There are two kinds of keynotes at industry trade conferences. There's the kind that keep you on the edge of your seat eager to drink in the wisdom of those on stage. Then, there's the kind that are...well, shall we say...less than awe inspiring. Unfortunately, the ad:tech San Francisco 2007 kick off keynote was one of the latter. Reminiscent of an old video interview between a major network and the founders of Razorfish, during which a frustrated reporter could not get a straight forward description of what the company did, today's keynote with aQuantive (now owner of avenue a/ razorfish) CEO Brian McAndrews as interviewed by Fast Company Senior Editor Lynne Johnson took a bit longer than other keynotes to deliver the meat.
There's absolutely no disparagement of the expertise that sat on stage today as the two discussed The digital Decade - What the Past Five Years Can Teach Us About the Next 5" but it took an interminably long time to get to the keynote's deliverable nuggets. One such nugget was McAndrews suggestion to agencies that social media be approached somewhat like a "big focus group" and that marketers would be best served by paying attention to what gets written on blogs, in forums and on social networks. With the rise of consumer control over media, marketing is clearly a two way street - far from the one way megaphone approach of yesteryear.
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On April 25th, the second day of the ad:tech Conference in San Francisco at 9:00 AM, demonstrators from the No More Landing Pages revolution will be gathered in front of the Moscone Center to protest the senseless creation of generic, dead-end landing pages. We are so down with that!
Tourism campaigns are all over the map. While W. Virginia is busy hustling humans out, New Mexico's literally ushering aliens in. This is part of New Mexico, Earth, a campaign meant to position the state as the best place in the universe. Guess that's better than trying to get by on a winning personality.
The spot brings Geico's caveman to mind. Both efforts take characters from outside our range of realism and bestow upon them a swingy white-collar vibe, coupled with a good healthy dose of middle class ennui.
One alien even seems to be verging on a caveman-esque nervous breakdown. Hey, great spin-off opportunity.
Scavenging snippets of nostalgia, scribble, arbitrary Flash and profound gibberish, Game, Game, Game and Again Game is a strange visit to what life must be like at the intersection between broadcasting airwaves and media-laced stream-of-thought.
Created by evil genius Jason Nelson of Hermeticon, the sensory digital plaything leverages a player's ability to pick knowledge up quickly and put it together. And while little makes sense, the collective information keeps you moving from level to level and may even spark inexplicable emotional reactions. The format and your feelings are all about as logical as identity construction via media consumption, a strange occupation that may drive whole cities to commercial bulimia.
We showed the game to a few friends who later told us we were psychotic media-tards. But several small children got it right away and laughed out loud in all the appropriate places (there aren't any). We think that means the game is good.
The ending is a sight worth seeing. It might just change your life. Or not. Go play already! (And make sure your sound is up.)
Mochila, a service that provides publishers a place to buy and sell content, has introduced the AdMatch Player, a branded multi-media player that lets publisher customize video offerings. It offers up a sort of content marketplace from which publishers can choose con tent and share in the revenue gleaned by ads served through the player. Content will be available from asap, Associated Press, blipTV.com, EFE, Ford Models, The Health Central Network, ITN Source, Lonely Planet, MeeVee, Mobi Jokes, Red Herring, Rodale, ShermansTravel.com, SmashTube, South China Morning Post, Tiempos Del Mundo, and Vibe Media Group. ans others.
Those of us who always wished we could make callous armpit noises, but just couldn't, can now live vicariously through Mitchum's armpit orchestra.
Wait for all the fancy members to load and then record a tune. It's like having a human piano except with fart noises and the occasional surprise puff of smoke. We don't know why but right now we find this insanely, inexplicably funny.
Carat Fusion is responsible for this one.
Adidas goes graffiti way with End to End, a snazzy collabo that includes graffiti artists from around the world drawn together to bring hype back to the sleepy brand. It's got a playful mishmash of colour that reminds us of the Asics Made of Japan effort.
Fresh Creation has a more elaborate intro and some neat videos too.
This is really interesting. To offset the costs of a new baby, a dude named Len started something called Monster by Mail, where he offered to draw 150 unique monsters for cash.
Word on the street is he met the 150 mark within a week. You can see all the monsters here. And check him out drawing the last one.
Congrats on the new baby. We're so glad you didn't jump on the million dollar homepage boat. You know what would be awesome for the next set? Painting with a physical gimmick, like this dude who painted Bruce Lee by chopping at the wall.
Priceline takes William Shatner, who's pompous by default, and makes him pompouser still with the use of a falcon and an eyepatch and ads that seem to drag on and on and on.
Check it all out at Falcon of Truth. You need a code to get in but we can assure you of either one of these two soothing facts:
* You're not missing out on much, as it contains the usual peppy text, promotional images and downloads
* You'll probably get some sort of invitation to see it eventually
We will leak one thing, though. Be among the first 100 to e-mail Priceline with your name, address and size and you could get a Falcon of Truth shirt. No, we're not kidding. Scramble for your Outlook right now.
For its Free Will campaign Volvo takes a bunch of user opinions about the C30 and turns them into ads. Check out a few. The last one, entitled "Mother," was wildly jiggly.
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