Yaybia Year End!

2008 was Yaybia's best year ever! Okay, only year ever. We didn't actually launch the blog until March. But it was still a year full of ups and downs, new friends and readers, and the occasional nipple. Here's a quick rundown of our most notable posts from 2008:

• The obsession that started it all: VitaminWater, our very first post and the Sex and the City series.
• Our first shot at vlogging was a video to Advergirl.
• NERD ALERT!
• C'mon, our name is YAYBIA. You should expect some posts about boobies:
• We fought with people.
• We worked to involve our readers.
• We showed our undying love for Minneapolis including Save the Walls, produced by our friends at ThreeVolts and Atomic Playpen.
• And our acclaimed Spotlight series that showcased our home agencies (Erin, Jacey , Libby, Danielle )
• And just in time for 2009, we finally posted our bios!

Thanks to all of you loyal readers for a fantastic first year. We're looking forward to keeping you entertained with all things nerdy, noteworthy, or nipply in advertising in 2009!

Yaybia's Seven Things

Dirk over at Herd tagged me in his Seven Things post. I thought this would be a great time to share a bit more on how Yaybia got started and what some of our quirks are. After reading, you may not think this is a great time. Ready, break!

1. We've been asked several times, "What's a Yaybia?" Well, the mystery is over. We love silly YouTube videos and one day a friend shared the Clitter video with us. I highly recommend watching it, however, it's probably NSFW (depending on where you work). Needless to say, we DIED laughing. I was pretty much in tears. THEN, Libby and I (being the geeks that we are), wondered if yaybia.com was taken. Guess what, it wasn't. Win.

2. So how did it all start? We were all working on a national advertising competition and spent the better portion of spring break in the same room. A small room. Together. For an eternity (4 days). We all slept in the same room too, sick. Instead of killing each other, we started a blog.

3. Our favorite sport? Totally Scrabble Tuesdays. We get to drink and yell curse words at the TV. How could this not be in the Olympics yet?

4. The Midwest is the best. MinnesOHtah, Nodak, Cheeseland, Michigan and midwest GERMANY. Libby and I fight most about MN > ND. And despite popular belief, we are not twins.

5. We can drink more than you can drink. That's all. Don't believe me? Try us. We'll even buy the first round.

6. Collectively we probably spent close to 60 hours watching puppy cam. No lie. C'mon, who didn't leave an open browser window with those cute pups rompin' around all day?!

7. Ok ok, so this was supposed to be personal but I swear I'm not as intersting as these 6 fun facts. But in case you're still interested, you can see how lame I am by checking this out.

And we pick...

Our fave karaoke singer Jake Nyberg from ThreeVolts. He'll have to tweet his 7 things, should be a doozy.

Our fave politico John Sharkey

Our fave foodies over at Cupcakes Take the Cake

Our fave Minneapolis natives Daily Biz and Agency Spy

Our fave mother earth lovers Ryan and Jameson

Ads as Music Videos

This is less of a criticism and more of a question: what is with television commercials turning into music videos?

I first noticed it with the Nivea "Kiss and Be Kissed" campaign. In the beginning of each of the spots, text appears at the bottom left of the screen:

Duffy for Nivea
"Insert Name of Song Here"/Rockferry

THEN... I was watching The Soup (LOVE LOVE LOVE) and saw P Diddy's commercial for Cîroc, and, crazy enough, the music video phenomenon popped up again! This time, Diddles (my pet name for Puffy) used Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me" to show off his Rat Pack-like lifestyle and to peddle his unimportant swill:



So... are artists requiring that their names be put on commercials now? Or, do the clients/agencies want the equity from the celebrity's name added to their products? I'd say option B seems to be a more likely scenario, but I obviously don't know, so please tell me your thoughts.

P.S. Diddles: you are SO not as cool as Frank, so quit trying.

The One With the Bad Pitch

Like most of you, I've watched pretty much every episode of Friends and now I watch reruns. Last night the episode The One With the Mugging came on, where Chandler starts his new unpaid internship in advertising. I understand this scene is meant to show Chandler as the "hero," but the light it portrays the youth in advertising in is not flattering. We are smarter than that. I know we have a lot to learn, but those of us winning advertising internships know that more than sex (while effective) sells.

Diamond Commercials

It is that time of year where the diamond companies try to get their name out for all the men in the world to come do their last minute "i have no idea what to get her but i heard of that one jewelry place so maybe i'll go look there" shopping. Kay Jewelers is sponsoring just about every sporting event on television right now (which means the beginning of NCAA basketball, and more importantly, the beginning of Bowl Season). Jared is running the "he went to Jared!!!" spots, and Kay is running that deaf girl one...yikes. They all seem to appeal to the guys "emotional" side (or the girls, so that she will drop hints). But lets be completely serious here, while your guy might be head over heels in love with you, he probably won't let his soft side show while watching the Kay Jewelers commercial with the guys during Bowl week. For that, there are these little pieces of genius. They seem to go straight to the heart of a man.







Plain and simple. Although it has been running for a while, I still think that they do the job better than any other diamond/jewelry commercial out there.

A.

Don't Make HTML Jokes in Blogger comments

Google does not appreciate HTML jokes.

McDonald's Needs an Advertising Bailout

Many of you have fallen victim to a subprime coffee crisis...you're drinking subprime coffee, but still paying $5 a cup! McDonald's is proposing a coffee bailout...thank you, McDonald's, for helping me get back on my feet.

I heard this radio commercial twice today (transcribed as best I can remember) on my way to and from the mall. With Christmas shopping at its peak, everyone is thinking about credit card bills and mortgage payments, so of course a price comparison could be effective. But should McD's really make light of a recession that is costing millions of Americans their homes? Call me hypersensitive, but I think McDonald's is wasting an opportunity to be relevant to penny-pinchers and instead offending actual victims of something larger than a "subprime coffee crisis."

I'm a Mac, PC...I'm Linux!?

You might have noticed some love for Apple ads, and some dislike for Microsoft's new "I'm a PC" campaign, in particular the user generated content part of their campaign. Well just when you thought it was all over, I'm checking out Slashdot this morning (ok ok I know that admitting I read that probably makes me the geekiest Yaybia-er out there) but look what I find:




Yep, you read that right. Linux, the never fighting, rarely advertising brand has jumped on that same old user generated content bandwagon. I understand this is an easy out for a small budget, but REALLY...I would expect better from you Linux.

My next question is, how is this going to work? In my experience (4 years of taking geek-packed math and computer science at a major university) most of the people who are proudly using Linux are pretty camera shy. Or maybe I'm just wrongly judging, but seeing as though they left a 3 seat perimeter in lecture halls between them and any (gasp!) female in class, I'm assuming none of them are going to be fighting for the spotlight any time soon. So I'm curious to see how this pans out. Are the proud Linux users going to come out of the woodwork? Take over the I'm a PC users? Or is everyone going to yawn because another company is jumping on the "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" bandwagon started by Apple?

All Sexed Up and Ready to Sell

So, I was doing my normal Saturday routine of watching wedding shows on the Style network (who doesn't love Who's Wedding is it Anyway?, Martha Stewart's the Art of Cakes II, Most Outrageous Weddings, and Forbes 20 Most Expensive Celebrity Weddings?), so what do you get when you mix Style TV with the holiday season?

Perfume ads. Tons and tons of perfume ads.

First there's the J'adore Dior ad with Charlize Theron:



Then there's Lancome's Magnifique with Anne Hathaway (complete with über cheesey song:)



The SUPER sexy Euphoria by Calvin Klein ad:



And let's not forget dear Britney's two fragrances:





*side note: the Fantasy ad airing on TV does not feature her tour, or the Britney + Kevin in a heart on the tree. (Methinks this has something to do with the whole splitting up thing, maybe?)

But the newest Elizabeth Arden fragrance commercial with Catherine Zeta Jones really gave me déjà vu:



Why the hell is a floating red umbrella symbolic of "the power of a woman?" It gives me flashbacks of Traveler's Insurance:



The red umbrella in this spot actually has something to do with the brand (hello- Traveler's logo!) and I actually find the idea sort of charming. The Arden beauty ad, on the other hand, kind of made me gag.

Then again, it is a tough thing to advertise for perfume. People really care about the scent (SHOCKER!), and until Smell-O-Vision becomes a prevalent medium in our lives, it seems we will have to deal with the overtly sexual, lifestyle-based commercials. (I mean, let's be serious: why do women wear perfume, if not to get sexed up?)

Ooo! Another fragrance commercial just popped up! The ever-so-trashy Mariah Carey Precious collection:



Happy Sexed-up Holidays to all in Yaybialand!

Ypulse Year in Review Sneak Peek!

I'm working on a Ypulse feature of the best and worst teen-targeted campaigns of 2008, and I thought you Yaybies might appreciate a sneak peek. I'm still debating a few of the final spots, so please leave your suggestions in the comments!

BEST:

Obvs. Everything from Barack Obama's iconic logo to his sans serif font resonated with young voters, and Obama urged them to talk about it. The campaign mobilized youth by linking them together through forums they already used--Facebook, texting, Twitter, iPhone apps--and helped them form communities through which they rallied for change. Obama's team attitude and liberal policies clearly didn't hurt his popularity among youth, either. 18-29-year-old voters responded by voting for Obama in record numbers, and some think his focus on young voters won him the White House.

BEST:

Erin Yaybia'd this Dentyne campaign back in October and talked about how it is relevant to the way young people live their lives through a screen. We do want to disconnect, though, and I love that Dentyne wants to prepare me to make face time for my friends IRL. Sometimes "xoxo" just doesn't cut it.

BEST:

VitaminWater made two key partnerships this year with Gossip Girl and the Sex and the City movie. Their brand ambassadors have also made the beverage a must-have on college campuses. You might have guessed that we don't really mind the brand, either...

BEST:

I Yaybia'd this fall about how great this Target spot is. It taps into a real consumer insight about freshmen's roommate fears and puts a positive, exciting spin on them.

WORST:

I know teens aren't Toyota's target (besides the Scion, targeted at men 18-24) but sports fans of any age are ready to stab out their eardrums the next time they hear this commercial during every NCAA football commercial break. STOP.

WORST:

JC Penney has been missing the mark with all their teen-targeted back-to-school, but this one is especially off. I'm too young for The Breakfast Club, and I left high school over 4 years ago. It shows that JC Penney is exactly what they're fighting not to be--your mom's store.

WORST:

I pretty thoroughly bashed the Candie's Foundation PSA in an earlier Ypulse entry, but I just need to repeat that it's so parental and out of touch. Ugh.

I've got room for one more Best and two more Worst. What do you think? Save the Walls? Axe/Dove/both? That JohnMcCain MyBarackBook site? American Apparel? Toyota Scion? Let's hear 'em!

In A Truly Absolut World

Nobody likes a fun viral placement more than me. And few are better at creating conversation than Absolut, which we yaybies have blogged about previously.

My new favorite Absolut venture was their Absolut Cash Machine - fitting well into their "In An Absolut World" campaign. This launched in the spring of 2007, but I still appreciate it, having stumbled upon it today. They set up cash machines to have a "Happy Hour" during which money was given away for free. In Europe (America wants free money too!) 12,000 Euro were given away that day during the Happy Hour and Absolut created a buzz for itself.

Now if only I liked vodka.

Tribes + Target = 'Tis the Season

In the minimal amount of spare time that I have to read (approx. 10 min per night before I enter coma state) I've been workin' on finishing Tribes by Seth Godin.  It's a short, easy read and the examples he uses are fantastic.  I'd like to offer up a few of my own.  If you've read the book I'd love to hear your thoughts as well!

Tribes focuses on leadership through creating opportunities for conversation.  Today's brand example: Target - Christmas Wrapped. Y'know, 'tis the season!

The blog features holiday how-tos, gift ideas, and simple rating options to engage visitors.  

Why it fits with Tribes

• Makes communication and sharing simple (easy ratings, social tags, login free commenting)
• Relevant to what the community wants (ideas) rather than pushing products directly
• Target stepped up to the leadership challenge. It's scary being in the leading light, but they decided that they would be the go-to source for all things holiday
• Constant ability to update and adapt to what the tribe wants

Any others? Drop 'em in the comments. 

Feed it Forward

I love my friends. They know when I am poor and hungry - just waiting impatiently for that next pay day. They know just what to do. In this case, my friend decided to "Feed It Forward."

Every day until Christmas, Restaurant.com has a program titled, you guessed it, Feed it Forward that allows you to send up to 3 $10 gift cards per day to your friends FOR FREE. That's right. I received one from my friend today, and now I am going to send some out to some of my friends. I could send up to $480 in free gift certificates until Christmas.

They will donate $30 million in free restaurant gift certificates – over 30 days – and allow you to treat friends, family, and colleagues —anyone deserving—to savings on a great meal out. The current economy has the potential to deprive people of the gift of giving, a harsh reality during the season when giving matters most. In response, Restaurant.com wants to support and promote the gift of giving this holiday season.

I don't know if they will stop the program early if they hit $30 mil, or if they have a daily cap, but that is still a good deal to me. I even get to choose what restaurant (from their list) that the gift card my friend sends me gets to go to.

Nothing like free food to put a smile on my face.

When bad copy ruins the ad...

HELLO YAYBIES! I've finally pulled myself out of the depths of hell (a.k.a. my Debbie blogging) and decided to comment on when poor copy RUINS perfectly good visuals and ideas.


Yesterday, our friends at Ypulse tweeted on a PSA by DLKW London trying to get 16-18-year-olds to use condoms when they have sex. The video really does grab my attention and reel me into the message, but the copy at the end left me speechless... and not in a good way.

COI Teenage Pregnancy Spot

The culprit in this ad: "Want respect? Use a condom."

WHAT THE F***?

The visuals are screaming "WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK YOU MAKE SEXUAL DECISIONS THAT COULD LEAD TO PREGNANCY!" and then the copy talks about a completely different thing: respect. When a girl gets pregnant because she doesn't use a condom, I don't say to myself, "Oh, I don't respect her." I say, "Oh, she made a poor decision." I think that the respect line works with the drinking side of this, but not the pregnancy side. I've had plenty of friends, classmates, etc. who have been preggers and I am not going to judge them for it.

Some of my critics may argue that when drinking is put into the mix with sex that respect and the anti-unwanted pregnancy messages work hand-in-hand, but I think it all just becomes a jumbled mess that ruins the simplicity of the visual.

In other words, when your visuals are saying one thing, and your copy goes a different direction, you get: AD FAIL!

Does anyone have other examples of situations where advertising copy has ruined the rest of the message?

Creators, not Content

Paul Isakson blogged yesterday about advertising that does, rather than dictates. The conversation inspired me to post some ideas I've been kicking around about brand ambassadors that create content on their own vs. the content created for brand-driven contests.

Paul is an authority on natural brand ambassadors--after all, he was @don_draper, the original Mad Man on Twitter. AMC didn't have to ask viewers to come up with user-generated content; for a minute, they shied away from it because it was so new to them. Instead, Mad Men inspired a few passionate individuals so much that they gave their free time to the brand. And the Mad Men were so fun to interact with! If brands focused on nurturing relationships with these existing brand ambassadors, the content they create would overshadow any user-created video contest submission.

Natural Brand Ambassadors: Creators

• Natural brand ambassadors are already blogging and creating compelling content.
  
• They are viewed as authentic, not a marketing gimmick, because they are initiating the conversation.
• Brand ambassadors will keep creating long after any submission deadline has passed.
• By acknowledging the work of these creators, the brand comes across as responsive and appreciative. Social media makes it simple and cost-effective for brands to seek out and respond to their content.

User-Generated Contests: Content

• Don't get me wrong, contests and content-focused strategies have different value. A one-time call for submissions will generate PR and word of mouth spike instead of the steady low buzz of loyalists. But will that spike hold up in the long run?
  
• Spoofs and parodies can outnumber the valid entries. Remember the Tahoe ads? Eek...
• Everyone and their puppy has held a video/design/remixing contest at this point. Until marketers come up with something revolutionary, they're playing copycat.

First example: Obama and McCain. John McCain's campaign was so infatuated with Joe the Plumber that they invited supporters to explain on YouTube why they were Joe the Plumber. Sure, some diehard Repubs uploaded their American dream story, but another flood of Obama supporters filled the "I am Joe the Plumber" search results with parodies. Those on the fence may have been turned off by the blatant marketing gimmick.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama didn't ask for content; he nurtured his creators. Through social media, Obama gave his supporters opportunities to connect and create. He interacted one-on-one and let his supporters own a piece of his brand through text message updates and volunteer opportunities. Two of my favorite things that he got back in return:

Next up: Apple and Microsoft. I know Softwear isn't user-generated, but it's still content-focused instead of ambassador-focused. But check out the Apple t-shirts that fans have already naturally created. More authentic--and more interesting designs. Microsoft's bid for users to explain why they're a PC also seems flat and boring to me. Wouldn't that have happened on YouTube anyway without them demanding it? Some great parody came out of that, too: here's a fun one.

I'd like to hear your thoughts, including how Twitter is playing into this idea. Also, are there UGC contests that do work better than a strictly creator-focused strategy? Ideas, please!

SPOTLIGHT: Internet Exposure

Two in a row! Today's Spotlight features my home, Internet Exposure. The company started way back when the interwebs were just blossoming (1995). iE can be considered the agency's agency. We provide interactive web design and development services and have a strong background in search marketing. Many agencies in town turn to us to be their interactive division or to help with back-end development. We've also served as search marketing consultants.

I joined iE about a year and a half ago and work with our search marketing clients. We've worked with local and national brands in both paid and organic search. Our design clients also get all the search benefits built into their websites from day one. Some of our projects can be seen here (design/development), here (development), here (design/marketing). Sometimes I get a minute or two for some internal projects, my fave being TwinCities.org.

We're located on the north edge of downtown Minneapolis. Our offices are on the third floor of a building that my boss (founder/owner of iE) purchased and restored in 2006-07.



The right image is the view of downtown from my window.

I sat down with my boss, Jeff Hahn, to chat about our work and how we interact with advertising agencies in town. Check it!

We have a lot of glass/open space, even parts of the floor are glass!


If you need a brain break, we've got the solution!

SPOTLIGHT: space150

Thanks to a tip from my Campaign’s professor Jim Pounds, I had the good fortune of landing a summer internship with Minneapolis interactive advertising agency space150. Things must have gone well, because I’m still here and no longer an intern!

space150 has a crazy commitment to evolving in the industry. We apply this not only to our clients, but to ourselves. Every 150 days, space150 updates to a new version. Let me explain: Every 150 days our logo, business cards, website, front door, everything changes and updates. Currently, space150 is in version 21: THINKFREE.LY. When I started, version 20 was Welcome to the Futurarium. Version 22 is almost here and will be revealed on December 19. We will celebrate our update with a Version/Holiday party. Check out some previous versions.

Named the 535^th Fastest Growing Private Company (out of 5,000) by Inc. Magazine, space150 has definitely evolved over the years beyond just the version changes. Starting as a small creative and tech shop, space150 has grown into a full service interactive agency, having added display media only within the past couple years. Good thing they did, or I’d probably be working at Walmart right now. We have a growing list of clients, including Dairy Queen and the Deeqs, for which we were nominated for an OMMA Award, American Express, General Mills, Imation, Starz, André Balazs Properties, and Andersen Windows.

Beyond serving our clients, space150 also reaches out into the community to help create conversation in the industry. Previous Yaybias discuss space150’s Mobile Conference back in September, and you can still view the presentations online, showcasing space150’s commitment to the blossoming mobile industry. Also, space150 will be joining forces with the University of Minnesota’s AdClub to put on an Ad Summit for students. It should be an all-around good time.

Housed on the second floor of a historical textile factory in the Warehouse District, the atmosphere adds to the unique culture of space150. With old fireproof doors converted into tables and a fallout shelter in the basement, this is definitely a fun place to work. The desks are out in the open, conference rooms close with garage doors, video games in the lobby and HFT (Holy F-ing Tomb, our large room for agency-wide meetings with pillows to sit on), a ramp for leading in bikes, music constantly playing, a full bar, and, if you’re lucky, you may just see a puppy or two. There are also offices in New York and LA. My dad, the engineer, thinks it’s crazy that anyone gets any work done.Media Lounge area.

The lobby, complete with video games and Billy's motorcycle.

Conference Room 1

The ramp, for bringing in bikes, etc.

The bar for mandatory fun.

The backbone - where the creatives do their thing.

My desk. A little messy, I know.

Check out some of our other employees such as Marcus Fischer, Paul Isakkson (formerly known as Twitter’s Don Draper), Mike Fetrow, Billy, and John Grudnowski.

I have several people to choose from to give their opinions of space150. John’s office (as Media Director) just so happens to be next to mine. Unfortuneately, the video file has, I've been told, become "corrupted." So, you'll have to wait to hear his inspiring words.

Be sure to keep a lookout for space150's new holiday effort: 150spaces (coming soon). In the meantime, check out one of my favorite space150 holiday gems: Gem Sweater.

Microsoft Just Got Geekier

In the difficult task of making Microsoft relevant to consumers the latest promotional effort does not help the cause. On December 15th, Microsoft "Softwear" will be available to consumers. With the nauseating overuse of the rapper Common (he has also pimped Zune) Microsoft hopes to tap into the nostalgia of PCs. Examples shown below













Okay, so if these tees are on your X-mas list here is why you should skip it:

• I own an old PC and I hate it. No nostalgia here, just frustration.
• I would rather not pay a company to advertise them. Free tees, sure. Buying it at Kohl's, I think not.
  
• Geek wear is great, but this seems forced, not clever.
• It would be so much more effective if MS wasn't pushing it, but geeky MS evangelists designed the gear

Join the Battle to Fight Breast Cancer

In a few minutes, I'm off to the Join the Battle launch party at Nick & Eddie's (anyone reading this should head over--free apps and drink specials!). Join the Battle is a breast cancer awareness effort from Campbell Mithun to drive advocacy and education in Minnesota.

The first thing you'll notice about the site is the amazing art direction, evident of the campaign's young target. I heard rumors about posters being for sale, and I would definitely buy one. It's incredibly simple, powerful, and unexpected.

I do wish there was more interaction on the site--a game or at least an easy way to forward certain facts to your friends ("Did you know exercising helps prevent breast cancer?" type of thing). But the budget for this was nonexistant. The site's purpose is to educate a new, younger demographic about ways to prevent breast cancer and put them in a proactive position to fight against it. Achieved? Yes.

So please visit the site, forward it to the young women in your life, and consider buying a shirt. The striking graphics and small text will finally give the gentlemen an excuse to stare at your chest.

Ad Fail to the Tenth Degree

Google, just when I think I love you to the max, you go and fail on me in a big way. A blog I follow called "Mashable!" pointed out a majorly offensive ad fail from Google Ads which recently popped up in several online news stories about the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Yikes.



I've never heard of getting an online degree in terrorism, so I'm pretty sure that this is a keyword match ad and if it were a story about kittens, we might see "get your degree in kittens online." However, this is where the keyword match feature in these online ads goes from funny to fail in 0.3 seconds.

SPOTLIGHT: Campbell Mithun

Spotlight on Minneapolis Agencies continues with the source of my paycheck: Campbell Mithun. CM occupies the Campbell Mithun Tower (already you know we're a big deal!) on the southern edge of downtown. In terms of revenue, we are the biggest agency in Minneapolis and the 31st biggest in the US.

2008 was a successful year in a tough economy. New business wins include Famous Footwear, Supervalu, Syngenta seeds division, more of the Toro account, and Schwan Food Company. Other clients include Land O' Lakes, General Mills, H&R Block, The Hartford insurance, National City Bank, and Johnsonville.

Call me biased, but I think CM's media department is the best in town. Campbell Mithun also includes media buying division Compass Point, run by the incredibly smart and friendly Dick Hurrelbrink. John Rash of The Rash Report calls CM home. Our media director, Earl Herzog, is pretty much a legend in Minneapolis media--in addition to teaching D and Erin's 8:00am media class.

I was privileged enough to come onboard Campbell Mithun during the 75th anniversary year. The agency has celebrated all year with agency-wide Twins games, a milk carton boat in the Aquatennial, and what's sure to be a phenomenal holiday party. And don't forget the swag (the other side has the Twins logo):


When CM rebranded itself in 2006, the seven tenets became the core of our identity. They express Ray Mithun's vision for the agency to stand apart through perseverence, smart strategies, and big ideas. Check out the full description of the tenets on the website, and check the sweet wall art here:

Sneak peek: our BRAND NEW painted walls! This yellow angel is recently completed and stretches up the wall next to the stairway that connects floors 26 and 27:

This angel, on floors 24-25, is still a work in progress:


Hippo?


Lobby:

Skylounge. Yes, those chairs are as awesomely comfortable as they look. I love the Foshay lights peeking into this picture:

Every elevator lobby has different colored lighting. The pink and blue ones are pretty trippy. 26's is green:

CM's interview is with EVP/Chief Growth Officer Don Kvam. I asked Don to talk about what sets Campbell Mithun apart from other agencies in town, what he thought were the reasons behind our success in 2008, and where we're headed in the future:

I definitely agree with his idea that we emphasize a balance of creativity with effectiveness. From planners discovering pioneering ideas to our media team "making everything talk," as Don put it, we rely heavily on research to make clients' brands succeed. In addition to the phenomenal media team members I already mentioned, that's a huge part of why Campbell Mithun was where I wanted to work after graduation.

Thanks again so much to Don for sitting down with me. Look for more agency spotlights coming soon from Yaybia!

Make sure you remember to be consumer facing (Fail Monday)

Fail Monday strikes again, but on the Northwest Airlines website (I just had quite the epic trip from Michigan to Minneapolis this morning, but that is besides the point).



Not so bad, unless you look at what they title the page. Usually pages like this are titled something like "sorry, we had an error" but this is just called "Tech Failure Page." I think that is a pretty negative title for a 404.

How is this related to advertising? I view a corporate site as part of the company - it is meant to act as a way to engage. And think about the careful language of customer service representatives... it is a bit different than this.

Money with surplus value

What financial crisis?
If money is the problem, let money be the solution:


Persil is a detergent.
Hornbach is a home improvement store.
The copy says: You can beautify everything.

Wow, wouldn't this be the perfect ad space?
Guaranteed relevancy paired with automatic circulation.

Twelve students of the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart and their teacher, Thomas Winkler, suggest that the German Federal Reserve should offer parts of the euro bills for advertising. They calculate that the government could earn as much as 700 billion euro within two years. To reach that sum with the circulating twelve million bills, the price for one ad would have to be 1.20 Euro for one month.

For now, the bills with their clever headlines, generated a whole lot of media buzz for the advertising students and their artist/teacher.

However, the idea is not entirely new: During another Great Depression in the late 1920s a lot of German communities printed their own money, because inflation was so rapid that the government couldn't print bills fast enough. Some of them printed ads on their bills to co-finance the paper they were printed on.

Think twice

Click on this ad. Twice!

There is more here. And here. And on every other Jung von Matt ad on adsoftheworld.com

Thoughts?

A great way to promote a great agencies? A clever way to stick out in all-ad-environment and make your target audience smile? A good way to attract creatives to one of the most-creative German agencies? Smart media use combined with a witty idea?

Or a great way to offend your potential employees cause you imply cheating when they might just search for inspiration? An embarassing, in-your-face self-adulation to an audience who either already knows how great of an agency you are or who doesn't care? A way to turn admiration into rejection?

Or is it a great idea, but simply placed on the wrong (i.e. boring, not-worth-to-copy-at-all) ads?

This was just too bizarre to ignore....

Meow Mix just announced a new reality show called “Think like a Cat” that recently premiered on the Game Show Network. Immediately it reminded me of Brawny’s “Brawny Academy” reality show crafted by Minneapolis’ own Fallon, which got some good attention in 2006. However, Meow Mix’s (along with Grand Central Marketing which developed the concept) attempt at associating their brand with entertaining whimsy and fun, only plays off as creepy and disorganized. The New York Times’ television review describes the show as a “lame attempt to use game-show trappings to disguise what is nothing more than a lengthy cat food commercial.” And that is actually one of the nicer things said in that article (it is also described as “a significant step toward the collapse of civilized society”). If I were handling the PR, that is one media impression I would not want to claim.

On a slightly better note, Best Week Ever’s Michelle Collins (whom I worship for her pop culture insights) dubbed this show one of her “Reasons to Live” simply because this promo is too hilarious to ignore.



While this is all very amusing, I don’t really see what it’s doing for the brand except drawing ridicule upon a pretty staple name in the cat food industry.

Fallon may have been able to pull off the commercial disguised as a reality show quite well, but does that mean other brands should attempt the same? Sometimes good ideas are best left alone to the ones who crafted them in the first place.

The newest ad placement: Math tests

A California high school is like most public schools, trapped by budget cuts. One math teacher, Tom Farber, took action into his own hands. His printing budget was cut in half, so he reached out to local companies to advertise on math tests and thus foot the bill. Little one-liners grace the first page of each exam and come at a cost of $10 for an ad on a quiz, $20 to be on a chapter test, and $30 for a spot on the semester exam. Parents are even playing a part and sponsoring inspirational quotes posted around the classroom.

Is this exploiting public schools? Or do desperate times call for desperate measures?

All I know is that this makes me think of my dear mother and her middle school library. She spends money out of her own pocket on buying extra Twilight books because she hates turning down someone who finally gets excited about picking up a book. So maybe I'll whip up some ad sponsored bookmarks or an advertised Dewey Decimal System poster.

It's sad that schools are forced to do this, but I'm glad people are inspiring solutions.

Wii Would Like to Play, Indoors, Alone

This new Wii commercial for the game Animal Crossing City Folk with Wii Speak makes me sad, WOW style:



It's the polar opposite of the amazing Dentyne commercials (though I was a little disappointed that such a great commercial was from a gum company). They put out commercials like this and limit you time online to 3 minutes on their site so you can get out there and live:



The Animal Crossing City Folk commercial implies you don't need real friends, just a video game. I do generally applaud Wii for getting people on their feet. The next step: getting them out of the house.

"Let's go watch the fireworks!"

Thoughts?

WhatIsTheNewInternetTrend.com

Anyone else notice the abundance of questions as URLs that are popping up across the interwebs? Off the top of my head, I can think of:

http://www.doineedanumbrella.com
http://www.isobamapresident.com
http://www.issarahpalinpresident.com (etc)
http://www.whatcoloristheempirestatebuilding.com
http://www.isiticedcoffeeweather.com
http://www.istheinternetawesome.com
http://www.isitbeeroclock.com
http://www.isitchristmas.com

And some that aren't exactly questions but still single-function sites where the URL explains it all:

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
http://www.thingsididlastnight.com/
http://www.bitchmakemeasandwich.com/

Okay, so the last two are a little ridiculous. But I really like the simplicity of these. The umbrella and ESB sites actually provide a function, and I've visited both of them a handful of times. Our internet is rewarding the simplicity of Google and Twitter while turning away from cluttered AOL and Facebook. Is this new, streamlined experience the future of the web?

Where else do you see opportunity in questions as URLs? Converse was on track with Kissing with Ross, Is Everything Going to Be Okay, etc, but those were purely entertaining instead of functional. Imagine if Starbucks had come up with Is It Iced Coffee Weather or The Weather Channel got behind Do I Need an Umbrella...

Any other one-function sites we're forgetting? Are there any you actually use on a regular basis?