My colleagues and I aim to give you a constant stream of thoughts, ideas and questions worth reading. We encourage you to respond. Feel free to add your own point of view or rant and reject our ideas – we don’t mind; agency people grow thick skins.

You’ll find that on one hand, I love to play online – find the latest things, experiment with them and share them with others.

On the other hand you’ll also witness me working, blogging about strategy and marketing as serious business.

Thumbs up or thumbs down, we all want to hear what you think of our posts on the RandM Blog. Comment, or get in touch with me at amaites@robinsonmaites.com.

The “think” part is important, because I believe that too many people in marketing are short-sighted – all they see is the “things” – the ads, the websites, the promotions. I’d like to think (and for you to think) that we go a little deeper here at Robinson & Maites.

You’ll find I’m a skeptic – not because I’m negative by nature, but because new marketing ideas are always risky. Many of them are just fads. Many of them fail. But that’s no reason to quit creating them.

Now I’d like to hear what you think about marketing.

Ever since I was kid all I wanted to do was be a blogger. Well not really, but I felt that starting with a Goodfellas reference is one of the best ways to introduce myself.

I’m a Strategic Planner/Account Director at Robinson and Maites. I’ve got over 15 years experience working with businesses large and small to help optimize their Marketing and Advertising initiatives…you know what. Who cares? That’s all in my bio anyway, so if you’re interested in that, click here.

I’ll be here to talk about Marketing, Advertising, Movies, “Mad Men” or just whatever I find interesting. I hope you’ll find it interesting too. So, you can expect posts from me that range from serious marketing challenges of the day to stuff that I just finds unusual, topical, funny, or cool. You may find some of my posts to have a slightly irreverent bent. Just a touch perhaps…

But I’d love your feedback so I hope as you enjoy reading the RandM Blog, you’ll enjoy commenting on my posts as well. Let’s have a dialogue!

Cheers…

Glad you stopped by. I’m one of the many Steve Smiths you’ve encountered over the years. I’m the one who’s a geek on promotional marketing.

I love promotional marketing because the results are quick and quantifiable, and no other marketing discipline lets you hone in so closely on precise objectives and finite targets. The consumer is the tip of the iceberg as well-planned promotional marketing embraces the business’s entire organization – so it’s beating on all cylinders.

I know a boatload about promotional marketing, but never enough. I’d love to hear your take on this dynamic discipline – good or bad, major or minor. You’ll certainly be hearing my 2¢-worth on this blog. Read it, bookmark it, forward it, heed it or argue with it. We blog because we care.

Did you know that Warren Buffett, in addition to being the acknowledged king of value investors, is also one helluva marketer? As I swing by the R&M blog from time to time to drop in a guest post, we’ll be looking at the world through his marketer’s eyes. I have spent the last few years studying his non-insurance acquisitions, not just his investments. If you follow the merger and acquisition world you may have come across my papers on Berkshire Hathaway at The Corporate Dealmaker and the Wiglaf Journal. Or you may have heard one of my guest lectures at Northwestern University.

More than Shares of Coca Cola and a Gecko

Many people don’t know Mr. Buffett owns 200 very well run businesses in addition to the equity investments in companies like GE or Coca Cola. And the vast majority of them aren’t in the insurance business like Geico. They make everything from welding equipment and carpet to underwear and cowboy boots. From them you can learn a lot about brands and the customers that build them. Each one of them knows that the key to their “good long term prospects” ultimately relies on the customers. After all they are the only source of ongoing cash flow.

Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Bob and I am a Creative Director. As the idea of using a blog should point out how advertising and marketing is evolving, I want to talk about new and different forms of it, the Untraditional. For my first post, I wanted to show you this promotional website for the movie The Watchmen. Being interactive, this site uses state of the art flash and mobile advertising. You can either follow Rorschach through the world of Watchmen by solving puzzles to unlock movie clips, or type in your phone number to have Rorschach call and talk with you. Here’s the link, enjoy. 6minutestomidnight.com