Paul Sage – Marketing

Marketing Observations with some Sage Advice

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MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS LEADER skilled at planning, creating, implementing and measuring communications in consumer and business markets. Balanced experience in corporate marketing teams, agencies and independent consulting. Flexible in all media and channels, including offline and online advertising, website optimization, social media, direct marketing, mobile marketing, trade shows, sports and multicultural sponsorships, public relations, sales training and employee communications. Industry experience includes telecom, banking, utilities, business services, building materials and healthcare. Key Capabilities • Marketing Communications Project Management • Marketing Research and Communications Measurement • Agency and Vendor Selection, Direction and Evaluation; Vendor Contract Optimization and Cost Reduction • Writing: Brand Definitions, Creative Briefs, Proposals, Online and Offline Content • Coaching and Training Specialties: Project work for companies, agencies and entrepreneurs looking to define their brands and market themselves. Brand Definition; Creative Brief Development; Agency Selection; Agency Evaluation; Agency Direction; Agency Contract Optimization; Marketing Project Management; Marketing Communications Measurement; Mobile Marketing; Writing Proposals and Social Media Content. Good

Category: Sage Thoughts

My opinions about all things marketing.

  • In Praise of the Podcast

    Podcasts are to media what Trefoils are to Girl Scout Cookies.  Most of us know they’re there, and most of us never order them.  Unless you’re like me.  I love podcasts. It all started back in twenty-aught-six when I got my first iPod – a 1-gigabyte Nano.  I thought I was a hepcat.  I got…

  • Is it wise to let the cat out of the bag?

    I feel like it’s December 23rd and the Christmas presents have already been opened. So much for anticipating what advertisers have in store for us during Sunday’s Super Bowl. Most, if not all, released their spots online this week. Coca-Cola and Volkswagen are already defending their work, which some say is defamatory. Even if an…

  • Don’t make your brand swim upstream

    Sometimes branding is just being the master of the obvious. http://www.zdnet.com/blackberry-10-launches-rim-unifies-brand-with-name-change-7000010380/ Yesterday a company called Research in Motion changed its name to what it should have been all along:  BlackBerry.   No longer will we have to listen to “Marketplace from American Public Media” refer to the company that makes BlackBerry as  “Research in Motion, the…

  • If you’re on LinkedIn you’re getting branded whether you like it or not.

    Your “Most Endorsed For”scoreboard may not exactly say who YOU think you are, but it says who THEY think you are. Four months ago LinkedIn added a one-click endorsement system that allows your contacts to say what they think you know without writing a single word. It goes like this:   In your LinkedIn profile you…

  • The Value of a Seven-Million-Dollar Minute

    With the college national championship behind us and only eight teams remaining in the NFL playoffs, followers of American football are now fixing their eyes on February 3rd, Super Bowl Sunday.  CBS has already sold out its inventory at an average price of around $3.7 million per 30-second spot (is that net or gross, might…

  • A New Year’s Brand

    Can anybody get excited about 2013?  It’s just not a pretty number.  Odd-numbered years roll in with a yawn – no Olympics, presidential elections or World Cups.  Odd years are the mortar between the even-numbered bricks. I’m surprised I haven’t seen more chatter about fear of 13, aka triskaidekaphobia .  Maybe we’re just avoiding the discussion.…

  • How Elvis Met Nixon Is How Branding Leads to Sales

    Maybe you’ve heard the story.  Maybe you’ve seen the photos. In case you haven’t, here’s the recap: Forty-two years ago today, early in the morning of December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley showed up, unannounced, at the gates of the White House to deliver a letter he had written to President Richard Nixon. Transcript of letter…

  • I miss Hal Riney this time of year

    This 60-second holiday TV spot from JP Morgan Chase is beautiful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLCWmKfi1Vw  All it’s missing is the voice of the late, great Hal Riney.    

  • Decompartmentalizing Digital

    http://www.digiday.com/agencies/time-to-retire-the-digital-jedi/ Digital media have lost their mystery, and that’s a good thing. I thought it quaint that Sterling Cooper, the 1960s agency on “Mad Men,” appointed a man as “Head of Television.” Someday soon we’ll look back and wonder why we needed a subcategory called “digital marketing.”

  • I love Helvetica

    There are typefaces, and then there’s Helvetica.  The only font I know that was worthy of its own documentary.  Helvetica clarifies, simplifies, keeps chaos less chaotic.