We Miss You Bob Marley…

The Intro

Another day of drifting is upon me.  It moves along, but time seems far from slipping.  Dragging my weight like a starved horse pulls a wagon, I’m doing my best to perform before I get the whip.  Writing would seem like a good idea if when I typed out my thoughts, they didn’t come out as gibberish from the missed keystrokes caused by nodding off.  Reading just leads to the story playing out in my head.  And when I think the story is over, I finally open my eyes and realize that I’ve only just begun.  But at least it was an epic journey.  I even got to save the princess!

Could Really Use a Nap

Talking about being tired.  Writing about it probably doesn’t contribute much to what I’d like to accomplish.  Just makes me think about it more, and how badly I want to avoid the nod, which in turn, brings the nod.  How I stay awake to manage the days is not unlike most other Americans’ ways of keeping focus.  You’ve got your coffee:  It’s prepared with cream and sugar, (or sometimes neither), just the way you like it to help you forget that it tastes awful.  The buzz is good though, and if there is one thing that you learn from college, it’s how to get a buzz on.  Although not necessarily a route to belligerence, this coffee permits a habit that many people do not see or acknowledge.  This habit often turns into an addiction, and addictions can get expensive.  So I have learned thus far into my life travels with many trips to the place where “Americans run on.”

Not that I have ever really gone anywhere–and not that I wouldn’t love to see the world before it all blows up–but I consider myself to have a good perspective on how I treat and feed my body.  I know that most of the things I feed it are unhealthy, and the things I do with my body can be sometimes pretty dumb.  The point is, just because I know these things, doesn’t mean that they are going to stop me from doing them anyways.  It’s not because I have this incessant ticking for free will, but just because, it doesn’t bother me.  I’m not dying right now, so why not?

America!

Yes, freedom does have some role on the whole, but I consider my behavior pretty primal.  And whose isn’t to some varying degree?  I want a burger or pizza, I’ll go out and get a burger or pizza.  I don’t want to spend a day picking up heavy boxes and moving them up and down six flights of stairs, so I don’t (unless of course, I need the extra mulah).  While this might not be the best perspective for making myself some decent money sometime in the future, or being the next “Sexiest Man Alive,” it is a well-developed mindset that I fear is instilled in much too many people these days.

Let’s take this idea, go for the social awareness side of things for a moment and take a look at the automotive industry.  How many people do you suppose know that there have been proven studies about the effects of carbon emissions on the global climate?  Well, if you haven’t heard anything about this, you might want to pick up that remote and put the news on that “Previous Channel” button.  Point being:  People know that this is happening.  Flipping the coin now, how many people to you think actually give a flying Pegasus about it?  I would venture a guess that that number of people is significantly larger than the former.

Here we go…

So what is everyone waiting for?  If we’re talking about my generation here (Y, Z, Omega, whichever you prefer) then they’re probably waiting for a solution to be handed to them.  Just like our cellphones and laptops, MP3 players and tablets, we just want it given to us, without having to work very hard for it.  And it’s a terrible habit, no doubt.  Needless to say, technology has skyrocketed in the past two decades, but generations have declined.  A lot of children don’t know what they would do without power for a day, and a lot of teenagers don’t know how they could live without the convenience of sending a text message to their friends in other classes.  How can we possibly dream of “One love, one life, let’s get together and feel alright” when these little electronics that newer generations love so much, are just pushing everyone so far away from one another?  We have cars to get us places, but it seems that cellphones–and what have you–have almost replaced that commodity to a point where cars now have to have mobile capabilities in order to reach these new markets.  We want everything handed to us.  Why?  Because we have everything we “need” right in the palm of our hands.

I’m ranting.

What worries me is this:  When the world starts to fall apart, and everyone’s productivity and lifestyle is completely reliant on their devices working properly; when skyscrapers become vacant, oil turns to diamonds and water’s owned by the government; when the world that is today–and will likely still be tomorrow–suddenly gives the human race a big dope slap, will that be the time where we all realize that there was a lesson to be learned?  Probably not.  Being the stubborn race that we are, we will probably try to rebuild everything from the ground up using new methods and ideas that we think will be so much better improved from the last time me did it all.  Maybe it will work for a few decades, a few centuries, or a millenia.  But what goes up has to fall–unless we’ve forgotten that gravity exists.  We’ll consume.  And our thirst for consumption will grow so great that we will have no choice but to seek out our necessities in worlds beyond our own.  This is sounding strangely like a Science Fiction direction isn’t it?  I could go on, dreaming of spaceships and unicorns and warp-speed police chases, but I really just want to stick with today.

Let’s Stick With Today

Today is one of those days:  It’s gloomy, cold, rainy, and I listened to NPR on the way to work (because I don’t have TV).  Not that this world is against us, but I think that had Pangea never split up, we’d never have been so divided (physically and principally) as people.  The vast majority of civilizations would be based on a general respect for the land where all people reside, and there would be less conflict because, well, you’ve gotta live with these people.

Boundaries would be well-understood by everyone because obviously, there isn’t much out past the shore but water.  Of course there would be little niches of thieves and rogue groups not wishing to conform, but it would be a world where that was accepted, and expected, because the power of the nations together could not be impaired by the weak and malicious.  Hell, maybe we’d all even have the same currency.

World, Please.

It’s been too long that people have been separated and segregated by fault lines and invisible guidelines, barriers between cultures.  It has brought on scrutiny, curiosity, fear and even death to many innocent people who thought nothing more of their actions than “This works for me, I must be doing it right.”  As I take another swig of my delicious high-sugar energy drink and spit another sunflower seed shell into the trash I say:  “Get a grip people.”  Few of us remember the days where our houses were nothing but the skins of beasts; when we were lucky enough to get ahold of anything substantially sustainable in the middle of winter.  Few of us can recall when we had no heat or food at our fingertips, waiting to be plucked from the shelves of grocery stores like forbidden fruit.  And few of us seem to want to change anything but our status to let our networks know how friggin’ tired we are today.  When I think about these things as if I were posing a question about how we are going to think ahead and fix a problem before it really becomes a problem to all of the spoiled rotten humans here on earth,(long sentence), I hear the response as something like this:

“Contemporary, shmemporary.  Wait’ll Twitter gets a load’a this loser.  Thinks he can change the world.  HA!  Well he can’t change me!  I’ve got free will motherlover.  Come on everyone!  Let’s show off our free will by doing whatever we want and forget these guys telling us how we should protect our investment in this world as a life form!  We’re gonna drive these hummers that we don’t need but worked so hard to get, drink this fancy bottled water from springs in Fiji, buy a third home that we’ll visit one week out of every year and throw our wrappers and bottles on the ground, five feet away from a trash barrel.  Why?  Because we can and we will.”

Reaction

What do I even say to that?

Ever had a daydream that you swore was more than just that?

It is a new day upon the face of the newbie.  His hands have been trying best to keep from idleness; his eyes battling the day’s weight on their lids.  The coffee he’d bought this morning was enchanted with a powerful boost of much-needed energy.  But even this enchantment will not shake him from the cold, gripping reality that is sleep deprivation.  Countless hours he has spent battling and trudging to find that which he ultimately desires, and yet there is so far for him to travel; so much for him to see. And when the frost barks and reminds him of how it had nipped at his ears in early morning, he hunches and continues on to complete his mission.

And a valiant mission it is indeed:  To go forth and take his mighty learned skills to the ends of the world where his value is built, and his reputation grown strong.  He cannot stop, no, not for a moment.  For once his movement ceases, it would be trivial to make up for lost time.  Idleness does not become him.  Fists clenched, nails dug deep into the palms, head aching from the thinned air of the high altitude.  He feels his eyes begin to seal:  “Press on strange newbie!  Your time has come to shine!  Now, standing at the edge of my shrine where my soul remains forever, make your wish and let it be known to the world what you truly desire!”

A difficult thing to ponder for sure.  What is it that I want most from this place?  The options circle his head like “Looney Toons” birds signify a dizzied character.  He has but to pick one and it will be forever his to hold ‘till the end.  But where would each decision take me?  He ponders, scratching the rough of his jaw while he watches the birds fly around him.  If I reach out and grab one, what’s to say I can’t put it back and pick another if I discover it is the wrong one?  Questions growing complex, multiplying, filling his mind with flashed images set to force the process of decision-making.  But none of it he can settle on; none of his thoughts can he successfully navigate to the supreme answer that begs for his full attention.  The shrine careens above him.  It waits for his words as a cat waits for its prey in the tall grass.

He takes a long blink along with a full breath and opens his eyes—having sorted through most of what could only be about a sixteenth of his thought process.  There is a distant place that calls his name and is attempting to bring him back.  But is this not where I need to be to find the answers?  Would it not be a waste to turn around and travel back from whence I came so far?  And almost as if the world had heard his inner monologue, goose bumps form on his skin and the air begins to change.  He cannot turn back now.  There is too much at stake, too much to lose.  He must press on, so he delves deeper into his mind to hold the sight of the shrine that is surrounded by stone pillars and burning symbols he does not understand.

“Come now traveller,” the shrine calls out to him again, “I’ve only got an eternity.”  Newbie takes a moment to process the fact that a fantastical shrine from “who knows when” had just sprouted out with a sense of urgent sarcasm that reminded him vaguely of his father.  There is water running somewhere in the distance.  It mesmerizes him into a trance that puts him even deeper into his mind.  Make a decision, curse you!  His mind beckons to him; more images and thoughts swirling like the view of a tropical storm from the eyes of the Gods.  Then it hits him like a reflex hammer to the knee.  Is it really so simple?  Have I really been so blind that I have forgotten what needs to be done? 

“As I face it now,” he addresses the massive stone structure in front of him, “My feeble mind cannot fathom the convoluted decision you would have me make.  You ask me to choose between my love and my soul.  This I cannot do, for the two walk hand-in-hand through the valleys of my conscience.   You request that I assign my allegiance with one side or the other, when I desire most to conjoin the two in harmony until the world becomes its own master once again.  And you request this of a man who has not but a handful of years from which to base his decision, lacking both wisdom and full potential.  I am not a philosopher, nor do I believe in an ambiguous line that pulls each and every one of us along to a certain end.  I must be given ample time to consider your request and sort through these thoughts that have now surfaced to the front of my mind.”

Newbie stands waiting to see how the shrine will respond to his indecisiveness.  Will it strike me down just like the rest of these poor souls I see littered before me?  He realizes now what he hadn’t noticed:  The toppled skeletons and scattered bones around him.  There must be dozens!  A cold finger runs its way up his spine, but he stands firm.  His right hand now resting on the holstered pistol he carries, his left on the dagger his Grandfather had given him many moons before his passing.  He would later swear that he saw eyes looking back at him from one of the skulls near the shrine.

But there was no response.  The booming voice that seemed to come from everywhere was now replaced with a stolid silence that made even a blink echo in the darkness.  Then, as if someone had just transported him into a lightning bolt, a flash exploded, turning the cave a milky white.  Shielding his eyes, he drops to his knees; the light still filling his brain to never be forgotten.  He opens is eyes, letting them rest and readjust from the sudden strain they had just received.  Catching his breath, he looks down at his hip where his pistol once hung and sees that it has been replaced with an ancient looking scroll.  He looks around frantically, hoping to find it by his feel or among the bone yard that appears now to have doubled in quantity, but finds nothing.  Furious, he shoots a vile glare at the shrine.  But the stone has changed color, and seems to have grown taller in his few blinded moments.

“Return what is mine, demon!”  Eyes now filled with a fire fit for the burning of a king.  But there is no answer.  He looks back down at the scroll and removes it from the holster.  He then retrieves his dagger, and the once red seal begins to glow green as he slides the blade through it and unravels the delicate paper.

Before he looks upon what he assumes to be a map or a riddle, he stops observe his surroundings–starts to notice the oddities strewn about him.  The floor is flat and solid; the skeletons have now disappeared.  His boots crunch the scattered pebbles below them when he shifts his weight.  The walls have shrunk, stunted, falling just short of the white ceiling that appears to be what the night sky would look like if its colors were reversed.  Then he looks down:  Shining brightly before him, no longer a shrine, but a window—not set in stone or structure—that appears to be living.  The room grows brighter.  His eyes begin to adjust and notice more and more what is around him.

He realizes that he is sitting.  Not on grass, nor stone, nor the floor that he now sees is cement, but in a chair.  What he mistook for a window he now knows is a screen, and the chair in which he sits appears to be set to look into this screen.  It is somehow curiously necessary to him; oddly familiar.  His hands:  Fingers moving, tapping, extending and reaching, punching in combinations for what could only be the key to the screen ahead.  Music fades into his ears; it is one of his favorite tunes.  This draws his attention to the plastic jewelry he wears around his ears.  These seem to be producing the music he is now hearing, and it is growing louder.

A blink, and he is back in the office.  He is back in the tiny cubicle where he has been placed for nearly a month now.  Looking around, taking a deep breath of the stiff air the basement has to offer, he knows he is back to the “real world.”  The one window behind him sits closed, collecting dust and dirt from the passing wind that makes the building whine.  He is here, but he is not home.  And home is where my mind had gone he realizes, grabbing up his luke warm coffee lazily as one does in the beginning of a long work day.  The screen is now filled with words in a word processing program.  What is all of this?  I do not remember putting any of this in here…What was concealed inside that scroll?  The scroll!  But it was gone like a tree’s leaves in winter.  He looks back at the words contained within the screen again.  Starting to read backwards, he is enticed and must start from the beginning.  The room begins to darken again; the walls to disappear.  Surely, this script will explain how he got here.  Surely this time, it will have all of the answers.

Find us on Facebook? Do you even care if there aren’t any jokes or cute pictures of animals?

Where’s My Traffic?

The way I look at it, getting consumers to have interest in your product means giving them something that they can relate and associate with. Just like Disney caters mostly to their younger audience for their movies, TV shows and merchandise, so too do insurance companies try to reach their targets with what they might be interested in.  From what I have seen, a lot of Internet craze comes in small packages:  Cute animals.  The cutest picture of a swinging hamster could get you more hits than content that may actually be relevant to the “real world.”

When it comes to insurance companies, they are trying everything under the sun to find out what it is that consumers are paying most attention to, and putting that into their campaigns.  Cute animals, silly anecdotes, humorous characters, they are literally trying everything.  From my standpoint, telling a good joke can almost always Segway the consumer into associating positive thoughts and energy to the source. If we take GEICO and their “Caveman” ads—as silly as they are—they are reaching a certain audience in a way that the consumer enjoys, and easily associates with the company.  And they are such a large company in sheer volume that they are able to place this campaign everywhere and reach huge demographics.  But they aren’t reaching everyone.

Not Everyone Can be Warren Buffett

Problems with these emerging and growing trends of media consumption spring up on the small agency side. Obviously not everyone can afford a fifteen second commercial spot during the Superbowl, so we must look for other ways to reach broader markets. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn: All of these are affordable ways to penetrate a massive demographic of users. Advertising and building networks on these sites help to reach the market, but this goes right into brand association. You have consumers that are older and brand loyal to their current carrier/agency because they have had their coverage with them for so long that a strong relationship exists between agent and customer.  These customers may only associate with the name of the company or their logo.  Still with me?  Here’s a kitten:

Then you have the consumers that could care less where there insurance is held, as long as the government is not after them because they do not have coverage. These are the people who take to the silly ads like the Caveman and the “We are Farmers” jingle. “Oh, well I heard their jingle on the radio. It was easy to remember and it got me to giggle, maybe I will give them a try.”  There is no immediate loyalty to the association they have made, but it creates an impulse for the “right now” need.  So they open the phone book or Google home page and look for that company’s information because they have associated their campaign with a positive feeling. And if they end up switching to this company because they were able to offer them some semblance of what they desired, then they may be inclined to add them on Facebook, or check out their YouTube channel and share the fun videos and media that they find with their friends and family. From there it spreads, and more and more people are starting to associate with the company, never shooting an agency who hasn’t been attentive to keep up with these techniques a second glance—even if they could get better coverage and service.

Here’s another cute picture to keep your attention:

Aww cute

As you look at movies and television shows, being able to afford famous actors to speak on your behalf is a huge feat for association. “Hey! That’s that guy from…” and you’re in. The consumer might not call today, might not call tomorrow, but when they get fed up with their current carrier and they want to be treated right, the subconscious speaks to them and they will think “Allstate” or “esurance” without really knowing why. The message has been well-received, and the company is then rewarded.

I think that laughter (and cute pictures of kittens) is truly the best medicine. It brightens spirits, it’s catchy, and people will likely share it with their networks. It can also be the best medicine for a company looking to bring in more business with marketing campaigns.  Everyone can boast about quality service and professionalism, and most do. But it’s when you start to create your own identity and give people something to remember you by that you have gotten the consumer’s attention, and become more likely to be that subconscious association when it’s renewal time. And the best way to get that humor to your audience is through the modes of entertainment that they are already using: TV, radio, movies, and the Internet. These things already have their attention, so why not use that plant your name in their head and give them something to entertain them as well.

That being said, the hardest part is getting people to read your stuff. And that is where my challenge currently lies. I’m no professional comedian, but I do enjoy making people laugh.  And hey, if cute animals gets your attention, then at least I know I’m doing something right.

    A puppy.