In the latest American Pulse Survey published by BIGresearch, trust is virtually non-existent for politicians and members of the media. What a travesty, here these people should be some of the most credible, and in the end, seven out of ten people over the age of 18 don’t trust either of these two entities.

The other piece of information I found interesting and unfortunate relates to the green movement. No doubt you’ve seen the commercials, company after company and cities and individuals are moving towards a more environmentally-friendly attitude . . . of so I thought. Seventy percent of Americans believe that companies that tout “green” products are doing it simply as a marketing tactic (read the article here, registration required).

How sad, because, although I’m sure a number do it for the image, there are some doing it because they genuinely feel it’s the right thing to do — majority rules.

So how do we regain trust? I guess the pessimist in me says it’s too late. I had a friend that talked about the “penny bucket” as a symbol of trust in a relationship. Every time we do something good, honest or right, we put pennies in the bucket, that way, when we goof up and take pennies out we should always have a reserve to cover the outflow; although we should also watch so that we don’t have a large outflow. Have marketers, the media and politicians gone into the red on their penny buckets?

My Two Cents: We’ve gotten greedy. In our haste to make as much money as possible we’ve sacrificed values — honesty being one of them. I would be interested to know how many companies put up figurative stop signs when an money-making idea comes along that would be unethical or dishonest. Rebuilding the public’s trust is a monumental task that will only occur if everyone is on board; we’re on thin ice as it is. Personally, I think the best I can do is just that, my best.

Anyway, Seth makes some great points on achieving the top in anything, whether our professional lives or businesses, or whatever, the Dip is what separates the achievers from the quitters–let me say that quitting isn’t that bad, Seth explains all about that too.

My Two Cents: Seth made a great presentation and my guess is that his book is a deeper journey through his concepts and ideas, it would be beneficial to read the book, plus it’s a small book, in case you were concerned it was too big.

Google offers personalization and various services like Gmail, Google Apps, in the end, they are collecting information about you in return for these services. In this MediaPost article Google’s translation service is another in their line of products that don’t offer any “revenue streams.”

My Two Cents: I wrote this on my iBook.

What I’d like to do is present advertisements and commercials representing various brands and not only post a copy of the ad/commercial but also rate it based on a couple of factors and rate each factor on a scale of one to five, one being bad and five being exceptional.

1. Creativity: although not always necessary, it is definitely a plus and helps attract customers to your brand.

2. Uniqueness: if you’re doing the same thing as the other guys how are you establishing your brand? Uniqueness can definitely go along with creativity.

3. Message: Ads are meant to communicate something to the audience, maybe not everyone is the audience, but it should communicate some sort of discernible message.

4. Intangibles: Sometimes ads just have something about them call it pathos, or whatever, but sometimes ads just have a je ne sei quoi about them.

5. Overall experience: This is probably the most subjective, because it is, after all, my experience. I may not get the message or think it is creative, but all of it comes together to represent a final product that will effect consumers. In other words, consumers will have an experience with your ad.

This week I want to present the first ad I’ve come across for this creative marketing series and it’s Jeep’s series of bug ads. There are various versions, both in print and TV format, for anyone who isn’t familiar with the ads here is one:

(photo courtesy of MediaPost.com)

Creativity: 5

Uniqueness: 4

Message: 2 (I think the message is better expressed in the television format)
Intangibles: 3

Overall Experience: 2 (It’s a print ad!)
Admeter score: 3.2

My Two Cents: A good concept for the ad, the T.V. version is better (here, here and here, and the print version that hung in Time Square is even better, see that here.

The previous three commercials are funny to me. I think a lot of the humor comes because of what is being portrayed combined with Peyton’s down-to-earth personality. (Here is a clip that shows behind the scenes of the final Peyton Manning commercial, watch it and see how they let Peyton be himself.)

My Two Cents: I think that although we will continue to have professional ad agencies, for one reason or another, we, the users, will become more of a presence in the advertising world. In reality, user-generated videos are just an evolution of letting the audience choose what content is in a commercial.

This struck me recently as I though about the “subliminal” power universities seem to have over their alumni. I went to a good university and consequently spent money on my way to receiving my degree. Now, there are those who went to universities and spent more than $100,000 on their education, so what possesses us to go back to the alumni shop and buy a golf shirt for $70??!! The answer: affiliation, we feel a connection to our alma mater, it shows a bond between us and other alumni or fans, and in some ways it is part of who we are–i.e., you don’t drop the fact that you’re a Harvard grad without that fact saying something about the person you are.

My Two Cents: The successful communicator or marketer will find a way to connect with that sense of belonging–that need to be included–that we humans feel. Now, that’s not to say that we all want to be part of the Kleenex club, but I think you get the picture. Have you created a campaign or strategy as part of a campaign that relied on the principle of affiliation?

You know, I am a relative newcomer to the PR field, but I think I see where executives have a hard time with PR. Executives are concerned with value, and PR, unlike advertising, doesn’t always bring immediate results–especially big immediate results. Ask Russ how long it took to get articles published about his clients in top tier publications, it is very much a relationship process, and how many of us can go out and become best friends with someone in only one day? (Execs and shareholders don’t want to wait that long)

PR’s eternal struggle will be to bring and show value. I had a manager who believed that PR was not measurable. As desireable as this was, it simply wasn’t true. If PR wants to keep its seat at the C-suite table, it needs to show results, it needs to show how it meets the bottom line. Where I see a struggle today is with new and emerging communication channels, how do you measure the effect of a YouTube video for your client? How do you measure the value of a Podcast or blog? The PR Pros who succeed in demonstrating value in these media will be very successful.

So imagine my reaction when, today, I received an email from my bank, USBank, offering “Simple Ways To Save Money And Time.” So I clicked on the email–mind you I’ve never received an email like this from USBank before–and under the guise of a newsletter, this is nothing more than USBank’s way of signing me up for more services through them.

My Two Cents: One of the best ways to pitch a product, service, story or event is to be honest. Not only will this probably get a story run, but it also goes a long way in fostering a great relationship with your contact–beit media personality or customer.