Thoughts

Your Brand on Google+

Your Brand on Google+

A white paper written and produced in collaboration with Google+ and my Idea Team highlighting the importance and advantages for any brand big or small, B2C or B2B, local or global to integrate Google+ into their social media strategies from the word “go!”


The Making of a “Kushy” Music Video

The Making of a "Kushy" Music Video

I was fortunate enough to play a part in the making of “Kush” -an A-list celeb fest of the who’s who in the hip hop music video scene. As the Global Lead of Integrated Production at Team SapientNitro, my group was tasked to orchestrate a product placement deal for Chrysler Corp to introduce the new Dodge Durango “Citadel” to a very specific audience with a “Hollywood” splash and Dr. Dre’s Kush music video featuring Snoop Dogg (actually exiting the luxury sport utility) was the perfect vehicle (pun intended).


Fiat’s ‘Simply More’ is Simply Less Than Expected

Fiat's 'Simply More' is Simply Less Than Expected

Fiat 500’s breaking ‘Simply More’ North American campaign has me wanting more. More substance. More tension. More talk value. More controversy. More meat. Speaking of meat-where’s the beef any way? I mean can you say safe-pedestrian-B.O.R.I.N.G.? After exiting stage left and distancing your brand from the largest consumer market in the world over 28 years ago (circa 1983), the best you can do to make a memorable splash down after re-entry into the U.S. is simply more? More like a crash landing if you ask me.


Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now

Stop motion (also known as stop action) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Here are two brilliant executions at the opposite ends of the spectrum from the same creative/producer team that will absolutely stop you in your tracks.


Nothing Common about Common

He’s at it again. Never to be the one to say “I’m done,” arguably the world’s most famous ad man, Alex Bogusky, is back and ‘Stirrin It Up’ in Boulder with a revolutionary concept for business that turns conventional thinking on its head. As if he didn’t accomplish enough in one lifetime that mere mortals could only aspire to in 10, the dude’s brain is so super switched-on, he only has one gear-overdrive-and that adrenalin fueled freakishness has birthed something incredibly innovative and uncommonly Common.


No Creative Mind Left Behind

A collective of thinkers, dreamers, doers, creators, educators, and provocateurs in the creative industries have banded together under the banner of No Right Brain Left Behind (or simply NRBLB) in a seriously committed effort to address the dearth of creativity that has risen to epidemic levels throughout the U.S. educational system.


A Giant Step for Mankind

Just gotta love this thinking and creative execution for Giant Bicycles from Down Under. Really smart to make your brand and it’s product portfolio both relatable and relevant to the target audience-‘real riders’-in a very humanistic way while giving them an extra dose of “feel good” therapy in the process as a “priceless” takeaway. I am not even a Giant fan and I am ready to roll out.


No Glass Ceiling in this Minority Report

So, you think you have an idea of what’s possible in the world of advertising in a digital age? Wait until you see this “glass” act complete with facial and retinal recognition, location-based micro marketing, large-format outdoor display ads, virtual billboards and hypersonic directional speakers. Thanks Corning for the transparency and this brilliantly enlightening production. Minority Report Part Deux?


Unique Perspectives from Miles Nadal at MDC

Advertising M+A darling Miles Nadal, founder and CEO of MDC Partners, provides a bird’s eye view from the ivory tower on how to build a winning agency model for today and a sustainable model for the future. In short, it all starts with the agency vibe + culture and we can expect more of the Silicon Valley “run and gun” startup ethic infiltrating the buttoned-up (and buttoned-down) ranks of Madison Avenue. Look at it as the evolution from Mad Men to Rad Men. Like cool man.


The Best Of Cannes 2011

You gotta check out this 100+ slide presentation documenting the seminar highlights by day of what went down of substance at Cannes 2011. Brilliant summary. Thanks @Jessdee.


Some Insights on Branding from Cannes 2011

Check out who said what at Cannes 2011 regarding building brands in the digital age of on-demand mobile consummerism.


Marketing 101

The Marketing World according to Brett (yep, another Brettism)


It’s a Brand New World! New Creative Prototype

Out with the old and in with the new-here is what the profile of a creative lead looks like in the new world order. Welcome to the 21st Century people!


Advertising in the Digital Age: Part 1

I am a lifetime student and general practitioner of the equal parts art/equal parts science of advertising and my diagnosis is that advertising is in a state of flux-transition-change.