bonfire

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

Think of it as the superbowl for website preloaders .
Blog Update: 12% loaded
Developed by Digital Agency Big Spaceship to promote the best of the best in "have some patience" entertainment. These are the little guys that kept you company while you waited for the big flash websites to get their pre-morning facial and look presentable for visitors.
Blog Update: 45% loaded
The art of the pre-loader came about as advertising companies figured you were loosing interest with each passing flip of a pixelated hour glass. They got more creative and dropped these opening acts to keep us thinking; "I have something better to do, but I can wait till the big band takes the stage."  And to be honest it worked. Waiting to make a site like subservient chicken bend to your will, no longer seemed like a daunting task. However, preloaders lived short lives, as soon as, "100% loaded" hit the screen the preloader was lost, never to be seen again. Until now, as Big Spaceship has decided to honor the preloader with a new site called Pretty Loaded.
Blog Update: 72% loaded
It's an "infinite loader" of preloaders that preload other preloaders. And if you really want to geek out, you can follow prettyloaded on Twitter (twitter confession: I'm already following!). I think this is pretty awesome, especially if you have a lot of time on your hands or just a big ad nerd in general. But it worked, I'm writing about it. So for all you preloader Michelangelo's out there, if you've got a preloader that's your sistine chapel and think it's due time everyone find out about it, send it to these guys....it just might be the preloader to coke or nike.
Blog Update: 100% Loaded.