WORST AD 2013 - THE FORD FOCUS - AND IS BETTER CAMPAIGN

THIS BLOWS..... Seriously. Adweek pumped out 25 of the worst brand fails of 2013 and this didn't even make the cut but it is by far the dumbest, more pretentious and most forgettable commercial in 2013. This is so bad that I am willing to give the other ones a pass.


I could go into a plethora of reasons why this commercial blows but I will just go into a couple. First of all the jokes in this campaign are so grey they hardly make an impression. Its like shallow breathing and you don't notice them. The woman in the chinese food commercial "TOTALLY GETS THE JOKE" and is rolling her eyes around like a dying cat. The laughter she has is contained somewhere buried deep in her throat with not enough enthusiasm to burble out and utter an audible sound. The guy driving the car is so over confident with this vast comedic ability that he can barely crack a smile over his limp attempt at humor.


What would make this commercial somewhat epic? Well that would happen when the car accidently drives off a steep cliff right after that forgettable joke and memory flashback. To me, that would redeem this horrendous, atrocity that is.... the FORD FOCUS _ AND IS BETTER CAMPAIGN.

SEO COMES OF AGE - MICHIGAN COMES OUT OF THE STONE AGE

Detroit, Michigan  - Years ago I was crawling out of the rubble of 911 I landed back in my home state of Michigan. The message was set clear and it was that nobody was interested in SEO - the mystical art of search engine optimization. Back in those dark days I gave informational talks at Automation Alley to a bored room of under 10 people. Some of those people got up and walked out in the middle of my presentation. I was also thrown out of some marketing groups and told not to come back.... Oy.... so much has happened since then.

These days are different  - however....

Just a few years back I was sitting next to an elderly woman during yet another marketing function. She asked me what I did and I said, "SEO..." to which she replied.... "Me too...." which about knocked me over. This was in addition to her real estate business and some sort of MLM business. Yet this is the case. Maybe its the new and hip thing to say to people. As a guy who went through the trenches and got most of the arrows stuck in my back I can tell you that there was nothing hip about it. This SEO business turned out to be a major learning curve.

But one thing was clear... Michigan was now ready for this type of promotion.

THE NEW YORK AND CHICAGO EXPERIENCE

Michigan has been called "blessed" in many aspects and it is. They did not go through the excruciating experience of having their hearts and lungs ripped out in the growing phase of search engine culture. The many tech waves, ( I can count at least 7 of them ) have literally floated over Michigan to ravage the pockets of venture capitalists on both coasts -- and including big cities like Chicago. It was a weird time to be part of that turbulent media circus.

The websites that were created and sold at that time did not make money. Worse, many of them failed to connect to their core audience. The search engines at the time were hit or miss.  We were relying on Yahoo and Netscape. Google was still a ways off yet and would not be considered serious until a few years later. To the hearts of many I am talking about something that happened a gazillion years ago. Things move fast in the online world and the younger generations are going to equate this to ancient history. But as a business owner - in Michigan -- you need to hear it.

The websites that we are creating now get attention. They are built for two things... speed and recognition. They get plenty of attention. These days I get the ambiguous phone call, "Yes, I would like to know more about SEO -- I heard it has something to do with .... (brief pause) ... keywords....?"  Keywords are part of it. In short they are the connective glue to hold the entire campaign together and to bring the shopper close to the supplier, the buyer to the seller and to eventually make money.

EVERYONE IS A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT - THESE DAYS

This is the news I hear. It is exciting but at the same time it is very frightening. Not every social media expert is cut from the same cloth. It is the breeding ground for narcissism, (HEY LOOK AT ME ... NOW !)  and not everyone in this collective pool of media folk are the same. I found that out as I am building my dream team. There is a lot of fakery going on out there in this great state of Michigan. There are plenty of professionals who have not gone the distance and have taken a business to the forefront of search engines and have actually made them money.

There are two popular views on the subject from the working class. One is that you don't need SEO to create social media and that it is for the birds. The problem with this view is that the media that is created is not often found on Yahoo, Google or Bing. This is a sloppy way to create social media and it is not indexed on any of the search engines. The other view which is one I subscribe to is to create relevant social media with the right kinds of keywords in it to get indexed in the search engines. This creates a support system that gives your campaigns structure and assists in its visibility.

So is it a science?  In many ways - yes. During the rough and tumble heyday of the online rise many people have come to SEO as way to seem hip or cool while simultaneously struggling with another career, (often failing). So you would get a tax guy who does SEO, a plumber who really is an SEO, an SEO who has a heart for mutual funds and the list goes on.... I have remained a media guy my entire career even when things went to the dogs. I was always publishing press releases, web videos, websites, and much more to an unappreciative audience. But that audience is now starting to see the significance of being online and in front of the pack.

THE CURRENT STATE OF SEO IN MICHIGAN

A few years ago real estate guys were coming to Michigan to buy old houses on the cheap. They referred to it as, "Shoveling diamonds". The same can be said for the business landscape of Michigan. Since this state did not participate to some of the growing pains in the online world the opportunities to grab more of the online spotlight has never been better. There are opportunities here for companies to make more money in the process because the keywords that they have chosen for themselves are really missing the mark. In short, they are too generic and not specific enough to gather real attention.

There are a lot of "big brother" influences in MIchigan that want to set the record straight on how to do proper SEO but in most cases they are making a shambles out of the entire game. I am including IT companies and the phone company in this broad generalization.

More on this later....

Posted Feb 3, 2013  Ted Cantu can be found at http://www.tedcantu.comhttp://www.tedcantu.com

TED CANTU - "YOU'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER WEB GURUS...."

"WE'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BOAT" - Roy Scheider - "Jaws" - 1975

Famous words from a famous man. That's the kind of unsettling thing you say to yourself when you know you're screwed. That thought - that sickening feeling comes over you when you know you stepped in over the line and got yourself immersed in an overwhelming feeling of ill.

The same kind of feeling happens when you hire the wrong web guy, marketer or "Gurus". For the record we don't need any more gurus. We have too many of them and they, including myself, are all looking to empty your pockets Mr. Business Owner. Only thing is some of us are actually good... and some of us are slime balls and I have illustrated that fact INTENSELY on this blog and pointed out a few unsavory undesirables. These unloveables are sometimes hard to spot. They come with smiles on their faces.

THE CHALLENGING FACE OF MICHIGAN

Something is seriously wrong when you go through Birmingham, Michigan. At 5PM the only advertising group in the city is done for the day. People go home and the lights go off. This isn't Chicago and I am well aware of that. People go to bed really early around here and its been like that for over a decade. Now that the web has diversified and has gotten smarter a lot of gurus work out of their homes. It is no longer necessary to be part of a big advertising agency. Still.... I find it awkward that the driving force of our economy -- big ticket advertising has taken a permanent dirt nap. I remember the way it used to be.... big advertising agencies staying up all night and delivering high end media to large outlets like radio, and television.

The streets are too quiet and people are too settled in their own ways in Michigan but there is something that is happening under their very noses. The habits of the reading public is changing. So much in fact that there have been recent reports that state that people really would rather get their news off of the web. That means news sites, online magazines and interesting segments that speak to the population in real time.

There are many "experts" out there now that claim to have been part of the dot com movement or key players in the advertising new media boom in the mid 90's. Of course a lot of this is bunk and only a select few were actually admitted into that scene and I am one of them. I worked with the likes of Carlos Segura, Foote Cone, the WWE, and Capital Records. The advertising scene was very selective of who they picked and many of the gurus that you see charging an arm and a leg for their services would never get selected. It is rare that one person would actually learn how to play all of the spots in the advertising environment. In a typical agency situation one person is kept away from the graphics people, the graphics people are separated from the copywriters, the copywriters were kept separate from the sales people and so on. One person would never know what the other department was all about. Every department in the agency had their own culture. This was all before the web and I am pretty sure it is that way today.

Now the rules are blurred. Some people would look upon that as a blessing and others will see it as a curse. Just as online typography ruined many print shops digital video has destroyed a vibrant post house industry. People are able to do this kind of work out of their homes and as a result this creates an influx of more "experts". I have a serious problem with overnight experts because of all the fluf involved. This sort of thing can be tricky to spot on the web. Some websites are complicated and it is difficult to spot where the mistakes are. In any business mistakes, (and the act of allowing them to continue) can be a very costly experience. Paying attention to certain aspects of details becomes critical and making sure that the right pieces fall into play becomes a very important issue. That becomes especially true technical SEO, search engine optimization.

It is easy for some of the mass media companies like phone directories, IT companies, and generic business card / media companies to push the important stuff under the carpet so most of them do. Yet the details of a website construction is so vital to a company. It means the matter of you being found or you being invisible. I see a lot of shoddy sites and many of them come from a large institution that services a large populace. There are many mistakes that are made and I will just illustrate a couple....

A lot of the websites are all living on the same IP address or server. This becomes a problem when it comes to ranking a site to a its full potential. I see a lot of real estate and insurance companies take this route. You could potentially have 300 real estate agents living on one website. The only difference between any of them is that they all have a unique website URL. These are not true websites by definition but web PAGES..... The business owner is at a disadvantage here.

THE TRUTH: Most websites are only optimized up to 40% if they are even optimized at all. Most optimization is the result of an accident. A lot of your websites that are out there are only occupying the top spots of Google, Yahoo and Bing by default. Simply said nobody has ever made a substantial effort to top them. When you optimize a website you can literally jump over them in a matter of two weeks. Some of our best campaigns illustrate this fact very strongly. We have jumped over 39 million web pages in just two weeks because we came on very strong.

Get the low down on SEO and web site optimization by visiting http://www.seowah.com. Once you get there you will see a whole collection of informative articles that explains how the big picture works.

Ted Cantu posted this on Oct. 16, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan and can be found at http://www.tedcantu.com http://www.1seomichigan.com

Ex Advertising Art Director Ted Cantu Gives Back To Metro Detroit Community, Non Profits And The People

Detroit, Michigan – The idea of doing community service may be a turn off to some and others may be confused by it. Popular self help gurus like Oprah, Anthony Robbins and Wayne Dyer often talk about the joys of giving back to the community but few actually do it. Ex advertising art director, Ted Cantu, is doing just that and is giving away free web sites, online marketing and press release assistance to nonprofit groups in Metro Detroit. This idea has also extended to individuals who are committed to doing something productive in the Metro Detroit community.

The idea has spread over a large scale mission to help five hundred causes. The working project is called, Detroit Hope 500 and Cantu has already started to work with local community oriented efforts including entertainment acts such as the Detroit Doors Tribute Band. Getting the word out about this band was important since it helps the Detroit Girls and Boys Club, The Humane Society, and the Ronald McDonald House. Cantu comes from the New York advertising scene and has been working in Metro Detroit since the events of 911.

“There are a lot of people who have great ideas in Metro Detroit. Many of them are cash poor and cannot extend the vision to help people because of expenses associated with online marketing. That is why this program exists. It doesn’t cost the nonprofit group anything. It is here to assist them to help people and causes in need in the city of Detroit.” says Ted Cantu. The areas of concentration include things like free websites, social media assistance, press releases, digital web video and more. The Detroit Hope 500 project is hoping to accommodate many different industries and causes that will help clothe the homeless, raise funds to assist with paying for heat and light bills during the winter months. Cantu will be looking for causes in need and will be assisting them with future online marketing efforts. About Detroit Hope 500:

Detroit Hope 500 offers resources for business owners such as search engine optimization, web video, press releases, social media, coupon promotion, viral marketing assistance and free customer generating tools.

Contact Information: 1SEOMichigan.com Press Officer Tel: 248-631-9211

THE DOWN AND DIRTY SEO REPORT

THE DOWN AND DIRTY SEO REPORT THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PRESENT – CREATING ONLINE PRESENCE What Is – THE TIPPING POINT?

What is the correct number of web pages to have on your website? Believe it or not most professional websites I run into have only 5-10 pages. You see this sort of thing happen with a lot with websites designed and sold by IT, phone companies, telecom groups and from template companies. I have found this number to be incredibly limiting.

One thing that makes a world of difference in SEO, (search engine optimization) is an abundance of pages. We like to see our clients shoot for over 1,000 pages. The ideal number of web pages should be roughly 5,000 – 10,000. New business opportunities seem to appear when a client gets that kind of web presence. We are looking at roughly 10,000 keyword phrases and combinations.

What this can mean for a business can be quite incredible. We have seen brick and mortar businesses actually expand in size and grow into multiple locations. In an age where so many businesses are closing up and shutting their doors for good our clients are expanding.

The key for this type of expansion is directly related to the number of relevant keywords and pages. This expands the amount of reach on the search engines and connects to more people.

What Does This Mean For Web Traffic? When you start creating large website page installations on the web incredible things can happen. Your organic web traffic can grow substantially. A 10,000 page website can pull in 6.2 million viewers in on an annual basis. This type of web traffic can occur without the additional purchase of pay per click advertising and adwords. We first noticed that websites that had over a 1,000+ pages seemed to attract more web traffic on a daily basis. This was attracting a substantial amount of business as well. We noticed this when we did the famous Windsor Beauty Supply website with over 20 product lines. Once these categories and products were all optimized we noticed a steady traffic of 1,000 people coming to the website daily. We continued to add more pages to it and growing the site out.

We have taken that same experience and have applied it to other industries. The results were equally substantial which prompted our clients to grow their stores out and move their brand across the State of Michigan and across the country. Right now we have franchises that are building retail stores in other states and cities. We have done this for the following:

* Edenz Hydro * Organic America * Sterling Dental * Windsor Beauty … and more.

Now we are looking to do that again for more companies. That is the kind of growth we specialize in. Our SEO services are not for everyone. To get this type of result one has to invest a sizeable amount to cover the amount of keywords as well as cities and states. The results are based on the amount of reach a company is willing to invest. It takes time to build websites in this manner and there are a lot of details that need to go into these pages. This can be very time consuming. We are writing for two different audiences – the SEO search engine bots and the human eye. There has to be enough search engine optimization throughout the pages to attract Google, Yahoo and Bing. That means you have to have a lot of pages with the right types of keyword phrases in them.

DID YOU KNOW: Most websites stuff too many of the wrong keywords in them – and search engines will never index them properly? (That’s going to cost you business) DID YOU KNOW: Most websites are not formatted the right way and that search engine crawlers actually SKIP RIGHT OVER THEM? They will never be included in the search engine results.

** This takes time and money to build. ** We do not barter. ** We do not trade. ** If you cannot meet the basic requirements we cannot do business.

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted by Ted Cantu - you can find more about him at http://www.1seomichigan.com and he publishes webpages, press releases and more... He makes real revenue for real companies.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE MISSED JOYS OF BEING LEGALLY DEAD

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Before the age of Facebook, (aie that sounds so formal) I actually enjoyed being MIA and written off this mortal coil. Let me explain. There are certain people I never intend on seeing again as I have progressed through this lifetime. Be it failed relationships, family, or even old bosses. There was a time where I was literally untraceable and invisible. But now I am exposed and my life is an open book for whomever wants to view it. I’m on display.

There was a quiet lull in time where it was peaceful and serene. All of the fighting, bickering and bad memories of fighting were fading. You know in most states if a person is missing for more than seven years that person is declared legally dead. It happens more often than you think. For a brief while, roughly 20+ years, I was one of those people. But then with the oncoming rush of Social Media we are once again exposed to raw wounds, moronic attacks and senseless nights. Why? Because you and I are once again in the public eye. I moved around a lot in my life and cranked up the jerk factor - I met a lot of undesirable jerks.

I have to be serious here for a moment. There are some girlfriends that I never want to hear from again. And in an age of more choice, (more music, literature, and endless religions) I have become a bigger degree of my former self. With that comes new responsibilities and stronger divisions of old, decaying relationships. I used to wake up with a sense of relief that I would never have to watch another Monty Python or Alfred Hitchcock film or eat certain foods again. Now I live in constant fear that I will run into one of these lunatics again on social media or worse be tracked down and confronted in person. So instead of waking up carefree I now wake up with the morbid dread that I will once again get contacted by one of them. I have nothing to say to these women. Or any old co-workers – some of them can be totally creepy too. It is a shame as I get older and move from state to state I have forgotten a lot of their first and last names I only remember faces. That being said – everything else about my life whether it’s professional or personal is on the web. Anyone with a mouse can read up on me.

I am no longer legally dead. But I am declared alive. Recently I was contacted by people from the 4th grade which in itself was quite alarming and strange. It was a pleasant experience for the most part but also a bit creepy. I had forgotten some of these people though my many incarnations, travels and experiences. As weird as it may sound – dead was better.

The funny thing is that before social media silence said it all. I didn’t have to do a thing. There was never a postcard from me or a phone call, an email, text message… or even a single letter. They have nothing on me in a court room. I can hardly be called a stalker because by definition stalkers have to be somewhat responsible and show up at some point. That’s what they do.

Getting contacted by someone from my past creeps me out. A relationship that’s gone dead is like a dead body. Being asked to pump fresh blood into a dead, bloated corpse is not healthy. It’s not advised and it is nothing I really care to do. Would you?

PSYCHOTIC EX-GIRLFRIENDS, FREAKY CO-WORKERS, AND MLM PEOPLE I have a huge plethora of unlikeable people in my past. I am sure you do too. I never thought for a minute I would have to ever see or hear from any of them again. But alas…. Social media is here. And these freaks can send me feel good messages, happy bacon messages and paranoid Jesus fantasies with the click of a mouse. NO THANK YOU.

REAL VICTIMS HAVE MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN I DO Let’s face it Social Media is really a bad thing. There are people who are hiding from abusive partners and fear for their children’s lives. They have to worry constantly on a more serious level than I do. They often leave in the middle of the night of have to live in their cars. I am nowhere near that sort of seriousness. People tend to prey on each other for weird reasons.

Then there are enemies. You know. Ass bags. I have those too just like anyone. The door is always open at my house for a good fight. I will fight you. And you know who you are. I will fight you. If you dare.

There are people whom I still hate. There are people who still hate me. Be it legally or otherwise and now we can actually see one another for what we are and where we are with addresses and private phone numbers exposed. Instead of peppering one another with feel good messages about bacon, Seth Godin and other goofy shit I will leave that door open to a good old fashioned fist battle. Because I am not afraid of a bloody nose, I’ve already been to jail and I am no stranger to a court room.

Social media can be a dangerous place. Too much personal information is available now. The world has definitely become a smaller place and this can be seen our grocery aisles, websites and the television programming that exists today. Richie and Potsie have left the coop long time ago and now we are entertained by serial killers on the Arts channel and Chicago Mafia Wives. We live in truly dangerous times because now the scumbags of the world can actually inspire one another in their heinous ways. This is evident recently with Columbine which later was repackaged and sold back to the media as the Dark Knight Killings and then once again as a lone psycho from Columbus, Ohio.

CYBER BULLYING People are weird. I figured that one out a long time ago. Trying to understand them or their twisted motives is a serious study and people go to school for it. One thing parents can be sure of. This sort of behavior is going to continue in some form or another.

Counter action is best recommended. If you are being bullied there is a simple way you can get access to private information.

1. Check I.P addresses that come into your websites

2. Report any weird behavior to Facebook and have them blocked

3. Report people to the authorities. There are actions you can take to block someone from having Internet and phone access.

4. Report people to the FBI

5. Report bad business to your local district attorneys office

6. Buy a gun, (a last resort but maybe the first choice for some of you)

Usually you can stop these people before they get too far. The FBI thing really freaks most of these people out. I have had my life threatened on Linked In, and my personal email – people are WEIRD. The best thing you can do is stay calm and offer to collect all of their correspondence and give it to the proper authorities.

GMAIL PROTECTION Get a gmail account. Gmail remembers everything. I can go into my Gmail and find emails from past clients turned psychotic if I ever need to get hauled into a court room. I keep backups of everything. Google owns Gmail and they do an excellent job of remembering every email that is sent out and that is going to mean everything to you. Especially in a court room. I can’t stress this enough. For your own protection get yourself a Gmail account. They never throw any mail away and this tool is free. Now, not everyone is going to go completely sideways on you. But there are a few every now and then. So you should get ready for it. People are strange --- that’s what Jim Morrison once said and he was right.

… he has been legally dead for years. I mean REALLY dead. But you’re not. You are here and now. SO that means that you should protect yourself in the here and now.

CANTU WAS LEGALLY DEAD FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS… but has resurfaced among the living thanks in part to Facebook, the WWW, and other social media sources. He is the author of online marketing books on Amazon.com and lives in Detroit, MI – honest… look it up.