talk

Check out Google’s Zurich office here.

-Do you think they have better brainstormings?-

Internet week is here in June. For those of you who want to expand your online skillset this would be the perfect opportunity to seize. There will be plenty on digital marketing planning, analytics & metrics, monetization, social networking, consumer generated content, advertising and of course the evolution of branding. Get all the info here:

http://www.internetweekny.com/schedule/list

See you there!

Values have always played a key role in creating brands but they play a more critical role now as we face economic and political uncertainties. Leading brands should be able to understand how big shifts impact the lives of their consumers, and find a common ground in sharing that experience. That common ground is usually values that can bring the two together. When done well, the focus on one or two core values creates a groundswell of brand ambassadors and other key influencers committed to your brand. The vox collective has seen the power of this connection, which it calls branded movements, in many programs including one in one of the most challenging yet thriving consumer markets in the world, Haiti.

Many people have doubts about the ability of the NGO and private sector to work together. But the partnership between Yele Haiti, an NGO founded by music star Wyclef Jean, and Voila, a wireless provider shows that strong-shared values can inspire millions and benefit both. The vox collective created a joint program between both organizations around education and health for yele’s poor. The campaign allowed Voila to establish trust with the Haitian market and as a result gain market leadership.

Advertising has always looked at culture for inspiration to create engaging stories that bring the brand and the consumer together. But what happens when the product itself is culture? This is the challenge faced by the New York International Latino Film Festival, the nation’s largest urban Latino film event in the country.

Launched in 1999, the festival needed an invigoration to remain relevant amidst a whole set of different players who wanted to own the Latino movement led by a new generation of Latinos proud of their culture and increasingly influential in the general market, including film.

A festival, a movement

And it is this movement around Latinos in film and an entire community’s support for this movement, that this past year’s campaign sought to capture. In charge of the project was advertising agency “the vox collective.” The campaign is an engaging story paying tribute to Nueva York. The approach, like its market muse, was also very natural, with all on-air talent picked out of the local community. This is simply an ordinary day in our city. But when presented from a vantage point of respect and affinity, the day becomes simply artistic and extraordinary.

Corporations are shaping pop culture by paying for movies, producing television shows, and showcasing directly with Artists. The surreal advertising landscape of 2002’s “Minority report” is coming to life as interactive billboards and blockbuster video games offer a whole new way to build brand mindshare with the next generation of big spenders.

Brand & consumer planning, that infamous service that everyone talks about and none want to pay for, is becoming more and more of a business imperative as consumers get more sophisticated and overexposed. Planners are key to establishing the foundation for both the creative and the media teams, feeding them actionable insights to make sure the campaigns they produce hit home.

The walls are coming down as these teams work together in a more integrated fashion, feeding off each other, as the competition for consumer memory cells becomes a greater challenge than ever before. In this competitive landscape, savvy clients cannot make the mistake of confusing media efficiency models for effective media strategy. continue reading “The Creative Media Mindset”

The following trends are creating attractive opportunities for many marketers and a few headaches for others. How to stay in the winners’ circle and leave the aspirin to your competitors? Take note, as being ready for the next big thing will never be out of style.

• Cause-related marketing. Consumers want their brands to behave like leaders and stand for something. Values can give a stronger push to your marketing. The results, when done well, are something we call branded movements. Lead and they will follow.

• Multicultural and global. Ken and Barbie represent a smaller share of the consumer and pie. Take your brand traveling to interact with other cultures. The result is additional consumers who can give your brand a new life. Don’t delay, your consumers are already brushing on their Spanish and Mandarin.

• Social networking and new media: it’s time to take your brand out for a stroll and introduce it to some new friends. Only do this, though, if you have a strong story to tell and some brand ambassadors ready to vouch for you. Be real and engaging online.

• The open advertising agency. The world of ideas doesn’t stop at the agency walls. The new type of agency has to open up more to outside collaborations to deliver more innovation and creativity to clients.

We have a language problem in the US and it isn’t that immigrants don’t learn English; they do. If they didn’t we wouldn’t be seeing commercials for products like Inglès Sin Barreras airing continuously on the Spanish-language networks. Our problem is that the majority of the native-born population is monolingual, mostly under the ridiculous delusion that a second language isn’t necessary to a native speaker of English. This makes the United States a laughing stock to the rest of the world and is hurting us in the long term. What compounds the problem is that foreign language is usually taught so poorly here.

Here’s where the Spanish-language TV networks can be heroes while simultaneously acting in their own corporate self-interest.

Univision in particular airs telenovelas that target teens. For a mid-five figure salary they could hire an education professional to pre-screen episodes of upcoming teen-targeted titles and create teaching guides to them for free distribution to the nation’s middle- and high-school Spanish teachers. The teachers can then assign viewing to their students and spend the first few minutes of the next day’s class discussing the previous day’s episode. Considering the addictive nature of serialized entertainment, the extreme attractiveness of the actors, and the universal themes in the stories, this is a win for all parties: The students get an hour’s more exposure to Spanish every weekday to increase their comprehension and vocabulary, they get entertained at the same time, and Univision gets good press for providing a free and effective tool to our underfunded educational system.

Tambien, Univision gets more viewers. Media Nerd is prepared to predict that some percentage of this teen audience would continue to tune in as adults, enjoying the passion, intrigue, and excitement of love stories like Alborada and the comedies like Yo Amo a Juan Querendon. Univision’s prime time ratings, which increase all the time, can take another leap with the addition of Anglo viewers who are looking for something different and exciting to watch. Which will also, por supuesto, mean more ad revenue for the network.

The United States could become bilingual in one generation, which has been overdue for two centuries… all through the power of television.

In a sign of things to come, an increasing number of the world’s largest cities are coming up with strong regulations banning out of home. It seems that visual clutter is turning many people of. Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, is one of those metropolitan centers taking a clear stance on out of home and billboards, imposing strict regulations and giving advertisers a headache or two.

Why the push towards less? The reasons are clear, even when the view isn’t. First, there is the ubiquitous move towards everything green. There is also the growing number of people moving back to cities and demanding a better quality of life. It’s the physical manifestation of what many of us are already experiencing with media and commercial overload. So it won’t be too late before you will need to opt-in to see that 3-D billboard. But in the meantime, brands will have to engage in more subtle ways through elements that people actually want outdoors. A nature conservancy brought to you by Starbucks, anyone?

Meet Jorge, a virtual Hispanic male. Just type in whatever you want him to read, he can even cry, laugh, and clear his throat. Pick Carlos for a “Telemundo-style” voice or Diego for an Argentine accent. If you prefer an English female voice pick Allison or Linlin, if you can write in Chinese. Click here to meet them.

Major telecommunications are spending millions of dollar lobbying congress to make the Internet into a private network. This is really about the government withdrawing our right to Internet Freedom. Telecommunication are honing on limiting our direction through connection, by creating a toll based info structure. Thus generating immense profit thorough distribution and control. Internet has bought freedom of speech to the people, providing us with the most efficient and low cost medium, ever. It has helped increased collaboration, connectivity, information, god dammit! Internet has changed my life. It has saved my long distance relationship, connected with old friends, spying on friends, helped me decided what to buy, what to wear , find a job, kill time, youtube, eliminate the need of paper mail, increased my junk mail, multiplied my shopping addiction, music, download, bloggers, 2 girls and a cup, etc…

Kidding aside, this is an important issue and please voice out to your local congressman

Resources:

Save the Internet

Death of Internet video clip

How could this affect you?

Search Engine:
Seach Engine could pay dominant Internet providers to guarantee their search engines opens faster on your computer than competitors

Blogger:
Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips – silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlet

Small Businesses and tele-commuters:
Internet companies favor their own service, you won’t be able to choose more affordable providers for teleconferencing, Internet phone calls etc..

Consumers:
Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care, information, resource, etc… (The route you travel)