Never a Lack of Ideas

On each of the previous three Halloweens, I've posted my list of the best brands in the United States ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 ). This Halloween, I'm switching it up a bit: I'm publishing a four-part series of my favorite advertising campaigns of all time. Over the next three days, I'll post my favorite: Print campaign TV campaign Digital campaign Integrated campaign Part 1: My Favorite Print Ads In the 1990s, I fell in love with the Absolut Vodka ads I would see in our family's subscription to Sports Illustrated. They were simultaneously beautiful and witty. They inspired me to study marketing and graphic design, and ultimately choose to make this my profession. It turns out I'm not the only one who loves these ads. There are several fan sites devoted to Absolut print ads. My favorite is AbsolutAd.com . I've spent a lot of time browsing on the site and I never get bored. The site takes me back to when I was a kid, dreaming of the advertising i...

Since writing my book and delivering my TEDx talk , several people have reached out to me and asked a variation of the same question: "What's the most important thing to do in marketing?" They're looking for marketing's Golden Rule. Well, the answer is actually very simple: Create a product or service that is so awesome everyone will want to tell his or her friends about it. "But that doesn't have anything to do with marketing" is a typical response. Actually, it does. Product features are a critical part of marketing (in fact, "product" is one of the traditional marketing 4 Ps). A slick marketing campaign and great packaging can't fix everything in the long term. Sure, you can quickly sell a lot of a bad product or service if you pour a bunch of money into marketing communication, but in the long term, people will figure it out and tell their friends how bad your product is.  Buyer Beware I love infomercials. Seriously. I watc...