A Marine Speaks, Brangelina Snakes, $1,000 Beer and a Greener NBC

- Spend five with this PSA, it's worth it.

- Friendly, enjoyable and good natured cash-back initiative--or riot

- Redskins will remain Redskins.

- Walk the Walk for Designism and bid on some cool artists' shoes.

- Surrendering to the Olympics.

- Calling all media all-star rock star freaks.

- At a $1,000 a bottle, drink this brew s-l-o-w.

- NBC goes green for primetime shows.

- It's about the Brangelina jewelery snakes people.

by Bill Green    Nov-16-09    
Topic: Announcements, Cause, Celebrity, Events



Colored Balloons Flood River to Hype Camera

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Seems this stunt was a missed opportunity to use the song 99 Red Balloons. Of course, there were more than 99 balloons in this stunt and they weren't al red so we guess it makes sense they chose other music to accompany.

What the hell are we talking about? Yet another stunt to promote yet another goofy hook to get people to buy a camera. In this case the camera comes from Sony Ericsson and the goofy hook is a character called Hopper which is basically a bouncing balloon you get to design.

The event, called Hopper Invasion, that's highlighted in this video took place November 4 on the Spree river in Berlin. Thousands of colored balloons were dropped and corralled on the river while a DJ spun tunes and people...well...just started at the balloons. Seriously. That's all it was. Who knew watching a bunch of balloons float on water could be so exciting. Guess we don't get out much.

by Steve Hall    Nov-10-09    
Topic: Events



Because Real Olympic Sports Bore Us, Fake Ones Aim to Entice Us

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To drum up a bit of excitement for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, The International Olympic Committee has launched The Best of Us Challenge, a collection of fake sporting events which wil pit Olympic athletes against regular people. For those who win, a free trip for to to Vancouver is in their future.

There will be hula-hooping, cartwheeling, juggling, plastic cup golfing and many more made up sports. Head over to The Best of Us Challenge site and you can watch Michael Phelps, Rafael Nadal, Lindssey Jacobellis and Shawn Johnson engage in this silliness. The site loads very slowly...or not at all.

Once upon a time plain old skiing and skating excited people. Hmm. How times have changed.

by Steve Hall    Oct-29-09    
Topic: Events, Promotions, Video



Little Debbie Does Dallas (No Really. It's Part of the Promotion)

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OK so now we know why those silly little Smart cars exist. They're really not good for much and look like they'll blow over in the wind but cupcake maker Little Debbie has a use for them. The brand is launching a new cupcake and, along with a Facebook page, a 125,000 carton cupcake giveaway, a mobile tour, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, a Flickr photostream, event marketing, TV spots and blogger bribes..,uh...blogger outreach, will giveaway two Smart cars.

Se the spots here.

more »

by Steve Hall    Sep-22-09    
Topic: Events, Guerilla, Mobile/Wireless, Promotions, Social



Rishad Tobaccowala Talks Brand-Building, Damage Control and the Art of Seduction

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At ad:tech Chicago last week, and prior to his opening talk, I approached Denuo CEO Rishad Tobaccowala in hopes of scoring an interview later on. He was in a hurry and answered in a way I found brusque and upsetting -- which ended up colouring my feelings about the keynote.

Tobaccowala emailed to apologize immediately after reading the article I wrote, and was also good enough to give me almost three hours of his time in an interview -- more of a conversation, really -- later that week.

We never did get around to a formal Q/A. But I learned so much about branding and relationships from him that most of the gems would be lost if I didn't whip out the cam and start recording.

See the footage below the drop.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Sep-11-09    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Events, Good, Industry Events



ad:tech Chicago: Sharpie, Ben & Jerry's Squeeze Merit Out of Social Media Sphinx

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My last ad:tech Chicago session was the Social Media Industry Forum, presented by Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer.

The sesh had a festive air for many reasons, not least that it was Ramsey's birthday. ad:tech's Warren Pickett burst in near the end to furnish him with candle-lit cupcakes.

But the company was also lively: we had a frothy, sometimes cynical and perennially candid band that included Digital Marketing Manager Katie O'Brien of Ben & Jerry's, President Rick Murray of Edelman Digital (which does interactive stuff for B&J's), PR/Social Media Manager Susan Wassel of Sanford Brands (here to rep Sharpie), and Digital Strategist Akash Pathak of DraftFCB, which worked with Wassel to bring life to Sharpie's label.

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ad:tech Chicago: Weighing Hearts and Brands on Ancient Scales

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ad:tech Chicago's "Love for Sale -- How Great Creative Seduces Its Target" session was broken into two discernably useful parts: statistics on online dating, and seduction as a metaphor for marketing.

We'll begin at the beginning.

The Online Dating Crowd

Accompanied by Liz Ross of Digitas US, Fusion Idea Lab's Matt Brennock regaled us with both statistics and close-to-home anecdotes -- the kind that's fueled many a romantic comedy.

I heard one guy say the pair had great chemistry, and he commended them for "[opening] the kimono" the way they did. Given the topic matter, and Brennock's zeal for reminding us (first once, then twice, then...) that men really do just wanna get laid, the geisha metaphor was oddly appropriate.

Some stats:


  • The average online dater is 42 years old.

  • Match.com remains tops, with 3.4 million uniques/month, but people increasingly drift away from these big-box dating sites and into more niche fare: j-date, veggiedate, Christian singles. (AdAge blogger Kelly Eidson seized this opportunity to send me a link to STD Match, a dating site targeted to people living with sexually transmitted diseases. There are also -- as if you didn't know -- ethnicity-specific sites.)

    If the world wasn't our oyster before, the marvelous advances of the internet, coupled with mankind's enterprising creative spirit, have ensured it certainly is now. There's a match worth blogging.

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ad:tech Chicago: Hard Knocks in Social, Starring Rishad Tobaccowala

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I admit it: I was eavesdropping.

Me and a crew of other bloggers invaded the press room early today. We were setting up our things, chatting about nothing, when I overheard something really interesting.

I looked up just as the guy was finishing his surmise: "In the future," he was saying, "I think people are going to wonder what the need was for keyboards. Or why we needed dial-up to access the internet. It will be free, and everywhere, like air."

This struck me as simple but inspired. I put my glasses on, checked out his tag: Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO, Denuo. It hits me: Hey! This is the guy who's doing the first keynote!

So I sit and futz with my thumbs for awhile, and finally I get up and walk over.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Sep- 1-09    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Events, Industry Events



Love Mad Men? Then There's An Event For You

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If you love the AMC television show Mad Med, then you'll love the week of August 10 in New York City. There's a long list of promotional events going on leading up to the debut of the series's season three premiere, Sunday, August 16.

There's Drink Like A Mad Man at the Hilton August 10. There's The Golden Age of Advertising projected on the side of the Museum of Arts and Design beginning Wednesday, August 12. There's New York Mets Gone Mad August 14 during the Mets/Giants game.

Check it all out here.

by Steve Hall    Jul-31-09    
Topic: Cable, Events



Sprint Talks, TNT Cons, Jack Black Goes Viral, Roehm Works

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- We just love the fast-talking data stream of these new Sprint commercials.

- The University of Colorado is launching a new school called Boulder Digital Works, in partnership with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, MDC Partners and Hyper Island (top digital school in Sweden).

- Like TNT's Leverage? Then you'll like the Jetset Studios-created online promotion, Con Your Friend.

- Jack Black thinks Jelly Bean will be the next viral sensation. Uh, no.

- OMG! Julie Roehm has a job!

- If only Olympus camera really did have camera lenses that could shoot as wide as these ads imply they can.

- Stupid.

by Steve Hall    Jul-28-09    
Topic: Events