The 21st Century Creative

Courage and Conviction aren't a Luxury

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Last night on NPR's Marketplace, there was a story about Kodak's missed earnings yesterday. It seems that this once great brand and company is becoming more and more financially unstable.

Most pundits would undoubtedly claim, "Kodak didn't innovate, and this is the price they must now pay. They didn't keep up with the trends and technology of digital photography."

While that is true in the broad perspective, what was interesting about NPR's report was that they did indeed innovate. In fact, Kodak INVENTED digital photography . . . and in the mid-1970s no less. Yet, because their cash cow came from selling and developing film stock, they tried desperately and vainly over the next three and a half decades to crush their own creation.

Obviously that didn't happen. Unfortunately for Kodak they never effectively leveraged the technology they themselves first pioneered.

Now also just yesterday, we held a meeting with a new client of ours at Y&R Chicago that holds innovation as a chief objective of theirs. During the course of this meeting, the clients encouraged both conviction and courage from themselves and all agency partners. Thinking of Kodak and that NPR story, I realized how right our clients really are and that those traits are in no way a luxury or "nice to have."

In fact, they are an absolute necessity for success.

For even with a robust R&D pipeline and a technological edge years ahead of the competition, without the courage and conviction to truly forge those new paths and innovate the very business itself, irrelevance is all but inevitable eventually.

SCREW*D

2011-08-31T17:35:00.000-04:00

It was hard to think of any title for this post more evocative than the name of the program itself that we are now executing for Craftsman tools: SCREW*D. For that I thank the creative team I've been fortunate to collaborate with: Richard Fischer and Evan Thompson, who came up not only with this name but what I feel is a really compelling branded content idea.

The concept at this campaign's core is simple: Bear Grylls meets Bob Villa. To expand that one-line elevator pitch a bit, Craftsman and Y&R Chicago, along with our production partner Tool of North America, are taking a completely tool-clueless individual, Alan Weischedel, whom we found via a contest on YouTube, and we're dropping him in the middle of nowhere all alone. He will have nothing but a vast array of Craftsman tools to help accomplish the tasks necessary for survival and escape back to civilization.

But what drives engagement for this campaign -- and what serves as Alan's secret weapon -- is that Craftsman's DIY online community of handymen and women will use Twitter, Facebook and Livestream to give our hero guidance, encouragement and sage advice all throughout his challenges. So Craftsman, the brand that is "trust in your hands," is now placing their own trust in the hands of their digital fans.

Today we wrapped up Day 2 of Alan's first drop, deep in the bayous of southern Louisiana. This entire social experiment is born out of the insight that tool experts love to share their knowledge, so we decided to give them the ultimate format in which to do that and the chance to collectively build a handyman from scratch.

Trip Your What?

2011-05-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

For our client hotels.com, Y&R Chicago, collaborating with multimedia powerhouse B-Reel, recently launched TripYourFace.com. This interactive adventure, directed by B-Reel Films' Anders Hallberg, borrows from the "what the hell happened" spirit of films such as "The Hangover." You can even find yourself partying alongside Dennis Rodman and Vanilla Ice.

B-Reel's technical chops were truly challenged on this endeavor, and the team certainly delivered. Though the "upload your face onto something else" process has admittedly been done, most famously perhaps with Elf Yourself, our aim was to, primarily, use this technique to weave a deeper narrative for the users. Secondly, we also wanted to push the technological boundaries. With over 40 face uploads, tracked onto multiple characters and in 3D space, this experience indeed breaks new technical ground.

Again, our chief aim, was to rewrite the rules of aspirational marketing and tell a story where users could envision a wild night away in a luxury hotel. By connecting to Facebook through it's Graph API, we allowed users to pull photos of their friends and to share the customized content.

UPDATE: Trip Your Face has been awarded FWA's Site of the Day for July 28, 2011.

15 Minutes of [Clay] Fame

2011-01-07T15:59:00.000-05:00

I have blogged before about social media truly being a very autobiographical medium. In other words, for the user, it's really all about them.

Leveraging that insight, at Y&R Chicago, we have just developed and launched Clay Yourself, a Hotels.com production. Building upon Smart, the clay-mation-animated star of the broadcast spots we produce with Aardman Animations for our client Hotels.com, this site allows people to craft and customize your own clay avatar.

Further, people can use their clay doppelgangers to enter a promotion where they can virtually audition, writing and reading a Mad-Libs-styled script, giving themselves a stage name and giving themselves the opportunity to possibly win a starring role for their clay self in the next Hotels.com commercial.

UPDATE: February 19, 2011, ClayYourself.com is the FWA's Site of the Day

New Baby, New Job, New Blog Post

2010-07-31T15:59:00.000-04:00

I have recently begun a new position with the agency Young & Rubicam, more commonly known, in our short-code, text-message, abbreviation-driven society as Y&R. My wife and I have also had our first child, Catherine Grace Witt, born a week and a half ago (five days after I started my new role, to be exact.) So it has been quite a busy month -- but also a very good month indeed.

With Y&R, specifically Y&R Chicago, I am taking on the position of managing director of the agency's digital studio. Already the team that makes up this department possesses such skill and creative talent that I'm bustling with excitement. The potential that I feel is here can really carry us far.

My objectives are three-fold: begin nurturing that talent in a way that elevates the overall creative output of the department, retool and manage the digital production pipeline of the agency and, finally, own the financials of the entire endeavor. So essentially I am getting the experience of running a creative business.

Now maybe it's my fresh new fatherly pride, but I feel quite confident and very fortunate to find myself working with such a solid team and for an agency with such an esteemed creative legacy.

Working at Maddock Douglas was truly an amazing experience these past three years, and as I move forward in my career, I undoubtedly will be ever more grateful for what I learned there. For the meantime, there is a lot to accomplish here at Y&R, and we're hitting the ground running. There are great things to accomplish and not a moment to lose . . .

TED.com & Rory Sutherland: Sweat the Small Stuff

2010-06-15T11:07:00.005-04:00

This ingenious and refreshingly elegant argument put forth by Rory Sutherland at TED's recent London conference illustrates how simple details can have a massive, long-lasting impact on brands, companies and even governments. Combining incredible insights into human behavior and an outstanding flair for storytelling, Sutherland lays out an inspiring challenge to focus on the small stuff and envision how world change can come from seemingly inane details.

Hello, World: Being Human is at the Heart of Digital Innovation

2010-03-16T17:29:00.002-04:00

Pablo Picasso once remarked, "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." To echo that sentiment, a college computer science professor of mine advised while explaining the basics of programming, "Computers are dumb beasts. You have to tell them how to do everything."

Certainly, computing technology has changed humankind forever. We may agonize over its flaws and relative infancy, but nonetheless, the impact from our evolving digital footprint cannot be reversed. And yet for the amazing progress the rest of the world has made over the last couple of decades, advertisers have mostly just chased tactical milestones, in an attempt to establish a digital dominance, or, in some cases, simply hang onto relevancy. The site, the microsite, the blog, MySpace profile, Facebook profile, Twitter profile, iPhone app . . . Has innovation in this area really been reduced to having something to briefly show for the shiniest new fad?

The most radical and progressive -- and, in my opinion, longest-lasting -- innovation occurring right now in the digital space is focusing creative and strategic efforts in a way that recognizes, hey, there actually is a human being involved in the process.

Many firms already hold this tenet central to their methodology. IDEO, for example, collaborating with IDE and the Gates Foundation, has even developed the Human-Centered Design Toolkit. My employer, Maddock Douglas, goes so far as to define innovation in a manner that leads all of our team's efforts to always solve for a relevant, existing need in the market.

Neither IDEO nor MD are advertising agencies, however. Yes, at Maddock Douglas, we craft branding and communication strategies and deploy tactics, as part of the necessary effort to connect the idea with the insight. However, our core objective is to move our clients' businesses forward through our innovation practice. Other similar firms, such as Fahrenheit 212, Frog Design and Ziba all embrace similar processes and also center their efforts on human needs.

Yet especially in the digital space, that mindset seems absent from most advertising agencies. There are interesting standouts that have historically bucked this trend and remain out in front, such as Razorfish and R/GA. Yet most digitally-focused campaigns from agencies today either ignore the importance of examining and crafting the entire experience, in favor of developing cool, albeit fleeting tactics, or they lack the chops to execute anything with enough dazzle to stand out in the cluttered digital landscape. Very few firms possess both the full-spectrum strategic acumen AND the standout creative talent to truly make the most of digital innovation.

I believe, however, we will soon see a renaissance in this area as more agencies and creatives begin to understand the potential of experience design and strategy and the beauty of actually connecting with a living being at the center of that experience.

After all, so many new mediums have erupted and evolved from the time of Picasso's canvas, yet the message -- that emotional, heartfelt and irreplaceable burst of emotion organic to his paintings and connected to the human experience -- transcends everything.

Is Your Brand a Platform?

2010-03-05T17:05:00.017-05:00

What do both the Apple iPhone and Facebook have in common, besides being two of the most popular time-wasters in recent years?

Both took advantage of open-platform-based business models to generate amazing momentum that traditional companies would have typically had to pay millions in marketing dollars for.

The iPhone OS and Facebook were also both initially launched as closed platforms and then later opened up to the development community. Facebook first opened their API in 2007, while Apple, after debuting the iPhone in mid-2007, opened the App Store in early 2008, allowing developers to create their own applications for the platform and sell them through the store. Both platforms had rigid standards, protecting both the end-user experience as well as Apple and Facebook's own brands and bottom lines.

The experiment from both companies has proven to be tremendously successful. Whereas Facebook was struggling to gain market share against rival MySpace a few years ago, the inclusion of third party apps, through its open API, rocketed the popularity of the social network out in front of the pack. Similarly, Apple's iPhone was greeted with open arms by the Apple-loyal, but it was after the App Store's debut that the average smart phone owner began to lust after an iPhone of their own.

These are great examples of using technology to fuel business model innovation, and leveraging the power of a platform to build a movement of third-party helpers to propel you forward. So as traditionally-minded companies begin considering how to evolve their business for the 21st century, think of how your brand could potentially become a powerful platform of its own.

Still the Heartbeat of the Internet

2010-02-07T23:01:00.007-05:00

Earlier this evening, the New Orleans Saints rallied to defeat the favored Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. As the game slowly began to heat up, I found myself far more annoyed with the continual interruption of the commercials, versus amused by them. More so than ever, the :30 television format seemed tired, useless and outright archaic.

However, there was one gem; one commercial indeed captivated me, and ironically enough it came from a company that has based its reputation, its brand, even its very business model on non-traditional advertising.

Google's "Parisian Love" spot, one piece from a collection of Search Stories it has produced, was noteworthy not only because it was Google's first foray into television advertising, but it was also, in my humble opinion, the best commercial of the night. Frankly, I was surprised not only by the broadcast media buy from the Internet juggernaut but also by the spot's simple elegance. While I had begun to feel that while the Google brand was quickly losing its magic, the ad was witty, emotional and revealed a powerful and undeniable truth about the search giant: it still is the heartbeat of the Internet.

As Google matures and faces new challenges, and people -- including myself -- question its original "don't be evil" ethos, that basic, little interface with the colorful logo remains so organically linked to every curious new quandary that sneaks into our lives each day. It has become inseparable from who we are and how we learn about our world.

The Secret Weapon of an Innovation Junkie

2010-01-28T21:25:00.010-05:00

This week at Maddock Douglas, we held our first annual Creativepalooza, more than simply a typical creative department meeting but a chance to share new thoughts, to question the process and to determine the best opportunities for the direction of our company's creative future. I spoke to the company about storytelling and its role within innovation. Since I had written about storytelling being a key tool for enhancing strategic work in my last post a couple weeks ago, I thought it was great timing to relay the main points of my talk.

First of all, a little context for this discussion that will make sense further on:

"Story is about respect, not disdain, for the audience."
- Robert McKee

So let's jump right into it. Although this post will be a condensed version of my talk, here are three questions I hope to answer:

Why is storytelling crucial to innovation?
Why are stories essential to brands?
How will strategic storytelling drive 21st Century business?

So in order to start discussing these questions -- and in order to frame them properly -- first let's take a trip back in time, way back to 1974, in order to meet a storyteller who has certainly impacted me, and, for that matter, my entire generation.

George Lucas was a young filmmaker in '74, fresh off of the success of "American Graffiti," which had been a tremendous hit. Studios were interested in seeing what Lucas had in mind for his next film. Yet as he began making his rounds through Hollywood with his latest script, executives just thought that his next idea was, well . . . pretty weird. Lucas' concept, a little science fiction film called "Star Wars," we now know would revolutionize cinema. It was innovative in many ways, from the manner in which it viewed sci fi through a mythical lens, to the groundbreaking special effects. It would also, upon its release in 1977, prove to be exactly what the market wanted. But at the moment, to those Hollywood execs, it was scary as hell.

So in order to realize the creation of his vision, the fulfillment of the idea Lucas had for this great story, he needed . . . a story. He needed to leverage his own storytelling talents to demonstrate the potential success.

We'll come back to George soon, but for a moment let's look at a couple of other examples, under the broader scope of how storytelling helps move innovation forward.

Knowledge and Expertise Must be Directed with Vision

In other words, half of the challenge is assembling the right team of experts, recruiting the brain power to solve the problem, but the other half of that challenge is driving this team -- or a corporation, or an entire nation -- forward with a steadfast vision.

For example, in 1958, NASA was founded. It was purely a reactionary move to the fact that the Soviets had launched Sputnik several months back. The team of engineers, mathematicians and scientists were formally gathered together to go head-to-head with the Russians. Yet it was not until four years later, in 1962, that John F. Kennedy gave his "We Choose the Moon" speech at Rice University, galvanizing not only NASA but the entire nation and inspiring us all to reach that dream.

Technology Must be Fueled with Inspiration & Passion

Technological innovation is pretty much useless if it does not make it to market ultimately, in some form. To that end, consider the story of Westinghouse in 1923. Westinghouse was the Apple of its day, a technology pioneer. In '23, they created a team led by Vladimir Zworykin to begin developing patents for components of an image-transmitting device, what we know now as a television. Zworykin and his team were incredibly bright and indeed registered many patents that would form the basis of future TV broadcast technology, but they couldn't demonstrate a fully functioning television.

Meanwhile, Philo Farnsworth, a farmboy from Iowa, who was driven forward with a (now sadly ironic) mission of eradicating all ignorance, began work on inventing his own television. Farnsworth demonstrated a key characteristic of any good storyteller; he passionately and curiously observed the world around him. Looking at the rows of perfectly tilled earth on his family farm, he could envision how a grid composed of points of light could assemble an electronic image. Driven by the mission in his heart and his imagination, Farnsworth built and demonstrated the world's first functioning television in 1927.

Now that we've seen how the use of storytelling principles can begin having a profound impact on innovation, let's go back to George . . .

When we last left Lucas he was trying to convince Hollywood executives that his concept for "Star Wars" had merit. Remember that quote from Robert McKee? Lucas had that same respect for his audience, who, at the time, was just a roomful of suits. Nonetheless, Lucas cut together footage from WWII Air Force dog fights, used Wagner music to give it an epic feel and also hired artist Ralph McQuarrie to illustrate what characters and sets might look like. These pieces helped articulate Lucas' vision, helped him tell the story behind his idea and convinced 20th Century Fox to fund the film. I'm fairly certain you know the rest.

So how does that relate to everything we do in the world of innovation and marketing communications? Brands today have largely evolved past the push-media model; people no longer buy stuff only because a :30 television spot tells them that they should. With traditional products and services, along with traditional purchase cycles in such flux, it is imperative to engage storytelling early on in the innovation process, in order to identify potential failure or success and envision how that brand, product, service or business model resonates in a consumer's life. Like I described in my strategy post, paired with insightful research, this methodology, as we've developed at Maddock Douglas, can move innovation farther and faster and result in more game-changing, truly creative results.

Without storytelling as a part of their innovation process, companies today risk becoming IRRELEVANT, and that's the worst possible fate.

So as a wise friend once told me: Live full. Dream big. And tell the sweet story.

Turbo-Charge Your Strategic Engine

2010-01-10T11:30:00.003-05:00

The word strategy is perhaps one of the most overused yet least understood terms in our business. Its very sound denotes something intelligent and robust. However, few agencies are truly using their strategic muscles in the right way and – more importantly – consistently executing strategies with creative excellence.

At its core, the concept of a strategy should be quite simple: it is a plan that positions a company’s resources . . .

in its area of greatest business opportunity and . . .
with the biggest competitive advantage.

In other words, take what you’ve got, do something great and in a way that few can easily compete with. Most agencies and clients understand this foundation quite well. The real challenge is elevating strategy while organically coupling it with brilliant creative execution.

So let’s consider the typical team and workflow at a traditional agency. Firstly an insights group will execute a methodology of qualitative and quantitative research, in order to develop observations and ultimately customer insights. These insights form the base of all creative work but are usually first handed off to a group of planners to develop a timeline and media roadmap. In turn, the media plan is then handed off to the creative director and her or his team to generate the Big Idea, yet an idea constrained to the boundaries of the insights and media plan already developed. Throughout this process, an account team manages the work and the client relationship.

Now while this workflow is simplified for the purpose of this post, it is altogether fairly accurate for traditionally-minded agencies. This process has worked somewhat well but has indeed begun to break down in the past decade, as consumers’ lifestyles have quickly evolved digitally, migrating in many ways from the traditional media touchpoints of television and print.

Therefore, while I believe the following details are important for all agencies striving to constantly innovate and evolve, such as my employer Maddock Douglas, they are especially critical for those firms immersed in the creation of digital experiences for their clients.
 
Fail Fast and Early…

A client of mine in the product innovation group of a global financial services corporation told me once that the most important aspect of their innovation efforts was to fail fast and early. Strategies and the process of crafting strategic plans must both become flexible, to allow for failing forward and to do so in a manner that reduces risk by identifying failure quickly and often. Innovation is only possible through risk and trial. Therefore, a malleable approach is necessary for breakthrough strategy work. Through divergent and convergent phases of work, strategy teams can create a more flexible and successful methodology.

Comfortable or Confident?

When reviewing a potential strategy, ask yourself and your team, does it make you feel merely comfortable or truly confident? To inspire real confidence among the entire group, integrate the talents of your insights specialists and creative team. Of course, creatives usually dislike research, because they prefer to work based on emotional instinct. And researchers don’t understand creative, because they usually view the world through circumstances, through the particulars of data. However, both sides have one important commonality: their curiosity of life and people. Though they each may be more comfortable through their individual perspectives and approaches, they can build stronger strategies by combining their varied observations and feel exceptionally confident by fusing their talents throughout the entire insights and strategy process.

Storytelling’s Impact

To build upon the integration of research and creative, smart agencies will add some storytelling octane to their strategic planning. By integrating the creative team’s talents into the process early on, they can also help own the insights and plan from the very beginning. Co-authoring the strategy allows creatives to truly see it, to envision the real Big Idea, something grounded in the inspired curiosity of both groups. And by leaning upon their storytelling talents, they can articulate it both internally and to clients, to make certain that the plan is emotionally resonating from the start, that it is indeed different and competitively unique.

These are simply a few steps agencies can begin adopting in order to build better strategies for consumers’ evolving world. Certainly, there are many other opportunities for learning, for growing, adapting and creating outstanding, memorable, industry-changing work in the years ahead.

Lovers & Heroes

2009-12-31T09:00:00.004-05:00

We enter 2010 as a battered nation, struggling amidst a crippled global economy. The advertising industry has endured two years of double-digit losses. Innovation has been stifled by the credit crisis. And too many companies now are acting based on fear and entrenchment, versus vision and growth. Moreover, beyond the troubles of our business, real tragedy lies. People are losing their homes to foreclosures at record rates. We continue to suffer human casualties to terrorism abroad and choke on the debt of two foreign wars.

Yet from the ashes of our industry, our economy and our global community, there is a chance to build again -- to be better, sharper. To challenge ourselves like never before.
First, however, a bit of historical perspective:

"Malon Lave."
- King Leonidas
480 B.C.

"Queme los Barcos."
- Hernando Cortez
1519

"Nuts!"
- Gen. Anthony McAuliffe
1944

What do these three quotes have in common? Each is a response to the possibility of surrender. When the Persian king Xerxes ordered King Leonidas of the Spartans to surrender at Thermopylae, Leonidas simply met this directive with his own blunt challenge back to the Persians: “Come and take it,” malon lave. Cortez, though not the most scrupulous individual in history, was truly fearless and commanded his men to burn their own boats, queme los barcos. There was absolutely no retreat back to Europe. Finally, when the 101st Airborne was surrounded and outnumbered by the Nazis at Bastogne, Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge, General McAuliffe's reply to the Germans’ demands to surrender was a curt yet eloquent, “Nuts!”

So for me 2010 is a year of refusal to surrender. A year to roll up the sleeves, to reinvent and revolutionize. How do we do this? What madness do we accept in our quest?

More than ever we must be lovers and heroes.

We are lovers in that we have an unquenchable and undeniable passion for the work we do and the challenges we face together. Bad news cannot faze those who are blinded by their steadfast devotion to curiously studying the world, asking intriguing questions and imagining new, bold ways in which to change everything. Further, every memorable leader throughout human history, from King Leonidas himself to President Obama, those who have commanded the respect and the following of the many, have led with passion and an unbridled love for the work that lay before them.

This leads me to the second role, being heroes. Passion alone for the work is not enough if we are not courageously pushing the edge, redefining the edge. Obliterating the edge. We must rally the brave and the gifted to our aid and charge ahead. We choose to not only think about how to create more clever advertisements but how to reinvent new experiences for brands. We dare to reignite businesses with revolutionary models that embrace the latest possibilities of digital's emergence as the preeminent media platform. We are heroic and optimistic enough to believe that our thinking and our creativity can create new opportunities, new businesses and jobs, new ways to unite us.

2010 will indeed belong to the lovers and heroes who defy the bad news and the din of inevitable doom. Brand narratives are changing in this increasingly digital world, and there is a chance for us to make this transition an exciting and impactful one. To that end, in 2010 I'll be dedicating posts of this blog to specific topics around this challenge of reinvention and revolution. The changing expectations and demands upon strategy, technology, creative, media -- and the innovation potential within each of these -- will all be key areas that I address.
I do realize the inflection of drama within this post. Yet it echoes the reality of our times and the need for a rallying cry. Nothing will go purely as planned in the next year; after all, it never does. However, I do believe that the fear mongers and nihilists of the industry have had their time, and so I ask that they now politely step aside.

For we have work to do.

The DNA of a 21st-Century Creative

2009-12-14T11:59:00.007-05:00

The creative industries were once viewed as just that: creative industries. They were designed and managed with a mentality that reflected the manufacturing ethos of an industrial-aged America. Hollywood, for example, was propelled by its rigorous studio system, in which filmmakers and actors were under tight contract, and each movie was pushed down the writing-production-editing assembly line very efficiently. Advertising was structured in a similar way, with imagery, copywriting, press-setting all happening in a neat, tidy, linear process.

This worked at times, and, well, it didn't work at times. Again, to look at Hollywood, there were wonderful films made in this fashion, such as "It's a Wonderful Life" and my personal favorite, "Casablanca." There were duds too certainly, but people were showing up to the box office; the system more or less was effective. Also, advertising in the '20s, '30s and '40s was showing results, quickly breeding a vast army of consumers. Yet fissures were forming, and there were those frustrated with the limitations of the times, baffled by the parameters of the factory mentality.
And these individuals soon began to make all kinds of trouble.

Orson Welles upended the studio system with "Citizen Kane" and established the now standardized idea of the auteur, where the film was based on the director's vision, not that of the production company. DDB co-founder Bill Bernbach placed copywriters and art directors together on a unified team to realize the amazing potential of collaboration.
These changes, as disruptive or as unnecessary as they seemed at the time, were absolutely vital to fuel the future of our collective creative drive. Reflecting on our present state, we stand now at a precipice, with the global community about to be radically evolved by technological, political, environmental and economic transformation. And though a lot of us in the creative "industries" would like to think we have a handle on it, I for one am predicting that all that is about to dramatically change.
For the skills, talents and attitudes that made a good 20th century creative are not necessarily all that is needed to lead, inspire, nurture and grow a creative team in the coming years.

So let me wax upon the traits I believe will forge the most successful future creatives.
To observe the world and ponder its intricate spectacles, to be an explorer of the human spirit, this is paramount to powerful creative that really has meaning. This is also certainly a trait that has always been necessary to creativity. The need to observe, to listen, to analyze and to do so with a passionate sense of wonder is even more important moving forward, as it is essential to solve for a need.
Nothing brings to life an idea like a good story, well told. We learn through stories. We relate to each other and grow through stories. It is not enough to merely use storytelling to craft clever television ads. Rather, storytelling could and should be at the base of all communications with a creative and her or his team. After all, an idea is nothing without the wit, the will and the drama to make it resonate with people. To drive true innovation and forward thinking, excellent storytelling must do much of the heavy lifting.
The brands that succeed in the 21st century will not be built from disconnected tactics but with cohesive, strategically-driven experiences that extend across multiple, integrated channels. These experiences must be fueled by the truth around the brand and product. Consumers have grown savvy when it comes to advertising and can spot artifice a mile away. If the experience you craft around a brand is authentic and brings value to customers, it will inevitably gain traction.
I once heard "only a fool is unafraid." Those who understand risk-taking but can manage against it, who can harness fear and assure her or his team that it is part of the process... these people will prosper. As James Joyce once wrote, "A man's errors are his portals of discovery." Creative leaders must foster a culture that embraces the possibility of fear as a learning opportunity.

In summary, I hearken back to an English professor of mine in college, author Sheri Reynolds, who taught a creative writing workshop and who advised us all on the first day, "If you do not have a nagging, insatiable need to write and tell stories, then thank your lucky stars and drop this class."

Creatives in the 21st century, just as they have since the dawn of humankind, will explore and inspire and fail and flourish in the practice of their art simply because they absolutely have to. It is in our blood.

Why Your Social Media Strategy Failed

2009-11-25T15:30:00.006-05:00

All brands -- big or small -- are carnivorously seeking to leverage social media as a component of their overall marketing efforts. It is universally understood now that the online audience for a brand is quite probably . . .

A: global but niche: knows and fears no geographic boundaries, with their own individual passions and pursuits being the unifying factor
. . . and . . .
B: truly participatory: creating, engaging and interacting with content

So with these two fundamental aspects so widely accepted, with the opportunity of an engaged, extremely wide audience that is unified by a relevant, common interest, why do so many companies fall flat on their face when attempting to leverage social media?

Truthfully, social media is not all things to all people. It is a technological, philosophical and psychological evolution of the Web but also a reflection of our own human needs to connect with others and tell our story. Therefore, key principles must be factored into the foundational strategy of any branded social media endeavor.

1. Social Media is Individual-Centric
We engage in online social content outlets (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) not so much to hear from others as to construct an image of ourselves that we propel into the world. Certainly, people want to hear from friends and connect with colleagues, but social media tends to bring out the self-centered nature of us. Hence, we post, tweet and blog about our own passions, perspectives and tastes. So know that your audience is deeply rooted in this mindset. It's all about them. Your brand either brings them value and supports their individually-focused experience, or it is irrelevant.

2. Viral Pass-Along is Mythical
So many advertisers want to leverage the potentially viral nature of sharing content online, not due to true comprehension of the opportunities and challenges but rather to simply save money. Let's face it, who wants to pay for media? However, with hundreds, if not thousands, of brands competing for a single consumer's attention each day, paid media is not going away. Certainly there is a tremendous need for much more intelligently designed media strategies, but that would admittedly be another post entirely. As it pertains to social media, know that the hurdle of launching a message into the viral stratosphere is incredibly high -- overwhelming, in fact, to mythical proportions. To succeed, you must craft an incredibly compelling message that invites participation and engagement. Asking your audience to simply pass a video along to friends is a burden to them. Encouraging them to solve a riddle, however, is an intriguing challenge. Additionally, remember that it takes heat, oxygen and fuel to start a fire. Similarly, it takes a push into enough peoples' lives that the message becomes something worthy of conversation at the water cooler, worthy of sharing and talking about. The goal is to craft the story and propel it to an audience in a manner that there becomes a collective, perhaps global energy around the message. It becomes something you want to know about before the next cocktail party conversation, a piece of our 21st century zeitgeist.

3. Social Media Can Be the Most Powerful CRM tool to Ever Exist
While advertisers ponder how best to encourage bloggers, tweeters and social network users to spread online word-of-mouth for their brand, they often overlook the potentially most powerful use of social media, which is as a part of your company's CRM strategy. At MD we have been able to guide clients online, helping them connect with frustrated customers and turning them from angry critics into thriving advocates for the brand. In social networks, this has powerful implications; for remember that first principle, the inward, individual-focus. People love to tell the world how they were either victims or succeeded. When you help a customer persevere and manage the relationship so that they feel delighted and rewarded, they will become the potent, positive online force you want and need.

These principles are based on observation of the alchemy that is social media, a truly evolving and challenging -- but ultimately rewarding space for brand storytelling. They are united through the fact that they take into account not so much the advertisers' perspectives but more importantly that of the customer. Social media is yet to be fully leveraged, but it certainly shows us a glimpse of what the media landscape of the future looks like. Though media buying may still be a component of driving a message to a mass audience, moving forward it will undeniably be driven largely through invitation rather than intrusion.

Showstopping

2009-11-14T15:45:00.002-05:00

We love sharing our work with the world at Maddock Douglas, and the showreel below represents just a little of the digital magic we have executed this year. Each experience has been crafted from and built upon key insights we have mined through our unique innovation and concept development process.

2009 has been an exciting year for our Digital Innovation team, and we certainly look forward to more challenges ahead.

Maddock Douglas Digital Showreel from Matt Witt on Vimeo.

From All Sides

2009-10-20T17:45:00.002-04:00

Following 2007's exceptional, Grand Prix-winning "Voyeur" campaign, HBO has collaborated again with their agency BBDO to create "Imagine." Working with The Barbarian Group, HBO and BBDO have elevated interactive narrative to a new level.

The big idea is intriguingly simple, and yet the experience is as rich and complex as a good mystery novel: allow users to view four perspectives of a scene as it plays out and determine the underlying truth behind the action.

Although the interface is far less than intuitive, that's indeed part of the fun as the user weaves their way through a labyrinthine web of connected stories and clues.

I found myself wanting to communicate directly with the characters and alert them to what was really transpiring as the truth unraveled. As HBO consistently pushes and hones its storytelling edge, this project serves as an interesting glimpse into how future audiences may engage with their brand.

What is Your 5k... and Why Do People Care?

2009-10-13T19:15:00.001-04:00

In the early 1970s, running sensation and University of Oregon student athlete Steve Prefontaine was frustrated with his track coach, Bill Bowerman. Bowerman knew that Prefontaine's tenacity and endurance were essentially unbeatable in a longer race, such as the 5k. Yet Prefontaine wanted to run the One Mile. He contended that the mile was a classic race, whereas no one watched the 5k, no one cared. Bowerman's curt directive to Prefontaine was simple: give people a reason to care.

Prefontaine went on to dominate the 5k race, changing the way other runners viewed and competed in it. His mantra became: "A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." With his competitive drive and swagger, Prefontaine altered athletic history and inspired thousands, if not millions, before his tragic death in a 1975 automobile accident.

I have grown up in an era that has embraced every new blossoming evolution of digital connectedness. And yet I still see most brands driven through a traditional mindset -- not a media-neutral strategy focused on the brand story but one with a strong bias toward the traditional three mass media outlets:

broadcast
outdoor
print

Will all three of these mediums simply disappear? I don't believe so. Yet, they are undoubtedly on the brink of being so radically changed with new technology that the experience for the end users will be revolutionized, infused with new meaning, new touch points and new depth for the brand to resonate in consumers' lives.

Digital has been that pre-Prefontaine 5k for so long: largely ignored, secondary to the mass-media broadcast messaging, just another tactical box to check off. Digitally-focused agencies were forced to re-use assets and inherit (and subsequently attempt to transform) the brand stories of their clients from the larger branding agencies of record. That is swiftly changing, and the savviest advertisers are realizing how digital strategy can and should live at the very heart of their brand. At Maddock Douglas, in fact, in recent years we have made an aggressive push into digital innovation for our clients, addressing not only marketing communication strategies and tactics but even envisioning new digital products, services and business model opportunities.

Other agencies are also leveraging keen insights to drive their brand storytelling deep into the soul of their customers' digitally-integrated lives, such as Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Whopper Sacrifice.

So if you're in the game, join me in making this a race that is dominated by the smart, the swift, the lean. Make this an experience that re-ignites the imagination of not only the advertising industry but the world itself, an ever-evolving challenge to tell the sweet story.

This is something obviously far, far bigger than me, or any one agency, or even the advertising industry itself. It's a time to rethink how the entire race can be run, a time to truly see who has the most guts.

Like Magic

2009-09-29T18:20:00.010-04:00

Sir Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I parallel this philosophy to watching a great athlete in the midst of competition. The ease by which it appeared Michael Jordan, for example, could move down the parquet, penetrate the defense and score made it seem effortless, mystical and, yes, almost magic.

  As our society has advanced so rapidly during the information age, we have begun to take technology for granted, and therefore technological leaps forward are greeted with almost an almost apathetic expectation: a "well, it's about time you showed up" mentality.   Yet I think this attitude is less about technology pervading our lives in so many ways and more about technology pervading our lives in so many NEGATIVE ways. We are now accustomed to bugs, to flaws, to poor design. We are used to the nuisances in the infancy of our digital grid. So where does cynicism cease? Where is there still opportunity to impress and rekindle that "wow" moment with users?  

We must craft moments that are less about technology and about how we harness that technology for amazing user experiences. User experience design is thought to be full-on nerd territory, and more than ever I see the importance for U.E. being an absolutely vital part of the creative process.  

Case in point: a new Surface-based kiosk from Razorfish and Neue Digitale I had seen today on Twitter from @razorfish. This experience provides that Jordan-with-a-winning-three-at-the-buzzer entrancement, that re-ignition of "it's like magic." Cynics would contend it's simply the Surface technology that is gamebreaking. However, Surface has been widely publicized for three years now, and I have yet to see anything that feels this elegant. This is truly what U.E. being infused fully into the creative process can do for us: make magic.

Audi Car Configurator on Surface @ IAA 2009 from Neue Digitale / Razorfish on Vimeo.

Hanesbrands: Climb With Us

2009-09-23T14:00:00.000-04:00

When Sir Edmund Hillary was asked after his successful ascent to the summit of the world's highest peak, why he climbed Everest, his famous response was poetically simple: "Because it was there." Similarly, Hanesbrands, Inc. decided to sponsor an expedition up Mount Everest in 2010, featuring radically advanced Champion gear developed by HbI's R&D team. Their reasoning? Because they can.

There is certainly an egregious amount of skepticism haunting our minds and affecting how we view brands in this era of advertising over-saturation. Once so cozy and personable, brands have largely been unmasked and revealed as their true, corporate, merciless selves. So when a company stages an event like this, there is bound to exist doubt about the organization's motives. Yet when one considers HbI's real drive behind the expedition -- because they can -- it is indeed quite inspiring. They are producing these radical gear innovations and actually daring to test that innovation at the Top of the World.
Admittedly, I am biased. A couple of posts ago, I wrote of how Maddock Douglas has worked with Hanesbrands and Champion to craft the digital storytelling for this expedition. Today we have launched a second site to evolve that campaign, in which HbI invites people to further explore the gear R&D, learn more about the expedition and Climb With Us.

As I work on the campaign and watch this initiative unfold, I find myself wishing that more advertisers would follow suit: that they would endeavor to throw their best minds, their best products and best innovations at the most daunting challenges. When the recession has stalled so many organizations from innovating and taking a risk, that itself is a compelling Everest.

Yelp's Monocle App Evolves Augmented Reality

2009-09-10T22:34:00.006-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, user-generated-based review site Yelp released an iPhone app that uses the global positioning data from a user's iPhone to offer reviews for restaurants, bars and other area businesses in the user's local vicinity. Almost immediately after that release, an Easter egg was discovered that leverages not only the GPS information but also the iPhone's gyroscope and camera to produce an augmented reality view of reviews in the virtual space seen through the camera lens.

The feature is called Monocle, and although it only works on the 3GS version of the iPhone, it's earned a lot of attention over the last two weeks for how the designers and engineers who created it were able to craft something helpful out of AR technology.

Undeniably, we are in the early phases of Web 3.0, when mobile Web technology will ultimately give us a digital experience parallel to -- or perhaps even beyond -- the traditional browser. AR apps such as this offer consumers what we really need out of a branded content experience: utility. There will and should be no lack of stylistic execution with the coming wave of digital content. However, how useful and meaningful that content becomes in the user experience will determine the value for the brand that sponsors it. Applications such as this show how the future of digital branding can become elegantly and meaningfully woven into users' everyday lives.

Content with Real Firepower

2009-08-12T09:55:00.002-04:00

Earlier this summer, the Philips Cinema 21:9 digital campaign from Tribal DDB took home honors for the Grand Prix in film at the Cannes Advertising Festival. The Cinema 21:9 is an ultra-widescreen television that recreates the cinema experience at home. To allow potential customers to feel for themselves how a film plays so differently on this TV, Tribal DDB produced an interactive film entitled "Carousel," which showcases the beauty and grandeur of the appliance.

Lasting over two minutes in length and composed of one seamless, multi-cam-style tracking shot, "Carousel" is a tour-de-force of lighting, staging and other details of mise-en-scene that give viewers the taste of a larger, deeper story.

The experience hints at the kinds of movies cinema lovers, such as myself, revel in: the dark, unsettling mystery and drama and intriguing, thrilling action. The Cinema 21:9 is certainly the type of television that is going to appeal to this exact audience, those who know good films, appreciate the details of their craft and demand that cinema-like experience at home.

Much like the Puma Lift site I wrote of earlier this year, "Carousel" is the kind of storytelling that begins to show off a brand or product's attributes in a playful way, without being forceful. Certainly, Tribal and its partners crafted an experience that complemented and even elevated the brand and product perfectly.

Climbing Everest

2009-08-07T17:35:00.004-04:00

In an example of living innovation and truly testing its results, Hanesbrands, Inc. and its Champion Sportswear brand are organizing an expedition up Mount Everest in the spring of 2010. Maddock Douglas has worked with the HbI and Champion teams to craft a digital campaign that will tell the story of this expedition and the radical gear innovations that the R&D team is designing and creating at Hanesbrands. We applaud the courage HbI and Champion are demonstrating as they test their product innovation against the challenges of the world's tallest summit.

As this experiment unfolds with training climbs and the final trek up Everest itself, we will add new features and components to the campaign, including updates on the expedition. However, most importantly, to complement the launch of this campaign, Champion is not merely sharing its gear innovations but is turning to its customers, inviting them to be a part of this adventure and inspire them by asking each person, "What's Your Everest?"

Bottle of Branded Backstory

2009-07-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

Many brands and products have interesting histories. They have a character that transcends the mere widget-on-a-shelf nature and embodies something broader, something far more compelling. Often, however, we as advertisers lose sight of this special backstory, and it is diluted and lost over time -- a shame, of course, because finding a product to fit a need is usually simple and completed with a mere Google search. However, finding a product to fit one's personality and unique sensibility is more difficult -- and ultimately a more rewarding and enduring find.

Tub Gin is a product with attitude and a memorable story that gives it character beyond most other products in the very cluttered spirits category. The new site, created by Philadelphia agency Red Tettemer, basks in the off-kilter, unique history of this brand, elevating it to a charming and almost mythic place. Their execution of this simple yet stylistic site is engaging storytelling and a great base for future evolution of the online presence. The infusion of full-screen video with terrific voice-over, animation and editing work results in a moody, gritty appeal that seems stylish and yet still a bit wild and rugged -- just like this 80-proof liquor itself.

Happy Fourth to Our Armed Forces

2009-07-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

DRIFIRE, a revolutionary and technologically-advanced line of fire-resistant clothing, has embraced a bold mission to ensure that firefighters, soldiers, electrical workers and all those in need of FR-wear are adequately and -- here's the key -- comfortably protected. In fact, DRIFIRE is arguably the only comfortable FR available in the world.

The product grew out of a need to provide our soldiers a base layer of clothing that was incredibly durable, as soft as cotton, managed moisture and helped cool the wearer's body temperature, all while providing FR protection against modern insurgent warfare techniques, like I.E.D.s.

Maddock Douglas has worked with DRIFIRE this year to advance its noble mission and recently produced this video, documenting the garments in action with a group of soldiers, who put these innovative shirts to the test on a goverment combat training course. Our collective hope: that our team's creative work does not only sell garments but that it helps save a life.

K.I.S.S.

2009-06-30T15:25:00.003-04:00

I hear it all the time, and yet so few clients or agencies are seemingly able to grasp the concept: K.I.S.S. .... Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Bridge Worldwide, based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, has won a Gold Cyber Lion for their work on an intriguingly simple banner ad.

This takes expectations for a traditional banner and overturns them completely. It is simple, beautiful, funny: just awesome storytelling.

Relentless

2009-06-26T17:55:00.004-04:00

In President Obama's drive for positive change in our country, there exists an insatiable desire to leverage the evolving technologies of social media and actually listen to the American voters. Regardless of one's political alignment, one cannot argue against Obama's powerful, insightful grasp of the Internet's potential to empower his fellow citizens.

In a moment of soapbox standing, I indeed will contend that not since Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, has any presidential administration so successfully harnessed a newly established technological medium.

As Obama begins his revolutionary campaign to reboot our health care system, the administration has unveiled "Health Care Stories for America." I myself have never felt so moved, have never experienced such personal disgust and disappointment at the health care and insurance industry as I read these stories of people's anguish, pain and financial ruin, at the hands of an industry riddled with inefficiencies and failures.

The key to President Obama's success with social media and his use of the Internet to propel his agenda forward is how relentlessly passionate his team has been committed to it. It is difficult for a company, goverment agency or even an individual to remain so committed, so focused, after months or years. Yet Obama and his staff are driven by a seemingly unstoppable desire to connect with people and empower their own personal voices and stories.

How committed is your brand? Faced with potential failure or -- even worse -- irrelevance, every single day, does your company and brand remain as passionate to engaging with people? It's a difficult road to traverse, but the power to connect, to rally a team together, to change that which appears to be unchangeable can be within reach.

Interconnected

2009-05-08T20:45:00.003-04:00

A few months ago, Facebook began to promote Facebook Connect, an API allowing developers to begin integrating Facebook into their own sites, applications and networks -- or more appropriately, from Facebook's perspective, begin the potential tidal wave of those sites, applications, networks and smaller communities becoming integrated into Facebook.

On the surface, it first began to seem like Facebook's competing answer to Google's Open Social. However, it has quickly become seen as a powerful strategic move to make Facebook the center of most users' Internet universes.

Facebook made a similar move in 2007, when it opened up its mark-up language as an open-source API that allowed developers to build and issue applications within Facebook. Now people can have experiences, share content, communicate with one another completely outside of Facebook, and if they have used Facebook Connect, those exhanges are shared within Facebook.

While from one perspective Facebook may soon be jumping the shark, as it approaches a critical mass of users. After all, social networks are like clubs. Once one is too open, too common, it simply isn't cool anymore. Yet this is a sound, strategic move to keep Facebook quietly but powerful integrated into its users' "other lives" online.

While this interconnectedness will make Facebook more and more commonly used, the real question is will it develop an ad model that truly works, that resonates with its users as helpful, contextual ads, vs. stalker-esque clutter to be ignored?

"Home" May Demonstrate Filmmaking's Future

2009-04-28T18:47:00.004-04:00

Yann-Arthus Bertrand and Luc Besson have recently collaborated with Google on a digital filmmaking experiment called "Home," which will be making its full Internet premiere on YouTube this June 5, which happens to be World Environment Day. Combining stunning cinematography of our planet and a Google Maps mash-up, "Home" seems to be redefining the traditional film premiere as an interactive and globally-powered movement.

Already, some YouTube comments have compared "Home" to "Koyaanisqatsi," the 1982 film that featured footage of natural and urban landscapes in slow-motion and time lapse -- both awe-inspiring and chilling at the same time. That movie's title translates in English to "Life out of balance," and took a similar artistic perspective on the entropy of our planet and our own civilization.

However, "Home" seems to be leveraging the global Internet audience in a way that could lead to more active participation by the public in a motion picture's launch and distribution than ever before.

Shiny Show-Offs

2009-04-22T15:50:00.005-04:00

The online video medium has emerged as a force of spectacle rather than story over the past couple years. Whereas story is ultimately built upon characters and their actions, spectacle -- still a very valid means of grabbing attention -- is perhaps best phrased with the old producer's maxim of "show 'em something they haven't seen before." This is certainly an objective that is becoming increasingly more difficult.

Wieden + Kennedy / Amsterdam has produced a well-planned and executed spectacle called "Let it Shine," which takes awesome advantage of the Vimeo platform it is hosted on.

Honda Insight - Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

More frequently, progressive brands are attempting visually compelling online stunts like this, in the tradition of Diet Coke + Mentos and Will It Blend?, to take the process of experimentation and the allure of provocative showmanship and combine them in memorable, meaningful ways.

There is little to the content of "Let it Shine" that is quite uniquely relevant to Honda or its new Insight hybrid. However, much like most spectacle, at the end of the day, it's simply fun.

Heavy Lifting

2009-04-10T10:55:00.009-04:00

Droga 5 and multimedia powerhouse Firstborn have partnered to craft an intriguing video-rich site that promotes Puma's new L.I.F.T. shoes.

The experience feels both whimsical and technologically advanced, and its playful sense of humor when it comes to the various objects that the two characters compare in weight to the Puma L.I.F.T. sneaker are clever, save for one or two less-inspiring cross-sell products thrown into the mix.

With this site, a simple idea -- demonstrate how light Puma's new shoes are by placing them on a balance scale with other objects -- is taken into interesting and fun areas.

With Droga's storytelling ability and Firstborn's digital production finesse, this has proved to be a compelling and even elegant collaboration. I can't wait to see more of what these two companies create together.

When 2.0 Failed Us

2009-01-05T23:01:00.007-05:00

Two weeks ago, on December 22, 2008, FedEx announced that it would not be airing a commercial in the 2009 Super Bowl. "As a responsible employer of more than 290,000 employees and contractors worldwide," Steve Pacheco, Director of Advertising, wrote in a memo, "there is a time to justify such an ad spend and a time to step back."

The move has been largely applauded as a wise, sober business decision in the face of perilous economic conditions. It also has shown not only the limitations of television broadcast but also the unfortunate disadvantages and lingering limits of digital communications.

You may question, "why would this reflect on the state of digital?" Ask yourself this: just why would it be so newsworthy to pull a television commercial? Certainly there are some reasons that have nothing to do with a 30-second FedEx spot and much more to do with the Super Bowl as an economic bellwether. Yet the industry seems to have viewed this event as a sensible failure: economically prudent and yet a lost opportunity.

Now it would be ridiculous to contend that the Super Bowl has lost all potency. To be sure, the Big Game's broadcast averaged 97.5 million people last year when Eli Manning led the Giants to a surprise victory, a record for Super Bowl viewership. It would seem then that the value of a Super Bowl commercial is only increasing.Yet at the same time, so many advertisers and agencies recognize the abilities to connect with an audience far beyond TV broadcast. So . . . wait, if the advertising world is so steeled and ready to allow for Web 2.0 and beyond to lead us forward, why in the hell is a 30-second spot such a big deal after all?

How Sincere is YOUR Brand?

2009-01-03T21:55:00.001-05:00

I am probably one of the last few drivers in the entire Chicagoland area who does not have an iPass for traveling on the tollroads. Indeed, whenever there is a car in front of me at the tollbooths, they undoubtedly have Indiana, Wisconsin or other license plates. No self-respecting Illinois driver who spends any kind of time on the Chicago tollways would hinder their schedule by not having an iPass.

I am certain that this year I will succumb to the convenience of such a device. And though I tell people I don't have one simply because I've been waiting for a toll-paying iPhone app to emerge, the truth is that I have a fascination with tollbooth culture and etiquette.

On any given day, while travelling the big-rig and minivan-choked lanes of 294, I meet a small, eclectic menagerie of people manning the tollboths that I fork over 80 cents to. Some of these people say "hi," others ask how I am, and though at least half of them say nothing at all, a few of them, on rare occasion, actually smile at me. And, somehow, I can tell, they mean it. You see, they want to smile. It's not some sort of corporate ruse but -- get this -- actual, true-blue human interaction, which causes me to mysteriously -- almost involuntarily -- smile back.

It is easy to smile at your customers when you don't mean it. As an example, I have been inundated for over three decades, my entire life, with McDonald's commercials, and I would wager to guess that someone was smiling in every single one of those spots. Yet I fear that the number of McDonald's employees who have shown a similarly friendly countenance to me in the real world would be far fewer.

A smile in a commercial isn't sincere. Worse, however, it is forgettable. It simply doesn't mean anything, for it is merely an actor, carrying out their job.

In the digital age, a smiling actor just doesn't go far to build your brand. A sincere smile and caring attitude from an employee does. There is a lot of buzz about social media marketing, crafting a "dialogue" with consumers. A lot of this buzz is something meaningful, and yet some of it is inflated hype that will wear down to be as dull as a marble before the next Seth Godin book.

I'm not suggesting commercials featuring only frowning, angry people. I am contending, however, that a commercial smile is nothing but a show. It is one-way, and it typically looks, behaves and feels fake. Yet if you think about a smile in real life, it is immediate, reactive, experiential. It's a basic element of human communication and our everyday experiences with one another.

And that's where many companies go wrong in developing their brands for the digital world. They believe that all consumers want to leverage technology for the kind of convenience granted with the iPass. To be sure, a lot of us consumers indeed want that convenience. But convenience without meaning is gimmicky and forgettable. Brands can be built to be lasting, powerful and meaningful expressions of a company's best attributes if marketers remember how it feels to smile . . . and be smiled at with, and here's the key, sincerity. Tell your brand stories with entertaining, educational means, built around real interaction, not a forgettable flash of some pearly whites. More than ever, with the power to be so flexible and far reaching in our digital lifestyles, brands have the ability to be sincere. In fact, in order to captivate us, they will have to.

Truly, that is something to grin about.

Roadside Assistance

2008-11-20T18:30:00.000-05:00

Life is full of moments when we wished we had paid attention earlier. Driving is certainly rife with such moments as well. I remember myself having a flat in the Rocky mountains, about 40 miles away from Denver, and trying vainly to recall instructions from my dad on putting on a spare.

Fortunately, it's a skill I now have if the moment ever arises again. Even more fortunately, Allstate has just begun to syndicate a series of podcasts one can download to compile a video manual of car maintenance and repair tips. With subjects ranging from jumpstarting a battery to driving defensively, there's material just about everyone could learn, or at least brush up on.

Have a Thrilling Halloween

2008-10-31T10:48:00.003-04:00

MTV has finally gone back to its music vid roots by launching MTVMusic, an online database of virtually every video the pioneering channel has ever played.

So for Halloween, I felt it was a fitting time to view John Landis' original extended-cut version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Who knew after watching this video that Michael would in time only become scarier?

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

Documenting the "House of Dudes"

2008-06-03T19:55:00.006-04:00

STA-BIL is one of the most popular fuel stabilizers, a product so revered it is an essential part of true gearhead culture. Gold Eagle, the maker of STA-BIL, wanted a way to engage and empower these evangelists to be true brand influencers.

As part of that initiative, I directed and produced a series of Web videos "documenting" the fictitious “House of Dudes,” a fraternal organization that promotes muscle cars, cool boats -- all things with manly, octane-guzzling engines. We wanted to take the product education our client needed to communicate and integrate it within an entertaining format, giving way to a four-part series.

Co-writing this initiative with me was my Maddock Douglas colleague, creative director Brian Nash. We wanted to make the comedy inherit in the videos simple and establish a strong character dynamic between Lamont, the battle-hardened leader of the House of Dudes and Harold, the quirky, over-eager rookie.

The Crowd's Thoughts

2008-05-30T18:30:00.000-04:00

The term crowdsourcing is almost archaically unfashionable at this point, as Web 2.0 grows long in the tooth. However, the idea of the crowd-in-the-cloud communities of people that share ideas, thoughts and work is given new ponderance with a mysterious, lounge-like soundtrack in this work from Charles Leadbeater, a video on YouTube that promotes his book "We Think."

Are you Craving Something Different?

2008-05-20T11:35:00.004-04:00

I love the playfulness of sites like the new Honda CR-V Crave Reader. However, CP+B executed a similar site three years ago for Burger King that leveraged a Star Wars tie-in and Darth Vader's attempt to use his Sith powers and read your mind. That was a stronger creative fit, admittedly, though I still admire Honda's effort here.

Altogether, the site provides a blurry vision into the potential for individual user interaction with digital experiences. Although the Crave Reader most likely merely uses a sophisticated decision tree to arrive at its deductions (and it took three attempts to determine that I was craving a hamburger), there is an illusion of very personal interaction with the site. Future tech developments will no doubt lead to AI breakthroughs where the the experience grows and adapts seamlessly to you and your unique quirks. By analyzing your navigational choices or even the content you might share, there is a distinct evolutionary lifecycle that the experience endures, just for you. Each user's engagement with the site is quite different and unique, providing a potential DNA for the software to map out the optimal experience.

No smoke and mirrors or decision trees but true digital adaptation to a unique user interaction. That is where definitively immersive online experiences are heading -- and creatively where a big hurdle lies. Historically, storytellers and, yes, ad writers and directors have relied on universal truths to hone a message for the masses that seems unique and true for the segment. How do you supply specific brand stories for a truly distinct, one-of-a-kind experience? A vast database of content? A hidden elf inside the machine?

I think that it must be more organic than that and a compelling challenge.

The Removal of Mediocrity

2008-03-27T17:55:00.008-04:00

I listened to an excellent podcast last week, Business Week's Innovation of the Week podcast, led by Matt Vella. He was speaking with Clay Shirky, author of "Here Comes Everybody," a recent book on the quickly evolving landscape of social media. Shirky made a really interesting point in the interview, arguing that crowd-sourcing and other effects of Web 2.0 technologies will not eliminate the jobs of talented, top-level artists and creative professionals. Rather, those caught in the middle, the average, the mediocre -- that is what will be eroded into oblivion.

From an agency perspective, this is particularly important to understand. For decades now, there has been a massive system in place with agencies networked across the globe, working with broadcast entities to deliver an advertisement message to a consumer. If you wanted to get your product on TV -- if you really wanted it to succeed and compete at all in the market, that is -- you needed to employ one of these agencies. It didn't matter if the work was brilliant . . . or, uh, not so brilliant, it was part of the system. That's the way it worked.

Now, with consumers controlling their media options, agencies are tasked with crafting consistently excellent work and refusing to settle for mediocrity, not to merely win awards or industry recognition, but to simply survive. The successful agency model of the future must foster that compelling storytelling ability and nurture dialogue with the customer that is memorable, immersive -- not something that is going to fade away into bland irrelevance.

Will Hulu Halo?

2008-03-14T12:59:00.004-04:00

This week, NBC and Fox launched the unlimited release of their own Web distribution arm, the long anticipated Hulu. As the media world studies the success or failure of this experiment, I'm curious to see how quickly the idea of a channel composed of professionally produced and syndicated content spreads to other content creators, specifically in advertising. A friend of mine in the media division of a major television and film studio told me that study after study indicates people would rather bear the distraction of commercials and have free entertainment versus paying for content. This might very well prove to be a successful hybrid of television's business model with the on-demand interactivity of the Web. So will there be a halo effect? Will people embrace the storytelling and high-production value of sites like Hulu, or will user-generated content sites, such as YouTube or Bebo, continue to dominate?

Unleashed

2008-03-03T15:10:00.003-05:00

I read a small article recently in Ad Age, detailing how Tim Armstrong of Google expects the Web to "unleash . . . more [advertising] creativity" as agencies retool and develop their strengths for a new era of digital marketing. I completely agree -- but not so much due to the prospects of emerging technology as to the cultural shift that Web 2.0 created: this present era where the consumer controls the media.

User-generated content such as social networking profiles, wikis, blogs, vlogs and podcasts: all slightly different or overlapping means of sharing yourself with the world, which is what people in this "all about me" age want to do. But how does an industry that was built by decades of investment in a TV-driven, mass-media model successfully embrace digital media and its unknown variables?

Stepping back for a moment and layering that question in more confusion, consider an article from Fortune magazine's February 18 edition, entitled, "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Checkbook," profiling Irwin Gotlieb, CEO of WPP Group's media-buying juggernaut, GroupM. Gotlieb believes creative has become largely commoditized and irrelevant in today's digital world, and data is the driving force of power.

So here we have Google, the company that is largely responsible for today's hyper-metric-focused forces of advertising, stating that the Web will "unleash" creativity, while a company that funnels untold-but-certainly-vast amounts of money to Google, claims that creativity is relatively moot.

GroupM would seem to have the question I put forth soundly answered -- except that I believe a creative message has a life to it beyond what data alone could ever reveal. Don't get me wrong; as a media company, GroupM is innovative and leading the charge forward into the wild, digital frontier. Yet as a holistic advertising solution, data, at the end of the day is, well, data. Metrics are powerful, and as clients clamber for better software and more targeted algorithms, certainly, a lot of success will come from analysis and refinement, based on insights gleamed from the information.

And yet nothing could ever replace the awe I felt in my heart when, as a 15-year-old dreamer, I saw David Fincher's "Instant Karma" Nike spot. When you craft the right message, the distinct and inspiring story for your brand, the experience your customers have transcends anything you could plot in a spreadsheet.

I guess I personally prefer Armstrong's vision to Gotlieb's. They are both vanguards and mavens. I just hope that the shift they are together ushering in results in new storytelling opportunities, in addition to the finely-tuned distribution model. As Bill Bernbach once said, "People forget what you show them. They forget what you tell them. Yet they never forget how you make them feel."

5-Minute Media

2008-02-15T12:50:00.003-05:00

Check out this video embed, featuring myself and copywriter Mike Altier, holding a brief discussion on the state of social media. This is part of an ongoing series we plan to feature on Maddock Douglas' YouTube Channel. We call this experiment "5-Minute Media:" quick, on-the-fly and unedited discussions between agency employees about any particular subject that fascinates us. The only prerequisite is that it must be something we are passionate about. We had the insight that our agency's inner culture is filled with impassioned discussions every day about the work we love, and therefore we want to share a piece of that.

Oh, and I know this one is about 6 minutes, but Altier slowed me down by making me laugh with his "party time" reference. Good old Wayne and Garth . . .

A Super Bowl Response from the High Life

2008-02-05T11:06:00.000-05:00

I love this response to the Super Bowl ad frenzy from Miller High Life. The effort shows how quickly a brand can and should act upon a quickly fleeting opportunity like this. The light-hearted poking at other brands is executed in good taste, and I think it all perfectly resonates with what everyone else is thinking. Does this mean the Web officially trumps TV's annual cornerstone? Honestly, I believe people innately love the thrill of "the event" when it comes to marketing, so the Super Bowl has a lot of power behind it still. Yet Miller has played up on "the event" to spark a humorous online dialogue with their consumers -- all without shelling out a single penny of the $3,000,000 cost of a :30 Super Bowl buy.

Oh, and I find the CareerBuilder.com comments toward the end of this vid to be especially amusing. CareerBuilder created such memorable brand equity with Cramer-Krasselt and the integrated monkey campaigns. Now the Web company is with another agency, the legendary Wieden + Kennedy, which also produced my favorite spot of the night. However, disappointingly enough, on the CareerBuilder campaign, it feels like making their mark with shocking imagery was more important than the lingering magic of the brand.

"It"

2008-01-07T13:11:00.001-05:00

I wanted to share this video created by documentary filmmaker and all-out curious explorer of life, Nic Askew, where he explored the inner soul, the "it," if you will, of our agency, by interviewing our CEO and founding partner, Mike Maddock, and agency president and partner, Raff Viton.

The Genius of Simplicity

2007-12-13T13:50:00.001-05:00

CP+B has done it again. I love this campaign, one of those rare pieces of work that makes your jaw drop from the befuddling degree of brilliant simplicity. Based on the axiom of absence makes the heart grow fonder, this integrated Burger King campaign for the Whopper actually made me reminisce of my first Whopper.

Against Expectations

2007-10-30T19:22:00.002-04:00

I have been fascinated with the inspiring work developed for "Halo 3" recently, including the Neill Blomkamp-directed short films. Too bad the feature-film version of "Halo" is rumored to have been slaughtered in development hell. Don't worry; I'm certain that the original minds in Hollywood will resurrect a long-dormant television show from the 1980s to make up for this loss.

Video game advertising has always struck me as pretty boilerplate and altogether boring -- until Joseph Kosinski's breathtaking "Mad World" vision of "Gears of War" late last year, that is. Now AKQA's work on the "Halo 3" launch has trumped even that with the "Believe" campaign. I love the documentary-styled historic recreation of the war against the Covenant. It is so against the expectations for what video game marketing should be like. I absolutely love it.

New Agency

2007-10-11T18:56:00.007-04:00

A little over a month ago, I started work at a new agency, Maddock Douglas, a company that has reinvented itself beyond the definition and boundaries of a traditional advertising agency.

Instead, MD is an innovation agency, defining the process of innovation as:

1. Identifying unmet needs in the market
2. Inventing products and services to fill those needs
3. Creating the communication to connect the two

I have been hired as the Director of Digital Innovation, building upon the work I have created previously with clients such as Bank of America, Novartis, Whirlpool, Kenmore and the National Football Foundation. With Maddock Douglas, I intend to take that digitally-focused storytelling, including Web design, video production and digital strategy, into more innovative areas, even expanding into the development of new consumer experiences and business models. For what I find fascinating at this juncture in my life is the quickly emerging and rising opportunities for truly engaging, interactive brand storytelling. At my past agency I evolved from leading broadcast and video production to also overseeing Web, and when we fused the teams' strengths together in those two worlds, we were more powerful than ever.

Everyone is talking about integration, and yet I don't believe this is a very new idea. There is simply now a more powerful and flexible channel to integrate into campaigns, that being the online element -- specifically the Web 2.0 component. And that component will now truly be our focus in the years ahead, not TV, which is not going away, no; however, it shall be more ancillary than ever.

That is why production is not necessarily my focus but simply a part of my job on my never-ending quest to strategize and, yes, innovate possibilities that are at the very least atypical -- perhaps even strange.

It's invigorating to be at MD and take charge of this new role. I'm excited about the good times ahead.

Where's my Lighter?

2007-09-15T13:10:00.000-04:00

Always look to leverage the experience. No matter how dull others see the opportunity, there is almost always a chance to transform it into something special.

A few months ago, Whirlpool hired me to direct an in-store commercial for a product launch of a Kenmore high-efficiency dishwasher with their retail partner Sears. I just finished directing + producing the project about three weeks ago, and it has now started appearing in stores nationwide. I have to hand it to the clients at Whirlpool. They truly fostered a vision for executing something different, something engaging and altogether the antithesis of what they called "the Jude Cleaver video," which has normally dominated the typically-languid style of in-store production.
But instead of viewing the in-store as a throwaway project, we decided to make it an event, an opportunity to really grab some eyeballs. Segment-wise, we wanted to excite men who would normally not be too enthused about a freakin' dishwasher. So we set out to execute a rock-concert-styled introduction of this appliance.

We hired Harvest Music + Sound Design to score it, inspired by the hair-metal rock of the 1980s and shot three days in a smoke-filled soundstage. I missed out on the rock star life I once thought I'd be destined for. But if I can take a dishwasher and turn it into a badass, groupie-attracting idol, then maybe I'm doing something right after all.

The Benchmarks for Creative: Nimble, Fast, Measured

2007-06-12T22:55:00.008-04:00

As I was reflecting recently on the demands for creative -- specifically digital content -- my thoughts soon settled upon that oft-ignored-until-late client need: measurability.

As the digital age of advertising advances from dawn into full-fledged day, clients want campaigns to be executed quickly, they want it flexible, and they want it to be measured to the last dime of ROI. So is the effectiveness of a creative effort boiled down to such hard-nosed metrics? Or is there something intangible of great value that cannot yet be seen by Google analytics?

If asked what the best movie of all time is, few people would say "Titanic." It's a brilliantly produced and crafted film, and I admire the guts James Cameron had. Is it, however, the best motion picture of all time, simply because it grossed more money at the box office than any other film? Truly, the achievements of a piece of art cannot be so easily evaluated. And yet, advertising, we all know, is not art. It is a sometimes elegant yet often unholy fusion of commerce and creativity.

So where does that leave us? Yes, we must plan strategies and campaign initiatives that have baked-in metrics, especially in the digital realm. Creators need to leverage emerging analytics tools, such as those from Omniture and Google. And yet at the same time, while we agencies are responsible for the results, we cannot be held hostage to the metrics. They must help free us from doubt, not seize us with fear. Therefore gut, creative instinct must remain as a core element that drives the creation of future digital experiences.

If we lose that, we indeed lose a connection with ourselves, with our own emotional quirks and needs; and yet still, the raw data cannot be ignored. It must help drive strategy. That balance will no doubt be a daunting challenge, but one we must face to succeed.

The Long Tail of 2.0 . . . and Beyond

2007-03-25T19:33:00.002-04:00

I wrote a business plan a few months ago. The entrepreneurial spirit was curious within me. I had an idea for a Web-based business and thought, at the very least, I should articulate those thoughts into a plan. Maybe I won't get the necessary funding, and perhaps I won't even really pursue it in the end. But I had the gnawing desire to put my musings into some sort of strategic form and in the process learn more about writing a true, blue 2.0 business plan and angel investment proposal.

I'm going to mercilessly spare you the details, but it does hinge heavily on the long tail effect, a major symptom of Web 2.0. I find it interesting that we somehow feel a greater sense of community through social media, online networking, email, gmail, vmail . . . the digital extensions of our collective voices and therefore the pixelated stain of our life stories on the world's stage.

Yet that all has me thinking: community comes from dialogue and conversation, which means we cannot only spout about ourselves, our lives, our Flickr albums of our latest Disney cruise. We have to listen too. So as I wrote this plan I started wondering -- and wonder still -- as 2.0 develops into 3.0, as it becomes deep and mobile, will we learn to listen too or just ignore the rest of the din and chatter on about ourselves.

Looooong February

2007-02-23T20:27:00.000-05:00

Despite it being only 28 days, February is the longest month of the year it usually seems. It lingers on here in the cold Midwest like the undead zombies of "Dawn of the Dead." (Shameless plug because I'm a big Zack Snyder fan.)

Weather aside, things are beginning to heat up a bit. My team is preparing a big pitch for a viral campaign at a new client of ours, and I strongly believe in inoculating a presentation like this with a solid dose of theatrics, in the interest of emotionally driving home the main business message. After all, isn't what we most often set out to do with advertising, and therefore why not prove yourselves? I hate it -- absolutely cannot stand it -- when agencies or prod. cos. or freelancers say they are creative. Show; don't tell.

So to introduce the virtual environment and world that our viral campaign would live in, we wanted to create a pitch that looked and felt as if it was taking place within SecondLife.

With no further ado, then, I present to you a sneak peek of my pixelated doppleganger, Digital Matt, along with associate creative director Digital Richard.

New Year, New Challenges

2007-01-01T21:10:00.000-05:00

2006 ended on a pretty good note. I'm in the process of wrapping up a big project, making the last few editing changes before premiering it for the client in a week or two, but the momentum of this initiative -- as well as some other gigs in the works -- should carry me full steam into '07.

The project I've mentioned is for a major financial services brand. I can't disclose much, so I'm sorry if my secrecy sounds snobbish, but I'm afraid all I can say is that it's a short documentary film, detailing the innovative spirit and process of this company. It's been a fun project to work on, mainly because the clients are friendly and passionate, and that's important: to find people who really crave and demand good work.

One area I want to expand into for the next year is furthering the integration of film production and interactive storytelling. Not only do I feel that this is the inevitable direction of the advertising and entertainment industries, but I simply want the chance to really experiment, take a risk or two and essentially try some crazy new things.

There are possibly some entreprenuerial opportunities ahead as well, so I'm eager to see how these work out. More on this later . . .

Okay, so this entry has been admittedly vague, because, I'll be honest, a lot of stuff is up in the air at the moment. However, I do feel more confident than I have been in a long time. I know there will be setbacks in the year ahead. I know there will be disappointments. And yet, I welcome these rough times, because I understand that they will shape me, allow me to grow stronger. I've taken a more Zen-like approach to life over the past year, and that's helped me focus on the positive opportunities, rather than the crushing challenges.

So here we go.

46" of High-Def Glory

2006-12-23T23:30:00.000-05:00

At the risk of trying to act like too much of an Engadget (a great blog, by the way), I'm going to review (if not officially, well, then simply observationally) another electronic marvel, the Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR3.

The Bravia is an amazing high-definition television and monitor. Admittedly, its drool-inducing 46" 1080P screen does not come cheap. Currently it's selling for a little below $4,000, although I've seen it list for a little more than that too.

Two friends of mine have purchased this exact television recently, and a coworker of mine bought the 52"-inch version. Why is this monster such a great TV? How could it possibly stand out against the plethora of other screens, so many of them costing considerably less?

Firstly, there are many great LCD and plasma televisions available right now, from many different brands. However, the Bravia line is the first HD television model that has truly made me appreciate the glory of high-definition. Its XBR LCD 1080P technology is incredible, and it has harnessed the full 1920x1080 resolution, awesome color clarity and fine tonal ranges of high definition like no other display before it.

If you're a production house, this is a great product to have in your client screening room, unless you already have an HD DLP projection system or something. And if you're a cinephile, like myself, hook up your DVD or HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray, if you're a reeeaaal snob) player to this screen with HDMI cables, and it will make The Godfather, Blade Runner, The Seven Samurai and every other brilliantly shot film look like you're seeing it for the first time.

This is not a cheap product. It is a good -- no -- a great product, and if you love movies and television, its value is, in my opinion, worth the higher price.

Heck, I even love the commercial.

Run 'n' Gun

2006-12-15T17:55:00.000-05:00

Nobody rocks like the Jeskid.

Jeskid, aka Jesse Cowell, is one of my closest friends from 'SC. We survived a lot of low, energy-draining, broke-as-a-joke days together in the film program there. His audacity to never give up in the face of an uncaring, merciless, soul-crushing industry inspires me all the time. When no film festivals would touch his first feature, the DV-produced "Shades of Gray," Jesse took it online, breaking it up into individual scenes and micro-chunking the entire film.

Almost instantly, Jesse's efforts and filmmaking talent were recognized. People everywhere began visiting the site, downloading the movie, scene by scene; reading the behind-the-scenes stories he'd posted with each clip and writing Jesse to tell him what a funny and original film he'd created. Before long, festivals were inviting him to screen "Shades," and the film's popularity grew.

Now Jesse is about to release his latest project, "Drawn by Pain." I'm very eager to see more in 2007. His trailer is great. It embodies the raw, unshaven edge that makes it vintage Jeskid but also possesses an enveloping vibe of energy that hints of the tsunami of kick-ass filmmaking he's going to unleash with this Webisodic series. I'm proud to be Jesse's friend and so glad to see him succeeding. It excites me to see him take these risks, to see him rally the thousands of fans that have amassed online to encourage him on.

So this blog entry is for you, Jes, although, you know what, I think you do owe me a lunch at Boston Market. Ya gotta love those meatloaf sandwiches, man.

Old Friends in the Big Apple

2006-11-10T21:09:00.004-05:00

While in New York on business, I visited my old friend Demetri Tsoulos. We were roommates and grad students in USC's cinema program. A few years ago, when we were both still students, we collaborated on almost everything, including producing some short films together -- even won a student Emmy for a short called "A Cinnamon Roll Story," directed by Heather Ragsdale.

Demetri and I survived some fun but often brutally tough times together, as we struggled to launch careers as writer / directors. Ultimately, we both have chosen different routes from the feature-directing dream we once chased so ardently, but I know that each of us in our own way has achieved some success and found a bit of glory in that. So this trip was full of memories, but it was also a chance to relax. In fact, I picked the perfect time to visit the Big Apple. Autumn was at its peak, and Central Park was ablaze with color. I've been to NYC a few times before and once had relatives in Manhattan, and yet I'd never been to the park for some reason.

It was cool to actually see this bridge, since it's been used in just about every romantic comedy ever set in New York. There were three to four productions going on that same day, in fact, and I happened to be able to take a shot for the split-second during which no one was crossing the bridge.

On my day off, I wandered all over Manhattan, soaking in the requisite tourist traps, including the historic intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue, where the oddly-shaped Flatiron Building stands.

On the Road Again

2006-10-28T14:15:00.001-04:00

A lot of travel is taking up my schedule this fourth quarter. Tomorrow I leave for New York, then on Wednesday will take a train down to Delaware for a couple days. And two weeks later I'm scheduled to fly to Berlin, partly for work, but, yes, admittedly partly for vacation. December will also bring more travel out to the east coast as well as a lot of work in downtown Chicago, which is one of my favorite places on Earth. In between all this I have meetings currently getting scheduled for other projects, other opportunities. When it rains it pours . . . but that's okay. I love being busy.

Now travelling a lot can wear you down a bit. At some point any human being simply longs for their own familiar bed, but honestly, it's one of the reasons I enjoy advertising so much, the opportunity to get out, see a bit of the world and have some sort of adventure somewhere. Sometimes that adventure is just trying to find the Sheraton in some Minneapolis suburb where you have a client presentation scheduled. And sometimes things are a bit more exotic, like getting lost in the streets of Budapest, Hungary and relying on your traveling companion's ninth-grade French skills to get information from a French tourist. Sometimes the fun of travel means relaxing after a stressful marathon of meetings and raiding the minibar while you veg out on HBO in your hotel room, not having to worry about picking up after yourself, and then sometimes it means going toe-to-toe with clients on martinis or the occasional Jello shot.

No, advertising is not one big, roving party. A career in advertising is made of many long hours, and -- whether you're an art director, writer, producer, or director -- it usually means putting in a few years at the bottom before you start to see greater opportunities and bigger, better projects, which is the stage of my career I'm arriving at now. And so travel for work is a microcosmic exerpience of the greater career path itself. It can be exciting, certainly rewarding and usually worthwhile. But, no it's not always glamorous. Sometimes it's not the Ritz-Carlton in Berlin you're staying at but a Sleep Inn in Elkhart, Indiana. It's not always fun or easy either. And yet, often, in the most unexpected manner, it is.

Advertising is work. And, yes, it is, can and should be an adventure. Just keep your chin up, eyes to the road, and leave no minibar unraided. That's my advice . . .

YouTube, Google and the Future of Awful Content

2006-10-11T00:55:00.000-04:00

So as anyone who doesn't live in a cave somewhere in Guam now knows, Google will acquire YouTube for approximately $1.65 billion. This is only slightly more than the price Google had wanted to acquire this blog for, but I simply refused to sell out to the corporate machine.

Actually, I love Google. Hell, this blog (on the Blogger network) is hosted and powered by Google. Now $1.65 billion is a lot of money -- a lip-smackin', eye-bulging sum of money. And it certainly lends a lot of credibility to the argument that the future distribution of full-blooded, rich media content will be Web-centric. However, it's got me slightly worried.

If the fire in the collective hearts of the human race were to extinguish, and all true art, all poetry, all care, meaning, suffering and joy went out of our lives, then some of the drek that pulses through the Internet's arteries would probably represent the height of cultural wonderment.

A lot of content on YouTube, eBaum's World or Google Video is admittedly amusing and inventive, but for most content, well, what does it really do for us? Not to demand that everything we share online be some sort of deep, heroically dynamic film that explores the DNA of our very souls. Give me a break. But do we really need another damn Star Wars parody? Do we need any more clips of dorks in their basements having lightsaber battles with animated Mr. Smiths from "The Matrix?"

Ironically, it seems that consumer-craving advertisers are doing the boldest and most emotionally provocative work online these days, work like Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. As more people use the viral muscles of the Internet to share their work, through YouTube, Google or whatever amalgam of the two emerges, then I hope people take chances, develop real voices, instead of making flimsy parodies and copies of pop cultural in-jokes.

Producing a Spec Reel

2006-09-26T20:31:00.002-04:00

I've been asked recently about breaking into commercial directing and specifically directing spec spots. I've cautioned new players about the practice, and I thought I'd pass along some of what I've learned in the first few years of my career.

Several years ago, before the recession of 2001-2002, creating a reel of commercials that aren't real -- ones that you concept and speculatively produce yourself in order to demonstrate your abilities -- was THE way that one entered the commercial directing scene. You directed a spec, an awesome and visually orgasmic spec spot that proclaimed to everyone fortunate enough to bask in your directorial genius that you could simply bring it; you had the skillz. Naturally multiple bi-coastal production companies would begin aggressively courting you, one finally winning out and repping you, and then off you'd go, making $15,000 a day, shooting music vids and commercial campaigns.

I guess it sounds simple enough, and very successful directors won their first paying opportunities with specs: Michael Bay, Spike Jonze, David Fincher... the list goes on.

But understand a couple of things about the current commercial production landscape:

1. The spec market is oversaturated. I've seen amazing specs from students and young filmmakers who can't seem to get a call returned. A friend of mine and classmate from USC won an AICP award in 2003 for a great student spec, and yet he couldn't get repped. It's not enough to just shoot a couple of cool spots and send them out. You have to constantly sell yourself, just absolutely promote yourself with a fearless, relentless, unbreakable drive. You have to have such undying confidence in your abilities that you won't slow down or lose faith when you are rejected--because, yes, you will be. It's not enough to shoot a spec. An example of your capabilities is only part of the long process of self-promotion. If you do shoot a spec, know that you are joining a very big group of highly competitive people, so be prepared for the fight.

2. Time, money and not enough of either... With a spec, you have all the time in the world. You can also continue to throw money at it, conceivably, because it's your baby, your own personal project. It's not a realistic scenario, especially in today's production arena, where you have to stretch every production dollar and often deliver projects under ridiculously thin deadlines. Working as an agency producer for a few years, I would rather see a low-budget commercial for a tier-B brand (i.e. NOT a Coca-Cola or Nike) that embodies excellent timing and performance and was done for a real client, no matter how small.

For instance, check out this spot for Yard Fitness outside of L.A. It's potentially crass; the blocking and lighting seem totally absent compared to some gorgeously-lit, exquisitely executed Fincher spot. But I think this commercial is ingenius. It promotes the brand in a memorable way and totally overcomes its low-cost origins with brilliant writing, performances and editing. I wish I'd directed it, to be honest, and it's for a LOCAL GYM, for Christ's sake. And that's why I'd take a director with a spot like this over someone with just a spec. Whoever made this had guts. They convinced the client that their potentially offensive idea had merit and executed it without accruing FCC violations but also without backing down and diluting the concept.

Okay, so with all that in mind, what should you do? Well, a spec is better than no reel at all, so I'm not saying don't ever shoot specs. I shot two myself to start my career, one for Nike and one for X-Box, back in 2002. (Above is a frame from the Nike spot, all shot on DV in downtown L.A.)

However, what really started to move my reel and career forward have been well-executed spots for smaller clients, like a campaign I co-wrote and directed last year for Golf Headquarters, an affiliation of various golf pro shops. It was a simple campaign, shot in a day and a half, with a total budget of $10,000. Totally low-end, yes, but it won multiple awards and remains one of my favorite projects ever.

Go out and sell yourself. Convince the local donut shop or car dealership to give you a chance at directing something different. That's the key. It's got to stand out from all the other junk. It's got to be something shot and edited with fire gushing through your veins: something that makes people react and remember. That's a much better route, in my opinion, than spending thousands of dollars on some breathtaking but ultimately boring round of specs.

Go small.

Think big.

Deliver the goods.

Sony's Mylo: What the Zune Could Have/Should Have Been...

2006-09-22T11:30:00.001-04:00

I just this morning saw a small blurb and picture for Sony's new multimedia device, Mylo in Wired magazine. This is the kind of toy I'd want to own as a creative professional and also the kind of communications hardware that I want to develop, design and produce content for because it is so incredibly versatile.

Microsoft, by comparison, released photos of their top secret Zune device a couple of weeks ago, after a long time touting it as Msft's "iPod killer." It's going to take a lot of muscle to outtake the iPod's market share on portable media players, and the Zune just ain't got it. I don't know if Mylo will either, but (at least at first glance) it accomplished everything the Zune could have but failed to achieve. The Mylo also may act as the Phoenix that arises from the ashes of Sony's ill-fated PSP device, an awesome attempt at a full-on gaming/music/movie player that might have drop-kicked the iPod clear out of dominance had the PSP not relied on proprietary discs for games and movies.

So why does the Mylo potentially rock?

- A Qwerty keyboard for texting (as much as I love my Razr V3, I'd give my left hand at times for a Blackberry or other Qwerty device when typing emails or text messages.)
- You can use WiFi or Skype.
- IM with either Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger.
- Supports different formats of digital audio, pictures and videos, including MPEG-4, a superior video codec, in my opinion.
- Stream media to another Mylo as long as it's within 150 feet.
- Browse the web, in order to, no doubt, check out MattWitt.com... Maybe?

But I say "potentially." I haven't actually tried one, and with a $350 price tag, it had better handle the dual roles of wireless communication device and media player very well instead of lackluster performance for either or both. Yet all in all, this seems like a remarkably versatile device. It would be useful in production, for reviewing dailies or rough cuts with clients and other production members when on the move and of course communicating between parties in pre-production, not to mention entertaining yourself on the long plane ride to the location. And as a delivery device, well, there's just so much potential, because of the variety of media this thing can support. I'm looking forward to learning more about this bad boy.

At the Helm with the Panasonic HVX-200

2006-09-17T23:15:00.006-04:00

This past week I directed a new spot for the National Football Foundation, promoting their College Hall of Fame. Planning to shoot in high-def, I had first wanted to use the Sony 900 HDCam, the pound sterling of high definition cameras. I've used both the 900 and Panasonic's VariCam before and have been impressed with both. But those cameras are biiiiig in comparison, and I needed my crew to be nimble and mobile on this shoot. I also had a limited budget (hey, what commercial shoot doesn't these days...?), so I thought about testing the Panasonic HVX-200. It is an incredible little camera and a breakthrough for small, digital productions.

As I go into post this upcoming week, I'm eager to see how streamlined the process goes, as the HVX captures digital files to a P2 card, not a tape. There is an inconvenience, admittedly, to the P2 cards, since they only hold about 18 minutes worth of 1080P HD footage. So I brought my editor along with his laptop, allowing him to dump those files onto his hard drive right on location, and between set-ups we could start assembling a rough sequence of the takes we liked. The potential downside to this technology and process is that the files can be huge -- especially when you're overcranking those gorgeous slow-motion shots -- so the transfer takes awhile, about 10 minutes per full card. Yet once we'd ironed out a few kinks, it was all pretty smooth. When weighing all possibilities, at the end of the day the tapeless feature is certainly a positive thing.

I first began considering the camera when my friend and fellow filmmaker Jesse Cowell showed me test footage from his top-secret, in-production webisodic film, Project X. The HVX has the same true-variable-speed feature as its predecesor, the VariCam, able to shoot anywhere between 12 and 60 fps, looking better than anything you can get by merely slowing footage down in post. You can also adjust the shutter speed with a lot of accuracy as well. That 90-degree shutter sticatto effect that "Saving Private Ryan" made popular? Totally possible with this camera.

I'll post the spot once it's had its broadcast premiere, so people can check out the footage. One of the few real drawbacks is the lens and its ample focal depth. It's a good lens, to be honest, a Carl Zeiss, which is more than adequate on most projects. However, despite the value, in my opinion it is still not the greatest piece of glass, and a sharp prime lens can make an amazing difference with the final image. I'm certain adapters will soon be made that would allow for better control over depth of field. Overall, however, I feel there's very little that this camera can't do.

Play Like Patton

2006-08-20T16:33:00.001-04:00

Right now I'm in pre-pre-production for a feature film that's to be shot in a foreign country, hopefully next year, which involves a lot of cost analysis, research into production resources overseas, developing the screenplay with the writer/director, et cetera. Some of that sounds boring at first, but switching between the roles of director and producer has gotten a lot easier for me in the past few years, perhaps because I now receive much of the same joy from both experiences. Collaboration. That's the key.

My first semester at USC "collaboration" just seemed like one of those damn film school phrases everyone just threw around like "story arc," "visual strategy" or "trailer filled with prostitutes..." But honestly filmmaking is all about the team. It's just as Patton tells it. In the opening scene of "Patton," George C. Scott addresses his unseen soldiers and tells them, "An army is a team. It eats, sleeps, lives, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a load of crap." He's absolutely right about production too.

The French screwed it up. They came up with the whole auteur theory in the 1950s and put the director on a pedestal. Yes, to be sure, the director is the main storyteller. In every company there is a CEO, and with every production there has to be someone steering the focus and vision of the crew. So the director is central, and some have developed such a strong style that they truly do become the authors of their work, whether they're actually writing the script or not. Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, Wes Anderson...there are a great many directors who take their films and truly own them with their unique, signature execution. But that doesn't mean others don't put their stamp on a film. Every David Mamet screenplay still inherently has his style, his unique, wryly dark wit, no matter who directs it. Every Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film also embodies a style that shows Bruckheimer is greatly affecting the creative process of that production, from the visuals to the casting.

That's why I don't mind working on boarding my own spot then going home and doing research for a film someone else will direct, because either way I look forward to just working with a talented group of people. When everyone can raise each others' game, well . . . that's what makes it fun and all the toil worthwhile. Filmmaking is never easy, but it should be fulfilling. Find people you trust, respect and really like. Work with them, and you can't go wrong.

Brand Fusion

2006-07-22T21:35:00.003-04:00

When it comes to the evolution of the Web, video, branded production and all things involving some form of digital media, well, some people would just rather it be 1982 again, and when I begin talking about AdWords or viral campaigns, they look at me as if I'm a complete meshuggener. In this day and age I don't take any one media for granted; nor do I believe that ignoring, say, the Web, because I would rather be producing a :60 Super Bowl ad is of any benefit to either the client or my own career. At age 30 I now spend maybe 3 to 4 hours a week watching TV. I spend 9 times that amount, I would estimate, on the Internet. I game on Xbox 360s almost once a week in marathon tournaments with friends of mine, usually from 8 PM - 2 AM. (Yeah, we'd go much longer, but we usually all have work at 8 the next morning. Bust!)

So when a client wants to select media and production options ala carte, I instantly visualize their customers vanishing. There was a time (I imagine, at least), when the dileniations between print, radio, TV, Web sites, and every other conceivable advertising outlet (sandwich boards, perhaps?) were clearly marked, with well-researched ROI figures and HH penetration graphs, beautifully illustrating differences in age, geographic and HH income demographics.

Marketing segmentation has become exponentially more complex than that now as content consumption patterns have changed. Meanwhile, as agencies fumble over this eruption of new technology, the rules are all being re-written.

Besides one.

One rule is totally unchanged. It is the same rule that exists in entertainment, and that is DO NOT BE BORING.

Which is why I believe that the fusion between entertainment and advertising production is going to continue to thrive, and agencies that comprehend that, agencies that blend new-world technology, old-world showmanship with a dash of 21st century urgency are going to sell their clients' brands. Those agencies that believe that a microsite, a 30-second commercial and a billboard somewhere in Idaho constitute an integrated ad campaign are on the fast-track to bankruptcy, especially with brilliantly integrated Web content being created right now, like CareerBuilder's Monk-e-Mail or Phillips' ShaveEverywhere.com site.

I love the possibilities ahead. A little Sergey Brin & Larry Page mixed with a bit of Barnum & Bailey is what it's all about; it's what gets consumers excited.

Busy Summer Ahead

2006-06-12T08:05:00.001-04:00

The summer is shaping up to be pretty busy. Although the past couple weeks have been slow, there is now a variety of projects on the horizon, one of them being a campaign for a healthcare network that I shoot this week.

I am gradually finding the balance between my producing responsibilities and the commercial directing work I still love. And whereas some producing projects have started as fun, side endeavors, they are quickly moving toward the epicenter of my career. Most notable at the moment among these personal projects is the short film, "Chances Are," which is due to have final color finishing completed on June 20. In fact, along with my co-producer Henry, fresh off the success of his sweet documentary "Rock the Bells," and the talented writer/director, Josh, we are whimsically tossing about plans for a feature, based on one of Josh's screenplays.

Yet in advertising I have found such joy in crafting :30 stories. Sure, not everything I've had to take on in these first few years of my career has been provocative, game-changing creative. Yet as I fight harder for opportunities to execute solid, kick-ass work, I'm building a stronger reel and feeling better about future directorial goals, which I don't want to drift too far from or lose completely amidst my producing work. If I can have both -- the glory and fun of balancing both roles and focusing on how they can and should evolve as digital media revolutionizes all that we know -- then I'll continue to be busy and very happy.

New Blog Format

2006-06-10T01:01:00.001-04:00

Yes, I've redesigned my blog, using Google's Blogger as a template by which to include more interactive features, including better publishing tools.

When I began this blog, I had no particular agenda. I just wanted the chance to amuse some friends with some non sequitur tales from my life. If that meant making fun of myself a bit, so be it. Take your job seriously but not yourself. So if you had read any of the older posts then you know I have an eclectic (i.e. very weird) sense of humor. Ultimately, I simply appreciate the menagerie of freaks in my life, from the mysterious Takeshi, to the imaginary adventures of the blood donation mascot "Bleedy," to that nice woman I met on a Chicago bus who had a pet rat with her.

So while all that was indeed fun to write about, it wasn't a focused blog. Hence, I've decided that this blog will be more useful to me as another means by which to home in on my directing and producing career and even hopefully share some of my experiences and advice with other young filmmakers. I still have a long way to go in order to reach some of my goals, so undoubtedly the road ahead will still be filled with humility and lessons to be learned.