Gross National Happiness Index – a new application from Facebook, can track global highs and lows from aggregating key words within user status updates.

A while back, we wrote a short post about the Engaging Ideas Card Pack and mentioned, “We haven’t gotten our hands on the full set, but it looks like a neat package for a broad range of ideas.”  Well, now (thanks to Rob Fox) we’ve gotten our grubs on the entire pack and sifted through the stack of colorful cards.
The first impression is that they look like a deck of large novelty sized playing cards printed on thick stock cardboard.  The front side of each card is an image meant to invoke the message or activity presented on the back.  [...]

A while back, we wrote a short post about the Engaging Ideas Card Pack and mentioned, “We haven’t gotten our hands on the full set, but it looks like a neat package for a broad range of ideas.”  Well, now (thanks to Rob Fox) we’ve gotten our grubs on the entire pack and sifted through the stack of colorful cards.
The first impression is that they look like a deck of large novelty sized playing cards printed on thick stock cardboard.  The front side of each card is an image meant to invoke the message or activity presented on the back.  [...]

Fast on the heels of what many are heralding as the most successful presidential campaign ever staged, folks everywhere are hoping to be the first to uncover the valuable lessons that made this historic election possible. Those in the marketing industry choose to look at the Obama campaign from the perspective of “effective sales pitch to the entire nation,” able to cross all demographics with a single message. However, maybe this is view is too narrow and fails to see the broader implications as we move forward.
To that end, Gawker offers five realistic takeaways that paint a bigger picture [...]

As pop-culture and celebrity gossip blogs continue to see increased traffic, particularly with the youth demographic, advertisers’ views on what counts as acceptable have started to change.  Given the uneasy economic climate and tightening budgets, it’s become increasingly important for mainstream brands to be mindful of where their ad dollars are going.  As a result, following the crowds, even if that means entering non-traditional venues on the web with less respectable material, makes a good deal of sense.  Despite the inherent logic of this move, some in the media still question whether this issue has more to do with negligent [...]

Famous frenemies WPP and Google are joining forces to the tune of $4.6 million dollars to fund a joint research project that establishes conclusively the ways online marketing impacts consumer behavior. Despite an often cited statistic that people spend 30 percent of their time online, current studies don’t show this activity translating into an equivalent amount of total spending on the web.  This inquiry will examine the ways offline and online interact and, one suspects, search for creative methods to bridge this gap.
Considering the fact that these two giants rely so heavily on the online space for generating their revenues, [...]

SharedEgg offers some neat data visualization maps that provide a glimpse of the interconnected web of products, brands, and activities that binds us. Based on data collected from constituents of various ’subcultures’, the maps reflect the different labels people have for themselves and others based on what they like, what they consume and how they spend their free time. SharedEgg explains their process:
What we ended up asking of our participants was just to list some of the products, and activities that they are involved with: what music artists they listen to, what movies they watch, what television shows they watch, [...]

Internet culture whiz Clay Shirky gave some interesting insights into the biggest mistake of corporate branding. Shirky argues that advertising seek to perfect brands, and in doing so, fail to reach and speak to average day people. When a brand markets a perfect image, people are less inclined to interact with the product, because it doesn’t reflect their imperfect lifestyle. Brands that use a flawed, or ‘human’ marketing campaign reinforce and locate themselves within people’s lifestyles. The most promising direction now for brands, Shirky argues, is to use a raw and unfinished front, making their image far [...]

  
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The way we influence and interact through the internet is constantly changing. We’ve all witnessed how user generated content has brought new creative potential to consumers and opened up the doors of online collaboration. But while UGC’s impact on marketing and the way youth consume and create web content is significant, some believe it still has a long way to go. Screenplay’s Strategic Director Helge Tennø offers a compelling argument on the limitations of the current means for online collaboration, deeming them too rigid and presenting “artificial barriers” [...]

Creative Cities Summit 2.0 concluded this week in Detroit, Michigan, a three-day conference bringing together creative practitioners from across industries (from city planners to educators) in a discussion about the integration of innovation, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, arts & culture and business and their roles in our urban ecologies. Brand Avenue points us to one of the conference’s most enlightening panels – a talk between Who’s Your City?’s Richard Florida, COMEDIA’S Charles Landry, and The Creative Economy author John Howkins (moderated by Carol Coletta of Smart City Radio). As Brand Avenue retells, Landry brings up the important distinction between how big [...]

The dairy lobby has always been a powerful force in America, but recently they saw their classic ad campaigns overtaken by cartoon characters that children more readily relate to.  These new school cultural icons easily sway children in purchasing choices.  The proliferation of SpongeBob snacks or Spiderman cereals drove Big Milk to form a modern marketing group known as “Milk Media.”  In the venture’s first deal, school milk consumption increased 34% after the implementation of Disney’s Doug into the milk campaign.  While milk has enemies, they certainly have fans in the federal government who wish to promote the milk alternative [...]

Since September 9th, Southwest switched all in-flight payments to credit instead of cash.  According to a spokeswoman, the goal for the company was to increase drink sales by an average of one beverage per flight.  If this goal is achieved it would translate into a $4 million increase.  In addition to getting rid of cash, Southwest added the sale of non-alcoholic drinks and energy drinks.  It will be interesting to see if the impressive 8% jump in sales translates into other carriers adopting this policy.  It’s nice to know that this airline’s profit-maximizing strategy has given us (credit card holding [...]

The PR industry as we once knew it is dead.  We’ve written about this topic before, but recently we came across some advice on creating the best PR through the social aggregator, FriendFeed.  SocialTNT explains the most efficient way to market yourself or your company in a well organized article.
The important lessons detailed involve staying current on the feed to maximize media research opportunities and taking advantage of the contacts you have.  In a new world that values usefulness over experience, staying current is critical.  Becoming involved is one of the central aims of FriendFeed and you can easily attain [...]

If a Latino advertising agency or consultant begins to address the Hispanic insight of a pepperoni pizza (a bar of soap, toothpaste, shampoo, a hamburger, a Phillips screwdriver, a pencil sharpener… you get the picture), RUN away from them as fast as you can.
There are certainly some products or services for which you will need to fully understand how these interact, relate, fit, with the reality or frame of mind of the Latino consumer and your success in reaching out to them will heavily depend on it. Exhaustive, primary and secondary research will prove invaluable to reach your goals.
Now, let’s [...]

A new site called This Aint No Disco is compiling photographs of advertising agencies from around the world and posting them, sharing the various creative environments people work in.
It’s a well known fact that some agencies spend huge chunks of their hard earned money turning lifeless commercial spaces into bastions of creativity. These interiors provide insight as to the breadth and depth of their thinking and creative execution. They create spaces to envy. Places to shout about – loud.
Whilst our main focus is to showcase these interiors we also hope that this site will act as a good resource for [...]