Plus we’ll send those of you in the US and Canada a can of our incredible new product, Can O’ Smarts.

Can O’ Smarts may seem like an ordinary putty, or perhaps simply a toy. But in reality, it’s a tool that the modern marketer can’t live without.

The Magic of Using Your Smarts

I’ve had my Can O’ Smarts for about a week and I’ve come up with several uses for the putty that improve my daily marketing life.

Use One: Pen Holder

I use thin Sharpie pens for all of my writing. No matter how great my technology is, there is no greater feeling that physically crossing something off my to-do list. Have your pens handy and well-organized when you use your Can O’ Smarts as a pen holder!

Use Two: Stress Relief

Violence is never the answer, but when asked “What is the ROI of social media?” for the 400th time, everyone reaches their breaking point. I suggest wringing your Can O’ Smarts putty instead of wringing the neck of the senior executive in question.

Use Three: Bulletin Board

A perfect place to put your to-do list, Christmas list, grocery list…you get the idea.

Use Four: Nostalgic Breaks

We all remember using Silly Putty as children to pull images and text off newspapers. It’s the simple things that have the power to entertain and relax during your work day. Sad news is, I haven’t had my hands on a print newspaper in years. I tested my luck with a paper.li online paper, but the results were simply not the same.

Use Five: Clever Disguise

Sometimes you just have to get away. Maybe your client is asking you to make the logo even bigger? Or maybe your PPC campaign is a miserable failure? Whatever it is, your Can O’ Smarts can serve as the perfect disguise when you need to avoid your current situation. I think you’ll all agree, this putty moustache would trick nearly anyone!

So, don’t delay! Renew your PRO membership today for your very own Can O’ Smarts. We know you’ll think of tons of clever uses and hope you’ll be playing with it during PRO seminars and Take 10s in the future!

The friendly folks at PJA Advertising + Marketing interviewed Tim in two recent episodes of This Week in Digital Media, during which he and the show’s host, Mike O’Toole (who has made a funny video or two of his own), discussed how to “mine the absurdity” in order to come up with creative concepts, why “the truth is what’s funny,” and, of course, how to approach the question of humor’s ROI.

On this last note, Tim made two interesting points. First, he encouraged people to keep expectations low by keeping the investment low and, rather than shooting for the moon in terms of viewership, looking for small wins like getting 4 or 5 influencers to mention your video in a blog post or a tweet.

Secondly, Tim reminds us that, no matter how many viewers we get, we don’t actually know who is viewing our work and, more importantly, we don’t know exactly how the experience affected them. For this reason, he recommends approaching your video with the goal of “entertaining people and generating a little good will.”

In other words, video, humorous or otherwise, can help you connect emotionally with your audience.

But is this emotional connection what most companies are really after?

In the MarketingProfs “How 2″ segment that we contributed to Part II of the Washer series, I refer to an ANA survey which pointed out that, while most companies say they want to connect emotionally, most of their messaging sticks to a rational/functional script that leaves emotion entirely out of the picture.

The lesson here: If you really want to emotionally connect with your audience, you really have to want to emotionally connect with your audience!

The other thing I emphasize is that you need to have staff who are truly focused on creating and maintaining these types of connections with your customers. Danny Meyer, creator of the acclaimed Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan, understands the importance of people-driven experience marketing and that’s why he hires people who “derive pleasure from giving pleasure, those who watch, listen, and proactively respond to what customers are saying during the entire process, ensuring a consistent, topnotch eating experience.”

Are those the kind of people you’re hiring?

If you’d like to read more about building strong emotional connections with your customers, we recommend the following articles from our archives:

• “Most Brands Don’t Make Emotional Connections“
• “What’s the ‘Return on Sound’? Build Long-Term Emotional Equity by Applying Sound Strategically“
• “A Just Cause: Creating Emotional Connections with Customers“

Note: This Week in Digital Media airs every Thursday. On some of those Thursdays, we add a “How 2″ segment: two minutes of practical advice taking from the pages of MarketingProfs. The topics we have covered so far are “Social Media ROI” and “Getting the Most out of LinkedIn.” Check out PJA Radio and watch for a new How 2 in the coming weeks!

One of my company designers sent this to me. Thank you, Michelle Lydon of Symbiosis Designs in Toronto.
Here’s the YouTube description:
Behind the scenes tour of of an award-winning creative farm, juicing process and distribution in South West England.
The South West produces some of the UK’s finest creative work (animation, web design, design, fashion, architecture….) Now you know why….nice conditions, space to breathe and opportunities with some of the best firms around.

Your turn… what’d ya think? Creative or not? Or do you have to appeciate British humor to enjoy it?