Wednesday, February 10, 2010

An Advertising Installation That is Making A Difference An Environmental Difference


Here an interesting if not brilliant piece that has been making the rounds since the fall, but it certainly is timely when we look to how we can suggest a simple idea that can change attitudes... specifically in terms of the environment. (Note: Video starts in Swedish but the details are presented in English) 

Every day thousands of cars are driven to and from Swedish airports. Every car holds only 1 or 2 people on average which is to be compared with the Airport Coach Servie which can that takes over 50 people at a time. Needless to say, taking a single car makes no sense whatsoever from an environmental standpoint.

To highlight this, an enormous bus was built out of 50 cars on the side of the highway to the airport. I do question what the "Carbon Footprint" is for the bus. The website, has a "live" camera that not only shows the installation 24/7 but also analyzes the image and also tracks each and every car going by. This data is then being used to highlight just how much emission we could save just by going by bus instead.

You can go to the services website to view a meter that gives a statistical update:

http://flygbussarna.cache.nu/english/website/

Advertising Agency: Acne Advertising
Set designer: Johan Sjölin - ArtnDito & Urban Lisinski - Dekor Klippan AB
Web agency: Acne Digital

Friday, February 5, 2010

Alex Bogusky & CP+B Offer Part Two - What Every "Student of Advertising" Should Watch - w/ Alex Bogusky, CP+B Creative Directors Dave Swartz and Bill Wright


A few months back I posted a piece that I simple titled "What Every Advertising Student Should Watch", the posting was based on the "portfolio show" episode of the recently introduced webcast FearlessQA from Alex Bogusky and CP+B. Much to my surprise between my Blogger and Posterous blogspots I have had over 3,500 visits to that specific topic. Since that original post I also posted a message about finding how you define yourself, are you a "Student of Advertising" or an "Advertising Student".

Yet again, FearlessQA has hit another "Homer Run" with this episode on "Old School" advertising. Odd title on first glimpse, but the as the subject unfolded... WOWzer, it easily became "What Every Student of Advertising Should Watch Part Two - Alex Bogusky with CP+B Creative Directors Dave Swartz and Bill Wright.

The show was promoted on the idea of "Old School", upon first hearing this some of my students suggested we tell Alex to think about "dressing" the role, kinda "Don Draper" like. Well that's not what show delivered (nice hat Alex). Yes, "old school" was the concept... but message was timeless. Timeless because it is truly what every "Student of Advertising" should know. It may even seem that Alex and his guest are "old school" but in fact they are the "bridge" between old school and today as we move forward.
"Old School is not about doing it for a long time... it's more about what we have done and have forgotten... the craft of the business"
"Creative's must blend the craft and the knowledge of what has come before them and what is happening now... if you don't have that perspective, then something will get lost".

                                                       - Alex Bogusky FearlessQA
I remember my first informational and job interviews and being asked, "who did I follow... who inspired me"? Seemed like a trick question, but I knew the answer needed, I needed to demonstrate how I developed my craft. Who inspired me was about the past, while who do I follow was for identifying my knowledge of the moment. Oddly, my response was always quick and simple. The people who created the craft of "the big idea", Bill Bernbach, David Olgilvy, George Lois, Rosser Reeves and Leo Burnett, they inspired me. As an Art Director I studied Herb Lubalin and the art of typography, Helmut Krome, Paul Rand, they inspired the craft of Art Direction. That was my "school", neither "old" or "current"... it was my education. (Note: My Professor Ken Coleman actual inspired me to travel to New York to have my portfolio reviewed by both Herb Lubalin and Milton Glaser who at the time was the Design Director of the Village Voice, today viewed as the "old testiment" of old school.


What makes this episode a "must watch", is the insights of what you should be reading. I take some heat about having a "suggested" reading list that is about 100 books deep, but really where will you find it one place. Sadly, I see too many hours wasted on "Ads of the World", a wonderful site, but the navigation through "real" and "spec" ads can be cumbersome. But, does it really teach you about the craft? No, there is not point of reference, that is why the good old "book" on the shelf can't be beat. Between the covers is the story of "How".
"I'm speaking from a person who has no respect for advertising that has come before because of craft... just blow it up... blow it up... over and over... advertising is supposed to be timely, it's supposed to be about the NOW... but know the people and know the thinking... because they blew it up before you blow it up and before I blew it up... you're not going to be able to blow things up unless you know and understand the thinking behind the idea. Study the masters of the trade".  
                                                      - Alex Bogusky FearlessQA

Bill Wright started at CP+B as a copywriter showed two books that should top everyone's book list. First, "The Book of Gossage" and "The Art of Writing Advertising". Both have been referred to as "the Bible of the Craft of Copywriting". Howard Luck Gossage is commonly referred to as the father of the "Conversational Style" of advertising. The book is more then just a guide to better creative thinking but it displays the thinking any creative needs to understand. "The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes it's an ad” once said to describe what he needed to use as a baseline in any ad he approached. Gossage is often attributed with a line I often quote in lecture, "To explain responsibility to advertising is like trying to convince an eight-year-old that sexual intercourse is more fun than a chocolate ice cream cone", it's what we do, but we never clearly understand that. I guess it comes down to 'know your audience".


David Swartz has his roots is graphic design and joined CP+B as an art director. What brought great joy to me was seeing one of my favorite books appear, Herb Lubalin - Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer. This brilliant book was the soul of my development, sadly out of print now (if you can find it, you're looking at $350+ for a copy) it showed why in my book Herb Lubalin was a brilliant art director and designer who, for over forty years, produced a continuous stream of stunning graphic design and in particular expressive typographic ideas. So what makes a great art director? No simple answer was offered but, you need a grand sense of design. You need to study design because you are the backbone of the big idea, the bodygaurd. Understand the concept of "Hierarchy" and "Order", find out and clearly understand what that means, what order does the message need to be delivered. Maybe that's why the best art directors come from art schools and having studied graphic design and typography. Sadly, Dave and Alex do make it clear that maybe technology has ruined the craft of art direction.

I can't express enough why this episode of FearlessQA which could have been a "trip down memory lane" will hopefully remain a "standard" for all "students of advertising" as what you need to know to truly succeed.

BTW... I tried to keep up with the boys and their "bourbon", they drank me under the table.

Required/Suggested Reading:

The Book of Gossage by Howard Luck Gossage; Jeff Goodby and Bruce Bendinger
The Art of Writing Advertising by Denis Higgins
Herb Lubalin - Art Director, Graphic Designer & Typographer by Gertrude Snyder & Alan Peckolick
The Bill Bernbach Book by Bob Levenson
The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy by
When Advertising Tried Harder by Lawrence Dobrow
Creative Advertising by Mario Pricken
The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry
Hey Whipple Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan
History of Advertising by Stephane Pincas
Twenty Ads That Shock the World: The Century's Most Groundbreaking Advertising and How it Changes Us All by Bill Twitchell


Watch live video from FearLess Q+A on Justin.tv

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Future is Bright - The Art of Marketing Conference Toronto

Mark your calendars for Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 for The Art of Marketing Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This is will be one of the events that will be both informative and inspiring.


This exciting one day conference will feature six internationally renowned bestselling authors and leaders who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today's most critical marketing issues.
No question the biggest topic on every marketing communication practitioners mind is how to get a clearer understanding of how the marketing world has changed, what role communication now plays in the buying decision and the impact on the business bottom line and ultimately how the consumer views, interacts and positions a brand in a very crowded and over saturated marketplace. Cutting through the clutter has always been critical, but now consumers have a bigger say in the success and more often the failure of a strategy.


The Art of Marketing event has a stellar group of speakers on tap. Best selling authors and industry influencers include Seth Godin on Leadership & Creativity, Dan Heath on Strategy & Communications, Mitch Joel on Digital Marketing & Social Media, Max Lenderman on Branding & Experiential Marketing, James Othmer on Advertising & Branding and the brilliant career and strategist Sally Hogshead on Persuasion & Influence. 

The day will kick-off with Mitch Joel the President of Twist Image, one of Canada’s best Digital Marketing and Communications agency. When Google wanted to explain online marketing to the top brands in the world, they brought Mitch Joel to the Googleplex. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the "Rock Star of Digital Marketing" and called him, "one of North America's leading digital visionaries."

He is has been named one of the most influential authorities on Blog Marketing in the world. He is also a Blogger, Podcaster, passionate entrepreneur and speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his marketing insights on digital marketing and personal branding.

Currently Mitch has 14,320 followers on Twitter where he shares endless amounts of information. Mitch is without a doubt one of Canada's most influential contributors in Social Media.

Seth Godin was called by Business Week the "World’s Foremost Marketing Guru" and “Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age,” Seth is a best-selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change and draws upon his best-selling books and years of being a marketing pioneer to bring audiences of all kinds to their feet.

He will address the topic of "Leadership and Creativity", he focuses on the creative thinking necessary for a business to create a “purple cow”—an offering that stands out from the crowd and causes customers to take notice. Using real-world examples from extremely successful companies, his lectures reveal the benefits of using creative, remarkable thinking to transform business ideas and practices. In his book "Purple Cow" Seth explored how ideas spread, why the stories companies tell matter, why treating customers with respect pays off and how these and other business decisions determine whether your business becomes invisible or remarkable. Today Seth pursues his work as a change agent full time.

Sally Hogshead has it. Her message is very new and constantly timely. Business has changed, the world has changed, and Sally shows audiences how to stay ahead. She is about release on February 9th her newest book "Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation". She is also the author of "Radical Careering - 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Career and Your Life." I have personally found great inspiration and assistance in my teaching my "career" planning classes in Sally through her blog and following her on Facebook and Twitter.

Her story is very unique, In her second year in advertising, Sally won more awards than any other copywriter in the U.S., and was called “the most successful junior copywriter of all time.” At age 27 she founded the West Coast office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky in the dual role of creative director/managing director. Her work has collected hundreds of honors, and been invited into showcases ranging from “Best Ads on TV” to The Smithsonian Museum of American History. In addition she was part of the team that won the $100,000 Grand Kelly prize for MINI Cooper.

Sally will deliver her unique style that has made her a fascinating speaker that electrifies audiences. Nine seconds. That’s the length of the average attention span today. Just nine seconds! People become distracted by the next product, the next ad, the next option. How can you possibly hold your customers’ interest long enough shape their opinion? She will share her thoughts and give answers on how can you break through the clutter to nail your next sales call, or motivate your internal team? For that matter, how can you influence any decisions?

James Othmer is the author of Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet, and The Futurist  but has pent his professional career at the intersection of art and commerce, old and new media. As a creative director at Young & Rubicam Advertising in New York, this 20-year agency veteran created brand narratives and award-winning commercials for some of the world’s most powerful corporations, including Citi, AT&T, Dannon and Colgate. This experience has provided him with the opportunity to travel the world and meet some of the world’s most interesting and innovative people, from artists and musicians to four-star generals, web designers, CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies and yes, even comedian Carrot Top. His blog "AdLand" has been noted as "Picks up where 'Mad Men' leaves off" by Fortune magazine

His acclaimed first novel The Futurist. The Washington Post wrote, “If Othmer is spilling this many insider secrets, The Powers That Be must want him to – or he’s a dead man. The Futurist was published as a short story in The Virginia Quarterly Review and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction.” His latest, the non-fiction title Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet, takes a clear-eyed look at the past present and future of branding. Adland was named a Best Business Book of 2009 by Fast Company Magazine and was on the list of Hudson Booksellers "Best Book of the Year".

Max Lenderman in addition to be an outstanding writer and author, most notably "Brand New World: How Pauoers, Pirates and Oligarchs are Reshaping Business" Max is serves as Executive Creative Director at GMR Marketing. GMR is the largest experiential marketing company in North America, where his work has won numerous industry recognitions, the latest including the 2009 Effie Award and the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Ex Awards. He previously founded and ran Gearwerx Experiential Marketing, Canada’s premiere experiential marketing agency, with offices in Montreal and Toronto. In addition, Lenderman is a founding board member of the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA)

Lenderman’s breakthrough publication, Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World, was a Business Book of the Year Finalist in 2006. It was his latest book, Brand New World that caught my eye this past summer and I share as a visionary "must read" for my students in terms groundbreaking marketing strategies and the new business models.
He has been interviewed by dozens of news agencies on the branding, communication and strategic subjects, including The National Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail, Report on BusinessTV, CTV, NOW Maagzine, The Hour, Marketing Magazine, Profit Magazine, CBC Radio: The Sunday Edition, and is a former columnist for Strategy Magazine.



Wrapping up the day is Dan Heath is the co-author, along with his brother Chip, of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Made to Stick was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller, and it has been translated into 23 languages. Amazon readers voted it one of the top 100 books of 2007, and Amazon editors named it the #2 business book of the year.

Dan co-authors a monthly column for Fast Company magazine and serves as a Consultant to the Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute. He has taught and consulted on the topic of "making ideas stick" with organizations such as Microsoft, Macy's, Nestle, and the American Heart Association. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Dan conducted research and wrote case studies for Harvard Business School, and more recently, he worked and taught in the executive education division of Duke University. Dan is also the co-founder of a start-up textbook publishing company in Austin, TX, called Thinkwell —Thinkwell will celebrate its 10th anniversary this fall.

The good people at The Art Of Marketing wanted to make a special offer to those of you who are connected here in this community, so here's the deal: if you sign up to attend The Art Of Marketing  using this link you will get the special rate of $349 per person. Please use the promo code: RK28. Tickets will likely go quickly, there are  two types of tickets available general admission seating which includes the full day conference and speakers fro $399.00 plus taxes. There is also VIP package that will include seating in the first 5 rows, lunch and copies of books from select speakers, this package is $499.00. The promo code will discount both packages.

I have no idea how the producers of this event can pull off a show like this with such a high-calibre list of speakers for only $349 a ticket (Canadian, no less), but that's your gain as you can easily see this truly a stellar group of speakers coming to Toronto.




The Art of Marketing - Toronto Tuesday March 02 from 9:00am to 5:00pm
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
255 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario
https://www.theartofmarketing.ca/register

Monday, January 25, 2010

FearlessQA - The Advertising Industry and the Issue of Diversity

The advertising industry and the topic of "Diversity" is often seen as both an "much need" and "why bother" discussion depending on where you stand.


This weeks Crispin Porter + Bogusky webcast "FearlessQA" (available on Justin.Tv) will tackle this very interesting and timely topic of "Diversity in the Advertising Industry". Guest joining Alex Bogusky will be Lincoln Stephens a former advertising account management executive turned activist and founder of The Marcus Graham Project and Shelton Scott of DDB Chicago who in 2006 was recognized as a "Rising Star" in the marketing business by Diversity in Business.

What makes it timely is within the next few months there will be a fresh crew of young "Adlanders" hitting the streets looking for jobs and may face issues that are often not obvious or seen until you truly stop and look around. They will look around to see if there is truly "Diversity" within the agency of choice. But what does "diversity" really mean? Is purely based on race? Is it gender? Can be seen in terms of agism? Big questions, with very few answers.

An interesting POV is that many advertising agencies and their client view "diversity" as a bottom line issue. The advertising industry recognized that the "diversity" in terms of race was an issue in terms of content and became concerned and knowledgeable about the impact of potential buying power.

So back to the questions of "diversity". What is it exactly?

The Canadian Advertising Foundation (CAF) issued specific "Gender Portrayal Guidelines" to "diversity" as an issue of the portrayal of men and women, but leave race completely out of the picture:
Advertising should portray both women and men in the full spectrum of diversity and as equally competent in a wide range of activities both inside and outside the home.
If you get a copy of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards - read Clause 15 of the Code which deals with taste and public decency:
"It is recognized that standards of taste are subjective and vary widely from person to person and community to community, and are, indeed, subject to constant change. Advertising must not present demeaning or derogatory portrayals of individuals or groups; must not exploit violence, sexuality, children, the customs, convictions or characteristics of religious or ethno-cultural groups, persons with disabilities or any other person, group or institution in a manner which is offensive to generally prevailing standards.
I guess it really is a great debate that is often seen as uncomfortable, but clearly worthy of dialogue.

In preparing my students for the upcoming FearlessQA, I researched the topic and the guests and came upon the website home of the The Marcus Graham Project (MGP), this site is dedicated to being a resource for "a national network of diverse professionals" that will assist in developing the next generation of leadership within the advertising, media and marketing industry. The MGP
"identify, expose, mentor and train ethnically diverse men between the ages of 16 and 34 in all aspects of the media industry, including advertising, entertainment and marketing".
"... (MGP) vision is to provide long-term access to information, technology, financial and people resources that will strategically develop a viable pool of talent and leadership within the industry".
The Marcus Graham Project acts as a pro-bono marketing consultancy to non-profit and social change initiatives. Through the support of corporate and private partners.

MPG also works as a training program through "iCr8 Bootcamp". The iCr8  Summer Bootcamp, is specifically designed to provide diverse aspirants in the field of advertising & marketing with the exposure and experience necessary to solidify careers within the advertising, media & marketing industry. The summer long program, held in Dallas, Texas. Bootcamp was piloted during the summer of 2009 with seven (7) participants chosen through an application process, portfolio review and in-person interview held during the spring. If you are interested in this years iCr8 Bootcamp you can apply the deadline is February 12th, 2010.

Tune in this Thursday, Janauary 28 Live or watch the rebroadcast at any time at http://www.justin.tv/fearlessqa



Sunday, January 24, 2010

Yes Men You Can Keep Your Balls Clean With Axe!






Oh good G-d I generally hate the "pun" and "double entendre", "sexual innuendo" and this spot for the Axe Detailer may win awards for hte total number, count them... I was ready to take bets on an under/over.

The casting also makes this spot perfect for the target, featuring Jamie Pressley (as Monica Blake) who plays an ex-tennis star spokesperson for Axe and their new product: “The Axe Detailer“ a product meant to clean more then mans’ balls, but this spot reminds us indeed your little friends down there also need to be washed from time to time!

The ad itself had me smiling, maybe even laughing, but it is a little to heavy on the pun and the double entendre. It does take a seriously talented writer to keep the momentum in this type of spot, keeping you engaged beyond the third pun/entendre... so well done. My favorite creative highlight is at the end of the spot...it's all about words and visuals isn't it (hint, hint..wink wink)!

Seriously, I shouldn't have "bone" on for this ad because Axe products are aimed at teenagers or men who still think like teenagers.

The spot was created by BBH, New York.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

When You Actually Listen. A True Story - "The Pizza Turnaround"


Say what you want... I like this brand... I like that brand... but this is the true story of how Domino's listened to its harshest critics and made their best pizza ever.

Amazing when a company actually listens.

One of the elements I enjoyed seeing is the actual pride each employee had in the product that they produced.

Starring actual Domino's employees.

Agancy of record is Crispin Porter + Bogusky

www.pizzaturnaround.com
 
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