Maybe I'm Gravy

Tweets That Tell Time

CHIRP CLOCK

Nice insight. Someone tweets the exact time every second. Thus, the Chirp Clock was born, which uses real-time tweets to tell time.  

From the creator:

"Twitter has reached such a volume of tweets that eventually everything that could possibly be tweeted, will be tweeted. I happened to notice the other day that someone tweets the exact time nearly every second. It got me thinking that you could make a clock out of these tweets, so I put together a simple site called Chirp Clock.

It’s interesting to watch it for a while and start to see the patterns that emerge. A lot of people will tweet their exact birth time, or a bus system will tweet their arrival time. I’ve seen some muslim call to prayers and a lot of people angrily tweeting that they have to head to work."

Here's what 12:17pm today looked like:

Read a blog post about it here.

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

873 Still Images That Tell 1 Moving Story

GETTY IMAGES

It's not easy to showcase the creativite possibilities and pure quantity of Getty Images.

But AlmapBBDO found one way to do it. 

They pieced together one flowing, cohesive story using nothing but images from Getty. The point? Anything is possible with Getty. So look there first. 

 

   

Go to the YouTube page for full credits.

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

Putting A 3D Spin On Movie Posters

LG Home Theater 3D Sound System

Some of the best ads provide a new perspective on the familiar. When you start with something people know well and spin it on its head, you end up with something pleasantly unexpected.

That's exactly what Y & R Sao Paulo has done in a new campaign for LG's Home Theater 3D Sound System. They took three famous movie posters — Kill Bill, Forrest Gump and Pretty Woman — and flipped them around. Literally. Giving us a new point of view on something we've all seen before. It's a fun, simple way of visualizing the idea of 3D sound and putting a twist on something familiar.

 

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

Providing Utility and a Meal at Point of Purchase

Hellmann's Mayonnaise: Recipe Receipt 

I love simple ideas. Especially ones that don't get in the way and are useful. 

    

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Brazil

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

 

The Big Idea Isn’t What It Used To Be

This is another post I wrote for Creative Week.

THE BIG IDEA ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

By NATHAN ARCHAMBAULT

I went to a Creative Week session last Monday at City Winery called THE IDEA MATTERS….STILL. It opened with the panel (a bunch of Deutsch dudes: Jerome Austria, Bud Caddell, Morgan Carroll, Steve Nesle and Liz Gumbinner) talking about what they thought of their topic. 

They asked themselves if it was bullshit. 

And they concluded – spoiler alert! – yes and no. 

Yes, because if you’re a creative, you know that “The Big Idea” still matters. 

No, because while the importance of “The Big Idea” hasn’t changed, what it isabsolutely has.

So how do you know if you’ve come up with “The Next Big Idea”…or something else? 

Here are some new rules for nailing it. 

Don’t mistake a tactic for an idea. This is hard to do with so many gimmicky technologies out there. Lots of so-called Big Ideas are simply cool uses of technology. And these projects can be cool and successful and groundbreaking. While that’s great for technology, it’s not so great if you’re trying to be a conceptual creative.

Remove the glitter. You can reduce the best ideas down to a single sentence – the Deutsch guys talked about writing it down and leaving out the strategy, the visuals, really everything except the thought. Without all the glitter, does is still feel like a Big Idea? Or is it really an average idea wearing too much makeup?

Don’t perfect your Big Idea. It’s more important to get it out there for people to play with. Then, based on how people interact with it, figure out how to make it better. In digital, it’s easier to experiment with an idea and iterate. The important thing isn’t polishing your idea to perfection. It’s putting it in people’s hands and creating the experience that people want. Look at how Instagram and Twitter and Facebook change every few months. That’s because they’re not worried about being perfect. They’re looking for the feedback it takes to make their experience a better one.

Don’t put it all out there. Now that everything can be viewed or visited over and over again, give people a reason to spend more time with your idea. People are looking for experiences they can play with or learn from. They don’t want everything placed on a silver, pixelated platter. People like to debate online, so let them. Hold something back and give them something to talk about. The Deutsch guys talked about their online VW video The Bark Side – the one with dogs barking The Imperial March from Star Wars. The script called for dressing up all the dogs as Star Wars characters. At the last minute they decided to leave costumes off half the dogs. Instead of making it obvious which dogs were which characters, they let people debate who was who. There’s an Ewok, and Chewbacca, but is that Obi Wan or the Emperor? If you can’t tell, watch it again!

We’re still creatives looking for the next Big Idea. 

But as you go hunting for it, remember that it’s not just “The Big Idea” that matters – it’s how you get to it.

 

What Week Is This?

I wrote this piece for Creative Week. Check it out on their blog.

 

I think it’s Creative Week. 

Or maybe it’s Advertising Week. 

It’s definitely not Internet Week – that’s coming up next week. 

SXSW Interactive happened two months ago, so it can’t be that – and I’m pretty sure Cannes is still a month away. Is there an award show this week? Maybe someone will win a Clio or a Webby or a Pencil or an Addy or an Innie or an Outtie.  

What week isn’t Creative Week? 

Last week, this week, next week. They’re all creative weeks. 

We’re not creative because we’re in advertising; we’re in advertising because we’re creative. 

Because 99 percent of advertising really isn’t all that great – and it’s up to us to make it better. Maybe we can add to the 1 percent of advertising that’s truly amazing. Start by building it to 2 percent. Then 5. Then 20. 

Then who knows? 

Anything’s possible.

Because we never stop being creative. And creating. And coming up with ideas. And coming up with cool new ways to bring those ideas to life.

We don’t need more Weeks with a capital W. We need more time in the day to make things happen.

Here’s to Creative Week.

This week and every week.

 

Fighting Timesheets with the Power of Incentive

No one likes timesheets. There’s nothing likeable about them. The name alone suggests a repulsiveness that’s impossible to ignore. If you have to fill out timesheets for your job, you’re probably behind on them, you don’t remember how much time you spent on each project, and you’re in the middle of something more important that you're forced to put on hold so that you can rack your brain for what you were doing two Tuesdays ago from 11:13am to 2:47pm.

Time. Sheets.

There’s no way that combining these two words could lead to anything less then a mentally-exhausting reminder of why we didn’t go into banking or accounting or statistics or project management.

But really, the issue with timesheets isn't that they're hard to do. They're not complicated. The problem is that there's no incentive to fill them out on time so everyone pushes them off. And when you push them off, they get exponentially more difficult. They turn into a time suck that gives nothing in return except headaches and emails from finance asking you to complete your timesheets on time.

That, my friends, is the great timesheet dilemma. There's no reason to do them.

Like 99% of agencies, Brazil's JWT Case had employees who weren't filling out their timesheets. But unlike most other agencies, JWT Case decided to do more than send out a reminder email.

They understood the power of incentive.

JWT Case created a direct correlation between filling out timesheets and getting something you desperately need at the end of the workweek: a fridge full of beer. 

Guess what? Everyone filled out their timesheets. On time.

Suddenly, timesheets weren't a nuisance. They were a gateway to cold, refreshing beer. That's not rocket science. It's the power of incentive. 

 

    

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

Never Stop Fighting Routine

Generally speaking, I like commercials that are music videos. I like music. They're less intrusive than regular ads. Even if I don't like the message, they're entertaining and catchy. 

This spot for Corona Light starts with a simple and relatable human truth: We all get into a rut sometimes. Take Stan. His rut comes after college when life abruptly goes from an unstructured daily battle with hedonistic chaos to a carefully orchestrated routine of wake, eat, work, sleep.

Sound familiar? Yeah, me too.

So Stan switches up his routine. He reaches for a Corona Light and boom, everything changes. Girls, parties, late nights that turn into early mornings. This hyperbole sets a tone. The usual suspects in the beer aisle — Miller Lite and Bud Light  — are part of the routine, and routine is the enemy. Those brown bottles are expected, automatic, boring. Not to mention they taste like swill.

Now, switching beer brands isn't really going to change your life like it does for Stan, that lovable goofball. But this spot gives Corona Light a positioning and personality that are hard to dislike. Next time I'm in the beer aisle and I'm choosing between Miller Lite and Corona Light (a scenario that will never happen, but work with me here), I'll reach for the 6-pack of Corona. This ad puts a smile on my face and provides a nice reminder to never stop fighting routine.

That's a message I can get behind.    

   

Agency: Goodby Silverstein
Director: Mike Mills
Music: Marmoset 

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

The Alarm Clock That Wakes You Up Somewhere Else

The Anywake App by Lufthansa is an Alarm Clock, Game and Giveaway all in one.

 

  

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

Looking at Lego Through a Child's Eyes

Part of the art of creating ads is about putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Being able to see through someone else's eyes. These print ads for Lego do that in such a simple, elegant, inspirational way, bringing adult back to childhood and reminding us all that life is a game when we want it to be.  

 

 

 

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.