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IZEAfest Day Two Brings Social Strategy and Buckets of Booze

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This is part two of our IZEAfest coverage. Part one is here. After the Icebar party and late night hotel room shenanigans, day two of IZEAfest in Orlando kicked off to the more subdued (and late) start. We'll be blunt. We missed the entire first half of day two having slept a bit late and getting caught up in picture editing and work. Though we hear the speakers were great.

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Aaron Brazell gave the keynote and spoke to the issue of finding an audience, cultivating that audience and becoming a leader in one's area of expertise. Next Liz Strauss covered the area of leveraging relationships. Akin to building yourself up and establishing yourself as the go to person in a particular space, developing and maintaining relationships with others in the space is key to your continued success.

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After lunch Brett Bumeter moderated a panel which included George Smith, John Andrews, Joseph Jaffe and Zena Weist. This panel dove into the realm of advertiser's needs and wants in the social media space and how that relates to bloggers creating content. While many topics such as urging marketers to join, listen and participate in social media were covered, a key take away was the need to target. And that's what blogging and certain aspects of social media can offer marketers, And, conversely, offer opportunity to anyone with the skills in a particular area to give that marketer a targeted pathway to building a customer base.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-12-09    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Cobbler's Impure Thoughts Manifested in New Footwear Line

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It seems things are heating up over at Taryn Rose International. The brand is rolling out a new identity and a redesign of their footwear. But calling these shoes footwear doesn't really encapsulate the totality of their allure. These shoes are not soccer mommy footwear. They're so smoking hot they just might burst you into flames.

New ads featuring the most scorch-worthy shoes from the line appear in high end mags such as Elle and Vogue. And the ads do get attention. As well as a strong desire to run out a buy a pair. Sure they have some ballet flats and low rise styles mixed in for practicality. But thanks to Taryn, her blistering boots and sizzling pumps, we imagine an addition to the wardrobe from the brand that can successfully change the "work from home soccer mommy (in her pajamas)" look into the "smoldering temptress" look that turns every man within a 100 yard radius into a drooling, stuttering fool. Heck, these shoes make a girl want to run to the gym so the calves will be worthy of the shoes' fever pitch.

See the other two ads in the campaign here and here.

- Written by...it's a secret.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Campaigns, Good



What the Bleep? No Wires?

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The product is way cooler than the advertising behind it but, like a fart joke, there's something about ads in which all the nasty words are bleeped out. OK so the ads are nothing like a fart joke but we just wanted to somehow work that phrase in.

Now that we have that out of the way, New York-based Woods, Witt Dealy & Sons has created a campaign for Powermat. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a mat you place your wireless devices on and their batteries are magically charged.

There's two commercials here and here and a whole host of other media as well.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Commercials



Ralph Lauren Has the Skinny on Fashion Advertising

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We'd like to offer praise to Ralph Lauren. Recently they created an amazing ad featuring model Filippa Hamilton. She's really skinny and all...which is really cool cuz, ya know, that's who fashion brands design for. In Ralph Lauren's world, everyone's a size zero and all women have waists smaller than their heads.

Seriously. This is one of the best ads in the fashion space right now. We've never seen anything like it. It captures perfectly the Ralph Lauren brand and does a razor sharp job of targeting the brand's likely prospects. Sales will, no doubt, skyrocket as a result of this ad.

Kudos, Ralph Lauren. We really can't understand why anyone would actually complain about this ad. This approach is radical. This is cutting edge. This is award winning. You should be very proud of yourself, Ralph. And don't listen to those nasty detractors. They're just messing with the picture perfect world in which we marketing types love to live.

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Brands, Opinion



Ford to Debut Unscripted :15s For Drive One Campaign

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Of Ford's new Drive One commercials, The Ford Story blog tells us "The comments are as real as the people who made them. They are not scripted. In fact, these people didn't know that it was Ford filming them, or that they would be used in commercials. That's the only way to get genuine opinions, and that's how these were produced."

The campaign, in which Ford owners tell the camera what they like so much about their vehicles, breaks October 12. You can view eight of the commercials here.

Ford does seem to be fairing much better than GM. Will these spots help?

by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns



Auto Ad Banned For Dubbing Big Breasts 'Nice Headlamps'

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Oh how boobs can get advertisers in trouble. Especially really big ones with lots of cleavage spilling out of a bra. That seems to be what's at issue with an UlsterTrader billboard campaign carrying the headline "Nice Headlamps" and copy that reads, "What do you look for in a car?"

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by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Bad, Outdoor, Racy



Yes! It's Another Social Media Conference!

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Social media is great, right? It's fun. It's social. It's amusing. But it's also a serious form of communication and interaction businesses can use to connect with their customers. If that sounds like a line out of a social media conference description, it pretty much is.

Adrants is supporting Business Development Institute's The Social Consumer B2C Case Studies & Rountables Conference occurring November 12 at the Graduate Center of The City University of NY from 8AM to 1PM.

At the conference you will hear case studies from McDonald's and its Voice of McDonald's campaign, Intuit and its iPhone application, Allstate Insurance and its use of blogs, and user-generated content, JetBlue and its 'social customer service" and Roger Smith Hotel, the New York City mecca for all things social media.

Roundtables will include expanded discussion on the presented case studies as well as additional topics.

If you're interested in attending, check out the details here.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 8-09    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Michelin Man Made Over, Milk Meets Milkquarious

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- The Michelin Man is getting makeover. He's transforming into a "tire-chucking superhero." OK, then.

- WONGDOODY: The company, along with a few lucky staffers, will be featured on next week's Oct. 14 episode of "America's Next Top Model" as part of a "challenge" experienced by the season's petite models.

- Ooo. Ooo. Here's a good one from a reader: Bridge Worldwide, an ad agency in Ohio, is having employees spend the day selling the CMO's new book, Marketing With Meaning. They've sent my company four unsolicited emails about it, in addition to spamming social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Marketing With Meaning? I don't think these people understand what irony is.

- This is what those New York creatives who charge $750 per hour do with the money.

- Outside Magazine enters the world of Harry Potter moving media.

- Check out Milkquarious. It's about a rock idol, White Gold, who swears by the power of milk for strong bones, hair, teeth and nails.

- Yellow Pages guerrilla marketing campaign hits the target.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 7-09    
Topic: Brands, Guerilla, Magazine, Social, Video



Twipple Wants You to Get Twippled

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Yet another Twitter-based promotion. Yawn. In fact, we're so tired of these things we can't even write about them anymore, so we're going let a Twipple representative tell you about the promotion. Oh wait, we can't be tired of this. There's a quote from Adrants right on the Twipple home page. Guess we should be nice. But anyway, we're still letting them tell you about it.

"Under my guise of Twipple I'm accepting emails to me - or to one of my Kind Agents - to perform acts of kindness on a nominated party.

So, the successfully nominated friend or colleague will wonder (happily) why someone has just bought them a coffee. As they leave, they see someone drop a wallet, when they hand it over the person says, hey, here's $40 for being cool. As part of the nomination Twipple will ask for some loose details on likes dislikes.

They may turn the corner and be pleased to have the most gorgeous man/woman say "hi" and compliment them.

You get the idea?"

Not really but we'll just go with it for fun. Already, Twipple has 72 random acts of kindness and is now selling items and donating the proceeds to NY Cares.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 7-09    
Topic: Social



Levi's Helium Jeans Viral Hacked For Self Promo

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Hello? Hello? The helium-fueled floating viral thing has already been done people! Don't you pay attention to YouTube everyday? Apparently you don't because now you're blowing bubbles with helium and floating into the air like those idiots in the Levi's video.

Oops. Wait. This is different. For Blue Film Production, Rapp France created the video and is pimping to any brand that would like to slap its logo on it with the apparent intention of getting some viral goodness. Trouble is if everyone's already seen the unbranded version, why would anyone want to see a branded version?

As Loren Feldman loves to say, "It doesn't matter." It's all a ruse to get people to check out a case study covering the steps it takes to create a successful viral campaign.

by Steve Hall    Oct- 7-09    
Topic: Bad, Video, Viral



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