“To enjoy the kind of experience you want rather than enduring the kind that you feel stuck with, you have to take charge of your attention.”

Earlier this year, I highlighted those words in Winifred Gallagher’s “Rapt,” a compelling treatise on the high cost of our declining attention spans.

But how do you relearn how to “single task” (and rediscover the bliss of immersion) in a maddeningly multi-task world?

Barcelona ad agency Herraiz Soto & Co. has come up with one solution for easy-to-distract souls like me: Ommwriter, an elegantly simple text processor designed “to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate.”

While Ommwriter is unapologetically New Agey (watch the video above), I can confirm that it works, especially for short-form writing projects. Ummm, like this blog for instance.

Try it out next time you have to crank out a four-hour writing assignment in an hour or two. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive you can be when you “think” rather than “task.”

The software, still in beta and light on features, is free to download here. (Sorry, only available for Mac. And you have to be on OS X 10.5 or higher.) Do yourself a favor and download it now, before you get distracted.

Can you create a great holiday gifting ad without a single red ribbon, snowflake or sprig of mistletoe?

Amazon proves you can with this stop-motion stunner for Kindle that’s currently running on CNBC.

Detractors are already clamoring that the ad looks way too much like an Oren Lavie video (“Her Morning Elegance”) that went viral earlier this year.

Maybe so. But, to me, that’s like saying Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” rips off “Davey and Goliath.”

AT&T has struck back at Verizon’s brilliant “we’ve got a map for that” campaign with…. Luke “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” Wilson.

Gee, that’s almost as cool as Chevy Chase for the T-Mobile myTouch.

Perhaps AT&T should just be quiet and invest the money in its network, rather than trying to compete with “The Island of Misfit Toys.”

As one YouTuber put it: “Reliable service or apps that make it look like you’re drinking a beer? You decide…”

In the history of consumer marketing, there’s never been a faster “reversal of cool.” The only person not celebrating at Verizon these days is the “can you hear me now?” guy, who’s probably lost his job.

I still have a number of clients who pooh-pooh social media, especially those who are frequent targets on Twitter, Facebook or the blogs.

The standard rebuttal: “They’re just a handful of people making noise, and they don’t represent what our customers really think.”

Many times, that’s true. But what I’ve tried to explain—typically unsuccessfully—is that the truth doesn’t matter. Because a growing number of people are going to believe it any way.

Thanks to NYU New Media Professor Clay Shirky, I finally have a term to give my argument gravitas—“Algorithmic Authority,” which Shirky defines as:

The decision to regard as authoritative an unmanaged process of extracting value from diverse, untrustworthy sources, without any human standing beside the result saying “Trust this because you trust me.”

You really should read Skirky’s blog, or the précis in The New York Times this AM, but here’s the take-away for marketers: The truth is being defined, increasingly, by the messages of others, not your own. Stop fighting social media, and enlist it as an ally. 

Photo by emdot on Flickr.com, (cc) some rights reserved.

Photo by mcfarlandmo on Flickr.com, (cc) some rights reservedSorry for not posting more this week. I’ve been traveling a lot. 

And everywhere I went, fellow road warriors weren’t just coughing and sneezing—they were apologizing.

Like the guy in 12C, sitting next to me in the cramped Embraer (French for sardine can, I think) from Cleveland who let out a violent sneeze into the bend of his sleeve, followed by a meek, “I’m really sorry, man.”

Made me think: Should cough and cold medicine companies consider “guilt” as a motivator for selling more cold-and-flu-season elixirs? 

Most ads—NyQuil, for instance—focus on restoring personal health and comfort. So much so, that the battling ad claims cancel each other out over time.

Perhaps a message strategy of “keeping others around you healthy” (or, more blatantly, “don’t infect other people with your filthy germs”) would be worth testing, if Vicks or Robitussin is listening out there.

Oh, and to the guy in 12C: Thanks so much for the raspy tickle I’m starting to feel in my throat this morning. I totally take back that “bless you.”

This new video for Leapfish is so bombastically annoying that I’m actually rooting for Google to squash the new “living web” search engine before it launches on Thursday.

Leapfish’s pitch—if you can find it on this muddled “About” page—is pretty simple: “By providing a single, connected, multi-media experience for both searching and sharing traditional and real-time content, we’re hoping to make the new web easier, more integrated and efficient.”

Hmmm, OK. I’m all for an easier way to search and share content, including Twitter and Facebook posts. So why not just tell me that without the howling hubris and irritating bluster?

I’m always amazed at how many people praise Apple’s consistently sophisticated advertising but don’t have the guts, style, talent or class to take the same high road.

Me: What’s the difference between the standard and deluxe shine?

Wry shoe-shine guy: Three dollars.

The new Zappos-sponsored security tray ads have a lot of travelers asking “Why didn’t I think of that?” while passing through New York area airports.

But rather than promoting travel-friendly shoes, bags or laptop cases, Zappos has decided to use the clever medium to pitch the breadth of it product lines, like home goods (above) and cosmetics.

So now I’m confused: Should I buy my new electric coffee pot from Zappos or Amazon, its new parent company? And will Zappos continue to sell what I really want to buy from them—shoes?

As the two companies work behind the scenes to merge their world-class customer service and logistics capabilities, they need to differentiate their brand strategies, too.

Trying to be all things to all people is a sure way for both companies to get booted out of consumers’ screening lines.

Maybe it was just the dreary weather. Or the culmination of a draining year. But it sure was a down-in-the-mouth week for so many people I know.

I even got a “Dear Customer” letter from Big Earl, my hometown trash hauler:

“I really do not want to end our business relationship. However, I have been experiencing many health issues. Just this summer alone, I was hit by a drunk driver who maimed me for life, was rear ended by a tractor trailer while sitting at a traffic light and suffered a head injury at the Monroe dump as I was separating metal from the rest of the items in the dumpster.”

Despite all that, Earl ends his letter with a cheerful thank you and rousing pledge that, no matter what, he will always be Monroe’s “Dumpster King.”

C’mon, Friday: I’ll take whatever you can throw at me. I’ve got my Earl on today and you can’t touch me. 

Photo by Kevin Steele on Flickr.com, (cc) some rights reserved.

I attended an inspiring panel discussion (#digistrat) yesterday morning at McGraw-Hill to launch a new digital media strategy book authored by Paul Argenti and Courtney Barnes.

Among the more stirring take-aways, via Barnes: Companies that are still not convinced about the importance of social media “will be irrelevant tomorrow, if not already today.”

Perhaps Google Sidewiki will help awaken those dinosaurs, because the new tool (launched in late September) allows anyone to attach comments directly to your website without your consent.

Surprisingly, few ax grinders are wielding the weapon yet. Most of Sidewikis I have seen are generally positive (like this one on The Wall Street Journal’s site), posted by marketers who hope to connect their names to popular websites and brands, like remoras on a shark.

Companies won’t be able to control these conversations. (Welcome to the world of social media.) But you may have a chance to moderate them or establish the tone, if you get involved.

I suggest you start by launching your own Sidewiki today, before one of your vocal critics does.

My modest blog gets 200-300 unique visitors a week. Last week, I got more than 1,000 hits in less than an hour.

The reason: David Pogue, über-tech-columnist for The New York Times, retweeted a note that I sent to him about teaching adults how to sneeze (you can piece the exchange together above).

I didn’t send Pogue the note to increase my exposure. (And perhaps he knew that, too.)

But the lesson is clear: Marketers need to focus a whole lot more time and creativity targeting “influencers” to reach their target audiences more cost effectively. (Thanks, David!)

A spider has never bitten me or wished me ill will. And yet the mere sight of one sends me running for the bug spray.

Today, on the other hand, hundreds of ladybugs swarmed my house, and invaded my kitchen, and pelted my head as I tried to catch 30 minutes of fading sunlight on a glorious Indian Summer afternoon.

And all I could think: Gee, isn’t that cool?

If that’s not the power of a great brand name and product design, what is?

Photos by peasap (left) and DanieDVW (right) via Flickr.com, (cc) some rights reserved.