I thought this was a pretty good CSR / marketing initiative by Banana Republic.  Bring in a gently used sweater that they will donate to Goodwill and receive 30% off a new one. I brought in a sweater that I hadn’t worn for a while last week and picked up a new one.

Who hasn’t had to send a file yesterday that was too large for email?

Next time you find yourself in this situation, try YouSendIt.com.

I’ve used it a few times.

Not only can you get it there in a few minutes, eliminate the hassle of over-sized email attachments and avoid clogged inboxes, but you save the overnight courier cost of sending a CD/DVD.  Plus its really easy to use.

A well timed knock on my front door gave me a polite and truthful reason to say goodbye to the telemarketer who was interrupting my enjoyment of a Senators playoff game. But I hesitated. What if that knock was someone was trying to sell me yet something else? Perhaps I should have turned off the lights to give the illusion I wasn’t at home. Or run the shower, and wash my suspicions away. 

My hunches were right. It was someone peddling something else. I felt it my civic duty to answer the door though. But the id bearing university student wasn’t actually selling anything, except ideas. His first bright one- handing over a few free compact fluorescent bulbs (CFBs) from Project Porchlight.  By changing one regular light bulb per household for a compact fluorescent one, the average Ottawa resident will save $50 in energy costs on their hydro bill over the lifetime of the bulb. 200,000 bulbs replaced citywide will result in 100,000 fewer tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted. And replacing just one old fashioned lightbulb with one new cfb in every household across Canada is the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars of the road. Now, that’s change within reach!  And just like Saint Nick pulling presents from his sack, this canvasser surrendered even more goodies from his EnviroCentre backpack. It’s an effort to help citizens use less energy and decrease their water usage. In other words, reduce our carbon footprints. Even Queen Betty’s getting involved. 

The EnviroCentre off loaded two 2 low flow showers heads, a kitchen faucet aerator, two bathroom faucet  aerators and foam tubing for my hot water pipes. By lessening the load in his backpack, he helped me lessen my carbon emissions.   

Ottawa-based Novel Solutions, maker of handy devices such as the Bookhug book holder and the Handyfold paper/letter folder, now brings us the Rimroller.

Paul Kind’s “labour-saving device” made it onto the front page (above the fold) of today’s Ottawa Citizen.

The device is aimed at assisting Tim Hortons coffee drinkers see if they won a prize during the company’s annual Roll Up the Rim To Win promotion, which started a couple of weeks ago on February 26, 2007.

So the release of the Rimroller is a little late and it is not yet available for purchase, although it will be soon through Lee Valley Tools.

In the Citizen article, they asked a few people what they thought about the Rimroller.  I think this comment from one person sums it up best:

“I won’t be buying one.  Nails and teeth work just as well.  But I didn’t think people would ever buy the pet rock either.”

With Tim Hortons selling 300 million cups of coffee per year, if only a small portion of those customers buy a Rimroller…

The other side of it is, given the popularity of Tim Hortons Roll Up the Rim To Win promotion across Canada, linking the Rimroller to it may be a good way for Novel Solutions to raise awareness of its other products amongst its target market (people that buy handy little time-saving devices) and drive sales of them.

Here’s an example of an excellent viral marketing / social media campaign.

More than 25 million people have watched Utah-based Blendtec’s series of ‘Will It Blend?’ videos on YouTube.

To see all the videos, check them out here on YouTube or on the company’s Will it Blend? site.

There’s also the Will It Blend? Blog.

Since debuting in November, the videos have regularly been among the most popular on YouTube, and Blendtec’s sales have quadrupled.

Blendtec’s Total Blender, the one used in the videos, sells for US$400 and the Connoisseur model sells for US$825.

You’d have to do a lot of blending (basically every meal or at least daily) to pay that much for a blender, but the low-cost campaign is definitely very cool and very creative.  No doubt, there are many people out there that will buy the blender just because of the videos. 

My wife got me the Season 1 and 2 DVDs of HBO Series Entourage for Christmas.  We had watched all the episodes from both seasons by the first week of January.

If you’re a guy and you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.  City TV Toronto has it at 9:00pm and 9:30pm on Tuesdays.  I watched it this week, which prompted this post.

Executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, I think the show is a cool concept and quite funny.

The premise is the day-to-day life of a hot, young actor (Vince Chase) in Hollywood, living with his brother (Johnny Drama) and two childhood friends (Eric and Turtle) from Queens.

Adrian Grenier plays Vincent Chase; Kevin Connolly plays Eric; Kevin Dillon (Matt Dillon’s brother) plays Johnny and Jerry Ferrara plays Turtle.  Jeremy Piven (Cheese from Old School) plays Ari, Vince’s agent.

Stars that have made cameo appearances on Entourage (from my memory) include Val Kilmer, Jessica Alba, Gary Busey, David Faustino (Bud Bundy from Married with Children), Sara Foster, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Hugh Hefner, Ralph Macchio (the Karate Kid) and Pauly Shore — I’m likely missing a few.

Until a few weeks ago I was using a Linksys Wireless Router for wireless internet connectivity at home.

I found I was having to reset it relatively frequently and I had to un-install / re-install it a few times, so I bought an Apple Airport Express. I’d heard good things about it.

The Airport Express was super easy to set-up and secure.  The Linksys took longer and more effort to set-up, plus I had to call the support line for assistance securing it.

Most importantly, I haven’t had to reset the Airport Express once yet.

The Airport Express is portable and can quickly turn any wired connection wireless.  The latter is particularly handy in meeting rooms where more than one person wants to connect to the web, but there is only one cable.

Lastly, you can connect it to a printer and send documents for printing wirelessly.

Great, easy to use product for $160. 

Lockheed Martin who makes the C-130J Super Hercules is a client of Thornley Fallis and I manage the account.

In late November 2006, the Government of Canada identified Lockheed Martin’s bid of the C-130J Super Hercules as the only successful qualifier through their Statement of Interest and Qualification (SOIQ) process for their Airlift Capability Program – Tactical.

In the wake of this announcement, some media reports and opposition party politicians questioned the capabilities of the C-130J.

Tomorrow, the US Ambassador is hosting Colonel Larry Gallogly, Commander of the 143rd Airlift Wing, Rhode Island National Guard in Ottawa.

Col. Gallogly will give a presentation to government officials and media to articulate what Canada can expect from the C-130J.

Col. Gallogly led the first combat deployment of US Air Force C-130J aircraft.  He has more than 5,500 hours as a pilot in the C-130A, C-130E and C-130J, and will share his views and experience on the performance and capabilities of the C-130J Super Hercules as a tactical airlifter in actual theatre operations. 

Lockheed Martin C-130Js operated by the U.S. Air Force have just completed a 20-month deployment to southwest Asia where they soundly demonstrated the ability to maintain a high operational tempo under demanding desert conditions.  During the two year deployment, four C-130Js conducted 5,444 sorties over 10,750 flight hours, delivered 12,681 tons of cargo and carried 70,350 passengers.

The deployment involved aircraft from the Rhode Island 143rd Airlift Wing based in Quonset, R.I., the Maryland 135th Airlift Group based in Baltimore, Md. and the California 146th Airlift Wing based in Channel Islands, Calif.

C-130Js are now being operated at a high tempo around the world in both combat and relief support operations with the worldwide fleet exceeding 340,000 flight hours. The United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and Denmark are all experiencing first hand, the high reliability and increased range, speed and payload capabilities of the C-130J.

Both Nike and Callaway have released square-headed drivers this year.

What are the odds? 

You can’t help but wonder which company had the idea first only to have it leaked to and copied by the other?

Callaway’s is the FT-i.

Nike’s is the Sasquatch Sumo Squared.

Of course, both companies are claiming ultimate distance, forgiveness and accuracy (without mentioning the need for practice and skill).

We’ll see how many Pros put them in their bags.  Phil Mickelson and Michael Campbell are said to be testing the FT-i.

I wonder if we’ll see Tiger Woods tee up the Sumo Squared?  We might see Michelle Wie using it, but only if you watch the Thursday and Friday (pre-cut) rounds of a men’s tournament.

I will likely try both this summer, but as I just bought the Callaway Fusion FT-3 mid-way through season and like it a lot, they’ll have to be really good for me to consider making a switch.

I haven’t seen any Callaway ads for the FT-i, but Nike’s for the Sumo Squared (which I couldn’t find online) are pretty good — square tee blocks, square bunkers, square greens, squares trees, even square lily pads in a water hazard.