Wisdom of Steve

Watch, learn, be inspired

Dolphins are people too

Ever posted an anonymous blog comment?

Ever written a tweet that takes the piss out of someone?

Ever written a blog post that has a go at someone?

Then click here. Now!

Thanx Mona.

We're becoming more social

That graph comes from a recent survey by The Neilsen Company.

As you can see we are spending more and more time on social networks.

So much time in fact it makes me wonder what the future holds for corporate websites.

It looks to me like social networks are about to become a channel unto themselves.

Making it harder and harder for advertisers and brands to attract people away from their socialising and onto their website.

Are there any big thinkers or agencies out there pondering this situation?

I certainly hope so.

Exit through the gift shop

The Golden Globes are done and dusted. As are the Screen Actors Guild awards. Next up on the US cinema circuit is the Sundance Festival. Where my favourite street art prankster premieres his movie Exit through the gift shop. Can't wait to see it!

Click here for more info.

No questions asked

Via

Wisdom of Wieden

I've never owned anything Nike in my life. Mostly because I've always been an Adidas man. But that doesn't prevent me from acknowledging the genius of the Just do it tagline. Here Dan Wieden gives us an insight into where it came from.

Thanx to Jason for the tip.

The death of the record

Chrome domed dilettante Brian Eno talking to Paul Morley in The Observer:

"I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky.

There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time.

I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn't last, and now it's running out. I don't particularly care that it is and like the way things are going.

The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel.

Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth.

Then gas came along and you'd be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history's moving along.

Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it."

Alfa affordability

When I lived in London my wife and I would often do our shopping at a hypermarket.

It was as the name suggests a seriously huge supermarket.

One thing I always remember buying from there was a TV for our bedroom.

That purchase was memorable mostly because I put the telly in the shopping trolley along with some groceries and a six pack of beer.

Can't say I've done anything like that since.

Now Belgian agency Duval Guillaume have gone even further and stuck an Alfa Romeo in a shopping trolley.

Why?

Because they could obviously. But also because it dramatically highlighted to people who saw it just how affordable an Alfa MiTo was.

Quite good fun I think. Although I'd love to see the health and safety permit approval process for a stunt like this.

Sheer apparel

I written before about American Apparel. So I'll spare you my thoughts on whether or not their advertising is exploititive or pseudo soft porn.

Suffice to say the one word headline on this ad says it all - Sheer.

Click pic for a better look.

Dozens of channels but nothing on

Last night I was a guest on the RRR radio show The Enthusiast.

One of the campaigns that they were keen to discuss with me was the new campaign for the Trading Post.

Although I was familiar with the outdoor I had not seen the TV ad.

They also asked me about a controversial KFC ad but I hadn’t seen that either.

Truth be told I can’t remember the last time I watched a show interrupted by advertising.

Yet I have watched a hell of a lot of TV shows over the summer.

Madmen series 3. Gavin & Stacey series 3. Breaking Bad series 1 and 2. As well as both series of True Blood.

I occasionally catch the late night news on Ch 10. But that’s pretty much it for me as far as traditional TV watching goes.

What about you? Have your viewing habits changed in recent times?

Little Golden Books

I remember when my daughty Ruby was little she used to have loads of Little Golden Books.

They always seemed a little old fashioned. Yet kind of timeless at the same time.

Today I stumbled on a great overview of the graphic styling of the books which was primarily set by Gustaf Tenggren.

It's a terrific read and also features many beautiful illustrations.

Click here to take a look.

It's sure to have you nostalgic for your days at primary school.

Cannes Grand Prix up for grabs!

This is so far-fetched it surely has to be true.

Russian coywriter Evegeniy Danilov has listed a Cannes Grand Prix for sale on eBay.

The priced quoted is anything but cheap.

Where it gets interesting is Danilov is offering his copywriting services as a bonus to the winning bidder.

Fun idea. No doubt about it. But if the guy is as good a writer as he seems to think he is he should have learned how to use a spell checker.

Click here for more info. Click here to make a bid on eBay.

Drop or plummet?

Source

Fire the advertising dept

Robert Townsend was the CEO of Avis car rentals who appointed DDB to their advertising account back in the golden age of Bernbach.

He was also the man who signed off on one of the greatest campaigns of all time - We try harder.

In his book The Organisation he talks about how to give your advertising five times the impact.

Here's a must read excerpt:




Very special thank you to the folks at W&K London for unknowlingly letting me borrow these excerpts from Townsend's book.

Earned Media

Seems like every week someone coins a new buzzword.

One term that's been a round for a while that I'm seeing/hearing a lot more of lately is 'earned media'.

Once upon a time we used to called that press coverage. But there's so much more to coverage in the media these days.

There's chatter on Twitter, Facebook groups, Fan pages, blogs and all the other channels we now call social media.

So what's the difference between social media and earned media?

After all it's hard to generate earned media without using social media.

And if a social media campaign doesn't generate enough buzz is it a failure or has it simply not earned enough media to be considered a success?

Nippon nuttiness

As those of you who know me know I love Japan. I'd live there if I could. It's just such an amazing place for so many reasons. Sadly TV advertising isn't one of them.

Meet Sterling, Cooper & Draper

Big thanks to the girl so nice they named her twice, Yan Yan, for tipping me off to this excellent set of MadMen posters.


They're by the very talented Christina Perry and are so stylishly simple I'm sure even The Don himself would approve.

Advertising is alive & well

Who says advertising doesn't work?

Who thinks advertising cannot have the reach it once did in this age of media fragmentation?

And who was it that said brands need to hold conversations not just advertise?

Probably me if truth be told!


If you want to see the power of advertising in Australia take a look around you next time you go to a bar or pub.

Chances are you'll see plently of hip young things drinking cider.

It's easy to spot as it looks a lot like an orangey radioactive lager.

Two years ago nobody drank cider down under. Now it's everywhere.

Why?

Because the likes of Bulmers and Strongbow are advertising. A lot.

So next time so snot nosed social media punk tells you that advertising is dead pour them a glass of scrumpy and toast its health.

Good rubbish

I'm no fan of people leaving rubbish out on the street. But who wouldn't love stumbling across on of these Mini boxes? They're just so damn cute.

It's a Dutch campaign but I have no idea who did it. Please leave a comment if you know.

Friendly skies

Music television

There has been much written about the ailing music industry and the strategies musicians need to adopt to build a career in the digital age.

The best money earner these days surely has to be getting your music used in a TV ad or show.

One show that features a lot of music is the popular teen comedy Glee. In fact songs from Glee have been huge sellers of late.

In 2009 'Don't stop believing' by Journey became the first song to achieve 2 million downloads. Most of which can be atributed to the song being used for high rotation promos for the launch of Glee.

The song was also performed in the show and the cast version has recently gone gold with around half a million download sales.

Another 24 songs from Glee also made the US charts in 2009. That's amazing.

Of course the downside to the Glee success story is that we're very probably going to be inundated by numerous crap musical teen comedy shows that are nowhere near as good (or original) as Glee.

But at least some hard up musicians might make a few dollars from them.

Picture this

It's only the first week of 2010 but this could well be the wierdest story of the year.

Polaroid has hired Lady Gaga as Creative Director.

No I am not making it up.

Click here to see the official Polaroid press release.

Doggie style

A dog on a kateboard playing video games. What's to love?

Fun stuff from the ever reliable Droga5 New York.

Fun with fonts

I may be a copywriter by trade but my secret love is typography.

Sadly although I have no shortage of opinions on it I do find it is something best left to experts.

Although after playing with the recently launched Font Game iPhone app I suspect I may know a lot more about type than I realised.

It's heaps of fun. Especially for a miserly 99c. Click here to go download a copy for yourself.

Future of gaming

When I first saw an augmented reality demo I thought it was pretty cool. Sadly very few agencies have actually done anything useful or interesting with it.

Pairing it with the Parrot AR Drone and your iPhone looks like it could be the best use of this new technology so far. To find out more click here.

What next?

Well here we are in 2010. In just a couple of months BrandDNA will be four years old.

When I started doing this there were really only a handful of advertising blogs and social media had yet to become a buzz term.

YouTube was less than a year old and I'd never heard of Facebook or Twitter.

Truth be told the blogosphere has changed completely in just a few short years.

As have my online habits.

Which makes me wonder whether or not I should continue BrandDNA or knock it on the head.

Guess we'll have to see what happens.