The Story

If you haven’t noticed yet, I like to ask “why?” A lot. About everything. I think it’s healthy to question our traditions, standard approaches, and all the stuff we take for granted.
One thing that’s been under my skin lately is the standard, boring, traditional and ridiculously predictable language many people use on […]

You’ve probably heard of MoneyAisle by now from several tech/ business publications and blogs like Netbanker. The service has been up for about a month, and just recently received a further $7 million in funding from several investors. MoneyAisle, owned by NeoSaej, is an online auction site where banks compete to offer the […]

Embrace Failure
Don’t be afraid of failure, it’s part of the creative process. Platform2: Art and Social Engagement, launched the Failure Support Group, an open forum to discuss failure and it’s relationship to art and production. Guests were invited to share 5 minute presentations about their failures and then discuss them with others.
On a related […]

I came across a quote recently that made me think. Ken Simms, Avidia Bank’s senior vice president of marketing, was quoted in the Worcester Business Journal in reference to his bank’s recent name change following a merger. He said:
“You don’t want a long, involved name, or a name that doesn’t readily come to […]

Greetings from the newest member of CBC! I’ve recently stumbled upon a fun site called WebUrbanist.com an “urban design, culture, travel architecture and alternative art” website. While perusing the headlines I came across a style of Guerrilla Marketing called Shopdropping or Droplifting. The names are so delicious I can’t stand it. Here is how WebUrbanist […]

brass is the magazine about young adults and money. Fresher than Forbes or Fortune, this publication targets Gen-Y with articles, interviews, and statistics that are relevant for them. Not only is the content original – so is the marketing. At brass, they know that the under-30 crowd doesn’t respond well to flat […]

I realize Forward ‘08 was a while ago, but there were some important points made at the conference that I didn’t discuss in my last post, Successful word of mouth marketing. Namely, word of mouth marketing as it applies to services and B2B.
After Andy Sernovitz’s speech - which was mostly about word of mouth […]

I write this blog with apologies to Jeff, our CEO here at CBC, who is about as far away from a science-fiction fan as Romulus is from Earth. I just can’t resist going where no CBCer has gone before for this post. I was recently watching a documentary about the making of the first Star […]

It didn’t occur to me until after spending 30 initially uncomfortable minutes in the pedicure chair next to my significant other that we at CBC ask our clients–CMOs, CEOs, managers–to continually get outside their comfort zone with the wildly innovative bank marketing ideas we present, but we don’t, however, take the time to advocate they […]

As business people, we talk a lot about “managing expectations.” That’s a fancy way to say, often, “let’s set the bar low enough to make sure we jump over it.” You know what I mean…gotta make sure you don’t over-promise and then under-deliver.
But there’s a whole different side of expectation management, I’ve come […]