Elizabethan Days Modern day storytelling is my younger daughters claim, now that she refers to her business as Elizabeth Blue Illustrations. How tell a story about a young woman who seems perfectly happy and together? Where is the conflict? What issues need be resolved? Farmer's wife idea of farming Pork rocks Years ago, Elizabeth came up with a sketch of a death head with crossed spade and pitchfork. Last year she married a fine young American, Douglas Courier and became the farmer’s wife. Organic farming is perhaps the most inventive of todays super businesses. love.hugs.kisses Your Father

Misty Waters. In the flesh- or rather, the clay. Heroine of the upcoming comic book, The Micanopy Murders

 

• Visit the Elizabeth’s blog—Elizabethan Days
• Visit Cornwall—via buggerlugs fb wall, the British Racing Green & UT99 queen
• How To Add Disqus Comments To Tumblr—tumblring, all things tumblr
• 20 Great Widgets to Enhance Your Tumblr Blog—mashable
• Hack Your Tumblr Blog—Quite useful
• 10 Tips For Problogging On Tumblr—BLOGGINGPRO, Darnell Clayton

 

• Install Feedburner you hear?
• How to Use Feedburner with Tumblr—searchmarket
• Add FeedBurner to Tumblr—6ix Passions
• Using FeedBurner with Tumblr—ScottOS

 

• Install Google Analytics you hear?
  Take it from the bloggingpro: Tumblr makes it dead simple to insert Google Analytics in your blog, and unless you fear the Google Borg or enjoy tinkering with code, you should seriously consider inserting this within your blog.

  This feature is located underneath the “Appearance” tab, and make sure you include the “UA” letters in the appropriate field (example: UA-XXXXXXX-X) to ensure that your stats are tracked accurately.

 

 

Where’s the added value, Mark?
Dont’t think I need any with this.

 

 

Synopsis

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Cean Chaffin and based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich.

 

Teaser Trailer

 

Teaser Trailer 2

 

Trailer

 

 

• The accidental billionaires—facebook
• the social network—Movie Site

 

The Future Beyond Brands—10 years after

Lovemarks was named one of the ten best Ideas of the decade by Advertising Age magazine. Other outstanding ideas were consumer control, brand journalism, branded utility, crowdsourcing, marketer as media, earned media, Long Tail, Tipping Point and Madison & Vine.

A decade after Kevin Roberts fïrst presented Lovemarks [trustmarks] in the September 2000 issue of Fast Company, when advertising as an industry was already rolling over to go belly up in the wake of consumer behaviour drastically changing and brands were quickly losing respect. Instead of falling into a depression, I let myself be carried in a permanent state of enthusiasm, excited over the idea that my industry would now change for the better. A dire old world brand steward of fortune 500 companies myself, it took forever to reach a true understanding of where we are being taken to and what needs be done for agencies and their brands to permanently innovate and continuously create new meaning for their brand. (An age old myth of a strategy, that of keeping your wife pregnant for the rest of her youth days to ensure her loyalty daunted on me).

First and foremost lovemarks was an idea that did it for Saatchi and Saatchi as a tool for acquiring new business: In September 2006, JC Penney awarded the agency its $430 million advertising account and publicly indicated that decision had been significantly influenced by Mr. Roberts’ Lovemarks book and philosophy.
With the lovemarks effect now being Saatchi & Saatchi secret sauce to the effect of, and according to this Advertising Age interview, the future of Saatchi & Saatchi depends on Lovemarks becoming a Lovemark as much as Saatchi & Saatchi becoming a Lovemark themselves.

 

The future of communications beyond advertising

Research fun and fine with all there was to know delivered by strangers blogging their hearts out and no insights coming from the official press to say the least for my current, so very healthy smallville German location, only last month three big insights finally collided:

1. Prof. Dr. Peter Kruse explaining how easily our brain triggers false conclusions and how the world [research conducted with heavy users only] is being split into two profiles, that of being ‘digital natives‘ and ‘digital visitors‘ by which the state of ‘digital visitors’ exemplifies the state of advertisers at large and explains what is holding our industry back: the unexperienced can’t scholar the increasingly sophisticated and experienced consumer market.
2. A banal, purely practical solution was offered by Gareth Key from Goodby Silverstein and Partners when he coined ‘ideas that do‘, which immediately became my general response for solving all sorts of issues.
3. Desktop revolution stops short from transforming ad industry: No pocket size ad services such as offering digital footprints as a service.

 

 

Call for advertising residents to turn digital natives

15 years after Negroponte’s being digital was first published, digital visitors must now make the leap to becoming digital residents. No digital footprints – no lovemarks.

 

Edmund Choe, Brett Channer, Andy Greenaway, Kate Stanners, Chris Graves, Paul Siburn, Fabio Fernandes, John Pallant, Tom Esslinger, Pablo Del Campo, Steve Back, Mike McKay, Derek Lockwood, Mary Baglivo, Robert Senior, Bill Cohrane, Pedro Simko, Vaughan Emsley, Simon Francis, Peter Hubbell, Richard Hytner, Andy Murray, Milano Reyna, Kurt Ritter, Kevin Roberts, Ian Rowden, Bob Seelert

 

Watch this space as the story unfolds on how to turn Proctor & Gamble’s brands into lovemarks beyond reasoning and gain new momentum for lovemarks and the lovemarks company.

 

 

• Every Day Matters for JC Penny—KR CONNECT
• Every day matters—The inspiration room
• Peter Kruse on networks—What’s next [German]
• nextpractice—Peter Kruse consultancy
• The Evolution of Commitment—graphic courtesy of duct tape marketing

 

 

What are digital footprints?

Snail trails left behind by brands on the internet

A sticky streak of lube remains forever sticky as ever increasing search inquiries spit out results on the internet. We are at and beyond 10 billion core searches per month by Americans alone. Regardless if we care to know, consumers let Google do the dirty work for them. Consumers get their smarts from snail trails left behind by brands. This goes way beyond the first impression conventional advertisers have leveraged so very well for the old world. And yes, the first impression hardly fails even in our new world. The increasingly sophisticated consumer however longs for more. Much more. She wants to continuously discover reasons to believe in the brand and she insists on discoveries of her own.

 

Consumers get their smarts from snail trails left behind by brands

This is great for all stakeholders involved yet likely overlooked, the consumer who has discovered a brand on her own needs not be lured into purchasing the product or service, it has long been obtained by her. After all it is her discovery, hence she sets forth to recommend her true and tried discovery to others.

 

Digital footprints as a service

A sexy scalable offering turning the snail trail into a blossom scented flowery trail of daisies & daffodils will make a world renown company for its conventional branding skills such future brand appear in a new light and have people admit: “sure smells like teen spirt.”

 

The public craves for fresh ideas, and a service which delivers on the promise of a systematic approach for achieving and maintaining a respectable reputation for brands must be brought to market by Future Brand and the McCann Worldgroup in less than a month. A service offering is rolled out more efficenty and with greater effect than the organisational and oh so old world approach with which my beloved Munich siblings Günter and Helmut Sendlmeier would fall short with. Digital Footprint as a service for fortune 1000 clientele is available immediately and will be put to use in an organic, evolutionary step-by-step roll oujt. Clients will profit by continuously creating new meaning for their brands with digital footprits.

 

Be sure to learn more about digital footprints and how to make them work hard for global brand networking agencies and their fortune 1000 clientele early next week.

 

• Cityscape illustration courtesy of Laura Barnard
• Future Brand announces major European expansion
• Chris Nurko
• Chris Nurko quits SapientNitro for return to FutureBrand
• Future Brand
• Fashion Faces Future Brand Germany introducing yalook.com

 

Unparalleled American Apparel

When it comes to integrated campaigning, the most commonly used industry wide definition is to have a campaign unfold across multiple channels. Say TV, radio and print. The proper definition however is universally holistic in the making. That is any chunk of the campaign, say its brand website or its print ad, is in itself wholesomely integrated. With each part of the concept contributing to the other to achieve a seamless experience in both each campaign part being functionally and emotionally connected.

1. of an idea that let’s you do
2. of amazing immediate relief to you, the customer

Sweatshop Free. Made in Downtown LA.
founded 1996

American Apparel strives to be a capitalist success at the same time that it is a social and environmental success. American Apparel’s approach to branding and its brand positioning is in itself integrated. It caters to multiple levels of requirements the brand faces from multiple stakeholders and their different and entirely individual viewpoints.

Dov Charney has built American Apparel into a $250 million-a-year business, selling T-shirts, swimsuits, and underwear, all made at his downtown Los Angeles plant. Since November, 2003, when American Apparel opened its first store, 53 retail outlets in five countries have opened.

American Apparel digital marketing is more customer focused and more functional, to a degree of practical intelligence we have come to acknowledge great women for. The user is encouraged to supply fashion photos or can choose to become linked in with their own fashion blog. The do it yourself IKEA knack, where customers assemble the purchased furniture on their own or Amazon customers supplying shots of missing book covers. Apparel is sexy connected and does not stop short at pure functionality and usability.

American Apparel’s Digital Footprints

• American Apparel on Twitter – 175,356 Followers
• American Apparel on Facebook – 260,957 people take a liking
• American Apparel brand site
• YouTube returns 3,720 findings on the topic of American Apparel
• 784 members posted 2,963 photos on Flickr tagged American Apparel
• Google search returns approximately 34.700.000 listings
• Company formation and growth on WIkipedia
• American Apparel Organics – Sustainable Edition
• Living On The Edge At American Apparel Bloomberg Businessweek
• The Cajun Boy on Sasha Grey featured in American Apparel ad
• American Apparel founder Dov Charney
• Dress Code: American Apparel Has a Beauty Code. Of Course.

 

Claudia Langer and Alex Bogusky are both advertsing celebrities in their own rights.
Claudia Langer has jump started and abandoned one of Germany’s outstanding start ups, the boutique agency .Start in Munich, while Alex Bogusky has jump started and has apparently only recently abandoned CP+B, one of the best creative shops in the US he co-founded.

 

 

A lovely strategic consumption alliance

Claudia Langer has been driving Utopia toward ever increasing popularity, an aggregator fostering the growing community of strategic consumers, while Alex Bogusky is turning the tide, trying to get his hands around something I understand to have similar aims as does Claudia’s active pursuit in helping us consumers to make the right choices with strategic consumption, thereby driving the industry to making available more appropriate products by means of sustainability and transparency for what we opt to purchase.

 

Alex Bogusky At Turning The Tide from BAYCAT on Vimeo.

 

• Utopia Way to go
• Feels like social wealth
• .start
• interone now owns .start
• cp+b Crispin Porter Bogusky
• Picture of Alex Bogusky courtesy of crussado

 

 

 

Here’s a good handfull of brilliant, new boutique shops. sporting world class accounts and excellent ad practitioners. All have long been on their way to accept and embrace new requirements placed on us by a global market and ever emerging new technologies—they won’t let themselves be fooled much longer by old world advertising:

• Nitro
• Mother
• Strawberry Frog
• Tequila
• naked communications
• anomaly
• Taxi
• Poke
• Bartle Bogle Hegarty
• Crispin Porter Bogusky
• Mullen
• KircherBurkhardt
• vccp
• Perfect Fools
• T3
• We are social
• Victors & Spoils
• IGA Worldwide

 

I compiled this list of favorites in an attempt to get my hands around the game change in communication and marketing by putting out a dummy site in 2006 of how a global neighborhood ad shop could present herself online. Brief examination of the above business cases and how they are communicated, will likely provide you with a crystal clear view of new world marketing & communication and how to deal with game change in this, the best time in the history of advertising. Be it that you are a marketer, responsible for building your company’s brands and products, an advertising practitioner, student or professor at a leading art academy. Feel encouraged to go with the flow this one time.

 

What is with MECH, the forerunner communication house in Berlin?

Four years later, I sit and wonder why i did not list Helmut Sendlmeier’s Berlin MECH in the first place? Even though being there physically certainly provides the needed odor that makes the visitor think: “Uuugh, smells like teen spirit!”
MECH Berlin owns an international reputation as a forerunner business model for integrated communication. My much respected and favored art director, Daniel Jennewein executed one of his best works with his credentials site for MECH, which is no longer online. Take note that MECH is an incubator for great talent, Justin Townsend and Christian Vry set out from MECH to successfully launch IGA Worldwide and surpass MIcrosoft’s in-game-advertising model as Nr. 1.

 

Falling short from this shortlist

MECH simply falls short from being listed since it lacks the needed digital footprints and is simply not discoverable offsite by means of search results. I cannot find demonstrations of ideas that do as is particularly obvious with Poke.

 

• No demonstrated integrated, offline ideas that do—”If the world zigs, zag” BBH never gets into trouble they are idea focused and that’s that
• Lacking transparency, digital visibility—agencies require a curriculum [basic blog technology] for the knowledge transfer to take place internally and externally

In my life I only want things to go right.

With 450.000 iPads sold in the first week of its introduction, look forward for user interface design [UID] to take a good leap toward improved ease of use. The introduction of touch screen solutions will positively affect desktop apps as well.

We cannot do the silly, nit picky things with our fingers that we do with the pointer of the mouse cursor—less clutter, less fumbling, more generosity, readable type may well be amongst what we get to take home.

Brutally simple

User interface design does not undergo frequent changes as overly excited strategists, designers, info architects want us to believe. Quite the contrary is true. The fact that each of us is involved in the testing of new UID elements and a steep learning curve makes us feel as if we are being bombarded with new interface elements. The toll we pay for a democratic approach to software development.

Dominant changes in interface design occur in predictable intervals and not from one second to the other.

Once accepted by a global user community the mechanics and metaphors stay with us reliably for some time. The introduction of the iPhone and now the iPad demands interface designs to become more intuitive and more simple if for the mobile device then also for the desktop computer.

Old World	New world
Windows GUI	Touch
Point and Click	Swoosh of Fluidity
Artificial, Indirect	Direct, Natural
WYSIWYG	WYTIWis
Mouse	Magic

 

Long before anyone could possibly have gathered knowledge on how the iPad will be used, I have stumbled upon two shopping applications for the iPad and yes I can see families gather comfortably on their living room couch to do their shopping together.

GILT group provides invitation only Shopping on a first come first served basis for premium brand offers at up to 70% off retail. They have a first iPad app out, get it here.

 

And then there is GAP for the iPad

Done by digital agency AKQA.

 

• Tablet Computing Is Here To Stay, And Will Force Changes In Laptops And Phones—Ryan Coulter,Fast Company
• Download Gilt iPad app
• On the iPad, Gilt Is for All Kinds of Shoppers. New York Times.
• Gap rolls out iPad e-commerce app
• Akqa digital agency

 

Right now in its early prototype version, Quiet Riot shows for 270 registered users taking their workday complaints to the site. Quite Riot enables us to share and solve common issues with the help of many, offering support with:

1. Bringing users with a common issue together to create critical mass (as with a petition)
2. Providing orientation to consolidate and define the issue
3. Providing crowdsourcing techniques and tools for being listened to and getting a solution on its way

Now don’t you have an issue with the direction Quiet Riot is taking when confronted with the line: “People around the world are frustrated about many issues”?

Early issue with Quiet Riot

Quite Riot is not just a place to take your rants to. The fun part and idea of Quiet Riot is to discover solutions to common issues with the help of many, and tools such as their ‘Open Letter’ approach. It’s a relief effort. Hence communication must not focus on the issue, but on it being resolved. To all I know, rogue sites have but disappeared. They were useless to our highly trained, problem solving society.

Issue solved

To move Quiet Riot from rant to rave, showcase resolved riots on the front page. Provide visitors with directions and give each participant much deserved credit. Demonstrate how each group has resolved their issues by indicating the change that has taken place. How change was implemented. A general stats indicator might do.

• Visit Quiet Riot with issues you find with your ad agency.
• Return here with sparkling insights and only your very best practices, suitable for our new advertising age.

Image and preview icon from the dead weather’s site.

Claudia Batten, John Winsor, and Evan Fry, founders of the new breed agency, Victors and Spoils in Boulder Colorado, currently have their logo created by the intelligence and talents of many (view WIP).

 

• New York Times article
• Adland blog post
• Victor & Spoils credentials site
• AdAge Poll: Is crowdsourcing a real thread to the agency business?

 

Update

Dabitch over at adland reports, DISH Network to have asked Victor & Spoils to redesign their entire fleet of 4,500 installation vans across the United States. V&S turned to 99 Designs for getting the job done. View entries and witness crowdsourcing in progress (CIP).

 

Crowdsourcing sources

• Crowdspring for Design*
• Tongal for TV*
• Adhack for freelance content*

* courtesy Edward Boches

• ideabounty
• Mycroburst