If you are under 34 the answer is probably yes.

Even a year ago 48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up. Sound familiar? It’s the morning paper. The difference is 28% do this before even getting out of bed.

48% of young Americans say Facebook is the way they find out about news. Silly, shallow, outrageous you say? Maybe not….  Read more

My family is not really on Facebook much. They forgot my birthday.

This reminded me of traveling in the Yucatan as a 22 year old and utterly forgetting my own birthday. Somehow the group I was with knew when it was even if I did not, and they actually engineered a make-shift surprise party for me. That was perhaps my most memorable birthday, though I’m not sure I would recognize any of those kind people if I bumped into them on the street today….  Read more

“What if company logos were honest” is a very funny blog post featuring the work of the artist and designer Viktor Hertz. It kind of gets you thinking though. I talk a lot about truth and why it matters for a brand. And yet look at all these great brands. They are jokingly being shown at odds with the reality of what they actually deliver.

I think this situation shows, among other things, that a brand is NOT just a logo. But at the same time, it points out how our brand associations really are not rational….  Read more

The key question a brand must answer is, “Who are we?” The best answer to this is one that is short and clear.

The answer cannot be, “this, and this and, oh yes, this.” No matter how complex the reality is, a brand’s keynote expression must be immediately graspable if it is to have real power. And it still needs to be true….  Read more

So far this holiday season all that many of you got from us was a warning about upgrading your version of Wordpress to protect it from malware. I thought we should do something else to express our gratitude for your business, conversation, and support this year.

The idea we came up with was to pick one of our own non-profit clients, explain a bit about what they do, make a donation to them, show the link to you and tell you about it. This idea has a triple benefit: this non-profit gets a little boost, you learn about them, and we get to show you some of what we did for them and maybe this gives you ideas for yourself….  Read more

What is the difference between marketing and branding?

In a recent conversation with a very senior person at a financial institution my colleague was told, “I think private wealth managers will have a hard time seeing the value of branding—they see marketing as a cost center, not a driver of sales.”

Hold it.

How did we go from branding to marketing in one sentence like that?…  Read more

Yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner at our neighbors house. The kids—who have all known each other since birth—piled up their plates with whatever they wanted most (including Brussels sprouts), and our host asked each of us to express in a single word what we were thankful for.

My eight year old blurted his out first: “food” he said—perhaps influenced by his immediate environment. My middle child—the most responsible—said, “friends,” and then amended that to “family,” again perhaps a response to the environment. My oldest, who is now 14, said “death.”…  Read more

Tronvig Group has launched the DiMenna Children’s History Museum website as part of the New-York Historical Society website. Featured on this new website is a kids section that showcases the first of three kid-friendly educational games: Sloppy Copy. Sloppy Copy introduces the New-York Historical Society’s wonderful and eclectic collection of objects and artworks to children by setting the kids on the trail of an entertaining villain: Finnias the Forger, a.k.a the “sloppy copier.”…  Read more

I am not a traditional sports fan. I follow no particular professional sport. I have attended few professional sports events in my life. And yet, I do in fact love sports, all kinds of sports. Perhaps this is why the Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports that we created for the New-York Historical Society has become so dear to me in the short time we have been working on it. It is not an homage to any one sport, but rather to the idea of sport, and the role that sport plays in the lives of great and interesting people….  Read more

In August I took a two week vacation during which I was totally disconnected—off of emails, phone calls, any kind of electronic communication. I became (by the second week) very comfortable with my slowed down and uninterrupted life. I adjusted enough during that short span of two weeks that when I came back to the office I was—for a while—a kind of foreigner there.

It was hard for me to pay attention to my 250 daily business emails. I wanted to chat about possible future company retreats and the value of solitude. My colleagues looked at me bemused, and tried to talk about WORK. In two weeks away I had weaned myself of a communication addiction. I was even sleeping normally.

That was back at the end of August. Now it’s October, and I have fully recovered. …  Read more