The New Apple iMac
In the late 80’s, Australians began growing oversized pumpkins. Now, much later, Apple grew an oversized iPod.
The oversized iPod is the new iMac - and it's lovely.
Jonathan Ive continues to prove that great design can boost your bottom line -- it can even help your company become a cultural... iCon!
Bruce Mau's Manifesto For Growth
I've had Bruce Mau's deconstructionist Manifesto For Growth on my desk (which I don't clean) for a couple of years now. It should be required reading for every creative professional.
My favorites include:
• Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
• Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
• Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.
I Wonder How Much That Costs
Here's an innovative Web site from Vogue. They've taken all of the advertisers in their gigantic Fall Fashion September issue and created a shopping site that allows you to view each print ad along with expanded information about the featured product including price and the location of stores that carry the product.
So when you're browsing the mag and see that Movado you can't live without, you can find out just how much it costs and where you can buy it. Great integration between the Web and print world.
Thanks to the Washington Post for an interesting article about Vogue's shopping strategy and the trend of magazines competing in the online shopping space.
The Vogue site:
Strap a Jetpack on Your Old Content
We've said it a million times to publishers and broadcasters and we'll keep saying it: mine your archives, optimize the content, build a monitization path, seed for viral. Repurposing content is a conceptual no-brainer, and you'll reap huge benefits for little cost. But it has to be approached in a strategic, creative way.
Consider, for example, the subscription bump Popular Science could create with something something inexpensive, sticky and viral like "Transportation Futuristics" (compared to their obvious and fairly lame "Future of the Car").
Still Waters Run Deep
In a rush to feature the latest flash and burn sites -- we often overlook the smart ones.
The smart ones build on proven usability principles and meticulously deliver relevant content. The visual design plays a supporting role to the experience and doesn't attempt to stimulate to a point of brain hemorrhaging.
Here's one that has served me hundreds of pages in the past few months. And I keep coming back for more.
Great design, great articles, great music: Stones Throw Records.
Joo-joo Eyeball
After more than 10 years of surfing the internet, I've developed quite a joo-joo eyeball and a holy roll for the 'back' button. This kept me entertained from beginning to end.
Come Together:
Graphic Design: Philippe Apeloig
Ranging from good to great to authentic to inspirational to instant classic -- French graphic designer Philippe Apeloig dances to the beat of his own drummer. For some of his better work, he throws in some Paul Rand moves.
Philippe Apeloig:
www.google.com/search?q=buckle+up
It's sometimes nice to run across folks who are even bigger gadgetheads than me, and the folks at engadget blog don't disappoint. Not only do they wonk about it, they geek about it too: check out the Search Engine Belt Buckle they concocted for a good example.
Their site is a good bookmark and a prime candidate for a blogversations-type marketing initiative.
Vodafone Design File
The marketing genius at Vodafone seems to be unstoppable. With the launch of Vodafone Design File, they prove that Vodafone Futures was not their 15 clicks of fame.
It's not as engaging as Futures, and the interface is overly complicated, but if you manage to find your way through the maze - it's a tour de force. There are some extremely nice transitions to be found here, the sound blends in seamlessly and imagery is larger than life.
Vodafone Design File:
Tylenol Cool Caplets - A Missed Opportunity?
When I heard that Tylenol was launching a new mint flavored version of their popular pain reliever to increase its "hip" factor, I expected to find an engaging Web offering to support the initiative. Afterall, they broke ground with the innovative Marathon Start Line site that offered runners lots of great injury prevention and management content with very minimal Tylenol branding. In fact, you probably wouldn't realize the site was related to Tylenol at all if it wasn't for the tiny logo at the bottom and the Tylenol red color of the pages.
But back to the mint version ... to my disappointment, I found very little had been created online to support the Cool Caplets campaign. In fact, the link for more info about Cool Caplets at the bottom of the Tylenol Web site produced a 404 error.
For a brand trying to be hip, they seemed to have forgotten about the hippest medium out there.
You'll find a good story about the Cool Mint concept in this NY Times article:
Coloribus Admirror Busts "Creatives"
Here's an excellent collection of ads using the same ideas and images. Draw your own conclusions on plagarism vs "mysterious coincidence".
> Coloribus Admirror
(Thanks for the link, AdRants)
You're The Inspiration, Part 1
Thanks again for stopping by the Armchair Blog. We do what we can to spread the word.
That said, we wouldn't be worth our salt if we didn't give it up for some other great blogs from time to time. Thanks guys, for tipping us off and keep us thinking. Here's installment #1, forming the category of "media and marketing blogs with an interactive slant."
> AdRants
> Marketing Vox News
> adland
> Lost Remote
> Seth Godin: Agent of Change
> Adverblog (currently on vacation)
I'm sure I've missed a few great ones, even yours. Want to set me straight? Please comment below.
(Thanks to MarketingSherpa for turning us on to most of these.)
Dear Santa-san, I want a Talby.
As I curse my dumpy mobile phone, I sometimes grab a random person and cry out; "Why doesn't Apple make a phone?"
Can't you just envision it? An audacious Steve Jobs on the cover of Newsweek showing off his new iPhone!
Well, Marc Newson has beat them to the game. I love the simplicity and the interface is hot and simple! Too bad it seems to be a prototype for the Japanese market.
Oh, well. Back to cursing my dumpy phone.
The Talby:
Koolhaas Library
A larger than life vision and $165.5 million have created a new landmark for Seattle. My favorite contemporary architect, the Dutch Rem Koolhaas has delivered a new library, and it's sending me planning for a pilgrimage to Seattle.
Everything down to the signage system, using the Bauhaus inspired typeface Futura, is breathtaking and cohesive.
Here's a great article from The Seattle Times:
Ted Turner's Beef with Big Media
My Beef With Big Media: How government protects big media -- and shuts out upstarts like me. By Ted Turner
OK, this article has been out a couple weeks now, but if for some reason you've neglected to read it, here's another chance. Will the largest TWX shareholder become the worlds largest opponent of media consolidation? Either way, it's good to hear The Mouth opening up again.
Thanks to The Washington Monthly for serving it up for free:
Blogs love Company
If you're a marketer targeting 18-34 year olds, you have as much of a chance finding them in-front of a TV as you would catching them listening to the latest downloaded mp3 on an 8-Track.
Blogversations offer a solution - and it's an interesting one. They operate under the assumption that the above desirable demographic spends a lot of time reading popular blogs. They offer to match corporations with popular bloggers - on the promise that the blogger will contextually preach the sales gospel - engaging the 18-34 year olds.
(thanks to Yewknee for the link)
Blogversations:
Reason #847 Why Lawyers Love The Internet
Anne Holland's solid MarketingSherpa newsletter points out some extraordinary stats on trademark violations in the paid search space.
This month, [NameProtect(R)] analyzed the paid search ads that appeared on Yahoo! and Google against the trademark terms associated with America's top 100 brands (as ranked by Interbrand and BusinessWeek).
- 92% of the top 100 brands had third-party ads appear in search results against their names.
- Of these paid search ads, 98% included the actual brand name in the ad. So the trademarked brand name was in the text of the third-party ad. (This is a critical factor in determining whether the sponsor is violating trademark rights.)
- 45% of the ads were for directly competitive and potentially unlicensed offerings. Others were for related offers.
- Just 7% of the paid ads were placed by the actual brand owner.
More:
MTV and my old stereo. Separated at birth?
MTV now sports an interface that resembles my first stereo. First impression, it doesn't look unpleasant, but I would have expected something more groundbreaking from MTV. It seems to me that a lot of elements from the old design are still around, especially when you get deeper into the site, which creates a clash of styles. Not to bash it too much, for now, but the new branding is just bizarre. MTV now sports two logos next to each other. The new one hasn't been kerned, leaving the V separated from the MT. My friend Mike Cina, the owner of MTV's previous visual design, must be having a good laugh right now.
When good design goes bad.
Inside-Out Marketing
Around the Armchair Media water cooler, the buzz is all about 'inside-out marketing' - the notion of 'leaking' or sharing core information. We believe there's a tremendous value in releasing ideas and watching how they spread. An example of what I mean is what you're reading here in our blog section. It gives a good circulation internally and externally.
The creative agency Coudal Partners have taken this idea a step further. Their website is all inside-out, packed with smart content.
Coudal Partners:
Nike Skateboarding
Nike continues to put out nice microsites - high on the experience scale. - I love the old school videogame sensibility in this one, especially the sound design.
Enjoy:
Get Real
Earlier this week, RealNetworks announced that it was slashing prices in its online music store. Most songs were marked down to 49 cents, while the majority of albums go for $4.99. Good news for the consumer, right? Wrong. It's just another example that Real is a company with nothing but contempt for its customers.
First of all, let's look at what this move is really about. Real wants to force its way onto the Apple iPod. To do so, Real has rewritten its Harmony software to make it fool an iPod into playing the previously non-compatible format. Apple accuses Real of having the ethics of a hacker and so the battle is joined. I'll leave the debate on this component of Real's business practices to other, more learned minds, and focus instead on what this means to the consumer.
Real calls this promotion, with a straight face we assume, the "Freedom of Choice" campaign. That euphemism would be worthy of a hearty guffaw if we all had not been victims of Real's version of freedom over the past nine years. I have never encountered a piece of software that tried to take choice out of my hands more often than the Real Player. Not only does it try to hijack the file of every other media player on computer, but its primary purpose seems to be selling more Real products rather than playing a media file. This has led me to choose Real as the player of last resort.
Real also calls this a music sale. Note to Rob Glaser: it's not a sale when the product costs more than you can sell it for. It's no secret that Apple, Real and the other online music vendors pay the record companies about 90 cents per song. Apple, despite its more than 100 million songs sold on the iTunes Music Store, realizes that the money is to be made on the player, the iPod, not the music. To lower prices to an unsustainable level simply in an attempt to force your way into a new market is a tried and true method to ultimately give consumers less choice.
What Real is doing is no different than a big airline trying to run a small one out of business by under-cutting it on common routes. After the little guy is gone, guess what? The fares jump back up, higher than ever. That works for airlines, but it won't work here. Why? Beacuse Apple is the big guy. Not just because of the number of iPods or songs it has sold. But because it has created a pleasant user experience at an affordable price.
This ploy will fail for Real, ironically, because consumers want freedom of choice. They want to choose a product that works for them at a price that is right. But they also want to buy from a company that respects them as consumers. In this fight, that choice is clear.
Gmail Usability
An interesting article on Google's Gmail and email usability in general.
"As Gmail comes out of Beta, Google may find itself with a product that users are slow to adopt. People may find the subtle change in the email paradigm more dramatic than Google anticipated. Perhaps this speaks to the dangers of bad design: a bad product can just as easily become entrenched as rejected, such that when a better one comes along, users are reluctant to adopt it."
Read whole article:
Eye Candy For Your Feet
Reebok has launched a new site to promote its Sweets line aimed at teen girls. This very pink site is another solid Brand Engagement initiative from Reedbok that keeps users clicking with games and product interactivity.
Volvo Brand Engagement
Brand Engagement (Download PDF) site for Volvo. It's in Swedish, but worry not - it's fairly intuitive and an absolute eye candy.
'Just rise above it!'
When you're down there's always that someone that offers the advice to 'just rise above it!' -- Well, I think that someone is right.
If you look at your life and environment from a higher perspective - somehow everything weaves into the same fabric: places, human beings and animals.
Stunning photography:
Oh, [big] brother!
The 'Human Locator' detects peoples movements, shape and size - sending information to a Flash application that responds accordingly.
So - let's imagine a scenario. You're walking through the mall. You see a display with an attractive talking head of the opposite sex, that acknowledges you. If you dare to step closer - it might tell you that inside the store they have shoes. In your size. And they have them in brown, that fits the color of your watch. And that talking head keeps an eye contact with you the whole time while this is happening.
The Human Locator:
Björk's New Video Player
Björk's site is an amazing resource, one of the most exhausting content sites for pop star.
She's previewing a video from her new album Medulla. The gorgeous video player caught my attention.
Click on the Medulla player top right:
Fishin' for Customers
Orbitz adds another game to the growing list of ads disguised as games. This one attempts to compare the ease of booking a trip on Orbitz to catching a fish in a barrel. My score was 27%. It wasn't as easy as I expected.
Virtual reality is the new reality
Mind bending renderings from artist Joseph Seigenthaler:
'Converse Gallery'
Recruit 'Hollywood's finest talent'? BMW has been there, done that (Link to BMW Films). Let's invite filmmakers to create 24 second short film for a chance to win a small prize.
Clever, clever. An open source marketing approach to BMW's multi-million dollar campaign - Converse utilizes trendy young filmmakers to tell the kids that, once again, they are the cool sneakers to wear.
Coverse Gallery Site:
Shop until you drop... a line.
What an interesting concept. Capture your shoppers on video, have them create a profile. Internet users all over the world can then view and write messages to the shopper. Shopper checks back to the store, or logs in from home, all nicely wrapped up in the retailers brand.
After mastering 'shock marketing' (link to Olivero Toscani's controversial 80's campaign using traditional media, Benetton makes quite an impressive attempt at new media marketing.
Tired of your classic "I'm With Stupid ->" T-Shirt?
Dying for that new one with "...and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt"?
-- An interesting article on the progress of wireless wearable displays.
How the 18-34 Male is Reinventing Advertising
18-34 males are now more likely to go online or play video games than watch TV, and Wired has a nice analysis of how companies are changing ad spending to engage them.
Highlights:
"Used to be, TV was the answer," proclaimed the president of GM North America. "The only problem is that it stopped working sometime around 1987."
[They] share a hunger for "authenticity." If the ad message doesn't jibe with the brand's image, forget it. And say good-bye to the hard sell as well.
The lessons for Madison Avenue are clear. If you want to capture this demographic's attention, be prepared to entertain and don't be afraid to polarize the audience.
"They have a total ability to block out anything they don't want to get through. From an advertising standpoint, that's what makes this animal so scary."
"We're eating the networks' lunch!" crows Jeff Brown, EA's vice president of corporate communications.
"When people used to say, 'We'd like to do guerrilla marketing,' that translated to, 'We don't have any money,'" quips Andrew Gledhill, president of the LA-based ad agency Ground Zero. "When they said, 'We'd like to do something viral,' that meant, 'We really, really don't have any money.'" No more: Ground Zero recently won a $10 million viral-marketing account from Toyota.
> Full Article
> Stat Page
(thanks to Skylab for the link)
Web Shopping Eclipses Catalog, Others
From the "it was just a matter of time" department, a new study shows that more people are shopping remotely via the Web than catalogs, direct marketing and telemarketing.
(thanks to MarketingVox for the heads up)
Story:
Do something useful with your TV, for once...
One of those simple ideas that I just love. -- You're going to want this!
Go to Kyauei site:
ilovebees.com: Halo 2 Hype Using ARG
Here's an nice breakdown of the complex alternate-reality game (ARG) created to promote the upcoming Halo 2 game. If you don't know about ARGs and how they mysteriously connect with users and build edgy buzz, it's time to start reading up.
> Gamespot analysis
> www.ilovebees.com