Creatives under the age of 28 are competing to win a trip to Cannes to take part in the Young Lions contest at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. To enter the challenge, teams were given 48 hours last week to make a commercial for Oxfam. The spots are now available on YouTube, and teams have been asked to help their spot go viral (a flawed notion IMO). As you might imagine, AdPulp is now being sent …
How Much Whuffie For The Tenderloin?
PORTLAND--In front of a crowded room this morning at WebVisions in the Oregon Convention Center, author and marketing consultant, Tara Hunt, describes herself as "a small town Alberta girl." That may be, but it's clear from her presence on the stage that "the girl" is now a woman, and one with something to say. The main thing she's saying is social capital can be redeemed for actual monetary capital, when you play …
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The Web Is The World’s Largest Patchwork Quilt
PORTLAND--Makers of Web sites and mobile applications descended from far and near on the Oregon Convention Center today to attend WebVisions 2009, one of the Rose City's premier events for the digitally inclined. I caught the tail end of the morning keynote by Jared Spool. He brought up the term "Inukshuk Content," which got my attention. Inukshuks are rock pile totems in the Alaska wilderness that native people …
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News You Can Use
I like to hear what Nick Denton of Gawker Media has to say. The guy pulls no punches, and he often delivers the exact insight into digital publishing that I'm looking for. Let's examine one of the nuggets he just shared with Michael Learmonth of Ad Age: When Gawker started, there was a surfeit of information and not nearly enough context -- so we provided that, in the form of links and occasionally snarky commentary. …
Nothing Is Dead, So Let’s Bury That Idea
You can claim, like Tony Granger did, that "advertising agencies are dead," but take it from me: Advertising agencies are like cockroaches. We'll survive. So will other forms of media and advertising, even the oldest of the old school: Direct Mail is not dead. Be they formulaic sales letters or cute mailers, they still show up in my mailbox every day. The internet was supposed to kill direct mail off. High postage …
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Live Your Truth, Or You’ll Be Living Someone Else’s
My friend Spike Jones is on fire. When we first started talking about bringing identity and WOM together to create programs/movements seven years ago, people looked at us like we just got off the spaceship from Mars. But we knew it was the right thing to do. So we kept at it. And others around us started to speak the same language. We found those kindred spirits. And now we're finding more and more. When you stay …
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The Rooster Crows For The Tran Family And Its Legion Of Fans
There's a riddle in this business that doesn't need to be solved: the best products need very little or no advertising. Tuong Ot Sriracha, made by Huy Fong Foods of Rosemead, CA, is in this best products category. According to The New York Times, which is running an origin story on the company and its founding family: Some American consumers believe sriracha (properly pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) to be a Thai sauce. …
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Tweets On Tees
Because I am "Huge on Twitter," I'm lucky to be wearing a pretty sweet Threadless t-shirt at the moment. And I have another one ready for tomorrow! According to BrandWeek, I'm a pawn in a "viral marketing push." Okay... Here's how I see it. I now have two new ready to wear t-shirts that people will probably ask me about when I wear them. And I certainly don't need to say something obvious like: GO TO THREADLESS NOW …