James Cameron

During a short break, yesterday, I was channel flipping and came across film guru, James Cameron, being interviewed by James Lipton on his show, Inside The Actors Studio.

Lipton plods along through his standard pattern of chronologically-ordered questions. The pattern is predictable, but show producers do incredibly thorough research, often surprising guests with obscure references, facts, and quotations from their past.

In this regard, Lipton referenced Kate Winslet, who starred in Titanic, describing Cameron as a “Perfectionist.” Not missing a beat, Cameron responded by saying, “I’m not really a perfectionist. I’m  a RIGHTIST. I continue to work at scenes and other elements until they are RIGHT. Perfection is a moving target. It’s so subjective.”

I thought that was a brilliant characterization.

As I continually rail against the use of the word, Perfect, in a wedding-marketing-context, this was one more affirmation from a superb creative mind that keeps it all in perspective.

Don’t you agree?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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From dictionary.com: u-nique: having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable: Bach was unique in his handling of counterpoint.

Snowflakes and fingerprints are unique. Hate to drop this on you, but most weddings are not unique.

If one has worked at enough receptions, you know there may a unique element or two at any wedding. However, it’s rare that one is blown away by original thoughts, at every turn.

What is annoying is the lack of creativity in copywriting for advertising to the bride. When a slew of other advertisers define their product or service as you unique, the word loses meaning and impact on the prospect.

Your wedding marketing message will have far greater impact if you can write engaging copy that intrigues the bride.

Now, if your business name, headline, sub-headline or slogan don’t contain the word unique, then please enjoy the holiday. If, on the other hand, you are using the word, unique, that is a felony copywriting offense. The Wedding Police hereby gives you a warning, and asks that you come back in 30 days with new creative.

Don’t agree? Post your comment and make your case.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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The original web banner.

The original ad

Andy’s wise-guy revision

Opinion: It is my considered opinion that excessive use of the word “perfect,” as it relates to weddings is cliche-marketing of the worst kind. That many companies forsake real creativity, and reach for low hanging fruit is pathetic.

As well, expectations are continually focused to an unattainable level. “Perfect” may exist for a moment, but never for an entire event. If you think an entire event is perfect, you’ve missed something that went wrong.

Find something else to say about your company or the bride’s wedding day. Your marketing will be better off for it.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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It is already a problem that the wedding industry overly focuses on the bride. Cliches, such as Your Special Day and words such as Perfect, permeate advertisements and magazine covers. 

Today, there is more information available to the bride than ever. Websites, blogs, and television shows. Many of the TV shows inspire and inform, offering a plethora of creative ideas and interesting perspectives. But what about Bridezillas on We TV?

Recognizing that any wedding show is entertainment, my question is still the same. Does the showcasing of brides-behaving-badly do anything but foster bad behavior? Understanding that much of ‘reality shows’ is not reality, but staged, does the wedding industry need brides-to-be watching a show that gives narcissistic, mean-spirited brides centerstage?

Your thoughts…

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog

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Axioms such as this are a dime a dozen. Oops, there I go again. There is also a lot of truth in them.

I just spent four nights in San Diego, for the Special Event Show. I stayed a very nice boutique hotel, The Sofia Hotel. It’s an older building and has been beautifully renovated. A wonderful boutique hotel, with stylishly furnished small rooms.

It has a small restaurant and bar. Both are outstanding in style and substance.

That’s the good news. The challenge is that the hotel is on the edge of the hotel district, a couple of blocks west of the historic U.S. Grant Hotel; about six to eight blocks from the San Diego Convention Center. The Sofia Hotel shares its block (fronting Broadway) with the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, the Greyhound Bus Station, and Pizza Hut Express.

When I woke, the first morning, I noticed there was no newspaper in front of my door. There were no papers anywhere. I racked my brains to remember the last time I stayed at a nice hotel and didn’t receive a paper. I couldn’t remember that far back.

I went downstairs and asked someone at the front desk, “Where can I get a paper in the hotel.” I was told that the hotel didn’t carry papers, but if I went out the front door, and walked about a block, East, there was a 7-11 store. Not great, but I can walk a block, and return to the restaurant for breakfast with my paper.

However, to get to the 7-11, one must run a short gauntlet of a half-dozen panhandlers. After doing this for four mornings, upon checkout, I was ticked. I inquired with the front desk attendant as to which rocket scientist had made this obvious bean-counter decision. It was the general manager, using the logic of saving $40/day.

Doing the math, I quickly established that for $1200 a month, the property was jeopardizing the current and future business of every guest. When I’m spending close to a $1000 for a hotel stay in an otherwise nice property, I’m probably not up for the ‘daily gauntlet.’

And then again, you never know who your guests are. The one guest in your restaurant could be a critic for the local daily. The guy who expects a paper might be a blogger with a big audience.

Penny wise; pound foolish.

As you strive to trim expenses, make every effort to keep a grip on common sense. If you’re not the boss, have the guts to point out when the boss is about to make a very stupid mistake, in the name of economy. Most people won’t point out the error. They just won’t be a repeat customer.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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When it comes to rants, Dennis Miller has nothing on me.

In advertising, I find cliches incredibly annoying. I also find them unimaginative and ineffective. Possibly because the proliferation of cliches, such as perfect, thoroughly water down any impact. It is lazy, uninspired copywriting, period.

In what is a visually interesting ad for company parties, its cliche approach to copy falls short. It is an image that was embedded in an email. Might have been used in print, too, but I can’t be sure.

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Blog

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Fresh off an extremely successful pair of presentations at the Wedding MBA, last month, Andy Ebon is home to speak in own market, to the Las Vegas Chapter of NACE, at Dragonridge Country Club, Wednesday, October 22nd, 6pm.

Always adding new wrinkles and updates to his presentation, Andy promises to stir the pot for an audience that has new challenges on its plate, due to the further economic uncertainty of the past few weeks.

If you are interested in attending, just click through to the Las Vegas NACE website, and register online >>

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This may shock you, but the customer is not always right. Sometimes the prospective customer is an unreasonable clown.

You can usually spot these brides and grooms within about 90 seconds. They tend to be self-centered, unrealistic, clueless, and want everything for 10 cents on a dollar.

Don’t look at them as a ‘selling challenge.’ Refer them to a competitor. Preferably one who annoys you.

How many times have you taken a piece of business, against your gut feeling that the client was out-of-control and unmanageable? Next time you’re in that situation, just say ‘No thanks.’

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It is theoretically possible… if you use the word, perfect, as part of your domain name. Unfortunately, using the word doesn’t make it so. In this case, the contrast is brutal.

This particular wedding officiant has a website, circa 1996. Animated images, auto-loading music, a welcome screen that takes 4 minutes to load, if you are not on a high-speed connection.

The site is do-it-yourself at its worst. Tragically, the site probably says nothing about the professionalism of the business owner. He may well do a great job. Many people that find his website will never know.

A visit to the website statistics will likely confirm what one might suspect: Many people that visit the site either don’t wait for it to load, or leave within 10 seconds.

Are you checking your website statistics?

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Just for laughs, I ‘googled’ the phrase Perfect Wedding. Sadly, it received over 1 million results.

That’s a lot of people living in the fantasy land, either believing or creating unreleastic expectations.

You’re not helping create those unrealistic expectations, are you? Just say no!

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