This week’s blog is about the universe, somehow, providing what you need…usually through that little search engine that we all know and love. It’s been a busy couple of days here at the Mowalla homestead in Chicago, we’ve been prepping for some heavy client meetings and have been pressed to come up with some creative solutions for complex problems (standard stuff for us really, but it seems when it rains it pours). I digress…

Anyway, we’ve been researching monogramming and personalization and coming up with some hairbrained ideas on the subject. I thought there wouldn’t be a manufacturer out there that would be willing to take on the task of customizing a machine to the things we need it to do. I spent a few days drawing out the design of said machine, harking back to the days when I used to smash pennies into Empire State Buildings while visiting New York City. I then sat down to Google some manufacturers that might be able to pull the job off (yes, I just used Google as a verb). Things were looking a little scary there for a while, and I was certainly calling some rather industrial places with amateur questions about archaic technology.

After an entire day of searching, I had not found what I wanted and was a little disillusioned. I decided to take the night off and come back the following morning resolute. I will find what I’m looking for and I will find it today (or hopefully by presentation time).  I started to Google. Images of heavy equipment and lengthy URLs flooded my eyes. Things started to blur together, until at a shining moment of clarity I saw it- it being an image of a Labrador retriever with glasses making its own pet tag. I believe he was even wearing a coat and tie (he must mean business). A light turned on inside my head when I clicked on the Lab. There it was- a portable, multifunctional monogram maker capable of emblazing custom messages on any number of materials. I think I might have shed a tear. My confidence in the idea we were pitching galvanized. I quickly called the 800 number to get all the details.

Why you say, is this blog worthy? It’s really only half a story, but I think the existential idea behind it is important to any creative or marketer. The knowledge that you are a) not crazy and b) someone has thought about your idea enough to manufacture a machine to make it and is selling it on the internet should bring great comfort. Here was Google telling me that my greatest hopes and dreams can come true, and for free. The moment wasn’t lost on me at a time when a lot of things in our industry have been on the downswing. Today, Google delivered me a dose of confidence that I greatly needed and appreciated. I wonder if it does this for other people? Why don’t you give it a whirl…to paraphrase Kevin Costner, if you can dream it…It’s on Google.

Cheers and Happy Friday,

-          Mowalla Chicago