Month: March 2009

Digital Agency Report Cards 2008: Adweek

via Digital Agency Report Cards 2008.

My Google Alert sent in the annual rankings by AdWeek of the various agencies. Lenovo’s agency of record is Ogilvy. I’m happy to see Lenovo was cited as a high point in their 2008 ranking.

“OgilvyInteractive is trying to figure out social media. It’s established some bona fides. For Lenovo, it showed benefits of electronics giant’s products by putting them in the hands of athletes at the Summer Olympics to blog for a Lenovo site. The “Voices of the Olympic Games” program generated 1,500 postings by 100 athletes. But, social media can bite back.”

Couple things to clarify. OgilvyPR’s 360 Digital Influence Project – Rohit Bhargava, Kaitlyn Wilkins, John Bell — did the heavy lifting with blogger recruitment and management during the Olympics. Neo@Ogilvy – Nicole Estebanell’s team — led the media selection and execution of in-market dollars.

The project was conceived on the client side by me, executed by Lenovo’s Alan White, Esteban Panzeri and Tim Supples and supported by Lenovo’s comms team, especially Bob Page.  Ogilvy did a magnificent job rallying around us under impossible deadlines to make this program happy. Sidenote: the Voices project was a finalist in PRWeek’s annual awards for best use of digital, but alas, lost out to an Ikea and milk moustache campaign

Whereabouts week of 3.16

Monday-Sunday 3.16-3.22:  Cotuit

I still look like a rabid raccoon had relations with Deputy Dawg and spawned a sniffling, red-nosed hulking man of nasal sadness who looked like he got stomped hard by a gang of old ladies and now sports two black eyes. I was toiling in the yard with a rake yesterday, deluded with thoughts of spring, my back to the sidewalk, when some cheery iPod-occluded power walker with hand weights and a perky pony tail wagging out of the back of her pink Red Sox cap yelled out a hearty “HI!” which nearly caused me to assault her with the rake.

“$%&*#!” I said neighbor-like. “You $%%#@ freaked me out!”

“Don’t wantagiveyanotherblackeye” she giggled.

I need to get on the water for some sculling this week. Two rules apply for the first row of the season -1) there must be snow somewhere on the ground and I saw a good, grey snow drift near the launching ramp yesterday – 2) it has to occur on, or near St. Pat’s which is tomorrow.

Next week: NYC for a two day expedition. China at the end of the month.

On the upcoming reading list ….

via Spielberg Hooks Rights to Derby Book – 3/13/09 – Vineyard Gazette Online.

This ought to be good. A book about the Martha’s  Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby — my annual excuse to take vacation on the island and chase fish. The late Robert Post’s Reading the Water is one of my favorite volumes in the fishing section of my bookshelf, this promises good things as well. It gets released in early April. Dreamworks thought highly enough to buy the option.

“The Vineyard may yet be the scene of another big fish film under the eye of Steven Spielberg: the Jaws director’s studio, DreamWorks, has just bought the film rights for a soon to be released book about the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.

The book, The Big One: An Island, an Obsession and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish, by David Kinney, published by Atlantic Monthly, will be released on April 8.”

Boat is in the water, summer commences

I just launched the motorboat while wearing a set of patched and re-repaired neoprene waders some field mice made house in. In the left boot. Which made me smell like rodent urine from the boat ramp all the way around Grand Island at full throttle during the shakedown cruise. Now I need to figure out some vinegar soak solution to get the pee stink out of the waders.

The boat started on the second try (Honda four-strokes rule, mine is now on year eight) and runs smooth as can be. The boat is sitting on its mooring, first boat in the cove thanks to John Peck who recommissioned the pennant and put away the winter stick for me this past week.

Tomorrow is clamming time on the morning low tide. I’ll get my limit and start stacking up clams against the summer rush for chowder, stuffed hawgs, and other bivalve goodness. In the afternoon I’ll ferry the wife and dogs to Dead Neck for a trash pickup (lost lure discovery mission). Boat in water = happiness and end of winter couch potato.

R.I.P. White Rooster

via R.I.P. White Rooster.

On the topic of noble but dead birds ….l. some great Cape Cod writing by Bethany Gibbons on Cape Cod Today.

”  Skunk? Big red Jimmy got nailed by an owl. Maybe he was out too early that snowy morning. Whitey Bulger flew the coop and went on the lamb. My daughter insists he may be still hiding out in the swamp somewhere, living the wild and free life. I doubt it. The evil Spanish Black Minorca lost his head to a stump and some Lebanese friends. I couldn’t do, but after living through civil war and that cheese (arish?) they leave out in the sun for weeks on a rooftop, they had no problem doing the dirty work. I just couldn’t have a 5-year-old lose and eye to a wicked bad rooster.”

I’m so impressed that her rooster will live on in many a saltwater fly pattern.

Perils of bird feeding

I have a big bird feeding station set up under the grape arbor in the alcove on the southside of my house. I feed pretty much year round and as a result have a massive population of birds that visit throughout the seasons.

This morning I heard a boom,  followed immediately by my wife yelling for me to come look.

On the deck was this sad sight:

Now it sits in the brush pile, awaiting a critter to take it away, or this weekend’s annual burn pile cremation. I think I need to put up warning stickers in the windows. This hawk has been taking out robins in the alcove, but this morning it missed and it missed big. A shame, for it really is a magnificent bird and was very amazing to hold, still warm and pre-rigor mortis.

I’m pretty sure it is a sharp-shinned hawk.

Cape Cod Potato Chips founder passes away

CapeCodTimes.com – Cape Cod Potato Chips founder had ‘no regrets’.

Steve Bernard, who founded Cape Cod Potato Chips in 1980 passed away last Saturday at 61. One of my first assignments as an intern reporter at the Cape Cod Times was a story on his first humble efforts.

He sold the company to Anheuser Busch in 1985, bought it back, and sold it again. He did the same with his Chatham Village line of croutons.

It always makes me a little homesick to step into a convenience store in North Carolina and see the lighthouse logo of Cape Cod Potato Chips.

Reasons to be cheerful

The Dow is up 300 for reasons unknown.
My garlic bed is showing green above the dirt. Daffodils and tulips doing the same. Snowdrops showing on the neighbor’s lawn.

My mooring goes in this week and the boat will follow this weekend.

My nose is healing despite my headcold.

Pernicious technical issue

Cousin Pete’s X61 Tablet — a nice ThinkPad he bought off my employee purchase plan discount a year ago — is acting wicked weird. I have an internet connection: verified with Ping. iTunes can browse the iTunes store. Outlook can send and receive mail. But neither FireFox nor Internet Explorer can open a website.

Maddening. I suspect either a recent Microsoft system update or Norton Antivirus is behind the glitch. Trying to deduce the issue — e.g. not performing an amputation when a band-aid is all that is needed — while trying to have a semblance of a Sunday afternoon. Pete brought over some ribs from his smoker, so that buys some time.

Update: It was Norton. So uninstalled that, swapped in free AVG. All is well.