I’m a big believer in serendipity — and that’s how I became a part of eCamp, an amazing trade group of industry leaders. I ran into one of the founders of eCamp in Las Vegas where we were promoting our documentary, “The Next American Dream”. He asked me to join and, not being a big “joiner,” I hesitated. But I said I’d give it a try, and when eCamp held their next meeting in Boston, I joined them. I was amazed at how much I learned from others in my industry — and how much I referenced what I learned when I got back home. It’s a great concept, and one of my colleagues in Dallas wrote about it. It’s a fun read and includes some pictures from our last meeting in San Francisco.
And believe it or not, they are all excited to come to Kansas City next September when T2+Back Alley Films will host the group. Boston, San Francisco…Kansas City? Why not?
Great experience design served up in an Angry Birds Cake? Oh yes – and we’re just jealous we didn’t think of it first. A techie dad in the UK has provided not only an example of great experience design, but whetted our collective appetites for all things Angry Birds.
Perhaps the greatest time suck on the planet, Rovio’sAngry Birds app is a huge success. Now, with a working cake in the mix, we’re going to go ahead and call it a piece of experience design.
Electricpig’s Mike Cooper is responsible for the amazing cake, concocted for his 6 year old son’s birthday. Cooper has a rep for crafting imaginative birthday cakes, and it’s easy to see why. Not only do we get to see how the cake is constructed, the look on the little boy’s face as he realizes what it is, is pretty incredible.
With more than 12 million sold, most coming from iPhones and iPads (at .99 each, nice) and more than 30 million downloads of the free Android version, mostly on Google’s mobile OS, that’s a whole lot of popular.
Rovio’s whopping success with this app, generating over a million dollars a day via the ad-supported Angry Birds on Android, probably means a whole lot more Angry Birds in our futures. In fact, the Birds are coming to Sony’s Play Station and Play Station 3, the Windows Phone 7, Wii and even a 3d version of the game is expected later this year.
And Mike Cooper? Well, he can not only bake up a pretty stellar cake experience, he’s managed to throw some viral video in the mix as well. Well done, sir.
In our book, infographics are not only cool, but a great design strategy. Clients and prospective clients can often process information easier when it’s presented to them visually, in addition to or in place of text.
While this infographic touches on a topic that may not seem all that important, it doesn’t take long to dig down and see that lack of sleep is a big deal – and contributing to lots of … well you get the rest.
As a designer, if you can create a killer visualization, you are definitely showing that you have some serious skill.
But don’t forget designing infographics is an art - and in order to do it well, be sure you’re getting enough sleep.
Doritos and Pepsi MAX dominated in the consumer-generated videos that got attention during Super Bowl 45. And Kansas City got a piece of that national attention, albeit in a small way, courtesy of a Leawood native who was a big winner. Contestants were vying for some $5 Million in prizes and the resultant media attention could pretty much be considered priceless in terms of the ability to leverage it into more great opportunities.
This was the first time that Pepsi and Doritos partnered for an event and Crash the Super Bowl was a huge success. Not only did the contest garner a record number of fan submissions, it also generated an unprecedented number of consumer votes. Just goes to show the power of the consumer and how the creative landscape has changed. Not only do consumers want to watch great spots, they want to be a part of the process of not only creating them, but also selecting the winners.
Brad Bosley, a 28 year-old Leawood, Kansas native is the creative talent behind Pepsi MAX’s “Love Hurts” Super Bowl spot. He wrote and directed the spot for about $800 and took home 5th place in the competition. That was no small feat, considering there were more than 5,600 entrants, representing the most ever in a single year of competition.
The winning ads (in alphabetical order) were:
• “First Date” (Pepsi MAX) by Nick Simotas
• “House Sitting” (Doritos) by Tynesha Williams
• “Love Hurts” (Pepsi MAX) by Brad Bosley
• “Pug Attack” (Doritos) by JR Burningham
• “The Best Part” (Doritos) by Tyler Dixon
• “Torpedo Cooler” (Pepsi MAX) by Brendan Hayward
It’s also no small feat that out of the top 5 most popular ads identified by USA Today’s AdMeter, that two were spots created by consumers.
It was great to hear Brad interviewed on KCTV5 this morning and share that the inspiration for his spot was his grandparents. He said that his grandmother had always been somewhat aggressive with his grandfather, and known to kick him under the table if he tried to eat something that wasn’t good for him. I’d say Brad figured out a great way to not only honor and memorialize his grandparents, but to make one heck of an impression in front of millions of viewers the world over.
Here are the ads ranked in the Top 10 by USA Today’s AdMeter and the full list is available here.
Advertising works. Doubt that? A recent article by Steven Heller in Daily Magazine inspired me to think about advertising – and how important it is to success. For those of you not familiar with Heller, he’s kind of a big deal. He’s the author, co-author and editor of more than 100 books on design and was an art director for the New York Times for more than 33 years. And the right kind of advertising can even manage to take someone (or some thing) from nobody status to somebody status – and pretty quickly
Heller’s piece explored the 1954 George Cukor film “It Should Happen to You” starring Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. The film’s main character was Gladys Glover (played by Holliday). Much like the Kim Kardashians and Paris Hiltons and Perez Hiltons of today, Gladys was a nobody who wanted to be somebody. And she was determined to get it, come hell or high water. And, the fact that she was loaded and not afraid to spend money didn’t hurt her in her quest for fame.
To accomplish her goal of ‘being somebody’ Gladys rented an empty billboard in NYC’s Times Square. A manufacturing company who wanted the space was surprised when she turned out to be a tough negotiator. Six billboards later – billboards bearing nothing but her name – Gladys had what she wanted. Attention. And just like the ‘somebodys’ of today, she milked it for all it was worth.
Heller calls it the beginning of the ‘me’ generation. That may well be the case. But I think it’s also a pretty good example of the old adage: Advertising works. It can even make a nobody a somebody. And it never ceases to amaze me how many businesses forget this simple adage. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. Advertising – of some form or another, is just about always an important component of any successful strategy.
T2 + Back Alley Films is a visual design and storytelling company. For more information, please visit our sites at t2.tv and backalleyfilms.com or call 800-471-6554.
