STANANDLOU MARKETING/ADVERTISING

On Friday, August 14, 2010, STANANDLOU employees took the afternoon off to celebrate Scott’s 10 1/2 year anniversary with STANANDLOU. High excitement was the order of the day as the entire staff was treated to lunch at the Glass Wall restaurant on Studewood, specially opened for lunch to host the celebration. Shepard Ross broke out some vintage California wine he’s been saving for such a special occassion and it was enjoyed by all. After a brief (Thank God!) speech by Lou, Scott was awarded a small memmento for his 10 1/2 years of dedicated service, 100 shares of APPLE stock. 10 shares for each year of service. Afterward, the staff celebrated with Scott at the Angelika Theater downtown where a hundred of Scott’s closest and dearest friends and relatives surprised him with a “This is your life, Scott Brinkmeyer” tribute. Family friend, former President George H. Bush sent a very endearing video from Kennebunkport congratulating Scott for his accomplishment and years of friendship, while college buddy, Gillian Anderson, of the X-Files, jetted in from Michigan whhere she was visiting her mother, Rosemary. All in all, it was a wonderful day and we wish nothing but the best for Scott and his family for the next 10 years at STANANDLOU!

by Pete Blackshaw

Published: August 11, 2010

Ad Age Daily

So with all this relentless talk about Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages and cool new apps, I have a serious and timely question. Do brand websites still matter?

Yes, I know — even asking this question is a bit digitally sacrilegious. Websites are to digital strategy as models are to fashion, but do we really need them?

I mean, didn’t things seem a tad curious during the World Cup when brands like Adidas and Nike actively promoted their Facebook page — not their primary website — at the end of their TV spots? Just this weekend, I saw a similar cross-feed to Facebook for Kohls. Talk about kicking the ball into a different goal.

Think about all the hoops we’ve jumped through to register proprietary domain names, in every country and business type — this perpetually rationalized by an almost unstoppable parade of GoDaddy ads (titillation and all). As a domain-name collector myself, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of asset deterioration.

But before you start penning the “ditch the brand website” memo, hold your tweets for a moment. Websites are not going away — they might be more important than ever — but they serve a different and evolved purpose today, especially in this new “social” context.

Think wholesale, less retail. Think distribution, less destination. Think serving, less selling.

Read the rest of this entry »

Marisa the freelancer here reporting from the hacienda. Its been fun helping out with Scott and Lou (hmm kind of like the sound of that). The guys have wasted no time making me feel at home and I would like to swipe Scott’s Lone Ranger Cactus Garden…anymore in the basement?

I think so far the highlight of the week was witnessing Lou, “The Fastest Stapler in Town.” I turned around and asked for a stapler.. both drawers quickly opened, rummaging ocurred and Lou drew out his stapler first with a happy grin. If its high noon and you need a stapler.. you are going down.

Well gotta get back to staying busy See you later folks.

This guy is amazing. Wish I had his patience. -Lou

A PENCIL is just an instrument, an effective tool for scratching measurements onto wood, updating checkbooks and filling in bubbles in tests.

Unless it’s in the hands of Dalton Ghetti. The 45-year-old Bridgeport resident has been carving sculptures into pencil lead, without the aid of a magnifying glass, for 25 years.

There’s a boot. And a church. And a bust of Elvis. And “Chain,” in which the middle of a pencil has been transformed into a 23-link chain. He has about a dozen works that have been framed and almost as many waiting to be mounted for display. Last year, after two and half years, he finished a line of 26 pencils, with each letter of the alphabet carved into the tip. His current projects include a handsaw and a single rice-grain-sized teardrop for every victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The idea is, as you walk in, you’ll see a huge tear drop far away,” he said. “As you walk up close to it, you’ll see that it’s made up of tiny little ones. So I make one a day. I was watching the whole thing from Sherwood Island State Park, and I broke down and cried all day. I had a vision about doing something about it, and that’s what I came up with. It’ll probably take about 10 years to do it.”

Anyone who has seen a completed work won’t be surprised to hear that a project will take a decade. Mr. Ghetti often takes years to complete pieces, especially since pencil carving is only a hobby, along with camping and coaching volleyball at the Westport Y.M.C.A. He sells postcards and posters of his art (pieces are not for sale), but his main income comes from carpentry.

“You could see how he could do this — he’s Zen-like, very patient and quiet,” said Rick Torres, the owner of Harborview Market, in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. “He’s a pretty stable person, no waves in his system at all. And I think you would need to be that way to do that kind of work.”

The market, where two pieces are on display, is Mr. Ghetti’s home away from home, and he often plays chess there in the morning with neighbors. Mr. Torres said he pointed him out to customers who stared at “Chain” in disbelief. “I’ll just say ‘It’s that crazy bald guy sitting over there who did it,’ ” Mr. Torres said.

Mr. Ghetti, who owns about as many possessions as a monk, is aware how unusual his craft is. He started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite. It’s second nature now, and for 90 percent of his work, all he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade and a carpenter’s or No. 2 pencil.

“The pencil tip is great; it’s like a pure, very homogenous material,” he said. “It cuts in the same direction, not like wood, which has a grain. But when I tell people how long it takes, that’s when they don’t believe it. That’s what amazes people more, the patience. Because everything nowadays has to be fast, fast, fast.”

Sandy Lefkowitz, who along with her husband, Larry, provides Mr. Ghetti with work space in their barn in Westport for a nominal amount, believes a larger message can be found in his work. She taught him in a design class at Norwalk Community College in the late 80s, and considers his work creative nourishment.

“When people are passionate and creative and they can produce something unique, what they say to the world is, ‘It’s all possible,’ ” she said. “When something in this chaotic world can make you stop and focus, I think it’s very serious.”

As for his dedication to his material, Mr. Torres recalled how a customer was recently admiring a piece at the deli while Mr. Ghetti was there.

“We sell these postcards that Dalton makes, and I said, ‘Why don’t you buy one of these, you could even get it autographed by the artist,’ ” he said. “So I gave Dalton a purple Sharpie to sign the back, and he said he wouldn’t do it. He will not sign anything with anything other than pencil.”

Dalton Ghetti’s work will be on display from March 9 to April 20 at the Fairfield Arts Council, 70 Sanford Street, Fairfield. Information can be found at (203) 319-1419 or www.fairfieldartscouncil.org.

Recommend

Reprinted from the New York Times

The Pencil Guy

One of the interesting things that marketers and advertisers are faced with is how to adapt their traditional media know-how into online know-how. This is especially true with video. One thing that I took away from the 2010 Online Marketing Summit is that online is a medium that requires much more engagement than other, more traditional media. Simply sticking your company’s TV spot on your website won’t cut it. The user is in a more active state and more ready to act on the brand recognition than say, when they are listenting to the radio in their car or watching TV on the couch.

I found this interesting article on Entrepreneur.com’s Marketing Section that details 5 Qualities of Successful Online Videos.