Dice.com amazementariness from Barkley, Thornberg and Forester

Last year, advertising agency Barkley (www.BarkleyUS.com) collaborated with design and production company Thornberg & Forester (T&F) to create five theatrical spots for Dice (www.dice.com), the career hub for tech. As you can see in the YouTube Playlist embedded above, they all use a very distinctive creative and storytelling style to appeal to their audience.

When asked for his thoughts on the project, T&F creative director Frank Pichel began by asking, “When have so few pixels offended so many? Dice and the amazing agency, Barkley, really went for it on this campaign. Their willingness to push the boundaries of taste and amazementariness makes these spots the most highly discussed low-fi since the humble gif was animated. Gold, in my opinion.”

For more information on T&F, please visit www.thornbergandforester.com.

Shilo 2012

Shilo is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company integrating live-action and post production. The studio is internationally known for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary. Shilo’s deeply held passions for design-infused storytelling and innovative application of live-action, design, and animation techniques deliver breakthrough experiences for advertising in all its forms. From its studios in New York and California, where recent projects have spanned commercial, interactive, and entertainment production, Shilo has the capacity and experience to originate ideas and handle all aspects of production.
Shilo curates the blog www.WeMakeItGood.com. For further information, please visit www.shilo.tv.

Stepping on stage

I’ve never pictured myself performing in front of a live audience. After all, I’m not an actor, musician, or lecturer (not yet anyway). However, last week in Nashville, my perspective was turned on its head. In this case, the stage was the Frist Center and the performers (if I can call them that) were two authors focused on creative service firms, David C. Baker and Blair Enns. They spoke of the dynamics of successful relationships between firms and their clients or prospects. Most importantly, when initiating new business. Read more

2012 ReCourses New Business Summit

On January 25-27, I had the pleasure of joining nearly 100 other professionals representing dozens of creative services firms in Nashville to attend the 2012 ReCourses New Business Summit (NBS). Hosted by ReCourses principal David C. Baker, and Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching, the event’s subtitle reads, “Using Your Positioning for More Reward, Impact, Control, and Fun.”

When it was all over, I asked many of my fellow attendees to provide two words that best describe their takeaways from the event, and the word cloud embedded above reflects their input. For anyone who has not spoken with me or others about our remarkable experiences at the summit, this provides quick insight into its powerful impact.For a bit more background, Read more

Super Bowls past and present

Last week, Hulu introduced its Hulu AdZone, which is presented by Toyota and offers easy access to historic Super Bowl ads extending all the way back to 1973. For the project, Hulu invited Advertising Age to highlight celebrity cameos and present expert picks for the most iconic Super Bowl ads of all time. On Sunday, February 5, tune in to www.hulu.com/adzone to watch all of this year’s ads in real-time, share them with friends and vote for your favorites. The best ad of 2012 will be announced early the next day.

On a personal note, I’m hoping for a well-matched battle between New England and New York, and I’ll also be watching for the first-ever Super Bowl spot for Lexus, which is one part of a multifaceted campaign effort produced by my clients at ATTIK. ATTIK’s work has made high-profile Super Bowl splashes in the past, to include their bold logo for Super Bowl XLIV itself just two years ago. Here’s wishing much success to everyone involved in what is sure to be one of the top media events of 2012!

Sharing Secrets: Public Relations Expertise

The publishers of Brand Republic, the UK’s leading online destination for people working in the advertising, marketing, media and communications industries, offer an editorial on their website entitled “What’s the secret of a long ‘marriage’?” In that, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO chief executive Farah Ramzan Golant offers these wise words: “The key to long-term client relationships is constant reinvigoration…. You should constantly be looking at how you can do things differently, keep freshening the account teams and stay ahead of the game.” As a PR practitioner providing ongoing, dedicated counsel to a small roster of clients, I firmly believe in these vows, and back in December, I participated in an enlightening webinar hosted by Vocus and presented by PR industry thoughtleader Deirdre Breakenridge, who is the author of “PR 2.0” and “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Entitled “Eight Techniques of the New PR Champion,” the knowledge and insights Deirdre shared really blew me away. Read more

CES 2012 Spotlight

Every year, the International Consumer Electronics Show unites tens of thousands of consumer electronics industry leaders, journalists and fans in Las Vegas, and most major news outlets mount impressive campaigns to cover and analyze the most interesting new products, developments and hype. While I have yet to attend a single CES, I do follow much of the news that comes out before, during and after the festivities. Now that CES 2012 is behind us, here are a few highlights I thought you might appreciate. Read more

Primer for the new year

For me personally, this is the time of year when business takes center stage after many weeks of relative inaction. In my experience, strategic focus is essential at this moment in order to maximize the best opportunities while also understanding all the real imperatives of success and ensuring they are given top priority today and tomorrow.

Fortunately, I have many wise, experienced friends and counselors who have provided a virtual MBA of priceless information, motivation and inspiration over the past few weeks for free. Here are six links I feel are very likely to help your upcoming actions soar in the right directions. Some lead to articles, some to eBooks; each is highly recommended. Read more

Leviathan’s magical holidays

This spot for the Illinois State Lottery was produced by Energy BBDO in Chicago, directed by Dom Bridges of Bob Industries, and features visual effects from design-focused production studio Leviathan. As Leviathan’s Jason White recently explained to SCREEN Magazine:

“We appreciate this engaging story. Something we can all relate to. Effective and emotive. We really got behind the aspiration of the spot concept – capturing these amazing gift revealing holiday moments.”

Today, White and his colleagues reported on their very successful 2011 in SHOOT Magazine. Here’s wishing you many magical moments and dreams come true over the days ahead.

Needham Rising

This has been an eventful year for everyone at global creative agency ATTIK, including its co-founder and executive creative director Simon Needham. The San Francisco Egotist is currently featuring a brief article Simon contributed entitled, “What I learned this year.” He also shared some career advice with the publishers of Creativepool.co.uk back in November in this ‘5 minutes with Simon Needham‘ article. I thought you might also enjoy the in-depth video interview embedded above. From ATTIK’s humble origins in northern England, Simon’s obviously come a long way, and he has many exciting developments shaping up for 2012 and beyond. For more information, please visit www.attik.com.