brandflakesforbreakfast

this week at Plaid

2009-11-06T16:12:00.002-05:00

Here's what happened this week at the greatest agency in all of the land:

Some costumes arrived for a production that's in house. Long story, but we're stoked to have another costume around the office for a couple of days.

We shot a screen test for something top secret for someone that we can't talk about. We're bursting at the seams wanting to share the details, but for now we'll have to tell you that it's been a load of fun hanging with someone in tv, and getting a unique perspective on that side of the entertainment industry.

Our skateboards arrived for the Bordobello event! This is an awesome fundraising art event where artists customize boards that are then auctioned for two worthy causes in Denver. We're stoked to be a part of it, and now Plaidsters will be getting busy customizing their boards.

I had a new piece published on Advertising Age's Small Agency Diary, discussing how to survive through tough times. While it's geared toward the agency business, this is advice that could apply to nearly any business in any industry.

Our client Segway hooked us up with a copy of WiiFitPlus, and we've been training like Wii-maniacs on the Segway Circuit game. So far, Steph has the office high score.

It's getting colder in New England, and the days are darker. Plaidsters are not adjusting well to the 3:30pm sunsets. Some already have their eyes set on spring, while others are counting down the days until the snowboards come out.

Have a great weekend!

bringing twitter to the classroom

2009-11-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

W. Gardner Campbell, director of the Academy of Teaching and Learning at Baylor University believes that Twitter can be a valuable resource in the classroom.

Imagine a classroom where students can tweet their questions and comments on the subject matter, projected on a screen at the head of the class. Imagine students having access to that stream after class, for additional discussion and additional input.

Sound far fetched? Actually, that's exactly the scenario that exists at SXSW (above) and other conferences. Why not bring the same level of communication and information to students?

Some say the distraction wouldn't do well in class. Campbell disagrees. Commenting on the possibility of a classroom filled with the clickety clack of keyboards, he says “That’s a godsend! Suddenly, I’m not just the one at the front just dispensing everything, and the students aren’t just sort of milling about doing their thing — we’ve actually got a team of people working together.”

From HalThomas

when is it ok to start your xmas campaign?

2009-11-06T07:33:00.001-05:00

AdWeek has some interesting poll results from a survey about when it's socially acceptable to begin your holiday advertising campaign. (I saw my first Christmas display this year mid-October!)

According to the poll, if you wait until Thanksgiving, 77% of the population won't hate you. Thanks, Jim Cioban

twitter = second youngest of all social networks

2009-11-06T07:24:00.001-05:00

ReadWriteWeb has some super interesting perspective on the population of the socialverse. When you look at the median age of each social network's audience, here's how they line up:

Twitter: 31
MySpace: 26
LinkedIn: 39
Facebook: 33

The report also shows that Facebook is getting older, as the retirement class continue to flock to the network. They also report that Gen Y is warming to Twitter - 37% of those 18-24 now use Twitter when only 19% did back in December 2008. Celebrities? Because their workmates are doing it? Who knows. What we do know: LinkedIn is for the super old. ;)

how to introduce the carbon economy

2009-11-06T07:14:00.000-05:00

To promote the upcoming Carbon Economy Summit in Washington D.C., the visually brilliant team over at XPlane put together a clip that demonstrates the importance of the task and the opportunity that lies ahead. Beautiful, important work.

what the socialsphere really thinks about you

2009-11-05T07:43:00.004-05:00

Social Mention is the latest free analytics tool that everyone seems to be tweeting about. We're just digging in ourselves, but it seems to offer a pretty robust perspective on the socialsphere, including sentiment, passion, reach, users and other juicy data points.

If nothing else, this is proof that the paid analytics tools will need to always be on their game, offering better, smarter, and more robust reporting.

how bloggers are sharing video

2009-11-05T07:38:00.001-05:00

Sysomos has done some interesting analysis on video streaming and sharing as it relates to video shared on blogs. They examined 100 million blog posts since July of this year, and determined:

Young Males Engage the Most - 20-to-35-year-old males constitute the most engaged demographic group in the study. In total, 77% of users are under 35-years old, while 60% of all users are male.

Asian Users Engage Differently - 90% of the users from Asia and Oceania are under 35-years-old. In comparison, a third of North American users are over 35-years-old. Bloggers in Asia and Oceania are less likely to use services other than YouTube, with 89% of the links and embeds pointing to YouTube.

Engagement Peaks on Tuesday - The most popular day for engaging with video in the blogosphere is Tuesday and Wednesday. The most active engagement takes place between 11a.m. and 1p.m EST.

There's a boatload of additional data where that came from. Read the details from their entire study and learn what's likely to get your video shared, posted on blogs and viewed by millions.

(There's also some slammin' graphs and charts that will make your PowerPoint deck look all juicy when you present this to the boss.)

if you see this on the street today, please pick it up

2009-11-05T07:24:00.001-05:00

The Blu Dot store is placing sweet designer chairs on the streets of NYC today for people to discover, and take home. What's even better is that many of these chairs are equipped with GPS devices that will trace their journey and be chronicled in a documentary to be released later in the year. Excellent idea.

Be vigilant. If you see something, grab something, and give it a home. From Laura Newman

apps: your new ad campaign

2009-11-04T07:45:00.001-05:00

Ben Kunz points out a terrific way to view the ever growing popularity of apps. There's loads of data that illustrates how people don't use most apps past the first day after download. Some may say that's reason to reconsider your app development budget.

Ben Kunz suggests just the opposite. Go app wild. If new, cool apps are always the new, cool thing that become a part of our conversation, why not allow your brand to be a part of it? Rather than attempt to produce the end-all, best-and-only-app-you-ever-need, create a hundred apps. Create two hundred apps. Think of them as individual components to your ad campaign.

We agree. Not just because that kind of thinking brings us loads of business, but it's an approach that's utilizing the media in a way that the audience has already decided to use it. Hooray. Increase your app spend now.

clean those stupid photos from your friend's facebook

2009-11-04T07:33:00.000-05:00

Wisk just launched a Facebook application that allows you to "clean" the stupid, nasty, ridiculous or embarrassing photos that your friends have uploaded to Facebook.

Actually, it lets you tag photos that you don't like, points them out to your friends, and if they agree, Wisk will "clean" them from their profile. So much for the internet being permanent.

inside a secret volcano

2009-11-04T07:22:00.000-05:00

Check out this post on BLDGBLOG about the architectural design of a massive underground joint where we keep a lot of nuclear trash.

The photo above looks like a secret saucer from the set of V, but really it's a giant boring machine. (Wouldn't that be fun to drive around the neighborhood?)

This is interesting in that you never think about architecture or design as it relates to secret nuclear bunkers bore deep into the earth. Then again, you probably never even think of secret nuclear bunkers bore deep into the earth. Move along.

coworking space can look hot, too

2009-11-04T07:14:00.003-05:00

Check out this coworking space in Dallas, Texas. Cohabitat is an excellent example of two things:

1. Coworking space can be as unique and as engaging as the population that it serves,
2. You can turn former residential space into original, cool workspace.

Nice joint.

what you can learn from jason fried

2009-11-03T07:54:00.001-05:00

We could all learn a lot from the work habits of Jason Fried. Inc Magazine has a super nice profile on the web2.0 entrepreneur who founded 37 Signals.

Jason doesn't believe in alarm clocks, work schedules, or office time. He does believe in mixing work with reading, office vacations and virtual collaboration over meetings.

We're not only users of 37 Signals products, we also subscribe to many of the same work philosophies at the world's hottest agency - and can say for sure that they work. Send the Inc article to your boss and see if you can get her to adopt at least one of these philosophies in your joint. Happy people = maximum productivity.

Photo: Chris Strong for Inc Magazine.

every creative person could learn from this math teacher

2009-11-03T07:52:00.000-05:00

By now you've probably seen this clip from Matthew Weathers, the greatest math teacher that ever lived.

The Denver Egotist points out that this is fantastic inspiration to look at your own work place, work style, work solutions and explore a more creative way. This is great advice. What kind of over-the-top creativity could you bring to your day?

Think it doesn't belong in a meeting? An account presentation? A contract? You could argue the same for a math class. Go wild.

unilever sponsors street musicians

2009-11-03T07:40:00.001-05:00

Axe is sponsoring street musicians in NYC and other places across the stinky states. In exchange for a promotional fee, they display an Axe sign, hand out samples to anyone who wants them, and include an Axe theme song in their repertoire. This idea doesn't stink.

From JW Cannon. Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times

fighting morning face with kum & go coffee

2009-11-03T07:38:00.001-05:00

When we discovered Kum & Go while on tour driving through Missouri and Arkansas, there was some frat boy chuckling about whether the store's name was real or not. It is. Putting that aside, you'll have to appreciate their new promotion about Kum & Go coffee.

Fight Morning Face lets Kum & Go customers upload pics of their grossest, most out of sorts morning face for a chance to win a Kum & Go prize pack. The effort promotes "the cure for morning face," which of course is Kum & Go coffee, Nuclear energy drinks and breakfast sandwiches. Yummy.

forget 2012. the internet will be closed in 2010.

2009-11-03T07:26:00.001-05:00

This is a fun scarepost that reports how the internet is about to run out of domain names. It's true - it could happen in 2010, but as the Mashable post explains, as soon as everyone converts to a new internet protocol, everything will be just fine.

In the meantime, you could use this information to scare everyone in your firm. Start a series of meetings and committees to tackle the "2010 domain problem." You like meetings, right?

ask people what they think without the stupid long surveys

2009-11-02T08:11:00.001-05:00

Who's got time for a ten minute survey? Exactly. That's where Rypple comes in. Rypple is to feedback surveys what Twitter is to email.

This service lets you poll your employees, customers or anyone else in your circle to see how you're doing. Respondents get to answer your question(s) anonymously with short tweet-style answers. Sounds awesome. From JordanRules

your tweets graphed like an impressive science experiment

2009-11-02T07:40:00.001-05:00

This is so magnificently brilliant that we can only begin to understand its value.

The Social Collider tracks Twitter conversations through time and visualizes them much like a particle collider draws pictures of subatomic matter. (Not that we've ever seen a particle collider draw subatomic matter.)

Read all of the details on the development blog. From the ever brilliant Andy Jukes

people will stare at a rectangular screen anywhere. really.

2009-11-02T07:33:00.000-05:00

Right Guard hired a bunch of models, gave them specially equipped shirts, and asked them to show their armpits.

flyvertising. need we say more?

2009-11-02T07:21:00.001-05:00

A major breakthrough in advertising technology has now arrived. Flyvertising. Attaching your ads to flies, and then letting them lose on the world.

We wouldn't recommend this for the restaurant industry. Or certain world leaders.

rock and roll: dead, but well photographed

2009-10-30T07:47:00.002-04:00

There's an incredible exhibit that just opened at the Brooklyn Museum, featuring a collection of works from the legendary photographers of rock and roll.

The show includes early shots of artists, live shots, portraits, crowds and fans, and album covers and concepts. See you there. (One of my all time favorite covers is pictured above - Bow Wow Wow, shot by photographer Andy Earl.)

new, older packaging!

2009-10-30T07:41:00.000-04:00

Who even knew that there was old Monster Munch packaging?? Well there was. And apparently it was so good that it's better than the new stuff. You've got to dig brands that aren't afraid to have a little fun with their packaging.

perspective is everything

2009-10-30T07:35:00.001-04:00

Here's even more spectacular art from artist Felice Varini. These are part of an installation that he did over the summer in Vercorin, Switzerland. (What if one homeowner refuses to let him paint?)

print lives. on halloween.

2009-10-30T07:30:00.000-04:00

This has to be my favorite Halloween costume so far.