By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

Caught your eye when I used the word “secret,” didn’t I? It works on me every time. The mere mention of “Secret things you don’t know about mortgages but should” and I’m clicking all over the place, devouring these promised secrets left and right. I’m not even in the market to buy a house but I do like to be in the know about, well, pretty much whatever you can throw at me, as long as you tout it as privileged information.

Food trucks capitalize on this eagerness to be in on the secret. Grant McCracken’s article on food trucks and marketing points out that “the thrill of the chase” can cause people to actively track down food trucks:

“Food trucks are good at managing scarcity. Kogi Korean BBQ makes itself hard to find. There is the delicious sense that the meal we are eating is just possibly a meal we might never have a chance to eat again…Treasure this meal because you may never see this truck again!”

Twitter pages help, and they also contribute to the sense of mystery that comes with being on a scavenger hunt—”Where can I find my favorite truck today?” The concept of scarcity as a selling tool is not new, but food trucks use the intriguing method of creating their own scarcity. It is worth noting that the food actually has to be decent in order to cause a demand which exceeds the supply, but the challenge of pursuing a meal on wheels is half the fun. It’s certainly more fun than sitting in a restaurant waiting for the coaster to light up after half an hour, but the end result is the same—a feeling of triumph when you are next in line.

If you are suffering from the same old marketing tactics and could use a change of pace, try the food truck method of marketing by adding a little mystery—and, if possible, a little scarcity—to your product. Oh, and it might not hurt to play “Pop Goes the Weasel” over a small PA, but I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Happy Friday, stay out of the hurricane!

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry

I recently had a very interesting conversation with someone outside the ad industry about the show Mad Men, who thought the characters on the show were “slick” – and not in a nice way, and that this womanizing, slimy, heavy-drinking persona was a reflection of the ad world today. Basically ad men and women are perceived as professional liars. Pay us enough money, and we’ll craft a campaign that can sell snow to an Eskimo. After all, in one Mad Men episode the lead character, Creative Director Don Draper, turned against the cigarette companies, but only after they fired him. I was reminded of the time when I was a young copywriter with a big New York agency and the Creative Director forced everyone in the agency to work on a cigarette account over the weekend. I was anti-smoking, but my immediate boss, an Associate Creative Director, was a former smoker who HATED cigarettes and nearly quit that weekend. He told me I could come up with any cigarette ad I wanted. So I did layouts featuring Fred Astaire in a tux, smoking a cigarette. The headline read, “You’re going to die anyway. Why not have some fun?” The concept was thrown into the mix to show the creative director, and somehow I stayed employed.

What isn’t well-known outside our industry is that outright lying is typically forbidden. So a range of techniques are used by the big ad shops to convey a perception without stating an untruth. For example, a headline for a brand of soap reads, “The soap for women who are sensitive about their skin.” The soap may offer absolutely no extra benefits for skin that’s sensitive. But if you are sensitive about your skin, you’ll want to buy it. No wonder our industry has a bad rap. For the most part, it’s deserved. And it’s one of the reasons I’m thrilled, and very lucky, to have my own agency, a company that’s smaller than the huge shops on purpose, allowing us to only take on clients we really believe in – whether they’re in renewable energy like First Wind, or sexy hybrid electric sports cars like the Fisker Karma. And here’s the best part: when you’re always telling the whole truth about a product that’s actually good for the world, the work is better. And it feels good to come into the office every day. Although, in truth, there are days I wish I had Don Draper’s hair.

By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

Sometimes great marketing ideas crop up in the unlikeliest of places. Surprise! I’m referring to Kim Kardashian. Bet you weren’t expecting that one! Now some of you might be saying, “Who?” but I’m guessing most of you responded to that name by letting out an audible groan. Yes, Kim Kardashian, magazine cover-poser and…wait, why is she famous again? Oh right, something about a reality TV show. So what makes us remember ol’ Kimmy when so many other reality TV stars quickly drop out of the public consciousness? Marianne Bickle for Forbes thinks it has to do with four rather clever marketing attributes that small businesses can all use. To be honest Bickle, you caught my interest when you put “Kim Kardashian” and “learn” in the same sentence. Bickle outlines the following key points:

1—Exposure. Simple enough, and no, the author is not referring to a sex tape. Get out there and get seen! Consumers can’t forget you if they can’t avoid you, even if they don’t read People magazine.

2—Control, aka making friends and influencing people. It is important for your professional life just like it is important for your social life.

3—Leaving people wanting more. All Apple has to do is announce that they will have an announcement at a later date and people start salivating weeks ahead of time.

4—Creativity. Sometimes this means taking risks and sometimes it simply means doing something you haven’t already done before.

That’s how a flash in the pan reality star becomes a household name with staying power, and it all comes down to good marketing. Kate Gosselin, are you getting all this?

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry


It’s 1:00 in the morning and you’re watching an old episode of Battlestar Galactica, when a commercial comes on for pizza. The cheesy meaty yummy pizza seems to fill the entire screen, and before the thought itself can form into words YOU WANT THAT PIZZA. But then another side of you, the angel on your right shoulder, says in a very sensible voice, “But Ted, you just ate half an hour ago. Do you really need that pizza?” This primordial battle is repeated billions of times all over the world at any given moment. Well, it turns out this “weighing of decisions” is built into our mental hardwiring, and it’s one of the reasons why the field of artificial intelligence has moved a lot slower than most scientists had hoped for – according to David Eagleman, author of the best-selling book Incognito. Eagleman postulates that scientists set out to create robots that arrived at the best decisions, using a fairly linear and singular approach. But the human brain, comprised of competing centers of intelligence (some emotion-based, some reason-based) is a committee that often doesn’t agree – at least not right away. So ideas are constantly being pushed around, reshaped, and judged through a fairly complex decision-making process, a process that’s extremely hard to emulate using even the most powerful computers. In other words, the disagreements that arise inside our own minds are what leads us to ultimately be smarter. For marketers, this means we have to remember to speak to the whole internal committee inside each person we’re trying to reach, connecting with what we typically call the “head and the heart.” This is a no-brainer for companies selling pizza – they just show us a really yummy pizza, and tell us it’s available now for only $6.95. It’s like dangling a treat in front of a puppy. But too many B2B marketers in particular rely strictly on reason to sell their products, forgetting emotions and gut-level desire entirely. An ad for a data storage device, for example, might talk about how reliable the system is. Ok, so what? There are lots of reliable systems out there. A better approach would be to balance the reliability message with emotions: the IT manager will become a hero to her fellow employees – and the CEO – because the new system saved their data, and their butts. That’s an approach that will work. Because, after all, we’re not computers. We’re people. And we want the damn pizza.

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend and the dancing whale!

By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

In the past year, CBS has implemented an ad buy program called EcoAd that reserves 10% of the sponsorship money “to fund environmental-improvement efforts at the local level.” Sponsors’ products receive a visual cue from a green leaf logo, which is attached to the ads.

A handful of environmental advocacy groups expressed concern that consumers will interpret these ads as touting the environmental awareness of advertisers themselves, thus misleading those consumers. Personally, I can see the validity of both sides. Maybe the less media-literate among us will think that BP (for example) is the most eco-friendly company around when they see that little green leaf on BP’s ads, but I’ll give most everyone else the benefit of the doubt and assume that your average consumer will see through a company that is merely trying to improve how it is perceived by the public. All I know for sure is that if Ed Begley, Jr. is on board with this campaign, it clearly has some solid green credentials. If that man were any greener, he’d need to be watered twice a day. Keep up the good work, Mr. Begley!

What do you think? Is the EcoAd concept greenwashing, or is it a good first step towards a truly greener tomorrow?

By Alex McKee, Captains of Industry

I don’t know about you but I’ve had my eye on the digital scene in Denver for the past few years. Those guys are turning our some the most cutting edge and creative campaigns that the ad world has seen in quite some time. And the cool thing is…most of those shops are TINY. We’re talking lean and mean operations composed of hyper-creative people who all want to make a mark on the advertising world!

Recently, the city of Denver hosted the AdAge Small Agency Conference and of course this piqued our interest here at Captains. One of the shops I respect most (Karsh \ Hagan) was in attendance and their very own Rachael Donaldson has shared some of her key takeaways in an article recently. It’s a quick read and I mention it because of something she said…

Small agency’s advantages lie in their ability to be flexible, fast and unencumbered by overly processed protocols.

This phrase keeps resonating in my mind. It is this kind of real value that small shops deliver to clients on a daily basis. Too often clients make the mistake of believing that bigger is better when it comes to their agency. It’s up to small agencies everywhere to correct the misconception. I have always embraced the philosophy of “the quick and the dead.” And when was the last time anyone described the legendary Goliath as quick? I mean he put on one helluva show but the guy lost the battle. In the end it was the innovative, nimble, and determined David that brought home the victory. Corporations of the world might do well to remember this analogy.

Another added advantage (alliteration aside) of being a small shop is the culture that percolates and ferments when you get a close group of super-talented folks together to attack client problems. The result is usually a bunch of ultra-driven personalities building on each other’s best ideas until the most creative and innovative solution prevails. In this environment good enough is never enough…in fact, GOOD ENOUGH SUCKS.

So take pride in being a small agency – or hiring one. ‘Cause every so often, being smaller is better.

By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

John Suart recently blogged about how non-profits can’t rely on advertising anymore. While we here at Captains agree with him, we would take it a step further to declare that traditional advertising isn’t just failing non-profits; it is falling by the wayside in general.

Suart, a former creative leader at an ad agency, argues in his blog post:

“In today’s world of advertising you need to go big or go home. The days of doing an ad here or there are over. The days of advertising being cheap are over.”

While we agree that you do need to go big or go home, we disagree that this idea translates directly to dollars and cents. Sure, there are plenty of advertising campaigns that succeeded, at least partially because a bunch of money was thrown at them, i.e., Apple’s 1984 spot during the Super Bowl of that year. However, money doesn’t guarantee success, as the campaigns for New Coke and McDonald’s Arch Deluxe proved. But Suart is forgetting that there are plenty of small-budget campaigns that managed to create big-budget buzz, like the guerilla marketing campaign for The Blair Witch Project which claimed the film was a documentary. Clearly, money isn’t the only factor to consider.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: You don’t need a big agency, you need a big idea. That applies to non-profits, for-profits, upside-down and backwards-profits. Any child can tell you a little imagination goes a long way, so stop thinking, “How much is this going to cost me?” and start thinking, “How good is this idea?”

By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

Sometimes a solution for one problem can inadvertently alleviate another problem. And when that same solution can help improve the quality of individual lives as well as cause a ripple effect throughout society, you’d be a fool not to embrace the solution, right? So what is this solution, you ask? Changing your diet. Now before you start groaning and reaching for another cheese puff, just hear me out please.

Earlier this summer, first lady Michelle Obama introduced a brand new way to look at what’s on our plates. MyPlate is a stripped-down visual of the ideal meal. While I will miss the adorable bread graphics from the now-obsolete food pyramid (I mean c’mon, for cartoon bread wasn’t it cuddly?), I must admit that MyPlate does a better job of keeping me aware of what I put on my plate every single time I put something on my plate.

So when is a meal more than nourishment (or empty calories, as the case may be)? When it affects the environment, of course! In addition to improving your health, the new MyPlate guidelines can help you to improve the health of our atmosphere. The foods Americans aren’t eating enough of—fruits and vegetables—have smaller carbon footprints than the foods we should be eating in moderation, like red meat. Buying local produce helps reduce this footprint even more, and it supports local farmers as well.

Add to all this the fact that the bulk of food-related ads airing during children’s programming still tout sugary, fatty foods, and, as with any diet, the pressure to cheat can be immense. Children do have an uncanny way of getting what they want, and if Little Johnny sees an ad for Sugar Nuggets, which causes him to plead for Sugar Nuggets and eventually get Sugar Nuggets, then Little Johnny’s parents might be eating Sugar Nuggets too. As with any other habit change, willpower and goal-setting are crucial. If you really need some extra help, you can sign the Environmental Working Group’s petition to have Meatless Mondays and follow through by marking your progress on your calendar. I do!

By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry

It’s an all too familiar story: boy goes to college. Boy realizes college is expensive. Boy starts online advertising business to help pay for college. But in the case of one Arizona university student studying computer information systems, setting yourself apart from the competition doesn’t mean grandiose claims about quality of your product or even the promise of unbeatable service. Nay, in Tyler Ross’ case it means guaranteeing service through the end of the world—literally.

Unless you’ve been using some very unconventional methods for keeping time (and we here at Captains would love to hear about them if you are), you’ve probably heard the doomsday predictions for the date of 12/21/12. Do not fear; the Pyramid of Pixels FAQ page states that one of the site’s functions is “to provide a unique virtual piece of history to display the websites that have survived the supposed terrors of December 21, 2012.” Remember Y2K? So does Ross. As it so happens, instead of being all doom and gloom about, well, doomsday, he opted for the glass-half-full approach and decided to see opportunity instead of the possible end of life on earth as we know it.

The brilliant part about a strategy like this is that there is absolutely no way for your customers to be disappointed. If the world doesn’t end, Ross made good on his guarantee. If the world does end, well, then you don’t really need advertising any more, do you? Worst-case scenario, the world sort of ends, like in a zombie apocalypse—the human race still exists, but the outlook is grim, what with the hordes of living dead to fight and all. I guess in that situation Ross (and his lawyers) better have a really solid definition of “doomsday” prepared.

In a similar business model, if the Rapture happens in this lifetime (which may or may not include 12/22/12 and beyond), believers who have not already made accommodations for their pets may want to do so. There is a team of atheists ready and willing to care for pets of the devout under just such a circumstance. While some might say this is one of the most ridiculous things they’ve ever heard of, I would respond by directing those naysayers to the “more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract.” As the saying goes, there’s a market for everything out there. While Eternal Earth-Bound Pets probably doesn’t have any competition, I have to say that Pyramid of Pixels is doing a fantastic job of standing out in a crowd.