brand dna

Ad after ad afer ad

2009-11-09T01:26:00.002+11:00

One of the most annoying things about Australian television is the way that programs never seen to start or finish on time.

I always thought this was some kind of ploy by the networks to stop you switching channels at the end of a show.

Turns out that may not be the case at all.

According to the regulatory authority, networks are allowed to air a maximum of 13 minutes of advertising per hour during the evening.

I think you’d have to agree that’s more than enough ads.

Yet our TV networks are blatantly flouting these restrictions.

According to a survey conducted by the Herald Sun, networks often cram in as much as 19 minutes of advertising during an hour show.

19 minutes!

No wonder the shows don’t start or finish on time.

And no wonder so many people say they hate advertising.

Apple v Microsoft

2009-11-06T22:34:00.003+11:00

Interesting comparison of the advertising of Apple and Microsoft.
Well worth five minutes of your time I think.

Theft or fandom?

2009-11-06T02:57:00.004+11:00

You know that downloading television shows has become commonplace when there’s a two page article about it in your local newspaper.

Just to clarify - that’s the local paper that gets delivered to your house free of charge. Not an actual daily newspaper.

I couldn’t help noticing the article over breakfast this morning as it featured a photo of a small stack on TV show DVDs. And I owned pretty much all of them.

It was so nice to read something in the mainstream media about downloading that wasn’t hysterical or hyperbolic.

In fact I found myself nodding along as I read.

Bizarrely it seems many of the shows that are popular in Australia, like Desperate Housewives and House, are also amongst the most downloaded.

Why?

Because people want to see episodes as soon as they can. They don’t want to wait. In fact they can’t.

They are not downloading to steal. They are not downloading to burn discs and sell them at flea markets.

These people are true fans of a show.

So why are they constantly tarred with the brush of theft and piracy?

Naughty or not?

2009-11-05T03:32:00.000+11:00

I know very little about Islam or its traditions but I would have thought that perving on a half naked woman before she puts on her Burqa is wrong.

Which either makes this a very naughty ad or a highly offensive one.

What do you think?

Around the Blogosphere

2009-11-04T10:38:00.003+11:00

The latest issue of Marketing magazine hit the newsagents on Monday. And for some reason my latest column appears to have gotten one young man a little riled up. Read all about that here.

My last column was seemingly a lot less controversial. It looked at how mobile marketing appears to be finally getting mobilised. Click here to read it at my Around the Blogosphere blog.

Farewell Freeman

2009-11-03T10:36:00.004+11:00

Just heard one of my favourite little US agencies is shutting its doors. After more than 20 years Cliff Freeman & Partners has fallen victim to the GFC. They leave behind a body a charmingly clever work including this wonderful TV spot for Little Caesers.

I'ma let you finish

2009-11-02T23:30:00.002+11:00

Yo, internet memes! I'm real happy for ya, and I'ma let you finish, but theez 2009 internet memes are da best internet memes of all time!

No argument from me

2009-10-30T16:43:00.002+11:00

Wisdom of The Don

2009-10-29T03:49:00.000+11:00

Text me...Text me now

2009-10-28T02:56:00.000+11:00

So many ads want you to sms for something these days.

Problem is the reward for participating in sms promos is generally pretty crappy.

This poster for Axe (Lynx) knows its target market well and uses sms brilliantly.

It gives you the missing parts of the poster. Which are the most important parts for young males.

The campaign also only works after dark. Which is a nice touch.

Great work from Lowe in Uruguay of all places.

Happy Halloween #2

2009-10-27T03:19:00.003+11:00

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Guinness Halloween ad comes this one for Miller Lite.

It's by Arc Worldwide in Chicago.

Unlike the Guiness ad it's anything but subtle.

And what kind of Creative Director lets a headline like that leave the agency?

Click pic for a better look.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-26T20:08:00.005+11:00

Sometimes an ad can be too clever for its own good.

I suspect this one by an agency called Tempo is one of those ads.

Then again maybe I'm wrong. Because once it clicked it did make me smile.

Drink any more than two pints of Guinness however and I'm pretty sure this ad would leave you completely mystified.

It does make a change from bloody pumpkins though!

Click pic for a better look.

Where are the good banners?

2009-10-23T03:18:00.000+11:00

I am a regular visitor to Bannerblog. Even the not so good banner ads they post there have some merit.

Which is more than I can say for most of the banners I see each and every time I go online.

I never see any decent banner ads.

In fact I can't remember the last time I saw a banner ad that made me think "I wish I'd done that".

I wonder why?

As a medium online offers unparalleled opportunities.

Yet most of the ads are shit.

It's been like that since forever.

Surely it'll have to turn the corner someday. Won't it?

Nobel Prize for denim?

2009-10-22T02:43:00.000+11:00

Far be it from me to question the work of the mighty Wieden & Kennedy but WTF!?

What on earth has Levis got to do with gender equality or the Nobel Prize?

Bugger all if you ask me.

Back in the 60's and 70's Levis was definitely a part of the counter culture. Hell it was practically a uniform for longhairs and bra-burners everywhere.

But where is Levis in 2009?

Of course I could be completely wrong. And research labs across the world may well be populated by women wearing Levis.

But somehow I doubt it.

Click on pic to enlarge.

Born to rock

2009-10-21T02:58:00.000+11:00

It's long. Way too long in fact. But this is a beautiful little video vignette.

There are just so many clever little details. From the baby giving the devil's horns hand gesture tthrough to the the guy turning the lights on and off in the jamming scene at the end.

Rock on AMV London!

Ch..ch..ch changes

2009-10-20T04:14:00.000+11:00

When I first started out in the ad biz I went to show my homemade folio to the Grand Dame of Melbourne adland - Claire Worthington of Apple.

She smoked furiously throughout the fifteen or so minutes she spent with me. Bits of ash falling on my folio pages as she spoke.

As you can imagine I was incredibly nervous at the time. Yet she made me feel like I had something to offer.

She remarked on the fact that I was the only Weights & Measures Inspector she had ever met. Then gave me a list of agencies and CDs in Melbourne.

She circled names like Ted Horton and Nick Trumble and told me that they were people similar to myself in that they had had careers in an unrelated field before they got into advertising.

That meeting with Claire seems like a lifetime ago. So much has changed in my life and also the industry that I had chosen for my next big adventure.

On the weekend I was clearing old papers and junk from the cupboard in my study and I came across the list of agencies and CDs that Claire had given me.

As you can imagine the paper had yellowed and it was kinda dog-eared.

The big surprise for me was just how many of the agencies on the list were no longer a part of the Melbourne scene.

Names like Masius, Monahan Dayman Adams, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB Needham, Wunderman Cato Johnson and dozens of small local agencies.

It's funny how we all talk (a lot) about how much our industry is changing. Yet we never really stop to think about how it always has. And probably always will.

Google Wave - Pulp Fiction

2009-10-19T01:13:00.000+11:00

Twitter on average

2009-10-17T23:12:00.004+11:00

Love this visualisation of an average 100 people on Twitter. It's by David McCandless. You can see more of his clever visualisations here.

Click the pic if you need to enlarge.

Not so world wide web

2009-10-16T01:48:00.001+11:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't 'www' stand for Worldwide Web?

Yes of course it does.

So why is some content on the web off limits?

It's not the UK web or the USA web it's the Worldwide bloody web.

I understand there are copyright issues and similar restrictions but surely there must be a way to allow people from any country to watch other country's television programs?

Anyone got any ideas? Apart from Bit-torrent that is!

Trumpeter Swans

2009-10-15T08:03:00.001+11:00

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

2009-10-14T20:48:00.003+11:00

You can't really call yourself an art director until you've used 'Lorem ipsum' in a layout.

But where do art directors get 'Lorem ipsum' from?

I don't know the answer to that question to be honest.

But if I was an art director I'd use a Lorem Ipsum Generator. A handy web based generator of latin text.

Even better than that is the new Blind Text Generator which generates a variety of generic text for layout purposes.

Click here to give it a try.

Kids or children?

2009-10-13T04:20:00.001+11:00

Two years ago I got my then 10 year old son Max to help out on a campaign I was working on.

The product we were marketing was for teenage boys and our medium was the online kids world Habbo Hotel.

Max took one look at the brief and said we should turn it upside down.

When I asked him what he meant he explained that the minor prizes in the promo would be way more interesting to kids than the main prize.

I took his advice and the campaign went on to be the most successful ever run on Habbo Hotel in Australia.

Now EA Games has gone one better (in theory) and put a 12 year old in charge of their latest TV spot for the Nintendo Spore Hero game.

I say in theory because I just saw the ad and it looks like it was written by a couple of suits.

So I showed the ad to Max (who's now almost 13) and he said it looked like a little kids ad for a little kids game.

Guess some kids are just a bit more switched on than others.

Real life adventure

2009-10-12T20:54:00.001+11:00

I was playing with an idea like this for the Ford Falcon Ute last year.

Sadly it never got past concept stage.

So as you can imagine I felt a serious twinge of jealousy when I saw this campaign for Ford of Europe by Ogilvy London.

87 cool things

2009-10-11T08:35:00.000+11:00

I'm always on the lookout for cool stuff on the web.

This Google presentation features 87 cool things that they have found.

It is truly inspirational and well worth a look.

iPhone optimisation

2009-10-10T08:56:00.002+11:00

Although it is vastly superior (in my opinion) to other mobile browsers, the iPhone web experience is obviously quite different to browsing on a computer.

Which is why optimising your site for the iPhone is definitely something to think about when creating a new site.

Smashing Magazine has recently compiled a list of iPhone optimised sites. It's a great showcase I think.

They've also put together a comprehensive list of tools and resources to help you create the perfect iPhone site.

Click here and go get inspired.