Business cards are one of the most important connections to your brand.  The Japanese have a cherished etiquette and respect for giving and receiving cards.  Whenever we network, “do you have a card?” is almost always uttered before meeting’s end.  Think of all the times you’ve gone looking for someone’s card to track down an opportunity or referral.  Cards are the lifeblood to your business or brand.

However, it’s never been more important to consider WHAT your card looks like and HOW it represents you.  Everything from your card’s colors, to the font, text size and what the card is actually made of – are all equally important and should be carefully assessed.

Simply being “professional” is no longer enough.  Personal businesses and the rise of individual brands have flooded the market with competition – you need to stand out.  Your card should reflect your personality, your goals, your interests, your selling points, your creativity – it should be a small consolidated reflection of YOU.

For example, I did a google search and found this card belonging to one Andy Wilson:

What does this card say about Mr. Wilson?  In short, that he’s a boring, black and white individual who likely has no particular personality or creativity and just sort of goes with the flow (in this case, whatever Microsoft tells him).  This is not an individual I would hire for any of my projects.

But what about the actual function?  Cards are meant to convey tangible information as well – specifically your name and contact information.  Why then would you make that information microscopic?!  Often times I’m sitting at arms length from a newly acquired stack of cards, and its annoying to have to hold the damn thing up close to my face just to read it.  Microsoft, and by association Andy Wilson, apparently aren’t anxious for you to contact them.

Does your existing business card look like Andy’s?  If so, start thinking about what you can do to change it.  Here is a great list of innovative and unique business cards to help inspire you.

While it likely won’t go down in any history books of authority, and many will laugh at even the thought of it, today something monumental happened. MTV has canceled it’s long running program Total Request Live, better known as TRL.

Immediately, you ask “why is this important?” TRL represented the height of late 90s “old media promotion strategy” where a hip, youth-oriented program is created and quickly deployed to reach critical viewer mass. That program is then exploited by any major entertainment player to promote their latest release, and kids flock to the store or theater that week to buy it. Advertisers fill in the gaps by pumping their teen products into the commercial breaks and PRESTO!…everyone makes money. It was all too easy…so much so that copycat programs popped up everywhere, stealing the same format and production values.

Every entertainment “big shot” took those millions of young eyeballs for granted – assumed they would always be there, all focused on the same singular promotional vehicle. No longer.

As we mark the fall of the last remnant of this once mighty strategy, it is truly fascinating to consider how much has changed. The 12-25 demographic has since become a group forged in the fires of abundant choice and daily technological evolutions. Instead of “one network to rule them all,” they are “all with networks from which to rule.” In order to market to this group, you have to go to them. They will not come to you. Let me repeat that, they will NOT COME TO YOU. There isn’t a network sticky enough to re-acquire the ratings TRL once boasted. However, should you reach them, there’s little guarantee your message will even matter. Simply being “mainstream” or “#1 on the charts” or a “fresh new brand” doesn’t have the pull it once had.

This is the business world we now live in, and as today’s teens become tomorrow’s baby boomer – their consumer habits WON’T go away. Brand strategists and marketers HAVE to pick up their game in order to compete. This means having a profile on every social network in existence, ceating campaigns that are experiences – not messages, and conducting focus groups on a weekly basis to see what kids find important and interesting. It means actively using the sames tools they use, to understand their world through THEIR eyes. Armed with this information you stand a fighting chance.

So celebrate the fall of TRL, but take a moment to truly appreciate what has taken its place. The world is now a LOT more complicated.