Fuze Blog | © Bryan Landaburu (aka Willie Vega) | Reno-Sparks-Nevada Blogger

How Much Information Can We Retain?

 

Starting to realize that I am reaching information overload. Its a fine line because I love to research and just "know" what's going on. Not just about my work, but my interests, travel, finances, passions, and of course there's always the enjoyment of simply being entertained.

Tonight after a couple [few] months of pile up (literally), I decided to organize my back-reading stock of magazines. See photo. At current count I subscribe to 48 magazines, 10 of which are weekly's. I realized after organizing them into piles that I am at a minimum 2 months behind on every publication. This means in most cases I am still reading about holiday shopping in the issue I am on.

This little project got me thinking...how much information can one person retain? I mean if I take all these magazines and then add the RSS feeds, blogs, websites, emails, etc, I shutter to think how many things I am requiring my brain to wrap around. I've always had a propensity for remembering things and a quest to know everything, but I think my current state borders on information addiction. Anyone else suffering from similar?

Well, I better get going on these mags, 48 mags x 3 months = 144 issues to burn through on their way to the landfill (errr recycler).

BL

(a treo post...sorry for the typos)   

A Tale Of Two Dennis' - American Greed Body Double

Boy oh boy, this has nothing to do with marketing.  As always, I have my CNBC running background in my office here all day and this afternoon I caught the first episode of their new docu-series American Greed featuring the STELLAR Dennis Kozlowski who stole millions from his company ($30Mil for his NYC pad, $1mil for his wife's 40th b-day party, etc.).  As I watched this guys rediculousness, I started to realize how much he looks like Northern Nevada's own pimp, turned business mogul, a one Mr. Dennis Hof. My friends, I think we have a body double on our hands:

   

Both named Dennis, both rich, both love women and hookers, yet, here is an interesting epiphany for the world: Nevada's most famous PIMP, owner and proprietor of the "world famous" Moonlight Bunny Ranch, is a better guy all around than the former CEO of the Tyco corporation.

Yes, I will be taking credit as the first one to put this sexy pair together.  Ohhh sweet irony...

BL

More Email Superbad - EDAWN

Sorry I have to be the police on this but another poorly crafted email hit my inbox today, this time from my friends at EDAWN.  Here are some issues:

• Message renders illegible in Outlook2007, no option to view online.
• No identity/branding/logo that shows who this is from or what it's about.
• My sweet hot-pink box below represents what the typical "preview" area is in most mail clients.  As you can see in this case, that entire area is blank.

I dont mean to bash EDAWN, we are members so I am very receptive to, and interested in all their emails and events.  This series is a mess.

I get off on these rants sometimes because things come in waves.  Last year it was mobile phones, this year so far, email.  Alas.

Hopefully EDAWN will get it sorted out and then i can give them some McLovin.

BL

Candidate for worst practice email from MediaBistro

Yes, MediaBistro, real advertising folks, who usually say they want ads like this...

...because nobody reads. Today, sent one of the worst emails I have seen in a while. Here is their RevolvingDoor newsletter for March, in all its glory:

It almost looks like Teddy KGB sent this straight from the Kremlin.  MediaBistro really must GYST on these emails.  I am actually interested in MediaBistro info, and their events, but who, including myself would take the time to digest this fatty meal?  Always lessons to be learned, even with the pros.

BL

Fuze Icon Borrowed [stolen]

This morning my desk was graced with the presence of the Northern Nevada Addy Awards Program.  As I leafed through it, I noticed my prediction was correct that the great Walker Lake advertising swept pretty much every category from ads, to copy, to photography, to web, to eblast, to bathroom stall art, etc. While I don't really "get" the premise of the ads, they are in fact, lovely. Congrats to R&R. 

As I continued turning pages I came across a program ad that sure got MY attention.  Seems the Bauserman Group has paid their friends at Fuze an homage in the form of "bomb" advertising (as depicted below):

This simply MUST have been an oversight, right? Oh well, after 5 years, we're kind of tired of that bomb so if you guys want it, hell, keep it.

Sorry I missed the Addy's this year, I bet it was a hootenanny.  Alas, there was a re-run of Deal or No Deal on Friday night. Boy, I love that Howie Mandel.

BL

Much Like Ed McMahon offline, Hi-Def Marketing solves all my problems[?] online

Received this unsolicited email today.  To wit I am compelled to answer, yes, yes and more yes:

Subject:  Your Website!

Dear Bryan,

Would you like to increase your website traffic & sales?. Your website is strong but maybe not enough people are seeing it. Give us a chance to do a free site consultation and we will show you how better search engine placement could increase your bottom line. Your site analysis will include detailed information on the best key words for your business. There are no strings and no hard sales pitch.

Email me today at georgiahudson@gmail.com for your free review.

Sincerely,

Georgia Hudson
Hi-Def Marketing

Powered by: Google - AOL - AltaVista - MSN - Yahoo!
--- Only valid for

usa

websites ---

Looks like I just qualified since I own a "strong" and "usa" website. My guess is that some [many] people still believe this nonsense and respond. If these folks had a key to the top of search, they would be beating leads off with a stick.  But the reality remains, there is no fast track to the front of the line (with the exception of opening your wallet and buying ads on Google, Yahoo, Live, etc.).

Alas...anyone have any good fried SPAM recipes?

BL

If you like Twitter, You'll Love Twhirl

So i admit that i really was skeptical on Twitter at first, i didn't get it.  Now that i have guzzled the Kool-Aid, I really enjoy using it.  That said, i find the twitter site cumbersome and and i cant always punch out SMS on my tiny little keys.  What to do?  On my Mac's there is a cool little application (similar to IM) called Twitteriffic, that works great but when i get back on my main computers, there hasn't been anything for Windows that is similar.  Until now.

I will talk about the one i have found to be the BEST cross platform Twitter tool to fuel your micro-blogging lifestyle.  Its called Twhirl.  One geeky-cool thing is that its powered by Adobe Air which makes it pretty cutting edge.  It is infinitely customizable, and makes tweet'ing a breeze.

If youre an outlook 2007 user, you may also like OutTwit, which is an Outlook plug in that puts a twitter feed right into your inbox.  I like it too but for something all around, Twhirl. is a winner.  See Mac geeks, there is cool stuff for Windows PC's too!

Try it. You'll like it. And, if you want to follow my boring life, visit:  twitter.com/fuze

Talk amongst yourselves.

BL

Airline musings. March edition.

Things are a little hectic around the Fuze camp. Primarily because I have been jetsetting like a madman. I just realized I am sitting across from David LaPlante from Twelve Horses on this flight. It was nice to catch up a bit since we've been trying for months to schedule a meal together. Anyway, I am heading out now on my 3rd venture to San Diego in 6 weeks. Lots going on down here. I am nearing speaking paralysis these days. I haven't done a slide count but I believe I have prepared about 200+ Powerpoint slides for various events in the last few weeks. I just wrapped up at SMX West and the Miva Developers conferences last week. This week is NFRA. See other posts for show wrapups.

The hive is buzzin with things to do. I think Calder and I (mostly Calder) have done an excellent job of positioning ourselves within the ad space in northern nevada which is keeping him, dan and the other artists plenty busy. David is hangin tough on the interactive side and is really becoming loved by the clients. Our development crew's plate is pretty full for the remainder of the quarter and our pipeline also looks good. That seems to be common among my peers in the space as well. Things seem steady on the web side. We've expanded our relationships and service offering with our email marketing providers, commerce platforms, testing platforms, and our analytics providers, further strengthening a line up that was already pretty strong. My charter remains to continue to cart our course to a diverse client mix that is industry & geo balanced. So far so good. We have also revamped our client review and project management processes to be much more systematic. We have formalized all our internal procedures - many of which were just in need of evolution vs. revolution. So anna our agency coordinator has her work cut out in order to keep all of us on track. We have added media strategy and media buying to our business, out of necessity mainly, but Fong is very capably manning that ship. Finally we have extended our services even further by adding full-service Public Relations through our partnership with RKPR who are helping us win, and manage these great new, and existing accounts.

We added the following new clients in Q1:

• Clearstar Credit Union - agency of record
• Magiko Carson Valley - agency of record
• NNDA (the other white meat in the Econ.Dev space) - agency of record
• Reno Tahoe Blues Fest - agency of record
• Lazaro SoHo - for email marketing
• Food Bank of Northern Nevada - interactive agency
• Cashill Law - agency of record
• True Blue Gaming - agency of record
• The Gaming Standards Association - agency of record
• Legends Reno Tahoe Open - while not a new client, we have formalized our relationship with the tournament and will take on all interactive Agency tasks in 2008
• Titan Construction Supply - agency of record
• JP Menante Real Estate - interactive agency

We have completed site launches for:

• The Entrust Group
• University Health System
• Boyd Gaming
• You Name It Events
• Fennell and Associates
• those are off the top of my head...there are probably others.

If you're wondering how we get it all done? Its with a team of about 15 folks who are dedicated to their craft and making big shit happen. We are also getting ready for another round of hiring, though the positions are already spoken for (in our heads). There is a lot on the plan for the remainder of 2008. We WILL launch a new website(s) to better represnt who the hell we are. Its brewin'. Trust me its brewin'. But, as most are aware, we are not big on exploiting our work, so in the meantime you probably won't see things like:

"Fuze awarded a website job", or "Fuze chosen to build an ad" in the business journal, awards events, or the local fishwrap. Those items are hardly newsworthy.

We rather enjoy our underground status...it let's me write from the cuff, typos and all, and simply let the work speak for itself.

Thanks to all who have helped get our 2008 off to a great start. Come on baseball season...opening day countdown. T minus 4 weeks...

BL


(another treo post...sorry for the typos)

This is why I hate flying...

A perfect example why, even after earning platinum status with my air miles, I still hate my next flight as much as the previous one.  Is it that as we get older that we start to fear death more as if its closer to us than before?  Whatever it is, i hate flying and if I were on this particular flight:

I most certainly would have screamed like a girl.  Pretty much like everyone else.  Nice job on the recovery by the pilots, but lets add them to the dumb ass hall of fame for not heeding what had to be significant warnings about the wind shear, and unstable/inclement weather. NOTE: from seat 13A you should never be able to see the runway better than the pilots.  Thats generally a bad thing.

BL