What a $4,500 in-house commercial looks like

It turns out the guy in the video really is the founder and CEO of the new start-up, Michael Dubin. What’s more surprising, though, is the fact that he made the ad himself. “The world is filled with bad commercials and people who are marketing too hard," Dubin says. "I think what we wanted to do is not take ourselves too seriously, and deliver an irreverent smart tone." Dubin wrote the spot last October and shot it with his good friend and co-director, Lucia Aniello. It cost about $4,500 and the team managed to bang it out in a single day, shooting on location at the actual factory warehouse, at their fulfillment center in Gardena, California. Not every CEO is cut out for making Funny or Die quality sketch-like ads, obviously. When he was living in New York, Michael Dubin took classes at beloved comedy training grounds, the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre, and has long dabbled in funny business.

Via Quora. Read entire background story at Co.Create.

Invisible Mercedes Benz car

What an awesome street marketing idea.

How to triple your sales using a 16 year old vlogger

While I realize this is a little outdated, it's still a good case study for using youtube for marketing. -David

This 16 year old vlogger Juicystar07 is yet another example of the power and reach of a free youtube video compared to an expensive TV commercial.

Using Reel Skills to Treble Your Sales

Want 561,522 YouTube viewers to see a nine-minute video about your product? Then you need to go find a 16-year-old girl to talk about it.

That's just what bespoke shoe seller Shoes of Prey did. They approached Blair Fowler, also known as Juicystar07, to do a video about their shoes, and give away a pair.

The video certainly made an impact, according to a blog post by founder Michael Fox. It gave the ecommerce site a massive 500,000 visitors in a week, way more than any other coverage they've had, online or offline.

But the fun had just started. See, Michael posted intimate details about the promotion on the company blog, then publicized the blog on Twitter and through other means. The coverage gained through retweeting and the whole YouTube marketing venture means they are now enjoying a 300% increase in daily sales. You can read more about it on their blog.

So, by taking the initiative and seeking out a different form of promotion, and then writing about the process and results, they were able to drive more traffic to their site and triple their sales. Brilliant!

Via Sitepoint

No big egos please and pick up the phone

These are two sage articles about professional communication. My boss sent me the link about calling people rather than e-mailing. Now that I think about it, these guidelines also apply to personal life.

Ninety–four (94) percent said working on teams in a collaborative manner was essential. They specifically related this to the creative sector where the give and take on ideas can make the difference. This means the ability to work with others in tandem is a necessary requirement to fully explore solutions and the success of projects. There is little room for egos or proprietary attitudes.

source: 4 Reasons to work well and play well with others

The next time you experience an issue over email, ask yourself if it is something that would be better served by a real conversation. Then have the courage to stop emailing and pick up the phone. Or even better: have a meeting.

source: Don't Send That Email. Pick up the Phone!

News Roundup

Brand Reversions by Graham Smith

• Check out the case study for Rally.org.


• Ryan Steely from SOA32 has a new illustration to be donated to Grind for Life for fundraising. Grind for Life is an organization that provides financial assistance to cancer patients and their families when traveling long distances to doctors and hospitals.


• Adfortel launches unique mobile advertising service with Yesss! in Austria and is a unique combination of Adfortel’s two services: VoiceAds and TuneAds.


• The F-Factor influences your purchase decisions the most. From May 2011 Trendwatching.com


• Congrats to Orel Bitan and Jessica Kalkberman for winning the Cannes Lions "YouTube GoodWork" 2011 contest!
  
  

  The "Love146" viral video was created independently and with 0 budget (the actress is my little sister, the room belongs to my nephew) and still managed to make a buzz proving that good ideas are stronger than anything. It even succeeded to reach the media, and was broadcast (2 times before winning+1 after winning) on "Channel 10", the second most viewed news channel on Israeli TV: http://youtu.be/KLxb6eRl5zE
  
  The creative:
  The video seems to be a video which sells toys BUT when you roll over the girl in the video, you discover she also has a price + a link which leads to a ‘LOVE146’ video with the massage:
  Two children are sold every minute - End child sex slavery & exploitation.

  
  
  Advertised brand: Social& Charity
  Advert title(s): LOVE146.
  Advertising Agency: Independent, Tel Aviv, Israel
  Art Director: Jessica kalbermann, Orel Bitan
  Copywriter: Orel Bitan
  Published: May, 2011

The Ad Contrarian: How To Sell Great Creative: Ego and Failure

The Ad Contrarian: How To Sell Great Creative: Ego and Failure

2:42am The perfect excuse.

No. This time I am still awake. You guessed right, a business pitch due tomorrow that is extremely important for the company and a nice account, as we perceive it, to do neat work. 

What really blows my mind is the tendency a creative team has to get into high gear only until the deadline is completely on top of us. Is this a special rush we creatives get in order to feel comfortable with the ideas that come out of our mouth? Or, is it simply the perfect excuse to justify these ideas.

Ideas?

More to come in a couple of hours.

 

Palacio de Hierro. Puntero en Social Media.

Con 93.022 "likes" Palacio de Hierro se posiciona una vez más como una de las marcas líderes en México incursionando al mundo de las redes sociales.

Según publica vuelodigital.com, Palacio de Hierro es innovador una vez más lanzando este pasado 4 de febrero un e-commerce a través de la plataforma Facebook con su pestaña "shop & share" que te permite explorar, clasificar y comprar productos de ciertas categorías. 

No sabemos qué tan exitoso vaya a ser este programa, pero lo cierto es que si tienes a 93k personas de tus posibles clientes en una "habitación" será mejor que prendas la música y hagas algo con ellos y ésta, se me hace una idea particularmente interesante en tiempos donde entre más opciones le demos al consumidor de vivir nuestra marca y lo que ofrecemos, mejor. 

Felicidades a Palacio de Hierro por incursionar y atreverse a hacer estos experimentos sociales que sin duda le dejarán gran aprendizaje y muchos beneficios a futuro. ¿Qué más?

King Yesterday. Gone Today.

The speed the way business models and idea conception has evolved over the past 10 years has really paid tribute to consumer trends and habits. 

A great example is this infographic on Netflix evolution and how it has shifted the movie renting model stretching the fact on what's important: content, home, fast and when you want it. If I recall correctly, Netflix tried to sell to Blockbuster a few years back with no success. There was a lack of vision by somebody there. 

Now, there are studies, talks and even workshops on how would you be able to save Blockbuster from what it appears to be a freefall to failure. Maybe it's their time, but I do believe something must and could be done with all the infrastructure created to this day and most importantly, we got ourselves a brand here. 

Adapt or dissapear is apparently the new way of envisioning your business at, if that were not enough, blazing speeds.

Ideas anyone?

5:48am

Buenos días.
Contento de estar despierto con tantas ideas en la cabeza. Un sueño en donde conocía al bebé que viene en camino me ha despertado de buen humor en sábado, y mucho mas temprano de lo planeado.
La dirección creativa a veces me acelera la cabeza a todo, despertando mil preguntas y un millón de posibles respuestas. No hay ciencia y nada y todo podría ser el mejor trabajo. Es hora de que caigan las cuentas con ganas de hacer cosas diferentes y que el equipo se defina con una misma misión y pasión.
Me entristece a veces ver a jóvenes sentados en oportunidades que sin que se den cuenta desaparecen.
Creo que voy a empezar a escribir mis aprendizajes y observaciones de México y los mexicanos no con afán de criticar, pero con afán de abrir los ojos.
¡Excelente sábado!