As a marketing professional, I have supposedly developed a hypersensitivity to trite marketing ploys and tactics. It comes with the territory. Working in marketing hasn’t coarsened me as a consumer so much as it’s made me more observant. I have come to understand how I operate as a consumer, but that doesn’t mean my habits have changed.

Now and then, I willfully suspend my skepticism and morph into Consumer X, the free-spending rube who will buy exactly what his favorite brands want him to buy, thus rendering his favorite brands’ marketing campaigns successful.

I bring it up because I recently became a runner. That’s strange to write. What I mean to say is while I ran at other times in my life, now I do it recreationally. You know, on purpose. I like to run along the Mississippi downtown before work and around Lake Calhoun on the weekends. I hope to run my first half-marathon this fall.

Running requires appropriate gear — or so we’re told — which is why in the past month I have purchased:

• Four long-sleeve shirts designed to wick away sweat
• Three pairs of running socks
• Two pairs of running shorts
• One pair of running shoes

All of these products were made by Nike. That’s no coincidence, either.

In 2006, the Nike unveiled Nike+, a technology that featured a special chip placed in Nike+ compatible running shoes that sent a signal to a synced iPod, relaying information like mileage, pace, splits and calories burned. The data could then be uploaded and stored on Nike+’s website, which acted as a social network for runners. Nike+ has since evolved. Runners no longer need shoes with Nike+ compatibility and the software now exists in watches, heart monitors and mobile apps developed by Nike. The website now includes coaching tips, personal challenges and the ability to share workout information through Facebook and Twitter for peer motivation.

Since I’ve started running, I’ve tracked my progress on the Nike+ website. I now associate Nike with all things running, so when I shop at an athletic store, I never once consider buying a different brand. Compression shorts, sweatpants, replacement running shoes — I buy Nike.

Now, I know, as a consumer, I’m acting exactly as Nike hoped I would. I know I’ve been hypnotized by Nike+ and there’s absolutely no reason I shouldn’t explore products from Asics, Brooks, New Balance and other quality brands. Maybe I should be resentful of Nike for understanding me, a perfectly unique snowflake, so implicitly.

But sometimes, the gimmick is so great, the product lives up to its hype and the brand understands the consumer so perfectly, one is compelled to just go with it.

Or, just do it, I should say.

Although the talking heads analyzing all 253 picks would have you believe differently, nobody actually won or lost anything. Yet every minute, more than 15 hours over the course of three days, was carried live by two different networks.

It’s not exactly breaking news that the NFL is popular, but it is the latest example of how the league is crushing all others in the world of American sports. The draft routinely draws more viewers than National Basketball Association and National Hockey League playoff games. In fact, round one of the NFL Draft topped ratings in the Washington, D.C., market for Game 7 of the Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins series. This, even though every football fan knew for weeks that the Washington Redskins would select quarterback Robert Griffin III with the draft’s second pick.

Here in the Twin Cities, I noticed at one point on Saturday that all eight of the “most read stories” on the Star Tribune’s website were related to the Minnesota Vikings. That’s a little scary.

Even more frightening for the NHL, NBA, Major League Baseball and all others vying for the attention of sports fans is the fact that the NFL is getting even better at marketing itself. The league has become a year-long newsmaker, creating offseason buzz around the Senior Bowl, owners meetings, rule changes, free agency and mini-camps. The release of the NFL schedule warrants its own ESPN special these days. The scouting combine has become a marquee event with hundreds of media outlets descending on Indianapolis and wall-to-wall TV coverage of prospects running 40-yard dashes and showcasing their vertical jumps. Even the draft had a few smart new marketing wrinkles this year, including the league incorporating legends from each team into the event and working with sponsors to offer fans a chance to announce their favorite team’s late-round picks.

Is there any stopping this juggernaut? In the U.S., I think the only thing that could derail the NFL is significant changes to the way the game is played. And I don’t see that happening — even in response to the increasing number of concussions that are plaguing the sport.

The NFL shouldn’t get too cocky, however. Its quest for world domination has a long ways to go thanks to another brand of football. We call it soccer here and it had stunning global ratings of 660 million viewers for a match on Monday night between Manchester City and Manchester United in the English Premier League. NFL football may have eclipsed baseball as our national pastime, but it’s still just a silly little game to most people on the planet.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms can be tremendously powerful and inexpensive communication tools. But getting the most out of them requires some smart thinking in advance.

The best approach: Be targeted and strategic. Have a plan – don’t just throw out random content. And be prepared to commit at least a modest amount of staff time to the effort.

Joel Bergstrom

The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, which fights child abuse and offers assistance to parents in crisis, recently decided to step up its social media efforts. But a lot of thought went into the effort, said Joel Bergstrom, the crisis nursery’s development and communications director.

“There’s a common wisdom that says you have to be present in social media,” Bergstrom said. “But if you’re not doing it well, it doesn’t help you – and it may hurt you.”

First step for the nursery: open a Twitter account. Twitter has become primarily a news and promotion service. It’s less about establishing a personal connection – that role has been taken by Facebook – and more about broadcasting a message to an interested audience that will help spread it.

The nursery decided to launch its Twitter account in April, because it’s Child Abuse Prevention Month. April also includes Volunteer Appreciation Week, and it’s the month the nursery was established in 1983.

Bergstrom and other staff members planned a news budget for Twitter, much as media outlets plan their stories. They also chose organizations to follow on Twitter, and to target with their own tweets.

The planning paid off immediately. In the first week the nursery’s Twitter account was active, the nursery put out a tweet thanking a group of volunteers from UPS. UPS retweeted to its 15,000 followers. More important, it was also retweeted to 10,000 additional followers by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an influential nonprofit focused on issues of children’s well-being. It’s no coincidence that the Casey family happens to have founded UPS – and the foundation could be expected to notice a positive tweet about the company.

In its second week, the crisis nursery Twitter feed thanked another crew of volunteers from Yoplait. That resulted in a retweet from Yoplait to its 20,000 followers.

Bergstrom’s advice to other nonprofits interested in Twitter.

• Check out nonprofit peers on Twitter – see who’s doing it well and who’s not.
• Think about how you can use Twitter to connect with your constituency and others interested in your mission.
• Make sure the content you’re putting out is consistent with your key messages.
• Stay engaged – you can’t put it on autopilot.

That last point is important. Social media require a time commitment. It needn’t be huge – Bergstrom says the nursery staff spends a couple of hours a day monitoring and interacting on social media. But once you join the conversation on social media, you have to stick with it.

“We don’t have the resources to make a huge splash in this,” Bergstrom said. “Some corporations have an entire department dedicated to it. But it’s all about getting your name and message to people you otherwise might not have been able to reach.”

This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

“Where do ideas come from?”

We’re in the idea business, and I like to think we’re fairly creative here at Fast Horse. But there’s nothing sexy about our ideation process. In fact, we don’t have a process, and I’ve never run across a foolproof method for brainstorming. Trust me, in 23 years of working in agencies, I think I’ve seen them all.

My friend and former colleague, Joe Loveland, recently offered an interesting post on the topic of brainstorming over at the Same Rowdy Crowd. His description of a typical agency brainstorm is not as over-the-top as it might seem. His description of the squishy toys, over-sized Post It notes, chirpy facilitators and alpha-ideators is dead on. That, folks, is pretty much how brainstorms go down at most agencies. And it’s as painful as it sounds. The roots of such group brainstorming, writes Loveland, go back to an ad guy named Alex Osborn, who wrote several books on the topic in the ’40s and ’50s.

But here’s where Joe’s post gets interesting to me. Loveland cites a 1963 study by a University of Minnesota researcher, Marvin Dunnette, who explored the effectiveness of such group brainstorming. In his experiment, Dunnette gave groups of four a problem to solve, simultaneously challenging an individual to solve a similar problem. To the amazement of many, Dunnette’s study found that in 23 of 24 instances, the individual brainstormer produced as many or more ideas of higher quality than the group.

Not shocking to me in the least.

I long-ago abandoned large group brainstorming as a worthwhile creative exercise. In my experience, the very best ideas have usually started with no more than two or three people kicking a challenge around. And while I do enjoy knocking around ideas with a colleague or two, I’ve found that I can often be just as creative by myself. It’s not that I’m any great creative shakes. It’s just that creativity in our business does not happen at the conception of an idea. Creativity, is what happens after the original spark, and that is often a very solitary process.

My guess is that most of the ideas submitted by Dunnette’s brainstormers were garbage. Most ideas at inception are, no matter how they were conceived, and that’s likely why the individuals in his study compared favorably to the groups in terms of volume and relative quality.

Ideas only become good when practitioners use their experience and resourcefulness to transform the ugly, slimy little larvae of potential into the fully developed and beautiful creature we all recognize as brilliance. In our business, you have to be able to shape an idea to fit within available resources and it has to be grounded in strategy. That requires a deep understanding of the big picture. And you have to be able to draw on a wide variety of experiences, both personal or professional, to make ideas original and practical.

So, dear Peeper, when you’re finally confronted with The Question, simply stand up tall, look your young questioner in the eye, and declare the following with sincerity and conviction:

“Well, I’m glad you asked. Ideas come from experience, curiosity, hard work and a finely tuned BS detector.”

And then quickly change the subject.

The cider that I tried at that Timberwolves game, the cider that kick started my love affair, was Crispin Original from the Crispin Cider Company. Crispin, a Minneapolis-based company, has taken the country by storm, growing 200 percent in 2011 and helping the U.S. cider market see a 26 percent increase last year compared to a declining beer market.

Brewing giant MillerCoors took notice Crispin’s successes, and announced in February it had purchased the four-year-old cider company. As part of the deal, Crispin will operate as an independent division under the leadership of founder and CEO Joe Heron.

I sat down with Joe earlier this month to talk about how marketing has contributed to the growth of Crispin.

Positioning: The Backbone of the Brand
Throughout our conversation, Joe stressed the importance of brand positioning in Crispin’s marketing plan, and walked me through the main points of its competitive advantage. The rational benefit revolves around the fact that Crispin is made from fresh-pressed juice. On the emotional side, Crispin says that you have good taste, that you have differentiated taste (not drinking the same thing as everyone else) and that you’re adventurous (willing to try different things).

When discussing the emotional benefit in particular, Joe added, “Everything you buy says something about you, but what you drink is the biggest story of all. Do you drink vodka or whiskey? Are you a craft beer drinker, or do you order mainstream beer? The consumer drinks your product because they’re thirsty, but they buy your brand because they feel good about themselves.”

Cider: Not Just for the Ladies
I thought the audience for hard cider would have been majority female, but Joe surprised me when he told me that their consumer base is 60 percent male and 40 percent female. It’s a more gender-balanced ratio than most alcoholic beverage categories, but it was still surprising. As it turns out, it’s not by chance. Joe revealed that many of their products are targeted towards men because, “guys won’t drink chick drinks, but girls will drink guy’s drinks.”

Joe further revealed that 77 percent of Crispin drinkers are new to the hard cider category, and likely fall into one of the following three categories:

• Craft Beer Drinker: Young male, 25- to 35-years-old. Twice as likely to drink cider as the norm
• Urban Sophisticate: Foodie, skews slightly female. Fifty percent more likely to drink cider
• Party Animal: Skews female, younger, looking for something easy to drink. More than twice as likely to drink cider

Some of the different product offerings from Crispin

To appeal to each of these drastically different segments, Joe noted that Crispin is actually three cider companies in one. The Crispin “blue label” line of apple ciders, the Fox Barrel line of pear ciders and the Crispin artisan line which Joe described as a “craft beer line masquerading as a cider company.”

Educating New Consumers
Considering the U.S. hard cider market is only 0.5 percent of the overall beer market, Crispin not only has to introduce consumers to their product, they have to educate them on an entirely new category. Knowing that the beer drinkers weren’t going to come to them, Joe and his team adopted the notion that they would have to go to them, and heavily invested in a sales team. From there, sampling and on-premise marketing became crucial — beer fests, liquor stores, pairing diners, etc.

To make matters more challenging, they also were on a mission to “reset the American cider palate” for those who had tried other cider brands in the past. Where other ciders are more sticky sweet, Crispin products are more crisp and clean, and they believe that they can change the minds of those who may have disregarded cider in the past.

Marketing Muscle from MillerCoors
I asked Joe if we could expect to see an increase in marketing efforts thanks to an influx of cash from MillerCoors. He proudly shared with me some brand new, yet-to-air TV ads, but was tight-lipped about when and where they would run. Overall, he was most excited about the increased distribution as a result of the deal with the brewing giant, “You don’t create loyalty by large scale advertising; you get that by being available.”

The Digital Cider
Crispin is active on a number of digital platforms, and, instead of posting the same content on all of the channels, has a specific use for each. The website is used to provide rich information (such as how Crispin is made, pairing suggestions); Facebook is used to maintain a relationship with fans (answering their questions, showing them new products); Twitter is used to get people to take action (attend an event or festival, take advantage of a special offer); and Tumblr is used to provide a deeper understanding on specific topics (commercials, limited release products).

To top it off, Crispin has its own mobile app, a Cider Finder app for Android and iPhone, and a blog. The blog, The Cider Kitchen, is written by a Minneapolis-based chef and shares recipes ranging from cocktails to burgers that include hard cider. You did know that hard cider is a favorite “secret” ingredient of chefs all around the country, right?

I’ll leave you with one of the new T.V. ads featuring one of my favorite products from Crispin – Crispin Original. If you’re looking to try Crispin, start here and enjoy it over ice. It’s the company’s best seller and you can’t go wrong. Thank me later.

Sue Kruskopf (left), Nancy Bush pitch MyWonderfulLife on ABC-TV's "Shark Tank."

Funeral directors joke that the last real innovation in their business was the hearse. A pair of Minneapolis entrepreneurs hopes to update that punch line.

MyWonderfulLife.com is a free site that allows members to plan their own end-of-life celebration. Do you want Van Morrison played at your funeral? Want your Uncle Morty to read from the Bhagavad Gita? Prefer to ban smoking at your wake? You can specify all this, and more, by building a personalized plan.

The site is the creation of Minneapolis entrepreneurs Sue Kruskopf and Nancy Bush. Launched three years ago, it has more than 11,000 members and recently got some high-profile promotion when Kruskopf and Bush sought venture capital in an appearance on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank.”

The inspiration for the site was both cultural and personal, said Kruskopf, whose day job is CEO of the advertising agency Kruskopf Coontz.

“I loved the HBO show ‘Six Feet Under,’ ” she said. “And right around that time, the movie ‘The Bucket List’ came out. Meanwhile, my dear friend Nancy’s husband died. We threw an incredible funeral, and people were coming up to us and asking, ‘How can I make sure my funeral is like this?’ ”

With her marketing background, Kruskopf realized there was an opportunity to tap into the trend toward personalization.

“We are all control freaks,” she said. “We document everything. We have all the songs we want on our iPods, we choose the information we want to read.”

And Baby Boomers – who are entering the end stages of life’s journey – aren’t interested in having the same kind of funeral as their parents.

MyWonderfulLife.com is an example of a growing trend in marketing: agencies not just selling products for their clients, but actually creating and marketing products that they own themselves. I recently wrote for MinnPost about Lakemaid Beer, a seasonal brew created by the Minneapolis marketing agency Pocket Hercules.

So far, MyWonderfulLife hasn’t turned a profit. The site has a deal with a national brokerage group to offer funeral pre-pays to its members, and it gets commissions from that. But the founders’ appearance on “Shark Tank,” with its 6 million viewers, has generated interest, Kruskopf said.

“That has propelled interest from multiple angles – things we would never have thought of,” she said. “We’re starting to see multiple revenue models that can make this profitable.”

Kruskopf, 54, said her venture may provide her with some insurance against the ups and downs of the notoriously ageist advertising business.

“I’m getting older in advertising,” she said with a laugh. “But I’ll never be old in the death business!”

This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

Cydney shows off the hardware

We were proud to have Fast Horse friends Chase Donahue, Molly Rasmussen, Grant Spanier and Jessy Stanton join us for the festivities, which went down at the scenic Windows on Minnesota on the 50th floor of the IDS Tower.

Our work won recognition in six categories:

Multimedia
Entry: “Coca-Cola Goes Around the World in a Day”
Client: Coca-Cola

Media Relations (Business/Industry – Budget Less than $75,000)
Entry: “SweeTango’s Bumper Crop Dances Off Shelves”
Client: Next Big Thing, A Growers’ Cooperative

Community Relations (Government/Nonprofit)
Entry: “Fixing a Hole in Minnesota Music Education”
Client: Vega Productions (Minnesota Beatle Project)

Marketing Services (New – Budget Less than $75,000)
Entry: “Tilia – Setting a Table for Success”
Client: Tilia

Crisis/Issues Management
Entry: “Defending the SweeTango”
Client: Pepin Heights Orchards

Industry Campaign of the Year (Consumer Products)
Entry: “SweeTango: A Bumper Crop of Buzz”
Client: Next Big Thing, A Growers’ Cooperative

Here’s the full list of winners.

John: What’s with the mania for internships? It seems like students can’t get their first job nowadays unless they’ve had an internship every year during college. It’s getting as bad as those New Yorkers who worry the wrong preschool will destroy their kid’s chances of getting into Harvard. What’s the matter with a 19-year-old working at the local Dairy Queen, making some pocket change, having fun and generally enjoying the summer like — gasp! — a 19-year-old?

Alex: I don’t think there is anything wrong with a 19-year-old working at Dairy Queen. But, in my experience, without an internship or volunteer work, you’re holding up the rear of the incoming group of college graduates and those in the job pool. Throughout college I had a job, went to school, held unpaid internships and volunteered.

Luckily, I had parents who were able to help me out financially, so I was able to take on those roles, but the reality today is that the job market is competitive and you have to set yourself apart. Internships show initiative, drive and an interest in learning — all of which are valuable personality traits for job candidates.

Can you turn gallivanting in Europe after college graduation into something more? Yes. Start a blog, submit photos to Nat Geo, have informational interviews, meet people for coffee, etc. You’ll have fun and generally enjoy life like – gasp! – a normal 22-year-old. But you also need to be prepared to come home and face reality. Because, at some point, you’ll have to.

Stripping, not clerking, put Diablo Cody on her path to Oscar

John: I wrote a short story based on my experiences one summer selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door in North Minneapolis. Could I have written a short story about my experience as an intern at a marketing agency? I guess so. After all, Diablo Cody’s first big splash, “Candy Girl,” opened with her clerking at an ad agency. But I’m not sure the book would have been as successful without the part where she went on to become a stripper. That path led her to Oscar glory!! You have no comeback!!

Alex: I bet you wouldn’t be singing that tune if your short story turned into a well-known television series starring Jon Hamm. Bam!

In all seriousness: Nobody is saying you have to get ad/marketing agency experience to make it big. Do what you love, explore, make your experience work for you (not that I’m condoning stripping in an effort to win an Oscar). Aside from various internships, I learned skills hosting at a restaurant and being a nanny that I still use on a daily basis. I may not have learned those in a traditional office setting.

I think this conversation illustrates the challenge about today’s job market. No longer is it about having an internship at an ad agency and becoming a big-shot ad executive. (Was it ever?) The expectation and the challenge, is to explore, learn about yourself and come into a job as well as a well-rounded individual and, essentially, a jack of all (or many) trades.

Bob: Good points on both sides. As John says, you need to live a little. I’d add that you also need to venture outside of your comfort zone. My jobs in high school and college expanded my perceptions of the world — pumping gas at SuperAmerica, working assembly at a factory and clerking in a college admin office. Those jobs didn’t help me become a journalist, but they made me wiser about how the world works. And to bolster Alex’s point: I later hustled for internships related to my chosen profession. Without those internships, there’s almost no chance I would’ve been able to build a successful journalism career. So I’d argue there’s room for both. Live a little and build up your résumé along the way. You’ll be a better person and a better professional.

Jörg Pierach

I started my career in 1989 clueless and hungry.

After a sleepy six-month internship at a slow-moving association, I knew I wanted to work someplace faster-paced and a bit more cerebral. I wanted to work at an agency. Through dumb luck and a bit of gumption, I managed to land a three-month internship at a white hot PR agency in the Twin Cities. I had no idea what I didn’t know, and it turns out that was a lot. But I did know I wanted to be there. The place had a reputation for great work and great people, and I wanted to learn from them.

And for the next 12 years I did.

I floundered for the first couple years of my career. But I had managed to find a few mentors during my internships, and they proved invaluable, coaching and steering me in the right direction during those undistinguished and whirlwind early years. Eventually I found my toe-hold and started earning more responsibility. By age 29 my career had taken off. I was named a vice president at the now global agency, and was handed the reigns to a small practice group made up of seven people and less than $1 million in billings.

Over the next five years, I hired dozens of the smartest, hungriest people I could find, the vast majority of them interns. Many of those interns grew into leadership roles, and together we grew the group I had inherited to 40 people and close to $5 million in billings before I left to chase the dream of opening my own agency.

And now, some of those very interns make up the senior leadership team here at Fast Horse. In fact, more than half of the current Fast Horse staff got their start as an intern, either here or at my previous agency. I’m proud to say others have gone on to great things elsewhere, becoming lawyers at fancy firms and even VPs at global agencies.

I put a lot of emphasis on cultivating entry-level talent because I know how critical internships are to finding your way in the professional world. And I know how critical great entry level people can be to the growth of a business. Interns are the lifeblood of our agency. If we are going to be a destination for the very best people available, then it’s critical that we open the doors to Fast Horse in every way possible to give entry level professionals a chance to determine whether this would be a great place to grow.

To that end, over the years we have done countless informational interviews, hosted dozens of college classes and professional organizations, transformed our Facebook page into a digital informational interview and have even raised the profile of our summer intern search by offering a broader platform for aspiring professional to showcase their skills. We’ve even created an “Intern for A Day” program, and Thursday, we’ll show a few aspiring professionals how we celebrate as we host four college seniors as our guests at the MN PRSA Classics Awards banquet.

Here at Fast Horse, interns and internships matter.

So, this post kicks off “Intern Week” on the Idea Peepshow. All of our posts through Friday will deal with the wild, wacky world of interns and internships. We’re hoping to show some of the prospective candidates for our Summer Internship Campaign that we take our interns and internships seriously.

We want this to be a valuable, lively forum. To that end, please join the discussion and offer your perspective.

You never know who might notice…

EDITOR’S NOTE: The application deadline for the Fast Horse Summer Internship Campaign is midnight on April 8. Check out the details on our Facebook page or on the Idea Peepshow.

How low will celebrities go to keep their name in the news and money in their checking account? Pretty low based on the cast of characters who’ve signed on to man the phones at Dial-A-Star.com. The new website, launched just this week, boasts that it’s “the only place you can talk to a TRUE celebrity!.” They may be over-promising on the “TRUE celebrity” part — given that the biggest names currently participating are Michael and Dina Lohan, Octomom Nadya Suleman, Rachel Uchitel and Tila Tequila.

But as you’d guess from the name, fans can call and have live, private conversations with these folks, or several others with a similar Q Rating, at the cost of somewhere between $10-$27 per minute. The idea came from Gina Rodriguez, owner of DD Entertainment, a company that manages many of these DD-List celebrities.

And although most of the pseudo stars would be better described as infamous rather than famous, I give her credit for a creative concept. There seems to be a market for it and she’s making real money for her clients — and herself — when there aren’t many other options available for them. Early results show that “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Danielle Staub took home more than $7,000 in less than a week. Michael Lohan made about half that. Not too shabby, although we’ll have to see if it’s sustainable.

Personally, I’d find it more interesting to talk to the people who are calling than any of the so-called stars. Wouldn’t you want to know what makes someone tick if they’ve willing to spend $15 a minute to chat up that Angelina girl who left “Jersey Shore” after the first couple episodes?

We’ll see what happens next, but it would be fun to see an A-Lister do this for charity — perhaps as part of a sponsored campaign. I’m talking about someone who could command serious dollars. It would surely generate a ton of publicity and social media buzz for some brand’s cause marketing campaign.

But for now, you’ll need to dig out your credit card and dial up the likes of former “Survivor” cast-off Jonny Fairplay.