15 ideas

Nice Marketing, Nike

2011-10-15T08:33:00.008-05:00

Today, as both my regular readers know, the Beloved Spartans of Michigan State are taking on the Wolverines of Michigan. The Spartans are debuting their new Nike Pro-Combat uniforms. I've noticed the uniforms have some of the same qualities we look for in marketing ideas. Two examples:

1. What Assets Are You Using/Creating?

What's ownably yours? A character? A look? A voice or tone? An outlook on life? Are you creating a phrase, or a language, or a unique way to say something ordinary? Does this campaign or idea give you an asset you can use next year, and the year after that? Here's one way to measure it: Could someone parody your idea? If so, would people recognize it as yours? If not, it probably needs more work.

For Michigan State, Nike has inscribed onto the uniforms the ancient Greek phrase "Molon Labe" which means, "Come and take them." As you may recall, King Leonidas used this phrase in response to the Persian army's demand that the Spartans surrender. It seems like a small element, but it's the one element that's already been used (and mocked) in conversations about the uniforms. I'm guessing it will be repeated by the announcers at today's game as well.

2. How Will People Participate?

Are you giving people the opportunity to do something? Participation could be small ("Click here") or big ("Let's come together, march to DC, and burn down the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture*"). Audiences don't expect to be passive spectators anymore, which is wonderful. How is your idea taking advantage of this?

For the Spartan uniform (and other schools as well), Nike has created a glove design that only works when hands are held together. It basically turned a piece of clothing into a performance prop. Looking at audience shots of Michigan State fans, it's already proven to be a smart call.

* This is just an example, not an order.

Reducing Cultural Snobbery

2011-10-08T13:37:00.007-05:00

Earlier this week, I was on a panel discussion at the Advertising Community Shorts Night. One of the questions our panel was asked is, "What do you find inspiring?" Naturally, I brought up the Marilyn Monroe statue in Chicago.

I brought it up not because it's a well-crafted, culturally relevant piece of art. (Though clearly it is.) I brought it up because these days, I find how people react to be even more inspiring and insightful than the actual item or event they're reacting to.

Go on - put your good taste aside and hang out amid the crowd there. You'll see people taking pictures, hear them exchange incorrect information ("I think Marilyn Monroe was from around here"), and watch them make special stops on their way to or from the airport, suitcases in hand.

The fact that the statue is awful doesn't matter. The fact that people are going out of their way to visit the statue (and yes, look up at her gigantic metallic underwear) is what's valuable.

Knowing what people react to, how they behave, what information they exchange - that's really valuable. No matter what brings it out.

Ace Indeed

2011-10-01T10:00:00.010-05:00

I've spent a few nights in the Ace Hotel in New York this summer, and it's quickly become my favorite stop in the city. I like the "gifts" they leave in the rooms. (Sometimes, it's a guitar; other times, it's an Air Mac, or discounts to the lobby restaurant.) But I really like the wayfinding, collateral, and signage. Well-done.

It Really Is The End Of The World As We Know It

2011-09-22T07:57:00.005-05:00

Today marks my 15 year wedding anniversary. To mark this occasion, my longtime favorite band, R.E.M. has just announced they're breaking up. I'm not sure why they thought it was an appropriate anniversary gift, but I've come to accept that some people just lack social graces.

On our wedding day, our first dance was to the song "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." It suited the moment perfectly.

I of course loved their music. Even more, I loved the fact that they shared songwriting credit (and thus, revenue) for every song they wrote. No matter who did what, everyone received equal credit. I love that idea. Whether you're in a band. Or an ad agency.

Oh, NOW You Join Foursquare...

2011-09-18T08:38:00.006-05:00

A little under a year ago, we created the Foursquarian Candidate. Here, real-life mayoral candidates in Chicago could become mayor on a designated location on foursquare, endearing themselves to younger, digitally savvy voters in the process. A lot of people played along, but the man who went on to win the election, Rahm Emanuel, never did.

Until now.

As Mashable reported today, Rahm is now on foursquare, using the geo-locational network to in order to "leverage new technologies to celebrate Chicago’s diversity and drive interest in small businesses.”

Can we take credit for spurring the mayor into action? Yes we can. We can take full credit, in fact. Rahm, just let us know when you need other ideas. We have a few.

Check out the project video here:

The Zappos Visit

2011-08-16T04:40:00.010-05:00

Last week, as part of the Creative Social in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to tour Zappos. As you likely know, Zappos is widely praised for its customer service and work environment (recently being voted #6 in the country by CNN Money).

My personal experience with Zappos has been impressive. For example, upon hearing the company had created a book on its culture, I shot a note to their CEO, Tony Hsieh, asking where I could get a copy. I heard back from Tony within an hour, and the book was on my doorstep within 2 days. So yeah, impressive.

Wandering through the headquarters in Not Las Vegas (that's a default name for most cities in Nevada), I saw a lot of cultural touchpoints that clearly feed into the way they service customers. The call center has no scripts, and one customer's call once lasted 8 hours. (If you think that's BS, call them. Seriously, about anything. 1-800-927-7671.) I saw the CEO's desk, which was set amid all the other workers' desks. They have a person on staff who helps employees achieve their goals - whether they be professional or personal. And there was signage all over the walls celebrating the Core Value of the Month.

In short, there were plenty of things to love. But something interesting happened by the end of the tour.

As we went from section to section, each department had their own way to greet us as we walked by. Some rang bells, some sang, some insisted we scan a QR Code before putting on their chicken masks. (I assume you think I'm kidding here, which is why I've included this picture. Apologies for doubting me are now being accepted.)

And the longer it went on, it felt like we were journalists on a government-sponsored tour of North Korea. That is, it felt like a front. It felt like everyone who worked there feared becoming Joanna from Office Space. (If you have better things to do with your life than memorize Office Space, the relevant scene can be viewed here.)

The fact is, Zappos still delivers remarkable customer service. We were treated most kindly. And I'm told their merchandise is great too, though being the fashion unconscious person I am, I can't confirm that.

But as we left the headquarters, we left with the belief that some companies, like some family members, are best admired from a distance.

Being Creatively Social

2011-08-06T03:26:00.006-05:00

Heading off to Las Vegas tomorrow, to join in on the 14th edition of Creative Social. Creative Social is a global digital collective, started by Daniele Fiandaca (@yellif) and Mark Chalmers. The Creative Socials are small 2-day gatherings of insanely impressive digital artists and practitioners from around the world. We take company tours, we listen to speakers, we figure out how to right all the wrongs of the world. Looking at the list of attendees, I expect to be intimidated frequently.

Personally, I can't wait.

The 3six5 Project

2011-08-01T04:15:00.007-05:00

I do love creating side projects, but it's nice to participate in someone else's for a change. Such is the case with the 3six5 Project.

The 3six5 Project was the brainchild of a couple local super-tweeters, @lenkendall and @danielhonigman. The premise is simple: Each day for a year, get a different person to write about his or her experience during the day. 365 days, 365 points of view. Good stuff.

They're doing a national edition (authors can apply here) as well as a Chicago only edition. I contributed to the Chicago edition yesterday. The personal nature of the project seemed to lead to an unusually personal post. You can read it here if you'd like.

Thanks, Len & Daniel.

Make News, Not Ads

2011-07-27T17:34:00.007-05:00

I saw a great ad headline in the paper today. Of course, it isn't actually an ad headline. It's an article headline. And that's what makes it great.

The line is, "Fake IDs For Underage Are Just A Click Away" and the article is about Chinese websites that are selling fake IDs to teens in the US.

Now, if you saw an ad with the headline "Fake IDs For Underage Are Just A Click Away" you wouldn't give it a second thought. But it's an article, from a mainstream newspaper no less. Because of that, the story about these websites was picked up by dozens of news outlets across the continent. And thousands of teens now know exactly where to go for fake IDs.

Right or wrong, people are more likely to pay attention to articles than the surrounding ads. Which explains why we spend a lot less time making ads, and a lot more time creating ideas that make news.

An open letter to the people of Cannes:

2011-06-24T09:16:00.005-05:00

Sorry about the mess.

Sincerely,

Kevin

Welcome, Carlos Segura

2011-06-21T08:42:00.006-05:00

Our agency has an inspiring speaker series, Creative Salon, which has seen the likes of Dan Sinker, Andrew Byrd, and Aaron Freeman. Today, we're hosting the famed Carlos Segura.

Carlos has his hand in a lot of companies (he co-founded 37signals, T26 Digital Type Foundry, and 5inch, among others) though he's most famous for his design company, Segura Inc. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Carlos years ago on a campaign for Hewitt, a global human resource consultant.

The campaign consisted of workers whose bodies were composed entirely of their inner thoughts, fears, and dreams. Like people in the real world, people in the ads had thoughts ranging from work-related ("The new copier isn't any faster than the older one") to the personal ("That gardening show was totally rigged. My petunias should've at least placed..."). Online, each thought in these people figures led to relevant information on the Hewitt website.

It was a joy to create the inner-psychology of these personas. And of course, a joy to work with Carlos. The Speaker Series is open to the public, so stop by if you can. 410 N. Michigan, 4pm.

Go Other Team!

2011-06-13T07:38:00.008-05:00

When I was a wee lad in this business, I was working at DDB, and in the midst of debating an idea that would potentially irk a few people. (Hard to imagine, but it's true.) We wondered whether it should run, and Keith Reinhard, who was the head DDB muckity muck at the time, resolved the debate with a simple observation: "Never underestimate the importance of enemies. They help you focus." Coming from an exceptionally nice guy like Keith, those words were surprising. And correct.

To this day, I find the most valuable part of a creative brief is where we identify the enemy. (Maybe it's a competitive product; maybe it's a cultural trend; maybe it's just apathy.)

I was reminded of the importance of enemies recently as I watched the NBA Finals featuring the oh-so-lovable LeBron James. Having an enemy in the NBA Finals helped ABC to its biggest summer audience in a decade.

I'm thinking it probably helped the Dallas Mavericks too.

Titles of Country Songs I've Been Meaning to Write, Part 1

2011-06-09T08:26:00.005-05:00

"I Kidnapped The Wrong Twin"

A Memorable Presentation

2011-05-10T07:24:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, Jim Cuno announced he was resigning from his role as director of the Art Institute of Chicago. Seeing Jim's name in the press reminded me of the first time I had the opportunity to present to him.

We were presenting the Red Cube Project, which was unlike any campaign the Art Institute had done previously. It involved placing 500 cubes around the city. The finder of each cube was given an art project to complete, and the best of these art projects were then featured in an exhibit in the Art Institute. There were also experiential, social media, and PR components, among others. What's more, it's the only idea we had brought, as all others paled in comparison.

Jim listened politely as we described the sequence of events that would unfold over 6 months, and when we finished, he turned to his marketing folks and said one simple sentence: "That's exactly what we should do."

So we did.

Thanks Jim, and best of luck out west.

Best Mother's Day Marketing

2011-05-08T20:06:00.006-05:00

Today, we celebrated Mother's Day by watching the Cubs at Wrigley Field. To mark the occasion, one of the beer vendors decided to market his product not as "beer" but as "last-minute Mother's Day presents." We fell for it. Multiple times.

Tax Day Can Mean Only One Thing...

2011-04-18T08:06:00.003-05:00

Happy Tax Extension Filing Day!

"Look Mom! I Almost Won!"

2011-04-17T07:31:00.009-05:00

I've been an interview junkie lately, and one thing I've noticed is the rise of creatives adding "shortlist" to their list of industry awards. As with all feedback you hear on the interview circuit, you should take this as one person's opinion, but here's my interpretation of making a short list:

Being shortlisted means you didn't win.

Bragging about being shortlisted is equivalent to bragging about winning a participation trophy in youth soccer. I understand why award shows do it - it allows a large percentage of agencies and staff to pat themselves on the backs and lets them all know they were thisclose to winning, so they'll enter even more next year.

I'd suggest you don't fall for it.

If you do even semi-decent work in this industry, someone somewhere will eventually hand you a shiny object of some sort. Personally, I'd recommend holding off your boasting until then.

Scarcity in the Land of Plenty

2011-04-05T22:18:00.006-05:00

When I was a wee tyke in Chicago, I would always hear of the mysterious Coors beer. At the time, Coors was only available west of the Mississippi River, which created an aura about the beer (not to mention a great storyline in the highly quotable movie Smokey and the Bandit).

Today, that "exclusive" aura is rare, since most products are available just about anywhere - if not in retail stores, then at least online.

Enter New Glarus.

New Glarus is a highly lauded Wisconsin brewery that, for 4 glorious years, sold its beer in Illinois. But thanks to a donnybrook over distribution rights (which would've cost the brewery a mere $20,000), New Glarus shut off distribution to one of its biggest, most passionate markets.

That was 9 years ago. Since then, New Glarus has become liquid gold here in Chicago - one of the most talked about and sought after beers around. Any friends visiting from Madison are told to bring along a case. And on weekends, people are trekking up toward Milwaukee to grab as much as their trunks can fit.

It's just one example that shows the value of scarcity continues to increase.

Recently, I had New Glarus' new beer, Stone Soup. It was phenomenal. I think it was the taste, but knowing it would be the only one I had for a while surely helped.

Actually, you're not.

2011-04-03T15:03:00.006-05:00

To Hell With What You Say

2011-03-31T05:27:00.006-05:00

I spend a considerable amount of time chastising brands that cave in at the slightest amount of backlash. So it's only fair to praise the ones who do the marketing equivalent of raising their middle finger to popular sentiment. These days, popular sentiment says food producers should create healthier meals in smaller portions. (Heck, even Lunchables offers fruit.)

Meanwhile at Taco Bell, they're rolling out their biggest burrito ever.

I realize this is the same parent company that gave us the Double Down Sandwich (two big pieces of greasy chicken separated by bacon and cheese). Maybe they're being defiant. Or maybe they just realize what people say is rarely in agreement with what they do.

How To Get Away With Making Jokes About Tibet

2011-03-30T15:28:00.006-05:00

One reason I wasn't particularly offended by Groupon's Super Bowl ad about Tibet is, it really wasn't offensive. But another reason I wasn't offended is, Groupon has a really good sense of humor, and it's harder to offend people if they know you're funny to begin with. (Gilbert Gottfried not withstanding.) A nice reminder of Groupon's sense of humor just arrived in my in-box. This morning, their daily discount email contained a bum link. This is how they apologized. It's hard to get (or stay) mad at a company that's self-effacing, charming, and funny.

More On Delighting People

2011-03-26T06:36:00.007-05:00

Tonight, I'm heading off to see one of my favorite bands, the Rural Alberta Advantage at a sold-out Lincoln Hall.

This will be the fourth time I saw them. The first time at Millennium Park was mentioned in a post 2 years ago. (Check the comments section of the post. Very funny follow-up.) The second was at Shubas, which was great. The third was also at Shubas, and it was sold out.

The problem was, I was one of the people who didn't have a ticket. So I wrote the band (whom I'd never met) explaining my dilemma and asking for a couple extras. I figured I had two things going for me: First, I know that some brands have figured out customers are worth delighting now & then, as mentioned in the Gary Vanderchuk post just below this one. Second, they're Canadian and damn, those people are nice.

Within a day, I'd heard from Amy, one of the band members, telling me I was on the list, to bring a friend, and to have a good time.

And I did.

I must've told the story to dozens of people, selling quite a few CDs in the process. This tour, I bought tickets right away - for myself as well as a few friends who've never seen them. And I've already ordered their new CD. (You can grab a couple free downloads here though I'd recommend bucking up for the whole thing.)

It's amazing what delighting people will do.

The Highlight of SXSW

2011-03-21T13:14:00.007-05:00

In what's become an annual tradition, my personal highlight of SXSW Interactive was (again) a session I didn't attend.

The session was by Gary Vanderchuk (the Wine Library, etc. guy) and it was about Gary's new book, The Thank You Economy. The Thank You Economy is about how the relationship between businesses and customers has fundamentally shifted, and how businesses have to start acting differently. I had read enough about the book to know what to have expected. It being SXSW, I decided to attend a different session about something I knew nothing about.

So here's what I missed:

I heard Gary was great (as expected), but more importantly I heard he greeted each and every attendee as they walked into the ballroom for the session. It's a big ballroom. That's a lot of people. Judging by the stories I've been hearing since, what Gary basically did was, he proved his point about the importance of making customers feel special even before his presentation began.

Brilliant. Brilliant, simple, and totally duplicatable.

People also told the story of how Gary gave away wine to everyone in the audience at the end, but mentally, I've blocked that part out. Keep in mind, I wasn't in attendance. There's only so much jealousy a fellow can take. Nice one, Gary.

Damn.

2011-03-18T20:03:00.009-05:00

Word came out today that the Chicago Sun-Times parted ways with longtime advertising/media critic Lewis Lazare. I for one am sorry to see Lewis go.

I know that's really easy for me to say. Lewis was more than kind to us when we had our shop, Hadrian's Wall. (I occasionally accused him of being more complimentary of our work than we deserved - and I meant it.) But it wasn't just us. He was more than kind to quite a few of the smaller shops in the city. Tom, Dick & Harry, TwoxFour, and Escape Pod, among others.

I don't know what leaders of those other agencies would say, but I always attributed our generous press from him to two things: 1) the work really was sometimes worthy of compliments; 2) we didn't BS him.

We didn't try to spin a story, or deny layoffs, or try to make a campaign sound better than it was. We did nice work, and we sent it out to people. Some people would like it, some wouldn't. (Insert shoulder shrug.) I always assume if our agency's work isn't getting the praise we want, it's not up to us to criticize the critics. It's up to us to do better work.

As an industry, we over-index on people who are willing to pat us on the back, hand us something shiny for the shelves, and tell us we have perfect teeth. I don't mind having a few people call it as they see it, even if I don't always agree.

Years ago, the city's other major daily, the Chicago Tribune, stopped covering marketing. Now, the Sun-Times has as well. We can cheer the loss of a critic all we want.

But as an industry, I'd much rather we be debated than ignored.

Wanted: Large metal objects

2011-03-17T15:37:00.008-05:00

Running around Austin earlier this week, I came around a corner and was struck by this sight:

It might not seem special to you. But it was a sight I hadn't seen in a while: Construction cranes on a city's skyline. For most of the last two decades, I'd taken sights like this for granted, as most of the cities I've lived in have been growing at a steady pace. But now, cranes are few and far between.

My initial reaction was, I think cities should just install a half dozen cranes on their skyline, as a way to market the city to potential investors and corporations looking for sweeter tax deals. Because cranes symbolize growth, new jobs, cities on the rise... That reaction was quickly followed by the realization that, like good marketing for a bad product, the promising image of a crane only gets you so far. Just ask Dubai.

If a guy attends SXSW and doesn't tweet about it, did he really attend?

2011-03-13T10:59:00.007-05:00

I'm back in Austin again for SXSW, but looking at my various social media accounts, you might not know it. And I got into a debate last night (and by "debate" I mean "fight") with someone who said I was doing SXSW all wrong.

This fellow contended that if you're not broadcasting everything you're seeing, hearing, doing, and learning at SXSW, you're underserving your network, as well as missing out on an opportunity to burnish your reputation as an expert in your field.

I respectfully disagreed (and by "respectfully" I mean "not respectfully"). My reasoning:

First, you see and hear a lot of obvious, shallow observations that frankly aren't worth being mentioned in the first place, much less retweeted. Here's an example of a series of tweets someone parroted from a SXSW session yesterday:

Tweet 1 - Metrics reduce arguments based on opinion.
Tweet 2 - Metrics give you answers about what works.
Tweet 3 - Metrics show you strengths as a designer.
Tweet 4 - Metrics allow you to test anything.

(For the record, I'm not making any of those up.)

Second, I think we're severely undervaluing thinking. That is, we're not giving ourselves time to process new ideas, create even more ideas from those, and think about how those ideas apply to clients or prospects or companies we want to launch. We don't take the time to think because we're too hellbent on merely repeating things said by others, because that's what we're "supposed" to do.

With only two blog readers and a couple dozen twitter followers, I'm clearly not under much pressure to please an audience. But even if I were, I'd still take the approach I'm taking.

Instead of putting everything I'm learning into tweets and status updates and blog posts, I'd rather put it into the work.

Blame Dan Sinker, Part 2

2011-02-28T21:54:00.005-06:00

Last September, I saw a great speaker at our agency's salon series. He talked about the benefits of side projects - a subject I'm somewhat familiar with. Hearing him speak inspired me to re-start this blog after 6 months away.

The post announcing the return was eerily titled "blame dan sinker."

I say eerily because Dan just outed himself as the man behind the brilliant Twitter account @MayorEmanuel.

The account was, tweet-for-tweet, one of the funniest I'd come across. What was particularly impressive, however, is the story arc he created, complete with character development and an addictingly great climactic ending that was accompanied by a massive real-life thunderclap. (Still not sure how he organized that.)

The reveal ended much speculation about the authorship - speculation that led a writer at the Chicago Tribune to guess it might've been me. Alas, all I can confess to is a huge amount of jealousy. Wonderful work, Dan.

i look forward to blaming you about something else soon.

And so how would you describe the core competency of your business?

2011-02-27T13:41:00.005-06:00

One of the best ads I've seen in a while

2011-02-24T07:55:00.006-06:00

Ok fine, fine. It's not an ad, per se. But it IS a nice reminder of how memorable and uplifting a simple, unexpected message can be.

I didn't see any others nearby, so I'm not sure if it's an ongoing series like Todd Lamb's rather delightful if overly instructional Notes From Chris. Nevertheless, it was a day brightener.

2011-02-22T14:17:00.004-06:00

I love the schizophrenia of my Twitter feed.

Super Bowl Commercials: What Offended You Most?

2011-02-07T09:58:00.016-06:00

"Liking" Super Bowl commercials is so 2010. This year, it's all about being offended. So which Super Bowl commercials sent you into a Twitter-fueled frenzy? Here are the top 3 Most Offensive Super Bowl Commercials of 2011:

VW - The Force
Who it offended most: Parents
Why? Parents today are throttling back from the ridiculousness of three-ring birthday parties and calling college professors to argue about their child's midterm grades. They're trying to set more realistic expectations for their child. So what does VW go and do? They let kids everywhere believe that, using only The Force, a child can start a car. In the process, they threaten to undermine years of sensible parenting. Nice, VW. Real nice.

Chrysler - Imported From Detroit
Who it offended most: Residents of Detroit
Why: By using the tagline "Imported from Detroit" this sends a message that Detroit is some sort of third-world country. So instead of comparing the new Chrysler 300 to other American-made cars like Mercedes and BMW, it's going to be compared to the Trabant out of East Germany. That kind of message is also bound to have a negative impact on tourism, considering only 37% of all Americans own a passport. I only visit Detroit on occasion, and I'm still offended.

Motorola - Empower The People
Who it offended most: Monks, The Polyphonic Spree, the robe industry
Why: Why are robes constantly being used as uniforms of conformity? Have we learned nothing from Hugh Hefner? By falling into this tired cliche, Motorola not only threatens its own credibility, it also threatens robe sales nationwide. Exactly how much is hard to say. I tried googling "sales of robes" and all I got were links to robe sales. At deep, deep discounts. On behalf of occasional robe wearers everywhere, Motorola, we're offended.

This can't possibly be what the Bacardi people had in mind

2011-01-30T18:06:00.004-06:00

The 2-Department Ad Agency

2011-01-25T04:11:00.005-06:00

I was chatting up a job candidate recently, and he asked how I viewed the technology department. Being a charts and graphs kind of guy by nature, I showed him this:

Titles and org charts be damned, there really are only 2 departments in an ad agency. There's the People-Who-Make-The-Work-Better Department, and there's the People-Who-Don't Department.

Members of each department are scattered throughout an organization, but it's still pretty easy to tell the difference.

The ones from the People-Who-Make-The-Work-Better Department don't really care what their role is - they'll find a way to contribute.

You'll see these people come up with an idea. (Yes, even if that's not technically what they're paid to do.) Or they'll identify a technology that could bring the idea to life. Maybe they'll understand the budget only covers X, but Y and Z would make the idea more effective, and they'll take it as a personal challenge to make it work. Maybe they'll find a line from the CEO's last earnings call that helps sell the idea. Or maybe they'll be fostering a trusting relationship by keeping projects on time and on budget (a totally underrated skill if ever there was one). Maybe they'll create an even better user experience than originally sold-in. Or maybe they're someone who had nothing to do with the idea, but they'll suggest something in the hallway that makes the idea even better.

Generally speaking, these people don't understand the word "no." They don't ask "if" an idea can be done, they ask "how" it can be done. And they don't stop until it is.

As for the folks from the People-Who-Don't Department, there are unfortunately a plethora of ways they can accomplish their goal. They can be territorial (as in, that's MY idea, or that's not MY responsibility). They can be negative ("The client won't buy that" or "That's not what they asked for"). Worst of all, they can be misleading - promising to get things done then simply not doing them. There are plenty of reasons something can't, shouldn't, or won't be done, and the People-Who-Don't Department members know all of them.

Also, they innately know when it's 5pm.

People who are making the work better come from all "official" departments in an agency. You can say this reflects the collaborative nature of how marketing is done these days. But this 2-department structure has existed for years, really.

What's changed (for the better) is, their contributions are even easier to identify.

my mom would hate this too

2011-01-19T21:48:00.009-06:00

Every once in a while, I like being on the other side of marketing. The side that's only kind of paying attention to the TV while surfing away, when a commercial grabs my attention, pulls me in, and best of all, makes it worth my while.

The TV spot is for Dead Space 2. And the URL, not surprisingly, is YourMomHatesThis.com. However when you visit the site, the campaign idea of shocked moms is left behind. Pretty disappointing, as that's what got my attention in the first place.

Sometimes, paying attention to marketing just isn't worth it.

a smart approach to giving

2011-01-17T10:27:00.008-06:00

Saw an interesting fundraising effort at an airport in Cairns, Queensland on behalf of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which brings healthcare services to rural parts of Australia.

As far as aesthetics go, it isn't much to look at. And the headline ("You can make a difference!") isn't likely to require someone expand their awards shelf. What makes it interesting, however, is the timeliness.

Cairns is a relatively small town that attracts a large percentage of international travelers, thanks to its close proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. So the solicitation isn't simply for money. Rather, they're asking for foreign currency, knowing much of its audience is likely finishing up an Australian holiday and looking to ditch some Aussie dollars.

Again, not the most earth-shattering idea in the world, but interesting enough to get my attention. And a few of my dollars as well.

for immediate release

2011-01-15T14:26:00.007-06:00

I just wanted to go on record officially as stating to suspicious friends and coworkers that i am NOT running the @MayorEmanuel twitter account. It's true we share a very similar vocabulary, as well as seemingly casual but secretly well thought-out plans to dominate the city. But that's where the similarities end.

I will have no further comment on the subject.

truth in wayfinding

2011-01-11T07:21:00.008-06:00

Please like me... Please?

2011-01-04T22:30:00.013-06:00

A good digital agency not only helps figure out what a brand should do online, but also what a brand SHOULDN'T do online. I was reminded of that during a recent trip.

As my expense reports can attest, traveling always means lots of magazine purchases. Or as I like to call them, "books." So as I loaded up at a store in O'Hare, I saw this note at the bottom of the receipt: "Become a fan of HMS Host on Facebook."

There are a couple strategic flaws to this.

1) I have no idea who HMS Host is. It's not the store's name. In fact, before reading the receipt, I'd never heard of the company.

2) I have no incentive to become a fan of HMS Host. Me and the store, we have a good, symbiotic relationship. I need magazines to read, the store needs people like me to buy them. I'm not sure we need to take this relationship any further.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way. Their account only has 694 likes. As far as social media feeds go, theirs isn't terrible. (Certainly a lot less self-serving than many brand accounts.) However, even if I followed them on Twitter or Facebook, it wouldn't make me go shopping at the airport more frequently, and the store experience isn't anything I'd share with friends. Not to mention, the bottom of a receipt isn't exactly the best place for a brand to introduce itself. So the question remains, what is HMS Host trying to achieve?

As all my fashionista friends say, just because they make the dress in your size doesn't mean you should wear it. Same with marketing: Just because a brand can be on Facebook and Twitter doesn't mean they should.

Free weekly social media schedule

2011-01-03T13:43:00.006-06:00

Still walking with a mental limp from the holiday break? Here's a little lagniappe to start the year: A free weekly Facebook editorial calendar for your brand. Just insert your product name into the following status updates and you're ready to go.

Status Updates for Week 1:
Monday - What's one word that describes how much you like PRODUCT NAME?
Tuesday - If PRODUCT NAME were to introduce a new flavor, what would it be?
Wednesday - What's the strangest place that you've enjoyed PRODUCT NAME?
Thursday - If the patent for PRODUCT NAME were up for bidding, how much would you pay?
Friday - Besides PRODUCT NAME, what's your favorite thing in the world? LOL LOL :)
Saturday - Where were you when you first remembered trying PRODUCT NAME?
Sunday - Don't forget to buy plenty of PRODUCT NAME this weekend!*

Status Updates for Week 2:
Repeat week 1.

* Enough of this conversation crap. Sell.

all hail the 1%

2011-01-01T17:39:00.011-06:00

It's said that over 85% of statistics are accurate, which is why I believe the 90/9/1 rule. That is, when it comes to online activity, 1% of all users create content, 9% comment on and share the content, and 90% are voyeurs, though they might not word it that way on their Match.com profiles.

So as we pull the plug on 2010, I'd like to thank the 1%. The people who seem to have waaaay too much time on their hands. To the people who saw this amazing shot of a Tiger Woods...
And noticed the goofy Cigar Guy...
And took the time to photoshop him onto a hundred heads or so.

To the people who saw the movie Up not as a great film, but as a bunch of parts just waiting to be remixed.

It is this small but powerful minority that makes our lives/jobs so fun. A sincere thank you to you all & happy new year.

perfection in bathroom signage

2010-12-19T11:57:00.012-06:00

how to tell when you're not in Kansas anymore

2010-12-14T19:29:00.007-06:00

Marketing McGyverism

2010-12-14T13:33:00.015-06:00

we're working on a campaign right now for Oxfam America (feel free to do your holiday shopping here). and i think the campaign serves as a nice example of how we marketing folk have all become like McGyver.

as you no doubt remember, McGyver was a TV show starring Richard Dean Anderson, who was kind of a poor man's David Hasselhoff, pre-drunk cheeseburger eating video. it was about a very resourceful special agent who, using only a swiss army knife and some duct tape, could derail an evil plot to destroy the world.

while we marketing folk might not be trying to save the world (if we are, no one told me...), we are required to be resourceful and use every asset we have at our disposal. which brings us to Oxfam.

the new campaign promotes their Unwrapped program - basically, you're able to "buy" friends and family members things like a goat. your friend gets a card, and the goat goes to someone who could really use a goat. technically, the campaign is a print and out of home assignment. but the brand has other assets too: appearances from celebrity ambassadors such as Scarlett Johansson and Minnie Driver; a robust existing social media network; some strong PR capabilities; and a healthy database of people who've previously donated.

the idea that brought all these components together is simple: let's treat gifts from Oxfam as this season's "it gift" like it's the latest line from Harrods or Barneys or other places where i never shop. and let's give it a semi-pretentious fashion name: The Oxfam Collection.

the idea created striking print ads, courtesy of director/photographer Nic D'Amico. and of course, every fashion line has a fashion designer behind it, so we created a fashion designer known as The Hidalgo, played by Chris Wylde. having a character behind The Collection created social media content for Oxfam's existing channels (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which featured "behind the scenes" footage of The Collection print shoot). and a fashion line is a subject Oxfam's celebrity ambassadors could naturally comment on. so their efforts are working in tandem with the campaign overall, not as a separate PR effort. the idea also took advantage of the healthy online debate about fashion. to connect with Oxfam's audience and fuel that conversation further, we created a "blogarazzi" - a seeding program of fashion-oriented blogs, each of whom gave away a goat to their respective audiences, and each of whom received exclusive content to feature on their blogs.

a pretty simple idea that does a nice job of pulling together and maximizing every asset the brand and audience has - all without the benefit of duct tape. McGyver would no doubt be proud.

things you can learn in 20 seconds

2010-12-12T20:39:00.008-06:00

last week, i had the honor of giving my first Pecha Kucha presentation and if you've been reading all the posts in chronological order, you know a Pecha Kucha presentation contains 20 slides, each shown for only 20 seconds.

the presentation went really well, thanks for asking. i rank it second to my best man speech at Bill & Lydia's wedding. (remember when the band member dropped the guitar right in the middle of it? so perfectly timed...) it even received a way-too-nice write-up from melissa harris at the Chicago Tribune.

but before moving on to the video, i thought it would be helpful to pass on a few lessons i learned, should you ever be talked into doing one yourself:

1) 20 seconds in Pecha Kucha time is much faster than 20 seconds in real time. it's even worse if you try to say "uh" 2-3 times per sentence, as i do. my recommendation is to write for 15-17 seconds. and practice out loud. in my head, the timing was perfect. out loud, my 6:40 presentation was coming in at around 7:10.

2) sometimes, #1 is not true at all. there will be at least 3-4 slides where you'll get through your copy before the slides turn. almost guaranteed, you'll be nervous and read too quickly. the seconds you're waiting for a slide to turn can crush the momentum you've built. keep some transitions in mind. or pick on someone in the audience. whatever passes the time.

3) it's a visual medium. the part that will make you most nervous is planning what you'll say, but you can take a lot of pressure off yourself by using your visuals to lead your story and letting your voice accentuate the visuals. take a look at the video - i'm not a small man, and yet the slides are still dominant.

4) your audience is ahead of you. people will read/look at your visuals and react long before you have a chance to explain them. you know how it is: the minute you pass out a presentation deck, your audience stops listening to you and starts flipping through it. same rule applies here - as soon as that visual is up on screen, the gig is up.

5) don't make your audience laugh. that's the one regret i have. i really think if people enjoyed the presentation less, my timings would've been even better and i wouldn't have missed any points.

oh well - next time. thanks Peter + Thorsten for the evening, and AG for the slides. enjoy.

attention consumers: please don't freak

2010-12-09T05:51:00.008-06:00

my dad used Old Spice, so i use Old Spice. it's the kind of brand decision that doesn't happen anymore - one brand loyalist passes their preference on to a new generation of brand loyalist.

i'd like to say my dad had the forethought to know that someday, this brand would be cool, but i think it was probably just on sale the first day he needed deodorant.

nevertheless, i managed to stay loyal through the dark years of the brand, when commercials featured a man who was a dead ringer for the captain from Captain & Tennille. this particular commercial not only had the captain, it also had someone oddly stalking the man and his date:

which brings us to this morning when i noticed the alert of a new package design coming. (it's a bit fuzzy - the sticker reads "NEW LOOK SOON!") brands have done this for years, but considering the overreaction people have to new package designs lately (see the abandoned redesigns from Gap and Michigan State from this blog; we'll throw in Tropicana as a free bonus), the alert takes on significant meaning.

here's to hoping consumers stay as cool as Isaiah Mustafa when the new design finally hits.

fun with the press

2010-12-01T07:57:00.004-06:00

one of the many ongoing challenges i have is to see how ridiculous of a quote i can work into media coverage. and while i've achieved some admirable ones, all mine pale in comparison to the one by andrew mason this morning. andrew is the CEO of Groupon, widely believed to be on the verge of being sold to Google. when asked about the deal by the New York Times, andrew said, "i will only talk if you want to talk about my other passion, building miniature dollhouses."

selling a company for a few billion dollars is nice, of course. but offering quotes about miniature dollhouses along the way? now that's impressive.

pronouncing pecha kucha

2010-11-27T08:03:00.008-06:00

i think one of the reasons people haven't gone to see a pecha kucha night is, "pecha kucha" is too damn tricky to say.

another reason, of course, is that people have never heard of pecha kucha. if you're one of them, here's a quick primer:

pecha kucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds, and you talk over the images. the images forward automatically, so there's no chance of a speaker babbling on longer. the format was created by a couple architects in Japan in 2003, and today, pecha kucha nights are held in 230 cities worldwide.

i've attended a few of these over the last several years, and really enjoyed them. so next week, i'm giving my first one at Pecha Kucha Chicago #16, and it would be so lovely if either of you readers attended.

it's next Tuesday evening, December 7th at Martyr's (3855 n. lincoln) starting at 8:20. pecha kucha nights regularly sell out, so i'd recommend getting your tickets soon. other speakers include word jazz guy ken nordine, huffington post writer jacqueline edelberg, and maybe a potential mayor or two. (no seriously.)

oh yeah, on to the pronunciation, lest you look like a rookie during your first pecha kucha night: the trick is to emphasize the "cha" syllable. the first time i attended one in chicago, host peter exley said, "the syllables of pecha kucha are said the same way you sing that Mah Na Mah Na song." i thought that was a good mnemonic. i looked for a video of the song, and came across the famous Muppets version first. it's much better than the original anyway. enjoy.

Angry Birds vs. Harbor Master

2010-11-26T07:19:00.016-06:00

like most people in marketing I don’t really need any more addictions. and yet, I’ve added two more in recent months, Angry Birds and Harbor Master.

most addictions are so much fun, you really don’t want to over-examine them, lest they somehow become less addictive. but some addictions are just infuriatingly big wastes of time, resources, emotional capital, etc.

such is the case with Angry Birds and Harbor Master.

they’re obviously very different games, and I’ve noticed one has a greater hold on me than the other. to help understand why, I thought a breakdown would be helpful.

OBJECT OF THE GAME
Harbor Master – the goal is to park cargo ships in various docks, wait for the cargo to be unloaded, then remove the empty ships – all while making sure no ships crash into each other. the more cargo you unload, the more points you earn.

Angry Birds – the pigs have stolen all the birds’ eggs, and now the birds are understandably angry. the goal is to use a slingshot to launch the birds toward various building structures to try and kill the pigs with whichever selection of birds you’ve been given. points are earned based on how few birds you use, as well as how much of the building structure you destroy in the process. the points determine how many stars you earn. earn 3 stars, and the next level of the game is unlocked. there are also hidden golden eggs which unlock even more content.

Advantage: Angry Birds. games are a form of escape, and there’s nothing escapist about manual labor. parking ships and unloading cargo is hard work. just ask the cast of The Perfect Storm. by essentially having people perform the duties of a real-life profession, the makers of Harbor Master are offering a cruel reminder of the world in which we live, not an escape from it.

VARIABLES
Harbor Master – there are three different types of ships, each with different speeds. some ships have yellow cargo; some have purple; some have both. there are also occasional hurricanes, which throw ships off course just like in real life.

Angry Birds – there are six types of birds, and each type of bird has different capabilities. (imagine if the A-Team were created by ornithologists) and there are multiple levels, each with entirely different challenges and building materials you must destroy. in addition, the company that makes the games, Rovio, continues to add new levels every couple months.

Advantage: Angry Birds. combining the various bird skillsets with the various building materials gives players countless options to play each level and kill those pigs once and for all.

GRAPHICS
Harbor Master – the rich, colorful environment of a loading dock has been flattened and minimized into something just slightly above 8-bit. when boats get too close to each other, a loose red outline appears around the ships.

Angry Birds – while not exactly something out of a James Cameron movie, the Angry Birds environment does a good enough job of establishing a world that captures the anger and frustration of a bird that had its eggs stolen by pigs.

Advantage: Angry Birds. clearly.

SOUND
Harbor Master – there is a simple Mario Bros-like tune that plays throughout. Other than that, the only sounds are of various ships as they honk when thrown off course, or seconds before they crash.

Angry Birds – the tension of the slingshot gives way to the birds yelling “weeeeeee” as they fly into the buildings. each building material has its own sound as well. the birds who haven’t been chosen yet make noises of anticipation and excitement.

Advantage: Angry Birds, but barely. the sounds of Harbor Master play a helpful role by alerting the user to an impending crash, assuming you can find the endangered ships fast enough to save them and their respective crews. but the sounds of Angry Birds adds to the fun and joy of the AB experience (as we veterans call it), and that’s why we play games in the first place.

TIME COMMITMENT
Harbor Master – each game starts at zero, and there’s only one way to score – you have to unload that cargo. so once you get scores into the hundreds, it can be a good 45 minutes before you can challenge your record.

Angry Birds – because Angry Birds is broken into multiple levels and limited to a handful of birds on each level, you can easily play a whole level in under a minute. if you have more time, you can play multiple levels.

Advantage: Angry Birds. the time required by Harbor Master forces you to make a decision you might not want to make: do you go for a new Harbor Master record, or do you prepare dinner for your child?

PLATFORM
Harbor Master – this game seems made for the iPad. it utilizes the space well, adding detail, docks, etc. that can’t be found on the iPhone version. the iPhone version seems like a tease, and no one likes a tease except an audience at a burlesque show.

Angry Birds – while this too brings additional rich detail in the iPad version, the iPhone version doesn’t sacrifice nearly as much. with a few hundred spare hours, you can get three stars on either device.

Advantage: Angry Birds. I always have my iPhone with me. my iPad is actually my wife’s, which means the only time I get to use it is when I distract her with a small kitchen fire or something. so I have to go with the better iPhone experience here.

INTANGIBLES
as a guy, I like leaving a mess wherever I go. so there’s a great sense of satisfaction to play a level of Angry Birds and walk away leaving a smoldering ruin of destroyed buildings and egg-sealing pig carcass. with Harbor Master, the docks are very neat and clean. and once you get done unloading a ship, you actually have to tidy up by removing the ship. score one more for Angry Birds.

secondly, I don’t really appreciate the condescending tone of Harbor Master. if you unload, say, five or six loads of cargo before two ships crash on your shift, the game will say, “Nice job!” the fact is, that’s not a nice job at all. such a performance in the real would have you fired, and rightly so. with Angry Birds, if you don’t kill all the pigs on a level, you receive the message, “Level Fail.” harsh? sure, but at least they’re not offering false encouragement.

lastly, there’s the buzz factor. I’ve heard people talk about being addicted to Angry Birds at places other than support groups – stores, parties, parks, work. there’s even a popular video about an Angry Birds Peace Accord.

no one talks about Harbor Master. like cleaning lint from the drier, safely parking ships is something we do privately and without note.

CONCLUSION
so here’s the surprising thing: my addiction to Harbor Master is far greater than my addiction to Angry Birds. (I’m confident the BCS poll would’ve reached that same conclusion.)

is it because safely parking ships is a transferrable, marketable skill? sure, that’s in the back of my mind.

but more importantly, with Angry Birds, once you get 3 stars on all levels, you’re finished, and the incentive to play practically disappears. with Harbor Master, there’s no conclusion. you can always get a better score, so there’s always room for improvement. and the ability to continuously improve provides one hell of an incentive.

i'm thinking i should’ve learned that already from golf.

when "oops" really isn't

2010-11-14T15:51:00.015-06:00

the football game between Northwestern and Illinois at Wrigley Field this saturday is causing quite a kerfuffle.

the last football game held at Wrigley took place in the 1960's. thousands of seats have been added to the stadium since, so a football field doesn't fit quite as comfortably as it used to. and now, due to the back of the end zone being so close to the wall, both teams have been instructed to only run their offenses one way, toward the opposite end zone.

the Chicago Tribune said it's a debacle. Sports Illustrated called it a football mockery.

whether we're organizing sporting events or marketing products, we seem to be on a quest for perfection, and technology (among other things) is only making that quest easier.

the thing about perfection is, it's kind of boring. we don't remember the perfect wedding we went to. we remember the one where the priest forgot the bride's name.

we'd never ask for imperfection, but boy do we crave it - it gives us something to talk about, a story to share. we remember the unexpected, good or bad. and the more perfect things become, the greater the value of the unexpected.

ideally, the "unexpected" comes from something good happening. (your perfect hotel room reservation gets a free upgrade, for example.) but even the "bad" shouldn't be viewed that way.

take the game this saturday. decades from now, grandparents will be telling their kids about that crazy football game they saw where the field was so tight, the teams had to switch sides at every possession because there was no room in the end zone.

i'm having a hard time understanding why that's a "debacle."

literally TWO new sites

2010-11-13T03:15:00.009-06:00

people blame the popularity of the word "literally" on Rachel Zoe, and yes she does use the word as frequently and inaccurately as anyone. but my friends also misuse it, and i find it hard to believe the friends i hang around would be affected whatsoever by Rachel Zoe.

origin of popularity aside, misuse of the word “literally” seems to have reached an all-time high. so to mark this very special trend, we created We Are Literally Exaggerating, a live Twitter feed of people tweeting (and usually misusing) the word “literally.”

Of course, for some people, it’s not enough to misuse the word “literally.” They also have to misspell it. Hence the creation of the sister site, We Litterally Cannot Spell.

Enjoy.

agency website history

2010-10-29T05:31:00.021-05:00

at my day job, we recently came to the conclusion that, as a 2 year-old company that specializes in digital marketing, we should maybe, i don't know, have some sort of a website. (insert embarrassed emoticon here.)

the experience of creating it had me reflecting on previous sites i've done for agencies and, predictably, how much they've changed.

much as i think it's swell to impress fellow agency people, i've always approached agency sites with the belief that potential clients are the primary audience. as such, i believe a site should feel like an extension of the agency itself. so the perfect compliment to an agency's site is when a prospective client walks into the agency for the first time and says, "this is exactly what i expected." (yes, it's possible to please both worlds - see BooneOakley, which not only features a brilliant use of YouTube annotations, it also accurately reflects the agency's culture.) let's take a look at the current and previous agency sites i've worked on, shall we? may we all learn from them.

Proximity Chicago, 2010
the new site at Proximity Chicago puts into practice one of the simple beliefs we preach: in the opt-in environment of digital, a user's interests must come before a marketer's self-interest. so instead of the usual approach of having an agency prattle on about how unique its philosophy is, or how its agency culture is so cool, they even allow dogs (FTR, we don't), the Proximity site offers up news and twitter feeds about the latest in digital marketing - content that would ideally be of interest to prospective clients. seems smart, i think. a couple other highlights:

• the site has the usual shareability options. it also encourages pass-along by tying in visitor numbers to a donation the agency will give to Oxfam America.

• of course, the site also has standard agency information a click away. the agency's company info has a blog which is truly crowdsourced - everyone in the agency is responsible for one day per month. the content has become a great demonstration of the breadth of interests our employees have, both online and off.

• the talent section features side projects our employees have started. (the most timely one: the Xmas Power Hour - just in time for the holidays.)

• that section also not only features agency leader bios, but also QR codes which will directly download leaders' contact info to a user's mobile.

• the contact info allows prospects to set up a 15-minute "biggest pain point" meeting (via phone, in-person, skype, whatever), and of course allows people to find their exact proximity to Proximity, complete with directions.

• the site's also in constant beta mode. it was launched recently, and already, there are things that bother us about it. so we're redesigning some functions, adding a few new things, etc. and this time, it won't take us 2 years to complete.

None of these features are particularly groundbreaking. But they certainly reflect user habits and site expectations that are different from even a couple years earlier. speaking of a couple years ago...

zig, 2006
zig (which is now Crispin Porter's office in Canada) already had an established agency identity. the colors were orange and white. the type was big and bubbly and friendly. and the business cards featured agency employees' first names in bold type on one side. point being, in addition to doing some nice work, it was a pretty personable place. the zig site simply attempted to bring that personable-ness to life online.

• the site practically demanded interactivity, by asking users to submit their own first name upon arrival. once the name was submitted, it was used throughout the visit.

• the content would change based on the user's interest, whether they were a prospective client, a prospective employee, or they were just casing the joint.

• we attempted to make the site as human as possible. each visit featured a different tour guide who would walk the visitor through the site. sometimes, the guide would forget the user's name (just like in real life). sometimes, the guide would have to take a phone call, so they'd have to hand the visitor off to another employee. and if you wanted to see a page a second or third time, the guide would notice that and respond accordingly.

• much as we tried to build in the human-ness, the site's version 2.0 would've done a much better job if it had seen the light of day. (it still looks great in Microsoft Word.) the goal was to switch from a Flash-based site to an HTML site, so we could pull in real-time data (not to mention improve search results and user experience). so for example, if you came to visit in the middle of the night, the whole visit would be guided by flashlights. if there was, say a tornado warning near the zig offices, the visitor would accompany the guide down to the basement until the danger had passed. oh, what fun it would've been.

much as the site successfully reflected the branding and personality of the agency, we're still kicking ourselves for launching the site in Flash. it was 2006. we should've known better, unlike the previous site i did...

Hadrian's Wall, 2001
Hadrian’s Wall was founded in 2001, at the peak of the unnecessarily-long-Flash-intros trend. and really, who were we to fight it?

the original Hadrian's Wall site not only featured the ubiquitous Flash intro, it also had a few other overused devices of the time: page-flipping animation and really poor navigation.

that said, the site accurately reflected the agency’s graphic identity and sense of confidence, and was the source of multiple new business inquiries. and when prospective clients first walked into the agency after visiting the site, they really did say, “this is exactly what I expected.” we always assumed they meant that in a good way.

Arian, Lowe & Travis, 1999
a keen observer will note the visual above is, in fact, not a screen shot of a website at all. thankfully, all evidence of that site seems to have been lost to time and faulty back-up drives. but here’s the story:

Arian, Lowe & Travis was a small creative boutique (though in new business pitches, the founder was prone to describe it as “large” “full-service” and occasionally “global” if it would help the agency’s chances of winning business). the agency was looking to change its culture to more of a learning environment, and we were challenged to re-brand the agency to reflect this new focus.

to put it mildly, we took the “learning environment” direction literally and themed the agency after a college. employees became faculty. department heads became deans. agency credentials took on the look and feel of academic composite books (as shown above). we even had an agency mascot, complete with costume.

and then, of course, there was the website. HTML-based, the site featured the agency fight song (no, seriously), staff photos done up like a fraternity or sorority composite, and the ever-popular-at-the-time list of interesting links we’d found on the World Wide Web. (if you weren’t born yet, most websites at that time had Interesting Links, which were basically opportunities to say, “look what I found! aren’t I cool?” for a modern example, see: Twitter.)

(a funny aside: the URL, altadv.com, now seems to be a dating site for japanese toddlers.)

anyway, at its heart, creating a learning environment-centric culture still strikes me as a smart idea. (Wieden + Kennedy seems to have made this idea work out ok.) but taking it that literally – online or off – is rather regrettable.

on the plus side, we could’ve gone with the other idea that had been bandied about: we were going to have all agency employees legally change their last names to all be the same, and become the agency version of The Ramones.

considering the alternative, you have to admire our restraint.

I was thinking of changing but I won’t if you say I shouldn’t but I’d like to but now I’m not sure what do you think?

2010-10-17T09:11:00.007-05:00

it’s quite fascinating to watch brands cave into the pressure of social media noise. I believe in the future, anthropologists will study Homo sapiens from this period and wonder what caused the sudden thinning of the skin.

today, it’s easy for CMOs to use social media noise to bolster whatever belief they have. Some will see a Facebook group dedicated to their product and conclude there’s a widespread interest and passion for their brand. Others will read a few blog posts and decide to scrap a well thought out multimillion dollar marketing effort.

is this about the continued rise of the consumer’s voice? or is it about the continued weakening of a brand’s self-confidence? I’d argue the latter.

it seems brands and consumers are in a race to see who can overreact more. it’s probably worth point out that brands have a lot more to lose in this contest.

I think at some point, we’ll all come to realize a group of Twitter users is only slightly less combustible than a PETA convention. and we’ll remember that a brand isn’t a sailboat – we really don’t have to change directions with the wind in order to successfully reach our destination.

how an ad came to be

2010-09-30T06:08:00.007-05:00

"ok everyone, so we have an ad assignment for the CSO."

"the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory?"

"no, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. they're one of our clients."

"do you remember when Caltech rewired the scoreboard during the Rose Bowl to show they were beating M.I.T.?"

"seriously, terrorists could learn a lot from Caltech students."

"guys, let's focus. CSO. ad. here are copies of the brief. please pass them around. now as you know, the CSO has a new conductor, world-reknown maestro Riccardo Muti."

"i've never heard of him."

"yeah, how are you defining 'reknown'?"

"or 'world'?"

"look guys, this is big. we're talking about a Maestro who has already become a part of musical history and musical interpretation. it's Chicagoans' chance to observe a Maestro whose artistic creed lies in bringing precision, discipline and respect to musical scores."

"you're reading from a website."

"the point is, this guy is well-known for being bold and brilliant. this ad needs to clearly communicate that."

"if people know that already, why do we need to tell them again?"

"BOLD and BRILLIANT."

"fine. anything else?"

"yes. the CSO is having an ongoing problem with people showing up holding other people's tickets. we need to make it clear people have to have their own ticket."

"wait, what?"

"what what?"

"why would people show up with other people's tickets?"

"yeah, and why would that be a problem for the CSO, if the place is filled anyway?"

"listen, we're not here to question things. the client made it clear that everyone has to have their OWN ticket. let's make sure we emphasize that."

"where's the ad running?"

"a lot of symphony patrons take the bus, so we're doing bus shelters."

"seriously?"

"shouldn't we also be looking into a tray liner partnership with Hardee's."

"just bus shelters for now."

"so... basically, the symphony isn't worried that its audience is dwindling and aging."

"that's not in the brief."

TWO WEEKS LATER...

become mayor. then become mayor.

2010-09-29T21:47:00.009-05:00

more side project talk. as you know (because you too are probably running), there will soon be an election for the office of the mayor of Chicago. and for the first time since Justin Bieber was a child, Richard M. Daley will not be running.

the city must've been extra thoughtful in succession planning, because there are approximately 2,000 natural replacements for mayor. to help sort the flotsam from the jetsam, we've rolled out The Foursquarian Candidate, a foursquare-based competition. the objective is to check in often to the designated City of Chicago Mayoral HQ location by 10/31/10. whoever is mayor of the location by then will win the official Foursquarian Candidate nomination, as well as free designs for campaign materials. make sure you friend the Foursquarian Candidate first.

this site will no doubt give candidates the kind of exposure normally associated with being, say, the White House chief of staff. enjoy.

on churning out stuff

2010-09-24T05:22:00.003-05:00

i get to make a presentation today to a bunch of folks who work at agencies and design studios in various parts of the world. the presentation is about inspiring creatives, and pulling the presentation together has really shed light on how important side projects have become, to me and other creative folk.

since so many side projects have to do with pushing you out of your comfort zone, i thought Ira Glass's perspective would be oh-so-appreciated:

as for side projects, here are a couple nifty recent ones from friends:

Amanda, Max & Josh did an Ode to a Chicago Summer.

Greg discovered a fun output of Google Scribe.

the aforementioned Dan Sinker put out the Chicago Mayoral Scorecard (courtesy of data from Josh's Progress Illinois site).

and a recent anonymous commenter here pointed us in the direction of his/her dog-authored blog, My Dog Can Type.

fun stuff.

am i the 10th?

2010-09-16T07:46:00.003-05:00

i understand there's a prize for being the tenth person to text, tweet, email, post, or just plain ol' tell you about the great post regarding digital agency websites. so... what do i win?

oh, and if you're going to point out the fact that, mobile or not, my agency's current site has all the sophistication of velcro, yes. i do realize that.

rooster > alpaca

2010-09-08T07:10:00.005-05:00

we've been creating a new campaign for Oxfam America lately, some of which involves photographing various animals. and i have to say, if you ever get a chance to work with a rooster and an alpaca, my recommendation is to work with the rooster, then feign illness when the alpaca arrives on set.

seriously, if i ever had to do a campaign for an alpaca farm, i would hire roosters and just fix it in post. take a look:

right on cue, a perfect profile shot, and a great sound. meanwhile offstage, the incessant whining continues...

blame dan sinker

2010-09-06T19:54:00.005-05:00

by popular demand (and by "popular demand" i mean "one person"), i'm returning to posting, albeit less regularly than before.

the prompt to play blogger again came in part by dan sinker, founder of the dearly departed Punk Planet and now journalism professor at Columbia College. dan spoke at our agency last week, and raved about the benefits of side projects.

in addition to Punk Planet, he highlighted a few of his own side projects. my favorites were Robot Challenge, where dan and his readers challenge his young son to draw robots with specific powers (the Good Dancing Robot is seen here); and Cell Stories, where you can get a different fictional story delivered to your phone every day.

he was inspirational, he was funny, and he made me realize that without this blog, i had nowhere to post my mediocre photos and shallow observations.

and if ever there was a reason to resume, that's it.

2010-08-05T07:31:00.000-05:00

2010-02-24T06:24:00.007-06:00

earlier this year, i did a fun interview with some friends from north of the 49th parallel. (the interview can be seen either here or here.) (sorry, old joke.) one of the questions asked was, "what's the big idea behind the 15 ideas blog?" i answered far too honestly that there is none.

that's what i kind of liked about the blog. and what i kind of didn't like. after 400+ posts, you'd think an idea or purpose would've emerged by now, but it hasn't. the blog was sometimes funny, but not often enough. occasionally insightful, but less so than other blogs. worst of all, it was taking up just enough time to keep me from getting to other projects.

so, let's go do something else now. c'mon. it'll be fun.

- kevin

i'm pretty sure this post is illegal

2010-02-23T05:13:00.005-06:00

i've heard from a full one-third of my readership regarding the olympics. he/she was asking why i'm not writing about the marketing of the Vancouver Games. i assure you, it has nothing to do with the whole Chicago bid thing. i like the olympics. it's just that to me, the olympic games are like family - they're easier to love if they're far away. the simple truth is, since i'm not an official sponsor, i'm not allowed to speak about it.

thank you for asking.

the only redeeming thing about yesterday's game

2010-02-22T21:39:00.006-06:00

forget the US/Canada game. the real border battle took place in east lansing, where the Beloved Spartans of Michigan State took on the Ohio State Univ... sorry, THE Ohio State University Buckeyes, squaring off for first place in the Big Ten.

as it turned out, ohio state scored more points, which just goes to show there's more to a sporting event than the "final score." there's also the commercials, and ohio state has a rather charming one.

theirs has been airing for a couple years now. it's basically a montage of people forming O-H-I-O with their hands. ok, technically, it looks like O-U-A-O, but we know what they mean. as someone who feels a kinship with anyone who answers "go green" with a hearty "go white," i'm a sucker for a good college cheer in a non-college environment.

the commercial invites OSU alums to post their own pics on the OSU website. so far, they're at almost 4500. nice. even if their basketball team is a bit heartless.

it's how you say it

2010-02-21T11:52:00.007-06:00

in spite of the appalling amount of coverage of tiger woods' apology on friday, i managed to miss it. but having read some of the critical praise, i assumed it at least met the heartfelt-ness requirements we the public are demanding.

since then, i've seen the announcement, and am wondering where all the praise came from. the performance was as wooden as bill paxton's acting in... well, in any movie he's appeared in. you know a performance is plastic when you can recreate it using a keyboard, as i just did:

happy restaurant week

2010-02-20T09:29:00.007-06:00

looking at the size of the people who live in chicago, you'd think every week was Restaurant Week, but in fact, it's only official Restaurant Week this week.

as a chicagoan, i'm well-versed in how to spot a great restaurant. generally speaking, you can look for these three signs:

1) it has a name you can't pronounce
2) the word "reduction" appears at least 5 times on the menu
3) the chef or sous chef or immersion circulator once worked with grant achatz

ah, but there are exceptions to these rules. last weekend while in door county, wisconsin, someone recommended the "best restaurant in wisconsin." its name? Village Cafe. its specialty? various eggs benedict dishes. oh, it's also known for all the tsotchkes on the wall. to top it off, the word "reduction" was nowhere to be found. (of course, it was wisconsin - a state not exactly known for reducing anything.)

in spite of these odds, the village cafe was deemed the finest breakfast we've ever had - edging out that place in montreal. do you remember the name of that one? yeah, i can't either. if you're in the neighborhood of egg harbor, i'd highly recommend stopping in. even if it's not Restaurant Week.

paging christopher guest...

2010-02-19T07:11:00.005-06:00

as technology continues to connect us all into one big happy Facebook fan page, it's good to see there's still plenty of room in the world for niche groups. to wit, here's a book i recently came across: Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening.

the title is great, but i like the slug at the top even more. in order to broaden the book's appeal, it says, "not just rose nuts, but gardeners everywhere will love this book."

the book's currently ranked #186,066 on amazon.

what hell hath i wrought?

2010-02-18T21:57:00.006-06:00

last week, we talked about foursquare, remember? at the time, i mentioned i took umbrage to the fact that a freelancer had become the mayor of our agency. since then, things have gotten considerably worse:

another coworker has become the mayor of my office.

damn you, technology. damn you.

good intentions

2010-02-17T20:38:00.005-06:00

the humanist in me thinks, "it's good to see a brand try to stand for something bigger than itself."

the consumer in me thinks, "1 liter buys someone else 10 liters? that's some seriously overpriced water."

a long drumroll, please

2010-02-16T21:11:00.003-06:00

it's often said that traditional advertising is a monologue, and digital advertising is a conversation. here's fine proof that isn't always true. this sign doesn't just announce leo's is coming. (leo's is a well-known detroit-based restaurant famous for its coney dogs.) it acknowledges the conversation its audience is already having. a smart way to 1) add to an existing conversation and 2) pique interest with people who might not have heard of leo's.

the pic was taken last october. a day after holding a special opening night for facebook fans this past sunday, it finally opened on monday. apparently, the city has a strict licensing policy for coney dogs.

for the record, the wait was well over an hour.

irony in door county

2010-02-15T17:45:00.005-06:00

i liked this sign. but when i came home and googled the church, i couldn't find its website.

thinking semi-big

2010-02-14T08:30:00.010-06:00

it's never too early in the year to head on into a bike shop. especially if that bike shop rents tubes to go sledding. while we were waiting, i saw some cool signage from a couple bike companies.
the first was from trek. it was an announcement for a new, online customized bike option called Project One. i liked the bigness of the headline - it's not just a customized bike program. it's the end of the word "no." cool enough. so i visited the site. if, instead of wanting to build a bike, you want to go through an exercise in frustration, i'd encourage you to visit the site as well. there, you'll find confusing navigation, not too many options, and a slow moving website that encourages you to visit a bike shop where someone can help "fine tune" your choices, thereby rendering your online experience a waste of time.

but again, the poster was nice.

the other signage that caught my eye were posters and hangtags from vergesport, based in new york. again, the communications took on a bigger picture. the hangtag had facts about how much better this country would be if we rode bikes more often. for those of you who can't read hieroglyphics, the hangtag reads, "the US could save 462 million gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from 1% to 1.5% of all trips." other tags talked about how much thinner we Americans would all be, and how much longer we Americans all live, if we just rode bikes more often.

all of which would be swell, except for the fact that the shirts on which the hangtags hung were made in Poland. kinda undoes the nationalistic sell of the campaign, nie?

baby it's cold outside

2010-02-13T18:58:00.004-06:00

every february, there always comes a time when we chicagoans rub the frost from the window so we can see outside, and we think, "wouldn't it be great if we could go someplace even colder."

hence our trip up to door county wisconsin this weekend.

my favorite marketing so far is a throwback neon sign from the leinenkeugel brewery. it's good to see there are still places besides the back of nickels where an indian head is welcomed. the video doesn't properly capture the sparkling stars above the leinenkeugel constellation. it was magical.

the websites of the commercials of the super bowl

2010-02-12T21:08:00.009-06:00

for all the attention the super bowl commercials get, it seems many of the Super Bowl sponsors are still content with letting their super bowl investment fade out after 30 seconds, as opposed to looking at it as just the beginning. to wit, a breakdown of the Websites of the Commercials of the Super Bowl™.

house of beer, asteroid, etc. - bud light
anheuser-busch is one of the biggest sponsors of the super bowl. yet, none of their commercials feature a URL. the simple reason: after its experience with bud.tv, anheuser-busch is convinced this whole internet thing is a fad. in fact, they predict that by 2012, the only person left on twitter will be ashton kutcher. the rest of us will be too busy untangling the cords of our rotary phones to ever have time to tweet.

tebow - focusonthefamily.com
the controversial tim tebow commercial ended with a prominent URL, FocusOnTheFamily.com, where visitors can find out just what the hell the ad was trying to say. the site features lots more footage about the Tebow family talking about how God asked them to raise a child who can beat the crap out of the Georgia Bulldogs. seems petty to me, but if there are two things a fellow shouldn't argue with, it's God and the SEC. and not in that order.

classical - hundai
the Hundai commercial ended with a simple hundai.com URL. upon visiting, it's clear the marketing people never told the web designers that 1) they were sponsoring a super bowl spot and perhaps there should be some mention; 2) it's 2010.

the shuffle - boost mobile
ok, so we finally have a marketer that took advantage of its super bowl investment. their tv spot featured a reunited chicago bears team re-enacting their 1985 Super Bowl Shuffle video. boost smartly grabbed the search term "super bowl commercials." and it created a microsite featuring an extended version of their tv spot, as well as the usual digital checklist: you could have a friend get a call from coach singletary; customize a jim mcmahon headband; and download wallpaper, ringtones, and ditka-shaped waffles. in fact, the only problem - and really, it's a slight one - is that the idea has nothing to do with the product. other than that little problem, nice effort.

betty white/abe vigoda - snickers
this was the commercial that won the USA Today Ad Meter poll, a measurement with all the sophistication of an 8th grade class president election. aside from being thankful that abe vigoda is indeed still alive, i was glad to see snickers also delivered a re-skin of its website featuring the commercial, as well as another spot in the campaign featuring aretha franklin and liza minnelli. (again, thankful liza's still alive. i'm confident that, hundreds of years from now, aretha franklin will still be leading a vigorous if disrespected life.)

dog collar, playing nice, funeral, flowers in a box - doritos
doritos ended all its tv spots with the URL of a site which links all its digital efforts, SnackStrongProductions.com. their past efforts feature some brilliant work (Hotel 626, Asylum 626, and Unlock Xbox among others), as well as crashthesuperbowl.com, which carries all the user-submitted commercials. not much in the way of interaction, but a single hub of digital activities makes a lot of sense for a brand with such disparate efforts.

simpsons - coke
there's no URL in an otherwise decent commercial. if you look up the site anyway, there's no acknowledgement of a super bowl, much less a commercial. surprising for a company that understands the power of a good story.

massage - go daddy
the one and only nice thing you can say about GoDaddy.com is, at least they understand how traditional media can drive digital traffic. (happy 12th birthday to that last point!) both TV spots ended with the call to action, "see more now at godaddy.com (WARNING! WEB CONTENT UNRATED)" is other web content unrated? yes. is there a less likeable spokesperson than danica patrick? no. would this spot have been much less predictable if it featured tim tebow and his mom? i think they would've just made it boringer. as for the footage that was "too hot for tv": good god. the overall formula is this: the harder you're going to make your audience work, the better the experience has to be.

musical beaver - monster.com
the tv spot featured a touching story of a fiddle-playing beaver. the URL was monster.com because "godaddy.com" was already taken. if you go on the site, the fiddle player has taken over the first page, though there's plenty of functional navigation surrounding it. but if you wait a moment or so, the beaver (and any reference to the super bowl sponsorship) is replaced by more functionality. if you click on it before it disappears, you get taken to FiddleAFriend.com. here, you can send a customized monk-e-mail to a friend.

bachelor party, your tires or your life - bridgestone
bridgestone supported its super bowl buy with a dedicated page at bridgestonetire.com/superbowl. it featured both spots. out of the 100,000,000+ people who watched the super bowl, 14 have made comments on one of the spots. i don't have a calculator here to check the ROI on that. ah, but at least they're not filtering the comments. on the splash page, however, they are filtering their twitter feed to feature only rave reviews of their commercials. so very silly.

timothy richmond - cars.com
cars.com's commercial ended (appropriately) with cars.com. the website had a wee sliver of a super bowl commercial mention at the top of their website. once clicked, you could watch the commercial again, or watch "exclusive web videos" where the star of the commercial wears out his cuteness. when you have a character-driven idea, seems like you'd maybe want to expand on that character's story. i don't know, maybe?

wear no pants - dockers
the dockers' spot ends with dockers.com/freepants. once there, a small banner asks if visitors want to see the "game day tv ad" but most of the real estate is about how dockers is giving away thousands of khakis. other headlines include "behold the second dawn of man" and "wear the pants." it seems like three ideas at work here, all of which could potentially turn into something blog-worthy, but none succeeding. one of the more confusing supporting efforts. look for yourself.

casual fridays - career builder
taking a page from from the cars.com playbook, careerbuilder.com ended their commercial with careerbuilder.com. once on the site, a visitor gets the usual careerbuilder.com site and... oh wait a minute! you know those really irritating page takeover ads that block what you're reading? well, they've installed one of those on their own site. it asks visitors to help give careerbuilder's commercial a higher ranking among super bowl spots. like Go Daddy, careerbuilder's site also features a commercial that's "too hot for tv." like Go Daddy, what careerbuilder should've said was that it's "too hot for conservative marketing committees."

shape up - skechers
skechers had a couple spots but no URL. visiting www.skechers.com, you find the standard skechers website, and an option to watch the "Big Game Commercial" in the bottom right corner.

sorry, i just dozed off. where were we?

comfortable skin - dove
part of the super bowl's Emasculated Men Series, the dove for men commercial featured a dedicated website, dovemencare.com, which mixed product information and offers with an opportunity to see their commercial. it should be noted dove also smartly had roadblocks on major web properties on monday morning - one of the smarter supporting efforts.

calling dr. love - dr. pepper
dr pepper demonstrated the fact that their current campaign (featuring pop culture doctors) is just about out of ideas. the spot featured kiss and minikiss performing dr. love. it's at least well-supported. once you head to the URL, they don't just give you the option of seeing the commercial, they just start playing it for you. the commerical then leads into the "never ending song" - a montage of user-submitted videos of people singing dr. love. if you want to play along, you have to cough up your email address - an effective but heavy-handed way to build a fan base. having recently run out of my ace frehley silver make-up, i demurred.

punxsutawney polamalu - tru tv
tru tv ended with trutv.com. on the site, the only evidence of the super bowl was banner ads for fellow super bowl sponsor, dove for men.

man's last stand - dodge
another part of the Emasculated Man Series, the manifesto of wussy men with cool cars ended with dodge.com. at the site, the focus was pure, functional commerce. a video below the fold included more manifesto for the kind of men who need quote marks around the word "men." knocks aside, their site and new logo are a significant improvement over previous efforts.

punch buggy - vw
so here's a charmer. the spot does a nice job of amplifying what people have been doing for years - playing punch buggy. and the spot ends with an invitation: play punchdub at vw.com. charming. once on the site, PunchDub has taken over the front page (though the main nav of vw models remains). the site made it easy to send a punch to a facebook friend, with customized model and punch method. (i went with the Fist of Fire. felt good.) furthering the concept even more, vw is holding a PunchDubDays sales event. smart, smart stuff.

various chicken commercials - denny's
denny's didn't put their URL at the end of the commercials, but i have a guy who knows everyone's URL and he told it to me. denny's commercials were focused on giving away free breakfast on tuesday. as for the site? it had some decent tie-ins including selling chicken t-shirts (that's t-shirts with chickens on them, not actual shirts that chickens wear), and encouraging visitors to become a denny's fan on Facebook to check out future videos of the chickens. a smart way to keep folks engaged beyond a single website visit.

the griswolds - home away.com
it was like 1998 all over again, with advertising on the super bowl that featured dot coms i'd never heard of. homeaway.com's commercial featured the Griswolds from the Vacation movie series. (so it was like 1983 all over again too.) the spot ended with a tease, "see the film at homeaway.com." the site had plenty of features, videos, and good integration of homeaway.com's services. i clicked on the "film." it began with a schpiel about homeaway.com. i asked for a film, not an ad. someone, please tell me if the film was worth watching. TIA.

sumo wrestler - kgb
there was no site given for kgb, though they were smart enough to realize the name "kgb" won't be treated well by search engines, so they bought key words. good for them. once a site was located, there was a subtle nod to their super bowl sponsorship, and a video was well down the fold. something tells me they're not going to be in the Big Game next year.

wolf style - etrade
etrade had no URL, and there was no mention of super-anything on their site. however, the baby diversifying his portfolio "wolf style" was enough to forgive them.

snapshot of america - census
the us census ran a commercial, and encouraged people to visit 2010census.gov. i did, and saw this:

mathematically speaking, i think here's where we're at:
an encouragement to watch a game that took place days ago + forcing a marketing idea into a sentence = confusion.

search on - google
not only was there no URL at the end, there wasn't even a logo. i'm just guessing that spot was google's. of course, there was no need for google to have a tie into their website. as soon as you saw the spot's easily parody-able-ness, you knew it would have one of the more lasting digital presences of any of the super bowl spots, even without the support of google. that's knowing your audience.

partying toys - kia
kia's commercial ended with their basic kia.com website. on the site, one of the rotating visuals on the home page was from the tv spot, and you could watch the Big Game ad via a link below. but beyond the re-airing of a commercial, there was little tie-in.

internet tv - vizio
vizio's tag (vizio.com/via) also went with the re-airing of their commercial on the site. and i have to admit, after watching the commercial repeatedly on their website, i really came to like the commercial. on a related note, it's amazing how poorly a dry sense of humor translates on the internet.

human dolphins - emerald nuts
the emerald nuts commercial (the one with people acting like dolphins) didn't end with a URL, which was odd since they had a decent one - Let'sGetAcquatic.com. on the microsite, you could watch the commercial, or play a simple swimming game, or... did i mention you could watch the commercial? i meant to.

stealing squirrel - honda
this animated, highly stylized commercial must've eaten all the budget because by the time they got to the website, crosstour.honda.com, there was no money left to even mention the spot, much less bring the distinctive style to the website's design. pity. it was an interesting look.

paper or plastic - audi
the audi commercial featured no site, and there was nary a trace of the spot on their website. but the commercial did win the coveted "Best Use of Cheap Trick Award," so we'll let the lack of synergy be forgotten this time.

just one box - taco bell
the taco bell spot featured charles barkley. the website is too busy featuring ads about the fourthmeal and the drive-thru diet to bother with the silly little super bowl commercial.

removed spine, tv for the road - flo tv
flo.tv's commercial featured a will.i.am remix of the who's "my generation" song. as for their website? it had the commercial prominently featured, as well as links to press coverage of the commercial, and the opportunity to download the song while donating to haiti. for a marketer i hadn't come across, it was an impressive introduction.

our best inventions - intel
intel didn't have their URL at the end of their commercial, but they put their commercial up on the home page of their website. like too many super bowl marketers, they didn't do anything else.

all in all, it remains pretty disappointing to see so many smart marketers not take advantage of the attention their media buy has created. as chicago cub fans, michigan state football fans, and halley's comet fans say...

maybe next year.

attn: deisel store window decorator

2010-02-11T08:28:00.005-06:00

you know what else is hot? proofreading.

bank of america fees, explained

2010-02-10T07:17:00.003-06:00

5 men on foot shoveling, 2 trucks plowing, one extraordinarily snow-free bank parking lot.

more addictiveness

2010-02-09T07:26:00.008-06:00

coming out of last year's sxsw interactive gathering, the launch that got the biggest buzz was foursquare - a mobile-centric game that encourages people to explore a city, keep tabs on friends, review businesses, and brag that you're the "mayor" of a particular place (i.e. the person who's checked into a place most frequently).

i checked it out last spring, got bored, and there it sat, unused, for months. recently, one of our freelancers became the mayor of the agency i work at, and suddenly, i was addicted. foursquare was no longer about checking into new places around town. it was about defeating the freelancer.

but in pursuit of this childish (and of course fun) goal, i saw how foursquare had grown up since last spring. take a look at the top right corner.

there you have the closest thing i've seen to Minority Report - offering a special nearby makes a ton of sense, and it's a seemless integration of digital and real world. but it's not just an ad for ad's sake. it continues to tie in playing foursquare, since you have to offer proof you're playing in order to receive the discount.

and now this: this morning, chicago's office of tourism announced a partnership with foursquare, and have created special chicago-only badges which encourage people to more deeply explore the city - the first city to do so.

great, it'll be even more addictive now. nevertheless, smart thinking, all.

coming soon... the websites of the commercials of the super bowl

2010-02-07T21:44:00.013-06:00

as the super bowl commercials get dissected like a frog in biology class, let's take a look at the websites associated with the commercials, shall we?

UPDATE: yes, we shall. just hold on a day or so, will you?

cottonelle, part 2

2010-02-07T12:18:00.009-06:00

ok, one more thing for the cottonelle folk. want to have a digital running tally so people can get immediate gratification from voting? a lovely idea indeed. but if you ask people to vote, try giving them a method to do so. oddly enough, the other bus shelter i saw had texting instructions but no scoreboard. we're kinda making this more difficult than we need to, yes?

the red cube project turns poignant

2010-02-06T19:29:00.005-06:00

the art institute's red cube project moves on, but we haven't forgotten about the cubes that were left behind.

you will continue to be in our thoughts. always.

only 334 shopping days left

2010-02-05T19:41:00.005-06:00

yesterday (february 4th), the tavern on rush was busy installing red holiday lights on all the trees in front of the bar. i will never complain about christmas decorations being sold before halloween again.

blue jeans, 2002-2010

2010-02-04T05:55:00.005-06:00

other than an authentic concert t-shirt from Rush's Moving Pictures tour in 1981, is there a piece of clothing that creates a stronger personal connection than a pair of blue jeans? long after these jeans became inappropriate for client presentations, church, and Co-Dependence Anonymous meetings, they remained a staple in my limited and monochromatic wardrobe. i even grew attached to the broken zipper. sure, it was embarrassing, but it was also a great way to meet people.

yesterday, the hole in one leg became bigger than the material left, which means it was officially time to throw these out and get a new pair.

looking at jeans ads, it's interesting to see jeans marketers aren't really taking advantage of the connection people have with their products. the exception being j. peterman, which specializes in fictional but well-written connections. (really? i can buy woody guthrie's jeans?!?)

most product categories would love for their product to have the bond that jeans create. seems like a real missed opportunity, no?

p.s. pardon the blurriness of the picture. it's hard to hold a camera still when you're crying really hard.

new jersey is so much more than the shores

2010-02-03T22:11:00.005-06:00

as today proved, it's also home to the most awesome airport gift shop gift ever. listen closely - the sound is a bit hurting.

testing 1... 2... 3...

2010-02-02T08:01:00.001-06:00

if you have some time to fly right now, there's NO LINE at o'hare.

creating (or at least starting) conversation

2010-02-02T05:17:00.007-06:00

here's a notable example of a brand dipping its toes into the social media waters. it's for cottonelle toilet paper, and it's basically a national poll about whether we all prefer to roll the toilet paper over or under. is it the most dramatic issue facing us as a society? no, that would be the future of brangelina. but it's up there.

the campaign is a nice way of finding a conversation point that 1) is relevant to the brand, but not strictly about the brand; 2) everyone can weigh in on. always a good start. it smartly takes advantage of the usual suspects (facebook, youtube, twitter, mom blogs), they bought the right search terms, and the microsite is data-rich, with a breakdown of the poll by state. (what is up with the "under" vote, california?)

if you argued the execution of it is more than a bit weak, i'm sure you'd be really convincing. but above all that, it reminded me of one of the neat exercises i learned at a hyper island master class a couple weeks ago: always ask, "and then what?"

brands keep asking for our attention and participation. well, here's an example of successfully getting it. now what are you going to do with it?

where bodies are buried in this town

2010-02-01T20:52:00.005-06:00

usually when i'm riding through lincoln park, i'm busy popping wheelies or adjusting the baseball card in my spokes.

yesterday, i was just walking, which is why i noticed the big hunkin' stone marker in the park. the marker is part of an art project by pamela bannos called Hidden Truths. the project revolves around seeing how stories change through the years. with this project, she digs up the history of an old city cemetery in an area that's now the southern end of lincoln park. (she presents compelling evidence about thousands of bodies still buried in the park.) in addition to solving the mystery of the Couch Tomb in the park, the project offers a great history of the area. (her new york project is cool too - a study of 8th avenue at 14th street.) i'd recommend checking either out.

you know, if you're not too busy popping wheelies.

what day is it?

2010-01-31T21:28:00.005-06:00

when it comes to checking the date, i turn to my most trusted source: the free Fifth-Third Bank calendar i received in december.

if, god forbid, something ever happens to that calendar and i'm unable to tell what time of year it is, i'm going to use the next best reliable source: the entryway of Costco.

their merchandising strategies are consistently dead-on in terms of predicting what people are looking for. the picture above was taken on january 3rd, knowing that was the week everyone was going to get in better health habits (before abandoning them following week). today, that same area was lined with TVs, which could only mean it's super bowl week.

either that, or people are really excited about the last few episodes of Ugly Betty.

posts that don't talk

2010-01-29T21:37:00.009-06:00

this post was supposed to have sound. been messing with different ways to upload posts - one of which is to use fotobabble and give audio commentary about a picture (in this case, the cool signage ourside swedish bed store Hasten's).

alas, when you paste the embed code, the only thing that loads is the fotobabble logo. for now, to hear the commentary, you'll just have to follow the link like the other two readers.

sorry.

sponsoring something tangible

2010-01-28T21:18:00.006-06:00

i saw this sign and immediately thought of 7-Eleven.

perhaps an explanation would help.

last year, as part of the chicago white sox' sponsorship deal with 7-Eleven, the sox changed the start time of their night games to 7:11 pm. i thought it was one of the best sponsorships i'd come across. it wasn't just a company slapping its name on a program, it was creating change in the product or event itself.

which brings us to the sign. i thought it was cool. not the "Victory Gardens Theater" part. lower.

no, not the "blue door 11:11" part. lower.

there. the sponsorship part. as with most theaters, Victory Gardens has prominent sponsors, but instead of simply slapping its name on the sign, ComEd tied its sponsorship to something tangible - that is, the lighting. an appropriate sponsorship for an electric company, i'd say.

i'd have tipped my hat, but it was cold enough just taking the picture.

all quiet on the news front

2010-01-27T21:24:00.005-06:00

in spite of rumors about Apple having a big announcement today, it's now 9:30 pm and i haven't heard anything yet. i realize you three are counting on this blog for all the latest news about Apple, so the second i hear anything from my sources, i'll be sure to post.

the danger of speaking marketingese

2010-01-27T08:54:00.002-06:00

i like marketing, in large part because i'm pretty sure it's the only thing i have the talent for. but even though i've been doing this for 20 years, i don't really speak the language of the industry very well. that's actually on purpose.

the language of the industry is called Marketingese, and the definition is, "a set of terms and abbreviations used by marketing practitioners for the purpose of trying to impress fellow marketing practitioners. these terms and abbreviations are identifiable by their absence of human emotion."

the more we speak marketingese, the less we speak the language of the folks we're trying to reach, and the less effective our communications are.

what's that, you ask? you'd like to see a perfect example of what i mean? gosh, i really wasn't prepared for... wait, i think i have something in my pocket here. yes, take a look at this outdoor ad i saw last week:

the ad depicts a husband and wife approaching a bed, and the headline reads, "welcome back." the ad is signed off, "sereno - the center for snoring solutions™."

yes, the ™ is actually there, as if anyone would ever steal the term "snoring solutions."

ok, maybe another marketer would steal the term. but a person? a real human being would never say they're looking for even one snoring solution, much less a whole center of them.

bitchin' ad

2010-01-26T20:09:00.007-06:00

finally got my pictures developed from our holiday trip to northern michigan over the holidays, and i'm sure glad i did. this ad i saw in a restaurant features some of my favorite copy ever (reproduced without permission, including typos):

"In todays market place t-shirts aren't just for the couch anymore. The right shirt and image can take your business, team, or event to the next level!"

it's hard to argue with logic that doesn't make sense, i always say. now if you'll excuse me. i have to go get a quote for a t-shirt.

fun at SFO

2010-01-25T06:50:00.006-06:00

one of the cool things about flying through san francisco is the airport's constant rotation of cultural exhibits. right now, terminal three is featuring the history of the slot machines. i'd recommend it in the likely event that your flight's delayed. you can see the full schedule of exhibits here.

hopefully, other airports will be inspired to use their own spaces better, now that they can't fill them with ads featuring tiger woods anymore.

a history of consistency

2010-01-24T19:56:00.018-06:00

if michigan's economy doesn't rebound soon, i'm no longer blaming the auto industry. instead, i'm blaming my alma mater's athletic department.

they're the ones who have committed the egregious and highly distracting error of wanting to change the official michigan state logo. as far as marketing mistakes go, this will no doubt rank just above the introduction of New Coke.

since the logo was leaked earlier this week, it has become a focal point of discussion among Beloved Spartan alums everywhere on message boards, in the press, and of course on social media networks. (the facebook group protesting the logo has over 15,000 members). it seems to be the work of nike, a company that's never been known for its marketing.

any change to the michigan state uniform would be like adding arms to the Venus de Milo. just thinking of the football helmets alone, they haven't changed since...

well yes, there was the classic block S. gosh, we used that helmet forever.

oh yeah, before that, it was the spartan profile or, as I call it now, the Endangered Spartan. but see, we Beloved Spartans understand tradition, so our current logo is really our old logo, except the stripes are different and the green is a different shade and the green paint is sparkly.

ok, so we have a history of subtle changes. sue us. besides, the green facemask looks a lot more intimidating.

and numbers. numbers are also very intimidating. you can say the Beloved Spartans have been inconsistent in design, but we've been very consistent in being intimidating.

alright, so the Flowery Spartan wasn't particularly intimidating. but it was the early 70's. we were coming off tumultuous times on college campuses. anything we could do to foster a peaceful atmosphere should be celebrated, not mocked.

oh come now, it was our anniversary year. that doesn't count.

ah, the original spartan on the helmet. pre-Nike Spartan. pre-Flowery Spartan. pre-premiere of the movie 300. it was small, but it spoke volumes.

alright, that wasn't so much a change, really. it was a modification. not so much fluff around the edges. other than that, the Beloved Spartans have been consistent in ther helmet design.

didn't we talk about numbers being intimidating? ok then. that's why we always used numbers on our helmets.

except when we didn't. our white helmets were only used for a couple games, so again, it should not count as being inconsistent.

come now. it was our first helmet. no one had much of a design on their helmets in the 1940s.

shut up.

meanwhile, back in chicago...

2010-01-22T10:19:00.008-06:00

thanks to all the readers... ok, that one reader... who sent a link to today's chicago tribune article about the Red Cube Project we're doing for the art institute.

while some cubes are enjoying sunny vacations, others are still out there on the street somewhere. if you have any information about any of the missing cubes, please visit 500-ways.com/lost. thanks.

better with stories (again)

2010-01-21T07:05:00.009-06:00

one of my favorite digital experiments is Significant Objects, where an item that has very little real value is given a story behind it, and is then sold on eBay for a significantly higher price. the stories have been able to add quite a bit of value to the items, as the data shows.

what got me thinking about it is a Masters Class i'm taking through stockholm's hyper island and new york's one club. the class is being held at the Barrel House, which is a former speakeasy. every detail inside looks and feels like a speakeasy still - uneven ceilings, bathrooms stuck under the stairs as an afterthought... even today, it serves as a place for secret parties announced only to their social media flock.

similar to the speakeasy bar trend going on nationwide, the door is unmarked except for graffiti. nice. now, let's compare it to a speakeasy bar i saw in austin last week:

for the most part, austin has a great aesthetic. for the most part. i s'pose there are two lessons here: 1) a brand with a story behind it is more valuable than one without; 2) even if your bar really used to be a speakeasy, if it now looks like it has bloomin' onions on the menu, don't call it a speakeasy.

product placement question for you

2010-01-20T09:52:00.005-06:00

i was winding my way toward my twice-weekly semi-strip searched at the airport yesterday, and it got me thinking about the movie Up in the Air. if you've seen it, you know American Airlines' loyalty program has a major role in the story. if you haven't seen it, you now know American Airlines' loyalty program has a major role in the story. what i wonder is, will most people who see the movie view the brand more positively or less so? personally, i think membership skyrockets. while there's a heavy message of travel=loneliness, i have to admit, every time i'm stuck in a line traveling, i'm going to think of joining. what do the three of you think?

wayfinding, as designed by the author of where's waldo?

2010-01-19T18:12:00.004-06:00

i was wandering around san francisco earlier today, and finally had time to check out the palace of fine arts (also known as That Cool Looking Dome Thingie You Pass On The Way To The Golden Gate). this sign greets visitors. or i should say, confounds visitors. quick, find the arrow pointing the way toward the entrance. in the galaxy of great San Francisco design that this is but a distant and not-so-bright star.

what happens in austin...

2010-01-18T21:14:00.003-06:00

stays in austin, at least until the award show next month.

i can't reveal any winners, or discuss some of the cool ideas we saw over the last few days. but hopefully, your anxiousness can be quelled with this picture of the sweet ride we judges had while in town.

let the jealousy begin.

still a little weird, still in a good way

2010-01-15T07:15:00.008-06:00

one of the things i love most about traveling is, you can wear the same clothes you did the day before without anyone knowing.

another thing i love most is seeing stuff i hadn't seen before, and that's where austin, texas comes in. i'm judging an award show here over the next few days, and had a bit of time to explore a few bands last night. (favorite venue so far: the elephant room.) talking with the locals, i was reminded just how smart the "Keep Austin Weird" marketing effort captures this town's psyche. they could've said "buy local." just as nike could've said, "buy these shoes."

instead, they said the same thing as other cities, but in a way that's memorable, ownable, and appropriate for the brand.

of course, the slogan was so memorable, it spawned imitators and parodies. my favorite is from a town called Round Rock, just north of Austin. Its version: Keep Round Rock Mildly Unusual

on being followed

2010-01-14T07:37:00.004-06:00

yesterday, i wrote about an interview i did for another blog. (i'd link, but i can't seem to find it. apologies.) in the first answer i gave, i referenced a URL i had looked up (AnalogyMaker.com) to see if it was registered. unlike everything else in the interview, that part was true. i really did go to Register.com to see if it was available.

it was. and apparently, it still is.

this banner ad recently appeared on a site I was visiting:
one can make an argument that using a banner ad as a follow up to an online inquiry is both smart and relevant. and maybe someday, i'll feel that way as well.

in the meantime, i'm going to check under my bed to make sure Register.com is not hiding there.

yapping elsewhere

2010-01-13T05:59:00.007-06:00

recently, some old cohorts of mine asked to do a Q+A for their agency blog, the Big Orange Slide. the thing that amazed me was the treatment i received. they flew me to toronto first class, and put me up at the Four Seasons on Bloor. honestly, they could've just emailed the damn questions. if they ever ask you to participate, i highly recommend the Shiatsu massage at the hotel spa.

you can check out the interview here. if you're one of those speed readers and didn't get a chance to stop in the previous sentence, i've also linked it here. the answers are not so much answers as they are a set of pearls, really.

ok, truth be told, the rest of their blog reads far better. check it out.