While the music isn’t to my taste I can appreciate the sentiment and storytelling of Dave Carroll’s music video, United Breaks Guitars. And his commitment to getting his voice heard.

The origin of the video:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.

Another example illustrating the ways talented folks are taking the initiative and creating their own media. A scorned guitarist with a broken guitar is not the enemy United needs.

Thanks to Agency Spy for the link.

They engage, they provoke, they present the product benefits in an interesting way.

(Click each image for a larger, well-worthwhile version.)

Bar

Bellboy

Pizza Delivery

The first big step forward is a migration on the platform we use to run AdHack. We started this morning on Drupal 5 and now we run on Drupal 6.

But only us neyurds care about that bit.

The second big step forward is in features we offer to help both ad buyers and ad creators rock their respective businesses. We’re closer to our vision of a marketplace for advertising creative.

The new features are all live on the new site, right now. But they suffer a bit of a iceberg problem — they’re functional features, not design changes.

So you have to really use the site to discover them. And many will become more evident the more they’re used.

What am I on about?

New stuff. And here’s an overview of why we did it.

Recognizing Value Creation

To show the value people and their work contribute to AdHack, we’ve created 2 feedback mechanisms: Cred and Badges.

Cred

Cred is a reputation currency.

It’s a feedback loop. A way of showing appreciation. A way of earning goodwill.

Interact with AdHack and you’ll start to accumulate Cred. The more good work you do, the more Cred you earn.

Cred flows to you from the work you do.

And once you have some Cred, you can share your Cred with others for the work they do.

That’s the introduction. Here are the Cred details.

The best way to figure out Cred is to see it in action.

Log in or create a new account and start earning your Cred.

Who knows? You may already have earned some.

We took our best shot at getting all the Cred everyone had already earned into their account. In one big dump.

So when you look at your Cred balance (in the header!) you’ll see one or a few lumpy numbers for today. That’s all your past actions in one number.

Your future actions will be much more precise with each in and out of Cred listed.

Badges

Badges are rewards for achievements. They appear in your Portfolio when you reach certain milestones on AdHack.

Sell an ad? You get a badge.

Get awarded the AdHack Employee of the Month Award? You get a badge.

That’s just for starters. We’ll keep the badges rolling for new achievements as they arrive.

Want to see Cred and Badges in action?

Take on the challenge of AdHack Launch Mission #1.

Richer Information on Ads

On AdHack, it’s all about the ads. So we wanted to enrich them. To make them easier to use, easier to sell and easier to find.

As a result, we’ve launched a whole new bunch of information that can be added to your ads:

• Media Types to tell ad buyers where your ad can be used
• Industry Category to help ad buyers find relevant ads
• Location information on a map to show ad buyers ads appropriate to a specific place
• For sale information — Yes, No or Sold (more information on that below)
• Price so ad buyers can pay creators fair value (more information about this below as well)
• Ad Brief information to match the ad creative brief and show how the ad meets market requirements
• Client and Product information to match your ad to the right ad buyer

Why should you add all this information?

Simple: the more added goodness describing your ad, the better chance you have to sell it.

All that information helps ad buyers find your ads in search engines and on AdHack.

Once an ad buyer finds your ad, the added information gives them all the details they need to buy your ad.

Most importantly in all this new information is the For Sale selection — Yes, No or Sold — and the Price. We cover that in the next section.

Creating Direct Sales for Ads

You make the ads. You want to sell your ads.

We want to be a marketplace for those ads — helping ad buyers find ads to buy; helping ad creators sell their ads.

So we’re very pleased to be able to launch our first steps towards direct sales for ads.

Post a new ad to AdHack or edit an existing ad and you’ll be able to set 3 key pieces of information for direct sale:

• a For Sale status: Yes, No or Sold,
• a Price for the ad in US of Canadian dollars,
• a list of Media Types the ad is available for.

Ads listed for sale get a big red button beside them — Buy This Ad — with the price and media types it’s available for.

A prospective ad buyer who clicks on Buy This Ad creates a purchase order for the ad. We confirm the purchase order details, coordinate the sale and make sure the sale works for both parties.

When ad buyer and ad creator agree, we finalize the sale and make sure everyone gets what they wanted.

Want to see the direct sales model in action?

Follow the instructions in AdHack Launch Mission #2.

Connecting with Real-Time Web

Overnight is over time. The new hotness is real time.

And where better to find the real-time web than on Twitter?

Nowhere we could find. So we’ve integrated Twitter into AdHack.

Link up your Twitter account and your AdHack account for bonus cross-posting action in 2 big flavors:

• AdHack pulls in your Twitter tweets marked #adhack and creates an evolving archive of real-time #adhack discussions. See the #adhack tweets so far.
• Post new ads or blog posts to AdHack and you’ll have the option to share your new stuff on Twitter with one simple step.

Want to see the AdHack-Twitter link up in action?

Follow the instructions in AdHack Launch Mission #3.

Problems? Questions? Feedback?

Report back from the field. Two ways:

• Contact the AdHack team.
• Join the conversation on the AdHack Get Satisfaction page.

We’re here to make the market that serves your needs — voice your opinion and be sure to get what you need.

You’re ready for your third and final mission. And here it be.

1. Login to your AdHack account. Or create an AdHack account.
2. Once logged in, you’ll be taken to your Portfolio. See that Twitter tab? Good. That comes into play in a bit.
3. Click on the Edit tab and select the Twitter accounts menu item.
4. Add your Twitter username and password.
5. Poof! Your Twitter account is linked to your AdHack account. (You can always delete the link and / or add a second Twitter account too.)

What does a Twitter-AdHack link get you?

Glad you asked. 2 bits of goodness come from linking up your Twitter with AdHack:

1. Your Adhack account listens to your Twitter stream. When you post a tweet and add #adhack to it, that tweet appears in your AdHack portfolio on the Twitter tab and beside your ads. Those tweets also get pulled together into one stream of #adhack tweets in the AdHack Community.
2. When you post new Ads or Blog posts to AdHack, you can share it through Twitter. At your option, a tweet will be posted to your Twitter account with a link to the new Ad or Blog post.

Two fun and easy ways to link up your life.

Problems? Questions? Feedback?

Report back from the field. Two ways:

1. Contact the AdHack team.
2. Join the conversation on the AdHack Get Satisfaction page.

1. Login to your AdHack account. Or create an AdHack account.
2. Once logged in, you’ll be taken to your Portfolio. Got any ads in there? Good.
3. Click on a favorite ad that you’ve created. The one you think you have the best chance to sell.
4. Now click on the Edit tab just above your ad.
5. On the Edit screen you have a chance to add all kinds of good information about your ad.
6. Complete as much of the information as you can. More = better.

Why so much information about my ad?

Simple: the more added goodness describing your ad, the better chance you have to sell it. It helps ad buyers find your ads as well as finding you.

And once they find your ad, the added information gives them all the details they need to buy your ad.

Most importantly in all this new information is the For Sale selection — Yes, No or Sold — and the Price.

Since this is a marketplace for advertising creative.

Ready? Go to Mission #3!

Problems? Questions? Feedback?

Report back from the field. Two ways:

1. Contact the AdHack team.
2. Join the conversation on the AdHack Get Satisfaction page.

1. Login to your AdHack account. Or create an AdHack account.
2. Once logged in, you’ll be taken to your Portfolio.
3. Notice anything new? You should have two new additions: Cred and Badges.

Explore both Cred (which has many layers) and Badges and see what happens.

Take yourself for a twirl around the site, doing a few things you think contribute to the value overall. See what happens.

Go to Mission #2!

Problems? Questions? Feedback?

Report back from the field. Two ways:

1. Contact the AdHack team.
2. Join the conversation on the AdHack Get Satisfaction page.

That is some powerful.

Etsy, the marketplace for handmade arts and crafts, has launched a contest for its users to make its TV ads.

Attention all artists, videographers, film students, DIY addicts, advertising students, home video makers, professionals, camera nerds and other creative members of the Etsy community: here’s your chance to show the world how talented you are, and help us spread the Etsy gospel while you are at it!

Here are the full details on A Handmade Moment.

Here is the Etsy TV ad contest entry page.

We’re not affiliated at all with the Etsy contest, but we thought it would be of interest to the AdHack ad creator community.

And it provides us another opportunity to point out how the world of ad creation is changing. Even for companies whose customers are not creative, DIY-oriented folks, engaging with the people using the product is the most powerful way to convince people not using the product to use the product.

And what better way to show how your company makes its users rock than getting them to speak for the company?

Advertising is changing.

Talk to us and learn how to change with it.

An incredible video that’s all about form and very little about content. Taken with the SprintCam v3 at 1000 frames per second.

My favorite part is the bouncing gelatin right at the end. Like a miracle of weightless, cohesive liquid.

What was your favorite part?

Found in Lee Lefever’s Twitter stream.

The Moby Quotient, generated by the formula below, determines the degree to which artists besmirch their reputations when they lend their music to hawk products or companies. (The name salutes the techno artist Moby, who took the practice to new extremes with his 1999 album “Play.” The Moby Quotient is designated by the Greek letter mu.) Each factor is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10; the number assignments can be subjective, but the formula is useful in gauging the relative outrage fans should feel with each instance of this continuing cultural blight. The higher the result, the greater the degree of selling out.

(Click for full-sized image.)

I love how, with enough data, a predictive formula can be created to determine with some good enough level of accuracy, an outcome.

I’m sure the same kind of formula could be created to predict the popularity of videos posted to YouTube. We have the data.

I believe this is how we start to understand the nature and value of stochastic processes and relationships. Then we see them everywhere.

Now go, see it in action: calculate your own version of the Moby Quotient.

Thanks to Bud Caddell on Twitter for the pointer.