After 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs came along, each new format halved the time the previous standard format had ruled the retail shelves. And for a short time iPods and MP3 players trumped all the formats due to portability cravings. Though, to be fair, the people had been clamoring for a sensible, portable format since the original cassette walkman.

Sometime in say 2006/2007 the vinyl record returned with a rotating vengeance (< see what I did there). The hardcore fans of vinyl were still there and had been there all along. You could still buy a copy of most new albums from most record labels, but they were pressing markedly less and they usually cost a few bucks more.

Gen X’ers and Gen Y kids flipped on their parents’ basement lights and went digging for their parent’s vinyl, finally figuring out that Stevie Nicks was neither a dude, nor did she play for the New York Knicks. Fed up with hollow CD overproduced, overpriced, lacking of visuals, the CD quickly squeezed itself out as the unnecessary middle man. THE COMPACT DISC IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE COMPACT DISC. I have nothing against the CD, after all it was my preferred childhood format and I have over 14 milk crates brimming with CDs still in my basement.

Convenience and capacity no longer dictate format. Quality wins. The length a human being wants a record to be is around 30-40 minutes, and that’s only going to get incrementally smaller, paralleling with our shrinking attention spans.

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Don’t panic. Just break it down into how the CEO probably sees it. (see  below). Attaching the dollar figures to the actual visual assets isn’t an exact science. However, it does make for great discussion with the brand’s top brass and allows the outcome to be a self-fulfilling (un-recanting) hierarchy on where to begin.

Let’s say that Kellogg’s Rice Krispies brand made Kellogg’s 100 Million dollars last year. Observe the visual asset breakdown. Assign a dollar figure to the asset. Sure, it’s overly simple, but it’ll get you over that anxiety hump. It let’s you cut straight to heart of why a brand would issue an audit and possible re-design - to improve the bottom line. It’s already a heritage brand so you don’t need to worry about establishing the warm fuzzies with consumers.

Keep what needs to stay, assess and decide on the stuff in the gray zone, and lose what isn’t necessary.

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If you’re in the marketing field and are chronically unemployed, maybe it’s time to look into a different career path. Or perhaps just step back and assess your self-marketing approach and personal branding tactics thus far. What’s the worst that could happen – finding employment?

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Dear Mr. Owner, I say go for it. I’m calling your bluff. Good riddance to you and your uncreative, carrot-dangling goons and macho threats.

Now, I fully understand that owning a sports team is a business like any other and that businesses need to make money. When a sports franchise ends up leaving a city, it’s usually due to consistently poor marketing attempts and “damage mode” short term investments on the ownership’s behalf. The Twins are usually successful due to their farm league depth and long-term prospect cultivation system in place.

When Norm Coleman brought hockey back to Minnesota, it wasn’t really Norm Coleman who did it, he just nudged over an already teetering momentum log. It was inevitably going to happen, Democrat, Republican or Independent in office. When a team leaves a city it only opens up a new door for a new political figure to ride that “Let’s bring the team back!” wave all the way to a spot in office, or in Norm’s case, try to retain his office.

Hey Mr. Owner, you’re going about it all wrong. So listen up. (continued in Pt. 2 below)

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The Minnesota Twins’ seasonal campaign for a few years now has been “THIS IS TWINS TERRITORY”. But is it really? As I looked around Target Field and spotted the massive “Budweiser Homerun Deck” and the “Coors Light 7th inning stretch,” I realized that this corporate sponsorship approach may ease the costs of first opening a stadium, but ultimately, it falls short. It homogenizes any attempt to craft a real sense of place.

Dear Mr. future sports team owners, if you really wanted to cultivate a staunch sense of provinciality and allegiance. You should look no further than your states’ borders.

1. MONEY TALKS. Not the usual massive corporate money. That will always be there waiting and you can use that as a secondary funding backup relationship. I’m talking about real people money. Make the public able to buy a small share into the team (like the Green Bay Packers do). You think allegiance is strong in a particular region? Wait until it’s actually tied to a person’s pocketbook. If I invested in my team, you bet your ass I’d be wearing merch 300 days a year as advertising for MY team. Oh, and recurring season ticket sales? You bet I’d be there.

2. LOCAL BLOOD. Only use local/regional beer, food, ingredients, printers, recyclers, services and manufacturers. That way when you say “THIS IS TWINS TERRITORY”, you can actually say it and mean it. Twins territory shouldn’t be finger-banged by Coca-Cola and Budweiser.

3. PROMOTE FROM WITHIN. Farm league, draft, hunt them down. Talent is everywhere. Market the locality aspect, even if it’s hanging by a thread. Do you think Minnesotans absolutely love Joe Mauer because he’s a good hitter? No, it’s because he’s a Saint Paul boy. Local flesh and blood. I’ve watched two drunk guys almost come to fisticuffs over an out-of-towner insulting Mr. Mauer. I can’t say I wouldn’t have tried to get a couple shots in on the out-of-towner if the fight had actually commenced. Nobody insults the Queen? Sure. But nobody insults Mr. Mauer either, not on my watch.

4. Imagine a visitor from out-of-state attending a game. Maybe they take the exciting new light rail, step off the train onto a pavilion comprised of local, recycled materials, made by a local construction company. They walk in, order a beer and a brat – both local, both delicious and new to that person. They keep walking around the stadium. They see our past greats, hanging on huge banner murals, our hall-of-famers, our future hall or famers. They’re captivated by everything. Their love for that sport grows. They wonder what each stadium in each city looks, feels and smells like. Right then and there, they become a lifelong devoted fan of the game.

Don’t get me wrong, Target Field stadium is utterly gorgeous and I know the management was conscious about trying their best about carrying and utilizing local products and services. Thank  you for that.

To the ownership of the Vikings, don’t mess this up. Drop the chest beating and realize this is an opportunity to do something completely unique, collaborative and to build a lifelong fan base..

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Growing up, my parents made sure to take us on at least an annual trip to somewhere new.  They weren’t rich so it was usually somewhere pretty close by or in the state. They thought it was important to travel. They’d say that it changes you. I always thought that sounded so cliche’ and would roll my eyes when my mother would repeat it, but they were right. All of those trips somehow have manifested their way into my artwork, my writing, and even some future goals/plans. Some of my most influential trips were trips to New York, San Francisco, Duluth, Redwing, Hibbing, the California coast, LA, Connecticut and Boston. It’s not just the major cities that I remember though, it’s the parts in between those, the actual traveling part. Small towns with character thicker than cold molasses. Questions would form in my mind like “what if you grew up here?” “What if you could never had the chance to leave?” Questions like that rake your emotions over the coals. Waves of depressing realizations and beautiful comforts, all between a couple of mile markers in a car or eyelid movies in a plane. Sure, traveling costs some money, but you have to keep in mind it is worth it. The memories from a trip to Napa Valley will certainly outlast that newest iPhone.

So, when’s your next trip?

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- Some people let their anchors drag on the bottom, holding them down in life. Some people like this. This way they can’t be judged, it gives them something to blame.

- Some see it as an advantage.  A home turf advantage, a starting point. A base to launch a product, start a family, keep an eye on your local competition. Solid ground on which to build something great.

In the end, all of our anchors can be pulled up or cut loose.  It’s all about how you want to use them.

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