As we saw a couple of weeks ago, when golden-voiced Ted Williams went from homeless man to YouTube sensation to national Kraft voiceover to rehab in 7 days, things happen fast. If you had decided to unplug and take a few days away, you'd have completely missed this. So do advertising and marketing people need to be always on? How do we cope? Ad agencies and marketing firms are stretched thin as it is. It's …
John St. Gives Us A Birthday Worth Studying
This is spot-on. Courtesy of Toronto-based agency John St. I shudder to think how many people are sitting in agencies right now doing serious case study videos exactly like this for awards shows and capabilities presentations. Even if the work shown is great, they can't easily top this. …
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Ted Williams Gets Big — And Crispin Gets Fast for Kraft
For homeless-turned-hot sensation Ted Williams, it's been a whirlwind. His Kraft voiceover is already in the can. Or rather, the box. Seriously, I love that an agency can act so fast to capitalize on something like this. But why is it that the only other thing I noticed about this spot is that when the kid says of his dad, "he just showed up with his client unannounced," it looks like he's not really pointing …
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Bob Hoffman Tries To Hold The Ocean Back With A Broom
Our favorite Ad Contrarian takes the stage in an Adweek article, raising alarm about the pervasiveness of tracking on the Internet. Here's the conclusion he draws: There's no reasonable way that this is a good development for a free society. There is no realistic vision of the future in which this will not lead to appalling mischief. It's time for us to say no. It's time to put aside our petty self-interest, take a …
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Are The Geico Gecko And Progressive’s Flo Just Plain Evil?
We've talked about Flo, the Progressive Insurance spokeswoman, as well as The Geico gecko campaign before, and their pervasiveness is a testament to the power of quirky spokespeople (and critters) as well as massive media buys. I can't say I'm a big fan of either campaign, but I also don't see them as symbols of American decline. Over at AlterNet, author David Sirota takes aim at these campaigns and what they …
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Even Social Media Firms Can’t Forget The Motor City
When Goodby Silverstein & Partners won a large chunk of Chevrolet business last year, it became essential for them to staff a sizable Detroit office. As The Detroit Free Press reports, they're not the only ones: Big Fuel, a 7-year-old New York social-media agency, has chosen Detroit for its first satellite office, becoming the latest advertising agency to follow General Motors marketing chief Joel Ewanick's …
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Are We Ready For Intrusive Coupons?
I still think it's kinda creepy, but marketers know no boundaries. The New York Times takes a look at the future of couponing and mobile: But what if manufacturers could make coupon offers on the spot, as you stood in the aisle, within sight of the promoted product? Your cellphone would identify your shopping predilections, allowing the manufacturer to withhold the offer if you were likely to buy the product anyway. …
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Smarter, Faster, Cheaper Gives Self-Promo Tools To Folks Who Need Them
Is everyone a marketer, no matter what business they're in? That's one of the questions I wondered while delving into David Siteman Garland's new book, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business. Garland goes through the myriad of ways entrepreneurs and small businesses can get an edge using today's common techniques: Creating sharable and spreadable content, …
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