When will you stop wasting money? Don't forget digital.

In support of Ty's last post I share with you my comment on Idea Drunk, in response to a great post in Wisers latest effort to make the horrible liquor known as whiskey aspirational.

My comment:

...So many marketers do not understand the value of holistic engagement. Engage me with a quality mass campaign, create curiosity, drive behaviour then CAPITALIZE on my attention. Give me something to engage with, make me want to provide you with behaviourial data, allow me to begin a whole new relationship with your brand based on entertainment, the power of discovery, the thrill of satisfied curiosity or simply something new.

When will they wise up?

End comment.

Okay, so I am guessing that you are reading this blog because you work in marketing or advertising. Now answer me this. Why do you allow, support, approve or pitch ideas that are half thought out? Human nature acts mostly because of rational thought, but dreams, splurges, and human nature wants to live in the world created by irrational thought.

Use mass media to communicate an emotional, strategically sound campaign that positions you as unique within the category then drive the compelled consumer online. In this 1 to 1 space you can interact and truly engage. Create an experience unique to the emotional state, to the point in the purchase path they are at, to the curiosities that drove them to visit your URL and provide them with exactly what they need to spread the word, deepen the brand relationship and create ROI.

Am I crazy...do we all not want to do this. Why can't it happen next month or next quarter? What are your thoughts?

Invest in a truly integrated campaign or continue to throw mass media dollars into the outhouse.

How Could I Have Missed This?

Really, I don't know. MTV has done some weird work in the past (remember the "What if the Holocost happened today" stuff?) but this is top notch. Adrants reported that it recently won a Gold award at a the London International Awards for top animation. As you'll see, it is certainly deserving.


Find more videos like this on AdGabber


We've been discussing the need for campaigns to have their core roots in digital. I think this idea - spreading poppies to Burma from across the world - is perfect for online. I took a quick look at the website and was pretty dissapointed. The letter is a good idea, however couldn't they have leveraged this animation in some way? What can I sent to Burma right now to really make a difference? And, more importantly, how can you show me that difference?

This seems to be a common problem among brands today. The create a great show - through TV, traditional media, etc - but when it's time to cut to the brass tax and really engage users, the budget is gone.

Nice Spot

Find more videos like this on AdGabber


It's nice to see that the Matrix can live on...years after it's release. I like the positioning and the final line. Toshiba is doing some good stuff. Thoughts?

Something Cool from Sprint? Weird...but True.

I'm pretty skeptical of Sprint, especially after their CEO tagged his first TV spot with a fake email address. That being said, their new "Sprint Now" microsite is a pretty cool idea (even though it has some other, more popular variations on the web).

Developed by Goodby, the site tells you a bunch of random facts about what is going on right now. From the current temperature, latest NY Times news, weather to random facts about the number of coffee cups being produced, current number of babies being born and the global mood. Users can add their own profiles, customize their experience and even download a widget for their social network or desktop.

The experience is very simple but it's dead on strategy. People, especially ones who own their own business, don't necessarly have time to surf around on a site. They don't alwaqys have time to watch an hour of video content, explore the entire site, ask questions and fill out extensive survey's to find out what's right for them.

Sprint Now gives you an immediate look at everything going on in your world. And when you don't have time to read the paper, plow through your RSS feed or watch the news, it's a good way to see what's going on.

The Marketers Election re-cap

Elections are a pretty big deal down in the US and of course marketers are always looking to capitalize on the wave. Everyone including Joe the plumber, 7/11, MTV, Ben & Jerry's, Tropicana, Baskin Robbins, AT&T and more.

A couple of the marketing efforts that stood out in my mind are:

1. 7/11 - coffee votes
What I like is that it involves the consumer and that there is an element of emotional benefit for the consumer.

You can display your support, feel involved and if you see others with a blue or red cup feel apart of a community.

It is also pretty cool that it has been consistently accurate.



2. Tropicana


Don't talk to consumers, talk with them. Tropicana does this well. Here they are not controlling the conversation, but they are benefiting from being a participant and adding value.

Humans love facts and love to be smart - I was addicted to anorangeamerica as I tweeted my fingers off on election night. Have I bought Tropicana as a result? No. But I do remember that they are 100% orange.

3. GUM Election

I found this on Morgan Coudray's Canadian University Marketing blog post.

It was a guerilla art project kicked started in NY to encourage people to vote, discuss the election AND clean up the streets of NY as it aimed to stop people from disposing their gum on the streets.


Their blog has pictures of the posters that were submitted from around the world.

An interesting read.....

2 Days, 1 Billion Impressions?

Trolling around AgencySpy, I came across a story about T-Mobile. It turns out that they are attempting to launch the largest online campaign ever.

To advertise the new Google Phone - G1 (featuring Android), T-Mobile is partnering with AOL's Platform A Agency to attempt to deliver 1 billion online impressions in 2 days. Considering that most standard campaigns deliver about 70-100 million impressions over 8-12 weeks, this is pretty big.

Ad Age reported that the potential cost of this buy is approximately 1.5 million US. The campaign will be featured on a number of Comscores top 100 sites and will eat up the majority of Platform A's impressions over the two days (sorry if you're another client...)

Is doing something like this worth it? If you've read this blog at all, you know that I've got major issues with the way impressions are currently measured. Sure, T-Mobile can buy a billion impressions, but what does that actually mean? The web experience is pretty good but will this buy actually drive major awareness for the phone? Will people who have not been waiting for the Google Phone to come out over the last 5 years actually take notice? Or will they just ignore another cell phone ad?

Whatever the case may be, the fact that this story is garnering so much attention shows a little of what is currently wrong with this form of measurement. It's all about the number of impressions and not about the quality.

I'm excited to see Platform A's media report after this campaign is over:

"Objective: Serve 1 Billion Impressions in 2 Days
Result: We did it and exceeded the plan by 10% for no extra cost!"

Bring on the media innovation awards...

A Facebook App Worth Downloading

Think you could be a creative director? Think that your ads would be chosen by consumers over other ones? Now you can find out with Ad Battle.

Ad Battle is basically a hot or not for ads. Developed by creative Jason Culbertson of BBDO, the app lets you rate print and TV spots and see how you compare with other users. It also lets anyone upload ads to be entered into the sequence.

I've been playing around with this for the last 20 minutes and it's pretty cool. I've also been a bit shocked about how I'm in the minority on all my choices. I think that's probably a bad thing.

Check it out. And if you think your something special, upload one of your ads.

Seriously. Write a blog.

Came across this great post about 10 reasons why you should save your career and start a blog. While I don't think that everyone is meant to blog (and Adjoke already has about 100 million competitors), I think that if you ever want to work in the digital space, you have to live it - not just talk about it.

My favorite tip:

"If you're a CEO, you'll demonstrate leadership from the top down and the inside out. Sure you'll get lambasted and taunted from the likes of George Parker, but you can prove your staying power."

8 Thoughts on the Digital Marketing Conference

Last Monday, I spent the day at Marketing Magazine's digital conference. It was a pretty good day and it was great to see the level of interest people in our industry have about the space. Sorry it took me so long to post about it, but here are 8 random things from the day:

1. Tim Armstrong (VP of Google, The Americas) has a pretty good sense of where the advertising industry is going. When asked what he thought the future looked like, he said (paraphrasing) that he thinks too many people focus on the front end of advertising (the strategy, the creative) and not enough about the back (campaign optimization, using data to resonate among your target, constant refinement through learning's after the campaign has launched). Couldn't agree more.

2. Local search is growing - a Yahoo exec stated that 1 in 5 searches is now local. What does that mean? 20% of searches deal with someone who is looking for a location near them (a car rental place, an Italian restaurant, etc). What can brands do to play more in local search? Well, first they can get into normal search...

3. Brady Gilchrist is passionate about the digital space - I'd never met Brady before (founder of one of the first digital agencies in Toronto), but he is super-knowledgeable on the space and a hilarious presenter. He's a strong advocate for digital-specific agencies, had some harsh words for the current state of advertising and some great book recommendations (including SEO for dummies). Check out his agency.

4. Everyone Loves Mitch Joel - he did a good lunch presentation with NY Times journalist Rob Walker and if his agency - Twist Image - doesn't gross $50 million in 2009 something's up. I still have no idea how he has time to write the longest blog posts ever and record a weekly (hours long) podcast. But keep on rocking!

5. CP+B Interactive CD Jeff Benjamin has done some pretty fantastic work - from subservient chicken to Volkswagen, you can't argue that this is one of the best integrated idea shops around right now. I bumped into Jeff at the DMA's and asked him what he thought made a good account person. He said that in his time he's worked with a ton of bad account people because they only "take and take and take". They're too focused on meeting a deadline, satisfying a client and lose focus of the fact they are part of a team. Jeff said that when it's late at night and the creatives are working that the account person needs to be there to "get" - a fact, help answer a question, whatever. Just be a part of the team.

6. My new favorite TV spot (shown by DDB's CEO Chuck Brymer):



7. We need a decent Social Networks case study - for the last 18 months, every Facebook employee always cites the TD financial group as it's success case. There are no business results, minimal numbers (twenty-five thousand fans) and little discussion around the ROI of a group like this. If we want to push social networks to our clients, we've got to get better at providing examples of success.

8. At least one person reads Adjoke - PJC and I were sitting a table during a presentation and noticed a delegate in front of us surfing our blog during it. Pretty sweet moment.