January 2008 Archives

 

January 1, 2008

All Work and Hopefully Some Play

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I'm in Boulder today, so I thought I'd take a drive out Diagonal Highway toward Longmont to see where Crispin Porter & Bogusky has set up shop in a nondescript office park. And look, there are a bunch of cars in the parking lot. On New Year's Day. Which leads me to believe it takes extraordinary drive (and an obsessive nature) to reach the top and stay there.

Posted by david burn on January 1, 2008 10:14 PM | | Comments (12)

January 2, 2008

Happy New Year George

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The context for this contextual advertising dust up, or why this is here.

Hat tip to High Jive.

Posted by david burn on January 2, 2008 9:56 PM | | Comments (4)

January 3, 2008

New Year For Another Lame Facebook Story

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It seems the bone of contention over Facebook's Beacon application was but the tip of the iceberg. Now Wired is exploring the company's "Social Ad" platform and raising more questions about consent and privacy.

Have you used Facebook to give a shout-out to businesses you like? Best make sure your profile picture catches your best side, because you might be an unwitting star in those businesses' next Facebook ad campaigns.

These ads, bought by participating businesses, insert your name and profile picture directly into their pitches. Based on anecdotal evidence, the ads started to roll out right before the holidays.

According to Facebook, a user has to take a "social action" in order to trigger the appearance of their name and picture in an advertisement.

Egg is hard to get off one's face. Especially when it dries.

I can just hear the Facebookies explaining the concept to the ad buyers. UGC is all that, blah blah blah...But the problem is none of this matches up to user generated content. It's all Facebook generated content riding on the backs of mostly unwitting users.

Posted by david burn on January 3, 2008 10:00 AM | | Comments (0)

Karpian Wisdom Floweth

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 has some great advice, as always, for those working to understand the new advertising culturescape.

Google turned search advertising into the most profitable media business on the web by following the basic principle that advertising must create value for consumers. Search advertising is so powerful because the ads are relevant and USEFUL.

The most successful new advertising models will be those that create huge value for consumers, not those that manipulate users or violate their privacy (i.e. be like Google, not Facebook).

Posted by david burn on January 3, 2008 11:25 AM | | Comments (0)

There's Little Value In An Obtuse Headline

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Posted by david burn on January 3, 2008 11:52 AM | | Comments (0)

The Content Is The Commercial

The New York Times looks at American Eagle Outfitter's journey into branded entertainment.

Last summer, on its Web site, ae.com, American Eagle introduced a dedicated media channel called 77e, which plays music and videos. The idea was to make visitors intrigued enough by what they saw to entice them to click further and buy clothes. Much of the content on the channel has been commissioned specifically as entertainment and used the American Eagle brand almost incidentally.

“Our customers know about media. They are curating their own consumption of media — making their playlists of music, selecting their own video clips,” said Kathy Savitt, chief marketing officer at American Eagle Outfitters. “We thought more could be done than just another 30-second spot on television.”

Posted by david burn on January 3, 2008 6:30 PM | | Comments (1)

January 4, 2008

Consumers Want Digital Utility, Not Advertising

More than two-thirds of consumers who use the internet have used it to research package-goods products, according to a new survey by Prospectiv, a firm that provides online customer leads for marketers.

Of the consumers who use the internet to research package-goods brands (48%) do so primarily to get product information. Another 46% use the internet to seek savings or coupons, while 6% are primarily looking for tips on how to use the product.

[via Ad Age]

Posted by david burn on January 4, 2008 1:10 PM | | Comments (2)

It's Not What You're Looking For, But What You Find

Jason Calacanis has some ideas for Twitter monetization. Namely, in feed advertising, SMS advertising and subscriptions. But that's not the interesting part of his post. This is:

Ev shouldn't worry about a business model for another two years. Just build the service to *massive* critical mass. Get to 100M users--which is where the service is headed. If the service gets to 100M monthly users it will be worth a couple of billion.

That's what I learned at AOL: Once you have critical mass you can't help but make a fortune. An absolute idiot with 10-20M users can make a ton of money. So, get to tens of millions of users and forget about money.

Speaking of Ev, The Economist is running a feature on him. The British magazine's premise is that Ev is an accidental innovator. That Blogger and Twitter were not intended, but rather the outcome of something else he was working on.

The irony of trying to plan accidents, and orchestrate their frequent occurrence, is not lost on Mr Williams. So he tries mental tricks. One is to ask “what can we take away to create something new?” A decade ago, you could have started with Yahoo! and taken away all the clutter around the search box to get Google. When he took Blogger and took away everything except one 140-character line, he had Twitter. Radical constraints, he believes, can lead to breakthroughs in simplicity and entirely new things.
Posted by david burn on January 4, 2008 3:10 PM | | Comments (0)

January 6, 2008

B.T.W. Buy It Here Now for $39.95

Are "real" journalist's capable of writing moving ad copy? I say, yes. And Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times is my proof.

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Let's watch her role with this lurid product description...

Our redeemer is Scrivener, the independently produced word-processing program of the aspiring novelist Keith Blount, a Londoner who taught himself code and graphic design and marketing, just to create a software that jibes with the way writers think. As its name makes plain, Scrivener takes our side; it roots for the writer and not for the final product — the stubborn Word. The happy, broad-minded, process-friendly Scrivener software encourages note-taking and outlining and restructuring and promises all the exhilaration of a productive desk: “a ring-binder, a scrapbook, a corkboard, an outliner and text editor all rolled into one.”

Ring, scrap and cork sound like fun, a Montessori playroom. But read on — and download the free trial — and being a Scrivener-empowered scrivener comes to seem like life’s greatest role. Scriveners, unlike Word-slaves, have florid psychologies, esoteric requirements and arcane desires. They’re artists. They’re historians. With needs. Scrivener is “aimed at writers of all kinds — novelists, journalists, academics, screenwriters, playwrights — who need to refer to various research documents and have access to different organizational tools whilst aiming to create a finished piece of text.”

Of course, journalists don't typically write ad copy without a smirk on their learned faces. Lest we think Heffernan is truly out to sell, she brings us back to earth with this send off.

Let’s just say it: It’s biblical. And come on, ye writers, do you want to be a little Word drip writing 603 words in Palatino with regulation margins? Or do you want to be a Creator?

Still funny and dead on, but willfully over the top, as well. Not that that's bad (from a journalist's perspective).

Posted by david burn on January 6, 2008 5:03 PM | | Comments (0)

A 2008 Come On

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Posted by david burn on January 6, 2008 6:48 PM | | Comments (0)

Tilework...Talk About A Long Range Media Buy

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13th & Jackson in Omaha's Old Market

Posted by david burn on January 6, 2008 8:30 PM | | Comments (0)

Postaer Airs It Out

Steffan Postaer has taken to writing about his agency, Euro RSCG/Chicago, and other topics, on his new blog, Gods of Advertising. The blog's subhead is "We make you want what you don't need."

One of Postaer's first posts, "The True Meaning of Integration" paints a pretty rosy picture (but hey, cheerleading is part of the job).

Integration. Unification. Call it what you will. As many of you know I’ve likened it to being on a submarine: We’re at sea. We’re at battle. We’re in this thing together. Because that’s what it’s all about: Working Together. That’s what the word “integration” originally meant before all these holding companies got a hold of it.

And so here we are, art directors, writers, planners and suits. Working more and more together, more and more everyday. Sharing our experience, strength and hope. And while I’m sure we’re too busy to sit around and complain, do any of us realize how rare community like this is? And how blessed we all are to have it? I know I’m blessed. And I have you and Euro RSCG to thank for it. A few years ago this place was like the island of misfit toys. And now look at us! It’s Christmas and we’ve this great big tree to celebrate it under!

For more tangible proof of our integration we have only to look at one of our very finest creative business ideas in 2007. It was a piece of advertising copy written by an art director who usually works on direct. Effen is a five-letter word, created by Bernardo Gomez.

I'm not convinced that an art director writing a nice line is "integration," but I do like Postaer's teamwork theme and the call for cross-discipline pollination.

Posted by david burn on January 6, 2008 10:18 PM | | Comments (12)

January 7, 2008

Niche Doesn't Mean Small

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According to The Wall Street Journal, Liberty Media is paying more than $100 million to buy a stake of BodyBuilding.com from the site's founding family and a private-equity firm.

Once known primarily as an investor in media companies, Liberty has taken steps in recent years to become more of an operator of its own businesses. In the past couple of years it has assembled a sizable portfolio of Internet ventures to complement its QVC home-shopping network, whose growth has slowed as retail sales shift to the Web. Last year, Liberty purchased Buyseasons Inc., which operates an online costume site, and a controlling stake in Backcountry.com, an outdoor and action-sports retailer. In 2006 Liberty paid nearly $500 million to buy Internet flower and food seller Provide Commerce Inc.

Liberty Chief Executive Gregory Maffei said the company is committed to acquiring more high-growth Internet businesses targeted at narrow customer segments, viewing them as highly attractive as audiences fragment online. "We would do as many such deals as we could get our hands on," he said, stressing that the number of independent companies that meet those criteria is relatively small.

These are big numbers dished out by a media company for what is essentially a retail business, but online. We live in interesting times.

Posted by david burn on January 7, 2008 8:30 AM | | Comments (2)

Soc Nets Ahead. Wear Hard Hat.

Jonah Bloom of Ad Age sees falling debris on the MyFaceSpace horizon.

Facebook and MySpace will have the longest lines of advertisers looking to get into their clubs in 2008. Of course, as those advertisers pay their admission fees and filter in, there'll be more Beacon-backlash-type tales and plenty of grumbling from the natives. Gated communities, with subscription or premium-service business models, will pop up offering better online living without the nasty ad riff-raff. Still, the leading social networks already have the scale to record rapid ad revenue growth this year. The question is whether they'll grow fast enough to persuade all the VCs to stand by the thousands of Web 2.0 businesses that are also seeking ads as their major source of income. They can't all be winners -- marketing money moves more slowly than venture capital, if it moves at all -- and there'll be a host of implosions.
Posted by david burn on January 7, 2008 10:55 AM | | Comments (0)

Popularity Pays

Edward Wasserman, professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, argues in the Miami Herald that journalism ought not be subject to the brutal trappings of online metrics.

Under the new rules, the commercial value of specific editorial offerings is estimated with precision, rewards and punishments doled out accordingly, and coverage cut to fit.

The problem with online Popularity Pay is it that it mistakes journalism for a consumer product, and conflates value with sales volume. Journalists don't peddle goods, they offer a professional service, a relationship. The news audience renews that relationship to get information and insight on matters it trusts journalists to alert it to, even though the news may be disquieting or hard to grasp.

Gawker Media already operates on the Popularity Pay model. Nick Denton's goal is to discourage "self indulgent" posts and "mind-numbing frequency" in favor of "linkworthy material."

Posted by david burn on January 7, 2008 11:05 AM | | Comments (1)

Refresher Course

“This is a business that is changing like crazy, but Sullivan’s advice is timeless.” –Mike Hughes, President, Creative Director, The Martin Agency

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This updated third edition of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan presents a real-world look inside the big agencies and examines the industry’s best and worst work – from the hilarious to the horrid. New chapters cover online, guerilla, and direct marketing as well as new case studies and tons of cool new examples of great work.

It’s available in stores first week of February or so, and "it’s a much better book than it used to be," according to Sullivan. I remember the first edition being a good read, but I'll take his word for it.

Amazon is accepting pre-orders now.

Posted by david burn on January 7, 2008 2:06 PM | | Comments (1)

January 8, 2008

More Ad Dollars Please

AdvertiseSpace presents seven reasons for running paid advertising on blogs.

  • Good bang for your buck
  • Easy to get started
  • Blog readers are power internet users
  • It elevates your products status
  • Blogs tend to be read by other bloggers
  • Bloggers are early adopters
  • Bloggers are very influential

Which leads me to this line of asshattery...AdPulp is an indie site with no ad network behind it, but Shawn and I would be more than happy to help you place a paid ad here.

For more information on rates and traffic and all that goodness, please contact us.

Posted by david burn on January 8, 2008 8:25 AM | | Comments (0)

VCs Wrestle for Control of CNET

According to The Wall Street Journal, Jana Partners LLC, which holds an 8.1% stake in CNET Networks Inc. plans to nominate seven people to the San Francisco company's board, saying there is a need to revitalize the "underperforming company."

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jana said its nominees -- including a former AOL chief executive, Jon Miller -- will increase shareholder value at CNET by leveraging the company's editorial content and staff, broadening the company's properties and by focusing on return on investment. Jana wants to increase CNET's board size to 13 directors from eight. Jana said it believes CNET has "significantly lagged peers in value creation and performance."

CNET said in a press release that it has considered Jana's proposal for board seats and determined that it is improper under its bylaws.

Posted by david burn on January 8, 2008 9:17 AM | | Comments (1)

Ford Pulls Up To Red Morning Light

Kings of Leon have coughed up their song "Red Morning Light" to Ford Motor Company, which is using it to sell the Ford Focus--a car I can't see the Tennessee rockers driving.

Posted by david burn on January 8, 2008 10:13 AM | | Comments (0)

Finding Inspiration In a 70s TV Icon

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According to Creativity, Fred G. Sanford's old pal Grady is a comedic and creative inspiration of sorts at the New York office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, thanks to Gerry Graf's appreciation of the sitcom.

Posted by david burn on January 8, 2008 11:47 AM | | Comments (3)

January 9, 2008

New Age Philosophy Tapped for New Bank Campaign

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"Chase What Matters" are words I might respond to in the right setting. Like at a family dinner. Or at a meeting with my guru.

But "Chase What Matters as long as it leads to more money flowing through the bank" is what this says.

[via The New York Times]

Posted by david burn on January 9, 2008 8:51 AM | | Comments (2)

Merging With the Infinite

David Armano is VP, Experience Design for Critical Mass and he has a new theory. He believes we will move from multiple connected touchpoints to infinite touch points.

I am fairly certain that we are moving toward a time where the way we interact with brands and their products and services will seem infinite.

Maybe, just maybe—each time we have any interaction with a brand's product or service we'll create a mental note of how that experience felt. If touch points become infinite—or just seem that way, then the opportunity for deeper levels of a relationship become possible.

But only if the infinite touch points succeed in reaching that ideal "iiquid state of flow"—or at least make it feel that way to the end user, consumer or participant.

Thankfully, The Kaiser has another read and delivers it in the comments: "I think that during the next 20 years we will learn to avoid and negate brand touch points and experiences. I believe that these touch points will become so "average" that we will learn to opt out and ignore them."

Posted by david burn on January 9, 2008 10:13 AM | | Comments (3)

Go West, Young Ad People

Here's the scoop on the new building Ogilvy NY will occupy beginning next year, on the West Side.

The building at 636 Eleventh Avenue was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. Ogilvy is calling its new space the "Candy Factory." It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space.

Thanks to Google Maps, here's a sneak preview:

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What would David Ogilvy think of this?

Posted by danny g on January 9, 2008 10:14 AM | | Comments (2)

Longing To Be Elsewhere

Ernie Schenck, executive vice president and creative director at Hill Holliday, explores the tendency in creative people to occupy their minds with thoughts about how much better things are "over the hill and through the trees."

We are terrible longers, we ad people. No matter where we are, we long to be somewhere else. Goodby. Wieden. Chiat. If only I weren’t stuck in this sorry ass agency in Davenport, we think; if only I could squeeze my eyes shut and a wormhole would pass over me at that very moment and when I opened them, I would be awash in the glorious radiance of Crispin; if only I could be anywhere but here in Davenport, in Tacoma, in Providence, in Oklahoma City, life would be good, life would be perfect. The creative grass is never so green as it is anywhere but where we happen to be.

Truer words have rarely been written.

I don't see one of the name brand shops as "the answer" like I once did. For me personally, it's about working with people I like on projects I find worthwhile.

[via Communication Arts]

Posted by david burn on January 9, 2008 1:53 PM | | Comments (4)

Scarcity Is for Losers

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Ian Rogers, VP Video and Media Applications at Yahoo, spoke at the Creative Artists Agency conference in Aspen recently.

Here's a small portion of what he said:

There is more opportunity in leveraging the scale of the Web than trying to create scarcity. We’ve all been engaged in many attempts at creating scarcity in digital music and none of them have worked. Meanwhile, others have been leveraging the scale of the Web with great success. We should learn from this pattern and apply our energy appropriately.

It only gets deeper from there.

Today users are creating tremendous value and for the most part we’re ignoring it. They’re writing blogs about your artists, putting bios on Wikipedia, documenting last night’s concert on Flickr and video sharing sites, showing what songs are most popular by their behavior on Last.fm, building “box sets” on community sites, etc. How has the music industry leveraged this? What tools have you created to enable or encourage it?

Nothing and none, and what we’ve done is forced a disconnect between content and context. As I mentioned in my October presentation, iTunes is a (mostly) context-free content experience and the Web is a (mostly) content-free context experience. Whoever puts the two together wins.


Posted by david burn on January 9, 2008 3:35 PM | | Comments (0)

Ohio's 3rd Congressional District Needs David Esrati

Go David, go.

David is the owner of The Next Wave in Dayton. Find out more at his campaign site Esrati.com.

Posted by danny g on January 9, 2008 5:59 PM | | Comments (2)

So Social

I like what Marshall Kirkpatrick has to say about launching a social network in today's media environment.

Social networks have caught on for a reason - they offer functionality that's very useful for a lot of people in many different communities of interest. That said, everyone is wary of copy-cat, roach-motel, me-too social networks. Why not have your cake and eat it too? By framing the extension of your existing site as just that, an extension of your existing users' profile capabilities, instead of as a social network launch - you can make everyone happy and maintain your dignity.

He also has some interesting things to offer on while labeling a soc net.

You could build your own social networking functionality for your site, but chances are that's not your area of expertise. In that case, you may want to let someone else do that for you. Check out KickApps, CollectiveX, Elgg, PeopleAggregator and the TechCrunch list of white label social network vendors.

There are enough white label social network options on the market that it should be a buyer's market and vendors should be innovating rapidly to serve user needs and differentiate themselves.

I'm likin' what I'm hearing because I'm intent on building a soc net for bars and those who frequent bars. If you have any advise for me concerning this project, or want to contribute in some way, please let me know.

George, you can be a charter member!

Posted by david burn on January 9, 2008 6:33 PM | | Comments (1)

January 10, 2008

Presidential Politics Is Just Marketing With Tackier Buttons

Thought I'd give loyal AdPulp readers a preview of an upcoming TalentZoo column while it's all fresh in my mind. Lord knows, this could all change in a week.

In a Presidential campaign, politics is theater. It’s entertainment. And above all else, it’s marketing. Can the ad industry learn anything by watching this $1 billion spectacle? I think so. As of January 10th, here’s what I’m learning:

A loved upstart brand can beat an unloved brand with deep pockets. Campaign money goes to advertising, but also to staff, supplies, phones, etc. They burn money fast, long before the first primary or caucus takes place. That’s a huge gamble with no way to predicting ROI. Already, we’ve seen some campaigns like John McCain’s and Mike Huckabee’s win without the most cash.

People want something to believe in. Americans are an optimistic bunch at their core—we still believe that our government can work the way Schoolhouse Rock said it could. Which is why so many deeply cynical, apathetic voters are moved by Barack Obama’s message.

If you can’t close the sale, no sales pitch, emotional or rational, will help you. There is a difference, though: In politics, you only have to make a sale once or twice—at a primary or general election. On the night of the Iowa caucus, Obama and Huckabee made sure their supporters showed up. Otherwise, they’d have been screwed.

Consumers don’t like being told what to do. When Hillary Clinton was considered inevitable, Obama won. Then Obama was considered inevitable, and Clinton won.

Chuck Norris has very, very, white teeth.

Continue reading "Presidential Politics Is Just Marketing With Tackier Buttons" »

Posted by danny g on January 10, 2008 8:07 AM | | Comments (0)

Wieden Ain't Small (A 10-Person Design Firm Is Small)

The Wall Street Journal has a strange way of seeing things sometimes.

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The biggest independent on the scene, with billions in annual billings, is still small change to the WSJ.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 9:05 AM | | Comments (3)

Ear Deep In Legal

Because I worked on the Coors account and now work on the Camel account, I've long since learned that legal has as much say, if not more say, than the brand managers on the business. Which is why I find it amusing to see Stuart Elliott puzzle over the legalese involved in marketing alcohol.

The Coors Brewing Company is offering consumers a chance to win tickets for the 2008 or 2009 Super Bowl. The video clips that contestants are invited to submit on two Web sites (coorsbeer.com and coorslight.com), to demonstrate why they deserve a trip to the Super Bowl, cannot depict Santa because the character appeals to those under the legal drinking age of 21.

Also forbidden in the videos, according to a lengthy list of contest rules, are famous people; references to football teams, players, coaches or owners; political themes; depictions of drinking while driving; drinking games; drinking beer “rapidly, excessively, involuntarily”; religious references; gambling; illegal or explicit sexual activity; any form of intoxication; any beer brands that compete with Coors or Coors Light; violence; and dangerous situations.

Oh, yes, and everyone who submits a video or appears in one must be 21 or older.

One more thing. You have to enter your date of birth twice before you can visit the sections of the Web sites devoted to the contest.

The UGC-based promotion is being handled by Avenue A/Razorfish and The Integer Group.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 9:34 AM | | Comments (1)

White Space Can Be Tough To Fill

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See the entire series of blanks from Aaron Whelton.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 10:29 AM | | Comments (0)

Who Needs Creative Arts When There's So Much Data Available?

The Kaiser is lamenting the state of creative affairs today.

If you work in the creative department of an advertising agency in 2008 you will be hard pushed to find either a member of your team who can remember the old process or somebody who can handle a pencil and can draw - but I bet everyone is pretty savvy with a Mac, Photoshop, Quark and InDesign.

Suddenly everyone with a computer, a mouse and a piece of software could do “creative” stuff, which is morally superb - but has proven to be, functionally and qualitatively speaking, an absolute bloody nightmare and has created what Walter Gropius called an “art-proletariat” - a mass of people misled into believing that just because, they had secured a place in art education (whether it be painting, architecture, design or sculpture), that they had all the tools needed to be artists - and were somehow muddying the waters of creativity.

Gropius, of course, passed away well before the introduction of desktop publishing. But what of The Kaiser's argument? Are there any real artists left in the ad biz, or did they head for the hills decades ago?

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 11:02 AM | | Comments (3)

CTOs Worth Their Weight In _________

Fred Wilson, a.k.a. "A VC" on the need for a great Chief Technology Officer:

Great managers are hard to find in any line of work. But managing developers is even harder. The better the developer the harder they are to manage. I assume its a bit like managing high maintenance entertainers. The best developers are artists who are often moody, are anarchists who have bursts of creativity and equally long periods of uselessness. They are strong willed people who will fight with their colleagues over anything and everything. The people who have mastered the art of managing these kinds of people are a rare breed and every great technology-based business needs one of them.

Wilson invests in start up tech companies, but the same can be said for the agency business. We're all in communications technology today, as well as marketing communications. Providing strong leadership for the code monkeys is good stuff, but the ability to translate the thinking into English for one's team members and clients is arguably even more important.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 11:24 AM | | Comments (0)

Shopping For Creative At Craig's

Craigslist is home to many things, some of which prove to be valuable.

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership (Estuary Partnership) requests proposals and qualifications for the development of a strategic plan for a consumer education campaign. This campaign will inform consumers on the significant risks to human and environmental health that are associated with flame retardants (a common ingredient in products ranging from computers to mattresses) and some ingredients found in personal care products (such as lead and plasticizers). Campaign objectives are to educate consumers on human and environmental health risks and provide information on alternative ingredients that are safe for both humans and the environment. The strategic plan should outline a campaign that can be implemented in stages, presented in different media (including print, radio, and television and in paid and public safety announcements), creatively use any proposed outreach materials (e.g., consumer pocket guides), and reach diverse audiences.

Proposals are due at the Estuary Partnership office by 4:00 p.m. on January 22, 2008. Please submit applications to Krista Jones, Monitoring Coordinator, Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership at 811 SW Naito Parkway, Suite 120, Portland, Oregon 97204. Faxed or emailed applications will not be accepted. For more information and RFP details, see the Estuary Partnership's website: www.lcrep.org

I never thought of scanning Craig's for RFPs before, but now I know.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 3:21 PM | | Comments (0)

Shady Goodness

When you win an account, you want it to be an account you can believe in and profit from. That can mean any number of things, depending on the account and the people who win it.

While a sunglasses account isn't a car account, I've got to believe McGarrah/Jessee is pleased to beat out Fallon and Carmichael Lynch to win the Costa Del Mar business.

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I used to work on Bolle at Integer/Denver and they'd invite us over to their warehouse for employee-only blowouts, where I'd walk away with six or seven pairs of glasses and goggles for $10 to $15 each. Perks are important.

According to The Austin American-Stateman, McGarrah/Jessee has 51 employees, and is expected to report about $70 million in billings this year.

The agency's clients include Whataburger, Shiner beer and Frost Bank.

Posted by david burn on January 10, 2008 4:34 PM | | Comments (3)

January 11, 2008

Upgrades At The Industry School

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Ad Age has breaking news out of Richmond.

Effective Jan. 14, the Richmond, Va.-based VCU Adcenter, founded in 1996, will be called VCU Brandcenter. It also is unveiling a new logo, courtesy of New York-based design firm Collins, as well as a website, www.brandcenter.vcu.edu, created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' RG/A, New York.

Following lengthy debate, faculty, board members and students concluded that association with advertising was too limiting and that the school needed a broader name to reflect the rapidly changing industry landscape in which the school's graduates find employment, said Rick Boyko, managing director of the VCU Brandcenter.

VCU Brandcenter also dropped $9 million to move to a new building, tapping world-famous architect Clive Wilkinson to lead the effort. Wilkinson partnered with local firm Baskerville to transform a historic 27,000-square-foot building in VCU's Monroe Park campus into an open, airy space with a modern feel.

Boyko hopes the changes will help the school further set itself apart from the pack of portfolio schools and traditional academia by more closely aligning itself with an evolving ad business.

Posted by david burn on January 11, 2008 8:08 AM | | Comments (3)

Dabitch Is Not Ad Wikipedia

Dabitch of Adland shares a funny tale on her personal site from the dark side of adbloggerdom.

A bloke from the UK calls, I can hear that he's in a rather noisy spot, cups hitting tables and chatter in the background and he tells me that he has a blockbuster idea for a commercial that would sell every unit of Levis (or whatever) brand they had. It's that great, it's so great he almost doesn't believe it himself, he's got three outrageuously good commercial ideas and two great ones, and he wants me to tell him how to get them sold.

I didn't know what to say to the poor chap who "saw my company on the internet at this internet café and thought I could possibly help him with contacts to sell his commercials".

Strangely, this call is not out of the ordinary. The Swedish art director living in Malmö gets this treatment regularly.

It is a bit odd that this questions has been asked at least once a week recently. My reply is the standard; "animate it, stick it on youtube, hope you get lucky." The people asking this sincerely believe that one hit commercial might make them rich for life, a bit like those people who dream of doing one novel and retiring. The truth is, a career creating commercials or novels never relies on one or three good ideas, but hundreds of thousands, and you have to work really hard for a long time before you get anything done. Ever.

I love that last bit. It's so true. And so hard for the impatient to accept.

Posted by david burn on January 11, 2008 8:37 AM | | Comments (0)

Spence Hops On The Hillary Wagon

How many glowing phrases are used to describe GSD&M's Roy Spence in this ABC News article about his work with the Clinton for President campaign?

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Let's see:

  • "quirky message guru"
  • "advertising guru"
  • "soul-searching message guru"
  • "branding and messaging whiz"
  • "Idea Man"

You have to get way down into the article and infer a little to add "chairman of a struggling ad agency."

Posted by danny g on January 11, 2008 9:34 AM | | Comments (0)

Twitter Naked

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Posted by david burn on January 11, 2008 10:03 AM | | Comments (0)

AdPulpian Mind Meld

I've invited three more highly accomplished marketing pros, writers and big thinkers to join the action here. I'm flattered and thrilled that they've all agreed to participate.

Please join me in welcoming real journalist Catharine P. Taylor, author, speaker and consultant Tom Asacker and author, speaker and innovation consultant Annette Moser-Wellman to the party. Look for their bylines to appear here in the coming weeks.

Every "blog" should be so lucky.

Posted by david burn on January 11, 2008 10:56 AM | | Comments (1)

Tell Trumpet Your Problems

Agency Spy took note of an original idea from Trumpet in New Orleans.

Instead of responding to yet another boring Request for Proposal, Trumpet has issued it's own RFP, but with a twist. Trumpet's RFP stands for Request for Problem. Their hope is that potential clients will submit their marketing problems via this web-based channel.

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Of course, there's nothing stopping you from also sharing a problem with the Trumpeteers. I have one...an underfunded startup media company in need of capital.

Posted by david burn on January 11, 2008 2:06 PM | | Comments (0)

Media Neutrality Comes To The Corner Office

Scamp posted about Jon Williams, a digital creative taking the helm as ECD at Grey/London. He chose an unusual title for the post: It's No Longer Safe In The Water.

The post has generated some interesting commentary, pitting old school TV addicts against the new school. Here's how it starts...

At 12:18 PM, rjhayter said…

'Above-the-line-creative' sounds like such a quaint, old-fashioned thing to say, these days. According to the story in Campaign, Mr Williams has looked after lots of different