In life, it's far more common that action precedes thought. We learn by doing, and doing changes how we think about something. This implies that changed perceptions are often a result of changed behavior.
categories// Advertising, Branding, Community, Design, Interactive, Social Media, Technology
Move over 40 Under 40 recipients...(myself, included)!
These up and comers are making waves as Forbes’ 30 Under 30. From advertising to journalism, these young bucks are shaking up their perspective industries while challenging the status quo.
http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2011/30-under30-12/30-under-30-12_m...
Our clients are always looking at new ways to bring awareness of their business value and/or products to new customers. They hire us to think of out of the box ideas (and sometime in the box) to drive awareness and promote selection within their markets. So I love it when I see organic ideas like this one http://tinyurl.com/3pjrb7z pop up. The Greenwood-Phinney Chamber was working on a better way to market the neighborhood to bring customers into shops, restaurants and art galleries. So they are developing a website that is focused on promoting neighborhood businesses with a tag line "Do Phinneywood." In this day in age it's crucial for company's to be able to communicate who they are and why they matter in an effective and captivating way to their customers, online. It looks like the Greenwood-Phinney chamber gets that. Although the site is not live yet, I hope it will feature areas for people to post and make comments and potentially rate the businesses they frequent. At PBDH we've developed many organic sites (similar to what this one will hopefully be) that rely on realtime dynamic content from users/customers to promote the business they patron. It's paid off for our clients as I hope it will for this fabulous neighborhood!
categories// Advertising, Community, Interactive, Social Media
Captivating ad series by Ogilvy & Mather India. An awareness campaign executed as posters, standees and eDMs. Winter months are extremely cold for India’s poor — and street children and beggars are often overlooked or ignored. Clothes made from discarded newspapers, sacks and cardboard were created for the photographs to get attention and perhaps startle the viewer. The goal of the campaign was to receive about 3500 sets of clothing — but over 6000 sets of clothing plus significant contributions were received.
I led another workshop at School of Visual concepts on Wednesday, this time exclusively attended by 17 Starbucks marketers who came in from all around the country to attend (including: New York, Miami, Denver, San Diego, Indianapolis, Chicago), as well as a few from the Seattle HQ.
We were mainly talking about creative briefs, but there were some interesting discussions about how to set up great creative. And one of the themes that resonated throughout the day was about articulating key "tensions" that the creative work is then asked to reconcile. This is certainly true for the brand identity work we recently completed for Woodland Park Zoo, in which we had to create a mark that reconciles the tension between "conservation leader" (read: science-y) and "engaging experience" (read: fun). For us, the concept that reconciles that tension is wonder. And wonder is at the heart of the new identity. That sense of awe you get when you're allowed up-close access to a wild animal.
Here's another one we discussed in the workshop: the celebrated "Swagger Wagon" campaign for Toyota. The tension reconciled here, through humor, is between "embarrassing stigma" and "pure utility."
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sienna
Creative is the silver bullet that can solve what often seems to be unsolvable tensions. And a great creative brief can set that tension up, articulating it in a way that inspires killer ideas.
categories// Advertising, Branding, Community, Design, Inspiration
On Friday, I led a workshop at School of Visual Concepts on writing effective creative briefs. Like previous sessions of this popular workshop, there was an all-star crew of participants, this time from Starbucks, WSECU, Garrigan Lyman, Casey Family Programs, and new advertising agency Hey,.
We covered a lot of ground, including what I regard as the five most critical elements to include in any creative brief.
— The Big Picture
— Business Objectives
— Creative Objectives
— Audience Insight
— Competitive Landscape
These five, plus a single-most important takeaway the creative should evoke, form the foundation for any successful brief.
Many thanks to Starbucks' global creative team for their willingness to share their creative brief process. What often gets me most excited about these workshops is bringing smart people from different organizations together to discuss, collaborate and learn from each other. We don't get enough opportunities like that, so a whole day to focus and think critically about such an essential component of the creative process is always welcomed!
categories// Advertising, Branding, Community, Design, Inspiration
Donate in Brazil.
The PBDH holiday party was last Saturday, and Karl and Leslie have always funded cab fares to and from the event, which helps keep everyone safe(r). I'm even more thankful for this practice having seen the State of Victoria (Australia) Transport Accident Commission's 5+ minute anti-drunk driving TV spot, which is a 20th anniversary montage of the organization's campaign. [Note: I'm not sure which agency is behind this work; let me know if you find out.] Brace yourself, it's bold stuff. And consider that the State of Victoria's entire population is roughly 5.5 million, while this spot alone has been viewed on YouTube more than 9 million times.
Watch it. Be reminded why bold messages work (even if, in this case, they are a bit disturbing). And, most importantly, drive safely this holiday season (and the rest of the year while you're at it).
Just in time for the release of Harry Potter and a snowy Thanksgiving weekend... we've just launched an animated movie theatre ad for our client, North Cascades national bank.
The Unabomber manifesto is nearly 35,000 words. Ted is cranky and long winded! We wanted to explain our perspective with more brevity—and fewer explosives (none, actually). So we created this two-minute motion graphics piece, which is currently featured on our homepage. In two minutes, it outlines how we're different and why we believe that difference matters to clients.
Short videos are exceptionally effective at communicating ideas in ways that print cannot. Rather than Kaczynski-grade blocks of text, these videos often tackle complex subjects in ways that feel easy and effortless. A minute or two of watching and listening feels very different than reading 1,000 words in black and white. Plus, they're easily shared, especially through social media. These are some of the big reasons we've been doing a lot more of them lately. We've done multiple pieces for clients such as BECU and Teo. And we've got several more in the works right now. You can check out our entire online repository at Vimeo here.
But first, check out the digital short for our toughest-to-work-with client: ourselves.
categories// Advertising, Branding, New Work, Social Media, Technology
