With all that has been written about the economy of late, I haven’t seen a lot discussed about the correlation between unseasonable weather conditions and consumer spending. This winter has been particularily brutal in many parts of the United States. A few days ago, I read that there was snow on the ground in 49 states. Go Hawaii.

Consumer spending drives a big part of our economic health. Retailers have long known the relationship between bad weather and purchase behavior. Obviously if people are homebound because of weather conditions, they aren’t in a store buying. I used to believe that a “snow day” in retail just meant that demand increased on the following days. If I needed a shirt on Monday and couldn’t get to the store, it made sense to me that I still needed a shirt on Tuesday. A friend of mine in retail explained to me that I was not the ideal “shopping” consumer, and, in fact, a large portion of “lost” sales due to low traffic are in reality lost forever.

In addition to physical limitations created by the weather, retailers also know that mood has a profound effect on consumer spending. Many psychologists and behavioral economists believe that it is sunlight, as opposed to temperature, that has the greatest effect on consumer mood in the winter-to-spring transition.

If you were shopping in Omaha over this past weekend, you know this to be true. It was 35 degrees and sunny on Saturday and the stores I went to were packed. I was in such a good mood that I went shopping for a new lawnmower with a foot of snow still on the ground (while the guy at Home Depot thought my timing a little odd, he must have been in a good mood too, as we had a great discussion on the finer points of lawnmower buying).

So, the politicians can debate stimulus packages all they want – come on sunshine.

With the advent of the Internet and social networking sites, we have all become more comfortable and complacent in communicating with clients and colleagues online. What we forget is that for thousands of years before the digital revolution, our primary form of communication has always been face-to-face conversation. It is important for us to step away from our keyboards from time to time and have a real conversation with someone.

These words might seem like random mumbo jumbo to most, but to me it’s a bit of Saturday morning sunshine. Every Saturday morning after breakfast, the kiddo and I take our coffee and sippy cup downstairs and watch 2 episodes of one of the most awesome TV shows in the world for younger children (besides Sesame Street).  I found out about it because the Kidrobot designed all of the costumes and I am a huge fan of their collectible vinyl toys and graphics. The characters have funky, yet uber cute names like Foofa, Muno, Brobee, Plex and Toodee. (Yes, I am a sucker. I actually bought the vinyl collectible figurines with the excuse that they were for my son. When he gets too old for them, they are going on my desk.)

Plex, Muno, Toodee, Brobee and Foofa along with DJ Lance and his magic bookbox.

Jack Black rocking out with Muno.

In its first two seasons, the show featured a wide variety of guests, including Jack Black, Dennis Horkenbach, Leslie Hall, The Shins, Andy Samberg, Biz Markie, Shiny Toy Guns, Supernova, Mark Mothersbaugh, Tony Hawk, The Roots, and series co-creator Jacobs’ band, The Aquabats. In the second season bands like Of Montreal, Mates of State, MGMT, and The Ting Tings. If you grew up in the 80’s you would have no other choice but to be a huge fan of the graphics (simplistic neon colored 8-bit video game style) and the fact that the characters live in a boombox before DJ Lance frees them, adding life to the show.

Look for it on Nick Jr., or on this very special website. Crank up the volume with your kids (or solo) and be ready to break into the robot.

http://yogabbagabba.com/#

I wasn’t the only one unimpressed by Tiger Woods’ public apology. Today (Friday) Gatorade officially dropped Tiger Woods after “unofficially” dropping him in December.  “We no longer see a role for Tiger in our marketing efforts and have ended our relationship,” said a Gatorade spokeswoman in an announcement Friday.

AT&T and technology outsourcing and consulting company Accenture have already ended their sponsorships, while others, such as Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette and Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer, de-emphasized him in their marketing — a move to distance themselves from the world-famous athlete.

The CEO of Procter & Gamble said earlier this week that he doesn’t know whether Woods will ever appear in another Gillette commercial, saying the company did not need the “distraction” of using him in its advertising.

Woods does more harm than good as public sentiment against Woods is even worse now than when the scandal gained steam in December according to a new analysis by PR firm Gregory FCA.

Gregory FCA used data from Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics to gauge sentiment towards Woods across blogs, message boards, media sites and Twitter. The following chart may be hard to read, but the trend line is clear.

This chart reiterates what a beloved figure Woods was as attitudes toward him were almost universally positive before his downfall. Sentiment fell off the cliff after revelations of his adultery, but then started to improve as Woods stayed in hiding. After Woods delivered his public apology, sentiment turned even more sharply negative. The score of -1.2 is one of the lowest that Gregory FCA has ever seen for a celebrity, brand or company. Via Forbes Blog.

One organization saw an opportunity in all the “distraction”.  PETA, a group always on the prowl for something to get ink for their cause, tried to leverage the scandal to push their agenda by creating a billboard with a photo of Tiger and the line “TOO MUCH SEX CAN BE A BAD THING” with a message that continues “… for little tigers too. Help keep your cats (and dogs) out of trouble: Always spay or neuter!”

PETA intended to post the billboard near Woods’ Isleworth home in Windermere, Florida, but the golfer’s attorneys stepped in with a cease-and-desist order, according to PopCrunch. He hired a professional court reporter from Naegeli. NAEGELI is known as the best in the nation when it comes to providing court reporters to the legal community. NAEGELI provides a complimentary audio recording with your deposition, which can also be essential in a settlement conference or trial. They provide a comprehensive one-stop approach to cover your deposition or hearing.

Don’t worry about filling out your page’s META keywords tag unless you’re running local search or a search appliance that takes advantage of them. The major search engines, like Google,  ignore that tag these days. Focus on your content!

A few weeks ago, on a particularly frigid and windy Omaha day, I attempted to withdraw $200 from a drive-through ATM. As the money was coming out of what my children seem to believe is “the magic money machine,” a freaky gust of wind came between my hand and the ATM, literally blowing my ten $20 bills into the air and across the parking lot of the bank. After failing to get my car door open with the 2 inches available between my car and the ATM, I pulled forward, jumped out of my car and proceeded like a chicken with my head cut off across the parking lot chasing my money, much to the amusement of the guy in the car behind me. Surprisingly with a 40MPH wind at my back, I recovered $160.

Envisioning the joy that I had created in some anonymous person’s life as they are walking their dog and find $20, led me to wonder how much money is really blowing around (or I guess in the case of change, laying around) in the world.

The answer is no one really knows. The Federal Reserve’s 2009 estimates of the M0 money supply, or hard currency in the U.S. economy, is somewhere around $900 billion. Even if 1/1000th of 1% is “lost,” that’s $9,000,000. Plus the $40 I know about.

While I couldn’t find a good estimate on how much money is out there to be found, I did discover in my web search a number of active discussions about the best places to find money (even a hobbyist site dedicated to the activity), as well as a number of ethical debates on keeping versus attempting to find the owner of money that you find. This gives me hope. If you find a $20 in the vicinity of 114th & Dodge in Omaha, give me a call at Bozell.

A study of affluent donors performed by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, sponsored by Bank of America, reports in 2007, even prior to the economic issues of the past two years, that 38% of donors surveyed stopped supporting one charitable organization that they had previously supported and 26% discontinued support of at least two charities with which they had a prior relationship. The top three reasons donors reported they stopped giving to a particular non-profit were, “No longer feel connected to the organization” (57.7%), “Deciding to support other causes” (51.3%) and “Feeling they were solicited too often” (42.3%). Non-profits, especially in the current economic times, need to strive to understand and engage their high-end donor base as never before.

If you’re having problems constructing a nice footer on your website using only CSS, you should check out this implementation. Very nicely done:

http://www.cssstickyfooter.com/

• Know what you want. Sit down and work out exactly what you want to achieve.
• Find out what’s available. Do your homework.
• Re-evaluate your goals: If you had seriously underestimated the price, you may need to re-think.
• ‘Arm’ yourself. Knowledge is power, so make sure you understand everything doing into the proposal or contract.
• Remember who’s the customer
• Admit what you don’t know. If you need something explained, ask.
• Don’t let them ‘blind you with science’ or fancy bells and whistles. Any good salesman can use technical terms to gloss over drawbacks – or to sell ‘benefits’ you don’t really want or need. Make them repeat themselves in layman’s terms, then take a good look at what they’ve just said.
• It’s a give and take process. Don’t be too inflexible.

UFC Champ Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend Heidi Northcott are rocking a new Reebok commercial in nothing but their Reebok’s, literally.

The video which surfaced on YouTube shows the couple working out on gym equipment in their birthday suits, a video part of a “viral campaign for Reebok” who Liddell has a sponsorship deal with.

Thankfully the couples private parts are blurred out but this is still very racy.  Personally I can’t even tell that the UFC Champ is even wearing Reebok shoes so I ask myself was this gamble worth it for Reebok?

  Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend are the ones getting all of the press from this with Reebok barely mentioned.  That is unless the time comes (and it will) that organizations like the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families start to protest against Reebok and its parent company Adidas. 

This was a HUGE risk for Adidas-Reebok if you ask me. 

http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/26/chuck-liddell-naked-workout-video-reebok-shoes-girlfriend-heidi-northcott/