Last summer, WPP’s JWT was hired to handle the marketing of Brand USA – the new tourism marketing entity in charge of promoting the United States to world visitors. I recently came across the first TV spot and wanted to share. The spot will first be aired in the U.K. and Canada, followed by Japan in early May. South Korea, Brazil, India, Germany, China, Mexico and Australia are among the other countries where the campaign will run.

I made up a new word today.

The reason I know it’s an original word is because I “googled” it (hey – another word that was new not too long ago) and it said my “search did not match any documents”. So if it didn’t show up on 4.99 billion web pages, then I think I’m good to go calling it my own original word.

The word? Transappleformation.

The gigantic sale of Instagram to Facebook has been the talk of the Internet world since it was announced.  The purchase is stunning because the dollar amounts involved are huge, but also because Instagram has no actual revenue stream.  The whole instafacebook combination serves as a reminder that  that brand worth and dollar signs don’t always go hand in hand.

Have you ever had the chance to dig into your boss’s head? I mean really dig?

OK, maybe you don’t want to, but if given the chance, I recommend you do some serious digging. This kind of mining can be a rare opportunity.

Believe it or not, you might come across some “shiny thought nuggets.” (After all, your boss didn’t get to be the BossMan (or BossLady) for nothing.)

I got the rare opportunity to delve into the mind of Jim Huebner (Huebner Petersen’s very own BossMan). We had a one-on-one interview, and out of that interview, here are a couple of nuggets that I plucked from the Big Man himself.

I am a fairly loyal Best Buy® customer. How do I measure that? Well, I was recently inducted as a Premier Silver Member (not based on my gray hair, but based on my volume of purchases). And when I need a computer, printer, TV, phone accessories, cameras, etc., Best Buy is the first place I typically think to go.

However, there’s a reason I call myself a “fairly” loyal customer. It’s because—like many brands—their policies and procedures need some work. Let me explain…

Industry magnate John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Fortunately, in today’s world of pay-per-click, direct response tracking, automation marketing, and even formulas for calculating brand equity, there is much greater accountability for your marketing dollars. And everyone in the C-suite needs to understand this.

Marketing is all about communication.  Getting the word out about your product, your brand, or your service. What happens when your not properly communicating why your product, brand, service is the best to your frontline? They don’t communicate that to your customers.

Here are 5 smart ways to strengthen the communication to your dealers.