« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
A fearsome Viking congratulations to our friend Jan Leth on his recent promotion at Ogilvy to Chairman of Vice or some such thing. Well deserved, Jan!
And thanks to Jan's vast knowledge of viking lore, we now bask in the glorious understanding that Bluetooth wireless technology was essentially named after the Viking King Harald Bluetooth.
And a helmet tip to our pal Marty for the heads up. Go Sox!
Nifty post over at Mark Silva's Share of Voice blog on the increasing influence of widgets. According to the comScore data Silva crunched, all widgets combined generate a greater worldwide audience than single sites like Amazon.com, Apple.com or The New York Times.com. As it's been said, there appears to be something there, there, with these widgets.
We've been working on a few widgets and widget-like objects recently. Seems like the real appeal here is compartmentalized convenience. Just enough scintillating content. Just enough interactivity. Just enough user control. And advertisers, as well as users, can place or re-distribute them almost anywhere.
Those qualities seem to be catching on.
Neat post from Joseph Jaffe on Marc Ecko's new campaign soliciting feedback on what to do with the homerun record setting ball that Marc now owns.
We totally agree with Jaffe on the brilliance of using the ball to further a conversation on so many levels.
Wonderful stuff.
We've been churning through various proposals lately, and there seems to be this common thread of a desire for "usefulness" or utility in all. In some cases it's blatant and in others it lies just beneath the surface. But as Martha would say, "It's a good thing," this desire to create useful advertising-like objects.
The old Bernbach Paradigm springs to mind here, but with a twist. (Bold words ours.)
"The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and if what you're saying isn't timely or relavent to their individual needs, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting or interactive or communal or responsive, and you won't be interesting or interactive or communal unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly and allow them to respond in kind."
It's likely not enough to simply state your case, however imaginately, these days. Advertising that creates impact now creates utility and compells interaction.
What do you think?
The Foo Fighters and Cee-Lo playing Prince on MTV's Music Video Awards? Get out! Brilliant live mashup. We need lots more of this, recording industry! (And shame on MTV for not allowing true embeds...sure, you can grab the code, but you end up with a "Visit MTV.com to see this video" message. Lame, MTV!)
And then there's JT.
From the Associated Press: "I think it's safe to say that when we first set out to make this song, we were all thinking 'Emmy!'" Andy Samberg (of SNL) said in accepting the award Saturday for best original music and lyrics.
"The other thing we were thinking was, 'Hey! Here's this young up and comer, Justin Timberlake, who is clearly very talented and could clearly use a break,'" Samberg said. "So, Justin, if you're out there, congrats to you, kid.'"
Dick In A Box is funny, absolutely. But it's also an example of how an artist can step outside their "box" and offer something worthwhile--witness FF and Cee-Lo playing Prince. It's another product, probably even more funny than Tenacious D.
Where's the follow-up album, or at least another single, JT and SNL?
We're iPhone addicts. So this new iPhone interface for Typepad is awesome. http://i.typepad.com
We had a fabulous lunch today at Barbette with Dion Hughes and Mark Johnson of Persuasion Arts & Sciences. (Thanks, men!) The food, the art (seen here) and the conversation were quite wonderful.
It's really interesting to hear the perspectives of two guys with decades of experience who helped make Fallon, Ammirati and a whole slew of traditional ad agencies rich and famous. As they put it, the struggle Mark and Dion face now are the antiquated definitions, methodologies and procedures of the very ad industry that made them famous.
Where are the marketers and ad agencies willing to step outside the established "norms" of strategic development and production integration? There's money to be saved, and effective ideas to be had. Just ask Mark and Dion. Or us.
Nice to see Snickers acknowledge Vikings. Thank you, Snickers.
Recent Comments