A lunchtime discussion about mobile marketing at the YPulse Mashup conference provided an ambitious inside glance on the mobile of today (think early AOL) and the mobile of tomorrow (kiss your laptop good-bye).
One Microsoft representative in particular betrayed an odd preoccupation with size, foretelling the death of the laptop "as we know it" in favor of ever-more-sophisticated smartphones that double as sync-able remotes for big screen TV/computers.
(Think, revival of Microsoft Media Center - talk about beating a dead horse.)
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It looks like the creative brief for this Dodge Nitro viral wannabe fell into the hands of some art director's second cousin twice removed who just graduated from the college of middle school humor. Are we supposed to laugh? To cringe? To utter a collective WTF? Oh wait. It's Dutch. That might explain. OK. Kidding. Seriously. Kidding.
UPDATE: Looks like the Dodge corporate folk weren't too pleased with this spot and asked that it be removed from YouTube. Not must to miss though. Just a dog pissing on the Nitro's wheel and then receiving an electrical shock from the Nitro.
Joining the "we don't give a shit whether or not our burgers have three million calories, clog your arteries and turn you in to a lazy couch potato with no interest in accomplishing anything in life other than clicking your Wii" trend, Wendy's has introduced the Baconator, a one half pound, six bacon strip monstrosity possibly bigger than the Paris Hilton Bentley Burger.
To promote the burger's beefy, bacon, cheese, ketchup and mayonnaise-slathered massiveness, Wendy's is "inviting America to create "burger music", musical pieces that incorporate the vibrant sounds associated with preparing and serving a great hamburger" whatever that may be.
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- If you haven't seen it, here's Al Gore's speech he gave at Cannes about climate change about how the advertising industry can effect it. It's in three parts. Here, here and here.
- The Age of Conversation, a book written by 100 marketing bloggers and writers the wordl over, just went on sale today. You can check it all out in this Advertising Age story.
- If you want to read blog posts by celebrities, politicians and business leaders who don't even know they are writing them, head over to News Groper.
- Google has released AdSense for Mobile beta.
The really scary this about this pseudo security tape of a business man having a meltdown in a hotel lobby is we've seen very similar things in real life. Clearly, we are way too stressed out but Cisco claims it has the answer with its Unified Communications product, one of those bring it all together business communication wonders you hear so much about but no one actually uses.
Anyway, the video points to Don't Have A Meltdown which is a representation of a psychiatrist's office where the doctor promises cures for freaked out business people. The video is finding widespread success on Break, MySpace, Filcabi, YouTube and all sort of other video sites since its launch a few weeks ago. Ogilvy West created.
They might taste good. They might even contain a bit of chicken. But, these batter-encrusted, popsicle-like Chik'N Stik'Ns are, well, gross. Not to be deterred from the fact chicken isn't usually served up like ice cream on a stick, Krystal is promoting their new creation by bribing...uh...giving away two music downloads for each order of Chik'N Stik'N purchased. Next, chocolate covered chicken-filled candy bars.
Deeply entrenched in the YPulse conference and absorbing the buzz in the air, I feel convicted with the first realization I made the moment I walked through the boughie-ass doors of Hotel Nikko: I'm not dressed properly.
In my G-Star jeans, Boss heels and button-down shirt, I'm wearing the clothes that sent a very specific message when I was in college: Look at me, assholes, I'm business-friendly.
The outfit sends a different message out of college. It says, I am a perpetually business-casual espresso-sucking young professional, and you have Google to thank for the proliferation of my kind.
Well and good for dealing head-to-head with other marketers. But when dealing with teens? Like the suited out-of-touchers, I feel like I should be carrying a clipboard while a tweenie-bopper politely relates every response he or she thinks I want to hear.
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Need to know where you can let your dog run free, which motels and hotels let you bring your pet along, where you can kennel the beast and where you can find those handy poop bags to pick up Buster's dump? Look no further than Purina's go2pets, a mobile service which lets you tap into all the pet-friendly places in your area. Created by Genex and enabled by go2, all one has to do is enter their zip code and the world of pet goodness is right in the palm of one's hand.
Anastasia Goodstein is conducting the welcome for the YPulse Mashup as I sit here. She's got this tone that reminds me a lot of the teens in the Bay Area I grew up with.
I should start by explaining the reason the Mashup exists. The idea behind this conference is to mash up all shades of people that share a common interest - a sincere love of teen-kind, according to Madame Goodstein.
These include marketers, youth pastors and other unlikely cocktail ingredients. Already I've met widget builders, a number of journalists (both digital and traditional), video game pushers, consultants, manga-lovers (that was a fun conversation), and even a woman whose company is a major lifestyle and team-building brand for cheerleaders.
Another interesting thing about the conference is that presenters aren't allowed to bring their own PowerPoint presentations, meaning we're saved from the polite shuffle to often seen at so many other conferences - rhetorical jibjab that thinly veils a boring, generally unhelpful product pitch.
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Well what do you know. Alex Bogusky Moves to Boulder and Denver launches a new ad club. And that's not all. Properly following America's march toward self esteem-fueled mediocraty where there are no winners and loser only proud participants, the New Denver Ad Club has kicked off an awards competition in which there are no golds, no silvers, no bronzes, no categories and no Cannes-like category shifting to please judges' whimsy.
The only thing the 50 winners get is a slot in the Denver50 show book and a party at which much alcohol will be served. Entries are due August 10 although how one submits is a mystery given the Denver50 site doesn't exist yet. Entries are limited to creatives living in Colorado when the idea was developed and must have appeared in media between January 1, 2006 and August 10, 2007.
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