Fast Company - Masters of Retention

I happily completed my subscription renewal to Fast Company yesterday. The trouble is, for over 3 months I haven't told them my new address, but they still knew the correct place to send the invoice. So now I'm puzzled - why are they still sending the actual magazine to my old address ? which is then being redirected to my new address ? I guess it doesn't matter, because masters of retention do two simple things well:

1. have a remarkable product (service etc..)
2. use implied permission to hold on to their consumers.

I wouldn't expect any less from them....Now if only they could incentivize me to actually mail the renewal form back.

Persistent innovation at its best - Gorillaz (Stylo)

Gorillaz have nicely reinvented themselves and now launch their animated avatars into the 3D human universe in true hyper-real surreal and magnanimous fashion.

Just to take it to the next level - add Mos Def and Bobby Womack on vocals, and use Bruce Willis in the video and you have drama that rivals 24 and the Grammys combined.......take a look here.
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Breathe (the ad)

I love this ad. I saw it for the first time today. I stopped what I was doing. I watched. I pressed re-wind on the DVR, and again (and agin). I then tweeted about it (and spent 10 minutes wrestling with my iphone to copy and paste the link), and now I'm blogging about this ad. I FEEL and THINK differently than before. I'm actually interested in what CSX do. Yes I now I'm actually interested in a freight company's 'green' message, and they helped me believe it. I like the way they said it... Advertising works when it tells you meaningful stories..... Good job by Mullen.......


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SuperBowl 44 Ads - The first Top 5 winners

So here we go....

1. MOST LIKELY TO DRIVE CONSIDERATION: HomeAway.com ! Never heard of them before, and now I have 'binged' them (c'mon google is getting all the attention) !
2. MOST FUNNY: Car Max/Doritos - great use of humour and making the drama about the product benefit that consumers love them for.
3. MOST ON EQUITY: VW – totally on their US equity with an irreverent attempt to bring alive their relevance. The use of Stevie and Tracy Morgan was the twist you weren’t expecting that left a little twinkle in the eye. I would love to see this aired in Germany - its just so different they wouldn’t have a clue.
4. MOST TALKED ABOUT: Google, clearly a grown up ad going for the “mega brand”/”epic “ ad – that would elevate their brand as market leader.
- I felt I knew where the story was going and where it was going to end – so the question for me is authenticity Was it really authentic ?
5. MOST EFFECTIVE PLACEMENT: Doritos (Gym) 30 sec ad after a Saints Interception you deserve that piece of luck if you go after so many spots.

Your comments please.

The Blanket with sleeves

If there is ever a case of gaining attention you have to respect what Snuggie is achieving. Snuggie has clearly captured hearts and minds, even if it wasn't the first its gained the most attention. Cozy Blanket needs a much more compelling proposition because claiming "the original" won't influence consumers.