Hasta La Creative!

Stuart Elliott brings us the story of a small beer brand using the interwebs to further its cause.

A Mexican import, Pacifico, is filling its Web site with 30 brand-centric video clips that celebrate a life centered on sun, sand, surf, street food and a willingness to eat extremely hot peppers or play checkers with bottle caps.

The videos, and the Web site, were created by Creature, an agency in Seattle that also produces ads for Pacifico in traditional media like magazines and billboards and oversees promotions like the refitting of 1960s Volkswagen buses to serve as touring Pacifico peddlers.

The videos, which run from 15 seconds to 3 minutes, were filmed in Mexico with Super 8 movie cameras to give the footage less of a slick, polished look

Gary Koelling from Best Buy talks about Blue Shirt Nation — a social networking site for the company’s employees — and about how to make a project like this survive the inevitable friction and committees:

“In the description of our seminar, it says that we’re going to help you learn how to build a social network of your own. The truth is, and this might make you mad, we don’t think you can. Not because of who you are, or what you believe, or anything personal like that. You won’t be able to do something like this because of your company culture. Like we said, BlueShirt Nation is a fluke. The Best Buy culture wasn’t set up to take on something like this. That’s why its built outside of the IT network, that’s why a couple ad guys run it. At every minute of every day, we still face the challenges that you’ll face in your organization.

There’ll be pressure to build the community fast – bad idea. And you’ll face pressure to do it – good luck. There’ll be a temptation to throw money at it – doesn’t work. You’ll want to believe it does – call me, I’ll talk you down. There’ll be talk of scale – big is better.

The truth is, you’re at the mercy of the people that you’re trying to influence. If you try to force it, its not real and will feel contrived – it’ll backfire.”

Mavericks at Work explores a new addition to the workplace lexicon—humbition.

What’s humbition? It’s a term Polly and I first heard from Jane Harper, a nearly 30-year veteran of IBM. It is, she explains, the subtle blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful leaders—an antidote to the know-it-all hubris that affects so many business stars. “The more I know,” she says sensibly, “the more I know there is to know.”

I’m sure we all work with and for people who could improve themselves with this advice. Not that we don’t need to take a spoon or two of it ourselves, just for good measure.

LONDON – Heat editor-in-chief Mark Frith is leaving Bauer Consumer Media after 10 years with the company.

If you are into transmedia storytelling, and especially if you are a Lost fan, check out the Lost: Via Domus game (PC, Xbox360) that Amazon began shipping yesterday (mine is on its way). You will be playing a new character — a photographer with amnesia — in an environment that is true to the TV series and that has been vetted by the show’s creators. There isn’t much shooting involved, but you will get to solve a lot of puzzles and explore a lot of places that has remained off the TV screen, including some hidden nooks inside the stations. Many of the original voices were recorded for the game, including Ben’s, but unfortunately not Sawyer’s.

You’ve got to feel sorry for Bill Gates over on LinkedIn. As of this writing Thursday morning, he has just three connections, despite being head over heels about the site. I’m guessing he rejected numerous link requests from Steve Jobs (all pranks comparing the iPod to the Zune) and Yahoo!’s Jerry Yang, who probably wanted to know why Gates never returns his calls (not to mention all the pleas for refunds on Vista!). I’m also somewhat suspicious of the résumé Gates posted. He’s held essentially the same job at Microsoft for 33 years! As a hiring manager, I’d be thinking: Why is this guy stuck in a rut? Does he rub co-workers, or perhaps government regulatory agencies, the wrong way? Actually, he also lists the Bill & Medlinda Gates Foundation, but that’s clearly padding and it just screams “self-employed!” Once he announces Microsoft’s LinkedIn investment or acquisition or whatever the hell he’s up to, I’m sure his popularity will soar. Oh, he lists reading, tennis and bridge as his personal interests. If he’s got an extra $100 million lying around, I’ve got a nice little suspension number in Brooklyn I’m looking to unload.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

There’s no way this John Manlove for Congress Web site is on the level. No one with that name runs for Congress in Texas, as a Republican, do they? A “Congress needs Manlove” bumper sticker might not help his image. Or “Vote Republican, vote Manlove”? Even associating the word with one’s bumper introduces problems. Manlove is an ad executive, what’s more—his agency won a slew of Houston Addy awards last year. Hey, maybe he and his name are legit. If so, he should build an international coalition and bring in this guy as a spokesperson.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

LONDON – AOL chief executive Randy Falco has labelled Microsoft’s potential takeover of internet rival Yahoo a mistake.

LONDON – Mark Frith, editor-in-chief of Heat magazine, has decided to leave Bauer Consumer Media following a 10-year career at the celebrity title.

LONDON – ITV has issued a stinging attack on government restrictions on the marketing of food to children, claiming that ‘ad bans will not fix the health problems of fat kids’.