Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

06/20/11

So much has been said about South Bend since it showed up on the “List of Dying Cities.” A city much like ours in many ways, Grand Rapids, (also on the list…) put together an incredible video in response. I have lived in South Bend most of my life and I spent 4 years in Grand Rapids attending art school,

06/17/11

I have to say I have a love-hate relationship with Jimmy John’s. I love the sandwiches, they are good and freaky fast. The thing I am not so enamored with is walking into the restaurant and having the majority of the folks working behind the counter yell “HELLO” at me. Most don’t even look up, it feels more like a

06/16/11

I emailed a respected marketer and he made a statement that was quite profound.  He said, “Free stuff we’ll take all day long.  But I also don’t want to work with somebody who gives away their products or services too cheap – if they can’t sell their own stuff, how can they help me sell mine?” I loved his perspective

06/14/11

credit: Rocky Ayrawal Hey, Want a deal? Ok, here it is….I’ll give you $2,500—1/3 now, 1/3 in 30 days, and the final 1/3 in 60. You give my customers $10,000 in retail business from your shop. How does that sound? That’s a Groupon deal. The “daily deal” industry structures their deals so that the retailer must be very careful about

06/07/11

Whenever I’m asked about Force 5, one of the things I say about our company is that we are“small and smart.” Most people understand immediately what half of that means. We have only a handful of people on our staff – so, we’re small – pretty easy. Small is good these days. That means we don’t carry a lot of

06/02/11

Hungry Twitter Recent news of Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck and cutting off third-party development of Twitter clients has me wondering where Twitter is headed. Twitter has no doubt proved itself as a contender in the online service arena. But can it prove it’s well-carved niche with the likes of Google and Facebook? With the limitation of additional third-party clients and Twitter

06/01/11

I was at a convenience store this past weekend and saw the following sign. So the question that immediately pops into my head is “how is it possible that “Unmatched Pleasure” and “tooth loss” appear in the same ad?” I can’t imagine the marketing challenge involved in trying to sell this product. You have a product that clearly isn’t good

05/26/11

Picture the scene.  I’m driving into town toward the University of Notre Dame campus on my way to our offices at Force 5.  It’s a beautiful morning. The weather’s perfect.  As usual, there is a lot of morning traffic.  I stop at an intersection where there is a wonderful digital billboard.  As I sit in my car sipping my morning

05/23/11

Force 5 recently wrote about a project we did involving QR (quick response) codes. The campaign, done for Smoker Craft boats, has been a success and a practical application of this new and growing tool. Since the boom in QR codes, I have since seen them on everything from ads in magazines to the lettuce container at the grocery store.

05/17/11

The Filter bubble by Eli Pariser I was listening to a TED talk yesterday from Eli Pariser, who just wrote the book “The Filter Bubble”.In his talk, he tells of the personalization taking place on the web. Everything is filtered before it gets to us. I have an interest in sailing, and listed that on my facebook. And lo and

05/16/11

It’s been almost  a year since the release of Apple’s iPhone 4.   I traded in my old iPhone 3G just a few months ago.  I love the 4’s speed, video features, functionality. Ultimately, I’m glad I made the switch.  But I have to be honest with you; there’s something that’s just not been quite right with my new iPhone 4.

05/13/11

  n a world where we often hear about “these kids these days” it is great to hear about those doing very well. This spring the 6th graders from Riverside Intermediate School in Plymouth, IN for scoring highest in the nation for April 2011 on the FBI-SOS Internet Safety Challenge. From the FBI-SOS Internet Safety Challenge website: The mission of