Tonight is the night. The Melamed Riley team is hosting the first-ever Ultimate Ping Pong Challenge — an agency vs. agency table tennis competition with our friends (or foes?) at Recess Creative. To say we’re excited would be a colossal understatement. And despite wanting to destroy our competition, we feel obligated to entertain them as well. You know, to try and lift their spirits as they deal with the agony of defeat. So to help ensure we impress the visiting team, we turned to our Vitamix® machine to create three winning salsas and some tasty margaritas:
For up-and-coming comedians and small-role television actors, commercials are like night jobs — they help pay the bills, but you don’t necessarily want everyone knowing about them. Unfortunately for the funny men and women who star in spots selling everything from cars to credit cards, working in TV isn’t exactly “behind-the-scenes.” But given the right script, shilling for corporate America can actually enhance a lesser-known’s career. If nothing else, there’s always DVR technology, which might prevent a certain side job from ever seeing the light of day in the first place. Below I’ve listed some of the better known commercial actors along with what I believe is their best work. Think of it as an opportunity to put some names next to a few faces you’re sure to recognize.
Jerry Lambert
Commercial resume includes: GEICO, Holiday Inn, Bridgestone and Playstation 3. Watch a clip!
Aaron Takahashi
Commercial resume includes: Amp’d Mobile, McDonald’s, Lay Z Boy, Esurance, Snapple and Honda. Watch a clip!
Bill Glass
Commercial resume includes: Subway, Esurance, Sonic and Coke Zero. Watch a clip!
Gillian Vigman
Commercial resume includes: Hanes, Jack in the Box, Chase, Swiffer, Esurance and 1-800-CONTACTS. Watch a clip!
Kenzo Lee
Commercial resume includes: Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, Progressive, Yahoo! and Xfinity. Watch a clip!
Jackson McQueen
Commercial resume includes: Bud Light, Toyota, Lowe’s, Epson, ampm, Gain, McDonald’s and GEICO. Watch a clip!
Regan Burns
Commercial resume includes: GEICO, Toyota, Arby’s, Capital One, Volkswagen, Enterprise and Coors Light. Watch a clip!
Nate Torrence
Commercial resume includes: Capital One, Enterprise, Volkswagen, Golden Grahams and NFL.com. Watch a clip!
Owen Smith
Commercial resume includes: McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Fiber One and Divorce Court. Watch a clip!
Just when you thought you had a handle on QR codes, Microsoft Tags, pinning, instagramming and this thing called Twitter, yet another awesome tool emerges, Blippar. This new augmented reality app has people blipping everywhere. Only having launched one year ago, in the summer of 2011, this UK based start-up has seen incredible growth and success in just one year, including being named the start-up of the year at Le Web London 2012. For only being one year old, Blippar has quite a few accomplishments under its belt and is increasing its awareness in the U.S. including a recent partnership with an American teen heartthrob.
Some of you may already be thinking “what the blip?!” Well, what makes Blippar so cool is its ability to transform any type of traditional media component into interactive experiences for consumers. Using new image-recognition augmented reality technology the app brings any surface to life creating a 3D experience that can involve the consumer or just bring a whole new level of entertainment. In a modern world where brands are vying for consumers’ attention at every turn, Blippar has the ability to engage the consumer on a one-on-one basis using various touch points that have not been fully leveraged digitally. From product packaging, print ads, bus stops, merchandise and more, Blippar is bringing a whole new brand experience to consumers’ finger tips. In order to experience the full effect of Blippar’s awesomeness, here are some videos of the app in action:
Consumers can use Blippar to try virtual products within a print ad:
Heinz Tomato Ketchup packaging isn’t so ordinary any more:
Wrigley’s 5 Gum turned their packaging into a game, microsite and a promotion all using Blippar:
The Graffiti6 band gave their fans a great reason to purchase and wear their unique merchandise:
The U.S. heartthrob himself, Justin Bieber has created a blippable moment on his new album cover:
Nestle Kit Kat used Blippar on their product packaging and bus shelter ads to encourage users to vote for their favorite new Kit Kat Chunky bar:
Tesco, a UK grocery store used Blippar on 8,000 billboards to promote their new Big Price Drop campaign:
As Rick recently shared on the MR blog, growth opportunities in the advertising business are transforming and emerging daily. Staying on top of new technology and being able to adapt quickly are going to be key to an agency’s long term success. Blippar is a great example of how technology in the ad business continues to evolve and change how ad agencies can connect brands to consumers in a new and exciting way.
The blipping possibilities are endless. So, what should we blip first?
On the way back from having lunch the other day, I spotted this tree growing out of the top of a long-abandoned building several blocks west of Playhouse Square, home of Melamed Riley world headquarters. It made me laugh. I mean, sometimes you see some pretty impressive weeds growing out of the crack where the curb and the road surface meet, but this was something special. Sure, we have a Medical Mart on the way. And we have the bustling new Horseshoe Casino just down the road. But this growth … well, this came out of nowhere.
Cue the crazy non-linear thinking of a creative person. No, seriously, it got me thinking about all the unexpected places growth is occurring in the ad agency biz these days — places we would not have predicted just a few years ago. And a few years from now where will it come from? How ‘bout a decade from now? Twenty years from now?
Of course, all forward-thinking agencies are scrambling to position themselves better for the new growth opportunities by continually retooling themselves to be better aligned with the rapidly changing world. They are evaluating all sorts of different service offerings, trying to decide which ones to invest in, which ones to perhaps let go by the wayside. Obviously, getting that right is important. Here are the kinds of things being debated, evaluated, and contemplated.
All the traditional stuff plus: Content generation, community management, product/service innovation, brand creation, media strategy and management, mobile, app development, analytics and research, puppeteering (just kidding … seeing if you’re paying attention), licensing, experiences and events … and the list just gets longer every day.
However, what’s possibly even more important for success than choosing the particular mix of services to go with is deciding on the shape of the shop itself. That is, the agencies that will likely enjoy the greatest long-term success will be those that structure themselves to be … well, less structured. That is, to be more fluid — to be more malleable in order to transform themselves on the fly, with the ability to quickly add or beef up certain new services while diminishing and or jettisoning others. Because, as this silly little tree told me on the way back from lunch, you just never know where the next opportunity for growth will be.
Ever since the emergence of social media, job seekers everywhere have been taking full advantage of the endless creative opportunities these platforms provide. Merely emailing a resume to an employer is starting to become something of the past. In 2011 alone, 89% of companies used social media as a way to search for new hires. For inspiration, let’s take a look at some of these creative resume posting examples.
The first example is brought to us by Sabrina Saccoccio, a TV, radio and print producer who utilized Facebook to display her resume. Sabrina brought her resume to life with the universally known Facebook profile page to creatively outline her contact information, educational background and even a sneak peek at some of her favorite things in life. Some could also argue that peers posting on her page could be seen as references. This communicates that Sabrina is creative and not only active in social media, but that she understands it too.
Twitter entered the social media world after Facebook, but has since gained impressive momentum. In fact, last year Twitter was growing at a pace of 31.9%, bettering Facebook’s 13.4% rate of growth. And how it has been used for resume posting is just as impressive. To my surprise, there is actually a coined term for merging Twitter and a resume – Twesume. Twesume is defined as “a short bio or resume condensed into 140 characters or less and is often paired with the #Twesume hashtag.” These short postings can then be tweeted, messaged or emailed to potential employers. Tweets containing #Twesume is a perfect way to grab the attention of companies who are actively utilizing social media as a way to seek out new hires.
Now enter the newest wave of social media, Pinterest. This obsession of ‘pinning’ has been consuming internet usage from people everywhere as a way to share favorite ‘things’ such as recipes, design, art, clothing, DIY crafts, etc. When looking at Pinterest as a job hunting tool, it’s easy to see why it’s quickly catching on. Not only is it an excellent tool for sharing your resume, but also for showing your portfolio of work. The ease of pinning your own work to virtual video boards can quickly give potential employers a glimpse at the product of your very own blood, sweat and tears. And all you need is a company to follow you!
We would love to hear some of the creative resumes you’ve seen in your business!
As a lover of reading, I applaud LeBron James for picking up a book before game time throughout the Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat and the Celtics. Now that the Heat has advanced to the NBA finals, I wanted to offer up some suggested titles for LeBron to thumb through as he tries to win a title of his own.
If you choose to snub millions of diehard fans to go play Kelly Rowland to Dwayne Wade’s Beyonce, you better make the most of it.
It’s never too late to learn the art of sportsmanship. Well, maybe it is. Perhaps a remedial text is required.
I highly recommend this one for James, particularly between the 3rd and 4th quarters.
With the Fifty Shades of Grey craze, maybe James will opt for something steamy.
And a children’s classic to help remind him that yes, his does actually stink.
One of the lessons working in advertising quickly reinforces is the importance of perspective. When your job is to communicate on behalf of your clients to myriad unique groups of people, you have to become adept at seeing things from a different point-of-view. However, when it comes to the anamorphic tape projectionDoyle Partners did for the New York Times Magazine, there’s only one point-of-view that matters. Doyle used tape to help tell the story of the types of character traits being taught at a Manhattan school.
I’m a sucker for process, so here’s a great video of how the GRIT installation came about:
