Brave Noob World
June 29, 2008
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A geophysical survey of the World of Warcraft…
Ride The City
June 28, 2008
Though it’s arguably inferior to many European cities, New York does have a growing network of relatively safe bike lanes (thanks largely in part to Mayor Mike). “Ride the City”, currently in beta form, is a site launched earlier this month to help aid the process.
The blurb on the site explains: “The concept is pretty simple. Just like MapQuest, Google, Microsoft, and other mapping programs, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points. But there are two major differences. First, RTC excludes roads that aren’t meant for biking, like the BQE and the Queens Midtown tunnel. Second, RTC tries to locate routes that maximize the use of bike lanes and greenways.”
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Danish Icelandic artist Olafur Eliassons Waterfalls are all spigots finally a-go, this $15 million dollar environmental installation project is set to launch on the banks of NYC’s East River and NY Harbor this Thursday, June 26.
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The strategy was to entice travelers on the European continent with a vision of “New London” and make it “the place to be.” To do so, Eurostar created its own media called Newlondon.fr, an interactive web platform divided into two sections: NLTV and YPES
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Ravensburger, a German puzzle-maker created what appeared to be giant boxes of puzzles around Berlin. They were placed at construction sites with the rubble from the demolition at the foot of the boxes looking like larger-than-life pieces of the puzzle
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Evan Wright’s excellent book about the invasion of Iraq … I hope the film lives up to it.
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Its HR department in NY has set up a flat-screen TV that flashes offenders’ photos with a message that reads, “I haven’t done my timesheet in x weeks.” An agency rep said the tactic is paying off, with some more diligence on the part of the offenders.
JWT’s Mad Men
June 27, 2008
I came across an article in AdWeek: “JWT this week said that it would run a brand spot on the upcoming release of the Mad Men DVD set, featuring creative that spells out the words “mad men” using letters and logos from the ad agency’s global client roster. The spot, which carries the tagline, “Making brands famous since 1864,” appears at the outset of the first disc in a four-disc set produced by Lionsgate.” You can see the ad here.
JWT’s global CEO Bob Jeffrey gave a rather flabby explanation as to the rationale, objectives and success metrics surrounding this effort: “This is an opportunity for us to leverage our brand,” he said. “All I’m looking for is a nod of the head and recognition for what JWT is… The show has drawn audience of both consumers and industry people, giving JWT a platform that is hard to refuse”, he added.
“Leverage our brand” … “nod of the head” … “consumers and industry people”. Well, I will forgive Bob for having been away from the sharp end of writing business presentations, but … really.
Bob continues: “I always thought that the best way to build an agency is through the work it does for its clients, but this was a different kind of opportunity because of the nature and the content of the show.”
“A different kind of opportunity”. OK.
I guess I have two “issues” with this effort:
1. Why would JWT – long thought of as a dinosaur (or pre-digital anachronism) and only recently reinventing itself as an Agency for the new era (Digitivity Deep Dive Days and all) – want to associate itself with the “good old days of” the 1960s? It seems that, rather than embracing the new landscape, JWT rejects 2008 as dystopic, and would like instead to travel back in time to the old utopia of the 1960s. I might give them a pass on this as wanting to celebrate their heritage, but still think that attaching themselves to that specific era is an odd move.
2. Maybe I am being a tedious comms planner here, but isn’t using mass-market DVDs to reach the marketing community a teensy bit wasteful? As Booz Allen’s Chris Vollmer says: “It suggests that some of the people watching these DVDs must be important influencers somewhere” He also notes “It’s an industry play rather than a consumer play, because I can’t see how it would make sense to a consumer.”
“Some” of the people who will watch are “Influencers”. Hmm. So, assuming JWT paid market rate for this, whichever bright spark at JWT that came up with this idea had to present the budget for approval, look his superior unblinkingly in the eye and say “Probably less that 1% of those who see this will be our target audience”. So: take whatever JWT paid for this, multiply it by .99 and that is how much money they wasted.
And DVDs? Who buys them any more? I thought we all downloaded these days?
I am not the only one who is perplexed. Says Simon Sinek, CEO of SinekPartners: “It sounds like someone reacting to an opportunity to me, and in doing so, JWT is acting like one of their own worst clients”. Steve Hall at AdRants, whose headlines I always enjoy, wrote the immortal line “JWT Uses ‘Mad Men’ DVD Set to Wank Off”. No comment!
If there was a cleverly thought out play to “insert JWT in the national dialogue” (or similar) surrounding this effort, then I can see a glimmer of hope. And if I have missed anything any key points here, in the unlikely event anyone at JWT reads this and would care to enlighten me, please don’t hesitate!
Welcome back to .mac
June 27, 2008
I have had a few .mac accounts over the years … I think I balked at the annual charge, confusing architecture and slow connections and went with gmail instead. I am just now signing up again for my umpteenth iChat account (only so I can be sent large files too big for email).
So I grumblingly filled in my personal details, made a wry face at the “60 day trial” and settled for a – frankly – uninspiring iChat moniker. Then, in an inauspicious start to my Friday morning … this happened:
d’Oh!
Serious point though, apart from my own tightfisted feelings about $100 (or whatever it is these days) being too much for an email+ account, surely it would be an excellent advocacy-building tactic to give all Mac owners a .mac address free? Maybe charge for the extra services? Just a thought…
Conversation, Voyeur, iCycle, The Cloud, Spore, Moo
June 26, 2008
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In a recent study it was found that, yes, some people do actually want to “have a conversation” with a brand. The study found Consumers not only want to talk to brands, they want to establish a conversation: 55% of consumers want an ongoing dialogue. Maybe Joseph Jaffe is on to something after all …
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Last week in Cannes, BBDO’s campaign for HBO brought home a lot of hardware. Now “Voyeur” is offering a tense look inside the often uncomfortable relationships between ad agencies and digital specialists when it comes to the question of who takes credit.
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PUMA have just released a series of short films exploring bike culture. Produced by Daniel Leeb , the I-Cycle Film Series consists of five videos documenting 5 different influencers and the contributions they’ve made to the bike community.
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“The Cloud” is a new project from MIT’s Experience Lab. It’s a megalithic sculpture for the modern age that responds to human touch and proximity. Located in Florence, The Cloud can vividly express “emotion and behaviors” using light and sound
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Virgin America’s designer Jesse McMillin has collaborated with Sir Richard Branson himself to create a custom character for the new EA videogame Spore. They developed a “carbon-offsetting” creature (sounds riveting)
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Richard Moross started Moo because he was bored with the standard business cards out there, but now his 4-year-old startup is entering the world of the boring head on. Next week, Moo will start selling its own standard-sized business cards.
Visa v Facebook, Bogusky v Microsoft, YourDay, The Something Store, Google Ad Planner, Top Digital Brands
June 25, 2008
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Interesting idea from Visa and FB geared toward small businesses. The idea is to give $100 ad credits to 20,000 small business, and let them target the hell out of their ads… then show them results and then sign them up as paying customers.
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Alex Bogusky built the country’s slickest ad shop using Apple products. His next challenge: Persuade people like him to buy Microsoft’s stuff. “He looked like Jesus,” confesses a staffer, talking about her boss, Alex Bogusky, the man who built CP+B
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“YourDay is the next generation in video souvenirs. If you’ve ever wanted to star in your own movie, now’s your chanc. Next time you visit Alton Towers, you can take home a unique personalised movie featuring you and your friends and family”.
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In what’s probably one of the easiest e-commerce transactions ever, visitors to the site simply log on and for $10 (including shipping), opt in to purchase something. A randomly selected item will ultimately show up in the buyer’s mailbox seven days later
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Google unveiled Ad Planner, a free media-planning tool.
“Simply enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites that your audience is likely to visit,” says the Google blog. -
Joe Crump presented “Digital Darwinism” at the Cannes International Advertising Festival on June 21. This is his final presentation courtesy of SlideShare. The top 10 digital brands were defined using the Razorfish proprietary Brand Genes Scoreboard.
Hugh Laurie and the Burger King Gold Card “Freakout”
June 25, 2008
Burger King got a deluge of publicity after an interview with “House” star Hugh Laurie, who told the Times his celebrity perks include getting good tables and his “Burger King gold card.” (I assume he was joking, and that the irony got lost somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic). There’s one hitch, however: He doesn’t actually have one…
Now: I confess I knew naught of these cards, but some light Googling reveals that Jay Leno is also in possession of this Burger King Gold Card, and that possession of said card entitles one to an almost limitless supply of free burgers. (Ugh!)
Jay Leno recounts the reaction he received the first time he slapped his BK Gold on the counter: “So I order my food, and the guy says, ‘That’s $11.’ So I say: ‘Fine, here you go,’ and hand him the card. His reaction was amazing: ‘Whoa… where’d you get this?’ He was not impressed that I was on ‘The Tonight Show’ or even that I was driving a Porsche Carrera GT. He was more impressed with this piece of plastic.“
Says the Times: “Those with a Burger King Gold Card are the new Bilderberg Group; the new illuminati… This is the pinnacle. The sesame-seed bunicle. These are the Burger King of Kings.” Somewhat purple, but maybe this serendipitous aside may do for the card what Sideways did for Pinot Noir…
JC Penney Teenage Sex, Obama’s Cybergenics, Naked Cowboy, Jonas borthers, Per Se, CokeTag
June 24, 2008
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The retailer is reportedly aghast about a clip, most likely created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the retailer’s ad agency, which is about to become YouTube’s most popular clip.You see, it suggests that teenagers may have sex and that Penney endorses the idea…
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Ever since a youthful JFK bested Nixon in the 1960 TV debates, it has been axiomatic that successful candidates must be “mediagenic”. Now, candidates must also be “cybergenic” — able to surf, blog, IM and twitter their way into the hearts of “netizens.”
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The $6 million lawsuit filed by the New York City street performer known as The Naked Cowboy against M&Ms candy maker Mars Inc can go forward on grounds of trademark infringement, a judge ruled on Monday.
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The Jonas Brothers, a New Jersey band, tapped social network Bebo and Kyte, a digital content production firm, to promote its UK debut. The campaign includes a Bebo-exclusive contest. Fans may enter to win a private bus tour around London with the band.
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I was fortunate to dine at Per Se last night, as a guest of the Channel 4 UK Sales team. I have to say the food was spectacular.
- Coke Launches CokeTag Facebook App With Olympic Tie-In
- A CokeTag is a personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.
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John Dodds spots this bit of fun on the receipt for the White Cube art gallery in London. John says: Pricing is difficult. White Cube demonstrates the importance of identifying with your customer while relieving them of large sums of money.
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As you will see, branding really is like dating. It requires a work, truth, self-confidence, and growth. Here are the 7 steps that Marcus outlined for “successful packaging design.”
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Holding a full-size Smart Car, the faux vending machine has two choices (coupe and cabrio), and a convenient slot to insert the amount you need (about $20k). This is a concept only, but fits nicely into the Japanese love for vending machines.
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German mobile solution developer Haase & Martin has introduced their version of text-to-screen they call the SMS ChatWall, which they call the ultimate text-message entertainment tool for large gatherings and events.
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Henry John Heinz said “to do a common thing uncommonly well brings success,” and Heinz Ketchup is apparent proof of that maxim, ranking consistently among top brands in Harris Interactive’s brand-equity study – and claiming the No. 1 equity score in
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As we approach the looming Facebook Profile Redesign, Inside Facebook has listed the top 50 Facebook applications by daily active user count, roughly categorizing them by type and, in cases like Bumper Sticker and Owned, listing the parent company.
