They Inspire

Well Worth The Wait

Ashley Walsh — 2012-04-03T13:13:20+00:00

University life without a car

Before owning my first car, a Gunmetal Blue 2011 Mazda 3, came many years of dreaming. Throughout my four years of University and first year at College, I had no access to a vehicle. Since I lived away from home, I walked, rode the bus or biked.

Grocery shopping on bike

Grocery shopping consisted of two hour trips; waiting for a bus to get to the store, waiting to catch
the bus back, and additional time waiting for transfers. In the summer most frozen food was out of the question, because it would spoil before getting home.

To avoid my life revolving around a bus schedule, my fiance and I, would usually ride our bikes to get around town. Grocery day was a true balancing act with 30-40lb grocery bags hanging off of the handle bars. The bags would swing into the tires, crash into the bike frame and sometimes break open, spilling eggs, celery and whatnot, onto the sidewalk.

We even did our Christmas shopping on bike once. It ended up snowing on our way home. We made it through the 10 km trek and walked through the intersections so we didn’t slip on the ice or snow.

Why would we ride our bikes when we could ride the bus? Well the bus never came at convenient times and we were the active type, not likely to wait around for a bus when we could be out getting things done. Plus, biking usually took the same amount of time, and didn’t consist of waiting for a bus that sometimes decided to not even show.

The Greyhound and its interesting passengers

While biking and riding around the city worked, not having a car really took its toll when we needed to travel home to visit family. My parents lived three to four hours away, and the greyhound trip usually extended that time frame. Riding the greyhound, you are exposed to a variety of interesting, to say the least, bus travellers. From people who had beer for breakfast to spontaneous karaoke, the bus trips home were not very private.

The car rental experience

Eventually we got into the habit of renting a car to travel home. Renting was expensive and the sales reps' quotes were constantly changing. They always brought up additional fees once you returned the car and feigned ignorance when you reminded them of their quoted price. And the upselling never stopped. Why not get an SUV? Why not get this insurance? Only $50 more for a GPS unit!

One March break, the rental company wanted almost $300 for less than a week’s rental. We decided then and there that owning a car may in fact end up being a cheaper alternative.

Without a car I was also unable to go horseback riding. Everyday I ached to get out and ride. We often would bike out to the country tack shops, just to get the feel of being out in nature, away from the city, and around people who loved horses.

When we first set eyes on our Mazda

When we first set our eyes on our Mazda, we were biking around London, Ontario. We were biking in 35 degree heat, dripping in sweat with the sun beating down on us. When we passed the Mazda dealership and saw the attractive gunmetal blue Mazda 3, it looked like a tall glass of water.

I said to my fiance, “Wow what car is that?!’”

My fiance, who could spend hours and hours researching and talking about cars, told me proudly, “That’s the new Mazda 3!”

It was an old new to him, but to me, it was my first time seeing the car and I was in love. We pulled over to look at the Mazdas and from there the desire grew.

Our life with a Mazda

Receiving the keys to our car, driving it home and driving it today is a surreal experience.
To think that we own a car, that we can go anywhere and do anything is hard to believe after years
of car-less existence.

Whenever a friend needs a ride, we offer it to them because we know what life without the luxury of having your own vehicle is like.

Owning a car has given us the gift of liberty. We are able to go horseback riding, on day trips, and easily get our groceries. Instead of two hour grocery trips, the drive only takes 10 minutes!

Every time we walk out to drive, our Mazda greets us with a great big grin on her face. Once we start driving we also have grins on our faces.

Winter-een-mas is Coming.

Shane Woodward — 2011-12-09T13:57:39+00:00

Looking through Leaf coloured glasses

Shane Woodward — 2011-09-20T15:42:12+00:00

My 2011-2012 predictions for the Blue and White.

Alright. I know Leafs fans do this every year, and every year we say "it's different this time!", but this time, I really mean it. While nobody can argue that it's been a long and terrible summer, I've personally felt the warm spark of optimism buried underneath all of the heartbreak and tragedy that's made this off-season one of the worst ever. Now I'm not talking about what has passed for optimism in the past few years, where fans get excited for a "clean slate", and comfort themselves thinking that "if only we don't screw up early we might be able to make something of it this year." Fresh starts are nice and all that, but if your optimism is entirely based around the fact that every team starts the season tied for first place, then you're probably in for another disappointing spring.

This year feels... different, somehow.

I could spend time trying to contextualize things like "youthful enthusiasm", but I'd rather just get to point.

Top 5 Positives for 2011-2012

1. Balanced scoring from Top 3 lines.

With our recent acquisitions up front, it's safe to expect some improvements in terms of point production, but let's not kid ourselves here. Adding Tim Connolly to the top line isn't going to turn Phil Kessel into Alex Ovechkin. While we may see improvements in production, and more importantly, plus/minus, I don't predict anybody reaching the 40 goal plateau this year.

What I do see is Toronto icing 3 lines that can be dangerous on any given night, making it hard for opposing teams to shut down the Leafs through the matchup game. Obviously the Connolly-Kessel-Lupal and Grabovski-Kulemin-MacArthur lines will be responsible for the bulk of this seasons goals, but I predict that the third line, likely Bozak-Armstrong-Kadri will contribute 40-45 goals to this year's campaign.

2. Greatly improved powerplay.

It wouldn't take much to improve on last year's special teams numbers, but I see a drastic improvement this year as far as the powerplay goes. Many people will want to chalk this up to bringing in players like Connolly and Liles (which certainly doesn't hurt), but I think the biggest driver of success will be the Leaf's ability to roll out two or three power play units, all with a different look (likely keeping the top two forward lines intact). Look for this year's PP to be much more mobile than in years past, with quick shifts, and much more sustained pressure in the offensive zone.

Projection: 19.8% - 9th in NHL

3. Solid goaltending.

This year I expect to see reliable goaltending out of Reimer and Gustavsson. I expect Reimer will slow down a bit from last year's surprising pace, but he'll remain solid. We won't see him on the list of Vezina candidates any time soon though. Even though Reimer's in much better shape coming into this season, look for him to struggle a bit with the workload as the season progresses, resulting in more starts from the Monster.

The long and short of it is that the duo will play well enough that the team won't completely fold like this did in years past when an early goal is scored against them.

4. Continued success of the Grabovski-Kulemin-MacArthur line.

In terms of point production, I don't think we'll see huge jumps over last year as a line, but don't let that fool you into thinking that they've maxed their potential as a unit. The fact of the matter is, other teams are going to be lining up their shut-down players against this line much more than they did last year, forcing the line to work harder to earn points. Unlike the Kessel line, this line will continue to lead the team in terms of plus/minus. Also, look for these three players to find additional time on the penalty kill, and don't be surprised to find Grabovski and/or Kulemin amongst the league leaders for short handed goals.

5. Continued physical play from the blue line.

Last year our D got off to a bit of a slow start, but look for the Leafs blue line as a whole to be one of the tougher ones to play against this year. While Schenn will likely be amongst the league leaders again, look for the team as a whole to finish in the top 5 for hits, and top 10 for blocked shots. The trade-off will be quite a few injuries, but the team is deep enough on the blue line that the injuries won't throw a wrench into the whole season.

Top 5 Negatives for 2011-2012

1. Shaky penalty kill.

While I'm predicting a much improved power play, I still expect the penalty kill to struggle a bit this year. I'm expecting a particularly rough start, with the percentage stabilizing after the the first 25 games to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack by season's end.

Projection: 82.0% - 17th in NHL

2. Injury woes.

While I expect that injuries on the blue line won't shake things up too badly, look for injuries up front to disrupt the chemistry of the forward lines from time to time. While this will give the team's young prospects time to shine, I think that by the all-star break, we'll be wishing we had a little more size up the middle.

3. Revolving door on the 4th line.

Look for injuries and inconsistency to hit this line hard as the season progresses. There may be 8 or so players auditioning for a spot on this line right now, but I expect most of them will get there shot throughout the year. Unlike the past few years where the Leafs Brass were willing to let players float for a few dozen games (Why didn't Hanson crack the lineup on opening day again last year? Oh yeah, John Mitchell), look for frequent scratches, and shuffling back and forth from the Marlies. By the end of the year, I predict we'll see Zigomanis, Rosehill, and Crabb all with 35+ games under their belt, and both Orr and Brown dealing with injuries.

4. Another disappointing season from Mike Komisarek.

Don't get me wrong. I like the guy, and it's hard to hate on someone who gets into trouble for trying too hard, but I expect more of the same from him this year. At a 6 million dollar price tag, I don't see any teams looking to make a deal for him, so I expect we'll see Komi in the press box a fair bit this season. The up side of it all is that I totally see Mike taking it to heart, and going all out next off-season. Expect him to shed 20 pounds by 2012-13, and look for him to secure a top-four spot next year with a much quicker, and simpler game.

5. Underwhelming OT/shootout record.

With tighter D, consistent goaltending, and scoring by committee, we should expect to see tons of 1-goal games, and more than our fair share of games going beyond regulation. Expect the go-to guys of Grabovski and Kadri to struggle in the shootout this year as opposing teams grow accustomed to their bag of tricks. Expect a record somewhere around 3-5 for the first half of the season, and a much improved 5-2 for the last half, largely due to the success of unlikely heroes like Colby Armstrong keeping it simple and getting the job done in the shootout. Half clapper top cheddar baby!

Top 5 Performers for 2011-2012

1. Nik Kulemin.

This kid has quietly improved year over year, and will continue to do the same this year. By season's end, look for him to quietly (he does everything quietly) become the team's best player. Granted, much of his success will come by way of the chemistry he has with his line mates, but look for him to use his size and strength more this year, and continue his solid two-way play.

Projection: 35 goals, 38 assists, 73 points, plus-15.

2. Dion Phaneuf

It's been a long time coming, but I expect to see Phaneuf finally deliver on some of the promise of his early years, and establish himself as a top-10 D-man in the league. I'm looking for Dion to keep his game simple and physical for the most part, with a good chunk of his point production coming by way of the power play. Expect the addition of John-Michael Liles to eventually result in some of the same magic we saw years ago with Kaberle-McCabe. While he won't lead the league in terms of goal production from defensemen, look for him to put up very solid numbers, and more importantly, stay a plus player.

Projection: 15 goals, 32 assists, 47 points, plus-8.

3. Joffrey Lupul

While most of the attention will be on Kessel, and how much Connolly will be able to help with his production, I expect to see the biggest improvement in production out of Lupal, resulting in a career year if he can stay healthy. It may take awhile for Connolly and Kessel to really click and start finding the back of the net, so look for Lupal to spend much of the season cleaning up the garbage around the front of the net, resulting in numbers at the end of the season that compete with Kessel and Kulemin as top scorer on the team.

Projection: 30 goals, 35 assists, 65 points, minus-2.

4. Tyler Bozak

Let's be honest with ourselves. We've all been way too hard on this kid. After putting up decent numbers during his rookie year, somehow we managed to turn "hoping he can fill in on the top line until we can find a top line centre" into "Bozak's a bum because he couldn't put up top centre numbers". Somehow the fact that last year was his first full season gets lost on everyone, and while his plus/minus was horrible, largely because he was stuck with Kessel and his complete lack of effort in the defensive zone, his point production wasn't all that bad if you think of him as an undrafted sophomore centre playing on a team that wasn't very good for most of the year. Now that we're not going to be saddling him with unfair expectations, and forcing him to face the opposing team's top shut-down players, I think we'll see Bozak deliver on the promise of his rookie stint. Supported by good chemistry with his 3rd line mates, it's not hard to imagine Tyler putting up more than 45 points this season. It'll be important that we don't read too much into his plus/minus this season, since his line will be facing up against other teams top offensive lines more often than not, but even so, expect an improvement over last year.

Projection: 22 goals, 26 assists, 48 points, minus-11.

5. Jonas Gustavsson

So far "The Monster" has been a bit of a disappointment, but honestly, what could we really expect. Ignoring his ongoing health issues, the bulk of his starts have come during the times when the teams poor defence would have made Tim Thomas look bad. Everone seems to think that Reimer will be the go-to guy this year, and that may very well be true, but I'm counting on Jonas to earn himself at least 30 starts this year, and wouldn't be surprised if he knocks on the door of 20 wins, particularly down the stretch when we start to see Reimer tiring out a bit.

Projection: 18-10-3, .918 SV%, 2.18 GAA

The Big Question:

So now that I've talked about all of these improvements, most non-fans are probably accusing me of parade planning. The reality is, as much as this team will improve over the ones we've seen in the past few years, we're still likely to be in the dogfight for the 6th-8th spots in the East. The difference is that I see us being a part of the fight for most of the season, and not having to rely on a late season surge to play catch up. Even still, things are likely to come down to the very last game, and shootout wins could mean the difference between 6th and 10th, so there's no room for extended slumps, or bad months.

Projection: 43-32-7, 93 points, 7th in East.

That's right kids, we're making it to the dance. Enjoy it while you can though, because I don't expect it to last too long. Expect a first round matchup against either Washington or Philadelphia, both teams which should stomp us into the ground so fast that we probably won't have to cancel many of our tee-times. Even an early first round exit is cause for celebration though, and things are only looking up from there.

Go Leafs Go!

Finally!

Shane Woodward — 2010-06-11T14:04:48+00:00

I first saw the movie trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time back in November, and right away I had a gut feeling that this would be the movie to break the very long chain of bad to absolutely horrendous video game adaptations. Since it's release, the film has received mixed reviews. For the most part, viewers have found it fun, and critics have hated it. Despite the less than stellar press, and the growing knot in my gut warning me that I was in for a let-down, my fiance and I hit the theatre last night for a light night showing, and am I ever glad we did.

I loved it!

Before we go any further, let's get a few things out on the table. First of all, you have to set the right expectations going into this movie. Are you going to see the next Academy Award winning movie of the year? No. Absolutely not. PoP (Prince of Persia) is not one of those movies, and it isn't trying to be. What you are going to see is a movie that took a big risk by basing itself on IP from a video game, particularly given Hollywood's unbelievably long track record of flops in this regard.

In the end, what we got was a very entertaining summer swashbuckler, loosely based on a video game, that didn't take itself too seriously.

What made it good:

Jake Gyllenhaal: Few people could have imagined him in this role. Most of you know Jake as Jack Twist from Brokeback Mountain, though we geeks know him as Donnie Darko. I was more than a bit worried about how he'd pull of the role. It turns out that I didn't need to be, since he was absolutely brilliant. Granted, a large part of this was good writing, but it's his on camera charisma (where the hell did that come from?) that turned him into this very likable hero that (like the movie) doesn't take himself too seriously. The only thing his performance left me wishing was that he'd been cast instead of Orlando Bloom (who wasn't so likable) in Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe even the Lord of the Rings trilogy, though an elf might have been a stretch. I guess I just don't like Orlando Bloom.

IP Execution: Part of what makes video game adaptations fail so miserably is that they try to force elements into the movie that just don't work on the big screen in a believable manner. Doom, and the Mortal Kombat movies are prime examples of this. In the Mortal Kombat video game, Liu Kang's bicycle kick (just 1 of about 1000 examples from this movie) doesn't detract from the realism, because there isn't any. When you try to execute that on screen, it just looks stupid. Is there some unwritten rule that movies based on video games have to be cheesy? While Karl Urban was pretty good in Doom, The Rock? Seriously? I mean seriously?

Prince of Persia, on the other hand, takes from the IP what will work on the big screen without forcing things in that won't. Most impressive of all was that they didn't overuse the gimmick (in this case the dagger that reverses time) that both the game and movie were based upon. That would have been a very easy trap to fall into, particularly since it was the gameplay mechanic that set the franchise apart other action games at the time. For movie adaptations to work in the future (I'm talking to you Mass Effect and World of Warcraft), they'll need to borrow this formula to succeed.

Everything Else: PoP wasn't without it's faults, but for the most part, those faults were few and far between. The film's leading lady, Gemma Arterton, was probably the weak link in the chain in terms of casting, though she wasn't all that bad. What she lacked in terms of character depth, she made up for in on camera appeal, and in many cases, that's what these roles are all about to begin with. The remaining cast, highlighted by Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina were very solid.

Conclusion:

I don't know why the critics have been so hard on this movie. Ignoring for a moment that this movie is based on a video game, and measuring it as a summer swashbuckler, it probably fell short of, say, the first Pirates of the Caribbean, but so has every other swashbuckler ever made. If you enjoyed anything about the first two Mummy movies (nobody really enjoyed the 3rd) then you'll love this movie because it's better by a mile. A very enjoyable popcorn flick that competently blends Aladdin's morals with Indiana Jones' light heartedness into a movie that's very much worth the price of admission. That it's the first good execution of a video game ever on the big screen makes it that much better.

Family Dental Centre campaign gives us a reason to smile.

Shawn Patriquin — 2010-05-04T15:32:54+00:00

For the most part we are a pretty humble shop that relies on the success of the work that we create for our clients as our celebratory reward. However, every once and while comes an opportunity where we have to 'toot' our own horns. Today is one of those days.

We received a letter today informing our firm that we have won a Silver award in the Summit International Creative Awards - Newspaper Campaign Category for our recent 'Smile Transformation' campaign for the Family Dental Centre.

The Summit Creative Awards recognizes worldwide the work of advertising, interactive, video production, graphic design and public relations companies with annual billings under $30 million a group that is often shadowed in national and international competitions by larger companies with multi-million dollar budgets. The awards program was launched in 1994 to reinforce the importance of these agencies and their influence on our everyday culture and the economy. Since then, the competition has established itself as one of the premier arbiters of creative excellence. Last year, the 2009 competition drew thousands of entries representing twenty-six countries from five continents.

The Summit Creative Award’s judges come from top creative agencies, some being Ogilvy and Mather; Paragon Marketing Communications; Elevator; MCN; Memac Ogilvy; PUSH, Inc.; Mudra ddb; Jeff Fisher LogoMotives; TribalDDB; Cocoon Branding; Promoseven Network Inc.; New York University; the Art Institute, Inc.; Promoseven McCann Relationship Marketing; Wieden & Kennedy; Hal Riney and Partners; Strategy & Beyond; Turner Studios; Grey Advertising; TBWA/Chiat/Day; Young and Rubicam; DDM Interactive; and Saatchi & Saatchi.

The Family Dental Centre 'Smile Transformation' Campaign ran in regional dailies, community weeklies and The Toronto Star.

Social Media Reading List

Erin Allen — 2010-03-19T18:21:46+00:00

I have decided that I still have much to learn about social media and that to do that I should read some books designed to teach me everything I need to know. Thanks to 10 Must-Read ebooks for Social Media Lovers and Top 5 Must-Read Social Media Books, from Mashable, and a small search on Amazon I have compiled a list of social media books I feel I must read.

The World According to Twitter - The Wit and Wisdom of the Twittersphere captured in a hilarious, and occasionally poignant, collection of handpicked tweets-the first-ever book created exclusively using content from Twitter.com!

Six Pixels of Separation -

Trust Agents - In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of social networks to build your brand's influence, reputation, and, of course, profits. Today's online influencers are web natives who trade in trust, reputation, and relationships, using social media to accrue the influence that builds up or brings down businesses online.
The book shows how people use online social tools to build networks of influence and how you can use those networks to positively impact your business. Because trust is key to building online reputations, those who traffic in it are "trust agents," the key people your business needs on its side.
* Delivers actionable steps and case studies that show how social media can positively impact your business
        * Written by authors with over ten years of online media experience
       * Shows you how to build and wield influence online to benefit your brand
       * Combines high-level theory with practical step-by-step guidance
If you want your business to succeed, don't sit on the sidelines. Instead, use the Web to build trust with your consumers using Trust Agents.

Crush It - In Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk shows how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about. He also delivers both high-level and platform specific strategy and analysis, allowing you to take advantage of the current business environment while preparing you to succeed as it changes and evolves.
Learn: Why social media has evened the playing field, destroying the “gate-keepers” who had previously dictated the distribution of content.
Learn: How to beat unemployment and create wealth-building opportunities by building and maintaining a personal brand.
Learn: Why storytelling is the most important business concept in the current marketplace.
Learn: How you can build an online business around your passion without quitting your day job.
Learn: Why Twitter and Facebook are just tools and not a social media strategy.

Social Media 101 - 100 ways to tap into social media for a more profitable business
In Social Media 101, social media expert and blogger Chris Brogan presents the best practices for growing the value of your social media and social networking marketing efforts. Brogan has spent two years researching what the best businesses are doing with social media and how they're doing it. Now, he presents his findings in a single, comprehensive business guide to social media.
You'll learn how to cultivate profitable online relationships, develop your brand, and drive meaningful business. Brogan shows you how to build an effective blog or website for your business, monitor your online reputation and what people are saying about your business online, and create new content to share with your customers.
* Presents specific strategies, tactics, and tips to improve your business through improved social media and online marketing
* Looks at social media and the wider online universe from a strictly business perspective
If you aren't using the Internet and social media to market your business and stay in touch with your customers, you're already falling behind. The Social Media 100 gives you 100 effective, proven strategies you need to succeed.

Twitter Tips and Tricks - A full-color, portable guide to getting all the fun and productivity from Twitter
Twitter is hot! It's used by everyone from teens keeping up with their friends to fundraising charities and organizations responding to natural disasters; even President Obama tweets. Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets gets you in on the fun, taking you all the way from setting up an account to incorporating cool third-party applications.
Defined as microblogging, Twitter allows you to be as active or passive as you choose in keeping up with the conversation. Limited to 140 characters per comment, or "tweet", it's designed for here-and-now communication. This handy guide gives you everything you need to know.
    * Guides you through setting up an account and following Twitter rules
    * Explains how to tweet from mobile devices
    * Shows how to add Twitter to a blog or to other social networking sites such as Facebook
    * Offers ideas for using Twitter in business as well as for personal contacts
    * Covers Twitter terminology
    * Provides useful tips and tricks for expanding Twitter's usefulness through third-party applications
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets explores all the features of Twitter, so you can join the conversation and discover what all the buzz is about.

I’m hoping these books will help my desire to learn anything and everything about social media and give me the knowledge I need to succeed in the social media world.
If anyone has read these book feel free to share your thoughts on them, or if you know other books that you think are a good resource share that too.

One Proud Daddy: Child’s First All-Nighter.

Shane Woodward — 2010-03-15T15:17:07+00:00

It's funny what a parent can be proud of...

My son, Ethan, has never really been a gamer. At least not in any way that I'd define the term. Sure, he spends a good deal of his free time on his computer, and much of that playing video games, but I'd never say that it's something he's passionate about. More like something he does to pass the time when he's bored.

This weekend, after building myself a new computer last week, I gave Ethan's computer a much needed upgrade, and installed a few games on it that wouldn't run on his old machine, most notably, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age: Origins. Last night, sometime before dinner, I set everything up for him, and demoed the games. He seemed fairly interested, and soon after started into Mass Effect.

I took Tonya (my fiance) out to a movie last night, so we left Ethan, who recently turned 15, to his own devices. When we got home, he was still playing, and it was all I could do to get him to come downstairs to grab the bag of popcorn we'd brought home for him. Tonya and I "chillaxed" for a couple of hours, and decided that since we'd skipped dinner to catch an early movie, that we'd head over to Denny's for some late night (11 o'clock-ish) grub.

Now you almost have to know my son to really appreciate this. You have to understand that he's at that stage in his life where he's always hungry. It's not uncommon for him to be rooting around in the fridge at midnight. If he's not in the fridge, he's asking to order pizza, or go through drive-thru for burgers. It's not that he doesn't eat dinner either. Usually he's had dinner at least twice by this time of night.

So last night as we were heading out for a bite to eat, we of course asked Ethan if he wanted to come along, and assumed that he'd be all over the idea. Imagine my surprise when he said "Thanks, but I'm not really hungry."

Now before I get too far, I want to point out that it is March break, and although we normally give Ethan tons of freedom where his sleep schedule is concerned so long as it doesn't effect his schoolwork and whatnot, normally we'd like to have him in bed for midnight. Ish. Don't want you all thinking we're bad parents.

So anyway, Tonya and I met a friend of hers at Denny's, ate much, and made our way home for about 1:00 am. I wandered upstairs to see if Ethan had called it a night yet, and sure enough he was still hacking away at Mass Effect. I wished him good night, opted not to give him the "don't be up all night" speech since it was March break, and turned in for the night.

This morning, I woke up and went through my usual routine, expecting to be the only one awake. As I passed by his room on the way to shower, I caught the familiar sound of video game explosions. Peeking through his bedroom door I asked, "Up early or still awake?" to which his response was, "I wasn't really tired, so I stayed up." He immediately followed up that with "I didn't play the game all night," in that guilty sounding voice that suggested that he'd done just that, probably only breaking to use the bathroom and raid the fridge. I laughed and let him get back to his game.

Where Ethan's concerned, there are many things to be proud of. He's a good kid. He does extremely well in school. He's gifted with a sharp wit and piercing intellect. While all of those things make me extremely proud, something about last night's (and this mornings) events struck that magic chord within me, giving birth to all new levels of pride. I guess it's natural for parents to be proud of those things that remind them of themselves, those things that reinforce the sense of continuity between parent and child. It seams absolutely ridiculous to be proud of such a thing, but proud I am. Bursting at the seams proud even.

To the gamers out there: Do you remember your first all-nighter? I remember mine. I was, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, 15 years old at the time, and the game was Breath of Fire II on the Super Nintendo.

That has cool packaging.. lets buy it.

Melanie MacDonald — 2010-03-09T15:32:49+00:00

Thinking back to the first year of college and sitting in class, listening to your professor going on and on about how choosing design as a career choice is going to change the way to take notice of the world, naturally we all were thinking the same thing – sure ok, sounds good. Half way through second year that same teachers asks if we saw the new signage across the street that used some horrendous excuse for a typeface, naturally we all have and it becomes the topic of the morning.

Even as a junior graphic designer, now just finishing third year, I’m noticing and looking for the design aspect of everything. It’s become a little bit of a hobby looking for great design. I’ve taken an interest in the past little while to packaging design. On a trip to the grocery store for example. I’m sure the family has grown tired of the phrase: “wow that has great packaging, lets get it.” I often find myself buying an item I really don’t need, just because the packaging is unique. Looking over rows and rows of some pretty sad design, it seems like a great find when you can pick out that one piece that sets itself apart from the shelves. A diamond in the rough.

Packaging design has become a great inspiration of mine to create good solutions in all aspects of design. Here are some websites to help get your mind flowing:

Smashing Magazine – Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design

Jan-Eike Koormann Blog – 2009 Pentaward Winners

My personal favourites of the bunch:

Little Warmers:

These little guys are so cute. Design by Thirdperson, these little soup cup covers are made of a heat resistant cardboard. I love the sweater-like appearance that really conveys these soups will stay toasty warm.

Kleenex Tissue Box

I’m not really sure why these are designed like fruits but I thought it was a unique idea. I would definitely buy one if I saw them in a store.

3D Movies, An Ever Growing Trend

Erin Allen — 2010-03-08T15:32:45+00:00

I went to see Alice in Wonderland on the weekend. Refusing to wait for the crowds to die down in order to see what was sure to be an excellent movie. I, of course, went to see the movie in 3D and as with any 3D movie I was happy with my decision.

3D, which is becoming an exceedingly popular trend, is in my opinion worth the extra money and the slight head ache. When items are popping out of the screen at you, you can’t help but feel involved. This works well in a movie like Alice because the Underland is very interesting and a place that I'm sure many people would love to visit. Some other movies that are set to be released in 3D are, Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, Dispeciable Me, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2, Disney's Rapunzel, and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, that's just the tip of the ice burg. I09 has a list of 32 films to be released in 3D over the next few years.

While I don’t really understand how 3D works, I am excited for the advances that are sure to come. Including bringing 3D into the home, which Blu-ray players will be doing later this year. I'm just waiting for a time where the glasses are no longer necessary. Although they fit over my perscription glasses wearing two pairs of glasses isn't exactly comfortable.

Small town Canadian boy calls out nation’s hockey team.

Shane Woodward — 2010-02-26T14:13:30+00:00

I've been pretty hardcore during this year's olympics. In the past, I've done my best to watch key sports, mainly hockey, but this year I've been all over the olympics. Last night I had hockey up on the big-screen, while watching men's curling and arial skiing online in HD, all at the same time. I've been bleeding maple flavoured red and white this year, and my team, my country has delivered.

Last night, just as our Canadian women's hockey team brought home their third straight gold medal, I found my self embarrassed to be Canadian, and embarrassed to be a hockey fan, due to what I am calling the "douchebaggery" of the Canadian men's olympic hockey team.

CTV did a great job of covering the game, and moreover, did a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the arena last night as Canada supported their gold medalists. All of Canada that is, except the Canadian men's hockey team.

At least half a dozen times during during the game and post-game celebration, the camera crew panned up to show many members of the men's hockey team up in the press boxes, and not once.. not one single time did I even see a smile. Not after a goal. Not after two goals. Not after the buzzer ending the game, or during the on-ice celebration. Not once.

What the hell?

Are you overpaid monkey's too good to throw up your hands and cheer for your nation's best hockey team? Yes, I said your nations best hockey team. You know, the ones that haven't buckled under the pressure; the ones that have delivered on their promises and brought home top honors in "Canada's Game" for 3 straight olympics. Or are you intimidated by their success? Maybe awestruck by their skill? That's entirely possible, I suppose. Women's hockey lacks the physicality that I enjoy in the masculine brand of the game, but you can't argue that there was just as much skill (if not more) on the ice last night than we'll see tonight during the men's semifinals.

So what was it? What made you so much better than the rest of us that it was beneath you to even throw out a half-assed fist pump last night?

I'm in an awkward spot now. Because of my passion for the sport and my want to support our athletes, I'm still going to cheer on this team stoic douchebags that call themselves Canadian. Deep down though, there's a part of me that'd love to see you (the team) get stopped into the ice. That's right, I said it. I'd also wager my pay-check against yours (most of you made more money while I typed this rant out than I made all last year) that you'll find most of our women's hockey team in the stands, probably not in press boxes, cheering you on every step of the way.

GO CANADA GO!

Inspiring Video for Designers

Breanne Sinibaldi — 2010-02-25T18:48:10+00:00

It is no secret to my friends and family that I'm in love with the blogging community. It always brightens my day to log onto my Google Reader and see the multitude of new updates by various creatives around the world. After going through every new update the other day and still feeling the need for more I decided to take a peak at all the "Starred" posts i've neglected to go back to. I found a bunch of posts that included some very interesting videos.

Here are some of my favourites:

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

And my all time favourite is this one by professor and students in a graphic design program. Shot with a RED One, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a Canon EOS 40D, and a Nikon D80. All typography was made out of jell-o, potatoes, squash and other random items.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend everybody. More inspiration to come.

Quinte’s Third Tweet-Up

Erin Allen — 2010-02-24T13:04:15+00:00

On February 18th I had the privilege of attending one of Quinte's tweet-ups. This was my first tweet-up and I'm very happy I went. Being new to the twitter world, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but luckily I had back-up in the form of friends. One was an avid tweeter who seemed to know everyone through twitter, while the other was even newer to twitter than I, and wasn’t following anyone in the room. I sat comfortably in the middle, and although I'd followed some of the people that attended, there were still several that I didn’t know.

Everything at the tweet up ran smoothly, and awkward pauses, which I thought would be abundant, where few and far between. Conversation flowed freely from what was happening in Belleville, to the Olympics, to what so-and-so tweeted. It was a nice change to have full-blown conversations with people whose communication is normally limited to 140 characters. Everyone mingled with everyone else, and that is what made the experience so great.

The tweet-up was an interesting and valuable event I that I would repeat in a heart beat.

Discovering a New Sound Makes our Week

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-12-11T13:56:29+00:00

Anyone that has been to our firm or has tuned in our agency radio station knows that there is always great tunes spinning in the office. Music is a big part of our culture here and we love it when we discover a new artist that provides a unique sound. Recently we discovered two great rockabilly ones that we've been listening to all week.

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are a three-piece band comprising the teenage siblings of the Durham family. Their music is influenced heavily by R&B, swing, jump blues, country and Western, blues, Hawaiian and rock 'n' roll. They are all multi-instrumentalists playing guitar, piano, banjo, lapsteel guitar, harmonica, double bass, ukulele, drums, trombone, xylophone and accordion between them.

Imelda May

Having fallen in love with rockabilly and the blues as a nine-year-old in Dublin – the only kid in her class who wasn’t into a-Ha and Wet Wet Wet – she’s turned them into a cool, swinging fusion that’s both classic and oddly modern.

Tune into to they inspire live this morning for a listen.

The NEW SkinBeautiful website has officially launched!

Ryan Blaind — 2009-12-02T15:08:22+00:00

After roughly a month of development on the new SkinBeautiful website project (winners of the "Our Site Sucks" contest), we are pleased as pie to announce it's official launch! You can view the live website right here. The site is built and content managed with ExpressionEngine. Take a look around and post a comment to let us know what you think! Also for those who may have missed the earlier post, you can view the old website here.

Also, stay tuned to our blog, as we will be doing an indepth tour of the SkinBeautiful control panel, to illustrate how easy we made it for our client to manage their content. Also included in this future post will be a detailed breakdown on how we customized ExpressionEngine, as well as what add-ons were employed to create specific functionality for those who want to know.

Bad creative or bad brief? I blame the client.

Brian Freeman — 2009-10-28T19:14:23+00:00

Good creative work deserves to recognized. At the very least, work that stands out amidst the clutter should be appreciated. Conversely, bad work should also be called out as such. Often in our industry mediocre work is celebrated as being something more than simply the sum it’s parts, usually by the beige talent that created it in the first place, and it should never see the light of day. Who’s to blame? Sometimes, quite honestly, it’s the client.

Case in point: the recent print campaign currently running for Industrial Alliance, an insurance and financial services behemoth (literally), and the redesign of their corporate logo that preceded the campaign.

But first, a little bit about Industrial Alliance, and the reason for the redesign of their corporate identity, taken from the Insurance Canada website:

“The fifth largest life and health insurance company in Canada, Industrial Alliance insures over 1.7 million Canadians, employs more than 2,600 people and manages over $30 billion in assets.... Industrial Alliance’s corporate image evolved in March 2007. Its new logo, inspired by the previous one, but with a more solid appearance, truly reflects its identity as a financial institution and its new challenges.

Since the elephant has been associated with the Company for several years and gradually became one of the most powerful features of it’s institutional identity, Industrial Alliance decides to integrate it into its new logo. The five simple yet stylized lines that form the elephant symbolize the Company’s contemporary, dynamic, solid, warm, and trustworthy nature and are an integral component of Industrial Alliance’s new visual identity.”

Wow. They really shoveled the elephant poo on the rationale. That’s a tall order for any logo. - “the five lines of the logo symbolize contemporary, dynamic, solid, warm and trustworthy”? The elephant, as corporate icon, could just as well be interpreted as symbolizing the fact your organization is slow moving and hasn’t changed since the ice age. At least that would be easier to digest and probably be closer on mark.

But my issue isn’t with the logo itself, it’s how the re-design came about in the first place.

Industrial Alliance organized a contest between a few agencies and their own in-house designers. It was created in a vacuum without, I assume, any meaningful communication between the client and the designer. The result is a superficial update that seems to represent change for change’s sake. Good PR, lackluster branding. One of the most formidable assets that any company has is its brand. IA, a company with a 100 year history, 2,600 employees and $30 billion in assets, played spin the bottle with their brand asset. Sometimes, as the expression goes, clients get the work they deserve.

At any rate, they tweaked the corporate logo in advance of a significant campaign that rolled out in major dailies to communicate just how contemporary, dynamic, solid, warm and trustworthy they are. Drum roll please...

I’m not sure what virtue, feature or benefit is meant to be communicated in these ads. What I do know is that the corporate elephant is seen interacting in everyday situations among every day people, like riding the subway or crossing a busy city street. Apparently unnoticed. The odd Photoshop motion blur is applied to the background here and there, I guess to make it seem like the corporate elephant isn’t a large, slow moving beast at all.

I read the ad. I didn’t get it. I read the headline again, “You won’t find us at the zoo!”. Did market research reveal IA’s customers were going to the zoo for their insurance and financial products? If so, was the agency charged with the responsibility of correcting this behaviour? And how come no one is paying attention to the elephant? Christ, if I saw an elephant on the subway I’d run like hell, not continue to read my newspaper. Why not change the headline to read, “We’ve been around for 100 years, pretty much invisible, but now we are the elephant in the room.”

The supporting copy lamely tries to tie the message and creative together, “with you for over 100 years” and, “a partner you can trust”. I guess that speaks to the longevity of the great beast, and that elephants are somehow more trustworthy than the rest of the animal kingdom (read insurance and financial services industry). Maybe the ads should have used a white elephant, a byword that’s come to mean anything expensive, useless or bizarre.

Regardless of how we evaluate creative to be either good or bad, or what metrics we apply to gauge the quality and effectiveness of the creative, there will always be one constant in play: the client approves the creative. Always. So bad creative? Bad brief? Either way, I blame the client.

I realize I may be beating IA up a bit so I’ll throw them a bone, pro bono. I’ve taken the liberty of re-designing their old logo with something that I feel symbolizes the fact that they are contemporary, dynamic, solid, warm and trustworthy. Like Industrial Alliance, I didn’t put much thought into it either.

Full Circle?

Shane Woodward — 2009-10-26T14:32:01+00:00

For those of you that haven't yet heard, Creed, the band that basically shaped (for good or for ill) the future of mainstream "flyover" rock is back together. Their new album, "Full Circle", is set to be released tomorrow, but we're going to give you a chance to hear the album in full today at 2:00 pm on they inspire live.

Love them or hate them, you can't argue with the fact that Creed has sold more albums and made more money than god. Personally, I liked the raw breakout sound of the band (My Own Prison) much more than any of the over-produced "look we're rich" sounds that came after achieving stardom (Human Clay and afterwards). For most people, that post-success sound is the only Creed they've ever known, an in many cases, the Creed they've learned to hate. When I heard that the album was going to be called "Full Circle", I truly hoped that it meant that they were going to be going back to that raw sound of their first album.

First Impressions.

It's big. I don't mean that it's physically big, or that it's lengthy. I mean that it's full sounding, with fat and crunchy guitar riffs driving each song, which means that Mark Tremonti was allowed the same sort of freedom he'd grown accustomed to with Alter Bridge (Tremonti's post-creed project). It's not the sort of album that you queue up for easy listening background music. Unfortunately, I just didn't feel that Scott Stapp could compete with or compliment the big sound vocally the way that Myles Kennedy could with Alter Bridge, so for the entire album it just feels like Stapp is trying too hard. Maybe it's just me, but I find that it all feels a bit awkward, sort of in the same way that any of the new Pearl Jam feels awkward. Forced even. Given the bad breakup in 2004 and the limited success of Tremonti and Stapp afterwards, I can understand that each may be walking on egg-shells while also making sure that they have their equal share of the creative pie. All in all, it's resulted in a sound that feels like it lacks cohesion, and all the while, I kind of wish that it'd been an Alter Bridge album with Myles Kennedy fronting instead. I'm not giving up on the album yet, since I really only had a chance to skim it last night. It might grow on me.

What do you think of it? Tune in to they inspire live at 2:00 pm (EST) for our premier of "Full Circle".

Our Site Sucks Update - Phase 1

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-10-16T18:42:33+00:00

As indicated in a previous blog post, the winner of the Our Site Sucks promotion was SkinBeautiful, a cosmetic medi-spa located in Belleville, Ontario.

We chose SkinBeautiful because we felt that their current site (while certainly not the worst of the entries) was the one that had the biggest room for improvement given the nature of their business. We recently presented a new identity and static mock-up to SkinBeautiful and thought that we would share the items presented as they have now been approved by the client.

Take a look at what we came up with! Please don't hesitate to leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

So what you see here is the final approved new corporate identity for SkinBeautiful, as well as a static mockup of their home page to give an idea of the new direction/design of their new website. There are still some things to work out related to the content which is why some stuff is greeked in. We are still working on refining this design as well as extrapolating this design out into content page templates as well.

Thanks to the folks at SkinBeautiful for being open minded to this process. This is when we do our best work.

Announcing the winner of the ‘Our Site Sucks’ Promotion.

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-10-06T18:53:46+00:00

We're about to work a little makeover magic of our own.

Well the decision wasn't easy but after reviewing dozens of entries from all over North America we chose www.skinbeautiful.ca as the winner of the 'Our Site Sucks' Promotion. While their site wasn't the worst of the entries, we felt it had the greatest promise for improvement given the nature of their business.

We met with the enthusiastic team at Skin Beautiful in Belleville last week to kick-off the project and after a very candid discussion about their current website, the conversation landed on their overall current brand positioning and as a result, we will rebranding their company to coincide with their new web launch. Our ultimate goal will be to provide them with a brand platform that is extendible to all aspects of their business, in particular their website.

Skin Beautiful's current website will be blown-up and be replaced with a hand-crafted site built from the ground up with the highest web-standards in mind. Once built, we will be hooking in one of the best CMS systems available (read ExpressionEngine) which will empower our client's to take total control of their web content moving forward.

It's going to be a great project and we encourage you to stay tuned to our BLOG as we will release updates as we move forward.

Friday Fix. September 7-11

Ryan Blaind — 2009-09-11T16:33:08+00:00

This is the first post hopefully in a series that will be coming out each and every friday for the next little while. There will be no structure to these posts, basically just a brain dump of cool things and notable websites that I have come across during the week. So here goes nothing.

9/11 Memorial

Today over at the Brand New blog, they have written up a post about the new identity for the 9/11 Memorial Site. I am loving the new design as well as the environmental graphics they came up with. Using such Hoefler & Frere-Jones as Gotham and Verlag, they really put this project on mark.

NewFoundBrand

This is the portfolio website of my good friend Jamie Collins aka NewFoundBrand. He has some amazing design work in his portfolio, also be sure to check out his identity work which is top notch in my opinion. Currently available for freelance work, feel free to contact Jamie if you would like to bring his talent into the mix. Also, as an aside it is interesting to note that his portfolio is running on the brilliant Cargo Collective portfolio framework. If you have a chance to get a beta invite to this service, do not pass it up.

Stefan Lucut

This is the portfolio website of Stefan Lucut which I find to be exceptional. Found via FormFiftyFive design blog, it is also interesting to note that Stefan is also running his portfolio on Cargo Collective.

Tweeeeet Aggregated Feeds

This is a great idea. Basically it is a giant page that aggregates many popular and well known designers' twitter feeds. Hit this site up when you are looking for inspiration. It is built rather well as well if I must say. Built by a design collective called cypher13, who also have a pretty slick website. Check it out cypher13.

Lovely Package Blog

This is a cool new blog that regularly posts notable packaging designs, not unlike The Dieline Blog

OdoSketch

This is a really neat idea for a community site. Odosketch, brought to you by a great company called Odopod, is an artist community site where users can sign up and create sketches right on the website. The homepage has some great featured sketches that are already finished, and they look great!

Fringe

This is a newly launched site for the television series "Fringe" brought to you from Fox. Aside from LOST this is one of my favourite shows. I blogged about the main title sequence a few months back as well if you're interested in having a read. Overall I think that this website layout is pretty tight, and makes me even more stoked to watch the season 2 premiere next week!

Some tunage

Here are a couple of new albums that I acquired this week, that I have been bumping in the headphones while I work. I thought I would share with you.

KiD CuDi - Man On The Moon: The End of Day

Great album so far, pretty laid back hip-hop, not your average gangsta rap. If you like Kanye, you will probably like this. Check out his myspace, to preview some of his stuff.

Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic

Love this band! This is their new release, and if you're into southern rock / hardcore stuff you will probably agree! Check them out on myspace.

Goodbye and Thank You

Charlotte Barker — 2009-08-28T12:37:47+00:00

Today being my last day at they, I thought I’d reflect on my time here and say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone at they integrated has been the most wonderfully inspiring group of people to start my career with. I am so grateful to you all for being such incredible mentors and putting up with my constant chatter (hehe).

I got started at they when I completed a four-month internship to conclude my studies at school. Once the internship was over, they gave me the opportunity to represent the company in a social media capacity as the Twintern. Coming into the position neither I nor they knew what to expect as it was sort of an experiment. The plan was to gain awareness via social networks, become familiar with the tools and practices and create a corporate presence online while providing me with valuable experience to take with me and expand on in my career. Prior to my internship in January, I had little experience with Twitter and used Facebook solely to post pictures and chat with friends. All that changed once I began my journey into the social world. I began managing theys online accounts, creating conversation, engaging, populating content etc. and fell in love with it. It helped that the company I was doing it for was so passionate and organic that it wasn’t hard to portray that with my own personality.

The experience they has given me is invaluable. I have gained extensive knowledge into multiple social networks, experimented with monitoring, measurement and listening tools, connected with incredible people from all over the world, and learned the marketing aspect of social media. Although I still have plenty to learn (every day is a learning experience) I now have a solid base to build on. For they, the experiment generated many hits to their website and built a wonderful community of creative and inspiring people. They now have a network of about 1200 people (and growing) that know about them and are part of their community to engage, learn, share and grow with on networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and more. I can’t help but be pleased with the whole experience.

Being @theyinspire’d

What have I learned (that can be shortened down into this post)? When I first started I really didn’t know anything about social media marketing or community building. I didn’t know anyone involved in networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn and so they were not incorporated into my life (which now blows my mind that I was not involved before). It’s hard to come right out of school and into the world of advertising and before I knew it I was up to my neck in social media surrounded by mavens and guru’s and it was definitely intimidating. You really have to prove yourself, especially as a younger person. I quickly learned the importance of engagement and conversation but what I slowly began to figure out was community, which I have found to be one of the most valuable elements of social media - from a personal and a marketing perspective. I have learned that people can see right through a marketing push and can and will turn you off, but if you can learn to be genuine and build trust within your community people are more than willing to hear your message and spread it if they believe in it. I have learned that measurement can mean a lot of different things to different people and in different circumstances and that you need to find the right ROI (among other terms) to fit your specific goals. Whether that be website traffic, engagement, or a combination of things. Building a social community takes time and patience and nurturing and commitment, especially to market effectively to and it is forever growing, expanding and evolving. Social media is not a fad and it’s not going away. And I think the most valuable thing I have taken from the whole experience is that I never really knew where I was going to fit in in the advertising world until recently.

The best team out there.

I feel like this may have been the downfall to my experience. I have been spoiled with working with such incredibly talented, creative and genuinely nice people that I think my standards are very high for the type of atmosphere I hope to work in. Every one of the people at they and their clients are wonderful people and have all been nothing but eager to help me and offer me experiences. They are definitely a family that I have enjoyed learning from and a group of people I am glad I have been able to meet and create relationships with. And there are a million things I am going to miss about being a part of the they team but the experience is something I am going to have for a lifetime.

So what’s next?

Much to Shanes disappointment, I will not be consuming my life with World of Warcraft (although I must admit I will probably watch The Guild on occasion). I am going to continue to pursue a career in advertising focusing on social media and community management. And in the meantime, while searching, I’m going to work on building my personal brand and community online. I am going to (with help) set up my own web page and start a blog (which I am super excited about). I will also be working on some independent projects surrounding social media and charities and see where it all takes me. The last few months have really opened my eyes to a world of possibilities that I’d like to explore more of. So what’s next is wide open but thanks to they I have many new skills and experiences to take forward!

Once again, thank you so much to everyone at they for having me on board!

@charlotthrb

A Cool Social Media Video

Charlotte Barker — 2009-08-25T17:53:42+00:00

I've seen this video a few times and every time I love it more. If you're ever wondering what the scope and impact of social media is, this video shows it.

Social Media Revolution

Social networking site Out For a Ride lets your track your bike ride and share with friends

Ryan Blaind — 2009-08-21T15:47:16+00:00

I have been on a bit of a health kick lately, and have been riding my bike a lot in the evenings after dinner. It's been great getting back into riding, and I actually still have my original mountain bike from when I was a kid. Still works great, even though it's from the mid 90's. Recently I stumbled across a website called Our For a Ride, which is a social network for cycling enthusiats.

Users of the site are able to enter all of their different bikes and gear into the system, create routes that they take around the city using a slick google maps editor, and also track their rides once they have created a route. This is a pretty great idea, you don't need a speedometer, or a GPS when you are riding, all you do is setup the route you plan to take, go ride the route and time yourself while you are at it. Once you get back, you just add a new ride, select the route you took, enter your time and the website automatically calculates your average speed. Another cool thing about this is on your finished ride page it shows you the map, including the elevation changes. Super cool. One other environmentally friendly feature on this site is that it also calculates your carbon offset that you create when you go for rides.

I have added a few friends on the site, you can view my profile here. Go get an account and add me as a friend!

As kind of an aside to this website, I also recently came across the proposed user interface design for a companion iPhone app for Out For a Ride. The UI was designed by a great designer by the name of Chance Graham. You can check out screenshots of the user interface on this webpage.

From what I've gathered I don't think that the iPhone app itself is in production yet, it is still just a concept, however I really hope they find a developer to write it because I would use the heck out of it. I would also probably get an iPhone mount for my bike cause I am a geek like that, it's how I roll.

Young People Don’t Tweet, Young Professionals Do

Charlotte Barker — 2009-08-19T18:20:17+00:00

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding young people and why they don’t tweet. This video by Beth Kanter nails it. Watching this made me realize, young people don’t tweet, young professionals do. That’s why I was so excited when I heard a few weeks ago that @LenKendall was working on a project to create a list of the top under 30 tweeters. The list was released today; Top 30 Under 30 Tweeters: Volume 1. The first of many to come, this list recognizes up and coming under 30 tweeters and is meant to be a resource for young people on Twitter to aspire to. Not only are there some amazing people featured, but there are also over 100 nominees that are equally incredible that should not be overlooked. As Len describes it:

‘To recap the 30 under 30 Tweeters Project, we set out to find the best tweeters born after 1979 so that there would be a resource out there that people in this category could learn from and aspire to.’

The point of #30u30t and of Len’s recent panel submission for SXSW, Underrepresented at South by Southwest (check it out and help get this panel through), is to bring a voice to young people in the industry who 'get it' and to shed light on the obstacles young professionals are faced with as they try to make leeway in the digital world.

I also came across a new discussion #u30pro starting next week where people of any age can discuss how young professionals can contribute and grow in the workplace hosted by @CubanaLAF and @DavidSpinks (two people who are also listed as #30u30t).

These things are not only great resources for young and old alike, but are stepping stones in the initiative for young people to gain ground and respect in the online world.

(On a side note, I'd like to thank Len Kendall and all the judges for featuring me as one of the Top 30 Under 30 Tweeters. It's an honor and a nice surprise to be among such forward thinking young professionals)

Vanish. Finding Evan Ratliff

Ryan Blaind — 2009-08-18T13:40:59+00:00

Author Evan Ratliff Is on the Lam. Locate Him and Win $5,000.

Wired magazine is running one of the coolest promotions that I have seen in a while right now. As of August 15th, Author Evan Ratliff has voluntarily gone missing off the grid. He will be gone for 30 days, and you can win $5,000 cold hard cash if you spot him and snap a picture of him. To me this is great because it ties in a recent article that Ratliff wrote about the subject of disappearing, titled "Gone forever. What does it take to really disappear?". I recommend reading this full article, it's very fascinating.

Starting August 15, I will try to stay hidden for 30 days. Not even my closest friends or my editors will know where I am. I’ll remain in the US and will be online regularly. I will continue to use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and I’ll make cell phone calls. I’ll generally stay in the kind of social environment I like to live in (no hiding in a cabin in Montana), and I’ll keep track of my pursuers, searching constantly for news about myself.

For more information about the contest, check out this page. For daily updates and clues as to Ratliff's location, you can visit this page. I don't think I will be participating in the search, however I have been following the vanish page daily for updates as I find this sort of thing fascinating.

Similar to the recent J.J. Abrams edited issue of Wired where there was a hidden meta puzzle embedded into the magazine, Wired keeps giving me more reasons to love them.

Take your own advice.

Shane Woodward — 2009-08-17T18:35:43+00:00

I've spent a good part of the day trying to wrap my head around the "Think B4 You Speak" campaign that's started making the rounds. Before I jump all over the campaign (fear not, I will) I want to make it absolutely clear that I think that the cause is quite noble, and that, in fact, I agree with the message, but not with how it has been delivered.

The problems start at the very top with the strategic direction chosen to get the message across. Essentially, it's an anti-insult campaign that tries to assert itself by insulting the target of their message. This might have worked, except that the "slanders" used aren't brutal enough to warrant a second glance. Let's face it. Nobody ever responds to this kind of message, and lamely telling them to "knock it off" likens the whole thing to a group of 6 year old children on the schoolyard, exchanging insults that they don't really understand, eventually resorting to shouting things like "I know you are but what am I?", all while threatening to escalate the issue (tell their mother).

They're trying to regulate jerk behaviour by acting like jerks, and unfortunately, they don't have the chops to pull it off. Essentially, they've brought a knife to a gun fight, and the guys with the guns have itchy trigger fingers.

Our First Tweet-Up

Charlotte Barker — 2009-08-07T14:19:48+00:00

We ate, we drank, and we socialized in more than 140 characters.

Yesterday we hosted Quinte’s very first tweet-up. We had such a good turnout and we were able to meet a lot of really great people. The tweet-up was a nice opportunity for us and everyone who attended to meet local peeps on Twitter and to build an on and off line local social community.

We’d like to thank everyone who attended and hope to see you all again at the next one.

If you have any suggestions for the next tweet-up please leave them in the comments.

Tweet Tweet.

@theyinspire

Pack your Merkin, Burners, we’re going on a road trip.

Brian Freeman — 2009-08-06T14:41:17+00:00

Whenever I'm planning a summer vacation I always have the Burning Man festival in the back of my mind as a possible destination. Burning Man is an experiment in 'Temporary Community" hosted for a week in Nevada's Black Rock desert. It is a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever. It's primarily one part arts festival, one part Woodstock, with or without the Peyote. This year's event runs from August 31st through to September 7th.

Burning Man always loses out to something more practical, like the cottage. But how can you not be intrigued by this warning on the official Burning Man website:

"The desert is a place worlds away from that to which most of us are accustomed, and is governed by physical laws that cannot be ignored. You are responsible for your own survival, safety, and comfort. Read this Survival Guide carefully and make sure EVERYONE in your group reads it as well..."

Burning Man is too difficult to explain, but you will experience a sense of community like no other, Hunter S. Thompson style. You will not be the weirdest kid in the classroom, guaranteed (this year you can experience a full-scale functional Raygun Gothic Rocketship). Burning Man is too daunting to explain, but first time 'Burners' can prepare for it by reading the Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter.

So, if you're the adventurous type, pack your Merkin (please look that up), and head west young Burning Man. Visit www.burningman.com

How They Radio Hit the Airwaves

Charlotte Barker — 2009-08-04T15:18:58+00:00

You don’t have to go to band camp to appreciate good organic music. We didn’t. Well maybe Brian did, but that’s another story. This story is about the birth of our wicked radio station ‘they radio’ that hit the airwaves last week. We think it’s pretty cool and since we know that you’re cool people, we know you’ll think it’s cool too. And don’t worry, Brian made sure that no country hee haw two-stepped its way on air despite Sarah’s efforts. But as talented as we are, and as much as we’d like to snap our fingers and there’s our kick ass radio station, this was a process and we'd like to share that process with you. So turn up your volume and tune in while we show you how they radio was born.

We really wanted the freedom and ability to quickly change up the music depending on what we felt like playing and since the idea behind it all was to take what we were listening to in the office and make it public through a complete in house job, we decided that using our itunes was the best way to go about it. We searched the web for a tool that would help us easily transform our itunes into a stream and that’s how we found Nicecast from Rogue Amoeba. This application literally hijacks your itunes and turns it into a stream giving us the freedom and simplicity we were looking for.

Once we had transformed our itunes we realized we needed something to jazz it up and make it sound a little more authentic, so we came up with some original one-liners to be randomly streamed between songs. Not only do the one liners jazz it up, but they add one more extension of our office personality. That’s right, a little piece of they is jiving right into your home or office.

Since we were doing everything in house and wanted the freedom to change things up quickly and easily, we opted to use text-to-speech technology for the voices in our radio tags. Here is an example of text-to-speech.

One of the biggest challenges using TTS was getting it to sound natural. Sometimes you have to swap in letters, add abnormal punctuation, use homonyms, and generally just mess around to get the best effect. For instance, one of the one-liners we have says, "It's like viagra for your ears, except it lasts for ever. You're listening to they radio."

In order to make this sound natural in the TTS application we used, we actually had to enter it as "It's like vi-agra for your ears. Accept, this lasts four ever. Your lisening two they, radio."

Swapping in homonyms, or words that sounded like what you are trying to say was particularly effective (two=to, four=for, your=you're) because the TTS engine would place completely different emphasis on these words, even though spoken by themselves, they would sounds almost the same. Adding punctuation could also change emphasis. For instance, if we had just used "they radio" without the comma, most of the TTS voices would not put enough emphasis on ‘they’ and it would almost sound like one word instead of two. Adding the comma completely changed how it sounded. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to get it right, and sometimes you just can't make it sound right and have to change the script entirely to make it work. Other times, you could get it close, and then rely on a sound editing tool (which comes next) to make small tweaks.

The main sound editor program we used is called Audacity, which is free, open source, and available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux. This is where we got creative with layering in sound effects, but it's important to keep things subtle and not too cheesy (although we do like a little fromage here and there). After the TTS phase, with some minor editing in Audacity, the file sounds like this,

Then for added impact we thought it would be cool to support the "crap kicking" with some relevant sound, so we checked "the googles" for some free/royalty-free sound effects and picked up some crowd noise that sounded like this:

and a boxing bell sound that sounded like this:

and pulled them into Audacity. Once in, we mixed them down to the right volume levels, timed them right, shortened the crowd noise and added some fades. The final result looked like this:

and sounded like this:

Each of the one liners took about 20 minutes depending on how much fiddling had to be done with the TTS to get them to sound right. In the future we’re hoping to refine the process a little more as we find better sources to improve the quality. Here's what we've come up with so far:

Viagara for your ears

Spinning tunes for the hell of it

Radio without the BS

Broadcasting to the free world and beyond

Doing it in front of an auidence

Commercial free (female)

Commerical free (male)

We sent out a beta version to a select few people to check out and received some great comments and useful feedback that we took into consideration when making our final tweaks. And after being in beta for a few weeks, it’s finally live on our site. Check out the top right hand corner of this page to tune in.

Our great selection of music will get your creative juices flowin’ and your dance moves goin’! And if you’re still craving more, you can tune into our theyinspire and staff DJ channels on Blip.fm. Turn up your volume and tune in to they radio. Why? Because it kicks the crap out of other stations!

Staff DJ’s: Shawn Brian Ryan Sarah Shane Charlotte

“Cougar Town” coming this fall

Sue Stewart — 2009-07-31T19:12:56+00:00

A great new show coming to ABC this fall called "Cougar Town" that's right Cougar Town starring Courtney Cox. I believe every women that is over the age of 30 can relate to this show. I loved this preview, especially the first 15 seconds, when she talks about when women notice weird things happening to their bodies and we just have to learn to laugh about it and move on. So for all you Desperate Housewives fans at there, check this out!! This is brilliant!!

Canadian Rock Tribute Weekend on They Inspire Live.

Shane Woodward — 2009-07-31T17:35:43+00:00

Alright. I've been typing this up uber quickly to get it up today as I'd promised. For those that happen to catch this entry early on, I apologize for the unedited writing. I'll try to go through it all and clean it up tonight.

So what's going on?

Well, basically I'm making up an excuse to play some tunes that I like on our shiny new "they inspire live" radio station. It's one of those holiday weekends that makes me proud to be Canadian. You know, a civic holiday, which basically translates to "WTF? We don't have any extra days off in August? That's not right." What better way to celebrate our national holiday than with a tribute to Canadian rock artists?

I'm going to be focusing on music that I listen to, or have listened to growing up, so I'll be spinning tunes mostly from 90s and 2000s. There were alot of great Canadian rock artists before the 90s, so as you listen to this program, try to remember that none of this music would have been possible without artists like Ronnie Hawkins in the 50s, David Clayton-Thomas, Steppenwolf, Neil Young, and The Guess Who in the 60s, Rush, Max Webster, and BTO in the 70s, and a bunch more in the 80s. Just to name a few of course.

You're actually being treated to two separate countdown here. The first will queue up some of my favourite songs from mainstream Canadian rock bands, guys that have been fortunate enough to achieve a certain level of success in the music business. The second, and perhaps more interesting program will feature music from Canada's undiscovered (mostly since I've discovered them) talent. Diamonds in the rough if you will. Some of these groups are seasoned veterans of the road, while others are little more than garage bands. What do they have in common? They all kick ass.

I'll start the radio program up at about 9:00 PM (I'm off to swing some clubs in a little bit), but in the mean time, or as you're listening later, take a few minutes and check out the lineup details below.

Mainstream Rock Artists

12 - Arkells

The Arkells are a fairly new rock band from Hamilton. Personally, I find their unique sound a refreshing departure from the west coast sound that has dominated modern rock for years. Despite being a new act, their single "Oh, the Boss is Coming!" has commanded airplay across the country, and thrust the band onto my mainstream list.

11 - Jet Set Satellite

Jet Set Satellite is one of those bands that made it, but never made it big. Back when I was playing in cover bands as a late teenager, this song "Baby Cool Your Jets" was a staple.

10 - Default

Alright. I know what you're thinking. They don't really rock. Default is the first example on this list that achieved a little bit of success and completely changed their sound to help rake in the cash. Being in a band is a business, and I guess you have to do what pays the bills. Default's mainstream radio singles are not what this band is all about though. I've seen them live on more than one occasion, and I can tell you that the are easily one of the best live groups I've seen. All of that radio rock gets instantly transformed into loud, crunchy, energetic licks that easily earn them a spot on this list. Their single "Deny" is the song that lead to all of their success, and is my favourite heard live.

9 - I Mother Earth

IME was my favourite Canadian band through high school. Although the band doesn't exist anymore (at least in the form that I spent so many hours listening to), their early music still has a special place in my heart, and their unique funk/rock sound a special place in all my playlists. "One More Astronaut", while not my favourite song by IME, is probably the best example of what made them different at the time.

8 - Thousand Foot Krutch

TFK has been around since 1997. Often mislabeled as a Christian Rock band, they've slowly gained more and more airplay over the years, and have worked and toured with some of Canada's greatest talent (some of which are on this list.) Their song "Move" off "The Art of Breaking" album is one of my favourites by the group.

7 - Thornley

I have a love/hate relationship with Thornley which dates back to Ian Thornley's days as the frontman for Big Wreck. Ian himself is one of the most gifted guitar players to come out of Canada, but, at least from what I can tell, the guy's a complete tool. He goes through band members like you and I go through oil changes, and their live sounds is inconsistent at best. I've seen them live half a dozen times. Half the time they're absolutely brilliant, but the other half of the time they sound like a teen garage band. Thornley's first post Big Wreck album (and songs like "Easy Comes") had the sort of raw, riff band sound that I always love (something that they completely left behind on their second album) and thus earns them a spot on this list.

6 - Our Lady Peace

Our Lady Peace is one of those bands who's sound has gone through many phases over the years. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of anything that came after their first couple of albums, but their early stuff engaged me much the same was as I Mother Earth did. This track "Starseed" was one of my favourites to cover back in the day.

5 - Finger Eleven

Some of you might remember this band as the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys" from back in the early 90s. The band has been around for 2 decades now, and only recently have started to tear up the charts (save for their 2003 single "One Thing" which I try my best to forget about). Finger Eleven deserves a spot on this list just for sticking it out as long as they have. The fact that their new album, with songs like "Lost My Way" and "Paralyzer" have a forged the band a new, distinct sound, puts them fairly high on this list.

4 - Theory of a Deadman

This is another band like Default. They're living off their "radio singles," but still have that fat riff-band sound when heard live. Like Thornley, their later albums haven't appealed to me very much, but their first self titled album, featuring songs like "Any Other Way" was a solid listen from start to end.

3 - Nickelback

The undisputed king of the "Theory of a Nickelfault" practice of writing music that sells. You can't argue with the fact that they are easily the most successful Canadian act internationally in a long time, if not ever. I've pretty much hated (I know it's a strong word) everything they've done since becoming a household name, and wish every day that they'd go back to the sound that appealed to me years before anybody else had heard of them. This single "Breath" was one of the very first tracks I'd downloaded on Napster (back in the day when I was young, foolish, and participated in such risque behaviour *cough*) To me, the song kicks ass, and is probably my favourite from the band.

2 - Priestess

Priestess is another one of those bands that didn't have to wait long for success. Their unique driving sound have earned them tons of airplay as well as sought after spots several video games like Guitar Hero, Need for Speed (several) and NHL 07. This track, "Lay Down," was featured as a master track in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero Smash Hits.

1 - Three Days Grace

Originally named Groundswell when they formed back in 1992, Three Days Grace has steadily achieved more success than any other Canadian band in the last decade (next to Nickelback). The best thing about Three Days Grace is that they've done it without compromising the unique sounds that defines the band. While I'm not a huge fan of all of their music, I can't think of any song that they've done that I've outright disliked. All of their albums are worth listening to from start to finish. The song "Riot" from their 2006 One-X album mixes great modern guitar riffs with a catchy chorus that harkens back to the hair band days of the early 80s. I predict that their upcoming 2009 album release will set the bar for international success by Canadian rock artists.

Diamonds in the Rough - Undiscovered Canadian Talent

12 - Coda - "November 19"

With the ever-growing music scene in Winnipeg, Coda has stood out and made a name for them selves as a hardcore, progressive, alternative rock band. With their blistering energy and against the grain explosiveness on stage, Coda never comes short of delivering an unforgettable performance.

11 - Cold Driven - "Don't You Know"

Cold Driven's first two album releases have established them as a fresh new force, revealing a multi-faceted group which thrives on creative exploration and escape. Look for this band go gain some momentum in the future, earning them airtime and nation tour time.

10 - Fear Zero - "Breath Again"

If it’s true that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, than Fear Zero has taken its name wisely. Their music incorporates a wide variety of styles from hard rock to simple pop to reggae.

9 - Black Mountain - "Tyrants"

Black Mountain, a Canadian psychedelic rock band from Vancouver has toured extensively across North America and has even opened for Coldplay on their Twister Logic tour. Still, nobody seems to know who the heck these guys are. Their music really brings me back to the progressive sounds of classic bands like King Crimson, Gong, and Ozric Tentacles, all with a modern edge and artistic touch.

8 - Hurricane Cletis - "Little While"

Hailing from Saskatchewan, Canada, Hurricane Cletis has quickly dominated the local music scene and has become a front-runner for international recognition. It all started in 2006, when just after a year of writing, Hurricane Cletis decided to hit the stage. In 2006, Hurricane Cletis won Roxy on Broadway's "Ultimate Band Warz", earning the respect of industry moguls Ralph James (The Agency Group) and Steve Blair (Head of A&R for Warner Music Canada).

7 - Irreverents - "As We Go Marching"

Musically the Irreverents have combined a multitude of bands, genres and influences that span generations. From Buddy Rich and the Big Bands to The Police and onto Mega Death and Rage Against the Machine, you can sense the moments of our individual character when songs quickly shift from classic rock grooves to raunchy rock power drives and jazzy drum fills.

6 - 40 Sons and Daughters - "My Perfect Enemy"

Seven thousand Canadian bands entered. After 6 rounds of competitions across Canada, Bodog Music narrowed down the Canadian Finals to twelve bands. Only one band could come out victorious at Jeff Healey’s in Toronto in front of a panel of music industry heavyweight judges, and that band was 40 Sons and Daughters. This Ontario band has it all – talent, passion, polish and charisma. Bodog Battle Champion.”

5 - Anxiety of Influence - "Turned Blue"

There's not enough rock bands with chicks up front. Period. You can argue that this group of kids from Edmonton are putting out stuff that sounds like Evanesence or Lacuna Coil, but so what? It's not a sound that's been done enough, nevermind overdone, so let them. Don't get me wrong, Rochelle Ireland isn't the next Amy Lee, but that doesn't mean that this band of university students won't go somewhere if they work at it.

4 - The Civil Disobedients - "No Matter What"

What can you say about four guys from Winnipeg who plan to take over and enslave the world with their music?

3 - Rise Electric / Stars Down - "Headspin"

Alright. Rise Electric doesn't exist anymore, but you guys probably remember Lukas Rossi as that guy that won the reality TV show Rock Star Supernova. Unfortunately, winning the show probably turned into the worst thing that ever happened to him. The song "Headspin" which he demoed with his band prior to the show is what really clinched the victory for him. Lukas is with a new band now called Stars Down which was set to release a new album this year. It looks like that album might never see the light of day due to the bands dissatisfaction with how it turned out (imagine that, a band taking pride in their music) so look for the next release to make a splash.

2 - Betablokka - "Scared"

Yes, I'm particularly fond of this band because they are a local act. To be honest, I don't know why this band hasn't made it big yet. Their music is a little mellower than what I usually listen to, but even I can appreciate mellow when it makes bands like Coldplay sound amateurish (from an artistic perspective). One of these days the right person is going to catch wind of these guys, and when that happens, watch out. This track "Scared" is one of their more mellow ones, but I think it best illustrates just how refined their sound is, and how ready they are for the big stage.

1 - Retrograde / Run the Red Light - "Caught in the Sun"

Like Betablokka, I have no idea why these guys aren't huge. They've had the advantage of touring all over the country. Maybe their recent name change (They're now called Run the Red Light) will help them get their big break. Of all the "diamonds in the rough" on this list, no band deserves that big break more than these guys (in my opinion of course.)

Quinte’s First Tweet-Up

Charlotte Barker — 2009-07-31T15:38:02+00:00

Calling all Quinte Area Tweeps!

We’d like to invite you to Quinte’s very first Tweet-Up! This is your chance to meet fellow tweeps as real peeps.

Thursday, August 6th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Capers in Belleville.

There is a growing amount of tweeps from the Quinte and surrounding area and this will give us all the opportunity to meet in person in a cool social setting. Our friends at Capers have been nice enough to offer all tweeps 30% off appetizers and draught beer (except Stella and Guinness). We’re hoping to have a good turn out and welcome anyone and everyone to come out and join us.

We'd like to have an estimate of how many people to expect so we're asking that you rsvp to @theyinspire. We will be providing tweet-tags with your twitter handle and name on it, so please include at least your first name when you rsvp.

Capers is located at 272 Front St. in downtown Belleville. www.capers.ca Click on the map for directions.

#tweetupquinte > to keep everyone in the loop

Hope to see you there. Tweet. Tweet.

We’re live!

Shane Woodward — 2009-07-30T18:06:50+00:00

Actually, "they inspire live", our agency's very own radio station, has been live for a while, but we've spent the last couple of weeks trying to iron out some bandwidth related issues as well as develop a brand for our station that properly speaks to our agency's culture.

What is they inspire live?

Simply put, it's the best streaming radio station on the web. At least we'd like to think so. They inspire live was born from an offhand conversation that involved a whole bunch of "wouldn't it be cool if" and a healthy serving of "I've always wanted to..." You see, we've always had our own sort of radio station here at the office, but right now we're opening it up and sharing with with the world.

What can you expect from they inspire live?

Kick ass music, and no BS. Period. You're going to be listening to what we listen to, and depending on what's going on at the office, that could be almost anything. Wether it's indie rock, ska, or something else, you can rest assured knowing that it will kick ass, and commercial free.

What more do you want? Tune in now.

Also, don't miss our holiday weekend salute to Canadian artists that rock. I'll provide more details in another blog tomorrow.

Will You Marry Me? > Umm, Maybe we should date first.

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-06-25T13:41:12+00:00

Some thoughts for Ad Agencies entering into an AOR Relationship

We once used the following analogy on a client that we turned down and we're not sure they got it: 'Entering an AOR relationship between an advertising agency & a client is a lot like getting married.' You both better love each other (in good times and bad), share the same principals, goals and values if you really want this thing to work for the long haul and with success. Like any good marriage, business relationships (maybe more so in the world of advertising) should be based on the mutual core values that make things click: Trust, respect, honesty, transparency, caring appreciation, passion and love `– because you better love what you do.

We were reminded of this recently after meeting with our newest AOR client for the first time. The first meeting is similar to a blind date, you can tell within minutes if this is going to be somebody you will want to see again, perhaps even 'go-steady with', or sometimes, just sometimes like with this client, you know you have found a match for the long haul.

On the flip side of this analogy, we recently entered into a business relationship with an organization where it became painfully obvious very quickly that they didn't hold those core values that make any good marriage work. Despite realizing this early on in the relationship, we ignored our 'spidey senses' and chose to try and make it work. Similar to your personal life, your intuition can tell you a lot about what to do in the world of business and if you choose to ignore your 'spidey senses', it will almost always end badly, maybe even in divorce court.

Some simple guidelines for agencies to find happiness in their AOR relationships:

Follow your intuition. Act in business like you would in your personal life. If you are questioning the relationship, there is a reason why, and you better clear the air quick before it manifests into a nasty break-up.
Don't be a whore. When the economic times get tough, it's real easy to fall into that 'chase the paycheck' mentality. In the end, this would be the equivalent to a one night stand – all the joy is sealing the deal, followed by months of awkwardness and a lessening of self-respect.
Be true to your core business values. Then make sure your potential 'spouse' shares a similar value system. This is where the long-term mutual growth will come from.
Write some mutual vows. 'I [the client/agency], agree to trust my agency with my business as I respect their experience, education and expertise. I will be brutally honest with them at all times and be transparent with what my business objectives really are because I know that this is when the best work will happen. Lastly and most importantly, I [the client/agency] will always care, love and be passionate about my business, because if I don't, there's no point.
You can always date first. Not sure if this is 'the one'? Then go on a few dates first, maybe even hold hands and see how comfortable it is. After all, it's easier to get out of a dating relationship than a legally binding marriage.

The Brainstorm Group Promotes Advertising in an Economic Downturn

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-29T17:25:08+00:00

We couldn't agree more with The Brainstorm Group's decision to set an example and make a statement about advertising in an economic downturn. Today, a full page ad ran in the Globe and Mail promoting a coupon from the The Brainstorm Group for $40,000 off advertising agency fees for new clients. Chairman and CEO, Ron Telpner said they wanted to demonstrate that you can make some great noise advertising in a down market.

So many times, clients feel that the first thing they should cut from their budget in hard times is advertising, but the opposite couldn’t be more true. An economic downturn is the best time to gain market share because no one else is in the game. You’ve got to zing when your competitors zang. The Brainstorm Group has taken it upon themselves to show us that advertising is key for companies that want to emerge from the recession, stronger and more profitable.

See the press release here.

Canada’s First Job Auction Site

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-27T16:34:13+00:00

What are you worth as an employee? I just read an article in The Globe and Mail about Canada’s first job auction site. As we know, the recession has made it increasingly difficult for people to find work so they have been turning to innovative and creative ways to land jobs. The newest method? On-line auctions.

A job auction is set up for employers to post job openings and employees seeking work to bid on them. This method has become increasing popular in countries around the world, but Canada had not adopted it until now.

Filip Narula and Robert Hjelmberg, a pair of university students from Sweden, got the idea after reading about a similar site in Germany. There was already a site set up in Sweden, so after noticing Canada didn’t have one in play, they jumped on the opportunity to start the site. Although they admittedly don’t know much about Canada – only being here once to visit Niagara falls and Toronto.

The site, 4job.ca aims to connect an individual with a company or a job. The job will be posted with a description and the maximum salary the employer is willing to pay and the interested job seekers then compete offering their experience and salary. This allows the employer to chose the lowest bidder with the most experience to get the job. There is no charge to post jobs or submit bids so the site will most likely depend on advertisements to make money.

The site was launched yesterday and when I visited it today, there were four posting varying from a dog babysitter paying $150 for the week to a PHP programmer paying $21/hr. There are already 2 bids placed for the dog sitter.

Due to their small budget, they have not started marketing the website yet and have not received much publicity. Similar sites, such as jobaphiles.com in the United States, started out with only a few postings and now has over 800 jobs listed. Can the same happen for 4job.ca?

I wonder how employees feel about auctioning themselves off? Will this be seen as a great opportunity to stimulate new employment or as an exploitation of workers.

What do you think?

An innovative move by Hyatt Hotel Chain, but there certainly is room for improvement.

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-05-26T14:52:42+00:00

Hyatt Hotels recently hopped on the twitter train by announcing @HyattConcierge, the first hotel company to use twitter as a dedicated channel for customer service.

With a quick tweet, guests—or anyone, for that matter—can find out if there's a good Mexican restaurant near the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, or when they should show up at the luxury outdoor fire pits at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek for s'mores. Customers can tweet all their concerns, questions or requests involving any property at any time because @HyattConcierge is staffed around the world with specially trained reservations center staff

With a getaway planned to the Park Hyatt in Toronto for my wife’s birthday I was anxious to give this a try. A few days prior I sent a quick message to @HyattConcierge and received a personalized reply within minutes. I was impressed.

The day of our stay, I sent a message requesting a suggestion for a new & trendy restaurant for dinner in the neighborhood of our hotel and quickly received the response, ‘ Try One Restaurant at the Hazleton Hotel' with a tinyurl link to their site. I was further impressed on a couple of levels: First at how quick the response came in, second, that they recommend a restaurant at another property.

I replied to @HyattConcierge, ‘ thanks for the suggestion but we had lunch there, can you recommend another?’ .......nothing, no response. Forcing me to send another new message asking the same question but specifying not to recommend One Restaurant, hard to do in under 140 characters. And there it was; the kink in this innovative move – it doesn’t allow for 2 way conversation with the same agent on the same topic.

Now with this being a 24/7 worldwide service, I am guessing they are using at least few dozen staffers in a call centre environment to handle all the @HyattConcierge traffic at this point. As a result, my reply is probably getting picked up by another agent that isn’t aware of the previous conversations. Currently, there are only 1500 followers of @HyattConcierge. So, I guess the real question is, how will this work if more of the 9 million people in their loyalty program start to use it?

My key suggestion to @HyattConcierge > Have your agents issue a custom hash-tag to the query then create a search preference for that hash-tag in a program like Tweet Deck, Nambu or Tweetie. For example, for my query they could have used #patriquinpark or issue a hashtag id like #pat1234. This would allow the agent who replied to my first query to communicate with me on the topic.

In the end, we ended up making a reservation a real live concierge at the hotel who listened to what we were looking for and made the reservations for us.

Pimp This Bum

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-20T15:59:11+00:00

I recently stumbled upon a website when I typed Google wrong into the search bar. It brought me to a site called Pimp This Bum. As I was just about to click off, I noticed a video at the top of the site that looked like an actual homeless man. I scowled to the bottom of the page and read a paragraph describing that ‘Tim’ is indeed homeless and the site is set up to provide donations for him - anything from a meal and a razor to a college education, with 100% of the profit going to Tim and other homeless people.

The more I navigated around the site and the more videos I watched, I noticed that Tim’s story and the campaign itself are fairly new (launched February 17,2009) and have been getting quite a bit of publicity, such as on Rachael Ray and CNN. The campaign started by giving Tim a sign displaying the Pimp This Bum URL to hold while panhandling. The purpose was to generate traffic to the site and encourage donations by having live web cam sessions to track Tims progress. In less than two months the site generated $50,000.

Pimp This Bum was created by Kevin and Sean Dolan; a father/son duo from Houston with a background in marketing and volunteer work. The pair saw an opportunity to create a website that generated traffic while helping the homeless. The controversial name choice was due to their belief that a campaign with a sincere approach such as ‘helpthehomeless.com’ would be ignored compared to a name that insulted peoples sensitivity and appealed to their humor.

To date, Tim received a barely recognizable makeover and has attended Sunray Treatment and Recovery center in Seattle Washington for a 5 week alcohol recovery Program but the site still remains active to raise funds for his continued recovery and housing.

To complete the campaign, you can also follow Tim on Twitter!

Let’s Get on the Potty Train

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-05-15T12:38:01+00:00

I came across this great campaign by-way of a tweet from our new friends @kelseyads on twitter. As a parent of a just turned 3 year old boy, I can totally connect with this campaign. The Pull-Ups Potty Project by Kimberly-Clark uses a straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is approach. K-C says, 'consumers want the real stuff—no bull—when it comes to advertising in a recession.' Isn't that what consumers want anytime? Nevertheless, this is a truly brilliant campaign and we are now using the site to help our little man. Be sure to spend some time watching some of the videos.

Game four. Penguins. Capitals. Ryan and Brian. How did we get here?

Ryan Blaind — 2009-05-13T19:50:19+00:00

It started off with a little project our firm did for Matt and Michelle Cooke. Matt plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Michelle does not. Their daughter Gabby and her friend Maddi were having a combined 'Sweet 16' birthday party and we offered our creative services; we developed a customized logo for the girls and created some fun party materials and signage. Fun little project.

Matt and Michelle kindly offered up Michelle's tickets to game four of the series in Pittsburgh. With the Penguins down 2-1 in the series and playing in Pittsburgh, well, we would have killed to get tickets to game four. Now we didn't have to. We were off to the Iron City.

It was a pretty cool trip. We documented our overnighter, including an interview with a victorious Matt Cooke after the game. We edited some stuff out. Left some stuff in. It's pretty much all SFW.

Reimagined but not reinvented. Star Trek delivers.

Shane Woodward — 2009-05-12T13:55:34+00:00

I've mentioned before that I am a big Star Trek fan. I've always been more of a fan of the post-90s Star Trek, and while I've seen every episode of the original series numerous times, it never managed to earn the affection that I had for Enterprise and Voyager. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the original series (TOS) for what it was: a revolutionary idea that was executed on a near shoe-string budget at a time where viewers were prepared to suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment.

When I first heard that the new Star Trek movie would be a throwback to the TOS days, I had concerns and reservations. I know that the Star Trek franchise had grown stagnant, and that the moral heavy, science-centric shows that I loved really don't appeal to a mainstream audience, so from a money-making perspective, the new movie makes sense. The question plagued me was, while the film would no doubt appeal to a much broader audience than before, would it still appeal to me? Even walking into the theatre last night, I was nervous, anxious, and completely prepared to be let down.

I wasn't.

The film was far from perfect, and at times I had to suppress the Trek nerdling in me, and remind myself that certain liberties would have to be taken to allow the film to achieve its goal of capturing a mainstream audience (making lots of money). Liberties and creative license aside, J.J. Abrams has brilliantly crafted which manages to pay homage to the 60's TOS, all in a way that is much more believable that the original series ever was.

The biggest part of making this move feel real and believable (as much as any Star Trek or futuristic sci-fi movie can) was finding the right cast. While TOS never delivered quality acting, what it did deliver was culture icons, and big shoes to fill for anyone attempting to assume the roles of these sci-fi legends.

Captain Kirk

My biggest beef with Shatner's Kirk was that he wasn't believable. Not until the motion pictures, particularly Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, did he even feel truly human. For the most part, he seemed arrogant for the sake of being arrogant, reckless for the sake of recklessness. It could have been very easy for Chris Pine to fall onto the same trap with Kirk. On the whole, I think Pine's portrayal of Kirk was the most pleasant surprise of the movie. For a relative nobody on the Hollywood scene, Pine masterfully recreates the nuances of Kirk's (Shatner's) character, all in a much more believable way than TOS ever did. Yes, he's still arrogant, but he has reason to be. Yes, he's still reckless, but it all makes sense. Chalk some of it up to the fact that this movie features a younger, more troubled Kirk that the 60's series, but simply put, we owe the majority of it to a brilliantly balanced bit of acting from Pine.

Spock

This was the most hyped roll leading up to the launch of the movie. Most reviews of the move that I have read really focus on Zachary Quinto's recreation of Spock (ignoring the performance of Pine). Don't get me wrong, he was good, but there was something that just didn't feel right. It might seem like I'm nit-picking, but for me, it was his voice that spoiled it for me. This probably wouldn't have been a big deal had is performance not been constantly juxtaposed with that of Leonard Nimoy throughout the movie. Nimoy just has one of those unique voices that defines the role as much as any other quality. Where as Pine sounded just like you'd imagine a young Kirk sounding, Quinto just sounded weird. Voice issues aside, Quinto managed to give Spock a good deal of depth, providing insight into his struggle between living up to his Vulcan heritege, and controlling his Human emotions. Watching him turn Spock's signature "live long and prosper" in a not-so-subtle "STFU" was one of the highlights of the movie.

Everyone Else

Leonard "Bones" McCoy: Karl Urban exceeded my expectations. I like Karl, but didn't see him as a good fit. Completely proved me wrong.

Hikaru Sulu: John Cho was just meh. But then again, this character has always been just meh.

Pavel Checkov: Anton Yelchin's recreation was simply too over the top for my liking. Purely comic relief.

Nyota Uhura: By far the worst part of the movie. It's not so much Zoe Saldana's acting as it is what the writers have done with the character. On the original show she was mostly a parrot. In this movie she was mostly a tramp. And the relationship with Spock... WTF? Fail.

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott: Again, it felt over the top for me. Most people think it's brilliant, and I'm sure it helps bring in the mainstream dollars, but I honestly had a hard time feeling that Simon Pegg's Scotty was anything more than comic releage. Sort of like hobbits Merry and Pippen in the Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe it's just the overdone accent, but I just couldn't buy into this role.

What would have made it better for me

I would have liked to see more subtle tie-in to the most recent series, Enterprise, which really sets the stage for the birth of the Federation. Great job for making the Archer reference while introducing Scotty, but I think that there was room to do this more without complicating things. While Enterprise was an underperformer in the mainstream (mostly due to bad timing), it is still my favourite series of the franchise, and the one that felt the most real. I'm not saying that there should have been cameos, or roles created for the Enterprise cast, but there was opportunity to make a few more historical references that could have strenghtened the plot somehwhat. Spock could have made a reference to T'Pol, and the precidence that she set in her involvement with Starfleet. Even Uhura could have made some sort of exo-linguistic tie-in to Hoshi Sato. Something. Anything.

In a nutshell

I give it a 9/10. Doing this movie was clearly a gamble, but one that I am sure will pay off. They did more than enough to keep the existing trek fanbase happy, while offering something of blockbuster proportions that should appeal to new fans. Abrams didn't reinvent the franchise, but he definitely gave it some sex appeal. It's a movie that's filled with killer action, clever wit, and breathes new life into Star Trek. Hopefully the next movie (and there will be a next. I won't throw out any real spoilers, but there really HAS to be a sequel) will address some of my small concerns with the flick.

Trekkie or not, go see this movie.

A Twitter Twist on News

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-12T13:37:32+00:00

ABC is about to make a bold new move to integrate Twitter into traditional media with NightTline (The ‘T’ in the middle stands for Twitter), a Twitter twist on the popular news program Nightline. The program and anchors are going to be hosting a weekly online news show using Twitter for debates and questions. The show will apparently be taking on Nightline’s Face-Off model and will act as a debate between two opposing sides on an issue provided and moderated by ABCNEWS anchors.

There will be a Twitter widget that will allow viewers to join in the discussion by offering opinions and asking questions throughout the debate. Pixel touchscreen technology will be used to display and interact with the debate occurring over Twitter.

It is a great and edgy concept by ABC and it will be very interesting to see how this all pans out and just how much participation will anchor from Twitter. Although, I’m sure there will be a lot of buzz around the Twittersphere to ensure success for the first few episodes at least.

The first topic will be “Is torture ever acceptable?” and will air digitally on the Nightline website and ABC News Now, ABC's digital distribution network on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. EST.

Paid to “Tweet” - A day in the life of a Social Media “Twintern”

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-05-05T19:11:39+00:00

Charlotte Barker, a recent graduate of the Loyalist College Advertising Program in Belleville, Ontario, will be paid to send out 'tweets' all summer long as a Social Media Coordinator.

The job is a newly created staff position at Belleville's They Integrated Inc., a full service advertising and marketing firm. The unique job title reflects the company's emerging growth with interactive clients and the ongoing integration of social media strategies into campaign development.

As a 'Twintern', Charlotte will be responsible for managing They Integrated's on-line brand presence as part of the company's Social Media Program via social media outlets such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Delicious, Digg while also monitoring the blogosphere and podcasts. As the Twintern, or Social Media Coordinator, she is in effect the on-line "voice" of the company. Armed with a computer, an iPhone and a Flip Mino HD camcorder, she will be tweeting about her experiences while learning about the industry and chronicling those experiences on the company website in her personal blog.

"While some companies may be reluctant to invest human and financial resources to engage their customers during a recession, we know it's imperative that we do exactly just that, especially on the interactive side of our business," said They Integrated President Shawn Patriquin.

"Charlotte understands our company and our culture since she did her school internship with us. By offering her a paid internship during the summer this allows her to weather the storm during the recession and come out the other side better prepared with additional in-demand skills that our industry is seeking."

"To be honest, the position is one-part experimental and one-part experiential", added Patriquin. "Creating the position allows us to have dedicated manpower allocated to furthering the goals of our Social Media Program, which is just hard to manage some days due to the time it requires. For Charlotte, this gives her some security and a bit more breathing room and additional experience to prepare for a career in the industry in a down economy. Not to mention that its also a pretty cool job."

"Essentially, a big part of this position is simply telling people who They Integrated is and what 'they' do, by communicating our corporate culture and capabilities," says Patriquin. "We're engaging prospective clients by utilizing word-of-mouth tools in a new age of communications. New business is coming from non-traditional sectors that are aware of us purely from our presence on-line, and it will continue to be that way. That's the power and attraction of social media for marketers, corporations and brands - to engage their customers in a meaningful way."

Enter the Twintern.

"The Twinterns of today will be the Chief Marketing Officers of tomorrow," added Patriquin. "The economy will improve in time and as Charlotte moves forward she will be armed with the social media skills and knowledge that marketers are craving. In effect, she would probably be as well versed about social media marketing than many of her more experienced peers in the advertising industry, which will be a huge advantage for her."

Rick Chesworth, Program Coordinator of the advertising program at Loyalist College agrees. "Loyalist advertising graduates enter the industry with the skills that will allow them to pursue the career they desire. Advertising is about communicating and engaging people, and having this opportunity builds on what she's already learnt. I think it's a great idea and an innovative position."

"To be honest, no two days are the same", says Barker. "One day I may be posting work related news releases to media outlets. But then on another day I may be sending content that reflects the company to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or playing songs on Blip.fm. All of it just tells people who we are and what we do, which is just another form of Public Relations, but a lot of companies haven't thought of it that way until recently.'

Legal System Adapts for Changing Times

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-05T19:09:41+00:00

You might not see reporters fleeing the courtroom to call in updates for much longer. You definitely won’t see it at Mayor O’Brien's trial. Yesterday, reporters won the right to live-blog and send instant news stories via their hand held devices during the trial of Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien. Mr. Justice Douglas Cunningham is the first judge to ever rule in favor of this request stating “that is the world in which we live.” However, he also said his decision would have been different if the trial were to be conducted in front of a jury.

Mr. O’Brien's charges are related to an alleged offer to a federal position enticing a political adversary to drop out of an election. Testimonies will be made by conservative officials and witnesses will be called upon from the Prime Ministers office.

It’s interesting to see that technology is affecting the media and legal system and that it is being embraced and adapted to. In a world where everything is moving so quickly and media is increasingly becoming digital, everybody has to make the change at some point or be left behind. With news becoming increasingly accessible on-line and with up to the minute updates, there has to be a way for reporters to be on top of the game. Hopefully this example will pave the way.

Kudos to Judge Cunningham!

Get more information about Mayor Larry Briens trial here

Twitter and Wine a “Really Goode Job”

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-04T17:20:01+00:00

Do you love Twitter, facebook, blogging and drinking wine? California’s Sonoma Valley is looking for someone that does. Murphy-Goode Winery’s has created a “Really Goode Job” after they ‘got to thinking about the new age of communications and figured it was a pretty good thing.’ They have started a search for someone social media savvy and wine crazy to join them for six months to report on the lifestyle of Sonoma County Wine Country and blog about what they learn. This dream job will lavish the employee with wine, food, poker games, free accommodation and social media fame, and will pay $10,000 U.S. per month for six months plus travel expenses.

What is the job description exactly?

Taken from the Murphy-Goode website:

Here’s what you’ll be doing:

• Exploring the vineyards of Murphy-Goode and surrounding areas and discovering what the Sonoma County Wine Country has to offer, from well-known destinations to off-the-beaten-path spots.
• Tasting hundreds of wines and meeting the locals in our tasting room.
• Increasing your wine wisdom: while studying isn’t required, our winemaking and vineyard experts will take the time to show you how it’s all done.
•Working with our winemaker, David Ready, Jr., to create a new wine commemorating your job with us.
• Filing reports on your experiences, via weekly blogs, photo diaries, Twitter, Facebook, video updates and ongoing media interviews.

But it is not all fun and games. Don’t forget to protect the vines.

• Tracking the local owl and raptor populations: There are hundreds of raptors patrolling the vineyards, keeping the grapes safe from harmful pests. Monitoring owl and hawk populations — particularly those that inhabit the new series of nesting boxes — is helpful to our sustainable farming practices.

So, if you’re over 21, legal to work in the U.S., love web 2.0, wine and want to spend six months in a quirky winery blogging and playing poker this job is for you.

Social Network for Emergencies

Charlotte Barker — 2009-05-04T15:02:24+00:00

Microsoft has introduced an early beta of a new product called Vine, currently available for beta testing in Seattle. Vine is a location-aware social networking application planning on providing a means of communication in times of crises.

This downloadable application can be used to stay in touch with family and friends to be informed when someone needs help or a crisis happens via news and public safety sources. You will be able to send and receive alerts through e-mail, text message, or on your computer. But it can also be used for general use to keep in touch with friends and family just to check in, or to alert your team about a practice.

Although it is currently only going to be available in the United States, it is an interesting approach that might eventually catch on in Canada. Vines seems like a logical direction given that social networking sites such as Twitter have in some cases been more effective in distributing information and alerts before newspapers, TV, and radio. Having a tool designed to communicate emergency information and alerts is catering to this new trend. But I wonder if people will actually participate in it to make it useful and have it catch on?

Some cool features:

• You can choose your locations and the locations of others to receive specific information.
• You can print out a wallet-sized card to keep with you containing instructions for sending an alert to your emergency contacts.
• You can distribute a printable invitation card is to invite friends and family to Vine.
• You cam send and receive alerts and updates.
• Pull in local news from media outlets and other feeds like blogs and add local context in the form of mapping.
• Microsoft is currently focused on getting local government and emergency management officials to use the tool to broadcast important updates and reports during major events.

Using Social Media for a Good Cause.

Charlotte Barker — 2009-04-28T18:41:26+00:00

I read an article today that highlighted some amazing campaigns that used social media for a good cause. It got me thinking. What a fabulous way to connect with your friends and followers and help a good cause at the same time. With the powerful impact of social networks it only makes sense that the same impact can be applied to fundraisers and social causes.

There are so many times that I have been on twitter and have come across the same article from two completely different people as it has been retweeted and passed along through friends and followers. Think of all the people that message has gone through to reach you. Imagine how many people potentially see that message everyday and imagine how many people can be influenced by that to do something good.

How amazing is it that by using this social power there are people and organizations out there on these networks creating awareness and raising money for good causes and things that matter to them. It just goes to show that even one person and their small network can make a big difference and impact peoples lives.

Check out the article from Mashable.

Twitter Just by thinking about it?

Charlotte Barker — 2009-04-23T16:04:14+00:00

What if you could just think about what you wanted to write and it would happen?

Well, you don’t have to wonder. Adam Wilson, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a way to post messages on Twitter using electrical impulses generated by thought.

A red cap fitted with electrodes that monitor brain activity is hooked up to a computer flashing letters on a screen. By concentrating on the letters you want to ‘type’ and then focusing on the word “twit” at the bottom of the screen, your message will be posted.

This opens up a whole new world of opportunities for people whose brains function normally but who are unable to move or speak. This could be life changing for people.

The breakthrough came about when Wilson and his supervisor Justin Williams heard a question on the radio.

“Wouldn't it be great if you could Twitter just by thinking about it?”

He then had his ‘a-ha’ moment and decided to create the program. He chose Twitter because it is less complicated than e-mail by not having to select recipients, group them, paste, copy, and send. Twitter is short and brief and simple.

Technology like this can mean many liberations for people with these types of medical conditions. What an amazing use of technology that paves the way for more things like it. Get the full story from CNN

Has CNN Missed the Twitter Boat?

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-04-22T16:34:33+00:00

One of the great appeals of Twitter is it's ability to communicate information in a timely manner to the people that are following you. With that in mind, one of the first 'Tweeps' I started to follow was @cnnbrk (the world's leader in online news & information delivery – as the put it) thinking I would always be in the know in terms of the latest news developments. Yet I am continually surprised with the infrequent and non-relevant tweets that this organization sends out.

On average, CNN sends out 1 tweet every 2 days. Hardly enough to stake their claim as the world's leader in online news & information delivery. By contrast, @BreakingNews sends out about a tweet every hour and depending on the story every few minutes if it's developing. Surely, there is enough going on in the world that CNN can have something to broadcast.

In my opinion, CNN is missing a huge opportunity to further stake their claim as the world's leader in news and more importantly, the opportunity to drive their more than 1 million followers to tune in to watch live coverage of developing news. Breaking News Online (BNO) is growing quickly; with over 250,000 followers, up from 30,000 just 1.5 months ago. At that rate, they are on track to becoming the true leader of online news.

Nissan Embraces Social Media

Charlotte Barker — 2009-04-21T19:17:35+00:00

Nissan Canada just launched Hypercube, a unique social media campaign promoting the all new Cube vehicle. The campaign calls out to ‘creative thinkers’ across Canada through Facebook and Twitter asking them to demonstrate their social creativity for a chance to drive away in one of 50 brand new Cubes. Nissan wants to brand the vehicle as one of originality for drivers that embody creativity.

“In the spirit of creative thinking, we are taking a new approach to launching the cube that is exclusive to the Canadian market. Rather than relying on traditional advertising models, our entire campaign is being built around social media to engage with the creative class across Canada, whose members personify the cube brand,” says Jeff Parent, VP Sales and Marketing of Nissan Canada. “We will be rewarding original thinkers who are fuelling our spirit with a new car that epitomizes originality.”

Nissan is not the first or the only motor company to embrace and experiment with social media. Ford took on a social campaign, Ford Fiesta Movement to promote the new Fiesta by asking the younger generation of social networkers to submit videos of how they would travel the States with their new Fiesta. Ford rewarded 100 participants with a Fiesta to travel for six months and blog, tweet, and video their experiences.

It seems that small or large, social media is being embraced and seen as an effective way to communicte with your consumers.

What’s Happening Now?

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-04-20T14:32:51+00:00

Just a quick post to profile a new ad from Sprint – The Now Network. Truly a great spot and, the first one that we have seen that profiles Twitter. To be impressed even more, be sure to visit the now.sprint.com website.

PGA Tour embracing Social Media and New Technology

Ryan Blaind — 2009-04-09T14:01:28+00:00

I just wanted to share this with you guys, being a huge fan of the game of golf as well as following the PGA tour this really has made my week.

As you may or may not know The Masters major PGA tournament started today. This is something I look forward to every year. Watching golf for 4 days straight. This year I am really pulling for Tiger Woods to win the tourney. He is currently the favourite to win it, and I really believe that he can pull it off. Especially after his amazing win at Bay Hill 2 weeks ago. Tiger woods is probably my favourite athlete :D, I just think he is a really great golfer, but I also have a lot of respect for how he presents himself, and acts on the course.

I am not sure if they did this last year, but if you aren't able to sit and watch The Masters on television all weekend, they actually have an official Twitter account, which can be followed here. I started following this feed yesterday and they are posting quite frequently, for example with posts like this: "The big roar from #6 came compliments of a Greg Norman birdie."

This is amazing and probably does a lot to promote the tournament to nerdy golf fanatics like myself. The twitter account is currently sitting at 22,070 followers and I expect it to grow over the weekend.

In addition to this twitter feed, they also have a very nice website that features live updating of the leaderboard, video feeds of the tournament plus much more information about the players and the tourney in general. They also have a mobile version of the site which you can bring up on your iPhone, or any other phone with a mobile browser.

The kicker for me was that they actually have an official Masters iPhone app (iTunes Link). This really blew my mind. I had posted a lazyweb tweet yesterday looking for suggestions for an app that would let me track the scores, and was delighted to find out after a quick google that an official app existed. Within the app, you can stream live video of the tournament (unfortunately probably only to US citizens only), check the leaderboard, get flyovers of every hole, etc. Amazing!!

Happy Masters Weekend!

The Times, They are a Changing

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-04-08T18:52:57+00:00

After attending SXSWi, I was inspired by what technology will offer marketers in the near future > Smart Phone GPS integration into advertising campaigns, the use of QR Codes & image recognition technology is very exciting and could revolutionize that way that we market products to consumers. Yep, there there's some pretty cool shit coming down the pipe.

Then I saw this post and all I can say is WOW. It's closer than we think.

Can Design Save Newsprint?

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-04-07T18:23:06+00:00

As newspapers continue to merge, close and go bankrupt it begs the question, 'What can save them?'. Well this designer believes that good design can save a newspaper and he has some impressive readership stats to prove it. My question would be, 'Did the ad revenue follow suit?' Nevertheless, this is well worth watching.

Tourism Branding Gone Wrong.

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-04-01T22:58:27+00:00

As we put the finishing touches on a brand destination tourism campaign for a client, I thought I would take a few minutes to share a couple of examples that we came across in our research. Take this opinion with the understanding that as an ad-person I can be a bit cynical when I look at others work. But know this, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due (in my opinion of course). Perhaps it’s a little bit of jealously – after all, we haven’t had the privilege of charging $50,000 for a logo design/brand-mark.

Destination Tourism Brand-Mark – Wisconsin Hard to imagine getting paid $50,000 for this logo/slogan. There are just so many things wrong with it. Then again, never being to Wisconsin, maybe it’s right on mark. Nevertheless, it doesn’t make me want to go there. However, I would have if I got the $50 large for the job.

Alberta Rebranding A nice mark but it’s hard to get my head around the positioning statement. However, if you watch the 2 minute 30 second video on the rationale of the direction you might get it or take the time to download the 5.5mb brand book you might get it. I am guessing that 90% of the budget went into the producing the malarkey to justify the direction (and the bill). This re-brand will cost taxpayers $25 million over 3 years to phase in.

Moose Jaw Rebranding At first glance, I thought this was an April Fool’s joke when I first saw it on Marketing Magazine PM (I still hope that it is). However, after some cursory research, it seems legit. Man, if this is for real I hope they didn’t pay more than a few hundred dollars over and above the cost of the license for Corel Draw for this Yves Noblet to create this thing. How do you rationalize a slogan by saying ‘this was my first time coming here and it was surprisingly unexpected – there it is…your new slogan and oh yeah, I’ll throw in this doodle of a moose antler exclamation point I did on the train-ride here. Can I please have my big cheque now Moose Jaw?’ NEXT!

WTF: Episode 5

Shane Woodward — 2009-03-26T14:07:19+00:00

I've been watching the GDC (Game Developers Conference) unfold from a distance, and thus far, OnLive has been the real attention getter. Its promise of rapture must be pure exhilaration to anyone who has never worked in the field of IT.

From the GoLive Website:

"OnLive is launching the world’s highest performance Games On Demand service, instantly delivering the latest high-end titles over home broadband Internet to the TV and entry-level PCs and Macs.

Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) and incubated within the Rearden media and technology incubator, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling in March 2009.

OnLive, together with its Mova subsidiary, lies directly at the nexus of several key trends, all of which are reshaping the way we think about and use digital media:

The shift to cloud computing, displacing the limitations, cost and complexity of local computing;
An explosion of consumer broadband connectivity, bringing fast bandwidth to the home;
Unprecedented innovation, creativity and expansion within the video game market.

Pioneering the delivery of rich interactive media to the home, OnLive will change the way that entertainment applications are created, delivered and consumed."

Every time I pore over some unchecked torrent from an ecstatic new convert, I start to become very curious about topology. I'm also forced to remind them that years ago - during E3 That Was - we saw a demo of the Phantom that was impressive enough to elicit a purchase. The demo was that good. It was, in fact, too good.

To refresh your memory, the Phantom was a controversial video game console that was supposedly designed to use a direct-download content delivery service instead of the discs and cartridges used by most game consoles. As it turned out in the case of the phantom, the machines that served the content at the E3 demo were situated in a room not ten feet away, connected via gigabit ethernet.

I mentioned IT before because people who have done time in the field have already been through several cycles of this kind of thinking. Let me break down this latest crack at revolutionizing the gaming industry for you:

Remote Desktop. Or as Applephiles call it, Screen Sharing.

The concept doesn't look so shiny when you describe it in this light. The basic idea here is that you have one computer do all the real work, rendering, crunching, etc, and then takes a picture of the finished product (aka - a screenshot) to be sent off to a client machine. This is basically the same process that is used for CGI movies.

The problem is not the concept. On paper, this is a great idea that could reshape the way people play games in the future. The problem is that you have to apply this concept to real world technology as it exists today.

I've performed this experiment numerous times in the past, and my current goal is to be able to play World of Warcraft on a handheld device like the iPod Touch using the same principle. I'd take a high performance computer in one room, set it up using the best of the best capture/sharing technology available at the time, and test the playability of certain games over a remote connection (on another high performance computer). Over gigabit (thats 1000 megabit, about 800 times faster than what GoLive claims their service will run on), I can barely make games like Diablo II (released in 2000), and Age of Empires 2 (1999) playable, and that's ONLY because these games are so old that you can "almost" stand to play them at a resolution of 800x600 at less than 10 frames per second. Again, that's over gigabit, using two computers that were directly connected to each other, with no switches, routers, bridges, underwater fiber-optics, relays, bad quality copper lines, snow storms, or electromagnetic interference to gum up the process.

Admittedly, I have not "spent seven years in stealth development" of my technology, and I'm relying on the same kind of shoddy compression technology that Nasa uses to send image data back to Earth from its Mars Rovers, but should I honestly believe that OnLive can recreate HD quality, at 60 FPS, over a 1.2 megabit internet connection? Can they also adequately synchronize a 6 channel or better surround sound audio track, and somehow develop a way to anticipate my inputs (controller, mouse, keyboard) to overcome the poor response time inherent to the internet in its current form?

I look at it this way. Multiplayer games already suffer from lag, using the same technology (the internet), and the only information being sent back and forth is control information: positional data, action triggers, and enough data to tell client computers which textures/sprites/etc (stored on each clients machine) to load up. Now we're adding the time it takes for input/control data to be sent back and forth from a client computer to the OnLive servers, all over the same tapped out internet connection that is also being used for the compressed images (video) and audio stream.

Oh yeah, and this "uber-hawt" compression technology that surpasses anything known to exist today can also be decompressed in real-time by this little boxy-thing that you hook up to your TV.

Not bloody likely.

So far, I'm just talking about the technology behind this. We're also ignoring many other big picture things, like the (un)likelihood of developers and publishers buying into the technology and handing over control of their own revenue stream, or companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft not sinking the ship before it's had a chance to sail.

Companies that make these kinds of promises, rub me the wrong way. I'm not making a value judgment of any kind - What I'm saying is that server-side solutions invariably lead to sinister necromantic cabals.

I'm not saying that exactly. Even sight unseen, there are genres I prize greatly that might work well on a mechanism like this in the future, once the technology driving the internet has caught up to the concept Onlive has put on the table. Virtually any raw tactics experience could excel under these conditions with a little more bandwidth to play with. Role-playing titles and some massive games may perform adequately in the future. When I see a racer or a shooter, however, something in my mind rebels. Even the thought of Wii Tennis on a platform like this makes me cringe.

shift+3=#

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-03-19T14:27:09+00:00

Get used to it.

It is about to become the most used button on your keyboard & iphone.

In case you haven't heard, there are millions of birds chirping and it's going to get a lot louder. I am of course talking about the recent explosion of Twitter. The tiny little bird that could, and is taking over the social web landscape. The last article I read said that Twitter grown at a staggering rate of 1382% over last year and could quite possibly going to threaten Google as a search option.

So why is the '#' relevant? Known as the twitter hashtag, it is the community-driven way of adding additional context and meta data to your tweets, essentially creating groupings on Twitter. For example, When attending SXSWi in Austin, I had a added #SXSWi & #SXSW to my tweets which allowed people searching for these hashtags see my tweets. On the other side of the coin, I had a constant search in Tweedeck going for the same hashtags, allowing me to be in-the-know of what other people were tweeting about at the conference.

At SXSWi, most panels that I sat in on created a hashtag for the 'class' so people could post questions or comments in real-time and interact with panel in that manner. For an example of this, search #specwork09 in Twitter, or using a Twitter application like Tweetdeck. This by far was one of the most 'heated & interactive' panels that we attended titled 'Is Spec Work Evil'. Not only will you see comments/questions that happened during the panel, you will se how others are continuing the debate long after the panel was over.

I was introduced to Twitter more than a year ago by @ryanblaind in our office and quite honestly, I didn't see the point at that time. It wasn't until I spent time with him a couple of months ago and he demonstrated the power of using an application like Tweetdeck. I then looked at in a whole new light. It gave me the power of information and connectivity well beyond that I have experienced with Facebook or other social media platforms. – PS: If you don't know why I referred to Ryan as @ryanblaind, trust me you will very soon.

To all you Facebookers out there, give Twitter a try, trust me you'll become a 'Tweep' in no time. Start by following me on Twitter. To be perfectly honest, I can't see my life without it.

Just as closing note: I found out there was an earthquake in Greece this morning, 19 minutes after it happened, and over 1 Million people knew about the plane crash in New Zealand before the media even knew it happened. Thanks to Twitter and by following these tweeps.

Information Overload. It’s a great problem to have in Austin

Ryan Blaind — 2009-03-16T18:37:48+00:00

Checking in from Austin. So far we have had a amazing time. The last 2 days we have witnessed some truly inspiring panels and sessions here at SXSW Interactive. There really is a lot to see and do here, it's hard to fit it all in.

My feet are killing me, lets just get that out of the way. Probably not a good idea to try and break in a new pair of kicks with so much walking. We have been super busy, always checking the SXSW schedule to see what's next.

We checked out the Ellislab BBQ at Moonshine Grill the other night. It was great, good food, free drinks. Shawn and I had the opportunity to meet the founder of Ellislab, Rick Ellis, Leslie Camacho, and also the super smart Derek Jones. ExpressionEngine really is the backbone of our web development, and to meet the creators and just get to say hello was truly worth the trip down here. We were even posed the question, what can we do to make your experience better with EE. To be honest I was drawing a blank. In my mind it is already perfect.

Yesterday morning we kicked off the day with a panel featuring Jeffery Kalmikoff from Threadless, famous designer David Carson to name a few. The topic of the panel was called "Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community Speaks". The panelists were truly inspiring and had a heated debate based on each of their stance on spec work. Personally I am not prepared to offer my opinion on it, until I read a bit more into it. For now, if you want to get a good opinion read this blog post from Jeffrey, called "It's okay to be grey".

Today we had the privledge of attending a great panel called, "Ultimate Showdown of Content Management System Destiny". Basically it was an Iron Chef style competition where selected development shops were tasked with building a website all with the same specifications. Each using their content management system of choice (Drupal, WordPress and Joomla!) and then the sites were tested for user experience, performance, and things like that. It was really great to see and hear other developers talking about their approach to building websites, and it has inspired me to look into Drupal and possibly look into Joomla! again. It seems like Joomla! has come a long way from when I first tried it out a few years ago.

The nights here in Austin have been pretty action packed. It seems like every night we are heading to multiple parties and establishments. I have had the priviledge of getting together with some people that I am friends with from an online community that I have never met IRL. We have had a lot of fun most definitely. Tonight we are headed to a VIP event at a club called Pangea. It's sponsored by Microsoft, and should prove to be a good time. After that? Who knows where we will end up but I know for sure it will be good times had for all.

Check back soon, as we will be continuing to bring you updates from the road. Cheers!

Morning Y’all > Hello from SXSW in Austin

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-03-14T12:24:15+00:00

Well this is my first blog since arriving in the great city of Austin, Texas to attend the SXSW conference. What is SXSW you may ask? It is North America's biggest and coolest festival & conference dedicated to interactive, film & music. I am attending this year for the first time with our lead web designer Ryan (aka: Boy Wonder).

We are attending as part of our firm's commitment to better understand and embrace emerging technology and how it can benefit our clients. Today was the first day of some 'relevant' sessions after yesterday's rather disappointing day for 'filler' sessions. But I am quickly learning that there is more to this festival than just the panels/sessions as some of the side discussions with people can offer much more powerful information & insight.

So, to try and keep this post brief, I am going to quickly summarize some of the things that I have experienced then elaborate on these points in subsequent posts:

Twitter is so cool. I know most know this but to experience it in an area where so many 'tweeps' are using it is truly remarkable. Example one: We met a guy at Starbucks the other day (a super nice guy from San Fan) and part of the discussion led to him dropping his twitter handle. With in 15 minutes, we connected on Twitter and now we will be in-touch for years to come. Part B of this is while having lunch at Champions Sports bar a 'tweep' that I follow posted that he was eating there to. After a series of back and forth posts, I realized he was also sitting at the bar. It kind of made me realize that the technology that we harness allows us to connect, stay connected and meet people that you would never meet. This leads to point number 2....
The convergence of the virtual and real worlds is pretty amazing to witness. After meeting two of Ryan's 'friends' from Buttt3rscotch last night. The funny thing here is this was the first time Ryan met them in person as well. Despite the fact they had never met, they talked like they knew each other for years almost in a way that is more real and true than if they actually had met in the real life in the past. I was intrigued and in awe as I watched them drop stories and screen names like they've been hanging out for years. Truly cool to witness and understand.
A collective dump of some things that I witnessed and learned today that I will elaborate on in subsequent posts:

The future will bring us things like: QR Codes/tags, RFID integration, Audio code, visual search recognition, augmented reality and, that eventually our mobile phone will be the portal to our life, changing the way that we do everything from, communication, shopping, purchasing, and interacting with others in this big, big world that seems unbelievably small after my two days at SXSWi.

Truly stoked after the first day of real panels/sessions, my mind is going 100mph on the possibilities that lie ahead for the advertising industry.

Austin, we are gonna be in you

Ryan Blaind — 2009-03-13T11:54:49+00:00

What a night!! After a marathon day of flights starting off at 4:00am local time in Ontario, we flew out of Syracuse airport, connected to another flight in Detroit rock city, reached another connection in Memphis. We didn't have any time to put on our blue suede shoes at all. In fact we were so close to missing our connection that we pretty much had to elbow our way off the plane and haul ass into the terminal to the next gate. All you could smell in the Memphis airport was delicious BBQ. (we hadn't ate anything except for a bagel on the way to Syracuse so this was especially hard to deal with.) This was the only flight that I wasn't able to sit next to Shawn, and the dude beside me had a delicious smelling bbq sangwitch. I wanted to ask him for a bite, but didn't.

So, after finally arriving in Austin, I must say the weather here isn't much different than back home. Cold, rainy and dark. We checked into our sweet hotel and then hit the streets in search of food and bevys. We found a sweet spot for happy hour, McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant close to the hotel here in Austin. Pretty great place to have a bite and ridiculously cheap which was also a bonus. Friendly people, great atmosphere. People say y'all here a lot.

After wrapping up there, we decided to check the Happyhour site, to see what was going on. Didn't seem like a lot of people who are attending the conference arrived lastnight. Saw the odd web geek with macbook in hand, but really I was expecting to see them everywhere. We decided to hit up the "Cedar Door" tavern I'll call it. It really kind of seemed like a backwoods shack with a huge patio (rained out). Didn't see too many SXSWers there really either. Had many cold bevys there before calling it a night, early morning this morning and we needed to be ready for action.

So, now as I write this we are just about ready to go find some food and coffee, then register for SXSW at the convention centre. Will update soon, so many things going on today I am super stoked!

It’s all wrong.

Shane Woodward — 2009-03-04T19:11:32+00:00

Here's something else that makes me what to chew out my own liver.

Genki Wear, known for its licensed science fiction jewelry and perfumes, has produced what might be the most unusual Star Trek product ever: Star Trek colognes and perfume based on the original 1960s television show.

I consider myself a true Star Trek fan. I've never been to a convention, nor have I cosplayed or LARPed anything related to Star Trek (or anything else for that matter), but I am deeply interested in the canon. To me, this is wrong. This is blasphemy. This is sin.

WTF: Episode 4

Shane Woodward — 2009-03-03T12:42:08+00:00

This is stupid.

Is there some fundamental difference between gamer skin and human skin? I am aware that gamer skin has been known to occasionally take on a translucent, grub-like pallor, but this product fails to address the only obvious disparity.

I think of myself an imaginative person, and have often predicted initiatives like this with an accuracy so uncanny that men have called it prophetic. I did not foresee gamer razors.

I'm fairly open minded about this kind of thing, and would probably be more receptive had the product offered benefits, above and beyond that of the standard fair, that were relevant to the targeted audience. This razor does not.

Their deeper sin, however, is their inexcusable lack of effort put forth to actually research, and understand the people that they are trying to reach. Do they really think that "gamers" identify with the personalities that were unnecessarily deprived of humanity in this campaign? No. Gamers do not identify with Tiger Woods. Golfers do. Gamers don't play his game either. Golfers do. Tennis players identify with Roger Federer.

I can assure you that the inclusion of these two soul-sucking "personalities" didn't make me want to buy this product any more than I did prior to seeing the ad. In truth, it made me want to carve out my spleen. Worse, I'd do it with a blunt object, like a spoon, so that my burning rage didn't accidentally result in a one time sale.

If you want to identify with gamers? Show me Gordon Freemon using a Gillette razor to sculpt his trademark mug. Even Master Chief, scraping obsidian shards off his helmet, would be more relevant than this.

It's a flawed targeting mechanism. I can feel its beams grazing my occasionally translucent, grub-like flesh. But like everything else about this bad idea, it fails to truly find its mark.

Epic Fail.

Defining a Brand: The Subway Experience.

Shane Woodward — 2009-02-17T18:27:26+00:00

My original intention was to include this post as part of my ongoing "WTF" series, but now that I've put a little more thought into it, I've decided to launch a new series of posts which discusses, rants about, and pokes fun of those moments whereby your perception of a brand is completely altered, often for the worse, and usually forever.

"The Sitch":

It's lunchtime in Belle-vegas. Agency life being what it is, sometimes one has to grab lunch on the fly. Unfortunately, lunch on the fly in this end of town means that you only have a few establishments to choose from. Subway, the setting for today's "experience" happens to be one of our usual haunts.

The Cast:

To protect the identities of the parties involved (save for myself) I will not be using their real names. All other information will be presented in a wholly (mostly) accurate fashion.

The Subway Nazi is a classic example of the kind of employee you end up with when you hiring process focuses on quantitave rather than qualitative apects of an individual. She performs all of her duties as if she has a gun to her head, blurting out cliche laden phrases for the purposes of satisfying some ill-begotten rubric pinned to the wall beyond the range of mortal viewing. If one were to categorize Sandwich Artists, the Subway Nazi would fall in somewhere between impressionist and finger-painter, with a generous helping of whatever Van Gogh had when he was hacking his ear off. Where one's sandwich is concerned, meat is applied by the roll, and vegetables by the fist-full. Her superpowers include the uncanny ability to fabricate whole meals without so much as a single glance at the product in question.

The Subway Nazi's antics have been the source of much discussion at the office. In fact, we actually do refer to her, almost affectionately, by the pseudonym used in this epic tale.

Shrek is an employee who generally tries to perform her job well, but lacks the social graces necessary to thrive in a customer service environment. Her superpowers are limited to selective hearing, and the ability to project her voice at volumes beyond that which human vocal chords are capable of.

The Epic Tale:

As I pulled up to the storefront, I could clearly see that they were busy. Not excessively so, but certainly they were experiencing higher than average traffic. As I walked through the door, I was immediately greeted by a pile of waste on the floor, assumably spilled over from the swollen garbage can nearby. Accidents happen, but this pile had been there long enough to have been trampled by several patrons, resulting in discrete saucy-cheesy footprints leading the way to the sandwich counter.

As I continued to approach the sandwich station, the thunderous voice of Subway Nazi boomed, "You need to tell me what you want on this sandwich so I can finish it." Seated at a table across the room, a mouse-like elderly woman responded with a meek "everything but hot peppers please."

Shortly afterwards, I was greeted by Shrek, who asked to take my order. "Twelve inch Chicken Bacon Ranch please, on Monterey Cheddar" I offered. "Toasted?" Shrek countered. "Please." I responded confidently. "Toasted?" Shrek thundered once more. "Please." I repeated, less sure of myself.

"White Cheddar?" Shrek continued.

"Shredded please."

"What kind of cheese do you want?"

"Shredded please..."

Shrek, apparently satisfied with my responses, continued to assemble the framework for my would-be lunch. Unfortunately, as she turned to deposit my meal into the toasting oven, she caught it on the oven door, scattering strips of chicken and shredded cheese in all directions. Dismayed, Shrek collected the chicken and repositioned it on the bun. Uncertain of what to do with the cheese on the warming oven tray, she consulted Subway Nazi, who advised, "Just dump it on the floor. Someone will sweep it up eventually." Shrek complied, sought out new cheese for the sandwich, placed it in the oven (successfully), and moved on to the next customer.

"Ding."

At this point in the story, I found myself face to face with the Subway Nazi. Fear, apprehension, and distrust tugged at my mind with icy fingers.

"What would you like on it Hun?"

"Lettuce and tomato please, with a little bit of green olives."

With an offhand gesture, the Subway Nazi willed two fist-fulls of lettuce into existence and applied them to my sorry looking sandwich simultaneously. Before the lettuce had settled, several tomatoes were thrown into the mix, followed by enough green olives to feed a third-world nation. Maybe two.

"Is that all?"

"Can I get some ranch dressing please?"

She applied the dressing, and without so much as breaking eye contact, tossed the dressing bottle several feet to land, as if willed, perfectly on end in its receptacle.

"To go?"

I nodded.

With my lunch nearly ready for consumption, the Subway Nazi drew an evil looking blade and promptly divided my sandwich down the middle. Gently, she set the blade aside, as if it were an old friend, and turned back to the sandwich, her eyes aglow with dark zeal.

In a single trained motion, the Sandwich Nazi clutched my sandwich, slid it down the cutting-board and hurled it onto a pile of waxed-paper wrappers, completely spilling the contents of half the sandwich in the process. With an uncaring shrug, she scooped up the projected toppings with one hand and crammed them back into the abused and tattered bun, and tightly rolled the sandwich up, much like a spider would encapsulate its prey.

The tale did not end there though. The cashier managed to drop the sandwich while bagging it, and then threw my change on the floor, clearly offended at having to break a $20. These events seemed trivial, and barely worth noting amidst the aftermath of the Sandwich Nazi's dark plan.

Back to Reality:

Too often people overlook the vast scope of what brand really is. When identifying a company's brand, people tend to only look at the the top layer of a much bigger picture. A brand isn't just about marketing and positioning. To me, brand is about connection. More specifically, brand is all about the connection that a company, product, or service has with a consumer, and more importantly the consumer's perception of that company, product or service. Following that line of thought, any consumer touchpoint that can lead to a shift in the consumer's perception of a company, product, or service then becomes an important aspect of brand.

In Subway's case, the company has spent significant quantities of money leveraging a brand from the top down, only to have my perception turned upside down by an awful point of sale experience. As a consumer, am I more likely to buy into some intangible marketing message, or be influenced negatively by having my food slapped around and abuse while standing in a pile of garbage?

Sure, I still bought, and ate the sandwich. I am also starting to think that it isn't worth the trip to Subway next time I'm looking for a quick lunch. Mr. Sub is closer anyways.

An experience I could get used to.

Charlotte Barker — 2009-02-12T12:43:19+00:00

A couple of days ago, I was lucky enough to be involved in a meeting that brought weeks of hard work together creating a great day here at they. Since my first day I had been involved in a very significant campaign for they. I have seen all the steps involved prior to a client pitch starting with research and information gathered. It is amazing to realize the amount of prep that has to be done in order to come up with a campaign idea. We are told in school that you have to research but in all honesty we all just liked to come up with ideas and sometimes skimmed over that part. BIG mistake. I definitely found out the importance of knowing your stuff and being able to back it up with sound information. Before you can come up with an idea you have to know the company, the competition, the economy, and the consumer inside and out. It’s all about problem solving. You identify the problem and you research and strategize to come up with a solution.

The next step was to choose the most appropriate media. This step was just as thought out as the research. There is more to it than just putting your ad in any paper you want. You have to chose relevant publications and look for specific issues that would be more relevant than others. You also must have good reason as to why you chose a certain publication, and if there is not a good reason then you use something else. You always want the most relevant media to your client and target.

Budget and media planning seemed to go hand in hand. Each one gives and takes from the other until it all works out and all the numbers match up. There was a lot of back and forth and negotiating, and a lot of number crunching involved that are very important steps in the process. All the while, the creative team were coming up with ideas and tweaking and tweaking until they had the perfect one. I imagine many good and healthy habits were put into this effort. The creative part was quite fascinating, it is really incredible to see someone take all of the considerations and squeeze and condense them into one perfectly solid idea. Then to watch the whole team here take that idea and transform it into a whole campaign that carries across all different media types-it was an incredible thing to see. From all of this I learned that the backbone to every campaign and idea is strategy. An idea can only have wings if there is sound strategy to back it up.

Running through the keynote presentation with Brian and Shawn the day before was another good learning experience for me. Checking the flow, and the correct order of information reinforced things I learned at school. It is hard to imagine without being here the amount of work that goes into putting together a campaign and a campaign pitch. I really had no idea what was all involved. All of this was a build to a 2hour meeting.

The meeting was an amazing experience for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect but by being here for the last few weeks I knew it would be professional yet relaxed, and that everything would go smoothly. I also knew they knew what they were doing and that the client was sure to love the idea as much as everyone here. I also wondered if Shawn and Brian were anxious at all. It was refreshing to see their confidence as I realized that no matter how many times you do it, it still doesn’t get any easier. But it also emphasized how much they care about their work. It doesn’t matter if you are presenting to Harvie (my presentations teacher at college) or to a client, you prep the same and you do your best. Throughout the meeting I was paying attention to how Shawn and Brian presented the information and the order and delivery of the message. I also paid attention to the clients’ reaction to things. I noticed that Shawn and Brian were doing the same and I noticed they made sure the client understood where they were coming from and the reasoning behind everything before they moved on. Brian and Shawn were also very attentive to any questions the client had and responded with a relevant, satisfying, and honest answer that was backed up with proof and strategy. Watching the presentation was such a valuable experience.

Working on this campaign these last few weeks has taught me many things that I will keep with me. The most important thing I learned from all this was the process of building a campaign and all the steps in between point A and point B. Being able to see the process right from the beginning has given me a better understanding of how the industry works and also has given me a glimpse of what each person contributes. This knowledge will be so helpful to me as I will be able to contribute in many areas with a knowing of how and why everything works and happens a certain way, and also how each department works and builds off each other to create a campaign. It was very beneficial to be able to see everything come full circle from a blank piece of paper a few weeks ago to a whole rounded campaign today.

Now going forward, there is still a large amount of work to be done and I am looking forward to being involved in as much of it all as I can and watching the second half of the campaign come to life.

The ‘Mourning’ After

Shane Woodward — 2009-02-05T15:12:38+00:00

It's a cold day along the shore of Lake Ontario, and as I braved the climate this morning, I found myself reflecting upon the uneventful, and almost unnoticed passing of a holiday that I (and my kind) hold very dear. Christmas? No. New Years? Not really. National Peanut Brittle Day? World Hypnotism Day? The Super Bowl?

No. No. And a resounding no.

On this cold morning, in this cold town, I find myself mourning the passing of winter's only true holiday, and as far as I am concerned, the event for which winter was created. Today I'm mourning the passing of Winter-een-mas.

Mumble what? Winter-what?

Winter-een-mas is a celebration of video games and the people that play them, it and lasts for a whole week (January, the 25th - 31st). The entire month of January constitutes the Winter-een-mas season, very similar to the "Christmas season", where people begin to gear up for the holiday, and get into the spirit of things.

The holiday was created and maintained by the fictional character Ethan, from the web-comic strip Ctrl+Alt+Del. What started as a break from reality has grown in size and scope to become a holiday celebration that gamers can call their own.

Winter-een-mas and Me.

What really has me mourning the holiday this year is the fact that I really didn't have the opportunity to enjoy it. At least not in the way I've grown accustomed to enjoying it.

My first full out celebration of Winter-een-mas was back in 2004, where I threw a celebratory LAN party that kept my friends and I entertained for the weekend. I upped the stakes in 2005 with a much larger LAN party. 2006 and 2007 put a retro spin on the holiday, with many hours spent in the trenches of Age of Empires 2, Warcraft 2, and Diablo 2. 2008 was my first real Winter-een-mas after starting my guild in World of Warcraft, and it was celebrated with the guild's first successful raids of Hyjal Summit and Black Temple.

This year's Winter-een-mas shared none of the pomp of years past. If I had to pick out a high point, it would be witnessing my son complete Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld within the span of a few days. I guess it's a sign of age when your offspring enjoys the holiday even more than you do. Sure, I managed to grind a few levels out of my new Paladin, but that's really the extent of it. There were no network cables strewn across the house. No piles if empty Bawls bottles. No LARPing. (In truth there's never been any LARPing. I only threw that in for Brian's amusement. It's as if the very sound of the acronym has some magical influence over him. He's probably a closet LARPer.)

I'm not sure why this year was so different. I could excuse myself, saying that I didn't have the time, but I've always been busy at this time of the year. The truth is, I just didn't get excited about Winter-een-mas this time around, and barely noticed its passing until it was much too late. Now all I'm left with is the lingering, hollow feeling of regret. In fact, my environment, even my desk at work, serves as a constant reminder of my folly:

Is this my last Winter-een-mas. Surely not. 2009 has served as a wake-up call, and I find myself already mapping out next year's festivities.

Superbowl For ‘The Ladies…Please?

Sarah Rose — 2009-01-29T22:55:58+00:00

This Sunday marks the biggest sports and television event of the year.

The Super Bowl.

Over a billion people worldwide will pretend for an afternoon that they are football fans. Except for the large portion of us women who really don’t care one iota about the big game except maybe when Justin Timberlake performed – and we all remember it was more exciting than the game was that year. Thanks Janet.

So other than that year this marks another year of enduring the “big game”. I enjoy the Super Bowl for two reasons, it marks the end of football season, and the coach and television are finally free on a Sunday. Most ladies would probably write a blog complaining about the Super Bowl. But I will not.

Instead of complaining about the big game I am here to complain for a different reason. I am okay with the big game being played. I am here to complain that we women out there don’t have our own Super Sunday.

Let’s break down the amazing benefits that they guys get from Super Bowl Sunday:

First and foremost they get to watch 4 hours of uninterrupted, womanless, childless, football. When do we women ever get 4 hours of anything uninterrupted?
It’s an excuse to pig out on junk food. Chilli, pizza, wings, chips, pop, beer, nachos, etc.
They drink on a Sunday! A work night for god’s sake!
Even the guys that don’t watch football understand the sweet benefits of this day and go out. Is that really fair?
All year whenever we watch television we are forced to endure annoying commercials. But not on Super Bowl Sunday. In fact many guys tune in to watch the commercials. Millions are spent to make the best, most amusing 30 second spots imaginable. Now that is sweet.

So instead of ripping the guys for having this day I applaud them. For the imbeciles they usually are they were brilliant in coming up with this plan. Just brilliant. Honestly, women, you have to admit it was a smart play on there part.

So I am calling upon all women out there. We need to devise our own Super Bowl Sunday. Obviously, we don’t want to watch football. But there has to be an event that is so similar but we call ours.

What can we come up with?

Here is our criteria:

It has to be at least 4 hours of entertainment. This rules out the final episodes of American Idol or the Bachelor, since they are only 2.
We get to eat all the junk food we want. Maybe instead of chilli, wings and beer we get shrimp, ice cream, and cosmos.
We get commercials geared towards us. All hot men in skimpy outfits I think would work.
Oh and now that I think about it, we don’t want crappy Sunday we want Saturday. Or if it’s a work night – Thursday!
And most of all – we want it to have a half time show...
With Justin Timberlake
Bon Jovi
And Tim McGraw
Oh yeah, and Janet removes reveal something of “theirs” this time!

Can we make this happen ladies?

Veggie Love

Shane Woodward — 2009-01-29T12:48:57+00:00

A couple of days ago, The New York Post reported that NBC has rejected a Super Bowl ad from animal rights organization PETA due to its hypersexualized nature:

NBC pulled the plug on a PETA pro-veggie commercial planned for the Super Bowl because it "depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards," according to NBC Universal's advertising standards executive, Victoria Morgan. The ad, which carries the tag-line, "Studies Show Vegetarians Have Better Sex," shows lingerie-clad stunners getting "intimate" with vegetables.

In truth, I'd be the last person in the world to jump on the PETA bandwagon, but you almost have to admire the complete lack of subtlety that permeates from almost everything they do. (not that Super Bowl Ads are the pinnacle of subtlety)

Here's the spot. I'd say that it's NSFW (not safe for work), but you know the people I work with. Never-the-less, consider yourself warned. I nearly choked on my cheeseburger when I first watched it.

I've never wanted to be broccoli so much in my life.

An internship at they

Charlotte Barker — 2009-01-29T11:33:56+00:00

With my first couple weeks here over, I thought I would reflect on what’s been going on during this time.

Many meetings, many e-mails, many numbers, many terms I am unfamiliar with as of yet, and a lot of observations. I spent the better part of my first few weeks watching everyone around here doing what they do best - and wondering how they do it. I have seen everyone juggle a million different things and yet they seem to keep everything in order. It’s pretty amazing! Being able to see what goes on behind the scenes has given me a better understanding of the things that need to be done in order to get all the hard work out the door. There is a lot to all this stuff that I was unaware of, and a lot of things that are confusing to me still. But with everyone here being so helpful, I’m sure it won’t be too long until I get the hang of it.

What have I learned so far?

That I have a lot to learn.
Bookings and budgets have found their way into my nightmares.
I need to take juggling lessons.
Sarah is a violent Wii player.
There is always something new and exciting happening.

Thanks to everyone for answering all my amateur questions and making my first weeks here not so scary!

Wasn’t that a Party? No Silly, that was the Marketer of the Year

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-01-21T00:19:16+00:00

I write this as I finish watching 'The Neighborhood Ball' on ABC, one of the 'Official Inauguration Balls' of the new US President Barack H. Obama and can't help but think, how in the hell are The Grammy's going to beat this? Is this the President's Ball or the slickest production with the highest celebrity profile that I have ever seen? In all my years (albeit that's not a lot), I don't recall seeing any US President taking office like this. Nor, have I (as a Canadian) cared enough to tune to the official event; not to mention at work and then continue to watch it during Prime Time at home. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool and it might just be what the USA needs right now (ehem CONFIDENCE & HOPE); This is a celebration as monumental as the event itself. I heard tonight that this is the first time in American history that 'The Inauguration Ball' has been open to everyday people. And I believe this is the first time that most people may have actually cared to watch it. Typically reserved for only dignitaries, this year's 'Ball' reinforces Obama's position as 'one of the people'. I truly believe that Obama is 'one of the people'. I think he is as real as his stumbling over his oath today (which was followed by one of the most motivational Presidential acceptance speeches of all time) and by his arrival statement at the ball tonight 'How great does my wife look tonight?', followed by some hip-bumping with some 'oldies but goodies' to Stevie Wonder's star-supported version of 'Signed, Sealed Delivered'.

Creativity Magazine recently gave Obama the title of 'Marketer of the Year' and I believe, from what I have witnessed today; including the CNN/Facebook partnership to this 'Neighborhood Ball' I believe that they have made the correct choice. Anyway you look at it, this is the most relevant and most publicized (read marketable) event of our time. Gotta run...CNN is covering the 'Youth Ball' (2 of 10 Balls) with Kanye, Kid Rock & Fall Out Boy....lates (playa) \m/

Don’t “chuck” those Super Bowl 3D glasses.

Shane Woodward — 2009-01-19T17:49:53+00:00

Just when I though TV's best show couldn't get any better...

Chuck returns with a 3D episode on February 2nd at 8/7c

Super Bowl viewers who pick up a pair of free 3D glasses to see the first all-3D commercial break, featuring a 3D ad campaign for the upcoming feature film Monsters vs. Aliens, running during the big game on NBC, will want to hang on to them to watch an all-3D episode of Chuck premiering the next night.

The 3D episode, "Chuck vs. the Third Dimension," debuts Monday February 2nd at 8/7c on NBC and will feature a special guest appearance by NBC Sports analyst and Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis. The episode has been specially produced to take advantage of the same cutting edge 3D technology being used for the Super Bowl promotions.

Of course, we Canadians will have to fend for ourselves, since in Canada, Chuck airs on Citytv, and naturally, the cross-promotion element doesn’t apply. Unfortunately, tuning into NBC won't help much either. The practice, which is known as simulcasting, has been a source of frustration for me for many years.

I will find a way. Mark my words. I will find a way.

Truth in advertising: a meal to die for.

Brian Freeman — 2009-01-16T17:32:39+00:00

This is the hardest article I've ever had to write. There is a lump in my throat, a tear in my eye, and drool on my keyboard.

I'm salivating, because as an ad man, I've recently come across a brand that clearly communicates and delivers their brand promise across all consumer touch points better than almost any other brand I've ever seen. It is beautiful in its honesty and simplicity. And their product is to die for.

Welcome to the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona.

The Heart Attack Grill is a coronary cafe, and it bills itself as the only honest restaurant in America. There are no healthy choices on the menu or paring down of portions; in fact, just the opposite. Their burger selection is offered as single, double, triple and quandruple Bypass Burgers. The buns are coated in lard. Their motto is "The taste worth dying for", and their mantra: "live for the day", supposedly while happily munching away on all-you-can-eat 'Flatliner Fries'.

The Heart Attack Grill is run by Dr."John" (he's not a real doctor, and he's definitely not a dietician). The waitresses are 'nurses' and the customers are 'patients'. If, at all possible, you manage to eat your way through an 8,000 calorie quadruple burger, a nurse will gladly wheel you to the exit in a wheelchair.

The concept is brilliant. The product is desirable. The customer experience is as-advertised.

For those of you who demand truth in your advertising, welcome to the Heart Attack Grill.

And Interesting Direction Indeed

Shane Woodward — 2009-01-16T12:43:30+00:00

Facebook has decided to pull the plug on the Whopper Sacrifice application which I blogged about earlier this week. To remind you, the applet was a promotion from Burger King which enabled people to delete their fake friends in return for vouchers from the fast food outfit.

The software, developed by Refresh Partners and Crispin Porter and Bogusky, was popular. Over the brief time that the Whopper Sacrifice campaign was live, 233,906 friends were sacrificed by Facebook users in the pursuit of a free cow sandwich.

Facebook has clarified that it has not shut the app down - it still exists - but rather it has required the developer to remove its functionality for violating users’ expectations of privacy. Normally, no notification is sent when a user removes a friend on Facebook. However, the Whopper Sacrifice application posted a feed story letting others know the friend was being sacrificed for a Whopper before finalizing the removal.

“We encourage creativity from developers and companies using Facebook Platform, but we also must ensure that applications meet users’ expectations. After constructive conversations with Burger King and the developer of the application, they have decided to conclude their campaign rather than continue with the restrictions we placed on their application,” a Facebook spokesperson told Inside Facebook in an updated statement.

One wonders, given BK's decision to rein in the campaign after tossing the stone in the pond, if this was all part of the plan, or at the very least, recognized ahead of time as a likely eventuality. Either way, I think BK wins here. I'm going to get a whopper.

Top 5 Albums of 2008

Joel Daigle — 2009-01-13T14:54:08+00:00

As the "New Guy" at They I thought I would let everyone get to know me a little bit better.To do this here is a little list of my top 5 favorite Artists/Albums of 2008. (In no specific order)

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
If you enjoy Nils’ vocals, you’ll soon realize this is truly a great album.

Attack in Black - The Curve of the Earth
Loving the lo-fi, mellow sound of this one and can’t wait for the next release.

Rides Again - Into Existence
I first listened to them at the Horse Shoe Tavern, and what a performance!

Jonezetta - Cruel To Be Young
An all around solid band.

Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
This guy's a true musician, and he also animates his own videos.

Stop Calling Me!

Sue Stewart — 2009-01-13T12:49:16+00:00

I'm sure this has happened to you at least once a week. Just as you are about to sit down to have dinner with your family or you are just about to head out the door, when your phone rings and you drop everything to answer it and who is at the other end of the phone... a horn blowing to notify you that you have just won a trip if you push 8 and give those telemarketers all you personal information. Seriously, how annoying it that. A co-worker of mine gave me this website that savedmy phone from being thrown across the room, https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/insnum-regnum-eng. This website allows you to register your phone number (residential or wireless) on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) very easily. I actually was very skeptical of this at first and then I thought what do I have to lose except annoying phone calls, so I tried it and it really does help cut down those calls in as little as a week Now if they could only come up with something to block your in-laws number!

Please be Quiet (or at least positive)

Shawn Patriquin — 2009-01-13T12:19:55+00:00

A Quick Rant on the Media's Continuous Pessimism

Okay, we get it! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! How could we forget when you won't stop telling us about it. We know things are bad with the economy and may only get worse but do we need to be reminded about it at every turn? Perhaps this constant negativity is what is 'fanning the flames' here and pushing consumer confidence to an all time low. Really, do we need to draw parallels to The Great Depression?

Here's my thought. Maybe (just maybe) if the media would stop talking about it for just a day, we'd all feel a bit better. Better yet, how about finding something with some optimism to report on? Something that shows hope and boosts consumer confidence.

Want to feel better about the economy right away? Here's how > Stop watching CNN (AKA Catastrophe News Network) for a week and you'll feel a lot better and be more confident in our Canadian (and regional economies), guaranteed. This is one station that lives for the doom & gloom, packages it in record time to feed it back to the masses as quick & slick as possible. Man they love a tragedy don't they? If it wasn't for tragedy, this station wouldn't exist. It's sad but true, but our dependance on US based media has skewed our perception of how things really are in Canada. Sure we've seen better days but it's hardly like The Great Depression.

I Love NY!

Sarah Rose — 2009-01-12T11:51:07+00:00

I was lucky enough to travel to the city of all cities, New York, right before Christmas. There was so much to see and do that I simply came up with a list of highlights from the trip:

It was cold. It was uncharacteristically cold during the trip, which begs the question – Why wouldn’t I go in the summer?
But it was worth it. Seeing the Christmas decorations at Rockafeller Plaza, Macy’s, Tiffany’s (no I did not have breakfast there), Saks, Cartier, and almost everywhere else we looked was amazing.
And speaking of cold, I knew Letterman liked a chilly Ed Sullivan theatre but seeing his camaramen in their winter coats seemed a little much.
Oh, and sitting front row meant we had a good view and Paul Shafer is truly that weird.
Personal highlight of the trip mixed with mortal danger = buying coach bags in Chinatown.
Drinking beers at MSG with my boyfriend wasn’t as bad as I thought It would be. Plus, the souvenir mugs cups they served them in made a good Xmas present for my dad.
It must have been the temp because the women were not dressed like Charlotte, Miranda, Samantha and Carrie. Very disappointing.
Lion King was awesome!
NBC tour was not. (However, I did score a really cool Saved By the Bell tee)
Plan the time to walk to Bloomingdales – especially if you want denim.
Shopping at Macy’s from midnight to 2 am.- Its open 24 hr/day at Christmas!!
Bud light lime. Why haven’t I had this stuff before?
However, I did not, could not and wish not to ever again – sit on a commuter plane for an hour ride through a blizzard filled with crazy bumps and loud noises! It even forced a few Hail Mary’s out of my boyfriend…
But most of all the trip made me realize the motto is true:

An Interesting Direction

Shane Woodward — 2009-01-12T11:19:27+00:00

Burger King calls for friends cull.

Fast food outfit Burger King is offering a free burger to anybody that removes ten fake friends from their Facebook site.

The 'Angry Whopper' sandwich promotion has been launched in New York under the title 'Whopper Sacrifice'. Basically you have to choose between your fake friends or ten bites of one of the outfit's products. Such choices are not meant to be placed on mere mortals. You have to download an application in order to carry out the cull, and your ex-friends will get the message 'You have been sacrificed for a free snack'.

Check out the promotion website HERE.

Recycling Ideas and Getting Rich

Shane Woodward — 2009-01-08T17:31:53+00:00

Although I hate to admit it, I was one of "those parents" caught up in trying to find and purchase a Nintendo Wii for my kids this Christmas. One would think that I could simply jump in the car and head over to any local electronics retailer and they'd have them stacked to the rafters. Not so. In fact, after two weeks of searching, I finally found one at an HMV over 200 kilometers away. My boss managed to find one to stick under his Christmas tree through an online retailer that specializes in the distribution of products related to animated characters.

Now that the novelty has worn off, and the burning in my Wii Tennis arm has subsided, I find myself looking back on the whole situation and asking myself a whole bunch of questions that start with "why".

The most obvious "why": Why are these things so hard to come by?

That's a good question. Granted, the console has been enormously successful since it's launch, but that was back in November of 2006, more than 2 full years before my purchase. This years hype surrounding Wii Fit certainly caused a bump in sales, but come on, how many people that don't already own this console are going to pick one up, just so that they can do the kind of physical activity that most people play video games to avoid?

The next "why": Why is the Wii so successful to begin with?

It must be the bleeding edge technology under this high performance beasts hood, right? Wrong. In truth, the technology driving the Nintendo Wii was old, even at the time of launch. From a performance/computing prespective, this Wii is a small step up from its predecessor, the Nintendo Gamecube, which launched back in 2001.

Then it must be the extensive lineup of games from popular publishers. Nope. In fact, many game shops while steer clear of the console because of Nintendo's very tight regulation of content, and strict control of the production and distribution.

I guess it has to be all the Nintendo die-hards of NES/SNES era scrambling to get their fix. Wrong again. Actually, the Wii has been thriving on hard earned dollars of people who have never owned a video game console. Stay at home moms. Nursing homes. Advertising agencies. I threw the last one in because a few months ago we installed a ginormous high definition LDC TV in our newly renovated upstairs, and since we did, the office Wii has been the only thing that we've connected to it.

The Big Deal

According to most reviews, "The distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions."

Oooooo... sounds innovative. Wait.. didn't Nintendo try that back 1989? I know I saw it in a Fred Savage movie somewhere.

For those that have no idea what I'm talking about (probably most of you), I am referring to the massive failure that geeks like me remember fondly as the Power Glove.

Though it was an officially licensed product, Nintendo was not actually involved in the design or release of this accessory, which greatly contributed to its failure, as I'll explain later. The Power Glove was the first peripheral interface controller to recreate human hand movements on a television or computer screen.

On the surface, the technology was similar. Like the Wii, the power glove relied on sensors (there were 3 of them) placed on the television to track the devices movement. Unlike the Wii, which uses a combination of Accelerometer data transmitted over Bluetooth and infrared data sent to the set-top sensor, the Power Glove relied on ultra-sonic (sounds beyond audible range of the human ear) triangulation which proved less precise, but hey, it was 1989.

What really killed the Powerglove was the fact that there weren't many games designed to make use of the features that the peripheral offered, and using the Power Glove in place of a traditional controller was awkward at best. Had Nintendo regulated things as closely back then as they do now, things could have been very different. In the case of the Wii, the wireless controller is not so much a peripheral as it is the central feature upon which the console, and the vast majority of its games are designed around. Although the concept is old, that's why now, even 20 years later, it "feels innovative".

Some say that the Power Glove was "too innovative, too soon", but I honestly believe that, had it benefited from the careful planning and strategic implementation that today's Wii does, it would have revolutionized the video game industry.

In the immortal words of The Wizards's Lucas Barton (Jackey Vinson), "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad!"

You have to hand it to Nintendo though. Before the Wii, they were struggling to keep up in the gaming industry. Recycling an idea, even one that wasn't theirs to begin with, and giving it the polish that it needed and deserved has put them back on top.

They give warmth. And it feels good.

Brian Freeman — 2008-12-24T14:05:10+00:00

A few weeks back our staff sat down to problem solve what to give our clients this year. It began as a typical planning session with each staff member offering up gift ideas. Some of the ideas were clever, some were practical, some were just odd (not everyone appreciates a game of Twister, apparently). What came out of that planning session however was anything but ordinary. What started off as a challenge to provide our clients with a gift that truly reflected our appreciation eventually developed into a much bigger gift, the creation of "they give", a not-for-profit charitable organization that will support philanthropic causes in our community for years to come.

The genesis of the idea came when we read that many local charitable organizations were in need of support, at this time of year more than ever. In particular, a story on the Salvation Army's 'The Warm Room' caught our attention. The Warm Room is operated almost entirely by volunteers, and provides shelter and meals to clients through the winter months. Last winter, The Warm Room served almost 3,000 clients and 5,000 meals and, on average, will likely serve between 30 to 60 people each evening. The Warm Room is made possible by donations from the community at large.

We wanted to do something to support The Warm room, and wondered if we somehow could tie that effort, that spirit of giving and giving back, into a bigger effort that would generate awareness and encourage others to do the same. Our client gifts allowed us to do just that. This year, we provided our clients with custom fleece blankets, a symbolic gift of warmth, with a label wrap that informed each client that a donation had been made on their behalf to The Warm Room which would provide warmth, meals and shelter to people in our community this holiday season. To be honest, our office resembled Santa's workshop, with the staff folding blankets, trimming labels, printing cards and assembling the final packages for delivery. It was pretty cool to see everyone get involved in this project.

To be honest, it felt pretty good to give our clients a gift this year that they would truly appreciate. With the creation of 'they give' our hope is that we can continue to support worthwhile charitable causes in our community for years to come. Stay tuned to www.theygive.org for future efforts as we move forward. As a side note, we also provided our clients with the gift of music, a CD collection of Christmas songs selected by each staff member.

On a personal note, I hope everyone has a safe, fun and enjoyable Christmas with friends, families and loved ones. And if you can, pass on that Christmas cheer to those in need this season as best you can. See you next year.

Innovation is required in the best and worst of times

Jim Wiggins — 2008-12-11T20:02:09+00:00

The current global economic crisis has a lot of people concerned, and with good reason. Traditionally, advertising budgets are among the first things cut when times get tough. Accordingly, clients have been asking us, "what should we do?" It's a good question. The answer: It depends. On many, many things.

There is no one answer to ensure your brand or business survives or prospers during an economic downturn. Despite the mounting fear, smart marketers and businesses can plan for growth in an economic downturn. It's happened many times before; for example, Chrysler introduced auto rebates in early 1975 as a short-term promotion to clear bloated inventory. Automakers have been addicted to rebates ever since.

Here's five quick tips to cope - and yes, even thrive - in a downturn.

Focus on your brand. Consumers stick with brands they know and love. Give them a reason to stay in love with you and focus on what your brand or business stands for.
Target your media. Consumers are bombarded with a plethora of media almost every moment of every day. Determine which media is best suited to reaching your customers.
Cut back on non-essentials. You may not be able to afford to do all the things you're currently doing. Focus on initiatives that provide you with the most bang for your buck, and cut back on the non-essentials.
Be in front of your customers. Most consumers are researching or shopping on-line. Increase your on-line presence with search engine optimization. Don't have an on-line presence? You can bet your competition does.
Build strong relationships with your customers. You can do this quite easily in your day to day transactions with your customers. Give them a reason to come to you, and more importantly, to come back.

Keep in mind there is no quick fix, but if you simply bury your head in the sand and do nothing, well, you're doing nothing. However, chances are that your competitors are doing something, so you can't ignore the situation. Stand out from the clutter, zig when the other guy zags, and give your customers a reason to seek you out. Find out what is different or better about your business or product over your competitors' business or product. That's your value proposition. Now start communicating it by means of an integrated media budget that is within your comfort level and get the word out. Be bold, and be different.

Some of us have some tough times ahead of us. But so did Calvin Klein in recessionary 1982, and he somehow managed to persuade us to spend $33 for designer underwear in an era of discount generic beer and 10% unemployment.

First Impressions of LittleSnapper by Realmac Software

Ryan Blaind — 2008-12-10T01:56:18+00:00

SWEET. I've had my eye on this application for a while now, and was hoping to get invited to the first alpha round of testing. LittleSnapper is touted as "the designers digital scrapbook", it is an app similar to iPhoto in design and function, but it is intended for people to use to save and organize screenshots, whether it be websites, images, or even caps from your own screen to document progress on your latest client work.

I hvae been folliowing the LittleSnapper twitter feed ever since I found out about the app, and one day about 2-3 weeks ago I replied to a tweet basically saying email so-and-so with the subject blah within the next hour to get invited to beta test the application. Earlier today I received an invite and was pretty stoked to get the opportunity to try it out.

LittleSnapper makes easy work of being able to easily capture screenshots from your web browser of choice, full screenshots, individual windows, and even selections of the screen. The application itself feels like a native Apple app, as far as the interface and how well the program behaves. Organizing your screenshots is a breeze, you can alos add comments, ratings and tags to your images.

Another great addition to this system is called QuickSnapper, which is basically a new online image sharing service. With 1 click I can publish selected images to the web and be able to link to it directly. This is especially handy for sharing images with your friends or co-workers. This screenshot is actually hotlinked directly from my collection on QuickSnapper, which I snapped with LittleSnapper and uploaded all within probably 10 seconds.

The QuickSnapper service could compare to the popular ffffound service, although I think this has a different appeal. Both are going to be excellent sources of inspiration.

Blonde on Christmas

Sarah Rose — 2008-12-07T22:34:39+00:00

Tis’ the season to try and come up with gift ideas for people to buy me! I love Christmas. It may be this blonde’s favourite season. Well, this and the end of football season (but that was our discussion last blog). Yet, the older I get, the harder it is to aid and abet my loved ones in finding the perfect holiday gift. And trust me this is hard stuff, especially for us blondes.

When it comes to my parents, I gave up years ago on them. Since the Christmas of ’95, when I received my last pair of flannel pajamas (which glowed in the dark, and I will admit, deep down, I still kinda liked) I have made it a point to ensure that all future presents are monetarily focused. And thank heavens Mom and Dad always seem to come through – they understand me and my penchant for shopping and how far a few green queens can go.

But it wasn’t easy. This blonde had to train mother and father. It took many years and a lot of hard work. But now it’s a given, my present always comes in an envelope. But its not ma and pa who make it difficult these days, it’s the boyfriend. We have decided to visit NYC for Christmas and thus have capped our gift giving at one green queen. And I think he is screwed.

I will admit it won’t be easy for him. There is not much under $20 that graces my presence. In all honesty, I will be shocked if he achieves this goal, but then, I hope he doesn’t. He can break the bank for his girlfriend. He should. Unfortunately he likes a challenge and I know he will make it a point to find something special for twenty bones or clams or whatever you call it.

And this makes me scared.

Very, very scared.

What in the hell could he possibly buy me that I will like for only $20? I am petrified that I will wake up on December 25th and begin the annual joy of opening wrapped items of intimacy and find…a pair of flannel pajamas!!

He may need to be trained. Just like mom and dad did in the mid ‘90s. I no longer want flannel PJs, Tommy Hilfiger overalls, or a NKOTB CD (oh wait, scratch that last one, I could go for their new CD). I think it’s going to be a tough road that lies ahead and I will have my work cut out for me.

They shouldn’t make this stuff so hard for us blondes…

Your Own Personal Sale

Sue Stewart — 2008-12-05T17:02:06+00:00

A friend of mine introduced me to this great website www.shopittome.com. This website is like a personal shopper. After you enter some personal preferences (Sizes and your choices of brands ie Prada, Valentino, etc.) they will email you as often as you like (Everyday or every Wednesday etc.) with items that you showed an interest in that are available in your size and are on sale. You just click on that item and it forwards you to that website and you order directly through that company which tells you how they ship and what their return policy is like. It's so easy!!

Pimp My Xbox

Ryan Blaind — 2008-11-20T13:52:51+00:00

Last night when I got home from work and fired up my xbox 360 I was greeted with a system message alerting me that there was a console update available. I had forgot that Wednesday November 19th was the launch date for the New Xbox Experience (NXE).

As I waited with childish giddy excitement for the update to download and apply I could barely contain myself. The download and update took very little time, and once it had finished I was greeted with this sweet intro video.

At first I was thinking to myself, "I wonder if this is the new power-on sequence for when you turn on your xbox", however it was only a 1 time play for first launch of the new experience. For me this wasn't expected, some people will say, yeah that wasn't really necessary but in my opinion it's similar to that little video that plays when you turn on a new mac, just that extra element of polish to make it special for the end user.

First step after the introduction video plays is to create your new avatar. On the heels of the Mii avatars on Nintendo's Wii system, Xbox has implimented a similar avatar system, where you create an online likeness of yourself. The avatars are a little more detailed than the Mii avatars, and overall I think it's a pretty cool feature to have added to Xbox Live.

Sadly, the highly toted feature of being able to stream Netflix movies via the Xbox interface seems to be lost on us Canadians, which is kind of a super bummer. Maybe some day soon we will be able to become customers of Netflix, I look forward to that day.

Over all I am super impressed with the New Xbox Experience. It feels like a brand new console. The old interface was starting to feel really dated. I have seen some twitter updates from my friends saying that the system is buggy for them, causing crashes and whatnot, but it's been a pretty smooth ride for me so far.

Oh yeah, my iPhone plays music too!

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-11-19T17:19:57+00:00

I remember reading interview with Steve jobs shortly after obtaining my first iPod in 2001 where he said 'the biggest iPod sales growth opportunity is among current iPod owners'. At the time, it seemed like an odd comment to me but, after taking a recent inventory of my ipods I am thinking that Mr. Interim CEO was right on mark (again). The latest addition to my family is of course my new best friend, the iPhone 3G. Given that it's been 3 months since we got hitched, I thought that it would be fitting to offer some thoughts on our relationship.

Where do I begin? How about 'I LOVE YOU! I love everything about you, you sleek little bundle of technological joy.' In fact there are so many things I love about this device it would make for an incredibly long post if I were to list them out. The reality is, there are so many cool things that this phone can do, it makes it real easy to forget that it can also play music. Seems like an odd statement I know, but from my perspective, a true one. In fact, I think I have only used it as an iPod once.

So how is it possible for me to forget that this thing plays music? I am it sure it has to do with the hundreds of other things it can do. I believe the App Store now boasts over 6000 applications for the iPhone and it has revolutionized the approach to open source software development for mobile devices. As a result the clear winners are the iPhone owners and the software developers that are making millions (and of course Apple which retains about 65% of each app sold). There so many apps, it is hard to keep up and you need to be reserved in your downloading not to overwhelm yourself. Of all I have obtained so far, my favourite is still Shazam for it's ability to WOW people and win the odd pint by betting on the name and artist of an obscure song.

To round out this post, I offer this link for a chap that worked for RIM and wanted to fist fight me in Toronto when I told him that the Storm will never touch the iPhone in terms of technology, ease-of-use and integration. ~ Cheers!

Stars and Stripes, and why I like Ike

Brian Freeman — 2008-11-14T13:49:02+00:00

On the heels of two recent elections I think its safe to say we're all pretty much tired of the election talk, attack ads, hyperbole and the shopping spree habits of candidates. Does tomorrow look any better than today? Many people in the United States, and indeed around the globe, believe so with the election of Barack Obama and his collective message of change, "Yes We Can". I knew Obama would win. He had to. He had the better logo.

Now there's a big difference between a logo and a brand, and that might be the topic of a future post. But for the sake of brevity here, Obama the man is the brand; he is the product, and his message of hope is his brand's promise. His campaign logo simply communicates his brand values. You can read what you want into any identity, but the Obama '08 campaign logo does what every good logo should do: it accurately represents the man and the brand. The sun rising over the heartland of America, a better America, a different America, is a visual message of change, and a simple visual metaphor to understand and appreciate. There is no confusion here. And, of course, it contains all of the flag-waving-stars-and-stripes elements that have become compulsory in election logos in the United States (that doesn't make it good, it's simply a mandatory treatment - try getting elected in America without waving the flag).

The logo alone didn't win the election for Obama (yes, I was being somewhat obtuse). But his brand message and his logo were in sync. His logo represented change, and his brand promise "Yes We Can" challenged us to believe. It was the substance of his message, in words and images, that made us feel something. When was the last time a brand made you feel anything? .That's the power of a good brand and of a good logo, all of the parts working together to communicate a positive, impactful, memorable and compelling message. Now, time will tell if the man lives up to his brand promise, but he's off to a good start. He had the better logo.

My favourite U.S. electoral campaign message, purely for the simplicity of it, was for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In post World War II America, the winds of change were blowing across the land. This period in the early 1950's was known as their "Winter of Discontent", and change was beckoning (sound familiar...?). A popular movement to persuade General Eisenhower to run for the nation's highest office began with the simple words on a button, "I like Ike". It caught on, maybe because of its simple message (and really, how could you not like a grandfatherly 5 star general?). In its own way, those three simple words told the nation, "this guy's ok. He's going to change things. Come on, hop on board". He didn't have a campaign logo per se, but his brand promise was that of a stoic leader who got things done (he was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during WW II and oversaw the D-Day invasions, so he had that going for him). "I like Ike" became a cultural icon, not much different from the words, "Where's the Beef?". It resonated with people and it stuck. As an ad person, that's what we hope to achieve every day.

Now, just for fun, I've included various U.S. electoral campaign logos dating back from the late 1960's, posted by Sam Potts in the most recent issue of Print magazine. The better logo didn't necessarily decide the winning candidate, obviously. I'm just saying it's a beautiful thing when a brand message can be communicated visually by a powerful logo and unify the message. And by the way, when's the last time you heard someone say, "I Like Nixon"?

The New Green Marketing

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-11-13T18:59:47+00:00

This is just one guy's opinion.

It wasn’t long ago that all we read and heard about was ‘The Green Movement’ and green marketing. It seemed like every company, big & small, wanted to incorporate some sort eco-friendly angle into their marketing strategy and ride the big ‘Green-Wave’ to connect with customers. Everywhere we turned there seemed to be a big corporation spending millions of dollars on warm & fuzzy ad campaigns that positioned them as an eco-friendly and touted a socially responsible platform for doing their part to help the environment.

While I am sure these companies are still doing their part for the environment, the one thing they are not doing (or won’t be in the very near future) is spending millions of dollars on beating their green chest about it in mainstream media. Given the recent global economic downturn (which is only going to get worse), I believe the only green that any company will care about is the green going in their tills.

I believe, what we will see is a shift from warm & fuzzy brand-building advertising to more hard hitting promotional, price focused and incentive based advertising campaigns that generate an all important and immediate ROI of the most important kind – cold hard cash! Don’t get me wrong, there will always room from brand-building activity during tough financial times but certain sectors (especially retail & automotive) won’t have a choice to shift to this more price-focused promotional strategy as more consumers will become gun-shy about parting ways with their hard earned dollar on ‘nice-to-have’ items.

Love a New Product!

Sarah Rose — 2008-11-13T12:55:47+00:00

Its not everyday that a new product gets me excited. I mean the kind of product that you ask yourself, “why haven’t they thought of this before.!!” Or the kind that you feel like you have to run out and buy that day and tell all your friends about! Check this product out, I think you will all be just as excited as I am!

http://www.nicolebyopi.com/?#products/nicssticks

I’m a PC - At Last

Shane Woodward — 2008-11-13T12:47:08+00:00

Finally, Microsoft has done something that makes sense.

Shawn and I have been all over this ongoing Mac-PC marketing saga for awhile, and the one thing we all agree on thus far is that Microsoft has come out second best. Can you come out third best in a two horse race? That's how bad the Microsoft strategy has been so far.

Quick recap of things:

Stage 1 - Apple 'pwns' Microsoft on pretty much every marketing platform for the last 3 years.
Stage 2 - Microsoft hires a hot ad agency, and a washed up actor/comic. It sucks. They spend alot of money too.
Stage 3 - Microsoft brings an abrupt end to our suffering and cancels the campaign. Where did all that money go?
Stage 4 - Microsoft launches the "I'm a PC" campaign. Tries to convince people that their previous epic failure was done "on purpose" to get people talking. Makes up some numbers to back it up. Still sucks.
Stage 5 - Apple makes fun of Microsoft.
Stage 6 - Apple makes fun of Microsoft some more.

That pretty much sums up the series of unfortunate events to date.

Now Microsoft has extended their 'I'm a PC' campaign into the Web 2.0 world by inviting PC users to 'upload' themselves. Effectively, Microsoft has opened up the campaign to its users' creativity, which can't be worse than anything MS+CP+B came up with. Most of the online ads feature various clips from this video which gives the whole campaign a much more "real" feel than the original I'm a PC spots with overlayed content encouraging viewers to get involved.

The key with any campaign like this is, will people participate? A quick Youtube search seems to say yes. The call for entries only requires you to finish an open ended sentence with whatever you like. The clips need only be 5 seconds long and low quality footage by the looks of their TV spots. With the chance to be in one of Microsoft's commercials that will circulate the internet and possibly national TV, I see a lot of PC using web celebrity wannabes 'uploading' themselves.

I can't say for sure that this will work, but at least it makes sense. The whole fiasco has proven once againl that ill-planned, reactive advertising can do more bad than good. Microsoft waited 3 years to respond to Apple's challenge. Shouldn't they have waited a couple more months to get it right before jumping in to the fray?

I'm a PC, and I'm not impressed yet.

Brand spanking new website for musician Gary Nock!

Ryan Blaind — 2008-11-12T15:12:59+00:00

We are very pleased to announce our latest site launch, a new website for Gary Nock – an independant singer/songwriter based out of West Midlands, UK. The site was developed using our favourite content management system, ExpressionEngine which was essentially a no-brainer. Gary is now able to have ultimate control over the content on his website while at home or on tour.

We created a blog for Gary which has it's own RSS feed that fans can subscribe to in order to be kept up to date with Gary's latest thoughts, as well we integrated a new Twitter timeline for Gary that is synced up with his Facebook account so that he has the ability to update his status on multiple social networks as well as his own website via the ExpressionEngine control panel of his website. We also made it dead simple for him to post his music in the audio player on the homepage (via JW FLV Media Player), Youtube videos in the media section, images in the gallery section, and also upcoming tour dates in the shows section. All of this functionality was a breeze to setup using EE.

As far as the actual nuts and bolts of the site are concerned, here is a list of some of the plugins and extensions that we made use of under the hood of the site:

Extensions:

Plugins

We are also planning on adding some shopping cart functionality to the site, so that fans can purchase Gary's latest EP, as well as merchandise such as tshirts and stickers.

Wrapping up I would just like to say that it was a pleasure working with Gary, and am personally a big fan of his music. I am a huge sucker for solo singer/songwriter acoustic music, and look forward to experiencing The Gary Nock band perform in the very near future. Check out the site and let us know what you think!

There is no kill screen

Shane Woodward — 2008-10-30T17:33:54+00:00

(Edit: I want to point out that this is my first blog entry where I haven't ranted about something. That's cause to celebrate.)

Until today, I've avoided bringing up this topic of Chuck in my blog, not because I don't want to talk about it, but because once I start taking about it, I won't stop. Who the heck is Chuck? Simply put, Chuck is my favourite TV show, which by itself makes it worthy of our company blog. The fact that Chuck is the single greatest example of marketing brilliance to ever hit prime time television makes it worthy of its own blog category.

Before I get into the show itself, I'll talk about a few trend that have the advertising industry all abuzz.

First of all, there has been an ongoing struggle regarding TiVo (or PVRs or DVRs depending on your cable/satellite provider) and the ability for viewers to skip commercials and advertising messages. I won't get into the mechanics of the situation, but I'll say that advertisers and networks have countered with stealth advertising techniques, lawsuits, and financial deals, but have not effectively solved the problem.

Because of the lack of control, measurability, and audience resistance to traditional advertising on television, advertisers have finally opened their eyes to alternative forms of delivering their marketing messages. Some advertisers have spent money on interactive, while others dump more money into viral. More and more advertisers are also exploring product placement in television and movies as a viable alternative to traditional commercial spots.

The problem with product placement is that it has to make sense. Television audiences are proving to be more resistant to blatant product placement than they are traditional commercials. This is what makes Chuck so brilliant. The entire show has been designed around a concept that makes product placement feel completely natural. In fact, most of Chuck's audience don't even realize that they are taking part in a very dynamic (and no doubt effective) marketing scheme because the marketing messages are so seamlessly integrated into the show's content that they come across as relevant.

According to Sound and Vision Magazine, "On the NBC action-comedy series Chuck, geeky electronics store employee Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) unwittingly becomes the U.S government's most valuable secret agent — helping save the world from the threat-of-the-week. This feat is particularly hard to pull off, since Chuck still has to work his day job at the Buy More, the show's intentionally obvious impersonation of Best Buy (the Buy More logo even employs the Best Buy blue-and-yellow color scheme)."

Think about that for a moment. A significant portion (I would venture to say at least half) of the show's plot/action/story unfolds in an electronics store modeled after (or making fun of) Best Buy. That, my friends, is what we call a product placement gold mine.

This scene from this week's episode is perhaps a little more obvious than the subtle product placement that we see from episode to episode, but it's what inspired me to finally write a blog post about Chuck.

Because I'm not a raving (and misguided) Apple fanboy, I'll include this scene as well promoting a game designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In truth, much of the first season plugged this game.

More Apple here.. (For those 3G fanatics, this was from season one before their release.)

Nintendo gets a plug..

Marketing aside, there's all kinds of reasons for someone like me (a geek) to love a show like this. While much of the show focuses on appealing to younger geeks (those most likely to buy into the marketing behind the scenes) , the writers go out of their way to make reasons for older geeks to fall in love with NBC's new king of Monday nights. Whether its a Zork reference during the show's pilot, or an entire episode (the one that bashes on the Zune) devoted to Atari and Missile Command, which I'll point out didn't have a "kill screen", there's enough here to draw in geeks and nerds of any age.

As I mentioned, Chuck is getting its own blog category, so expect more to come.

ExpressionEngine Love

Ryan Blaind — 2008-10-23T12:20:05+00:00

As some of you may or may not already know our shop are big proponents of the ExpressionEngine content management system. Here are some recent links and articles I have come across related to ExpressionEngine, if you have more to share that aren't listed here, please leave us a comment.

Updated ExpressionEngine Showcase

The ExpressionEngine showcase section on their website has recently been updated and revamped, they added over 100 new sites to the gallery, and tweaked the navigation to make stumbling around a lot easier.

Devot-EE

On the heels of the clearly defunct Jambor-EE, comes Devot-ee.com. Devot-ee aims to be the definitive non-EllisLab run resource for all things relating to ExpressionEngine and, as they grow, CodeIgniter. From basic stuff all the way up to advanced help for developers. EE and CI have a long way to grow, so there is plenty of opportunity to educate as more designers and developers come on board. They plan to offer tutorials, screencasts, articles, showcase galleries, all based on the EE CMS.

Train-EE

Train-EE, a site dedicated to ExpressionEngine training was recently given a nice facelift courtesy of Shift Design. Train-EE offers resources such as books, blog posts, and screen casts to help get developers up to speed with the ins and outs of ExpressionEngine.

EE Screencasts

EE Screencasts were created by the great Ryan Irelan, of Airbag Industries. The screencasts are a great learning tool for people looking to learn EE. Each screen cast only costs $5 and run on average 30-45 minutes each. They offer great insight into how a seasoned ExpressionEngine developer would approach many methods for creating various functionality for websites using ExpessionEngine. You can view the final fictional website created during these screencasts, "Engine City Times" here.

EE Help Chats hosted by Ryan Irelan

Ryan Irelan, the same guy who brought us EE Screencasts has been hosting a weekly "ExpressionEngine Help". Visitors can sign in every wednesday night at 9 PM EST and pick Ryan's brain about issues they have been facing with using ExpressionEngine, or get advice from him on how he would approach certain tasks using the CMS.

Converting Subtraction

This blog posts covers how developer Adam Khan converted Khoi Vinh’s very popular blog Subtraction from it's old content management system to run on ExpressionEngine. For me this was a great read-It's always helpful to get a glimpse into how someone else would approach setting up templates in the CMS, and this blog post certainly does not disappoint. I learned a few little tricks for working with EE that I didn't realize were possible, such as using date based permalinks (similar to ones used by WordPress) with ExpressionEngine.

Recently Matt from The Nested Float wrote more about achieving such functionality.

5 Pieces 10 ExpressionEngine Production Add-ons

Great list from 5 Pieces of some really handy add-ons for use with ExpressionEngine

Strict URLS with ExpressionEngine 1.6.5

Originally planned as a feature for 2.0, Strict URLs will be sneaking into EE 1.6.5 (due soon). So this time around you get a preview of a 2.0 feature that you won’t have to wait for 2.0 to start using.

New Live Look Extension from Leevi Graham

Newest extension from Leevi Graham, creator of some of the most useful extensions available for extending ExpressionEngine's functionality. This one adds a "live look" tab to your publish screen so that content publishers have the option of seeing a realistic preview of what their content will look like when it appears in the context of a template.

Solspace has the sk1llz

Came across this one from the ExpressionEngine blog - Solspace helped to develop this website, by writing custom modules, custom applications all integrated with ExpressionEngine. Very nice site indeed.

ExpressionEngine for Noobs

New tangible book available from Packt Publishing that will teach you how to build a site using ExpressionEngine 1.6.

You shouldn’t have gone there Bill.

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-10-22T17:13:50+00:00

As you may have read in previous posts from Shane and myself, we've been following the Apple vs PC battle pretty closely since the Microsoft account went to über hot-shot CP+B. Expecting some magic, we watched in awe as the Sienfeld spots rolled out (apparently done just to create a buzz and get people talking), then the launch of the actual campaign – without being overly redundant, a rather weak attempt at trying to steal some of Mac's coolness. Then hours before Apple's new laptop announcement, Microsoft crossed the line and went negative.

And now, Apple is hitting back. Taking their fantastic spots from poking a little fun at Microsoft to just flat-out slapping them in the face. And, I must say, they deserve it. Oh Bill, what were you thinking?

iStock > Not what it used to be.

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-10-21T23:47:20+00:00

Is it just me or has iStockphoto gone to the dogs?

Like thousands of other small-to-mid sized ad/design firms out there, we have come to rely on iStock as part of our tool belt to create great design for clients that are on somewhat of a limited budget. The quality of their photos used to blow us away; they provided outstanding Royalty Free photography at a fraction of the cost to other sites like Veer & Corbis. In many cases, I couldn't believe that some of the pictures that the design team would show me actually came from iStock. But lately, something has changed, and as a result, iStock now appears to be just one click ahead of the weaker annual subscription sites like ablestock.com or photos.com. Lately, it seems that every search results in nothing but bad pictures with forced subject matter shot against a white back-drop with bad composition. What in the hell happened?

Here are my thoughts on the possibilities:

Their standards for accepting contributors and/or the quality photos has dropped considerably.
They have hired monkeys to input the search criteria for photos.
They have different search results for the type of plan you are on (we are using pay as you go, not a monthly credit plan – maybe that's why we're getting the junk?).
iStock is shifting all of their 'premium' pics into a separate category for a launch of a new site like 'iStock Premium'.

Whatever it is, I hope that they revert back to what they had going on about 6 months ago when life was good with iStock because right now, it's just frustrating.

Blonde on Blogging

Sarah Rose — 2008-10-10T10:53:20+00:00

What happens when you hit writer’s block harder than a Kimbo Slice right hook. Maybe after last weekend that is a bad analogy but until last weekend at a get together I didn’t even know who Kimbo Slice was. I thought it referred to a deli meat. But this is not a blog about MMA or WWE or whatever it is the men watch these days. It’s about the fact I have not been able to think of anything to write this blog about. I guess it’s a blog about not being able to write a blog.

I tried to get my boyfriend to write it but between the perils of being a new teacher, a multitude of fantasy hockey and football drafts, and the most recent rerun of Seinfeld I just couldn’t get five minutes of his time. So then what was a girl to do?

Jeez, I’m just a little blonde, I’m not a writer. Blondes don’t write blogs they text. If I could have submitted my blog in a quick text I would have been done in no time. In fact, I pride myself on my texting ability, proficiency, and speed…as long as spelling doesn’t count. Although according to my boyfriend who teaches English, I guess it still does. Is that not why there is spell check?
So then I tried my friends. But, alas, they are no different than me, and the next thing I know our discussion about my blog turned into a heated debate revolving around many important issues such as:

Global Warming – Who is the hottest man on the planet Tim McGraw or Matthew McConaughey?

Economic uncertainty – Will the stock market plunge affect how much premium denim will cost?

Sports – Between football and now hockey, which is about to start any day or already has, who knows, I should command about as much attention from him as a red head does.

So after two weeks of stressing (aka procrastinating), a few days of fretting (aka begging for help from others) I have to decided to submit this wonderful blog (or feel the wrath of my boss).

They shouldn’t make this stuff so hard for us blondes…:)

JJ Abrams is at it again

Ryan Blaind — 2008-10-08T01:44:48+00:00

For the record, I am a huge Lost fanboy. So much that I have actually had “Lost-like” dreams where I am trapped on an island with several strangers and trying to find a way off the island. Building rafts, finding secret hatches buried underground, even smoke monsters...  

Weird, yes I am aware of that, but I guess I am just a sucker for survivalist scenarios in fiction, film and now on tv. I have painstakingly watched every single episode of Lost (maybe more than once), contributed my ideas to theories on internet message boards with friends, I am a geek. You get it. For me the show is just a fun escape, and I really like all of the extra drama and character building. At times the pacing of the show can be really irritating, with filler episodes being a common occurrence, but over all I think (read: hope) that it will pay off in the end and the revelations that I am anticipating will be revealed and we will get some explanations.

Fox’s new show Fringe that started airing this fall is the latest project from award-winning film and television producer, writer, actor, composer, director (watch your toes) JJ Abrams. He is the co-creator of the show writer and producer, I have recently become a fan of JJ’s work, aside from Lost I really liked Cloverfield and look forward to the new Star Trek movie that he is currently filming. I saw a video of a talk that he did recently on the TED website and I thought it was really interesting to hear him talk about macs, his process for working, and what inspires him. Perhaps you will be inspired by his talk, if not there is lots of other content on that site worth checking out.

I find that Fringe uses a similar formula for their plot as Lost, almost too similar. From the eerie music during climactic scenes, to the style of cinematography that is used, there is even an actor on the show who is a prominent character on Lost. A lot of people have drawn comparisons to the X-Files, and I can see that too, however substitute cool original pseudo-science (Teleportation, Nanotechnology, Precognition, Artificial Intelligence, Psychokinesis, Suspended Animation, Cybernetics, Dark Matter, Transmogrification are just some of the subjects touched upon in the opening title) for old, tired paranormal plot lines, and you have yourself a fresh series. The show takes many cues from the mystery style of screen writing employed on Lost as well.

One of the things about the show that had me instantly hooked, is the main title, as well as the slick use of giant typography superimposed into the landscape to set the scene when the plot switches location. Really cool effect, I wouldn’t say that it is new or original in any way, just not something you usually see in television due to tight budgets. The opening title was designed by Andrew Kramer and his Video Copilot team, and the score for the title was actually composed by JJ Abrams himself.

If you want more information about the titles for Fringe, check out the blog post about it here.

What Happened to My Entourage?

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-10-08T00:19:11+00:00

Everyone that knows me (especially my wife) will tell you that I'm officially addicted to Entourage. Although I didn't discover Entourage until pre-season 3, I remember it like my first date. It was a cool rainy Sunday in March and The Movie Network did an Entourage marathon. Six consecutive commercial-free hours of the boys living the dream,every guys dream – I was in the dog-house for that one (we are on a single dish satellite)

Since then, I have watched every episode from season 1-4 (roughly 48 episodes) at least 3 times. On weekends that my wife was away, I would get my son to bed, cook up a big steak, crack a bottle of vino and watch about 4 hours of episodes back-to-back – I couldn't get enough of it. It is the quintessential 'guys' show, although I have spoken with plenty of females that concur, 'This show is the bomb'.

I truly believe that the creators and producers (including Mark Whalberg) have raised the curtain on what the 'real' Hollywood is all about, allowing the everyday Joe to sneak a peak. But at the end of the day, what's the appeal? The answer; this show represents every guys dream – make it big, have principals and take care of your boys. Don't be a sell-out, maintain your standards and the success will continue to come. That's what keeps people tuning in, these guys are 'living the life'.

So WTF is with Season 5? Did they loose all their writers during the strike? I've tuned in every week only to be disappointed. In fact, if it wasn't for Ari & Lloyd, I don't think I would continue to tune in. To say the least, this season has been a huge disappointment but episode 59 'Tree Trippers' pushed my over the edge. Sure, I understand that every story needs a twist. But does that have to to turn the characters into losers & whiny bitches? Cars getting repo'd and Drama crying like a little girl not stop? The heros that kept me tuning in are now losers. So what's the appeal? I dunno? Yet, I tune in every week for an 'Oh ya!' moment. To date, only one – the street racing scene with Ari & Davies.

So yes I am still watching it. The difference; I don't come in to the office the next day raving about the episode anymore, I am coming in complaining about it. I can only hope that it turns around soon as it was an integral to making my Sunday night a little more bearable.

Gamer Grub

Shane Woodward — 2008-10-04T19:58:55+00:00

If you are a gamer, chances are you have played titles for many hours straight and have tasted energy drinks such as Bawls to keep up your stamina. Now a company is introducing a new food product that they claim will keep your performance up for those late night LAN parties and WoW raids.

In my mind, when you open a casket of Gamer Grub, a single white larva the size of a football throbs inside. Because they are purchased in these little silos, I initially assumed it was a beverage, which made the prospect of their Racing Wasabi flavor (Wasabi Soy Almonds and Peanuts, Wasabi Peas, Honey Mustard Sesame Sticks, etc.) a truly horrifying concept. But, no. They're just snacks, sprayed with supplements, and then foisted on an utterly disinterested populace. The press release suggests that the product is "designed for hungry gamers who want to continue playing games while consuming snacks," something I could probably puzzle out on my own.

In the Tom's Hardware interview, we learn that the snack's creator is a "sometime gamer," which is a bizarre turn of phrase. One either plays games or they do not. If they do not play games, but have instead discerned that "gamers" are a discrete "target demo," there's a word for them: carpetbaggers.

A comparison to Mana Potion is instructive: mana potions are magical energy drinks, so an energy drink called a "mana potion" is internally consistent. In the case of Gamer Grub, its twisted progenitor has named each regrettable salvo after both a flavor and a genre, in a suite of tin-eared constructions that I couldn't even parse at first. "Action Pizza" is incoherent. "Sports PB&J" is nonsensical. The words "Strategy Chocolate" go together like caramel and genocide. I'm literally buffeted by these names, psychically assaulted. They are like the ceaseless, apocalyptic horrors of a prophetic dream.

It wouldn't have been very difficult to name this ill-begotten snack in such a way as to imply that it projected from an authentic place. He could have contacted Blizzard about making a World of Warcraft snack called Zul'Grub. See? That took five seconds.

At the end of the day, I don't need a custom snack just because I play games. In fact, I am perfectly capable of digesting normal food.

WTF: Episode 3

Shane Woodward — 2008-09-30T16:42:46+00:00

I've been watching a fair amount of pre-season hockey this past week, and I've had the opportunity see this commercial for EA Sports NHL 09 a few gazillion times.

I was passingly intrigued the first time I saw it, but after seeing it time and time again, I've become more confused, a tad frustrated, and more than a little angry.

When a commercial first grabs my attention, good or bad, I tend to sit back and analyze it. I ask myself the usual questions about the audience, and how they are trying to position the product. On the surface, it appears that they're focusing on selling this hockey game to women, which I think is great.

Here's how they went about doing it:

The commercial opens with Lauren, an NHL.com blogger, claiming that "the best parts about hockey are the stories." Good call, Lauren. The stories certainly are the best parts about hockey. At least right after the part about the players skating around the ice attempting to shoot a puck into a net in an exciting athletic competition. Basically the whole spot is a bunch of shots from the game cross-cut with random bullshit like a typewriter, a screaming woman, and a mother reading a book to a little kid, which I assume were thrown in to reinforce the "story" element. Lauren is superimposed over everything, making awkward comments and hand motions that are, theoretically, supposed to be in time with the game images we're seeing.

Where things went wrong:

I've known my fair share of woman gamers. In fact, I've had my ass handed to me by many of them in various arenas. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that most of the time women play video games for the same reason as men, and they choose the games they play much the same way. Knowing this, I have to ask myself, is a woman who's looking for drama in a video game going to pick up a hockey game to satisfy that need? Let's face it, these games are about as dramatic as a quiet night with Ben Stein. That's not to say that women don't play hockey games. The women I know just play them because they enjoy hockey, and/or competitive sports simulations. Maybe I'm wrong here, but this is how I see things.

What's worse:

After a little looking around it became obvious that Lauren, the woman featured in the commercial, isn't just a bad actor with the charisma of a bag of wet sand, but is a woman who is genuinely passionate about the sport of hockey. So essentially they've taken a woman that could have served as a beacon for female hockey fans everywhere by showing them that it's okay to like hockey for the sake of the hockey, and, handcuffed to a bad script, stuffed her into a dozen archaic stereotypes. Good job.

Completely unrelated, but something that I have to point out:

Lauren's cue-card-tastic acting ability isn't even close to the funniest thing about this commercial. That honour goes to the game clip that shows Kyle Wellwood laying someone out with a monster check. What the hell? Don't get me wrong, I like Kyle, but he hasn't delivered a sound body check in his entire career. I imagine that Lauren tried to tell them that too. Despite his size, at least Lauren's favourite player knows how to play the body.

I guess we can look forward to an MLB 2010 commercial featuring Prince Fielder hitting stand-up triples, Jamie Moyer striking guys out with 103-mph heaters, and Alex Rios properly running bases.

WTF: Episode 2.5

Shane Woodward — 2008-09-24T12:36:37+00:00

Two quick things: Firstly, this started out as a comment that I was going to tack on to Shawn's post, but I just got back from Toronto (secondly) and I am too tired to wring any semblance of coherency or finesse out of this mess. I didn't want to pollute his post with my listless rambling so I decided to make it a follow-up to the follow-up.

A nice follow-up boss. I hadn't managed to catch the new spot (until now).

It's funny. After watching that spot, I have to wonder if anyone at either MS or CP+B has really stopped to look at the big picture. Maybe I'll expand in a future blog (too late), but I look at this as a matter of "choosing the wrong enemy". It's quite obvious that MS is looking at Apple as the enemy, but I really believe that is the wrong way to look at it. Apple isn't an enemy. Their recent success is a symptom.

I'm not suggesting that Apple should be ignored. I'm just asking the question that nobody else seems to be asking. "Even though Apple is slowly gaining market share (hardly worth pointing out in the grand scheme of things), are they as big of a threat as we (MS) are to ourselves?"

That's right. The way I see it, Microsoft's biggest enemy is Microsoft. Lets face it folks, it's all about perception. Apple realized this years ago. If you look at their creative, it's not really about "look at all the ways that we are more awesome than PCs." Instead, most of their creative shouts "Look at all the ways PCs suck way more than we do." In Apple's case, Microsoft (PCs) is the obvious enemy, a mile high wall, a black hole of market share. There are two ways you can get over a wall like that. You can either jump higher, or make he wall lower. Apple chose the later. Their creative doesn't really speak to anything that the consumers don't already feel about PCs and Microsoft. They're only reinforcing their preconceptions.

The strategy behind Microsoft's recent creative lapses tells me that they aren't yet prepared to look at their own flaws, and instead blame Apple for telling everyone about their "dirty little secret." Perhaps the next round of creative will slap Apple in the face with a resounding "I know you are but what am I?" or an "I'm rubber, you're glue..."

You get the picture.

So this brings us back to the real challenge. How do you change the public's perceptions on a particular product when the product in question sucks?

If I had the answer to that question, I'd be $300 million richer.

WTF: Part Deux (in Shaner’s absence)

Shawn Patriquin — 2008-09-24T01:06:20+00:00

Let me preamble this post by saying, 'Shaner I'm not trying to steal your direction here, but you are on holidays and I believe that what I have just witnessed deserves an immediate post'.

So I'm chilling after a long day with a glass of vino watching a new episode of House on Fox, and am reflecting on my email to staff about our continued commitment to our Blog and importance of keeping it up to date and relevant and, at the same time, thinking that I should Blog it up tonight. So, I think of topics – the reno upstairs, the connectivity of the ipod, my thoughts on Obama becoming President in the US....hmmm, to blog or not to blog?

Then I see it! A 60 second commercial for Microsoft titled 'I'm a PC' > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi1se9rH7S8. Talk about WTF? This is airing 1 week after they (Microsoft) cancelled the Seinfeld campaign (which was nonsense) that my co-worker Shane blogged about and that we all watched in disappointment as it came out of one of the hottest ad shops in the world. I had to ask myself > Was this just a PR stunt (the ridiculous/useless Seinfeld spot) to get people talking? Perhaps. Nevertheless, the follow-up was more than WEAK and, instead of positioning Microsoft as progressive, it made them look like more of a 'me-too' than ever. Hell, they even impersonated the 'I'm a PC guy' from the MAC commercials.

So, here's the thing > what makes the MAC spots so brilliant (other than their mass appeal), not only are they are brilliantly written & casted, they are somewhat low budget as they present low production costs. More importantly, the extendibility of these spots are infinite, and can continue with any direction Apple takes. They are not tied to celebrities, athletes, musicians or jean designers. They are nondescript and speak to the core benefits of the product, in an Indie kinda way.

Here's my last comment, (keep in mind that we are a relatively small shop in a smaller market), I said to the team, 'I would never want that challenge (even for $300 mill) to try and make Microsoft as cool as Apple. It's impossible. And, based on what I've seen, CP+B is finding it to be as well. Then again, if all they (Microsoft) were looking for was an Apple knock-off ad campaign endorsed by celebs, athletes, designers, astronauts, scientists and political figures, I could have done it for $100 million.

Lates.