Double Meaning

The Nissan Juke iAd was put together in an interactive comic-book style format:

Nissan Juke iAd Demo from Garrett M. Smith on Vimeo.

juke

1. a move intended to deceive (an opponent).

2. feint, usually intended to deceive a defensive player.

EXAMPLE: I would have told you the boss's critique of our work, but I decided to juke you instead and take all the credit.

What's the Big Idea?

A new book out, "The Idea Writers", is based on the new challenges copywriters face in interactive advertising.

A key project management concept is being able to turn a problem into an opportunity. The author mentions a similar and relevant process for creatives:

Nancy Vonk, co-chief creative officer of Ogilvy Toronto, says her message to her agency's creatives is "to think of themselves as problem solvers, not ad makers. Ideally, begin every assignment looking directly at the business problem (or opportunity) and push up against that with media-neutral thinking. If a client has asked for a print ad or banner ad or whatever specific medium, ignore that and look for a big idea. A great idea that truly solves the problem will be able to channel into that print ad, etc. The client will see the specific medium they requested, but in the context of a holistic solution that can potentially inform many spaces.

This excerpt, posted on Ad Age, goes on to mention every consumer is a media producer, nowadays. So if consumers are more and more often content or media producers, where does that leave an interactive producer? Is he or she just a consumer, like everyone else? Every interactive producer is bound to manage the creative process, to a certain extent, but it's a matter of balance. Too much involvement (or too little) can leave the final outcome of a project lopsided.

Erroneous Floating Ad of the Day

Please note the Clarisonic ad on the right hand of the screenshot above. Upon landing on the Marie Claire website, the little wand there dances across your computer screen.

I am not going to tell you what I thought that little wand was at first. I will just let you consider the shocking and deceptive nature of this Floating Ad.

Banner Ads and Behavioral Targeting: Shell

I have to admit, I am not a fan of most banner ads, especially the ones that seem like their behavioral targeted (YES, I was just looking at camp socks on J.Crew, Yahoo Mail, Guilty!! They are unbelievably comfortable, btw).

Behavior targeting begs the question, if you were just looking at a site and clicked off of the site, why would you want to suck out more time out of your day and look at it again? It just seems like bad consumer psychology.

I did notice an interesting banner ad from Shell while checking my email. The ad instructs you to "pull down" (warily, I did so, almost hearing the data-tagging clicking away). Yet, I am a sucker for this, I admit, I like pulling and stretching things out like taffy in surfing web pages. In doing so, the ad further stakes its claim:























I liked the effective interactivity of this banner ad, as some of them can get downright obtrusive.
In clicking on the ad and redirected to the landing page of the site, you can learn more about what Shell is doing for the environment.

A little bit of a hard sell as an endeavor in comparison to the Nissan Leaf's 100% electric car, but I suppose gas companies can try their best at Environmental Awareness. Although, whatever Shell does, they're definitely a notch better off than say, BP. Unless they for some reason end up touting the merits of George Bush's memoir.

Online Media Campaign Spotlight: Team Coco!

I hadn't checked out Conan's new show on TBS, otherwise referred to as basic cable, yet.
Until: The Jeggings Video went viral.



After airing the night before, the video went viral on facebook (that's actually how I saw it). Of course, you can always check it out on YouTube. But I feel like YouTube videos are often unreliable, quality and content-wise. For example: Husky puppy, 15,000,000 views. That should be good and wildly adorable, right? Unfortunately, sometimes it's just better to fight the urge to click, rather than waste any precious time that could have been better wasted elsewhere. This is a Quality vs. Quantity type of issue that will probably haunt YouTube at some point, if not already.

I digress. So I went to the home site, and lo and behold, I could check out interview clips from Conan's previous guests on the show. Highly recommend his interview with Russell Brand, which is an apt way to better understand the British without resorting to imitating their accents.

Conan's online marketing presence is spearheaded under the moniker, "Team Coco". The show's home site landing page features Conan's tweets, facebook page, supplemental video to the previous evening's show, information on the upcoming show, AND a sweepstakes to win "20 air fresheners!" (*as well as a car). The visual layout of all of this content and information is easy to read and scan in an appealing way. Essentially, the show is conveyed true to O'Brien's comedic mantra online.

As far as the mobile sphere, if you have an iPhone, the Conan iAd is great to utilize. It's clear in directing the user to check out content on the actual site with ease, without misleading the user (a misstep for many advertisers). Another late-night host, John Stewart, also had an iAd featured through Audible for his newest book, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race. Longest book title ever.

Stewart's iAd was also advertised as a banner ad on The New York Times mobile app., like Team Coco's. However, Stewart's comes across more so as an advertisement from Audible, uninteresting to browse. In effect, I was in a hurry to close the ad off on my smartphone and get back to the app. content. There was an obvious middleman between John Stewart the TV host/personality and app. users, and in this case it was Audible. That won't necessarily detract users from clicking on the iAd, but it could in portraying an uniform brand identity online and maintaining interest.

Meanwhile, Team Coco! is doing the best it can. Frankly, after airing on TBS, not everyone was going to watch the show right away. TBS just does not have the cable street cred for that. What else do they air? Reruns of The Big Chill from '83? However, once a video goes viral, Coco lovers are much more likely to get up on that landing page. Maybe not watch the whole show, but at least in clips. I did catch the actual show the other night, and I kept meaning to turn it off, but couldn't. Conan is a genuinely funny and the epitome of a classic late-night host. He just needs a little more confidence. Was it embedded in my subconscious to want to watch the show on TV after viewing the Jeggings video online? It's possible. Does watching the show on TBS make it less appealing to TiVo? That's possible too. No offense, TBS.

But if Team Coco keeps hawking Conan, "The Brand", as close to his voice as possible online, they should be in it to win it. One would think.