Following the post about secret clubs, posters like this have just started going up for Secret Sundaze (one of the original new wave of oudoor / warehouse parties).
It doesn’t get much more secret than that. If you’re smart you might be able to figure out the date. But you’ll need to know where to look (or how to search the internet) to get more…
But you know what, they don’t need to do any more. They’ve created a really really strong brand. From a very simple yellow and black identity with just an unfussy typeface they’ve manage to build something that has massive cutthrough in the congested flyposter space. When you see a confident yellow poster that doesn’t say much their followers know exactly what it’s for. They’ve build a brand thats understood enough by its audience that information on posters is merely clutter and distraction. They use their ads simply as beacons or reminders, letting other channels do the ‘heavy lifting’ of information: who the djs are, where it is, etc. Almost like the way the iPod ads work.
Digital agencies sometimes do advertising. But only a few of them call themselves ‘digital advertising agencies’. This means that we’re given permission to do lots of other things. If you work in advertising you are typically expected to do advertising. Clients come to you for advertising. They brief you to do advertising. And they expect advertising in return. The term advertising is loaded with baggage, heavy baggage that’s hard to get rid of.
The ad industry has been broken up and broken down so that direct response, in-store, brand identity and all those things are mostly handled by different people. ‘Digital advertising’ has historically been treated in the same way – it’s something that another bunch of people do.
We can see this changing all around us, as a new sort of re-integration is happening, a lot of it seemingly driven by the upsurge in digital focus and spending.
Advertising agencies are good at advertising, it’s what they do. Much better than most digital agencies and most digital advertising agencies too (if such a thing really exists). Arguably the skills you need to create digital advertising can easily be bought and seamlessly incorporated into ad agency process. Either by bringing the skills in-house or using digital production shops.
In this way the people and processes that produce big smart communications ideas can take over and squirt out great integrated / digital campaigns – just look at Crispin Porter – the no 1. ‘Digital Agency’ at Cannes last year. But of course, Cannes is all about advertising.
Personally I’m all too happy for Ad Agencies to get stuck in doing more advertising using more different kinds of channels. I’m just not convinced that the skills for producing great advertising are the same as the skills needed to do the kind of digital stuff that gets me excited.
So what am I talking about?
I think it’s my inner-inventor that loves the digital space. It’s not just about creating content, it’s about designing and building the platform that the content exists on too. As a crude example the opportunities afforded to us are like being able to invent how a TV works at the same time as shooting a film. Only the devices that are connected to the web are infinitely more powerful and more adaptable than a TV. Personally I think this mindset is quite different from a traditional communications mindset. Something we see all the time when we’re interviewing people.
And I’m not saying that advertising agencies haven’t done brilliant non-advertising things too, because of course they have, lots of them.
I was searching for “Sothern Trains” and I got this error from Google. Quite a surprise. Google is one of those services you expect never to give you an error. And when something odd happens it doesn’t feel like a brand letting you down. It feels like the internet’s broken!
Damn Google being able to use their own technology to be able to do something really really cool.
Google Australia is celebrating Australia Day 2007 by photographing Sydney Harbour from the air, and we want to make sure as many of us as possible squeeze into the picture.So when you see the Google branded plane flying overhead this January 26th, hoist a sign, arrange your family into a fun formation or just get a bunch of friends together to wave.
An interesting ‘moment’ in online advertising. BBH win Lynx digital account. To my mind Dare have done some really amazing online advertising for Lynx (Feather and Blow to name but two), and I’m really surprised that the account has gone elsewhere (if the story is to be believed).
In principle I agree with this quote from the article:
John O’Keeffe, executive creative director of BBH London, said: “A couple of years ago, we might have been at a disadvantage in a pitch like this, simply for lack of having the digital craft skills in-house. We now have that capability: whereupon this, and any other digital pitch for that matter, comes down to the same question that decides any such process: who has the best idea?”
But at the same time I wonder if this is really true.
Is it always down to the best idea winning out? Not really. Do BBH have great ideas? Undoubtedly. Do they have outstanding ‘salespeople’? Almost certainly better then most digital agencies.
I’m not trying to put forward the case for ‘digital agencies’ (interesting how I’m now feeling more and more compelled to use inverted commas around various parts of the term digital agency) particularly. However, something I’ve noticed recently is that the nature of our clients is changing. Whereas previously we used to sell our ideas into digital people, we’re now increasingly up in front of a mixture of digital and advertising people.
The way in which you pitch your ideas to these two groups are massively different. Online people typically want to see more of the ‘how we’re going to do it’, where as advertising people take that stuff for granted. You see an idea, it gets made. They’ve never been through the pain of cross-browser testing a complicated website. And they don’t care how it gets done. And maybe that’s the way it should be (for advertising).
My prediction is that we’re going to see a fragmentation of how brands operate online, there’ll be a bunch of people competing to do online advertising. And a bunch of people doing ‘other stuff’.
A glamorous urban sanctuary, WC1 is the world’s first one-million-pound powder room. It has been designed with impeccable hygiene and the pursuit of beauty in mind.
It’s more than just a loo, with a space to chill, high end beauty products and more. £5 for a relieving break from the city sounds like quite a lot, but I’ve been in situations where I’d definitely have paid double that before ;-)
I’ve always thought this is exactly the kind of things that brands should get involved with. And lo and behold… Asi writes about Charmin’s New York loo.
Someone mentioned to me that they were surprised by how much I hate Second Life, so I probably need to put the record straight. I don’t hate Second Life. In fact I love Second Life – above you can see my alter ego Taito Dahlstrom wearing his favourite grey leggings whilst having a great time in his favourite club Kittens.
I think Linden Labs have created an amazing piece of real Science Fiction. The fact that it’s got as big as it has, supporting an incredible virtual currency and giving such a huge amount of freedom to inhabitants is utterly astounding. From an academic and technological point of view it’s simply stunning.
The issues that I have with it are all around the way that it’s being used and abused by outsiders. And they’re the same issues I’d have with First Life stuff. If a big brand wandered into a small rural village and set up a mega-office without understanding the local way of life and the cultural implications of their actions, I’d be pretty pissed off too. But I gues if I was really bothered I’d do something about it in Second Life, just like the vocal activists are. Maybe as a voyeur and occasional dipper-in, I’m no better than a brand who isn’t properly involved either.
A brand going into Second Life feels different to setting up a website. A website has a kind of semi-physical presence, but it feels slightly different. Easier to avoid perhaps. Maybe it’s to do with the fact that a website doesn’t take up any space, I’m not sure how many atoms there are in a website, but I don’t think it’s many. A megamall in Second Life on the other hand feels like it has real volume. It’s been created with bricks and mortar, albeit virtual bricks and mortar. And therefore it feels like it’s made up of stacks of virtual atoms.
I think without realising it, I’ve just demonstrated why Second Life is so interesting. It raises all kinds of questions about the nature and value of virtual stuff. When I’ve talked to people about virtual services in Second Life (for example a virtual lapdance at Kittens) at first they’ve been really dismissive, then when they get their heads around it, they’re totally blown away by the idea.
And I think that’s the crux of it right now. The idea and the concept is so damn infectious and inspiring that creative people get really excited by it. But until you’ve hung around in there for a bit and realised how cumbersome it can be to do ordinary things in there, you don’t really get a feel for it.
Take for example listening to a presentation in Second Life (e.g. this interview with Chris Anderson (YouTube)). If you could take a seat in the hall (I’m very poor at even managing the basics like sitting down). Then manage to face in the right direction. You’d be subjected to reading a text based interview -v-e-r-y- -s-l-o-w-l-y-. And perhaps there is a feeling of presence, but for me, no more so than a live online chat. Currently the experience of this kind of thing is poor, and can be done better elsewhere in the digital space.
Which goes back to a point that I’ve made before, it seems odd to try to slavishly replicate real world ways of doing things, when you’re not constrained by the same set of rules. For example, in real life gravity is sometimes useful, but other times it can be such a chore. In Second Life, it’s up to you!
I’ve no doubt that online worlds like Second Life have got a massive future, I guess the question for me is whether it’s future is as an entertainment environment or an environment for communication and getting things done. Or once the technology’s good enough maybe my issues become null and void.
I love Second Life. And I love that it makes people think about digital and virtual worlds in new and interesting ways.
So I’m a bit biased, but I like this thought. Buy this Kettle Chips party box online for $19.99 which contains:
Five 5 oz. bags of People’s Choice chips, one of each flavor
“A Taste of Putumayo: Music for Every Palate” world music sampler CD
trivia postcards
voting ballots
food pairing ideas, drink recipes and a premium chip clip
Then you can go online at http://www.passporttoflavor.com and vote for your favourite of the 5 limited edition flavours with a chance to win a decent prize.
It’s maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but in terms of getting crisp lovers to get involved with new product development I quite liked it.
I’m a bit of crisp junkie as I’ve said before (even post the