Drake Cooper | Blog, Campaign Planning, Pacific Northwest

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2010-04-09T11:25:00.001-07:00

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Becoming a Linchpin

2010-04-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

Cover of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?I sent the following note out to the agency (and Seth Godin) yesterday. If it sparks some inspiration in you, then rock on. Love, Jamie PS - and yes, he did respond back with a nice note. Hi Drake Cooper’ians, Welcome to the new world of work. You are a Genius. I dislike most (all?) self-help books. Most business books are

How do you want to be engaged on social media?

2010-04-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

The question is simple enough. Why do you use social media? What do you want to get out of it? How do you want to be engaged or do you even want to be engaged at all? We welcome your responses and will write a poem in your honor and post on Facebook if you share your thoughts.

The (Re)Visionary Film Trailer

2010-03-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

As some of my colleagues may know, I've been obsessed with Jean-Luc Godard recently. Godard is mostly recognized as one of the founders of the New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), the French film movement that changed Cinema forever. At the age of 79, Godard is not slowing down his iconoclastic approach to film. His newest feature "Socialisme" not only has a trailer, but a 2m / 3s sped-up clip of the

Lady Gaga and Polaroid

2010-03-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, Polaroid came out with a camera that shot mini polaroid photos. Smaller than the 3"x3" ones with the white boarder we're all so familiar with. This was before digital cameras were in everyone's pocket, before cell-phones had built-in cameras. This was the late 90's- early 2000's. This polaroid camera was geared towards "fun and funky" young adults and the photos had

The Last Advertising Agency on Earth

2010-03-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

A cool spot from S&S Canada that explores what the future of us ad peeps might be, should we decide to ignore the changes that are happening right now. A nice call to action for those creatives still stuck in the tried and true ways of doing things. Wait...is this a TV spot?

Keynetic For The People

2010-03-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Keynetics Branding and Web DevelopmentEvolving a brand is more than performing a nip and tuck on the look and feel. It's also an opportunity to re-evaluate the core attributes of the brand and find more effective ways to bring these forward in the branding.Keynetics is a parent company of several technology subsidiaries such as Clickbank and Kount. In the past, Keynetics has kept a lower profile

Good News for TV

2010-03-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

TV is still victorious in "this economy" and even though many reports have us believing it's falling by the wayside, recent research suggest otherwise.An eMarketer's poll found that 69% of Generation X-ers (age 27-43) named TV as their favorite medium. 77% of Baby Boomers (age 44-62) also list TV as their favorite medium. So much for the internet completely taking over.To further support this,

Calm Amidst the Social Media Mayhem

2010-03-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

Nerd alert: I love communication.From the Paleolithic cave paintings in the Altamira caves, to an 140 character Tweet, to a letter a great-aunt writes and mails to her great-nephew, all of these events illustrate the humanistic need to share experiences and connect with other human beings.Wikipedia defines communication as "the process of transferring information from one entity to another."The

Top 5 Food & Beverage Takeaways from Expo West

2010-03-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA and checked out a ton of new food and beverage products. There were over 1,500 exhibitors and over 50,000 people attended the show. Here are my Top 5 Takeaways from the show...1. Nutrition industry sales in the U.S. are booming. Sales totaled $110 billion in 2009, up from $10 billion in 2008. That's an increase of $100 billion in

Food Tip of the Day: Eat Something Green

2010-03-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

I recently went to the Natural Products Expo West show in Anaheim, CA, and tried a lot of new food and beverage products, and also checked out some cool marketing campaigns. When I came back to Boise I was reminded how much I long for a Whole Foods store to open in the Treasure Valley. Having lived in California for years I became a huge fan. I love their website and Facebook fan page, they

ART & COPY - THURSDAY, Mar. 18

2010-03-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Last Call.Fresh from a screening in Amsterdam, "Art & Copy" will show in Boise at the Egyptian Theatre this Thursday, March 18, at 7 p.m."Art & Copy" is a film about advertising, inspiration, and some of the most influential players in the advertising industry.Pre-sales were huge; remaining tickets are dwindling.The Lobby will be offering an extended happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Drink

Building Trust on Social Media

2010-03-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Mashable published a great read, titled "The Science of Building Trust with Social Media."Just last night, I was conversing with an individual who believes that all communication that occurs via social media is 'empty.' Said individual also believes that tomorrow's Facebook will be yesterday's MySpace. While I agree on the latter point, I disagree on the former.Facebook will either evolve or some

Sometimes consumers just want "Assurance"

2010-03-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

Take a guess at who was Ad Age's marketer of the year in 2009 and I bet the first thing that comes to your mind are sexy brands like Coke, Pepsi, Nike, Budweiser, etc. How shocked would you be to hear that it was Hyundai with their Assurance Program they rolled out in 2009? You know the one with Jeff Bridges (now Academy Award Winning Jeff Bridges) doing the voice over telling you that if you buy

Creativity vs. Metrics - Why the Versus?

2010-03-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

I read this AdAge article, titled "Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising" last week and have been thinking about it ever since.This article brings up the dilemma that mimics the old "chicken or the egg" conundrum in the advertising/creative/marketing industry - what do campaigns need most: creativity or metrics-driven strategy?The author, Mr. Patrick Sarkissian, makes his own analogy,

CBH Homes' Record Feb. Sales

2010-03-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

Major congratulations to CBH Homes for selling 134 homes in the month of February.Amidst endless negative media reports about how the economy is circling the drain, CBH has 134 reasons to celebrate. Idaho's largest home builder even sold 34 and then 35 homes in two consecutive weekends last month.Boom!This surge in sales can certainly be attributed to the federal tax credit for first-time and

The Big Pharmacy Chain Job-Uptake Inhibitor*

2010-03-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

Pharmacy Recruitment Brochure for Albertson’s LLCRecruiting is tough. Especially in the shark-tank, feeding frenzy for recently graduated Pharmacists. The demand for these bright-eyed, fresh-out-of-the-mortar** Pharmacists is high and competition is fierce. You’ve got independent, community pharmacies competing for the new grads with huge, retail Pharmacy giants like Walgreens and Rite Aid.

We've Evolved Facebook: Some Basics Remain

2010-03-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Sat in on a webinar yesterday; the speaker was teaching small, private business-owners of the restaurant variety how to create their own Facebook profiles and fan pages.I had to reflect...It was Somewhere around August 31, 2005 when I first signed up for Facebook. Hurricane Katrina had just hit. Grad school friends and I had retreated to one cohort's apartment in another, more northern town

Beyond the Badge & Missing the Boat: Foursquare's new Media Deals

2010-03-03T11:47:00.001-08:00

This Mobile Behavior article reports that Foursquare has partnered with media companies like HBO and Warner Bros. to...well...engage fans, er, something.While I'm fascinated with Foursquare and the opportunities it allows for location-based mobile marketing, this move doesn't make any sense to me at all.Apparently, the new media partnerships allows companies like HBO to 'connect' or interact with

Six Degrees of “Drink Yer Milk”

2010-03-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

TV: United Dairymen of Idaho Milk CampaignYour mom or other parental unit probably told you a gazillion times to drink your milk or you’d have to go to bed without listening to Jim Backus. With these TV spots for United Dairymen of Idaho, we decided to work the other direction and have kids tell us about the yummy nutritional awesomeness about milk. So listen up and drink up, or no Spongebob

Trust Must Come From Multiple Sources

2010-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

If you haven't spent time with Edelman's Trust Barometer it's worth exploring. The report examines our collective trust of businesses, government, sources of influence and more, as well explores the subject of trust itself.The latest Barometer reports lots of interesting stuff, but here's something particularly interesting: the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible

Guess Things Happen That Way

2010-03-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

>What a great story. The billionth download from iTunes was Johnny Cash 's “Guess Things Happen That Way.” The downloader, a 71 year-old grandfather.Johnny keeps on giving.

P&G Salutes Olympic Moms

2010-02-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

If you know anything about athletics you know that they can be an emotional roller coaster. The Olympics are the biggest stage in sports and here the emotions run the highest. Tears of happiness and sadness are shed at each and every event on the playing field and the same is happening in the stands. By whom you might ask? By the mothers who've watched their children grow up to become the best

The First Existential Self-Promo Piece Ever

2010-02-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

Drake Cooper "Indie" bookBy existential, we don't mean the esoteric, Dr. Strangelovian poetry of Donald Rumsfeld. We mean the old-school definition of existential as a mindset focused on “the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” Or, as we say “indie.” Drake Cooper got all digital on the book’s derrière. We

Hurricane Party

2010-02-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

It's a unique pastime in the south to throw a 'hurricane party' if there's a Gulf storm brewing and about to hit. Or, if the storm has hit and folks need to grill up all the meat that's thawing in the freezer because there's no electricity and everyone needs an excuse to get together, eat and drink (not that anyone ever needs an excuse for that in the south).But tonight, in support of Idahoan