http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com Braving the demons of the deep in search of great copy Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:38:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've blogged about this particular piece of film genius before, but I recently came across a brilliant video mash-up of all Ned Ryerson's scenes.  And what's so great about this video, beyond the fact that it's hysterical, is that it highlights the beauty of set-ups and pay-offs -- a dramatic ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2012/02/happy-belated-groundhog-day/ It's easy, even fashionable, to be anti-creativity in advertising. Who doesn't want to slam on the idea of award winning ads that don't sell anything? And in an online world dominated by Direct Response, reason-why advertising, creative, "branding" ads often do seem utterly indulgent wastes. But for all that, creativity remains important. ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2012/02/winning-the-battle-for-the-short-list/ In a bid to increase my sporadic blogging from a once a week with occasional breaks schedule to a twice a week schedule, I've decided to create two new columns: 1) Practical Tactical Tuesday 2) Theory Thursday I'm aiming for an interesting theoretical post each Thursday, followed up by perhaps a case study ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2012/02/new-columns-theory-thursday-practical-tactical-tuesday/ I recently came across this fascinating post about Apple Marketing principles, as articulated by Apple circa 1977.  Here they are: Now, as a marketer, the Empathy and Focus parts are second nature -- at least in terms of understanding.  Putting them into practice every day is harder stuff, but any copywriter ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2012/01/two-kinds-of-quality/ Kindness and Professionalism -- that's what great customer service boils down to, according to my colleague Tim Miles. And while Tim has drilled down to discover the 7 elements in small business Kindness and Professionalism (which you should consider a must-read), for me the real genius is in his general formula ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2012/01/the-opposite-of-adding-insult-to-injury/ Just did a rather enjoyable interview with my friend and colleague, Dave Young over at BrandingBlog.com, wherein we discussed one of my favorite topics: Magical Thinking. If you're new to the blog, here are a few of my previous posts on the topic: One Tough Mother's Magical Advertising Secret Magical Thinking and McDonald's A ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2011/12/magical-thinking/ Paul Wolfe was kind enough to nominate me for this "contest" and, in an effort not to let him down, I've produced the following rin response to the 7 questions / categories of links: Your most beautiful post While I hesitate to call any of my posts beautiful (as none of the ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2011/11/7-posts-for-paul/ Ever wonder what happened to Avis's "We're No. 2" campaign? I always assumed Avis foolishly dropped it out of boredom. Some brand manager wanted to put his "mark" on things and foolishly killed the goose that was laying golden eggs. But that's not nearly as interesting as what really happened... See, a ... http://www.jeffsextonwrites.com/2011/11/answering-a-competitors-killer-campaign/