June 2009
26 posts
Mos Def launches newest album in T-Shirt form →
tba:
(via notoriousnat)
In other words: Mos Def is releasing his record not as a non-rival, infinitely copyable group of digital files, but as a physical garment- something consumers generally can’t duplicate. This is an attempt to force a unity of object and content.
This is a good idea, because objects are a hell of a lot easier to sell than formless information.
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alternate reality games as an outreach model.
I’ve written about this on my old blog, but it’s worth revisiting in short, concise format. Background on ARGs can be found here, but I’m guessing anyone reading this can get themselves to a suitable level of familiarity fairly quickly.
Building a narrative is about building an experience that people can take where they want. If you do this with something real, rather than...
“The old means of control don’t work … “Fundamentally, the old media won’t...”
– Reuters Tells Olympics: Reform Media Rules For The Twitter Age | paidContent (via chartreuse)
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“I think selling out is pretty much a dead concept,” said the panel’s moderator,...”
– The Black Eyed Peas’ Target ad is an abomination. - By Seth Stevenson - Slate Magazine (via chartreuse)
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Gawker - Wired Editor Steals Content for Book... →
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“Crispin Porter Bogusky has totally “re-energized” the brand of Burger King, to...”
– Gawker - World’s Cleverest Ad Campaign Is Big Failure - Marketing (via catbird)
the endless battle between good and successful.
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Play with the Medium.
I’ve always argued that text is a visual medium, and drawing a line between it and images is a dangerous thing to do. I don’t just mean in terms of fonts or kerning, I believe that certain sentences just look better on the page than others. I think this should be a concern, whenever the interpretation of your sentences is a key issue.
As referenced in the last post I made, playing...
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New MSFT ads for Bing play with ad formats. →
Short version: MSFT buys 2:30 of ad time, and gives back the two minutes, extending the program. 30 second spot will feature fast-forwarding through commercials, TiVO style.
Great message, and more impressively, provides clear, appreciated value to anyone watching. it’s a pretty clear statement that Bing will help you cut through the crap, and get you back to doing what you want to do.
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paul isakson // everything can always be made... →
mikearauz:
From where I stand today, I think the days of getting by on great service are done. If I were a client, I’d nix the retainers and pay for ideas and execution of those ideas. I’d hire people and…
I feel like the transition to project-based relationships and ad-hoc corporations is going to result in better work, and a very different idea of ‘security’.
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“Oldsters tend not to get it. That the key to the lives of youngsters today is...”
– WWDC - Lefsetz Letter (via gcn) (via faithmight) (via chartreuse)
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Print Media and Online Content.
Newspapers are in trouble, in part, because they have devalued their own content.
If you sell short snippets of text, explaining the real world, putting that online seems like a no-brainer. Especially if the hardcopy offers a greater experience. But the issue is this: the experience isn’t so blatantly superior that the reader doesn’t think “you know, this is free...
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Addendum re: Branding.
I’m against the concept of Personal Branding, for a simple reason.
If you conceive of Branding as giving a product or company a personality, then Personal Branding is a sad corruption of that concept - turning a person into a shortlist of traits, too simple to be a person, to ‘clear’ to be trusted.
If you want to talk about expressing yourself clearly, demonstrating your value,...
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Branding [or Defining a Personality].
At the core, branding is about taking a company, and giving it a recognizable set of traits. Giving it a personality.
The important thing to note is, people with only three personality traits suck, regardless of what those personality traits are. Companies are endlessly complex things, and fighting hard to reduce them to something simpler than a single person is frustrating for everyone...
Brian Solis on the state of PR, Marketing and... →
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Sunday Evening Reflections.
I want to spend my entire life populating the space between product and narrative.
Where I find that perfect calm is in creating the experiences, the information and entertainments, that allow people to explore the world behind and around the things they use / love / desire.
Anyone who thinks creating something spectacular is the only part of creating something of cultural value either...
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“People don’t want to be told the truth. People want what they want to...”
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If you can't come up with a very compelling reason...
don’t. There are a massive number of free, versatile options that you should consider first. Is this a nice thing to say in these economic times? No. But, if you don’t offer a very compelling reason why your service is better than a free one, you were probably destined to fail anyway.
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Address the Issue.
The problem isn’t that the internet is killing print. Or that the internet is killing attention spans. The issue is that text, in short bursts, reads well online.
And so, instead of producing multiple types of content, newspapers either hid the stories behind a paywall (making them irrelevant) or posted them in full online (making a print purchase seem a little foolish). Does a...
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Advertising as Freedom.
(In reference the the quote posted immediately previous.)
Movies often fail creatively because, at core, they are designed to make money. This means that letting the creative forces have complete control is a massive risk.
Advertising doesn’t need box office impact. But it does need to be discussion-worthy, and it can be artistically valid.
Hire a genius. Let them work without any...
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“In this case, this isn’t an advertisement; it’s something else....”
– Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in 10Men magazine.
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Trust.
There are a lot of reasons to avoid mistakes. For personal reasons, my focus is on trust at the moment.
It can only be built over time, though action. It can be destroyed nearly instantly. Stepping outside of the pattern you’ve trained people to expect, doing something that violates the trust you’ve built, can’t be undone. Moving past it is infinitely more complex, because...