"For 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the strip hosts the most violent competition in business" Steve Wynn

Retail is rich with metaphor. I will admit a rabid fascination and deep respect for retail. Back in the day Kevin Sweeney would conduct sales training on Saturdays and Sundays. The fun part of Sundays with Kevin was going through the Sunday papers looking at ads and then going shopping. We once "shopped" the junior department at Marshall Field in search of what was and was not "happening"(That evaluation got us an appointment with the top execs at Field's but no order). Great lessons in marketing (and in retail selling) would follow back in the conference room where Kevin would opine on what we had not seen.

Is Bartolotta the finest Italian restaurant in America? My vote would go to Marc Vetri and crew at Vetri in Philadelphia, however, Paul Bartolotta's room at Wynn Las Vegas is my new second place winner. The room is beautiful, the service is exceptional, the food is amazing...everything is crisp and fresh. "Multa bene" as my friend Commander Larry Glick would say. One of the lessons of Wynn Las Vegas is what is not outside - no volcano, no theater on the boat, no dancing waters, no attraction whatever viewed from the street. This time the brilliant Mr Wynn has taken the adventure inside and this time around he has bested his best.
A trip to Wynn Las Vegas and a careful study of what is and is not happening offers perhaps one of the best clinics on marketing that money can buy. This is graduate level homework.

Bravo to David Hinckley who correctly credits talk on commercial FM radio with two big wins in the city, second and third in PM drive. No music on a music station? Listen for what's not there. Big picture here.

Kottke shares his best links of 2005 - Bravo! - check em out here

Jaffe reviews the bidding on Super Bowl ads here