D-Day – Operation Overlord, if you prefer – was obviously one of the hugest days in world history…right? Without it, I’m guessing that your humble bloghost wouldn’t be writing this to you. A big operation? Howzabout 150,000+ allied troops, 50,000 vehicles, 11,000 aircraft, and 5,000 ships & landing craft. Other than that, it wasn’t the least bit complicated.

Here’s how Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, the guy who was in charge of the ground troops in the Normandy Invasion laid out his plans: on a single piece of paper.

While commenting music’s powerful ability to take us back in time, Bob uses the even greater power of personal vulnerability to walk us through a few intense moments in his life, thus making us feel our own version of what he feels. (I got emotional telling my wife about the post because it took me back to a certain time in my own life, one where I was at a professional pivot point and had to decide to walk away from a gig I loved in order to grow.)

If you want to connect with your fans/customers, you’d do well to learn from what you’ll experience when reading the post.

Welcome to the new year! Oh, and since we’re less than 365 days away from a year of lame 20/20 references, I thought you and I should get the pun party started early while taking a look at where we’re at in The Jetsons Future. TV is currently in bigger trouble than radio, and everyone can learn from what they’re doing about it.

Y’see, the good folks at Turner have dropped some serious bank on a sponsored content piece and a related website explaining their vision for the future present. How spot on is their vision? I love this quote from their We Make Fans website: “Viewers tune out, fans tune in.” Let’s take a deeper dive with some specific thoughts from Turnerstan? Here are their quotes with my interpretations in italics:

It’s funny how timing works. I’ve spent a lot of time lately discussing the “it” factor in a few different places, and just yesterday, up popped Steve Reynolds’ excellent thoughts on the subject on the Jacobs Media blog. I want to talk to you about it (and “it”) because there are a few key lessons here: (1) if you have “it,” your boundaries are limitless, but (2) if you don’t do the things a great talent does to succeed, boundaries will start popping up incredibly fast, and (3) even if you don’t have “it,” if you do some other stuff really well, you can go very, very far as a performing talent in any part of showbiz.

Who better than the least fashionable human being you know to connect the dots between distrust of the media and clothing, specifically down vests?

Don’t think I can do it? And here I thought you trusted me.

Anyway, here’s where I prove you wrong, so read on…but in case you’re too lazy to do so, here’s the takeaway: Cynics are everywhere. Great ideas are not. Don’t let the cynics hold you back.

I want you to listen to the best audio commercial I’ve ever heard. Two big shocks: there’s a twist, and I’m using the spot to make a point.

The twist? The spot is two minutes long. The point? It’s exactly what you think it is, and yet, you’re probably not really doing it.

This isn’t a story about politics; it’s a story about advertising. In particular, it’s about how you get your message out in 2018.

Something’s clearly fishy in Messagingland, and if a political candidate with a massive war chest, tons of structural advantages, and a clearly definable target audience couldn’t cut through the marketplace clutter enough to avoid a curbstomping, it’s probably time for you to take a long look at your messaging efforts.