Part III
Sitting at a red light on a main traffic artery in Louisville's working-class south end last night, two small business signs caught my eye.
One was for a neighborhood bar:  D.T.'s
You're joking, right?  A bar? With the same name as a symptom of alcohol withdrawal?

Wow.  Either somebody has a wicked sense or irony or black humor, or....ok, nevermind, I'll go with irony.

Part IV
How about this one for a used car lot:  Circus Auto Sales.

My first mental picture was 14 clowns piling out of a Gremlin.  I had to laugh out loud.

Then I though, "who's the king of the Circus?"  Of course it's P.T. Barnum.  And we ALL know what P.T. (not D.T., mind you) said about used car buyers, right?

I recently took part in two Webex sessions for some potential new media products. These two lead me to analyze the Webex sales process in general.

The first session lasted over an hour. I will never get that hour of my life back (not to mention the billable time). The initial description of the product sounded really great, like something we could actually use. The webex ruined that potential. The rep on the other end of the phone must have surely had the most boring voice and presentation style anyone has ever encountered. I felt trapped - I couldn't hang up or do anything else on my computer while this drip was droning on and on and controlling my mouse. The webex ended in me telling the rep I would call him if our company had interest in his product. I'd be willing to bet my first born that's a call I never make. And, my first born is due in about 4 weeks, so that's a heavy (and potentially imminent) ante.

The second webex also lasted over an hour. But, I didn't feel like this time was wasted. The product again sounded excellent from the sales literature. The webex only bolstered that notion for me. The rep listened to my questions, answered them and responded to the tone of my voice to move the webex at the speed at which I clearly wanted to proceed. He could tell I understood the product's features and he could move a quickly through without losing me. This call ended in my request for pricing and a follow up call from the rep a week later, after I could discuss the product with other decision-makers in the company.

The point I want to make is that even though the products are online applications, it was the human connection (or lack thereof) that sold them/didn't sell them to me. Personal connection is still the best elixir for an otherwise onerous sales process.

The Bouv has been asked to answer 3 questions about his day-to-day life at CurrentMarketing.

The Bouv Abides.

1: What's the most interesting tool you use to do your job?

This may seem funny at first, but as Geek In Charge around here, I'm not going to say the programming editor I use or my favorite browser. I'm not going to say it's the command line of the nice UNIX soul behind my Mac OS X workstation.

No, the most interesting and useful tool I use is Mac OS X's Spaces program. Not all you Macheads even know about this feature of OS X 10.5, but it is the application that I most often use throughout the day. Spaces allows you to have multiple desktops to help organize your other applications into functional groups.

For instance, I have one area for browsers, mail and instant messaging. I have another for my programming tools (editors, terminals and sftp windows) and a third desktop for iTunes or other multimedia apps. And the coolest one is Desktop 4 where I can run Windows Vista full screen.

Just take a look:

I can push Control + 1 thru 4 on my keyboard to cycle through my desktops to get to any area I need. If I click on an app on my dock that is already open in one of those desktops, it automatically moves me over to that area. Spaces really is the most interesting and useful tool I use to keep productive daily.

2: What website do you visit most often?

Why, UnderCurrent of course! I mean it's the blog of Louisville's Leading Interactive Marketing Agency!

3: What website do you REALLY visit most often?

Google without a doubt. I have a customized Google home page that feeds in my personal Google mail account, my Google Reader list, and my Remember The Milk todo list. 3 websites for the price of 1. I could put more on there but I don't want it to be cluttered.

Microsoft has had a lot of press lately, and none of it very good. First, they were sued for certifying computer components as "Vista Capable" when they were clearly not; next, they announced the closing of the MSN music store, thereby orphaning thousands of legitimately purchased songs; then they were publicly told to speak to the hand by Yahoo; and now it's rumored that MS will install filtering software as a part of a future update that will not only scan your Zune (OK, maybe not your Zune, but the Zunes of the 12 people who have actually purchased one) for "unauthorized" content, but then delete any music or movies not purchased from the Zune store. One has to wonder, what in the world is going on over there?

Granted, Microsoft is not hurting. They still print money in their headquarters in Redmond, WA. But when you're fined by the EU for anti-trust violations, caught gaming your sales numbers and being dismissed as irrelevant by Motley Fool, it might be time to think about some fresh leadership. Bill Gates was wise to split when he did; perhaps he saw the writing on the wall. In any case, it is upon Steve Ballmer's shoulders that the blame for the morass that Microsoft has become will fall.

Microsoft is a gigantic ship, widely perceived as unsinkable. However, as we learned from watching Titanic for the 152nd time over the weekend, we know that there is no such thing. How much longer until Ballmer walks the plank? And at what point is he going to throw up his hands and say, "What the hell?! I'm a billionaire for God's sake, I don't need this!" My prediction is that within the year, Steve Ballmer will either have engineered a hostile takeover of Yahoo and mounted Jerry Yang's head on his wall, or Bill Gates will be back in the CEO's hyperbaric chamber in Redmond, cruelly plotting the overthrow of free software.

The annual Run for the Roses came and went last weekend and with it went the Kentucky Derby Festival chaos that we always welcome in our shop. I'm sure we'd all like to say we are cooling down after the Race, but no such luck! We are in full gallop on a ton of new business and current client organic growth...and it ROCKS!

This is what we live for in the agency world, right?!? The thrill of the chase, the exhilaration of the gate opening, and then laying down $1,000 across the board on your creative idea - YEAH! But, sometimes you gotta relax the reins a bit and have some fun in the paddock, which is what we did at the Run for the Rose last week!

In case you were stalled in the stable last week, the Run for the Rose has a corporate division in which company teams compete against each other through an obstacle course with a tray of plastic glasses full of wine. The team with the most wine in their glasses and the shortest time through the course wins. We put up three teams for the race and kicked some major hind end, as you can see from the photos below.

Can’t read it.
So I shred it.
Everywhere.
Lap paper is best.
It smells good.
Like pizza or ham.
I grab it & run.
Tear it to bits.
They all laugh.
Pay the lady!
Hot dogs please.

In the midst of blogging about March Adness last month, the gang at the lunch table here at CurrentMarketing got to talking about some memorable commercials from our childhoods. Spots we loved. Spots we hated. Spots that made us want to run right out and spend our folks’ hard-earned money on the latest sugary cereal or totally rad new Atari Cartridge. We had so much fun strolling down the Madison Avenue version of Memory Lane that I thought I’d do an occasional blog and revisit some fun spots from the good old days.

I thought I’d start with a staple of child marketing: fast food. Nobody under the age of 30 had any idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Burger Chef. Back in the late 60’s and early 70s, Burger Chef was a giant in the fast food industry, with more than 2,400 locations, nation-wide. Burger Chef was known for several innovations in the hamburger industry, including “The Works Bar,” (where you could dress your own burger) and toasted buns. Founders Frank and Donald Thomas patented the flame broiler in the 1950’s and were pioneers in children’s meals, including toy premiums with their “Fun Burger” in the early 1970’s. In fact, Burger Chef was on the losing end of a lawsuit against McDonalds, who lifted the idea and introduced the Happy Meal several years later. Prizes ranged from riddles, puzzles and small toys to Flex Discs and  Star Wars posters. I grew up just a few blocks from the Burger Chef in Valley Station, so I did as I was told by Burger Chef and Jeff… I collected them all.