As some of my colleagues may know, I've been obsessed with Jean-Luc Godard recently. Godard is mostly recognized as one of the founders of the New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), the French film movement that changed Cinema forever. At the age of 79, Godard is not slowing down his iconoclastic approach to film.

Labels: CINEMA, CREATIVE, FILM, GODARD, Social media, VIDEO

When I was in high school, Polaroid came out with a camera that shot mini polaroid photos. Smaller than the 3"x3" ones with the white boarder we're all so familiar with. This was before digital cameras were in everyone's pocket, before cell-phones had built-in cameras. This was the late 90's- early 2000's.

This polaroid camera was geared towards "fun and funky" young adults and the photos had wacky prints with wild colors on the boarders. My friends and I spent hours snapping photos of ourselves, flapping the yet-undeveloped photos back and forth, waiting to see what would emerge.

Several years later, Polaroid closed its doors on the instant photography schtick, unable to compete with the digital photo world.

Well, Polaroid is planning a come-back! (Kirstie Alley, take note!) And while I don't know if they will be able to fully regain the place they once held in the marketplace, I predict they will do interesting things while they try. Especially because they hired Lady Gaga as their creative director. Meow.

They are planning a specialty line of instant film and other products with the Haus of Gaga, and this will be a multi-year partnership.

There is a certain kind of romance with a polaroid photo. The movie "Memento" would have been trite, I believe, had the guy carried around a digital camera. "Wait, hold on a moment. I need to scroll back through my trip to the coast..."

This is why I think Lady Gaga's involvement is a great idea. It't theatrical, and I dare say frivolous. But so should be polaroid. I think it works.

I wish them luck with this endeavor.

Read More.

Labels: Lady Gaga, Polaroid

A cool spot from S&S Canada that explores what the future of us ad peeps might be, should we decide to ignore the changes that are happening right now. A nice call to action for those creatives still stuck in the tried and true ways of doing things. Wait...is this a TV spot?

Labels: Advertising, death of advertising, digital marketing

Keynetics Branding and Web Development

Labels: branding, Business, creativity, design, tech, website launch

TV is still victorious in "this economy" and even though many reports have us believing it's falling by the wayside, recent research suggest otherwise.

An eMarketer's poll found that 69% of Generation X-ers (age 27-43) named TV as their favorite medium. 77% of Baby Boomers (age 44-62) also list TV as their favorite medium. So much for the internet completely taking over.

To further support this, the Nielsen Company reports that U.S. TV viewing reached an all-time high in the 2008-2009 season. Americans are spending an average of 4 hours and 49 minutes a day in front of the TV - that's up 20% from 10 years ago. The company also reports that 95% of all adults are reached by TV on a daily basis.

So what's the message? You no longer have to feel guilty about hunkering down in front of the TV. It's still cool.

Labels: TV

Nerd alert: I love communication.

From the Paleolithic cave paintings in the Altamira caves, to an 140 character Tweet, to a letter a great-aunt writes and mails to her great-nephew, all of these events illustrate the humanistic need to share experiences and connect with other human beings.

Wikipedia defines communication as "the process of transferring information from one entity to another."

The key here is that information is transferred and then received; a process involving two willing entities.

So simple. So beautiful.

So jacked-up when you consider all the chaos that exists in the social media realm.

'Early' studies of online communities as they developed in blogs were often held up to Lasswell's or even Shannon and Weaver's models of communication. Regardless of what model or paradigm you were a scenario - or in this case an online community - through, the presence and extent of two-way communication defined an online community.

I believe this same, very basic concept can be applied to social media for any person, business or brand. The rate at which friends, fans, consumers, or complete strangers are engaged and then reciprocally engage, defines the quality of your social networks.

Again - not rocket science. Yet, when I sign into Facebook or Twitter, I'm overwhelmed with GROUND NOISE and STATIC. No one is talking to me and everyone is talking AT me.

In this industry, I even see businesses selling social media 'platforms' or 'strategies', as if the art of genuinely communicating with other human beings can be bottled and sold. It seems the brands, products or companies who are 'tearing it up' on social media are those who have people that genuinely love the brand/product/service doing the communicating. These companies are few and far between though, and I believe the result of the mad rush to "be on social media" or "have a social media marketing plan" is all the mayhem we're consistently bombarded with in the online realm.

Should you be on social media? Well, do you have something you are so impassioned to say? Do you have someone you care about saying it to? Do you think they will care to listen?

Most importantly, will you put forth the effort to listen and respond to their response?

I wish I could bottle and sell this process in the social media realm. Easier said than executed.

Although if I could, we might just inject some calm amidst the social media mayhem.

Labels: Facebook, Social media, social media marketing, Twitter

Last week I went to the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA and checked out a ton of new food and beverage products. There were over 1,500 exhibitors and over 50,000 people attended the show. Here are my Top 5 Takeaways from the show...

1. Nutrition industry sales in the U.S. are booming. Sales totaled $110 billion in 2009, up from $10 billion in 2008. That's an increase of $100 billion in just one year. (Source: Nutrition Business Journal). NBJ defines this industry by 4 main product categories: Natural/Organic Food, Functional Foods, Supplements, and Natural/Organic Personal Care Products.

2. Social media is exploding as a means to market natural products. One year ago Facebook had 80 million users. Today there are 400 million. You Tube currently has 173 million users. Small and medium sized companies are finding that social media is a very cost effective way to help market their products. Consider this example shared at the "Best Practices in Social Media" workshop. This "Will It Blend" video received nearly 8 million view and their sales increased over 600% after people started viewing this. Everyone knows that an iphone can make calls, play movies and surf the web. But Will It Blend?





3. Of course we all know moms are a critical target audience for natural food and beverages. I heard a lot of buzz at the show around the phrase "word-of-mom," which is a viral marketing term use to describe online opinion-sharing between moms, often done regarding product recommendations. Used frequently in mommy blogging circles, word-of-mom has become a recent focus of marketers. It could in fact, be the most powerful marketing tool you have!

4. Consumer demand for gluten-free products has been growing at exponential rates. This category was a huge focus for manufacturers at Expo West. Consumers have come to believe that a gluten-free diet will provide some relief for celiac disease, autism, ADD and even MS.

5. Exotic Super Fruits continue to be all the rage. And, they are a personal favorite of mine when cooking. I like to think of them as mini vitamin bombs! In addition to Pomegrante and Acai, the latest super fruits on the rise include Goji, Mangosteen and Noni, all filled with potent antioxidants.

I can't wait for Expo West 2011!

Labels: food and beverage

I recently went to the Natural Products Expo West show in Anaheim, CA, and tried a lot of new food and beverage products, and also checked out some cool marketing campaigns. When I came back to Boise I was reminded how much I long for a Whole Foods store to open in the Treasure Valley. Having lived in California for years I became a huge fan. I love their website and Facebook fan page, they always have tons of great natural food information and tips. Today they have a fun blog post on their site in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Why not eat something green today? It's never too early in the day...


Check out their "Get Your Greens Smoothie" and other green recipes here.

Labels: food and beverage

Last Call.

Fresh from a screening in Amsterdam, "Art & Copy" will show in Boise at the Egyptian Theatre this Thursday, March 18, at 7 p.m.

"Art & Copy" is a film about advertising, inspiration, and some of the most influential players in the advertising industry.

Pre-sales were huge; remaining tickets are dwindling.

The Lobby will be offering an extended happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Drink specials: $2 wells & $2 drafts. Come celebrate art, and copy, before the show!

Labels: Advertising, Art, Copy, Marketing

Mashable published a great read, titled "The Science of Building Trust with Social Media."

Just last night, I was conversing with an individual who believes that all communication that occurs via social media is 'empty.' Said individual also believes that tomorrow's Facebook will be yesterday's MySpace.

While I agree on the latter point, I disagree on the former.

Facebook will either evolve or some new technology will make it irrelevant in a year, or a day. But, genuine and affective communication will forever be invaluable to human beings - regardless of the communication channel.

I love this article; I believe it supports my opinion that if a company communicates via social media to the most genuine extent possible, then the audience will engage and the company will benefit from its efforts.

As the article and Ron Burgundy say, "it's science."

Labels: Social media

Take a guess at who was Ad Age's marketer of the year in 2009 and I bet the first thing that comes to your mind are sexy brands like Coke, Pepsi, Nike, Budweiser, etc. How shocked would you be to hear that it was Hyundai with their Assurance Program they rolled out in 2009? You know the one with Jeff Bridges (now Academy Award Winning Jeff Bridges) doing the voice over telling you that if you buy a new Hyundai and lose your income in the year after purchasing it you can return it FREE OF CHARGE.

Hyundai's market share jumped to 4.3% in the first ten months of 2009 from 3.1% in the same year-ago period. In September, while the industry overall suffered a 22% sales drop in a post-Cash for Clunkers hangover, Hyundai managed to increase its new-vehicle tally by 27% to 31,511 units.

"This is a recession of fear," Joel Ewanick, Hyundai's VP-marketing told Advertising Age back in February. "We realized that the elephant in the room was the fear of losing your job. I feel the same way. We all do. The idea of giving people the option to give the car back if they were struggling . . . seemed a great way to make customers comfortable and increase our market share in an economy like this."

Ahhh...the old trick of taping into human emotion overcomes again! Seems like sometimes all consumers are looking for is a little bit of assurance and someone to trust in and unsure time. Hyundai sure has raised the bar and maybe it's time others followed in this unfortunate situation we're all in.

Labels: Advertising, auto, Hyundai Assurance

I read this AdAge article, titled "Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising" last week and have been thinking about it ever since.

This article brings up the dilemma that mimics the old "chicken or the egg" conundrum in the advertising/creative/marketing industry - what do campaigns need most: creativity or metrics-driven strategy?

The author, Mr. Patrick Sarkissian, makes his own analogy, opining that "just as video killed the radio star, metrics are killing creativity."

I agree with Sarkissian that numbers should not fully dictate a new creative strategy. I'd like to assert, however, that in today's saturated markets, effective campaigns must rely on solid research and strong metrics. These can and will make the creative more affective. Yes, brand preference is built on emotional connections.

But if you can quantify population trends, habits, values/emotional connections, and then build your brand's creative around such a conceptualized and identifiable population, then doesn't than make your brand that much stronger?

Sarkissian's best observance is when he says "what works are creative and strategic communications that seamlessly engage and interact with the target audience." Word.

He talks about the power of "the big idea," and the need to return to such leaps of faith that make big ideas become epic concepts like "Just Do It."

After pondering the greater weight of metrics vs. creativity, I've come to the conclusion that, like all things in life, they're most effective when balanced.

Sure, you need 'big ideas,' uninhibited by numeric restrictions and people who like to think in algorithmic boxes. But those big ideas can be made stronger with metrics in a sort of ebb-and-flow process that yields smart creative and large numbers of addicted, highly satisfied customers.

Creativity - metrics - both can be effective for your campaigns.

Chicken - egg - who cares; fry 'em both up and enjoy.

Labels: Advertising, campaign planning, Marketing, Metrics

Major congratulations to CBH Homes for selling 134 homes in the month of February.

Amidst endless negative media reports about how the economy is circling the drain, CBH has 134 reasons to celebrate. Idaho's largest home builder even sold 34 and then 35 homes in two consecutive weekends last month.

Boom!

This surge in sales can certainly be attributed to the federal tax credit for first-time and new home buyers, which CBH Homes has made even more beneficial with special incentive offers.

So, keep an eye on this major player in the housing market. They might just lead us right out of this recession yet.

Labels: Business, housing industry, Idaho

Pharmacy Recruitment Brochure for Albertson’s LLC

Recruiting is tough. Especially in the shark-tank, feeding frenzy for recently graduated Pharmacists. The demand for these bright-eyed, fresh-out-of-the-mortar** Pharmacists is high and competition is fierce. You’ve got independent, community pharmacies competing for the new grads with huge, retail Pharmacy giants like Walgreens and Rite Aid. Albertson’s LLC wanted to make its mark in the crowd and ditch the industry convention of the white lab-coat Pharmacy recruitment brochure.

For Drake Cooper, this challenge wasn’t just about look and feel. It was about finding a way to tap into what recent Pharmacy grads really wanted. Albertson's research revealed that, after eight years of pharmacology, these people wanted to grow a clinical practice while relating with people not as customers, but as patients. It turned out that a pharmacy practice located in a community grocery store was the perfect place for that to happen.

Riffing off the interplay of a pharmacy located in a grocery store, the new Albertson’s brochure is all about fresh opportunities that one can only find in a Community Pharmacy. The mash-up of pharmacy and grocery allowed the team to create unique designs for different spreads and pepper the content throughout in clever and relevant ways. Smart and lively copy with lines like “We’ve been admiring your triturating skills” tap into the Pharmacist lifestyle with a fresh respect for the knowledge they’ve gained.

The brochure has made a great impression among new Pharmacists and has evolved into more collateral and trade show executions playing off of the re-freshed creative direction.

Shout out: Jennie Myers, Sean Young, Mona Teffeteller, Joe Quatrone, John Drake, and Karma Jones.

Sat in on a webinar yesterday; the speaker was teaching small, private business-owners of the restaurant variety how to create their own Facebook profiles and fan pages.

I had to reflect...

It was Somewhere around August 31, 2005 when I first signed up for Facebook. Hurricane Katrina had just hit. Grad school friends and I had retreated to one cohort's apartment in another, more northern town because it had electricity and Internet.

Of course, everyone was lounging with their own laptops, scoping each other out on Facebook instead of engaging in genuine conversation, but I'll save my opining on that behavior for another post.

So - I signed up for Facebook. For the next two years, I spent a lot of time conversing with peers, scoping out other people's pictures, posting my own in a very vein manner, wasting time I should've been spending on the thesis, etc.

Grad school ended. Fast-forward five years, and businesses are spending a lot of money and scrambling to "network on Facebook." Posers are claiming to be "social media experts" and are making a decent amount of money telling said businesses how they can help them "network on Facebook." Business people are spending an hour on a Wednesday morning, listening to the technical basics of setting up their own Facebook pages and profiles.

I illustrate this development out because I find it fascinating that, what was once a new online venue for college kids to waste time and entertain themselves, has rapidly developed into a forum that people are spending a lot of time, effort, and money on, all in the effort to do things like "connect," get their brand out there, "facilitate online communities," etc.

At the end of the day, I feel like few businesses get "being on Facebook" right (if there is such a thing). I feel like this because, as a long term Facebook Kid, I pay attention to very few businesses or services that are on Facebook. They have my attention because....wait for it....

They know how to communicate with me.

Not mind-blowing.

In fact, quite simple.

Yet, so few seem to have figured out how to do it (yes, those few do include DC-advised Facebook participants).

So while Facebook has evolved, the invaluable commodity of genuine communication remains in order to facilitate any relationship - offline or on Facebook.

Labels: digital marketing, Facebook

This Mobile Behavior article reports that Foursquare has partnered with media companies like HBO and Warner Bros. to...well...engage fans, er, something.

While I'm fascinated with Foursquare and the opportunities it allows for location-based mobile marketing, this move doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Apparently, the new media partnerships allows companies like HBO to 'connect' or interact with movies and TV shows in a variety of ways, including by "living vicariously through the characters and emulating their lifestyles," according to the article.

While I've been waiting for products, especially internationally recognized brands, to figure out how to market their products through Foursquare, I will say this recent partnership both surprises and confuses me.

Foursquare is supposed to be all about getting consumers to get out and frequent location-based businesses...not be obsessed with and try to emulate fake characters from TV shows or movies (with usually bad writing, I might add).

Part of me understands where this new partnership might take consumers and businesses alike. But for the most part, I vote "unlike' on this one.

Labels: Advertising, Foursquare, mobile marketing

TV: United Dairymen of Idaho Milk Campaign

Labels: creativity, food and beverage, TV

If you haven't spent time with Edelman's Trust Barometer it's worth exploring. The report examines our collective trust of businesses, government, sources of influence and more, as well explores the subject of trust itself.

The latest Barometer reports lots of interesting stuff, but here's something particularly interesting: the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.

With the continued growth of the social web, and the fact that our time spent on social networks is up 82% one might find this drop surprising.

Richard Edelman, President and CEO, had this to say:

"The events of the last 18 months have scarred people. They have to see messages in different places and from different people. That means experts as well as peers or company employees. It's a more skeptical time. So if companies are looking at peer-to-peer marketing as another arrow in the quiver, that's good, but they need to understand it's not a single-source solution. It's a piece of the solution."

We concur.

This bit of information reinforces the need of constant communications and points to the fact that re-contact strategies are needed for brands that want to be active and provide value in the social web.

It's imperative not to just 'post and leave'. Rather, brands must remain constantly proactive about the ongoing creation of interesting content. And this doesn't always need to be new ideas, mind you... revisiting previous ideas is good because new people are becoming engaged all the time. But constant energy around the core brand idea (self championing and supporting like-minded activity) is key.

To do this companies should appoint a central re-contact leader. This person (or persons if volume requires a group) is the one who's in charge with monitoring the social web as well as empowered to contribute content in real time. While as many people who want to contribute should, like most things, it's just helpful to put someone in the lead.

The brands who break through with interesting and concise re-contact strategies will be the ones who reap the benefit of additional trust... and it will be at the expense of those brands who don't.

Labels: campaign planning, consumer trust, Marketing

>What a great story. The billionth download from iTunes was Johnny Cash 's “Guess Things Happen That Way.” The downloader, a 71 year-old grandfather.

Johnny keeps on giving.