Alexander Keith's Augmented Reality card

See the actual augmented reality card on keiths.ca

Levi's care tag for our planet

SAN FRANCISCO (October 21, 2009) – Levi Strauss & Co. and Goodwill^® today announced “A Care Tag for our Planet,” a new initiative that aims to put billions of pounds of unwanted clothing to good use instead of into landfill. Beginning in January 2010, the Levi's^® brand will be the first major retailer to include messaging on product care tags that encourages people to donate unwanted clothing.

John Anderson, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. said, “As a company built on values, we have long worked to promote sustainability in how we make our products and run our operations. This initiative uses our global voice to empower hundreds of millions of consumers around the world to join us by providing simple and actionable ways to help care for our planet.”

Well done Mrs. Elana Shea Firestone and the team at BBDO San Francisco

Did You Know 4.0

A new "Did you know" video speaking about convergence. At the speed convergence is moving they will need to update this every 2 weeks.



If you are a marketer, advertiser or business owner that doesn't know digital or doesn't understand how it applies to your business model and your communications it is time you did.

Thanks for the link Jammer.

NABS Prom Party: See you there Toronto

I hope to see you on October 29th at This is London in support of NABS.

My suit will be sick.

Purchase tickets HERE.

The National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS) is the only charitable organization in Canada that provides assistance to communications and related industry professionals, who may need help due to illness, injury, unemployment or financial difficulties. NABS services include a national toll-free HELPLINE (1-888-355-5548), financial assistance, as well as emotional, personal and career counseling services. Founded in 1983, and supported 100% by the industry, NABS has contributed more than $8.0 Million to thousands of industry colleagues and their families.

Find More Friends...If you want them...

As the web continues to get older, more and more data is being stored across millions of different sources. Brands like Amazon and iTunes have been using this data to help create personalized recommendations for years. The classic "people who bought this also bought..." has become a staple of many sites - mainly because proper recommendation tools can generate a dramatic lift in sales and add value to the users themselves. It's quite a simple idea but one that takes a powerful algorithm to get it right. Netflix, as another example, has spent millions trying to perfect their recommendation engine because they know the powerful results associated with it.

What interests me isn't just the data and common-links that can be associated with different products, but they way that we can begin to connect with people we've never met via their data trail (and Social Graphs).

I recently posted about how eHarmony and other dating sites are using recommendation tools for people - fill out an extensive profile and they will provide you with your matches. While this process is has worked for some people, I find it very rigorous and demanding for a user (even if they are a bit desperate to find a partner). I do think, though, that with tools like Facebook connect being implemented across thousands of sites, friend recommendation engines could start to become more and more popular.

What will truly be interesting, though, is how you go about contacting someone who has been recommended to you by a system. It's not like your at a bar and you strike up a conversation, you've got to send a message to your recommended friend and hope that they respond.

What do you think? Do you use the engine on Facebook right now to add new friends or do you feel like you have way to many as it is?

Google Ripples: Enhanced Email

Bits and pieces of Wave functionality have started to arrive to keep the Google stock skyrocketing and feed the insatiable curiousity of the Digerati.

This enhanced email feature allows branded and up-to-date content to be included in the gmail. Users will be able to interact with content linked to the site directly from the email. Saving clicks, reducing load times, eliminating bounce rates and delivering the user directly to... well the point of the email is pretty exciting for those of us in the business of delivering effective digital experiences.

This is why you hire an ad agency

This campaign is ridiculous. Not only is it horrible, demeaning to women and the opposite of creative, but it is also highly illegal.

The ad itself is illegal as they feature George Laraque who sadly IS seen as a role model as well as the website has no legal drinking age qualifier.

In Canada we cannot use athletes or anyone who can be seen as a "role model" in alcohol related ads. I call this the Don Cherry rule, as it was after Don Cherry a famous Canadian hockey player, coach and broadcaster/commentator was featured in a Molson Canadian ad that all sports related role models were banned from appearing in alcohol ads. I have no idea how or why George Laraque's agent allowed this and I imagine that both the brand as well as him will be fined.

I warn you - if you have an ounce of intelligence this commercial will insult bit go on readers and press play.

The Fun Theory

Volkswagen it appears has followed up the staircase project with a second one, the worlds deepest trash bin.

I love the idea behind The Fun Theory , and I also love how the idea can ladder back to the brand. The extensions of showing that Volkswagen can make everyday activities, actions or items more exciting through experience and creativity is endless. I can see how they can take this brand positioning and extend it to their car launches, dealership experience, features, product innovation, sponsorships, partnerships and hopefully their digital experiences as well.

They have started the project by focusing on creating fun experiences that can make the world a better place, such as taking the stairs vs. escalator and increasing garbage collection and coming soon, they will show us how we can make recycling more fun. I am curious to see what other "making the world a better place" experiences they create.

Sony Soundville

Sony has released a new spot in Europe that shifts the focus from "Color Like No Other" to Sound. Created by Juan Cabrel (the guy who created the Cadbury Gorilla), the spot takes over a a small island town and installs speakers that play multiple types of music for a week straight.

The shots and tracks are nice and I think the piece creates cool impact. To be honest though, the brand message at the end seems a bit out of place. This would have been a great short film (brought to you by Sony) without forcing it into an ad at the last minute. Still pretty nice stuff though.

What do you think?

Stairs or Esclator?

Even though I can't understand the supers on this clip, my guess is that a small group wanted to see if they would make people at a tube station take the stair up vs. ride up an escalator. A nice thought (inspired by Big, I think).

What a story...

Thanks to Scott for the link!

The Perfect Presentation

I'll admit it, I've been late to jump on the Mad Men train. I watched a few episodes when it first came out on AMC but, to be honest, got a bit bored and went back to my HBO roots (The Wire, mostly). After hearing about the show from a number of colleagues for the past three years, I thought I'd give it a shot and recently just finished Season 1.

It's growing on me. But a scene from one of the last episode's resonated me more than anything today. It makes me think about what it truly is creative people do. Come up with great ideas and present them like they mean everything.

You can't do this with every product. But if you push enough for good work and make presentations like this (with all the AMC lighting, cool clothes and drama), it can make a huge impact.

I haven't been in the business that long but I hope that I can be in a presentation like this one day. Passionate. Well written. Over-the-top and dead on brief. Good strategy. Good stuff.

Can't embed due to AMC copyright but click here to watch it. You won't regret it.

Alexander Keith's Birthday

For our International readers information Alexander Keith's is one of the most beloved and revered beers in Canada. Every year Keith's launches an integrated campaign to honour the man who brought us the delicious Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale 214 years ago.

To be full transparent I am on the team that worked on this campaign but an overview of campaign includes:

1. Mobile - SMS contest executed on-premise (in bars that serve Keith's) for a chance to win a trip to Halifax (Alexander's hometown) for the biggest birthday party in Canada.
2. Social Media - A Facebook based contest where you can create and/or sign a card for your chance to win a $5000 Keith's Birthday party or a trip to Halifax for his Birthday. With almost 50,000 fans on the Facebook page, over 1500 cards created and thousands of signatures, Alexander may be old but he loves Facebook.
   
3. TV - Driving awareness of the Birthday and driving to contest.
4. External online - Some pretty sweet creative including rich media video banners
5. On-premise - Pubs across Canada are taken over by Keith's creative.
6. Retail - pin-in-pack contest where one pin is provided with each purchased case on Keith's. Consumers are driven to keiths.ca to enter into another contest to win a trip to Halifax for the party.
7. The Birthday site
8. And we will be sharing even more in the coming weeks.

Buy a case, hit a pub and celebrate Alexander Keith's birthday on Oct.4th.

User generated billboards delivering happiness

Original? No. Unique? Not really? Good? Yes.

In the words of Marcel Proust, "The real voyage of discovery exists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes".

J -hova is back with the blueprint for music ads

Insights and brands. Why do they matter?

I think that this TV spot created by Droga 5 answers the question. Most agencies would have approached this opportunity with a very different lens and most clients would have expected a very different result.



What is different? Insights, true insights that allows the creative to resonate with the consumer and an ad that delivers on a brand. Compare this to the average CD release spot that is 20 seconds of the first singles video followed by a shot of the CD, the name of the single, some logos that mean nothing to the consumer and a voice over that repeats everything we already know.

This spot is almost like an inside joke where only enthusiasts and loyalists would understand that the spot is a homage to the legend of Jay-Z. It also subtlety nods to his retirement and showcases that they man that made this album is the same legend that created multiple iconic and successful ads.

But more importantly to this strategy, music today can be downloaded for free by everyone, so one of the biggest challenges of a ad for a new album is getting people to buy it. How can you do that? Well, look to showcase the legend, share the album covers of all the CD's that the enthusiasts own. In short, make the new album a required piece of the collection.

Nice work Droga 5. Even more congratulations to the clients that understood.

This is about to go viral...

You know you've got a great product when a team of drug cops gets distracted from their raid for 9 hours to use it...from Mashable:

PayPal Opens Up

On November 3rd, PayPal is going to open up to developers world wide. I sense that this could mean big things for PayPal (a client of ours) and I'm very excited to see how developers around the globe incorporate one of the most reliable payment systems on the web.

To help announce this change to the world, PayPal has created a launch spot and microsite:



Sadly, the site wouldn't load for me. Hopefully they'll fix that soon. Because I'm a fan of the spot. Good mix of emotion and humour.

Imagine Leadership

I've been searching around for some great presentations lately that contain great stats. These searches have been focused on the Global Ad industry in relation to digital and consumption habits but I stumbled on one tonight that focuses on Leadership.

Being a leader means vastly different things to different people. To some, it's about business success and getting to the top of the corporate ladder. To others, it's about helping people and pushing to make the world a better place. However you define it, it's worth watching this video:



Pretty inspiring stuff. Now what are you going to do?

Goat Tears cure all

Here is a brand that needs some serious help with packaging but not with advertising.



I love when she is showing the goat its Nana's grave. Hilarious.

Allan Gray shares the story of James Dean

I have always loved James Dean which is possibly why I enjoy this so much. The other reason is that it got me to pay attention to an investing ad AND I got the message.

I hope they continue with this strategy and tell other classic and compelling stories.

Impatience is a virtue: Samsung

Samsung is finally getting an attitude. They are a brand that hasn't really stood for anything and their advertising, especially out-of-home, has been horrible over the past few years.

Finally something from Samsung that makes me wish I owned something from Samsung.

What is a moment?

Beautiful stuff. Not a spot, no brands attached - just cool work.

Check out Adverblog's open letter to brands after watching this. Good stuff:

We're Back.

Now that TEDxTO has ended, the AdJoke writing is on. Here's a spot to keep you busy while we write a few posts. It's all over Canadian cinema right now and I've watched it in a few theatre's. The reactions have been mixed but whatever the case, this spot cannot be ignored:



What do you think?

Johnnie Walker: The Walk

I have always loved the story of Johnnie Walker and I was so impressed to see this spot from BBH. Tyler found it and shared it with me, but I stole the post.



This is a wonderful brand piece and I believe that it will really help to establish the brand story with a new generation. I feel quite often brands feel that their stories have already been told and that consumers understand what they are and what they are about, but I feel that every generation needs to be re-introduced to every brand in a unique compelling and emotional way. This is really well done here.

It looks like BBH is on the copyright attack as several spots have been pulled off YouTube so don't be surprised if this link doesn't work soon. Why would an agency want to make it difficult for their spot to go viral?

Work I Wish I'd Done

I love advertising. Every once and a while, a brand comes along and does work that leaves you inspiried, passionate and hopeful that more brands will do the same. But few do.

Let's be honest. It is hard to do great work. It's hard to sell a concept through that doesn't scream about the product. It's hard to sell an idea that doesn't get ripped to shreds by the dozens of people (internal and client) that is has to get by.

But those teams that are focused and driven on creating work usually do. Sure, they might argue with their clients, ruffel some feathers and maybe even get fired. But eventually, a brand is going to find them and they are going to do something great.

That brings me to this spot from Virgin Media:



Great concept, direction, editing and music. Great work, all around.

Thanks to Mac for the link.

PS - sorry about the lack of posts in the past 10 days...just a bit wild but more are on the way.