AdHack Roundup #14: You can't push string.
Welcome to the AdHack Roundup #14, the latest AdHack Alphanaut news. Now with fewer chagrins, more pleasing.
You've met the AdHack alpha?
Hit it quick. It won't be around much longer:
http://adhack2.com
Let's set the table of contents:
- New Blog.AdHack.com launches
- Deadline for Assignment #7: Everybody's Olympics
- AdHack Beta launch plans
- Seeking Pioneer Partners for AdHack
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The AdHack Roundup gets posted to
AdHack blog too.
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Taste the flow.
New Blog.AdHack.com LaunchesAs the first outward step in shifting to our beta platform, we've moved the AdHack blog to http://blog.adhack.com
And we invite you to come around and see the new addition.
She's got photos pulled in from Flickr, tagged with that fine word, 'adhack.' (Add yours with the 'adhack' tag and they'll appear.) She's got the commenting and the searching and the appropriate links and some new posts. She's got panache to spare and her mother's eyes.
The fine design is based on
Derek Powazek's DePo Clean theme with some tweaking just to make it look like a familiar home.
The one small item of housekeeping needed to make the new blog a part of your life is to make sure your RSS subscriptions are up to date. The feed, as you know.
Here's the
AdHack Blog feed to make sure you're in touch
Here's that
shiny new blog.
Deadline for Assignment #7: Everybody's OlympicsAdHack Assignment # 7: Olympic logos for the people, by the people, is winding up. Do you have your entry in? We guarantee you'll win if you enter.
You have until Wednesday, June 25 at 5 pm PST. So enter.
Why?
Everybody who enters wins something they like, one way or another. Here's how.
The winning design will get added to the AdHack Shwag Emporium. We'll print it on an appropriate physical vessel for its awesomeness: t-shirt, mug, bumper sticker, temporary tattoo. We'll get the winner a copy of their design on the awesomeness.
And all the other entrants also win either a copy of the winning design on the awesomeness, or their own design on its own awesomeness.
Like the kids say: 'Sweet!'
We deliver the prizes through the AdHack Shwag Emporium. And make everyone a winner in these games.
Enter by creating and submiting your ad to AdHack alpha, tagged with "Assignment #7."
Deadline is extended one day to Wednesday, June 25, 5 pm PST.
The full
Assignment #7 ad brief awaits your click.
The
AdHack Shwag Emporium also awaits.
AdHack Beta Launch PlansFor real? For real!
The AdHack Beta is closing in on its launch. New design, new features and new platform all come with the Beta. Plus an evolutionary plan. To say we're excited is like saying something understated.
A big part of the migration from the Alpha to the Beta is the movement of content and people.
Our goal is to have your account information all migrated. So when we flip the switch from Alpha to Beta, you just sign in with your existing account information and see your new home.
Our goal for your ads is the same. You login to the new Beta site and they're waiting for you. It's like moving without the awkward time cooking in the microwave on the bathroom counter.
Or, that's our goal. And we think it's a pretty achievable goal.
But we also know that things can go sideways. An account can get missed or misrepresented. An ad can get misplaced in transition. Shit can hit the proverbial fan.
So we're going to do a tiered transition to make the switch as easy as we can. You'll get an invitation to get Beta in the first two weeks of July. Keep your eyes peeled.
Seeking Pioneer Partners for AdHackWhoa, boy. We're all growed up.
With a foray into the world of Beta we're going to be bringing in ad buyers. A few of those intrepid folks have already signed up with us. And we're very happy to have them onboard.
Now we're searching for a few more. Over the summer we think we can probably deal with two to four more Pioneer Partners on AdHack. These partners will be commissioning fresh ads from the AdHack community. We'll work closely with them to make them successful.
We think AdHack is particularly compelling for companies who understand how their brands are built and influenced by their community of customers. Companies who have built their business with their customers. Now they can build their ads with their customers.
If that sounds like your company, or a company you know, or a company you have a connection to, please tell us.
We're keen to make the AdHack Pioneers program work with our customers, the same ways we advocate. Or, if you're just interested in finding out what we have planned for Pioneers, get in touch.
I mean, shit, it's not worth much if we don't follow our own ideas.
So who's a good match for AdHack?
Tell us. Email
james@adhack.com for a straight shot to communicate. Or leave a comment on this post on that shiny new blog.
Over and out, good buddies.
Do you know the word 'duende?' I've just discovered it and am liking it.
Here is
duende on Wikipedia.
Feedback? Slide it in. Mailto: james@adhack.com.
We're in the business of building a rocking, fun community. What you say and feel matters. Tell us and we will rock out with our socks off!
Until next,
~JS
Just a reminder that the deadline for AdHack Assignment #7 is tomorrow, June 23rd @ 5:00pm PST.
Remember everyone who enters will score some free shwag! So get creative and get some free stuff!
Assignment #7 Prizes
The winner will be voted on by their peers. The winning design will get added to the AdHack Shwag Emporium and printed on an appropriate physical vessel for its awesomeness: t-shirt, mug, bumper sticker, temporary tattoo.
All entrants in the contest will get either a copy of the winning design or their own design. Again, delivered through the AdHack Shwag Emporium. Because everyone's a winner in these games.
"Click Here For Full Assignment Details"
We've rolled out a new AdHack blog on a new platform with new posts. It's action packed. It's got a tiled row of photos from Flickr tagged with AdHack.
But all in not simple in love or war or blogging. Sometimes you have to give a little to get some some.
So you may have to update your feed to keep getting the AdHack blog. If you're already subscribed to the AdHack Feedburner Feed, then steady as she goes, you're in the clear. That feed will just keep on giving.
But if you've subscribed to the feed here on the alpha site, the AdHack blog will go dark at the end of the month. So update your doomed feed!
Until then I'll keep posting to both blogs, which means both feeds will get updated, each with a handy reminder to update your feed. After then, you're on your own to keep things ship shape.
Questions? Please, let me know. This isn't as elegant as I wish it were, so we're doing our best with the tools we have.
What is a rip off and what is a new work influenced by another work?
This question arises in relation to the video below, produced by a band called Creaky Boards, who wrote a song called The Songs I Didn't Write that sounds a lot like that fancy Coldplay song on the iPod ad. I don't know how deeply the irony is intended.
I think the question or derivation is a difficult one. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. We all imitate to learn. And hopefully we keep learning. So we keep imitating.
But where does imitation end and copying begin?
I think it's an important question for AdHack and the community. And one that I'm pretty sure we'll have to deal with sooner and later.
Thanks to Think Small for the link.
AdHack Roundup #13: Laundry fresh from the dryer.
Welcome to the AdHack Roundup #13, the latest AdHack Alphanaut news. Now with motto on t-shirts in images on Internet.
You've met the AdHack alpha?
Let your finger make an introduction introduction to AdHack Alpha.
Like what you see? Team up! Invite others to AdHack with you.
Here's the welcome committee page.
And here be the table of contents:
- The AdHack Apparel Emporium
- Small Victories: New Ventures BC & Fundfindr
- An AdHack Ringtone?
- AdHack Assignment #7: Everybody's Olympics
Unsubscribe? Go straight to le fooooooter.
The AdHack Roundup gets posted to
AdHack blog too.
Like your RSS? Taste the flow of
AdHack's feed.
The AdHack Apparel EmporiumIt's not just opposable thumbs that separates us from the animals. It's also clothes.
So separate yourself from the animals out there with the distinguished threads of an AdHack t-shirt. Make your cube mates jealous with an AdHack mouse pad. Sip mighty inspiration from an Adhack mug. Yes, we have merch, shwag, apparel and gall to spare.
Now we've made that moxie wearable. Thanks to the fine webbish technologies of Zazzle. You can even choose the colors you want and order up a heaping helping.
The
AdHack Apparel Emporium awaits.
And here's
an explaination if you're in need of one.
Small Victories: New Ventures BC & FundfindrWe don't like to blow our own horn too much. It gets to be a bit much. And we don't want to go blind for it. And we don't want to do it with the other hand to make it feel like someone else is doing it.
But we do likes our small victories. And we have 2 to share.
First up, AdHack has been selected as one of 30 companies (from 149) moving on to the third round of New Ventures BC. This and $5 will buy us a cup of coffee. Thankfully, our alphabetical advantage lands us at the top of the list. Take that AAA Alarms!
We're proud to be among some excellent company and we're happy to be along for the ride. Congratulations to all the other companies. Thank you to New Ventures BC for including us.
Second up, AdHack has received an honorable mention in a warm-up version of The Pitchies on Fundfindr. We didn't win. I don't know what they were thinking. Volo Innovations won. Way to go Volo!
But again, we're happy to be in distinguished company and to do our best to win. Even if we didn't. Yet. And we're thankful to Fundfindr for placing us in fine company.
Now with all this back slapping, you might think we were getting cocky. But the truth is that we've had some wins and some non-wins (are they losses?) in business plan / pitching competitions. And just when we think we know how it works and where the competitors shake out, we get thrown a curveball.
Which is a fancy way of saying we never know how we're going to do. We just throw our hat in the ring, maintain reasonable expectations and celebrate on occasions when we get lucky.
Because, heck, if we don't, who will?
New Ventures BC.
The Fundfindr warm up Pichies.
The
AdHack video pitch.
An AdHack RingtoneOkay, so not an original ringtone, but an interesting tone to use instead of that ringing, ringing, ringing in my head.
Here's the origin.
Remember the sound you used to hear at the start of a cassette tape (if you're old enough to remember cassette tapes)? Sort of a audio beepy range that preceded the start of the first song?
I learned (thanks, Darren Barefoot) that it's called the XDR tone, 11 tones that sweep through the audio range. And I like it for both its sound and its nostalgia factor.
So a fine alphanaut named David Drucker made it into a digital file. We uploaded it and now you can listen to and download it.
Hit this link for a flood of memories.
AdHack Assignment #7: Everybody's OlympicsYes, we're back on the assignment action plan. And this one will be a doozy — AdHack Assignment # 7: Olympic logos for the people, by the people.
The Olympics have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. Right? That's what the official Olympic Games website says. But it's clear some people think otherwise.
We want you to design a realistic Olympic logo. It can be promotional. It can be satirical. It can have a motto or not. It can be pretty much whatever you like.
The winner will be voted on by their peers. The winning design will get added to the AdHack Shwag Emporium and printed on an appropriate physical vessel for its awesomeness: t-shirt, mug, bumper sticker, temporary tattoo.
All entrants in the contest will get either a copy of the winning design or their own design. Again, delivered through the AdHack Shwag Emporium. Because everyone's a winner in these games.
Enter by creating and submiting your ad to AdHack, tagged with "Assignment #7."
Deadline is Tuesday, June 24, 5 pm PST.
The
full ad brief awaits your click.
C'est tout!
But of course. That frisson you just felt? The AdHack Roundup: eyelashes brushing your cheek.
Feedback? Feed me, Seymour! Mailto: james@adhack.com.
We're in the business of building a rocking, fun community. What you say and feel matters. Tell us and we will rock out with our socks off!
Until next,
~JS
We are working on developing a image watermark that will be automatically added to all uploaded image ads.
Below we have created some samples of how this watermark could appear and we would love some community feedback on design / placement. Are we on the right track or off our rockers?
We chose to use ddrucker's Vancouver Fringe Festival ad as a sample because it is a very busy image, making watermarking more difficult.
A few options are below with a quick poll at the bottom for responses.
Ghosted Watermark - Bottom Right No Drop Shadow
Ghosted Watermark - Bottom Right With Drop Shadow
Polaroid Style - Black and White
Polaroid Style - Colour
Congratulations to Nikki Layton of Volo Innovations for winning the Pitchies WarmUp competition from Fundfindr. Nikki takes home a weekend in Whistler for her winnings. Gold star!
We received an honorable mention for our AdHack video pitch, which beats $10 of Monopoly money for second place in a beauty pageant.
Somehow, our pitch is also the top-viewed video on Fundfindr. I don't why, I just know it is. Grand! Now watch it again (below) and cement our position.
The big show, The Pitchies, gets underway soon. If you want to be considered, upload a 60-second pitch to Fundfindr, fill out some details about your company and get your friends watching.
Here comes AdHack Assignment # 7: Olympic logos for the people, by the people.
Marketing and graphic design experts everywhere race for the opportunity to design the Olympic logo when the event comes to their hometown. Along with this race usually comes heated debate among the local community over the chosen logos relevance and design.
Here in BC we've seen this first hand in preparation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics along with heated political debates over the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
And who could forget London's Lisa Simpson logo?
The Olympics have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. Right? That's what the official Olympic Games website says. But it's clear some people think otherwise.
We want you to design a realistic Olympic logo. It can be promotional. It can be satirical. It can have a motto or not. It can be pretty much whatever you like. (Click here for legal guidelines around Olympic logos.)
Below we have details on the Assignments winners prize and included our very own AdHack AdBrief Version 2.0 to outline the particulars of the assignment.
Prizes
The winner will be voted on by their peers. The winning design will get added to the AdHack Shwag Emporium and printed on an appropriate physical vessel for its awesomeness: t-shirt, mug, bumper sticker, temporary tattoo.
All entrants in the contest will get either a copy of the winning design or their own design. Again, delivered through the AdHack Shwag Emporium. Because everyone's a winner in these games.
How to Enter
Create and submit your ad to AdHack and tag it with "Assignment #7."
That's it!
Deadline
Have your submission in by Tuesday, June 24, 5 pm PST.
Assignment #7 Ad Brief
1) GOALS
What are the desired outcome(s) from the ad. Create a list of them. Arrange the list in order of priority. Remember that the more goals, the more diluted each one. Great ads tend to be focused on one clear goal. Say it and do it.
- Return the Olympics to a celebration for the people
- Build awareness for the games or your controversy
2) AUDIENCE
Who does the ad to matter to? Focus only on the key attributes of the people you want to reach. (Only the attributes relevant to making the ad relevant to them.) This might be a mindset, a profession, an anxiety, a habit, a location, a trait.
- Citizens of the host venue's of the games
- Fans of the olympics / detractors of the Olympics
- Athletes participating in the Olympics
3) CONTEXT
How will the audience encounter the ad? How might that change from the first encounter to later encounters? What about other ads for the same product? Consider competitors' ads, the physical space, the timing of the ad and anything that influences perception and action.
- The ad will appear on a T-Shirt or other shwag, so it will have to have some lasting power
- Its message will have to be a message people are willing to personalize and wear
4) PROMISES
An ad has two promises: ad promise (form) and product promise (content):
a. Ad promise: what does your ad promise to deliver its audience? The audience should know how the ad will end (though not the ending) from the first impression.
b. Product promise: what does the product promise to its users? This should be the lasting impression of the audience. Could be blunt and explicit (no more leaks!) or soft and suggestive (you'll only become a real man with our product).
- a. Quick, fun, relevant message that riffs on the known Olympics brand for the hosts of the Olympics (Olympics promise: dramatic, live, unpredictable and spectacular events worth watching for the struggles, wins and losses)
- b. Great t-shirt / shwag you'll be proud to have and show off to friends, that maybe will start conversations with strangers, that will get knowing looks
5) PROOF
How does your ad deliver on your product promise. This could be a simple and person "here's what happened to me" or can be external and explicit out of 5 dentists. It can also be negative proof of the consequences of not using a product (deodorant, vitamins).
- The proof is someone created it and wants it made to show off!
6) CHARACTER
What tone does the ad strike? Is it an insider or outsider? Is it loud or quiet? Aggressive? Comfortable? Peaceful? Energetic? What feeling do you want to create in the audience encountering the ad? Make the character of the ad match the rest of the brief.
- Irreverent, fun, playful and willing to confront ideas / issues that the Olympics might not necessarily want to confront
7) REQUIREMETS
What requirements must be adhered to? This can include technical (must be a certain duration / resolution / dimension / etc.), legal (cannot show people drinking the beer) and practical requirements (Hamburgler never speaks, he just says, "Rubble, rubble.").
- Must be a static image without too many colours or reliance on high-quality, high-resolution image quality and printing
- mage must be a minimum resolution of 150 DPI for production files, although web output files for contest may be web resolution- 72 DPI
- Must be an image that people can get quickly and without too much attention to the details
- Dimensions should fit on the output form T-shirt, bumper sticker, etc.
- image should degrade well, so that if some aspects are obscured by mud (bumper sticker), or worn away over time the effect isn't lost
- The IOC (International Olympics Committee) are very vigilant in protecting their trademarks, so be aware of what you can use and cannot use. Click here for legal guidelines around Olympic logos
8) EXTENSIONS
How does your ad extend to additional executions? How else could this ad appear? What other opportunities are available (events, packaging, other media, follow-on ads). How does the ad evolve? Sometimes these alternate scenarios become winning scenarios. If you can't win with reason, win with volume.
- Other shwag opportunities?
We'd like your feedback on this new AdBrief to. Is it too hard? Too complicated? Unclear? Does it make it easier to think strategically, execute and make good ads? Or does it just get in the way? Let us know!
Two pretty interesting articles on Venture Beat about digital media and advertising changes.
The first, Beyond direct response ads: Three trends in the future of online advertising, provides a really nice taste of the volatility and rate of change in digital advertising. Then it goes into the natural evolution of online advertising, from direct response to brand advertising.
But what about brand advertising? Social networks and blogs have begun unlocking the interactive potential of the Internet, but taking full advantage of this interactivity and online communication remains a huge untapped opportunity for advertisers.
Although social networks have traditionally struggled to effectively monetize their inventory, the emergence of scalable, engaging brand advertising driven by consumer data could go a long way towards helping such large web companies make the most of their online audience. The advertising world is starting to realize this.
Three companies are mentioned leading the emergence of a new kind of brand advertising, but I think they're totally missing the changes if they think these companies are leading any change.
- Spotrunner offers cheap stock footage and a slick way to splice together and customize video to make ads.
- NextMedium is product placement...on the web!
- 33Across is PR for online influencers because journalists have lost power.
All three offer incremental change for a marketing landscape facing disruptive, reinventive changes. They're boring and safe. They may see some short-term revenues from marketers desperate to feel like they're doing something worthwhile, but they're quickly becoming irrelevant. No one's online wondering when the marketers are going to show up.
TV ads, product placement or PR on the web are just the same bullshit shoveled with a garden trowel instead of a backhoe. Behaviour data may be the aspect of the web that marketers get hard for, but people don't care. They want to hear real stories from real people. They want authenticity and an end to the bullshit, no matter the serving size.
It's that kind of regime change that I believe AdHack proposes. It's also the kind of change that returns us to what we're all already hard-wired for — people communicating with each other, no matter whether it's on-brand or not. We're built to communicate with each other. That's the new brand marketing.
The second Venture Beat article,
Digital Media is Growing Fast, Very Fast, covers a report and some stats from the world of newspapers. Quick hits:
- Digital platforms of newspapers are growing at a double-digit rate worldwide
- Digital and mobile advertising revenues are expected to increase 12-fold from 2002 to 2011
- Digital and mobile advertising revenues in 2011 are expected to be around $150 billion worldwide
- Wireless device subscriptions will increase threefold to 3.4 billion in 2011 (again, from 2002 numbers)
- The number of homes with broadband will likely rise 10-fold in that span as well
- Some countries will use the Internet as the primary source of news and information in as few as five years
- As a result of the above point, newspapers will continue to lose readership
Nothing really new in the numbers if you're paying attention, just more numbers to bolster the macro trends toward digital media and advertising.
And, more topically, still no discussion of who will make all those ads when revenues increase 12-fold from 2002 to 2011. And, even more topically, how media will convince their audience to pay any attention to those ads when they're just more of the same old nuisance costs on attention.
Thanks to Russell Davies for the title of this post, Dying like coal, not like dinosaurs, and the thinking behind it. Recommended reading for anyone trying to understand the changes going on in the ad industry.Part 1
To help promote the push to beta, AdHack has launched its first wave of AdHack apparel and shwag. First impressions? What do you think? See anything you like (or don't like)?
You can use the flash player below, or check out AdHack apparel and shwag here.
Along with our standard logo I also designed some more urban inspired graphics. We'd love your feedback on each of the designs, let us know what you think about them.
Part 2
Now, we didn't start this up just to promote ourselves. Oh no no. We have much bigger plans for this.
Currently our items are produced using Zazzle, an online service for making all sorts of shwag. It makes making the stuff dead simple.
So what other stuff might we want to produce?
How about shwag with your ads? Sounds crazy. But here's what we're thinking.
We would like folks to be able to upload their ads to AdHack. Yup. And then they'd be able create their own shwag — shirts, mouse pads, posters, etc. — directly from the AdHack website. If you want it to happen we can make it happen.
So does that sound interesting? Think DIY Advertising meets DIY Apparel with your designs.