Hasta La Creative!

And so, the hashtag-related adventures continue for Damjan Pita, the AKQA senior art director who recently co-created the #StealBanksyNY project that coincided with said artist’s month-long New York City outdoor takeover dubbed “Better Out Than In.” With Banksy’s residency now in the books, Pita, joined this time by West creative director/product experience Leif Abraham and web designer Roman Opalko, has turned his focus to the Hashtag Generator, which the parties involved describe as “the most stupid genius tool.” It’s good Pita and crew covered both the “stupid” and “genius” bases in the tagline as folks could perceive this as either or (or just “meh” as one of our own did).  Whatever you feel, it’s quick and easy to fiddle with as you just type a sentence and watch the # generator go to work and show you if the hashtag is in use, and on which social channels they appear. From what we’ve gathered, this is just one of several efforts that Pita & Co. refer to as an #awkwardhashtag project. Consider yourselves warned.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

With a new NBA season comes new spots for Kia from David&Goliath starring L.A. Clippers superstar Blake Griffin. This season, though, Blake, aka “The Endorser” as he’s known in other campaigns, is joined by a small sidekick, Jack McBrayer, who is best known for playing the bizarre but sweet NBC page on 30 Rock.

While this spot, “Trailer,” adorably portrays Griffin and McBrayer as a noble superhero team saving citizens from purchasing non-Kia vehicles, it lacks what has made Grffin’s spots for Kia so memorable over the years: Blake’s inherent weirdness. Not once does Blake open his mouth to tell the camera something strange while giving his off-putting stare. Neither does McBrayer, whose unhinged 30 Rock performance allowed him to frequently stand out amidst a large cast filled with other unhinged individuals.

I certainly hope that “Trailer” is aptly named, released only to build excitement for forthcoming “feature presentations.” If we never get to see two superpowers of weird actually interact with each other, then all may be lost. The next spot, “Zipline” is slated to come out early next month. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Hiscox Reactor? Gee, that sounds fancy. Sounds like something a character from The Big Bang Theory would reference. It turns out that it’s not all that fancy, save for some elegant animation reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine courtesy of Tribal Worldwide NY. The gist: users log in to their Linkedin accounts and can follow a whirling red ball that moves through customized graphics revealing education and work history.

The experience is personalized in the way that asking a Magic 8 Ball a question is personalized. A finite number of combinations and animations have little use after the first watch. However, if you feel like watching the red ball spin – and it is a Friday, so why not? – the chain reaction may make you think about your winding career path that has taken many turns and dips. It didn’t for me, but it might for you. And it might make you want to purchase small business insurance from Hiscox, which is actually important. Or it just might make you wonder why a company would spend money on a custom animation gimmick that lacks value. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

W+K’s new spot for Booking.com features legendary ghost hunting destination the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco. The Queen Anne, which was featured on an episode of the Travel Channel’s Haunted Hotels, was a boarding school before it was a hotel, and one-time headmistress Mary Lake is said to haunt it.

In the spot above, a woman sleeping in the hotel is awoken by the television turning on by itself. She sees a camera view of something approaching her room, Room 410: the very room Mary Lake is said to haunt. Later the woman sees shots of herself, presumably while Mary’s ghost approaches. We cut out just before this woman wets the bed. At the end we see the tagline “Stay if you dare,” followed by “Over 350,000 accommodations including haunted hotels.” I’m not sure there’s a huge audience who wants to stay at haunted hotels, but I suppose the idea is that Booking.com can accommodate your every whim. Even a weird one like wanting to stay in a haunted hotel. I don’t love it, but it could be the most interesting Booking.com spot since they stole Bob Marshall’s idea of showing someone booking a room during Spain’s Running of the Bulls. Now if they’d only stop the whole “Booking.yeah” thing.

If you’re a paranormal enthusiast and are serious about wanting to stay at a haunted hotel, Booking.com will totally hook you up. They’ve created a Haunted Destination finder on their site. Included are the Queen Anne Hotel, The Stanley Hotel in Colorado (the inspiration for Stephen King‘s The Shining), the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel in St. Petersburg, Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas, The Historic National Hotel in Jamestown, California, The Gettysburg Hotel, and the 1886 Crescent Hotel (a purportedly haunted Arkansas hotel that houses an old morgue in its basement). It’s worth a quick click through for the histories of these paranormal destinations. Credits after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Have you ever been checking out ad work and thought “Gosh, I would really love it if I was suddenly whisked away into a Google Hangout with some random people I don’t know”? Well, fear not! ADC Germany and Hamburg-based Interone BBDO haven taken over with, well, ADC Takeover, which is the most guerrilla way to conduct job interviews ever, maybe.

As you can see in the case study above, unsuspecting adc.de browsers of all walks were surprised when an ADC boss and/or Interone ECD suddenly appeared on their screen for what was purportedly a job interview, and they were probably more surprised when the web chats seemed to quickly escalate into a game of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” It even looked like the ADC team got to see some nipples, which is really the best kind of surprise if you think about it. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

And so, the government shutdown has lingered on for over eight days now, and with no resolution in sight before the debt ceiling increase deadline on Oct. 17 (aka Judgment Day), DUMBO agencies Matter and Cooke & Co. are mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore. So, they decided to launch a web effort that not only serves as a depressing, continuous reminder of how much the shutdown is affecting taxpayers, but a platform that lets you essentially send an invoice to Speaker of the House John Boehner for your losses. How? Well, how else these days but via Twitter. The image below basically sums it up, and while your efforts might prove fruitless, why not give it a shot during this woeful governmental gridlock.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dodge and Paramount have joined forces in a co-branded campaign from W+K launching the new 2014 Dodge Durango featuring Ron Burgundy (of Anchorman and the upcoming Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, but you already knew that).

The campaign, which spans television, print, digital and social media, debuted October 5th online and on television. Be prepared to see it everywhere.

“With the personal involvement of Will Ferrell, our writer / director Adam McKay, the comedy team at Funny or Die, and the Dodge creative team at Wieden+Kennedy, we were able to create a truly epic partnership,” says CMO of Paramount Picture Josh Greenstein in a statement. But are the spots actually funny? Some of them — they really very widely in quality. Each of the spots takes advantage of the 70s aesthetic in the Anchorman films, taking place in a colorful, very 70s auto showroom. The first spot, “Horsepower” is a bit of a letdown. It resurrects the tired “comparing horse power to an actual horse” theme commonly used in spots for powerful vehicles.

The staring contest with the horse at the end is almost worth a chuckle though. “Glove Compartment” is a lot better: it features Ron Burgundy toting the Durango’s glove compartment, which can hold “two turkey sandwiches or seventy packs of gum.” Another spot finds Burgundy struggling with a script that touts the Durango’s “m.p.g.” performance. The highlight is definitely “Ballroom Dancers,” featured above, which has a comically angry showdown between Burgundy and dancers that he thinks may “live in the rafters.” A lot of this is stuff that only Ferrell could get away with delivering, and only about half of the time is the writing worthy of his talent, but when it works it works. Plus, it will whet people’s appetites for the Anchorman sequel, which is kind of the point.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues debuts in theaters December 20th. Credits and additional video after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Which government jobs are truly essential? The folks at “Is This Job Essential?” were tired of government officials making decisions about which jobs were and were not necessary. So they decided to use the magic of the Internet to put the vote to the people.

Isthisjobessential.com offers up government jobs and let visitors rate how essential those positions are, from 1 to 10. The site reminds you, under politicians, that “This elected official is getting paid right now.” According to voters, the least essential jobs are held by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, Virginia Representative Eric Cantor, and Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnel and Rand Paul. Meanwhile, the five most essential jobs — National Lab Researcher, Passport Guy, The Person Who Helps Moms and Kids, The Person Who Gives Flu Shots and a Happy Police Dog — were impacted by the government shutdown.

That’s pretty much the gist of the site: that the politicians responsible for grinding government to a halt are still getting paid, while the people who have jobs contributing something to the country are being screwed over by the shutdown and/or budget cuts. It would be nice if they could give more information about each political figure, especially their culpability in the government shutdown, so people could make a more informed vote and so the sight could be a touch more educational. That being said, it’s nice to see people up-in-arms over the most recent Republican attack on democracy. (I’m no fan of the Democratic party, but to suggest that the shutdown was not completely the fault of the GOP is complete and utter bullshit.) If only someone could force Ted Cruz to look at this site, perhaps with some sort of A Clockwork Orange style eyelid-opening device, the world might be a slightly more just place. Unfortunately, if any Republicans do happen upon the site they will just use their well-honed “bury your head in the sand” powers to ignore its existence. This kind of thing will likely just be passed around social media amongst people who already agree with the site’s sentiments. But hey, maybe it will piss off that one Republican friend you have on Facebook who thinks this is all Obama’s fault. That’s something, right?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Young Glory Season 3 is upon us, with a twist. While previous iterations have included only Advertising briefs, this season kicks off with a separate Design category. More categories, more opportunities to win points, and more points is good for just about everything except golf and driving records. However, and I’ll inform you upfront, points from the Advertising category cannot combine with points from the Design category. When you enter, whether student or professional, choose wisely.

This month’s judges are R/GA Regional ECD David Brown (Advertising) and Collins New York Partner and ECD Leland Maschmeyer (Design). Brown’s ad brief focuses on wearable technology: “we are turning the table a little and asking you to think from “what” to “what if?” In the same realm as Nike Fuel, Google Glass, etc., Brown is asking for fashion and function. On the Design end, Maschmeyer’s brief deals with improving America’s healthcare system (don’t worry about issues such the healthcare lobby, Congressional gridlock, or Republican hostage-taking). From the brief: “Design can help in one key area: the customer’s relationship with their health insurance provider.” Sreamline, simplify, convenience. Do whatever you have to do to earn those points. Everyone is eligible.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the last few years, much of the marketing world has turned to content marketing: the idea that the best way to engage with audiences and raise your visibility is to share robust, usually educational content for free. This content takes many forms – blogs, videos, podcasts, books (and particularly ebooks, given their ease of distribution), material on social media, and more. Basically, anywhere and any way that folks learn.

Recent studies have, time and time again, shown the the same thing: content marketing works. It works in large part because there’s a hunger for substance in marketing – for folks to talk to one another, teaching and sharing knowledge, rather than talking past one another with fluffy pitches. But as the research has shown, it’s not just a feel-good strategy, but a serious driver of growth. So how do you go about implementing it for your own organization?

The kernel of wisdom at the heart of content marketing strategy really applies to all communication. Try to have something to say – preferably, something that your audience will find interesting or useful. When you’re trying to figure out what to write about in your content marketing program, consider the following three points:

Utilize your unique experience

Do you have extensive experience in a particular sector of your industry? Maybe you approach your area of expertise from a niche or novel perspective, giving you the insight to report from the bleeding edge. Think of specific, relevant knowledge that you’re particularly qualified to share.

If you can deliver that knowledge with some personal flair and compelling enthusiasm, all the better. Think of some of the best professors you may have had: they probably had the gift of infectious enthusiasm for the topic of hand. Few things establish your credibility more effectively than enthusiastic, authoritative educational content.

What types of content are you particularly well-suited to produce?

This question shouldn’t limit your strategy, but it may provide some guidance in the beginning. For example, if your topic of expertise is especially hands-on or visual – and if you have the resources – you might consider producing video tutorials for Youtube. (If you don’t have the resources, you might investigate external partners who do.)

Other types of content have lower barriers to entry, along with real and measurable benefits. Take blogging. You can get an awful lot out of regular educational blog posts: not only do they share your authority, they can boost the profile of well-regarded or rising figures in your organization, all while building up a rich, dynamic base of content perfectly suited to draw the roving eye of search engines.

And that brings us to keywords

Those roving, Google-y search engine eyes? They fall on your site (or don’t) according to presence of absence of words and phrases that folks actually search for when they’re looking for answers in your area. So the more content you have, the more opportunities you have to build a beacon with your keywords, drawing the right audiences to your corner of the web. And the more success you have, the higher your search profile will grow.

Keywords can also help you guide your initial content strategy. Conducting keyword research can help you understand what your audience is searching for – and then you can create a content strategy that provides the right answers. This can reassure you that you’re not just taking a shot in the dark…and that you’re filling a real need for real people in your audience.

From content to relationship

As you fill those knowledge gaps, you build up real trust. Folks might find your site because they searched for a quick tutorial that you provided in your blog. When it turns out that your tutorial is funny, wise, and helpful (especially over time) that same visitor is going to feel more comfortable offering up their email for deeper content – a free ebook, say. When that content delivers, a visitor will be more inclined to respond to an offer for a free consultation or webinar.

And if you take away nothing else, make it that: in marketing as in life, real communication – substantive communication – is the basis for relationships. You have unique experience. Unique expertise. Write what you know, make it real and relevant, and your audience will want to know more.

This article was written by Chris Ourand, Account Director at Hinge, a marketing and branding firm that specializes in professional services. Chris can be reached at courand@hingemarketing.com or 703-391-8870.