Guiness Slider: Just slide other peoples ideas into a spot

Ok. Here is the idea. We are going to take inspiration from Cog, and the movie Baby's Day out but then change the ending to show how cool and bold Guinness drinkers are.

You are Incredibly lucky: Quit Smoking

Intriguing and excellent. Why would anyone waste such an amazing and lucky opportunity... to live?

Contextual Advertising Fail

Here is my guess. Because this song is titled 'Rain Dogs' the contextual media buy purchased for Cesar decided that people viewing the whisky fueled genius that is Tom Waits probably have tiny little manicured and well groomed pets hungry for a little nibble of 26 essential nutrients.

Normally I would write a paragraph rant about how this is bullshit but I think everyone would agree with me. Another online contextual advertising fail.

Kettle Chips utilizes the thematic Narrative

The copywriting in this spot is pure genius. Congratulations to the client who bought the script. Three cheers to the director.

Life

I am happy my life doesn't look like this. I have been working for a while but I still see it as playing. That being said rejection shows up a lot more often in my life.

This is digital strategy...

A simple idea, based on a popular platform using the most common user behaviour usually creates great results. I've always been a big fan of 'tagging' and have constantly tried to apply the behaviour to brands that I work with. That said, you've got to fit the behaviour with the product or brand and you can't force-fit a strategy just because you like it (believe me, I've tried).

But for IKEA, this is the perfect fit with a great, creative, promotional idea. So simple.

I'd be interested in understanding the media support they had behind this campaign and whether it truly was all viral (which I doubt). That said, the 'first tag, first win' approach creates a rapid fanbase who is always waiting for your next photo upload.



Excellent work. Found via Mashable.

Where Books Come to Life

This video created by BBDO for the New Zealand Book Council is phenomenal. It pulls you in immediately and while entertaining you delivers the message. You get the message long before the last 10 seconds of the spot. This is the type of advertising people want to see and share.




Thanks to Mary for sharing this on Facebook.

Another case of advertisers spending and not thinking

I've been watching the American Music Awards tonight and although the performances have been mediocre at best, the missed opportunities by the advertisers have been the biggest story for me.

Currently the search term "American Music Awards 2009" is the 10th most searched term on Google. Guess how many advertisers have paid to have sponsored search ads appear? None. Dozens of brands see an opportunity to connect with consumers on TV during the broadcast but no one saw the opportunity to connect with these same consumers (even days) before, during or after online.

Not only is there a big missed opportunity within aligning their search keywords with the major Television event but the brands themselves are not buying search aligned to their TV spots.

One example is Maple Leaf Prime Gourmet Chicken product launch . They actually have a good commercial but that is where my praise for them ends.

The first time I saw the spot I immediately went online and performed a video search for the commercial (which isn't posted), then searched the product name and was hit with a sponsored search ad that takes me to their homepage where oddly enough the product that they are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars (probably) for multiple spots on the AMAs is not even showcased. Really Maple Leaf? Please call me - your ad agency isn't doing their job.

They should have sponsored search driving directly to the product page, as a secondary tactic feature it on your home page and post your TV spot so that people like me can post it to our blogs, share it on twitter and help you out for free.

In February I wrote a rant about the Oscars and all of their missed opportunities for increased engagement and revenue. Obviously the American Music Awards didn't read it...but you can check it out here.

Post Financial Crisis = Opportunity

In the consumer world post-financial crisis opportunity now looms where we used to just see doom.

In this TEDxKC talk John Gerzema identifies four cultural shifts behind new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending. Just press play already.

Toyota Australia - Nothing Soft Gets In

A whole new attitude for Toyota where apparently nothing soft gets in down under.



This position doesn't make any sense for the me. I see Toyota as a brand that appeals to and has a large market share with the latte drinking, chest shaving, manicured metrosexuals, but then again maybe that is just in Canada (I doubt it).

This spot feels more beer, less automotive but nonetheless it is well written with amazing production value. It just feels off the mark for Toyota.

HTC - You are different than You

This spot has been running pretty heavily in North America over the last few weeks. For all the wireless and mobile work out there that's pretty easy to forget (and FFWD through without feeling like you want to actually stop and watch), this 60 hits the mark.

Communicate Like Google

I got an invite to Google Wave about a week ago and I've been playing with it for the past few days. At first, I was really into it. I liked the instant(ness) to it, the ability to comment on specific aspects of chats, to integrate videos and maps into a stream, etc. I liked being able to edit friends comments and see what they edited. I was hooked, interested and mostly happy to be one of the 'privelaged' few (ie. 1,000,000 or so) to get 'early' access to the product.

That's what I love about Google in general. Exclusive invites that are rolled out randomly to a few hundred thousand and then slowly distributed to more and more people. It's a brilliant strategy:

1. Come up with a new product (I know...pretty basic thought)

2. Create a (longwinded) demo and launch the product to your most loyal base

3. Set a start date for when the product will go out in beta

4. Let people sign up to have the chance to be one of the first to experience it

5. Distribute invites to about 100,000 or so and slowly roll your product out

6. Launch (whenever you feel like it)

Love the strategy. As for Google Wave, to be honest, after the initial 'I feel so cool to have an invite' phase, it's starting to wear off on me.

Seeing someone at your agency?

They're rampant. They're everywhere. Sometimes it's just for fun. Sometimes things get serious and work out for the best. Most times?

They can turn ugly. And awkward. Don't believe me? Here's a quick, personal account of one.

How well do you know your friends?

From across the pond in the UK, Orange has lauched a nice experience to promote the new Motorola DEXT. The site lets users login using Facebook Connect, Twitter and MySpace and asks them 10 questions about their friends. It's quite straightforward but I like how the questions really make you think.

For the record, I only scored 3 out of 10 (pretty awful, looks like I don't need the device). But still, test it out. Very simple and well developed.

Via @handypierce

How Did I Miss This?

The Gunn report was released last week and contains all the 'top' ranked work from the year (as well as the most awarded campaigns, agencies and networks). While I think that most award shows are simply gatherings to collectively pat one another on the back and talk about how great we all are, I think that the report nailed the fact that this Crest campaign truly created some good, global impact. A really nice idea, well executed. Check out the spots here:



Via SoSticky.

Um..What?

Listen. I'm all for nice spots. I like it when creatives come up with ideas that cost about $1 million to shoot. If they're great, people won't PVR them. They'll get posted to YouTube and get a couple of hundred thousand free views. Nice right?

But sometimes the creatives might be a bit off. And they might be really, really good at selling clients on their idea. Sure, it sounds nice in theory but in reality? It's just that. Nice. And totally unrelated to the brand.

Props to the production team that put this together. But to the clients and agency that sold this? Two thumbs down.

Another Social Media Stat Video

Yea, I know. It's easier to find a montage of digital stats on the web than a McDonald's these days, but still, some good stats in here that are hopefully true. Anyone want to verify them?



From Nick Burcher.

The Economist: Smarter Advertising

In an industry whose ad revenues continue to decline in record levels, The Economist has stood out as a magazine that maintains a feverishly loyal readership (I'm one of them) as well as a brand that has differentiated itself from all competitors. A magazine not for the common man, but one who strives to know more about worlds beyond his own.

My favorite part? The idea that if you don't read anything - no newspapers, no dailies, no blog posts or updates. If you only sat down for 3 hours every Sunday and read the latest issue of the Economist, I guarantee you that you'd be more 'in the know' and worldly than 99% of people that you meet.

Smart advertising. (hint: it's a treadmill). Via copyranter.

2 Phone Calls Away

It's been a tough year for agencies. Revenue's have been down, layoffs have been rampant and clients are thinking about making jumps in the new year. This isn't to say that there hasn't been good work done - their certainly has - but things haven't been easy.

There's a common saying in our industry that almost any agency is only two phone calls away from shutting their doors. It's a scary thought (and one that some of the mega-ones can handle) but it's true. Every client interaction, presentation, creative idea and brief might be one of the last for that particular relationship. Make it count.

1 Night. 10 Posts.

Alright I admit it, I've been behind. Call it work, call it being 'busy', but the fact of the matter is, Crowe has been holding AdJoke down for the past few weeks. So tonight I've decided to go for it. Quantity over thought out posts. My favorite stuff from the ad world from the last 14 days. Hope you enjoy and thanks for being patient (and reading!).

The Wire: 100 Greatest Quotes

I love The Wire. It is one of the best written shoes of all time (in my opinion).

I love a good story

This is totally f'in nuts.

My Weekend: Adland

I am really excited to read this book over the weekend. Tyler just finished it and only had great things to say about it.



He also wrote a fictional novel called The Futurist which I thoroughly enjoyed reading over the holidays last year.

Armchair Astronaut - Toshiba

I really like this project for two reasons:

1. The ad business isn't easy. Long hours, shitty briefs, limited budgets, risk adverses clients, prescriptive feedback and clients that think they are art directors and copywriters usually take-over and take some of the fun out of the business. But, every now and then a client buys something FUN. Every now and then creative teams get an opportunity to sell that one spot that keeps them sane and allows them to pump out all the other crap they are asked to work on for the next 16 months.
   
   
2. It is a great idea that will get people talking, blogging and sharing the Toshiba brand.
   

This is amazing. This is the future of OOH.

The intersection of architecture, art, technology and communications will be the future of out-of-home advertising in my personal opinion.

Here is an example of how a projector, architecture and a great idea can capture the attention of people while being aesthetically pleasing and adding value to the archtecture itself. Point being, everyone wins.

Now find a way to effectively integrate a brand message into this experience without ruining it and you too can win.