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    Author Archives: Michael Endy

    Associate Creative Director/Copy

    Michael Endy, Associate Creative Director/Copy

    Michael leads JPL’s team of in-house and freelance copywriters, and provides content, messaging and creative concepts for integrated communications programs and campaigns. Beginning in 1991 as a writer, producer and director, Michael has helped hundreds of JPL clients use media creatively to accomplish their goals. He has worked as a television producer, theatrical director, college professor and PR consultant. Michael is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, with an MFA from Catholic University in Washington, DC.

    An Artful Approach to Marketing

    Michael Endy

    We’re exposed to thousands of informational messages every day. As marketers, how do we get our targets to see, hear and remember what we want to say? One way to cut through the clutter is to take the path followed by great artists: simplify, reduce and focus. Too often, we try to say too much. [...]
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    Sustaining the Season of Wonder

    Michael Endy

    The December holidays are a time of wonder. The anticipation, the lights and the warmth of the season create a special magic we don’t see the rest of the year. It’s in the lights that decorate our homes, the Hanukkah candles flickering in the window, and the bright eyes of children peeking out from coats [...]
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    Make it Easy for the Reader

    Michael Endy

    In the classic text, The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr. pleads for simplicity and clarity in language. It’s a noble crusade and one we should all join. As marketers, it’s our job to help our readers – our target audiences – clearly understand our messages. Normally, we write in language that’s familiar to our [...]
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    Beyond Digital

    Michael Endy

    It’s easy to immerse ourselves in the comforting clarity of ones and zeroes. After all, the outside world is ambiguous. Its infinite gray scale is hard to pin down. But the world isn’t digital. And the insights we need as marketers don’t always come from a computer. The world sometimes seems digital. Facebook has 3 [...]
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    Attract Your Target with Content Marketing

    Michael Endy

    All over the web, users seek information: “I want what I want and I want it now.” To attract the right target audience, we need content that’s interesting to them. And that doesn’t always mean information about our products and services. We turn on a TV program or open a magazine because we’re interested in [...]
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    Creating the Perception of Value

    Michael Endy

    Most of us depend on getting paid for the work we do. Our clients, customers and employers appreciate the products and services we provide, and pay us for them. But what’s our work really worth? Ultimately, who creates the value? Do we determine the value of our products and services? Do they have inherent value? [...]
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    Five Keys to Connecting with Employees

    Michael Endy

    Professional communicators and marketers often struggle when talking to internal audiences. Our job is to communicate the organization’s message. We sometimes assume that employees are a dedicated group of people, hungry for information from higher up. That assumption can get us into a lot of trouble. Here are a few ideas that may help:
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    Negative Ads: Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Loss

    Michael Endy

    We made it! We have been released from the torrent of negative political ads that poisoned our airwaves from coast to coast. Actually, it’s worse than that. Negative advertising taints our faith in government. When candidates and their supporters stretch, mangle and spin the truth to justify outrageous claims against their opponents, there are no [...]
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    Selling Fear

    Michael Endy

    What are you afraid of? Losing your job? Becoming insignificant? Facing something you’ve never done before? Falling out of (or in) love? Threats to your family’s safety? Becoming old and alone? Read that paragraph again. Most of us have a strong emotional reaction to those threats. That reaction causes physical changes. Our pupils dilate a [...]
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    Marketing Lessons from the World Cup

    Michael Endy

    The biggest sporting event on earth – the World Cup – reveals two distinctly different approaches to soccer: the German style, with its tight structure, strong defense, short passes and low risk; and the Latin style, which is much more individual, free-wheeling and creative, but susceptible to dangerous counter attacks. Maybe I need to get [...]
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