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Forces for Good: Martin Luther King, Jr. (and you!)


MLK Jr. FamilyWhere I live, each year on Martin Luther King Day, groups of college students pay calls on local businesses. By the day’s end, they’ve tackled the hard work, raised funds, and/or made important impacts in countless, priceless ways. For anyone looking to connect with projects for MLK Day, nowadays there are many resources, including MLKDay.gov. Even in his absence, the one-of-a-kind visionary and leader Martin Luther King Jr. continues to set himself apart.

We are immensely grateful for the service of Mr. King, his father and mother Martin and Alberta, everyone in his family, and everyone giving what they have to keep his dream alive.

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eBay’s give-a-toy stores

Starting last Friday and for the next month, shoppers in New York City and San Francisco can use their mobile phones to purchase toys for children in need at two new interactive storefronts presented by eBay and Toys for Tots. The initiative conceived and produced by advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners features interactive displays created by international production company and design studio Brand New School (BNS) and its School of Interactive Media.

As reported by TheInspirationRoom.com, all web-connected shoppers can experience the Give-A-Toy Store and make donations online by visiting www.eBay.com/GiveAToyStore and www.Facebook.com/eBay.

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AICP Conference 2011



This week, The AICP Conference will unite prominent leaders from the advertising industry in New York City to collectively explore ideation, creative execution and the best practices reshaping the ever-evolving creative industry. Set for October 26 and 27, the must-attend event will directly address every major issue affecting the business of creativity.

Topics include a keynote address by Joe Pytka: A Look At The Past, Present and Future, and these Read more

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Thoughts for food

Blog Action Day occurs every October, uniting the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day to spark global discussions and drive collective actions. For 2011 it coincides with World Food Day to focus on FOOD.

If you’re interested in ideas about eating locally, I’m with you. Courtesy of my friends at HighCountryLocalFirst.org, check out the top ten reasons to buy local food listed below.

I also invite you to join me in sending a “click” to www.hungersite.com, where simple mouseclicks benefit vital causes each and every day… and provide real food to the hungry.

The above video introduces a new TV show entitled Food Forward. You can visit Food Forward on Kickstarter.com to learn more about this bold initiative exploring alternatives to current industrial food systems. Those behind it include “food rebels who are fundamentally changing the way we eat…” a vanguard of innovators including educators, scientists, farmers and chefs across America.

Finally, if you haven’t already done so, strongly consider joining Jamie Oliver’s food revolution! Read more

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More reasons to love San Francisco

Courtesy of Ad Age: Attend the Ad Age Digital West Conference on Tuesday, September 20

Ad Age’s premiere Digital event arrives this week in San Francisco, the city it calls “the cradle of the digital revolution, where search, social, mobile, and gaming are now redefining communications and marketing.” Bridging the gap between the technological innovation and active creation of new models and platforms on the West Coast with big brands and media looking to evolve and execute on their own internal visions for progress, Digital West promises to unite the marketing, media, and entrepreneurial communities in new levels of collaboration and innovation.

Courtesy of AICP: Attend The AICP Show and Next Awards San Francisco on the evening of Tuesday, September 20

The 2011 AICP Show, The Art & Technique of the American Commercial, hosted by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), premieres each year at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), before travelling on to high-profile venues across the United States. Artists from international production company Brand New School created the show graphics packaging shown above for this year’s 20th anniversary AICP Show, designed the visual identity system and presentation graphics for the Next Awards, and developed and programmed a thematically related, 40-foot interactive installation for the 2011 AICP Show AND Next Awards.

Courtesy of the San Francisco Egotist: Do something good: Support your fellow ad people/cyclists for a great cause.

Later this week, Fireflies will commence their six-day, 550-mile cycling ride, benefiting City of Hope hospital’s Leukemia and Lymphoma treatment and research for a cure. As part of the official festivities at Tuesday night’s AICP Show, the AICP will honor The Fireflies Ride at the AICP Show & Next Awards’ Autodesk Gallery. Fireflies riders — who have raised over $200,000 for charity over the past several years — will be on hand to provide information, answer any questions and accept donations on behalf of City of Hope.

Courtesy of BtoB: Attend BtoB’s Top Digital Marketer Awards on Wednesday, September 21

At this three-hour luncheon event, BtoB will name the Top Digital Marketer of the Year in the course of honoring 25 top digital marketers and engaging them all in discussions focused on how they are using new technologies to deliver extraordinary client results.

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Engaging and tracking

Linda Ong’s Advertising Age article last week suggested this: “Drop the Words ‘Relevance’ and ‘Authenticity’ From Your Marketing Lexicon; Culture Is What You Should Be Focusing On.” While I feel that most people probably need to do a better job of tuning into all of those areas, Linda makes many fine points for executive marketers, and I also really appreciate this comment from Denise Lee Yohn:

customer experience + culture = brand

relevant, authentic (and i would add differentiated) customer experience + strong culture = great brand

For businesses and business professionals, the proliferation of trackable communications occurring in real time is monumental, and most likely, moving forward, tracking, measuring and reacting to it will be essential to your success. Here’s a short list of social media monitoring services you may find helpful. To learn more about these and many others, please visit this meticulously organized Social Media Monitoring Solutions Wiki created by Ken Burbary and Adam Cohen.

Adobe SiteCatalyst
Alterian.com
BuzzLogic.com
Cymfony.com
Facebook Search
Google Blog Search
HootSuite.com
Nielsen Buzzmetrics
Radian6.com
Tinker.com
Topsy.com
Trackur.com
Trendrr.com
Trucast.net
Twazzup.com
Twitter Search

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Killer reels: Thornberg & Forester


The principals of award-winning design and production company Thornberg & Forester (T&F, www.thornbergandforester.com) recently announced that many of their 2010 collaborations with leading business luminaries received top honors at the annual PromaxBDA Conference in New York City. A playlist featuring all the award-winners is here.

Among its four 2011 North America Design Award winners is T&F’s own “Brand Video” which scored Gold in the Self Promotion category. Other Golds were presented for its collaboration with advertising agency BBDO for GE’s Advanced Imaging sponsorship of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in the Long Form category, and the firm’s 2010 GEL Conference graphics package, which won for Best Collaborative Effort. T&F’s original Green is Universal campaign for NBC won Bronze in the category for Art Direction and Design, Network/Channel Image Campaigns. Congratulations everyone!

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Pause Fest 2011 call for creative submissions

PauseMelbourne Australia’s pioneer digital festival Pause Fest is set to showcase the future of technology, art and ideas from 7 through 13 November, 2011. Since the event is being designed to foster sharing, networking and education, creative companies and agencies worldwide are being invited to submit projects for possible display. Read more

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Case Study: Dante’s Inferno

Last year at this time, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and studio Visceral Games released the epic video game Dante’s Inferno(TM). By meticulous design, the game’s extended marketing campaign also garnered a great deal of attention: Adweek’s Dave Griner reported that its $200,000 guerrilla budget yielded 47 million impressions. While this adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s world famous “Divine Comedy” neither broke sales records nor earned a great deal of critical acclaim, considering the scale, breadth and resourcefulness of the marketing efforts, I thought you might be interested in checking out the detailed recap from Griner, and a few other news stories linked below. For further reading: Read more

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Play games, get lucky in Canada

At this very moment, and running on through Jan. 23, executives from Toyota Canada are hosting thousands of visitors at their impressive displays at this year’s Montreal International Auto Show. There, fans are simultaneously playing the Scion Canada Augmented Reality (AR) Racing Game developed for Scion by global creative agency ATTIK and its project partner, North Kingdom. In the addictive, award-winning game, fans virtually “take the wheel” of a Scion and navigate it through a menacing cityscape, for fun, bragging rights among their peers, and more importantly, a chance to win a 2011 Scion tC Urban Sports Coupe.

Promotions for the game will continue at shows in Toronto, Calgary, Québec City, Vancouver and Edmonton over the weeks to come, elsewhere at various lifestyle events across the country, and inside Scion’s 45 Canadian dealerships. For more specifics, please visit
Scion Canada’s official Events Calendar
.


Meanwhile, for those Canadians who are snowed in or otherwise unable to catch these location-based promotions before the contest ends on April 25, the game is fully accessible online.

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