Tokens of Appreciation
In any given desk at Dixon Schwabl, you’ll find thumb drives, forgotten Tim Horton’s Roll-Up-the-Rim pieces ... maybe the occasional Rolodex. There’s something in common in most of them, too—a stack of...
View ArticleA Strong Culture Starts with No Excuses!
In their book No Excuses: How You Can Turn Any Workplace Into a Great One, authors Jennifer Robin and Michael Burchell detail common challenges to building a great workplace, and outline ways to...
View ArticleB(R)AND OF BROTHERS: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE AVETTS
Last week, I drove to North Carolina and back in 48 hours just to spend New Year's Eve with my favorite band. Yes, you read that correctly. It's no secret that my husband, daughter and I are huge fans...
View ArticleEverything I need to Know About Business, I Learned from Bowling
When put into perspective, business— like bowling— is simply a game.There are much more important matters in life—starting with the growth and well being of the people on your team.Anyone can roll a...
View ArticleThe Next Big Thing. Again.
I bumped into my nephew Jake this weekend at a local watering hole where he and his friends were enjoying a responsible number of craft beers and artisan cocktails. It was a trendy bar with a youngish...
View ArticleWhen Brand Integrity is Thrown to the Wolves
North Carolina State University vs. Keuka College was never a fair fight. One is an NCAA Division I program that recruits some of the finest college athletes in the country, while the other plays in...
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Live From #RaganDisney with Andrew Knoblauch
[March 11, 7:12 a.m.]It’s the final countdown! For the sake of time, I’ll skip the Europe lyrics, but it’s been one hell of a conference thus far. Last night’s cocktail hour featured shrimp and grits,...
View ArticleBrands Have a Choice: Do We Want to Tell the Story First?
The NCAA Tournament bracket leak ruined CBS' ridiculously long two-hour selection show, and it also shined the spotlight on how much media has changed over the past five years. I had the opportunity to...
View ArticleSocial Media Proves MLB is Losing with Millennials
I was on Twitter recently and noticed that LeBron James has 29 million followers. I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s impressive.” And honestly, that’s because it is. LeBron has five times as many...
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Spring Cleaning for Words and Grammars
This was originally sent as an all-staff email from copyediting guru, Jen Moritz, who feels ways about words and grammar.Happy spring! We've been seeing a few writing quirks lately, so I wanted to...
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At Best of the Web, it's Twitter, for the Win!
And the winner is ...The Best of the Web Awards were held this morning in Rochester. And while there were several deserving winners, we thought there should be one more. So, we gave away an Apple...
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Making Your Brand Great Again
If you want to build or re-build your brand, the fastest and cheapest place to start is with word association. So let’s play our own little word association game. Ready?Volvo.(Did you say...
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How many copywriters does it take to change a light bulb?
How many copywriters does it take to change a light bulb?Only one, but it takes 10 drafts.1st draft: Change the light bulb.2nd draft: Now you can change light bulbs at home!3rd draft: In the dark...
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Before & After: Recognizing the Need to Change
Sheri Mitchell, a media traffic manager here at DS, was awarded the Lifestyle Change Award at this year’s Rochester Heart Walk & Run. Each year, the award recognizes one male and one female who...
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Know your limits. Then leverage them.
So you have this project that has potential for being something really great. The only problem is [fill in the blank]. A miniscule budget? Impossibly rigid guidelines? Little or no resources? How...
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What We Can Learn From ‘The Greatest’
He was The Greatest, The People’s Champion and so much more. I never saw Muhammad Ali in his prime, only the man silenced by a ruthless disease. Since his passing, I’ve taken a deep dive into the life...
View Article6 Ways Microsoft Can Make LinkedIn Better
If you had $26.2 billion lying around this weekend, you could’ve purchased LinkedIn. Too late. The deal is done and Microsoft made its largest acquisition in company history.In a memo to Microsoft...
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Shhh … Consumers Demand Quiet in a Noisy World
Is the world getting noisier?The journal Environmental Health Perspectives writes that noise is defined by some experts as simply “unwanted sound.” Others describe the effects of noise pollution as a...
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Behind the Scenes at the Riesling Fest
My first day at Dixon Schwabl was August 10, 2015—just about a year ago now. It was the Monday after the seventh annual Riesling & Craft Beer Festival, and I had no idea at the time how...
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Quasimodo and Copywriting
I know—huh?Stick with me. I recently attended a copywriting conference. I’m a relative newbie in the biz and the extra professional development was invaluable. It was fantastic. Many stories,...
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