Archive for the ‘Holding’ tag
Why I use a manual coffee grinder
Justin Levy asked me a while back why I use a manual coffee grinder when there are far better options available. The answer is: because it takes a long time to grind coffee this way.
That seems like a strange answer, doesn’t it? After all, why would you willingly choose the least efficient way to grind coffee? Believe it or not, that’s a good thing.
If you’ve never used a manual coffee grinder, it’s nothing more than a set of grindstones with a hand-turned crank. Making enough coffee for a pot typically requires about 10 minutes of steady turning. When you’re done, you have coffee that looks like every other coffee you’ve ever prepared in advance of sticking it in the pot.
Here’s why this is important, at least to me. It’s an enforced creative break. It’s 10 minutes of mandatory downtime where there’s no convenient way to check messages (your hands are busy holding and turning the grinder) or take calls (too noisy). It’s required boredom, and that’s a healthy thing, because in those 10 minutes, you can give your mind time to process problems and step back from work.
The very real problem we face today – part of the reason we feel stressed and burned out so often – is that everything is too convenient and too fast. When you can plop a plastic cup in your insta-brew coffee machine and have coffee 15 seconds later, you don’t get a real mental break from work. When everything is available right now, right now gets really crowded and overwhelming. One look around at the rest of the animal kingdom indicates that “right now all the time” isn’t a sustainable way to live. The lion that requires incredible speed to catch its dinner doesn’t sustain that speed for very long.
Power question: how can you introduce more mandatory breaks in your day?
The other thing that using a manual grinder does very well is it gives you time to consider what it is you’re about to consume. If you’re not a coffee fanatic, coffee is actually an exceptionally storied, labor intensive process. Farmers in distant lands, from Hawaii to Ethiopia to Indonesia, manage farms made of coffee trees. These trees grow coffee cherries (yes, the coffee bean is the pit of a cherry-like fruit) which are then harvested by hand, then dried or pulped to extract the pits. The pits are bagged up and sold on various commodity exchanges or to stores that either sell them raw or roast them, which is a polite way of saying burn them. Once they’re lightly burned, they’re sealed up and sold, either as is or processed further. Those insta-cup coffee machines are at the very tail end of a very long chain.
By hand-grinding your coffee, you’re participating in a very small way in the tremendous chain of human effort to create a cup of coffee. It gives you time to mentally honor the many people who have put effort into creating your morning coffee. All of that tends to fall by the wayside when coffee is no less or more effort than clicking a mouse or starting a smartphone app.
Enjoy the coffee.
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Transform Plastic Milk Crates into Container Gardens [Gardening]
If you’re short on space, or at least space for some plants, here’s one way to build a little container garden that won’t take up a ton of real estate on your floor or patio: use some plastic milk crates. You can find them just about anywhere, and most of us have a few around the house, whether they’re serving as impromptu bookshelves or sitting somewhere dusty holding tools or decorations. Give them a new lease on life, and give yourself a tiny garden. More »
DragonDrop Is a Holding Bin for Drag-and-Drop on Mac [Video]
Mac: Dragging and dropping folders and files is one of the easiest ways to move things around on a Mac, but the problem with it is that you have to have a destination folder ready. DragonDrop is a simple app that adds a holding bin to store data so you can find the destination folder easier. More »
To Be Held, Or Not To Be?
Certainly, big holding companies like Omnicom or WPP would love to have a piece of David Droga’s action, but Droga values his independence, and it appears that he has other means.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Droga is injecting $6 to $7 million into his five year-old agency Droga5, care of angel investments from financier Henry Silverman and media executive Bob Pittman.
Ad Age too weighed in on the deal.
The investment is unusual and a bit of an experiment. Mr. Silverman hasn’t ever invested in an ad agency, and his interest in adland — provided this deal proves fruitful — could be a positive thing.
Rupal Parekh of Ad Age doesn’t say why it would be a good thing. I guess because agencies are underfunded and need all the wealthy champions they can find.
Unfortunately, The Journal captured this quote from Silverman, which makes me question his grasp of our industry: “The biggest threat to the ad business is social media…you have to get ahead of the curve.”
Maybe Droga can straighten him out on that score.
print ads from mars and venus
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and ads for each target should be too, as illustrated by such campaigns as Molson beer’s latest print ads that has a playful ‘he said, she said’ execution:
One print ad ran in women’s publications, such as Cosmo, that featured a blonde, rugged, outdoorsy male holding two golden retriever puppies and drinking a Molson. (*Aaaw* and *swoon*.)
A corresponding ad ran in men’s publications, like FHM, that spoke to men on a level that explained the objective of the women’s ad: to subliminally train women to be attracted to men drinking Molson – a golden retriever puppy Pavlovian response if you will. (Molson to men: you’re welcome.)
Even though it plays off complete stereotypes of each gender, it’s a pretty funny take on duel-demographic marketing.
The Iceman Cometh (And He Selleth Omni-Heat)
Never want to be cold again? Move near the Equator, buy expensive Omni-Heat gear from Columbia Sportswear, or do as world-record holding Dutchman Wim Hof does and resist cold by concentrating and regulating your breath.
According to The New York Times, Columbia introduced heated footwear in 2009, and this fall is adding Omni-Heat Electric jackets, which cost between $750 and $1,200, and Omni-Heat Electric gloves, which cost $400.
The new Omni-Heat ad campaign is from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners in Sausalito, Calif.
The Next Big Battle: Media Buying
As TV and the web finally come crashing together– what with Cablevision announcing that they’ll offer Netflix and Hulu via their set top boxes, and Netflix looking to revive Arrested Development– the next big battle between the analog and digital worlds looms: who is going to serve up the advertising in this new era?
In one corner, you have the traditional TV buying giants, companies like MediaVest. who are tied into the ad agencies via their common holding companies. And in the other corner, you have the big web-ad buying services like Double-Click, who also have cozy relationships with ad agencies.
I’m not placing any bets here, as the new market has yet to fully develop. But at some point we’re going to get to a place where 30 second commercials are being served up during a program being streamed from a website somewhere and both sides are going to think they should, by rights, be the one serving it up.
As the convergence happens, the level of data available to media buyers will greatly improve. They’ll know your previous viewing patters, what times and shows commercials for a specific brand are likely to be watched or ignored, whether a show has High Social or Low Social content, even how often your IP address has been served a specific commercial.
Now which side is best positioned to take advantage of this new data is not clear. Which makes this one to watch.
Eyeworks verkoopt sportdivisie
Eyeworks verkoopt zijn divisie Eyeworks Sport aan CMI Holding.