Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s the newest addition to iiyama’s gaming notebook line-up, the 15GSX8140-i7-TEB-FFXIV. Recommended for playing Square Enix’s online RPG game ‘Final Fantasy XIV’, this high performance gaming notebook is configured with a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD non-glossy display, a 2.60GHz Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor, an Intel HM87 Express Chipset, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB graphics card, an 8GB DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

Other notable features include an HD webcam, a multi-card reader, 3x USB 3.0 ports, 1x eSATA port, 1x HDMI port, 2x mini DisplayPort 1.2 and built-in stereo speakers (w/ High Definition Audio). Running on Windows 8.1 Update 64-bit OS, the 15GSX8140-i7-TEB-FFXIV provides WiFi 802.11ac 2×2 Dual Band and Bluetooth 4.0 LE for connectivity.

The iiyama 15GSX8140-i7-TEB-FFXIV is available now for 144,980 Yen (about $1,217). [Product Page]

Coachella is a music festival. But it’s called that because it occurs in the Coachella Valley, a pancake-flat, sapphire-skied, surrealistically starry and spiky and often soothingly, sometimes searingly sunny 45-by-15-mile swatch of sandy splendor sprawling (and studded with Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and other cities) between four different mountain ranges and slashed, like some sarcastic warning that life is short, by the San Andreas Fault.

This ancient, arid, takes-no-prisoners paradise has been so much more for so many people, plants and animals for so many millennia than the mere site of a stage on which Nicki Minaj disappointed tens of thousands of fans simultaneously by lip-syncing.

I was one of those “so many people” when, as a child, I visited this valley frequently. It was a short drive from our town: a short but paranormal transmutation from seabreeze and freeways over cinnamon-toast mountains into that furnace-fierce flatness (we always went in summer, when it was cheaper) where I swear I felt not like my usual tearful, self-hating self but specially selected, lifted, gifted with epiphanies about plants sprouting their own spiky weaponry in sunshine that could melt transistor radios. A family tragedy (another story for another time) turned this valley into the Place Whose Name We Do Not Speak — until, decades hence, as the last person alive who remembers that tragedy, I returned as you might to a shrine or to a party you left too soon: It’s both.

I found four (among others) fascinating ways in which the Coachella Valley outwits, outplays and outlasts its famous festival.

1. This region has been a celebrity magnet since way before Drake, Madonna, all of their parents and some of their grandparents were even born. Spa-dotted by 1930, hailed by 1950 as the nation’s swimming-pool and golf-course capital, it’s been a prestigious playground for celebrity residents and frequent visitors including John Muir, Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Spiro Agnew, Jerry Lewis, Cher, Carmen Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Barry Manilow, Truman Capote, Nat King Cole, Eric Burdon, Bob Hope, Peggy Lee, Tony Shalhoub, Desi Arnaz, Zeppo and Gummo Marx and hundreds more — including Andy Dick. Looking at this list, realizing how much longer it really is, you wonder whether this region’s appeal might be more than mere sunshine. The answer is yes. Something in the very air sings: Stay.

2. It’s one of the few places on earth where you can see the shockingly purple-headed Costa’s hummingbird. Thinking at thirst that this was a one-off freak of nature, never having heard of this species and startled by its day-glo iridescence against the beige-and-gray desert landscape, I spotted one of these near a hotel pool, where it landed on a spiky branch and posed, cocking its head theatrically as if sardonically referencing the fact that I was scheduled later that night to interview a supermodel. While its red- and green-throated cousins are shimmeringly, speedily spectacular in their own right, Costa’s hummingbird is straight from a psychedelic dream — as are chuckwallas, roadrunners, fringe-toed lizards and other local creatures.

3. Palm Springs’ largest single landowner is an indigenous Native American tribe. Renowned for their fine basketmaking and hours-long ceremonial songs — memorized by successive generations but never written down — the Cahuilla tribe has inhabited the Tahquitz Canyon area for some 5,000 years, thriving for most of that time on bighorn sheep, mesquite beans, yucca and other native animals and plants. In 1876, the US government established the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, named for one of several Cahuilla bands. Subsequent official acts and allotments resulted in the the fact that, collectively and individually, the Cahuilla tribe is now the largest single landowner in Palm Springs — where being a landowner can be quite profitable indeed.

4. Oases are things. So many people recognize these lush desert havens only from cartoons, cigarette-packet designs and British band names as to believe that oases are imaginary. Well, they’re not. Exploring the Cahuilla-owned Indian Canyons region, which comprises some of the world’s most unforgivingly barren terrain, I was amazed to find cool, dreamworthy hollows where fresh water races over boulders between soaring, stately fan palms whose frilly, swirling “skirts” define the phrase “survival of the fittest.” I asked a local tour guide: “Who planted all these trees and piped in the water?” Gently, as is required when addressing rubes, she explained that these were actual, natural oases. A spiritual sojourner might call them “God’s rest stops.”

And we haven’t even mentioned bowling alleys, the bronze Lucille Ball statue, or Joshua trees.

All drawings are by Anneli Rufus.

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If you look around, you will see that virtually everyone carries a smartphone. Yes, even kids have their own devices. In fact, there are nearly 3.5 billion unique mobile users. By the end of 2015, there will be 4.9 billion connected devices. Wow!

Because the rise of mobile usage has skyrocketed, the culture of communication has changed, and marketers need to keep up by understanding how their prospective customers prefer to communicate. I’m not too far off the mark by saying most people prefer to communicate on their mobile device because of convenience alone. Whether it’s text, email, apps, video, coupons, social, talking, or emerging ideas popping up all the time, we’re heading for unchartered territory. That means we’re really not quite sure exactly what the downside is. I think we owe it to ourselves to play war games with mobile marketing to think about the “what-ifs.” If brands are not smart about their mobile strategy, it could potentially be damaging to the brand and customers.

It’s possible companies fail to connect with customers because the
mobile strategy is missing the mark on a few critical components.

Here are eight key components for any mobile strategy that you need to think about before you start a mobile marketing initiative. If any of the items listed below are off the mark, you may fail to “connect” with the customer the way you want and could push them even further away from conversion.

Irrelevant Content: Put your consumer hat on. Do you like it when you get spammed from companies that are sending you irrelevant communications? Brands must make sure they are producing content that is perfectly aligned with their persona’s needs. If they don’t, their competition will, and that will be revenue lost.

Poor Timing Of Communication: Marketers tend to pay attention to the timing of emails, social posts and believe it or not, even their direct mail (does that still happen?). That also means we must think about the customer, their habits, desires and needs, and serve them the perfect offer at the perfect time with the right message. If a text based offer for a lunch special comes at dinnertime, guess what? We’ve missed the opportunity.

Continued Communication That’s Not Relevant: The key here is “continued” communication. As a brand, it is considered a cardinal sin to continually send communication and marketing messages to prospective customers and even existing customers if the message is not relevant. This will annoy them and soon they may unsubscribe from your communication channel – then you’ve lost them. You invested time and money to get them, now you need to spend the extra time to figure out what they want, when they want it. This increases engagement, website traffic, customer lifetime value and ultimately increases revenue.

Don’t Forget About Location: Mobile marketing is not just about connecting with the customer. It’s also about understanding their location as well. The retail market is a perfect business model to leverage the power of mobile, especially when they take advantage of location data. This data helps the marketer have a more complete data set, which allows them to craft strategies more effectively – thus increasing engagement, retention and store traffic.

According to Google research, “Four in five people use search to find local information. Collectively, these searches provide a view into consumer interest and intent in a given place. Today, we can use that intent to offer the most relevant ads, but that’s only half the picture. Location data can also provide rich consumer insights that inform strategy from the start, before there’s even an ad to distribute.” – Lisa Gevelber, VP, Americas, Google

*Juniper Research

Coupons: Regardless of your business, a coupon can be used to drive in-store foot traffic, online conversions, and customer retention or even help promote a new product or service. In a highly competitive market, coupons show value to the customer, especially if it is delivered in a timely manner with the right message. There are many ways to use a coupon and a mobile device is the perfect vehicle to deliver the brand message anywhere, anytime.

Overall Value To The Customer: Marketing 101 says, if the brand is not offering value for the customer, a transaction won’t occur. When mobile marketing is not offering value to each and every customer, the brand in essence is communicating to them that they just want your name, mobile phone number and of course your money, not your respect and trust.

Find The Right Mobile Partner: This is an absolute must for any CMO or CIO looking to dive into mobile marketing. I have experienced a few poor decisions when agencies were hired and they didn’t really have the expertise needed to execute. The tip here is to find a mobile company that knows mobile marketing strategy and technology better than anyone else. You don’t want a company that’s just a reseller of another knock-off service. Additionally, make sure the mobile partner has a robust customer centric service team to help when you need it. When you do find a company that can do all of these, you will soon realize they are the smartest firms and you want them to be on your side because mobile technology is moving at warp spend and your agency partner must be able to move with it successfully.

“Finding the right mobile partner is important because you have worked too hard to win the loyalty of every single customer you have! You would not consider a partner that did not know technology, but knowing the mobile tech is merely the ante. To serve your brand–every day, on every connection–your partner must be a leader who has built the mobile competencies and customer know-how required to master mobile connectivity that drives customer loyalty.” – Greg Thorson, 3CInteractive

Think Like A Customer – Act Like An Intelligent Brand: Don’t allow your mobile marketing to negatively impact your sales. Make sure you take full advantage of the data sets that are available. This will help you not only understand your customer, but communicate with them on their mobile device in a precise manner and location that truly excites and engages them to want to make the effort to purchase. Take advantage of all your customer data sets and think like a customer, but act like an intelligent brand.

Photo Credit: UnSplash – Thom, Canva

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Sterling Cooper is no more. And Don Draper is a free man, a rich man, able to pursue whatever version of a more fulfilling life occurs to him. Spoilers, naturally, are ensuing.

That’s the upshot of the latest episode, “Time & Life,” a word play on the building which contains Sterling Cooper & Partners’ elegant offices. Sterling Coo is losing the much loved space, at first due to what Roger Sterling thinks is a clerical error but actually due to McCann Erickson’s decision to fully absorb its subsidiary into the overall body corporate, ending the agency’s autonomy.

Now, with only three episodes left in the series, Don is free to explore in next week’s antepenultimate episode, “Lost Horizon,” his own private paradise free of the shallowness and hypocrisy from which he’s been becoming alienated. (We glimpsed Don watching Lost Horizon, the 1937 Frank Capra film based on the better novel by British writer James Hilton, in this year’s opening episode. By coincidence, due to my current writing about anniversaries revolving around Franklin D. Roosevelt, and because of FDR’s fascination with the novel — he named the presidential retreat Shangri-La, which Eisenhower changed to Camp David — I’m re-reading it now.)

It won’t take a hijacked plane to give Don Draper the opportunity to walk towards his hoped-for Shangri-La, for the major circumstances of life have lined up that way.

His second marriage is over, and resolved. His home has been sold. His ex-wives and kids are moving forward with their lives. His ad agency is no longer and his partners.’

In this, Mad Men and the tale of Sterling Cooper is mirroring the history of advertising. A smaller old-line agency as the soon-to-be go-go 1960s dawned, it became a boutique on the strength of its acclaimed creative, only to be acquired by a British conglomerate when Roger needed to pay off his first wife, then fight free to renewed independence, merge with another agency to scale up in order to service bigger clients, and then get acquired again by a huge corporate agency.

After some fairly half-hearted attempts to recreate the spirit that drove the great Season 3 finale in which the gang, in Ocean’s 11 mode, cleverly wins free from their London overlords, this time involving use of the LA office as “Sterling Cooper West” to retain some autonomy within the McCann corporate family, their efforts are denied. The five partners — Don, Roger, Joan Harris, Ted Chaogh, and Pete Campbell — are told to relax. They have ascended to corporate advertising heaven, with senior executive positions with McCann, big assured clients, and big assured paychecks. Most of the rest of the Sterling Coo crew, though, is on the chopping block as redundancies, which they clearly realize by dramatically drawing away from Don as he hollowly asserts a new beginning.

All of which prompts a great bar scene with Roger and Don. Roger, in his inimitably witty way, relates how it means the end of the Sterling family name. For it’s no longer on the firm his late dad and the late Bert Cooper founded. His only child is a daughter. And, oh yes, he’s fallen in love with a woman who’s already had her children. Don remarks that it’s a world of change, in another life he’d have been Roger’s chauffeur. But he’s sure interested to meet Roger’s new lady love.

Only, of course, he already has, for it is Marie Calvet, lately seen with daughter Megan absconding with all of Don’s furniture, played so deliciously and ferociously by British film star Julia Ormond.

After getting over the shock, it serves to remind Don that he really is alone. If he’s bored with being the playboy we saw as this year’s episodes began, and he seems to be, then he has an unknown future to find and fill.

Indeed, everyone else seems to be with someone. Joan found what looks to be a fine mate in last week’s episode. Ted is back with his wife. Pete looks to be reconciling at last with the estimable Trudy, after the two of them were thrown back together over their daughter’s school crisis. And Peggy Olsen, who just met someone intriguing, has a bonding experience with her friend and subordinate Stan, actually sharing the story of her giving up the newborn son she surprisingly had at the of Season 1.

Don, still a creature of habit, looks for the waitress Diana whom he hooked up with after dreaming of lost inamorata Rachel Menken at the beginning of this seasonlet, but she’s given him the slip.

But he still has big money, right? As the episode’s Dean Martin song mockingly reminds. (Dino, by the way, was something of a milk-guzzling family man away from his on-stage role as the playboy lush in the ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack world of Sinatra and company.)

Is Don really the guy in the song, or is he the real guy singing the song?

Which version of Don Draper that Dick Whitman has pretended to be is real? Any of them?

And where is his Shangri-La?

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Moms do everything. For wiping our butts to our noses, driving us everywhere for at least the first 16 years of our lives and feeding us invaluable tidbits of knowledge along the way, they deserve way more than one day of recognition.

To celebrate moms on Mother’s Day and beyond, we’ve partnered with Extra Gum on this list of meaningful moments and enduring mementos you can create for the special woman in your life — ones she’ll remember and cherish long after this May 10th.

Direct And Shoot A Home Video

While Facebook and other social media platforms are a good way to keep track of uploaded videos, these can get lost among the various other oversharers on the Internet. Use your smartphone, tablet or another video-capturing technology to create a short and sweet personalized video that you can save on a USB drive or even upload to YouTube. To honor your own mother, have family members and friends deliver a special message to her on camera so their kind words will be captured forever. If your spouse is a mom, capture stolen moments and snippets of her interactions with the kids that she can enjoy over and over again in the future. You can also record personal messages from you and your children to truly say “thank you” for all she does.

Make This DIY Hand And Footprint Canvas

Kids will need Dad (or another adult) for this one! To help mothers cope with the insanely fast pace at which children grow up, these painted hand and footprint canvases will serve as a nostalgic reminder of the size their “babies” once were. All you need to execute this fun, DIY craft is a blank canvas, some washable paint for the hand and footprints, and a fabric marker to leave a special message. Oh, and a little adult supervision.

Plant A Tree (Or Plant) Together

Plant a tree or perennial plant with your mother in a location that is significant for both of you, and that you can return to every year. Not only will you be giving back to nature and spending some valuable time outdoors, but each year when the plant blooms or its leaves change color, your mom (or the special lady in your life) can admire the physical beauty of something you’ve created, together.

Turn A Family Photo Into Something More Meaningful

Since social media makes it so easy to do so, the majority of our photos are shared solely on the Internet. In fact, it’s rare to print actual photos these days! Give your mother (or wife) a taste of nostalgia and a memento she won’t have to unlock her smartphone to show off by having a digital family photo framed, or transformed into a unique handmade painting. You can use services like Painted Souvenirs to turn photos into custom portraits in a variety of media, including oil paint, charcoal and watercolor. Memorable photos can also be enlarged onto a framable canvas, or photo-sharing services like Shutterfly allow you to affix your photos onto just about anything — from quilts, to mugs, to personalized calendars. This way, your mom can display a sentimental or especially memorable moment proudly (and look at it fondly) whenever she pleases.

Create A Mother’s Day Mug Or Coffee Set

To remind your mother how much you care every single morning as she reaches for her daily dose of caffeine, take a note from home decor (and Pinterest) expert Lauren Conrad: Write a personal message on a single plain mug or spread it out over an entire coffee set. Use a metallic paint pen to etch your design, allow it to dry, then stick your mug(s) in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees to make your decorations permanent.

Give Her The Day Off

Mothers are inherently busy people, so why not give your own a well-deserved day off from her everyday responsibilities? Offer to take over her to-do list for the day, whether that means going to the grocery store or taking on a home improvement project, and send her somewhere she can relax. Surprise her with a spa certificate or massage voucher, or by transforming the living room into a binge-watching theater (think dimmed lights, shades drawn, a snuggly blanket and comfort food) for some hardcore rest and relaxation. Alternatively, if your mother is more enthusiastic about “we” time than “me” time, organize a surprise lunch or afternoon with her girlfriends — or even better, you.

Create A ‘Mom, You’re The Best’ Mason Jar

For a gift that really says, “Mom, you rock!” — and will remind her of that every day for the next year — this DIY craft idea accomplishes just that. Come up with 365 ways to tell your mom how much you care and appreciate her, whether it’s reminiscing about a specific memory, saying “thank you” for something particular, or sharing a short and sweet poem, quote or saying. Write your ideas down on small, foldable note cards or paper scraps and put them inside a decorated jar or canister. This DIY, highly personalized gesture will remind your mom how special she is to you every single day, and is something she can even reuse for years to come.

How will you celebrate the special women in your life this Mother’s Day?

Make meaningful memories with moms this Mother’s Day through these small acts of kindness, presented by Extra Gum.

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