. I’ve only seen screen captures of this one, so I don’t know if it’s a real ad.

Yesterday Jason and I went into a non-Apple store to look at iPhones. The mobile department manager was there to answer some questions we had, and in the span of a few short minutes she succeeded in immediately leaving a negative impression. Below are 6 ways you, much like the salesperson we talked to, can alienate a potential client or customer. Think of it as a handy “what not to do” list the next...