On The Ground Looking Up

The Rube Goldberg Effect Of Ideas

So today someone sends me the link to the new OK Go video. Sidenote: is it me or are OK Go known much more for their videos than their music? Anyway, and it is a fun video to watch and worth passing along, etc. But it also really highlights a simple premise. Good ideas spread.

So here is the video.

Fun eh?

But then again, perhaps not so original if you have seen this Honda commercial -

And I kind of like the ending song better on this one.

But watching that of course leads me to the wonderful 1987 Art Film The Way Things Go by Peter Fischli and David Weiss (4 minute excerpt of the 29 min video which you should watch).

The Way Things Go

Which was based on the creative thinking of cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg whose cartoons depicted intricate machines to complete simple tasks. 

In essence, the Rube Goldberg Effect could be considered a long strain of creative executions based on the work of Rube Goldberg himself, with the simple task of entertaining an audience. Not the worst thing for us to keep in mind in the creative world. Sometimes it is not necessary to create something new and never been done, if you can expose a new audience to a proven idea.

2 Ads I Cannot Stop Watching

Sometimes advertising just works. Here are 2 spots I am really digging right now.

Nexus One's Ninja Celebration Of Unboxing

Adidas' / Star Wars' Mash-Up Madness

Forget Elf Yourself, BRAND Yourself!

 

Crystal Mesh

The world is getting more and more interesting. A creative building facade that gets me inspired to go big for someone with emotive imagery.

crystal mesh from autokolor on Vimeo.

The Anti-Experience Question

Someone recently posted this question to the Experiential Marketing Forum (which if you are not a part of, shame on you!):

Just wondering what people would consider to be the most common criticisms of experiential marketing?

What's the anti-experiential marketing case people hear most often?

I thought my response may be helpful to those not on the forum. So here it is verbatim. I also would have credited the asker of the question but they did not credit themselves

RESPONSE

"Very good question.

Since my marketing tends to focus more on live experiences, I will relay the 2 criticisms (and my responses to such) that I hear most.

1. It is too expensive! - While creating live experiences can be costly, if you look at it on a cost per touch basis, I think that there is a strong argument to it in regards to the quality, duration, lasting impact, WOM and social qualities of the event. Take something like the Charmin Holiday Bathrooms (which we did not do so I am not shilling here). It was a great experience, it was by no means cheap.  But it had the people who experienced it interacting with the brand, in an extremely positive way, in a manner that goes so much deeper than any of their commercials or print ads could have done. It was also an experience that consumers wanted to share with others, whether through word of mouth, or their online social networks. And because it was such a bad-ass experience, it also got a lot of press and recognition across various groups, extending the value of it. So while it was a costly execution, in the end, it paid back in a huge way.

2. The second biggest criticism I hear is about scalability. That experiences are much harder to do across multiple markets. This is somewhat true, yet also very shortsighted. Let's say your average commercial costs 1mm to produce and then you spend 20MM on the media buy. If you took 10% of that. 3MM and put it into experiential executions, you could have a great experience in 10-20 of the largest DMAs in the country. Literally millions of people touched, educated and potentially converted over to your brand. Yes, you have to be willing to deal with creating the experiences in all of these markets and the logistics are more challenging than simply buying another TV spot,  but if we are in the business of engagement, then we need to focus some of our spend on engaging, creative media. Do not be afraid to go big with it and as well you can target based on specific events, locations, psycho-graphic markers and all kinds of other filtering that you do not get with traditional media.

I hope this helps.

Best

Sam"

- I would love to know the On The Ground Looking Up readers' thoughts on this as well. Shoot me an email or DM me on Twitter: SamEwen

Experiential Marketing Forum - Profile In Leadership

The P.I.L. interview I did with Erik Hauser from Euro RSCG for the Experiential Marketing Forum is now up. You can read it here.

Thanks Erik!

Is It Really Necessary To Bring THAT Back Up?

I am in Las Vegas for NCAS show so postings are sparse but a friend just sent me a link to an article about how ABC is trying to get people excited about their new V remake show by doing skywriting over New York landmarks. As it refers to this large scale stunt, the article cannot help but mention the ATHF in terms of how pushing the limits of marketing in a can generate attention, with sometimes unexpected results. ATHF was also brought up in a story the other day relating to the whole balloon boy incident as well as now that has made it on the list of great 'hoaxes.'

I guess it will always be referred to when people challenge the marketing norms in public spaces. Even though sky writing and a home brewed publicity stunt with a dirigible do not seem that similar to me, they both relate to those looking to crack the art of getting people's attention.

Interesting Fact - KFC

Kentucky Fried Chicken: In 1990, the Commonwealth of Kentucky trademarked the name “Kentucky,” forcing businesses to pay a licensing fee to use it. KFC was able to sidestep the issue by changing its brand name to the commonly used nickname.

I did not know this, I guess the 'it contains no actual chicken' rumors are just rumors.

Via BrandlandUSA

Interference/Lit Studios @Gizmodo Gallery This Week

Hey now! Our Interactive Mirror was recently added to the Gizmodo Gallery that is going to be going on tomorrow through Sunday at 267 Elizabeth St in NYC. Come through and say hi, touch some stuff and see everything from Tesla Coil rock, the largest Beatles Rockband and an automatic pancake machine.

There is some very cool stuff there and worth a peek from any and all tech, gadget, nerd,alt-culture types.

For example:

Thrillerific headphones!

So come through to the

And find us, we are right next to the Pac-Man ghost mood musicinator thing.

Random Images From My Desktop 11

I completely agree with this sentiment.

I could not have said it better.

Patience.

 

You need a big guitar for that.