Want to win coveted New York City shelf space for an all natural, organic, non-carbonated energy drink out of Canada? According to The New York Times, a gift for schmoozing, a comfortable pair of shoes and armorlike skin are the price of entry. With the help of a sales team in possession of these attributes, Guru started selling its drinks downtown last July. It has advertised in The Village Voice and Time Out New …
We’d Rather Invent the Next Vitamin Water…
I'm glad The Escape Pod sent me the March issue of Fast Company. It's nice to leaf through and see innovative companies celebrated for their contributions. It was also a terrific media buy for The Escape Pod. Google and Apple top the list, but the magazine names New York anti-agency, Anomaly, the 24th most innovative company in the world. image courtesy of Chet Gulland So what makes Anomaly a Fast Company darling? …
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Gawker Has No Use for PR
Former PRWeek writer, Hamilton Nolan, now at Gawker, isn't big on PR. Here he is speaking directly to Richard Edelman, the man Ad Age named its 2007 PR Exec of the year: Like I said, you're a nice guy. But much of your work— Wal-Mart being the best example— is just objectionable on philosophical grounds, like a lot of things in the PR industry. If every multinational PR firm crumbled to pieces tomorrow, the world …
Poached Crispin
GSD&M Idea City has recruited and entrusted their top creative post to industry powerhouse Mark Taylor. Taylor comes to GSD&M Idea City from Crispin Porter + Bogusky where his work as creative director won wide critical acclaim. His accomplishments include the re-creation of the King and the interactive-sensation Subservient Chicken for Burger King, the launch of the MINI, and work for Miller Highlife, Nike and VW …
Soc Net Fatigue Sinks Click Rates
The Web self tends to be a marketed version of the real thing, more an example of how thoroughly we've all internalized the branding process than an outbreak of revelation. -Rob Walker in Fast Company Spike Jones at Brains on Fire picks up on Walker's FC piece on online identity and has this to add: The lesson to be learned here? Before you sink your precious marketing budget dollars into that social networking …
RU n The Biz?
Yesterday, Variety, in association with Jobster, launched The Biz, the first social networking website for the entertainment business. The Biz seeks to serve as on online community for media professionals who can, among other things, search for jobs, pitch projects and exchange ideas. It also will serve as a venue for job recruiters who will be able to find candidates based on specific interests, skills and levels of …
Have Story, Will Sell
Lewis Lazare ran an item in his Sun Times column on Feb. 8 about research indicating the three most-liked commercials in the 2008 Super Bowl of Advertising were all story-driven. This led legendary director, Joe Pytka, to send Lazare a note. I have been lobbying for years to change the way advertisers think, and the results of the commercials I directed that were mentioned in your column reinforce this notion. I've …
Not The Denver Omelet
In an article on alternative agency compensation models, Adweek introduces me to another strangely-named Los Angeles agency. Omelet in Los Angeles is aiming for an even split between traditional client and agency ventures within the next five years, said Mark Vega, founder and partner, and a former intellectual property and entertainment lawyer. The ratio is currently 80 percent client work versus 20 percent in-house …
