Interesting execution of this ‘sign’ hung by Ikea in Paris, at some major railway stations.
See the story here.
Author: Angelo Fernando
Kevin Roberts: A man with a plan for brands
If you haven’t heard of Kevin Roberts or that odd concept called Lovemarks, you’ve not been in advertising long enough!
Roberts, CEO of of Satchi & Saatchi, is a prolific ideas person, pushing the boundaries of advertising and creativity, and saying provocative –but true– things about branding. (Who’s to contest that “brands have run out of juice?”) His book, Lovemarks, is a very unusual book. Good-looking, terrific ideas, but awful in terms of layout. The Lovemarks site, however, is much more valuable. Plenty of community involvement, etc. To make things more interesting, the site awarded a Toyota Prius to the best Lovemark story, in August this year. (There’s another offer, for a KitchenAid mixer, going on.)
JotSpot gives Wikis a good name
Take a look at JotSpot, the company offering a free beta Wiki product. These features are remarkable. It appears that the Jotspot founders have thought through how to solve the techy issues that frustrate most communicators. For instance, they have this feature that allows you to send an email to every page of your Wiki. Imagine that! No manual ‘posting’ unless you really have to. Just “cc” an email you are sending your team/project mates, and it gets automatically posted.
If you want to try it out, go here, and fill out some basic info.
I should have mine up in a few days. I am already working on an article on Wikis, and by the time it is published, I should be up and running with a great collaboration tool.
Imagination at Work –on your desktop
GE, the company that’s running an ‘imagination at work’ campaign has a terrific idea, online, to support the claim – a white board and a few thick markers. Clicking on the ad, opens a window, which then prompts you to ‘pick up’ a marker –by clicking and dragging your mouse.
It works just like the white board application in Windows, but is even more fanciful. It allows you to write or draw anything.
I checked out the GE site, by Googling ‘imagination at work’ and the page loaded with the same tool. What’s neat about this site is that it is free of text and hype you’d expect about the company’s ‘imagination’ claim. As any art director will tell you, white space is a beautiful thing!
A few simple clickable boxes allow you to change the color of the page, change the color of the ink in the marker, choose the thickness of the tip, or see a preview of your doodle/masterpiece –which redraws your creation. Messed up? Wipe the page and start again! When finished, you can send that page via email to a friend or yourself. I can see this developing into a tool for all kinds of educational ends.
Madison and Porn, Virgin style.
Excuse the overblown headline, but with the rush to integrate advertising and entertainment a la Madison and Vine, it had to go this way. Virgin Atlantic Airways, as noted by Stuart Elliott, the New York Times Media and Advertising columnist, has embarked on a risqué advertising gimmick using LodgeNet, the video-on-demand service in hotel chains.
The 10-minute porn look-alike flick is listed among the other adult titles, with no hint that it is a piece of adver-tainment. Of course, it is free. It was created by Miami hotshot ad agency Crispin, Porter & Bogusky.
Ramen Noodles gets unusual branding plug –from Michael Moore.
Trust Michael Moore to dream up a creative (read: controversial) way to garner media attention. His offer of a pack of Ramen noodles or clean underwear to ‘slacker’ students is not a silly choice as it may seem. (I am sure there will be conspiracy theories that Ramen goes well with you-know-what brand of ketchup.)
Infusing a few strong brand names into a political stunt is a good way to fire up the marketplace, and the media. That, plus Moore’s silly ‘letter‘ on his Web site, looks deliberately crafted to get the slacker story out there. Moore definitely understands the tricks of guerilla marketing, as this recipe reveals in a Movie blog. To which, a visitor comments that Moore deserves an Oscar for his marketing and promotion skills.
‘Political Jihad’ or ‘Darwinian Democracy?’
Jay Rosen’s observations at Press Think about the old guard journalists, are very valid.
He cites Tom Brokaw, who called the Bloggers Vs Dan Rather affair a ‘political jihad.’ The event was a panel discussion, featuring Tom, Dan and Peter, on campaign coverage. It was held by the New Yorker magazine.
While it is easy to praise of blame bloggers for what happened, let’s not kid ourselves that blogs are the all-powerful replacement to big media. There are all kinds of communication channels/devices, accelerating the spread of information, and creating buzz. Here’s an interesting quote from TIME, magazine (“Blue Truth, Red Truth”) that captures the essence of modern communications:
Thus do the most important issues unfold, not just across the gray pages of the serious papers but in a foaming free-for-all in which every charge, however fair or false, gets BlackBerried and instant messaged in a Darwinian democracy of ideas. TIME, Sept 27th, 2004
24/7 Internet for Laptops
Several mobile phone companies are now selling Wireless Broadband packages for connecting to the Net, using a wireless card. With a card like this, practically the whole country is a hotspot.
I use Wi-Fi quite a lot, and find this irresistible. My typical work day includes logging in to my Web-based email from a variety or places –vendor’s desktops, Starbucks, Schlotzsky’s, Borders Books etc. Very useful when working with tight deadlines. But I still have to drive up to the nearest hotspot.
We the media –more than a book
Dan Gilmore’s just published book, We The Media: Grassroots Journalism By The People, For The People, is a wake up call. I read some chapters when it was a work in progress earlier this year– on the Web. Chapters are still readable online, here.
Slashdot’s review states:
We the Media should be required reading in journalism schools for students and professors. I’m serious. If you’re a publisher, editor, or an actual breathing reporter, and you want to get up to speed on what is happening to your profession, you need to read this book.
Gilmore’s blog, at the OReilly site is worth a visit for a look at the state of the industry of ‘citizen journalism.’ His other blog, at the San Jose Mercury News covers a broader range of topics.
But encouraging non-journalists to report on breaking stories is sounding less radical today. BBC Online is typically seeking out MoBloggers. Got a story for the Beeb? If you “found yourself in the right place at the right time” as they say, (and you had your cheap-camera phone with you) send them a 640 X 480 pixel picture, using this number: 004407970885089.
Changing the message –the Geico way.
I have commented in the past, here, about how campaign triva distracts from the real issues of the US elections. The best way to look at this is to analyze the commentary about the presidential debates. Talk show hosts and other pundits have been speaking a lot about the Bush smirk, his body language etc. Maybe it’s because there are limited things to say about made-for-TV debates that were useful in the older TV era of politics, and are somewhat irrelevant today with much more media and PR venues available to politicians.
I came across this Benson cartoon in the Arizona Republic, that captures this nonsense. It is based on a TV ad tactic for Geico insurance.
For those of you outside the US, Geico features a highly memorable character, a lizard (probably because the nearest word to Geico, is gecko.) Geico ads have this silly storyline of someone selling some typical informercial-type product, and the lizard suddenly breaks in, saying, “yes, but I did save a lot of money by switching to Geico..” I like to think of it as an ad that parodies advertising itself. Or ‘bait and switch’ humor with a purpose –to make consider switching insurance companies.
To get back to the Benson cartoon, the reporters on the left shove camera lenses and microphones at Bush. One of the reporters makes this long-winded statement on “more beheadings, increased American combat deaths, not enough troops on the ground, spiralling innocent Iraqis being murdered…” To which Bush, (with that ‘smirk’) replies: “But the good news is I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.”
On one level, one could argue that this is, in essence, the Bush strategy–ignoring the question and the reality, and switching to the product he wants to sell. But I think the cartoon actually makes a backhanded comment on the state of journalism, which covers the silly sound bite.
Hoipolloireport 
