the fans make it happen

no budget, no access to actors and cameras, no problem. this is what happens when you come up with a great idea and get fans to help you realize it. sure, it probably required A LOT of hard work and thinking, but what doesn't if you want something that people will connect with and want to be a part of? more about the creation and collaboration of this video here. A bit of this project reminds me of those audience participation stunts you see during the Superbowl halftime shows, using those flip cards to tell a story. Is it really so much different from the idea that people like Henry Jenkins and Faris suggests: "Bring people together and give them something to do"? a couple more examples of this I talked about here. I love this kind of work. It's honest and just good fun, and best of all, it harnesses the power of the fans via the internet. does your brand have this type of fan devotion? does that mean we should always be challenged with $0 budgets? not necessarily, but it has been a challenge that we've all had to overcome sometime or other in our careers, especially in these financially hard times. Here's to inspiring work and the fans that make it happen.

via BBH Labs

Changing The Currency

View more presentations from Helge Tennø.

transmedia & advertising

Transmedia & Advertising

View more Microsoft Word documents from Ivan Askwith.

the matrix, lost, BMW's "the hire" and more. all these have stories have been told and shared thru a variety of media. each one inherently special among the community of people already having conversations there. a solid preso from @ivanovitch at Big Spaceship on the idea of sharing our brand narrative across multiple platforms.

the herd likes to surf

my shower-time thinking this morning was reflecting on a tweet and post by Faris, stating that the herd likes to rave and also seeing Seth Godin's post on a movement, both of them related to this video showing some dude in his underwear dancing like a crazy man. Faris says that "people like to copy each other." and he continues with "That one person [or thing] can change behavior, if persistent, because it doesn't happen right away, and if the actions, and the copying, are visible to enough people." Watch the video. What is it that the 1st guy experienced or saw that others around him did not? and then as a few more jumped in to participate, did they also see/experience what the 1st guy had going on? perhaps? Seth also adds the observation that it's when the 3rd guy jumps-in to participate, that's what's important, and so starts the trend.

anyone who's been on an early dawn patrol surf session, the 1st guy there is the one who gets the chance to see and observe what the ocean is doing. with enough experience he can probably figure out where to paddle out to catch the most or best waves. as more people start to show up at the beach, you'll see how they'll observe as well. most will wait to see what kind of ride that solo guy out there is having (read: does he look like he's having fun). and as a few more people paddle out to where that one solo dawn patroller is, he's made the decision a lot easier for the rest of us to jump right in. just like after the 3rd guy jumped-in to dance along, more people followed. however, more people in that one dense spot, you're gonna have to fight over those waves. i've never understood why my buddy likes to surf where the crowds are. sure, he may pick off a few waves, but it's a paddle battle most of the time. especially here in dense SoCal surf breaks. myself, i hate surfing around crowds. i'd rather go to where there's smaller, crappier waves, but fewer people around. my idea of fun surf doesn't have to be huge, epic waves. as long as i'm still able to enjoy a few waves, i'm all good. sorry i digress to surfing (have it on my mind since we're going on a surf trip this weekend.)

as ad people, i think it's our job to always seek out and look for those individuals who has the vision and can inspire an idea or a movement. we can either look for that dude that is able to spot out early where the best waves are gonna be and eventually others will be there w/him, or we go to where fewer people are (like myself) and hang with them. ya know, kinda like fish where the fish are and all that. all of this takes a lot of observation, sharing, bookmarking and observing some more. we should bring our client's along in seeing the potential in these "visionary" individuals who can see what others have not. if brought-in early, enough we can be part of a really big thing. even if it's paddle-battle among a bunch of other surfers ;)

no cheesy pitchman harmed in the filming of this infomercial

update Fri. June 5th: in the 4 days since the release of this video... 1.5MM views, 7100+ ratings, 2400+ comments. Make cool shit that people will want to see and share. How hard is that? ;)

Brand Engagement thru Participation Slideshare

View more PDF documents from Nguyen Duong.

engagement through participation

“The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do.” - Henry Jenkins, Dir. of MIT Comparative Media Studies

i came across the above quote over at faris' blog. there's a great discussion going on over there. after reading thru his post and the comments, the little bulb in my head flickered on and i wanted to share these thoughts on two pieces of communications that i believe are powerful ways to get people to interact with your brand.

the first is an interactive sign that does exactly that... it gets people, [in this case, tourists in a high-traffic area] to interact. a simple practice i'm sure most of us who have traveled on vacation, can always relate with, the "kodak moment" when we photograph ourselves at a particular landmark. McDonald's took that cultural observation and created an opportunity to allow vacationers at Piccadilly Circus to be a part of the brand... experience.



the second video already covered by other fine folks here and here, is more recent and is getting a lot of blog coverage. this one is pure and simple joy to me. i've seen it a bunch of times now, and it still makes me feel good inside. [yes, i'm a sappy dork]. unlike most other branded buzz events where companies have hired actors to recreate a flash-mob stunt, this one for T-Mobile's "life's for sharing" campaign, gathered people into Trafalgar Square to take part in a sing-a-long of the Beatle's song, "hey jude." how simply beautiful is that? and it hits dead-on w/the tagline and strategy of T-Mobile about sharing life experiences w/the other people. bravo! i'd love to see more of this from companies. how about you?



thanks for your time.

Twitter101 for InterTrend "Lunch 'n Learn"

wanted to share my twitter intro preso that my agency, InterTrend asked me to take the staffers through. this is a quick overview of twitter, that led into a hands on demo. this was written for an audience of all 1st and generation 1.5 Asians/Asian-Americans.

Twitter101 for InterTrend "Lunch 'n Learn"

View more presentations from Nguyen Duong.

making the most out of our surroundings

First off, I want to apologize for the shaky-cam. i don't have a tripod for this FLIP MinoHD yet.

I finally got around to attending a pecha kucha night recently with @buddingculture If you're not familiar with pecha kucha have a quick look here basically, it's a preso-style where you are limited to 20images x 20seconds to tell your story. i think it's a great way to train yourself to be present with purpose.


Gil and I both wanted to scope out the action, as we are looking to start a pecha kucha night here behind the Orange Curtain.

this particular preso connected with me the most. the presenter, Megan Willis, shares her thoughts on how to get functional use out of "residual spaces" in an urban area, specifically, downtown San Diego. she sees opportunities in these spaces to create more function, practicality and community in an urban setting.

more here from Megan Willis and here observations on residual spaces

i think companies and brands have something to learn from Megan's proposed thoughts here. have a look for yourself. do you see potential to make the most out of our neighborhood?

bs our way into a strategy

and perhaps a job or a dept that perhaps isn't needed?

this is probably a topic that has been debated before, so forgive me if this sounds like a broken record.

what is the role of planning in advertising? (i'm looking to you creative folks). Planners, we can bullshit our way into an answer (either for ourselves or the client). ;)

a few weeks ago, i overhead this convo between an art director and a planner: "you guys (planners) are only telling me what i already know, but just make it more complicated"

then a recent post from the Ad Contrarian: "I'm tired of strategists" had me thinking a bit about the value and purpose for planners. read the comments, good debate.

a fellow planner in sweden posted this analogy of the role of planning

a lot of agencies like to talk a mean game about "turning insights into action" and great creative. before planning came around, where did these insights come from? who did the work to uncover them? who provided the inspiration? was it just some BS to get clients to feel better about the work we were gonna sell them?

or is planning suppose to help create? collaborate w/our creative partners? are we to find truths and opportunities that the creative team may not have realized or observed on their own? or should we just get the hell out of the way? do i find myself struggling with my recent decision to move into planning from account service? no. i've found my home. this is what gets my ass out of bed everyday.

are we necessary to the process? I'd like to think that we are. We are partners to our creative friends. we all in it to help solve our client's business problems. and today, more than ever, our clients are looking to us for more than just that :30second piece of film or page 4/C ad. we all need to be in the business of creative problem solving. in addition, as planners we should challenge not only our account folks but also our clients into solving for the right problems. we need to work closely w/our clients to define the business strategy, ask the right questions, observe, uncover, ask more questions and eventually inspire and create a launching off point for our idea creation folks. this is the role and the value that i see planning provides. it's the real deal insights, ideas, inspiration, or strategy that will help us connect w/relevance and a point of difference. sure there's probably a few exceptions out there w/the types of planners and what they bring to the table, however, like anything else, it all depends on how much the client and agency embrace planning and how much value you deliver, no matter what the title on your business card says. am i full of it? off base? i open the floor to you.

peace.

photo via: The Planning Lab

be interesting

when i first started out in advertising, i used to think that it was the best job in the world. not in a sense that i was doing something that was making a big difference in people's lives, but more of the feeling that, "hey i'm surrounded by a lot of cool and talented people, doing some fun and interesting things with just words and pix." i used to surround myself with just ad people. all of my good bros (that i also surfed with) just happened to be in advertising. so yeah, i was pretty happy with my career choice and with the close knit group of friends around me. i had found my tribe. i also noticed that i was talking about ads all the time. there was no escape from it. my poor then girlfriend, now wife, had to endure so many get togethers, BBQs, cocktail parties, and company functions with the same type of people...ad people. but that was then, many years ago. today, i think i've matured and become comfortable in the skin that i'm in. not as an ad guy, but as a husband, a father, a son, a bro, a surfer, a cook, a photographer, a snowboarder, a fashion whore, a gadget geek, and probably a few more, but after all, i'm really just a person. the work that i do, does not define me. it is certainly a part of me, but it's just a part of my collective 38 years of experiences that has clumped onto me like different grains of sand, from different beaches, that stick to the wax on my surfboard. with each new beach that i surf and every fresh layer of wax that i rub onto the deck, i'm building more grip and traction to the board and therefore allowing me to surf with surefooted confidence. a lot of different experience = more confidence in who i am. i should be proud of the life and work experiences that i've had so far and carry that confidence into each interview. if i were an employer, i would bring in interesting people into their organizations. people with a variety of skills and interests that can bring that traction AND friction to foster a dynamic work experience. i wasn't planning to head down this path when i started to type this, but it just naturally went this way. so go with it.

what i really wanted to talk about was this tweet by @jasonoke this sunday right before the superbowl. the tweet read: "Why people care about SuperBowl ads: it's the one day a year the brief is "be INTERESTING", not "be on message." Let's do that more often." i couldn't agree more. BRAVO! so many times, we get trapped in the box of coming up with ideas that deliver a very clinical, 1-way message to people. the notion of "being interesting" can easily get lost in a poorly conceived strategy, or an ill-defined business problem to solve for. at the end of the day, it becomes just noise to the rest of us, especially the rest of us that ARE NOT in advertising. people who don't do what we do, don't read into ads as much as we do.

so by now, most of us ad folks have seen and talked about the Cadbury Eyebrows spot. what i loved about this ad, was that it was simply entertaining. it was interesting. and i also have to agree with the post over at Influx about the 9 reasons why cadbury's eyebrows are a hit, and especially if the idea "can spawn derivatives - people can try this themselves and post videos" which is clearly evident here , here , and here. these appear to have been created by fans of the idea, not ad folks who've taken an interest in this darling of spot. i also have my buddy clay who's not an ad guy also post the spot to his facebook profile. when i asked him about how he found this, he told me he saw it on his other friends facebook profile and he wanted to share it. now isn't that what it's all about? let's come up with ideas that are interesting, and not always be about force fitting some brand manager's positioning statement into a target audiences' head. so going back to jason's original tweet, i am inspired to challenge ourselves to come up with interesting ideas, that'll hopefully inspire others to share the work we create vs just being on message.

paddle-in contender

Axier Muniain Belharra from manet310 on Vimeo.

this should get recognition for the largest paddle-in wave of the year from the billabong xxl crew. location: belharra in the french basque country.

inspire to do good

if a one-man brand like David Armano can inspire a community to take action and do good, why don't we feel or take action the same way when big brands reach out to us? when was the last time you kicked in some loose change to the "charity jar" at your local fast food joint? or how about when a brand volunteers time at a youth club, do you bother reading the story, does it even change your perception of that brand?

what is it that made so many people, who have never met Daniela's Family and perhaps who probably have never even met David Armano want to reach out and help?

i've been thinking a lot about this idea that i've been working on called "community voice" coupled with the spirit of creating communications that "does GOOD" vs "doing good work." do you see the difference with me?

mr. armano is a brand. a very good brand that has produced solid content where he has built the trust and respect among his fans. i'm sure it doesn't come easy for him, he has to continually work at it, creating content that is relevant, good, and most importantly conversational between him (his brand) and his readers? how many other brands do you know can do the same with such consistency?

so when mr. armano reached out to his community to share something with us that he believed in and wanted his fans to HELP, he spoke to us in his "community voice". his voice was from the heart, it was honest and sincere. it's the voice that most brands would like to have but are constrained by the limits of a :30TVC or single-page ad. and it was with that "community voice" that the David Armano brand was able to rally the "online/social media/digital" community together to do GOOD and NOT just a good piece of creative work. however, please not that this can not merely be imitated or duplicated like a PR stunt. "this isn’t the future (of marketing). It’s just another step on the way there". let's learn and lead by this example and inspire our client's and our own personal brands to do GOOD!

thanks for your time.


Help Daniela's Family

new year, new skin

Focus on What Matters

Focus on What Matterspost layoff message

i want to connect

note: this is a rant that i'm hoping to steer into some helpful insight. Here's my beef: rushing jobs thru and treating the creative brief as a "check-the-box" thing to do vs. having thoughful discussion and understanding around what is it that we're trying to solve for, is NOT how it should done . if you treat the work as if we were machines cranking the shit out, i might as well be working in a factory stamping out cogs.

in my years as an account guy juggling multiple clients and jobs, it seemed like all i was doing was making sure deadlines were met, projects w/n budget, clients happy, herding cats. that was my job and i did it with focus and determination. However, it sometimes bothered me when i sensed that other people on the team, didn't put their heart into the work. we all have our drivers and motivations in our roles, however, ultimately we ALL have a part in the creative process and the finished product. and, for me, i believe it starts with the client briefing. and as the result of that client discussion, we should be able to produce a well-crafted creative brief. we should sweat it out from the beginning to get the brief right, where everyone is in alignment vs. "just write something up for me and we'll send it over to the creatives." it should be a collaborative and living process, and most importantly, the brief writing process should be fun and have passion behind it. it should'nt be a mechanical, fill-in box #4 with this target audience info, and box #7 with this brand tonality. the brief should be a well written story that will lead and inspire.

so if our jobs as planners is to tell that story, what is the physical manifestation of that story? is it a word document where we fill in the boxes? is it a visual brief, one with images and copy? or is it a video brief, moving images that move us? or perhaps, is it taking the creatives out of the agency surroundings, go offsite, have a beer and a chat about ? think about the people who really connect with you whenever they have something to share. are they reading off a document? probably not. they share with you what they know, what they believe in, what they have heart for.

the brief is more than just carefully crafted words on a document, that only a handful of people can understand. it should be written in plain, everyday english, and be shareable, relateable, no matter what function you have in an agency. it should connect.

and if the brief is able to connect, then it'll stick and it can be shared. tracking w/this? if the story sticks, you don't have to be a planner to tell it. the creative team should be able to re-tell that story to the client when they present the ideas. the client should be able to re-tell that story at their national sales mtgs when the shiny new tv spots are shown.

the brief should be a labor of love, not some process where we're just cranking shit out. if it isn't, you might as well be working at Spacely's Sprockets. one more thing. i'm a fan of friction. it worries me when i present a brief for the 1st time to the team and no one has any questions or challenges to it. bend it, flip it, tweak it, it's helps create a better brief that everyone has a part in developing.

peace out.


"hey Nguyen, what's your beef (noodle soup) about?"

etnies pours some PBR holiday cheer for adidas

this is such a punk idea. i love it. there hasn't been much cool shit that i've been stoked on lately, especially from the surf/skate/snow industry. most of the time, the ideas are pretty weak, with the exception of this. my neighbor works for etnies, will have to find out more from her on what response they've gotten so far from adidas. read more about it here.

leave the talent, take the idea

this idea is not new to some of us in the promotional world. there have been plenty of meet 'n greet, driver ride-a-long, experience of a lifetime claims before. like most of these promotions, they blow their wad on securing the talent that they don't have any dough left to produce a quality idea. or perhaps they settle on the notion that just having the big name alone will get us to take notice? it's a self-gratifying, ejaculatory ad filled with big logos and contrived studio shots, just for yourself, and no one else. and if you are going to use a big name athlete, do it in a way that stays true to that talent and what they're all about. find synergies between what you're trying to say with how that talent would interpret that message. if there isn't any...next time, leave out the talent, and take the better idea.

the future of the workplace

I really need to get a proper home office going. Although i'm very fortunate to work only 5 miles from garage to the office car park, it's nice to have the option of working from home once in awhile. i find myself able to collect my shower time thinking and roll right into work mode. i've recently come from a mandatory, almost militant "butts in seats" culture, that it is presumed that you can only be working if you're in the office at a prescribed time. and then you'll have those superstars, "oh look at me in the office 30 minutes early" or "i was the last one to leave." no one cares when or how long you were chained to your desk. We care about the thinking, the contribution, the work that you do. in our line of work, thinking, inspiration, creativity, can take place anytime, anywhere. my best thinking is in the shower at 6am. and even as we set our heads onto the fluffy white pillow, we're probably checking one last look at the handheld. that's a bad habit i have, and my wife is gonna chuck that iphone out the window soon. point is, we're always on. hopefully, not too much though. enjoy life. I'm off to throw back a few with the girls. peace.

via Daily Joey

get over it

i felt inspired tonight to post a thought after going for a couple rounds discussing the observation over at Deceptive Cadence regarding the lack of originality in the ad biz. we ad folks need to get over ourselves sometimes. it's just advertising. i never talk about advertising when i'm w/my friends and family. well. maybe just only 1 time out of the year, and that' when we're drinking heavily, enjoying chips 'n salsa, and watching some dudes bash each other's heads in over some pigskin.

we can certainly take pride in our creative work, discuss, analyze, critique, praise, hate, whatever. we're talking to ourselves. i've been hearing a lot of discussion around changing up what we do as an industry. rather than creating ads for the sake of increasing transactions, why not create "ads" that create relationships and conversations? and even better, why not create ads, or conversations that DO GOOD. there are a lot of brilliant thinkers and agencies out there, that are on this tip right now. when we do get to that place, maybe my wife would want to have a chat about ads over dinner and drinks w/me instead of talking about the scandalous wedding that we're going to next weekend. yes, i'm using the same image again from a few posts ago, but, hey, i like it and it's still relevant.