[ paul isakson ]

HERD // the mailman delivers

Looking forward to finally getting to dive into this one!

mtv puberty: feel awkward all over again

MTV launched their Puberty campaign today. I haven't explored this too much yet other than playing around on the site and with the Fart game. It's all quite nicely done in my opinion - from the animations and 3D modeling of the characters to the well-written descriptions of them. It feels like they've captured the awkwardness, immaturity and truth of this stage of life quite well. I'll be intersted to see just how far they take this or if this is the extent of it. Either way, it's good for a laugh and some fun.

See the site here. Get more info here and here.

From Hornet's site:

Welcome to "Puberty," those awkward, insecure years you'd love to forget. A unique cast of characters created and designed by Clay Weiner for MTV takes us back to a time in life where people fell in to two categories: popular and really unpopular; and your body did things you didn't want it to do. "Puberty" reminds us that although those awkward years can be pretty crappy, adulthood is, like, way worse.

From the DIGIT article:

Collaborating with creator/director Clay Weiner to animate his character-driven tales about being that magical, miserable time of life known as Puberty, Hornet and Weiner have created 10 spots featuring a cast of 11 pre and pubescent characters. The various scenarios, which will transport you (willing or unwilling) back to the hellish days of middle school angst, began airing in the US today.

The Puberty Web site and viral games, were created in conjunction with WDDG in NYC, and will launch simultaneously with the TV spots and the mobile episodes. Beyond being a brand campaign for MTV, Puberty will be MTV’s first ever foray for original content produced for the mobile community....

“Puberty, as painful as it was, proves in hindsight to be a pretty apt metaphor for life. But the cruel truth is that you never get over it. No matter how old you get you still get pooped on (Doo-doo), you always wish you were more mature than you are (Pubes), you always think you have a big butt (Booty), and they’ll always laugh at you for sticking out of a crowd (Boner). As bad as Puberty is, adulthood is worse.”says Weiner.

ever seen a purple cow? want to?

For those of you in Denver, Seth Godin is coming to town on Thursday, April 19, to speak for an hour and a half. Get all the details here.

Coffee Morning Reminder

Don't forget. Denver Coffee Morning #2 is taking place this Friday. Get the details here.

[ image via brappy! ]

Write That Down

"Create something cool, and people will distribute your brand for you."
[ Sanaz Ahari | Lead Program Manager | Microsoft Corporation ]

From an interview in the Fast Talk section of the April 2007 issue of Fast Company

for the musically inclined

I have finally added blog number two. Its focus will be on music as this is a big passion/interest of mine. I'll post about new stuff I'm listening to (new to me at least), maybe some old stuff every now and then, videos I like, things I don't, music related products, services and web sites, etc.

You can find it here: [ themusicmademedoit ]

I'm still trying to make some adjustments to the layout and format so please bear with me while I sort things out.

Piss On A Leprechaun. Really.

Last year they brought us this. So I guess we shouldn't be surprised that they've created a new one this year.

(And it's an interesting way to test your ideas. Read more here.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Planner as Sommelier

I was having a conversation regarding account service with someone recently about how you can tell when it's good or not. They used an analogy to describe it that I rather liked. The analogy was that great account service is similar to that of great service at a restaurant. Conversely, poor account service then is like that of poor service at a restaurant. Now, before all of you account service types quit reading, stay with me.

The link was that when you have a great account service team, everything works nearly seamlessly between the agency and the client. Just like at a restaurant, when you have great service, everything works seamlessly between the kitchen and the customer. And when it's bad, well, we all know what that's like. Like restaurant service, when account service is great, you might not notice it so much. But when it's bad, it's very, very noticeable.

In sticking with this restaurant analogy, I asked myself what would the planner's role be? The kitchen staff would most certainly be the creative team and production artists, with the head chef being the creative director. The host/hostess would be the traffic manager. (The table bussing crew would be the AAEs?) The customers/diners would be the consumer. And any owners outside of the head chef would be the clients. (The restaurant itself would be the brand.)

Given all of this, it occurred to me that the sommelier might be the planner of the restaurant. I'll explain, but first I'm going to quote some text from Wikipedia on what a sommelier does/is:

Their principal work is in the area of wine procurement, storage, and wine cellar rotation. They are also responsible for the development of wine lists and are responsible overall for the delivery of wine service and training for the other restaurant staff. Working along with the culinary team, they pair and suggest wines that will best complement each particular food menu item. It could be argued that the role of a sommelier in fine dining today is strategically on par with that of the executive chef or chef de cuisine. A professional sommelier also works on the floor of the restaurant and is in direct contact with restaurant patrons. The sommelier has a responsibility to work within the taste preference and budget parameters of the patron.

In modern times, a sommelier's role is considered much broader than working only with the wines, and must encompass all aspects of the service, with an enhanced focus on wines, beers, spirits, soft-drinks, cocktails, mineral-waters and tobaccos.

If you plug in the words "consumer insights and information" for the word "wine" above and the roles as I related them above, it starts to kind of makes sense already. Not perfectly, but it does work. The way I see it, it's the sommelier's role to use their knowledge about the menu (creative product) and the wine list (information/insights - which the sommelier is solely in charge of, but that's not to say the planner is the only one who can contribute insights/ideas), to enhance/improve the customer's (consumer's) dining experience.

A good sommelier will ask probing questions of the customer to understand how much they want to spend, what their preferences are, what they're having for dinner and maybe more. They work to understand the customer's wants and needs and then they guide them on what wine selections would best fit their evening based on their answers to the questions.

In essence, all of this is done to make the meal (the creative product) more enjoyable for the customer so that they are more likely to want to come back to the restaurant (the brand) again. And this makes the owners (the clients) of the restuarant very, very happy. (Provided of course that the restaurant owner is not solely the head chef.)

So, there you have it. It's not a perfect analogy, but in trying to work the account service/restaurant analogy into a planning one, that's what I came to. It certainly has some flaws. If you've got thoughts I'd love to hear them.

What's On Toyota's Mind?

Last November, a long-time friend of Sukle asked us to share some "cool things" happening on the web with him and his client as well as help them understand just what's going on out there in general with sites like MySpace, YouTube, Second Life, etc. One of the sites we shared with them was this one from North Kingdom, designed for Toyota in Sweden.

While some of the pop-up windows aren't as exciting as others, this site overall is a great example of how a brand can come to life in a much more interesting way than has been available in the past. It's not about pushing a message in front of someone, but instead, inviting them to participate with your brand and make the experience their own in an entertaining way. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to go check it out. And may I recommend just soaking in the main page for a minute or two before you click on anything. Scroll over stuff and see what happens. Enjoy.

And if you want to read another good perspective on it, check out the post over at Three Minds @ Organic here.

(This is possibly old news for some of you around the globe, but I'm finding that here in Denver, not many are aware of it so I thought I would share about here instead of continuing to email links to those I talk to about it.)

They're Trying To Fix Things

Found this in my email inbox on Wednesday (3/14). Is this a new thing? Maybe in response to "THE MEMO?"Or have they always had this?