Boston area marketer Kevin Glennon, in response to an article he wrote about Ford's marketing which received hundreds of responses but none from Ford, has launched Helping Hank, an effort to convince Ford to make an actual Bold Move: hire him as its Chief Marketing Officer. More than a ploy for employment - which Kevin doesn't need having launched his own successful business years ago - Kevin has written a letter to Bill Ford calling his attention to the article he wrote in which he urges Ford to think differently and offers up such suggestions as partnering with Lowe's and/or Home Depot to provide a Zipcar-like rental service.
Whether it's crazy or brilliant, you can decide for yourselves as Kevin has set up a full blown online campaign and weblog to support and continue his efforts towards improving Ford's marketing efforts. If we didn't know Kevin, we'd figure this was some sort of elaborate stunt blog marketing efforts so favored by some ill informed brands a few years ago but it's not. It's an honest effort by a smart guy who thinks he can improve a companies marketing. Only you and Bill Ford can decide if the effort is worthy.
An Adrants reader writes, "Tom Ajello, and several of his favorite 'creatives' from the ship he sunk, Agency.com, will be starting up an interactive division of MotherNY called PokeNewYork. The official announcement is rumored to be on June 5th. Currently the only thing on the site of pokenewyork.com is a picture of Tom's baby. Expect to see lots of 'upload your face' banner ads and a sharp drop in Mother's coolness!"
Poke New York? That has to be a joke? Who'd name an agency Poke? Oh yea:-)
Thursday night at its 86th Annual Awards Gala, the Art Directors Club awarded Goodby, Silverstein & Partners its Hybrid Gold for the agency's work on the California Fluid Milk Processing "Milk Aliens" campaign.
The ADC's Hybrid category awards integrated visual communications workwhich "transcends conventional uses of media." Extending its 'Got Milk?' work, the agency created a fictional world in which California cows were being abducted by aliens and taken to a distance planet, whose residents were in dire need of their "white wonder tonic." We think the work is deserving of this notoriety.
It's not often we find anything remotely resembling an original thought in this industry but we think we've found one in The Kidnapping Campaign, an effort by an unnamed interactive agency to hold other interactive agencies' reverse domain names captive until they pay a ransom. Once the ransom is paid, the agency can have its reverse domain name back and the identity of the agency behind the stunt will be revealed at Cannes only if it wins an award.
The components of the campaign include a video, filmed upside down, of a guy reading off the reverse domain names of major interactive agencies. Each reverse domain name will contain a "parasite banner." And The Kidnapping Campaign site explains the whole thing.
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There is life after Wieden + Kennedy's 12 school. Though not necessarily in advertising. After Rudy Adler completed his stint at WK12, he set out to document life on the U.S./Mexico border and called his work The Border Film Project. He and those that worked with him provided cameras to undocumented migrants hoping to gain entry into America and to the American Minuteman trying to stop them.
Adler has launched a website that documents the project and shares the pictures taken during the project. There's also a recently released book, Border Film Project, which is being sold on Amazon, in bookstores and in American Apparel stores.
Of the project, Adler tells us, "As a writer, it definitely inspires my creative process and keeps things interesting." Indeed. Inside the walls of a creative conference room is, ironically, the last place from which inspiration usually unleashes itself.
Atlanta-based agency WestWayne has modified it website to resemble the classic 404 Page Not Found page. Humorously, yet very insightfully, the page reads, "The consumer you are trying to sell products or services to has been disconnected from your brand."
The page then offers suggestions such as, "Stop calling them consumers, they are people" and "Build a relationship with them and they will return the favor."
It's a daring move for an agency to make. To forgo all that Flashtastic, ego-driven drivel no one cares about in favor of a simple, straight forward message is truly commendable.
- Cynopsis reports, "ABC will test the hour-long user generated news show i-Caught for six weeks from August 6 in an attempt to get the YouTube generation interested in TV news." Great. More fake news.
- Agency.com has begun to restaff its management void. Joining the San Francisco office as president is Jordan Warren most recently with Eleven, a 50 person agency he started seven years ago.
- The porn film Pirates is hitching a ride on the Pirates 3 publicity train.
- George Parker keeps us updated on the continuing Julie Roehm saga discussing her recent suit against Wal-Mart.
Naked has launched a blog that includes aggregated content from employee's online places and spaces.
- Even as online video grows exponentially, television viewership has not decreased.
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- It is said NBC will, today, confirm the firing of Network Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. He will be replaced by William Morris Exec Ben Silverman.
- Facebook is getting in bed with marketers with a new release that lets software developers create branded applications which will integrate with the site.
- Miller Brewing is heading over to Saatchi & Saatchi for some Lovemarks goodness.
- All your feeds are belong to us.
- Julie Roehm goes after Wal-mart...again.
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The ongoing uproar over the Saatchi and Saatchi London-created ads for Dr. Martens which showed various rock artists sitting in heaven wearing the brand's steel toed boots has resulted in Dr. Martens parent company AirWair Ltd. firing Saatchi. The ads, which Saatchi claims Dr. Martens approved to run once in the UK's Fact Magazine caused a bit of controversy and complaint. Dr. Martens claims the images in the ads were not approved stating the work is "counter to our current marketing activities based on FREEDM, which is dedicated to nurturing grass roots creativity and supporting emerging talent."
Saatchi says it stands by the work, feels it is not offensive, promises to investigate why the ads were released beyond their intended destination and to "consider the ongoing employment" of the person who may have released the ads to the public. Oh my how things escalate.
UPDATE: Potions of this item have been changed to reflect corrections received from Saatchi & Saatchi UK and Dr. Martens.
- Cynopsis reports, "The disappointing Bud.tv may "fade away" later this year, admitted Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV in a conference call to analysts" and "Rupert Murdoch's bid to acquire the Dow Jones & Co., which includes The Wall Street Journal, Barrons and the Dow Jones Newswires, isn't looking too promising."
- The Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCooper report online ad revenue increased 35 percent in 2006 to $16.9 billion.
- Havas' MPG is certainly grinning over its recent $740 million Sear media account win. Unfortunately former media agency, Carat, is grinning an entirely different grin.
- This is just not all that much fun but hey, you have to sell office cooling systems somehow.
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