This is the future of creativity

The Economist recently published a special report on data. If you haven't noticed, it's everywhere. Smart brands are using this data to create better experiences for their customers, optimize work flow and make their organizations more efficient.

Creativity is no longer simply about one big idea to catch someone's attention and shift their perceptions about a product or service. Creativity is about using massive amounts of raw data and turning it into an experience that is relevant, authentic and personal for the user.

I'm going to be writing more on this subject in the weeks to come but if you want to see what's around the corner, you need to read this report and watch this talk (from the creator of the Internet) as soon as possible.

SEO - The Ugly Stepchild

For the last number of weeks, I've been doing a lot of SEO work for a client. Unlike experience design or creative development, SEO is a process that is incredibly granular, time-consuming and rigorous. It contains many aspects - from choosing what keywords to optimize your site with to understand the competitive set against each term - and each one changes every day.

The other challenge with it is that it's only half in our control (sort of like the rest of advertising). Except it's not just the consumer we have to worry about engaging, it's the search engine as well.

Studying the Google algorithm - although tedious - has been extremely rewarding. Anyone can talk about the basics of SEO (you know, the three sentences that usually contain the words content, headings, copy and links) but few people in agencies actually acknowledge that it is critical to the creative process.

We spend so much time designing experiences and ads / video's / apps that drive or distribute them. Most of our tactics - if not all - cost a ton of money to implement (whether on the media or the production side).

The great thing about SEO is that once the basics are in place, users find you. Sure, you have to update and stay vigilant among your competitors to ensure your ranking stays high but it's worth it when you don't have to pay for a huge percentage of your site.

I know it feels strange asking about keyword optimization in a meeting with creatives but if they're not thinking about it, you've got to be.

To start on the basics of SEO, check out this page and this great site.

Pure Black Sunshine

I have been meaning to share this recently launched site from Extreme Group for a while. It is a very interesting and unique approach to selling coffee online.

Check out the video then drop by PureBlackSunshine.com

Black Sunshine Coffee from Matt Hubbard on Vimeo.

You need to "Think" about banner ads

In the online space a strong creative idea can be greatly impacted by poor consideration of the website, technographics, and the online behaviour of the visitor.

My example is this banner ad for Toyota (also seen above) as created by Saatchi & Saatchi Toronto.

As you will see it does have some element of cool and yes it will cause the pattern interruption that most online advertisers are looking for but in my mind it fails because the ad does not work within the site, nor does it consider the user behaviour or their needs.

This is a 100% brand centric experience (if you can call it that) and not a consumer centric experience.

So lets breakdown the mistakes.

1. Consider screen resolutions and the visible area: I have viewed the exact page on Canada.com on my 13" MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro using Safari & Firefox (first screen shot). The viewable area of this page cuts off the screen directly underneath the bigbox. Great! you think. Not at all. The value of the page is hidden and with the animation of this banner heading in the reverse direction that users move within a website they are ensuring that fewer people have an opportunity to see the ad.

2. Consider the user: Why would anyone go to Canada.com? They are their to view news, information and learn. They have arrived with curiosity or a specific need, problem or goal. This is not a site where users will spend much time on level 2 landing page. They are trying to get the level 3 where the find the actual stories. All of this information is quite a ways down the page. With a scroll of 90 pixels our user will loose any opportunity to view the actual ad. It takes about 10 seconds to get the digging man into the leaderboard. Trust me the user has long ago left the page or scrolled down to see the content.
3. Consider the functionality of the page: I never have and never will allow any piece of online advertising I touch to interfere with the navigation. This ad I imagine would render the navigation useless as it moves through that section of the site - not something that in my opinion positively impact the users experience or perception of the brand.

So basically we have a "cool idea" that through it's execution has ensured that as few people as possible actually have a chance to see it, is created in a way that negatively impacts user experience and renders the navigation useless. In the end I give it a 7 for the idea. 3 for the execution

Comfort

Really like this idea...that is all.

Found via adgoodness.

The Spectrum of UXD

I like it. Spent a good 20 minutes looking at this tonight. That is all I have to say about that.

Great Storytelling

Look - All I want is a sweet story from a brand that actually is creative vs. boring and useless. If you aren't creating content that people wouldn't want to watch outside the walls of your marketing meeting room, start over.

What is this strange content I'm talking about? Start here. Short, amateur films. Raw, great stuff.

Facts About Projection from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

As you start to evaluate your next campaign, I hope you think about what the story behind it is. What are you actually trying to get people to think and do? I love digital and I love all the channels that we can us to engage people with. But sometimes, all we want is a little escape. And a little (fun) story from a brand.

MTV Networks: Slurpee spot for 7/11

Ad agencies aren't yet shaking in their boots but media groups such as MTV have been able to showcase that they can deliver quality creative while cutting out agencies and media groups.

Slurpee from Johan Polhem on Vimeo.

Found on The Curious Brain

Quality & Value both win: Quiznos

The latest TV spot from Quiznos Canada. Quality and Value decide they don't hate each other. I laughed and you just might too.

Nikon #Justbecauseyoucanshouldyou

Nikons new site for the Coolpix touch allows you to browse using hand and face motions recognized by your webcam.

Why?

Site navigation should be created to be simple and enhance the user experience not to destroy it. There is no benefit to the user to navigate the site this way. There is also no benefit to Nikon as the user just gets frustrated and realizes that this fancy feature is there because it is cool not because it is useful.

Before you know it you are wondering, "do I even need a touch screen on my camera or is that just there for cool factor and not for functionality or improved experience?.

This is a classic #justbecauseyoucan should you.

P&G: To their Moms, they will always be kids

Thanks to @martindelaney for sharing this with me.

Touching and true ... is that an insight? :)

Less content, More filters

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the weird transition I went through without my iPhone. At first, I missed it. Then I became desperate for it and felt like I was missing out on everything. And then, almost suddenly, I realized that the majority of content I consume on a daily basis - from the news to industry gossip to the latest creative - was essentially spam.

That might be a bit harsh. I do love reading and feeling like I'm 'in the know'. But it's the truth.

Today I went on my Google Reader for the first time in a week (a long time away from it for me). With over 100 sites and well over the "1000+ unread" items mark, it was overwhelming. Where do I start? What is actually worth me reading vs. ignoring?

The future (and by future I mean a few months) is going to be about filters. The idea that "if it's important enough the news will find me" is true in a broad sense. I just hope that when it comes to what I like, my digital tools will help to keep the spam out and the good stuff in.

But it doesn't stop there.

My reader was populated with content that I wanted to read. At one point, every site was individually added by me because the content attracted me for some reason. It got my attention and I decided it was worth a subscription. (my guess is that for every 10 sites I come across, I'll actually subscribe to 1 or 2).

Now let's put our advertising hats on. We are targeting (in most cases) people who are overloaded. Who have subscribed to their favorite sites with the hopes of getting a snip bit of content that they actually like. They don't want to be interrupted, distracted or fooled. They want their content and they want to move on.

If you're considering making an experience in digital, make sure it's timely, immediately relevant and fun. After all, I've got 100 sites that I already know I love and not enough time in the day to make it through them. And that's not even counting Facebook, Twitter or any email account (I've got 5).

What can you do to convince me to make it through yours?

Hint: it's not a contest.

Image of the day: And you think your brand stands out?

I love this picture. It reminds us of how difficult it really can be to make a brand stand out at retail, or even online.

Nokia Connects

A nice campaign for Nokia in London. The brand is having problems raising awareness of built-in GPS and location search applications on a wide-variety of their handsets. To help raise awareness, they used one of the most common location markers known to man - a signpost. Only they made it huge, digital and totally interactive.

Check out the video below:

The World's Biggest Signpost from adghost on Vimeo.

What I like about this campaign is that it ties the real world to the digital one. Whether you live near Tower Bridge or not, you can see the favorite places and destinations that people who participated choose. Nice work.

Vancouver 2010: VISA or bust

If you've been watching the Olympics on TV in the last week, you've defintiely seen one of the many Morgan Freeman-narrated VISA TV spots. As one of the main Olympic partners, VISA has created a ton of spots to highlight that the only card you can use at the games is theirs.

While I like the spots (especially the one below - it's a tear jerker) I have to say that only being able to use a VISA card at the games is extremely annoying. I saw a few events in Vancouver last week and quickly realized that if you are trying to purchase anything - from beers at a hockey game to a coffee - you either have to pay using a VISA credit or debit card or cash.

The problem is that there aren't any ATM machines in the venues because VISA has dominated them. I realize that VISA has paid millions to be the title sponsor but as a spectator my reaction is 'damn you VISA' more than it is 'I wish I had a VISA so I could buy this beer'.

Vitamin Water: Stay Vitaminized.

Behold, the latest in a long line of great work. Steve Nash is the most ridiculous man in the world.

If only all of its flavours were as good as the work. Thanks to the "Jeffs".



and for fun the classic infomercial.

Links you should click on

1. Old Spice Manmercials channel on YouTube is worth 4 minutes of your time.
   
2. Wranglers Blue Bell website is awesome.
3. You should become a fan of the Extreme Group on Facebook (the agency I work for).
4. Belgium ad agency sites are on strike and have created a unique online experience to express why.
5. Toronto Raptors mascot is making big news for eating a cheerleader. 400,000 plus views.
6. The street views snowmobile captures the sights of the Vancouver Olympic slopes.

Have a great weekend!

Old Spice: The Man your Man could smell like

The Old Spice work from W+K has been consistently good. They haven't disappointed me here.

Most woman probably buy the bodywash and the man just uses whatever is in the shower. They are pushing the purchaser to buy more. Gotta love consumerism!



Found on sosticky

Molson Canadian: Our Land

I am sure we will be seeing this spot every other commercial break over the Olympics. On a side note I think the overhead footage of the kid skating across the lake is the same as in the CTV spot that played during the Superbowl.

Do This or Die

I recently finished Terry O'Reilly's book Age of Persuasion - How Marketing Ate our Culture (from CBC's Age of Persuasion). If you're looking for a nice, quick, history of advertising (with some great new and old examples) it is worth picking up. It's also quintessentially Canadian which is a nice change considering the majority of ad related books come out of the States or the UK.

At the conclusion of the book, O'Reilly recounts a contest that Time magazine held in the 1960's. Time asked people to create an ad that was for the public interest (ie. not a product). DDB writer Bob Levinson won with the print ad above. I've captured the full copy so that you can read it - trust me, it's worth it:

DO THIS OR DIE

Is this ad some kind of trick?

No. But it could have been. And at exactly that point rests a do or die decision for American business. We in advertising, together with our clients, have all the power and skill to trick people. Or so we think. But we're wrong. We can't fool any of the people any of the time. There is indeed a twelve-year-old mentality in this country; every six-year-old has one. We are a nation of smart people. And most smart people ignore most advertising because most advertising ignores smart people. Instead we talk to each other. We debate endlessly about the medium and the message. Nonsense. In advertising, the message itself is the message. A blank page and a blank television screen are one and the same. And above all, the messages we put on those pages and on those television screens must be the truth. For if we play tricks with the truth, we die.

Now. The other side of the coin. Telling the truth about a product demands a product that's worth telling the truth about. Sadly, so many products aren't. So many products don't do anything better. Or anything different. So many don't work quite right. Or don't last. Or simply don't matter. If we also play this trick, we also die. Because advertising only helps a bad product fail faster. No donkey chases the carrot forever. He catches on. And quits. That's the lesson to remember. Unless we do, we die. Unless we change, the tidal wave of consumer indifference will wallop into the mountain of advertising and manufacturing drivel. That day we die. We'll die in our marketplace. On our shelves. In our gleaming packages of empty promises. Not with a bang. Not with a whimper. But by our own skilled hands.

It's been almost 50 years since this ad was published and I can't think of something more relevant that encapulates the state of the industry better. Everyone seems to say that digital has changed everything. That consumers want real products that help them (functionally and emotionally) and they don't want to be lied to or tricked in any way.

But still marekting trickery we see banners, site experiencesces and Tweets. A line of micetype legal below the fold of a website clarifying the offer or a 'see in store for details' message that makes us think twice about what we are actually being sold.

Digital hasn't changed the fact that if we aren't honest in our communications and with our clients, the consumers will see through it and we will fail.

Somehow the industry has chugged along since Levinson wrote this execution. But if we don't step up our game, think differently about what consumers actually want (hint: it's not a contest) and focus our efforts on products and services that are worth talking about, we won't have another 50 years to get it right.

Google Wins Super Bowl

Paul recently posted the top Super Bowl ads and Google's first foray into the US TV space was a spot that a lot of people are going to remember (and not just because the company - at one point - swore off mass advertising and has finally decided that it might be a good idea).

What interests me about this spot is the fact that it positions Google as a company that lives what it strives to be - the brand that organizes the worlds information. No matter who you are, what you are looking for or any questions that you have, Google can help you find the answer - quickly.

I have friends that work at Google and have heard that they are - for the most part - an engineer driven company. They obsess over numbers, metrics, data and products (a huge step for most agencies and marketers out there). Sometimes, they focus a bit to much on the data side of things and the design gets forgotten.

This time, though. They've created a great balance. As a Google engineer, you've got to be pretty happy with this spot. It showcases the core product (Search) but also a ton of others including Maps, Translation, Wikipedia and Flight tracker - all great applications that Google can help you find. Furthermore, the entire ad is a product shot. How many marketers have secretly craved this and had their agencies tell them that they have to do more and push for the 'big idea?'

What makes the truly ad great, though, is the story.

It's quirky, fun, real and human. It's short and succinct but tells the story of a lifetime.

Sometimes visuals, actors and big scenes wreck spots. The intentions where there but something just doesn't get executed to the full extent. This spot sets the scene and leaves the rest up to the viewer to imagine how the story plays out - how they met at the Cafe, what the girl looks like, where they had the wedding and what will happen next.

And through it all, Google was there. Helping and assisting along the way.

It's been said that brands don't define who they are anymore - Google does. For a long time it was hard to define what Google really did. Was it Search? Or Maps? Or E-Mail? Or Phones?

This spot makes it clear - it's the company that does whatever you need it to help you get where you're going in life.

(...and it also makes for great mash-up material if you're less sentimental about it...)

The top 3 Superbowl ads based on views

The top 3 Superbowl spots based on total views in the last 24 hours are:

1. Google - Parisian Love

2. Audi - Green Car

3. Kia - Big Game spot

A comment on Memes

Memes have always interested me. Where do they come from? What is their origin? What human insights can we extrapolate from the development and spread of memes and how can we use this to predict or create future memes? Or is that what makes them so great?

If I was to go back to school it would be a deep dive into the world of internet memes; but then again most Universities probably block 4chan.

One of my favourites:

Know Your Meme: Advice Dog from Rocketboom on Vimeo.

I wonder what memes may come out of Superbowl Sunday.

Here Come the 'Super' Ads...

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, we can all get ready for the thousands of ad reviews that are going to occur next week. The top 10 lists, the opinions and the general ranking of which ad 'one' the minds of all the people who watched the big game.

For our industry, the Super Bowl is the Oscars of TV spots. If you're a creative, director, client or agency and you've got work showing tomorrow night, it's a big deal. It's one of the few places where people actually want to watch the ads instead of fast-forward through them.

It's also over-hyped, over-discussed and over-priced.

Here's a non-ad related Super Bowl video that asks, "What if major directors produced the big game?" I wanted to post this instead of the ad strategies and spots (which will, as a member of the ad industry blog world, need to follow due to contractual obligations).

AdLand Homage

Nice animated work from Mark Denton and the creative team from Coy! The video is a mash up of some of the most famous ads of all time. How many can you spot?