Maybe I'm Gravy

Toyota Gets Its Swagger Back

Talk about nailing the target audience. This music video, starring two middle-aged white rappers, their kids and their minivan, has gained six million hits in about two months.

How did it spread around the web so quickly? For starters, it's painfully entertaining, the lyrics are well-written and it features a good beat. Holla. More importantly, the diametric of suburban parenthood and angst-ridden hip-hop replicates a very specific sensation that all new parents go through. That uneasy feeling when they begin to realize and accept the fact that they're not all that hip anymore. Leaving their freedom and their twenties behind, there's no more hanging out, late-night clubbing or spur-of-the-moment... anything. They have all these new responsibilities, but their old slightly-cooler self is trapped inside, wagging a finger at every well-thought out, sensible decision.

This video is cool because it's upfront with its cheesiness. Young parents aren't idiots, they're very self aware that their life isn't what it used to be. When you've got kids, you aren't concerned with having the coolest whip in the cul-de-sac. You're more worried about just staying sane. And that's what this video is all about. The intersection of the old you and the new you. It's for people who said five years ago that they'd never ever buy a minivan but now that they think about it, gosh darnit, a minivan makes the most sense. And they can get down with that.

  Providing value beyond entertainment, Swagger Wagon links off to other YouTube videos that offer more information about the Sienna and the rapping couple.  

Call Me Mayhem

All-State has been doing a good job with its TV ads lately. Here's the latest installment. While this spot certainly feels an awfully lot like a certain award-winning wind energy spot, its truthfulness still rings through. People can think they're good drivers and downplay the importance of insurance, but energetic puppies, freak storms and hot babes may come along at any given moment. And they can't be predicted, planned for or avoided. Especially hot babes. You just never know.

VICTORY!

StoryBoardTV.com has finally announced the winner of its script-writing contest. THe judges have weighed in. The public has voted. Not that the dust has settled, THE RESERVOIR has risen to the top! Congratulations to Eddy Vallante, Dylan Allen and Evan Cohen who initially came up with the idea for the show and brought me on board to help them bring the script to life. The next steps should be equally as exciting as Seawall Productions works out a development deal. This isn't the last you've heard of THE RESERVOIR.

Showcase & Tell

YouTube knows that if more marketers are going to treat YouTube as a medium, the most successful interactive campaigns need more exposure. The Art Director’s Club knows it's not easy to keep up to date on all the latest interactive work. There's so much of it and new campaigns launch every day. They also know that there's not an up-to-date source that houses all the greatest work.

Luckily for anyone interested in interactive, YouTube and the ADC know an opportunity when they see one. So they’ve teamed up to create YouTube Show & Tell.

This YouTube channel is a gallery of the best marketing examples from the site. The Art Director’s Club populates the channel with new work each quarter in four categories: Viral Hits, Interactive Video, Brand Channel and Home Pages. ADC also swirls its rolodex and calls in a revolving panel of creatives, designers and social media experts who review the work, transforming the channel into a sounding board for discussing industry trends and new ideas.

It's Time To Break Up The Team

(This post originally appeared Tuesday, June 29, 2010 on MakinAds.com as part of my series on traditional vs. digital.)

After two large projects and a handful of smaller ones, I’ve seen what digital looks like beneath the surface. I’m always working with different people. With different skill sets. I’m not working with the same art director day in, day out. No one is. Creatives aren’t split up into teams. We’re all individuals, manning our own chosen specialty. Every project is a revolving door of pixels, wireframes, code, calls to action, looks, feels, copy decks and dark roast. Every project has different creative needs. Different creative wants. Calling someone my “partner” may be great for confusing my family at Thanksgiving dinner but it’s not great for executing digital.

It’s time to break up the team.

Teams have made sense for a long time. Lots of great work has come from an art director and copywriter concepting together, bouncing ideas off each other. That's one way good ideas become great ones. But the traditional team has a few holes. Every digital project has a different scope, requiring a different set of talents. It doesn’t make sense to handcuff one creative role to another. Some projects are design-heavy, requiring multiple designers but only a few quick consultations from a writer. Others need to be populated with content, requiring little design but a boatload of words. Like this Snickers microsite. All it needed was a Snacklish translation for every word in the English language.

Digital creative departments are stocked with more than ADs and CWs. There are graphic designers, information architects, experience designers and motion designers. Plus specialists in mobile, social media, strategy and tech. People are still bouncing ideas off each other, but it’s not a two-person match. Team chemistry has been reformulated. Now the creative department feels more like dodgeball. Everyone has a chance to be a gamechanger. In print or TV, stories are told through visuals (art direction) or messaging (copywriting). Art directors and copywriters have the monopoly on where ideas came from. But in digital, tech can drive the idea. Cool technology can be synonymous with great execution. Take last year’s launch of the Volkswagon GTI. AKQA created a mobile app to promote the car. That’s it. No paid media. Just cool technology. The launch was a huge success. And the two Silver Lions it won last week aren't thanks to a CW/AD team locking themselves in an office for three weeks.

I still work with partners. But now I work with a bunch of them. Different ones every project. Monogamy isn’t always the answer. It’s time to embrace the creative orgy. Come prepared, ready to party and open-minded. The next big idea could come from anyone.

THE RESERVOIR trailer

In order to promote the show I've been helping to develop, we've released the first trailer. Spread the word. Voting on StoryBoardTV.com goes until July 16, 2010.

The RESERVOIR - teaser/trailer from Seawall Productions on Vimeo.

Google Puts Chrome to the Test

Even Google knows when it’s time to ask for outside help. BBH New York recently released the first round of creative work that promotes Chrome, Google’s new web browser that goes head-to-head with Firefox and Safari. This first video couldn’t do a better job showing that Chrome is stupid fast is an extremely entertaining way.

 

 

Not willing to settle for viral videos that simply require watching, BBH and Google created the Rube Goldberg-esque interactive Flash-based game Chrome Fastball to further push Chrome's speediness and highlight the fact that Flash is built into Google's browser. Users complete a series of web-oriented challenges that integrate partnerships with Last.fm and Twitter into a series of YouTube videos. The game is fun to watch, but the questions you have to answer along the way do pose quite the challenge. I guess I'm not as fast as Chrome.