• by Cliff Medney , February 9, 2010

I Love

• I Love the spirited, hot blooded debate of ideas ... and sometimes even with others.

• I Love strategy as the puzzle piece it is, but never as the puzzle itself.

• I Love discovering insights into sights not seen, not acted upon or understood, let alone appreciated.

• I Love the questions asked in marketing almost as much as the answers.

• I Love the blank page, the nothing of it, in all its freighting and unlimited ways.

• I Love that there is a place called marketing where an arthritic elbow and high octane imagination can work as one. I just love it!!

• I Love clients who love marketing ... more than they love being a client (you know who you are!).

• And, I Love Marketing People -- from any discipline -- who passionately love, slobberingly LOVE insightful, meaningful, solution-centered "creative" and are not afraid to show it!

Please Note: There was no mention above of loving "media neutral" anything. Great ideas, like great people, take positions, understand landscapes and live (and love) large ... so please, this Valentine's Day, let's all kiss the ever-spoken "neutrality" defense farewell!

That's my marketing love list. From my lips to, well, you know what I mean ...

Have a lovely and loving Valentine's Day! Oh, but before we part, here are four things you may want to think about during this "cupid" time or anytime regarding clients, creativity and making the most of both!

1. Fall insanely in LOVE -- not just with the revenue potential or the hunt, but the category, user/behavioral and social experiences of the consumer, let alone the things that drive the client to win the category or want to. Simply, just jump in whole hearted and whole brained!

2. Dial into your high school locker -- love and emotion was everywhere. They didn't just hold things, they were the thing in terms of badge value, positioning, location, potential hideaway of the secret, special things that really matters. It's not the yearbook, but the locker where the real stuff came out!

3. Social Media is like a box of chocolates -- maybe not like "mama said" (inspired by Forrest Gump), but the feeling of sharing, being engaged, being into the moment is what has made the social platform so compelling and so unique. If Valentine's Day is about one thing, it's about sentiment matters ... just as it does in the social world view regardless of the number of friends, fans, followers you may have!

4. Nothing says Love (desire, romance) like Valentine's Day -- but as great as Valentine's Day is, it should be more of a "reminder event" than the event. We as a society live by prompts -- birthdays, the holidays, anniversaries, even the Super Bowl ... but as marketers, by being authentically insightful and creative about what we are marketing and who and how we are engaging, we stand a much greater chance to get "the target" to fall really in love with our brand or company than when the entire world is being programmed to do so.

That said, I need to track down my pal at 800Flowers -- stem-ware, I hear, is in this year!