Disruptive idea: “Earth patriotism”
Who woulda thought advertising would get the closest to uniting the planet?
I think there’s a campaign in here and a myriad of little social causes to be explored, from environmentalism to lobbying for peace amongst nations.
Discovery Channel: I Love the World (via mrmachadochannel)
Not a photo album caption most of us could claim - except maybe Pattie Boyd.
..and were i in the 1’750 pound-spending market, i’d say that she’s cracked a good one: making it unexpectedly easy for rich 55+ year olds to buy their own piece of impromptu rock history.
hats off to them all.
The mixtape will never die, but, you know, it might get a new vowel..
In brief: Muxtape is a budding online community of playlist-makers where one can find songs on other people’s muxtapes - and snoop the rest of their playlist/s for new bands/remixes.
it’s like a recommendation engine with inexhaustible cred.
Of course, you can also unleash your own Muxtape on the world. Just not the one to the ex.. please.. (it will be lame).
A story in 60 seconds, that also happens to be an ad.
I phrase it so because this isn’t your typical intrinsics-drives-message ad, even indirectly.
There is no product benefit stated in this ad except a universal truth and an implication: Monster.com understands your career frustration like no one else. It understands that sometimes all we need is a little homegrown kick-in-the-pants to reach for that coveted senior manager’s job. It certainly understands enough to avoid pontificating on how amazing its product (which still has tremendous merit in the correct space, obviously*).
I also liked their sensitivity to the emotional topic of one’s career path; typically, humans either procrastinate or avoid such things all together. Even in ad-breaks.
So instead, Monster.com gives us a good story first and underpinned its moral with a logical solution: their service.
Bravo.
(via YouTube)
* the basics will always be the basics and product benefits must always be communicated - when appropriate. Consumers need to at least like you before they pay your rent instead of your competitor’s.
Britannica caves in and goes the way of wikipedia. This is a very, very significant admission, namely as its ilk of intellectual have traditionally looked down upon wikipedia’s democratisation of knowledge.
Personally, I welcome their welcoming of the web 2.0 ethic*. Albeit a bit cold. Britannica calls non-scholarly contributers ‘lay contributers’. Hmm. i think that misses a vital point about users: they’ve forfeited time and money to post content, the least a website can do is make’em feel at home. Just my $0.2.
Encyclopaedia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model | Epicenter from Wired.com
* another post for another time. main issue is finding the correct universal terminology for the practice of content filtering and re-filtering (um, like this micro-blog)
Who will blink first: you or Jessica Alba?
(See the “More from:” to see Adam Sandler’s stare-down challenge. Funnier but waaaaaaay less prettier.)
Ralph Steadman holds court in ad land, and the Clios will never be the same..
Celebrating shameless hucksterism at the Clios. - By Seth Stevenson - Slate Magazine
So you need to track the number of blogs that mention Radiohead and correlate it to the number of Radionhead fan sites.. Easy.. Just go to Trendrr - a website for strategic/account planners and wayward Nielsen researchers.
Or, as they put it:
“Track, compare and share data, free. Identify trends across social graphs and networks, realize the potential of p2p, track engagement metrics, look at what is really happening, real time.”
And now you know the source of the Rick Astley pie chart that’s doing the rounds.. :)
Peter Menzel’s brilliant if somewhat voyeuristic “Hungry Planet” (Amazon) takes snapshots of how everyone on our fruitful planet shops.. or, hunts.
Though, if i’m not mistaken, Benetton’s genius COLOURS magazine also covers this in one of its issues.
Still, it’s worth the purchase just to admire the differences and similarities between what we all put in the fridge. It’s like being invited in for dinner in every chapter :)
Nothing like risky creative rooted in an excellent argument, er.. strategy*.
The new Cheetos in the US breaks some of the golden rules of snack-advertising, (like Rule 32: “never show your snack being shoved up someone’s nostril”) - but it’s backed by an impenetrable rationale and some deft research.
First, they discovered that 60% of their revenue was coming from 20-35 demographic. This was a bigger shock than you imagine. The client thought their market was primarily 13 yr old boys nagging their mums.
Second, they researched why 20-35 yr olds would ever consider eating a Cheeto - as opposed to say, a carrot stick. Or a slice of cucumber. Cheetos are fattening and not what one would expect a health-conscious and relatively responsible market to snack on between middle management meetings.
The defining insight was that, actually, people like breaking their own rules (shock! horror!). Consumers aren’t always who they say they are. They don’t fit into the corporate slurry of demographic and psychographic attributes. People are not 2-dimensional cut-outs of perfect benevolence. And Cheetos new campaign *gets* that in a way few campaigns do.
Check out this report on the new Cheetos ads and a link to the ad itself..
* strategic planning documents are to Advertising what arguments are to Law.
And, and, and..
Go to the Cheetos website which continues the campaign idea - almost seamlessly: www.orangeunderground.com
I’m not sure you can wear one and not get beat up - in which case girls and their GBFs will love these.. KidrobotKat Leuzinger Zipits Zipper Pulls
hmmm. always wanted me a chair of sheep.. via www.nerve.com
Ever played Nintendo and thought, “hmm, catchy tune”? No? Okay, well, wake up and smell the 8-bit..
Actually, 8-bit is just a recent iteration of a business model that started in the 1950s, when music industry execs realised they could move stock by using movie soundtracks as promotional platforms. Case in point: Shaft, Barbara Streisand star-vehicles, and everything Elvis acted, erm, *starred* in.
Fast forward to today, where the once powerful Hollywood is getting beaten up by a booming video game industry (certainly in revenue). The new pond to fish is made of the thousands of game titles, now in ear-loving Blu-Ray. And, of course, people spend a lot more time playing Fifa 08 than watching a 90-minute movie.
If it weren’t for “Need for Speed 2” (PC & PS2 circa 2002), it might have taken me a few more years to discover the melodic metal genius of Queens of the Stone Age. I now have all their albums.
Typically, commercial subtexts precede creative innovations (except in the Sillycon Valley).
Decades after Colonel Parker told a fresh-faced Elvis to learn a few lines, Nintendo’s handheld brick, the Gameboy, went a step further: it began producing music.
The 90’s hit that was the scorn of mothers and the religion of buck-toothed 11 yr olds hid inside its circuitry a musical revolution. Who woulda thought that the Gameboy’s hardware defaults that would inspire an army of electronica-loving Beethovens and Bachs. Ironically, most 8-bit electronica composers argue the limited sound defaults drive greater creativity.
Start Game: 8bitpeoples
