For a long as I can remember my mother has been sending out hand written thank-you notes. So does my older sister. My wife and I mix it up with e-mails and phone calls, but I admit it’s not the same thing.

One of our sales coaches swears by the value of written notes. An international business executive who jets around North America in his own lear jet, he devotes at least a 1/2 hour each day to writing hand-written notes to his core clients. This is in addition to a multi-million dollar on and offline campaign to promote his business.

Yesterday I received a tax receipt, form letter, U+A survey, pre-paid return envelope AND a hand written note from Second Harvest Food Rescue. The note thanks me, tells me how many people my donation will help and encourages me to stay in touch. It’s a very nice touch.   

I know enough about NFP, and direct mail to tell you four things:

1.  Handwritten inserts can easily double DM response rates.

2.  2HFR would not be employing this media tactic if it wasn’t offing them a (statistically) significant lift in DM response rates.  

3.  DM when designed properly and employed by the right brand for the right reasons is still a very powerful advertising tool.

4.  Generalizing (think best practices) about DM or any other (on or offline) medium is pointless because the holistic context is fundamental to an insightful and effective media campaign. (Meaning it takes a pro to set it up and make it work properly.)

There’s another condo going up in my Toronto neighborhood.
While the renderings for this condo (on the hoarding + website) are gorgeous, the copy is written and client approved by idiots.

(Unlike other construction projects her in Toronto,) this development is “Naturally strong.” and “Infinitely beautiful”.
It’s called “HeartwoodTheBeach” - all one word. My guess this is a cleaver little (SEO optimized) wordplay.  

Bonus: residences are “Designed by nature.” and “Grown by the sun.”

In my 40 or so years in the advertising business, this takes the cake for stupid copy. If I had my way, pink slips would be handed out to the copywriter, graphic artist, art director, and the client for having the audacity to look at this stuff and conclude that they have done a piece of incredible work.

When I walk by this tree in the morning it’s easy for me to think of our ancestors who worshipped “pagan” religions and how they may have been inspired by a determined fruit tree like this. The tenacity of it’s fruit makes me want to bring some of it into my home on December 22nd, our longest night, and add it to the ritual celebration that invites the light to return to our cold, dark world.

But I won’t. Left on the tree all those who pass can admire the tree and be inspired by it, and the wild things that need food will have a bit more to get themselves through the lean times.

Like so many other holidays, today’s “Christmas” is a just another sales event that I don’t really want to take part in.

Here’s a brief history of how a peaceful pastoral setting like this apple tree became today's Christmas.

As Christians spread their religion into Europe in the first centuries A.D., they ran into people living by a variety of local and regional religious creeds. Early Christians wanted to convert “pagans”, but they were also fascinated by their traditions.

The Christmas tree is a 17th-century German invention.

The modern Santa Claus is a descendent of England's Father Christmas, who was not originally a gift-giver.

Father Christmas and other European variations are versions of old pagan ideas about spirits who travel the sky in midwinter.

The dark days of winter, and the solstice, were lightened with feasts and decorations that invited the light to return.

With no Biblical directive to do so and no mention in the Gospels of the correct date, it wasn't until the fourth century that church leaders in Rome embraced the holiday. To show that Jesus was a real human being, not just another “spirit” like other religions worshipped, a celebration of his birth was invented.

Pagan midwinter festivals, and the lengthening days after the winter solstice in mid December were already widely celebrated and the date had a good fit for the new Christian festival celebrating “the birth of Christ”.

While the Catholic Church gradually came to embrace Christmas, reformist-minded Protestants considering it little better than paganism. In England under Oliver Cromwell, Christmas and other saints' days were banned, and in New England it was illegal to celebrate Christmas for about 25 years in the 1600s.

People used to share presents on New Year's Day; blessing people to make them feel good as the year came to an end. It wasn't until the Victorian era of the 1800s that gift giving shifted to Christmas.

Before online media became the simplistic solution for anyone who wanted to advertise anything, there were media buyers, planners and directors (like me) that spent days and weeks analyzing printed data reports and using manual calculators and early computer models to build and compare the average reach / frequency as well as the effective reach and frequency distribution for various media plan scenarios with-in budget.

With progressive clients we would run different campaigns in different markets to help our clients determine if the media mix, media weight levels, flight lengths, the creative message - or call to action, competitive brands, or the marketplace in general were the most important variables that we all needed to focus on in order to move the brand.

A faster, cheaper return. Not a better long term return.

Google has done a wonderful job of convincing people that A|B tests can be do online.

:: Adword versus display ads.

:: Demo vs. content adjacency.

::  Channel A vs. B.

Yes it’s a test, but you’re still playing in the same pool. So no, it's not a very good test.

This morning when I was driving cross town here in Toronto I saw a pair of airplanes towing sky-banners. It’s the 1st time that I’ve see them used in tandem (and offering two ad impressions instead of one). It’s also been a long time since I’ve seen them used.

And look who’s using them to expand their audience reach and frequency (as we roll into Christmas).

If an online retailer like Amazon goes offline to expand their message reach and frerquency, what does that suggest you should consider doing to expand you online or brick + mortar operation?    

I'm republishing one of my first blog entries (from about seven years ago). When I re-read it I remembered the 1st time that a friend suggested I write a blog: very dumb idea I thought. I don't have anything to say. Then I was reminded of Ed Karthaus' sage career advice: keep your head down, work hard and don't look up for a year. When you do, you'll be amazed at how far you've come. In hindsight I might add: and how much will have changed. Here's a quick seven year re-cap.

• My and my wife's fathers, many friends, and their dogs have passed away.
• We have moved to and from Manitoba to care for my wife's father.
• I've re-invented myself (again). I now work for myself and do remote creative and management support.
• I just finished writing my mother's memoirs.
• I'm working on a book about Charlie and all the stuff we've learned on our walks together. It's still pretty rough and not worth publishing yet, but if you had asked me seven years ago to write a 350 page draft - I would have told you that I'm not capable of doing so.
• I've also been blogging for seven years now - usually once a week.
• Charlie is still with me! He just had a big operation, came through with flying colours and seems prepared to be my constant companion and creative muse for a while longer.
• I'm still learning to enjoy the moment rather than "worry about what's next".
• I'm happier in my skin than ever - and doing more of what I really love to do more often than not.

 As I read this edited entry I can see the framework of a vision that I had seven years ago but was not sure how to realize. The lesson here: FAITH. Some-how despite my uncertainty, my wish has come true.

Janet told me that each of us has at least one book inside of us. I thought she was nuts. Then Charlie came into my life and changed a lot of my beliefs and priorities. Anne told me that our relations with dogs are more genuine because people and dogs have very open relationship anchored in this moment, free of the politics and all the other stuff that encumbers human relationships. When we were told Charlie had skeletal necrosis I was speechless. It took weeks to put the news into context: realizing that his already short life would be cut shorter. And that’s when I started listening – and not worrying about Charlie because Charlie began teaching me about life. He began with one of the most basic lessons - one that most of us understand philosophically but struggle to apply.

• To live in the moment.
• To not worry about what might be.
• To enjoy and appreciate what we have.

Charlie doesn't know how long he has and neither do I. So that’s the ‘beginning’. My goal is to write a ‘lesson’ a week and then put them all into a book - or this blog - a week at a time.