LONDON (AdAge.com) — Welcome to social-media message overload. The constant barrage of invites to sign up for this group or download that app are starting to wear on social-network users.
VALENCIA (AdAge.com) — While they weren't listed as session topics on the conference agenda of last week's 2009 Festival of Media in Valencia, Spain, agency compensation and payment cycles were clearly on the minds of the high-ranking agency players in attendance.
(TrendHunter.com) Since the first outbreak of swine flu symptoms, people have been wearing surgical masks to keep themselves from getting infected. But instead of wearing the plain, boring white masks, why not have a little…
Of course, none of US would ever clip newspaper coupons, but judging by the flap when the Valassis/Red Plum inserts were discontinued in some markets this past winter, those who do are passionate. Do yourself and your clients a favor, remember that coupons drive purchases and sometimes brand loyalty. Also remember that taking them away can drive mutiny.
Paul Hirsch has been practicing communications since 1983. He now owns his own marketing/pr firm in Northern California. Paul specializes in media relations, marketing collateral, website copy development and ad design. You can learn more about him on Facebook or by visiting www.nowville.com/paulhirsch.
(TrendHunter.com) Dozens of volunteers whitewashed 120 unregistered public advertisements yesterday as a part of the New York Street Advertising Takeover. The guerrilla movement was organized by Jordan Seiler and the Eastern…
Nos acostumamos a ver intervenções no Youtube, mas no Vimeo acho que é a primeira vez que eu vejo uma marca alterar algo em seu visual. A intervenção no Vimeo ficou por conta da Honda, que decidiu alterar o visual da página onde está inserido o vídeo do comercial “Let it Shine“. O comercial, que já havia ficado famoso pelos seus efeitos visuais, fica ainda mais interessante com essa intervenção. Me fez lembrar daquela tecnologia “ambilight“, onde luzes e cores se alteram de acordo com o que se transmite na tela. Clique (aqui) e confira 
Via @felipesantini
(TrendHunter.com) Designers are taking it back to the front lines this fall with military-inspired menswear.
Everyone from Burberry to D G and John Galliano have featured heavily-structured jackets with a Victorian…
(TrendHunter.com) Pamela Quevedo of TotusMel handcrafts these fantastic fantasy pieces with a method of needlework called tatting. The technique itself has been around for hundreds of years, but this creative artist has…
Like the Robinson’s robot from Lost In Space, someone has obviously been warning “The Suits” at MySpace “Danger! Danger! You are losing users!” To MySpace’s credit, they listened, and have introduced new user features (Profile 2.0), revised their music section, and launched a “connect” feature. They also announced that they had ousted their CEO to bring in a former Facebook exec, Owen Van Natta. (No one is quite sure what happened to ever-friendly Tom…) Additionally, MySpace is offering a beta version of MySpace Local which provides some of the functionality of Twitter, like; “Where can I get a great Tuna Sandwich in Kansas City?”
To be honest, other than the music search on MySpace, it’s been dead to me. And the music portion, until lately, wasn’t the simplest to use: if you sift through enough crap, you could find a among the shattered glass: One listen to A Fine Frenzy and you’ll know what I mean. However, the newly revamped music features on MySpace are far better than what they had, and leagues beyond anything Facebook has to offer. 
Yet is it too little, too late? Should MySpace have made these changes mid-year 2008 when they knew Facebook was coming on hard? Facebook overtook MySpace as the largest Social Network in existence, and it’s not showing any sign of slowing down. (My mother, in her 60s, recently added a Facebook account to keep up with the “kids;” we are all over thirty.) So, Facebook’s growth, in addition to the growth rate of Twitter (1300 percent from 2008 to 2009) leaves MySpace with difficult challenges to overcome. (See the graph, below, courtesy of Compete.)
It’s doubtful in the near term, but it will depend on Van Natta’s leadership, innovation, and speed. MySpace will also need to rollout MySpace II carefully, not offending current users but also regaining previous members. The other huge benefit for MySpace: it’s owned by NewsCorp, the same company that owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post. With that kind of breaking-news potential backing the site, it’s possible that MySpace may emerge as a combination between Digg and Facebook, with an awesome music application, online dating services, and the Twitter-like MySpace Local application.
Another hurdle for MySpace is to overcome its “ghetto” feel when compared to Facebook. Facebook is branded thoroughly on every page of the site whereas MySpace has multiple skins that can 
be utilized; some from third party vendors that cause the pages not to load correctly or even hang your browser. Additionally, MySpace is not positioned like Facebook in regard to the “employment” factor. Facebook is setup to “brand” yourself to potential employers…which means that tend to keep it clean of profanity in the headings, as well as use actual names rather than online IDs. But, then again, maybe that is part of its charm. Facebook has experienced their share of problems; they’ve disenchanted some of their members with sweeping changes to their privacy policies (although later rescinded), and have changed the user interface, much to the chagrin of many. In fact, many demand that the “old” Facebook be brought back. Finally, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, seems to be a wild card that holds the future of the site in his hands, as evidenced by the mysterious departure of Chief Financial Officer, Gideon Yu. Yu’s departure was the latest change of several in the upper ranks at Facebook, “whose employees and investors are anxious about Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for the social-networking site.”
MySpace’s biggest challenge is to implement their changes quickly; not only to maintain their 130 million current members, but to also reel in former users that broke rank. MySpace and Flixter were the only two Social Networking platforms to lose users from 2008 to 2009.
Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.
(TrendHunter.com) It appears to me that if the Japanese are going to do something, then they will make sure they do it brilliantly. This collection of extreme manga makeup totally illustrates that point.
Anime and manga…
Há um mês, falei aqui no blog da campanha da Honda para o seu modelo Insight, com grande aposta no discurso da sustentabilidade.
O comercial “Let It Shine” inaugurou a assinatura “Everyone Wants to Be Good”, através de um gigante painel de LEDs formado por carros.
Agora, a Wieden + Kennedy exibe o mesmo filme de uma maneira inusitada. Uma intervenção no Vimeo, onde a Honda tem um brandchannel, faz a página apagar e acender com o nascer do sol dentro do comercial.
Só vendo pra entender, vai lá. É uma ação bem parecida com a intervenção feita pela Nintendo no YouTube para promover o game “Wario Land”.
| Via Laughing Squid
(TrendHunter.com) This series of artistic photographs is massively messed up. It features women dressed as school girls in bizarre, very provocative and downright disturbing positions.
These images get away with their…
(TrendHunter.com) With Earth Week upon us, I thought it would be nice to take a minute to appreciate the strangest, and sometimes even ugliest, creatures with whom we share this wonderful planet.
From land to sea, there…
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| THE ORIGINAL? Dubai Autism Center – 2005 Agency : Bates Pangulf (UAE) |
LESS ORIGINAL : Unknown Advertiser (please help) – 2006 Agency : Artmaster Kiev (Ukraine) |
| C’est censé être une opération média (ou guerrilla) mais les deux ont été montées sur la même image stockshot… ce qui permet d’avoir de sérieux doutes! |
(TrendHunter.com) Mary-Kate Olsen is on the jury for the Tribeca Film Festival, and the diminutive mogul arrived for the Chanel and Tribeca Film Festival Artist’s Dinner in a gothic ensemble that Morticia Addams and Elvira…
To communicate that Zoo Safari is not a common zoo, because the animals run free just like in a safari, they created electrostatic stickers containing animal pictures. These stickers can be placed on the windshield of parked cars to make the visitor imagine what it would feel like to be so close to a wild animal. Text: “up-close, no cages. More fun”. The image shown on the stickers reproduced in real life size proportions the face of an animal taking a peek inside the car.
Advertising Agency: DDB, Brazil
Creative Directors: Rodrigo Almeida, Renata Florio, Julio Andery, Rodolfo Sampaio, Sérgio Valente
Copywriter: Geraldo Gonçalves
Art Director: Mauricio Kumazawa e Gilberto Barros
Photographer: Rodrigo Ribeiro; Sérgio Prado
(TrendHunter.com) “Bettie Page: Heaven Bound” is a new tribute exhibit that celebrates the iconic burlesque legend who passed away last year.
As a promotion of the exhibit, celebrities such as Margaret Cho and Perez Hilton…
(TrendHunter.com) Kouichi Kimura Architects from Japan have delivered a concrete oasis with this ultra-modern design. The smoothness of the walls and the simple contrast of whites, black and grays add perfect geometry and…
LONDON – The personal fortunes of the UK’s wealthiest media moguls have been slashed by more than £3bn, according to figures published today in The Sunday Times Rich List.
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