Brains on Fire

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  The Art of the Imperfect: Mix Tape

  Posted on January 23rd, 2012 by Geno and currently 0 commenting.

  Mix tapes were the social media of my teenage days. My friends and I carefully crafted playlists to share with each other, layering song after song in the hopes that we could produce a magical, imperfect mix tape. I’m not sure my goal was to ever make the perfect mix tape. I was always inspired to throw a random, wild card song in the mix, and it always got a response “Wow, that track #5 was something!”
   
  Even the artwork on our cassettes was magically imperfect. Drawn with colored pencils, magic markers and hand-written notes. More than a track listing, they were like musical diaries.
   
  But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about friends, high school friends. My nickname in high school was “Freak.” Why? Because I walked the line of an athlete and I played in a band. My best friends became my friends through music. We made mix tapes to get to know each other, impress each other and inspire each other. Those tapes turned a car ride with friends into a Wayne’s World movie scene. And admit it, a mix tape was the perfect way to break the ice with the opposite sex. So, I think it’s pretty fair to say mix tapes were – and still are - social media.
   
  Today it’s hard to get your hands around all the social media we are creating. We all work so hard to create conversations and collect eyeballs – brands, marketers and people. Brands get frustrated at marketers if fans don’t like, post, comment, tweet and recommend. Marketers freak if people don’t do any of those things. Then you have people, everyday people, conditioned by the lure of social media gratification that says we should expect people to respond to all our photos, updates and tweets. I’m not judging – I do the same thing.
   
  We have busy lives in the real world and the virtual world. We dance between them with old friends, new friends, things we love and things we love to hate. That’s why sometimes I just want something to hold that’s real and imperfect, like a mix tape. They were a collection of a person’s likes, time and generosity. Something personal for another human being.
   
  I’m not saying you should make a mix tape for your client, your customer or a friend, but you could do something magically imperfect. Write a hand-written note. Invite someone for lunch. The point is the mix tape is about simple stuff you share in common with people you know. It’s you putting you into something that you hope will be meaningful to the recipient.
   
  And remember embrace imperfection… after all we’re all human. 

  Tags: Brains on Fire, geno church, Mixtapes, Social media, Word of Mouth
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  Friday Fun: BOF-style

  Posted on January 6th, 2012 by amy and currently 3 commenting.
  

  Words of wisdom from the insides of a fortune cookie to all of us in the year 2012

  Time for a little Friday fun…Brains on Fire-style.

  A few months ago, Alexis brought a little white board to the office. It sits on the counter in our kitchen area. Once a week, someone will wipe the board clean and write a new question. The rest of us spend the following days anonymously answering in erasable marker below. We’ve learned a lot about each other – although oftentimes without knowing exactly whose answer we’re reading. Everything from childhood pets to celebrity crushes, signature cocktails to “Bucket List” dreams.

  The board currently lists a plethora of our 2012 resolutions. I thought I’d invite our blog readers to join in the fun – with a slight spin. This morning during our creative huddle, the team started pondering what it would be like if we could make a resolution for someone ELSE.

  Enter you.

  If you could make a resolution for someone else (anyone!) – who would you choose? And what would the resolution be?

  Tags: Brains on Fire, New Year's, resolutions
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  Merry Christmas from Brains on Fire

  Posted on December 22nd, 2011 by Eric Dodds and currently 3 commenting.

  Suits for the men, dresses for the ladies. Put on your best Sinatra, baby…the Brains on Fire Christmas theme was 40s this year.

  Happy Holidays from all of the Pirates in the Firesphere.

  

  Hotness.

  

  Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

  

  All in a days work.

  

  Dangerous designers.

  

  Lovely ladies of Brains on Fire.

  

  The Boss.

  

  Stirred, not shaken.

  

  Enjoying the roof.

  

  The Amidons.

  

  Stairway to heaven.

  

  The Hammond Gang.

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  Brains on Fire Thanksgiving

  Posted on December 2nd, 2011 by Eric Dodds and currently 4 commenting.

  We decided that one Thanksgiving wasn’t enough, so we prepared a feast for our work family, too.

  

  You’d be surprised at what you can do with a microwave.

  

  Yes, we had salad. But only just a little bit.

  

  Hungry?

  

  How about now?

  

  The feasting table.

  

  Storming the spread.

  

  The Family.

  We can’t express how thankful we are to work with each one of these amazing people every day.

  Tags: Happy Thanksgiving, thanksgiving feast
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  Touch points: Give ‘em something to talk about

  Posted on October 19th, 2011 by amy and currently 9 commenting.
  

  Tiny touch points

  Let’s talk about touch points.

  There is a lot of conversation going on about touch points out in the great, big world of the interwebs. People telling you how to do them. Why to do them. Where to do them. How to outsource them. (Really? Really!?) There are graphs and charts and calculations estimating touch point ROI. There is advice on how to reduce the cost of your touch points, how to speed them up and get them in front of more eyeballs.

  And while (much of) this is fine and dandy, I take a much more simplified stance on touch points. It’s less science, more art. It has far less to do with calculations and 20 point bullet lists, and much more to do with surprise and delight.

  Every touch point is an opportunity to start a conversation.

  Google and you will find that there are thousands of sites listing nearly every possible touch point you could ever hope to employ for your marketing purposes. I often suspect, however, some of the best examples are (literally) right under our noses. Baristas have been doing an amazing job with touch points for quite some time, simply by working with what they do and love – in order to give their customers a remarkable experience. With just a little extra care and effort, they elevate “good enough” to “wowza” – and you better believe it not only gets people smiling, it gets them talking.

  A few weeks ago, I received a pack of mini-cards from Moo.com (courtesy of Klout.) The set I received has dozens of designs with clever messages and drawings on one side, contact information on the other. When contact info alone would have been good enough, the cards took it up to wowza. With messages like “I like my artsy with a little fartsy,” images of jars with beards and, my personal favorite, an illustration of a pair of underwear claiming “I have the worst job in the world,” they became an instant hit. We spent a good 15 minutes crowded around my desk, selecting the just-right card for each person. If you walk around our office, you will find them displayed – like teeny, tiny works of art.

  What I enjoyed even more, however, were the touch points Moo.com employed before the box ever arrived. Upon placing my order, I received an e-mail from “Little Moo,” assuring me he was going to keep an eye on things and stay in touch throughout the process until my order arrived at my desk. When a simple confirmation e-mail would have done, they wowza-ed it up – and it has kept me smiling and talking about it long after my order shipped.

  A final though on touch points. They don’t have to be fancy or expensive. They just have to be meaningful. A couple years ago I ran into a local photographer at the Farmer’s Market. After a brief conversation, I asked for his business card. Instead of plucking one card from his pocket, he pulled out a stack. Each card had his contact information on one side and one of his photos on the other – each one different. He fanned them out, text side-up, like a deck of cards, asking me to choose one at random. Whatever photo was on the back would tell me something about myself, he assured me.

  I plucked a card from the stack and flipped it over to examine the photo on the other side. (It was this.)

  That business card has a place of honor in my home. It has been with me through three moves. It continues to elicit questions from guests. When “here’s my business card” would have been good enough, the photographer gave me something remarkable to remember. And you better believe I’m still talking about it.

  >>>Your turn to chime in: What touch points have captured your attention lately? What do you think makes a touch point effective vs. ineffective?<<<

  ps: Looking for more touch point examples? You may want to check out this previous post for a few ideas from Method, Virgin Airlines, TOMS and Hell Pizza.

  Tags: coffee art, gary gardiner, Klout, Marketing, moo cards, moo.com, Remarkable experience, Touch Points, touchpoints