They love us, they love us, they really love us (just in time for Oscar season)

Client 1: " Love, love, love it."

Client 2: "Everyone loved it."

We take client relationships seriously here at Crazy Savvy (though we often have fun doing so). Part of our approach to account management includes sitting down with our clients face-to-face after completing a project and discussing what worked, what didn't, and ways we could collaborate in the future. Today was one of those days .... and as the above dialogue indicates, our chat went well. Very well. So well, in fact, that we simply had to stop on the way home for a congratulatory lunch at Lucia's.

(Please don't burn down, Lucia's. I am already bereft over the demise — hopefully temporary — of both Heidi's and Blackbird, my south Minneapolis homes-away-from home. Stay strong, Lucia's! Avoid grease fires!)

I digress. It was great to sit down with some of our clients, including the organization's Executive Director and its Program Manager, and gain valuable feedback about the project we'd recently completed — an annual report and marketing vehicle for a public health institution. Not only did we glean some valuable insight (and hey, the heaping praise never hurts either), we were able to set the stage for next year's report and get the ball rolling early. Plus we were able to explore some other opportunities for collaboration .... always an exciting chat to have!

This Baby Needs a Name....

Guess what I have in my hot little hands? Apparently its awesomeness is simply too much to capture in a still photo. Yes, I have finally updated my phone to a 32gb iPhone. Oh happy day, you are here. Now finish charging so we can play!

An Olympic feat .... of advertising savvy?

Here at Crazy Savvy headquarters, Winter Olympic fever has officially set in. In what, precisely, do we find the allure? Is it the thrills and chills of watching the world's best athletes come together on an international stage? The satisfaction of cheering on Minnesota hometown heroes (heroines, more like!) like Lindsey Vonn and Natalie Darwitz? The excitement at witnessing sports that we otherwise wouldn't care less about, but for 2 weeks are transformed into ardent fans? (See: speed skating. Or maybe it's just the charms of Apolo Ohno. Hm .... maybe.) Is it the peculiar spectacle of watching the controversial but undeniably fascinating Johnny Weir prance about in sparkly pink costumes? (Ut-oh, have I just incriminated myself? Guilty as charged!)

Yes, yes — all of these things, and more. But the Winter Olympics are also of interest to us professionally, as they represent a world stage upon which to evaluate and examine advertisements, brand promotions, and corporate sponsorships.

Industry wisdom in the past has always been that the Winter Olympics are considerably less of a draw than the summer games — and less of a pull than other major sporting events, like the Superbowl and the World Cup, too. But with the Superbowl losing its holy grail-like luster for advertisers (you can read our analysis of this trend here) and the Winter Olympics gaining cultural traction with more marquee names and larger-than-life personalities, the times may be a-changin'. Indeed, research suggests that this is precisely the case, with ad minutes, costs-per-spot, and number of advertisers all increasing significantly since 1998. (For more great media insight about the Winter Olympics, check this out.)

Does this mean the ads are better? Well .... jury's out. I'll confess, I'm kind of a sucker for Visa's Go World campaign. (Then again, I could listen to Morgan Freeman read someone's grocery list and find myself rapt with attention and awe.) And Erin was moved by GE's Beautiful spot, which examines the intimate impact technology can have over the course of one's life. But — maybe it's my inner cynic — all the Olympic ads begin to blend together for me into one big, treacly, inspirational ball of mush.

Oh well. I still find myself transfixed to the television set during the Winter Olympics, excited about the various events, marveling (perhaps coveting?) the pink spangles of Mr. Weir.

Not-so-Superbowl

Well. It took me a full 36 hours to stop licking my wounds about the Colts and their Superbowl loss. [Sniff, sniff.] A win would have (almost) redeemed what was otherwise a pretty lackluster outing ... a terrible halftime show by the Who (Tommy can you hear me? unfortunately I can), uninspired commentary, and ads that were less than stellar.

I remember being a kid and looking forward to the ads almost as much as the game itself. (I guess I should have known long ago where my career passions would take me ....) Particularly when I was growing up overseas, Superbowl ads represented a window into American culture that I otherwise was largely separated from — often gaudy and ridiculous, but also humorous and engaging .... not unlike American culture itself.

But this past year? Sheesh. Even the Budweiser ad featuring its famous Clydesdales was less-than-brilliant (though I'll freely admit it: I am a sucker for those big shaggy beasts and their Ugg-like feet). Of course, many of the Powers That Be in the ad industry are making the case that Superbowl ads simply don't have the cache they once used to. Many big-name brands are forsaking the 30-second spot — more and more expensive each year, recession and diminishing returns notwithstanding — in favor of other advertising channels. This Ad Age article makes the observation that, more and more frequently, it's up-and-coming brands that look to the Superbowl spot as the holy grail for visibility and brand promotion. Seems true enough ... for every ad by Coke or Audi, there was one for a company that left me scratching my head and thinking .... who? Really?

Whatever the case may be, I was underwhelmed by the overall creative. Megan Fox in a bathtub? C'mon .... can't we do better? What about Apple's ingenious 1984 spot, or EDS' hilarious Cat Herders (done by Minneapolis' own Fallon, no less)? Of course .... I suppose I'm not exactly the target audience for these things (see again: Megan Fox in a bathtub). Still, I was hoping to see more ingenuity: an actual concept, well-developed, instead of a few cheap sight gags. Then again, I also would have liked to see a Peyton Manning victory, and it just wasn't in the cards. Better luck next year, indeed.

A taxing business

If our social media presence and blogging activities have been less focused (and witty) this week than usual .... blame it on the IRS. We've been up to our ears in receipts and paperwork as we bring our 2009 finances to a close. Fortunately we'd kept careful records all year, but we're doing the extra legwork on our end now to ensure we keep our accountant happy. (A happy accountant = a business owner's best friend.)

Happily, Erin is a QuickBooks goddess — so I don't have to worry over columns and sorting functions and ledgers. (Deep, deep sigh of relief from yours truly.) No, no .... my tax season task is a much more enjoyable one: I get to do all the filing. And as anyone who knows me would undoubtedly attest, organizing things is truly a labor of love. (A quick peek into my color-coordinated closet would more than confirm this statement.)

So now that you know we're not trapped in some secret underground bunker away from the world, and are instead merely doing our due diligence to get things ready for our corporate returns, you can rest easy, friends. And I'll get back to filing .... but not before sharing our latest fanmail. Cruel, cruel world! To receive a postcard from sunny Hawaii as we sit inside C/S headquarters on a gloomy, sleeting day — this is indeed a twist of the knife! But of course, we're always glad our jet-set fans think of us as they travel the world ... and we hope they'll be so kind as to soak in some rays on our behalf, too!

New York Groove

Back in Minneapolis ... again. Phew, the jet-set life is great but I am looking forward to a nice, relaxing week back in the Twin Cities. New York City was fab, of course — as always. It was decidedly a culinary extravaganza: oysters, more oysters, sushi, lamb as rare as the chef will cook it, poached pear French toast, and pretty much every other delicacy known to the world. But enough of that ... it's making me hungry. (I'm always hungry.)

Being in NYC also made me reflect on some trends in technology. Stuck in a cab during rush hour, I was forced to endure the endless chattering of the tv in the backseat .... sitcom promos, ads, news ticker updates .... it made me long for the good old days, when I could listen to the sweet sounds of horns honking, cab drivers screaming out their windows in multiple languages, and brakes screeching as yet another pedestrian is nearly run down.

And so too with plane rides .... being in the airplane cabin used to be the rare bulwark of peace and quiet in the face of relentless technology (well, assuming you didn't have a screaming child kicking your seat, as I did on my flight to La Guardia). But now .... wireless access, in-flight calls .... is there nowhere I can go without being subject to people's private phone conversations (I don't care about your bunions! Or your investment portfolio! Or how potty training is coming along with your baby!) and the endless tap-tap-tap of the iPhone? Especially as an on-the-go entrepreneur, I fully appreciate the advantages of portable technology .... but my inner Luddite longs for a break from the constant barrage of technological input. (That's why it was nice to leave my laptop at home for once and, for 48 glorious hours, shut off my phone. Now if only I could make everyone around me do the same thing...)

But I don't mean to sound cranky. It's nice to come home to Clyde (my beloved Macbook, for those who missed it) and an inbox chock full of emails. It's nice to be able to check the weather (cold and dreary, for the record), the latest news, my buddies' Facebook statuses — all from a device that fits quite literally in the palm of my itty bitty hand. It's nice to hear my phone chirp, nice to hear the alarm go off at ... no, no, wait. That isn't quite so nice.

Annnnnyway. My point is, there is a place for technology — but there's also a place to escape from it, or at least there should be. And speaking of escaping to other places, today's fan mail comes to us from another NY destination — not the City, but upstate, from Albany. As always, thanks for the shout-out!