Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

For National Geographic / Discovery channel-types or for those of you with inquisitive kids – here's an ambitious project to immerse visitors in all of the species of Organisms on Earth, coming in 2008:
 
http://www.eol.org/
 
“Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity”
 
Watch the video – starts out slow but they give you a nice preview of what is to come including some nice integration with Google Earth and an interesting means of traversing the nodes of a genus/species evolutionary classification tree.
 
Tomas Roldan

For all you Homer Simpson fans who've been craving a pink-frosted Sprinklicious doughnut, this is for you.

7-Eleven partnered with Twentieth Century Fox this past weekend and agreed to alter the identity of 11 convenience stores across the nation to promote the forthcoming "The Simpsons Movie".
 
The stores were converted into Kwik-E-Marts, stocking products made famous by the show such as Buzz Cola and other Simpsons favorites.  Employees wore uniforms with the Kwik-E Mart logo, and said "Thank you, come again," to customers.
 
This unique gorilla marketing idea did a great job engaging loyal fans of the show, driving them in droves to the convenience store to clean out the shelves of all items “Simpsons” as well as hyping the movie release.
 
Read all about it here. 
 
More store photos here.
 
Henriette (Cohn) Anapolsky

At the time of this writing, a search of ‘Jeep’ on Flickr.com yields 99,794 results. That may seem rather inconsequential when you consider the volume of user-gen photography on Flickr, or the entire web for that matter. But consider this - that’s 30K more than if you search ‘Toyota’ or ‘Coke’; 50K more than ‘Nike’ or ‘Chevy’; 80K more than ‘Scion’. I think our strategy folks say it best…”Jeep people don’t collect things, they collect experiences.”

There are, of course, more scientific ways to measure brand affinity, but our search query test certainly helped in showing the client that the Jeep brand mojo is very much alive and well in the world of user-gen, social media. Whether its Youtube, Flickr, Myspace or any other place on the web where people share experiences, Jeep owners distill the brand down to its very essence, celebrating one simple truth – these are fun machines, for fun people.

Our partner agency, Cutwater, has tapped into that fun mojo with the new brand campaign and tagline, “Have fun out there. Jeep.” And in collaboration with Cutwater, the Organic Jeep team built havefunoutthere.com, the tip of the iceberg in what will evolve into a long-term, social media party where everyone is invited. Later this Summer, Phase Two will launch with expanded reach into more social media properties, more user-gen interaction and more of that Jeep mojo.

By the way, after an hour of writing this post, ‘Jeep’ results on Flickr are now at 99,872.

Happy 4th of July! Hope you're out there having fun and collecting the experiences!

Adam Wilson and team
 

If you have an interest in mass psychology and the power of advertising,  this is a remarkably eloquent and epic 4 part series from BBC 4 and director Adam Curtis which explores the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis and Edward Bernays’ PR techniques in shaping western mass media, politics and consumer culture.

If you can look past the dark and ominous veneer and sit through the 4 one hour segments – it will provide some truly  relevant back story for anyone involved in the advertising industry  and especially those that use powerful empathy tools like personas. 

More details of each episode below ...

Here's a collection of images that reflect individuals and events that have changed our World.

(Warning: several are pretty dark reflecting the dark nature of mankind.)

When you look through these, you're reminded of how truly powerful a single still image can be - how it can capture and convey an idea and tell a story.

Worth remembering in today's broadband-enabled, immersive experiential world.

David Feldt 

Usually airline online experiences or airlines for that matter are not known to make us laugh and we rather hurry along, do our business of booking and leave. However, Jet Blue recently teamed up with 20th Century Fox as one of several co-branded sponsors of the upcoming Simpson's Movie.  Early this week we talked about the Kwik-E-Mart/7 Eleven promotion, and you can view all of the participating brands at See Yellow.com .

However, for me, Jet Blue truly took a gamble and their site is, as Mr. Burns would say "excellent":

http://www.jetblue.com/simpsons

Not to start a flame war with rabid Apple fans, but I'm wondering what the opinion of the collective mind is regarding this article posted on Engadget about close similarities between various Apple advertising campaigns and works from uncredited artists.  Examples cited included Louis Psihoyos' video installation wall (bottom photo, vs. the Apple ad above) and a shot-for-shot recreation of a music video from indie band Death Cab for Cutie.
 
I don't think anyone can justly accuse engadget of being anti-Apple, with the way they gush over any Apple release.  I believe it is an honest gut-check on their part to publish the article, and put a spot light on Apple's "borrowing" of creative inspiration.

It raises a few questions, doesn't it? Is it an honest attempt to humanize the digital medium, bringing creativity to the environment?  Or is it disregard for the artists themselves?
 
Personally, in the case of using artists work without actual sign-off from the artist, I wonder if Apple is a victim of their own success.  As companies grow and expand (rapidly!) there tends to be a wider and wider gap between the hand doing the negotiating and the hand creating the campaign.  With launch dates and deadline looming, is it possible the creative and marketing teams at Apple simply could not afford to wait on the negotiation with the artist to be finalized - to the point that when negotiations faltered the cost already incurred far outweighed the implications of reworking the campaign from scratch?  At that point, of course, the decision no longer lies with the creative or marketing teams - can they really be held accountable?
 
What do you think?
 
Tim Willison

Our Warner Bros. team in SF worked on the advertising campaign to promote the upcoming International release of the fifth Harry Potter film.
 
In this spellbinding tale, Harry, Ron, Hermione and their friends fight two battles: one against Dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters and another against Hogwarts oppressive new Headmistress, Delores Umbridge, and her band of snitches.  The excitement and fun of the school shines against the darker side of the story and the Flash experiences in our ads capture both aspects.
 
The online campaign is a mix of custom edited Video ads, Standard Flash ads (squeezed into 30k), along with the 30k “Proclamations” ad which allows you to print your very own proclamation from the banner. (In the film Umbridge’s Proclamations are an endless source of frustration and hilarity for the Hogwarts students). We also created an Interactive Expandable ad which allows users to explore the Ministry of Magic, interact with the characters in the movie, and download some goodies. And lastly, a Yahoo Overlay Ad which will start running on Yahoo Movies UK this week leading up to the movie release.
 
All the ads can be viewed at the link below. Congratulations to the team on an amazing collection of work!
 
http://awards.organic.com/HarryPotter5/

Celia von Bernuth 

Graffiti has always been stuck in a grey region between vandalism and art; personally I would argue the latter, but that is another story. Combined with the ease of digital photography these days, a new form of art has emerged termed “Light Graffiti”.

This process utilizes a long exposure and some form of light (LEDs, Glowsticks, etc.) - It's great for street artists since it is simple to execute and is not illegal, like its more tactile counterpart.

On a recent trip to Montreal, I saw some beautiful photographs in a gallery that utilized this technique. At first glance I thought the photographs were directly painted on or digitally manipulated. Check out some examples here.

Light Graffiti was recently used at www.sprintahead.com (a new campaign for Sprint by Goodby Silverstein.)

So if you're up for some experimental photography, try it out…don’t forget to have fun.

Joe Gamalinda 

HBO Voyeur is a collection of stories that play out through an interactive flash site.  You can watch multiple story lines at one time, and zoom in to focus on one.  Characters will move from one apartment to another, connecting their stories.  More than just that site, you can follow the “learn more” link where it leads you to some interesting info. 

It’s an experience from HBO that allows users to immersive themselves in learning the true meaning of the stories created.  Users are encouraged to search for the artifacts of the story which are strewn across the web, and cable (HBO, HBO OnDemand). 

Ultimately the “experience” is convergence of multiple media channels that make us question, why we like to watch.  

This is an example of how media companies are recognizing a pattern of the fragmented consumption of content/media and the direction they are taking to connect with us. 

I highly recommended that you check it out.

Chris Chavkin

Note once you have visited the main site, check out the blog here.

I was sent this article from the NY Times today about JC Penney's new approach to advertising and wanted to share it with everyone. After years of dull product-focused ads, the middle-market retailer is looking to create an emotional connection with the brand.

As a follow up to reading this I jumped around on YouTube to track down some of the new ads from Saatchi & Saatchi. I hadn’t seen any of them. I stumbled across this one which — in my opinion — is a masterful example of short-form storytelling. No prices. No labels. No consumer benefits. Just emotion.

The summation given in the Times article is a poignant statement about speaking to today’s savvy audience — regardless of medium: “There is one thing I have learned. If you are doing the same old warmed-over product-based stuff that everyone else is doing, you are wasting your money.”

I’m really looking forward to seeing what JCPenny does with the “flipped” Webisodes.

Scott D. Lange

Here are two great little security applications that attempt to simplify the online authentication process while making sites more resistant to bot and brute force attacks. Vidoop is a digital authentication system that eliminates the need for multiple and complex passwords. By making authentication dependent on image recognition and human cognition its creators have found a way to circumvent the need for traditional text-based passwords.

A Vidoop password is a sequence of image categories. If a user selects the categories “stereo, beverage, and boat” then that user will be required to select variations of those images, in that order, every time they log on. When signing on to a Vidoop enabled site a user is shown a grid containing a series of eight photographs with a single character overlaid on each image. By selecting the images that correspond to their predetermined password categories the user automatically enters a single use access code. Each time a user engages Vidoop the images in the grid are repositioned and repopulated with new variations. So, an image in the category “boat” may, at any given interval, be of a speedboat, a sailboat, or a canoe. The system may not totally hack-proof, but it beats having to remember several or more complex text-based passwords.

What makes Vidoop really interesting is its potential as an advertising platform. The images in the grid can be sponsored. So, for example, if the sponsor is an automotive brand every password that contains the category “car” will display a grid with an image of one of that brand’s vehicles.

Hotcaptcha is a similar, less sophisticated, visual authentication application. It is designed as a captcha alternative, primarily to prevent bot-run spam attacks. The images displayed in the grid are ported from the infamous hotornot.com. Users authenticate through the subjective process of selecting the three images of people that are “hot.”  It’s a fun idea that could be made commercially viable by opening it up to a sponsorship model like Vidoop’s. Above all, it’s better than having to read those wonky numbers.

Dan Neumann

It is a busy time in the online space – competition for top talent has never been as fierce as it is now, with many studios vying for the best and most creative minds.  This is not surprising, as there is a great deal of revenue at stake.  More and more it is becoming recognized that creativity is a chief contributing factor in the success (or lack thereof) of not just studios, but entire metro economies.  For an interesting discussion of the economic impact of fostering creativity, see Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida.

Here in Toronto, the results of an extensive investigation into fostering creativity have recently been released (imagineatoronto.ca) and support the notion that cities, and by extension companies, can live or die on their ability to seek out, and retain, top creative talent.  So how is it done?

1. Grow your own.  These days a company that does not have a viable continued learning program will die.  Unfortunately, too many companies see this as a problem they must throw money at to solve.  It is, rather, an opportunity that often requires a small amount of time investment over money.  Smart companies recognize mentors in their midst, and use their own people’s natural talent for teaching to great effect.  Learning programs should be extended to anyone in the company, including contractors.  Contractors represent the most viable source of talent for companies in a growth period – why not develop continued good relationships with them?  Continued learning is often an all-or-nothing proposition because it thrives on group spirit.  It is hard to have half of a company involved in continued learning.

User Generated Advertising – we’ve heard a lot about it.  From the natural expression of enthusiasm for a product (Apple) to more ham-fisted attempts by brands to get users to rearrange their assets into ads (Chevy Tahoe), user generated advertising is on everyone’s minds.  Now, it’s Al Gore’s turn.  Gore’s been on a roll for the last year, almost single-handedly keeping climate change on everyone’s mind.  Prius, one of the more annoying cars to drive, is now a status symbol for caring for the earth. 

Just short of one zillion people caught Kelly Clarkson at the Live Earth concerts talking about how easy it turns out to be to change a lightbulb.  Now, as Gore’s presidential awareness campaign continues, he has announced a competition, open to anyone at all, to create an ad campaign explaining global warming and calling viewers to action.  Whether donors are found to buy airtime or not, we can assume the winners will get a lot of play on news shows and YouTube. 

I admit I’m annoyed that the spots are all video.  Why leave out ad formats that work better online?  In announcing the contest – the unfortunate prize for which is a car (ok, a hybrid Toyota Highlander, but still) – he offered as a template a truly excellent ad that an environmental group in Australia did (http://www.climateprotect.org/ah12).  We can’t wait to see what people come up with, we’re big believers in user generated content.  But when this is the template people are asked to aspire to, the if-you-have-a-camera-you-can-create-content ethos is going to be put to a serious quality challenge.

Matt Rosenberg