Jaffe Juice

Congratulations GM....you now have officially hit the bottom of the barrel

Not even 24 hours after you announce you're filing for bankruptcy protection, essentially swindling countless shareholders and creditors out of obscene amount of money and leaving thousands upon thousands of employees, dealers, partners etc SOL....you give us this:

Reinvention? That's what you're calling it?

We're not witnessing the end of the American car, we're witnessing the rebirth of the American car????!!!!!??????

This is not about going out of business, this is about getting down to business????!!!!!??????

...because the only chapter we're focused on is Chapter 1????!!!!!??????

WTF????!!!!!?????? Somebody deserves a real hefty bitch-slap.

My only questions are as follows:

1. Exactly HOW LONG has this spot been in the hopper?
2. When did this get briefed?
3. Did Deutsch and McCann get paid upfront or are they on the list of Creditors?
4. Who did you use for the voice over and did HE get paid? I'll bet it wasn't some dude in the mail department.
5. Could you not have waited....oh....a week....a month.....6 months to let some of the pain subside before you insulted us with your rah-rah-rah, the best is yet to come crap
6. When will you learn that advertising is not the answer....especially during times where cathartic healing needs to take place via honest (let's be completely honest sounds like "who farted?"), authentic, transparent and open dialogue.

Whilst I totally get Eric Hirshberg, Deutsch's CCO/co-President's perspective that it's important to convince (read: prove to) skeptical consumers that it's ok/safe/sound to buy from a bankrupt company, this is done by earning back trust, demonstrating commitment and staying power and proving to them that once and for all, GM has/is/will change for the better.

Ugggh. Seriously. Ugggh.

If you haven't written a book, you can't work at crayon

A while back (January to be precise), I posted that if you don't blog, you can't work at crayon.

For the most part, I don't think this was a particularly provocative statement at all.

In fact, I believe that blogging is a bare minimum in terms of demonstrating both a baseline understanding of the space and being able to apply this in first-hand, practical terms.

Whilst some people argued that Twitter should count as a blogging equivalent, I largely ignored them as twits.

Well now I'd like to up the stakes and take this to the next level. And so with that said, here's the new bar: if you aren't a published author, you can't work at crayon (and a book on Twitter doesn't count)

Whilst it might sound elitest and a tad snobby, it's too bad. That's the way it is. To be a crayonista, you need to be a prolific thought leader and to prove it, you need to be a published author. Anything else is just fooling yourself into believing you're better than you actually are.

I'm kidding of course (kind of).

The real reason for this post is to congratulate fellow crayonista and our Chief Strategy Officer, Greg Verdino on his own book deal. Greg is writing a book on microMARKETING and his book is slated to be released in Q2 of 2010. My third book is due out in Q1 of 2010 so it's going to be a busy first half of 2010 for crayon!

Here's a little blurb of Greg's book to arouse your curiosity:

Enter micromarketing – a new approach to building brands, marketing products and services, and growing meaningful long-term customer (and corporate) value.  Micromarketing emphasizes relationships over reach, interactions over interruption, and the network effect over the broadcast network.  It is built upon the premise that the “next big thing” is really lots and lots of small things, and that to survive and thrive, even the biggest marketers must think and act small (make that “micro”), too. 

Congratulations Greg....welcome to the author's club. I'll pass on the secret handshake, codewords and underground meeting schedule when I see you next.  

Kudo's to Boone Oakley

Finally, an agency gets it right.

Now whilst I'm still not a fan of any company (Skittles, Modernista) completely ceding their digital presence to a surrogate/substitute e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia or Twitter, I think Boone Oakley did a terrific job with this expression of their passion for producing 30-second spots :)

I say that tongue-in-cheek of course, because they've chosen video (much like I've done with JJTV) to demonstrate that they understand how to best use new media to tell an old story so to speak.

Specifically, they're showing their understanding of non-linear storytelling brought to life through YouTube annotations and hyperlinks. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, give Boone Oakley a call...they deserve the shot to teach an old dog (you), new tricks.

It remains to be seen whether this agency actually is a cut above its competitors, BUT they've certainly been able to get their proverbial feet in the door, make their pitch (independence over conglomerendence) and I'll bet that you spent more than 30-seconds being entertained by (gasp) a sales pitch.

Quite lovely. Well done, lads and ladesses.

JJTV #17 - The good, bad and ugly of iPhone Apps

MLB hit it out the park with this iPhone app. Babyshaker on the other hand, did not. On a third hand, interesting implications with respect to Apple's one-sided and subjective selection and curation policy.

Spread the word:

• Tell Bud Selig, your friends, co-workers, clients and colleagues
• Tweet or RT: JJTV #17 - The good, bad and ugly of iPhone Apps - http://bit.ly/7j7AD
• Subscribe to the show via iTunes or YouTube 
• Post a video response