It's a blog. It's illustration. It's a creative weather report.
Introducing the Weather sKwirl. He's cute, he's pink, he's got big teeth. And he shows you the weather like no teleprompter reading cheap suit wearing weatherman could ever do. Because pink squirrels are the new purple robots. Hot.
Got land to spare? Live on asphalt and just want a garden?
Shared Earth matches land owners with garden growers. If you're a land owner, you allow someone to utilize your space in exchange for free flowers, vegetables or fruits. If you're a gardener or a farmer, you grow your stuff for free in exchange for leaving some of earth's loot for the land owner. Everyone wins.
If only you could use this to talk someone else into mowing your lawn.
Key cards. They're not only the key to your romantic love nest off the highway, they're also extensions of the hotel brand. Or a cheap place to put pizza delivery ads.
There's a new Tron movie due out later this year, and geeks everywhere are wetting their pants in anticipation. To help pass the time, some fans are already creating their own trailers. You'll like the Tron vs. Saul Bass version, above.
There are three new campaigns making their way around the internet, and they're all equally delicious, in their own brand ways. Proof that you don't have to copy anyone else to do something great.
First, check out the heart warming video from New Balance, that confirms they're the only athletic footwear manufacturer making shoes in the U.S.
Next, take a trip across the world to South Africa with Puma, and get inspired to kick a soccer ball like you've never been inspired to do before. Beautiful cinematography and an inspiring clip.
If you haven't already seen the PowerPoint presentation from the SXSW panel featuring Devo and their agency Mother, then you're going to want to check it out. It's Devolicious like nothing you've seen before.
If you are an agency with a name like SapientNitro and you're moving to a new office, you've got to tell your friends in a nitro way. You might want to even consider building something with rocket boosters, fueled by nitro.
Twitter is awesome because you know exactly when your friends are eating bacon, or going for an epic run, or becoming the mayor of their local Mobil station. But how in the world are you supposed to know when your Twitter friends are sleeping??
Thankfully, someone has created a tool for this purpose. When Do They Sleep analyzes your friend's tweets and predicts the time they're most likely sleeping - garnered from their history of Twitter silence.
Social media is absolutely fantastic for connecting you with people that you've lost touch with, keeping you up to date with your friends and coworkers, and staying in touch with family.
But what about the people you don't want to associate with? Like that freaky ex-girlfriend? Or that coworker who might still have people locked in his basement?
Avoidr is a tool that integrates with FourSquare and allows you to put together a watch list of people you don't like. Before you check into the neighborhood pub, you can confirm if any of the freakazoids on your watch list are there. Avoid uncomfortable moments forever! From @michaelsurtees
Brand Flakes for Breakfast chats with Pepsico's Bonin Bough and Josh Karpf about their Refresh project, how to work with multiple agencies while keeping it all together, what to look for when hiring a digital agency and how their brands have adapted to industry challenges like obesity.
Some fantastic insight from a couple of our industry's marketers who get it and are doing it.
Microsoft's Bing search engine will soon be incorporating FourSquare updates in their search results. This could prove to be a useful tool to internet users who aren't even using FourSquare. The FourSquare updates will add real time context to search results, providing a nice slice of local hotness for a user who is less familiar with a location.
For marketers, it could prove to be an added reason to embrace FourSquare promotions and get people chatting about your location - so that all searchers are seeing the buzz. This will be interesting to explore and see what tools we can develop, build and grow.
When Mike Rohde attends an event, his notes don't look like your notes or my notes. He doesn't sit with a MacBook on his lap, typing as the speakers are sharing their stories. He illustrates his notes, creating a set of drawings that are as interesting as the event itself.
He's shared scans of his Moleskin notes from this year's SXSW, which not only serve as a reference for the panels (and BBQ joints) that he attended, but are equally impressive illustrative masterworks. From @kevinalbrecht.
Ben Kunz chats with Ross Kimbarovsky, the founder of Crowdspring in the latest of our series of interviews while at SXSW. Ross talks about the benefits of crowdsourcing for brands and agencies, and how they don't see themselves as competition to the agency business model, but instead a part of the changing landscape of the creative business.
Mullen's Edward Boches chatted in his interview about how he feels that creativity is changing - perhaps to be less idea based and instead more strategic based. In this interview, Ross confirms that strategy can't be effectively outsourced, and that strategy and implementation are still valuable agency functions. We think they're both on to something.
If you're too lazy to read the entire awesome post, I've summarized the five key elements here: 1. Get an early start and master your craft. 2. You know you don’t have to. You can just say no. 3. If you do something great, don’t try to do it again. 4. People will listen to you more if they don’t understand you. 5. Be honest with yourself.
It's a great post that can apply to your personal life, your marketing plan, your business. Big Star, still inspiring. From American Copywriter.
Here's an outstanding essay about the creative process related to game design, but that could apply to our industry as well. Less Talk More Rock points to the second part of every creative production process - the part where you meet, talk, analyze, plan and take the care that what you're going to create in the third step (the actual production process) is on target.
French creator Jordan Mechner suggests that we reconsider the order of these steps, and dive right into creation. We all know that step two can be laborious, hold things up, and give plenty of naysayers the opportunity to shoot holes through grand ideas. What if we just jumped in and created??
This is some excellent thinking, and if nothing else, could be a great inspiration to at least lessen the weight of step two in your process - if not entirely moving it.
Are you talking/meeting/planning yourself out of great ideas?
We chat with Brandon Barr from School of Humans about how the digital media landscape has created the perfect storm of opportunity for scripted, branded entertainment.
Brands like Hilton are in MadMen. Coke is completely integrated into American Idol. Nissan has embraced Heroes. And since more people are consuming media on the internet than ever before in our history, now is the perfect time to integrate your brand into custom crafted digital entertainment. School of Humans makes this possible, now.
Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer of Mullen chats with Mediassociate'sBen Kunz about the evolving role of an agency and how what constitutes creativity in our industry has changed dramatically in the digital age.
To introduce a new feminine hygiene product, the makers of Mooncup produced a campaign site called Love your vagina that introduces the revolutionary (and green!) product, while having fun exploring the popular slang names for that thing between your girl legs.
What an awesome, fun way to introduce a product and spark conversation about something that people can't normally chat about. (Totally work safe, as long as your boss doesn't mind you seeing words like hedgie, fluffy, Mr. Tinkles and slinky malinky.)
We ask Dirk about what to look for when hiring an agency to handle digital/social media for your brand. Do you need a specialist? Do you need a small or large agency? How do you tell them apart? Dirk shares insight, tips and the inside juice on what a CMO can do to make the right choice.
If you really despise PowerPoint decks, and if you love beautious information design like that created by the world famous Edward Tufte, then you'll love this inspiring poster, suitable for framing in your cubicle.
Your boss says that she thinks this social media thing is a cute fad. And you're doing another presentation about how the media landscape is changing. Kaching! Here's a handy graph showing how Facebook could become the place where people get their news.
Actually, the graph compares Facebook news feed to Google news feed - which probably isn't fair, because the general population still doesn't understand RSS feeds, or read their content through a Google RSS reader.
Regardless, there's enough research, numbers and math that point to where the world is heading. And the world is heading to the same place that Farmville resides. The future will be filled with updates.
BLDGBLOG has been blogging about California City, the city that never happened. There was so much interest in this partially developed community that was never really built that they launched an expedition to explore the forgotten, partial community.
Anyone who was interested could partake in the journey to an empty neighborhood of nothingness. What followed are even more amazing photographs that make you question the necessity for constant, never-ending sprawl.
This is part of our series of interviews with brilliant people while at SXSW. We'll be posting new interviews everyday this week here and on the Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition.
While at SXSW this year, we interviewed a handful of people that we thought you might be inspired by, entertained or learn something from. We'll be posting new interviews every day this week - and you can see them all at the Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition.
In this piece, Lars Murray from Columbia Records talks about how you don't necessarily have to be a mega-brand to make a marketing deal with a record label.
Plenty of retailers have created days to celebrate their products, and IHOP's National Pancake Day has become a tasty success. Post Advertising points out how they've successfully turned the promotion into a cause related event for the Children's Miracle Network in addition to selling the golden magical flapjacks.
One thing they forgot this year: Twitter. The event instantly became a trending topic within the Twitterverse (not an easy thing to do), and IHOP didn't even have a Twitter account.
While they raised over $2 million, they left a very large audience completely untapped. Proof that whatever your promotion, you need to have all of your bases covered. (And syrup handy.)
Because we all know that being co-founder of Facebook isn't enough, Chris Hughes has launched another fantabulous company. Jumo.com looks to help people help the world.
Users get matched to causes and organizations based on their skillsets and resources. The tool helps discover people with resources and then match them with the cause that makes the most sense. It sounds like Linked In meets Facebook meets a dream come true for the non-profits and people in need across the globe.
The site doesn't officially launch until this Fall, but in the meantime you can sign up and let Jumo know a little about you. Learn more in the FastCompany profile on Chris.
File this under "B2B doesn't stand for Boring2Boring." Hyatt just cut a sweet deal with Funny or Die to produce a series of pieces that promote the hotel chain's meeting planning and hosting services. Yes, that's a B2B ploy in a consumer world.
Hyatt realizes that business people are humans, and watch real media. Have you ever met someone who said "I'm sorry, I can't watch that video. I'm a business person, not a consumer." Yet brands with B2B messages continue to believe that B2B only belongs on a B2B channel (that's channel 456 on most cable systems.)
Even better, Hyatt's spending about $300K on the deal - likely a fraction of their competitor's spend on traditional media buys.
The other important aspect of this deal is that Funny or Die is producing the content. Not the agency, not a commercial director. There have been countless branded content ploys over the last few years, but it appears that we're finally in a place and time where the audience is there, the content is good, and the brands are willing to spend. Woohoo. Keep it coming.
Just as I'm posting about the end of business cards, @paulmcenany tweets about Recognizr, a new mobile app that uses facial recognition and augmented reality to connect the people that you meet with the social networks that you use.
Right now, the user has to opt in before they'll be recognized, but surely sometime in the future, we'll give up all privacy and go all in. And I'll snap a photo of you from across the street and immediately become your friend. Or you'll just wear a mask, and avoid contact, because you're anti-social like that.
Fire your agency, and get on with it. Or - call your agency, increase their budget and let them do this for you. You're busy. You have real work to do.
You can't go to a major conference like SXSW without cards, right? Wrong. I handed out about four cards. Maybe five, if you include the card that was required to get a free t-shirt at the Veer booth.
And for me, SXSW was all about meeting people. I met hundreds of new people. Some amazing people. Some really smart people. The thing is, they don't need my card. And I don't need theirs. If we made a mark on each other, we know how to find each other - and we've probably already connected on Twitter.
People like Steve Rubel are really proud of the fact that their Twitter ID is now on their card. (We've been doing this for years.) I ask: do we really need cards at all?
We are in desperate need for a universal contact exchange (that people are willing to adopt) that does not involve paper. Plenty of companies have invented this, but no one has created a product that's hit the hot button. Yet. This has to come soon. Maybe Google, Facebook or Twitter will make it happen. Or maybe we'll just keep printing rectangular squares with website addresses on them.
How many pieces of paper have you left behind, recently?
Publishers Dorling Kindersley Books were so impressed that they produced their own version, for an international sales meeting at their firm. While it would have been cooler if they acknowledged the original, this is still a fantastic piece with some great copywriting. Thanks, Derek!
If you haven't seen this, then here's an excellent answer to the question of "I don't get ChatRoulette." Or "How is ChatRoulette entertaining?"
If you have already seen this, and you're saying instead "dude, i expect only the freshest internet meat when I visit BFFB", not to worry. We've been a little crazy, busy, drunk, and blogging all about SXSW.
Bacon. The magical, mystical food that no human can resist. FreshBooks put bacon to work on the streets of Austin, TX at SXSW. To promote their online invoicing product, they got right to the point: Freshbooks can make you bacon.
Forget social media. Or search. Bacon is the new, must-have marketing tool that can sell your product to anyone with a tummy. Yummy. This, and more SXSW fun on the official Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition.
Siri is a new search and "getting things done" tool for your magical iPhone. Whatever you need, just say it outloud, and Siri gets you on your way.
Like a personal assistant in your pocket. Not sure if "fill out my expense reports" will work, but if it involves search, Siri is there for you. From @mtlb & @thebeancast
The world-class Brand Flakes for Breakfast blogging crew is at the SXSW interactive festival, so BrandFlakes will be in BloggingLite mode today and tomorrow.
Keep up with the details on the Brand Flakes SXSW Edition, and find all of the cool Humongo people to follow in this post. We've also been interviewing interesting marketing geeks, and have some awesome videos to share later in the week.
In the meantime, enjoy this 8 bit map of Austin, TX. Just because you needed it, and 8 bit is all the rage.
Plenty of interactive geeks from across the land are on their way to Austin, Texas to partake in the SXSWinteractive conference. (We're covering our adventures, in a SXSW edition of BFFB.)
Maybe your boss wouldn't approve the budget. Or you're afraid of Texas. Or you have work to do.
If you're more of a lurker, and less of a tweeter, we suggest that you keep an eye on @tsand's Twitter stream. He's been known to create his own ImagicationSXSW, that's pretty much guaranteed to have you spitting coffee into your keyboard.
Going to Austin? Give any of the Humongo crew a shout. We want to drink Texas beer with you. Details and links here.
The Humongo crew is headed to Austin, TX for SXSW, the annual music, film and interactive super festival. We'll be attending the geekiest portion of the conference - SXSWinteractive.
Stuck at home? Not to worry. We'll be doing our best to share our experience. And we're also producing a series of videos interviewing interesting people that we believe you might be inspired by.
Darryl Ohrt: That's me, the official Prime Minister of Awesome at the world's greatest agency.
Chris Spada: Designer, creator, and now blogger at Humongo. He'll be hitting Austin for the first time. Chris will also be covering the conference at CT's creative powerhouse ConnCreatives.
Kristien Del Ferraro: From our new awesomely cool parent company Source Marketing, Kristien will be sharing her internet genius, and also hitting the geek festival as a first timer.
Ben Kunz: Thought leader, Business Week writer, blogger for Thought Gadgets, and man of brilliance from media buying and strategy firm MediAssociates will be interviewing the internet's brightest people on BrandFlakes video.
Renato Ghio: (Yes, that's a wig.) The master with a HD camera and editing suite in his backpack, he's the man responsible for all of the world-famous PlaidNation tour videos. He'll be producing the best interviews of the smartest people.
Creativity Magazine just named their 50 people and companies who they believe have made the biggest impact across creative culture.
While they completely missed out on Humongo and Brand Flakes for Breakfast, we like that they included Lady Gaga, our friends at Ford Motors, our new best brother Alex Bogusky, and a bunch of other agencies that are bigger than us.
You can always Photoshop yourself into the list, and give it to your mom for the fridge.
You probably like reading Wired because it keeps you up on the latest in everything interactive, technology, design and stuff that we generally like to call "yummy."
It's also fun to look back a few years at the stuff our industry pimped, promoted and then threw away. That's the premise of Wired Reread, a blog devoted to scanning old issues of Wired to show dead, funny, or the overall ridiculousness of our industry. Like an ad for Geocities, above. Geocities. Hehe.
I've been saying this forever, but Chris Brogan just perfectly summarized what should be the new business card etiquette, everywhere: Unless you want to do business with me, don’t give me a business card. We both know how to reach each other, so unless one of us asks for one, let’s not hand them out. We tend to give out business cards because we’ve been taught this is what to do. It’s not. It’s the old way. In the old way, we just blast people with messages whenever WE need something. In the new way, you and I should only exchange cards if we’re looking to do future business. Otherwise? We roughly know how to reach each other, don’t we?
Save a card. Save the planet. Rewire the way humans do business.
Seems like common sense, right? Yet how many meetings did you sit through in the last week, where everyone in the meeting did the card exchange? Even though everyone in the meeting is already on the same email thread.
Our friend @scottyhendo and his friends are up to some awesome goodness.
Their company Cause Shift is producing remarkable, innovating thinking for non-profits. They just launched a new campaign We Can End This, a nationwide campaign to end hunger.
They'll also be facilitating a "Cause Lab", to be kicked off at SXSW in a few days, that will pull together some of the industry's brightest people for brainstorming, strategic thinking and conceptualization on how to best make this happen market by market across the country.
Think you can't make a difference? Here's proof that a handful of people can pull together some of the biggest brands and thinkers in the business to make magic happen.
(Oh - and if you're going to SXSW, bring a can of food with you. Or participate in the Cause Lab, and help make change happen.)
Disclosure: We friended Scott on the PlaidNation tour, he's since become a client, but that doesn't change our opinion that this is revolutionary breakthrough work.
We've all heard the buzz about widgets, but the truth is, not many brands have done this well. Worklight is looking to change that.
Check out the widget they produced for Best Western. Guests can get rates, check availability and make reservations without ever leaving Facebook, the blogs or the sites that they're on.
With the Worklight platform, brands can build widgets once (or have their agencies build them :), and Worklight syndicates it out to multiple platforms. Securely. Sounds like a deal. Let's go.
Here's a super awesome case study on how a local burger joint in Milwaukee used Four Square to pack his restaurant with patrons, more than doubling his typical Sunday sales.
That's a 110% increase in business without an agency, without advertising, without super bad tv spots. It's a good day for burgers and fries. From @DJLitten
We have some gigantically exciting news to share. The agency formerly known as Plaid has been acquired by Source Marketing (an MDC Partners company) and will now become Humongo.
Humongo? We feel that this new partnership deserves more than a press release. It's a huge move. A massive combination of creative super power. If awesome were a size XL, it would be Humongo. So as of today, that's the name of the greatest agency in all of the land.
Humongo. Say it out loud, with your arms in the air. Isn't it fun?
We're pretty stoked. We'll now have the resources to grow like never before. We'll have access to affiliate agencies that provide our clients what we can't. Imagine a small digital creative agency with the keys to the big guys. That's Humongo.
Our new parent company Source Marketing brings massive marketing prowess to the table that can only be described as ginormous. Sales funnels? Retail activation? ROI? Want your marketing campaign to pay for itself super fast? They've been doing all of that and more for companies like Bic, Philips, Reckitt Benckiser, Panasonic, Hunter Douglas, HSBC, Intel, Time Warner Cable and others.
We're also a part of the MDC Partners network. That gives Humongo some ginormous company. Agencies like Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and Partners, Veritas Communications, Vitro Robertson, Mono, Red Scout...and did we mention Crispin, Porter & Bogusky??
There's plenty more on deck to be announced in the coming months. In the meantime, we'll be making our clients huge, building creative campaigns that rock the nation, and generally planning world domination. Get in on the Humongo action. Follow us on Twitter. Become our fan on Facebook. Check out the Humongo website. More importantly, take a look at your brand and ask yourself "could I use a little Humongo?"
Money. How many times have you been out with friends, and you just need some more cash to pick up the next round? And the bar has an ATM, but there's a $7 service fee.
Xplane produced this video for Youngme Moon, to promote her new book "Different."
It's beautifully produced, thoroughly engaging, completely inspiring, and makes you want to buy the book. Which is exactly what a trailer for a book should be doing. Nice work.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is hosting an event called Draw On, that looks to inspire people from all walks of life to draw.
They've got impressive drawing elite involved with the event, like Maurice Sendak, Peter H Reynolds, and street artist KAWS. Here's the challenge: most adults have been been told for years that "you're not creative." Or that "drawing is for artists. Or kids."
This is exactly the mindset that Draw On! hopes to crush. Anyone can draw, and have fun doing so. Our own Matt Hunsberger produced a site that is entirely drawn. Even down to the sponsor logos. If that wasn't enough drawing, he created the site in mostly black & white, with ample white space, and gave the user a box of drawing tools. Go ahead. Draw all over the site. Have fun. Draw like you haven't drawn since you were 12. Disclosure: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a client and Matt Hunsberger works for the greatest agency in the land, but that doesn't change the fact that this is awesome work.
Send Hellow Rewind your old favorite t-shirt, and they'll craft it into a custom designed laptop sleeve.
If that wasn't delicious enough, the entire operation is devoted to helping sex trafficking victims in NYC. They get to learn marketable skills to re-enter the workplace, and you get a juicy hot laptop sleeve. Everyone wins. From @mtlb
If you've ever had a second thought about all of the Google juice you're generating on the internet, you'll love this piece from the Onion. From BakerTweets
Just in case you haven't been paying attention, I've joined a few of the most awesome bloggers in the blogosphere and am guest posting over at Adland this week. Badass blogger Ask Dabitch is taking some unblogging time, and we're filling in with goodness.
(Mostly, I'm attempting to find stuff that @mtlb and @caff haven't already found on the internet days ago...which is almost impossible.)
