September 2010
1 post
6 tags
July 2010
3 posts
7 tags
Vujà Dé Presents - Josef Gordon
Hope Y’all are having a great Wednesday!
Josef Gordon is our next distinguished guest for our vlog series “Vujà Dé Presents.” Josef is a beyond talented songwriter and singer and there’s no doubt that you will be hearing his music on the radio and accepting Grammy’s and People’s Choice Awards. So sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know Josef. #Goodthings
D
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Star-Spangled Banner for Independence Day.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Happy 4th of July!
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Relationship: The driving force of global...
In today’s world, with social media and digital marketing, business depends on relationship. Why does relationship mean so much in the 2.0 world?
The thing about business is that behind every company there are people and according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This includes relationship, which is...
June 2010
3 posts
7 tags
Day by Dé Marketing-Let's be social :)
Facebook ‘Like’ page. Check. Twitter page. Check. LinkedIn profile. Check. YouTube channel. Check. Check. Check. Check. Does it ever stop? Um, no. In fact, these are all needs instead of ‘should we have.’ As an extension of a website, the social media requisites encourage further dialogue with organizations and their ‘likers’ or fans. Some of the big boys that get social media right are Starbucks...
Traditional Advertising, What's That?
When thinking of Marketing and Advertising in today’s culture you often hear “Digital” thrown around a lot. What about traditional advertising?
We are forgetting, more and more, what the basics are, and in many cases rightfully so. I was in an intense strategy meeting for a new client yesterday and we re-trained ourselvs on the importance of traditional as well as digital...
Day by Dé Tips - Recommendation: Read Crush It
What is Crush It?
Crush It is a book written by Gary Vaynerchuk that focuses on living your passion. Gary talks about why now is the time to start living, breathing, and working everyday doing what you do best .
At Vujà Dé Studios, we recommend that our clients give this book a read because through reading it you should be able to clearly define why you are doing what you are doing and why you...
May 2010
17 posts
Vujà Dé Salutes Our Troops
Happy Memorial Day Everyone,
Regardless of your viewpoints on war, we need soldiers, troops, marines, pilots, and midshipmen to help protect our country. To all of you who do, we are most grateful (b/c trust me, after traveling the world, I am proud to be an American). And since today is ‘Marketing Monday’ I’ve attached some vintage marketing materials that our country has...
7 tags
Day by Dé - What is Advertising?
Since we devote an entire day to marketing/advertising and the various forms of, it thought it would only be fitting to examine the core of advertising. I am the kind of person that likes to know how things work, why they work, and what defines something (if you haven’t noticed), so to talk about advertising with out defining it just wouldn’t be right to me. Wikipedia defines...
Day by Dé Tips - Customer Service
One make it or break it factor for repeat business is customer service. Some companies base their entire business plan on it. Burger King for one; their focus, “Have it your way”. Connecting with the customer like that can be the one thing that leads someone to come back for 50 years, like your grandpa and his local hardware store.
There is a reverse side to all of this. Bad customer...
6 tags
Day by Dé Marketing — I'm a hustler baby
When finding the definition to a word, I usually turn the to the trusted ‘Urban Dictionary” for the most educated and respected clarification. Today was no different and when I typed ‘hustle,’ (today’s subject) Urban Dictionary has come through yet again…
And I quote….
“Anythin you need to do to make money, be it sellin cars, drugs, ya body. If you makin money, you hustling.”
“A dishonest plan for...
Vujà Dé Presents - Daniel Rivera
from Vujà Dé Studios
Ladies and Gentlemen…Our first video blog with Daniel Rivera (aka D-RIV). Make it a great Friday!
D
3 tags
Day by Dé Design — What is Fun?
Fun from games arises out of mastery… learning is the drug — Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun
Fun occurs from actually figuring it out. So when you cheat (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, a, b, start) you literally take the fun out of it.
A good game is a great blend of frustration, failure and of course victory.
Play on!
Á
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Day by Dé Ad - What makes a good commercial?
What makes a good commercial?
I was asked, what makes a good commercial, and I had to think for a moment. What does make a good commercial? If we are going to understand what makes a good commercial, first we need to know what a commercial is.
Dictionary.com defines a Radio or Television commercial as “a paid advertisement or promotional announcement.” The first TV commercial...
9 tags
Day by Dé Tips-Spring Cleaning
Spring Cleaning
When I moved to LA last year, I was eating dinner with some friends and the subject of detoxification came up, as it usually does for some reason. Coming from an ‘alternative’ health background (even though I believe ‘alternative’ should be mainstream, again, another conversation) I told my table that I am an advocate of the liver cleanse. Your liver is one of the most important...
9 tags
Day by Dé Marketing — Copy That
So you have an idea. Fantastic. Now you need to market the product with the whole marketing mix, and all of that good stuff. I believe one aspect of marketing that is extremely overlooked is copywriting and not copyrighting (also important, but we’ll save that for a legal blog) because your product and or service will live or die with the words that you use to advertise your product. Today there...
4 tags
Day by Dé Design — What is Boredom?
“Boredom is the brain casting about for new information. It is the feeling we get when there are no more patterns to observe.” Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun
So if you’re bored look for some new patterns — in other words, go learn something.
Many products,toys and apps have tried to solve the boredom issue by surface level entertainment. This method is short lived and in the...
Day by Dé Ad - 3 Tips for Personal Brands
Advertising for small businesses and personal brands has evovled quite a lot in recent years. The days of being able to only put an ad in your local paper and put some flyers up at the library are quickly fading while new medias and outlets allow for reaching more people with less money. Here are my three tips for your personal brand.
1. What is your niche, what do you do best?
The reason I...
3 tags
Day by Dé Tips — Kerning 101
Kerning is the adjustment of individual pairs of letters to improve the spacing and fit (http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/?p=766).
In ReL terms: the space between letters that invade other letters’ space — in the above sample the V and the j.
Kerning adjusts the space between the vivacious V and its adjacent counterparts. Kerning make for more even spacing, a much easier read, and...
8 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
Creativity is probably one of the most misconstrued words in the English language. Actually, to quote dictionary.com, creativity is “ the state or quality of being creative.” Shocking. The second definition is quite better, which is, “The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations,...
4 tags
Day by Dé Design — Dropped the Ball
Certain devices stock all of their functionality on one design feature… ahem BlackBerry.
I dropped the ball on my phone and now its basically worthless. What other products loose their complete functionality if one aspect goes “bye bye”
Don’t forget to dance!
Á
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Day by Dé Ad
A crazy thing is happening in the world of advertising because there is no clear direction when it comes to advertising on the internet. Things are constantly evolving and changing to try and market and advertise to the consumer with maximum potential.
Here is the issue right now, or an issue as I see it. With the small, one ad at a time, breaks there isn’t much room for ads. I recently...
Day by Dé Tips - Time to workout?
Before joining Vujà Dé I had a laundry list of jobs, one being a Personal Trainer certified by the NCSF (National Council on Strength and Fitness). Over the years I’ve heard a lot of people debate the benefits of working out in the morning versus at night. Well, I’m going to break down why I think you should work out before you go to work! Let’s start by examining what happens...
6 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
J’aime teishoku
This week, I’m going to look at three more colors and their multicultural marketing correlations. On a side note, I wonder what the multicultural marketing color correlation equates to too much sun on one’s body over the weekend? But seriously.
Purple
Italy-Church, authority, Latin America-Death (fun times), US-Nobility, law, bravery
Red
Africa-Death and...
April 2010
19 posts
Vujà Dé Presents - From The Archives
This is a Spec that was shot and delivered to MINI Cooper USA.
Like Driver. Like Mini. from Vujà Dé Studios
Day by Dé Design — Paid!
Interesting thing about reputation — it precedes you.
GM that has built a reputation of building cheap cars and a few years back they started actually building great cars. The thing is no one new or believed them. Yet, in other places in the world they were coveted automobiles.
It does seem that auto companies are making more of an effort to communicate with their consumers.
With all of...
Day by Dé Film - Writing Action
Action is a tricky thing because on a page it can seem like a small paragraph but in AD terms(in 1/8’s of a page); 1/8 of a page can end up being a full days work. When you write action in your script It helps to be overly descriptive in some ways, and vague in others. When you are dealing with pyro-technics it is good to explain how big of an explosion but thats as far as it can go. Long...
Day by Dé Tips - Dom P
Over the past week the Vujà crew signed our first contract. Big things are in store for this individual. We also made a pact before our first contract would be signed, that when that day would come, we would celebrate with some champagne, or champaign :). As much fun as it is to drink, opening a champagne bottle can be a pain. How funny am I??? So we concocted some tips on how you can open and...
8 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
Color Me Bad, Good, and Everything In-between
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to concentrate on the importance of choosing colors and their different connotations. From a marketing perspective, color is extremely important especially from an international point of view since each culture have their own ‘color story.’ This week we’re going to look at three examples of multicultural marketing...
5 tags
Vujà Dé Presents
In reverence to Earth Day here is something from the archives.
A Cleaner Future from Vujà Dé Studios on Vimeo.
Á, J, D
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5 tags
Day by Dé Design — Phone Numbers
This might be more of a rant — Somebody help me out.
More and more smartphones with QWERTY keyboards, whether physical or digital, and they are great for rapid texting and for short novels.
I don’t think Major companies have truly grasped this. Why? You ask.
Simple. A company tells me their number is 1 800 TW CABLE. Most people would think that this ploy is clever and easy to...
Day by Dé Film - CG vs Story
Lately it seems that if a film uses CG (Computer Generated Images), it has a very weak story. I’ve had countless debates about the effectiveness of CG with other film-makers. Since CG is still so new and we are able to do things that we haven’t thus far, we tend to overdo it. The problem is, because we are creating so many new elements, we have been...
6 tags
Day by Dé Tips - Java Control
Do you drink several cups of coffee before the day even starts? If you do then I would recommend the art of Java Control — strengthening the kick in your brew.
The trick? Pack it in. Simple. Amazing results.
In a nutshell, the more you pack it in the longer it takes for the water to pass through the dark stuff the more dark stuff that makes it to the brew the stronger the kick.
Try it out....
7 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
Are You the First?
“Can you pass me a Kleenex?” So ingrained into our modern day vernacular, Kleenex did not even register as a spelling mistake on my blog document. Why didn’t I say ‘Puffs’ or ‘Scotts’ well, it’s not because they are not great facial tissue brands (which I will gladly accept samples), it’s the fact that our mentality and...
6 tags
Day by Dé Design — Connect Me!
The line between ones public and private lives are blurring. We are giving up our privacy so that we can be connected. Now with powerful handheld mobile devices we can be connected to everyone all the time. We are tethered to our mobile devices because we are addicted to being connected and we are loosing our privacy in the process. Guess what? It seems in the battle of public and private we opt...
Day by Dé Film
Directors if you haven’t heard about Artemis, you need to!
Artemis Directors Viewfinder, from Chemical Wedding, is the Iphone equivilant to a standard viewfinder. Although, there are some major differences that sets Artemis way above the rest. One being, since the app is on your phone you don’t need to carry an additional piece of equiptment. Another perk is that you can pick and...
5 tags
Day by Dé Tips - Coffee
To drink or not to drink? That is the question.
The number one item people spend money on is coffee. Coffee is one of the worlds most lucrative industries, but what does it do? How does it work? Should you drink coffee at work? Let’s start by examining what coffee is and how it works.
Coffee’s main ingredient is caffeine; with out it coffee would be useless. So to understand coffee we must...
6 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
Offense Marketing vs. Defense Marketing
After listening to a trusted speaker discuss armor for battle this past weekend, I knew that an often-overlooked topic is offensive and defensive marketing.
What do these terms mean? Well, in marketing, to have an offensive mindset means that you are in attack mode hustling and advancing your product and/or service through promotions, public relations,...
6 tags
Day by Dé Design — Everything is Retro
It seems more and more that inspiration is coming from past iterations of design. From fashion (shoulder pads are back) to products (KitchenAid mixers are a great example) to furniture (Kartell has a selection of retro clear plastic seats and tables) to automobiles (Challenger, Mustang, Mini to name a few).
This seems to be a trend that supersedes design and has ventured into entertainment,...
Day by Dé Film - Let's Remake It! Part 2
Following up with last weeks Day by Dé Film Post, this week I’m posting the movies that people submitted!
The Question was “What was the Best/Worst movie remake in the last couple years?”
My Pick:
Best - “3:10 to Yuma”
Worst - “Rollerball”
Alice Los Angeles, CA:
Best - ”Alice In Wonderland”
Worst - “Charlie and the Chocolate...
7 tags
Day by Dé Tips
Phil Cooke, a brand guru, and all-around smart person recently shared common sense tips that will help anyone gain influence.
1) Return every call and e-mail quickly. Show up on time, even if you’re the only one there. Dress like you deserve your salary.
2) Write thank-you notes. Remember birthdays. Remember the assistants, and the secretaries, the coordinators, and the mailroom folks....
8 tags
Day by Dé Marketing
In case you haven’t noticed, I love blogging about books that have changed my marketing perspectives, and “The Hero and the Outlaw,” by Carol Pearson and Margaret Mark, is another Dom and Vujà Dé Studios approved read.
To summarize, each successful and influential brand throughout history, whether a person or an organization knows what archetype they represent, and without wavering promote their...
4 tags
Day by Dé Design — Ergo-Gear
Suit up for work! The Essential ergo-gear for any work place.
Oh, and don’t forget to dance.
Á
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March 2010
16 posts
4 tags
Day by Dé Film — Let's Remake It!
It seems lately, that the film industry has been pumping out remakes. Where has all of the creativity gone? It looks like 2010 is going to be a repeat of the last few years in which we have seen countless remakes, everything from Miami Vice to Most recently, The Karate Kid. What I want to know is what you think:
What are the 2 best remakes in the last couple years?
What are the 2 worst remakes...
5 tags
Day by Dé Tips — Office Ergonomics
Simple guidlines on how to enjoy working in front of a computer all day.
Don’t forget to dance!
Á
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Day by Dé Marketing — Hello, I'm a brand.
A few weeks ago I mentioned I like-a the brands, and am conscious of the brands that I consume and promote. But what about promoting myself as a brand? Do I consider myself a brand? Should I?
Answer: Yes I should consider myself a brand. (In-depth, I know).
Personal branding has gathered substantial steam with many books on how to accomplish this, including “Crush It,” which is another ‘must...
Vujà Dé Presents
Over the next couple weeks, we will be explaining our journey to becoming
Vujà Dé Studios.
This is my journey!
My Journey to Vuja De - James from Vujà Dé Studios
6 tags
Day by Dé Design
Automotive Progress?
It is pretty crazy that the automobile has remained relatively unchanged in the last 100yrs. Here are the highlights.
GM, I’m still waiting for my hovercraft!
Á
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7 tags
Day by Dé Film
With the economic decline the film industry has seen a weird phenomenon happening. Hollywood is no longer the film capital of the United States let alone the world. In 2007, there were over 100 studio-funded movies being made in Los Angeles. By 2008 that number dropped to a measly 22, and in 2009 there were even less. This strange dilemma has left hundreds of people out of work and rental houses...
7 tags
Day by Dé Tips
We all want and need to execute at the highest-level daily, and taking proper care of ourselves, from a nutrition perspective, will enable us to do so. However, we all want to be healthy, but are unsure of the basic steps that will provide us with optimal health.
Coming from a family that eats, sleeps, and spreads the gospel of nutrition, this is the beginning of a series on practical nuggets...