World Advertising News

Advertising at a national level is expensive. Trying to sell yourself to everyone is exhausting. I've spent the last five years using my marketing background, to be more strategic in my dating adventures. Instead of talking to as many people as possible only to find that they had a girlfriend or were married, I now do research before making a move.

I started choosing places and events based on where I thought single guys would be, like out for the Blackhawks Stanley Cup games, Cubs Opening Day, etc. And I wasn't surprised when I didn't meet anyone at the New Kids on the Block concert. I don't make all of my plans based on meeting someone, but when there's an opportunity to try, I'm better prepared for it.

For example, when going out on Valentine's Day, you need to be strategic. One of my favorite events back in the day was the Screw You Cupid Pub Crawl. While I wasn't actually anti-Valentine's Day, it was fun to be around all of those single people, and I usually walked away with a date. Oh, how much easier it was when I was in my 20s.

This year, I went to a professional tennis match just because I love tennis, but also because I thought Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick were playing. Now that would've been an awesome Valentine's Day. I wasn't sure what to expect as far as the crowd at tennis match on V Day, but I brought a girl friend just to make sure I didn't give off a "couple" vibe while I was there. When she went to the concession stand in between matches, the father and son that were sitting near us started talking to me about tennis and ended with the dad asking if I was here with my boyfriend followed by one of my favorite questions:

"How old are you?"

"I'm 38," I responded.

"Oh, we were way off."

And that was the end of the conversation. I'm still not sure if that was a compliment or an insult as I was clearly too old for the son and a bit too young for the dad. But they supported my theory that you are more approachable when you sit by yourself. So there's that.

Before the event, my friend and I went to dinner where the Fish Bowl, which serves 4, was on special. Of course I ordered that.

After failing to make a dent in the drink, the waiter came back and said I started a trend as people started ordering the fish bowls. He said, "everyone noticed you." But when I looked around, it was all couples that were sharing the straws like the spaghetti scene from "Lady and the Tramp". I think he meant, "They noticed yours", and I'm surprised one of those couples didn't come over and yank mine away.

So this week is inspired by Seth Godin's advice to find that great idea and get others on board to spread the message and Marie Forleo's advice to develop your positive characteristics and embrace your unique qualities. I travel a lot for work, but instead of taking the national advertising approach to meet someone across the country (again, which is expensive and exhausting), I need to get my friends on board with my message.

This week's challenge is to get at least one of my friends to set me up on a date. I want them to pick someone who would be a good match, not just pick a guy because he's also single. In order to make this happen, I need to make sure they know what makes me unique, and hopefully they also know enough about their single friends to make a match. Or that they even have any single friends.

I think this could work after my encounter last weekend with the woman from my hometown who tried to set me up with her son at my brother's funeral. She said she admired me for moving back home to help take care of my brother and she wished her son would find someone who would take care of him too. She saw me as someone who could "solve a problem", which is what every sale is contingent on. Their word-of-mouth advertising will go a long way. Now I just need my friends to find some buyers!