Paul Isakson

Looking at Old Yarns for New Threads

Ad Age pointed out this bit from Droga5 for Puma as one of the week's top "viral" videos. Somewhere a few seconds in, I felt like I had seen this before. Something was very familiar about it... ah, yes... men, singing a song in a bar that you may not expect them to sing... Top Gun, Righteous Brothers. 

It's no secret that we've been telling the same basic stories over and over again for centuries. So, it's not too surprising that a video using the same formula as a popular scene from an equally popular movie would have decent luck spreading around the web.

The bigger story here is that as more and more things start to vie for every second of our attention, advertising is going to have to do a better and better job of telling short stories that others want to retell if it's going to survive.

One way to approach this could be through an exploration of what kinds of short stories have been shared successfully by the people you're hoping to connect with in the past and then finding new ways to tell those same stories. Looking at some of their favorite movies for a few cues based on popular scenes from those movies is a good place to start.

Not that this is what happened here with Puma and Droga5, but it did remind me of this approach...

Everybody Gets Knocked Down, How Quick Are You Going To Get Up?

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish. It's not where you're from, it's where you're at. Everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you going to get up?"

Just saw this new spot from Nike during the Olympics. I like it. Then again, Nike often does film very well and it never hurts to have a good soundtrack.

What I like more than the spot though is the lyrics, quoted above. It's not failure we need to fear. It's the not getting back up that's the killer. 

Toyota, take note...

Best Buy's E-Cycle Does It Right

Best Buy is trying to let more people know about their Greener Together™ e-cycling program. They've had this program in place for at least a year now, but thanks to their recent billboard campaign, the word is spreading through social media.

This is a good example of two points I talk about with clients and in presentations about social media. The first is that no matter what you're doing, do something worth talking about. If your goal is awareness, your approach shouldn't be to simply put a message in front of people, but to do something that makes them want to tell someone else about it. A billboard spelling the word e-cycle out of recycled consumer electronics does just that.

A second point I talk about is using social media to get credit for the things you do that people might care about, but for one reason or another, likely don't know about. Tell stories about unique things that make up your culture. Share expertise that resides within your walls. Show people the interesting things you are working on. And while this example is being run through traditional media for Best Buy, using YouTube to talk about a billboard you made out of recycled electronics to promote your recycling program helps spread the word about it beyond the market(s) where you ran our OOH buy.

Another thing this program is doing right is that it's a good example of a company doing something good for others and the world.

Is this Earth-shattering, award winning work? Likely not. But I do think it takes a few steps in the right direction for how advertising's role is evolving.

Parkour Inspires a New Take on the Flipbook

via 12ozProphet.com / Dirty Dozen Crew

Good Advice from Jim Jarmusch

Piers pointed this out earlier this year and it's definitely made the rounds via Twitter and Digg and all that, so I doubt this will be the first you've seen it. (And something tells me Faris probably has this in his archives from years ago and is laughing that it's going round now/again.)

Great advertising and design have always done this—steal bits from culture and make them authentic to the brand/product/service.

There are a couple things I especially like from Jim's quote. The first is this bit:

"Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent."

If you've worked in this business at all, you've undoubtedly heard someone say, "We can't do that! ______ is already doing it." Well, maybe that's true and maybe it isn't.

Sometimes the best strategy might be to disrupt and sometimes it might be to steal. If you're doing it just like they're doing it, then it likely shouldn't be done. But as this piece of the quote tells us, it's o.k. to do things someone else is doing as long as you take them and execute them in your own unique (authentic) way. The key bit is the authentic piece. It has to be authentic to you and you alone.

The second thing I liked in the quote gives us a bit more to that. Which is this:

"... always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It's not where you take things from—it's where you take them to.'"

This fits right in line with my belief that everything can always be made better. In a presentation given by Dan Saffer a while back, he shares (on slide 57) that some of the oldest things around that we use everyday in our lives now took hundreds of years to get to where they are and even then, can still be improved upon.

I think that if you're passionate about what you're doing and what you're working on, you can't help but do this. You won't be able to help but putting a bit of your own soul into it and that will come through. I also think this is related to why so many brands simply aren't that different on the shelf today. But that's another post all together...

So, to wrap this all up, go ahead and steal if that's the best strategy/approach. But don't just steal. Steal and make it better; steal and make it your own.