On The Ground Looking Up

FTW! Duct Tape TRON!

Another one in the ending series of "I WISH I THOUGHT OF IT."

 

Thanks to Justin for the link.

Nothing Like Unattended Baggage To Promote An Airline

I like this idea quite a bit, I question the thinking, timing and the veracity of it being completely unexpected and a surprise.

Supposedly, these 190 people were flying Spanair on Christmas Eve 2010. When they arrived at their destination, after midnight, there was a package ready for them to come off the belt at baggage claim. Now, yes, it is a great sentiment, something that an airline should do as a nice beneficial surprise...but really now. Almost 10 years after 9/11 and we have been bludgeoned with messages to report unattended baggage and suspicious packages. If something came out of baggage claim with my name on it that was not mine I would probably run for the nearest exit instead of running to open my stuffed Bart Simpson.

But the idea made for a nice video so, perhaps the truth was stretched just a hair.

/p>

10 Years After — 1. A Look Back At 10 Years Of Interference Inc.

They say that having and maintaining a business a small business for 10 years is a milestone. Many stats reveal that 70-80% of small businesses close in the first 2 years. Dun & Bradstreet claims that of business with fewer than 20 employees, that only 9% of them make it to 10 years. If that is the case than I should feel pretty good about what we have done. In many ways I really do, in many others, I don’t, we still have a long way to go.  

In what is the first of 10 posts that will look at our business and industry over the last 10 years, I will start with a reflective look at myself and my company over the last decade.

In May, 2001, after the first Internet bubble came crashing down around us (the first because a second could be coming soon) and our joint venture with Omnicom had come part, I decided to reboot and start another company.  It was started with a very simple premise, to create non-traditional marketing tactics for traditional companies, many of whom were not used to thinking of their marketing spend in such a way. Having done it less than 4 months after the failure of the previous one was a combination of taking what I had learned in the rise and decline and applying the learnings before I forgot about them (a habit that has plagued me since childhood) and an intense discomfort with idle time (also an issue for a therapist, not a blog post).

Interference Inc. was started with the help of some donated office space from Steve Harty (of Merkley Newman Harty) and a small mention in the New York Times. It took a few months, but we finally started to get inside some closed doors and had the opportunity to try our hand at being creative for a few brand managers and agency partners who ‘got it.’ At the time there were very few companies in our space. In 2001, we were the only company i can think of that had 'guerrilla marketing' as our key descriptor and part of our tagline.  Since then, the idea of being guerrilla is championed by the largest ad agencies and the most buzz-worthy PR firms, but back then, it was unique.

Over the last 10 years we have had the honor of working with some outstanding companies - CNN, GE, Showtime, HBO, Discovery Channel, Netflix, Vogue Magazine, The New York Times, Sony Ericsson, Clorox, Hasbro, Nestle, Listerine, Citigroup, Washington Mutual, Svedka, Malibu Rum, Corbis, NBC, iVillage, Le Tigre, Fila, and about 100 others. We have also done work with some great agencies such as Kaplan Thaler, SS&K, Doner, Fathom Communications, PHD, Kirschenbaum, OMD, and many more, which has been a great learning experience  The ability to work with such powerhouse brands and agencies and have them trust us to do creative alternative marketing for them is humbling and inspiring. And there are still many more to work with in the coming years.

Surprisingly, there are a few categories that we have a hard time breaking into, most notably Automotive and Hollywood. Two of which I would have thought would be slam dunks for us and yet we have found very challenging. I have renewed my focus on those and feel we can do amazing things for them if given the chance (Tesla, give me a call!).

In helping to create a new segment and discipline we have certainly had our fair share of hiccups. I have used these as strategic inflection points and just about all of them have taught me a great deal although they were sometimes painful to get through. We have lost clients, shut down cities, delivered less than expected experiences and have used sub-par 3rd party companies that have made us look bad. Luckily these were far and few between and the sucesses were too numerous to count. Yet those hard experiences have made us much better over the years. I believe having gone through it made us who we are today and we are not only exponentially better at executing than when we started 10 years ago, but we are much better advisors to our clients in what to or not to do in the need for attention. Wisdom really does come with experience, it cannot fully be learned in books.

Over the next 9 posts we will get into specific details of how segments have changed and how the marketing landscape has grown since 2001, but the fact that I am still here, still doing something I love, with an amazing set of co-workers and clients, is a testament to how passion can be a strong motivator and how doing something that matters to you is more important than how much you make or how well known you are.

Why The MTV Skins Controversy Reveals A Huge Flaw In The System

There has been a lot of chat and ink being spent on how many major advertisers have pulled out of advertising on the new MTV show Skins. Advertisers like GM, Subway and H&R Block have removed their ads after catching flak from the Parents Television Council (PTC) and other groups. The PTC is now going after the other advertisers who have as of yet not pulled their support.  Whether they remove their ads or not, the fact that this situation is occuring reveals a serious flaw in how media is treated by agencies on behalf of their clients.

Let's look at Skins. The UK version of Skins, showing on younger network E4 is a big hit, in fact it won a BAFTA award and has been renewed for a 6th season as well as a big screen version. So of course it would make sense that a US network would want to pick it up. It also has been somewhat controversial in the UK beacuse of it's rampent use of sex, drug use and profanity but in general it is well accepted and it is showing on E4, not something more 'serious' like the BBC. 

When MTV announced that it would produce a version of the show, I was wondering how it would do so while keeping the general feel of the original and yet abiding by the guidelines of american television. But in reality, it made perfect sense, it will get viewers for the very reasons that it is controversial. Now here is where my issue comes to light.

Why would advertisers, who were not understanding of the content, want to advertise on a show with such taboo subjects, if they were not prepared for the reaction. Anyone with a Netflix account can watch the original shows on demand to see what they are in for. MTV said they were going to be relatively faithful to the content and within the first 10 minutes of UK episode 1 we have seen bare breasts, bare asses, masturbation, rampant use of words like cock, nipple, twat and fuck and the discussion of getting one of the main characters laid in order to finally lose his virginity at 16. There is also constant discussion of drinking and drug use. All being spun by attractive teens seemingly oblivious to how society wishes to see them.

So, any media planner worth their salt should have done a little of this homework and said to their client "Skins, it could be a big hit, but without a doubt it is going to catch some heat, are you up for defending your placement in exchange for the potential upside of attention and affinity that this show may bring", It is called risk tolerance. Is the risk of the backlash worth the upside that you can get from a potentially hot and certainly talked about show, especially within your target demo.

Instead of taking a risk tolerance approach to whether they should have been there in the first place (I mean really, what was H&R block doing there to begin with?), all of these advertisers acted shocked when they get requests from groups like the PTC (whose main mission is to complain about television shows and pressure advertisers to remove their ads, augmenting their future power to do so) and run scared.  Either support the content or don't, but at least be educated enough to make the right decision. The UK version seemingly did not rile advertisers because they understood what they were buying.

Which brings us to another hypothesis, that these advertisers could potentially have used the airing and subsequent pulling out of the show specifically to re-enforce their "American" values and showing that they too, like many conservatives will not tolerate this type of content for the youth (despite their initial support). This stance allows them a PR angle that is bound to get them more attention for their position (and product) than their ads would have gotten being part of a 2 minute block in the second half of the show. Not the most honest way to plan media IMO.

Either way, it shows me that more thought needs to be put into the media planning discipline and that really understanding both the medium and the content you wish to align with is paramount to media success. Something that it would seem the planners placing GM (on some key other brands) into Skins seemed to forget.

SEGA Taking Customer Engagement To A Whole New Level

Our teamates at @SuperTouch caught this on the web and it sparked my interest in regards to how brands create opportunities for their customers to engage with them in unique ways.

Company: SEGA (Creators of Sonic, Frogger and a wealth of titles beyond)

Product: Toylets Male Urinal Video Game

What: An above urinal screen that allows you to control gaming with your... stream?

According to this article, you can compete in a variety of games from

Washing away graffiti

to

Compete to see if you can blow enough milk out of your nose compared to past players... WHAT?!?

Supposedly the technology measures both the force of your urine as well as the location you are hitting on the urinal. I pray they do not come out with a 'multi-touch' version. Well this is certainly an innovative spin on creative outdoor media, let's see if it catches on.

So I ask you, Gimmick or Genius?

More on Toylets at their japanese site.

The Homeless Billboard - I AM HERE -->

A powerful idea for raising homeless awareness. Especially for Danny, who gets $10 everytime someone donates.

I am here:

There is also a video.

Supertouch @ RSNA 2010

Here is a short video from our client GE HEALTHCARE IT that showcases two of the technologies our Supertouch group created for the customer engagement area of the GE presence at RSNA this year. Our Question of the Day and Interactive Datavisualization applications and hardware are featured towards the end. We utilized distributed touchable content and custom multi-touch tables to bring some interactive goodies to their presence.

The Teletransporter

Saw this on a few of the blogs and with the language barrier it is a bit hard to determine if it is more commercial or more experience from a beer company. In essence the Teletransporter, appears to be a space age looking phallus that is put in loud clubs and bars and allows people to make cell phone calls in quiet. I remember pitching the same idea to both LG and Sony Ericsson a few years back, and while they did not bite, it is good that others shared the same idea. I like the addition of the video cams so you can record the juiciest/drunkest bits of conversation although I am not sure how legal that would be here in the states.

Absolut Seating

To expand on their recent celeb faces/photographers campaign, Absolut (via TBWA/Chiat Day) created experiential versions of the ads at bus shelters around Chicago. Supposedly up until late December, these installations are sure to get some stares, photos and a bit of chatter (if not a bit of vandelism I fear). I wonder if I can buy the seating for my apartment when they are done?

 

<via>

LEGS, The Standard NYC and MotherNY Go Big To Launch Fall Line For Target

To launch their fall fashion line, Target bought out all of the rooms on one side of NY's Standard Hotel and planned a showcase, light and dance spectacle via LEGS and Mother NY. This would have been a great experience to see live, but the video does give you a sense of how creative it was. The unedited videos are available on YouTube as well.