Wellsbaum.blog

Writing about life and arts

marketing

  • Under the trained eye

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    2 min read

    The eye works as a paintbrush, coloring the world with a palette of vitality. Unfortunately, the constant bombardment of external stimuli torpedoes our attention, bankrupting what’s interesting. After all, the attention merchants plant eye candy and other UX wiles to captivate us and throw us into a ludic loop. But we can see our way…

  • What matters isn’t always popular

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    2 min read

    If you’ve ever published anything on the web you know what it’s like when all you hear are crickets. No likes, no comments, no reshares. You think your content sucks because no one’s acknowledging you. But it’s a misconception to sell your work short, especially if it’s your labor of love. There are 2.1 billion+…

  • Taste at first sight 👁👀👁

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    1 min read

    “The first taste is always with your eyes.” Everything is contrived, from the glowing burger buns, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, to the juicy fresh meat. Video takes food advertising even further, making it come alive from its static state. Tabletop advertising or food marketing is no different from any other product marketing: the illusion never…

  • Devouring optical information

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    1 min read

    There’s optical information everywhere — on cereal boxes, to ads atop taxicabs, to the best quiche recipe on Pinterest. We are bombarded by the same signals we signal right back, purchasing the Nike sneaker posted on Instagram yesterday. Communicating through images negotiates a plausible reality. We consume and project, show and inspire others. Assume everything…

  • The bullshit detector

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    1 min read

    You know it when you see it. Bullshit rings like a magic lantern, giving artificiality a spotlight. More people are susceptible to believing bullshit than ever. Politics is mostly bullshit, as is mass marketing. The irrational tries to take all the mystery out of life. When storytelling becomes manipulation, people lose their heads. Evil spreads…

  • Walking billboards

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    1 min read

    We are all walking billboards. Logos and sponsors aren’t restricted to the chest of professional soccer and basketball uniforms. As consumers, we signal our own catalog of attention triggers — the Nike Swoosh, the Adidas stripe, the Bauhaus-inspired Apple AirPods, etc. We’ve been working for brands all along. Social media and the proliferation of images…

  • All the internet’s a stage

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    2 min read

    We can all assume that a social media persona is different than that in real life. Writes Jonathan Crossfield in Chief Content Officer Magazine: “Strategy or no strategy, all social media is artifice and spin.” No one is going to post in public what they Google in private. We’d rather tweet about playing 18 holes…

  • “Build it and they will come” only works in the movies.

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    1 min read

    “Build it and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is “build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.” Seth Godin

  • ‘His retina is beleaguered with images’

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    1 min read

    “What of modern man’s scale of values? His retina is beleaguered with images (photographs, printed matter, street advertisements, Cinema) from morning to night.”  Alvar Aalto, 1927 And now we’re beleaguered with shiny devices that blast such promotions into our eyes. We all carry a piece of Times Square in our pocket. gif by Tomasz Konczakowski

  • A little bit louder now

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    1 min read

    Provocation is neither about engagement nor expression — it’s about likes and shares. The lightning rod on Twitter will always outshine the passive inspirer, hiding from the market. But it is the quality of interactions that deliver the message. Neither the loud nor the faint succeeds. Speak softly and carry a big stick.

  • Hobbying for hobbies sake

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    2 min read

    Whether it’s trying surfing or playing the guitar when’s the last time you did something out of pure joy? In this Instagram-edited era where everyone gets their own stage, people only like to do things they’re good at. The thought goes: ‘if I can’t share it and show my best self, why do it?’ The…

  • Advertising on the Eiffel Tower (1925 – 1934)

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    1 min read

    The dawn of ubiquitous advertising found itself on a Paris landmark before World War II. Between 1925 and 1934, the Eiffel Tower served as a huge illuminated advertisement for Citroën. Darran Anderson