speaking of creatives... know anybody??

I posted the following on CareerBuilder today -- if you know anyone who fits the bill, have them reply to either this blog or click here to go to the job post and apply from there. Thanks!
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Greetings! I’m the marketing manager for a small yet very successful specialty chemical company located in scenic South Jersey. (Well, the surrounding area is nice, but to tell the truth we’re in an average industrial park just off 295. It’s easy to get to, though, which is always a plus.)

We in the marketing department have a bit of a dilemma… We have LOTS of advertising and collateral projects that sail through here on a daily basis, but alas – we are currently lacking a full-time in-house creative to handle them. Let me stop you here for a moment and ask you to go back and re-read that last line. Notice that I distinctly said “creative” and not “graphic designer?” There’s a reason for this.

Graphic designers are exactly that: designers of graphics. While I’ve met many that have phenomenal technical skills and can do things with software I can’t even dream of, they tend to put “pretty” ahead of “meaningful” in the hierarchy of what’s really important for an ad or collateral piece. Not that I mind pretty – I’m all for that – but meaningful definitely has to come first.

What we’re really looking for is a hybrid of sorts. A true chimera of the creative realm, if you will. First and foremost, we need an innovative problem solver who uses intuition and logic in equal measure in their work. We need a writer who can bridge the gap between our company and the consumer through metaphor and emotion. Someone who can make simple images speak volumes, as well as use concise prose to create voluminous images in the reader’s mind. We also need that same person to have the technical ability to bring these ideas to life within the specified media format. (This is where the graphic design skills need to kick in.) We need someone who is able to communicate complex concepts clearly and innovatively in a variety of ways.

I won’t ask that you fit into narrow parameters such as a certain number of years of experience or a degree in a particular field; I know that the paths to great marketing are as varied as the day is long. I will ask, however, that you will have garnered intimate knowledge of both basic advertising and visual design principles somewhere along that path. Software skills will be assessed. Portfolios will be reviewed.

If we choose you for the position, you will be responsible for advertising concept, design and placement, collateral design and copywriting [editor’s note: If your English papers were routinely covered in red pen, kindly move on to the next ad], trade show visuals and booth construction, and whatever other corporate creative needs get lobbed through our department’s door.

You must be passionate about your craft and possesses great internal motivation to continually learn new things and rise to new challenges. You must be able to think on the fly, work independently, pay attention to detail, handle deadline pressures with grace and a sense of humor, and juggle multiple projects without letting any of them hit the ground with a resounding thud.

This position offers lots of variety (from the cool whiz-bang to the utterly mundane) and affords a great degree creative latitude. It also comes with mediocre wages, generally normal hours, and an exceedingly respectable benefit package, as well as an office with a real door and a functioning window. The people here are great to work with, and we occasionally have free pizza days.

Now for the moment of reckoning: do you apply or not?

If you have even the slightest doubts about whether this position is right for you, you’re probably right. Follow your gut. Put this ad down now and walk away. Don’t look back.

If you feel your talents might be tailor-made for this position and you’d like to check the fit, write me a letter. Sure, we want all the normal resume facts-and-figures stuff, but really – write me a letter. Don’t stuff it full of the normal cover letter blah-blah-blah; really introduce yourself. Tell me about you, your abilities, your experiences. Intrigue me. Make me want to call you for an interview.

Moe and his creator get weed whacked...

Oh well, looks like Moe won't be gracing the pages of anything anytime soon. After review with the sales guys we decided to "go in a different creative direction." (They didn't like the ad.) Back to the drawing board.

This would not be too big of a deal (happens more than I care to think about), except that I fired our designer two weeks ago. (That also happens more than I care to think about.) Finding someone with any kind of creative smarts AND technical skill AND a modicum of professional / artistic integrity is apparently like trying to find a fish on the moon.

It amazes me that there are so many uncreative "creatives" out there. They come in, putz around FOREVER to get an ad together, end up with some pathetic mediocre thing that just begs to crawl under a rock and never see the light of day minutes before the deadline , and then they call it a day. Never even lose a minute's sleep over it. And they have the nerve to call themselves "creatives." Ugh, makes me crazy...

Where's the PASSION!?!? Where's the CREATIVE DRIVE?!?! Where's the VISION?!?! Don't even get me started...

So now until we find a replacement I'm doing my job AND his. Oh well, not like I was trying to get anything on MY desk finished this week...

Revolution -- It doesn't get more stress-free than this!

Meet Moe. He's the newest member of the Aquatrols family, and you should see him popping up in GCM and Golfdom in the next couple of months. Moe (get it?-- Moe, "mow"... He's turf... I'll stop now...)

Anyway, Moe is out for conceptual review now and will possibly be our stress-free spokesmodel for the glories of Revolution -- provided the review board doesn't weed-whack 'em. ;o)

You know what they say about opinions... everybody has one. (Thought I was actually going to quote that saying, didn't you??) So let me know what your opinion of Moe is. Go ahead, be brave -- hit the "send" key!!

Aquatrols Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Actually we've been celebrating our half-century anniversary for about half a year now, but I dig out 50th Anniv logo and figured this was a good excuse for its gratuitous use. We only have 6 months left to use it, so might as well get some mileage out of it.

Quick facts: Aquatrols was established in 1955 by Robert "Bob" Moore, and the company remains family owned and operated to this day. Pretty impressive, considering that a good number of small businesses never make it past the first 5 years. Bob retired a couple years back, and his three kids (Tracy, Andy and Demie) have taken over the reins. A "Moore" in-depth history (sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun) is available from Irrigation and Green Industry from a few years ago.

The company's still going strong -- some may argue stronger than ever. We just brought a brand new building this past fall (yay! I have a real office now!), launched Revolution which is proving to be WAY more successful than I had imagined this early in the game, and are still managing to pull the extended Aquatrols "family" together for a big celebratory weekend bash later this summer. Woo-hoo!! PARTY!!!

That should be really cool -- all of us at the home office rarely get a chance to see the guys out in the field, and we never get a chance to meet each other's families. It'll be fun to finally meet in person all the husbands, wives and kids that you always hear about and see pictures of. I'll let you know how the bash goes. Hell, maybe I'll even take pictures and YOU can meet our families, too! :o)

Apparently the Aquatrols blog is no longer my little secret...

Whoops! Looks like the cat is out of the bag on my little blogging forays here. Apparently Fearless Leader (my boss) was Googling Revolution this afternoon to see what came up on our product, and my April 28th post came up -- the one with the naked jumping guys ad. Lovely... of all the posts he could stumble upon first, ya know?

Guess he's not too tweaked about it, he posted a comment rather than placing the "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING" phone call from the road. I'll take that as a good sign.

US Open coverage

Hey, looks like I'm in good company here in blogspot land. Scott Hollister from GCM is doing blog coverage of the US Open. (That is -- doing coverage of the US Open via a blog, not covering blogs at the US Open. Duh.)

He's hanging out at Pinehurst, sweating his little bippy off and recounting the experience of it all on the web. Check it out what Scott has to say and get an insider's look at what's going on at #2 at Pinehurst.


new Aquatrols website to be unveiled.... um....soon...

Our current Aquatrols website is getting a bit long in the tooth, and I personally think it's a complete pain in the ass to navigate around and actually find anything, so we will be redoing it sometime soon. Not sure exactly when it's going to be done, as we currently have a committee mucking around with the decision-making process. Not that it's a completely bad thing, except that everyone's schedules are completely at odds -- so what should take a week or two is now taking a month or two (or three or four).

Tho we're not sure who is doing it, we've already figured out what they're doing for us. There will be different "sub-sites" for US, Canada, and International, so that there will no longer be confusion as to which products are available in your corner of the world. Each of the 4 market segments we serve (turf, ag, hort and snow) will also be separated a bit, both physically (separate tab pages within the geographic section) and visually (different colors so that you'll know you bopped across market segment lines). Product info will be much more concise and easier to navigate, and we'll have all kinds of downloadable info and other cool stuff available right at your fingertips.

I'll let you know when the beta site is up, we'll be looking for volunteers to check it out and make sure it's what the CUSTOMER thinks is functional and useful, not just what we think. Imagine that, consumer input. Wow, what a concept! :o)

I'm back, and hotter than ever. For real.

Wow, what a slacker I am... Haven't done a post in almost a month! Sorry, been busy with preparing for this year's product launch (shhh, can't tell ya about that one yet) and all the outside stuff around the house I've been putting off winter.

Right now it's well over 90 and we are sans air conditioning (one of the drawbacks of having a 90 year old house) so it's too stinkin' hot to do anything outside. Or even inside for that matter. Good day to catch up on my blogging.....

surfactants are safe -- unless you're an amphibian?

Over the weekend I was listening to "You Bet Your Garden" on NPR while puttering around the house. They were interviewing Rick Relyea of University of Pittsburgh about his study of RoundUp's impact on native amphibian populations. Surprise -- it's a negative effect on the little critters.

BUT... (and this is the part that got my attention) it's not the glyphosate that poses the hazard, it's the surfactant used to penetrate the waxy surfaces of the plants. Surfactants interfere with their gill function, which is a bad thing when you spend a good part of your early life underwater. Seeing as I work for a surfactant company, I was a bit perturbed at this news. (While not a flagrant tree-hugger, I do like to blow kisses at the trees now and then). My first thought was actually "oh crap, do we do this too? Maybe I need to dust off my resume..." When I first started with Aquatrols it took me a long time admit that I was working for a "chemical company" -- when people at parties would ask who I worked for, I would stuff cheetos in my mouth and mumble unintelligibly. (very mature attitude, I know.) If it turned out that our stuff was that dangerous, I think I'd have to find a new line of work.

But before I went running to monster.com to post my resume, I consulted with Science Guy here at Aquatrols to find out where our products stood on the kill factor. He explained that the stuff that Monsanto was (is?) using in RoundUp is polyethoxylated tallowamine. (I did a google search on this chemistry and EVERYTHING came back with a reference to RoundUp.) This particular surfactant is a fatty acid base and is notoriously toxic to fish and amphibians.

The surfactant chemistries we use here at Aquatrols are non-ionic (low reactivity) and are specifically chosen for their low ecotoxicological profiles -- they don't kill stuff. Cool.

Glad I don't have to re-write my resume anytime soon, I really hate doing the new job thing and I do really like it here. I'll sleep better tonight.

The Aquatrols Revolution ad that will never see the light of day

I found this little gem when I was rummaging through some old files on my hard drive. This was one of the first ad comps I put together for Revolution. I thought it was a real knee-slapper, and Stan (a.k.a. "Science Guy") also thought it was a hoot. However, Andy (generally referred to as "Fearless Leader" for my own personal amusement) turned a little pale when I said I was considering unleashing this one on the unsuspecting superintendent public.



These guys may not ever grace the pages of Golfdom or GCM, but you CAN have your very own copy, complete with letter of authenticity. A veritable collector's item, I tell you! Just drop me a line and I'll send ya one. Limited time offer -- not sold in stores -- order yours today!!

Dear Miss Manners... What's the social etiquette for Cancer?

Recently we found out one of our friends has the big C-word again... She was diagnosed with cervical cancer a little over a year ago and had the big surgery and whatnot. A couple of months ago we all got together to have dinner and hoist a few, and she announced that her last checkup was just that past week and her doctor proclaimed her "cancer-free". Whoopie!!! We all breathed a sigh of relief and happily toasted her great news (a couple of times).

A couple weeks ago we get the call. It's back, and this time with a vengeance. Now it's in her lymph nodes and pretty much her only option is chemo. And that's just to slow it down and buy her more time, not get rid of the cancer. Ugh... what do you say to that?!?!

To keep the rest of us in the group from being good-intentioned royal pains in their ass, we started out doing the call chain -- one person would get the news, then pass it on, and so forth. However, this doesn't seem to be working too well, at least for me. We have a couple of "dramatic" links in this chain, so you're never sure if the person is really on their death bed, or just has a hang nail. Both hubby and I have been told by the first link that she doesn't want to talk to anyone and we should just leave her alone for now. Okay -- does this mean she REALLY wants to be left alone, or you called on a bad day and she bit your face off unintentionally and now you're afraid to call back?

Nobody gives you a rule book on how to deal with this stuff, and I really think someone should write one. We're taught how to respond to good things in our society, but to ignore or skirt the bad things. ("Don't stare or ask questions, honey. It's not polite.")

I started thinking about how I would feel in the same situation (although I sincerely think it's impossible to know what you would really do until you're there). I would probably be a bit cranky that I got to be the unlucky soul and not someone else. And even if I was having a bad day and bit your face off when you called, I think I deserve to have a shitty day considering the circumstances. Don't get bent because I'm not considering your feelings -- I'm being selfish because I may not have that much time left to be generous with. Maybe I'm too scared to call you back, thinking talking to the "cancer patient" will wig you out. And how the hell do you start the conversation anyway, when you have a 900-pound gorilla of a disease breathing down your neck? C'mon... Pick up the phone and call me.

At least that's the way I think I'd feel. So despite the warnings from well-meaning friends, I called her this afternoon. We didn't talk too long, I was at work and her visiting nurse was about to show up. But we had a nice conversation about the spring weather, and her heater that's on the fritz, and whether or not her male visiting nurse was a cutie. (She says he's a nice guy, but not a real looker. Guess you can't have everything.) Semi-normal stuff. It was good to hear her say firsthand that, despite the fact that this all sucks so royally, she and the family were doing akay with it so far. At least today anyway. Maybe despite all the abnormal crap she's got to deal with right now, maybe I helped her feel like a plain old normal person for a few minutes. Hell, that's the least I can do for a friend.

So kiddies, my advice for the day is this. Don't rely on second-hand information; go to the source and find out for yourself what's going on. And if you don't make the call because you're afraid of what to say, call anyway -- they're probably just as afraid on their end.

Revolution drums change color slightly

Just a heads-up that the color of the Revolution drums will be changing slightly.

When we started looking for packaging for Revolution, we wanted something that really stood out for our out-standing product. Paul in production found a really cool royal blue from one of our suppliers, so that's what we went with. We had a couple of established products already being packaged in blue, but that was more of a flat grayish-blue color so there would still be easy visual differentiation.

So of course now that product is flying outta here like there's no tomorrow, Paul gets a call from our drum supplier -- there has been some consolidation in the drum producing industry. Someone bought out the guys who used to make the cool royal blue (the ONLY company in the US to make that color, incidentally), and of course promptly decided to discontinue it from their product line. AAAGGHH!!! Well, maybe that just warrants an "aw, poop!" more than an all-out gutteral scream, but annoying nonetheless.

The Revolution drum will still be a different blue than the others, but not the cool royal we had to begin with. Now it's kind of a medium blue, right smack in the center of the color spectrum between the grayish-blue and the royal.

And in the grand scheme of things, you don't really care, do you? See the bizarre things us marketers get our undies in a bunch about? :o)

New long term surfactant? - "caveat emptor!"

That's latin for "let the buyer beware" -- always good advice no matter what language or century IMHO.

While I usually don't need a reason to spew bizarre trivia (before I became the Google Queen I was the Queen of Useless Knowledge) I do actually have a point behind the above comment. Well, two actually, but only one I want to bless you with today.

Last year everyone here at Aquatrols was all hopped up about this new chemistry we were offered. (It was a molecular find by someone outside our industry who didn't want to elbow into surfactant-land.) It was a long-term formulation, and was supposed to have better performance characteristics and last longer than our current long-term product Sixteen90. We guarantee Sixteen90 for 90 days of performance (get it? -- "sixteen" ounces, "90" days? Never mind...) The new stuff was touted to last 120+ days! Wowee!!

This was based on one year of data -- so being the research geeks that we are, we of course wanted to further test the bejeezus out of it before we agreed to take it on. When the second year of data came in, it wasn't looking quite as pretty... A little more phyto than we thought was acceptable, and there didn't seem to be consistent performance for 120 days -- it was all over the page. Bummer...

Needless to say, we took a pass on this one. But you know what they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure -- I hear tell that another company will possibly be picking it up. If the gossip is correct, it's a company who is currently promoting another product we checked out in the not-so-distant-past and took a pass on as well. So anyway, the moral of this story is, if you happen to see another long-term hit the market in the next year or so, "caveat emptor. " Ask for all the research data behind it before you decide it's the best thing since sliced bread and swiss cheese.

Speaking of asking for the data, the results of the wetting agent study in GCM this month looked a little wishy-washy. I've already asked for the data behind this one (see, I'm such a geek!) and they assure me that it will be posted on www.eifg.org soon. I think that'll be more telling than the averaged data.

That's why they call me the Google Queen

Google is truly the ultimate playgound for information junkies! My latest find is Google Maps which is WAY cooler than MapQuest for getting location maps and driving directions (I used to be a big fan of the latter). Google Maps lets you interactively zoom in or out and move around the map without having to wait for a new screen. Plug in an address on a single line (instead of filling out a bunch of different fields) and boom -- you're there. Then it will ask you if you want directions to or from this location and boom -- your map overview and turn-by-turn directions are right there. Sweet!

They've also recently bought Keyhole, which is a 3-D satellite mapping system. On their FAQ page it states: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Keyhole's technology and products are an excellent addition to our efforts to do that. We do not have any announced plans regarding how this technology will integrate with our current products and services. Just like any techno-geek worth their salt, if it's cool they want it, even if they're not sure what they're going to do with it. :o)

Keyhole is a subscription service, so you have to pay to use the satellite mapping. It's $30 a month for personal use, and $600 a month for professional use. Didn't really check to see how they decide which pricing category you fall into -- I have no real use for it other than checking out an aerial view of my house, and I already know the roof needs fixing. Checking out an aerial of your course and surrounding neighborhood might be a useful application though.

Aquatrols Essay Contest winners announced!

Congrats to our winners of the 2005 Aquatrols essay contest!

Jaron Andrews – Grand Prize Winner $2,000
Jaron is the son of Marvin Andrews, the Superintendent at Isleta Eagle Golf Course in Albuquerque, NM.

Sarah Shear – Runner Up $1,000
Sarah is the daughter of Howard Shear, Owner/Manager of Echobrook Nursery & Landscape in Worcester, MA.

Jaron and Sarah did a great job, and we wish them the best of luck in their college pursuits. Their essays will be posted on the Aquatrols website shortly if you want to take a peek. (By rights we should have them posted already, but for some unknown reason our hosting co's server periodically refuses us access -- and this would be one of those periods.)

In case you have not yet heard about our essay contest, it's open to college-bound children of turf and landscape management professionals. Doesn't matter what they're going to college for, as long as Mom or Dad tend something green for a living. Hey, college ain't cheap!

The Revolution continues...

Okay, I stand corrected... Apparently we have a number of the big guys who are currently taking Revolution for a test drive on their courses. Out of the top 10 we have:

Pine Valley (#1)
Shinnecock Hills (#3)
Cypress Point (#4)
Pebble Beach (#6)

Not bad for a start. :o) So where are the rest of you slackers? And don't tell me you're too conservative to try the new stuff -- you don't become a world-class superintendent by waiting to see what everyone else is going to do.

(Editorial note: just so we're all on the same page here and nobody gets their undies in a twist -- the aforementioned courses are not in any way publicly endorsing Revolution, they've just simply purchased it. Could be painting their house with it for all I know. I just think it's way cool that the big boys are playing with our new stuff. So there.)

Pine Valley joins the Revolution!

Pine Valley (America's #1 rated golf course no less!) has just joined the Aquatrols Revolution!
But this really doesn't come as much of a surprise to us. What else would the Nation's best course use? Why, the industry's best, of course! :o)

In all seriousness, the way Revolution has been flying out of the warehouse these days, I'm half wondering what took them so long to get on board. We blew out our first quarter projections BEFORE the first quarter even started, and never looked back.

'Scuse me while I go sing a chorus or two of that Beatles tune....

"..you say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world..."

Celebrating World Water Day with Google

Happy World Water Day! Don't feel bad if you didn't know about it, I was clueless until this morning. World Water Day was established in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly, and is celebrated every year on March 22nd. On this day countries around the world are invited to promote the conservation of water and the development of sustainable water resources and best use practices.

And how did I find out? Google.

Yes, I am the self-avowed Google Queen and info junkie, so of course by 9:00 this morning I was on the internet surfing for some little tidbit of info. But something was different -- I noticed that the Google logo had changed....

For those that have never noticed this phenomena, get a life and pay attention. They change their logo to match holidays, major events, and whatever's big going on in pop culture. If you click on one of these dressed up logos, it will take you to more info about that topic. Like today for example, which is why I know about World Water Day and you don't.

Try it for yourself. Live a little. Learn a lot.

Radiance - get the algae before it gets you!

Spring is slowly creeping across the country (too slow if you ask me) and pond-treating season is just around the corner.

To keep the ugly scuzzies (yes, that's a technical term) from taking over your ponds and lakes, start tossing in Radiance when water temps reach 60 degrees F, and continue every 2 weeks through the season.

Remember, this is a self-dispersing product so there's no application debacles involved. Just toss it in at one or two points in the water body and let it do its thing. We found that launching it out across the water from a bucket is the way to go. No equipment to screw with, no labor intensive spraying procedures -- a total no-brainer.

Here's a handy-dandy link to the Radiance web page and the spec label if you need more info.

Revolution SWDG is available and shipping ASAP

Just got the word that Revolution SWDG (spreadable water-dispersable granular) is in da house and ready to ship! All you folks who booked early and have been patiently awaiting its arrival will be receiving it momentarily.

end of the week

Nothing much to say today -- except "Thank God It's Friday..."

Revolution Resource CD now available!

Just got the new Revolution Resource CD in -- everything you ever wanted to know about Revolution in one handy-dandy place. The CD contains PDF files of all the current Revolution literature, as well as a cool little self-running PowerPoint show.

Want to know more about this new product but don't want a salesperson parking himself in your office? Then the PowerPoint presentation is just what your looking for. Chock full of info and animation, the fully narrated presentation will take you on the grand tour in about 10 minutes. Kick off your shoes, make a bowl of popcorn, and toss in CD at whatever time of day (or night)works for you.

For you immediate gratification types, you can download the 8-page brochure now.

exposing the shameless hussies of surfactant marketing

See, this is why us marketing people get a bum rap.

A competitor's ad slid across my desk today. It's an illustration in the Feb issue of GCM (p33) showing where each of their products supposedly "targets" in the rootzone. (Last time I checked, surfactants don't carry rulers in their pockets to know how deep they are in the soil. So how do they know when to stop?)

Anyway, I checked against the original brochure they released at GCSAA 2004 using this same graphic, and dontcha know it, one of those little surfactant products moved! (See, I told you they don't know where they are in the soil!)

I'm guessing they thought this one was "targeted" too close to the new surface product, so they scooted it down a bit thinking nobody would notice. (I did.) C'mon guys, how tacky is that? It's because of stuff like this that everyone thinks marketers are a bunch of shady liars.

I prefer being honest. It's more of a challenge. :o)

Entries in for 2005 Aquatrols Student Essay Contest

Midnight on Tuesday marked the close of this year's essay contest, and we have 6 ambitious college-bound students who have entered for the chance to win $2000 and $1000 respectively.

Wow, a 1-in-3 chance of winning some easy money for college this year! I'm really surprised that more people didn't take advantage of this, especially considering the cost of higher ed these days. If I was a parent, I think I'd be stuffing a pen in my kid's hand right quick!

Anyway, congratulations to the six that DID get off their duff and enter:

Sarah Shear of MA
Kelly Weston of CA
Amanda Miller of MI
Jaron Andrews of NM (runner-up prize winner last year!)
Tyler Dixon of KS
Tess Mengel of CA

Winners will be announced April 15th. Good luck guys!

A Blog Is Born!

Ah, technology! Gotta love it.

Want to know what's going on at Aquatrols? Find it here first.
Got a question? -- have at it.