The Sweetspot » dreams

Stalelife Day @ Comiskey a BIG win.

Joe Doyle — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:54:59 +0000

OK, OK, it’s actually U.S. Cellular Field, but to those who grew up in the old park, it’ll always be Comiskey.

15 people took the day to celebrate a year of smart marketing and advertising with our crew. It was a good mixture of clients, cohorts and friends. We even saw a SOX 13-8 winner over the Pirates.

Good thing the SOX got that winning idea out of their system before the weekend Cubs series.

See you next year!

We met near the statue dedicated to the 2005 World Champs!

A new Stalelife tradition – wish organist Nancy Faust
a good game for good luck.

All eyes were on the board in the 3rd. Woot!

No doubt Kurt and Matt were discussing the finer points of editing video.
Matt’s recent creations all feature his newborn son, Rylan.

What a good looking crew. Missing a couple of folks from the
full roster in this one.

Stuck with driving duties…thanks, Sid!

We put it on the White Sox scoreboard, but here is
actual proof – our clients rock!

Keepin’ it fresh.

Joe Doyle — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:55:20 +0000

We sometimes hear our fellow AD-men complain that it’s hard to consistently come up with new ideas. But in DM what works is leveraging proven ideas and turning them on their side.

Like this one that came to Stalelife Austin:

It’s a news clipping in an OE with a Post-it note – not exactly new tactics.

Combined, however, is a different story. Especially when you add no sign of a return address, a unique handwriting font, a full-priced stamp and no printed barcode – suddenly this resembles the articles that Aunt Suzie mails.

We passed this one around, trying to figure out who sent it. “Who calls me Joseph? And lives in Santa Clara? What is this all about?”

In all, we held onto the package for a good three or four minutes – beating the pants off the known DM readership of two seconds.

Right out of the gate, a win. Sure the match mailing will cost a little more, but something tells us that the cost is recovered in new accounts for Grande.

Think fresh while looking through your samples – there’s a new idea in there somewhere.

Speaking of ideas generators, our friend Robert at Adomatica recently received the same mail and blogged about it, too. Great minds… His blog is a good source for industry news and quips.

I too have a dream

kurt.p — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:14:33 +0000

Growing up, I knew from an early age that I wanted to do something with art. Throughout my time in High School, I took all sorts of art classes, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and drawing. Sometime my senior year, I can upon the realization that I wanted to be a Graphic Designer. It was a combination of the two studies of my life (art and computers) and I could make a good living doing so. I had my dream set.

I would start college with my sights on one thing, getting into the design program at University of Central Florida. Which was a small and somewhat elite program to get into. (At the time, they only let 48 students a year in the program.) Once in the program, I loved it. Every facet of design I craved…type, color, composition, balance, form…I couldn’t get enough of it. I also love reading about the agencies and their philosophies about design. That sparked another dream, “to someday own my own agency.”

Which brings us to today. All of my dreams are here. I have my own successful agency with one of my closest friends and I love doing it. But as I reflect on my dreams here on Martin Luther King Day, I must pay homage to him because he just didn’t dream for himself. He dreamt for us all, no matter who you were. He inspired us all to not just achieve our dreams but to rise above them and evolve into a better person, a better world. He gave humanity one of our greatest assets…hope.

And for that, we thank you Dr. King.