Atomic Ideas - Helping You Sell More Stuff!

"If you come to a fork in the road..."

In this hectic, crazy, out-of-control world we live in today, isn’t it great that the World Series is back. Why? Because it’s something we can make sense out of. The timing is good for this age-old tradition of baseball to let us escape from the current irrational world of mud-slinging politics and other mindless stuff. It restores a bit of humanity. Just a bit -

As the 2010 World Series begins, here are some inspirational words from some well-known players, writers and thinkers on our great American pastime. - If we could just get them to help us sell stuff.

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“I called off his players’ names as they came marching up the steps behind him. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys finish last.” -Leo Durocher, 1946, casual remark at a practice in the presence of a number of journalists.

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” -Yogi Berra  

“You don’t save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain.” -Leo Durocher, 1965.

“We made too many wrong mistakes.” -Yogi Berra 

“He could throw a lamb chop past a wolf.”  -Westbrook Pegler, on Lefty Grove, 1894-1969: Baseballs Greatest Quotations, 1991

“The future ain't what it used to be” -Yogi Berra

“I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly decided they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a few days to correct that impression. -Casey Stengel

“It ain't the heat, it's the humility.” -Yogi Berra 

“He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.” -Yogi Berra 

 “Ninety feet between bases is perhaps as close as man ever come to perfection.” -Red Smith

“Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.” -Yogi Berra

“I'm glad I don't play anymore. I could never learn all those handshakes” -Phil Rizutto

“In baseball, you don't know nothin'.” -Yogi Berra

“Good pitching always stops good hitting and vice versa.” -Yogi Berra

“It's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and the old-timer's game.” -Vin Scully

"The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely.” -Ted Williams

“So I'm ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face.” -Yogi Berra

“We was going to get you a birthday cake, but we figured you'd drop it.” -Casey Stengel to Marv Throneberry

“Anyone with talent can play in the Major Leagues; for someone like me to stay around as long as I did, I think that's a much greater achievement.” -Bob Uecker

“Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run.” -Branch Rickey

“Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.” -Yogi Berra

“A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.” -David Ogilvy

“In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept destructive criticism. Without 100 percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.” -Willy Mays

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” -Yogi Berra

“Aw, who gib a damn.” -Willie “Pops” Stargell responding to an audio engineer’s direction during a radio commercial recording after the 1979 World Series.

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”  -Yogi Berra

With thanks and credit to: BrainyQuote.com, Sports Quotations by Carlo DeVito, and The Oxford Essential Quotations Dictionary

 

Blog, blog, blah, blah, blah....

 
It's Monday, a tough day for thinkers everywhere. So where do lazy thinkers go for ideas for their blog? They google "blog ideas" and up pops no less than 380,000,000 articles with titles like "101 Blog Ideas", "13 Great Blog Ideas," "100 Blog Writing Ideas." 

I thought a blog was about getting vital information across, or expressing a burning opinion. But in this information age, I guess a Blog is just about reshaping and repackaging information that's already out there. Some of it, as much as 380,000,000 times!

(And yes, I just googled "Blog Cartoon" to find this, er, blog cartoon)

 

What is there to say about Mondays (without using the word "hate")?

What is there to say about everyone's least favorite day of the week? Thanks to ThinkExist.com, here are a few quotes. (Like Mondays themselves, occasionally you find a good one).

“On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.”

 H. Allen Smith quotes (American Writer, 1906-1976)

I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they started at 6:30.”

 Groucho Marx quote (American Comedian, Actor and Singer, 1890-1977)\

“Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code”

 Dan Salomon quotes

 

“MONDAY, n. In Christian countries, the day after the baseball game.”

 Ambrose Bierce quotes (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)

 

“Your idea of bliss is to wake up on a Monday morning knowing you haven't a single engagement for the entire week. You are cradled in a white paper cocoon tied up with typewriter ribbon.”

 Edna Ferber quotes (American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright 1887-1968)

 

“I always give 100% at work:

13% Monday

22% Tuesday

26% Wednesday

35% Thursday

4% Friday”

The Making of Old Spice

My friend, Brad Smith sent me this You Tube video the other day.

It’s a video about the making of an Old Spice commercial that aired some time during the recent Super Bowl.

It’s a great example of how things magically get done on television. And it also shows us a little about the creative team that was responsible for this spot, something we don’t often see. 

The complete commercial is also included on the video in its entirety.

Take a look.

A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To The Blog

Most days you can count on the Atomic Ideas  blog to provide unique insights and useful information on selling stuff, advertising strategy, creative issues, social media, marketing truths, ROI, SEO, CEO, etc. etc. Today however, is not one of those days. 

Being a typical friday in the middle of a typical bad economy, I thought we could all use a laugh. So...

The Best Jokes in the World  

(as compiled by GQ magazine and reprinted here courtesy of InnocentEnglish.com)

Okay, so it’s impossible to objectively choose the funniest jokes ever. Although there was a scientific study on the topic, which produced these jokes as the funniest jokes in the world. The list below was compiled with imput from several comedians, and first appeared in GQ magazine. These were selected as the funniest jokes in the world, the best jokes of all time, by these comedians.

 

I failed my driver’s test. The guy asked me “what do you do at a red light?” I said, I don’t know… look around, listen to the radio… (Bill Braudis).

 

China has a population of a billion people. One billion. That means even if you’re a one in a million kind of guy, there are still a thousand others exactly like you. (A. Whitney Brown)

 

If I ever have twins, I’d use one for parts. (Steven Wright)

 

A lawyer dies and goes to Heaven. “There must be some mistake,” the lawyer argues. “I’m too young to die. I’m only fifty five.” “Fifty five?” says Saint Peter. “No, according to out calculations, you’re eighty two.” “How’s you get that?” the lawyer asks. Answers St. Peter: “We added up your time sheets.”

 

Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it’s worse when you see them wearing dark glasses, having streamers around their necks and a hat on their antlers. Because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot. (Ellen Degeneres)

 

Two campers are hiking in the woods when one is bitten on the rear end by a rattlesnake. “I’ll go into town for a doctor,” the other says. He runs ten miles to a small town and finds the town’s only doctor, who is delivering a baby. “I can’t leave,” the doctor says. ‘But here’s what to do. Take a knife, cut a little X where the bite is, suck out the poison and spit it on the ground.” The guy ruins back to his friend, who is in agony. ‘What did the doctor say?” the victim asks. “He says you’re gonna die.”

 

My wife and I took out life insurance policies on each other — so now it’s just a waiting game. (Bill Dwyer)

 

I can’t think of anything worse after a night of drinking than waking up next to someone and not being able to remember their name, or how you met, or why they’re dead. (Laura Kightlinger)

 

Mario Andretti has retired from race car driving. That’s a good thing. He’s getting old. He ran his entire last race with his left blinker on. (Jon Stewart)

 

After 12 years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes.. He said, “No hablo ingles.” (Ronnie Shakes)

 

Two Irish guys are fishing. The first guy reels in his line and sees that he’s snagged an old bottle. As he’s taking it off the hook, a genie pops out and promises to grant him one wish. “Turn the lake into beer,” he says. The genie goes “Poof!” and the lake turns into beer. He says to the other guy, “So what do you think?” The other guy says, “You jerk. Now we’ve got to piss in the boat.”

 

A Catholic teenager goes to confession, and after confessing to an affair with a girl is told by the priest that he can’t be forgiven unless he reveals who the girl is. “I promised not to tell!” he says. “Was it Mary Patricia, the butcher’s daughter?” the preist asks. “No, and I said I wouldn’t tell.” “Was it Mary Elizabeth, the printer’s daughter?” “No, and I still won’t tell!” ‘Was it Mary Francis, the baker’s daughter?” “No,” says the boy. ‘Well, son,” says the priest, “I have no choice but to excommunicate you for six months.” Outside, the boy’s friends ask what happened. “Well,” he says, “I got six months, but three good leads.”

 

I bought a box of animal crackers and it said on it “Do not eat if seal is broken.” So I opened up the box, and sure enough… (Brian Kiley)

Social Media: A Cure For Bad Breath?

Evidently, yes! 

OraBrush does a great job marketing their tongue scraper with entertaining YouTube Videos. They satisfy the three major requirements of successful social media campaigns. 1. They solve a problem (or fill a need) for their target audience. 2. They talk to their best potential customers in a way they can relate to - humor.  3. They are entertaining (or compelling) enough to be forwarded to others. 

Below is just one of the OraBrush videos that can be found on YouTube, on the OraBrush Web site and on OraBrush's FaceBook page. Wow, who would have thought that people would become FaceBook fans of a toothbrush company?

Drunken Monkeys

When marketing anything, you need to do research in order to understand your best potential customers. What never ceases to amaze, is the sheer amount of information that's out there. 

In searching for background info for an adult beverage product, this video popped up. While it didn't yield much in the way of marketing insights, it did generate a lot of ideas for creative execution.

Black n' Blue Friday

Seems just about every retailer  has a "Black Friday" sale.  "Black Friday" sales are definately the "hot" marketing tactic. 

In fact, I even saw a TV commercial for Maaco for their "Black Friday" sale. Seems you can save big on every paint service they offer until Saturday at noon. The problem is, I saw the commercial at 11:12 pm Saturday night. 

Not only have they wasted their money by not utilizing this "hot" tactic correctly, but now I actually have a lower opinion of them. If they can't get their advertising right, what else will they mess up? My paint job?

It's the same with marketers and the "hot" tactic of social marketing. Done incorrectly, companies at best lose their window of opportunity for influencing consumers at the proper point in the buying cycle, and at worst, they risk converting a neutral attitude to their product or service, into a negative one. 

I got nothing

 What do bloggers do when they get writer's block? They surf the web, they check out you-tube. Anything to get an idea to spout about. I like the good old days when something important happened or there was a burning issue that needed to be ranted about first -- then it got an article written about it. But many bloggers, myself included, feel compelled to write a blog on a regular basis -- important issue or not.  Something to do with rankings in the blogosphere, people counting on it, etc.

I, for instance, have just completed a big assignment, there is no big issue weighing on my mind, and I have just had a big meal and am feeling quite content. The last thing I want to do is rant. So here I am blogging just to keep a tenuous rank in the blogoshphere. Does anyone else feel the same way? (Because of course, getting people to comment on a blog or answer a question is another way to boost the rating).

Well, that's all I have to say on the subject. Which isn't much. But you pretty much knew that from the title.