Integration. Integration. Integration. A low-fi expression.

Hello and greetings from the Midwest (now a little further south).

 

I’m in a pitch where the RFP states “We want to see Integration, Integration, Integration.”

Okay. So they want integration, that’s pretty clear. However, when you dive into it, clients have different meanings of integration. Mostly, they have a very uninformed idea of integration, which I call “Matchy-Matchy” or “Matching Luggage.” See the attached photo of matching luggage.

Not only is it pretty uninspiring (I chose something ugly ), but all the pieces of luggage pretty much do the same thing, they hold your stuff.

If you are someone more experienced at building integrated campaigns, you realize a better expression of this might be something like this photo of a grilling set.

 

All the pieces look somewhat similar, right? But every single piece within the set is designed to do something very specific (much like all of our media channels available to us today).  All of them used together hopefully deliver something very successful (& tasty).

So if you’re off to design some integrated marketing campaign, it’s best to understand what each medium is best at doing and don’t try and make each medium do everything… or the same thing (like luggage). Try to strategize around making your campaign act differently in different media and leverage the strengths of each. And please don’t try and make everything look exactly alike, because if you're clients are smart, that's all you get credit for.

Wishing  @Jess3 could make an amazing info-graphic to explain this better? Hollah if you want to work on it together. @bartonow

 

 

SXSW Preparedness Kit

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A.    A golden ticket to all the knowledge in the world, and thus, ruling it!

B.   Go Go Juice

C.   Name identier (Hi, this me and the gang I’m in)

D.    Hotel key (Dear hotel, please next time put the room number on it so when it’s 3 in the GD morning I know where I’m going)

E.    One of 10K useless QR-Code thingies (that didn’t link to anything good)

F.    Sci-Fi thumb drive (instant geek street cred)

G.   Hipster-collegiate smokes (which made me look and smell stupid)

H.   Rag for cleaning my hipster glasses

I.      Lifeblood (Please Apple make a battery that lasts even longer)

J.     Analogue writing utensil (didn’t use these at all)

How's your mobile app going?

So I did a quick poll of 20 random people here at SXSW last night and today.

I asked, "How is your app going?"

7 out of 10 responded, "It's going awesome!" and they proceeded to explain the intricate details of their app. (they were all lacking in elevator pitch skills, btw there's a panel on that today).

Keep in mind, I had no idea if these random people had an mobile app or not. It seems if you don't have your own app these days, then maybe your not quite on the cutting edge. And lately, ad creatives have been getting more credit for their side-project apps, than the apps they are making for their clients. Which the more I think about it, it's awesome. It's people just making stuff to make stuff.

Like this app. It's a side project, but could be altered and modified and just really cool for some client:

http://bit.ly/i5KKZL

So, get that Objective C coder friend. Buy him/her something they like, like maybe an XBOX, or a boyfriend/girlfriend. And go make that app! Don't delay!

props to www.peterskitchen.net for the image

If you are a client picking an agency...

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There are more types of agencies around today than ever before. All this dang technology has turned everyone upside down and more specialist agencies popping up every day. I personally would like to create a specialist agency that only advertises on urinal pucks and in skywriting, I think this is the wave of the future.

 

In short, if you are a client, here are my invented categories of agencies that exist today.

 

The Biggs

These agencies are so freaking huge that they employ entire cities. They take up 15 floors in massive skyscrapers. They do everything, especially eat funky smaller agencies for lunch. What do they stand for? Being big. Their budgets are bigger than many small countries. Do they “get” digital? No. They don’t have to because they will just acquire the expertise… and stay big.

 

The Nebulous

This agency has funny titles in its structure like “Alchemist” or “Talent Magnet.” They do Creata-strata-digi-social type of things. They will wow you with wizardry. They will say things to you like “digital ninja.” They will do a boatload of work for you Mr. or Mrs. Client and will charge you a lot of money and you will have no idea what to do with it.

 

The Designers

Immaculate. Pristine. They create work that is so precious, it hurts. They will suffer over your annual report until their eyes bleed. They will give you 52 options for the logo and you will never pick the right one. They do great work. And they still won’t be happy about it.

 

The Dangerous

These agencies are smart. They will always be smart. They are usually mid-sized. They can really see the future. They change before it gets here. Whatever they do, it’s usually better than your work. They are rarely afraid. They keep being smart, but they are even smart enough to not turn into one of the “Biggs.”

 

The Consultants

Usually coming from a deep technology background, these agencies literally process you into submission. They make charts and graphs and talk about such deep technology issues that it leaves most IT guys breathless. Creativity isn’t their forte, process is. It’s not about the product, it’s how they get there that will make you, Mr./Mrs. Client, feel at ease and hire them. These places will turn Creatives into robots.

 

The Scrappy

Production minded. Constantly hungry. Will out-hustle your agency 10-times over. They can concept shit and make it, too. They have one guy in film, one guy in digital and one guy in sales. They do the agency production work, but also have their own clients. They are fast and connected. But they don’t have a good account guy to grow anything or get a big client.

 

The Web Barn

C’mon down to the web barn! We’re fast. We’re cheap. And right now we have a 2 for 1 special on HTML E-mails. We do HTML, XML, FLASH, AJAX, Animated GIFs. We do it all. Creative? You want it fast right? Well, we don’t get creative on our stuff. Just look up at our board here, pick what you want and we’ll get it right down to ya!!

 

The Too Cool

These guys are so cool and so small that you’ve never heard of them. They did that one thing just recently, I don’t remember exactly who it was for, but it was so cool! Oh, and their logo was awesome. I don’t remember their name… wait, what happened to them? They’re gone? They were so cool!

How your agency presents itself

Recently I was on an interview and meeting with their HR represetative (who was very nice). She was trying very hard to succinctly explain to me the current success and forward trajectory for this agency.... and this is how she decided to explain it:

"We are an agency that went to bed as a girl and woke up a woman. And we discovered that we have breasts growing, but we don't know how big they are going to be. So, we are having a hard time to know how big of a bra to buy."

Where do I sign up?

 

11 Amazing Digital Advertising Predictions for 2011

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11 amazing digital advertising predictions for 2011, as I see them.

 

1.    Google will start buying your recycled emails for $1 a piece.

 

2.    Groupon will offer a Groupon to buy Groupon.

 

3.    Zynga will grow virtual crops through Farmville to feed worlds’ hungr.

 

4.    New film “The Social Not-Work” will be made about Friendster.

 

5.    Social Media Experts will lose more friends in 2011

 

6.    Microsoft will release a new multi-platform reality game called “work.”

 

7.    More traditional agencies will discover (insert useless shiny object here) and sell this cutting-edge technology to clients.

 

8.    Google will own every idea you haven’t thought of yet.

 

9.    Crowdsourcing creative will directly increase the amount of hazardous gasses released in the atmosphere, thus speeding up global warming

 

10.  Augmented reality will cause millions to flashback from earlier acid trips.

 

11.  Second Life will make a huge comeback.

Beat this Case Study

I've been making integrated advertising case-study videos for awhile. After this one, this is the only kind of marketing I'm really interested in.