Snap your fingers.
Nope. Not fast enough — these days, word travels even faster — sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
Pete Bland (@xblandx on Twitter) has been a tremendous entertainment reporter for the Columbia Tribune for years. I look forward to reading just about everything he writes.
Today, in the ‘for better’ category, Bland sent out this sweet tweet where he posted a picture of the dessert menu for Bleu restaurant and wine bar here in Columbia.
Sparky’s Ice Cream is pretty much everyone’s favorite local, weird and wonderful ice cream shop (the Amy’s Ice Cream of Columbia in terms of personality). And pop rocks are, well, pop rocks.
Bizarre, nostalgic and remarkable.
My mentor and partner, Roy H. Williams, taught me long ago:
Advertising is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.
He also taught me the secret ingredient to remarkability:
Mild incongruence with relevance.
Huh?
Did you see the Juliette Binoche movie Chocolat? What made her chocolate so remarkable? Just the right amount of cayenne pepper.
That’s right – something which has no usual association with chocolate, but it totally worked!
Remarkable products and services have a little wang to them.
Whether that wang is sugar or spice or everything nice is up to you.
Nostalgia can provide powerful wang.
Quirky, local partnerships can provide powerful wang.
Just make sure it’s there — the wang.
Word (and pics and videos) will travel faster than ever.
Guess where I’m having dessert lunch tomorrow?
Check, please.