spotted owl

Invisible Children & True Blood

Every month our media team sends out a cool little e-newsletter about innovative things happening media-wise inside and outside of the agency. Here are my two favorites from this month:

For an Australian Childhood Foundation advertising campaign, JWT Melbourne used child-size mannequins to represent children suffering neglect. In high traffic areas in Melbourne, posters were pasted over the top of the actual mannequin so that only the feet and legs could be seen.

To promote its show True Blood, HBO has placed snap-off wooden stakes in construction zones and other areas with directions for stabbing a vampire in the heart. They have also launched a print campaign to tease the second season, using stimulating visual cues and the tag line "Ready for Seconds?"

Another smart True Blood idea: use other brands to promote your show. Read this article about how HBO invited BMW Mini, Harley-Davidson, Gillette, Monster.com, and Geico to get in on the action. (special thanks to @kaseykam & @brendanstarr for images and info).

Last Week: Night

Okay so technically it's more like two weeks ago at this point, but I've been meaning to write about a string of happy hours full of really interesting people doing really interesting things. I highly recommend checking out the handful of companies below if you haven't already:

Teri Wadsworth & Dig: Dig specializes in consumer insight films for all sorts of brands and topics. Basically, they make ethnography into engaging film — which has earned them a particularly large planner fan base. I worked with Teri in Chicago (former planner) and know Adam (former creative) too and I'm constantly impressed with what they're doing. They're great for current clients and have helped agencies win lots of new biz as well. You can also get their self-funded stuff a la carte on topics like economy's effect on millenials (sample clip here) or moms and social media (coming soon).

**

Andy Hunter & Pursuit: Unlike Dig, Pursuit is brand spankin' new. Founded by a crop of entrepreneurs, they field a varied degree of work (marketing consulting, customer research, business analytics, interactive and brand strategy) but are simply about getting companies back in touch with what their customers are really doing -- helping brands re-connect to people on their terms. What I like most about them is that they're not afraid of a little complexity; agencies take note. Oh, and thanks to Andy (who knows absolutely everyone) for inviting me to the below happy hour with the Dachis crew.

**

David Armano-Peter Kim-Jevin MacDonald & Dachis Corp: Lots of people have been talking about this firm for some time and buzz increased last month when David Armano left Critical Mass to come aboard. Billed as a social enterprise that extends beyond marketing and advertising, the effort is intriguingly vague and exceptionally well-funded. It's interesting because David, Peter and Jevin are all sort of brands in their own right and none of them actually live here yet. Happy to have all this brainpower in Austin, at least on the weekdays.

**

Mike Mackert & the UT Planning Program: Alright so technically the UT ad program isn't a company, but it is a cool program to watch. All of our interns have been raving about Mike for awhile now and I was thrilled to have the chance to work with his class on a Planning For Good project this past spring.While Mike's main expertise is actually in message design for nonprofits, he's taken to planning rather effortlessly and has a ton of great ideas to get his students the kind of industry experience that most ad grads don't have. I'm psyched to be working with him - looking forward to fall semester already.

Last Week: Day

Last week kicked off week 1 of our all-agency UX workshop led by the planning & digital depts. 11 of us presented over 4 days, giving it a slight circus-y feel.

We're doing 1/3 of the agency at a time, starting with the directors and such, who were a surprisingly great audience & very patient as we worked out the kinks. They were also fairly competitive when we broke off into teams, as one actually jumped up at one point and proclaimed "we won!" despite the fact that this was not actually a competition. Week 2 is a milder crew so far. Working with some really smart people on this, learning loads of new things.

The Age of Innocence

I've been buried in UX workshop prep all week, but couldn't resist sharing two really amazing videos that I recently came across (thanks Brendan & Faris).

Both are completely different. One is a film of a rescue mission from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service in Australia, responsible for 21,000 saves in the past 25 years. The visual treatment is absolutely stunning as is the music.

The second is a T-Mobile ad. Seems like it might be kind of a let-down after the rescue mission, but it's  great to watch. I wrote about another T-mobile spot awhile ago and this just ups the ante. There's a nice post by Faris titled 'Bring People Together and Give Them Something To Do' that you should read here.

Anyhow, both of these videos have a nice childlike quality that is undeniably appealing. The film treatment of the first makes everything look like toys, a surprising and novel way to frame up something serious like an ocean rescue. The second video showcases such genuine enthusiasm that it's like watching the inner 5-year-old of absolutely everyone in Trafalger Square.

Each is a nice reminder that the best pieces of communication and technology usually take us back to the most basic of things. There's something very innocent about all of the exuberance and experimentation surrounding social media and new technologies right now. Yes/no?