Where the Hell is Matt...Uh...Oops...Coke?

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Joe Jaffe's Crayon (among other companies including Adam Brown at Coke) is behind a new program for Coke called Expedition 206. Beginning January 1, 2010, Coke will send three ambassadors around the world to visit 206 countries in 365 days. The purpose as Jaffe writes is to "seek out, discover and celebrate the epitome of 'happiness' as it presents itself across different people, places and cultures."

Sounds a bit like a corporate version of Matt Harding's work for Stride but hey, you can never leverage and monetize the power of "world happiness" enough. So it's all good.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-22-09    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Podcast, Promotions, Social, Weblogs



New Podcast AdVerve Launches. Takes on Diversity

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It's not as if the Diversity in Advertising drum hasn't been beaten to death but, maddeningly, it's still an issue. And, to be honest, maddeningly, we're sick of writing about it. So can we please deal with it and move on?

But in order to move on, more talk, maddeningly, is needed. And more talk is what we have in the debut episode of AdVerve, a podcast hosted by Live and Uncensored's Angela Natividad and Make the Logo Bigger's Bill Green. In the first episode, Angela and Bill interview Hadji Williams, copywriter and author of the book Knock the Hustle.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-13-09    
Topic: Podcast



Ducks Gone Wild on Beancast

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Bob Knorp's Beancast always pulls together and interesting group of people. On this week's episode were Angela Natividad (yes THAT Angela), George Parker from Adscam and Greg Verdino from Crayon. No sooner had the three got on the phone with Bob before Angela and George managed to devolve the pre-podcast call into a discussion of rapist ducks, the SEO value of Paris Hilton and obscene activities performed on plastic ducks.

The rest of the show is just as great. All kinds of great commentary on Amazon buying Zappos, Target as taste maker, Walmart bludgeoning suppliers for more ad dollars and Twitter ability to generate $48 million worth of media coverage for itself without lifting a finger.

And in classic form, George talks about getting drunk no less than three times in the first 15 minutes.

And poor Bob. The editing must have been pretty difficult editing out all the times George cursed. Oops, you missed one, Bob.

by Steve Hall    Jul-27-09    
Topic: Brands, Podcast, Social



Microsoft's bing Trashed Before It Even Launches

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Be sure to catch Adrants windbag Steve Hall on the most recent Beancast where Microsoft's new search engine, bing, is given the "seriously does anyone think Microsoft will get it right this time" treatment, social media hype gets a lashing and, once again, the viability of in-game advertising is discussed.

Steve was joined by much smarter industry types including AdWeek's Brian Morrisey and The M Show's John Wall. At least you'll learn something from those guys.

by Steve Hall    Jun- 1-09    
Topic: Podcast



Strobey Audis, Midlifers on Hulu, Social Media Mobbin'

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- Strobey Audi D7 ads.

- Middle-agers inflate Hulu 490%.

- More BeanCast shenanigans: "Johnny Wall!"

- Contemplating Wolfram|Alpha.

- Something about pumping iron. And also furniture.

- Leonard Nimoy talks origins of the Vulcan salute. (*swoon*). Via @ChristopherY.

- Mob mentality invades social media. (Wait a sec ... aren't they kinda the same thing?)

- Doner CEO Barry Levine retires.

by Angela Natividad    May-18-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Creative Commentary, Podcast, Social



Pepsi Offers Playtime With Podcast Playground

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Pepsi's Podcast Playground made a splash at SXSW taking over a corner of the Austin Convention Center doing interviews and making it easy for others to conduct podcasts of their own.

by Steve Hall    Mar-14-09    
Topic: Industry Events, Podcast



Charity Holiday, Enemy Gameplay, More Than Words with Alex B.

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- Top 10 virals of '08, courtesy of the guys that brought you this.

- Digitas Health donates to charity for the holidays, as does RAZ PR (which told us via paper card). Meanwhile, comScore pledges trees.

- "Unprecedented economic waters" (nice euphemism!) means no FedEx retardation during '09's Super Bowl. One less thing to look forward to. Honestly, anything involving Burt Reynolds makes us happier people.

- Remember that crazy/beautiful, semi-schizophrenic media orgy titled Game, Game, Game and Again Game? The sequel is called I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies. Creator Jason Nelson promises "More strange hand drawn creatures, with screen shot anchored levels and all the poetic bits known." And then we kissed him.

- Crowdsourcing horror.

- Beancasting Steve and Bill. Among other things, they talk online video marketing, Pepsi suicide ads and diversity (lack of?) in the industry.

- Learn to shred with CP+B. "But yeah, the biggest thing people will go after is Alex giving lessons on how to play Extreme's More Than Words." Sounds like a winner to me.



GM/Ford Talk Social Media, B-52's Chime, Cunning Turns Ten

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- Two key players shaping Detroit's social media strategy, Ford's Scott Monty and GM's Christopher Barger, appeared on The BeanCast, this week to talk about their social media efforts for the auto industry, the proposed bailout and that private jet fiasco.

- The B-52s have lent their sound to NBC network's ongoing CHIME IN campaign recording its own version of NBC's chimes, which will air in promo form during the network's primetime lineup.

- Marketing agency Cunning is ten years old. Help them blow out the candles on their virtual birthday cake.

- On Tuesday, December 16 at the ADC Gallery on 106 West 29th Street, The Art Directors Club will host its holiday party where the Art Directors Annula 87 and the ADC Young Guns 6 Annual will be made available for purchase.

by Steve Hall    Nov-25-08    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Podcast, Social, Television



Garfield Dubs Palin An Ignoramus, All-Stars Awarded, ad:tech Revisited

- Meet the new Art Diector's Club president Doug Jaeger in a new Reel Split podcast.

- AdWeek's 23rd Annual Media All-Stars Awards issue is out. Initiative Chairman and CEO Richard Beaven was named Media Executive of the Year.

- Relive (or live for the first time) ad:tech New York by listening to this BeanCast podcast during with AquireWeb President Al Gadbut, The Martin Agency' David Vogeleer, host Bob Knorpp and myself discuss the show's highlights.

- Claiming iCrossing raided staff and clients, Agency.com had filed for damages of $19.5 million against the Omnicom shop.

- Bob Garfield stirs up a shit storm for calling Sarah Palin an ignoramus in his review of the McCain campaign.

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Industry Events, Opinion, Podcast



Steve Hall Defends Ad Agencies, Lauds Apple, Ponders Moderation

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On Sunday's BeanCast with Bob Knorpp, I was joined by Ford Head of Social Marketing Scott Monty and The M Show's John Wall to discuss a host of ad-related issues ranging from author Brian Reich's somewhat shortsighted opinion marketers and consumers would be better served if TV networks performed the job of ad agencies to Yahoo Head of Research Prabhakar Raghavan's quite correct statement search isn't as desirable as some would have us believe to moderation and liability is social media to FOX's "remote-Free" TV to location based mobile services to, of course, Apple and the notion, despite popular opinion, it has truly mastered the art of participating in social media.

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by Steve Hall    Sep-16-08    
Topic: Opinion, Podcast