Wood for Good + Leather Love Wipes...

How do you not love methodhome.com's email blasts? They are wittily written, a little bit wicked and beautifully structured. They're my most favourite in all the world.



(I guess Mint.com's finance updates are my second-favourite marketing emails, if making me feel mildly panicked once a week is the same as feeling love.)

A Little Bit of Attitude, Sugar

Mint.com is so charming it hurts. I mean, this email was enough to make me feel smug about how the "Grown-Up Services" I've invested into increasingly share my humour and match my sensibility (without sacrificing the need for transparency and calm reassurance). Then I leaped facefirst into the website, where I saw the following maintenance message:



I saw that and I was like, GAH! That's just the cutest! (And doubly reassuring!) Check them out, all tightening screws and protecting my data with a little smack of chutzpah. It doesn't even matter that the site's down right now, I'm happy to dance around and wait.

We don't need corporate vanilla, that dull numbing attitude that protects you from legal rebuke and that nobody reads. What social media's taught us is that enterprises ought to be more human. And when you're human, it's okay to put the red shoes on under your workday trousers. It can even brighten days.

Be the Fred Astaire of unhappy situations!

And the Worst Part Is, It Made It to the 'Important' Box.

I got this yesterday and was sitting here thinking, really? Already? Didn't this feature come out, like, last week?!

And I'm not sure whether I should be like, "Go you! You've found really good ways to game the system and released them as fast as your little fingers could tap!" ... or whether I should be like, "Dagnabz, now I'm just gonna have three Gmail tiers full of bullshit."

AdVerve Newsy Bait: Tips on Pitch Protection

You're a small agency or a freelancer. You get invited to a pitch for a great potential client. You make your pitch; things went well but ultimately you don't get the business. Yet, six months later you realize the client is basically using your idea in its new campaign...

The Wheels of Capitalism™ are relentless in their turning, and if somebody - say, a big corporation with many faces to hide behind - can snatch something out from under you without paying, they're going to. That's the facts of life, and that's why learning how to cover your ass is important.

One of the most overlooked ways to cover the aforementioned extremity is pitch protection. It's easiest to forget when you're just starting out, and eager for an ear (any ear!).

In AdVerve's latest newsletter, ad/marketing law attorney Michael McSunas (@adlawguy) of Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, PC gives you three ways of ensuring your idea pram doesn't get jacked in the pitch room. Give it a read. It's under the section labeled, "Hey, Ad Law Guy!"

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