Or, do you like to eat pie?

How about both?

Tomorrow, thanks to the sixth annual Penny’s Pieathlon in Des Moines, both are possible.

And, AKC’s own Kelley Crosbie will be one of the first in line!

Penny’s Pieathlon is a unique event, whose mission is to promote fun, healthy activities and raise money to fight cancer through supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation, LiveSTRONG, YMCA, John Stoddard Cancer Center and Mercy Cancer Center.

In the form of a Sprint Triathlon, participants will bike (12.2 miles), swim (400 yards) and run (5K) throughout the Des Moines Metro area, all in an effort to raise awareness for cancer. No prizes are awarded for times or finishes; instead, all participants are given a piece of pie to indulge in as a reward for their hard work. How fun is that?!

What fun things do you do to stay fit and active?

If you have a desk job like us, it can be difficult to find the time to exercise. However,according to a recent Mashable article, “Death by Desk Job: How to Fight It,” it is even more important for those of us in this category to make the time!

According to the article, studies have shown that those with desk jobs are at a higher risk of being overweight, sick and more stressed out, than a job “that doesn’t require sitting down and hunching over a keyboard for a third of the day.” It states that the amount of time Americans spent sitting increased by 8 percent between 1980 and 200, and, ironically during that time, obesity rates doubled.

Furthermore, it states that Americans burn about 50,000 fewer calories per year than 50 years ago and nearly 300 million Americans do not get the minimum level of exercise required for good health. It’s no wonder when you learn 80 percent of Americans work in jobs that require little to no physical activity!

So, what can us desk jobbers do to stay happy and healthy at work?

Check out this infographic from the article for a few tips!

Good luck to Kelley tomorrow at the Pieathlon!

The PRIME Awards “are designed to honor exceptional public relations activities from a diverse mix of businesses, industries and backgrounds throughout central Iowa.” All submitted entries were communication projects designed for first use in 2011 and were judged by a sister PRSA chapter.

In the Multimedia category, AKC Marketing was awarded a PRIME award for our “Feeding the World, Becker Underwood” video marketing submission, which was developed to promote Becker Underwood’s product, Vault HP, highlighting how it can help address one of the most critical questions of our time: how are we going to feed the growing global population expected to reach nine billion people by the year 2050?

To view the award-winning video, click below:

In the Technical Writing category, AKC Marketing was awarded a MERIT award for our “Earned Editorial, Latham Hi Tech Seeds” submission, which recognized our written work for earned editorial in a key soybean and corn grower publication.

In the Media Kit category, AKC Marketing was awarded a MERIT award for our “World Dairy Expo Media Kit, Lely” submission, recognizing our work in securing PR for Lely at World Dairy Expo 2011.

We were extremely honored to be recognized among our peers at the PRIME Awards ceremony this year, and had a great time celebrating our industry, and the great work being done right here in Central Iowa, Thursday night!

To learn more about the PRSA PRIME Awards, click here.

To view a slideshow of the AKC Marketing crew at this year’s PRSA PRIME Awards, take a quick look at the photo collage below. For more photos of the evening, visit Central Iowa PRSA’s Facebook page.

Companies around the world continue to get involved and show their support for cancer awareness and cancer survivors. With a staggering number of cancer diagnoses every year, the continued support of these organizations is crucial in helping find a cure.

Most recently, thanks to the work of two women, the world’s largest toy company, Mattel, has shown its support to children fighting cancer with the introduction of a bald fashion Barbie doll.

According to an article by ABC News, a Mattel Company spokesman stated the dolls will be a “friend of Barbie” and will be distributed exclusively to hospitals treating children with cancer throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The release of this doll, which Mattel has yet to officially name, is yet another example of the power of social media. Beckie Sypin and Jane Bingham, co-founders of the “bald doll cause,” launched a Facebook page, “Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let’s see if we can get it made,” in an effort to urge Mattel to produce a bald version of Barbie to help children with cancer, and others who have lost their hair due to illness, cope with their conditions. The Facebook movement worked, Mattel listened and currently, the page has more than 158,000 “likes.”

According to the article, the bald doll will include “hats, scarves and other fashion accessories to provide girls with a traditional fashion play experience.” The dolls will also have wigs and head coverings that can be interchanged or removed.

Currently, Mattel has made the decision to not sell the dolls in store, focusing their efforts on getting the dolls in the hands of children “who can most benefit from a play experience with the dolls.”

This decision has caused yet another movement on the bald Barbie facebook page. Sypin and Bingham have created a petition and are pushing Mattel to allow the general public to purchase the dolls.

Bingham, who lost her hair while undergoing cancer treatment, said her daughter had a difficult time accepting her as a “bald woman.” She believes a bald Barbie could be a great way for young girls to cope with the hair loss of a loved one. However, with the current donation guidelines for this exclusive doll, young girls, like Bingham’s, would not qualify for a doll. Additionally, both she and Sypin argue that thousands of dollars could be raised to help fight cancer if the dolls were sold in store and a portion of the proceeds went to cancer research.

Currently, nearly 1,000 people have signed the petition.

Will Mattel, once again, listen to the demands of the public and social media? Only time will tell.

Has a nonprofit near to your heart benefitted from social media? How?

It almost doesn’t seem possible for winter to have come and gone. We were spoiled this year, as we experienced an extremely mild winter, with minimal snow and higher than normal temperatures. But, nonetheless, Spring is upon us, flowers are beginning to bloom and warmer weather continues to be in our future!

What is your favorite thing about Spring? Is it March Madness? What about finally being able to open the windows in your house and feel the fresh air breeze? Or, is it simply watching the trees blossom and tulips bloom?

Here at AKC, each one of us looks forward to a number of things as we welcome the Spring season. However, being in the ‘Ad world,’ there are a number of us who are particularly excited for a Spring event taking place this Sunday, March 25… the fifth season premier of ‘Mad Men‘ on AMC!

Mad Men is an award-winning drama television series, which depicts a prestigious advertising agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, in New York on Madison Avenue in the 1960s.

To view a sneak peek of the season 5 premiere, watch the video below:

Being in a present-day advertising agency, it is fascinating to watch the series and notice the evolution of the agency world from what it was like 50 years ago, to what it is today.

Mad Men supporters everywhere have been creating a great deal of buzz surrounding the premiere. Most notably, this week, Newsweek gained a great deal of publicity regarding their current issue, which features a retro-themed cover story of the Mad Men cast. According to a recent article, the issue is a throwback to the 60s era, everything from the ‘Newsweek’ font on the front cover, to the cleverly designed ads for modern day companies designed with a 60s flare. The issue is said to have captured the true style of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

We will be enjoying the Spring season this Sunday with the ‘Mad Men’ premiere… will you be tuning in? If so, what is your favorite thing about the show?

Picture this. You are 1,000 miles away from home on a business trip, and little do you know, your best friend from your freshman year in college who you haven’t seen in years is in that same very city, just three blocks away on vacation. Neither of you is aware that the other is there, and you never run into each other throughout your stay. You both travel back home, never knowing how close you were to reconnecting.

Chances are, something similar to this scenario has happened to the majority us without our knowledge.

Now, picture this. You are on that same business trip, and your friend from college is on that same vacation. All of a sudden, on your cell phone, you receive an alert notifying you that your friend is in the same city, and it gives you her location and cell phone number. You call her and meet up for dinner, having the chance to catch up for the first time in years.

Scenario two is now possible thanks to the new iPhone app, Highlight.

According to a recent article, Highlight aims to transform how people meet or connect by alerting users when they are physically near people with whom they share a connection, such as the same hometown, mutual friend, or similar interests.

According to the article, the app works through opt-in only and runs in the background of a user’s device. When it makes a connection, it sends each user the other’s profile, which can include information such as geographic location, name, photo, mutual connections, employment, residence and phone number. The amount of information provided to users depends on the information provided on that particular user’s Facebook profile.

Although many supporters of the app state Highlight is a great new way to reconnect, while also getting to know the strangers around you, there are many who believe the app poses extreme security concerns.

A recent article by MSN quotes Parker Higgins, a representative from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as saying:

“It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how sending such a steady stream of location data to a third party with no posted privacy or data retention policy could go very wrong: the application could be indefinitely storing location histories on their servers for every user, including likely interactions between them.”

No matter the stance, it is interesting to think about how this tool might evolve. Could this type of ‘people tracker’ tool transform into a business marketing strategy?

What do you think about the new app?

American Express announced Tuesday a new social media campaign that provides cardholders with the opportunity to earn discounts for their future purchasers. According to an article by Digital Trends, the new program allows AmEx card members to sync their credit cards with their Twitter accounts and use hashtags to earn savings with their favorite retailers.

So, how does this work?

According to the official AmEx “Tweet your way to savings” webpage, the savings will be represented in a “cash back” type of offer, in much of the same way online shoppers enter in discount codes for savings at checkout. Their example (shown to the left) highlights a Whole Foods Market discount: “Tweet #AmexWholeFoods, get $20 back 1x on next $75+ in store purch w/synced Amex Card!”

If you visit American Express’ twitter page, you will find a list of other retailers who have already offered significant savings through the program. Among the list of 15 retailers is Best Buy, Cheesecake Factory, Zappos and McDonalds.

The launch of this program is a great reminder for all of us to be continuously thinking of new ways to get people talking about our brands. In a world full of clutter, it is important to make your company stand out, whether through a social media campaign, an innovative grassroots marketing effort or mobile app, every awareness avenue is important and shouldn’t be overlooked.

How do new ideas evolve at your company? Do you hold weekly brainstorm meetings? Do you encourage creativity with your surroundings?

Henri Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.” We couldn’t agree more. It is easy to sit idly by and jump on the bandwagon after seeing a concept successfully work time and time again. It is much harder to be a creative leader, to be the first one to try a new idea, because with that comes risk. However, being a creative leader is a risk worth taking.

As you can see in this video clip, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is recognized through an eye-scanning system, which allows ads to directly target him based on characteristics such as his name, gender, age, interests and buying trends.

No doubt, this type of advertising in the real world would have a profound effect on all companies and their ability to target primary audiences. Just imagine what cosmetic companies could do with personalized advertising campaigns if their ads were able to recognize and react to characteristics such as a person’s sex, age and skin type?

There have been many developments since this famous scene in Minority Report, developments that have gotten advertisers closer to being able to virtually recognize and target audiences with their products. For example, according to Time Magazine, the Venetian resort and casino in Las Vegas launched an ad campaign that recognized the genders of viewers and recommended restaurants, entertainment and clubs based on their demographics.

Even more recently, according to a recent Mashable article, a non-profit organization, Plan UK, which works to help children in third-world countries, recently launched a bus stop outdoor advertising campaign that scans a person’s facial features, determines their gender and provides the individual with a customized ad based on if they are male or female. According to reports, the scanning feature has a 90% accuracy rate.

View the video below to see how it works:

Of course, both of these examples deal primarily with gender recognition, as opposed to individual recognition found in Minority Report. But, who knows how long it will be until other types of recognition (such as your name, age, address and purchase history) will surface?

This subject has many consumers uneasy, claiming invasion of privacy. And, because of this, as recognition advertising continues to evolve and become more readily available, companies will need to be careful about not being too blatant with their targeted ads. By being too obvious, it might scare certain customers away, leaving them wondering, “how did they know that about me?” or ”how did they access that information?”

No matter your stance on recognition advertising, one thing remains certain. Technological advances continue to provide advertisers with the means to reach customers like never before. And, being in this industry, it is crucial for all of us to stay current on the very latest possibilities and not be afraid to take a creative risk to try and sell our products!

Today, we received a sample of the coffee mug. The mug design is fairly simple – white ceramic with our AKC logo. For this sample, we specified a metallic silver ink for our logo. Instead of metallic ink, the vendor substituted actual silver leaf. At first glance, we thought they were pretty neat. However, as you will see in the below video, it turned out to be slightly problematic…

Lesson learned. Don’t attempt to put a metallic mug in the microwave.

Just a little Friday afternoon fun for you! Have a great weekend everyone!

Just as anticipated, if not more so, are the commercials that will make their debut during Sunday’s game.

Last year, we highlighted some of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials of all time and noted that a 30-second commercial in the 2011 Super Bowl cost an estimated $3 million. It has been estimated that a commercial in Super Bowl XLVI will cost companies an much as $3.5 million for their 30-seconds of fame. Roughly, that equals about $116,600 per second that the commercial airs.  

In the years since the first Super Bowl in 1967, aside from the dramatic increase of commercial pricing (reports have shown that a 30-second ad in Super Bowl I cost around $37,500), one other notable development has emerged in recent years that is changing the world of Super Bowl advertising: the release of commercials online prior to them airing on Super Bowl Sunday.

People no longer have to sit through the game if they are interested in nothing more than weighing in on their favorite commercials. All they have to do is go online and the commercials are there for the viewing.

Honda teased their Super Bowl ad a few days ago, which stars Matthew Broderick in a spoof off the 1986 classic film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Currently, the commercial boasts more than five million views.

According to a recent release from PR Web, Volkswagen is the most anticipated Super Bowl commercial this year. Last year, their Darth Vader “The Force” commercial was named by many as the best Super Bowl commercial of 2011. This year, they released a YouTube video teaser of their 2012 ad which features a chorus of dogs barking the Star Wars Imperial March. Currently, the teaser has more than 10.5 million views on their YouTube channel.

A recent article from Chicago Tribune quotes the General Manager of Brand Marketing at Volkswagen of America as saying, that for a marketer, “the Super Bowl is really not a game on a Sunday afternoon anymore. The Super Bowl is a three-week PR and social media campaign.”

Long gone are the days when a company placed a 30-second commercial and waited in anticipation to read reviews in Monday morning’s newspapers. The evolution of social media provides companies with the platform to maximize exposure without costing them an extra dime.

Critics believe pre-releasing commercials takes away the element of surprise. However, it is hard to argue that companies should not be taking advantage of gaining millions of commercial views through forms of “free advertising” such as YouTube.

Have you viewed any pre-released 2012 Super Bowl commercials this week, or are waiting to view them all on Sunday? If you have, do you have a favorite so far?

In today’s society, we are constantly bombarded with various forms of advertising. Whether this is through more obvious streams such as print ads or TV and/or radio commercials, or less obvious grassroots marketing techniques such as a person’s T-shirt you read as you walk past an individual at the mall or the branded coffee mug you drink your beloved cup-o-joe out of every morning at the office, advertising is all around us and has a profound effect on a person’s buying decisions.

The evolution of advertising is a fascinating thing. Mashable recently created an infographic, The Evolution of Advertising: From Stone Carving to the Old Spice Guy, which highlights key moments in advertising’s long history, beginning with 2000 BC and the Egyptian’s invention of outdoor advertising where they carved public notices in steel.

As you can see, every new advertising trend has influenced the next generation. TV commercials heavily influenced viral marketing, viral and online marketing influenced QR codes, and so on.

So, how do we, as advertisers, use the very latest in advertising to break through the clutter and reach our targeted audiences?

A recent infographic posted on StumbleUpon, The Sneaky Psychology of Advertising, provides a deep look at the unique ways advertisers are reaching their customers and how those methods have changed over the years.

The infographic starts out by stating that every day, each of us is exposed to an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 brand exposures. Those are astonishing statistics that reiterate how important it is for businesses to be targeted and strategic in their advertising and marketing campaigns.

What sets your advertising apart? Are you making the necessary steps to ensure that in a world filled of ads, your product isn’t getting lost?