Agency Land

Today was Leo Burnett's 76th anniversary, and the theme of the party was "bring your inner child to work." As part of the 24th floor festivities, we posted our elementary school pictures and had a locker/door decorating contest.

My roomie/partner Laura and I created the masterpiece to the left. Unfortunately we didn't win first prize, so we'll be splitting a $20 Starbucks gift card instead of $50 iTunes credit.

C'est la vie. At least there was human bowling, remote control car racing as well as vodka iced tea, candy and Doritos to keep things interesting between client calls.

Dang, I'm realizing now that you can't read all the clever copy, from "Make the logo bigger" to "Make it work with stock photography" to "Susan Credle learned your name."

Shake hands with a hero

I hope Osama bin Laden's death brings a measure of comfort to those who lost loved ones on 9/11. The timing, however, is serendipitous. Just last night, two hours after Obama broke into a broadcast of Celebrity Apprentice (and eight long years after President Bush declared "Mission accomplished"), my team launched a digital program for Kroger and Procter & Gamble that lets all of us show our gratitude to American servicemen and women.

Please participate at HonoringOurHeroes.com. Our goal is to get 50,000 people to offer a virtual handshake to one of the 300+ Kroger grocery store employees who active duty soldiers in the service.

Bring your kids to work...

Z with the McDonald's gang. "Who?" 

...And fill their bellies with junk and minds with TV commercials. What? Is that my working mother of the year award? You shouldn't have.

I brought in both girls for 3 1/2 hours of Kellogg's, Coke, Hallmark and McDonald's brand experiences (they're all Leo Burnett clients). The highlight of the day was the make-a-mess room where they could go bananas with finger paints, shaving cream, bubbles and silly string before cleaning up with the new Delta Touch faucet. The girls also got a kick out of posing on a green screen and getting themselves edited into a Coke ad.

A customizes a Pop Tart

The low point was the interminable waits for overcrowded elevators (a problem every year) and standing in an unmoving line for face painting. We finally bailed in favor of popcorn and slushies from the print room and mini chair massages before dad drove up to get them home. And I could get back to work. Real work, that is.

Bring your kids to work day 2010
Bring your kids to work day 2009

Lucky, lucky me (to be in Miami)

This--THIS--was the incredible view from my 14th floor corner unit hotel room at the very luxurious Fountainbleau in Miami Beach Tuesday. And yes, I sat by those inviting pools with two of my old colleagues, finishing Unbroken and wolfing down an Indian-spiced shrimp wrap.

What did I do to deserve this Cinderella-at-the-ball treatment? I said yes to participating in a panel discussion at a shopper marketing insights conference. And it turned out to be a really fun panel, filled as it was with lively, personable, funny representatives of each generation.

Baby boomers Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender are professional speakers/retail snoops and hilariously self-deprecating. Apparently Boomers want large print labels and no-slip carpet floors in stores, but it's "not because they're old!" Marketer Isabel Villegas represented the Gen X Latina (dispelling the myth that Hispanics aren't heavy Internet users and reinforcing the stereotype that they like to shop in big family groups) and I offered the opinions and concerns of the Gen X mom ("It's a scary world in which to be raising small children. We're looking for brands that incorporate sustainable practices, reduce packaging, treat animals humanely, and give back to the community.") Our token Millennial was Sasha Halima, a quick-witted tell-it-like-it-is PR gal in NYC and avid blogger/tweeter who shared Millennials' close relationships with their moms ("I call my mom from the store and ask her what brand to buy").

Since the rehearsals and our actual panel took up only 3 or 4 hours of my time in Miami, I was able to take a bus to Lincoln Road mall in South Beach and soak up the atmosphere in the uber-cool lobby lounge Bleau, which is lit from below and features live music.

Catching the stinkeye to Miami

I got a robocall from American Airlines about an hour ago. My 7:45am flight to Miami was canceled and now I'm leaving O'Hare at the ungodly hour of 5:45 tomorrow. I've yet to count backwards to figure out for what time I should be setting my alarm clock so that I can be showered and in the O'Hare security line by 4:15.

Why am I flying to Miami during spring break? If you guessed it was to watch my children frolic in the pool at the Hotel Fountainbleau, guess again. I'm spending not quite 2 days in Miami Beach so that I can represent the Generation X shopper at SymphonyIRI Group's annual summit. I'm on a panel designed to give senior marketers a taste of the differences between shoppers of different generations. It's not entirely unlike the Mom Blogger panel I participated in 2 years ago in Las Vegas, but this time I'm even more professionally prepared. Not only as a shopper born in the mid-1970s and a mother, but because I work specifically in the shopper marketing discipline.

Since it's a panel discussion, I can't predict exactly where the conversation will go, but I'm hoping I will get a chance to talk about social shopping (everything from checking out product reviews to asking for opinions on Twitter on Facebook), category-specific paths to purchase and mobile-enabled shopping behaviors. I've also been asked to come up with Moms' Top 5 Fears. Using a pseudo-scientific blend of Leo Burnett BrandShelter research and my own survey of mom friends, I came up with the following.

1. Gas prices will go up

2. My town, city or state will raise sales, property or income taxes and fees

3. Feeling of powerlessness in the face of natural disasters, global warming, religious fundamentalism and corporate greed

4. Bullying/cyberbullying

5. Unable to save enough money for retirement and children's college educations


How do these fears align with yours? It's not too late to tell me!

Share your breakfast

I had coffee and a bowl of cold rolled oats with milk and dried cherries for breakfast this morning. Before I dug in, I snapped this picture and uploaded it to Kellogg's Share Your Breakfast. For every breakfast "shared," they'll provide breakfast to a hungry child.

Just snap a picture with your camera phone and text the word SHARE with the photo or a description of your breakfast to 21534.

I think it's a great cause marketing program with a compelling social media component. And I'm not just saying that because it came out of my agency, Leo Burnett. (I didn't work on it personally.)

I have moxie

There's really nothing more flattering than hearing you've inspired someone else. A local Chicago gal named Amanda just started a blog called She Has Moxie to bring attention to working women who "combine passions that don't normally go together, create their own path, rise above doubt, employ themselves and lead others, or do non-traditional work for women."

Check out her interview with me.

Photoshoot on a college campus

Tulane University made a beautiful backdrop for a photoshoot yesterday. The New Orleans university offers a mix of Gothic and contemporary architecture, enormous trees, stone benches...and even features waterfalls inside the brand-spanking new student union.

We shot images all morning, breaked for a late lunch and then people-watched for a while. We saw a student channeling Alex Keaton in a pink button down shirt tucked into belted khaki shorts who was alternately working at an outdoor table on his laptop and pacing the grass next to the intermural softball players with his cell phone pressed to his ear.

Then there were the two guys giving a third a hard time about a hickey.

"Hey, what happened to your neck? You fall down the stairs or something?"
"Yeah, I ran into a doorknob."
"Uh-huh."
"It felt pretty good when it happened."
"Yeah, I bet it did."

As we walked off campus to our rental car (parked far away thanks to the Rock N Roll marathon that was also yesterday), the strap on one of my Dansko mary janes popped off. This was an especially bad stroke of luck given that the boots I was wearing on the way to New Orleans became non-functional at airport security when the zipper broke. Now completely shoeless, I had my colleagues drop me off in an area I thought might have boutiques.

It didn't, so I hobbled down to the closest shopping center. No Payless or Aerosoles outlet in this mall. No, we're talking Saks 5th Avenue and Gucci. Desperate, I scanned the directory for something in my price range and found Banana Republic. Of the 15 pairs of shoes they had on display, two were on sale and one was in my size.

I am now the proud owner of a pair of adorable black ankle boots with 3 inch heels. Perfect for a day of sightseeing around New Orleans!

Then last night we headed out to dinner with our clients at Luke, a "snout to tail" gastropub much like Publican. Where we learn none of our clients eat oysters, mussels or "heavy food," and one will only eat "vegetarian fare, chicken off the bone, or light, white fish." I thought the waiter was going to kill us.

Today it's just me and two of my co-workers in NOLA. We're going to have brunch at The Court of Two Sisters and do some shopping and sightseeing before our flight home late this afternoon.

A beautiful sight, mine

I looked out the window as the airplane descended Tuesday afternoon and as the cloud cover gave way to the streets, houses and parking lots of greater Chicagoland, I saw something amazing: everything. Back in September I had PRK laser corrective surgery on both of my eyes and spent the first few weeks wondering if perhaps I'd made a huge mistake.

The first couple of days I slept a lot and wandered around in a drug-induced stupor. The first week I couldn't use a computer screen--even reading emails on my Blackberry was a challenge. The first month I went through bottle after bottle of moisturizing eye drops and struggled with my distance vision. I couldn't recognize faces from more than 10 or 15 feet away, so I felt awkward wondering if I should be smiling and waving to people down my block (or even across the street).

More recently I'd noticed I could recognize friends at a distance and read street signs before they were directly over my head.

But looking out that tiny window above O'Hare I could see everything and every detail was crystal clear. I finally felt like I would be happy if my vision settled at this level of accuracy. But from everything I've heard, it is more likely that it will continue to improve over then next few months. And that's fine by me too.

Why was I on a plane on Tuesday, you ask? I went to NYC for a brainstorm on Monday. Productive work + delicious food + late night saki bar + Uniqlo (yes, again) + amazing hotel = good trip.

More from my Marketing side

I'm back on the Leo Burnett blog today, talking about my take on brands and social media promotions.

You can find me at Leo Burnett

I'm not just an employee, I'm also a blogger. Check out my first post on the official Leo Burnett blog, What young moms' embrace of social media means for marketers.

Retail design FAIL

A small portion of my professional life is dedicated to shopper-based design, and it has made me a particularly astute observer of store design, layout and lighting; shelf sets and in-store signage.

But you don't have to be a marketer to be appalled by the interior of Oak Park's Petersen's Pharmacy. This is a store owned by a dedicated pharmacist (the kind who will mix up compounds to order) who obviously doesn't give a damn about the presentation of the typically very profitable drugstore "front-of-store," the area dedicated to non-prescription items like healthy and beauty products, candy and incidentals.

This permanent Medela display is nearly toppling over. $300 breast pumps are stacked on top of VitaminWater and breastfeeding supplies are all jumbled together. Since there is a thriving midwife practice in the building, these high-profit items should be more artfully displayed.

Does choosing your pain reliever from a chaotic shelf inspire confidence? None of the medicine had expired, but most have undergone packaging updates since these boxes were printed.

And the piece de resistance, a 20 year old bottle of Perma Soft conditioner.

I love my job

Reason #1: I work as an advertising creative. My job requires little math and lots of creativity. (And it pays pretty well, too.)

But we also have fun, which leads me to reasons 2 and 3.

Reason #2: Today we celebrated our account director's 34th birthday with tiny cans of sparkling wine. With straws! And cupcakes! And remember how they celebrated my 34th? On the roof of the Wit. Summer birthday celebrations at work make up for a childhood without decorated lockers and cupcakes for the whole class.

Reason #3: For our team outing tomorrow, we're renting a tiki boat. If you see 10 girls and 1 guy on a ramshackle pontoon boat on Lake Michigan tomorrow, be sure to wave hello. I'll be the one wearing a Land's End tankini, a rat's nest of windblown curls, SPF 50 and a giant smile.

My night at the Roxbury

Where was I at 1:30am Tuesday night? I was in Dallas, at what just may be the world's most horrifyingly cheesy nightclub. It was in a strip mall, along the the second-floor balcony above--I don't know--a nail salon and a mattress discounter, I think. The parking lot was full of valets and idling SUVs, each one a clown car from which stiletto-shod strumpets spilled forth.

We had bottle service, which basically means we paid $300 to mix our own drinks and lounge on a black futon as the most hair-gelled, bleached-blond and spray-tanned residents of Dallas paraded past. I was wearing the same cotton Boden sundress I'd been in all day--and yes, our trip to the bar came after 12 hours of focus groups and a leisurely seafood dinner. It's not a frumpy frock, but the hemline, which reached just past my knees, was at least a foot and a half longer than anything anyone else outside our party was wearing that night. I mean really, when your dress resembles something Grandma wore to the pool, you might want to invest in an extra couple inches of fabric. Or just tramp it up wholesale, like the cocktail waitresses. They were wearing--I kid you not--push up bras, boy shorts and fishnets.

I was relieved and a teeny, tiny bit disappointed that my mom dress, suede pumps and giant laptop bag rendered me invisible in the midst of such bow-chicka-wow-wow. I'm only turning 33 this month, but I felt old. My certifiably hot coworker Holly did only slightly better: as we were beating our way to the exit, a guy asked her for her number. "I'm from out of town," Holly replied. "Well I wasn't going to call you anyway," he shot back. Huh? Is that what passes for flirting in this town?

Checking off my list

The last couple of days have been pretty productive. I'm writing headlines and doing planning-type research at work. I'm helping organize the 20th anniversary celebration for Z's preschool and I've stepped out of my workout rut by taking two classes at the gym, including my very first Spinning class (which kicked my ass)! I've uploaded (almost) daily photos of my outfits to the Working Closet Flickr pool, I've brought my lunch to work every day this week and I've had fruit for dessert every night. I'm on a roll.

I'm celebrating with drinks this evening with a group of women from my neighborhood. That I organized!

No more cheese

I didn't think I'd ever hear myself uttering those words, but I just might have had my fill of cheese today. You see, one of my clients is a major cheese brand and today I attended a four hour long cheese tasting.

We started with a blind taste test of the major players in the natural cheddar cheese category. I discovered that I'm a big fan of Cabot, Tillamook and Cracker Barrel, but Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar is my absolute favorite. And store brand cheese? Pretty uniformly terrible.

I learned that East Coasters tend to prefer white cheddars, but Midwesterners and Left Coasters like their cheese yellow. I also found out that, outside of the Pacific Northwest where everyone grows up eating Tillamook, it is a very polarizing cheese Those of us who ranked it high loved it and those who didn't rank it in the top three thought it was among the worst we'd sampled.

After we'd consumed 15 pieces of cheese, we moved to the test kitchens to prepare a variety of foods with a variety of cheese brands. My partner and I were responsible for making a pizza and a traditional homemade macaroni and cheese. Other teams made equally cheesy dishes like lasagne and enchiladas. All of the dishes were made three different ways--with three different brands of cheese. So we tasted and evaluated a lot of food, and after seeing how the different types of cheese worked in cooked dishes, I was able to conclude that while the brand makes less difference in dishes than it does straight up, it is important to choose a sharp cheese for cooking since the flavors get muted. And you really sacrifice a lot when you use pre-shredded cheese since the anti-caking agent keeps the cheese from melting as nicely.