About 36 hours before hosting a holiday party for almost 40 people from my business group Million Dollar Ladies, my hot water heater sprang a leak — of course, perfect timing right? When your hot water heater leaks there's no patching it up, you have to do a complete replacement.

Luckily, one of the members of the group is the owner of a plumbing company that does superior work and was someone I trusted. So I called them and they came to my rescue replacing the unit in a just a ... Continue Reading

WIFItising — Dancing the fine line between clevah and stupid.

I came across this interesting way of advertising that in a big picture sense boils down to thinking outside of the box and how many traditional advertisers should start thinking.

Creative marketing tactics picks up old ideas, dusts them off and presents them in a new way that often generates a new found interest just because of the unique approach. You might call this particular idea a form of Guerrilla marketing.

WIFItising is something that has become popular in coffee houses ... Continue Reading

There are many warning signs when it comes to spotting a rogue design firm.

We've heard of horror story after horror story and stepping back to take it all in there are a few commonalities that seem to come up more often than not.

Below are some key red flag indicators to help you realize if you've been or are in the process of being punk'd by your current design firm.

MIA

Your design firm all of the sudden has gone missing in action right in the middle or within the final stretch ... Continue Reading

Designing "just because" is no way to develop solid design. If you are a designer or someone in the business you already know this.

There are times though when clients are adamant about something that has to be in the design, not necessarily for a good reason, just because they like the "idea" of it, not because it has any real meaning or validity. This will often put a wrench in the creativity process but it's something everyone of us has had to deal with from time to time.

Consultation throughout the project ... Continue Reading

Every designer, artist, cook, etc. is influenced or inspired on some level by others in their field. Trends are often started this way. A look or design style starts as a seed and then blossoms across a field and sparks ideas, spin-offs, look-a-likes or those that fully without care steal the idea as their own.

Driving on the way to work today I was listening to entertainment news that involved the band Coldplay. Apparently they didn't just sample Joe Satriani's melody they completely ripped it off. Below is the video that compares ... Continue Reading

Have visions of sugar plums started dancing in your head?

Scheduling your next marketing project by Dec. 19 with Effusion gets your company at least three holiday treats:

• An additional tax write off for 2008 • A jumpstart on your 2009 marketing • An amazing chance to win an iPhone 3G or iPod Touch just in time for the holiday gift exchanges

The first 10 clients to start a project by December 19th are entered into an iPhone 3G/iPod Touch give-a-way. Odds of winning are 1 in 10.

Yes the odds are really that ... Continue Reading

I sure didn’t come from money. Still, I wasn’t deprived either. If anything, I can thank my maternal Grandmother for showing me how being thrifty and creative can make the things that we surround ourselves with really gratifying. That and a general belief that she had:

“It’s better to have one nice thing than to have many cheap things.”

Grandma wasn’t talking about straight label shopping. Grandma was talking about plain old quality — though we know many brands (or labels) that are associated with quality. In fact, that’s what Effusion Creative Solutions ... Continue Reading

Where was I? I was sleeping like a baby without an ounce of shopping anxiety.

If you've ever waited tables, Black Friday traditionally is a lot like working at Sizzler on Mother's day: lines out the door, crazy people, running out of product, a lot of apologies and my favorite — parking lot rage.

It's not a fun day for employees or shoppers but it's the day that kick-starts the holiday shopping season nonetheless.

With all of the in-store and pre-television/radio ads, Black Friday becomes one big blur of who is selling ... Continue Reading

It's very interesting to see how the malls are marketing this year to get people through their door. We just visited our local mall and 9 stores out of 10 had major discounts or FREE posters in nearly every window.

Nearly ... Continue Reading

So there I am in the Starbucks drive through for the usual morning wake-me-up. I get to the window and the barista says "Your coffee was just paid for by the car in front of you." (who by this time has fled the scene)

She proceeds to tell me that every car in front of the next car is doing the same — it's this game they play to see how many cars will pay for the next. That day I was the 44th car in a row to follow suit. My ... Continue Reading