bonfire

So imagine, you uncover this new ground-breaking advancement in technology that can deliver killer ideas for your client. Even better, it fits the strategic brief. Now you’re all schitzo on idea expresso and the concepts are flying. You’re thinking; “This one's gonna land me in Cannes.” It blows away HBO’s Voyeur Project and is more advanced than Whopper Sacrifice.

 As you begin to dive further in the idea, your imagination takes the reigns. You develop, experiment and test. All initial reports show you have a hit on your hands. Than after months of hard work you go online to check your neglected twitter page and find a link someone posted about a newer piece of technology- your curiosity forces you to check it out. You realize that it’s even cooler and more effective than what you have been working on. I guess, this is what they call the, “Why didn’t I think of that” moment. You contemplate modifying or completely overhauling your idea but the budget won’t allow you. 

And then this is where you must breathe. The point is, technology is advancing at a far greater rate than even as self-proclaimed “tech geeks” can keep up with. And even in an industry that requires us to stay up to date on the latest mobile or interactive devices and trends, when technology takes 1 step forward we must take a moment to take 4 steps back and evaluate the scope of the project. Are budgets drastically flooding into online mediums? Yes. Do mobile phones outnumber television sets 3 to 1 per household in the United States? Yes. But as advertisers, we must be efficient and effective in our ideas. Take Hulu as a prime example, an online company that used traditional advertising mediums to expose itself to the world. Result? Went from 20th ranked online video site to 2nd within 2-3 months. Exclusive deals with ABC and Fox and now Emmy nominations (they did have a little help with great creative). So let’s not loose focus, let’s treat technology as another medium at our disposal, and remind ourselves that in the end, great ideas are the most beneficial tool we have to build our clients brands.

Just when you thought you are getting a handle on twitter, social media and mobile marketing, I found 4 technologies that will be out in the next 2-3 years that are sure to really push new boundaries and personal rights limits. 

1. Augmented Reality(AR)-Ok, so AR ad campaigns are not “new” but this media channel is being poked and prodded into some pretty amazing things. Check out this AR mobile video game for one. 

2. Microsoft/X-Box Project Natal. A full body motion gaming system (no controllers). It scans your face,voice and body so you can play and speak to the game. What you do, the games does. You can even scan your own skateboard and have it uploaded into Tony Hawk’s latest game to shred away. 

3. Facial Recognition Phone App 

Basically this is a program where people can use their phone cameras to scan your face, the program uses facial recognition to pull up everything you have publicly published online(twitter,facebook,etc.) around your scanned photo in a cool AR style. So at the speed it takes to nab your photo, someone can have access to your entire web entity on their phone.

4. Supreme Court, Obvious Fans of DVR. Though not super cool like the others, this advancements holds a key to the future of broadcast. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of virtual DVR’s-that means companies like Comcast can house their own internal DVR systems (we wont have them cluttering up our entertainment center space anymore). By doing this, satellite and cable companies can house unlimited space and shows. Basically making it where every show on TV will be on DVR. So in the tormented summer months of tv, you click your “on demand” button and watch the entire season of a show you never gave the time of day in the fall and spring.

I could go on, but this should be enough to either scare or excite you. Who knows, maybe I’ll publish more in the near future. Mostly because by time this is posted something else cool will be out. To join the conversation submit your comment or find me on twitter@joshmunsee.

This week, I want to look at the latest viral/online video campaign for TAMPAX. It stars a pubescent 16 year-old named Zack Johnson. Zack mysteriously awakens to find the aim on his morning water-pistol is now resembling the buck shot of a sawed-off shotgun. The culprit? Zack’s “twig and berries” have been swapped out for a vagina by the magical vagina fairy-not really but   we’re speculating here.

Having lost his man parts, Zack struggles socially and physically in his day to day school life. Winged by his comrade Bryan and crushing on the school hottie, Chelsea, Zack documents his encounters on twitter @zack16 and his website www.zack16.com. 

Through social marketing and videos, Zack analyzes the pains of having PMS, hovering over a stall to pee, cramping, sudden weight gains and mood swings. A situation, as he states “I know what it feels like to be a girl and it's rough! I think every dude should have a period just once.” After experiencing what women go through, Zack quickly apologizes for men everywhere (yes this includes excessive pee on the toilet seat). The viral videos total about 12 minutes in all, while being broken up into smaller 3 minute versions for release.

The cleverness and genius of the campaign comes when you are subtlety given the campaigns promoter and creator Tampax during the last  2 minutes of the 12 minute video run. After realizing he is having a period, Zack strikes a chord with neanderthal ingenuity and creates a “man pad”  out of wadded up toilet paper, which of course, doesn’t work. He then sneaks into the girls locker room to grab a tampon from the Tampax labeled vending machine. Upon which, he returns to class right as rain, ready for next month. No Tampax sign off, no jingle, no website push, just that one hidden clue 2 minutes back.

Upon initial reaction, I had a hard time connecting the campaign to women and the targeted demographic. How could this 16-year old kid reach women across the nation and say after one day of experiencing what they have for the majority of their lives, he knows exactly how they feel? But I realized it’s not the age or demographic that is important here, but rather the message. What if every guy, just for one day, did go through a period and pms? Would we react differently to situations just as Zack? Will this campaign connect more to men and allow men, in turn, to connect to what the women in their lives are going through? This campaign successfully bridges the “you’ll never understand” gap between men and women and for that, I think it’s genius and women will respond to it favorably. 

Work by Leo Burnett/Chi-Town.

Have any thoughts or questions? Leave em' hear and Let's get a conversation started.

David Ogilvy once said: “If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.” Make no mistake about it, the language at which consumers are speaking has changed rapidly and it’s changing even more rapidly each and every day. Brands are engaged in immersive conversations where the microphone and audience are always on.

As advertisers, it is our job to identity these conversations and insert the brands we represent into the mainstream conversation. However, the art of storytelling is no longer a one-way conversation.Audiences are no longer tied to tv sets at the mercy of the advertiser and station. They are talking their own language using Blogger, Twitter and Facebook, where they join their online friends to share news, gossip, opinions, recommendations and the latest spoof of the Heineken Beer Closet ad. Advertisers need to create campaigns and concepts that have a strong talkability factor. Talkability is a savvy brand message that is strategically delivered in a way where consumers are engaged in active conversations opening up brand participation.

This is a new advertising language that requires branding strategies to incorporate user-generated or community elements. It is creating content that will encourage people to become engaged, spread the brand word,draws in millions of players and take on a life of it’s own. It’s a state of constant communication. A model that requests advertisers to be flexible and agile enough to continuously adapt to the world of the consumer. Though this type of advertising seems incontrollable, embracing this new advertising language requires advertisers who aren’t afraid to start and spark the conversation.....

Is your agency or brand leading the conversation? Join the discussion,I’d love to start a conversation with you.

Recently my firm and I had the opportunity of competing for the most acclaimed and nationally recognized RFP in recent memory. International media company Current TV (www.current.com) put out an RFP for creative and advertising services on social media site Twitter. Led by brand manager Jordan Kretchmer @jkretch , agencies of all sizes and backgrounds from across the country were given the opportunity to pitch the account in a five day spand. Ideas limited to the imagination, firms were required to use twitter to qualify their agency for the pitch.

Some agencies, sent fortune cookies, some sent twitter messages.Others created websites and social media think tanks.One of the more memorable responses was when an agency out of Seattle hired a man to stand outside of @jkretch's California office with a sign for a website. Our agency decided to hack into a news station. Because what better way to tell the world about Current TV than to get in front of the world? Though we did not make the final cut, I was extremely proud of my creative team and for the work we accomplished. We came up with the idea, staged it, filmed it and edited it all under 24 hours. Though I truly believe our response was more creative than most firms chosen, I concede to the fact that firms like TBWA/Chiat/Day do have amazing portfolios with a proven track record of brand success and global strategies.
It was a great experience and amazing opportunity. It was also a great exercise to compete on a national RFP against some of the biggest and largest firms in the country. I'm now rooting for my new found advertising friend Steve, owner/chief creative officer of Stick & Move advertising to beat out the national firms and make a statement that it's not the size of the agency but the size of the idea which matters most.
See my firm's RFP video response below, let me know what you think.

There are many different theories floating around as to how the economy is effecting our business. Some we can fix and some we have no control over. It's a very trying time for advertising agencies and for the media companies that often work with agencies. That's why we've had to drastically reinvent ourselves to become smarter, faster and leaner. What's interesting is how brands have also been effected and how they too are becoming faster, leaner, and more media savvy.

I've recently read a blog written by Noah Brier of The Barbarian Group discussing how social media is changing the way brands interact with their consumers to a point where it is eliminating a need for media companies. As it seems, brands now more than ever are able to generate their own media, they no longer need newspapers or media outlets to be their middle-man of information. Brands are now able to post it directly on company blogs, twitter pages, facebook pages and then have that information spread by the consumer at a far quicker rate than any media source could imagine. I mean if you want news or information who better to go to than directly to the source? Below you will find Noah's blog post, I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

By Noah Brier of The Barbarian Group

"In response to articles by Scott Karp and Nick Carr about Google and the news business, Terry Heaton makes a point I’ve been trying to articulate for years : “The problem is that the distribution of content isn’t the real problem for media companies; it’s the growing ability of advertisers to reach people without media companies.”

Or, put another way, it’s the ability of brands to be their own media companies. If the Official Google Blog was a newspaper, it’s subscriber numbers would put it in the top 10 for daily circulation. Not only does that mean Google has less need for advertising, but it also means they have less need for media coverage generally. And it’s not just brands, it’s celebrities too. Shaq has 621,000 folowers on Twitter (and counting). As Kanye explained on his blog , “I told the media you can’t make up lies about me because I have a media outlet myself. Oh and sidebar I don’t know if everyone has realized this yet but I don’t do interviews if there’s anything I wanna say I’ll say right here on my own blog.”

Love to hear what you think about Noahs position.

To read more from Noah Brier visit http://www.barbariangroup.com/posts

To expand on this blog here is the clip of Ashton Kutcher winning the race to 1 million followers on twitter.What you will find most interesting is his comments at the 9:42 min-10:45 mark (you might want stop watching at 12 min mark when Diddy calls-it gets obnoxious).

"Look, at the end of the day this is about the changing of the guard. From the old way of consuming media to the new way. We together can decide, we can make the news on our cell phones, on our iphones, on our video cameras. We can edit the news, we can broadcast the news, we can consume the news. We can decide what we want to hear, how we want to hear it and we can get it faster on the web....This is statement that one man can have a voice as loud as an entire media company , you can have the voice as well and we can all have that voice."-Ashton Kutcher

On Tuesday morning I was able to steal an hour of time from Steve O'Connell, owner and Chief Creative Officer of Stick & Move Advertising- I also made him late for a meeting. Steve is a former CP+B copywriter who's work included Mini, Truth, Ikea and Virgin and who's current agency has already done work for accounts like Schwinn, Vitamin Water, Adidas and more. Steve was awesome to talk to and really re-charged my own creative battery. Not knowing myself from the mail delivery guy, I appreciate Steve taking the time to talk and just wrap about advertising.

Edited for time purposes and formatted to fit this screen, below is a recount of our conversation.

bonfire: So you moved from a copywriter at one of the hottest advertising agencies in the world to small-agency owner, what's the biggest difference?
SO: The biggest difference is the advantages that came with working at CP+B. In my first few months on the job, I was in LA shooting a million dollar commercial for Truth and thinking "yeah this is what I could do the rest of my life". As a CP+B representative, people would roll out the red carpet for you. Now without that name attached, it's alot more difficult. I've also had to switch my thinking from solely being a creative towards being a business owner. They are completely different mind sets. As a business owner I have to think of the big picture and treat the agency as a client.

I would say the other big difference would be that we as creatives got spoiled at CP+B. Working on Mini, we were a group of creatives coming up with big ideas. It was awesome but eventually we became spoiled and it came to the point where we knew we would create something great and they would ok it. It was almost boring after awhile.

bonfire: Well in my opinion, I don't think any outdoor campaign has come close towards being as innovative as the work you guys did for Mini, expect maybe the Chick-Fil-A work out of Richards, that's pretty awesome.
SO: Yeah, I love the Chick-Fil-A work. We really did love working on the Mini outdoor work and there are ideas coming out for them today that we introduced back then, just at the time technology wasn't were it is now.

bonfire: I think every creative goes through that thought process. We create this idea that will reshape advertising, only to have it rejected by a client or never make it in the pitch, then you see that same idea a year or two down the road winning a clio or lion. I know for myself, I at least use it as a guage that as a creative, I know I have the ability to compete with some of the best agencies and thinkers in the world. Just wrong time, wrong circumstance for my idea.
SO: Yeah it's the very definition of the ad world for creatives, it takes things all coming together for ideas to fully be realized. It does suck to see something you came up with realized by another client and agency but I agree, at least it lets you know you're thinking.

bonfire: Let's shift gears and talk about Stick&Move, your creative philosophy centers around "conversationality", what's the idea behind that?
SO: Conversationality is our philosophy and belief that brands need to talk to the consumer rather than at the consumer. They have to be willing to listen to the consumer first then respond with an engaging message, it's essentially a two-way street. Think of it like this: a brand is a person at a party and everyone else at the party is the consumer. You as the brand don't want to go up to another person at the party and completely talk about yourself the whole time. They'll just see you as a douche, instead you need take interest in the other people, let them talk and listen. By doing that, you'll be more likely to be invited back to the party.

bonfire: So conversationality is the opposite of douche branding?
SO: (laughing) You could say that.

bonfire: Do you feel that clients really get into the concept of conversationality?
SO: The ones that hires us love it and even started to adopt it in there everyday structure. As far as the ones who come on the website and hate it, I'm not sure they usually don't contact me.

bonfire: Don't you think it's time google analytics came up with a way to measure that?
SO: It would definitely help us out if they did.

bonfire: How do you feel about agencies going to digital and what role must digital play going forward?
SO: Many clients are now switching a majority of their budgets towards digital, so it's good to invest in that now if you're an ad agency. Do I think tv and print will completely go away, no. For quite some years there will always be a need there. However, the activity for digital is going to be there and people who start now will have a greater stake in that work as it continues to move in that direction.
bonfire: Do you think social marketing plays a significant role in that future?
SO: Its plays a role but until we fully figure out how to track it and use it effectively it will stay a support vehicle to main stream advertising. The thing with social media is that it's hard to prove so clients are less likely to fully commit to it until it can be measured.

bonfire: What are some of your suggestions when it comes to obtaining new business for smaller agencies in the current economic climate?
SO: I think the single most important key in going after new business is dedicating a majority of your agencies time to it. It has to be on top of mind, all the time and where you put most of your resources. It's also about believing in what you're doing as an agency, know who you are and what type of work you want to do.

bonfire: When going into a new business pitch where do your ideas come from?
SO: They are always inspired by the client we are working with. When going into a new business pitch we act as if we're the consumer, what would we want to know? Once we figure that out, we think of a creative way to communicate that message.

bonfire: Do you think the key to getting new business lies in the creative or the strategy?
SO: I think it's really a case by case basis. Knowing the business you are going after will help you determine that. But we've won some account with just a creative tv pitch and some accounts required larger thinking and strategy. Every client is different, know what you're going after and cater your pitch to their needs.

You can find Stick & Move on the web at www.stickandmove.com

For Those Insisting on Pushing the Envelope, Introduce a New Envelope.

Yesterday, I was working on some re-writes for a client. In the middle of doing these rewrites, I started thinking of what headlines would really stand out and grab someones attention. In process it occurred to me, they're just headlines. Headlines for so long have been invented, re-invented and then redistributed. Sure, I could come up with something a little different that's relevant but was it enough to really spark someones imagination? Am I going to captivate the audience in a way that they would be truly and utterly be engaged? Is my client going to be the better as a result of my work?

As a creative communicator, the question you must ask yourself is, are you pushing the same stamp stained envelope all over again, or are you introducing a new envelope?
Do your ideas get people talking, pointing, staring, blogging, gawking and most importantly do they your brand remembered? Below is my complete incomplete list of how to introduce a new envelope.

+1 Build From Truth
This sounds easy enough but your product is original, let that be the base to building and creating a truly innovative and original idea.

+2 Pick a Contact Point and then Think Big
Think outside headlines or television. This is your one chance to truly make your mark on your audience. Introduce a new envelope, use new technologies, new deliver methods, new mediums. Start here then watch your ideas catch on fire and grow.

+3 Break the Rules
In the case with most advertising, to fully introduce a new envelope you must be willing to break the rules. If people don't question your ideas, then it isn't new. Be willing to make people question your ideas and in a few months they will be loving you for it.

+4 Create Interaction
Introducing new envelopes is great but they can't be passive, they must interact and engage with the audience. Allow your audience to become participants and they will become invested in your idea.

+5 Make People Talk
In todays social environment and to quote an ad buddy of mine, "we must create presence."* You idea has to make people talk. It is not a new envelope if people are not sharing it,blogging about it, tweeting on it, passing it on, downloading it, and most importantly building a brand presence. Just ask Crispin Porter+Bogusky.

As a creative, introducing the right envelope is expected, introducing a new envelope is why clients come to us in the first place. Don't be afraid to introduce a new envelope, you'll be surprised as to what could happen.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from ya.


* Click to read about Michael Calienes's topic on Presence Engineering.