Coming across great ideas is so … great. Here’s another piece of copy from Blik packaging:
Seeing your room with blik for the first time is kinda like seeing a guy with a mustache. Come to think of it, it’s nothing like seeing a guy with mustache. Although both are cool and make a statement about who you are, our wall patterns don’t hurt when you kiss them. Not that we’d know…
Or consider Beauty Engineered Forever, this Greenpeace ad or this no smoking sign. I know I run the risk of sounding like a cheap copy of Seth Godin now but anyway, kudos to these people that come to work, drink their coffee and do great things rather than bland mediocre ones. And kudos to the bosses of these people, and owners of companies that have hired such people for asking them to do so.
And a sanity check to end this rant – do you know of any truly great ideas that have failed miserably?

I made a presentation at a marketing seminar organized by Äripäev, Estonia’s business daily. My topic was treating marketing budgets like investment portfolios, a simple idea that stuck with me years ago.
A financial investments portfolio usually includes some assets that preserve capital (such as cash or government bonds) and some that grow it such as stock funds. An aggressive investment portfolio would also include a risk fund, a small share which can finance riskier but at the same time potentially more profitable investments. If it works out sour, the loss is capped at only being a tiny bit of your portfolio. And if it works, the tiny bit of your portfolio can quickly grow to be a large bit. Simply there is more to win than there is to lose.
What does this mean for marketers
In marketing it’s exactly the same. Some of the things we do are very basic, like using point-of-sale materials when selling fizzy drinks or placing an ad on a classifieds paper when selling real estate. These involve very little risk, but they don’t guarantee a successful result.

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Have you ever struggled explaining your grandparents what you do for living?
– So, what do you do for work?
– I work in marketing
– Well, yes, but what do you do?
– I sort of get in in the morning, open my computer, read what other people have written me and write back, talk to people, attend a few meetings and then go home.
– But what do you do for work?

That thing. And this is not even trying to explain what user journey marketing is. Even most of my friends need a lengthy explanation, or just give up. How lucky I am then that at least for some time I can actually explain what I do. Meet Skype’s new subscriptions.

It was pure bliss to work with incredibly smart and fast working people on messaging and promotion of these. Even better, people seem to like the product. It helps to talk about the weather (or what the dog ate for breakfast) in grater detail than has ever been possible before for millions of people around the world that still like their landlines. How nice is that!
I am looking forward to the next conversation with my grandparents.