31 March 2009

Everything and more about the next Twapero

ProximityBBDO at the beaches of Cannes, summer of 2008
ProximityBBDO at the beaches of Cannes, summer of 2008, originally uploaded by Proximity BBDO

A few weeks ago Suprasonic, a colleague of mine, started this little event called Twapero.

A Twapero is similar to a Twunch, Twinner or JongTuig, namely getting together with peeps invited via a Twitter network. Twapero is the combo of Twitter and apero. "Apero" is the French name for: drinks and a cocktail-party. Basically a meet and greet with peers and contacts that follow you on Twitter.

I told Supra that maybe it'd be nice if he tried to find a sponsor for every Twapero, and so we went knocking on our CEO's inbox. He doesn't have a door, let alone office. Anyway, he dug the Twapero - why wouldn't he, after all he owns a bar ;) - fixing the free drinks and location.

Pepsi Max It - BETA screenshot
Thursday we're officially launching the new Max It and so the sponsored Twapero found it's match. Since months we've been working on a wicked and wild new webgame for Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max's campaign which lets you control real world stuff from your browser. I can't talk too much now but we've been pulling strings, throwing bears, connecting fiber wires and testing RFID tags till we drop to make this new project work.

Next to free drinks by ProximityBBDO and goody bags by Pepsi Max. The Adnerds will talk and walk attendees through the creative process and reveal some of the technicals. How did it come about? What does Facebook Connect bring and why the heck are those things Twittering?

Frankly, you're all invited. The Adnerds told me they will be handing out cheatsheets during the Twapero, sounds like geek-excitement to me!

24 March 2009

Who the fuck is Pat Fallon?

I don't quite agree with The Washington Post targeting, or attacking, creative agency Fallon for launching their new aggregating application, logo and website.

Fallon Cadbury Gorrilla

According to The Wash Fallon is an unknown agency, and I quote: "Why is an ad agency creating a Twitter app? Had you ever heard of Fallon before this? Didn't think so. Moving on. Folks have pointed out they did the BMW films and a few other campaigns. Feel free to ask some people on the street who they are, though, and I believe you'll be quite surprised." — What 'man on the street' knows the name of one or more ad agencies ... The answer being: none. If I get it right Fallon.co.uk is the same agency as Fallon.com and is very renown within the ad industry. Think about the most awarded viral of last year: Cadbury's Gorilla and the latest Glass and a Half Full Production: Cadbury's Eyebrows. The Skoda Fabia baking ad might ring a bell... Or maybe you still remember that bouncing balls Sony Bravia spot or that Bravia paint ad. Btw it's not just a Twitter app.

Fallon Sony Bravia Foam

Fallon works for top clients globally and swear by a very innovative philosophy. Also, I don't think the agency was presumably named after the great comedian and talk-show host Johnny Carson aka Jimmy Fallon, Wash, consider this guy called Pat Fallon. He worked very hard for more than 15 years, to get his company on track. And he did. Pat founded Fallon in 1981 with the single-minded desire to stand for excellence—in the people hired, in the partnerships forged, in the work produced, and in the results achieved.

He spends his time today nurturing the company’s culture, managing and evolving the global vision across four continents, and working on clients' businesses from the frontlines. Pat's deep knowledge of branding issues, combined with a strong strategic approach to marketing problems of all kinds and his relentless need to achieve, make him particularly valuable to our clients’ CEOs.

In creating Fallon, Pat carefully considered every facet of achievement in order to build an organization where great people came, stayed, and did the best work of their careers and had fun in the process. That culture flourishes today. Pat makes sure that everyone at Fallon knows that marketplace accountability must always be the ultimate measure of success.

Pat has won virtually every recognition in the business during his career. But his most valued achievement is the trust he has earned from his clients. Pat still spends 80% of his time on client business. That is why to this day Fallon limits itself to a very small group of accounts, so that Pat and his senior executives can be intimately involved with each and every client.

I'm sorry Wash, you're full of shit. The TechCrunch referral on your website is a disgrace for the strength of all TC writers


Brave work that makes a difference
via the Fallon corporate website

Twenty seven years ago, five Minneapolis entrepreneurs met at a downtown diner and pooled their life savings to buy a single print advertisement that ran in two metro newspapers.

On that day Fallon opened its doors, without a single client, under the headline, “A new advertising agency for companies that would rather outsmart the competition than outspend them.”

Where others viewed our geography as a disadvantage, we found opportunity. Bob Dylan had already proven that if you’re determined to surprise the world, Minnesota is as good a place as any to raise your voice. Unlike the big ad shops on Madison Avenue and the left coast, we have the advantage of actually living in America where the people are; where brands not trends are built.

Fallon’s ambition to outsmart has been unwavering. Today outsmarting requires a more generous approach to marketing. Generous brands create something of value in the world: entertainment value, social value, and belief value. Generous brands are additive to peoples’ lives and to culture. They help build ideas in the world; they leave something behind. Modern branding is learning to give as much as you take.


Skimmer: a lifestreaming thing that let's you do it all in one place.
A social aggregator for designers.
via the Fallon corporate website

Skimmer by Fallon

Skimmer℠ is an Adobe AIR desktop application designed to streamline, beautify, and enhance the experience of participating in your most frequently used social networking activities. It improves upon your day-to-day interaction with multiple social networks, removing distractions and providing a rich experience that is particularly suited to multimedia content.

Skimmer by Fallon

Skimmer's primary view is an aggregated view of all your friends’ updates from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Blogger.
• For those with larger monitors, the feed can also be viewed in a medium view that shows thumbnails of multimedia posts such as an upload of a new Flickr set, YouTube video, or Twitpic.
• Any update in the aggregated feed view can be expanded in one click to reveal the content of the post. A Flickr set, for example, can be viewed in its entirety without ever leaving the feed view.
YouTube videos can also be expanded and played right in the feed view.
Skimmer has a Flickr-specific view, which allows you to browse your entire photostream as well as the photostreams of all your Flickr contacts.
• You can also use Skimmer to browse any of your own or your Flickr contacts’ photo sets.
Skimmer also has a view devoted to browsing your own videos.
• In Skimmer's YouTube view you can also browse the most recent videos from all your friends.
• Any YouTube video can be played full-screen.
• Any group of photos or videos can be viewed full screen in a slideshow mode.
Skimmer allows you to create your own customized page that summarizes your most recent lifestreaming content from whichever services you choose. Other Skimmer users will see this customized view through the app, or Skimmer will give you an embed code to make a webpage so anyone on the web can see all your social activity in one spot.


About the founder
via the Fallon corporate website

Fallon Founders
Fallon Worldwide co-founders Pat Fallon, right, and Fred Senn will release a book this month about the lessons they’ve learned running Minneapolis’ best-known advertising agency.
via milwaukee.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2006/07/10/s...

In 2006, to mark the agency’s 25th anniversary, Pat and Co-Founder of Fallon Worldwide Fred Senn co-authored Juicing the Orange: How to Turn Creativity Into a Powerful Business Advantage (Harvard Business School Press). The book features the agency’s principles and it’s most famous cases and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at how creativity can be leveraged for startling business results. (bookreview by Businessweek)

With Pat’s personal passion for helping children, the agency has several pro bono clients, including Camp Heartland, Children’s Defense Fund, and Keep a Child Alive. While all this work occupies most of Pat’s waking hours, he has found time to serve on the boards for The Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Minnesota Zoo.


Related posts from others:
Download the Skimmer app at Fallon's homepage
The Creativity Online portal about the Fallon act
This guy helped create Skimmer: Nerdery
A little bit more technical on Skimmer: BlackCJ

21 March 2009

YouTube Favorites - pick of the month

Sometime when you're all excited about new discoveries and stuff you rage on and on and on using auto-fill to complete all the login forms you have to tackle before getting in. Well that's exactly what happened to my few weeks or so. I was favoriting and saving movies under a wrong account thus not sharing it with my network, friends, connects and spouses. So, I made all the effort to manually migrate all the favorites to my personal YouTube account and couldn't resist sharing them with you. By the way does anyone know about an app that exports YouTube favorites?

This is a list with my latest picks on YouTube. It lists some viral hitmovies, but also some legendary vids, funny stuff and some valuable instructional movies.
Follow the favorites-stream by Grapplica at Friendfeed

Think different


Advertising that makes my backspine shiver, simply legendary, via @heldenmerk


You are a Twitter snob


Are you a Twitter dork... Watch to find out


Let the pranking begin. Axe Anthem (Edited, then uncut)



Song is "Day and Night" by Kid Cudi - Axe commercial


Dutch news anchor Eva Jinek is getting ready for a live broadcast on 03/02/2009


Dutch news anchor Eva Jinek is getting ready for a live broadcast on 03/02/2009 and wants to make sure her 'boobies' look good before going on the air.


Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take


SWITCH TO "HD". Forrest Gump in one minute, in one long slightly sped up take.
Made for the Empire's "Films in 1 minute" thing by the University of York Filmmaking Society


Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog


just funny


Rapping Flight Attendant


Flight attendant David Holmes perform his on board pre-flight rap routine!
Southwest Airlines flight attendant David Holmes has become something of a minor Internet hit after passengers posted cellphone videos of his hip-hop inspired takes on the standard cabin announcements.
CNN also recently aired a segment on the 40-year-old former personal trainer who has worked for Southwest since 2005, becoming a flight attendant last August.


Twouble with Twitters


A young man struggles against the pressure to Twitter his life away.
For more head to Current Supernews or catch the Season Premiere, airing Friday March 20, 10 PM ET/PT.


What Facebook Is For


Did you watch it anyway, despite (or without) reading the warning? Maybe have a quick read of this: Anger management
And if you still want to vent, the Pointless Internet Argument Forums now exist!
pointlessinternetargumentforums


Parking Fail


For more, visit http://failblog.org


New 'Optical Illusions' - TV commercial


Transport for London 'Illusions' commercial.
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Credits: Peter Saville, Graham Fink, Mark Goodwin


Cantona's back - with Renault at least


Renault has launched a trailer of its web campaign featuring former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona with the New Renault Laguna. The full-length campaign, entitled 'Renault Laguna Eric Cantona: the encounter', will be shown from March 23 in France and the United Kingdom.


Extreme Sheep LED Art


We took to the hills of Wales armed to the teeth with sheep, LEDs and a camera, to create a huge amazing LED display. Of sorts. For more info search for samsung LED TV or visit samsung.com/LED


Maradonna - Best goal in history


El pibe de oro


Rik De Saedeleer


Rik De Saedeleer is a, no sorry, thé legendary soccer journalist.


Wall of death - crazy car


No comment. Just don't try this at home


Car Ad with Andy Richter & James Adomian


Can't keep up with the Joneses anymore?
From The Midnight Show @ UCB
Written by James Adomian
Starring Andy Richter & James Adomian
with Michael Busch
Directed & Edited by Peter Atencio
Produced by Michael Busch & James Adomian
Co-Produced by Megan Reeves & Joe Wagner
Special thanks to Zack Oldham


Eliss - trailer for a sound and motion game on iPhone


Eliss is an innovative multi-touch game. Your job is to keep up harmony in an odd universe made of blendable planets. Touch-control multiple planets at once, join them together into giant orbs or split them up into countless dwarf planets, and match their size with the squeesars. Wipe off the stardust, resist to the attraction of the vortex and other space phenomena, and slow down the passage of time. Each of the 20 levels will require creative ways and strategies in using your fingers. Warm up your hands, youre up for some serious finger gymnastics in the bizarro galaxy.


Adidas Originals - The Ting Tings in Manchester


The Ting Tings played an exclusive free gig for their fans in their hometown of Manchester on Friday the 27th of February. The venue was an all white space and every fan who attended the gig was given a full white adidas Originals tracksuit. The duo, armed with paint guns, invited fans to interact creatively with paints and pens, covering the entire venue with an explosion of color and creating a music and art spectacle - a living and breathing mural.


Official Subway Dance Party 2k9 - Improv In Toronto


Around 450 people participated this year, making it atleast 20 times bigger than last years. If youre unfamiliar with the Subway Dance Party, its a very easy concept. Once on the subway, a couple people will begin dancing while listening to music on their mp3 players. At first they get weird looks, and a lot of people laughing at them. Slowly though, more people begin joining in on the dance. Over the next couple stops the dance party gains in size, until the whole subway is in motion, and yet this is all done silently!


Dear truck drivers, please listen to radio Klara


Een reactie van Klara op het filmpje van de Roemeense vrachtwagenchauffeur die danst achter het stuur van zijn vrachtwagen op een Belgische autosnelweg: "Dear truck drivers, when you drive on our Belgian roads, please listen to radio Klara.


Google Privacy: Interest-based advertising


Shuman Ghosemajumder explains how Google shows interest-based ads and demonstrates how to edit your ads preferences or opt out of interest-based ads.


John4hannah.com


Man declares his love for his girlfriend by sticking himself to a billboard in Old Street, London.


Michael C. Place for Pritt My Style Correcteur


Design by Build


ReTweetMe Video


ReTweetMe Video


Alec in Huluwood (Advertising Age)


Alec in Huluwood Brand: Hulu Agency: Crispin, Porter & Bogusky


Miller High Life: One Second Ads


One-Second Ads Brand: Miller High Life Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, New York


Guilherme Marcondes for British Gas


Beautiful animation from Guilherme Marcondes for British Gas...
Some pics of the making of: Gui MM


What is a Friend?


A short film notebookbabies created to help teach my students about friendship.


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17 March 2009

The simple 10 of online collaboration

1. Forums. Yes, forums seem very old-school Web 1.0. But they are an effective tool and are being updated by vendors and included in integrated online collaboration services.

2. Wikis. This is currently a hot space, hugely competitive with many vendors, but also with a lot of adoption. Wikis nicely fit the gap between email (which is unstructured and bad for creating shared content) and traditional content management systems (which are too process-intensive).

3. Blogging. Blogs and comments are a good way to spread and find information.

4. Microblogging. The 140-character limit forces brevity, a huge blessing in the corporate context! There are many "Twitter for the enterprise" offerings. They feel more like features than distinct products, ripe for integration in larger offerings.

5. Document workflow. This seems really old school, even pre-Web 1.0, but most business processes require a document of some type. Some vendors are putting these features in the cloud as well as integrating them with other collaboration tools.

6. Email. We don't even think of this as collaboration. It's just what we do all day, every day, like breathing. But the evolution of email and its integration with other tools is an area seeing a lot of innovation.

7. Document creation. This is the office on the web, the online alternative to MS Office on your hard drive. Collaboration capabilities are the driver for this market.

8. Conferencing. Whether for text, voice, or video chatting or screen-sharing for demos, web conferencing is the alternative to expensive, eco-damaging, nerve-wearing travel.

9. CRM. As CRM moves more online, it becomes more about online collaboration. Some simple online collaboration tools can be alternatives to low-end CRM. We see opportunities in CRM 2.0 that really take advantage of online networking.

10. Contact networking. This is the space dominated by LinkedIn and Facebook. In our view, it is the key to CRM 2.0.

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11 March 2009

Twitter Mosaic

It has been a long time since I've posted about Twitter stuff but this quite turned a smile on my face. It made me think of 2K bloggers...

Get your twitter mosaic here.



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