You Can Never Have Enough Lash Blast

So I finally got around to watching the Drew Barrymore movie "Whip It" last weekend and there was one line in the movie that was so obvious and out of place I swear it formed a physical entity and glared at me.

When Maggie Mayhem is applying eye make up on Babe Ruthless, she says "You can never have enough eye liner. Or LashBlast."

That's right, Drew Barrymore (the Cover Girl LashBlast spokesperson), in her directorial debut, squeaked that product placement in there. And IMDb confirms it.

I'm not outraged or anything, but for a movie that pretty much avoids mentioning almost any other brands and focuses on the underground culture of roller derby, it just didn't seem to fit the tone of the movie.

So, I kind of have to agree with Kevin Smith. As much as it pains me :-)

Yaybia Easter egg

This week's ad quiz was my personal favourite so far. I don't like the original ad at all, but I love all of your creative and entertaining answers. Fortunately nobody guessed the right source. All your suggestions were far better than the far-fetched original.



Uhm... yes that's right it's a car ad. Get it? Me neither.

Here is the explanation from a Volkswagen fan's website: Apparently the Touareg, one of their SUVs, has a very special engine. It is a 5-litre, 10-cylinder "Turbocharged Direct Injection" diesel engine, a V10 TDI. And this engine runs exceptionally stable and vibration-free. In fact, your trip in the Touareg will be so smooth, your spoon will literally stand still in your cup of coffee.

Quiet a stretch if you ask me. Then again, I am not the target group. I don't usually take china cups on my off-road trips.

Onward we go with the special Easter edition of yaybia's weekly mystery. Who will be able to guess what that Easter bunny is trying to market to you?

Here we guess again

Props to Libby - "German Tide - everything else is shit" - ,

Jeanine - "New: German Tide toilet paper - now you no longer have to use your T-shirts if you want to pamper your backside" -,

and Moritz - "If the ENT doctor couldn't help with that really bad smell every time you lift the lid of your laundry basket it's time to consult another specialist: Go and see your oculist before you can't see your bathroom anymore" -

for making me laugh with their creative ideas for last week's edition of Guess What.

The right answer, however, was again Alicia's and Jeanine's. The original subline is: Alcohol -damages more than you think. I know there are some experts on that subject among us, so what do you think of that ad? And by experts I mean, of course, those ladies that have worked on an anti binge drinking campaign with last year's NSAC team.

That one time when I drank just a bit too much, I remember that a cup of coffee helped against the hang-over. And now, after this truly elegant transition, here is the next picture puzzle for you:

Thoughts on March Madness

Okay... so I've been watching the NCAA tournament at work. I know I'm not the only one out there. (I'm still working... get off my back peeps.) But there are a few interesting things I've noticed.

A) I love the "Boss Button" it's located above the screen on the right hand side.


When clicked, this screen appears:



I just thought it was funny, and it speaks to the fact that CBS knows most people watching the streaming online video probably aren't supposed to be. (a.k.a. at work.) Giggles.

B) I also noticed that a lot of advertisers aren't really paying attention to the fact that a lot of online viewers aren't watching the games with sound. They just repurpose their TV spots in the online medium, not taking into account whether the commercial can be understood without hearing the dialogue.

However, Miller Light's ads aren't affected by the fact that their audience is momentarily "deaf." Their ads for their Tip n' Spin iPhone app have the dialogue written clearly across the screen, so even people watching without sound know specficially what the ad was asking them to do. (Note: I have no clue whether or not this was a planned strategy by Miller, this could very well be a happy fluke that turned out in their favor.)

Basically, it boils down to this... think about where you are placing your ads. Online streaming is a lot like television, but when you're placing ads online, you have to think about where your audience's computer is (work?), if there are any limitations to this location (sound?), and if so, think of ways to better craft your ad to that medium.

I'm not saying that the ads during the NCAAs should just turn into glorified banners. Sound should be there for those who get to watch the games out in the open. But if you want to get more action for your dollar bills, think about the environment they are being used in.

BTW, my bracket is tanking.

"I'll never let go, Jack. I'll never let go!"

How to get a job in advertising

I met with some NDSU kids last week and gave them the scoop on how to get a job in advertising. I can't lie, I was shocked to see the blank faces when we explained to them how potential employers check out your Facebook and how you need to be on LinkedIn. I told them, "Get a blog. You have. To get. A blog." It's 2010, am I right? You must take every single opportunity to surround your potential employers with your brilliance. When they Google you, don't you want to explode their search results with glowing insights and evidence that you get integrated communication?

It's like social media for brands, I guess. If you can post behind-the-scenes footage in social media and help your audience feel like they know you, why wouldn't you? If you have the opportunity to preview the product online as much as possible, aren't you way more likely to buy?

Go read my tips and please leave me some comment love over there so my co-workers can see that I have really smart friends and I don't just creep in my basement lair all day long.

(Also: all the Yaybies have stellar Google results. I love us.)

WCCO Introduces The Wire

I've always loved the Minneapolis new outlet WCCO for taking the cheese out of local news. I mean some stations act like good design costs more or something.

And now they are pulling on my heart strings with this new way to keep up with the news. The Wire. WCCO is now going to feature all their stories on a timeline and users can follow each story as it progresses. So now I'll know exactly when to go save Libby from the Red River.

The timeline is broken into news, buzz, events and comments. And one of the best parts is it integrates tweets from WCCO reporters and viewers. I like that it mixes the more serious news with random Internet goodies. And readers can also do some journalism of their own and submit their own story ideas.

It's always hard to say if these aggregation tools will catch on, but I think this one has a chance. WCCO has a loyal Minneapolis following and it's the same news I would get from the regular site, but organized by story. So now I can read all the dirt about Denny Hecker at one time and then comment about it!

The Wire is still in beta, so we'll see how it progresses. But this is just another great example of how WCCO interacts with their viewers. You should probably go try it out.

Yaybies, get hold of your guessing skills again

Physician: Your findings are back. I am afraid, I don't have good news for you today.
Patient: Oh ok, what's the diagnosis?
Physician: I am sorry. You have cancer and Alzheimer's.
Patient: Well, at least it's not cancer. *

In France, one million people can't get hold of their memories:





Last week's ad is for the Association France Alzheimer. J9 is back and with a vengeance: Congratulations for guessing the right answer right away!

And here is this week's challenge. It should have a familiar ring at least for some of yaybia's guessers. Have fun and good luck!



* I know that both cancer and Alzheimer's disease are very serious and the cause of dire distress for the patients and their families. When I worked on a dementia project for the biggest part of last year, I have learned that humour can be one way to deal with it. Not the only one of course, but one that apparently works for quite a few of the victims. I hope I have not offended anyone for whom it might not work. End of proactive excuse.

Cool city

Thanks to Alicia for sharing this image video about yaybia's great home town of Minneapolis.



Lovely. Now I am homesick (not that I am not homesick the rest of the time, this just didn't help).

They just forgot to mention that those "climate-controlled" skywalks are not only there to shield all the dynamic business people from the burning sun. Now, if you want to attract visitors and investors it's probably NOT a good idea to hush up the very fact that everybody associates with your city in the first place. Winter? Non of our business! Let the Florida people deal with that while we ride our bikes in our evergreen city. Yeah, sure very convincing...

C'mon you urban marketing folks, who do you want to fool? Be proud, but also be self-depreciating and funny and above all, be real.

Minneapolis is in fact a great place. But at times it is also a cold place. Everybody knows that anyways, so just tell potential visitors that they can still do all the exciting stuff they can do in every major city plus all that extra cool stuff they can only ever experience in an extra cool city. That certain chiliness is the very thing that makes Minneapolis and its inhabitants special. And I know from experience how very special they are! Anyone can act cool in a sunny place, but it takes a lot to be hot when your city is cold half of the year.

Also, they forgot to mention yaybia in their video about all things great from Minneapolis. Somebody should definetely shoot a realness remake to set the record straight.

Guest post: Tumblr is brainwashing Chase

Have you ever wondered the official requirements for being a Yaybia writer (or Yaybie, as the kids call us)?

1. You must have a sense of humor
   
2. You must be passionate about advertising
3. You must have unique insight into brand communications
4. You must have a vajayjay

Our buddy Chase meets 3 of those 4 requirements. Interpret as you will. For that reason he's not a Yaybie, but he is a Yaybia guest blogger!

Tumblr, the social blogging platform that has recently exploded in popularity, is poised to become a major purchase influencer for its users. Tumblr is mainly the domain of art and culture, the Internet go-to for the hip-minded. Tumblr is the bridge between Twitter and other popular blogging platforms; users can easily follow one another. Posts subsequently appear in a user's dashboard in real-time. Many users choose to follow friends, interests, or inhabitants of their locale. My dashboard is fairly evenly split between Minnesotans, New Yorkers, friends, and various design lovers.

When I see a product I like in my dashboard, I’ll usually click through to the product, and if no link exists I’ll investigate further. I’m following these people because I trust their opinions, so it’s the next logical step. Much of the product content that appears in my feed is made by individuals or small companies. Sites such as Etsy, Threadless, and other small outfits appear regularly on users' dashboards. I’ve bought shoes, shirts, books, cameras, and all sorts of products I became aware of via Tumblr users. Thus far, the companies themselves – whether big or small - have not jumped on this opportunity. They should. Take, for example, a J. Crew men’s feed that introduces new products and some background on their construction and purpose, straight from the designers who made the clothes. I guarantee I would end up buying products I wouldn’t normally be exposed to. With Tumblr’s newfound popularity, 2010 could be the year that brands start to jump in the mix.

I told Chase to write a bio or else I'd just put "Chase sucks." He didn't. Tell him in the comments if his post sucks.

I can haz QR code?

This is pretty cool, I just made a DIY QR code using Kaywa:



And here is another one:



And for anyone who doesn't have a reader for QR codes yet, I use ScanLife for my QR code reader, it supports iPhone and RIM (Blackberry). Check it out.

Slim Fast Drink

No guessing today. Just one of those surprising, yet oddly familiar ideas that leave me undecided between "Damn, that's cool!" and "Damn, why did I not think of that one?!" Or is it just my love of yummy water in clever bottles?



"Drink yourself slim with Bad Liebenzeller mineral water"

Apparently the media budget of Bad Liebenzeller mineral water was rather tight, so why not use what is already and inevitably around the water when you buy it. I am sure this idea will have a positive and very literal word-of-mouth effect for them.

The clever message in a bottle has been released by German creative agency Grabbarz & Partner (if you are into slightly trashy, geeky, witty webstuff - and as a yaybia reader I am sure you are - make sure to only check their website if you don't have anything important to do in the next couple of minutes. Or hours, for that matter).

Keep guessing

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another round of Guess what!

So far, Mrs. Houselog is the the front-runner in our picture puzzle game. Boys club is not quite right yet, but again she came closest: "Let's turn this dilapidated building into something useful" would be a perfect copy for last week's ad.

However, the real tagline roughly translates to "You can visualize it, therefore you can build it." The ad was part of a 2008 campaign for the home improvement store Hornbach. Here are some more images from the same campaign.





Heimat/Berlin, Hornbach's agency, has been knocking out Hornbach campaigns four times a year, one more surprising and insane then the other. And that is not counting fairly widely discussed virals or the innovative "Haus der Vorstellungen", where artists and clubbers temporarily transformed a whole house into a walk-in showroom and dance-in party location. Honouring their craziness, creativity and courage, Hornbach has been voted ADC client of the year and Heimat won virtually every industry award. Most of them several times, in fact.

And apparently the marketing works as well: Hornbach has been opening new stores all over Europe for the past few years and steadily increased its sales volume in spite of the economic downturn. And Heimat is not longer the young and small agency they were when they took over Hornbach in 2002, either.

So, thumbs up (and believe me, I am all thumbs) for Hornbach and Heimat. They confirm their own tagline: There is always something you can do.

After so much Germanness, here is an ad from France for this week's quiz.



The race is on! Will someone be able to catch up with Alica this week?

Internet, this is the situation. The situation is this.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Fast Company has an article about a study Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts did to see what the most Addicting sounds in the world are. Sounds like babies giggling and a cash register make the Top 10 list, as does the sound of a vibrating mobile phone. This is yet another sign of the (obvious to most) dominance of mobile phones. As mentioned in the article:

"Psychologically speaking, this is not a happy discovery. Recent studies show that the first thing we do when we wake is check our BlackBerry. Going to the bathroom, brushing our teeth and eating breakfast takes a back seat. Increasingly people sleep beside their phones--that message that arrives at 4.00am, is now a priority! Even though the sound of a vibrating phone has taken second place to a baby's giggles, it seems that in just over a decade technology now provides the predominant sounds of daily life."

Imagine what else is going to be predominant ten years from now?

Also interesting in the article are the number of brands that make the Top 10: Intel, National Geographic, MTV, T-Mobile ringtone, McDonald's, and State Farm. 60% of the list is branded!

As the article points out, 83% of advertising depends on visuals, but the effect of sound seems to be the most powerful sense when it comes to recall. Perhaps if more brands relied more heavily on activating our senses beyond sight, that could be a powerful way to break through the clutter. After all, if a campaign came out that relied on your sense of smell, you'd remember that, wouldn't you?

From the study:

Non-branded and branded sounds:
1. Baby giggle
2. Intel
3. Vibrating phone
4. ATM / cash register
5. National Geographic
6. MTV
7. T-Mobile Ringtone
8. McDonald's
9. 'Star Spangled Banner'
10. State Farm
Top 10 Branded sounds:
1. Intel
2. National Geographic
3. MTV
4. T-Mobile
5. McDonald's
7. State Farm
8. AT&T Ringtone
9. Home Depot
10 Palm Treo Ringtone

Top 10 Non-branded sounds:
1. Baby giggle
2. Vibrating phone
3. ATM / cash register
4. "Star Spangled Banner"
5. Sizzling steak
6. 'Hail to the Chief'
7. Cigarette light and inhale
8. "Wedding March"
9. "Wish Upon a Star"
10. Late Night with David Letterman Theme

Are Older Men Closet Gossip Fiends?

Okay, this is just a question that I came up with when reading Facebook's February 2010 US Traffic by Age and Sex by InsideFacebook.com:

Are older men closet gossip fiends, or do they really just not care about this sort of thing?

InsideFacebook.com found that the amount of males joining Facebook is higher than females in the 18-44 range (at least in February 2010), but women are still much more likely (2x) to join than males among older demographics.

Initially, I thought to myself, "Yeah... this makes sense. Old men 'don't give a rat's ass' about who's doing what and when. They save that for the old bitties on their rocking chairs, trying to get a date for the socially awkward, but secretly charming 30-year-old neighbor boy."

But then I thought about the curious case of Mr. Houselog. Yes, my father pretends to be one of those gossip-averse older men, but that is nowhere near the case. He uses a "pen name" when it comes to Facebook: Darla Houselog.

Yeah, that's right. He pretends to be my mom.

He outright refused to get his own profile when my siblings and I decided to sign up our mom for Facebook, but now he does basically all of the updates, photo uploads, conversations, "friending," etc. I can honestly guess that my mother hasn't touched her Facebook profile for months, yet she somehow still updates her profile. Strange. He is constantly on Facebook through his iPhone, announcing when anyone does anything... my siblings, my old high school friends, my great aunts (weird.)

So, is this just a strange happening among a small sample (a.k.a. just my dad)? Do older men want to know what's going on with their friends/family, but don't want to be known as someone who wants to know? Or don't they care at all?

Second guess

Thanks for guessing, everyone! It was fun reading your comments.

I love your condom and viagra ideas, but unfortunately the ad promotes quite the opposite.
Alicia came closest with her remark about the dish pointing up to the sky.

Last week's Guess what! solution is:

[insert drum roll here]

Bible TV.

And here is the second edition. Have fun!

Second Favorite Commercial of All Time

You should remember that my favorite commercial of all time is Coca-Cola Ringtone. But the Vancouver Olympics and P&G have given me my second favorite.

Can't embed but click for the YouTube

Perfectly simple, perfectly emotional, perfectly on brand. I cannot get enough of this spot. Love.

Cloudy with a Chance of Mobile Phones

I haven't Yaybia-ed in a while. But, I was watching a movie today and was inspired to make a comment.

I was watching 2009's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and at the 54:32 mark, they show people in China watching the news on a cell phone.

Later in the movie, they also reference emailing a file to a cell phone.

I feel like an animated movie showing people casually and naturally using these cell phone features is just one of many little things that are really paying testament to the impact of new media. It's also a really cute movie.

Random thought - that's all for now!