Know Which Side Your Bread is Buttered On

Here's an exercise that will serve you well.

Take the classic ad below and change out "Avis" for your name or your company's name.

Where it refers to "rent a cars", change it to your primary product/service (copywriting, marketing, content writing, advertising, whatever).

Customize the rest of the copy to your business (e.g., "lively, super-torque Ford" to "engaging website copy").

In other words, steal this brilliant ad and change it to fit your business.

Don't publish it. Print it out and tape it to your wall.

Read it before, during, and after client calls.

And do the level of work that makes your client need you.

To make the exercise easier, copy and paste:

Avis needs you.
You don't need Avis.
Avis never forgets this.
 
"We're still a little hungry.
 
We're only No. 2 in rent a cars.
 
Customers aren't a dime a dozen to us.
 
Sometimes, when business is too good, they get the short end and aren't treated like customers anymore.
 
Wouldn't you like the novel experience of walking up to a counter and not feel you're bothering somebody?
 
Try it.
 
Come to the Avis counter and rent a new, lively super-torque Ford. Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So we have to try harder to make our customers feel like customers.
 
Our counters all have two sides.
And we know which side our bread is buttered on.

Technology Speeds Ahead at a Dizzying Pace

To consider the rapid pace of technological advancement, imagine if you could go back in time 20 years.

Bring an iPhone with you.

Leave it on the seat of a public transportation train or bus.

Once discovered, it would cause a furor.

People would be sure it is sign that we are being visited by aliens who mistakenly left something behind.

They wouldn’t believe that it's commonplace technology just 20 years in the future.

Now that you've taken a moment to consider the breakneck speed of the technology you're probably reading this on, check out 33 Things You'll Be Surprised Didn't Exist 20 Years Ago.

Imagine trying to explain some of these to the you of 20 years ago.

2024: An AI Kick in the Head

 

This exchange on LinkedIn was a real eye-opener.

The post:

I've taken up sketching and illustration again. Why after 25+ years? Well let's just say I have a feeling I'm gonna need a second income stream soon. At 49, I'm too young to be a politician or president, but seemingly too old to write banner ads or TV scripts for mouthwash. Weird that huh?

A response from a follower:

An enlargement from the comment:

That was a rude awakening.

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Here's the link to the original post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/suggett_illustration-illustrating-sketchbook-activity-7143333046149087232-5m-z

Predicting the future is easy … getting it right is the hard part

Every new year, the predictions flow.

Before you let them have an enormous impact on your attitude or future plans consider some of these expert predictions:

1977

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” – Ken Olson, president chairman and founder, Digital Equipment Corporation

1992

“The idea of a personal communicator in every pocket is a 'pipe dream driven by greed'.” — Andy Grove, CEO of Intel.

1995

“I predict the internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” – Robert Metcalfe*, Founder of 3Com

1998

“By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”– Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinning economist

2004

“Two years from now, spam will be solved.” – Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

2007

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” – Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft

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* In 1995, Metcalfe argued that the Internet would suffer a "catastrophic collapse" in the following year; he promised to eat his words if it did not. During his keynote speech at the sixth International World Wide Web Conference in 1997, he took a printed copy of his column that predicted the collapse, put it in a blender with some liquid and then consumed the pulpy mass. He had suggested having his words printed on a very large cake, but the audience would not accept this form of "eating his words."

Source: Wikipedia