All The Rage

The timing could not have been better, just as Facebook and MySpace had exhausted its audiences with an overwhelming flood of information, high school reunions, what kind of dog you would be and what you looked like puking at that party last night, along comes a sleek, streamlined and simple social media tool that is taking the world by storm.

Twitter.

Twitter is so much more than people think it is.

When friends ask me what Twitter is they usually preface the question by saying "oh its like your status on Facebook, right?" and my answer is always no!

The best place to start defining Twitter is the dictionary.

1. Twitter - a state of tremulous excitement.

2. Twitter - to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter.

3. Twit - To taunt, ridicule, or tease, especially for embarrassing mistakes or faults.

Twitter is a true conduit of human chatter and a concise and exacting form of communication that forces each and every person using it to get as creative as they possibly can within 140 characters or less.

Twitter is not just a medium but a concept that is being chatted about in every media circle around the world. People are Twittering about Twitter, writing news stories about Twitter, blogging, Facebooking, IMing and emailing about Twitter.

Erick Shonfeld wrote in a TechCrunch article published on February 15,2009 where he captures the true essence of what Twitter is all about. He writes "What makes Google and other search engines so valuable is that they capture people’s intent—what they are looking for, what they desire, what they want to learn about. But they don’t do a great job at capturing what people are doing or what they are thinking about. For thoughts and events that are happening right now, searching Twitter increasingly brings up better results than searching Google."

Twitter is Chatter. Chatter is water, water flows and needs to be channeled. Twitter does that by allowing people to create their own chatter channels. In doing so the public creates organic content pools that are worth a lot of money to brands that want to know what people are saying.

Twitter somehow managed to trump Facebook's social appeal and demolish Google's search relevancy. I recently tested how good Twitter could be as a search engine. By typing in a search term I got tons of human responses to the term I was looking for.

After missing yesterday's final four games I went to Search.Twitter.com and typed in "Michigan State" I was BLOWN AWAY with the expressions, the links, the references, the history, the excitement, the drama and the relevancy to the NOW!

I got links to local websites in Michigan that gave me an insight and experience that was so much better than the dry ESPN and CNNSI coverage that Google would have led me to. I got fan reaction, I got pictures from the game and I got a slice of time captured at the exact moment that it happened. To be completely honest, it was pretty exhilarating.

The search is alive, as I looked through the various links and reactions I got a message telling me that I should refresh my page because more results have come in.

I was really happy that I was living in the now and indexing the world as it is at this very moment and not at the mercy of the mighty Google index that does what it wants when it wants and no one knows why or how links get to the top of a search.

There is no mystery behind Twitter, its human, its real, its alive and its growing.

Remember in the movie The Dark Knight, when Batman was looking for the Joker, he decided to use a tool that was able to tap into the chatter of everyone in the city and by doing so he emulated the way a bat uses sonar to see, basically creating a picture of exactly what is going on in the world. That is Twitter!!

I am very excited about what is in store for Twitter, I haven't been this excited in a long time and that lingering question about the Google buster and the next Killer App has just been answered, in less than 140 characters.

Twitter.

Indecent Accolade

Awards are a measurement for the best of any particular field's top work and achievements.

Advertising is an industry that produces so much work over the course of a year that it requires a slew of award shows in order to recognize achievements in the many various categories and channels.

Award shows are the gala balls of the industry and often have pomp, circumstance and drama associated with them. Last year gave us the infamous gripe of Michael Lebowitz who spoke out about credit. This years drama has already started to surface, ill get to that in a second.

Advertising forefather and visionary, David Ogilvy abhorred advertising awards, stating that they had nothing to do with sales or bottom line. He remarked that most awards were trivial, "for best commercial shot on a cloudy day." Ogilvy felt that advertising awards should reflect the effectiveness of the campaign, not it's cleverness or creativity.

In light of a recent spillage of a certain spreadsheet from a major award show's entries, I felt that a dedicated post to awards was in order.

Agencies love awards, its fuel for the fire when going after new clients or brandishing in front of perspective talent that they may be wooing to the agency.

Awards are shiny reminders that the work that comes out of "here" is top notch.

Awards are a great way reward the most creative and successful work, however these days it seems like they have become the ultimate goal.

We are all in the service industry, we service our clients in order to sell more of what they make or to get them more recognition for their brand in the eyes of the public. Our goals and objectives should be the same goals and objectives of our clients, not to fill the space on our own award mantels.

Awards are really nice and when you win, your on top of the world, but the bottom line, especially in today's economy, is to sell sell sell and to make sure creative is communicating the brand story properly.

On March 20th Ad Age broke a story about an accidental list of entries that leaked into the public. It had the names and entries of agencies who submitted work to The One Show. There were 9,795 entries for the awards, at a total cost to the agencies of $3,507,860.

Three and a half million dollars in award entries!

I think that as an industry we need to keep things within perspective and recognize what the ultimate goal is, and that is to service our clients with creativity, dedication and integrity. The work we produce should be focused on the goals of our clients and not the judging panels awarding the bling.

Recessions are a great time to rethink what is truly important and to learn to commit to and appreciate the substance of what we do. It is a time to reflect upon the mistakes we have made and to cut away the fat that we have been carrying.

Perhaps this accidental leakage was no accident at all and a sign of the times and a reminder to all of us that we need to help our clients spend their money more wisely, and to help them re stimulate the economy so that we may get back to filling our bellies with useless things we don't need (joke).

Perhaps the poor unfortunate soul who has most likely been fired for attaching that infamous spreadsheet to the email she sent out is an angel in disguise who has come down to help us fix the error of our ways. Probably not but when viewed as such it makes for a much better story.

I have compiled a list of major ad industry award shows so that you may get a sense of what kind of money is being spent on award shows, imagine what was spent just on the One Show and add that across all of these other major shows:

ACE Awards
ADDY Awards
Advertising Age Awards
Advertising Hall of Achievement
Advertising Hall of Fame
CA Advertising Annual Competition
Clarion Awards
Clio Awards
G.D. Crain Jr. Award
Creative Excellence in Business Advertising
Award
Cresta International Advertising Award
Effie Awards
Ad Age’s Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards
International Advertising Festival at Cannes
International ANDY Awards
International ECHO Awards Competition
Jay Chiat Planning Awards
Mobius Advertising Awards
MPA Kelly Award
New York Festivals
OBIE Awards
One Show Awards
O’Toole Awards
Pro-Comm. Awards Competition
Radio Mercury Awards
Reggie Awards
Webby Awards

Lets all remember in this time of slashed budgets, sparse work, struggling clients and a faltering economy, that what is really important is the substance of what we do and not the bling it gets awarded.

Pearl Jam Ten Game Rocks The FWA!

In the interactive industry we have many different types of affirmations in the form of awards. Awards are like doggie treats they get us to do things a tiny bit better than we would have originally but just a bit better.

No but seriously, accolades are good, they remind you that your work is good.

As a highly technical, emotionally artistic, generally cranky and highly caffeinated industry that works long hours, gets daily ass kickings and suffers ego crushing blows day in and day out these small things can mean a lot.

So without further ado: Today's FWA Award goes to PEARLJAMTENGAME.COM

Not only is the site super cool and very addictive, oh and it has some of the most memorable tracks of the 90s, but if you go to our website http://www.freedomandpartners.com you will see the new feature for PJ that is pretty darn cool itself.

I wanna say congrats to the band!

WE ROCKED THIS ONE!

Stay tuned... much more to come!

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Thomas L. Friedman is a NY Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Lexus and the Olive Tree and From Beirut to Jerusalem.

Mr Friedman wrote a column in the New York Times on March 11, 2009 titled "This Is Not A Test. This Is Not A Test."

The column so eloquently states in exactly 860 words how badly up shits creek we all are.

His exact words are "Economically, this is the big one. This is August 1914. This is the morning after Pearl Harbor. This is 9/12."

Hows that for not beating around the bush?

On the same day I read Mr. Friedman's words pertaining to the economy as a whole I also read a statement made by the Omnicom Group saying that they are issuing a very stringent sequential liability clause in vendor contracts.

The clause is that vendors will not be paid anything until the agency gets paid by its client. Additionally the Omnicom agencies will not assume liability for a project if the client doesn't pay.

If your part of a production shop or a digital vendor I will give you a second to say "WTF!!!?"

:one second pause:

We all work in an industry where we are obligated to our clients to sell more of whatever it is they are offering.

As ad industry professionals we are supposed to find innovative ways to come up with creative campaigns that will somehow be impervious to the economic crisis we face in this country and to find ways to get our audiences to buy stuff regardless of the fact that they have no money to spend.

The very fact is that no matter what, the public all needs things. Basic items, luxury items, services and everything in between, we are a country built on consumption and no economic downturn is going to change that.

Smaller production shops are the lifelines of these massive agencies. We are the blood, sweat and tears that go into every project.

We are the craftsmen and women who have honed our skills to perfection in the various fields of film, editing, digital, technology and beyond.

We are the assassins who come in on a project by project basis and give everything we got to make sure, in many cases the turd of an idea we are handed is polished and sparkles like a diamond.

We provide the small details, the documentation, the specifics and the education. We set up the infrastructure and handle the executions. We offer up solutions that sometimes don't even exist before we create it on the fly.

How many times has the experience of a production shop given an agency the core idea for a brand because the agency had no clue what kind of technology was needed to execute whatever it is that they are trying to communicate?

This is a collective slap in the face to all of the folks who work hard day in and day out to get these projects done. The producers, the directors, the flash programmers and video editors, the after effects wizards and the 3D modelers, the gaffers, the grips, the designers and the programmers.

This is the first step towards what I predict is going to be a major impasse in the advertising industry. Productions shops will not accept these suicide contracts and eventually will go directly to the brands themselves to provide the services that these brands all need to communicate to their consumers.

Where does that leave the agencies?

Granted this is just Omnicoms policy and I am sure other agencies outside of Omnicom's group will not adopt this policy. However this is not good for the industry to take a stance against those folks who break their necks day in and day out to get projects out the door.

As holding companies agencies need to be the financial brokers between us smaller vendors and the massive client. Agencies get to call the shots because they were the ones holding the cash, but now what?

Brands would benefit more from working directly with the vendors in executing the ideas that the agencies come up with. The transparency would produce some shocking results.

Brands communicating with vendors directly will result in campaigns being richer and better communicated, the lines of communication would open up and the barriers would get torn down so that the soul of the idea doesn't get diluted by all of the needless layers.

Oh! And budgets would be utilized towards the core idea and not for roles that are simply not needed within the project.

In doing this we would usher in a new golden age of advertising that would welcome and utilize all the advances and experiences of the various vendors. The stories that we tell would be more compelling and the creative will explode into the hearts and minds of the public.

Clients should know exactly how and where their money is being spent and they should have realistic expectations for what is going on with their campaigns during a project life cycle. Vendors have always been hidden away and the agencies have tended to throttle the flow of information in a way that only benefit themselves.

Its time for CHANGE!

String of Pearls

I have produced a lot of websites over the years for some of the worlds biggest brands and properties. But this project has some special meaning for me.

Our latest project over at Freedom + Partners is one that I have to put into my top three projects of all time that I had personal involvement in.

Sony Music partnered with Freedom + Partners on this amazing website for Pearl Jam.

Our intention was to converge two widely popular genres, music and gaming into one kick ass website. To create an engaging experience that would keep users coming back again and again.

We wanted to create an experience that would give Pearl Jam fans the ability to play a branded game that would pay off with some killer Pearl Jam tunes, a sweet visualizer and some unique videos.

I think we hit the mark! (feel free to let me know if you disagree)

When you work on a project for a while you tend to get sick of looking at it but this site keeps getting better every time i come back to it.

The challenge and the pay off are both fun and gratifying.

"Everyone knows the music industry is going through monumental changes,” says Freedom + Partners Founder and CEO, Mark Ferdman. “This project is a testament to Sony Music's willingness to think outside the box set, and their understanding of the creative power of new media to extend a band's vision for the music. It's visionary type of thinking and Pearl Jam gets it, too, of course."

Check out this truly awesome website at http://www.pearljamtengame.com

I want to say thank you and congratulate the entire F+P team for an awesome job!

Love to Hate

We are culture that loves to hate the people we secretly love.

When real people who get up on stage with a brazenness that entertains us more than actual talent we flock to see what the hell it is that they are saying.

Freedom of speech is platform for our entertainment more than social change or equality amongst mankind. We revel in the exploits of people who have the balls to do the things every single one of us wish we could do ourselves.

A new campaign created by Droga5 Sydney for Virgin Mobile is absolutely genius.

They have lined up every single one of these amazing personalities who have somehow made it to the big stage based on their outlandish personalities and ability to become the scapegoats of our own flaws.

As a culture we all love to hate these people because at some point they have hit a spot within all of us that resonates deeply into our psyche, they have defied the odds and made it to fame and fortune through sheer silliness and utter ridiculousness that keeps show business attainable for anyone who can find the right shtick.

This is why we love these people, in a strange way they represent hope.

If Vanilla Ice or Milli Vanilli (what's with the common Vanilla theme?) can make it, so can anyone.

Well the time has come for these pre-fab'ed, rality tv muppets to fess up and apologize to their adoring fans for being so damn awesome!

My only gripe is that this is an Australian site that should be American.

Check out this great new site http://rightmusicwrongs.org/

No Golden Pot

I personally find Skittles to be one of the most annoying candy creations ever, sort of like M&Ms on steroids. Ever put a handful into your mouth at once? Not exactly a rainbow sensation. But regardless, my personal preference is not really important here because I am sure there are millions of candy loving folks who adore those chewy treats in their myriad of colors and flavors, I like the sound they make in the bag.

Now take that first paragraph and split it up into 140 word little nuggets, post them on Twitter and... what?

The new Skittles web panel, floating navigation or whatever you want to call their lame excuse for a website is a clinic in a brand who did absolutely no strategic planning whatsoever on this new web site. The concept is idealistic and reckless.

Taking a brand and leaving it out there, in the guttah, for the audiences of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to handle the creative, copy writing and reviews is suicide. Advertising is about persuasion, the art of seduction, getting people to BUY STUFF!

This method is like leaving your baby in a dumpster. Its like whoring out your sister. It is a complete cop out and frankly defies every rule in advertising.

Did no one think that exposing the Chatter section to Twitter wouldn't spark a rainbow of profanity?

Ever see a news report with some punks walking by in the background, they cant resist acting like idiots which almost always end us with a middle finger or some ridiculous pose that rolls evolution back 1000 years.

A brand needs a gate keeper, someone who is molding and moderating the message that is being put out there, the public cant be trusted to do this and frankly why would they?

So today marks the day Skittles pull down their Twittles (twitter) campaign, draped in curses, profanity, ridicule, recklessness and stupidity, the people have spoken!

Pepsi, Tropicana and now Skittles.

America has way too much brand drama, that's right I said it, brand drama! Now go pontificate on that term for a while.

Two friends and I were talking about all "this" last night and it occurred to me that the Jerry Springer Show we now call advertising has resorted to "Brand Drama" to sell things.

I said to my friend:

"How Peter Arnell handled the whole Pepsi logo leak and then the Tropicana debacle was brilliant not in just it's design but in it's essence, the buzz, the whole thing is foolish but unfortunately we live in a foolish society and Peter did his job, gave the people what they wanted.

Brands are now celebrity, Pepsi is Brittany, love her, hate her but never get enough of her...

We are a celebrity obsessed society and our creative tends to manifest that obsession, imagine, brand drama! The new way to sell.

Brand Drama - you heard it here first!"

The likes of David Ogilvy are now rolling in their graves...

The New Age

One of the first personalities that stood out in our industry was someone who had broken the code of interactive design and had started introducing us all to a whole new way of looking at how to communicate on the internet. This was a person who had come to NYC from Moscow to explore what was possible and to consistently raise the limits of what the web was capable of communicating to us all.

That person is Freedom + Partners Chief Creative Officer, Vas Sloutchevsky.

I first met Vas when I started working at Firstborn. By the time I had arrived Vas had already cemented his place amongst those who were breaking new ground in interactive design and development. He was a rock star in every sense of the word.

I am once again privileged to be working along side Vas here at Freedom + Partners and he is continuing to break new ground each and every day. It is not often that a person comes along who can continually innovate and inspire with his design prowess and ability to see beyond what is in front of him.

Working side by side with legendary flash developer Shea Gonyo, Vas has once again taken things to another level with our new company website, Freedom + Partners

Seeing the web as a living space, a three dimensional reality that both houses the rules of physics and then breaks those rules to deliver a truly dramatic and awesome experience, Vas has done it again!

Navigate the site using all your senses, 3D doesn't just apply to the eyes but to the ears and to the touch. Information has never been served up this intuitively. Each and every page is a new place to play and explore.

I am pleased to announce the launch of our new website!!

Check it out here: http://www.freedomandpartners.com

Experience what the web is all about.

Time For A New Conversation

There has always been a certain charm for what I like to call "out of town" agencies that come off very endearing and more human than the traditional Madison Ave agencies that have been walking the earth forever.

McKinney is one of those special agencies that has always impressed me with its metropolitan thinking and southern charm.

Memorable campaigns such as the sensual and sexy LetsHaveText.com and the Oasys Mobile Booty Call. Nike work such as "Beat The BS" and the NASDAQ "Listed" campaigns have all left memorable impressions on me as very forward thinking, creative and breakthrough.

Now that charming southern agency based in Durham, NC has done it again with a new website that has the entire industry buzzing.

Today was the launch of a new website McKinney.com

The site features a design infused with the tag line "Time For A New Conversation". Users are introduced to a breathtaking 3D, text based interface that has the familiarity of a search engine and the robustness of cutting edge technology.

A spacial design that is both simple and endless as information is driven to us in "players" that house nice small chunks of content that is both enjoyable to read and easy to digest.

I would have liked to have seen actual pcitures in their news section rather than repeating gray boxes and I found the bottom navigation a bit underwhelming compared to the way the rest of the site was treated. But overall its a really impressive site.

The search box is very fun to play with and seems to be quite intelligent when answering odd questions, like it almost really knows what it is I am asking it.

The overall animation and responsiveness is fluid and not typical for an agency website.

McKinney.com is bold and refreshing and it makes a huge statement to the clients that it services. By positioning itself with a site like this it is sending a message to the world that it has embraced digital as its own medium and that it is committed to staying on the cutting edge of technology and interactive design

McKinny.com now joins and exclusive pack of agency websites (BBH, Publicis & Hal Riney) that dare to break tradition and face towards the future where digital is waiting to be met.

Well done!

A Moving and Articulate "Manifesto on Interactive Advertising Creativity"

I simply had to share this with everyone.

It happens to be one of the most profound and articulate manifestos I have ever read about "Interactive" it is a MUST read for anyone who is serious about this business and its future.

"A Bigger Idea":
A Manifesto on Interactive Advertising Creativity

Enjoy! ... and pass it on!

Thank You Randall.

Internal Review

The nature of a recession typically is to help reset an economy that has gone awry and to help reestablish the momentum and processes that may have caused things to have taken a turn for the worse. This can be due to either rapid growth, corruption, lack of standards, loss of focus or differences within an industry that may strangle its progress.

Our industry, the interactive industry, is no different than any other.

Because of the pace we travel at, interactive professionals, tend to go through the hills and valleys more often than most. There is constant turn over, talent shortages and surges, new technologies to adopt to and trends that change per second.

The results are typically a more refined crop of professionals that are seasoned and nimble enough to take things to the next level and meet the demands of the never ending web.

Ab incunabulis to ad finem (from the cradle to the end) we explore and engage everything we get our hands on and like survivors on an island we are trained to look into every crevice and corner for new ideas and trends in order to survive.

Survival of the fittest in its most primitive form in the most advanced technical age ever.

The onset of most niches within an industry can sometimes be a bit of a free for all. When something new and exciting is unleashed into a ravenous world it can sometimes be over hyped and in many cases over valued.

This is a trapping that can blind many business owners and professionals into thinking that what it is that they are offering is some sort of cure for the woes of the world.

The Internet sets all kinds of unrealistic expectations that on some level do manage to be met on a daily basis, however after meeting each expectation another even greater one is waiting at the gates.

This is no business for a simple mind and someone who needs a calm and peaceful atmosphere. It is the chaotic world of the creative mind that can thrive in such a tumultuous landscape. To remain human while keeping the pace with the every changing trends in design and technology.

Many of the digital shops in our industry have enjoyed a rapid growth based on the novelty of many of the new trends we uncover and expose to clients and the public who are less digitally inclined.

However the pace of the maturation of the industry renders those novelties less impressive within days of their release. What this does is create a very unstable face value for the services we offer our clients.

Loading up on interns and junior talent is a way for smaller shops to keep salaries down and to infuse a youthful energy into the work that is being created, however it also perpetuates the vicious cycle that we tend to get trapped in.

That trap being lack of leadership, maturity and understanding. The elements that will hopefully help stabilize this industry and help form a solid foundation based on real strategy and ideas formulated to last.

With a stable creative and technology core and a leadership group of seasoned veterans who have been doing this from the very beginning, clients can be assured that they are communicating the right messages and that they are getting the most bang for their ad buck.

And not just some fly by night trend that will cause everyone to take three steps back every time we take one almost cool step forward.

We live in uncertain times. Things do not stop progressing and in many cases they accelerate during these times. However, there always seems to be a settling period.

The point in time when over inflated expectations come crashing to the ground and the humble and truly creative come crawling out from the ashes to help clean up the mess.

We seem to be embarking on this period now and while the smaller shops and larger agencies all compete for the same work it will be the real hybrids who come out victorious.

Kind of like Superman who is defeated by the very rock that formed his home planet, us ad folks sometimes become enchanted with our own poison.

We can sometimes becomes so caught up in nonsense and over hype that we fail to see the shaky ground that is under us.

This explains why there seems to be a renaissance of the old guard that helped start this industry coming back to reestablish its foundation. With a mixture of traditional creative know-how and a craftsman approach to introducing new technologies, without flooding the trend radar with over hyped copy-catting and pounding round pegs into square holes.

It is like a virtual Shaolin Temple of Flash masters who first saw this medium as a means to tell more engaging stories, people like Vas Sloutchevsky, Samuel Wan, Marc Stricklin, Chris Andrade, Gabriel Mulzer, Brian Limond, Pete Barr-Watson, Mickey Stretton, Josh Levine, Jessica Spiegel, Hoss Gifford, Manuel Tan, Amit Pitaru, Ross Mawdsley, Erik Natzke, Joshua Davis, Eric Jordan, Yugo Nakamura, Brendan Dawes, Adam Phillips, Billy Bussey, Anthony Eden, Aral Balkan, Moses Gunesch, Keith Peters, Colin Moock and many others who knew very early on that interactive multimedia was so much more than an over hyped and really technical mathematical and physics platform.

No one knew that it could very well be the demise of the traditional ad agency. But those early masters did see it as a new tool that if fully understood and integrated into the ad world, could change the landscape of communications forever.

So now we stand at a new frontier.

Everyone is stepping over the hill and we are collectively trying to figure out how to ascend the mountain that stands before us. Traditional is still holding the reigns but the grip is not as tight. Digital is frothing at the mouth waiting for the opportunity to take those reigns and lead the big brands to the top of that mountain.

We all struggle with various aspects of the business where the digital artisans and the number crunching traditionals all need to see eye to eye and communicate for the sake of the clients.

We need to have a moral and an ethical responsibility to step out from behind the curtain and to work side by side with our clients. This is accomplished by educating them in what we do and listening better to how they want us to help them communicate their messages without getting tangled up in the entrapping of trends and regurgitated ideas.

We need to address the economic crisis and figure out a way for everyone to come out successful and by doing this our young industry will thrive by us establishing a unified and glorious foundation.

Bowl of Cherries

The highly anticipated and extremely underwhelming Super Blow ads have aired and, at least in my circles, Monday morning is a time to review not the game but the performance of the ads.

The Super Bowl has become the stage where advertisers bring out the big guns and pay top dollar to impact their audiences' perceptions and purchasing habits.

Advertising is obviously the backbone of a capitalist society that thrives on consumption in order to keep the blood pumping through the veins of the public. This is something that we all know in the back of our minds and in accepting this lifestyle we combine our greatest yearly sporting event with an injection of marketing elixir that will ensure that our appetites for domain names and fast food are met throughout the course of the year.

Coke came out the big winner this year with a flurry of animation and visual candy featuring more natural and familiar subjects like grasshoppers, ants, ladybugs and bees trying to steal a sip of its bubbly, caffeinated goodness from a snoozing picnicker.

I felt that it was the most well balanced, socially conscience and refreshingly natural (in all its computer generated glory) spot during this years game.

In a pool of horny horses and horny domain name registrars, 80s cartoon movie revivals, the emergence of Hyundai as the economical choice of wheels and lots of beer and chips, there were two spots that really made me take notice.

The first would be the almost embarrassing pairing of the legendary Bob Dylan with the Black Eyed Peas front man Wil.I.Am. While the spot was well conceived and actually a nice juxtaposition of the "now and then", I felt that some of the comparisons were insulting to the greatness of those who have laid down the foundation for todays posers who eat from the fat that has been accumulated from the greatness of the pioneers of the past. It just didn't sit well with me, however I remember it on Monday morning so it must have been effective.

The second spot that stuck with me was a name I had not expected to see during the game. Pedigree ran a pretty well done spot for something called The Pedigree Adoption Guide, the VO says - "Maybe You Should Get A Dog?" - ...maybe you should get a dog, so you can buy more dog food? It was really the first time I had seen something like this during the big game. A dog food manufacturer telling people to get a dog... I will let that set in for a bit.

Coke remained consistent this year with some very cool spots that I thought resonated really well culturally. Avatar is by far my favorite spot from them this year. It is well written and spot on in terms of the convergence of digital into our culture. Its official folks! When Coke ads feature digital avatars and cute characters living harmoniously with humans, now you know that whatever it is you think is cool, is really cool.

In the second Coke spot named Heist we are witness to some more great computer generated life all pining to get a sip of some carbonated water, lots of sugar, phosphoric acid, fructose, corn syrup, caramel, color, natural flavors, and caffeine.

What else would "nature" want to drink?

In perpetual second place is Pepsi with some pretty lame and violent ads trying to sell men diet soda. Cheetos, SOBE, Gatorade and Frosted Flakes all rounded out the line up of the staples of the American diet.

Cars and tires made their perennial appearance this year with the usual disappointment expected from the diminishing auto industry.

My two favorite breakthrough spots had to be Alec Baldwin for Hulu which made watching TV on the web supremely better than watching TV on TV. The tag line? Hulu: An Evil Plot To Destroy The World, well done NBC!

The second had to be the Cash4Gold spot featuring none other than MC HAMMER and Ed McMahon pawning off all of their worldly possessions for some cash. The spot had that "dirty" effect rendering it cheap and lowly yet was obviously backed by some big bucks. I am not quite sure what to make of this spot, kinda sad that pawning is now big business.

I always try to put the entire line up into some sort of social perspective where I judge our great nation based upon what I see in these Super Bowl commercials.

This year it was obvious that the economy has taken a real hit. Jobs and food seemed to be the stress. What I didn't see was a focus on the new administration, looking towards the future, a chin up and a chest out attitude. I would have liked to have seen more of that kind of messaging to both ride and enhance the momentum of the recent elections and changing of the guard.

I think that the opportunity was lost and hopefully next years batch will be more optimistic and hopeful.

Le futur de la vidéo sur le Web est ici

Absolute genius! This is one of the very first sites that I have seen a really seamless and harmonious convergence of video and internet come together as one.

Finally a video website being treated as a website and not some awkward production.

Video and the web kind of had this weird junior high school awkwardness that made it endearing but held back how sexy the two can be.

The honeymoon is over and these two mediums have grown as one.

This is one of the few sites I have seen in a while that is truly a foreshadowing towards the future of productions on the web.

It feels right, its comfortable and flows so well.

Hats off to Emakina.

Originally saw this link on TheFWA.com

Check out the site here ---> click!

Completely Loaded

We live in the age of self promotion and personal branding. Everyone and everything is a brand, the brand you, the brand us, the brand them.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter have us scrambling each and every day to come up with a witty twit or a twitty wit or some contrived status update message pertaining to our current condition. We are at a new social impasse.

Our community here in Interactiveland is no different.

We are the specialists, we created this stuff. However now that everyone is a marketing expert, our jobs should be to take advertising off of the socioeconomic plane and blast it off into the astronomic so that we at least have some sort of gap between creative storytelling and selfless promotion.

Each one of us is a concentrated, jam packed, chock full o promotion.

We now live in the Digital Advertising Age. An age where our President is a web celebrity who won the election online. Our brands have all become mini celebrities creeping and crawling all over the internet. Everyday people have become micro-celebrities, choosing to display their lives, thoughts, ideas and neurosis online for all to see.

I am not sure if I was kinda loaded or perhaps just PRETTYLOADED when I first saw this new "curated" site by Big Spaceship.

Its a web site featuring pre-loaders, yep that's right, those annoying little buggers who sit there and remind you that you are either on a really slow connection or the load sequence on the site wasn't programmed properly. A little device conjured up to distract us from the fact that our instant gratification isn't being met as instantly as we like.

Right now it is simply a showcase of SODA members Big Space, Firstborn, Odopod and AgencyNet but I am sure they will let others play too.

I am not sure what I make of this contrived attempt at coolness through recognition of a small nuance that seems to not have gained its proper place in the 15 minute slot we call fame.

The preloader is sort of like the SMPTE color bars on a TV.

Its purpose is to serve as a waiting pattern while something else is happening in the back. Sure they can be cute, adorable, fun, interactive and they serve a very important role, however some things need to remain unsung, a hero in the dark.

Self promotion is a great thing. Trust me I am guilty of it each and every day.

Especially in the age where it is as important as breathing.

But in this case I would rather these four shops created those funny puppet characters that said those funny things and danced around the screen like they did when they were playing ping pong and foosball against one another.

I loathe watching preloaders when I come to a site and the thought of a site dedicated entirely to those nasty little buggers makes me cringe.

Good try Big Curator.

Maybe the next exhibition can be a tribute to the Form Field or a retrospective of the Send Button.

Busted

It takes a single moment.

A single incident.

A minuscule fraction of time to change a whole industry and turn it on its side.

The buzz has been rampant about the economy and the digital shift, the fact that agencies may or may not survive the transition.

All kinds of discussions about who is taking over the reigns of the ad world and so on and so fourth.

The chatter has finally come to a head and a major agency has been busted for over billing on digital work.

Leo Burnett in Chicago has just been ordered to repay the Army (of all clients) 15.5 million dollars.

Ad Age writes.

"Burnett was treating the work of its own internet unit as if it was performed by a third-party contractor, as well as inflating the costs of subcontractors it worked with, in order to increase its profits."


Tax payer money! In a failing economy and the client is the U.S. Army, can it get any worse?

Finally the veil has been lifted.

I can't even imagine how often this goes on all over the place. Clients are getting reamed for millions of dollars and subcontractors never see a quarter of that money.

For years traditional agencies have been paying digital shops fractions of what their clients expect them to spend on their projects.

Leo Burnett just took a really hard fall and the domino effect may ensue. We all kind of saw this coming but no one was sure when it would hit and how it would start but I think it has started.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of ripple effect this has on the industry and if clients will start to come directly to the digital shops for fairly priced work.

Home of The Brave

I started this new blog site so that I would be able to speak directly to a very special group of people.

The Interactive Producer is what I consider a new breed of media producer.

A hybrid of many talents.

Today's Interactive Producer is a maniacal cross between between Don Draper, Malcolm Gladwell, David Ogilvy, Sigmund Freud, Douglas Merrill, Adam Sandler and Mel Brooks.

In the film industry the producer is usually an executive of the studio often overseeing the financial, administrative and creative aspects of the production, though not technical aspects.

The role of Producer in the interactive industry is a true convergence of the creative and technical worlds, just like the industry itself is a convergence of so many different medias.

Many people confuse the role of Project Manager with Producer.

I will set the record straight right now, Producers are NOT project managers.

So what is an Interactive Producer?

The producer is the spark, he or she initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and manages schedules, budgets, hiring talent and overseeing deployment and PR. The producer is involved in all phases of the interactive process from idea, to design to development and on to completion of a project.

Being a Interactive Producer requires so much more understanding of so many different things.

The industry as a whole has witnessed the accelerated evolution of its talent. In less than ten years the one dimensional designer who lived in Photoshop now is required to have skills in Flash, 3D applications, some coding and video skills as well.

Legendary creative directors now wake up in a cold sweat just knowing that kids are coming out of school with a mastery of a number of disciplines that they themselves would never be able to catch up to.

The torch is definitely being passed in all realms of our industry.

The role of Interactive Producer has taken on its own evolution. It is being a business development specialist, a project manager, a team leader, clergy, friend, advocate, evangelist and mentor.

The voice of reason within the chaotic tumultuous and emotional process of hyper-creativity.

Someone who can weather the storm of a highly creative, super technical, below budgeted, ridiculously dead-lined, fast paced, ever changing, always evolving, super charged, late night... OK, I need not go on because if you are one of these people you already know what the hell I am talking about.

So on that note I will say welcome and thanks for joining me in this new endeavor, I hope to be a good resource and sounding board for our kind. I promise to keep each post relevant and insightful and I hope to make this blog as meaningful and insightful as I possibly can.

Check it out here <---

Digital Manifesto 2009

There is a custom that defies tradition, location, culture or religion.

It binds us as intelligent beings.

A custom that is not only a unifying thread but one that seems to be deeply ingrained in each and every one of us.

A custom that is totally instinctual, it permeates our character like the very cells that make up our physical bodies. Like migrant birds we naturally think of change every time our calendars reset.

This custom is a component of our primitive aptitude for survival and has been refined over many generations as our society has become more exacting and complex.

It is an impulse, a predisposed tendency that starts to ferment around the holiday season and it finally reaches its anaerobic conversion by New Years.

No matter what calendar you follow, be it the simplest of lunar positions or the most complex distinct interlocking Mayan calendric systems, you still have a start and an end to every year.

As we all take a huge collective deep breath and start our decline out of what seemed like a very long and tumultuous 2008 and head into the incline of what is a hopeful 2009 we should all tap into this custom and think about how we can all make the new year one of positive change.

The economy has always been a great catalyst for change. From the times of the famines of the bible to the Great Depression, the economy has always been a reliable agent of change regardless of how it swings.

In 2008 we were stung with some harsh realities about our perceived notions of social, political, environmental and economic sustainability and their ability to weather even the most bizarre of adversities.

It was the year that the threshold had finally given in, the world was thrown into economic uncertainty.

Politics and economics were the reality show of the year and history was made while the world watched it unfold, online.

One by one the largest financial institutions fell, the auto industry crashed and the curtain was called on the political stage. The rich were getting bailed out by the poor and the playing field was once again leveled for emerging ideas to take root.

Every single move was documented on the web by literally thousands of websites following every angle of the climate changes that took place in 2008.

In 2008 the combination of the environment, politics and the economy all played a huge role in how the web is now perceived and ultimately was more embraced as the preeminent platform in today's social and business worlds.

History is a rerun and you learn something new every time you watch.

The Great Depression was a time that can offer us some unique insight into the power of brand advertising during times of economic crisis. It represents the plowing of the field where the soil is turned for new seeds to grow.

Our own recent history has proven that during times of economic uncertainty, brands that maintain creativity and innovation in advertising during these hard times actually help to maintain the morale of the nation and come out even stronger on the upswing due to "hangin in there" and sticking with their consumers through good times and bad.

What I find personally fascinating is that the very nature of this kind of dedicated and innovative advertising during the Great Depression actually accelerated the growth of radio broadcasting and print media, today we are seeing a similar effect where the web has now been thrust into the spotlight and is the new field of advertising innovation.

The impact of the economy on our industry is more relevant than ever and we are seeing the absolute accelerated shift of both advertising and entertainment making their primary homes online.

Its difficult for me to look at things in such a negative light when so much good is coming out of these hard times. There is a concept in mysticism where the current good must be destroyed in order for a better new good to emerge.

2009 is going to be the year of that emergence.

So for 2009 my own personal business resolutions are to keep evangelizing our wonderful medium, to help educate and inform our clients as to how to best understand and use the medium to its fullest potential.

To help brands understand the value of a smaller agency that will think digitally and provide more bang for the already tight buck. To continue to help to bring innovative ideas and to push the limits of the web.

To help build better relationships and help to establish our industry as a cohesive unit and a powerful social voice that is more intelligent, responsive and community driven.

To be part of something big and help contribute to that on my own small level.

My main resolution for 2009 is to really embrace and appreciate the times I live in and acknowledge the fact that I am lucky to be a contributor to an industry that is emerging as the global social media platform.

In the words of my favorite writer Henry Miller,

“Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Noble Warriors

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARIAN GROUP!

You guys are the leaders of the pack and a true example of success. Our industry is so convoluted in terms of proper definition and roles but you guys embody what this industry is all about.

The perfect hybrid between ad agency and digital shop, creative genius and technological minds, social visionaries and digital dynamos!

TBG is all of that and then some.

TBG has redefined what advertising is all about. You have helped reshape communications for the new digital age and has helped all of us achieve what we all are so passionate about.

A Barbarian is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage.

In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.

Take all of those attributes and focus them towards the absolute positive and passion for everything digital and what your left with is the ideal "noble savage" for the industry.

What better way to celebrate than to be named Creativity's Digital Company of The Year!

THANKS BARBARIANS!

True Love

Digital production shops Big Spaceship and Firstborn unveiled some healthy competitive spirit today with a very funny takeover of the Big Spaceship site by Firstborn.

The two shops engaged in some foosball, basketball and ping pong to celebrate the holiday cheer that is permeating the air.

Putting design and development prowess aside they competed in some physical competition that gave Firstborn the bragging rights to the phrase "We Sank The Ship".

The result is a rather hilarious depiction of the top dawgs at Big Spaceship in caricature shooting out some comic lines that I thought was pretty funny.

Its nice to see some inter-industry camaraderie amongst competing shops to liven things up a bit. Healthy competition creates a good feeling all around.

Some Change

Change is the moniker of our generation. We no longer classify our times with the single letter X or Y.

We have grown past the one dimensional descriptions that limits us to a single marketing demographic.

We are now about change. Change is good. Change is a modification, an adjustment and in some cases even a revolution.

Today, one of the the oldest ad agencies still lingering, a throwback to the days of scotch and cigarettes, JWT (founded in 1864), has made an announcement.

Typically when ad agencies make an announcement its heard "round the world" because ad agencies are designed to be the loudest voice in the room.

Its what they do, they advertise. So when a directorship position is announced, especially one that oversees a world wide operation, its pretty big news.

These announcements are typically saved for creative directors or the traditional roles that have made up ad agencies since that founding year of 1864.

However today marks a notch in the belt of a new age. It signifies the recognition of the tectonic shift that has been taking place in the ad industry over the last few years and it has also signified the rapid change that is taking place everywhere.

The Digital Revolution.

Joe Mandese over at Online Media Daily writes:

"With the pomp and circumstance that it might have announced a new creative director in days of old, one of Madison Avenue's best known full-service ad agencies, WPP Group's JWT, this morning announced that David Eastman has been named its worldwide digital director, responsible for the strategic oversight and management of digital advertising campaigns within the agency, and all its subsidiary companies. "

This paragraph so succinctly states that what "was", now isn't, and what "is", is.

The words World Wide Digital Director reads like music to my ears.

Its a recognition that digital has fully arrived and is here to stay.

That the digital revolution has overcome the traditional resistance and assisted by a faltering economy and the rapid advancement of technology, is becoming the main cog in the advertising and entertainment machine.

Upon anointing this new royal appointment, Sir Martin was quoted, saying:

"I think there is a little bit of a misunderstanding over our digital businesses," Sorrell told analysts, investors and journalists attending UBS' Media Week conference in New York this week. He said that digital marketing services now account for about $2.8 billion of WPP's revenues, or about "23% of group revenues," and said that WPP currently is about "three times the size" of its next closest agency competitor - Publicis - in terms of "digital prowess."

This is going to really change the landscape in terms of who will be left holding the reigns.

Bravo Sir Martin, Bravo!