Busted

Hey, we get our inspiration from all over, but some of us don't modify it enough to be called simply inspiration.



AS SEEN HERE:

Truly Compelling Content

All the greatness of TV, production wise, without all the Media buy money.

Convenient, yes. Fair, no.

I'm really happy for the team that created this Exit Strategy NYC app. It tells you which car to get into so that you can get out of your destination station faster. Firstly, Exit Strategy Team, get out of my head! This kind of meticulus commuting is meant for one's own neurosis, not for public consumption. But also, this will flood the second to last car on the Downtown 4/5 between 59th and Grand Central. It took me 2 years to find that exact door/car, and I think others should have to learn the hard way. It's a perk of experience. But I guess it's still pretty great, I hope they get rich. It's compelling content, as soon as a brand attaches itself to the app. Perhaps its a watch company? Weak, but ill keep thinking about it. And I'll start using the app, too.

Swine Flu Breakthrough Discovery

Got this picture forwarded from friends, did some photoshopping. It's not compelling content, but I think the CDC should interview this person.

Hey GM, if you're gonna shrink, shrink your ad budget.

Get rid of your logos. Your taglines. Your campaigns. Your brand equity. Become the car company of the future. Keep Cadillac, maybe Saturn separate... but no more buick, chevy, geo, pontiac, etc.
Now it's all GM. One hood ornament. One logo. One ad look. One agency. Slim down the messaging and the red tape of delivering said messaging. Corvettes are still Corvettes if they're GM. It's just a fuel/energy/financially efficient way to keep your company afloat while honoring the history... and embracing a future. There can be one website. One boss. One marketing team. The subsequent savings would be visible.

Repeat visits, repeat minutes spent. Good stuff.

Cup Noodle. Look out for this in next years awards shows...after the data of time spent is released. Guaranteed winner. So this is true Compelling Content. Simply grab one of the 3 noodle flavors and add to the pile. You have to sign in to do it, so they're collecting data and emails. That's good. But also, you can see the other users (in the pic to the right it's clear there are about 15 others adding Cups to the Noodle stack) And you kinda have to wait your turn to add it. If out release at the wrong time, it plummets to earth. Tabs are kept of how many cup noodles you've added, and there are levels, apparently (since I just received bronze). The map is real, a la google earth. And the heights are real too. You can see the levels building on the right and you can look forward to new levels revealed. It's a team thing. I can't stop coming back. It's an everyday thing. That's true compelling content. One thing lacking is the motivation to share this with others. It seems to be a solo habit.

Maybe Cookies aren't so bad?

Yesterday I was browsing for men's wedding rings (I'm not cheap, these were just for style). So this morning during my routine checks of certain blogs, cartoons, news stuff, (it's all very OCD) And sure enough the rings I looked at were there, sparkling in a banner ad, ready for me to click and resume my search. I'm sure this is not excting to anyone, since this technology dates back to the early 90's. But it affected me today, and I found it to be compelling content in the simplest form.

Telling stories over time — and space.

There's something really exciting about this article that Keith Hernandez tweeted. Does this mean that an "episode" of The Office could last all day? Just broken into little parts? Maybe no need to Tivo shit anymore...because you get little snippets all day.

But overall it's great for books. What if a book only gave you a new chapter or a new paragraph when your near something in the context? Like...when you're near a plant, then you get to read the part about the garden? It could make for a richer experience. But then again, why add to the basic beauty of words alone? Need to think about this more.

Wow. Not really subtle.

Ok, I'm sure I'm not the first out there to notice this. I'm sure it's old news. But since I'm the only one who reads this blog, consider it my official comment - however late.

Hershey's must've gone to their agency and said "we want a happiness factory" Then the agency said, coming right up. Hopefully there was some pushback, but in the end it's way too similar. But coke did it better and first.



now the original



neither are examples of compelling content, but at least one is original.

This is awesome, but only in select Metropoli

So I can see this app working well in combination with Twitter--A twitter map with all my buddies, I can click on the map, their profile pops up with their latest Twits.
I could see this working well with Flickr. Same map, but with live pics.

The thing is, you need to be in a place, a geographically small city, where people are moving around, it seems only perfect for bar hoppers. Or bike messengers. If people aren't moving every few hours, why check their location? We'll see.

But what I WANT to see this working well with are live branded events. "Sometime today, somewhere in Manhattan, we will giving away free [INSERT PRODUCT HERE]. Watch your map." The map can be on the product home page. The guy who has the van full of free shit can "turn on" his location for 15 min then shut it off... It's an instant mad rush to the area, you can see how many users are there. FINALLY we can measure giveaways, product demos and events. It's a hotbed for compelling content of all sorts.

Whoa Fella, one too many questions

I liked the look of LivingSocial but they're asking too many questions to get started. It's a site where you list the consumed culture in your life and it helps you build on that. Great idea. E.g. list all the books you've read and are reading and want to read. Then you're linked to all others by that data. TV shows, movies, restaurants. Great.
But to get started you have to fill in all the data. Much more time consuming than starting a facebook page.

Oh, and it's a facebook app. But it's not. It's a separate page. It has the facebook link at the top, but so does my browser. Note the pictures to the right and below.

It's definitely compelling content. It's a place for advertisers to get SOOOO specific. And it's a useful kind of specific. If they know I love Scorsese movies, they may remind me about Raging Bull, which reminds me, I still haven't seen that. But my buddies have. Perhaps I'll buy it right here!

Better yet, maybe my Blockbuster delivery account could have a say in influencing me?

I might be jumping to conclusions here. I'll do more research and get back to me.

If they're shorter, i think ill actually watch em

So Miller High Life is doing 30 1 second ads during the superbowl. The premise revolves around the well known price for a TV ad on the superbowl. "3 Million dollars? that's a hundred grand a second! If high life had a spot, all we'd need is a second..."

It's so true. You need a logo and a smile, that's it (at least with beer you do).

But what's more interesting is that since it's so quick, I will STOP MY DVR to watch it. When I'm fast forwarding commercials, a one second commercial will look like blip... a very intriguing blip. That's compelling content. A spot (which is not usually compelling content) which is specific to the modern media it's on, recognizes the bloated spending and messaging in tradvertising, and takes it on, head on.

We need more campaigns that recognize the DVR user. I propose a slow motion spot, viewed best in fast motion...1, 2, or 3 triangles fast.

Social Search might give brands the data to improve

If we could search and organize the data in peoples Facebook pages, we'd find the greatest wealth of info. Customer surveys are already filled out, we just match the question (this is the search part.) Got to thinking after reading this JaffeJuice article. Then we could pass this info along to the relevant marketers. Then they would have the empirical proof that they need to improve customer service, or else suffer potential wildfire of dissent:

E.g. Hey American Airlines, 37 people complained about you (like, Tony Jones, per se) in the last hour on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. We won't say who, where or when. Just know they're out there. Oh, and these 37 people are connected to 12, 367 other people. By the way.

Oh, I see.

Turns out these legends of the ad game are not looking to be my friend. Fine, I had nothing in common with them anyway. Apparently, you need to win some awards to get on their radar. That's why the Andy's did such a great job of selling their premise: Win an Andy, win them all. The campaign basically says that this particular award show is so prestigious, you'll get the other awards easy, and perhaps, friendship with the best of the best. So I'm off to register for the Andy's, since they used compelling content to get me into the season of awards shows.

Good day for me, friend wise

Looks like I did the impossible. I became officially, publicly friends with some of the greatest creative directors in advertising today. Now, I'm a nice guy, but this still surprised me. I'm so glad that all that ass kissing the last three years has payed off.

Click the pic to see the proof.

Latest Work

Here's what I've been working on for the last month or so. It won't air in Cleveland, or any other place where Verizon FiOS is available, this is for Verizon TV/Internet/phone. But Kelley, Aunt Pattie and Uncle Frank, it will air in Palm Springs, so look out for it. Sorry about the quality.

Cell phones pop corn. False, but I still don't think it fits the failure formula.

So this video is hot right now. 8 million hits over the last 10(?) days. And it was on CNN this morning. They interviewed Scott Goodson of Strawberry Frog about it. He noted what we all understand in advertising: since its false, it will fail. It's true perhaps for that company, but I think they still helped out the whole bluetooth industry. I think its compelling content. We believed it because we're thinking it: maybe cells could pop popcorn. Maybe I should get that shit away from my head. So the video itself will fizzle, the company won't be remembered for posing the idea and they'll be the guys who faked the video. But the other makers are now primed to play up the fear and conversation going on. Let's see who steps up.

CareerBuilder, Monster get to work

If you're agency's got some hard working creatives, get them to work on making this into something. The clock is ticking. Go.
Maybe this guy, once he's out of jail, could be placed at a new job, and you could be the ones to show the before and after.
I saw it first from another angle at Agency Spy.

Award Shows are Relevant, Dammit! Vol 8

So, I went to the One Show Interactive last night, Nikon and MRM Worldwide won a gold pencil for its project Nikon Picturetown. It's a ripe example of compelling content. They said, who better to taut the product of experts and afficianados than the users themselves? So they gave away free cameras and said "let us and the world know how it well it works." It spread like wildfire, and the users became lifetime fans. It's another step forward for these clients, who first dabbled with their D80 project, praised by new marketing bloggers like Joseph Jaffe . So the relevant part is this: If more creatives win awards for community based thinking like this, then more creatives will present it. And if those presentations are for forward thinking clients like Nikon, than our whole industry will benefit.

PS All this award show talk will end soon, I promise, the season's almost over.

Award Shows are Relevant, Dammit! Vol 7

Just an update. All the greatness and forward thinking of McCann's Halo3 Believe, that was honored with the Grandy at the Andy Awards , also won Best in Show at the One Show. All previous arguments that award shows are relevant apply here as well.