Denver 50 2008 show FAQ

The 2008 Denver 50 party/show/event/book release is coming up on Tuesday, Dec. 2. And according to my email inbox, inquiring minds want answers.

Where do I get tickets?: At Regonline.com/d50bash2008. If you're not a member, the site will let you buy a membership, thereby allowing you to get tickets at the member price.

Is there a dresscode?: Nope. Some will be dressed as if headed for a gallery opening. Others will probably come in flannel.

Can we buy a table?: No. There are no tables for sale. There is no assigned seating. There will be couches, chairs and corners to fall down in. But no purchasable tables.

Will we be able to shoot each other with Nerf guns all night long?: That's the plan.

What's with the Twitter feed?: I don't know. What's with the Denver Broncos?

Will there be a big bus parked outside the event?: Signs point to yes. But who knows? It's advertising. Things change.

Food?: There will be a buffet of heavy-appetizer type things that can certainly pass for dinner. I forget exactly what's on it. Not taquitos, but that sort of thing.

Are you currently on the verge of a nervous meltdown?: Yes. But that's not, like, new for me. And it's not really related to the show. So many amazing people have stepped up to help this year. In 2007, the show was carried off by a small group of individuals. This year, it's truly a community show. Hopefully everyone will come out to celebrate the work.

Other questions? Hit me in the comments.

Marketing takes intelligence. Advertising takes guts.

These are words I have written before:

[Blogging] immortalizes everyday language, holding it to an impossibly lofty standard.

And I am thinking about those words now after reading a post by Noah Brier named "When Too Much Listening Is A Bad Thing."

It's precisely those emotional comments that [the Microsoft/Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign] should have been aimed for and seemed to have succeeded at. So why did they drop it? Well, my theory is that it's because a bunch of people with blogs and such started talking about how they didn't like/didn't get the ads. Lots of people were saying that Microsoft needed to respond and listen to what the consumer was saying, but I call bullshit. In a quote for PRWeek I explained, "Other than the Super Bowl, how often do people talk about ads? Microsoft should let this play out. I think there are times to listen to everyone and there are times not to listen to everyone... The people talking about this may not be the audience for this ad. They may not be talking to early adopters." And I stand by that.

In the end I guess my point is that there are times to listen and act upon what you've heard and times to listen and respectfully ignore the feedback.

Brier is right. More than once I've prepared a marketing director for the idea that an ad (this radio spot, for example) might offend someone. But these days, a client might get more than a cranky phone call. He or she might get an angry blog post that an antsy junior marketing executive sends to an unpredictable CEO who forwards it to the whole senior management team, which immediately convenes a committee to seriously consider the matter. The next day the agency phone rings, a junior account coordinator picks up the call, and an effective, wonderful ad dies.

In Hey Whipple, Squeeze This Luke Sullivan wrote that we marketers get so tied up measuring public opinion, we forget that we have the power to shape it. The Internet appears to give us the ability to measure opinion more accurately than ever before. But it gives disproportionate weight and unprecedented permanence to isolated, impulsive rantings.

For the most part, I've been blessed with courageous, focused clients. But the weight of the written word makes even stout hearts wobbly. Sometimes the best course is to just sack up and plow on.

Gypsies do not like to stay. They only come to go away.

Advertising can take you to some pretty amazing places. Cocoa Beach. Manhattan. Santa Monica. It can also take you to Tulsa or Reno or Boise or Omaha or Louisville. Places that are, in a less obvious way, also pretty amazing.

It can take you to just outside of Tampa, where you spend your weekend shooting film because there's a tree there that looks like maybe it could be a tree anywhere in America, and that's just the sort of tree you need.

You visit these amazing places with equally amazing people. Smart, talented people who say funny things at odd times.

• "I'm all about making ads that make people feel like hugging people."

• "You know how every party ends up in the kitchen? Every shoot ends up at the craft service table."

• "Drinking is part of your job. It's time for you to be good at your job."

• "It's not a moral victory. It's a victory victory."

And when you're done shooting film at that tree in Tampa, the dozens of amazing people you have spent the last four days with pack up their cameras and their telescoping arms and their laptops and they disappear back to wherever it was that they came from. And you miss them all so much. But if they were the type that stayed, they wouldn't be advertising people and maybe you wouldn't miss them at all.

This is a good business we're in. Yes it is.

[Ed. - The title of this post comes from Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans. See photos of the trip on Flickr.]

It's just this simple

1. Identify a niche. Two years ago, inspiring, visionary leaders were in short supply.

2. Have a great product. Barack Obama had a compelling life story, a good grasp of policy, and a talent for politics.

3. Build your product into a brand. Obama could have been beaten. Change could not. And a killer logo didn't hurt.

4. Create a relationship. Obama's campaign encouraged user-generated content, experimented with new strategies, optimized social networks, and did anything else it could think of to capture data - along with hearts and minds.

Of course, for most brands, the journey ends here. For Barack Obama - and the USA - it is just beginning.