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ad:tech Chicago Exhibit Hall Full of Activity

Chicago ad:tech is, by far, a smaller show than either new York or San Francisco. THough that doesn't stop vendors and attendees from mingling en mass in the exhibit hall.

ad:tech Chicago 2008 Exhibit Hall Day One

ad:tech Chicago 2008 Exhibit Hall Day One

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 5-08    
Topic: Industry Events



Ad:tech Chicago Kicks Off With the Age of Performance Branding

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Adrants contributor Krista Neher of Photrade attended the opening ad:tech Chicago keynote and submitted this article:

Ad:tech kicked off with a great start! ad:tech Chair Dew Ianni introduced the keynote speaker and shared some key info on the state of the industry. A few key pieces of information:

- Online Advertising is growing - from $25B to $50B in 2012
- IAB reported $6.8B in Q1 with growth of 18% (not bad for a slowing economy)
- Key Trend - Consolidation: 300 "networks" to a few dozen by 2010
- $$ still flowing to innovators: Apps/Widgets, Social, Mobile, Niche
- With the state of the economy, ad budgets are tightening, however digital and online continue to show growth

The stage was set with an optimistic outlook for digital marketing, and keynote speaker Google Industry Development Director Kevin Kells kicked it off by asking the audience: "What comes to mind when you think of performance and brand building?" After a short silence (probably because the coffee hasn't kicked in yet), the audience threw out some suggestions:

- Search
- ROI
- Increased Sales
- Growth

According to Kevin, growth comes largely from being more relevant to the marketplace. There are two things that are really driving this: 1) Gathering and using better insights from the people that matter to you the most and 2) Telling more stories more often to people who matter to you.

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 5-08    
Topic: Industry Events, Online



Holiday Inn's Meat is Missing

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Newsforce's Dana Todd isn't a fan of the Holiday Inn Meat you Maker banner campiagn currently running on Slate. He writes:

"Ok, I'm frustrated with this. See attached ad, running on Slate right now. Note the potential misspelling "Meat your maker". Hmm, puzzling. Mousing over to expand the rich ad got me no more info about meat or what it had to do w/this professor guy. Clicked the link, sat through ridiculous talking head, still no meat."

Todd goes on, writing, "Can they just not spell, or is there some mystery being unfolded regarding meat or mastery or anything of any consequence? Driving me nuts. I'll probably have to take a valium tonight ;-)"

Yes, after watching, we might need a Valium as well. But, we're still a fan of Philip Baker Hall.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 5-08    
Topic: Online



I Want Me Some of That User-Generated Content Thingamabobber

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Before we get into this story, let's make sure everyone is on the same page regarding User-Generated Content. Thanks to Brickfish, which just launched a User-Generated Content campaign for Family Circle and eBay, we have this handy explanation.

"The campaign relies on User-Generated Content [get that??? USER-GENERATED CONTENT!] to reach women across the Web. Brickfish campaigns are designed to spark the creation of brand-focused UGC [that's USER-GENERATED CONTENT, by the way] such as blogs, images, video and audio. Brickfish's content sharing tools enable anyone to view and review submissions, vote on their favorites, and share them with friends and peers using email, Instant Message and postings on hundreds of social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and many more [get that" MANY MORE!!!]. Brickfish campaigns become extremely viral [that's VIRAL, people! VIRAL! VIRAL is cool!] using a peer-to-peer marketing approach."

Isn't USER-GENERATED CONTENT cool? Neat, huh?

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 5-08    
Topic: Bad, Consumer Created, Online



Lacking A Viral Concept? No Worries. Just Use Cats

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Aren't YouTube viral wannabees great? Why spend a lot of money or try to be overly creative when you don't have to? Just slap up some cheesy images of cats (everyone loves cats, right?), cobble them together with a few amateurish slide transitions and finish it off with an image of Hellboy holding a cat.

If the link to this so-bad-it-just-might-be-good video hadn't come from Fallon digital unit Hyper, there would have been no indication it's a promotion for Hellboy 2. But...isn't that sort of the point anyway? Aim for the amateurish so as to appear un-ad-like, don't mention who made it then cross your fingers and hope it spreads. Simple, right?

by Steve Hall    Aug- 5-08    
Topic: Video, Viral



If You Have Nipples, America Doesn't Want You

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Here we go again. Apparently, it's OK to blow up stuff in TV commercials (see Verizon's Michael Bay commercial) but OMFG, show a fleeting glimpse of a natural human body part and the country freaks to high alert, places a blindfold over the collective eyeballs of every kid in the country (nudity is bad!!) and launches the cause group machine.

Yes. This is America. Nudity is bad. Nudity is something to be shunned. Natural beauty? Screw that. Put a potato sack on! Cover that God-given beauty. Sex is bad. Sex dirty. Sex is nasty. Sex should never be thought about. Sex should be shunned.

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 4-08    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Opinion



Columbus Ohio Really is a Nice Place to Visit. Seriously

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With top ten lists for everything imaginable, everyone has been trained to basically ignore anything that isn't in the top ten. So what's a city like Columbus (OK, they do have the second largest college population) to do when it comes to creating a tourism campiagn that will announce to the rest of the country that the place actually exists and that it has a lot to offer? Highlight what's not in Columbus, of course.

Ad blogger Leigh Householder, along with 60 other bloggers, was invited to an Experience Columbus-hosted event to unveil the new tourism campaign which carries the tagline, Not in Columbus. One element off the campiagn is a t-shirt which, on one side, has a picture of an crossed out Eiffel Tower and "But I Did Everything Else" on the other.

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 4-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good



ESPN 'Lost Socks' Chide Red Sox Over Ramirez Trade

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Acting quickly following the trade of the Red Sox' Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Ddgers, last Thursday, ESPN agency Ground Zero, by noon Friday, had plastered laundromats around LA county with lost socks affixed to a tag which read, "Lose a sock, Boston? ESPN joins Los Angeles in welcoming Manny Ramirez." Quick thinking and wit works just about every time. Nice work.

by Steve Hall    Aug- 4-08    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Specialty



Energizer Appeals to the Urchin in Us

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Under the tagline "Never let their toys die," Energizer UK depicts kids in various states of, uh, toyless engagement. The campaign won top accolades in Press Advertising at the Cannes International Ad Festival.

See the work (helpfully labeled by ME!):

o Merry-Go-Hostage
o Pretty Pretty Puppy
o Not Quite Rain

Put together by DDB/South Africa to support Energizer's "longest-lasting battery" position. Awesome stuff. What'd you guys do, spend a week at the primary school?

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 4-08    
Topic: Best, Brands, Campaigns, Magazine, Poster



Average Spots Tout Average Brand Lenovo

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Lenovo, likely the most un-hip computer brand ever, is out with four new commercials which will be aired during the Olympics. The spots, as equally un-hip as the product they tout, are actually quite good...in a decidedly un-hip sort of way.

The strangest of all is Troll, in which two guys discuss what happens when their computers crashed. The Lenovo guy just pushes the magical One Button recovery button. The non-Lenovo guy gets a fruit basket delivered by a troll. Strange indeed.

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by Steve Hall    Aug- 3-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Commercials



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