Archives for 2010
The Demise of Stock Photography
Access to cheap images has improved dramatically with the rise of the web, and consequently, the web (and marketing in general) has become cluttered with low-quality images. How'd this happen?
Marketing to and from PDX subcultures.
Last year, I had the honor of serving on the board of directors for the Oregon chapter of the American Marketing Association in the role of the Programs Chair. Over the course of the year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with speakers for our luncheons that represented unique Portland subcultures – ranging from cycling [...]
Get on your bike – September is the BTA Bike Commute Challenge month!
Bicycle Transportation Alliance Bike Commute Challenge Website: www.bikecommutechallenge.com Tell someone that you are a full time bicycle commuter of almost 6 years and you will get two responses – shock, followed by a laundry list of reasons why they can’t bike commute…even though they wish they could. Oh, and the random third response is, “have you [...]
Remembering Matthew Simmons
Since I moved to the West Coast, even my sleepiest Texas friends are up before I am. And so it was that I awoke on the morning of Monday, August 9 to a disturbingly short email: “Apparently, Matt Simmons is dead.” Messages from other friends arrived throughout the day, a mixture of shock, sadness and [...]
Stuff I Learned From a Yard Sale
About every 10 years my wife and I decide to simplify our life and expunge our household of “valued treasures” by means of the ubiquitous yard sale. Now I’m the guy that keeps everything (I have every letter when we dated, just about every birthday and father’s day card from my 3 daughters, lots of [...]
What Adobe CS6 Should Be- One Modular Application.
What’s the worst thing about Adobe’s CS suites as a whole? In my opinion, it’s 10+ different RAM hungry behemoths, sometimes with a great amount of overlap in functionality. Need to encode a video? You should use Media Encoder. But you’ll need to fix the aspect ratio (or some other menial, yet complex, task). Then you [...]
Summertime in Portland, Oregon.
Summertime in Portland, Oregon is always beautiful. The amazing weather inspires people to become active in all sorts of social activities. There are softball leagues (I play the PAF league for ACME), the adult Soap Box Derby on Mt. Tabor, Oregon Brewers festival, Pickathon, Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, The Rose Festival and The Bite of [...]
B2B iPAD Apps: Trends and Tips for Successful Projects
I’ve been impressed with how many CEOs, CMOs and CIOs became early adopters of the iPad. Here are some things I am hearing from the C-Suite: I use the iPad for remote desktop access. It is lighter and has better battery life than a notebook. We are designing product demos on tablet computers for our sales staff to [...]
How to Target the Gluten-Free Customer
Some people eat to live, while others live to eat. I fall into the latter category, so naturally the switch to a gluten-free diet was a difficult transition for me. After struggling with stomach aches for years, a holistic doctor finally diagnosed me with gluten intolerance. Although this diet restriction presents a few challenges when [...]
When Products Become Part of the Problem.
Throughout history, millions of products have been created…and millions of products have failed. Some of the most recent that come to mind are: Coca Cola’s New Coke, McDonald’s Arch Deluxe Burger and the DeLorean Motor Company. New Coke failed because there was nothing wrong with the original. The Arch Deluxe Burger failed because adults weren’t interested [...]
The Communication Challenge
On the Bachelor Pad, my current trash-TV guilty pleasure, they won’t divulge the age of contestant Gwen Gioia. So the first thing I did was whip out my iPhone to find the information myself (disappointingly my sources revealed a range from 40 to 60). I’ve had a smart phone for over a year now and [...]
Don’t get in the Way of your Customers
A very savvy client of mine forwarded an article by Matt Dixon and Lara Ponomareff about how consumers, if given the choice, would prefer to take care of their own service needs rather than engage with your company. An example of this could be using self-service kiosk at the airport rather than the friendly person [...]
Are We Ready for the Digital High School?
Is the US system ready for a digital high school? Has the effectiveness of the traditonal brick-and-mortar come to an end? I think a virtual high school plan may be the solution for overcrowded, underfunded school districts, and breathe a spark of excitement back into the educational system.
The Tao of Pop Art: Part Two
Surviving Innovation: Development Strategies for Emerging Technology When I arrived at Pop Art in April, the team was hard at work on a campaign for the Oregon State Lottery. Megamillionizer.com is unique – a 3D interactive experience that combines augmented reality, community participation and social sharing to create awareness and engagement for the Lottery’s newest game, MegaMillions®. The campaign [...]
What I’ve learned from my 9 lb bundle of joy…my wiener dog…
In December I welcomed a miniature dachshund into my life. I grew up with dachshunds…Fritz I, Fritz II and Fritz III… it was only natural I stick with the breed I’d come to know and adore. Dachshunds are extremely loving, stubborn and adventurous. They may be short, but they are not to be underestimated. I had [...]
A Few Lessons Learned from Food Bloggers – Part 1
If you know a thing or two about me, you probably know that I am a culinary junkie. I spend a huge amount of my time reading about food, watching food-related videos and shows, walking around kitchen stores, and as you probably guessed, I do my share of cooking and eating as well. So when clients [...]
How My Favorite Places Use Social Media, or Should
As a newbie to Portland, I have truly enjoyed discovering all that this great city has to offer. There are many ways to learn about local restaurants, activities, events, and volunteer opportunities. In addition to suggestions from coworkers, neighbors, and friends, I have used social media to discover new places and to stay up-do-date with [...]
The Importance of Speed
Lately, I’ve been enjoying Violetta’s newly opened cafe in Director Park here in downtown Portland. The tuna sandwich with mint has become one of my weekly lunch staples and their sweet potato fries are the things dreams are made of. Adding to the yummy—Violetta uses local “in season” vegetables and northwest sourced meats. The win-win [...]
Practice Constructive Conflict = Have a Better Life
Throughout life each of us develops a personal repertoire of responses to conflict. These responses don’t get much of our attention because we develop them over a lifetime and ultimately we take them for granted, much like our emotional responses. But just as we feel various emotions on a daily basis, we also encounter conflicts in all areas of our lives each and every day.
Be Creative and Collaborative with “Yes, and…”
Accepting an offer is usually accompanied by adding a new offer, often building on the earlier one. This is a process improvisers refer to as "Yes, And..." and is considered the cornerstone of improvisational technique. Every new piece of information added helps the improvisers to refine their characters and progress the action of the scene
iPhones are now “Officialy uncool”: Why I bought one, why I love it, predictions on Android v. iOS
Author’s note: I activated my new iPhone4 this week. Why I needed a new iPhone: My Microsoft Windows Smart Phone was over 3 years old, and I desperately needed a new one. I wanted to quickly surf the Net from any location. Lots of girls only date guys with iPhones – the iPhone shows that you are both smart and [...]
Websites with Linger
Two years ago, my wife and I took an amazing trip to Northeast France and Belgium. We spent four days in Bruges, which is maybe Europe’s most picturesque town. Bruges is home to some of Belgium’s best beer destinations, including several amazing beer bars, beer-themed restaurants and a brewery museum that showcases Belgian brewing circa [...]
Get Involved!
Giving back. Giving forward. Giving to create a ripple. Giving to create an echo. Giving because it’s the right thing to do. These are reasons I volunteer. Within the handful of ways that volunteering is positioned, it is often an act that is very personal. Therefore, the views, reasoning and motivators to do so, vary widely. [...]
MEMOIRS OF THE NEW GUY
My name is Glenn Scott…and I am “the new guy”. I have been at Pop Art for a little over a month now and the experience of integrating into this smiley and talented team has been wonderful. In my experience, there are a few key things that an employer, current employees and a new employee [...]
We Want A Redesign!
These were the words chanted through the Pop Art halls in mid 2009. And even though our latest iteration of our website had only been up for a little over a year, we had already grown tired of passively watching and waiting for the homepage “river” design to flow out a particular article or [...]
