What's on our M!nds.

but not all media is worth sharing.

What makes media social? Do you talk to it? Or does it talk to you?

This is the hardest question for any brand to answer: What do they have that is really, honestly worth talking about?

@eyecube has a really interesting post about the topic of shared vs. social. The crux of it:

Shared Media fits nicely between earned and paid. Yes, your paid media can be shareable, but you have to earn the share by having quality content and by sharing it with the right people in the right way.

This video is a really great short document of friend and superstar/hero Professor Henry Jenkins III. I highly recommend this as a primer to his book Convergence Culture. He is now working on a new book about “spreadable media” as opposed to viral media which he clearly makes the case is just the wrong metaphor. Something we have been kicking around here at M! and are happy to have Henry rocking it out. Viral is a contagion something you catch that you don’t want like a cold vs spreadable which is something one chooses to share. So spread it. Enjoy.

Watch the video.

…this Saturday, May 30th, you are invited to check out Split/Signal – a concert/film festival c0-sponsored by Modernista! and produced by several local creative types, including M!’s multi-tasking copywriter Andy Kadin….

Held at the Armory in Somerville (a new performance space from the rockers at The Middle East), Split/Signal merges original silent film with live soundtrack performance.  Live acts include (but are not limited to):

THE BOOKS
ROGER MILLER (of Mission of Burma)
CUL DE SAC
CASPIAN

There will also be free beer from Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, Cambridge Brewing Company and Mayflower Brewing Company (free wine, too) delivered by cigarette girls.

In the words of Larry David, “pretty, pretttttty good.”

More here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=99677412200&ref=ts

****Take note of D’Arcy O’Neill’s awesome/insane-o posters when visiting.

Hope to see you all on Saturday.

Design firms and ad agencies are both in the business of creating great ideas. Innovative, thought-provoking ideas. The kind which stand the litmus test of “why didn’t I think of that?!” But as ad agencies increasingly transform to focus on digital work and new consumer behaviors, the more we at Modernista! are shifting out of old habits of working.

In the past, presenting ad concepts for a TV campaign or a print ad on a comp or a board was a sufficient way to sell new work. These linear mediums fit well on pieces of paper. Digital work however is a decidedly different beast.

Some of the freshest interactive work I’ve seen lately couldn’t ever be sold with words alone, or on a static page. Take for instance this small site project called YooouuuTuuube. In essence it’s a Flash tool that pulls a YouTube video and transforms it into a looping set of frames. But the “wow” factor doesn’t translate unless you see experience it. And that element, the wow factor, is why prototyping is becomes so key for making innovative digital work at ad agencies.

Because it is the agencies and clients that allow creative teams to take time to build out small interactive ideas who will reap the benefits. Diego Rodriguez is a partner at IDEO, and has recently been blogging about the principals of innovation. Not surprisingly prototyping are two essential ones:

• Do everything right, and you’ll still fail
• Instead of managing, try cultivating
• Everyone needs time to innovate
• Baby steps often lead to big leaps
• Killing good ideas is a good idea
• Anything can be prototyped. You can prototype with anything.
• Prototype as if you are right. Listen as if you are wrong.

I’ll write more later on how agencies and creative teams can pull off prototyping, but the gist of it for now: small teams, fast working cycles, and lots… lots of ideas.

http://www.mtvmusic.com/artist/coldwarkids.jhtml

The best thing about the Flip Mino HD can also the worst thing; it’s so small you forget it’s even there. When modernista.com was announced as the Gold winner for self promotion, I was so wrapped up in the moment that I forgot to pull out that damn camera to shoot Matt Howell as he collected the award. Take my word for it, it was a great moment. Congrats to the team that brought this project to life, especially Tim Blount, who is now an interactive AD at CP+B (we overlapped there for a month or so, small world).

Modernista! was also a finalist for Jay-Z’s ‘Brooklyn, Go Hard’, an innovative open-source video that we created for the launch of (RED)Wire. Sadly, we didn’t take home a pencil for that one, but it will be featured in the One Show book later this year. That is quite an honor on its own.

Truly, though, it must be said that the best part of going to award shows is getting to see all the amazing work from around that world that you missed. My favorite of the night: Axion’s banner ad concerts. Really innovative use of space. Funny, engaging, and well-executed.

http://www.axionweb.be/nl/bannerconcerts/

At the end, we were treated to a great performance by We Are Scientists. Also pretty much the only picture I managed to snap. Damn, I have to get better at that stuff.

One thing I found very interesting; the awards largely went to projects that embodied simplicity and clarity of concept. This is a welcome development to me, as I felt like this years’ Webbys and SXSWi awards were a bit too focused on technical execution, and not enough on the idea or how it impacted the user. I would strongly recommend young interactive creatives out there take a good look at the winners and finalists across these three shows, and take note of the differences. To me, the One Show is the best example of great online advertising, and the winners stand as great examples of where the future of our industry lies.

For a full list of finalists (winners coming soon as well), go here: http://www.oneclub.org/os/announcement/

Attention Michael Vick and Cheerios.  A story…

My father was in software sales.  One of his clients was {unnamed baked goods brand}.  One of their key products was packaged donuts.  He was visiting one of their plants to view the production line with key managers.  Get a feel for the place.  There on a table, off to the side of the line was a box of…Dunkin’ Donuts. You know.  For coffee and…donut breaks. “Want one?” the manager asked.  Dad couldn’t believe the irony, which was completely lost – or ignored – by the line workers and management alike.

This was twenty years ago.  These days, it’s unlikely your CMO would let you get away with that.  Or your consumers.  How fast would that story/photo/video be up on adfreak?

Michael Vick has been punished, publically flogged, and sent to the gallows of the working class – he’ll be working at a construction firm for an hourly wage while his attorneys repair his NFL relationship.  He’s apologized up and down, he’s paid fines, he’s partnering with the Humane Society, he’s making a documentary.  The guy knows his brand is done and he’s creating a new one.  Smart but maybe too late.  We’ll see.  Give him – or his publicist – credit for trying.  An “A” for brand survival.

Poor Cheerios.  Great cover story by Ad Age’s Rich Thomaselli about the FDA giving General Mills a public spanking over their health claims that Cheerios can reduce cholesterol by 4-6%.  Now they may be facing repackaging costs in the millions.  My question – you’re Cheerios – a proud brand, a trusted brand – why do you need a health claim?  My one year old loves you, and so do I, and it’s not because of our cholesterol. Is reduced cholesterol really what people want from Cheerios?  Just asking.

Some brands are  powerful enough on their own and some – they need those other donuts.  If I worked at General Mills, there’d be Cheerios on my desk every morning.

This is a bit of show-and-tell, as we’re working on the (RED)Nights concert series in a big way. The series has just been announced with artists Santigold, The Veronicas, O.A.R., Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, and Gomez. We’ll be doing 26 concerts this year, with a portion of each concerts’ proceeds going to help people in Africa living with H.I.V.

We have an introductory website up at www.joinred.com/rednights/ to keep you in the loop, but rest assured, there is an awesome experiential site coming down the line that will allow users to upload and share social media for each of the shows. I’m really excited about this new way to become (RED), so please share this with your music-loving friends. More band announcements coming soon!

Head over to the site, or follow (RED) on twitter and facebook, and get the details as they are available.

May the 5th ended on a slightly tipsy note at Modernista!, as we were treated to a visit from the Margarita Man. I’ve never met this dude before, but I can assure you, we got on a lot better as the night went on.

That was, until the ping pong wars started.

We ended the night with a ridiculous group version of ping pong, where everyone gets a chance to hit the ball, then must put the paddle down and rotate to the left. Then the next person returns, puts their paddle down, rotates, and so on. If you miss you’re out. When you get down to two people, you must put the paddle down and spin in a circle. Needless to say, large quantities of tequila and spinning in circles are not good bedfellows.

The following is  not revolutionary or even new.  But since the other M! bloggers are always uncovering cool new online sites and technologies and programs and apps and all else 3.0 and beyond, I’d like to dedicate this space to good old fashioned brick and mortar neighborhood communities.

Remember McGruff, the “Take a Bite out of Crime” dog?  He’s right up there with the tearful American Indian as iconic public service advertising mascots.  Incidentally, he’s still actively helping kids fight crime, online.   But now, you don’t need those commercials.  Because community policing, with the help of technology, has gone super local and grass roots.  Ironic.

A colleague told of two suspicious guys “visiting” the homes in her Boston neighborhood, purportedly to “offer a complimentary evaluation of home security systems.”  They had matching hats and somewhat convincing company badges.  Yep, they were casing the joints.  Who had hard-core alarm systems and who had an elderly poodle protecting the house?

Suffice it to say it didn’t take long (less than 24 hours) before the entire neighborhood was aware of the situation – emailing warnings, questions, and offers to host a police investigation.

Now just wait ‘til the neighbors Twitter and Facebook the guys’ photos, taken by someone’s iPhone.

I almost feel bad for them.