Advertising and Marketing Blog

You Don't Know Jacques!

Posted on 04/30/2010, by Jenn McLean

So it's always been somewhat entertaining to me how colors get their names...from the paint on the walls of our homes to the paint colors I chose for my nails.

"You Don't Know Jacques!" is my new favorite nail color from OPI...(I'm sure a lot of our female readers are nodding and "mmmm hmmm"-ing right now.)

So who is the person that sits around and comes up with these names? And where did they go to college and for what? And what's the philosophy behind the names? They aren't always relevant to the color itself. They don't evoke specific emotions. They're just superfluous and fun, right? Which is why whenever I find a new favorite color I can't wait to squint at the small type on the bottom of the bottle to read the new and ingenious name it bears.

This article was a fun read on how it's done and, as it turns out, there is a process to it, read it here.

Some other personal favorites are:

"Lincoln Park After Dark"...my go-to color all last winter.

"Ballet Slippers"...the safe, feminine color for weddings and stuff.

"Basket Case"...discovered last summer on the toes of a fabulous friend who later got me my very own bottle as a little treat. Thanks, Noey!

"e-nuff is e-nuff"...a hot color, to be sure...but what gives with the odd spelling? Am I missing something?

"Lady Godiva"...looks just like it sounds, in this case!

"Mini-How High"...huh? who talks like that?

So am I the only one who has ever wondered about this name game? I know I love it when I find "that color" I've been looking for and can't help but smile when another girl asks me "Hey, I love that nail color! What is it?"

It's always kinda fun to give the answer...even if someone else (whoever that is) came up with it first.

Colorfully yours,

“Jenn Mac”

Can U Writ Gud?

Posted on 04/26/2010, by DMC

O.K. it literally almost killed me to write the title of this post. Bad grammar and misspelled words are like nails on a chalkboard to me. Does it take me twice as long as the average bear to compose a text message? Yup. But you won’t find me using ‘4’ instead of ‘for’ or the like. And, as a new report out of Marketing Lure conjectures, it could not only hurt your personal rep, but might cost you business as well.

To give you a quick peek: “Printed company literature is most likely to influence both opinions and behavior. Fifty‐seven percent of the survey participants expect perfection, and will eliminate a prospective company if a print brochure contains one writing error” (p. 4). Bam. When was the last time you proofed your company’s collateral? How much would it suck to see your big prospect walk away because your copywriter was drinking and forgot the difference between they’re and their? Just a thought - many times companies get focused on the forest and forget all about the trees. The details most certainly matter.

-g.d.

You can download and read the full report here.

What kind of TV show are you?

Posted on 04/12/2010, by DMC

I know, sounds like one of those silly, “if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be” type of questions. Oak if you must know. But what I’m really talking about is the changing landscape of how we measure the performance of a website and its content. We recently attended the Search Engine Strategies 2010 conference and expo and heard a great keynote by David Meerman Scott about some of the new rules for marketing and PR. While Mr. Scott covered a number of topics I was intrigued by his assertion that distribution and syndication are becoming more important than on-page media data for SEO purposes.

You’re probably working very hard to make sure there is fresh, new content on your Web site. And while for many organizations it can be a tough exercise to come up with content you feel happy about week in and week out (I share your concern). Don’t let all that content wither and die from living only on your blog page. Adding distribution and syndication channels to your content can have a dramatic impact on your organic SEO results. Think of all these channels are referral engines, recommending your site and content to an ever expanding audience. Some examples include:

Twitter – Are your blog posts automatically feeding your Twitter account?
Facebook – Fan pages are great ways to build referral traffic as well as thought leadership on issues surrounding your company/products.
RSS feed – Hopefully you allow people to subscribe to your blog. FeedBurner is our method of choice here.
YouTube – Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd most used search engine? Think about that and then re-evaluate how important video is to your brand.
Your own site – Are you promoting new content on your own site? I’m just saying...

Just getting a website up and running is not enough in such a competitive environment. As the bar continues to get raised support the foundational on-page SEO work with distribution and syndication channels that delivers referral traffic and a greater voice for your content.

So what show are you? Studio 60 by the Sunset Strip (what a potentially great show and how disappointing what they did with it) or MASH?

A Blank Page

Posted on 04/01/2010, by Jenn McLean

Jenn here...creative director and partner.

A blank page...a fresh start....a new beginning for our rising new agency, DAVIEMCLEAN.

And to think of where this all started for me...as an art student in Richmond, VA. not knowing where this quest for my degree might take me, I wandered through the first year of art school doing all the basics...from drawing nude models to taking art history...all in an effort to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up...to choose my “track,” as they called it.

It was here where I stumbled upon my very first typography class...(cue the light bulb in Jenn’s head!). This was great!...right up my obsessive/compulsive alley...the meticulous study of beautiful typographic characters and how they could be arranged on a blank page...to say something relevant and relay the right message with the right take-away. So many nuances and details play a huge role in how this happens each time a page is effectively designed. Call it “OCD with purpose!”

Then began my study of communication arts. I vividly remember taking a class (no clue what it was called) about how the eye travels throughout a printed page....and, more interesting to me, WHY it did. Why the subtle placement of things could literally force someone’s eye to focus on certain things, in a certain order, to provoke a desired emotion or leave a memorable message in someone’s mind. The thing we are all inundated with every day...advertising!

It’s here where the love affair began. This was what I was destined to do. I loved it and it loved me back. Got the perfect job right after college at a tiny little agency in Richmond. It was there I met my boss and now dear friend and mentor, John, who taught me the ropes. He carved a very challenging job that asked things of me way that were well beyond my experience. But that was how and where I learned to be the agency partner I am today. (Thanks, John!)

And the beat went on...many years at this first agency, tearfully leaving to find a new job and a new life in Baltimore with my new husband...another blank page.

A few more career choices, and valuable lessons learned landed me in my own home office...cherry-picking clients and building my own small agency. (oh, and had a few kids, too.)

Made another life-long friend during this period who excelled at pushing me to make good creative solutions great...to trust in my ability to find the “coolness factor,” as we’ve coined it. He’s now our writer, Jeff, and my creative better-half who I can’t imagine working without.

And then there’s Dan....Davie. The left side of my career brain that many of us creatives never seem to find. He and I began doing a few freelance things together and discovered a synergy that lots of people in my industry spend their entire careers looking for. And we thought to ourselves, “Hey!...this calls for a blank page!”

And we owned it!

Decided to hell with the campy agency naming-game and with one big “GULP!”, we put our names on the door, as they say. Not because of egos (Thank God!) but in an effort to, no matter how naive, try and remain timeless and nimble…to stay true to the value of “great advertising at all costs” that got us here.

So we are casting our net far and wide looking for hungry clients confident enough to enlist an agency to help them fill the blank pages that competing in business today demands. It’s a brave, new, (largely blank) world out there.

Bring it on!

"Jenn Mac”