Tiny Gigantic

My friend Greg Halpern is putting this on. Some big names here. Now’s your chance to own a Misrach.

It takes a while to get going, but this video made me wonder if my flesh is really attached to my bones, and if my bones are made of hard material.

Insurance is perhaps the least sexy thing you could try to sell. You can’t see it, you can’t hold it, and you hope you’ll never have to use it. And selling it generally requires making people think about things they’d rather not think about: accidents, disasters, illnesses, and the like. Not an easy job.

That’s why I’m fascinated by The Responsibility Project, a new content campaign by Liberty Mutual. Here’s what they say about it:

It all began when we ran a TV commercial about people doing things for strangers. The response was truly overwhelming. Thousands of emails and letters from people all over the country thanking us.

We thought, if one TV spot from Liberty Mutual can get people thinking and talking about responsibility, imagine what could happen if we went a step further? So we created a series of short films, and this website, as an exploration of what it means to do the right thing.

We believe that the more people think and talk about responsibility, and even debate what it means, the more it can affect how we live our daily lives. And perhaps, in this small way, together, we can make the world just a little better.

It’s an unusual strategy. Conceptually, I think it’s super interesting. They are connecting their brand to the idea of responsibility, which is perhaps the main positive motivator in an insurance purchase. There’s fertile ground there for sure, but their tactical execution is super weak. The films and writings they offer are fine enough, but the website does very little to facilitate conversation. Maybe that’s why they have to buy huge ads to drive traffic to their site.

But still, they’re onto something, and if they get it right, they could build a brand that has valuable meaning. And it’s worth noting that the insurance industry has rewarded those brands that take unusual approaches to marketing. Consider Geico, and the tactical brilliance of their gecko mascot. Or Progressive, who published competitive quotes on its own site, and in so doing, built a brand that people trust.

Now here’s a question: would you rather be the marketing director at Liberty Mutual, Progressive, or Geico?

For the past week I’ve been having a super good and useful conversation with with a group of partners over email. We’d been trying to have this conversation for years, but kept getting caught up in scheduling bullshit, communication mode (should we have a conference call? should we use email?), and wildly differing response times. And nothing was getting done.

So I said something a little provocative. I said something calculated to make the group wonder if I was being an asshole or not. Some people got really pissed. Some got confused. And some took what I’d said at face value. But the conversation got started at last, and blossomed over the next few days into something really useful.

Now, I’m not recommending you use email to have important conversations. Hells no. But I am saying that sometimes it’s okay to be an asshole. Because every once in a great while, it’s the best way to get to the truth.

George Saunders knows.

Oh yes. Found this over at ironic sans.

Wow. You must visit tineye.com.

It’s a new kind of image search. TinEye will look at any image you give it, and then compare it to other images. It can find a wide range of matches, including cropped images and photoshopped images. It actually searches visually, unlike Google’s image search, which uses keywords and image names.

Same keyword, same typeface (Gotham).

I’ve been seeing more and more Gotham, and tons of stuff that seems to be riding on Obama’s communications coat-tails in one way or another. I’m curious if you’ve noticed the same thing.

I imagine that in the case of the Camel ad above, it was a conscious maneuver, but I also have a hunch that a lot of people are doing it subconsciously. And that’s especially curious.

My good friend Enmi Kendall just launched an interesting new company called replyforall.

Here’s the executive summary: users sign up to have special email signatures attached to their email; these signatures carry some environmental or charitable message, and they also display a small ad; a portion of the ad revenue goes to the environmental or charitable cause of the user’s choice.

In other words, you can send money to charity by allowing a small ad to be tacked on to your email sig.

Putting ads around email is as old as the interweb, but the thing that makes this so interesting is that it gives users control of what ads will run. It suggest that in the future advertisers will have less power, and it’ll take more than just money to get an ad placed.

Here’s another bit of Obama design awesomeness. You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Found at notcot.