We’ve worked with College World Series of Omaha, Inc for many years. In fact, our involvement goes way back to the beginning when one of our founders and a group of Omaha businessmen convinced the NCAA to bring the tournament to Omaha. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love for everyone involved. And every year is special. However, this year is extra special, new and exciting. New place, new traffic patterns, Read More

Now that the financial crisis is no longer a crisis, but rather a healing wound – perhaps one that’s slow to heal – the sales and promotion of LUX items from high-end companies is once again turning heads. Although luxury companies still produced and sold items in the past few years, be it in more limited numbers, promotions were dormant during the monetary meltdown.
Borsheims Jewelry and Gifts, for example, followed a similar business method in recent years. Read More

The other day I was driving home flipping through the radio channels and I heard John Tesh drop one of his pearls of wisdom. He said that several thousand “environmentally friendly” products had been evaluated for their level of environmental friendliness and ninety-percent had been caught in a big fat lie. I hit the brakes as the full meaning of that statement hit me. He was saying that the vast majority of products marketed as eco-friendly were not offering any benefits to the environment whatsoever. Read More

Tate & Lyle is one of the world’s leading providers of food ingredients. It literally supplies hundreds of different ingredients — such as sweeteners, starches, fiber and more — to leading food manufacturers such as Kraft and ConAgra.
Most people who work in the food manufacturing industry know who Tate & Lyle is. However, because of its long history and respected reputation as a quality ingredient provider, many of those people also thought that they knew everything there was to know about the company. Read More

Technology research firm Gartner recently released their list of the top 10 strategic technologies for 2011. Gartner defines ‘strategic technologies’ as those that have just matured or are still emerging.
I was struck by the fact that at least six of the technologies have already, or will, impact brand strategy and communications planning. Many of these are already being employed at some level.
Listed below are the six technologies with a brief explanation taken from the Gartner press release. Read More

I check my messages and there’s one that says something like, “I am blah, blah and I’m calling from blah company. I would like to learn more about your company and what you do.” Or maybe it says “I have an important business opportunity I’d like to discuss with you.” Read More

Just one year ago, June 1, 2009, Microsoft changed the name of its also-ran search engine from Live to Bing. On Friday June 6, 2010, I, like many others, received an email notice announcing that Microsoft has canceled Bing’s “Cashback” promotion effective July 30. Read More

It’s no secret that the media landscape is changing. I’ve noticed a major shift in the way reporters and editors get their story ideas.

Not by taking anything sold over the counter, or even anything behind the pharmacy counter requiring a signature (damn you crack dealers!)!
This is a topic very much on my mind right now since I appear to have been afflicted with the “Welcome Spring I feel like Crap” influenza.  And every time I’m afflicted I go through the same buying cycle.  I run to the store and stock up on everything that promises to be “maximum strength”.  Read More

I really really loved this latest post by Seth Godin. If we could dedicate more time to “wondering,” then more creative ideas would come forth. We spend a lot of time wandering and grasping at ideas and thoughts on the top of mind – especially when we are so slamming busy, we do not have time to stop to breathe. these moments of breath, air, white space – those are the times that brilliant ideas or at least seeds of brilliance come forth. Read More