Last week, an important San Diego client (yes, of course, all of our clients are important) stepped out of their environment and into ours for a full day meeting. I love this. I think this is huge. I want all of our clients to do this on some kind of regular basis.

It's great for us as an agency because it forces us to clean up our space. Papers get filed (why is there a dog bone in my filing cabinet?), dishes get put away. Someone actually tosses the old stuff in the fridge.

Possibly of greater importance is the fact that it's monumental for our clients because it removes them from their day-to-day routine and inspires fresh thinking. Nothing says "think big" like a whole wall of clean, white "Idea Paint" waiting to be scribbled on. Even better is when you can encourage clients to put their laptops and iPhones (or Droid if you are Yared) away and truly focus on the task at hand without distraction. Creative thinking, consensus building, and enthusiasm for what comes next is usually the outcome.

We’re calling for a revolution and we are using the sharpie as our sword. As life science marketing stewards, we are calling for a drastic reduction of all that is cliché.

Pretty scientist in a lab coat looking at colored liquid?
Different sized beakers lined up in a row?
Smiling scientist looking into microscope?
Petri dishes from above?

No mas!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not totally against using scientific imagery. Sometimes you just need that gel exposure or you need to showcase a scientist. I’m against using “slice of life” scientific imagery to differentiate. The truth is, everyone is using the same images, so there ends up being very little differentiation from one company to the next. Lack of differentiation kills a brand.

Shirley Sherrod was fired by the Obama administration. Why? A segment of her speech was taken out of context and posted to an Internet site, which then aired on television. When forced to resign, she wasn’t even given a chance to explain.

Once people started reading the full speech, they learned a valuable lesson: “that we’re all too quick to judge.”

A lot of factors conspire to cloud our judgment. We have shorter attention spans. In some cases, this can even cause marriages to break up. Media sites are trying to feed us what they think we want, which you have to admit is more cotton candy pieces than in-depth, objective, well-sourced journalism that used to be the standard.

Tap tap... is this thing on?

Hello, World.

Michael here. Or Yared as my co-workers call me. I wanted to be one of the first to introduce you to the eighth major revision of our website. Aside from the new look, we're sporting a few bells and whistles along with a hidden gem or two. Vague, I know. No, there's nothing to click on while holding control-shift, but you will find additional content updated at a much more frequent pace.

We've been busy. Very busy. Aside from picking up several amazing new clients, both our Chicago and San Diego offices have moved closer to each other. Chicago moved two blocks West, while San Diego moved one suite East. We'll add some photos and maybe a video or two once we finish decorating.