Advertising
Daytime TV Advertising
As part of the wonderful stupor of being a new dad I’ve ended up watching too much daytime TV. And as a result seeing too many daytime TV ads. I have learned much. National Geographic have whored themselves out to co-brand some air…
iPhone Advertising Hits New Low
There I was reading an article about The Top 5 Myths About Yahoo! on Howstuffworks on my iPhone. I got to the bottom of page one, and clicked ‘read more’ like you do. Then a new page launches and… Holy fuck… It is… Noooooooooo… It can’t…
My Inevitable Defensive Cannes Lions Post
I really don’t want to have to write this post. But when even the Cyber Lions Jury Chairman is posting things like this, what’s a guy to do ;-) There are traditional agencies (although they’re the least traditional of the traditional…
Adverts Restored My Faith in The Internet
I’ve been a bit down on the internet since I got back from holiday. It’s been as if someone deleted all the good stuff ;-) Then I accidentally stumbled on this site through a Google image search. It’s one of those sites that’s just bloody…
A Work of Brilliance
Dear Andy Whitlock, I love what you have done with these photographs from Campaign. I wish I had done this. You describe your work like this: Lots of ad-folk look very serious in their profile pictures in magazines like Campaign. I thought…
9 Reasons Japanese Interactive Work Is Awesome
In my continued judging of the One Show Interactive awards there’s one thing that’s really starting to stand out. Japanese agencies are doing some outstanding work right now. Every year that I’ve been fortunate enough to judge…
Samsung Go All Out in Cute Attack
How are you going to show off the big bright screen of your new mobile phone? Use it as the centerpiece in loads of scenes with super-cute animals. How can it not fail? They’d be better not having a mega-sucky website that has absolutely…
I Smell A Rat – Or Is It A Meerkat?
Deep breath… There’s this campaign right, it’s called Compare The Meerkat, it’s for an insurance comparison website called Compare The Market, the ad is a bit funny. I could try and describe it, but it’s easier to show you: Yes it’s all…
The Worst Scottish Accent Ever?
From last night’s Superbowl: I’m really tempted to re-dub it and see if I can pull off a better Scotch accent ;-) And I was 100% convinced that this Cash4Gold ad was a spoof until I visited the website, where unfortunately it’s all true: I…
Just To Be Clear…
In retrospect. Looking at the comments. With the benefit of hindsight. And having chatted with Sophie (and others). I think the long post from yesterday was perhaps too long and too connected. I think maybe it should have been 3 shorter…
Ever Seen A Website That Can Make You Cry?
Oh bollocks. My last post has stirred up a bit of comment and debate. I thought it might. I tried to be as clear as I could in setting it out. So as not to create yet another us vs them debate. It feels like I failed. I was trying to…
Life Is For Connectedly Sharing Better – The Advertising Myth
Experts predict that, if current trends continue, by q4 2010 all advertising will feature groups of people making something big and impressive. Recent examples of the genre are: A big domino toppling thing, a big, unfolded newspaper, a…
Free Contagious Roundup of 2008
The nice folk at Contagious Magazine are giving away their roundup of the most contagious stuff of 2008 for free. You don’t even need to give them any details or nothing: click here to download the PDF. Sorry, I know it’s a year out of…
What I’m Feeling About Webby Connect
It’s interesting. But through the sessions it’s becoming very clear that it’s a world of 2 halves. One half is people who believe that it’s just business as normal. Everything conforms to the old rules in the end. It’s all about talent…
Wario Land – Shake it! Wii Advertising
This YouTube Channel for Wario Land is great. We’ve seen the technique before, but it really works here and was a genuine surprise. (Sorry, I guess I’ve spoiled it already, but take a look). And the game looks great too. The Wario…
Advertising Gambling as Insurance
I guess it had to happen. Everyone’s realised that finance is a big gamble. So Paddy Power have started advertising their betting service as a kind of insurance against your holiday being ruined by an airline going bust. The ad was placed…
Crisps and Conversations
I’ve been a bit of a sceptic about interactivity and FMCGs. Most of the time they just create digital litter. Maybe it’s just because I’m a big fan of crisps. But Walkers seem to be doing some peculiarly interesting things around…
Cleanvertising
I object to this too.…
Painted Streetvertising
You can’t flypost, but you can paint a massive huge bloody advert for deodorant with flowers on it onto the wall. I think I object.…
Comparing Comparisons
All we need now is a bunch of different comparisons of comparison websites and we can compare them too.…
I’m Doing Christmas and It’s Doing Me In
The Christmas briefs are in… Aaaaaargh… People moaning about Christmas decorations in the shops in October can shut right up. I’m going to be fed up with the whole thing before Argos even puts Slade on rotation. I’m working on two of them…
I Hate Online Ads
When they do this kind of thing: It’s not the ads fault really I guess. But when an ad stops you from doing what you want to do you’ve got to dislike it a bit.…
Kinder Under Threat
I never thought I’d be ranting about chocolate eggs. It makes me feel unclean and slightly deranged. I’m hopefully going to manage to fend off the voice in my left ear going: “you’re just like one of those people you hate, the ones who…
Looks Like Carphone Warehouse, Smells (and Sounds) Like Minilogue
Minilogue video by Kristopher Storm (Music by Minilogue). Carphone Warehouse ad by Kristopher Storm (Music by Minilogue). I’m really confused. Everything in my brain is shutting down and I’ve got no idea what to say about it. My groove has…
It’s a Kind Of Bally Foamy Thing
Further proof that all ads are rapidly tending towards a point of absolute singularity… By Publicis for Orange Slovakia as far as I can make out. Via Space Invaders.
What Advertising Can Learn From Radiohead
I wasn’t going to blog about the House of Cards video and it’s brilliant integration with Google and the geekosphere. I wasn’t going to blog it because everyone else has. It is bloody brilliant though. Yet another example of how Radiohead…
Creative Similarities?
On the David Elsewhere stuff Tim just commented: I liked spike’s version from a year or two ago. With a link to this video: It’s a different thing doing a different job. But I can see how one would perhaps make you think of the other. For…
ABC3D – The Most Brilliant Book Video Ever
Sorry if this is old hat, it’s been seen by quite a few people on YouTube. But it’s one of those things that even if you’ve seen it before, you’ll be happier after seeing it again
Portfolio Night
I was lucky enough to go to Portfolio Night 6 last night. Set up by the enterprising young dudes behind http://ihaveanidea.org/ it’s billed as a chance for young creatives to meet creative directors (for a fee of £10). I felt like it was a…
My Talk at Under The Influence
Here’s the talk I did at Iris’ excellent Under the Influence day. It’s basically about digital experiences and magic and how the two are interconnected. Hope it’s OK – from my perspective I think it wanders a bit at the end (I sort of ran…
The Next Creative Revolution
I liked this thought piece by Nick Law from R/GA. The Next Creative Revolution at Creativity-online. It’s a thoughtful (yet slightly empassioned) piece on the evolution of advertising. For a taster: This, we are told, is integration. For…
It’s a Safetergent WTF
A classic: “It’s not a detergent it’s a safetergent”. I just saw this on TV and couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think I’d be able to share it, but thanks to the all-seeing YouTube I can. Hooray.
10 Reasons Digital Is Better Than Advertising – Remixed
This is all going to seem a little strange. Why on earth would anyone want to remix a presentation in such a fashion? Well it’s a funny story you see. I was mucking around with some basic VJing software. It’s a thing called Quartonian that…
URLs Out – Searches In
I was watching TV last night and an ad came on for continuing education. It’s one with fingers walking around the place. The ad was OK. I didn’t really pay much attention. But at the end of the ad the call to action was – “search for EMA…
The Rise of The Ad Man 2.0
[I’ve written this post once already. I got to the end of it just as someone phoned me up. I picked up the phone. Fumbled it. And dropped it on my laptop which duly crashed in a spectacular fashion. The second revision is slightly shorter…
Absolut Machines
Dickon from work pointed me at: ABSOLUT MACHINES. It’s so killer it’s not even funny. They’ve got a load of top drawer interactive music machines that you can play with over the internet. And the way they’ve done the queueing and stuff is…
Mad Men = Awesome
Having said recently that I don’t watch much good TV. I ended up watching Mad Men on BBC4 on Sunday night thanks to a recommendation from mum. Truly great. From the team that brung the world the Sopranos it’s a beautifully crafted drama…
Monkeys and Drums and Stuff
Scamp has written a really good piece about ideas and their appropriation by advertising. It specifically talks about the Cadbury’s Gorilla and the fact that it was originally pitched to someone else, and there was once a drumming Gorilla…
Advertising Ads
In spite of the heinous typo I love this sign (from a little newsagents just off Brick Lane). I haven’t seen anything that encapsulates quite so wonderfully the problem with a lot of the online advertising that is floating around aimlessly…
Geometry Wars – Particle Man
This ad for Geometry Wars I liked. It’s almost another kind of entertaining demo, sort of: It makes me smile and chuckle. They’ve also got some bonkers online advertising which I can’t actually find right now. And the website is also…
How To Do Digital Planning
I’ve been trying to post something like this for a few months now. But it kept morphing into a badly researched history of planning mixed with a poor how-to guide. And of course I kept veering off into bloody flag-waving about how digital…
Zoo Advertising
What is it about Zoo advertising. This is the 3rd Zoo ad I’ve posted on here. This time it’s the San Francisco Zoo. I guess this is really just a press ad turned into a short movie, but given the costs of putting something on the Internet…
Sometimes I Just Want to Cry
Or alternatively just shout really loud bad words in public. This morning I’m not going to cry. I’m going to shout. CAMPAIGN MAGAZINE PARTS THE SEA OF ONES AND ZEROS AND LEADS THE ADLANDERS INTO THE NEW LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. WHERE THERE’S…
Digital vs Advertising
I did my talk about ‘10 Reasons that Digital is Better than Advertising‘ again the other day. I enjoyed it, and I did feel that bits of it are true. But at the same time it also felt a bit futile, It was never designed to be an important…
Charlie Brooker – More Cocks and (She)Cocks in Advertising
I do find Charlie Brooker amusing. I think I’d find it a bit painful being so dark all the time, but I admire him for it
Unfortunate Advertising Crop
I quite like the new ‘be more Nokia’ ads. But when I tried to photograph one I got this unfortunate crop. Whoops!
It’s All Gone Vodafone
It started here: Then I saw: Then this: Then I realised it had left ‘advertising’ and gone native… (I should have taken the time to balance the red colour to make the point better, but I don’t have the skill or the time, sorry…)…
Fosters Do a Bad Thing
I clicked on a banner today. I probably click on 2/3 a month. I’ve no idea if this is low or high or average. I’ve never seen any stats about the number of banners that the average person clicks on. Has anyone else? Anyway, I digress…
I’ve seen the future of Marketing 2.0 and it’s rubbish (but don’t worry, it’s in Beta)
[Please note: none of the brands mentioned here have ever done anything like this (as far as I know), it’s a purely fictional story of an imagined future from my slightly fuddled brain] Imagine if last night everyone who worked in the…
I Can’t Watch…
This is me presenting “10 Reasons Why Digital is ‘Better’ than Advertising” at the PSFK conference in London. I can’t even bear to hear recordings of my own voice so there’s no way that I’m going to be able to watch this… (I tried watching…
Vimeo Ads
Vimeo have just redesigned their site (they’re a video sharing site a bit like YouTube). They’ve always had a nicely designed site and I think I quite like the new version too. One thing I really liked was their approach to ads – they’re…
PSFK Today
I’m enjoying the PSFK conference in London right now. I just did my talk about 10 Reasons Why Digital Is Better Than Advertising. But you’ll all be bored sick of that by now. It was quite nerve racking. But I got through it. Hugh MacLeod…
Digital Lepers
If you read my rubbish regularly you know that I have a funny relationship with advertising. But as I’ve tried to stress before I don’t have anything against the advertising industry. I just think that the digital world has perhaps an…
Miami Nice
Sorry for lack of blogging. I’m in Miami. I’m at the Clios Advertising Festival thingy. I’ll write some stuff about my impresions of what people have talked about and generally what’s going on when I’ve had a chance to digest and ponder…
I don’t hate advertising. I just like digital better.
Well I finally did it. I finished my list of “10 Reasons that Digital is Better than Advertising“. Which is a personal triumph. It’s the longest sustained thought of my blog so far. Even longer than my ranting about Virgin Media! Even…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 10
Of course there are brilliant people in advertising who ‘get it’ too. And blatantly you don’t have to be a web-obsessed geek to come up with interesting interactive ideas. But naturally it becomes easier to consider this world if you spend…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 9
[Sorry I’ve been very rubbish at putting up these last 2 reasons – they were written, but I’ve been suffering from a semi-crippling case of uncertainty…] If you’re ‘a creative’ you either want to write a novel or make films. If you’re a…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 8
There’s a whole bunch of stuff that makes online audiences great. They’re immediately measurable. You can see how they heard about you. You can see what things they’re searching for in order to find you. If people are talking about you…
Bill Banned This Photo
Doesn’t that look like the most amazing sandwich you ever saw? Take it from me, it’s an amazing sandwich from an amazing shop. Bill’s in Brighton (there’s a branch in Lewes too but I’ve never been to that one. If you’re ever in the area…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 7
Actually I’m not sure that working at somewhere called Dream Digital, Stick or RazerBlade, is necessarily any better than having to answer the phone: “Good afternoon, Benson, Christ, Smith-Fellow, Hasbeen and Shagalott”. But the point is…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 6
It’s interesting to see the difference between digital people and advertising people right now. There’s a whole lot of smugness going on. Ad people are smuggly going “we’ve got the clients” ears (hopefully not in boxes in a gangster way…
Toronto Zoo Again
After Jealous Animals, a site I blogged about before, comes Bugsrock the tale of some cool cockroaches. Toronto Zoo do good stuff again. I can imagine kids and adults loving their work in equal measure. Which is surely the aim of Zoo…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 5
As conventional advertising revenues decline, programme makers have less and less cash to spend. So TV gets more shit, so fewer people watch it so ad revenue goes down again. Conversely the web’s audience is steadily increasing in volume…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 4
Success in network media isn’t about ego. No one cares who you are, or what you’ve done before – unless you’re Jonathan Harris or Joshua Davis ;-) Audiences care about whether they like your thing or not. More honest and ernest cultures…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 3
Maybe this won’t last forever. And of course lots of people got their fingers (and worse) burnt in the last .com fiasco. But because the cost of entry for digital stuff is low, and the technology is cheap (or rentable) it means that people…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 2
OK, you have to know some stuff to put things on the Internet, but not that much. Just look at the people in 80% of YouTube videos, do they look like they know how to do complicated computer stuff? Or use a VCR? Or open a tin? In spite of…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 1
Digital agencies sometimes do advertising. But only a few of them call themselves ‘digital advertising agencies’. This means that we’re given permission to do lots of other things. If you work in advertising you are typically expected to…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising
Photo borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelfan/46008873/ I started writing this list of 10 things after I chaired a debate at the D&AD about ‘Consumers In Control’ which basically turned into a mass venting of frustrations…
Horrible Misguided Integrated Campaign
Basically this site: http://www.information-revolution.org and it’s associated advertising try to position this organisation as a sort of free choice organisation campaigning against the dominance of Google. But it’s a campaign for Ask…
I Like MOMA
This is the second time I’ve said I don’t want to blog about what I had for breakfast. But in a roundabout way I’m doing it again… This morning I stopped at a little stand called MOMA at London Bridge (I have to admit the first time I saw…
QR Codes – There’s More
Following earlier posts about QR codes (or Semacodes) – the barcodes that your phone can translate into cool stuff – thought I ought to post this from the MIT Advertising Lab on uses for QR codes. I can’t help but think that the ones above…
The Best Online Advertising Ever?
This is one of the only banners in recent months that I’ve actually clicked on. I knew I shouldn’t, but I just had to… But you know what the real f**ker is! It doesn’t even make a bloody noise. I felt so cheated it’s untrue. The least they…
Blog Recruitment Rules, OK…
Buzz and me with our new ‘mystery’ creative director A follow up to the Poke Seeking Creative Director post… In short, rather than doing normal job advertising, or going through recruitment consultants, I wrote a ‘job ad’, then Nik and I…
CMOs on Digital and Traditional
Following the BBH Lynx win post I thought this research into the attitude of CMOs(commissioned by Sapient) reported some interesting stuff. LIke the fact that 68% of CMOs prefer to work with multiple agencies, to derive the benefits of…
Layers of History
On the way to work I noticed these vintage (1997) Orbital posters advertising the track they did for the move The Saint. I quite liked the fact that it had been buried behind something that had just been demolished. It’s like excavating…
BBH Wins Lynx Digital Account
An interesting ‘moment’ in online advertising. BBH win Lynx digital account. To my mind Dare have done some really amazing online advertising for Lynx (Feather and Blow to name but two), and I’m really surprised that the account has gone…
Nice Gaming Quote
I was sorting through some of my old notes and I came across a quote that I jotted down during a presentation by Massive (the guys who do in-game advertising). Talking about why gaming is more impactful than TV: You can’t play games and do…
Tea for 2.0
Teabuddy.com (our social web app for managing tea-making and preferences) has come to the boil again. It’s one of those odd sleeper projects. We did it ages ago and at first it got picked up by Wired, then a bit later by The Guardian. Now…
Things I Learned in Cork this Weekend
There are green Irish postboxes – yay! Limerick and Blarney are both real places in Ireland, and you go the same way from Cork to get there. I really wanted to go and kiss the Blarney stone, but apparently so does everyone else. Everyone…
Poke: Seeking Creative Director
Poke are hiring. We’re looking for a new creative director. It’s a nice place to work, or at least I think so. We’re looking for someone quite particular. If you’re interested, or think you know someone who might be, please take a look at…
F**K you and your Second Life ‘firsts’ you bunch of Adf**ks
I’m glad that someone with some heritage and history in Second Life has come out and said this: Second Life Herald: Gallery of Lies. And said it very loud. I’d have loved to have written this piece, but as my Second Life consists of about…
Interactive Cinema Ads
Brazillian interactive cinema ad for Fiat using text messages. More details on the MIT Advertising Lab blog Interesting idea, and something we’ve had discussions about before. But I always felt it was really irresponsible to do something…
Second Life Primer
This video makes Second Life look pretty interesting (although I do sense a bit of hyperbole in there…). Personally I still can’t get my head into Second Life. Changing my outfit was by far the most interesting bit. via Big Picture
Advertising to Man in Captivity
Toilet media. I’m sure at a point it seems like a good idea: You get 99% (I’m guessing) accuracy in gender targetting People aren’t just rushing past Blokes don’t know where to look when urinating next to other blokes, so give them an ad…
Organic Blog
Not a blog about stuff with no pesticides. Stuff about the web agency Organic. Actually they might be pesticide free too, in fact they probably are. They’ve got a nice blog: Three Minds @ Organic. A smart blog with interesting things in…
Taxi Seat Ad
Saw this ad on the back of a taxi seat. I really don’t know what to make of it at all. Advertising ‘the snip’ must be an interesting brief… For some reason this line made me chuckle (not sure it’s supposed to though): “Now you have your…
Digital Frustration
Just in case it gets lost in the comments. I thought it was worth blogging the fact that Tony Davidson left a comment in response to my ranting the other day. Thanks. It’s always nice when a monologue turns into a dialogue. Stops you…
Digital Creativity Revisited
Yesterday I posted this: Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity I got into a bit of a rant about it. You’ll find it’s easy to bait anyone who works in digital in this way. In fact there’s probably a good sport in there somewhere. It’d be…
Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity
The above image is blatantly stolen from the excellent DigitalAgency blog. But short of retyping the whole thing I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it. It’s from the D&AD Student Annual, written by Tony Davidson (Creative Director…
WhenWeRollWeRollBig.com
A response from the Agency.com camp regarding the Subway video. It’s basically saying: “we did it, we got people talking, that’s the whole point”. I’m sure the debate will rage on around whether this is just a good piece of…
Agency.com ‘viral’ pitch video
OK, I’m going to give credit where it’s due: hats off to Agency.com for nailing their colours to the mast (in a very public way) and for using web stuff to talk about web stuff. Credit over. Maybe it’s just a cultural thing. But this video…
What's hot on YouTube
Really useful breakdown of the 100 most viewed clips on YouTube. Nice work: No Man’s Blog: YouTube trends report #1 The top line is that of the top 100: 58 are user generated content 31 are music videos 4 are commercial adverts 3 are…
A Wee Bit of Advertising
Saw this in a gents loo yesterday. It made me chuckle a tiny bit. Then it made me feel sick. A small goalpost drenched in mens’ wee. Not something I’d want my brand to be associated with. But then I’m not advertising pissy goalposts (yet).…
Social Notworking
This makes me want to weep. Wal-Mart’s ‘Hub’ for teens that allows them to ‘express their individuality’ (and win cool stuff!). Ths writeup in AdAge highlights most of the issues… Advertising Age – Wal-Mart Tries to Be MySpace — Seriously…
We’re fucked
OK, not totally. But this is an interesting development. A startup that will take your designs and turn them into coded web pages by outsourcing it to cheap places around the world (returning your pages within 5 days). Prices from $150. If…
Jealous Animals
Jealous Animals. I’m not quite sure why I love this site so much. But I do. It’s a really simple little site. Hardly a transformational opportunity to engage the user. It doesn’t rely on the normal whiz bang of a lot of web suff. It’s just…
Garfield (not the cat) on Cyber Lions
Although I would be interested to see what Garfield the cat would have to say about Cannes. Anyway. You’d expect a geek like me to talk about the web being a “transformational opportunity to engage the user”. But when someone from…
BannerBlog
BannerBlog.com.au : Where Banners Click – nice site from Australialand. A regularly updated feast of online advertising with contributers from lots of agencies around the world (including Poke’s very own Tobie Cameron).…
Diablogue: Life takes….
Diablogue (a new find on the blog trail; thanks Russell) pointed me in the direction of a new online Visa campaign produced by AKQA. Life Takes Visa As the Diablogue guys say there’s some sweet moments in there. But I can’t help but feel…
Levi’s Antidote
Levi’s Antidote is, in its own words: “…a living, growing snapshot of what people are thinking and doing across Europe.” Now, as the guys at SMLXL so rightly point out, this is theoretically a great idea. A campaign that supports…
Sorrell vs. Murdoch
Interesting Reuters article from a couple of weeks ago. Martin Sorrell talks about how media companies are running scared of the new new media. But perhaps most interesting is his criticism of News Corp’s recent acquisitions.…