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.

 

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.

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.

Fake Real Life Drama

Launching TNT in Belgium, agency Duval Guillame Modem decided to go literal with their tag "We Know Drama."

Open on a quiet square in a cozy Flemish town where nothing dramatic has ever happened. Cut to a menacing pedestal in the middle of the square. Zoom into a red button on top of the pedestal them immediately pan up to a large out-of-focus sign floating in the air above it. Adjust depth of focus to reveal the invitation "Push to add drama" written on the sign. Now hold for a few beats... and wait 

What happens when someone comes along and takes the bait? Duh. All drama breaks loose. 

The Smallest IKEA Store in the World

IKEA stores are huge. So how do you make the experience of browsing all their useful and easy-to-put-together shelves, beds and drawers less intimidating? By putting the entire IKEA experience inside of a banner ad. This store-inside-a-banner targets people looking for studio apartments, lets you browse by department and gives you the option to buy straight from the banner. Also a plus, the case study about the ad features a nifty Swedish accent.

  

Project by Ogilvy Action, Dubai

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.

Put the Value of Giving up Cigs in Perspective

Cigarettes don't just kill your body. They do serious damage to your wallet. These print ads do a great job of illustrating that. Each one is made up of about 7,000 cancer sticks, which is about a year's supply depending on how much you inhale. Give up smokes for a year and you could get yourself some serious shit instead. Like take a trip around the world, a badass motorcycle or a healthy supply of Mr. Choo (the third iteration clearly has ladies in its eyesights). What better day than today to start sticking each pack's worth of cash money into the piggy bank instead of into your dirty lungs.   

Gravy of the Week: My favorite campaigns of 2012.