The Google To Adlandia: Be Lean And Agile Like Us, And You’ll Be Rich Like Us

hurdles

Earlier this summer, a technology company executive suggested I look into “lean and agile development.” Seeing a parallel between our work environments, he thought it might help me improve the way I make work. I’ve been intrigued by the idea ever since, but I probably need to read a book about it to get a [...]

For Microsoft, Automated Display Not An Automated Teller Machine

6.2 billion writedown microsoft - Bing-1

The money in technology is not real. When you look at the sums involved in Facebook’s initial public offering, or at Monday’s news that Microsoft will write down almost the entire value of its 2007 acquisition of aQuantive–a $6.2 billion hit–what other conclusions can one draw? And who aside from Steve Ballmer drops $6.3 billion [...]

Orbitz Takes “Mac Versus PC” Campaign Literally, Serves Up Spendier Hotels To Mac Users

room_rates_mac_versus_pc

Mac users spend on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, according to online travel site Orbitz. Furthermore, Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to [...]

Are Agencies Staffed By Dumbasses, Or Worse?

I typically stay away from content written by anonymous contributors, but Brian Morrissey at Digiday is prompting “Confessions” from people in the industry, and the one I just read from a technology vendor seems to have merit. Agencies talk about being makers. Shouldn’t they have this technology in-house? They can’t do it. It’s the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none [...]

Guest Post: Prepare Your Ads For The Next Dimension

James Stewart_director

Editor’s Note: Keeping up with technological innovations is part of our job as creatives, so I appreciate this briefing on 3D from director James Stewart, and hope you do as well. 3D already dominates the world of cinema. Since 2010, 3D has driven box office sales, and statistics indicate that 45-80% of audiences choose 3D [...]

Nature Valley Explores Shared Points of Interest At Three National Parks

Creating compelling content for marketing purposes, whatever the platform, comes down to utility or entertainment. That’s the opportunity for brands, and delivering on that opportunity requires a switch from the messaging approach that we’ve all grown so accustom to. Nature Valley Trail View is a new entry into the field that offers both utility and [...]

Images And Audio Belong Together

picle app

Fast Company and Forbes both like Picle, a new mobile app introduced at SXSW last week. Picle allows you to snap images and record audio at the same time, compiling your sound and visual bites into a shareable story. I just downloaded the free App on my iPhone and took a pic and audio capture. [...]

Old Ad Dogs Learn New Digital Tricks

old ad dogs learn new tricks

This year, Internet advertising turns 18-years-old. And yet despite almost two decades of innovation online, digital ads are still being used to simply inform more than they’re being used to connect, engage and entertain. So The Google designed an experiment to re-imagine what advertising can be and push the boundaries of how creative ideas and [...]

Shazam Now For More

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Shazam is an awesome app. It listens to songs on the radio and tells you the name of the track and artist. Technology… Apparently, Shazam will also listen to TV ads. General Mills’ Pillsbury Crescents brand is using Shazam for TV to reach busy millennial moms. When viewers see the TV spot, they can open [...]

Make Media Complexities Simple, Make A Lot of Money

I’ve been reading a lot of articles about the lack of talented people willing or able to work in the fast changing advertising business these days. Here’s one point of view from The New York Times: A talent gap is growing between the skills that many new advertising jobs require and the number of people [...]