« Last week 27-Jul-08 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  | Next week 10-Aug-08 »

10 Cane Run Extends Ad Conference Haze

10_cane.jpg

Like a mashup of country club elitism and Rastafarian grooviness, these new Mother New York-created videos from 10 Cane Rum are delightfully intoxicating and elicit a blurry, drug-addled fogginess. After two days at an ad conference, these videos perfectly identify with the current mindset. And even if you haven't just survived an advertising conference, you'll love where these videos take you; to that serene Caribbean world where everyone is perfect looking and the run flows freely on the warm, sunny beach while the bothers of the real world slowly slip away. Can you feel it? Are you there? Are you running to the store right now to buy some 10 Cane rum?

by Steve Hall    Aug- 7-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Strange, Video



How Hasbro Lost the Fight for Scrabble's Soul

Scrabulous.jpg

Tuesday night at ad:tech Chicago wrapped up with a keynote by author Clay Shirky, "Here Comes Every Customer: The Former Audience is Talking Around You."

The Big Idea, if intro speaker Drew Ianni is any authority: "The internet is the most important thing to happen to the human species."

That's a pretty high and mighty manifesto. Upon taking the stage, Shirky tried conveying the same idea with more precision -- and a much higher word count.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 7-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Online, Opinion, Promotions, Publishing



The Hunting of the Snark: Finding Value in Online Video Advertising

socrates-club-2.jpg

There are three types of ad:tech session:


  • Roundtables, which look like opportunities for Socratic discussion but are actually ideal hostage scenarios for greedy salesmen.

  • Polite affairs where a moderator, charged with exploring a given topic, poses questions in hopes of getting cotton-mouthed executives to divulge things they're not supposed to.

  • The kind where a moderator -- contemptible creature -- invites panelists to pitch the audience one by one, and the topic be damned!


"The State of Online Video: Going Beyond the Pre-Roll" was the third type.

Things kick off with Josh Chasin of comScore mumbling figures into the mic, followed by Smith Forte of Current.TV. Then Rebecca Paoletti, director of video strategy at Yahoo, takes the stage.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Industry Events



Widgets, The New, New Thing!

DSC_0001.JPG

Widgets are the rage! Widgets are the new, new thing! The new, new must-have! Widgets are web 7.0! Widgets! Widget! Widgets! The Chicago ad:tech panel, Widgets and Applications - The New Media Network, covered what's going on in the world of widgets. Panelists included Omniture Senior Director of Product marketing Chris Duskin, Slide GM Advertising Sonya Chawla, Gigya VP of Sales Ben Pashman, Avenue A Director of Emerging Media and Video Innovation Jeremy Lockhorn and Sprout Co-Founder and CEO Carnet Williams.

Lockhorn described the "old" ad world as Ad 1.0 or a world in which advertising was all about interruption and intrusion. He described the "new" ad world as Ad 2.0, a world in which people are not interrupted and that exists where the people are in an unobtrusive way. This, according to Lockhorn, is the world in which widgets live. So what are widgets?

more »

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Online



Drinks! Dinner! Dancing! Bottle Service! Yes, It's An Ad Conference!

john_engler_chicago_adtech_2008.jpg

Last night after the first day of the ad:tech Chicago conference ended, UnsubCentral's John Engler organized a dinner at the Chop House for about 16 people including Powered COO Mark Drosos, Direct Response Technologies' Matt Haag, Frontline Direct Sales Manager Barbara Stratte and Marketing Director Cari McClure, Adconion Media Group VP Kristian Wilson and Account Manager Alexis Berger, Spiderbait Strategist Dante Montverde and StoryQuest's Tim Keelan among others.

Also enjoying some of Chicago's finest beef were Adrants' Co-Editor Angela Natividad and the ad:tech blogging team Paige Dzenis, Brent Terrazas and Krista Neher.

Like any dinner with 16 people across two tables in a loud restaurant, the discussion varied widely from work topics to wine selection. None of which, sadly, can be currently called to mind. The food was amazing. The wine was great and the people excellent company.

more »

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Industry Events



Doritos Collides With Flavor Mascots

7570868822_main_bg_5828.jpg

Just when you think there couldn't possibly be yet another flavorized Doritos line extension, the funny bunch over at Frito-Lay come up with even more. But this time, rather than creating new flavors, because, like, they've already done them all, they mix two flavors together and call it something new.

To promote this flavorific fusion, Doritos (in the UK) has launched the Doritos Collision campaign, a series of videos that pit flavor mascots against one another wrestling ring-style. There's Feathered Fury, The Griller, Tenacious T and El Zesto.

In addition to the videos, the brand has teamed with Bebo and Endamol's The Gap Year, a web series. Oh, and there's all kinds of social media goodness as well.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Brands, Good, Online, Social, Video



Olympians Get Nude! (Well, With All Crucial Parts Covered)

rebecca_romero_powerade.jpg

Alright. Here's the nudity in advertising story of the day. There's a quota here at Adrants, you know. Anyway, British athletes triple jumper Phillips Idowu, cyclist Rebecca Romero and swimmer Gregor Tait all got naked for a British Powerade campaign.

Coke Marketing Director Cathryn Sleight explained the campiagn, saying, "Everyone is used to seeing athletes in competition or winning, but we wanted to give people the chance to see the real make-up of an athlete and their muscle and power." Yea, that makes a whole lot of sense because, ya know, seeing an Olympian nude really helps people better understand the athlete.

No, Cathryn. You created the campaign to get headlines and press just like you are getting right here, right now and everywhere else for yoir little campaign.

The other two images are here and here.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    




Greyhound Kills 'Bus Rage'Campaign Following Beheading

greyhound_bus_rage.jpg

If you're a bus company with an ad campaign that touts the fact nobody's ever heard of "bus rage" and them some freak goes and beheads a dude on the bus, you're quite likely to pull the campaign which is exactly what Greyhound did in light of last weeks bus murder.

After the murder of 22-year-old Tim McLean, who was repeatedly stabbed and then beheaded on a bus traveling through Manitoba, Greyhound pulled their poster campaign which carried the headline "There's a reason you've never heard of Bus Rage." well, sadly, now there is and the campaign had to be killed.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Poster



Samsung Delivers Times Square Olympic Goodness

samsung_tronic_times_square_olympics_2008.jpg

Working for Samsung, Tronic created a dynamic looking video for the brand's Times Square video installation announcing the partnership between the brand and the 2008 Olympic Games. After several animated formations, diffusions and re-formations, the video ends with the digital bits forming the Olympic logo.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Outdoor, Video



Nike Delivers the OMG, the WTF and the Holy Crap

nike_ast_dew_tour_vehicle.jpg

Most marketers want some kind of reaction to their advertising. Desired reactions range from increased sales to increased brand awareness to changing a behavior to announcing the existence of a new product. Rarely is the desired reaction so specific as to make people say, "Holy Crap," after they see it but that's just what Nike wanted and that's what Hub Strategy did.

To call attention to Nike's sponsorship of the AST Dew Tour, Hub Strategy, which put together a concepting team consisting of an architect, an industrial designer, a planner, a graphic designer and a copywriter. The result? A tricked out extreme vehicle complete with skate ramp, wake board tower, sirk rack, skateboard rails, BMX racks, a camper and, of course, iPod goodness.

After looking at the vehicle, one would certainly have to admit to at least a tiny bit of OMG, WTF and, yes, Holy Crap.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 6-08    
Topic: Good, Guerilla



« Last week 27-Jul-08 | This archive, pg:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  | Next week 10-Aug-08 »