If you don’t sleep as well at The Benjamin Hotel as you do at home, Andy Labetti, General Manager for The Benjamin, will give you a free night’s stay. A good night’s sleep is non-negotiable. The Benjamin’s ‘Sleep Guarantee’ ensures that everyone who stays at the hotel walks away well rested or gets their money back. If a guest is dissatisfied with his or her sleep at The Benjamin, all they need to do is contact the front desk, and the hotel will refund the cost of their night’s stay.
And those aren’t just some words slapped on a hotel brochure. The Benjamin has gone to extraordinary lengths to back up the guarantee of a good night’s rest in New York, “the city that never sleeps.”
Whether you drink Starbucks coffee or not, whether you agree with their business model or not, you have to admit that they’ve really nailed the art of communicating ideas and values using very simple presentation styles and dynamic, text-based messages (Garr Reynolds calls it Kinetic Typography). Very similar in style to the Girl Effect presentation I discussed earlier this month, these two presentations not only communicate a good message, they move people to action. And that’s the key to good presentations: moving people to action. Plus, I love the theming in both of these. Simple, clear, effective: “What if?“. So, enjoy these two “What if?” themed videos below and if you’re moved to action, do something about it. The first is for (STARBUCKS) RED: Starting today, November 27, every time you buy a special (STARBUCKS) RED product, a contribution will be made to the Global Fund, to help save lives in Africa. It’s all part of Starbucks commitment to give back to the communities where Starbucks does business, which is a key component of Starbucks Shared Planet. The second video was from Election Day and moves us to care about voting as much on November 5th (and all the time) as we did on November 4th. Enjoy and be inspired!
Go to any wine shop this week and you are bound to find them announcing “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé” (”the Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived”). Step inside and you’ll find countless cases of colorfully labeled bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau displayed prominently. Yes, it’s that time of year again! On the third Thursday of November, the official release date chosen by the French government, wine stores around the world celebrate the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau. And, it’s a marketing blitz like no other in the wine world. American and Japanese wine enthusiasts in particular look forward to this day with anticipation and are often waiting in line to get the first bottles of the latest Nouveau vintage.
A bit about Beaujolais Nouveau. The wine is made from grapes that were still on the vine just three short months ago (hence the “nouveau” or “new” label). It’s fruity, it’s light, and it goes really well with holiday meals, especially turkey. It’s made from 100% gamay grapes from the Burgundy region in France. It’s a relatively inexpensive wine, usually selling for about $10.00 U.S. per bottle. But, truth be told, Beaujolais Nouveau is actually the lowest wine in the Beaujolais hierarchy. I’m not a wine snob, that’s just the truth. It was historically a low volume wine and was not highly regarded by most wine experts. So how did this lowly wine become so popular and inspire such a frenzy on the third Thursday of November?
In everyone’s life, there are those rare people you come into contact with that truly change your life. There are a precious few such people in my life, but probably none more important than Dr. E.L. Deckinger…or as most of us have come to know him, Larry. I met Larry back in 1986 when I was studying marketing and advertising at St. John’s University in New York. He was my professor in my first advertising class. When I walked into the class for the first time, I saw Dr. Deckinger’s crazy, wild hair and his big glasses and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Before long, I realized that what I had gotten myself into was the opportunity to work with a marketing and advertising genius on a daily basis. Dr. Deckinger distilled his 40+ years of marketing knowledge into some very basic principles: (1) be different….always be different (2) be remarkable…always be remarkable and (3) make people happy…ALWAYS! At the time, I didn’t realize it, but these were not just the keys to success in the advertising and marketing world, they were the keys to a successful and happy life.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to take several more classes with Dr. Deckinger over the next few years. I worked very closely with him and other advertising students to bring St. John’s students to the National Student Advertising Competition held in New York City in 1988. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Dr. Deckinger never allowed our team to be ordinary. He never allowed us to approach this as just a contest. To us and to him, this was a real-world test about who was truly remarkable.
If you don’t sleep as well at The Benjamin Hotel as you do at home, Andy Labetti, General Manager for The Benjamin, will give you a free night’s stay. A good night’s sleep is non-negotiable. The Benjamin’s ‘Sleep Guarantee’ ensures that everyone who stays at the hotel walks away well rested or gets their money back. If a guest is dissatisfied with his or her sleep at The Benjamin, all they need to do is contact the front desk, and the hotel will refund the cost of their night’s stay. 
Go to any wine shop this week and you are bound to find them announcing “
