The Stanley Cup was awarded late tonight.  The sacrifice needed to win this coveted trophy is almost beyond measure.  I’m a hockey player and have been in love with the game my entire life.  I think about the game all the time and play as often as I can.  To take the ice – the feeling – it’s liberating.  You forget any problem, breathe deep and your lungs fill with the cold icy air.  The puck drops and you go at it.  It’s easy to understand the meaning of team when you play hockey.  The team means everything.  Watching the playoffs this year, you can see the anticipation, the desire and certainly you can see in a champion’s eyes – the will to win!

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks!

I’ve been traveling quite a bit over the last few weeks.  Typically, I’m a loyal Continental Airlines customer.  Recently, I decided to try Virgin America to experience something different and I must say – WOW – what a difference.  Their customer service is second to none and they just go out of their way to make their passengers happy.  Every single interaction with this airline has been shockingly different (in a good way).  Their in flight entertainment, their willingness to accommodate every request and their friendly “go the extra mile” team really makes a difference. 

During this trip, I discovered there is a reality TV series on the CW entitled “Fly Girls”.  It must be bad, but I just might give it a shot.  Flying the red eye back tonight – I’ve got plenty of time to do so.  Why did I blog about this? It’s refreshing to see a company think about their customer.  Travel sucks.  They work hard to make a difference when it comes to customer interaction.  I like to feel special.  It helps make the travel experience much different and all of this does make a difference when I think about my next purchase.  I travel a lot.  Now because of my experience with Virgin America, they will be top of the list. 

When the love affair ends, I’ll let you know.

How is it that a United States senate seat held by a Democrat icon for over 40 years, becomes a seat now held (as soon as he is seated that is) by a Republican? Well, many out there are debating why they think the seat’s turned Republican, and I’m sure you’ve heard many talking heads giving all their opinion and analysis. The bottom line is, Scott Brown winning this special election in Massachusetts on Tuesday has tossed a hand grenade into conventional political thinking. On top of that, this shake-up has the power to change both the direction of the current health care bill currently in conference, and the general direction and positioning of the Obama administration’s agenda. This is exactly why I love to follow politics – it’s predictable usually, but every so often an event comes along which flips all the tables over. This is one of those events!

To get a good balance of opinion and analysis of this election, go to the Real Clear Politics web site. It’s simply the best site out there for providing views from all sides of the political spectrum.

It has been a tough few years.  No doubt about it.  Unemployment approaching (or above in some areas) 10%, the banking collapse, the housing collapse, the collapse of the American auto industry, people concerned about the stimulus package, a major division in our government, the health care debate – the list is long and heavy. 

Over this same time period, the ad industry has been crushed as well.  Ad budgets are down, friends and colleagues have been laid off and all the major agencies have hiring & salary freezes to protect their bottom line.  While certain areas of television marketing and most of the digital category has sustained (not grown) ad revenues, magazine, newspaper and radio budgets have been severely reduced.  To that point, so many publications have shut down, streeting their staff Pubs such as Blender, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr Magazine, Southern Accents Magazine, Vibe, and the biggies, Modern Bride and Gourmet (both 50+ years old).

Today, things are looking a bit better with the Dow hitting 10,000  last week, unemployment has slowed and the housing market indicators inching up a bit as well.  The government’s cash for clunckers worked well to stimulate the auto industry,  but I think it helped the Japan economy more than the American auto markets.  There are positive signs.

This morning, I was pleased to read about the success our friends at Meredith are having.  During difficult times, smart companies find a way to evolve and push forward.  Meredith has done just that by focusing hard on their relationship with the consumer.  Making a promise to “her” that they will maintain and commit ”no matter what”.  Meredith launched several new initiatives while simultaneously embracing the digital channel to connect with consumer needs.  They launched Meredith 360 – a full-on integrated marketing unit and realigned the corporate sales group under one mission.  They re-branded the entire company:  Meredith National Media Brands and the moves have paid off with the award of Publishing Company of the Year! 

In tough times, winners find a way to create, invent and excel.  Inspiring news indeed!  Read the full story here:  AdAge:  A List Publishing Company of the Year:  Meredith Corp.

Adobe will dump $21.50 a share (cash baby) to purchase Omniture, a 24% premium.  Total package – $1.8 Billion.  Now that is some serious cash to toss around in a recession.  The media marketplace has hit Adobe hard with lower demand for InDesign and Photoshop.  The deal is designed to help better track web sites created with Adobe’s programs. 

Adobe CEO Narayen calls this move a “game changer”.  Adobe plans to build code within its content creation programs to help them exchange data with Omniture services, eliminating time consuming programming by customers in an effort to help them make more money on their web sites.  This is an interesting move – one that totally repositions Adobe and opens up an incredible amount of new possibilities.

Read the full story here:  WSJ Adobe to Buy Web-Tracking Firm Omniture

Even in this economy cats are making life a little greener for a few individuals.  Here are the top 15 public acquisitions that I think people would care about from 7/01 – 9/01.

Source – Crunch Base

With only a few hours remaining, we are getting in our last licks and visiting our fav haunts of our trip. This place has the best burgers going. What goes perfect with that burger – a Longboard beer – the local brew.

It has been a good vaca, but I’m ready to return. Kids are ready as well. There was plenty of “reflection” on this trip regarding T360 and I feel ready to jump back in head first. Major decisions await and the next evolution of the company is upon us. Strategy, Media and Creative are busy and new opportunities are showing up every day. The final push to ensure 2009 goes down in the books as a successful year happens now. But first a stop on “The Big Island” to make our connection.

Expect big things …

 To start off this post, I would like to say a big thanks to my man Alex.  I have been “under water” the last few weeks and he has single handedly kept this blog interesting, relevant and up-to-date.  That’s not to say he is not busy – he totally is.  One look at his blood-shot eyes will tell you that.  But he made it a priority to post and that means a lot. 

Something very interesting is happening to Triumph360.  We are changing.  We are growing and evolving right before my eyes.  We had a pitch this past week where the client wondered why we would consider working with them.  It’s a smaller client – more of a start-up.  He felt that because of our experience and professionalism we would not work with a start-up.  I think I was a bit shocked.  Almost speechless at the statement.  We will see how things turn out and I hope we do get a chance to help them launch their business. 

The point is, without me even knowing it, we are starting to take on a different voice.  One of credibility and superiority.  Its nice to see.  We have worked hard to get here and it is paying off.  When I think about the projects we are managing and when I listen in on our status calls and witness how our team works together to support each other – it is truly incredible.

So I’m sitting here in the Seattle airport with my new friend Jessica (she is the one with all the drinks behind the bar!!!).  I’m of course thinking about my team and thinking about just how lucky I am.  I could not do this without them.  They are the best in the business without a doubt.  Let me say it again – THEY ARE THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS!  The manage everything.  Our clients LOVE them.  The marketplace LOVES them.  They have fun at what they do and at the same time focus to do right by our clients like its life and death.  Simply put – WOW!

For me, on to North Carolina for Friday meetings and then off for a little family vaca to end the summer.  I have been going at this T360 thing full tilt without a second the breathe for a while now.  I need to kiss my daughter’s belly and make her laugh.  I need to carry my son on my shoulders and walk down the beach and I need to take my wife to dinner and spend some time re-introducing myself to her.  They are all partners in this as well.   I also thought I would unwind with a little shark diving.  We will see how that goes.  I hope to blog a ton, but I’ve made that promise before.

More to come…

As a follow up to John’s Run Sarah Run? post from yesterday, Jeff Zucker, Lorne Michaels, SNL loyalists and Tina Fey fans everywhere had a party last night to celebrate three more years of rich material and extremely high ratings.  I like John’s suggestion – sit back and watch this one unfold.  This is going to be very interesting!!

Gov. Sarah Palin

She sure causes a lot of controversy, with nearly every move she makes. In the few months since Sarah Palin was catapulted to the forefront of our news to the present day, she has dominated front pages and headlines. Even last Friday, I figured that only a nuclear attack would sweep Michael J. off the lead story position, but Sarah managed to do so for 3 days straight. Love her, hate her, or know nothing of her, she definitely has the power to make headlines.

So everyone is surmising why she left her office as Governor of Alaska. On the Right, they’re prematurely shouting, “run Sarah run.” On the Left, they foolishly forecast her political doom. I find it absolutely amazing that so many are not sitting back to just see what happens with her. She either made the move for the nebulous reasons she expressed, or she’s planning some sort of political circumvention to make another move again (this time a better planned one perhaps) towards future high office. Whatever it is, or whatever she’s thinking, we will not know until some time passes.

Not one of the pundits really know in either case, but I find it even more amusing that some predict her downfall. That this departure from sworn office (as opposed to Barak Obama’s departure from sworn office) is the key indicator that she’s clearly unfit to lead (hold it – perhaps that is a key indicator after all?). If anything, this lady is still resonating with the Conservative base, and is still completely frazzling the Left. For someone who is quote “stupid, unfit, a liar, dimwitted, uneducated, and of course clueless,” she sure has her political enemies in an uproar each time she sneezes. There’s more to their apoplexy than the epithets they spew. Something completely freaks the Left out about Sarah Palin – their responses give it away. The lady doth protest too much! They just start hurling insults all over the place to the brutal point of calling her a “slutty flight attendant” and suggesting statutory rape of her daughter at a baseball game as a “joke” – something that would not go unpunished if said of a politician such as Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton. But Sarah’s fair game to the Left and most of the media – anything at all can be said about her, no matter how vicious or untrue. For someone so dimwitted and clueless, she sure has her enemies panicked to hell for some reason.

The insult game is not a new one. Insult is used when someone cannot muster up a cogent argument against that person’s ideas – if they even care to know about those ideas. Ronald Regan dealt with such. To this day, Rush Limbaugh is still called the “fat stupid idiot” as he was years ago, but most Limbaugh insult-hurlers cannot succinctly tell you one iota about what his political philosophy actually is. It’s far easier to toss the insult with inanity than take the time to know the facts, and debate those facts in context and sans-culotte.

So in the world of lazy intellectual-political punditry, the Sarah Palin phenomenon is one that surely perplexes a good number of so-called analysts, and those who oppose her viewpoints – to the point of sadistic. But what would be nice to see, in her case or others who voice themselves, would be more than just repetitive, ill-thought talking points. Maybe an honest and informed debate of the issues that divide this country would be uplifting? Lincoln vs. Douglas would be refreshing I think. Or, to get closer to our times and involving two very different individuals, try Chomsky vs. Buckley. These debates are hard-hitting, contentious, intelligent, and civil all at the same time. How rare is that?