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

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.

I Ain't Been Lazy, I've Been Busy

Apologies apologies to faithful FOPs who've been wondering, asking, pondering why my consistent from the start, break-neck pace of AT LEAST four posts per week has been slowed down to a molasses-like trickle over the past month or so.

Well, there is a reason.  Three of them in fact. 

1) First and foremost are changes that have gone on at my company Airborne Mobile.  My biz partner Garner and I are putting the final touches on a Management Buy-Out of the company's shares from Cybird Holdings in Japan.  Not only was this process lengthy and detailed, but the ensuring restructuring of Airborne into two lean-and-mean business units, as well as the forward planning process made it hard to concentrate on much anything else over the past little while.

2)  Secondly, I've been kinda stealth about this, but with less than 10,000 words to go and some fine feedback from the folks over at Wiley Publishing in Hoboken, N.J., I think it's time to tell you: I've been spending every weekend and most of my nights pounding out Pow! Right Between The Eyes--THE BOOK! and my drop-deadline is August 1, so...  It's going to be one of Wiley's featured 2009 business titles when it comes out in February of next year. Given that--at over 200 years old--Wiley is one of the oldest publishing houses in the world, and that my stablemates include management guru Patrick Lencioni, the legendary Jack Trout (of "Positioning" fame) and all the For Dummies books, well, I think I'm amongst some mighty fine company. (Yeah, yeah, I know..."what are you doing here?")

3) Last, and certainly not least, are some personal family issues that, while certainly difficult, I hope to be over with soon.

So, all that said, I've decided to open the door to my life a whole lot wider.  Finally, there will actually be  a reason to follow me on Twitter, as I plan to Tweet about the excitement, challenges, trials and tribulations of starting a business again (as we say around here, "Airborne is Reborn").  Here's where to find me:

http://twitter.com/AndyNulman

Starting in October or so, at the urging of my son Aidan, there will be a second Twitter feed about the marketing of Pow! Right Between The Eyes--The Book, which will give you the insight into what it's like to launch a major market/major publisher book.  Surprises galore I'm sure.

On both these feeds, you'll follow me into meetings, conferences, backstage at speaking engagements, client pitches and creative sessions.  If nothing else, it'll be an entertaining look inside the mind of a busy man changing his life and making things work...or at least, trying to.  Call it "Starting Over From Square 2."

So there you have it.  Yes, lots more Pow! posts to come right here.  But it'll be a little while before I pick up the pace again.  As you see, I've kinda got my hands full.

Thanks for understanding.  And for joining me for the journey.

Now You See It...

Beverage cans and soft drink bottles, long considered an eyesore by the side of the road or source of revenue for the homeless, have become the new fashion statement. 

Coca-Cola just won a prestigious Golden Lion in Cannes (how apropos!) for its newly-designed aluminum bottle (that's them there at right), Pepsi is now pouring from 35 different eye-poppin' can creations, and over the course of this year, two beer companies will be packaging their brew in camouflage cans, ostensibly to appeal to the 65 million outdoorsmen (and women) who like to match their wardrobe while they hunt, fish, shoot and binge drink.  This summer, Busch and Busch Light will be available in underbrush tones of green and muted brown, with Miller's "Camo Can" taking on similar attributes starting in October.

All this seems to be a natural progression as food packaging is becoming everything from a purveyor of poetry and motivation (Starbucks cups), promotional messaging and couponing (Burger King) to a broadcast medium in its own right (Coke's veiled threat to sell ads on its cans and bottles due to their massive international exposure).

Back to the brew for a second.  While the aesthetics are indeed unique, methinks that perhaps they, too are just camouflaging the brewers' more insidious ulterior motive.  Just think of the additional sales after the aforementioned outdoorsy types lay down their six-packs in the open bush...and then, no matter how hard they look, can't find them.

Wrecked Angles

From the burgeoning "Little Things Mean A Lot" file comes the story of Pizza Fusion, a Florida-based organic pizza chain that's sprouting up across the country faster than "For Sale" signs on SUVs. 

While the company focuses on the all-important high-quality ingredients (a must, I suppose, with the descriptive sobriquet of "organic") and environmentally-friendly environment (branded hybrid delivery cars, alt-energy appliances and reclaimed wood tables, to name but a few of its green efforts), what's truly building buzz about the place is the simple shape of the product itself--it's rectangular, not round.

This rave from Brandweek:

"The shape of the pie was more important
than the actual pizza in the beginning. 

"They wanted to stand out right down to the box
so that people would know, without even seeing
the name on it, where the pizza was coming from.

The three partners that run Pizza Fusion are doing everything right (particularly their website's Press Room, which should be prototyped as a lesson in clarity and efficiency of use), but if their foodstuff was measured in circumference instead of length and width, there would be no story.  Keep that in mind as you put the finishing touches to YOUR pet project.

A New Me Every Day

Faithful FOPs know my love of Italy.  Here's another reason why:

From the AdmCom agency in Bologna comes the Y.O.C. (Year Of Creativity) initiative which they say should "encourage people to reinvent themselves every day."  It started out as a physical box containing 366 illustrated business cards (one for each day of the year, plus one for good luck, I suppose) for the same number of different, imaginative professions, all of them customized for the person who receives the box.

The success of, and buzz about, the project encouraged the folks at AdmCom to expand into the digital realm, which they have done brilliantly at www.yoc2008.com.  Now you can pick a profession, personalize it with your name, and have a printer-ready PDF sheet saved to your desktop.  Obviously, this being Web 2.0, you can also personalize a card in a friend's name, and send it along.

The graphics, while not breath-taking, are catchy and fun, and the whole project is effervescent with the free-wheelin' spirit of Italia. "Reinvent yourself, because people are like ideas: New ones can change the world," they say. "It's time to create a new you."  (Add Louis Tetu's descriptive terms to your card and you're really in business.)

That said, here's the new me:

Looking Back With Virgin Eyes

Another Father's Day postscript if I may...

I have to say, although somewhat biased but not much, that my sons are brilliant.  My 17-year-old, Hayes, designs furniture for the future, while my 20-year-old, designs much of the future itself. 

One of these days, I'll share pix of Hayes' industrial-influenced residential creations with you, but today, I wanna show you Aidan's new work, a blog called (no relation to Madonna or Richard Branson):

Like A Virgin

The concept is simple, but amazingly sticky and profound--in essence, Aidan visits the first post of famous and favorite blogs and rates them.  Like seeing old high school pictures of today's superstars, the flashbacks are sometimes tell-tale, often polar-opposite to the present, but always fascinating nonetheless.

He came up with the idea while battling a little writer's block trying to compose a first post for another new blog (called "The Projectionist") he was putting together with a friend.  He figured seeing what other first posts were like would give him the inspiration needed...but I don't think he counted on THIS MUCH inspiration. 

Today he goes big and dredges up the first post of Mark Cuban.  Check it out, and suggest your favorite blog (but don't try this one; I was honored to be his debut debut post yesterday).

Quenching A Fashionable Thirst

Yesterday may have been Father's Day, but the two happiest people at the extended Nulman family Bar-B-Que were my nieces Hailey Krychman and Laura Harris, who were beaming over their pre-camp gift of ThirstyWear.

Not only were the brightly colored skirt and shorts a hit with th em style-wise, but the practicality made their parents smile as well.  For those uninitiated, as I was up until this weekend, ThirstyWear is made from downy-soft, retina-popping terry cloth towels, and is the brainchild of Lisa Eisen. 

After seeing her watersportin' kids incessantly and uncomfortably change from wet bathing suits into dry, and/or watching as their towels turned wet and sandy after falling off their bodies, she had the Eureka moment of making clothes out of towels themselves to, as she puts it "provide warmth, dryness and comfort, all with a stylish twist."

Well, if the reaction of my two fashionista nieces is any indication, Lisa may have the next Lulu Lemon on her hands.  I checked out her full line of ThirstyWear, which includes dresses, pants, magnificent '60s-reminiscent hoodies (like the one above), and jeez... perhaps for the next Father's Day...