Word Poem On Words

Taylor Mali is one to watch.  He's a poetry slam innovator as well as an experienced classroom teacher.

And after serving as adjunct college faculty ourselves, we KNOW teaching's tougher than poetry slamming.

Watch the attached video of Taylor reciting a poem, set simply to a fount of font animation that brilliantly brings his points to life.

After viewing, don't miss another example in this style, entitled 'What do teachers make?'

Both of these make us want to widely spread the word.  
And stand up and be heard.  Or read.

Here's to the outspoken word...especially when it's animated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEBZkWkkdZA

Critters Make the Brand?

Interesting POV in Advertising Age on the importance of support to establish a mascot for your marketing product or service.

http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/marketing-makes-mascot/149381/

We'd argue that what's also critter-cal, is to make sure that the mascot is dimensionalized.

Does 'it' have a personality?  Catch phrase?  Certain voice?  

We still remember the first time we did a tie-in with a major, long-standing cartoon property.  

The studio's dossier on every aspect of the cartoon characters was longer than any personnel file HR could fill.

Critters we've worked with and created must be true, like a person.  For fictitious characters to be successful, they must live and breathe, animatically speaking.   A Tony the Tiger drawing on Frosted Flakes is far less captivating if one can't hear and see the growler on TV, radio, and print over time -- same as any celebrity in flesh and blood.

As the web keeps booming, there's even more chance to birth new branded mascots -- like we did for a client of ours who've bootstrapped a fun, fishy fanatic to leverage in eblasts, online and at trade shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEJ4NlgfOGw&feature=player_embedded

Makes Charlie the Tuna look like sashimi, eh?

Super Bowl Winner Recall!

No, we didn't take away Green Bay's victory.  Just wanted to share how well our readers did in our first ever poll on ad recall in the Big Game.

Overall, our smart readers did pretty well.  

VW was ranked first in correct responses, with 80% connecting l'il Darth Vader with their car.

The rest of the right call percentages?

• 72% got Skechers

• 72% got Groupon

• 68% got Stella Artois

But the toughest question: only 32% guessed the correct cost of a 30 spot for the time alone.  Almost half guessed $2 million, when the actual cost this year was $3 million.  And that doesn't include the cost of Ozzy n Bieber.

Will next year's TV spot cost change? Our guess: as the quarterback says...'Hike!'

Thanks for playing.

Money is the Root of All Demotivation?!

Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose motivate.  It's been shown, time and again, yet is rarely used in today's corporate structure.

At our link below, Dan Pink's talk on this subject is captivatingly brought to life via pure-smelly-marker animation from RSA.  The talk, and illustration, are well worth witnessing.

Pink's presentation describes research that showed money was a motivator for mechanical tasks.  Bigger carrot, better performance.

But when the task required cognitive skills, more money did the opposite.  When rewards are increased, performance will decrease. 

Social scientists have uncovered three factors that lead to better performance: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Fundamentally, we feel the need to direct our own lives, overcome obstacles and live and work for something bigger than ourselves.

What would your work place look like if those motivators ruled?  How might you manage in your work place?

Think about it.  Now, back to the grindstone!

Take Our Post Superbowl Ad Challenge

Click here to take our survey

So do you think the cost of advertising in the Superbowl is worth it?

Want to know what impact you could get for that kind of spending elsewhere? Or 1/100th of it?

The Brand is Dead. Long Live the Brand.

No, this isn't a hi-falutin' discourse on the state of the brand today.

But it is a shout out for the value of dead brands.  And what can be done with them in the right hands.

In our green, recycling way, we've been interested for a long time in dead or tarnished brands, and how great marketers (like these guys here), can bring them back to life.

While we haven't acted on this yet, we'd like to.  

We appreciate what Brad Hittle and team did for Pabst and now Schlitz.  Not dead brands, but stale as 30 year old beer, and, yet, he revived 'em with smart positioning, packaging, and promotion.

And we marveled at this odd auction last fall in New York:

http://adage.com/article?article_id=147556

One random rep in attendance signed over a cashier's check for about $2000 and ran off with the rights to failed, but hallowed, old magazine brand, Collier's.

So, if you see a brand you want to revive, we're big fans of fixer-uppers...and would be happy to help.  

"Murph, we're gettin' the brand back together!"

Tech Tracks on the Ski Slope

We're always looking for cool new convergence ideas, and this is definitely one:  Epic Mix.

http://www.snow.com/epicmix/home.aspx?cmpid=ET900094&et_rid=100512035

Simply stated, they've put RFID (trackable chips) on ski passes.  And they've leveraged it larger than a winter storm in International Falls. 

So what does this hi-tech tracker enable?

Track your progress throughout the day. 

See you entire day's run online before hitting the apres ski.

Even earn various 'pins', awards for hitting milestones slopewise.

Most importantly, find your friends at any time on any slope.  

Lord knows we could use that last feature, Mr. Hey-Slow-Up-on-the-Mogul-Run!!!!

The intro video for Epic Mix needs a better editor -- like lift lines, the shorter, the better, in video demo-land.  But apart from that, we're diggin' this development.

And as long as the chip survives Epic Mixes of downhill spills, bring it on!

http://www.snow.com/epicmix/home.aspx?cmpid=ET900094&et_rid=100512035