We recently put out a call to readers everywhere for a short video on what they thought of our most recent book. Below are the best three we received! Wow! We’re honored! Thanks a lot!

From Mike

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From Suzanne

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From Bethan

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Who Should Attend The Mashable Media Summit Meetup in Las Vegas?

The Mashable Media Summit attracts a diverse range of professionals in digital, tech, advertising, sales, marketing, mobile, and publishing. Whether you’re a brand, agency, strategist, entrepreneur, startup, journalist, community manager, blogger or a creative, the Mashable Media Summit is a valuable opportunity to learn from and network with leaders in the industry.

When it comes to the future of media, the possibilities are endless and a number of questions arise: How will we consume news and information? Can media companies be sustained? Is print truly dead? Come to discuss all of these topics and more!

Click here to RSVP

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 5:00 PM

The Loft by Freevi (Downtown)
450 Fremont St, Suite 167 Las Vegas, NV 89104

Here are a few topics the Mashable Media Summit will spotlight that we encourage you to discuss at your local Meetup:

Reinventing journalism with social reporting
Advancing the relationship between news organizations and their communities
Reinvigorating advertising and creating new business models
Changing the way we consume media and entertainment
Redefining the way we view privacy and our senses of self

Make Sure you use the #MediaSummit #Vegas and #Vegastech hashtags on Twitter!

Back in the golden days of Madison Avenue, Ms. Maas was a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, working on clients such as General Foods, S.C. Johnson and American Express. Now she’s set out to publish yet another book about advertising, this time about the Mad Men-era from a female perspective.

Click here to read the entire interview!

When I think about advertising I think of the classics. You know the “Have it Your Way”’s or the “Be All that You Can Be”’s. The cause of success for these campaign slogans can be found both in the creative inspiration and the wording. Every brand needs to position itself in the mind of the target market as the solution to a need. But the challenge is establishing this quickly and memorably.

In the two previous examples you can see that the first place to start is by looking at your consumers’ needs and discontentment’s.

Burger King unleashed “Have it Your Way” during a time when Mcdonalds and almost all other fast food venues only offered standardized menu options. This gave Burger King the inspiration to tell the public that at their establishment they could hold the pickle and onions if they wanted to.

The success of this idea not only forced their competitors to change their policies, it also brought about a change in the way the consumer looked at Burger King. And thus, a burger joint with an imperial name become the people’s champion.

So now look at your consumers. What is it they feel is missing from your competitors? What happens if they don’t get your solution to a problem? Where would they be buying the product? For whom would they be buying the product? What perceived or real benefit does your product have?

Next put out a piece of paper and number it vertically 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 1. Based on the answers to the above questions come up with a brief embodiment of the essence of your answers. The numbers represent the amount of words you can use for each phrase or slogan.

The possibilities are endless; you can create a list for each answer, or simply do one list as a collective of all of the answers. The more the better.

Try to make this part as fluid as possible with no going back and editing anything. Chances are you won’t actually use any of the ideas that come up, but they will act as a catalyst for creative thought and will lead to your own masterful slogan.

Happy marketing!

PRINT and eBOOK editions out now!

The ultimate advertising survival guide!

The book features tips, case studies and easy to digest how-to segments for all business owners and marketing managers.

What’s In It For You?

Without this book, you will be hurled into the world of trial and error, which can be costly.

Consider the small price of this guide as a way to invest in your marketing, advertising and social media education. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration in the process.

This guide will teach you the in’s and outs of gaining expert status in your niche or brand.

You’ll learn how to create a powerful campaign that people will not only be receptive to, but will remember and respect. You will have people beating down your door to buy your products and services.

CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO READ TESTIMONIALS FOR THE BOOK AND TO ORDER YOURSELF A COPY NOW!

ISBN 978-1-257-90685-7

Editor’s Note: Flora Nicholas is the Chief Executive Officer of Brainwave, Inc., and the author of many great posts on the Mad Woman Blog. The following post is from her blog and is reposted with permission.

I have to confess that I know a thing or two about McDonald’s. It’s one of the brands that I’ve worked on in the course of my career, so I therefore understand the McStrategy, the McMessaging and the McGoal of the advertising. And I also understand McDonald’s consumers — the guys and gals who go out of their way daily to literally consume any combination of McDonald’s fast food that they can get their hands on.

However, even I was surprised by the lengths that one guy went to in order to eat a Golden Arches breakfast recently. It all unfolded last Monday morning outside the McDonald’s near our office in the suburbs of D.C.

There in the drive-through line, alongside the Toyotas, Fords, Hondas and Chryslers was, well, er, um, a hearse. As in…A HEARSE! There was an undertaker at the wheel who was obviously a die-hard McDonald’s fan, and a coffin in the back with an expired, probably former McDonald’s consumer, inside it.

As onlookers watched in amazement, the hearse crawled through the drive-through line at a very slow, funereal speed of course. And it soon became clear that the undertaker was on his own journey to meet his maker — the maker of a McDonald’s Extra Value Breakfast!

In true keeping with the solemnity of the situation, the undertaker ordered a full body of McDonald’s products — including what appeared to be a Sausage and Egg McMuffin and a coffee to go. (He already had a “coffin to go” in his possession but we won’t dwell on that any further at this point.)

The undertaker then paid for his breakfast quietly and graciously, and drove carefully out of the parking lot and back out onto the road as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Luckily for me, and everyone out there who loves black humor, Brainwave’s very own Paul Gayter was on hand with his trusty iPhone to record everything for posterity. So you can view this whole, hysterical “I’m an undertaker and I’m loving it” episode by watching the video in, pardon the pun, the dead center of this page. It provides conclusive proof that consumers love McDonalds products and will go well out of their way to devour them — even if it means taking a detour on the way to a funeral parlor, a cemetery, or hey, even the morgue!

Now, I believe that it’s my job as marketer to pass on new consumer insights to companies as I see them. So I am planning to contact McDonald’s and advise them to introduce a range of fast foods aimed specifically at undertakers — Die-t Cokes, Ash Browns and Southern Style Chicken-in-a-Casket all come easily to mind. It could be big, big business, and I will of course let you know how they respond.

In the meantime, I think it’s safe to conclude that, even in the gravest situations, undertakers really do dig McDonald’s.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Two Months after the premiere of our Comeback Kid commercial for Luxor Las Vegas, Kayak searches for the hotel top any other local hotel, even the newly opened giants on the corner of Harmon and Las Vegas Blvd, according to a recent article by Vegas INC.

While we can’t take all the credit for this spike in Vegas tourism that is about to hit the city (people are spending more now in 2011 than they have in the past few years, and Las Vegas having lower room rates than any other city on Orbitz.com right now), we’d like to think that the TV placement, as well as the 7,000+ views of the commercial in a short 8 weeks on the official Luxor Las Vegas Youtube channel helped nudge things in the right direction.

Especially for the city whose past few summers have felt relatively slow.

Congrats Luxor!

According to the official Athenos Youtube page:
Yiayia (Greek, for grandmother) is a fan of simple, respectful food made the Greek way. That’s why she approves of ATHENOS. And that’s why she doesn’t approve of anything else.

And the results are fantastic.

Yiayia on Parenting

This one plays a bit on the current state of affairs in the US with more stay-at-home dad’s than there were in the previous three decades!

Yiayia on Fashion

Can you say the word Prostitute on TV these days? Or is this one reserved for Late Night TV?

Yiayia on Relationships

We love how the narrator never lets the main characters finish what they’re saying, because Yiayia couldn’t care less, and neither does the viewer!

Click the image below to go directly to the subscription page.

Bring current events into your brainstorming sessions

The prince is getting married and the whole world was more than ready to soak up the sappy moments and luxurious décor.

Women were all focused on what the dress would look like and men were wondering what the wedding would ultimately cost.

The royal family even advertised the event all over their official website, twitter, and official flickr stream!

The entire globe was interested in what the big day would look like, and everyone is now more than obsessed.

Now that the whole world is thinking about weddings, this is a great time to figure out how to write an ad that taps into this renewed passion

Here are some ideas:

Fast food: There is a luxurious wedding and when everyone sits down to eat and the waiters pull off the lids we see the fast food under there.

Hotel: Church bells are going off and the bride and groom are driving away they get to their honeymoon suite. Once they get there they see that the hotel is nothing like the brochure. “Not getting what you paid for? At ___resorts you get….”

Landscaping: We see our couple pull up to their new house still in wedding outfits. The groom lifts the lady in his arms and opens the white picket fence to reveal a front yard that looks horrible and is filled with obstacles. We see the groom work his way up to the door with difficulty, finally when he is 2 feet from the door he steps on a rake and just as the rake is about to hit him in the face– cut to the logo of the landscape company “ _____landscaping, more than just nice lawns”

These are just simple starting points that would need to be polished and revised, but you can see how easily you can take a trend and turn it around to benefit you.

If you would like some ideas for your company leave a comment or contact us! We’re always happy to help…and we don’t look good, unless you look good! (Queue wedding procession music)