atkinson advisor

Interruption is a staple of any consumer marketing. Marketers interrupt television shows with commericals. Billboards interrupt your drive to and from work. Spam interrupts your e-mail inbox.

Here’s the rub: consumers are building up strong interruption immunity. You see on average 4,000 interruption messages a day. How many do you remember from yesterday? (We remember this one out of the thousands we saw.)

We’re moving very quickly from a world where we demand simultaneous attention from a group of people to a world where we earn attention one person at a time.

New ideas are the lifeblood of any organization. Without them, companies perish.

No organization can have too many ideas. The issue is how many ideas you take on at one time.

A rocket uses 85 percent of its energy to break the gravitational pull of the Earth’s orbit. If you divided the available fuel among it and three other rockets of equal size, none of them would get off the ground. At the same time, smaller rockets could launch on less fuel.

YOUR TURN: How do you choose the right number of big and little projects to launch at any one time?

BP CEO Tony Hayward didn’t get June off to a great start. In an interview with Fox News, Hayward said, “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. I would love my life back.”

To his credit, Hayward started off well at the beginning of the oil spill crisis by apologizing for the situation. He should have quit then.  

There’s a great quote about leadership that says, “Leadership is about them, not you.” Somebody should read this quote to Hayward every time before he goes on camera.

Was Hayward’s gaffe serious or just (oil-slicked) water under the bridge?

Brian Clark and Sonia Simone write for a successful blog called Copyblogger, which focuses on writing for sales and marketing. They give away valuable writing advice and insights every day.

Yet when you contact them, they say they are not taking on any new projects right now.

How can a company give away its expertise yet be so busy it cannot accept new clients?

It’s because Brian and Simone have established themselves as authorities. Marketing has entered a new era where authority matters and is accessible to any individual or organization.

Check out our conversation about authority on the new Atkinson Public Relations Web site.

Read Brian Clark’s Authority Rules.

Atkinson Public Relations launched our new Web site last month. If you’ve enjoyed the Atkinson Advisor all these years, we think you’re going to like the new Web site.

Our plan is to publish frequently and in a number of different formats. We still have articles. We’ve added a blog, podcasts, and even a slidecast. And we have plans for more.

Don’t worry. We will still write the Atkinson Advisor every other month.

Find out more about the Web site here.

Year end is a time for reflection. Last year, we witnessed the historic election of Barak Obama. This year, we have watched his administration tackle a number of large issues. Next year, we are all hoping to see positive signs of recovery.

Where does Obama’s approval rating rank compared to other presidents? Fortunately, we can find out for ourselves.

Thanks to Gallup and USA Today, the presidential approval trackers lets anyone compare approval ratings for every president since Harry Truman either by date or by number of days in office. For example, you can see that Gerald Ford had an approval rating of 42 percent during Dec. 6-9, 1974, or you can compare Obama with Bush 43, Bush 41, and Richard Nixon on Day 100 in office. It’s a dead heat with everyone between 55-65 percent approval.

Interestingly, the Gallup charts show only Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have left office with significantly higher ratings than when they entered.

USA Today’s presidential approval tracker