VerveCast

Here’s a great blog post for creatives about the “you’ll get great exposure” line. We’ve all been handed this line. Someone wants you to work for cheap, or for free, and explains that the exposure you get from the project will make up for the lack of money.

This is the important bit:

You cannot eat exposure, nor pay your rent with it, nor buy health insurance with it, nor put it in an exposure bank for a rainy day. You need money for all of that. That is the trade – you trade your time and work for the client’s money. You both need something from the other. Exposure can be a byproduct of this transaction, but it should NEVER be the basis for it.

As always, you can choose who you work for, and how much you charge them (or don’t charge them) but getting paid in “exposure” will only get you so far. If you want to do work for exposure, it should be on your own terms.

(And that illustration above? It was done by Scott Benson, the (awesome) artist who wrote the post, and deserves all the exposure he’ll get from this post. :)

Hat tip to Paul for this one.

There’s a great post over The Society Pages that highlights a Molson Beer campaign that created two different ads, one aimed towards men, and another aimed towards women.

Above is an ad for Molson that ran in Cosmo magazine… obviously targeted towards women.

And below is an ad for Molson that ran in Playboy magazine, obviously targeted towards men.

There’s nothing wrong with running multiple ads geared towards different audiences, but the ad for men explains how the ad for women was “scientifically formulated to enhance their perception of men who drink Molson.”

At one level, it’s amusing, especially if you work in the advertising or marketing industry…

But on another level, it’s a little disturbing and insulting, to both men and women.

What I find interesting is that this campaign ran about 8 years ago. That’s not too long ago, but I wondered how many people would have seen an article on the web about such a campaign 8 years ago versus today.

And even more interesting is the divergence of comments on the piece.

I was lucky enough to spend all of last week on vacation in beautiful Puerto Rico… and it was amazing. Although Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, the primary language spoken/written there is Spanish. Due to the number of tourists, however, there also is a lot of “Spanglish” used, which is always entertaining.

While there I noticed a few examples of advertising that didn’t quite hit the mark. The photo below is of a Burger King billboard. Although it has the correct BK logo in the lower, left-hand corner, the main copy on the sign reads, “Burger Ring.” There were dozens of these signs lining the highway.

The first example could have just been a proofing error, but this next one was definitely intentional. Walking around Old San Juan we came across a jewelry store whose sign boasted “Pre-Owned Stale Jewelry.” Not quite sure what they were trying to portray through that choice of words.

Here are a couple more shots from my trip, just for fun.

Fort in Old San Juan.

Snorkeling stop.

View from the rainforest.

Remember the old days, when Amazon sold books? Well, you may not, depending on your age and/or how long you’ve been using the web. Amazon.com launched in 1994.

Amazon has become known as “the world’s largest online retailer” thanks to expanding from their book-selling days into the “sell almost anything” days. While typical consumers might know they sell goods online (including their own tablets) plenty of techies know they also sell server space, computers in the cloud, and plenty of other business oriented services and systems.

To say Amazon has branched out over the years would be an understatement.

Going back to the early years, this recent article titled 6 Things Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made Amazon a Gorilla gives some insight into how they got where they are.

Here’s the list:

1. When you have a window of opportunity, go for the jugular – even if you have to exhaust a huge number of resources.
2. Think long-term meaning 5 – 7 years, not 5 – 7 months.
3. Long-term market share is more important than short-term profits because without long-term market share there will be no long-term profits.
4. It’s ok to make mistakes but it’s not ok to be timid.
5. Obsess over Customers.
6. Be first in a big market.

See the full interview with Bezos for more.

A wise person once told me, “use your power for good”. There is always someone who is less fortunate than you and always someone who could use your help.

A new project by eBay is helping celebrities do exactly that. The auction site has long been known for being the place to go to get celebrity paraphernalia. Now, eBay Celebrity is a section on the site to get your favorite pieces from the stars and the proceeds all go to the celebrity’s favorite charity instead of some collectors pocket. Things such as a meet and greet and charity dinner with Brad Pitt or a leather jacket from Sienna Miller can all be found in this charity arena. Instead of bidding on something that you are unsure is authentic, you can be guaranteed that it’s coming straight from your celebrity idol.

Other than the obvious benefit to the charities, this also was a great move on eBay’s part to better their business and a great move for the celebrities so that they can control what is being auctioned under their name. A fake on the Internet isn’t as easy to spot as it is in real life. The celebrities can now guarantee that the piece that is representing them is authentic and will satisfy their fans. eBay has seen a huge improvement in searches that include celebrity names. Justin Bieber has seen a 107% increase in searches on eBay. Because eBay is seeing increase in collateral sales, they are not taking any percentage from the celebrity auction house.

It’s great to see a win (celebrity), win (eBay), win (fan) come out of such a great project!