One of the things I'm constantly muttering to myself these days is how agencies and their clients need to speed up their creative development processes. Six months is a joke today, at least when it comes to digital. Six days is more like it. Of course, radical change doesn't come easy. Apparently, I'm not alone with this sentiment. Catharine P. Taylor also has some thoughts on it. What I wish for the industry (in …
Portugal Is Open for Business
According to The New York Times, Portugal is spending over $4 million dollars to rework and bolster its image in the international business community. Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s minister for the economy and innovation said that 19 percent of the country’s power comes from renewable sources like the wind or the sun, putting Portugal in third place in Europe, behind Sweden and Austria. That might come as something of a …
Politics Gets Personal For Huckabee The Huckster
He hasn't raised the most money, but Mike Huckabee can afford a real good camera crew. Can you imagine the on-set high-fives when some campaign advisor looked through the lens and said "Wow, the way you're framed here in the shot, there's a freakin' cross plain as day in the background right next to your head!" See the Huckabee Christmas ad here. He's so smooth, it's scary. Sounds like a lot of people are buying …
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Ho Ho Ho
If you write about advertising, you're going to receive a lot of holiday greetings from firms that create it. Rick Romell of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is no exception. But instead of letting these greetings go unloved in his inbox, he's sharing them with his readers. This is the season for advertising shops to flex their creative muscles on their own behalf, concocting greetings ranging from Bader Rutter's …
Sony The Magnanimous
Steve Rubel points to two brand-supported content aggregators that I was not previously aware of—Sony's Stories We Digg and JC Penney's Fall Shopping Guide. Here's Sony's description of their service: This site, which is powered by the Digg open API, is built to serve as a filter for the Digg community, and beyond. We’re hand selecting the very best and most relevant Digg stories we think HD lovers will find …
Help On The Way
The best agencies are staffed by people with big ideas. Sadly, most of these ideas are wasted on ads for clueless clients. But, when it can help it, Taxi doesn't play that game. To commemorate the shop's 15th year in the culture-shaping business, they sought a truly big idea, one that would give back to the community. The brief was sent out, and executive creative director, Steve Mykolyn, came back with The 15 …
Nightlife Navigator
BuzzD is a new local-search/networking service from mobile pioneer Nihal Mehta. BuzzD has established partnerships with content providers, Flavorpill and TimeOut, which gives users the lowdown on social venues in real time from their peers. Helio is expected to be the first carrier to offer BuzzD, but Mr. Mehta said he plans to make it available on all the nation's major carriers. Nokia's Nseries is sponsoring the …
Crantastic Recall
Barkley's Sonic Drive-In TV spot for cranberry iced tea was one of the most highly recalled restaurant commercials of the year, according to an IAG Research report. The No. 1 most-recalled spot according to the report was a Subway spot featuring Jared and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard, while the Sonic spot tied for second with another Subway spot, one featuring Jared and New Orleans running back Reggie …
