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To Write, You Must Fall In Love … With Words
The words in the heart above were made with love. And love was one of the favorite words selected as their favorite by some of my friends. When I put a call out on Facebook for people to tell me what their favorite word was, I received 67 responses. Not too bad for a quick poll as summer began to wind down. As I promised my Facebook friends who participated, their words made it into this blog post which I will share with my students next week. Some words are more powerful than others; words help us truly define things we want to express or clarify; and when stringing words…
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How to Put A Book Campaign Together: A Writer’s Life Tackling Book Promotion
*** Below you will find the entire social media advertising campaign that I’ve been sharing bit-by-bit on Facebook and Instagram. I’m sharing the whole campaign here in one place. (I’m going to do the same with the 22 teaser ads I created–one for each short story from The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry). This […]
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It’s All About Love
* * * One of the things I’ve had to come to grips with lately is that if you have created something that is independently yours, whether it’s in the role of author of a book, director of an indie film, or maker of lovely art, you will always be working, always promoting. Additionally, you have to believe that you are your own brand and must act as the innovator, marketer, branding expert, and salesperson of the work you have created. That’s a lot of responsibility to put on one mere person who probably can’t afford to do this craft without another full-time job or source of other income. So…
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What The Mouse Knows
Disney. It sells happiness. It sells magic. It sells families. It sells memories. We were discussing Disney today during our first class of Advertising this semester. Our topic was “positioning.” How does one position a company? How does one position himself? Positioning began as a phrase and notion that came along in the 1970s by a pair of marketing and advertising gurus name Al Ries and Jack Trout. Together, they wrote the book my classes use as their text entitled: “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.” Despite the fact that this book has aged, the concept the two developed of positioning has stuck. Companies position their brands; celebrities position themselves;…
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Humor & Drama In Advertising
It’s that time of the year at our university…students are about to make their advertising pitches today through next week as we wrap up the semester. I’ve shown them a lot of ads over the course of the semester, and they’ve liked some of the older ads as well as some of the newer ones. Today, I’m featuring some of their favorites. The old Pets.com ad… Nike’s Find Your Greatness ad… Google’s Parisian Love ad… The old Mercedes Benz ad… Thank You, Moms ad, by P & G from last summer’s Olympics… The Three Little Pigs, from The Guardian, UK
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Pride of the … Teacher (not Yankees)
The last few weeks I have been watching my students step it up. From making public relations crisis communication plans in public relations class to making pitches in advertising, they have come a long way over the course of the semester. When you witness their growth as they go into high drive and succeed at real-world application exercises, there’s a sense of pride that comes with it. I think to myself these thoughts: I taught them how to do it, but even greater, they learned from it. In the magazine writing class, we’ve put our magazine online. It’s only the second semester we’ve taken it to a new level and…
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Why I Write, Part III, The Finale
One of my favorite authors is Kate DiCamillo. She writes beautiful, lyrical stories that you generally find in the young adult section of book stores. Her stories are somewhat mystical, and despite that her stories are geared to children through young teens, I believe they are wonderful stories for all ages. I recently watched a video of her where she was talking about becoming a writer. She mentions that she walked around for 10 years wearing the uniform of a writer—a black turtleneck and jeans—saying she was going to be a writer, but she never did anything about it. Then, she said, she got off her duff and wrote her…
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Five Hump Day Hilarities
First: Last night I watched the parody from Saturday Night Live during the news segment with “Ray Lewis.” Honestly, I was crying I was laughing so hard. It’s just good, funny stuff as the Ravens are in the spotlight this week as they head to the Super Bowl. Baltimore is a happy town. http://www.hulu.com/watch/450058 Second: As my husband works in advertising sales, and I teach an advertising class at Stevenson, I couldn’t help but show my students the ad my husband sent over. It’s so cute and makes you laugh. I thought I’d share it with you…check it below. Third: I don’t know about you, but when I go to…
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Positioning Yourself & Your Work
In 1972, two guys name Al Ries and Jack Trout collaborated on a series of articles for Advertising Age. The articles were about positioning: positioning a company or a brand in advertising. Now, 41 years later, the term “positioning” still holds true and is a buzzword among media creatives. The question? How can we get a consumer to pay attention to us in this, as Ries and Trout call it, a highly “over-communicated society.” Their question is even more viable today as it was in 1972. We are inundated by messages all day long. Think about it: We see ads on Facebook, Twitter, on television and radio, billboards, bus signs,…
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Thoughts on Teaching & The Spring Semester
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots. ~ Thurgood Marshall This year’s winter break has been a short one. I’m still getting my ducks in order and readying myself for the spring semester. It never feels daunting to me, but rather like a breath of fresh air…spring air. Even though it’s January and we won’t see the likes of flowers blooming and making it feel spring-like anytime soon, last year is over, and we’re in a state of…
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BENEATH THE MIMOSA TREE Available for iPad…and more…at Smashwords
Just when you thought the marketing of my novel was over…now I’ve formatted it for the iPad and others. I’m still chugging along. Summer may be coming to an end, but I’m still attempting to get more readers. Perhaps you’re sick of reality TV and would love and hunker down with a contemporary romance… Michael’s and Annabelle’s stories may not be that different from your own…see the trailer below for more about my novel. 5-Star review, Readers Favorite & Finalist for Contemporary Romance. If you have an iPad, now you can purchase BENEATH THE MIMOSA TREE from Smashwords. It’s properly formatted for the iPad, and is also available in PDF…
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Super Bowl Ads and, Yes, A Little Romance in Advertising Class.
Today in advertising class, we discussed the upcoming onslaught of Super Bowl advertisements, and one new ad in particular that’s already out there for consumption, the new Honda CRV commercial that features Matthew Broderick. The ad harkens back to Broderick’s character as Ferris Bueller in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” only now he’s Matthew Broderick, screen actor, who is middle-aged and needs a day off. Needless to say, because Ferris was iconic during my younger days, I adore this ad. It’s clever, but not over-the-top-crazy. I’ve always enjoyed Broderick’s sense of humor—not to mention that he seems like a pretty nice guy. My husband ran into him on the streets of…
