Value Is The Future
Ask anyone who’s worked with me and they’ll tell you I’ve always believed that advertising must add value if it is to be embraced. The adoption of technology and the internet by society has, if anything, reinforced that need. In an internet addled world it follows that the more people are exposed to stuff that’s useful and adds value – the more people expect usefulness and value.
In this ‘digital (advertising) age’ (as Bob likes to call it) is very easy to interpret added value as a tool or an application – something tangible. Of course, value is delivered through these things, but it can still just as easily be delivered through an emotion. Write The Future is an ad, it’s not an app or a tool – but it does have huge value. It must have or I/the rest of the world wouldn’t have watched it as many times as I/we have or will. Write The Future is culturally spot on, it’s not up its own arse, it surprises me and it’s pretty funny, but best of all – it makes me smile.
No matter how you look at it – that has value.
Nike & W+K – I salute you.
adidas Vs Star Wars
There is/will be a huge amount of debate as to whether or not this is a good ad/idea. Whether using breakdancing is acceptable, whether Sid Lee have done justice to the Star Wars franchise etc. I think that discussion largely misses the point. The product (adidas Star Wars sneakers) is the idea, you don’t really need another ad/idea to sell that concept to me. The point of this spot is to simply introduce the line and tell me when I can buy them, which it does very and well and, I’m guessing, to a massive amount of people . Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop, Calle 13, Neil Armstrong, Stormtroopers, Lord Vader and some Tie Fighters is pretty hard to argue with.
The force is strong in this one.
Lazy Suit
Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s practice of Dymaxion Sleeping, which involves four 30-minute naps over a period of 24 hours, this Sleep Suit is a totally portable structure that can be taken on and off in less than a minute enabling the owner to nap anywhere.
Pure genius.
Much more here.
Decode | Karsten Smitt
The Victoria & Albert Museum commissioned Karsten Schmidt (Toxi) to design a digital identity for the Decode exhibition. The identity is open source so anyone can submit and add to its loveliness.
The actual piece/app is stunning, which you’d expect of Mr Smitt.
App here – Decode.
Awesome.
Readers that liked that will like this (from the onedotzero project, again by Smitt, earlier this year):
Visiting PIXAR | #cssf
About half way through our visit to PIXAR I overheard someone say; ‘This is like driving a boat really fast’. What that person meant was that it was hard to stop smiling – which it was. Visiting PIXAR was incredible.
Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar of jobs in 2006 for an astonishing $7.4 billion. Since it’s conception earned twenty-two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and three Grammys. It is one of the most critically acclaimed film studios of all time, with 10 consecutive box office hits. They haven’t ever had a flop. Beginning with Toy Story in 1995 each film has achieved huge critical and commercial success. A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo(2003) (the most commercially successful Pixar film yet, grossing over $800 million worldwide), The Incredibles (2004), Cars in (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), and most recently Up (2009). Pixar’s eleventh film, Toy Story 3, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010. All six Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for the award, with four, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E, winning it.
These guys are good – and it shows. The energy, skill and passion on show was mind-blowing. We were introduced to around 10 people (1300 people work at PIXAR), including Directors, Art Directors and Designers all of whom were obviously a very tight team. They talked to us very candidly about their process and methods. It was clear that their ability to work together was a big part of their success. Everything about the place oozed talent, creativity and collaboration, even the building (designed by Jobs) was built around accidental collaboration. At it’s core there is an enormous social space (see above), intended to encourage spontaneous work conversations.
Throughout their process they always have a single leader (director) who makes the big decisions and it is their responsibility to bring the vision to life. Interestingly, even though collaboration is key, everyone follows this lead. It involves a lot of trust, but that (I think), is the other genesis of their success. Of course they don’t always agree with said vision, but they follow. That puts a lot on the shoulders of that director, but they all trust in that persons expertise. The management is small and keeps at a distance – again they trust the people they’ve hired to do their jobs. That clearly breeds confidence and obviously again, it works.
A lot of what else we talked about was surprisingly very familiar including budget limitations and ‘customer is key’. Basically they mostly face the same day-to-day issues we do – what’s different is they way they tackle those issues.
PIXAR see compromise and limitation as a way to breed creativity – and that is a lesson for us all.
ShockingObama
Some dudes at Brammo are retracing the route of the automotive CEOs that went to Washington DC asking for government loans. But instead of looking for aid, they are to present President Obama with a homegrown solution to the transportation crisis. And instead of flying in a corporate jet, they’re riding their Brammo Enertia powercycles. They want to show that there’s a better way to get from Point A to Point B.
They are asking people along the way to donate electricity and they are using couchsurfing for places to stay in their quest to meet Obama – ‘Fueled by nothing more than electricity and the kindness of everyday Americans.’
Super sweet and, of course, something to do with the mighty Crispin Porter Bogusky.
Why I Love The Internet | By Tyler Cowen
This is a brilliant article.
If you are, or work anywhere near, a marketing person (even vaguely) you should read it.
And then read it again:
“In a typical day, I might write two tweets, peruse 15 blogs […] and watch James Brown dance on YouTube. If it’s a really fun day, I’ll read more blogs, scour the Web for movie reviews, browse eBay, Google myself, and spend more time on Twitter. None of this costs me a penny, and yet I am producing plenty – namely, my own interest and amusement. More and more, “production” – that word my fellow economists have worked over for generations – has become interior to the human mind rather than set on a factory floor. A tweet may not look like much, but its value lies in the mental dimension. You use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other Web services to construct a complex meld of stories, images, and feelings in your mind. No single bit seems weighty on its own, but the resulting blend is rich in joy, emotion, and suspense. This is a new form of drama, and it plays out inside us – with technological assistance – rather than on a public stage. Online, you can literally create your own economy. By that, I mean you can build an ordered set of opportunities for prosperity and pleasure, analogous to a traditional economy but held in your head.”
Full article here.
Via@pablojeffress
Awesome.
Super Mariothon
Brian Brinegar, Dan May, and John Groth have been playing through seven different Mario games in their entirety over the last few days for a charity called Childs Play. Not only that but they are collecting every single star in all seven games, which having played through them all, I know is no mean feat. That’s Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3, Super Mario World, Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. Three gamers, two sofas’ seven games, xxx hours (they are currently at 70+ hours) and one dog. I have been following the Marathon (albeit sporadically) through the weekend live on the site and on Twitter – it’s kinda compulsive and they’ve actually raised over $20,000.
Super on so many levels (excuse the pun).
Go watch and give them some money before they’re done.
ViaMany
Digital McNugget
I’m a bit late on this, but it keeps popping up and it’s one of the best pieces of thinking I’ve seen for a while. If you haven’t seen it already McDonald’s (thanks to Leo Burnett) has a dynamic billboard at Piccadilly Circus that leverages the simple (and fairly common) human desire to interact with an environment in photos. The billboard randomly flashes images like umbrellas, bouncing soccer balls, dumbbells and thought bubbles etc. Passers-by interact with images (at arguably London’s most photographed location) by positioning their head and/or arms in just the right spot and then simply getting someone else to take a photo for the folks back home:
What I love about this work is the use of digital/a good idea to engage, influence behavior and create an intimate (two tiered) brand communication. What I mean by that is: sign presents photographic opportunity, people engaged in said opportunity have positive brand experience, viewers of photos have positive (personal) brand experience.
Very, very smart.
Lovin’ it.*
*(Sorry)
Spot The Bull
Now in it’s third year, POKE ‘n’ Orange’s awesome Spot The Bull Returns in style. If you haven’t encountered it before the basic idea is that you pick a square in a virtual/real field. In that virtual/real field lives a GPS tagged Bull (Desmond) – if Desmond is standing on the square you chose at will 3pm that very afternoon, you could win some tickets for Glastonbury. There’s also a live bull-cam so you can keep up to date with all the bovine based action.
Smart, fun and simple (like Desmond).
Play here.
Ubik | Voxel
Simply stunning short by Ubik, created for Motionographers Inaugural F5 Festival.
The music is ‘A Drifting Up’, reworked for by Jon Hopkins from his new album ‘Insides’.
Ubik have also created this short film for MTV worldwide to help raise awareness of the effects of global warming, it’s a combination of live action and animation. The globe was shot on 16mm which was then tracked and populated with cg toy-like clouds, cars, planes, and cities.
Awesome.
Site.
Impossible Is Something
Volontaire is a small agency in Stockholm, that recently gave three interns a mission:
Pitch and win Adidas worldwide within three weeks.
Why?
Because according to Adidas, Impossible Is Nothing.
Track & Field GOD
In the summer of ’83 I went on a school field trip to Dorset. Every night my mates and I would go down to the Arcade to play Star Wars and Track And Field etc. One of those nights, as we walked along the front, we noticed that the place was totally rammed, there was a massive crowd spilling out onto the street, standing in total silence aside from frequent whooping. As we forced our way through the crowd I saw a dude standing in front of the Track & Field cabinet, he was no ordinary dude, this dude was: Track and Field GOD. I remember it so clearly, he played like no one anyone had ever seen. The whole room stood there, mouths wide open, watching Track & Field GOD waste opponent after opponent. It was awesome.
Today someone showed me a video of a Track and Field player – and it brought it all rushing back. This dude has the same technique:
Still, to this very day, I am in awe of the Track & Field GOD.
Movie Posters
To celebrate their 1,000,000th member LOVEFiLM are partnering Royal Mail and having posties deliver mail wearing the masks of their favourite film characters.
I love this idea, it’s very smart communication that uses the perfect channel to demonstrate the product. It also ‘shames up bad’ the recent, derivative, MovieBoy promotion from The Sun.
Top marks Mischief PR.
So Far Far So Good
rubbishcorp® hearts Far Far because they do this:
And this:
In a uber collaborative and diverse industry culture, what is and what isn’t ‘creative’ can become a little unclear – that’s obviously not the case at Bolinders Plan 2. It’s the kind of thing that will massively split opinion, but I guess that’s the point.
Site here.
Far Far – I salute you.
Gis a job.