mandydale » advertising

best viral marketing for president?

mandydale — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:33:48 +0000

My friend Zeb decided to create a special video that shows how I’m an up and coming candidate for president. I must admit that the email I got from him was pretty compelling, with the following vague text:

Hey Amanda,

I went on this online community thing and everyone was talking about you… what is going on? There’s even a video about it on News3Online. www.News3Online.com

Let me know,
Zeb

and the linked video was fairly well done, but a bit long. I’m still not sure exactly who did this, or why…

viral tactics – create a controversy

mandydale — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:39:47 +0000

The title of this Nike sponsored stunt of Laker Kobe Bryant jumping over an Aston Martin going 50 miles an hour states:

Laker Kobe Bryant attempts massive stunt…and succeeds! Real?

This tactic of creating a controversy (i.e. a viewer would question if the stunt Kobe pulled real or faked) is a good way to use YouTube to increase video views. The video description also reinforces that skepticism:

When an Aston Martin is coming at you at 50 miles per hour, what else can you do but JUMP! That’s what Kobe does, but is it a special effect or is he that talented?

Of course the person who uploaded this film knows the answer, but the technique of creating a question that draws people in to view the video is a very smart tactic in viral marketing.

Also note that Nike products are subtly mentioned just at the very beginning of the clip, and not even mentioned in the tags. Did it work for Nike? Guessing so, with over 1.7 million views in 4 days, and top honors on YouTube (#7 of most viewed on YouTube this week). Overall, a very nice deployment on Nike’s behalf.

naked is media agnostic

mandydale — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:53:22 +0000

The New York Times featured the company Naked in an article today about communications planning and advertising. The focus of Naked is different that many shops — they are essentially consultants to clients and agencies, and claim to be media agnostic when coming up with communication strategies for their clients.

Naked breaks the planning component of advertising directly away from the creative development process, which may be good for some agencies who are addicted to execution instead of strategy. Advertising is more and more about multiple agencies and partners collaborating together, so I wonder if more companies will start to model themselves into silos — focusing on one thing extraordinarily well, instead of trying to be a one-stop shop for everything in the advertising arena.

webby award nominees announced

mandydale — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:37:35 +0000

The Webby Awards have announced their 12th annual list of nominees up for this year’s Webby Awards. I always take time to check out all the sites nominated, as I often discover interesting sites that I would never have known about otherwise. It is an incredibly useful tool for folks in advertising, as it provides a wide palette of sites that feature the best in design, navigation and overall best practices.

I also use it as a historical reference, as a zeitgeist of what is popular at a given time on the Internet. It is fun to also check out nominees and winners from earlier years to see how this space has evolved in the past 12 years. And now, the fun bit begins–take some time to check out the People’s Voice Awards, which allows the public to make their opinions heard about the best on the Internet and in mobile.
(Full Disclosure: I am a judge for the Online Advertising category at IADAS, the organization that selects the nominees for the Webby Awards. That means that any sites that I have a conflict of interest with getting a nomination, I did not personally vote for.)

do the awareness test

mandydale — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:30:49 +0000

The following PSA points to how our attention can be incredibly selective:

I must admit that I fell for the trick, even though I had seen this original test from Daniel J. Simons of University of Illinois Visual Cognition Lab a while back.

The PSA is a elegant re-use of the original concept that points out the need to be aware of our own perceptual blindness (specifically for automobile drivers who forget to be aware of bicyclists sharing the road).

I want to marry a producer

mandydale — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:52:57 +0000

…or so says Ted Royer, ECD at droga5. His love for producers is professed in the most recent issue of ‘Boards Magazine. As a producer who works in advertising, I’m flattered by his sentiment (and of course I humbly agree), even if some of his definition makes us sound like borderline workaholic babysitters:

No, I want to marry a producer. A producer listens to the most batshit crazy idea and doesn’t say yes or no or ask why, but instantly asks “How?” She could talk me out of dumb things with grace and logic, or conversely show me what it’s possible to do with virtually nothing. A producer realizes that just as business and creativity need each other, responsibility (her) and irresponsibility (me) do too. A producer wouldn’t be afraid of different challenges, no matter what form they took. A producer would be tough, fighting battles I’d neither see nor even know about. A producer would plan for a rainy day and not even tell me she was doing it and then, when it started to rain, she’d say, “It’s covered, go over to the food table.” A producer would stay up all night partying with me, then make sure what needs to get done gets done, while I sleep. Marrying a producer would allow me to be as self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, naval-gazing and “creative” as I want to be.

15 cool technologies to watch

mandydale — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Smashing Magazine recently featured an incredibly handy list of new and emerging technologies to watch. The list comprises an inspiring array of cutting-edge work including projections, holograms, Nintendo Wii hacks and 3D TV.

I recently saw a demo of Philips’ 3D video that makes Smashing’s list (requires the use of a special 3D Philips TV to work), and agree that it offers a compelling experience without those old school red/blue paper glasses. And you can even convert existing 2D video to 3D with a fairly straightforward post-processing technique, which means you don’t have to worry about having special cameras around to create a 3D effect.

if i want flavored water, i’d suck a lollipop

mandydale — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:20:44 +0000

Miller High Life gets kudos for responding to the SuperBowl Sunday ad spectacle with this quickly turned-around video. Nice way to ride off the momentum of the SuperBowl. I’ll be curious to see if it takes off.

cool 360 videos in flash

mandydale — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:28:46 +0000

Butch from TAOW just shared this really cool 360 video below on their blog – once the video loads, simply put your mouse in the screen and move your mouse right/left or up/down to see a larger view. I think there are a ton of interesting ways that this technology could be used for brands. For example, imagine a narrative idea that benefits from watching the video a couple times, each from a different angle to put together a larger story. And this works in Flash – which is cool as it means you don’t need to worry about QT or Java plug-ins to have this functionality work.

Andy Berndt of Google Creative Labs Interview

mandydale — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:22:20 +0000

Google recently snagged Andy Berndt from Ogilvy to head up their new Google Creative Lab. Not much has been revealed about what Andy will be doing there, but this interview with David Kaplan at Paidcontent.org starts to shed some light on what Andy’s philosophy is in regards to the future of advertising, and how Google fits in that picture.