Digital 3D Printed Room

Après avoir présenté de superbes colonnes de 3 mètres de haut, le duo Digital Grotesque composé de Michael Hansmeyer et Benjamin Dillenburger revient avec ce prototype à échelle 1/3 d’une pièce entière imprimée en 3D qu’ils vont bientôt présenter à taille réelle dans le cadre de la Materializing Exhibition à Tokyo.

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The Oregonian Is A Valuable Brand Asset, But Its New York Owners Have Other Ideas

The newspaper business fascinates me. Like advertising, it’s a place for rogues. And like advertising the industry is rapidly morphing into something hardly recognizable to its senior practitioners.

Change is natural, of course, but change is not always good. According to Columbia Journalism Review, “The Oregonian is about to get Newhouse’d.”

The Times Picayune company yielded to NOLA Media Group (and Advance Central Services). The Plain Dealer shifted focus to digital, cut publication/delivery, and added Northeast Ohio Media Group. Advance’s Alabama papers became Alabama Media Group. All more or less followed the same template: gutted newsrooms, reduced publication, and a turn to the hamster-wheel model of digital journalism.

Now Portland’s Willamette Week reports that The Oregonian’s holding company has filed to trademark the name Oregonian Media Group.

The Newhouse family owns Condé Nast — publisher of Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired and many other top shelf magazines. The family is also in the newspaper business. In 1950, Advance Publications founder S. I. Newhouse purchased The Oregonian for $5.6 million.

Like all newspaper owners today, the Newhouse family is scrambling for answers to tough economic problems. Their failure to find them is becoming a real problem for the company, and its newsroom staffers.

Oddly, for a company leaning towards digital (over print), Advance’s corporate site looks like something right out of 1994. I don’t see this as a minimalist approach, I see it as lazy and uncaring.

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Regardless, what the hell is Advance’s leadership doing to its newspapers brands? Advance is taking historic newspaper brands — which “belong” the the city, as much as anyone — and corporatizing them in a weak bow to digital. The strategy is flawed in so many ways. For instance, The Oregonian is one of the most recognizable and powerful brands in the state, along with Nike, Intel, The Ducks and so on. Yet, to read “the paper” online, you must go to OregonLive.com.

I’m not against sub-brands or offshoots, but the digital version of The Oregonian, from a brand perspective, is The Oregonian, not Oregon Live. And “Oregon Live” as a two-word combo packs no punch. It’s lightweight, frivolous. The Oregonian, by comparison (like the other legendary newspapers owned by the Newhouse family) has history, believability and the community on its side.

[UPDATE 10:48 a.m.] Here’s the official announcement, just released from The Oregonian: The Oregonian will continue to be published daily and sold at outlets in the Portland metropolitan area and elsewhere in the state and southwestern Washington. Home delivery will be Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and include the Saturday edition as a bonus.

Previously on AdPulp: Will The Newspaper Industry Save Itself By Reinventing Online Advertising?

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Email Wins Again

In a world where relationship marketing is the be all and end all, email wins again.

A new study conducted by Lyris and recapped by Marketing Profs, lays out the argument for email (click for infographic).

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I’m surprised to see email rank higher than personal referrals. What does that say about the state of our friendships today? Maybe nothing.

Another interesting data point in the graph is how far down mobile devices rank. Mobile is reportedly the new frontier for marketers, although consumers may not see it that way.

This bit from the report is also worth considering:

When consumers research purchases online, 77% say they often spend their time comparing product prices and features. They prefer company channels over independent channels to do this research, by a wide margin.

On the other hand, they rate independent channels as more important for subjective information, such as expert and peer reviews.

People are saying give us “Product pricing and features, please, and save the ‘ad speak’ for another day.” What are we saying back? “Hey look, here’s a shiny new App — it orders pizza for you!”

For me, the takeaway here is people look to email as a trusted channel for receiving pertinent information from trusted friends, family and companies they buy from and are interested in. There’s room for advertising, and content marketing in the overall mix, but there may or may not be room for these things in an email to subscribers.

“Product pricing and features, please.”

To a creative person working in advertising, this sounds impossibly boring. But to a busy person who isn’t interested in what the brand has to say, per se, product pricing and a break down of features and benefits solves their needs, and guides them to a purchase decision.

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O que a internet está fazendo com o nosso cérebro?

Outro dia, o Braincast falou sobre a década de 1990, como as coisas eram no final do século 20. Parece loucura pensar que já estamos quase na metade da segunda década do século 21 e que já existe uma geração inteira por aí que não consegue imaginar um mundo sem internet e todas as tecnologias e mudanças sociais que ocorreram desde então. Só que ao mesmo tempo em que a web proporcionou avanços incríveis, ela também fez com que o ser humano regredisse em incontáveis aspectos, um deles ligado diretamente à criatividade, aprendizado e a maneira como raciocinamos.

Afinal, o que a internet está fazendo com o nosso cérebro?

Se você nunca se perguntou isso, talvez agora seja um bom momento para pensar a respeito. Pensar. Será que a gente se lembra como fazer isso de verdade, de maneira consciente e não no piloto automático? Às vezes tenho a impressão de que nós, seres humanos, estamos nos esquecendo como desempenhar funções básicas, não porque evoluímos e aprendemos algo novo no lugar, mas porque simplesmente desaprendemos deixando que uma máquina faça tudo por nós. E por mais que a gente pense que o acesso à informação está cada vez mais democrático, ao mesmo tempo a maneira de encontrar esta informação não é nada democrático, já que apenas alguns poucos “escolhidos” são capazes de desenvolver algoritmos para tal.

Ou seja: você joga uma busca no Google, que devolve os resultados para você, mastigados segundo o que aquela combinação de algoritmos definiu. Geralmente, a gente acaba se dando por satisfeito e pronto, fica por isso mesmo. Daí, me ocorreu o seguinte:

Será que o Google está matando a nossa curiosidade, criando uma falsa sensação de saciedade?

Já tem algum tempo que eu tenho pensado a respeito e tenho certeza de que nós – eu, você e outras pessoas – não estamos sozinhos na busca por respostas a estes questionamentos, especialmente se você faz parte daquela parcela da população que se lembra de como era o mundo analógico, quando as pesquisas para a escola eram feitas em bibliotecas (Barsa e Guia do Estudante, quem nunca?) e você precisava esperar meses para ouvir uma música nova ou assistir a um filme.

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Não, eu não estou sendo saudosista, nem reacionária, adoro poder ouvir a música nova do David Bowie no exato momento em que ela é lançada. De não precisar deixar o videocassete gravando um programa na MTV, só para poder assistir ao videoclipe deste ou daquele artista. Eu só acho que talvez seja exatamente por conta desta facilidade que as coisas estão se tornando cada vez mais superficiais e efêmeras, por assim dizer.

Daí eu te pergunto: que história tem aquele filme ou aquela música que você baixou da internet?

Tudo se tornou consumível, reciclável. Você consome uma coisa e, quando se cansa dela – o que ocorre com rapidez cada vez maior – vamos para a próxima. Não existe mais aquela coisa de se criar uma expectativa e, quando ela finalmente chega, você vai e curte durante um bom tempo, até se cansar. E, quando se cansa, não joga fora ou recicla. Você guarda. Eu tenho um monte de livros e discos aos quais sou apegada porque tive de esperar por eles. Cada um tem sua própria história, que faz parte da minha história, representa um momento da minha vida ou uma lembrança.

Mas, voltando à rapidez, será que com um volume tão grande de informação, a uma velocidade tão absurda, a gente consegue reter alguma coisa? O Epipheo Studios (que tem o Google entre seus clientes), fez uma entrevista com o escritor Nicholas Carr sobre esse assunto e criou uma animação muito legal e altamente esclarecedora, What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Se você não ligou o nome à pessoa, Nicholas Carr é o autor de A Grande Mudança e, mais recentemente, Geração Superficial.

Carr explica que nós nos tornamos uma espécie de dependentes digitais, que precisam ficar checando emails, smartphones e afins o tempo inteiro – curiosamente, uma espécie de evolução de instintos pré-históricos. Isso pode ser prejudicial por várias razões, mas uma delas está ligada diretamente à nossa capacidade de aprendizado, denominada consolidação da memória. É o processo que leva a informação da memória recente para a memória de longo prazo e permite que a gente crie conexões entre elas.

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Na prática, sabe quando você começa a fazer alguma coisa, mas daí o telefone toca ou você recebe uma mensagem, e no segundo seguinte esquece completamente o que ia fazer? É mais ou menos isso: você lê alguma coisa, mas na hora de o cérebro transferir os dados, uma interrupção qualquer acaba causando um pau na HD.

E Deus falou: só a atenção salva…

Ok, não foi Deus quem disse isso. Foi Nicholas Carr, só que com outras palavras. Mas acho que você entendeu a ideia. Quer “salvar” uma informação na sua memória de longo prazo? Preste atenção no que está fazendo e evite distrações. Acredite, isso é um fator determinante entre criar alguma coisa ou apenas reproduzir algo que você viu.

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Parece complicada essa coisa de se desligar mas, de fato, eu acredito que seja possível haver um equilíbrio entre digital e analógico, aproveitando-se o melhor dos dois universos. É muito prático ter uma biblioteca inteira em um tablet, mas não existe nada como o cheiro de livro novo (ou velho, em alguns casos). Sem contar que o tablet sempre tem muito mais do que livros, mas um monte de outras distrações que podem se tornar muito mais atraentes do que a leitura em si. Já o livro… é você e ele.

A era digital é ótima, mas imaginação e curiosidade para continuarmos em frente é essencial. E isso só cultivamos com um cérebro bem nutrido de realidade, informações, referências, histórias, experiências e até algumas distrações, desde que sua memória não seja prejudicada.

Se esse assunto já acabou? De forma alguma. Essa conversa só está começando.

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Brainstorm9Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Are Digital Services The New Ideal?

We all know what a mess digital advertising is. There are privacy concerns, ad blockers and quacks in every direction offering their innovative new solutions that are far from it.

The good news is brands can play effectively in the people’s sandbox — provided they learn to play a different game, a game with new rules.

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Banner ads and YouTube videos are print and broadcast constructs, respectively. The need to push past these formats has never been more clear. But what else can we do in digital? What else should we do?

Dan Hon, an Interactive Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy, is a champion of brands building out digital services like Nike+ Running.

A general mistake in thinking around digital advertising is that there are two binary choices: either provide utility and essentially create products; or create fluff or entertainment that reinforces a brand and relies on paid attention.

That ignores the tremendous but difficult space in the middle.

I do know what Hon means by the binary choices. I’ve laid them out for clients, and our readers here, for years. What I don’t accept is the notion that building digital services fails to fit into this simple equation. I hate to dwell in semantics, but Nike+ is also a product, and an excellent example of branded utility.

The truth is people are actively charting their own courses in digital via a plethora of mostly free and some paid tools. We are managing our real lives from a digital dashboard. It’s how we keep in touch with friends and family, pay our bills, shop, plan vacations, book travel, make dinner reservations, find dates and so on. Nike+ found a way to be useful, and that’s a fantastic thing. I would love to see this model repeated a thousand fold.

I will merely add that the brand who launches a lifestyle magazine or produces a feature film (both large scale content plays) is also finding a compelling way to be useful. Entertaining and informing people are both hugely useful.

The post Are Digital Services The New Ideal? appeared first on AdPulp.

Digital Agency Model Struck By Lightning

PORTLAND—Agencies with digital capabilities are a dime a dozen today. On the other hand, an agency with digital DNA that also creates compelling retail experiences, new products/companies and traditional advertising, is rare indeed. Ergo, I feel like I may be in the presence of an albino gorilla here at Struck’s Old Town offices.

John Gross, Strategist/Account Director, says, “We do killer websites, but we get that digital is storytelling.” And therein lies the Salt Lake City-based shop’s magic formula. Struck has an awesome toolbox, but the leaders of the shop know that tools, regardless of their power and shiny attractiveness, are just tools. The real work is using the tools to build something wonderful.

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Another of Stuck’s defining characteristics is its habit of taking on challenger brands like Asics and Jack in the Box; in fact, the agency considers itself to be a challenger brand.

I ask if being an agency from Salt Lake City is a perception challenge that needs to be overcome, even though the agency’s record of winning big accounts out of market is well established. Struck CEO, Daniel Conner, sees Salt Lake as a strategic advantage, if anything, and recounts a story about how executives from Lennar were wowed by the agency’s “second to none” thinking (which led to Struck being named AOR by the home builder).

Matt Anderson, Creative Director in the Portland office says, “To be a great agency, you have to solves your cleints’ really messy problems.” He counts Jack in the Box as a good example. The brand has been running its iconic Jack character TV campaign for 18 years, but there was no reflection of the brand’s attitude in digital. Struck has successfully changed the score by bringing an irreverent and mobile-first approach to this QSR.

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Struck believes in being “greater than.” Conner says it’s not just about messaging, it’s about creating better experiences. Generally speaking we all want greatness out of everything we do, he says. “At Struck we believe we can make it a bit better than everyone else, for our clients and ourselves. It was an internal mantra and a common cause we rallied around,” says Conner, “but we didn’t quite understand what it was until we gave it a brand.”

Pauline Ploquin, Chief Operating Officer at Struck, provides some context for the mantra with a story about how Struck went above and beyond to build its hospitality client The Grand America Hotel two new retail stores, a toy store and a bakery, from the ground up. “We came in as a marketing partner,” says Ploquin. But when Struck saw that the hotel needed a stronger retail strategy, the results led the agency to cross over into product development. Ploquin adds that the toy store they created, JouJou, may expand into a retail chain.

Gross says, “We’re not afraid to take a stand and push clients outside their comfort zone. In digital, safe equals boring.”

Anderson says, “The reason we work at Struck and not in some basement at McCann, or somewhere else, is because we want to do things that matter to our clients.” He adds, “We have never been in a position where we felt free to do something that didn’t count. Everyday is a street fight. We’re just always fighting for our lives.”

Anderson brings the agency’s “greater than” philosophy full circle. He says, it’s a way to keep ourselves honest. We ask “Is this great enough? Because if it’s not, sooner or later we’ll turn into one of those small regional agencies that does ads for oil changes.”

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I have to say Struck’s insistence on always being “greater than” has delivered impressive results. While working on a project for Gatorade, for instance, the Struck team realized that the shortcomings in Radian6′s social listening tool could be overcome through better visualizations. So Struck made its own product, called NUVI, which is now a stand alone business with 25 clients already on board, including Berkshire Hathaway’s Business Wire and other agencies like Fallon and TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Conner says there’s a technology boom happening in Utah, a.k.a. the Silicon Slopes. “Struck as a digital creative agency is riding that wave. In fact, we helped generate a lot of this wave. A lot of our designers and developers have roots in this world.”

“Great ideas don’t just live on Madison Avenue anymore,” says Conner. “In order to execute these ideas, you need to be where the talent is, and there’s a ton of development talent in Utah. Same with Portland, the talent’s here.”

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Have You Stoked Your Frictionless Data Feeds Today?

Just when we wrap our collective heads around the concept of real-time marketing, along comes on-demand marketing to steal some of real-time’s thunder.

According to Peter Dahlström and David Edelman of McKinsey, “the coming era of ‘on-demand’ marketing” will revolve around four key areas:

Now: Consumers will want to interact anywhere at any time.

Can I?: They will want to do truly new things as disparate kinds of information (from financial accounts to data on physical activity) are deployed more effectively in ways that create value for them.

For me: They will expect all data stored about them to be targeted precisely to their needs or used to personalize what they experience.

Simple: They will expect all interactions to be easy.

The authors go on to provide some interesting examples. For instance, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s smartphone app, which reinvents the house-hunting experience by delivering public records (list price, taxes, and other data) at the point of interest.

The authors also make it clear that very few marketers are prepared to meet the demands of info-loaded consumers. I think we can also safely say that very few agencies are prepared to activate real-time or on-demand campaigns. To do so requires not only the ability to recognize the change, but to adapt to it, which isn’t easy given how many of the changes are structural in nature (hence, the rise of content strategists, community managers, user experience designers and so on — positions that did not exist five years ago).

Is it possible that we’re underestimating the impact of digital culture on how things actually work today? In a sentence, if something does not work or is inelegantly designed, “the crowd” may take it upon themselves to remix/fix it, or demand that you do.

So, it’s not “Can I?” It’s “I can.”

The challenge of real-time and on-demand marketing is significant. A brand is a living thing, and digital media is always on. A customer may say “I can!” at 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, and launch into a rant on the brand’s Facebook page about how a product or service experience failed to deliver.

A small business typically lacks the resources for 24-7 customer service in social channels, but a big brand is another story. A big brand may in fact operate like an institution from another century, but that hardly matters to the tween seeking input NOW. Thus, big brands like Coca-Cola or Ford need to be present at all times. Open, available and helpful. It’s a tall order, but I don’t think brands can run from it much longer.

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Fotógrafa “viaja no tempo” para participar de grandes momentos

Quem nunca sentiu saudades de um tempo em que não viveu, ou desejou ter uma máquina do tempo para poder testemunhar algum fato ou grande momento da história? Algumas de minhas bandas favoritas acabaram ou seus integrantes morreram antes que eu tivesse a oportunidade de vê-los tocando ao vivo – os Beatles são o melhor exemplo disso. Se eu pudesse voltar no tempo, seria o primeiro show que eu iria, seguido por um de Elvis Presley e outro de Frank Sinatra.

A fotógrafa húngara Flóra Borsi deve compartilhar desse desejo, e parece ter resolvido bem esse impasse, de uma maneira divertida e criativa com a série Time Travel, que ela publicou no Behance, Instagram, Facebook e Twitter. Utilizando o Photoshop, ela se inseriu em imagens famosas, sempre aparecendo com uma máquina digital ou smartphone tentando registrar o momento.

A inspiração foi uma teoria que rodou a internet há alguns anos, sobre uma viajante no tempo que teria sido filmada por acaso falando ao celular no filme O Circo, de Charlie Chaplin (aqui, o vídeo).

Independentemente de qualquer coisa, vale o resultado. Mas a vontade de estar lá de verdade, e não só digitalmente, continua…

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Brainstorm9Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Marketers Are Brand Architects And Building Brands Takes More Than Math

Fact: When it comes to marketing spending, analog still outstrips digital by a factor of three to one.

Jake Sorofman, an analyst with Gartner, supplied the cold hard fact above in a Harvard Business Review article.

It’s the kind of fact that my friend Bob Hoffman likes, and likes to use to convince CMOs and other innocents, that digital is a good place to experiment but to move metal or sell cheeseburgers, stick to broadcast.

Oddly, TV isn’t all that easy to measure, whereas digital initiatives are all about measurement. From Sorofman’s article:

…with digital techniques, everything is measurable. Feedback loops tighten, segmentation becomes microtargeting, and optimizations can happen on the fly or even in real time. The relationship between investment and impact becomes correlated and causal — and the CMO becomes accountable down to the dime and moment by moment. Light dawns on the marketing spend! This transparency is powerful when quarters are turning into dollars for the business — but potentially perilous when the opposite is the case.

Knowledge is power. Let’s not deny a core principle. But can we entertain that not everything in advertising or the universe is knowable? Can we allow for magic to happen? Is there a line item for magic? There needs to be, because a brand is so much more than a series of A-B tests, performed ad infinitum. A brand is the grand sum of experiences people have with a company. A brand is customer service, product and look and feel.

Sorofman reflects on imagined days gone by. “Like Mad Men’s Don Draper, the CMO became the master of the soft-shoe performance.”

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I don’t argue that there are charlatans in every line of work, but I do contest that knowing what works is an act of some kind. Knowing where to put a word, where to place a support beam in a house, or where to make an incision during surgery, are all practical skills that also require intuition and a deft touch.

I have no issue with Quants storming the CMO’s office, or my own office for that matter, but let’s keep some perspective and our eyes on the prize. Brand building is a human enterprise, and humans are observed from every angle, yet continue to surprise.

The post Marketers Are Brand Architects And Building Brands Takes More Than Math appeared first on AdPulp.

Perrier promove festa digital com Secret Place

Quem nunca teve vontade de participar de uma festa maluca em Paris, conhecer pessoas exóticas e vivenciar uma experiência única? Ainda que seja uma experiência digital, esta é a proposta de Secret Place, hotsite que a Ogilvy & Mather Paris criou para a Perrier. Voltado apenas para adultos, esta espécie de jogo de detetive vai premiar 5 ganhadores com viagens para algumas grandes festas ao redor do mundo, como o Carnaval no Rio de Janeiro, Ibiza, na Espanha, St. Tropez, na França, Art Basel, em Miami, e o Ano Novo em Sidney. E, sim, eu li o regulamento e os brasileiros podem participar.

A mecânica é simples: é possível escolher entre os 60 personagens que participam da festa e ir mudando conforme a ação se desenrola. Para isso, basta clicar no rosto da nova identidade escolhida. Também é possível mudar a rota ou estender a experiência. O objetivo é encontrar a garrafa secreta: ao longo do jogo, o usuário tem de procurar por 5 pistas escondidas na festa. Elas apontarão como chegar à mulher dourada e à garrafa de Perrier. Quem conseguir, entra na disputa pelo grande prêmio.

O jogo é todo em primeira pessoa, com live action. É preciso prestar atenção o tempo inteiro, porque a ação não para e cada personagem tem um tempo pré-determinado para o usuário encontrar as pistas.





 

Brainstorm9Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Push Gets Pushy, Talks Smack About Pull

Direct marketers get little respect from brand marketers, which is a shame. Everyone has something to give!

Now, I see that social media marketers get little respect from direct marketers, which is also a shame. Where’s the love?

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Direct marketing pro, Debra Ellis, writing in Target Marketing opens her can of whoop ass with a wicked snap (emphasis added).

Every good direct marketer knows the top company asset is the customer database. Almost anyone with marketing experience can turn that data into revenue. I say “almost” because there is still a social media movement trying to prove that direct mail and email marketing is dying. It’s doubtful that anyone in that group could create and execute an effective plan that delivers sales and profitability. But, for the rest of us, the people who understand that customer relationships are about the quality of service, a solid list is money in the bank.

Ellis goes on to wax direct poetic about the many charming aspects of email newsletters. For instance, she claims that “email marketing can do so much more than generate revenue and profits. In the right hands, it increases customer loyalty and reduces operating costs.”

Damn, I badly want some of this email marketing magic and its attendent profitability. Who wouldn’t?

Sadly, too many marketers and their agents see an email signup as a wide open invite to slam you with the shit they want you to know. However, email newsletters, like all communications, work best when filled with info that readers desire, not navel gazing brand lint.

Editor’s Note: Would you like to receive an email newsletter from AdPulp? If so, would you prefer daily, weekly or monthly mailings?

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Protect Yourself from Industry Hype – Search Is What People Use When They Intend To Buy

This is the hype machine and the the hype machine is deafening.

Chugga, Chugga, Chugga the hype machine goes. That’s the sound of spinning yarns into memes and trends. Social media is the new this. Content is the new that. And so on.

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Which is why I find this cold glass of water (or is it sand in the gear box?) from serial entrepreneur Kaila Colbin refreshing.

In the provocatively titled “Can We Please Stop Hyping Social As The Marketing Messiah?” Nathan Safran replaces assumptions with data. During the 2012 holiday season, for example, 34% of retail website visits came from search. 40% were direct. 2% — yes, a mere two percent — were from social.

Another study Safran cites has 15% of respondents always or often turning to social for shopping or product research, while 97% say they always or often turn to search. Search is obviously not the only possible marketing channel out there, but at least if your dogma is that “search is best,” you’ve got some stats supporting you.

I’m not a search marketer. And this post isn’t about search, it’s about our ability to reason and read between the lines. For instance, digital spending reports continue to baffle me. Up and up the spending goes; yet, so-called display ads are the worst of the worst ROI generators.

Can we trust our most trusted media sources today? Hell, can we trust our own media literacy?

Companies are about to spend $17 billion dollars on display ads this year, but only one tenth of one percent of the people who see these display ads will notice, or act. The information fails to justify. Either companies are throwing money down the hype-made drain for no good reason, or display ads work much better than reported.

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Digital Collages of People

Coup de cœur pour les impressionnants travaux de l’artiste coréenne Jiyen Lee qui crée et compose des collages et photo-manipulations de marches et escalators vus de haut. Un résultat surprenant et hypnotique représentant des milliers de personnes, à découvrir en détails dans la suite en images.

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Mr. Wolfdog Not A Descendant of White Fang (Or Man on a Horse)

Dog videos are really freaking popular online, but not as popular as cat videos. Which is good, because the new marketing guru at Old Spice isn’t a cat, he’s a Wolfdog. If he was a Tigercat, that would be too obvious, pandering even. But a Wolfdog, a Wolfdog has legs. Oh, and like ETrade’s talking baby, words stream from Wolfdog’s mouth, clever words that show disdain for marketing, because that makes it funny, or funnier.

“Sometimes, you gotta eat people America, that’s how business works,” says the brand character. And there’s a lot more Mr. Wolfdog to be had. Wieden+Kennedy is sending a steady bark of Mr. Wolfdog Tweets, and working to spread Mr. Wolfdog’s message across the various social platforms.

Mr. Wolfdog was even kind enough to host a live webinar on marketing. Here’s a replay of that non-historic event:

Video streaming by Ustream

On top of the many formulas followed above (use of talking dogs and anti-advertising inside humor), there’s also the fact that Kenny Powers already took over a brand — K-Swiss — and 72andsunny’s version of a hostile takeover is jarringly refreshing. Shoe wearers are also inclined to believe that Kenny Powers might actually be running K-Swiss. None of that is true here.

There are funny lines sprinkled here and there, but no big idea to drive this campaign forward. This isn’t Man on a Horse, strategically or creatively. It fails to ladder back to under arm protection like Man on a Horse, and that’s a missed opportunity. This is a decent attempt at Internet-friendly humor, and it is funny in places, but mostly it feels like random “Hey, will this work?” posturing.

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Hey Ad Man, What Business Are You In? #Rhetorical

I don’t know if ad grunts are any more likely to complain about work than any other profession, but I do know we find plenty to complain about: unreasonable timelines and budgets, long hours, okay pay, testy clients and account directors, unnecessary attitudes from the creative department, mindless focus on the minutia, and so on.

But all that is the glass half-empty view of the agency business. For the glass half-full version we turn to former CEO of Leo Burnett Singapore, John Kyriakou.

Writing for Campaign Asia-Pacific says, Kyriakou extolls our virtues, while challenging us to reach higher.

I still hear people say ‘we’re in the ad business’. At some point we need to realise that the success of our business is entirely based on the success of our clients’ business. Entirely.

If we at least begin to accept that, then we should be developing ideas, not just ads, that help strengthen the spreadsheets of our clients. We need to become, you guessed it, thinkers and innovators.

Businesses need to be more creative now than ever, not more conservative. They need new ways to stimulate people, whether it be through product development, packaging innovation, new distribution channels. People do not need more of the same, they need difference in their lives. Agencies have everything at their disposal to supply it.

It’s funny, I was in the “ad making” business for awhile, and it was a me-centered universe. What mattered was selling the best creative, regardless of what the client thought of it, or if it actually might work in the marketplace. Because those things didn’t matter. What mattered was a better book for me, so I could get a better job and more pay. If my clients and their customers were also happy, all the better.

Thankfully, I managed to grow up and get past this limited POV, but I am well aware that the conditions which created it remain in place. We are human beings and we like to follow formulas. Even the best agencies follow formulas. Take W+K. It might be a stretch to say their work is suffering, but I will say it is increasingly formulaic. And there’s a reason for it, which has everything to do with following formulas.

The formula W+K and other elite agencies use looks like this: Hire only the people we know, or know of, people with strikingly similar books and backgrounds, and keep them busy doing what the agency is best at — delivering TV campaigns.

Why do you think digital is such a challenge for W+K and other leading traditional shops? Digital is outside the formula. So, right now a new digitally-enhanced formula is being made, which will theoretically create new digital hits. Yet, for digital to jump the direct marketing shark and emerge as a brand building platform, we need radical disruption, not another formula.

The post Hey Ad Man, What Business Are You In? #Rhetorical appeared first on AdPulp.

Clean Is The New Black

Here is some exceptionally good news. According to Digiday, The Banner Industrial Complex Under Threat.

“From a publisher’s standpoint, there really is no choice but to go this way,” said David Payne, Gannett’s chief digital officer, of the move away from the banner. “I think we’ve all proven over the last 12 years that the strategy we’ve been following — to create a lot of inventory and then sell it at 95 percent off to these middlemen every day — is not a long term strategy.”

USA TODAY_ Latest World and US News - USATODAY.com-2

Digiday points out that the newly redesigned USA Today dramatically reduced its inventory volume. Instead of fitting as many ads as possible around an article, it decided to place a single ad unit next to each of the site’s articles and package the content and ad together in a pop-out lightbox. Naturally, this makes the ad more visible to readers and thus more valuable to both the marketer and media company.

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Qual o potencial do conteúdo digital no Brasil?

Em dezembro do ano passado, o Ibope Media divulgou um relatório apontando que o Brasil tem 94,2 milhões de usuários de internet. Este número, entretanto, já deve ter sido ultrapassado, visto que foi registrado no terceiro trimestre de 2012. Mas, por que raios estamos falando em números? Porque estes números representam pessoas e todas estas pessoas estão consumindo conteúdo online – inclusive você, neste exato momento. Se há consumidores, então existe um mercado e, consequentemente, a demanda por produtos – e também por produtores.

É aí que começa a seguinte reflexão: qual o futuro deste ramo de negócios no país e onde entram os blogs nesta história toda?

Segundo pesquisadores do Ipea, nos Estados Unidos a indústria de conteúdos digitais chega a representar 10% de um PIB que ultrapassa os US$ 15 trilhões. É só fazer as contas e ver que, por lá, o segmento é bem rentável. Apesar de ainda estar engatinhando, o mercado brasileiro também já dá sinais de seu grande potencial, como bem observou Gaby Darbyshire, COO da Gawker Media.

Há alguns dias, ela esteve no Brasil para visitar os parceiros da F451, responsáveis pelas versões nacionais do Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik e do recém-finado Jezebel. Em um papo exclusivo com o B9, Gaby contou que há um plano de ampliar este leque – afinal os negócios vão bem por aqui -, mas que o projeto ainda está em fase de estudos. Todo esse tato tem explicação: se por um lado as oportunidades existem, por outro também há a preocupação se público e anunciantes estão preparados para determinados títulos, especialmente após o fim de Jezebel.

Em 2012, a boo-box analisou a audiência de blogs brasileiros com base nos dados de 80 milhões de usuários. As categorias mais acessadas são entretenimento, esporte, tecnologia, automotivos, moda e beleza, que juntos correspondem a 94% dos acessos – um prato cheio para anunciantes. A blogosfera se tornou um segmento tão atraente que não faltam pessoas querendo largar tudo para virar blogueiro profissional, com a ilusão de que o sucesso é instantâneo. Mas não é bem assim.

Se olharmos a trajetória dos principais blogs brasileiros, a maioria está por aí há pelo menos uns 10 anos, como o próprio B9. É claro que há casos daqueles que estouram do dia para a noite, mas nem todos conseguem se manter relevantes sem conteúdo de qualidade.

“É uma verdade imutável que se você produz um conteúdo bom, as pessoas vão querer acessá-lo e retornarão todos os dias, fazendo com que sua audiência cresça”, observa Gaby.

A pegadinha é que “bom” e “ruim” são coisas subjetivas e o que pode ser bom para alguns é ruim para outros, e vice-versa. Então o bom, segundo ela, é aquele que consegue se destacar dos demais e despertar o interesse do leitor dentro de seu segmento, tornando-se relevante. A combinação de relevância, interesse e audiência é o que define a viabilidade comercial da publicação. No caso da Gawker Media, isso se traduz em 40 milhões de leitores mensais, presença em nove países e um faturamento anual de US$ 26 milhões. Nada mal para o que começou em 2002 como um blog de entretenimento criado por Nick Denton, para se transformar em um grupo com 8 publicações – 3 delas (Deadspin, Gawker e Gizmodo) entre as 10 mais lidas do mundo.

Nick Denton & Gaby Darbyshire

Mas nem tudo é perfeito. Apesar de ser um dos títulos de maior sucesso da Gawker Media no exterior, o site Jezebel não deu certo no Brasil. A proposta de abordar cultura, moda, sexo e celebridades com um olhar mais crítico, acompanhando a realidade da mulher contemporânea, acabou não funcionando por aqui e o blog foi desativado no final do ano passado. Talvez o maior pecado de Jezebel tenha sido a incompreensão de seu posicionamento independente, pioneirismo punido com o fim da publicação.

“Nos EUA, Jezebel é gigante. Acreditamos que foi cedo demais para trazê-lo para cá, mas também acreditamos que o Brasil precisa de algo assim. Em algum momento, nós vamos tentar novamente”.

Estratégia & Futuro

Há algumas semanas, o Braincast 47 discutiu a realidade das pequenas e médias agências do Brasil, que atendem clientes locais, com um orçamento bem diferente das polpudas contas do eixo Rio-São Paulo. No mercado da produção de conteúdo digital, mais especificamente dos blogs, a realidade é parecida. É cada vez mais comum blogs que atraem anunciantes locais (e em alguns momentos até mesmo nacionais) por ter um conteúdo regionalizado.

Guardadas as devidas proporções, a estratégia da Gawker Media é bastante parecida ao permitir que seus parceiros trabalhem localmente, de maneira independente, mas sem perder a identidade original das publicações que representam. E mesmo que nem todo mundo goste, é preciso levar em conta que muitos internautas preferem acessar blogs em seu próprio idioma. Se este não é o seu caso e você prefere ler o Gizmodo original, mas fica incomodado com o direcionamento para a versão brasileira, basta alterar os cookies do computador, utilizando os links para os sites norte-americanos presentes em todos os blogs.

Mas, e daí, os blogs vão substituir os meios tradicionais de informação?

Essa conversa de que a internet vai substituir jornais, livros, televisão e rádio rola há anos, mas pelo que pudemos ver até agora, melhor seria dizer que a internet é cada vez mais uma ferramenta para a integração do digital e do analógico. Saber combinar o melhor dos dois mundos é muito mais eficaz do que optar por apenas um e dizer que o outro vai acabar. Tanto para quem produz conteúdo, quanto para quem anuncia e consome.

No caso de quem produz, há incontáveis ferramentas à disposição que facilitam o dia a dia, queimando inúmeras etapas e reduzindo custos. É claro que é preciso desenvolver múltiplas habilidades, mas isso também é benéfico. Para os anunciantes, as possibilidades de envolver o público e criar experiências únicas parecem não ter fim, enquanto o consumidor passa a ser o maior beneficiado com tantas opções.

E mesmo toda essa concorrência é vista com bons olhos pela executiva da Gawker Media. “Tem espaço para todo mundo. Isso nos estimula a nos dedicarmos mais, é o que nos torna melhores”.

Depois disso tudo, dá para concluir que o mercado de conteúdo digital no Brasil tem potencial – senão não chamaria a atenção de grupos internacionais – e que a concorrência existe e pode ser positiva, mas saber explorar vantagens como a produção local é fator determinante em qualquer estratégia.

 

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Can Analog Thinking Shake Up Our Digital World?

If you’re a rock fan, I highly recommend you check out “Sound City,” a new documentary about a legendary LA recording studio that was all analog.

No one denies the power of our new digital tools to make great music, but in the movie we hear musicians lament the brilliant imperfections of old-school recording methods.

Is it the same way for advertising? In a world where the first thing we do is jump on a computer to make stuff, would a little analog thinking help?

Even though our world is so digitally focused, I’m not surprised when I hear advertising and design teachers all the time implore their students to do logos and layouts by hand first. Interestingly, copywriting teachers don’t preach the virtues of writing copy by hand with the same emphasis. In a time crunch we’re all in, though, it’s easier to just jump on a computer and type or mess with layouts 100 ways until the pieces come together.

It’s the subject of my my new column on Talent Zoo. This week marks the 11th anniversary of the first column I wrote for the site. I’ve been writing a new one every 3 weeks since 2002. If you’ve read them, I hope you’ve enjoyed them.

And if you want the best of them for a little quality reading in the tub or on the toilet, buy the book.

The post Can Analog Thinking Shake Up Our Digital World? appeared first on AdPulp.

Newsweek lança sua última edição impressa

Em quase 80 anos de história, a revista semanal Newsweek já teve todo tipo de manchetes estampando sua capa. Em setembro, o BuzzFeed publicou uma seleção de 61 capas que explicaram o mundo nestas oito décadas, que ia desde a cobertura de guerras, os assassinatos do presidente John Kennedy, seu irmão Bob Kennedy, Martin Luther King e John Lennon, a beatlemania, drogas, Watergate, discoteca, os escândalos envolvendo Bill Clinton, o 11 de setembro, as guerras do Afeganistão e Iraque, a caçada a Osama bin Laden e a revolução tecnológica, com livros tornando-se digitais e o Google conquistando o mundo. Hoje, em sua última edição impressa, a manchete não poderia ser mais simples e complexa ao mesmo tempo: #LastPrintIssue.

A partir de 2013, a revista contará apenas com a versão digital, a Newsweek Global. A novidade já havia sido anunciada no final de setembro, e resultou da redução drástica de anunciantes na versão impressa. Agora, a revista digital mira no público já integrado com a realidade digital, que quer se informar sobre as notícias do mundo em um contexto mais sofisticado.

Para muitos, pode ser o final de uma era. Para outros, é apenas o começo. Newsweek-Final-Cover

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The Legend of Digital Zelda

Todo mundo que jogou “Legend Of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time” um dia, se tornou uma pessoa melhor. Como fã da série, não poderia deixar de apreciar esse vídeo, mas mesmo pra quem não é, impossível não gostar do fantástico trabalho do Final Cut King.

Ele mostra uma aventura de Link pela era digital, através das telas de computadores, smartphones e tablets.

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