This isn’t the first year that MB has had a Fantasy Football league, but this year our participation is double what it was last year! We have enough people that we had to split into two leagues.

We have a lot of veterans in the leagues, as well as some promising rookies. Our draft was last Wednesday, and afterward, we collected reactions from some of the participants on what the experience was like!

Laura (rookie): I didn’t know what to expect and was a bit nervous having to pick for my husband, too; he actually knows players outside the AFC East conference, unlike me. After about 3-4 rounds, we were done with players I’d heard of, and I just started picking from the top of those available.

I read several scouting reports the night before the draft and made notes about which players to avoid. I was surprised at how judgmental my thoughts were as I saw some of those players going. I hope it all works out for the best.

Amanda (rookie): I joined this year for two main reasons: 1. To learn more about football. 2. To have some fun with my coworkers. I’m competitive enough that even though this is my rookie season, I want to actually stand a good chance of being a contender in the league. So, preparing for the draft was a bit like studying for a test in a class I’d been sleeping through all semester. “Where in the world did all of this information come from and how am I supposed to learn it by then?!”

I consulted some friendly veterans for advice, did some Googling of “fantasy football 101″ keywords on my own, and spent some serious time preparing my strategy for the draft. I quickly learned in my researching that my initial thought of, “Oh, well, I’ll pick Peyton Manning, because he’ll go quickly,” was a bad idea. Rookie move. Let him go. The pressure mounted even more when I was randomly selected to receive the first pick. All eyes were on me; that’s a coveted position to be in.

I had a great time in the draft and have already learned a lot. I’m looking forward to our first real week!

Eric W. (veteran): Perspective from a vet who has been playing since we kept stats out of the Monday morning paper: Overall, I think the rookies did a pretty good job at the draft. I would say that Fantasy Football is not as much about having a good draft as it is in selecting the correct lineup on a weekly basis. Setting the correct lineup depends on the match-ups for that team, along with other variables that are completely out of our control as Fantasy Football Coaches, so it makes it all very interesting.

Advice: Don’t “over think” the week, this will drive you crazy. Always play the “studs”, unless they are hurt of course. And never, never count on the Kicker to get you any points. It’s always gravy if it happens, but there are too many variables to rely on them [game score, offense, defense, wind, the coach, the other coach calling a timeout, and so on]. When in doubt, go with your gut and hope for a little thing called “luck”…

Are you involved in a FF league? Do you participate with your colleagues or just friends and family? How are you feeling about the start of this season?

Happy Friday!

Logos often appear on a brand’s products, but they also appear on television, billboards, in magazines, and online. The mass media make it easy for consumers to see hundreds of logos in a day as we are bombarded with advertisements nearly everywhere we go.

A logo can be a very important part of a brand’s image, as it is a visual representation of the company. When people become familiar with a logo, they begin to associate it with the brand, and they eventually identify the brand by the visual.

Often logos can hold as much or more power than the brand’s visual name. For example, when most people see bright golden arches, they know right away that it represents the McDonald’s fast food chain. Take a look at the McDonald’s arches logo and the McDonald’s brand name below. Both are parts of the brand’s image, but it is likely that the golden arches resonate with you more quickly than the text does.

Having a strong logo is a very important part of creating and marketing a brand. Below are some of the most widely recognizable logos of today. Notice the simplistic approach that most of the brands chose for their logo, which include basic shapes and a limited number of colors.

One of my favorite logos of all time may be the simplest of them all, which is why I like it the most. Do you recognize it? Hint: April 15th.

What does it mean? An advertising roadblock occurs when an advertiser purchases all of the available ad space on a specific web page. Roadblocks are typically purchased as one unit, and advertisers are guaranteed to have 100% share of voice on the page – meaning they are the sole advertiser on the page.

A roadblock is often used for branding campaigns and for increasing brand awareness.

Though the name of the conference was “Blog Indiana 2010,” this two-day conference in downtown Indianapolis was more of a social-media extravaganza. Blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, and searching were the keywords of the day. I attended on Friday and came away feeling excited about what I learned, inspired by some of the experts we have right here in Indianapolis, and ready to apply some new knowledge.

Seven ideas stood out to me as new tips, interesting approaches, thought-provoking strategies, or just downright worth sharing.

1. A powerful Twitter strategy can be summed up in three words: Share Good Stuff. Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer was the keynote speaker who opened the conference on Friday morning, and he has those three words (or a version that includes a more crass substitution for one of the words) taped near his computer screen. Follow those three words and other people will want to follow you.

2. 80% of traffic to business blogs is composed of first-time visitors. The objectives behind corporate blogging usually include building a solid, returning readership, but the reality is that most visitors are one-timers. Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, Jason Falls, and Jay Baer – three powerhouses in the industry – dug into their own and their clients’ analytics to figure this out together last winter. Because of this tendency toward new traffic, being mindful of SEO with every single blog post is a must. The #1 thing people do online is email. #2? Search. Help those people find you so the great content you’re creating gets an audience.

3. Techniques for generating leads using Facebook and Twitter are the same for both B2C and B2B. We often think of B2B prospects in a different light than B2C prospects, especially in considering using traditional media outlets to reach them. But B2B prospects are still people, just like B2C prospects. Kyle Lacy, founder of Brandswag and author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies, pointed out that B2B prospects make decisions with some emotional considerations, are looking for reviews from your customers, and want to know your stories, just like every other consumer. And yes, they’re accessing social media at work. How many people do you know that don’t have a smart phone of some kind?

4. Offer to inform or help a follower “if they’re interested.” One key idea, three powerful words. Your intent in social media can be to market and promote your company, but if you only use your platform to pitch to your audience, you’ll be ignored (and kicked out of the sandbox). Get involved, offer to take the conversation further and provide additional information, but only if they confirm they’re interested. Jason Falls again recommended that you keep in mind that the conversation needs to be about them, not you.

5. Having a schizophrenic corporate blog can be a great thing. But use bylines so your readers know which personality is talking. Chuck Gose of MediaTile mentioned that Southwest Airlines has a great corporate blog where you’ll find posts from flight attendants, the CEO, and baggage handlers alike. All these individuals contribute to the Southwest brand and experience, so followers enjoy seeing the company from many different angles. It keeps things interesting.

6. Old-fashioned, in-person communication can support your SEO efforts. Jeremy Dearringer of Slingshot SEO concluded his session on search-engine reputation management with the offer of an iPad giveaway. To be eligible, people in the session had to follow these steps: review his presentation – truthfully – on their blogs (personal or corporate), include “Slingshot SEO” in the post title, mention Slingshot SEO in the post content, and Tweet and/or share the link to that post on FB. They were then asked to email the link to Jeremy for the chance to win the iPad. Each of those requirements for the content supports Slingshot SEO’s search-engine traffic in a positive way. It never hurts to dangle a high-tech, shiny carrot in front of an audience to get them to help you out.

7. The CEO of Scotty’s Brewhouse must be one of the busiest people in Indianapolis. Not only does Scott Wise own six restaurants, he’s in the process of opening more, and he is an incredibly active participant in social media. The Brewhouse brand’s success through social media means they’re able to skip traditional advertising altogether. Until four months ago, when he hired some additional help, each day Scott was doing all the company’s Tweeting personally, answering 50-75 direct messages, monitoring 100+ mentions of @brewhouse, and searching for and responding to 20+ mentions of the restaurants that weren’t tagged with @brewhouse. (Watch it, some content could be NSFW.) And that doesn’t even list how many Tweets he was Tweeting per day. Bruce McClain joined in April and began implementing a larger social-media strategy that included empowering the staff of the company (600+ employees) to participate as well.

I’ll definitely sign up to attend again in 2011. Did you get the chance to go? If you did, what would you add to this list of new things you learned?

So far, the Coin Operations target has proven the most successful in generating sales leads for Maytag Commercial Laundry distributors. After clicking on the Maytag search ad, users are directed to MCLaundry.com, where they are able to submit their contact details and download informational brochures. Maytag distributors can then obtain the contact information and reach out to the prospective coin-operation owners.

For the first six months of the campaign, these search ads generated 607 sales leads for Maytag’s local distributors. The campaign continues to perform well for the brand and has the potential to reach even more users.

“Studio Tours are designed to be intimately scaled events that offer attendees the opportunity to learn about business practices, view work, and experience environments of local studios and firms first-hand. Join us for the third Studio Tour of 2010 as we welcome Fall with a visit to Miller Brooks.

The event will feature insight into the inner workings of one of Indy’s design studios and an excellent chance to share in our own community. We’ll have some drinks and treats, and plenty of discussion topics, show & tell and collaborative conversation.”

Check out the event on Facebook, and you can register on the AIGA site!

Twenty-three years ago, I graduated from Notre Dame and started my career at one of the then “big eight” public accounting firms. It was six months into the job before I really even looked at what my benefits were and understood how they worked.

Flash forward, and I see the same thing still happening today. New graduates evaluate salaries offered but quite often pay no attention to proposed benefits and the impact those benefits have in defining career opportunities. They enroll in benefits packages but have no idea how to properly use those benefits, which causes anxiety in both the employee and the HR department.

A lesson in benefits

As often happens, a lack of education can be to blame. Given the rapid changes in health care, pension law and the stock market, I believe it is imperative that our educational system offer a course in “Understanding my career in the real world.” Ideally, the course would explain how insurance plans operate, from the HMO, to the traditional, to the newer high-deductible/HSA plans. Students would learn about premiums, co-pays, EOBs, in-network, out-of-network, co-insurance, life insurance and the costs associated with each one of them – knowledge that would be valuable to have in advance of taking their first job.

The second part of the course should hammer home the importance of investing in a 401K plan without end. It should teach the difference between pre-tax and after-tax implications and outline how these affect our personal bottom line.

By educating young graduates in the basics of benefits, they would understand and be better prepared to correctly choose from the numerous options available. In turn, they would become healthy, active employees who are informed and equipped for the many uncertainties that life throws at them. We’d be helping them to properly plan for the day when they will end their careers and retire to enjoy life outside of work.

Until then, what should we do?

Until a course like this becomes reality, some responsibility – and opportunity – falls on us, the employers, for continual education. How do we go about doing this better?

What does your company or organization do? What would you like for it to do?

Phrase of the week:  Advertising Wear-Out

What does it mean? When an advertisement runs repeatedly for a certain period of time, the user response tends to decrease and will eventually plateau. Adding new creative to the mix, or switching out older banners for new ones, prevents advertising wear-out.

Reading my Facebook feed recently, I encountered a status update by another ad copywriter who had recently been laid off. “What would Don Draper do?” he wondered.

“Get fall-down drunk and take home a cocktail waitress,” I chuckled to myself. But in the days that followed, the phrase stuck with me. A quick Google search shows it has a certain cachet on the web, too. There’s even this blog in which the author, pretending to be Draper, answers questions from readers. Here’s a sample:

Dear Don Draper, How do you wear a pocket square?

If I wear one at all, I use white cotton or linen squares and fold them in what’s called a Presidential fold: halved twice at right angles into quarters. And don’t be a dandy – it’s meant to be used.

In spite of his profoundly dysfunctional personal life, the smoldering Mad Men anti-hero radiates a cool self-assurance that eludes most copywriters I’ve ever met. Maybe that’s why we tend to view him in the same adulatory light in which minivan-driving, middle-class soccer moms view Oprah. To say we worship him would be to overstate the matter – but only a little bit.

Of course, “Don Draper” is a phony; an illusion created by the conflicted man behind the name, Richard Whitman. No wonder Draper is so good at persuading people to buy his ideas – his entire life has been one long con. Still, we copywriters can’t help but exalt the Draper persona. Supremely confident, unfailingly smooth and always in charge, it’s everything we aren’t.

Take me, for example: I gravitated toward a career in writing largely because I feel more comfortable behind a keyboard than in front of other people. After a mercifully brief stint in door-to-door fundraising 10 years ago, I figured out I wasn’t blessed with the gift of persuasion. Giving a sales pitch, I make Old Gil Gunderson look like Richard Branson – and that’s on a good day.

So I understood why my fellow copywriter invoked Draper in his Facebook status. Don Draper may not be our Jesus – he’s far too flawed for that. But look no further than this brilliant pitch Draper made to Kodak for evidence that, even though he’s purely fictional, Draper has earned his place among the gods of advertising.