Archive for the ‘fun’ Category

The Responsible Marketing Blues

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We think every organization should market responsibly, but Responsible Marketing isn’t for everyone.

Some of us take that fact a little harder than others.

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This is the lost episode from our seven part series of Responsible Marketing web shorts. Click here to check ‘em out.

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Easter Egg revealed on OutsourceMarketing.com

Monday, April 5th, 2010

We’ve had quite a response to our first ever Easter Egg Hunt on OutsourceMarketing.com.

Over a dozen people discovered the Easter Egg and lots more contacted us using the blog, Facebook, Twitter and email looking for hints and to find out if they won. Here’s one comment from Mark Jordan over at the Invicta Law Group:

I was thinking this was a ruse to get me to go over every inch of the website – which I did! And I loved it! Do I win any tickets?

Um, sorry Mark, but you didn’t, and you can stop looking now. The Easter Egg is on our How We Do It page.

The first person to find it was Mike Gore the “sponsorship guy” from Seattle-based Nuun. Mike wins our lower box seats tickets to see the Mariners take on the Oakland A’s on Wednesday, April 14th at Safeco Field.

Clicking on the Easter Egg hyperlink landed you on this page, where you were treated/subjected to following video:


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Sure, it’s rough. But that’s what a bunny head, no script, one take and a half hour of editing gets you these days. Let’s face it, our Creative Director Martin Pierce is no Martin Scorsese.

We hope you enjoyed the hunt as much as we did putting it together. Thanks for playing, and we hope you had a great Easter.

Your friends at Outsource Marketing

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Find the Easter Egg first and get FREE Mariners tickets

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Here’s a challenge for you:

The first person that finds the Easter Egg on OutsourceMarketing.com gets two FREE tickets to see the Seattle Mariners in our awesome box seats at Safeco Field on Wednesday, April 14th at 7:10.

We’ll announce the winner on Monday, April 5th. Thanks everyone, and Happy Easter!

Oh, and even if you aren’t the first person to find it, we think you’ll enjoy what we’ve posted on the Easter Egg page.

Good luck, and feel free to share this with a friend—maybe they can take YOU to the game if they find it first.

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Don’t cut corners on creativity

Monday, January 18th, 2010

I’ve said it a million times: It takes creativity to break through the clutter. Here’s an ad that does just that:


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2009 was rough year, and a lot of companies have dramatically cut their marketing budgets. A lot of brand advertising budget has been moved to sales promotion.

You gotta do what you gotta do. But whatever you do, don’t cut corners on creativity. Bland and boring never sells.

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. . .

Via illegaladvertising.com

The Ringtone from Hell

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009


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“The Ringtone from Hell” is video six in our series of seven Responsible Marketing web shorts, but you could argue it has nothing to do with Responsible Marketing at all.

Truth is, a few of our shorts are about character development and having fun with the angel and devil characters as they go through their days working at Outsource Marketing.

We hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back on message with video seven in a week or so.

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The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Want to know what Responsible Marketing is about but don’t have the time to read our white paper on the topic?

Well, here’s “The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes,” featuring the characters you’ve grown to love (or hate) in our Responsible Marketing web shorts.


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There ya go—with a video that short, now everyone has time to learn about Responsible Marketing. Share away. :)

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We’re going to need to talk about your TPS reports

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

By Martin Pierce

Ah, ah, I almost forgot…I’m also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too. Mmmmmkay? Thaaaaaanks!

We here at Outsource Marketing like to think that our office culture doesn’t resemble that of our good friend Bill Lumbergh’s Initech. But we do relate.

Don’t know who Bill Lumbergh is? Never heard of Initech?

Then you haven’t seen Mike Judge’s 1999 cult masterpiece “Office Space.” You don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s the trailer:


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A couple months back we took time out of our busy schedules to have a little fun and watch Office Space as a team. Somehow the movie is even funnier watched in a group.

But a movie packed full of classic, memorable quotes delivered with comic brilliance inspires imitators. Lot’s of them. Over and over and over again.

Yes, “We’re going to have to have you go ahead and come in on Saturday” is a brilliant line in the hands of Gary Cole but not in the hands of amateurs.

Thus was the inspiration for our latest Responsible Marketing movie.


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What’s the message?

There is none . . . unless you haven’t got the memo about putting the new cover sheets on the TPS reports.

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Is your “Green Czar” an angel or a devil?

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

In 2006, we decided we needed get serious about greening Outsource Marketing after years of agreement about having an environmentally responsible workplace but no real plan to make it happen.

Since then, we’ve been recognized for our efforts and have even won a few workplace recycling awards.

The two secrets to our success:

  1. Everyone at Outsource is required to sign our Green Pact. The Pact is our personal vow to abide by a list of rules we developed as a team regarding paper use, bottled water, use of cleaning supplies and such.
  2. While several people were passionate about the idea, one person, dubbed our “Green Czar,” was given the responsibility and authority to lead the charge.

Some team members were perfect for the role: They motivated us to do what was necessary and made us feel good about the work we were doing.

Others? Well, let’s just say some people can drive you to drink.

So, what are some of the best practices you’ve seen in workplace recycling programs?

Comment below to share.

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Sex Sells: Just Ask Him.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

In advertising, it’s the gospel truth: Sex sells.

You’ve heard it a million times. So many times it’s gotta be true, right?

Hell, even the Devil himself says it’s true in our second of seven Responsible Marketing web shorts, here:


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Why not believe it? You just heard it from the Devil himself.

Well, because it’s all a lie.

Sex sells sex.
Sex gets attention.
And sex creates controversy.

But it seldom converts attention to action.
And most people don’t recall the brand the ad was for.

Men respond better than women to sexy ads, as expected. But in Buyology, author Martin Lindstrom shared this interesting tidbit: One study found that even for men, recall for sexually explicit ads was less than 10%, but recall was nearly twice that for the non-sexually charged ads.

Steve Hall of Adrants puts it perfectly when talking about sex in advertising call it:

. . . a lame cop-out used by marketers who lack imagination to create more compelling work that will sustain itself beyond the initial titillation.

I couldn’t agree more, but what do you think?

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Recycling: A Love Story

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

He’s a muscle-bound, rough and tough lover of all things manly. She’s a petite girly girl that loves a nice glass of Chianti and long walks on the beach under the moonlight.

Learn how they meet, and what happens if you don’t recycle.


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We dare you to litter in our parking lot. We double-dog-dare you.

ABOUT THE VIDEOS

This is the first of at least seven Responsible Marketing web shorts from Outsource Marketing. I say “at least” because we had so much fun doing these, we’ve already begun concept development on the next round.

As we launched our new responsible brand, we decided to crush any notions that Responsible Marketing might be boring—even prudish. Even the casual reader of this blog knows better.

While there are seven videos in this series, don’t expect them to focus solely on the Seven Keys to Responsible Marketing. Our goal wasn’t to preach responsibility.

Rather, it was to have some fun with the conflict every organization faces—that battle between commerce and conscience. Between doing the right thing or doing the other thing.

To accomplish this, we’ve put two characters you’ll know well into our everyday working environment to see how they’ll fare.  Eventually we’ll cover all “Seven Keys,” but it will be subtle and not in this round.

THE RESPONSIBLE MARKETING YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The videos will be be posted weekly here on the blog and on most video sharing platforms. We’ve given special treatment to our Responsible Marketing YouTube Channel where I’ve favorited over 300 marketing videos over the last few years. Subscribe if you dig quality and/or controversial marketing vids.

While you’re there, take as moment to rate and comment on Recycling: A Love Story.

Thanks for watching, and whatever you do remember to “respect Mother Nature!”

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