all i want for christmas

i hope that santa will bring me: sleep, energy, motivation and at least four more hours in a day. i guess i shouldn't hold my breath.

front page of the business section of usa today is pretty good too

P&G, Google team up to swap jobs, trade knowledge
By DAN SEWELL

CINCINNATI (AP) — The world's largest consumer products company and the online search leader are working together to learn more about each other and about targeting customers.

Procter & Gamble Co. said Wednesday it has done job swaps with Google Inc., and Google employees have been at P&G's Cincinnati headquarters helping with training.

P&G spokeswoman Allison Yang said the company wants to reach more consumers who are increasingly online.

"This is all about learning," she said. "It's about putting consumers in connection with our products in the right spots."

The Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday's editions that discussions on an employee swap began last year between P&G and Google executives.

The swaps began in January, with two Tide detergent brand managers visiting Google and a pair of Google officials coming to Cincinnati.

P&G, the nation's largest advertiser with a global advertising budget of nearly $9 billion, has been emphasizing value in marketing that says products such as Charmin toilet paper and Tide laundry detergent get more done with less than other brands.

The company also has been expanding its online reach, including offering digital coupons.

Yang said an early project with Google was drawing more attention to online video of Tide to Go's "Talking Stain" commercial, which made its television debut during the Super Bowl. Pampers diapers managers and a digital marketing manager were next to participate, and some 15 P&G employees from different areas spent time with Google last month.

She said P&G has shared information with Google visitors about its consumer research, planning and operations.

"The relationship will certainly continue, and we'll continue looking at what the opportunities are," Yang said.

Google officials said their employees learned a lot while "embedded" at P&G about the company's culture, lingo and the history of its brands and strategies. They said they expect to keep up a dialogue with P&G about innovative ways they can work together.

"We've always known that P&G was open to innovation. ... What we didn't know was the extent to which they were willing to push the online innovation envelope to reach consumers in new, user-driven ways," Kevin Kells, Google's consumer products goods director, said by e-mail.

Analysts have predicted slower revenue growth for Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., in the worsening economy, amid signs that Internet users are growing less likely to click on advertising links.

P&G, meanwhile, has been battling U.S. household belt-tightening, but the company last month reported sales grew 9 percent in its fiscal first quarter.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hc2R2XPvVoPxwYrItOdbFWjE6o0AD94I91V81

does it get better than the front page of the wall street journal?

A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation
By ELLEN BYRON

At Procter & Gamble Co., the corporate culture is so rigid, employees jokingly call themselves "Proctoids." In contrast, Google Inc. staffers are urged to wander the halls on company-provided scooters and brainstorm on public whiteboards.

Now, this odd couple thinks they have something to gain from one another -- so they've started swapping employees. So far, about two-dozen staffers from the two companies have spent weeks dipping into each other's staff training programs and sitting in on meetings where business plans get hammered out. The initiative has drawn little notice. Previously, neither company had granted this kind of access to outsiders.

Closer ties are crucial to both sides. P&G, the biggest advertising spender in the world, is waking up to the reality that the next generation of laundry-detergent, toilet-paper and skin-cream buyers now spends more time online than watching TV. Google craves a bigger slice of P&G's $8.7 billion annual ad pie as its own revenue growth slows.

The struggle by these two heavyweights to formulate successful strategies highlights how tough it is for myriad other companies, from newspapers to auto makers, to profit from Americans' rush online.

"We're trying to open the eyes of our brand managers," says P&G's Stan Joosten, whose title is "digital innovation manager," a job that didn't exist until last spring.

Consumers ages 18 to 27 say they use the Internet nearly 13 hours a week, compared to viewing 10 hours of TV, according to market-data firm Forrester Research Inc. But currently, P&G -- so famously thorough at understanding consumers, it even tracks people's tooth-brushing strokes -- spends only a sliver of its ad budget online.

Google already controls 74% of so-called "search term" advertising spending, according to research firm eMarketer Inc. So persuading deep-pocketed advertisers to shift away from TV to instead showcase their brands, say, on YouTube, Google's video-sharing site, is critical. Currently, TV snags nearly 40% of the world's total advertising spending, according to ZenithOptimedia, an ad-buying unit of Publicis Groupe.

The rapid spread of high-speed Internet access "has been the biggest disruption to marketing," says Rob Norman, CEO of WPP Group's media-buying firm, GroupM Interaction Worldwide. A key factor, he argues: TV-watchers are passive viewers. But Internet-surfers are tougher to reach because they take a more active role in what they choose to view.

As the two companies started working together, the gulf between them quickly became apparent. In April, when actress Salma Hayek unveiled an ambitious promotion for P&G's Pampers brand, the Google team was stunned to learn that Pampers hadn't invited any "motherhood" bloggers -- women who run popular Web sites about child-rearing -- to attend the press conference.

"Where are the bloggers?" asked a Google staffer in disbelief, according one person present.

For their part, P&G employees gasped in surprise during a Tide brand meeting when a Google job-swapper apparently didn't realize that Tide's signature orange-colored packaging is a key part of the brand's image.

The idea of the employee swap between the two companies gained momentum about a year ago, when P&G's then global marketing officer, Jim Stengel, expressed concern that one of the biggest initiatives in the company's laundry-soap history -- a switch to smaller bottles with a more concentrated formula -- didn't include enough of an online search-term marketing campaign, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The issue: Without an online campaign, Tide buyers searching the Internet to figure out why the detergent bottle shrank might not be directed to Tide's Web site. (Mr. Stengel acknowledges raising questions about the campaign but says he was ultimately satisfied.)

Mr. Stengel had recently met with Tim Armstrong, who runs Google's ad sales and operations in the Americas. The two men tossed around the job-swap idea. It started in January.

Recently, Denise Chudy, a Google sales-team leader, caused a stir when she showed a dozen or so P&G staffers some Google data indicating that online searches for the word "coupons" is up about 50% over the past 12 months.

Tracking online searches was "one of the best learning of my first week at Google," P&G marketing manager Catherine Duval-Russell wrote on an in-house blog. (In P&G jargon, the word "learning" often pops up in place of "lessons.")

P&G has a long history as a marketing innovator. Back in the late 1800s, it developed one of the earliest truly national brands -- Ivory soap -- with saturation advertising in everything from farm journals to religious periodicals. Decades later, radio and TV "soap operas" famously took their name from the fact that P&G advertised so heavily on them to reach women.

But amid the shift to online media, P&G has stayed mostly on the sidelines so far. P&G doesn't disclose how it allocates ad spending, but data firm TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks online display advertising, estimates P&G spends just 2% of its total U.S. ad budget online.

As part of a monthlong job swap at P&G's downtown Cincinnati headquarters, back in March, a mixed group of Google and P&G staffers crowded into P&G's archives to study the 62-year history of Tide. Sessions like these are a key part of P&G's training of up-and-coming brand managers.

Poring over decades of marketing material -- all featuring Tide's bright orange packaging in a starring role -- Google employee Jen Bradburn took note. "It's helpful to know not to mess with the orange too much," she said.

That elicited a chorus of unambiguous "yesses" from P&G employees in attendance. Many also vigorously nodded in agreement.

Tide is P&G's single biggest brand in North America, with annual sales of about $3.5 billion. It was also one of the first products to advertise on live television, P&G historian Ed Rider told the young Google team. "Back then, we were 'new media,'" added Aaron Lichtig, a P&G brand manager.

Later, while screening a 1951 ad featuring a woman singing about Tide while doing the laundry, Mr. Rider told the class, "That's when you reached 70% to 80% of your audience with television commercials." The Google team laughed in disbelief.

Still, despite the shift among younger consumers toward online media, it is clear from P&G's training sessions that its marketing approach still prioritizes TV. For instance, a big chunk of a session of Fabric Care College focused on critiquing TV ads.

"Is the viewer rewarded by spending time with this ad?" Kevin Burke, at the time a top P&G marketing executive who has since left the company, asked after screening an ad for critique. Immediately, hands shot into the air.

One of the first results of the collaboration between the two companies was an online campaign inviting people to make spoof videos of P&G's "Talking Stain" TV ad and post them to YouTube. The original ad, for Tide to Go stain-removing pens, aired during the Super

Bowl and shows a job candidate being drowned out by a talking stain on his shirt that babbles nonsense every time the man tries to speak during an employment interview.

Spoof campaigns can be risky. What if people post something rude about your product -- or don't participate at all?

This "never would have happened" previously, says Mr. Stengel, who left P&G last month to start his own firm. It's "something [P&G is] really wrestling with: How does a brand morph from one-way to two-way communication with the consumer?"

P&G tried to enforce limits. It provided prospective spoofers a tool kit of official logos. And it demanded that any stains appearing in mock ads must come from an approved list, ranging from a mai tai to spinach dip. (Grease, blood or ink was forbidden because the Tide to Go stain-removing pen doesn't work on those stains.)

In the end, of the 227 spoofs submitted, a handful were deemed good enough by P&G to air on TV. The campaign was successful enough that Tide plans to use more consumer-generated content in the future, P&G says.

Google job-swappers have started adopting P&G's lingo. During a session on evaluating in-store displays, a P&G marketer described the company's standard method, known as "stop, hold, close": Product packaging first needs to "stop" a shopper, Mr. Lichtig said. "Hold" is a pause to read the label, and "close" is when a shopper puts the product in the cart.

Google's Ms. Chudy gasped. "This is just like our text ads," she said. The headline is the "stop," its description is the "hold" and the "close" is clicking through to the Web site.

"This is going to get so much easier, now that I'm learning their language," she said.

A big hurdle for Google is that many big advertising agencies, which design campaigns for P&G and other giant firms, often don't make online strategies a priority.

"The worst answer you can hear from an agency is, 'Don't worry, we have a group to handle interactive,'" said David Bell, a Google consultant, during a session with some P&G job-swappers at Google's New York office. "Interactive isn't a group, it's everybody's job," said Mr. Bell, who himself formerly headed Interpublic Group, a major advertising-business holding company.

Consumer-products companies have been among the slowest to adopt online marketing because the traditional forms of marketing, including TV and newspaper fliers, are still reasonably effective, acknowledges Kevin Kells, Google's national industry director for consumer packaged goods.

Indeed, in meetings in New York, two Pampers brand managers openly voiced doubts about online marketing. A recurring suspicion: It works only for products that people buy online, which isn't usually the case with diapers.

"Everyone has a mindset that it has to be transactional," said Dominic Iacono, a Pampers brand manager.

Google's Mr. Kells was ready for that criticism. Online campaigns, he said, can powerfully influence brand awareness among consumers.

With mommy-bloggers, Pampers was quick to follow Google's advice. After failing to invite any to its April Pampers press conference, in July it invited a dozen or so to visit P&G's baby division in Cincinnati. The bloggers claim to have drawn anywhere from one-hundred thousand to six million visitors to their Web sites.

The bloggers toured the facilities, met with diaper executives, got a primer on diaper design and had their hotel and travel costs covered. Their visit was captured on video for other P&G brands to study.

Pampers' sense of discovery of the power of bloggers is apparent in the video. "This is a very different type of communication than what Procter & Gamble is used to," Pampers spokesman Bryan McCleary advises viewers of the video.

The bloggers "don't like advertising," he says in the video. "What they do like are exciting stories ... and those things actually can become word-of-mouth advertising, if done in the right way."

Tide's Latest Talking Stain Spoof Ad

0:42

This ad was runner-up in the Tide Talking Stain spoof contest, and is being televised this fall. (Nov. 18)

• From the Archives: Vintage Tide Ad
• Tide Original Talking Stain Ad
  
• Tide's Talking Stain Spoof Winner
  

James Stengel

Tim Armstrong

Write to Ellen Byron at ellen.byron@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122705787917439625.html

i don't play 'not to lose,' i play 'to win'

"we do no market research. we don't hire consultants. we just want to make great products." - steve jobs, ceo & co-founder, apple

truth, noble

god is gracious

in an absolut world

in an aboslut world we question everything. we challenge assumptions and defy conventions. because that's the first step in making things better. in an absolut world reality is only a starting point. the last stop before imagination takes over and we create a new world as ideal and inspired as our vodka. in an absolut world it's not about right or wrong only what if and why not? we never claim the last word. we only begin the conversation. in an absolut world justice is always poetic. optimism is our point of view. wit and style are the means to an end. and everything is as carefully crafted as what we put in our bottles.

what’s the fun in knowing all of the time?

life doesn't just hand itself to you when you want it. it hands you what it wants to when it wants to. so take it as it comes, take it day by day, enjoy it because you never know what's coming next, and really, what else can you do?

someone, someday

"risk more than others think is safe, care more than others think is wise, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible." - cadet maxim i laugh, love and hope like a little girl, and i know that's always gotten me hurt in the past. but someday there will be that someone who is just as scared as you are, who loves just as blindly as you do, who imagines the same castles in the sky that you see, and who wants the world of magic that you wish for. and that someday will make it all worthwhile. after all, the best things in life are worth waiting for.

sleepless in seattle

"when i met my wife, it was so clear. i just knew. you touch her for the first time, and suddenly...you're home. it's almost like...magic."

if you ever want something badly, let it go. if it comes back to you, then it’s yours forever.

"she never would have looked at me the way she did at him." - indecent proposal

tell me how i’m supposed to breathe with no air

i spent the last two weeks in vietnam, and well, i wasn't ready to come back. it made it so clear when i got into lax and the airline attendants were overweight, grumpy and rude, a striking contrast to those in asia. welcome to america, allison. vietnam was beautiful, the food was incredible, the lifestyle so different from what i know. and the people i met from around the world were so much more interesting than many people i meet here, well, i guess that's what you'd expect from people who travel to vietnam.

but besides all that, one of the reasons i wasn't ready to come back is that when i'm here in cincinnati, i don't ever take a breath. vietnam was two weeks of breathing. i always feel like i need to be doing something, whether it's errands or cleaning or work or whatever else comes up. what am i doing? am i chasing after something? or running away from something? i'd like to think i am really just living life to the fullest, but either way i need to take a moment and pause every now and then when i am here. i can't wait another year for a vacation to take a moment to breathe.

as my mom told me on my birthday, you can't see your reflection in moving water, the water has to be still. so as school starts and as my new assignment picks up, i have to remind myself to breathe and take those moments to reflect so that life doesn't pass me by before i even realize it's happening.

maybe tomorrow

maybe i have commitment issues. maybe i have too high of standards. maybe i'm too selfish. maybe i'm just scared. i'm just not ready to settle for anything less than love. and i think that's okay.

i’ll be eating lots of cereal and brushing my teeth daily for the next three years

this is just the beginning.

me. and you?

"we need to be the change we wish to see in the world." - mahatma gandhi

tag, you’re it

so i don't normally do these, but i kind of liked this one because i love learning about people's quirks and random things and laura's were great.

so here goes:
1. when i smile my cheeks make a funny noise
2. i keep trying to get out of the midwest, but it keeps bringing me back in
3. i could eat honey nut cheerios for breakfast and a turkey sandwich for lunch everyday and enjoy it
4. i absolutely love to be surprised
5. i believe girls should never purchase a flat screen because the guy will always come with at least one
6. i'm addicted to sale shopping
7. i can pretty much fall asleep anywhere
8. if i chose somewhere to live purely based on weather, i'd live in minnesota, wisconsin or michigan
9. i desperately want to learn how to sail
10. someday i want to teach

so now for my tags:
1. meghan: because she's my only sister who hasn't unsubscribed from myspace yet
2. rich: because i think he should go check out ingrid michaelson, and maybe marry her so brooke and i can then be friends with her
3. alexa: because she's my best friend, and she never uses myspace
4. brooke: because we need to have a girls night again soon
5. erin: because i think we need to hang out this weekend
6. brittany: because i saw her and kenny on saturday for the first time in probably a year
7. ashley: because i'm coming to dayton in a few weeks
8. tim: because he celebrated chinese new year with me last week, and i sent him a text a month or so ago that said "tag you're it", and i don't think he liked it because he responded with "whatever"
9. ken: because he and i are like white on rice
10. char: because she posts lots of bulletins that i try to read every now and then, so i think this would be right up her alley

instructions for the tagged:
once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random things, habits or goals about yourself. at the end, choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. don't forget to leave them a comment "you're it" and to read your blog. you can't tag the person who tagged you. since you can't tag me back, let me know when you've posted your answers so i can see what you wrote!

i listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul

feel the sunshine kiss your cheeks as the breeze whispers in your ear. close your eyes and for a moment, disappear. what are you waiting for? there's nothing here.

my religion is very simple. my religion is kindness.

so i'm going to go see the dalai lama talk in april, and i am so unbelievably excited. i mean excited like "i'm going on vacation" excited. i'm not exactly sure why i am this excited, but i think it's because wisdom and compassion are two areas that are very important in my life. not to mention there's no better person to hear from on these topics than the dalai lama himself.

"it is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. from this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come." - tenzin gyatso

that man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest

a long time ago, i met someone, and i had asked that person what he wanted from life. his response was so simple, so clear - just to be happy. at the time, i didn't understand. i mean i had just started college, and i wanted to be the editor of the paper, get into the undergraduate business program, run a painting company, get an internship in new york, get some job at some high profile company, become a vice president or something like that... happy? i thought that was a ridiculous goal. anyone could be happy. i wanted to be a somebody, a 'real' somebody, somebody who changes the world. but now, five and a half years later, i do understand. and there is no better answer to the question. it's not about the fancy car, the big house, the top rated school, the most selective job, the highest title or anything of the sort. it's about happiness, as simple as that. sadly, happiness is harder to come by than we realize. thankfully, i think i'm on the right track.

not too long ago, i met someone who gave me that same answer. i believe that people come in and out of our lives for certain reasons. his was to help me understand what i didn't years ago.

don’t forget to smile

"the broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight.
maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time."

1) take a 10-30 minute walk every day. and while you walk, smile. it is the ultimate antidepressant.

2) sit in silence for at least ten minutes each day. buy a lock if you have to.

3) buy a tivo or dvr, tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4) when you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'my purpose is to ________ today.'

5) live with energy, enthusiasm and empathy.

6) watch more movies, play more games and read more books than you did last year.

7) always pray and make time to exercise.

8) spend more time with people over the age of seventy and under the age of six.

9) dream more while you are awake.

10) eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less foods that are manufactured in plants.

11) drink green tea and plenty of water. eat blueberries, wild alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds and walnuts.

12) try to make at least three people smile each day.

13) clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.

14) don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.

15) realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class...but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16) eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17) smile and laugh more. it will keep the energy vampires away.

18) life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19) life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20) don't take yourself so seriously. no one else does.

21) you don't have to win every argument. agree to disagree.

22) make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

23) don't compare your life to others'. you have no idea what their journey is all about.

24) ladies - go on and burn those 'special' scented candles, use the 600 thread count sheets, the good china and wear our fancy lingerie now. stop waiting for a special occasion. everyday is special.

25) no one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26) frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'in five years, will this matter?'

27) forgive everyone for everything.

28) what other people think of you is none of your business.

29) time heals almost everything. give time, time.

30) however good or bad a situation is, it will change.

31) your job won't take care of you when you are sick. your friends will. stay in touch with them.

32) get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

33) envy is a waste of time. you already have all you need. God provides, remember?!

34) the best is yet to come.

35) no matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

36) do the right thing.

37) call your family often.

38) each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: 'i am thankful for __________.' today i accomplished _________.

39) remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

40) enjoy the ride. remember that this is not disney world and you certainly don't want a fast pass. you only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

live, love, laugh. life is a gift.

’wow your shorts are like especially gold today.’ ’my mom uses color safe bleach.’ ’go carol.’

i hope someday someone thinks the sun shines out of my ass. while i am waiting, maybe i should look into a career in gastroenterology.