Case Study: Scion + ATTIK – “United By Individuality”

In 2008, global creative agency ATTIK and Scion launched the “United By Individuality” branding campaign. The agency recently produced this case study encapsulation above. Links to additional campaign information appear below.

. Scion United case study on ATTIK.com
. Scion Samples case study on ATTIK.com
. United By Individuality campaign news release and materials
. United By Individuality campaign website wins “Site of the Day” from the Favourite Website Awards
. United By Individuality “Samples” campaign news release and materials

Brilliant directors: Shilo’s Evan Dennis

Director Evan Dennis and his fellow filmmakers from U.S. creative production company Shilo recently detailed their artistry in creating this engaging new broadcast/web spot for Mountain Dew’s new Green Label Art Shop Series campaign. For this all-star project, Evan worked in close collaboration with creative director David Hohman, art director Campbell Hooper and their colleagues from integrated marketing agency TracyLocke to create compelling content authentically supporting Mountain Dew’s innovative campaign and the phenomenal talents assembled. Read more

NYC, where will you watch the World Cup?

With soccer (er, football) now reigning as our planet’s most popular sport, beginning tomorrow, the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will take center stage as its most prominent sports event. According to Jeremy Hollister at creative ideas studio We Are Plus, as a tribute to New York City’s vibrant international diversity, World Cup fever is greater there than nearly anywhere else in America.

We Are Plus is applying the power of social networking software to tap into this native enthusiasm with its World Cup Game Finder, a free mobile app — now available at iTunes — that helps NYC-based fans find local venues screening games featuring their favorite teams, and offering the easiest way to find the best spot in the city to join your fellow fans and support your favorite team. For more information, please visit www.nycgamefinder.com, and please help spread the word!

Shilo goes theatrical in new film for “FELA!”

Theatrical industry new media advertising/marketing company Art Meets Commerce recently commissioned the filmmakers at creative production company Shilo to produce a broadcast spot for the landmark Broadway musical “FELA!” as part of their integrated campaign for the show. Read more

MVP of Communications: Your friend, Twitter

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Setting the stage for your phenonemal event…

Fast Company Magazine’s Elizabeth Svoboda put together a really fascinating story on San Francisco-based multimedia design lab Obscura Digital in the July/August 2008 issue, and you can check it out in all its vibrant glory by following this link: Obscura Digital’s High Def Projections. Another really interesting, video-laden piece on this unique company from July, written by Kara Tsuboi, appears on CNET’s newly redesigned site here: Video: The swirling, surreal world of Obscura Digital. As Kara writes in her piece, ” Read more

How to ace your next speaking gig

It seemed to work out pretty well for Sir Isaac Newton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Stephen Hawking, among many others, so I hope you won’t mind me metaphorically standing on the shoulders of giants in presenting this MarSciTechtainment entry. This week, I am returning to one of my favorite thought-leading sources — Rohit Bhargava — to share his advice on how to stand out as a conference or tradeshow speaker. His blog entry on this subject provides a more substantial foundation and exploration of the topic, so if this is of interest, I highly recommend you check that out. In the meantime, I hope my spin on his tips will help you stylishly, effectively woo the next crowd you face.

1. Be real. In the forthcoming book entitled NoiseFive from my clients at global creative and brand-engineering agency ATTIK, one of my favorite pieces of hard-earned advice contained therein is this brilliant little pearl of wisdom: Don’t try to be something you’re not, or it can cost you your business.

2. Keep it simple and focused. Ensure that attendees walk away from your presentation knowing exactly what your point was, do it in a conversational, respectful way, and hit your points in the fewest words necessary. (Period.)

3. Down with bullets. Rajit references Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen in urging us to use visuals to make points instead of bullet points.

4. Engage the audience. Questioning the audience during your presentation enlists their attention (know what I mean?). Inviting their questions deepens the shared experience. Greeting them afterwards can pay off in ways you’d never imagine. Another simple but effective trick I have picked up is to intentionally scan the faces in the crowd from one side of the room to the other as you speak, so that attendees know you’re making an effort to personally communicate with each of them.

5. Before leaping, listen. Rajit builds a strong case for ‘talking last’ as a panelist. Deftly tying together others’ points in making your own is an excellent way to maximize your speaking appearance.

PowerPoint love à la Japanese chatter…

You may be familiar with the expression which says that nothing worth doing is easy. That nicely sums up my experiences over the past several months which have finally led to the publication of this blog entry on the subject of the new-ish social phenomenon uniting people in major cities around the world to share… their… slideshows. Yes, it sounds like a concept whose ship sailed long ago, but two very bright architects in Tokyo named Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein have brought it into vogue, by holding festive shows-and-tells where individual presentations are strictly limited to 20 slides, with 20 seconds to talk about each one (meaning you’re up and back down in less than seven minutes flat). Named for a term which reportedly translates in Japanese to mean ‘chatter,’ you may be surprised to learn that pecha-kucha night offers cosmopolitan convergence in one cool hotspot or another virtually every night of the week. To find out where, check-out the calendar at pecha-kucha.org.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEA8uxieuR8]
I was turned on to this subject after reading about it courtesy of Daniel Pink in last September’s Wired Magazine. For his piece, Daniel crafted his own very interesting entry, and inspired me to do the same. Truth be told, it has taken me this long to put mine together, and even now, I see that tweaking remains in order. Anyway, I have wanted to share this development here for some time, and even in its current state, this particular Powerpoint of mine winds up being pretty meaningful to me. As such — at least from my perspective — it delivers on one of the widely reported benefits of this new version of open-mic night: word is, the time constraints are likely to turn even the beastliest presentations into beauties. I hope you fancy it as well.

The brands and messages behind this year’s historic Super Buzz…

Yesterday Fox reported that more than 107 million people tuned in to watch its broadcast of Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, making it the most-watched Super Bowl in history — and positioning the NFL’s Super Bowl hands-down as the world’s most-watched television programming of modern times. Voluminous media coverage before and after the game informs us of the exorbitant prices that brands pay to tie-in their marketing — and of their successes and failures. Today I wanted to share two different lenses into the companies who boldly ventured into this year’s Super Buzz.

First, I encourage you to visit a story written by Dorian Benkoil for the Jack Myers Media Business Report, which reports on “Super Bowl Websites: Winners and Losers.” Since most of this year’s much-hyped ads were designed to drive web traffic, Dorian’s analysis provides an interesting quick-read on the bottom-line results of this year’s Super Bowl marketers, while also providing the links (where available) to go see what the shouting was all about. And next, in the event that you somehow have missed the ads themselves, Advertising Age’s Super Bowl XLII coverage has them all available on-demand, along with the news-worthy highlights from the events surrounding the day that the New York Giants defied expectations and upset the all-but-perfect New England Patriots.

Bootcamps for both sides of your brain…

Today I discovered The Professional Network Small Business Resource Center, a truly amazing site from Nielsen Business Media offering tons of up-to-date information on starting and operating a business. It’s hard to imagine a richer underlying resource for this information, considering NBM’s trove of market-leading trade magazines covering entertainment, media, marketing, retail, travel, professional performance, real estate, design and healthcare, its numerous directories and business-to-business products, plus events, conferences, and trade shows. Among the Small Business Resource Center’s offerings, I learned about a free full-day Interactive Marketing Virtual Conference and Trade Show from Adweek Media set for Tues., Oct. 16, on the subject of “Staying Ahead of Technology – And Your Competitors.” The presenters include leading journalists from Adweek, Nielsen, Brandweek and Mediaweek, plus many other VIP luminaries. Click on the event’s title for full info and to register.

On Nov. 15, after you’ve dialed-in the latest technological innovations, you might also consider attending what media sponsors Advertising Age and Creativity refer to as Bootcamp for your Right Brain: The IDEA Conference 2007. Register by Oct. 16 to save $100 off the admission fee ($575 after that) and plan to reap scores of business-driving new ideas in the course of networking with some of the business world’s most provocative innovators. Put it all together and you’ll have a brilliantly productive and heady holiday season, and a high-power launching pad for the 2008 of your dreams. Ready set? Go!