Over the next two months, PSFK will be hosting Redscout’s SPUR video series. It will explore the intersection of brands, strategy, innovation and the world of account planning. We hope to spark a lively discussion, and inspire those working in the field.

Over the next two months, PSFK will be hosting Redscout’s SPUR video series. It will explore the intersection of brands, strategy, innovation and the world of account planning. We hope to spark a lively discussion, and inspire those working in the field.

Last week, PSFK and The Guardian presented a Good Ideas Salon at the Soho House in NYC, which focused on the past events, present issues and future possibilities of advertising. Moderated by George Parker of AdScam, the salon was split into two different panels.
The second part of the discussion features Dominico Vitale (Founder, PI&C), Gill Linton (Founder, The Joneses), and Alain Sylvain (Managing Director, RedScout), discussing the importance of creative strategy, the industry’s lack of connection with consumers, the use and over-use of terms such as “the big idea” and “branding”, and accountability.  Watch the discussion below, and see part [...]

Last week, PSFK and The Guardian presented a Good Ideas Salon at the Soho House in NYC, which focused on the past events, present issues and future possibilities of advertising. Moderated by George Parker of AdScam, the salon was split into two different panels.
Part one featured industry veterans Curvin O’ Reilly, Tom Messner (Bonaccolta Messner), and John Garland (Garland/Berjis Consulting), discussing the advent of holding companies, Saatchi & Saatchi, and the fact of the advertising profession remaining the same despite seismic changes to the media landscape. Watch the video of the presentation below, and part 2 here.

Related on PSFK:

(Pics) Good [...]

Last Friday at the Art Directors Club in New York, Piers Fawkes of PSFK sat down for a panel discussion on contemporary collaboration with Mike Brown of Virgin Group, Ben Lerer, founder of Thrillist, Sam Lessin, CEO of drop.io, and Nate Westheimer, VP Product, anyClip.com & Organizer, NY Tech Meetup. The afternoon’s talk centered around creative collaboration in the realm of business and entrepreneurship, and how both creative individuals and business-oriented entities can profit from working around shared interests.

From the discussion emerged a common sentiment, introduced by Lerer, that smaller creative groups need to take advantage of and leverage what [...]

The videos from PSFK Conference New York are now available (and embeddable) for your inspiration:
When Ideas Create Good
Open To Change
New York New Media
City As Canvas
Reconnect
Building Healthy Brands With Heart
Ghost In The Machine: Digital Multiculture
New Idea Agencies
This Platform Called Everyday Life
If you’ved missed our other conferences, you can always find our videos on our conference event page.

After eight years of fantastic public pranks, Improv Everywhere is releasing a behind-the-scenes book about some of their most successful endeavors. Causing a Scene, Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere comes out today (you can also read the first two chapters online here), and if you’re in New York, Improv Everywhere founder Charlie Todd will be doing a book signing at Bryant Park tomorrow.
PSFK interviewed Charlie late last year about how he goes about injecting a spirit of playfulness into everyday life. Watch below.

At our 2009 New York conference, a panel led by Florian Peter (CScout) discussed how creators and the community openly come together to develop new thinking and make ideas happen. John Geraci (Outside.in), Scott Heiferman (Meetup), Avner Ronen (boxee) and Domenico Vitale (PI&C) explain how they leverage open communities to develop new products, services and experiences for the benefit of everybody concerned.

At PSFK Conference NYC, I had the opportunity to sit down with Edward Felsenthal, Executive Editor of The Daily Beast, to discuss his new online publication and the changes he’s seeing in the rapidly evolving world of publishing. The Daily Beast, launched in October of 2008, is a curated online news site created by Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Felsenthal, who served as Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal prior to taking the helm at The Daily Beast, shared his insights on launching a new brand in the ever-expanding digital news [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC Marc and Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective and Meet at the Apartment gave a rousing talk about their love of street art. They began by explaining how, at first, they simply began noticing and photographing art in their immediate neighborhood. Then, after posting thousands of photos on a website they shared with friends, traffic boomed, and Wooster Collective was born. Marc and Sara go on to speak about different aspects of their nine year involvement as web-currators of the world-wide street art scene, and share a slide show packed with amazing pieces.
You can watch the entire [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, moderator David Pinter (PSFK) along with Sarah Beatty (Green Depot), Simon Collins (Parsons), Ryan Jacoby (IDEO), and Matthew Lusk (Hecho Inc.) discussed the meaning of “sustainability” today, and how economic and social conscience are driving the design of new products and services. Sustainability, explained Simon, is not just about creating eco-friendly products; it’s also about making thoughtful choices as a consumer, too (buying blue jeans that last, for example). Sarah expanded on that idea, explaining that focusing on sustainability means seeking out high-quality products and services – things that maintain value and meaning over time.
The panel [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Colin Nagy (PSFK/Attention) led a discussion with Help Remedies‘ founder Richard Fine and Hello Health’s Dr. Jay Parkinson and Dr. Sean Khozin about “Building Healthy Brands With Heart”. The panel touched upon the different ways their ventures were setting out to innovate an industry resistant to change. Richard Fine talked about how Help Remedies is attempting to change the way we think about medicine and first aid. Richard’s aim with creating Help was to simplify medication, from packaging to ingredients. His range stands apart from the myriad “dual-action”/”24-hr relief”/”fast-acting” products on the market – most recognizably, [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Celestine Arnold gave an eye-opening talk on the “Ghost in the Machine: Digital Multiculture.” Celestine discussed the role of race and culture in video games – and the gaming industry’s failure to address (and successfully market towards) it. While minorities make up a disproportionately large percentage of the gaming community, most games cater to an assumed mainstream (white, male) player….

At PSFK Conference NYC, Kevin Slavin gave a captivating presentation on “This Platform Called Everyday Life”, in which he discussed the evolving nature of the objects surrounding us. Kevin, Managing Director and co-founder of Area/Code, explained how pervasive technologies are changing the way we relate to our physical environment and everything in it – from playground balls, to houseplants to sneakers.

Kevin opened his talk with a story about a fascinatingly bizarre woman who had such intense feelings for the Berlin Wall that she married it. Through his talk, Kevin demonstrated how the woman’s relationship with the Wall, while extreme, parallels [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Danielle Sacks (Fast Company) led a thought-provoking discussion about the rise of the “New Idea Agencies” – companies that are thinking outside of the traditional client-agency model and creating their own products, brands, and intellectual property to launch direct to market. The panel, featuring Robbie Vitrano (Trumpet), Carl Johnson (Anomaly), Bart Haney (fuseproject), and Ben Malbon (BBH Labs), explained how their companies’ unique business models evolved and the struggles (and benefits) of agencies becoming their own clients.
Developing IP rather than just messaging is clearly an attractive idea. Why build brands that, ultimately, you have no stake [...]