Hasta La Creative!

HubSpot has just released its 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report. Based on a survey of 3,339 marketing professionals across 128 countries, the report delves deep into the world of inbound marketing, who’s doing it and how it’s working. The survey queried marketers on their approach to strategy, how they are aligning their organizations to implement inbound marketing, how much they are spending and how inbound is being applied to channel management.

Highlights from the study include:

– 58% of marketers will practice inbound marketing in 2013
– 48% or marketers will increase the inbound marketing spend this year
– 54% more leads are generated by inbound than outbound
– 82% or marketers who blog and implement inbound marketing see positive ROI
– 43% of marketers generated new customers through their blog
– 44% of full time marketer hours are being dedicated to inbound efforts
– 2X as many marketers say inbound marketing delivers below average cost per lead versus outbound strategies

The full report is available for download here, a dedicated website provides highlights and insight and a Slideshare of the report can be viewed below.

It’s quite clear that inbound marketing has progressed past the experimental stage and has rightly infiltrated the minds and methodologies of marketers. Many marketers have found inbound marketing to be dramatically more effective than outbound efforts, far more cost efficient and better at generated quality leads.

Are you convinced yet?

Now that Creature has offered its twist on window shopping during the holidays, the Seattle-based agency returns with another outdoor effort of sorts, which it’s dubbing “You Were Here.” Celebrating the clash between “vanity and voyeurism,” the shop has adorned its storefront window with what seems to be a two-way mirror not unlike one you’d see in any interrogation during a cop drama. Well, just as you’d imagine, Creature’s eyes are on you as well and by using two laptop-controlled cameras complete with motion-sensing programs, the agency captures the various passersby and posts the images to a Tumblr site.

As Creature explains, the goal of “You Were Here” is to not only gain attention from pedestrians, but play up the fact that many of those wandering by have no idea what the hell the agency does. We’re not sure if this somewhat invasive, but fun effort makes it any clearer, but enjoy the show if you’re in the neighborhood while it lasts.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(TrendHunter.com) Before you ask, no, the images in this gallery are not pictures of a set from the upcoming Star Trek movie but rather from the incredibly geeky father of all man caves.

I’ve seen some pretty…

Released last Sunday, Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” rocketed to the top of the Viral Video Chart for last week, topping some big competition from Kmart’s “Ship My Pants” and Evian’s babies. The video, released 10 days ago, has already amassed 29.4 million views, over 35 related clips, 7,800 comments and over 660,000 Facebook shares, according to Visible Measures.

In the campaign, a forensic artist creates composite sketches of women based on their own descriptions of their facial features. Later, strangers also give descriptions of the same women the results are illuminating, and the spot ends with the tagline “You are more beautiful than you think.”

For Unilever, its a return to the Campaign for Real Beauty which first launched in 2004, but had been de-emphasized in recent years. The first campaign was big-budget and controversial. This time it’s just one video that happened to catch fire.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Focus sur Air V8, spécialisé dans la réalisation de plans aériens pour tous types de créations, utilisant des multi-copters télécommandés. Afin de montrer leurs références ainsi que les possibilités, cette vidéo show-reel du plus bel effet nous dévoile des images splendides à découvrir sur une musique dynamique de Rauscher.

You may have seen one of Whit Hiler's fliers. Perhaps it invited you to a meet-up that promised a re-creation of scenes from The Human Centipede. ("Just for fun. Guys only.") Maybe it offered masturbation lessons ("I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made!") or the services of an "Asian impersonator." Or perhaps it made you aware of the Rainbow Bus Club, which meets in back of a Starbucks and is "strictly for straight men that wanna get together with other straight men and pretend to be gay for an hour or so."

Hiler's fliers are fake, but people have been fooled by them. Many of them have also made Reddit's front page, which it turns out was pretty much Hiler's main goal.

Hiler, who works at Cornett Integrated Marketing Solutions in Lexington, Ky., has been involved in other rogue projects, including the recent "Kentucky kicks ass" tourism effort. He spoke with AdFreak about the fliers, where he got his loony ideas, and what he wanted to accomplish with his creations.

 
When did you first have the idea to create these fake fliers? What about fliers seems ripe for parody?
A little over a year ago I made it my mission to try and figure out Reddit, to get some of that hot Internet action. If you're new to Reddit, it's kind of a tough nut to crack. Specifically, I wanted to figure out how to create content that rises to the top and eventually lands on the front page. So my goal was to make the front page. Through a little experimentation, the fake fliers ended up becoming my weapon of choice.

Why fliers? Fliers are really simple. Anyone can make them. You don't even need a computer. I'm not a designer. I could make them myself. It's not hard to pick the worst fonts and drop and drag strange images.

As far as sharable content goes, images work the best and are easiest to consume. Plus, images of fliers have already proven to be popular on the Internet. Did you ever see the Lionel Richie "Is it me you're looking for?" flier?

There's already a lot of strange fliers out there. Craigslist ads, too. So they are believable.

You certainly jumped right in with the Human Centipede flier. Were you looking to shock people, or just amuse them? Did you assume people might think it was real?
I knew the Internet already had a fixation with the Human Centipede. Like an event flier, the movie was about bringing people together. I also knew Reddit loved really weird stuff. For some strange reason, I got the idea to put together this sick-minded flier for a Human Centipede Meet-Up, asking people to "meet at noon to roshambo for positions."

The goal was to both shock and amuse. I figured if any place got a kick out of it, it would be Reddit. We're talking about the Internet here, so I really didn't assume anything. Just hoped for the best.

From this idea, another buddy and myself created a infographic called the Human Centipede of Advertising, which we dropped last Halloween. The possibilities with the Human Centipede are endless.

The Rainbow Bus Club flier might be your most successful. Where did you get the ridiculous idea for that one?
The Human Centipede Meet-Up got me hooked. It did well, but it didn't make the [Reddit] front page. I needed something a little hotter. The initial idea for the Rainbow Bus Club came years ago at a friend's house. It started as a big joke—the idea of straight guys getting together, sitting around and pretending to be gay. Anytime I'd mention it to someone, they'd laugh their ass off. Guys already do this (visit a fraternity). It just needed an official name. I just never did anything with it. Reddit seemed like the perfect home for the Rainbow Bus Club. It's by far been the most successful, hitting the front page twice. Tosh.0, too.

Is it true that people actually showed up for that event?
A girl I work with was friends with a girl who works at the Starbucks where the meeting was set to go down. Apparently the phone was ringing off the hook about the Rainbow Bus Club. I couldn't believe it. In the end, a group of guys wearing tank tops that said "Dudes" on them showed up. I guess they hung out and snapped a few photos. They even got a little press.

After the jump: The Asian impersonator and masturbation lessons
 

Tell us about the two impersonator fliers. Those are pretty confounding as well. Who would possibly need services like that?
One morning I read this ridiculous article on Complex magazine around the 10 most racist tweets against Asians from people that had seen the new Red Dawn movie over the weekend. For some strange reason, I thought it would be funny if an actual Asian guy marketed himself as an Asian impersonator. I found a stock photo of an Asian guy and made the flier. It hit the front page, too. [It got 750,000 views in 24 hours.]

I'm not sure who would possibly need services like that. I do know I invented that job. Hopefully it's making someone some money.

Finally, you've got the flier for masturbation lessons. Did anyone show up for that class? And why was that flier removed from Reddit?
No one showed up. I blacked out the location prior to putting it on Reddit. It was for a local gym, and I felt bad having an actual location listed. I bet someone would have shown up, though. No matter how strange the offering is, someone will always show up ready to party.

I'm not sure why it was removed from Reddit. I think it was just too hot for the Internet. Too absurd for even Reddit.

A lot of real fliers out there are very strange. What is it about them that's so oddly compelling? There's a sadness to them, isn't there?
There are some strange fliers out there. Just people looking to connect with other like-minded people. I'm not sure there's a sadness to them, except for the lost dog and missing person fliers. Those are really sad.

You've got a new project in the works. Can you tell us anything about it yet?
I've always got side projects in the works—typically several side-projects at a time. The best thing about creative side projects is there are no rules. I can do whatever I want, get as weird and as punk rock as I want. So yes, I've got a few things in the works.

I always like to keep things on the down low until I launch. It's too easy to get ripped off. You gotta protect your ideas.

We are still working to rebrand Kentucky. That's one big ongoing project we've been working on with Kentucky for Kentucky. That's been a lot of fun.