A lot going on in the office this week;Â multiple on-going projects, post production editing, the big move to our new office and sprinkle in some sub-90 degree heat for good measure.
On the occasions we do step out of our air conditioned office and into the summer heat, we like to check out the construction of the gigantic billboard on Park Ave. Usually, billboards aren’t really blog worthy topics, but we really appreciate the hand painted ones, which are a dying breed (as everyone has gone to vinyl).
The short documentary Up There from the Ritual Project does a great job telling the story of the men and women risking their lives above city streets to keep one of New York’s oldest traditions alive, hand painted advertisements.
If you had the chance, what would you paint? Do you think billboards can be art?
It’s starting in Amsterdam. Touted as being a city with respectable and creative ad agencies, ‘Dam is leading the pack with doing away with the traditional 30 second TV spot.
Over the past decade there has been an evolving transition from TV commercials to internet video ads. With the internet medium, there are no limitations with time, content, etc. There have also been some examples of TV commercials that break the :30 rule. Recently, in the midst of the World Cup hooplah, Adidas has aired a 2-minute commercial spoofing a scene from Star Wars, including Snoop Dogg as Luke Skywalker, and David Beckham narrowly escaping murder.
Some brands have used a lengthy broadcast to their advantage, by airing episodic commercials throughout. In between TV shows, there was a love story to follow. One of the more successful examples of this was back in the 90′s in England, in a campaign for Taster’s Choice coffee. Two British actors starred in a love story centered around their passion for the coffee, and was a fairly successful and memorable campaign in the UK.
The death of TV commercials would likely mean the death of TV as a whole.
Bottom line: the traditional 30 second TV spot is on its way out. With the internet, there are many more opportunities, and options, as far as interactivity goes, etc. The obvious drawback to this is that people will only be viewing/engaging with the content if they so choose. The good thing about TV (at least, before TiVo and DVR) was that if you were watching a TV show, the commercials were there. However, with the rise of DVR and Hulu and whatever other commercial-escaping capabilities, the TV commercial is becoming less effective and irreverent.
Do you think the traditional 30 second TV ad is on it’s way out?
Is the internet the venue of the future?
How might mobile technology not only come in to play, but change the game?
Nearly two weeks ago, Mini released a video on Facebook and YouTube calling out Porsche in a heads-up, David vs. Goliath race.
Mini Cooper S VS. Porsche 911 Carrera S – a difference of 200HP and $65K.
Jim McDowell, Mini North American chief (and former Porsche exec) lays out the guideline.
Mini, who is no stranger to clever advertising, created an extensive campaign around this throwdown, through Facebook e-petitions, a full page color ad in the New York Times and even rented a plane and flew a banner reading, “Dear Porsche, Bring it! Love, MINI,” over Porsche’s North American headquarters.
Days passed as Mini and automotive enthusiasts alike waited for a response. Blogs buzzed, online car communities roared, tweets echoed and Facebook e-petitions and e-signatures exploded – the conversation was thick and the automotive community held their breath as they waited for a response. People were tuned in. Will Porsche send out their best and play into Mini’s PR antics? What’s there to gain if Porsche does accept?
Finally, Porsche responds to the children at Mini.
While your challenge seems like a fun and lighthearted campaign, we’ll stick to racing the way we have over the decades. We welcome you at Sebring, Le Mans, Daytona or any other sanctioned race where there is more at stake than T-shirts and valet parking spaces.
-North America Porsche president, Detlev Von Platen
Owned.
Along with the letter, Porsche also linked them to this video.
This campaign initiated a ton of conversation, but has lost momentum since Porsche’s letter.
Hyundai, however, stepped in and joined the PR blitz with its own video challenge as they explained, “our driver’s a bit busy this week preparing to set the World Record at Pikes Peak… but July is looking good.” Mini’s response? None yet.
Yesterday, as the clock continued to count down on Mini’s Facebook page, it was still unclear where the campaign was going, or even if the event was still being held. 1 hour, then 20 minutes, then 3, then 00:00:00.
Nothing.
It was only till this morning did we discover the results.
Can you guess? Porsche came out to play, and Mini lost, big time.
Though a 2 second difference in laptime isn’t the greatest of margins, the embarrassing loss of losing a race Mini created, hyped and marketed was a great blow to Mini’s image. This campaign had tons of energy in the beginning, then completely flopped. Nice try Mini, maybe you can salvage your reputation with Hyundai’s challenge.
For those who fall anywhere between the range of addicted, to avid user, to occasional dabbler to social media news semi-follower, you’ve probably noticed that since the start of the World Cup on Friday, Twitter has had some serious issues staying afloat. World Cup fever appears to be too much for Twitter to handle. Trending topics are momentarily down, too, even when Twitter is up and running.
The ‘Fail Whale’ has become an all too common occurrence over the past five days, and with the World Cup lasting another three and a half weeks, can Twitter find a way to upgrade their capacity to be able to control the flood of tweets coming their way?
The World Cup buzz has effectively silenced Twitter.
Sports headlines at the beginning of the tournament read that the coach of the Netherlands team banned his squad from using Twitter during the duration of the World Cup, due to an incident. One of his players, Eljero Elia, was caught on streaming video apparently saying racially insensitive remarks towards Moroccans [though he later claimed it was directed towards a friend, an inside joke between the two]. As punishment, the Netherlands national team joins the English and Spanish teams on the list of teams not actively Tweeting.
I, for one, can’t help but see the coaches’ point. Just because the rest of the world has decided over the last few years to completely disregard any notion of a private life, why should their locker room be exposed to the world?
While this is merely a microcosm of the big questions regarding social media, the non-existence of private life, and the pros and cons of news immediacy through all things internet:
How do you think social media and World Cup will play out?
With its new Tea and Elixir line packaging, SoBe teamed up with Firstborn to create an online application that allows you to test out tattoos on an uploaded photo of yourself. The application can be found on SoBe’s website.
You can re-size, reshape, and play with other details of the tattoo on the picture you uploaded; a fun digital game. This was a cool interpretation of the idea of recreating a product’s packaging, or “reskinning,” as SoBe refers to it. The application allows you to download, email, or share the final image with your friends. By sharing these images on the web, the participants help market the product, by spreading the world on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
Here’s what people are saying about the new ReSkin application:
And, Andrew finally got the butterfly tattoo he always wanted…
With the HTC EVO, iPhone 4 and Droid Incredible just dropping on the market, it’s difficult to decide which smartphone to get. How about bringing it old school and dusting off that 2-way pager and training a messenger pigeon.
Mashable’s may have chosen the iPhone against the other heavyweight smartphones, but which would you choose?
From Bloomberg’s leaked e-mail address to the continually gushing BP oil rupture, this week has offered quiet the variety of headlines. Did I mention the World Cup started today? If you’ve been busy all week, no worries, here are some things you missed.
CF presents you, Feed the Beast | Week in Review.
Chamber of commerce says taxpayers should help pay for BP Spill Cleanup; GOP Leader agrees, then recants
AT&T security breach exposes 114,000 iPad 3g customer e-mails, including many top CEOs
Steve Jobs reveals the new iPhone4 at annual WWDC conference
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