Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise

As Promised...

Off to New York for a big meeting with Airborne's faithful giant client Verizon Wireless, but I promised a couple more Just For Laughs pix, and here they are.  Four things to note before, though:

1. Craig Ferguson is a magna-talent
2. Jimmy Fallon is one of the nicest people in all of showbiz
3. The only work ethic that approaches that of John Cleese is that of Martin Short
4. I may be short, but Monika Schnaare is really THAT tall

Tired Eyes

Two guys, after too many shows, having a 3:00 a.m. chat in the lobby of the Hyatt.  Just got this picture of Craig Ferguson (who was kind enough to write one of the forewords to my Pow! book) and yours truly from last Saturday at Just For Laughs.  More to come...

Theory 20--Sometimes, It Ain't What You Are, But What You Ain't

Arrrgggh!  I left my camera in the hotel.  Too bad, because on a cab ride to Massey Hall in Toronto, I passed by a superb sign.  While I can't do the colors and layout justice, I think the words alone will suffice.  The sign was for one of the dozens of Karaoke bars that line Yonge Street, but the sign for this one read:

"Guaranteed!
100% Celine Dion-free Zone!"

Hilarious and biting, but more importantly,it got me thinking.  I don't know if the proprietor of said club even realizes it, but this is great Surprise marketing, as sometimes, what you aren't is more important than what you are.

Canadians realized this conundrum many years ago.  With lack of a strong national identity, the best its denizens could come up with for a long time was "We are not American."  While simultaneously self-deprecating and somewhat insulting, it served its countrymen well, particularly those traveling overseas.

The best, and most classic, "What We Ain't" marketing example I can think of is the soft-drink 7-Up.  What is 7-Up?  The Un-Cola, right?  Well, it was for years, and carved out a niche against the brown behemoths of Coke and Pepsi. 

These days though, it's just another lemon-lime drink.  According to its website, it has a "famously crisp, refreshing taste" of "100% Natural Flavors!" It may taste great, but you also need to down a coffee or two to keep you awake after that most dreary and common of marketing descriptions. (You can't believe how dull the entire site is; I've seen laundry detergents and lip balms with more exciting marketing messages.)

What 7-Up is can never be as exciting as what it's not.  The same may go for your company or your product.  But it takes big buckets of guts to adopt this counter-intuitive stance, as it admits front-and-center that your own persona is little to crow about. (Think about Richard Nixon.  He never said "I am an honest man!"; he said "I am not a crook.")

Trust me though; although this tactic may put you on the defensive, and bring your competition into your backyard...

It's better to be remembered
for what you're not,
than to be forgotten
for what you are.

I'm Back. (Thanks For Hanging In There!)

Whew!  Even when I was on vacation, I haven't been away this long.  Thanks for sticking by for the two-week layoff, folks (and I do mean "sticking by"; despite the lack of a new post, traffic was only down 4.75%).

Well, I haven't been completely radio silent. Multidisciplinary FOPs have followed me on Twitter (you to can do so by clicking here), and were given some insight into the inner workings of the Just For Laughs Galas I've been directing.  As we move along, these Twitter tweets will focus on the re-launch of Airborne Mobile as well as the making of the marketing of the Pow! Right Between The Eyes! book, coming out in February from Wiley Publishing.

That said, I've been working on a couple of revolutionary Airborne projects, one which will be hopefully be finalized and 100% green-lit later today.  Airborne's new direction and spirit will also be reflected in the new website we've been working on, which should make its debut in a couple of weeks or so. You will be linked!

On the book front, the manuscript will be delivered on Friday, and then it's onto the fun and games to make sure it's a best-seller.  I'll be excerpting some of the book here in upcoming weeks, but until then, let me link you to something really cool, the "Wordle" of my first chapter. As described on its site,

"Wordle is a toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

That said, I downloaded Chapter 1, and here is the result.  Kinda reminds me of a '50s jazz album cover or John Frankenheimer movie poster.  This stuff is so cool I'm thinking of a parallel release of the Pow! book exclusively in Wordle.

But more to come.  And at least two new posts I'm proud of later this week.

For now, once again, welcome back.  You'll be glad you stuck around.

Selling Inconsistency

Said this before: consistency isn't everything it's cracked up to be. 

In business, a reputation of being reliable and true-to-your-word is both admirable and desirable, but there's something to be said about the currency of Surprise being part of your corporate DNA.  To wit, I wouldn't mind Airborne being portrayed the way Andy Berndt of Google describes working with Obscura Digital in this month's Fast Company:

"The thing about working with these guys is you never know quite how a project's going to come out...
you just know they have great taste and are going to wow everybody."

Never mind corporately; that's how I strive to be described on a personal basis.

Surprise Marketing in Iraq

Obviously inspired by Bush's "get out and spend" rebate checks...

Click here.

An Invitation to Follow

Ahh, a beautiful, sunny July Saturday afternoon and where am I?

Looking out at the mountain view from my offices at Airborne Mobile.

Don't cry for me, Argentina.  I make my own bed, and I won't lie to you from it.  July has ALWAYS been the busiest part of my year, but this year make previous Julys seem almost comatose.

So, here's my situation: in addition to the whirlwind of activity since Garner and I bought back Airborne from Cybird, I've been finishing off the Pow! Right Between The Eyes book for Wiley Publishing.  Friends, family members, agents Bill Gladstone and Ming Russel, editors Shannon Vargo and Jessica Langan-Peck and FOPs everywhere will be happy to learn that as of last week, it is officially

DONE! DONE! DONE!

and for the rest of the month, I will be polishing up the manuscript for its August 1st official hand-off.

Add to this that I'm taking off six days from both Airborne and manuscript-polishing to once again direct the Just For Laughs Gala shows, working with the likes of old buddy Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Fallon, Kathy Griffin, Joan Rivers, Jeremy Piven and many, many more. 

But, as mentioned a couple of posts ago, I won't be abandoning you.  In fact, I urge and implore you and your friends to follow me on Twitter at 

http://twitter.com/AndyNulman

for the type of inside, real-time scoop that you can't get anywhere else.  Never mind backstage or behind-the-scenes, this will be on-stage as we MAKE the scenes.

Trust me, now that I'm REALLY getting into Twitter, and have it set up on my Berry, I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can take it, so...

A splendid time is guaranteed for all. As Snoop Dogg said, "Follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me."

Get on my tail.

Speak soon.

Listening To Me (For A Change)

One of the beauties of having "Chief Marketing Officer" amongst your titles is the fact that some people that would otherwise ignore you actually listen to you.

Case in point is Chief Marketer, which published this interview about mobile marketing...perfect timing for a relaunched, reborn Airborne Mobile.

You can read it by clicking here...or by clicking above, which I suspect many of you have already done.

What Are Friends For?

In the midst of all my madness, I attended a board meeting for Just For Laughs this week, the comedy event that I helped grow (and one where I still direct its Gala shows, but more on that later this week).

At said meeting, plans for next year's debut Festival in Chicago were unveiled, and talk turned to talk...well, on how to generate it for the ChiFest.  I recommended they hire my friend, the wizard of Word-of-Mouth, Andy Sernovitz.

I sent my former colleagues over to his company's website, showed them his book, and they were dutifully impressed.  Calls went out.  Meetings will be taken.

That was easy.

They were so impressed that they asked what agency does something similar in Montreal, so that they could hire someone to help push the local event. 

That wasn't as easy. 

Hail the power of specialization.  Now that Digital Agencies have become a cut-throat competitive genre, not just on their own, but folded into and unfolding out of traditional agencies, the more precision niches, like Word-of-Mouth, are beginning to flex their muscles...and their relevance.  And as they spawn competition, you'll soon see micro-niches of specialization like Showbiz W-O-M, Medical W-O-M, Environmental W-O-M and so on.

So until a Montreal W-O-M Agency pops up, I recommended the next best thing to my JFL brethren and sistren--go take one of Andy's crash courses (like the one he's doing on July 30th in Chicago), and bring the expertise in-house.

P.S.  If you're interested, it's open for 50 people only.  JFL is taking two spots.  If you want to join them, click on the banner up above.  And if you mention "weloveairborne," my namesake may even give you a juicy discount.